19-Year-Old Squatted At AOL For 2 Months 141
New submitter mrnick writes "Eric Simons, 19 years old, was working at incubator Imagine K2 in Silicon Valley, which was hosted at AOL's Palo Alto campus. His grant money eventually ran out, but his access badge kept working, so he moved into AOL's office. He slept on a couch, took showers and washed clothes in the office gym, and ate for free in the cafeteria, all the while working on his new start-up. He was able to get away with this for two months before being discovered by security guard."
Hmmm ... (Score:5, Funny)
Returning to your room at the end of the day... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Hmmm ... (Score:5, Funny)
Maybe AOL can stay relevant by being a start-up hotel?
Call me spoiled but I don't think I could handle a dial up hotel.
Re:Hmmm ... (Score:5, Funny)
It would take 30 seconds to dial-out a request for water to shower with. Then you have to wait for the heat to download. Once you finally have hot water, it will randomly shut off and there you stand, shivering. So you decide to give up and get out but when you reach for the towel, its only partially there and corrupted. So you make a request for the rest of the towel, wait 30 seconds for the connection again, and realize that you have to start the download over so you try to make the partial towel work for your needs only to realize that its just not going to work. So you go ahead and restart the towel download but it instantly shows complete, but yet there is no towel. Now you have to wait on AOL to clear your cache, start the download again, and get disconnected once more. You would jump out the window but a request to open it would just be futile.
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Ahhh, yes. Waiting for hot water. Have to do this with the sink where I live. What a waste of cold water while waiting for the hot water to arrive. Seriously.
By the way, anyone know if there has been real-life examples of people living in Wal-Marts?
Welcome to the Hotel AOL (Score:2)
You can check-out any time you like,
but you can only leave after downloading a HD movie over a dial-up connection
Re:Hmmm ... (Score:5, Funny)
Is this the last teenager still using AOL?
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Maybe AOL can become relevant again by being a start-up hotel?
FTFY.
Re:Hmmm ... (Score:4, Interesting)
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the AOL-crashing Macarena loop (Score:2)
AOL also enabled a very entertaining prank I played on a friend... I found a brief event-sound .wav I'd found of the Macarena ("hey, Macarena - ai") and looped the "ai" over-and-over thirty or so times, amplified the "ai" to "AI!" then compressed it into a self-extracting .exe that would overwrite the AOL gotmail.wav with it.
I sent it off to my target, either he opened it or AOL did so for him...and the next time he annoyed me while we were chatting (he could be rather obnoxious) I sent him a one-word email
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Easy way to put it - if you play the "incoming message" sound from AIM, most people would recognize it. That's significant cultural impact.
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In the mid 90's there really wan't much to look at online, AOL help people (beginners at least) get online and "get their feet wet". Now granted anyone with the slightest bit of computer literacy quickly outgrew it, but there were PLENTY of clueless people that needed the training wheels.
Does anyone here remember the "Internet Suites" sold by Delrina and others?
These would include more or less integrated clients for Archie, Veronica and Gopher for search. IRC, Usenet for chat and messaging. Telnet for BBS services. FTP for file transfers, a picture viewer and editor , a first generation web browser etc., etc.
I still have the five thick paperback manuals that shipped with the Delrina suite, the purpose of which was to translate geek-speak into Engllish. The AOL client stripped away all that
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More like a geek monastery, where the monks of code worship the cycles and multi task a better future. No, seriously, why not a monastery for computer geeks but without all the God bothering, a new kind of startup mentoring, rather than providing cash, provide facilities, accommodation, sustenance and fellowship?
AOL still exists? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:AOL still exists? (Score:5, Insightful)
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I am in indiana, I am lucky I have fiber, but I know area's of the state do not have the profit margin for a broadband company to setup in. So those area's may get lucky and have their cell work as a modem, but more times than not, they just have dial up.
~SimonTek
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AOL's brand is so strong among the technically illiterate that some people actually thing that AOL is the "Internet," is "Email," is "instant messenger," etc.
Whaat? You mean to tell me that AOL isnt these things? Damn and all those years...
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AOL is still around, and there are still people paying for dialup service with them ... AOL's brand is so strong among the technically illiterate that some people actually thing that AOL is the "Internet," is "Email," is "instant messenger," etc.
The geek ought to have learned by now that not everyone shares his love of complexity --- or his need for or access to broadband services.
