Sounds like someone who's developed a prototype which they had grand plans of selling for billions, which then got easily hacked because they don't understand security

The $15k figure implies that's either a bill the hackers ran up on an AWS instance or what they valued their development at

Edit: The blackmail line sounds like a ransomware attack

I disagree. I think this person may not have necessarily programmed anything serious before in their life. Or if they have, probably not a defense project.

If you read the follow-up emails - and apologies for the armchair psychiatry - I think this person is very likely in a psychotic state. Their messages sound very similar to what you find in the "BadBIOS" and other "gangstalking" communities. It's not really tethered to reality.

I think it's extremely likely the author is not a troll and possesses a sincere and high-confidence belief that powerful entities are tracking and persecuting him and that backdoors in lots of software, including curl, were placed by sinister organizations and used to facilitate spying on and attacking him. The software is perceived as a WMD or pathogen partly responsible for this incursion into his life and the damage he thinks has resulted. He's mad because he thinks Daniel is like the mayor of Flint, MI: the water is poisoning people and he's doing absolutely nothing about it. Of course you'd be angry!

This is why it's generally best to not reply to messages as extreme as these. Daniel will never be able to convince him he isn't actually the metaphorical Flint mayor. You just get sucked into a world that's very real to them and not real to you or almost anyone else. It's not possible and not a good idea to try to reason with someone like that.

Yeah, I agree. In his place, I either would have done nothing, or, maybe made a police report (not that I'd expect the police to actually do anything at this stage). Generally speaking, the less you antagonize someone whose first exchange with you is "I will slaughter you," the better, IMO.

I once tried to have a conversation with a women who tried to drive me and my bicycle off the bus lane (where she shouldn't be driving in the first place); and shouted "fuck off you pissy little cunt" to me. For some reason I thought that if I explained my perspective, she would understand.

It ended up with a broken back wheel (she kicked it) and a damaged phone (she took it out of my hand when I wanted to take a picture of the license plate and threw it on the ground).

She was clearly unhinged, but I was stupid as well. I should of just let it go; no one who starts a social interaction with "pissy little cunt" is likely to be calmed down by reason. You have nothing to gain from trying, and much to potentially lose.

> ...and shouted "fuck off you pissy little cunt" to me.

There's a name for this incident - "road rage". Very real and dangerous indeed.

People get completely irrational and agitated. Probably due to effect of being locked up, in a way, non-free inside their cars.

When I'm biking, at times I too get mad at some careless and obnoxious drivers encroaching my freedom, I guess they may be finding me just as annoying for simply missing the fatter wheels and a comparable scale on the shared road. Irrational!

As cyclists we are literally more exposed on the road. So whenever such inevitable bout of irrational fury pops, I find the safest option for myself is to steam-off using similar vocabulary. It's more efficient than reasoning with the unreasonable.

Just to be even safer, I'd let the offending four-wheeled furia be gone before naming the whole piece of that motorized content in precisely spoken choice of words...

It takes practice though. Be safe!

A sad sentiment of giving up, but I think it is premature to abandon your approach. I think it may be worth trying for that small-ish fraction (call it 10%?) of people who can be talked back from their anger. Those are good conversations to have for both parties, and worth trying to have, even if it results in failure 90% of the time.

That said, I think the real lesson for you is: don't make yourself more vulnerable (e.g. letting her touch you or your stuff) if you decide to try to start a conversation!

It also points to a theory I've been considering about personhood, and how people like your driver lady is in a mindstate where, in her mind, you're not a person. It's a very, very dangerous situation, because if they don't think you're a person, then there is nothing immoral about saying or doing anything to you, including violence.

> I think the real lesson for you is: don't make yourself more vulnerable (e.g. letting her touch you or your stuff) if you decide to try to start a conversation!

I didn't "let" her, she just did it.

I know you mean well and that you probably didn't intend it like this, but this comment comes off as victim blaming quite a bit.

As for the rest: thus far I've never managed to talk random strangers down from these kind of rages; but maybe I just don't have the charm shrug Last time I tried was with my neighbour and he ended up calling the police three times over a four-day period on me. My crime? I kindly asked him to not play his music so loudly all day long at the start of the lockdown (especially at 7am) and not backing down when he tried to shout me away. I had "invaded his home" by knocking on his front door... This isn't a fit of anger, some people are just like this.

Yeah, had a neighbour lady like this recently. She was always closing her doors VERY loudly (lamps in my aartment were ringing) and when there was some argument with another neighbour, she eventually said that it was I who started banging doors. My best comparison for arguing with such people is like playing chess with pidgeon. It will throw off pieces, shit on board and be happy that it won. And you will be appaled that it didn't follow any rules, angry maybe, but is there any use to all that arguing? They will bring you down emotionally and then you only argue to have a feeling of winning. No meritoric discussion whatsoever. In such situations, just remember, that arguing with them will NOT have any utility or lasting value, it will just waste your time and mental health.

I've recently had an interaction of similar character with a neighbor in my very small apartment building, including, oddly, a door slamming component. We had had an interaction a few weeks prior that just went sideways, which caused this woman to slam her door every time I would walk past it. Since walking past her door is not optional if I want to leave my apartment (small apartment building, remember?), and this door slamming tended to startle my dog, I asked her to stop.

