anyone else get contacted by VICE media?

[Deviant Ollam]

Received this email recently...

Hi Deviant,

I'm an Associate Producer for VICE media, inc and work with their online technology channel, Motherboard. You may be familiar with Motherboard, if you'd like to see our previous documentaries, here's a link:

http://motherboard.vice.com/en_us

We're making a documentary about hacking and are familiar with your knowledge on the craft and that you've spoken at Defcon. We'd love to sit down and chat with you in an on-camera interview. We have three main episodes, one deals with the traffic grid lock in Los Angeles in 2006 where two traffic engineers hacked into the city's traffic control system and tampered with the traffic lights, causing traffic in the entire city to seize up. The other episodes deal with hacking into autonomous vehicles and remote controlling them, and finally hacking into cell phones to retrieve information.

Would love for your two cents on any of these topics.

Let me know if you're interested and where in the country you're located. We have the means to move around.

Hope we can make something happen

sounds like they're looking to produce a standard FUD piece about hackers. not necessarily a hit piece per se, but their phrasing and wording doesn't seem to indicate strong journalistic desire to tell a non-sensationalist story.

Thoughts?

[Deviant Ollam]

Re: anyone else get contacted by VICE media?

gah. have a look at this other piece to which they linked...

http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/trailer-long-shot

... yeah, sounds like selective-edit-style jobs are their specialty. All sensationalism, little context.

[blakdayz]

Re: anyone else get contacted by VICE media?

gah. have a look at this other piece to which they linked...

http://motherboard.vice.com/blog/trailer-long-shot

... yeah, sounds like selective-edit-style jobs are their specialty. All sensationalism, little context.

I have a canned response for all those 'hey we need a hacker to interview and edit' requests..

"Sir/Ma'am,

Thank you very much for inquiring about an interview. At this time I have no comment on the subject matter.

-b
"

Unless you actually want to do it [I personally have a 'no interview' policy].

just my 2c

[eris]

Re: anyone else get contacted by VICE media?

I like Vice. I think they were better when they were only a handful of guys and were only webisodes, but they have done some good reporting since then as well. Sensationalism was always a bit of their shtick but the stories they got were good. Example, they were the first journal team to get into N Korea awhile back, got banned from the country, and managed to sneak a team back in a second time by arranging the Dennis Rodman basketball exhibition event and be the news team for that. Quite a nice little piece of SE on pretty big scale really.


However, that said, they are now a full blown news show on tv, I just noticed, and that may have eroded any journalistic integrity as the "team" has expanded well beyond the original crew.

[phiber]

Re: anyone else get contacted by VICE media?

I like Vice. I think they were better when they were only a handful of guys and were only webisodes, but they have done some good reporting since then as well. Sensationalism was always a bit of their shtick but the stories they got were good. Example, they were the first journal team to get into N Korea awhile back, got banned from the country, and managed to sneak a team back in a second time by arranging the Dennis Rodman basketball exhibition event and be the news team for that. Quite a nice little piece of SE on pretty big scale really.


However, that said, they are now a full blown news show on tv, I just noticed, and that may have eroded any journalistic integrity as the "team" has expanded well beyond the original crew.

The North Korea video got me hooked on Vice. They were telling the stories properly before but you can't expect Shane or Suroosh to cover Defcon/Hacking - not deadly enough. Motherboard has some good journalists, IMHO.

[Can't_Code4Crap]

Re: anyone else get contacted by VICE media?

I actually like Vice (the thing about credit card scammers which I think was them was pretty decent), but don't think for a second they are going to be looking for anything that isn't some diabolical black hat type stuff. In other words don't bother about your RMS/GNU/how you hacked your toaster to cook bread twice as fast rants unless you feel like wasting your time. The name of the show should point to the obvious. They aren't balanced and they don't claim to be.

[theRoda]

Re: anyone else get contacted by VICE media?

I like Vice. I think they were better when they were only a handful of guys and were only webisodes, but they have done some good reporting since then as well. Sensationalism was always a bit of their shtick but the stories they got were good. Example, they were the first journal team to get into N Korea awhile back, got banned from the country, and managed to sneak a team back in a second time by arranging the Dennis Rodman basketball exhibition event and be the news team for that. Quite a nice little piece of SE on pretty big scale really.


However, that said, they are now a full blown news show on tv, I just noticed, and that may have eroded any journalistic integrity as the "team" has expanded well beyond the original crew.

The North Korea video got me hooked on Vice. They were telling the stories properly before but you can't expect Shane or Suroosh to cover Defcon/Hacking - not deadly enough. Motherboard has some good journalists, IMHO.

I too, got started on VICE with the N. Korea doc. I've kept up with them on and off since, but I always find the content to be very hit-and-miss.
IMHO most of the written content on the site is arbitrary drivel, and 1 in every 3 documentaries has this crippling air of moroseness that forces me to cut it short.


There do seem to be some talented & competent contributers there, but I've also seen a fair share of points seem to miss the mark.
My 2cents...
Going in blind sounds sketchy, but if you know who you're working with, the work they've personally done in the past, and checked out a storyboard(or equivalent).. Maybe seems legit?

