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Not always the bad guy

Despite the outwardly gruff exterior, Anonymous does have a soft spot. Anonymous worked hard to expose the real-life identity of a woman who was drowning puppies, and $deity protect you if you hurt a cat.

Anonymous ploughs enormous resources into whistleblowing. It also routinely battles censorship wherever it is found, with individual Anons putting hundreds of man hours and thousands of dollars into anti-censorship projects. And it has a plan.

Anon3 )) Helping the people in the middle east is an example of "good things" anon does.

Anon3 )) I think it's a good thing. It's always a good thing to have people doing stuff that's for others, which I think has always been Anon's goal.

Anon3 )) Some people just can't handle a laugh at another's expense. Even if it comes in the form of trolling a dead person Facebook.

Anon3 )) Anonymous is not as evil of a monster as some might think. Most people are there for laughs.

One group of Anons I have had the opportunity to spend time with deserves special commendation for their efforts. Friends since grade school, this group of Anons numbers 12 in total. They are professionals: a medical doctor, a lawyer, laboratory technicians of various sorts and a selection of IT nerds. All of them are over 30, with one individual nearly 50.

Collectively they have pooled their time and resources to do good deeds in the name of freedom of information. They have set up and maintained an IRC network with servers in many countries. They buy time on servers around the world and set them up as TOR exit nodes. These Anons have set up informational and proxy websites to help individuals bypass – among others – the Great Firewall of China.

Some among this group contribute financially to Reporters Without Borders. Others have put years of their time into providing technical means to defeat censorship in the all over the world. They also support more esoteric efforts.

Anon4 )) We had a friend who had just gotten laid off by HP and was at loose ends.

Anon4 )) This was right after the housing crash and there were no jobs.

Anon6 )) Yeah… http://rlv.zcache.com/accidentally_the_whole_economy_christmas_card-p137220475387249618qi0i_400.jpg

Anon5 )) We were sick of a lot of the propaganda being passed around, so Anon4 came up with an idea.

Anon4 )) We found enough money to pay his bills for 6 months. All he did for 6 straight months was watch Fox News and debunk them online. With links to primary sources.

Anon5 )) Poor bastard. But he caused many lulz...

Anon4 )) Another good one was the wireless mesh project.

Anon6 )) Oh, yeah!

Anon4 )) We worked with some Anons from Sweden, and the US.

Anon6 )) It was stupid. Frequency hopping multispectrum mesh wireless. If you have the seed you can hook into the network by predicting which frequency will be next up.

Anon5 )) It was too expensive.

Anon4 )) We're working on that.

Anon4 )) You can't trust encrypted darknets, the government controls the routers.

Anon6 )) Media, telcos, government. Bought and paid for. The only way people have a chance of hearing the truth is if they control the means of distribution.

Anon5 )) Oh god, not the twitter revolution again…

Anon6 )) The twitter revolution!

Anon4 )) At least until US.gov hits Twitter with an ICE takedown because some wanker calls Sarah Palin fat.

Agentless Backup is Not a Myth

@AC

This wasn’t an assignment El Reg sent me on; it was one I asked them to let me publish. If it brings in new readers…good! El Reg has a collection of great writers, and it publishes news relevant to more than just its core stable of IT nerds.

If my articles are different than those you have come to expect from authors on El Reg…also good! It’s a bad thing when any news organisation has all contributors with the exact same sociopolitical leanings. The one thing I as a reader and commenttard have always loved about The Register is the diversity of opinion amongst her writers.

For every author who does not believe in anthropogenic driven climate change, there is one who does. For every establishmentarian, there is a disestablishmentarian. There are even a few antidisestablishmentarianists!

If you want the truth about why the article was written here it is:

With lulzsec running about, coverage of Anonymous skyrocketed. Much of it was blatantly wrong. Every article that was wildly inaccurate bothered me in the same way that the misuse of “you’re” and “your” does. I decided to put my time to better use than complaining about inaccuracies.

Instead, I spent three weeks talking to nearly 100 Anons, from all walks of life, on dozens of servers. I tried my best to put together the most accurate and comprehensive article on “who Anonymous is.” Target audience? Anyone who had an inaccurate understanding of Anonymous’s origins, motivations and structure.

The regularity of readership simply wasn't a consideration.

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You didnt ask for my opinion, but here it is anyway!

I believe that debunking Fox News, or any other major news outlet is a really valuable thing! I think this should be encouraged, when done correctly. Why not consider it to be like the peer review process?

Many people base their worldview and decisions unquestioningly on the authority of the goggle box.(Not to be confused with the Google box; the content of the Google box is completely fine to unquestioningly base all decisions on.)

As the news outlets have so much power, and as we all know they are being selflessly run for the spread of truth and wellbeing of all, I would expect them to applaud and encourage the army of unpaid volunteers checking their 'facts' for the lulz... er...I mean: mistakes.

As a final note, Thanks for publishing this article El Reg, liked it a lot - good job!

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Que?

"Greenpeckers"? With your choice of insult you reveal your own ignorance.

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