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I am not planning any nuclear attacks
- danneu 12y agoPlanning a missile strike by drawing a crude world map with an explosion (labeled "explosion") is like planning a killing spree by drawing a stick figure with an uzi in each hand mowing down other stick figures.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- mcguire 12y agoThat's a hell of a blast radius.
- gone35 12y agoYup it seems off by at least an order of magnitude --ie even for a theoretical maximum of 100 megatons.
- kjjw 12y agoPar for the course with letting agents in the UK. I'm surprised they didn't begin evicting the renter. Using a property for work is often prohibited in the boilerplate rental agreements they charge £100 a time to change the name on.
- JonnieCache 12y agoTip: just before you pull out your card to pay the fees, look into the kid's eyes and say something like "ummmm, this seems a lot, I don't really feel comfortable paying this much, can we reduce this at all?" The guy starts sweating as he sees his commission disappearing into the sunset, replaced by the prospect of a grovelling call to the property owner. They will often knock off about 50%. Sometimes you can just refuse to pay. Depends on the market. NB for best results, start your contract at the worst time of the year for landlords, usually just after all the students have finished moving. Also, be at least a foot taller than your letting agent.
- kjjw 12y agoSorry but I live in a place where supply of property, rental or otherwise, is so constrained when compared to demand that any local letting agent knows they can rent out any place within a week. You go along with whatever they say or you don't get the place. End of story.
- JonnieCache 12y agoSorry to hear that :( In the last couple of years a number of developers flooded our town with cheap student housing units so the market has kinda been upended, much to our delight.
- orf 12y agoHardly, that is a personal project so wouldn't count as work. Renting a property for non-commercial use then running an office out of it is quite rightfully prohibited.
- kjjw 12y agoAs if they could comprehend the difference. And anyway - quite wrongly! What if one works from home? And whatever happened to fostering entrepreneurship, innovation and asking people to take their own lives in their hands by doing things like setting up their own company, all these things that the current UK conservative government claims to want and support? The law around lettings in the UK is detrimental not just to those who rent in the UK but the country as a whole.
- Bahamut 12y agoSadly, if you look carefully at the pictures, it's pretty clear it's for a game...and I didn't even need to read that he mentioned that they were game ideas. Goes to show how dumb people can be.
- mattmaroon 12y agoNo it's not. At all. I mean, a rational person might make the assumption that this guy is not actually whiteboarding an ICBM launch from a rented apartment. But there's nothing about it indicating to a non-technical person that it's a game.
- crazypyro 12y agoUhhh? The "mouse click" was a dead give away. Also, Occam's Razor. Is this guy programming a game in his apartment or is he programming a ICBM with 0 related hardware plus probably no other corroborating evidence. No reason to act like it takes more than a couple minutes of investigation to figure this shit out. Edit: for the guy below me, since I can't reply directly, find me a nuclear missile guidance system that is destination controlled by a freaking mouse clicking on a map in the Pentagon and I'll concede the point.
- Zikes 12y agoYep, you'd never find something so silly as a computer mouse in the Pentagon.
- idibidiart 12y agoexcept ICBMs are not launched with a mouse click.... wth.
- mattmaroon 12y ago1. How do you know that? 2. How would an average person know that?
- 12y ago
- apple314159 12y agoWow, sounds like 1990 over again i.e. Steve Jackson Games.
- ryan-c 12y agoFor those not familiar, Steve Jackson Games makes RPGs and were nearly driven out of business due to a secret service raid[1] done in response to the "GURPS Cyberpunk" book (described by the secret service as "a manual for computer crime") they were working on. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Sundevil https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Sundevil
- hyyypr 12y ago"This raid is often wrongly attributed to Operation Sundevil, a nation-wide crackdown on ‘illegal computer hacking activities’ that was occurring about this time." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GURPS_Cyberpunk#.E2.80.9CThe_book_that_was_seized_by_the_U.S._Secret_Service.E2.80.9D https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GURPS_Cyberpunk#.E2.80.9CThe_b...
- ryan-c 12y agoI actually saw that and forgot to update the link to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Jackson_Games,_Inc._v._United_States_Secret_Service https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Jackson_Games,_Inc._v._U...
- downandout 12y agoWhat are the odds that someone leasing a house has control of an ICBM and is making plans to use it on his home whiteboard? People, especially stupid people, that can't mind their own business, are both dangerous and endlessly frustrating. Personally, I hope this guy tries to get the letting agent fired.
- madaxe_again 12y agoAh, letting agents. I got evicted from a property years ago because they did a surprise inspection while I was out (which is, of course, totally illegal), and decided they'd found "mountains of cocaine" on the kitchen counters. It was fucking Ajax kitchen cleaning powder. Still, they didn't care. The police (who they contacted) thought it was laughable, but couldn't do anything about the fact they were evicting me.