Because the earlier interaction I mentioned went sideways (including, among other things, her literally getting within 4 inches of my face while she was not wearing a mask), I decided to video record this most recent interaction on my phone so I would have evidence if anything went wrong that I could take to the landlord. I knew this would create an inherently more antagonistic vibe, but I felt like I had no choice after the prior incident.

Let's just say this interaction also went bad, culminating in a very minor physical assault (I was not injured -- she slapped the hand I was holding my phone in, because she did not like the fact I was recording), and a restraining order.

End of story, right?

Wrong. That restraining order, it was taken out by her against me. Her petition filing is literally nothing but gaslighting trying to paint me as the aggressor when I literally have video evidence to the contrary.

Unfortunately, due to COVID shenanigans, the court date was delayed a couple of times, and I ended up not being served notice of the actual hearing, which means I lost in a default judgement. I filed a motion to terminate her restraining order and a counter petition of my own, both of which I am currently waiting on a hearing for.

And, like your situation, because it was a neighbor, and because I have to walk past her door to get to and from my apartment, I simply don't have the choice to not interact with this person. Basically anything I could have done would be a lose / lose. Rock, meet hard place, I guess. Le sigh.

I am not blaming you. I am trying to point out places where you could have reduced the chance of being harmed. In particular, when she approached you and came within arms length, you could have put away your phone. Next time, I hope you do. That is NOT the same as saying it was your fault she destroyed it. It is her fault. My advice is based on the sad truth that the cost of getting justice >> the cost of buying a new phone, so I'm saying: when confronted with an angry person, put your valuables away, because getting them to actually replace that item will be more pain than the initial damaging interaction.

As for your neighbor, yes, it sounds like he's a crazy person. And the lockdown has taken even moderately crazy people and pushed them over the edge!

My guess would be that you're too peaceful and it shows.

There are some people who will try to bully their way through life. They will apply violent behavior (e.g. breaking your phone) to get their way. The way to stop that is to make it clear that you can apply violence, too.

Most of society works by peacefully interacting with each other. But it is crucial that everyone knows that there is a threat of violence (e.g. the police) to keep everyday life peaceful.

I wonder if I am just imagining it, but I took martial arts lessons as a kid. I've always felt like just the knowledge that I could fight has caused others to deescalate and be respectful.

Well that only works with people that are not afraid of fighting you and possibly winning against you - and there's always somebody that's better trained and/or stronger then you. When you encounter that kind of person, if you challenge them, they will step up and fight you, because they will feel they have no other choice. Reasons could range from pride, (imagined) loss of (self) respect to just being aggressive bullies that enjoy hurting other people. Of course if you're 6'7'' and 240 lbs not a lot of people would want to start arguing with you in the first place.

It's tautologically true that for any X, if you don't try to do X, you won't succeed. But, you also have to weigh whatever good may come of success against the probability and potential consequences of failure. In cases like these, you're by definition dealing with someone who is a little off mentally, whether that's just a temporary condition (e.g. having a bad day), or serious mental illness. Such people can tend to be unpredictable as a result, which is dangerous in its own way.

So, yes, I agree with you somewhat, but I think the balance of consequences tends to favor not acting in cases like this rather than attempting to do anything.

Nitpicking, but that's not a tautology. Let X be "dying" -- many of us aren't trying to get there, but we will all succeed.

Hah! Fair point.

>A sad sentiment of giving up, but I think it is premature to abandon your approach. I think it may be worth trying for that small-ish fraction (call it 10%?) of people who can be talked back from their anger. Those are good conversations to have for both parties, and worth trying to have, even if it results in failure 90% of the time.

Please do not give terrible advice that will kill people.

Moving to NYC couple of years ago I learned the best way to deal with those type of people is to let go and move on. It really isn't worth wasting your time and energy on those people, because they will just ruin your day. Best case scenario you feel better for couple of minutes and then you forget about it. Worst case you end up dead, in jail or worse.

> maybe made a police report (not that I'd expect the police to actually do anything at this stage).

Indeed. But one shouldn't underestimate the chance that this wouldn't be the first report about this person. Lots of similar reports like this may actually cause them to do something.

I agree, in the sense that someone who has done something of this nature is more likely to have done such a thing in the past. However, in this case, the victim is someone who is being targeted through his email address, which is embedded in open source software that's contained in gazillions of systems worldwide. That makes it significantly less likely that whomever he would report this to would have gotten another report about this particular individual.

I wouldn't respond but I probably would notify law enforcement and give them a copy of the exchange.

Yeah, I agree. There's probably not much they can do about it (and the individual will probably not end up taking any action), but in case he does, it's nice to have a police record of it all.

Good luck telling local law enforcement that a federal officer bricked your iPhone or that plausible denial intelligence agents are threatening you.

Well, maybe, but what about "Don't talk to the police"?

That's if they are potentially investigating you for a crime. Sometimes, the benefits of talking to the police outweigh the risks.

If you honestly come across one of these situations, its very rare.

That isn’t doxxing. You have no expectation of privacy if you send a threatening letter to another person.

And you base that on what? At least where I live I can't even record a phone conversation without informing the other party, much less divulge it...

Publishing the emails is copyright infringement; I don't think it's any other crime. And good luck trying to get someone for copyright infringement when you're threatening them with “slaughter”.

Those are usually wiretap laws and only apply to voice. If you transcribe to text it's fair game.

If the person in question throws death threats around, and if that's their real name and address, then doxxing is the least of their concerns...

as I understand he assumes that it is actually a throwaway account and fake name.