As much as I think McAfee is nuts, he's also a pretty smart guy if you look at what he's done in the past, so I wouldn't reall underestimate him.
That said, an "unhackable" internet isn't exactly possible since you'd probably have to use the existing internet to get to this "other" internet. I could also see this turning into another AlterNic debacle, so who knows.
I hate to focus on the least relevant parts of the article, but when it says he "buried himself in the sand to hide from police," is that metaphorically or literally speaking?
Whether its true or not, he probably meant it literally. He claims to have remained on his own property for the majority of the time that the police were searching it.
Short answer: it's a mystery; long answer: it's a small island and the gossip is wild and unreliable, but he was definitely involved in some shady stuff. That having been said, contract killings and disappearances are not unheard of here (just not usually this high-profile). Only a few people really know what happened and aren't talking, but I wouldn't be surprised if either story turned out to be true (he was set up / it was him). I do know that his assets were seized and quickly auctioned off, so you have to wonder where that money went and what kind of incentives it created. It's a very small country with a very limited government, which while generally safer and less corrupt than other central american nations, creates an environment where wealthy and well-connected people can sweep a lot of questionable activity under the rug. He certainly had a lot of enemies, and enough wealth to be coveted, but he was also pretty unstable and by all accounts a bit detached from reality. None of the scenarios floated are as outlandish as they might seem to outsiders.
> ... I wouldn't be surprised if either story turned out to be true (he was set up / it was him). I do know that his assets were seized and quickly auctioned off, ...
I recall hearing that and thinking "how convenient" at the time. It did not see unreasonable to me that it would be very easy for the local government to claim that he did it, convict him, and lock him up for life, while also take over his property and assets in the process. As you said:
> ... you have to wonder where that money went and what kind of incentives it created.
Like most people (apparently) I do think that McAfee is "a few fries short of a Happy Meal" but "his side" did seem quite plausible.
"My new technology is going to provide a new type of Internet, a decentralized, floating and moving Internet that is impossible to hack, impossible to penetrate and vastly superior in terms of its facility and neutrality. It solves all of our security concerns," McAfee said in an interview with the San Jose Mercury News.
From the sketchy description it might be some new protocol on top of TCP/IP.
One must be wary of such ideas, because the idea of "security" might be control by a central authority and forced authentication - but such schemes are antithetical to "security" from the viewpoint of users. If on the other hand it were really secure from the users' point of view, governments and corporations would never tolerate it and would just set about hacking the endpoints anyway.
> a decentralized, floating and moving Internet that is impossible to hack, impossible to penetrate and vastly superior in terms of its facility and neutrality
You could probably get most of those things by chucking a disconnected unpowered switch or two in the ocean attached to floats but you wouldn't be able to send much data across it.
Kinda makes sense, since he sold the company 19 years ago.
(You didn't RTFA (obviously) or you'd know that "McAfee" is referring to John McAfee -- not McAfee, Inc., owned by Intel -- but don't let that stop you from making a disparaging remark.)
Wow, I had no idea that McAfee was a party animal or lived the life he did.
The part I found interesting is "How are they (Belizean authorities) going to whack me if every newspaper in the world is looking?" That gave me the feeling that this might be another one of his blog posts.
To think that a person counted on for security by so many people would know so little about his field as to ever make a promise like this. Frightening stuff.
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[ 3.0 ms ] story [ 90.0 ms ] threadThat said, an "unhackable" internet isn't exactly possible since you'd probably have to use the existing internet to get to this "other" internet. I could also see this turning into another AlterNic debacle, so who knows.
His being 'crazy' doesn't necessarily make him a genius and neither makes what he wants to accomplish possible.
I recall hearing that and thinking "how convenient" at the time. It did not see unreasonable to me that it would be very easy for the local government to claim that he did it, convict him, and lock him up for life, while also take over his property and assets in the process. As you said:
> ... you have to wonder where that money went and what kind of incentives it created.
Like most people (apparently) I do think that McAfee is "a few fries short of a Happy Meal" but "his side" did seem quite plausible.
"My new technology is going to provide a new type of Internet, a decentralized, floating and moving Internet that is impossible to hack, impossible to penetrate and vastly superior in terms of its facility and neutrality. It solves all of our security concerns," McAfee said in an interview with the San Jose Mercury News.
From the sketchy description it might be some new protocol on top of TCP/IP.
One must be wary of such ideas, because the idea of "security" might be control by a central authority and forced authentication - but such schemes are antithetical to "security" from the viewpoint of users. If on the other hand it were really secure from the users' point of view, governments and corporations would never tolerate it and would just set about hacking the endpoints anyway.
And he seems pretty anti-authoritarian...
Have you seen this?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKgf5PaBzyg (NSFW video by McAfee)
You could probably get most of those things by chucking a disconnected unpowered switch or two in the ocean attached to floats but you wouldn't be able to send much data across it.
(You didn't RTFA (obviously) or you'd know that "McAfee" is referring to John McAfee -- not McAfee, Inc., owned by Intel -- but don't let that stop you from making a disparaging remark.)
The part I found interesting is "How are they (Belizean authorities) going to whack me if every newspaper in the world is looking?" That gave me the feeling that this might be another one of his blog posts.
This is going to be entertaining...