- cpfohl 12y agoWhat state did you live in? You've got tenant rights, and one of them is almost certainly "You can't be evicted for cleaning your apartment." Just a wild guess.
- madaxe_again 12y agoThe fine state of County Durham. As a tenant - a student tenant, no less - your rights are virtually squat.
- gambiting 12y agoThat is absolutely not true. Having rented properties in the UK I know that letting agencies will treat you like shit. No matter. Contact the property ombudsman, he will sort them out: http://www.tpos.co.uk/ http://www.tpos.co.uk/ Might even recommend going to court over it.
- switch007 12y agoBrit chiming in here. The contempt that estate agents and landlords have for your privacy, well-being and life in general is almost indescribable.
- lclarkmichalek 12y agoKnowing some landlords, the number one thing they complain about is how impossible it is to evict anyone. I really doubt you had any rights.
- murbard2 12y agoShall we play a game? How about Global Thermonuclear War.
- CalRobert 12y agoSomething weird-looking about France and Germany there...
- smcl 12y agoHenry I'm not sure if you are checking this thread, and I can't find a way to contact you on your site but... I wanted to see more of your posts, so trimmed the URL down to "http://henrysmith.org/blog/" http://henrysmith.org/blog/" and got an error message "Included file 'navbar.html' not found in _includes directory" at the top of your page. Clicking your name in the left directs me to henrysmith.org which doesn't have this problem.
- Someone1234 12y agoCommon sense isn't quite as "common" anymore. If you actually read those diagrams it is pretty obvious (to me) that that is a game, and not some missile design or "plan" (although who plans a state missile attack from their apartment?).
- pyre 12y agoIf we assume that all terrorists that are planning to launch ICBMs are smart, then all of the ICBMs launched by dumb terrorists will fly under the radar. Then we'll have nuclear attacks that could have easily been prevented! /s
- burkaman 12y agoFrom his previous blog post, they could tell it was a game: “Except… the person who did the inspection did have some concerns about one thing. There were some… whiteboards? And some… drawings on them?” “Ah shit! Yeah I totally forgot about those! You mean the nuclear attack thing, right?” “Yeah, that’s right.” “Yeeeeeah…. Sorry! You see…. It’s for this game I was making! It’s like, a web thing and it uses Google Maps to simulate a nuclear war.” “Ahhh, okay! We kind of thought it had something to do with gaming!” Apparently somebody was still worried about the idea of a realistic nuclear attack simulation game. Reminds me of the time some kid was arrested for making a Counterstrike map based on his high school.
- pyre 12y ago> Apparently somebody was still worried about the idea of a realistic nuclear attack simulation game. Reminds me of the time some kid was arrested for making a Counterstrike map based on his high school. This is even more ridiculous. The kid could reasonably obtain weapons and bring them to school. The likelihood of obtaining an ICBM is nil.
- burkaman 12y agoSort of, but it's hard for me to get angry at the people who called the police in either case. Yeah, they should have more common sense, but the police are the ones with responsibility here. If you're scared you're scared, and you should be able to call the police for pretty much any reason and expect them to deal with it rationally and professionally. In this case, if the police just show up, look at the whiteboard, laugh it off and leave, then I would say no harm done. Whoever called them feels safer, and everyone else has at worst been inconvenienced for a half hour.
- samspot 12y agoDevil's Advocate: You are a nontechnical person and stumble upon what appear to be plans for a terrorist attack. You talk to the person about it and they say "Don't worry. is computer game". A great exploration of this is the 30 Rock episode where Tina Fey reports her neighbor for what ends up being a plan to get on the show 'The Amazing Race'. The problem is, not knowing any better, you feel obligated to report the activity just in case. Let someone much smarter than yourself decide what is really going on. If you say nothing and someone gets hurt, can you forgive yourself? As a hacker, I would understand this is definitely a game. But can I really expect the same from non-technical people?
- aetherson 12y agoNo particular technical sophistication should be required to understand that terrorists do not launch intercontinental missiles.
- DanBC 12y agoBut the people higher up the chain don't get to see the whiteboards and so can't easily dismiss this as planning a computer game. Unless the agents took photos?
- NhanH 12y agoThe priori of a dude planning an ICBM attack on whiteboard in an apt is so low that unless you have very very strong evidences that it exists (and words by random people without photos certainly don't count as one), for all practical purposes, it isn't true. And I sincerely do hope that if such a plan truly exists somewhere, the power that be have better evidences/ discovery than being informed by letting agents.
- DmitriRavinoff 12y agoUnfortunately, the probability that someone is able to understand this logic is lowered considerably once you realize that they're working in a job where they're required to act on such threats. Most people who are capable of such calculations will not find such jobs fulfilling, and those who do will find themselves constantly second-guessed by bosses who don't have that skill. It's a profession that selects against Bayesian reasoning. Humans are -really- bad at intuitively calculating risk, and I have yet to encounter any sort of formal education in the US that teaches us how to properly calculate it.