EDIT: Woops, mybad on the follow-up necromancy. Seeing as I haven't heard of a VICE special on 'hackers', I guess you made up your mind, Deviant Ollum.

[Deviant Ollam]

Re: anyone else get contacted by VICE media?

Deviant Ollum.

heh, this is a very minor point but since something just kind of jumpped out at me, i might as well ask about it here (and i really am trying to not sound mean when i do so)

how they hell do people manage to misspell other folks' nicknames so much online? i realize that mine is a somewhat unique name, as are some of the other people who are routinely subject to typos and such... but this is the internet where much stuff exists in text form.

you are literally looking at a printed, written version of my name on this very same page. what causes people to transcribe it incorrectly in what should be the easiest possible situation? my name isn't even pronounced "Oh - Lam" or "Aul - Lumb" or anything like that, but when people misspell it Ollum or Ollom or Ollem or Olam or any of the other ways i've inexplicably seen it, it encourages that mispronunciation.

Heh, maybe if i just used the Anglicized spelling i'd be better off? there, Deviant Ollav is officially an acceptable rendering of my name... although i'd prefer if folk just stuck with Ollam --- the way it appears on hundreds of other pages and thousands of tweets and forum posts. ;-)

Again, not directed at you personally and this is all offered up with a laugh on my part because i just have to comically wonder how misspellings happen. But it was on my mind.

[theRoda]

Re: anyone else get contacted by VICE media?

heh, this is a very minor point but since something just kind of jumpped out at me, i might as well ask about it here (and i really am trying to not sound mean when i do so)

how they hell do people manage to misspell other folks' nicknames so much online? i realize that mine is a somewhat unique name, as are some of the other people who are routinely subject to typos and such... but this is the internet where much stuff exists in text form.

you are literally looking at a printed, written version of my name on this very same page. what causes people to transcribe it incorrectly in what should be the easiest possible situation? my name isn't even pronounced "Oh - Lam" or "Aul - Lumb" or anything like that, but when people misspell it Ollum or Ollom or Ollem or Olam or any of the other ways i've inexplicably seen it, it encourages that mispronunciation.

Heh, maybe if i just used the Anglicized spelling i'd be better off? there, Deviant Ollav is officially an acceptable rendering of my name... although i'd prefer if folk just stuck with Ollam --- the way it appears on hundreds of other pages and thousands of tweets and forum posts. ;-)

Again, not directed at you personally and this is all offered up with a laugh on my part because i just have to comically wonder how misspellings happen. But it was on my mind.

Fair enough-
Well, to give you a relatively thoughtful reply:

Having never heard it pronounced IRL, I easily associated it with the pronunciation 'ollum', which I had incorrectly interpreted from scanning the forum.
That pronounciation presumpiton led me to hammer out the wrong spelling without thinking twice about about it. Combine that with tiny font on a big secondary monitor, and I think I got myself an excuse ;]

To give you an internet reply:

I type things fast sometimes not so good come out in end. much failure. COD beats Halo!1!11. WOW.


Indubitably, I venture(bros.) to say it is a mistake I likely wont make again any time soon. Or at least until next time.

But in all srsness, you don't want to keep going with Lord Nikon? ;D I got dibs on Cereal Killer, get us a Dade and we're halfway there!


I am most curious though, did that journalist ever contact you again, Chief Ollam? (<- eh,eh?)

[astcell]

Re: anyone else get contacted by VICE media?

how they hell do people manage to misspell other folks' nicknames so much online?

You're asking that of a people who do not know your from you're, who think ever word with a letter s ha's an apo'strophe in it, and twho cannot tell the difference between 99 cents and .99 cents.

[theRoda]

Re: anyone else get contacted by VICE media?

You're asking that of a people who do not know your from you're, who think ever word with a letter s ha's an apo'strophe in it, and twho cannot tell the difference between 99 cents and .99 cents.

Sooo, Verizon?

[skiboy]

Re: anyone else get contacted by VICE media?

"We're making a documentary about hacking..."

Tell VICE to join the 500 other dingleberries with a camera who tried (and failed!) to make a decent hacker documentary.
Only about 7 of those documentaries were ever good.

Besides, VICE is news for hipsters. They should not be taken seriously.

[Deviant Ollam]

Re: anyone else get contacted by VICE media?

did that journalist ever contact you again, Chief Ollam? (<- eh,eh?)

hah, no. never heard back. and thanks for keeping up good spirits regarding the name conversation

[Deviant Ollam]

Re: anyone else get contacted by VICE media?

You're asking that of a people who do not know your from you're

you know, this is interesting to me... because I know you pretty well, but recently I started to question your nick's pronunciation.

I've always said "Ay Ess Tee Sell" (as if calling out the first three letters in as initials, plus the word "Cell" at the end)

Someone recently pronounced it "Ah Stuh Sell" (as if it were three syllables in total)

Halp?

[skiboy]

Re: anyone else get contacted by VICE media?

Someone recently pronounced it "Ah Stuh Sell"

People have majorly misheard my name. Someone once called me "Skeetboy."
I was unsure whether or not to be flattered.