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0 points · 0 comments · 13 years ago · loumf

news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5639997

I have no intention of trying to find out voidnull, but here are some thoughts on what we know:

1. We have a little bit of text we can be reasonably sure voidnull wrote -- some sort of text-likeness algorithm might be able to give us some candidates -- pointed at newsgroups/forums/etc where SDF users might hang out.

2. Using the above, I would note that there are some grammar/typos/mistakes from possibly careless writing. That might be something to specifically try to isolate

3. The HTML on the page is very simple, but malformed -- perhaps look for pages like that (some missing tags)

4. adnam made a comment that showed some familiarity with voidnull and SDF -- adnam might be easier to locate and an association might be discovered.

5. If I believe #4, voidnull is possibly a handle that has been used before (seems really dumb, though) -- perhaps it's a very recognizable alteration.

Anything else?

benmanns13 years ago
Assuming malicious intent on the part of the provider, the envelope sent to SDF will have a post office stamp from the city from which he sent it. Intersect the IP subnets for the area with the IPs used to connect to SDF to find a connection he made to a non-anonymous account.
Second, the command `ssh -o ProxyCommand="nc -X 4 -x localhost:9050 %h %p" sdf.org` seems to be unique (to Google), and may be in a script he has written previously.
sspiff13 years ago
> 1. We have a little bit of text we can be reasonably sure voidnull wrote -- some sort of text-likeness algorithm might be able to give us some candidates -- pointed at newsgroups/forums/etc where SDF users might hang out.
People call me extremely paranoid for this, but I've seen how effective author-analyzing software is.
I would almost certainly try to learn a new language if I want to stay anonymous, and only use that language for my anonymous alter-ego.
There are plenty of non-English communities out there, and if you're data is sufficiently interesting, people will translate it for you.
DanBC13 years ago
3a. The HTML is formatted in a specific way, with indents and white space.
mistercow13 years ago
Regarding #5, I doubt that the name is a useful lead. It seems to me that "voidnull" is just a play on the concept of anonymity and not something that you could tie personally to the OP.
ggchappell13 years ago
> 3. The HTML on the page is very simple, but malformed -- perhaps look for pages like that (some missing tags)
The w3.org validator says it's okay.
http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http%3A//voidnull.sdf.org/
loumfOP13 years ago
voidnull claimed the page was legal, but it is not legal in Germany (according to other comments here). voidnull appears to be a native English writer and uses $ when referring to monetary amounts in a few contexts.
chjj13 years ago
Omitted tags have always been perfectly conforming in HTML, just not XHTML. The same goes for </li> tags. It's more common than you think for people to omit closing tags for those elements.

news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5639997

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0 points · 0 comments · 13 years ago · loumf

news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5639997

I have no intention of trying to find out voidnull, but here are some thoughts on what we know:

2. Using the above, I would note that there are some grammar/typos/mistakes from possibly careless writing. That might be something to specifically try to isolate

3. The HTML on the page is very simple, but malformed -- perhaps look for pages like that (some missing tags)

4. adnam made a comment that showed some familiarity with voidnull and SDF -- adnam might be easier to locate and an association might be discovered.

5. If I believe #4, voidnull is possibly a handle that has been used before (seems really dumb, though) -- perhaps it's a very recognizable alteration.

Anything else?

benmanns13 years ago
Assuming malicious intent on the part of the provider, the envelope sent to SDF will have a post office stamp from the city from which he sent it. Intersect the IP subnets for the area with the IPs used to connect to SDF to find a connection he made to a non-anonymous account.
Second, the command `ssh -o ProxyCommand="nc -X 4 -x localhost:9050 %h %p" sdf.org` seems to be unique (to Google), and may be in a script he has written previously.
sspiff13 years ago
> 1. We have a little bit of text we can be reasonably sure voidnull wrote -- some sort of text-likeness algorithm might be able to give us some candidates -- pointed at newsgroups/forums/etc where SDF users might hang out.
People call me extremely paranoid for this, but I've seen how effective author-analyzing software is.
I would almost certainly try to learn a new language if I want to stay anonymous, and only use that language for my anonymous alter-ego.
There are plenty of non-English communities out there, and if you're data is sufficiently interesting, people will translate it for you.
DanBC13 years ago
3a. The HTML is formatted in a specific way, with indents and white space.
mistercow13 years ago
Regarding #5, I doubt that the name is a useful lead. It seems to me that "voidnull" is just a play on the concept of anonymity and not something that you could tie personally to the OP.
ggchappell13 years ago
> 3. The HTML on the page is very simple, but malformed -- perhaps look for pages like that (some missing tags)
The w3.org validator says it's okay.
http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http%3A//voidnull.sdf.org/
loumfOP13 years ago
voidnull claimed the page was legal, but it is not legal in Germany (according to other comments here). voidnull appears to be a native English writer and uses $ when referring to monetary amounts in a few contexts.
chjj13 years ago
Omitted tags have always been perfectly conforming in HTML, just not XHTML. The same goes for </li> tags. It's more common than you think for people to omit closing tags for those elements.

news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5639997