- stevebot 12y agoThis reminds me so much of an awesome 30 Rock episode where Fred Armisen plays the middle eastern neighbor of Tina Fey's character. She ultimately gets him turned in for planning an attack, when he was just preparing for The Amazing Race with his friend. Its sad how sensationalist and afraid we have become.
- aroman 12y agoI think "cautious" is a better word. What aspect of this story was sensationalist?
- nitrogen 12y agoAvoiding the rough part of town at night is cautious. Turning in a neighbor for basically nothing is sensationalist.
- kabdib 12y agoI prefer "gibbering bongo full-goose paranoia".
- angersock 12y agoThe part where a game design document on a whiteboard resulted in referral to the police? I think "cautious" is white-washing of the highest caliber.
- smacktoward 12y agoWondering if Introversion Software had to deal with this when they made Defcon (http://www.introversion.co.uk/defcon/ http://www.introversion.co.uk/defcon/)...
- bencollier49 12y agoI'd be livid if something like this happened. I think it's worth this chap getting the details of the police report, and speaking to someone on the force directly. He needs to be assured that he won't end up on any "lists". I'm not sure whether he has any legal recourse over this. I doubt it, but he has potentially been materially disadvantaged (if indeed, it goes "up the chain" and he finds visas being denied). At the very least, he needs to enumerate to his landlord the various ways in which this could seriously affect him, and ask for a rent reduction.
- artumi-richard 12y agoI'm doing work with a drug testing company, that generates a lot of stuff you wouldn't want taken out of context. This kind of stuff: "How's the meth goin?" - "Oh great. We're getting loads this week" "And the Steroids" - " Ah, not so well. Bob's lab is running behind, they're really busy"
- e40 12y agoThis seems relevant: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wXkI4t7nuc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wXkI4t7nuc Title is "Dont Talk to Police" from 2008. Henry Smith should probably watch it.
- ckrailo 12y agoI love this video so much, a while back I made a Bitly link to make it easy to remember and share to my friends when out-and-about. bit.ly/dont_talk_to_police
- BrandonMarc 12y agoBruce Schneier calls this the "war on the unexpected". If you take average people, who aren't experts at security / investigating / etc, and you tell these people "if you see something, say something", then you're going to get a ridiculous amount of false positives. https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2007/11/the_war_on_the.html https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2007/11/the_war_on_th... Everything "unusual" becomes suspicious. See a guy taking photos at an airport? Must be a terrorist! Can't be a photographer and aviation enthusiast, no! As Bruce says, the CYA angle is also horrific. Landlord sees something, thinks it might be nothing, but just in case, tells the local cops. Cops figure it might be nothing, but just in case, calls the FBI. Branch office figure it might be nothing, but just in case, gets regional / national HQ involved. Somewhere in the chain someone inadvertently gets word to the other 3-letter agencies, and the effect is magnified. ... and every time it's escalated, people figure "well, the people below me wouldn't have escalated unless they had reason to" ... while at the same time thinking, "well, I'm not sure, but I'm also not going to be the scapegoat if I fail to neutralize a potential attack and something does happen." Everyone in the chain has plenty to lose and little to gain for not escalating to the next level -- nobody wants to be the guy who missed an opportunity to stop / neutralize a threat, especially in the unlikely-but-possible scenario that an attack does occur. Regarding "if you see something, say something", Rick Moranis had an intelligent take on that at the beginning of his guest column in the NYTimes: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/16/opinion/16moranis.html?_r=0 http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/16/opinion/16moranis.html?_r=...
- chimeracoder 12y agoThis is exactly the problem, as I have myself experienced firsthand. The 'problem' is that all of us - everyone - has a number of ways in which their life is 'unusual'. Aberrant (deviating from the norm) is not inherently suspicious, because everyone is aberrant in some aspects of their life. Nobody is truly 'normal'. In fact, if you thoroughly investigated someone and found nothing that was 'abnormal'[0] in some way, that would be suspicious! Most people's individual personalities and quirks aren't suspicious if you look at the whole picture, but when someone's entire job is to find evidence of 'abnormal' or 'suspicious' things about someone it means that they can construct a suspicious narrative about anyone, as long as they have the motivation or interest to[1]. In other words, it simply becomes a game of finding evidence that confirms one's own (or an organization's own) cognitive or systemic biases. [0] More than 1 or 2 standard deviations away from the mean, etc. [1] CYA is a common 'motivation' in this sense.
- reinier_s4g 12y agohahahaha, awesome!
- notastartup 12y agoLaw enforcement is full of retarded psycopaths? What's new?
- lamontcg 12y ago"I am not planning any nuclear attacks as my centrifuges are on the fritz and I have been unable to procure switches accurate enough to get a good implosion out of my C4 detonators. Also, it turns out that my ICBM designs are prohibitively expensive, and the Russians will not let me have access to their launch sites for some reason."