Around 74 percent of the nation's adults had Internet access in their homes by 2010, but 6 percent were still relying solely on dial-up Internet connections to go online, according to a Federal Communications Commission report that looked at broadband access.
Just last year, AOL, whose more than 3.5 million dial-up users account for the bulk of the business, added 200,000 new dial-up customers to its roster.
And while Verizon Communications provides high-speed Internet services through fiber optic FIOS service or digital subscriber lines (DSL) to the majority of its 8.7 million subscribers, the company still provides dial-up Internet to more than 31,000 U.S. customers.
Why are so many are still using the old-fashioned Internet highway?
Their reasons can range from the expense of faster services to little need to hurry up and download all those movies.
Plenty of Internet users cling to slow dial-up connections [post-gazette.com] [May 12, 2012]
Sigh, elitst pig, not what was being atalked about (Score:3)
You are not looking out for those you look down up on in secret, the grand-parent was talking about AOL practice to keep people paying for dialup access when they already moved to broadband connections. So it is NOT for people who still use ONLY dialup, it is a scam operated by AOL to convince people that without their dialup service, broadband would not work or people would loose all their email, so people end up paying a high price for just their email account.
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The geek ought to have learned by now that not everyone shares his love of complexity --- or his need for or access to broadband services.
That is irrelevant to this discussion and you know it -- AOL's customer base mostly (in the sense of a majority of their customers) people who simply do not understand that they do not need to pay for AOL in order to use their DSL or cable modem service. This is not a matter of costs or users choosing to stick with dialup; AOL's former executives have basically admitted that most of AOL's customers are paying for a service they neither need nor use:
http://www.techspot.com/news/42121-60-of-aols-profits [techspot.com]
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Probably same users who still use IE 6. Isnt the AOL browser just a reskinned IE 6? I was so angry when when they bought Netscape and released Netscape with an IE 6 engine underneath. Stupid clueless managment
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Ya. My mother still refers to the whole computer as "The AOL".
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My mother still refers to the whole computer as "the hard drive." I don't know if that's better or worse.
Re:AOL still exists? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:AOL still exists? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:AOL still exists? (Score:4, Informative)
Yes, they buy up popular websites, make editorial and staffing changes to fit their monetizing goals, and then leech off the site's residual popularity until the talented people they still have and their audience get tired of the new sites and go elsewhere. There's enough Op-Ed blog bits about Tech Crunch post-AOL acquisition to show this.
A dying company playing vampire on young properties to support it's existence a little while longer. Soon they'll be another Lycos.
Isn't this a success story? (Score:5, Insightful)
Isn't that the ultimate goal of the incubators: to get young kids to spend their whole life working on their startup...
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That's why they did not call the police, I suppose.
devil's advocate... (Score:4, Insightful)
Ad one:
"Simons said he was able to score $50,000 in seed funding from Ulu Ventures and Silicon Valley VC Paul Sherer."
Now Ulu Ventures and Paul Sherer is someone thanks to this CNET article.
Ad two:
"Now, Simons said, he's looking to raise an additional $500,000."
Yep there it is. "I slept on a couch in AOL, can i get $500,000?"
And just in case you missed it, his startup name, ClassConnect, is mentioned 6 times in the article. 6. When really, it didn't need to be mentioned at all, the story is about the kid hiding in AOL, not about his startup. It's even in the topic tags at the bottom.
Someone's profiting from this, besides the kid. Writer obviously, probably several others.
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I don't agree that all startups that need big $$$ are bad ideas - there are lots of very good startup ideas that take 10s of millions to get rolling.
On the other hand, startups principaled by a 19yo sleeping on AOL's couch, yeah, show me where the first 20K went, and a detailed plan of how the $500K is going to be spent. Don't like counting paperclips? Get a real job.
free hours (Score:5, Funny)
i guess his 1,460.9688 free hours of aol finally ran out!
Urban Legend becomes reality (Score:5, Interesting)
Steven Spielberg claimed to have done something similar. He claimed to have occupied an unused office on the Universal Studios lot by simply dressing in a suit, carrying a brief case, and bluffing his way past the security guards. But his story kept growing and growing. A clear sign of fabrication. So it was finally debunked by snopes [snopes.com]. But even his tallest tale didn't claim to have lived on the lot full time. And now this kid has gone one better than the tall tale, actually living inside the corporate complex of a major tech company.
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Re:Urban Legend becomes reality (Score:4, Interesting)
And now this kid has gone one better than the tall tale, actually living inside the corporate complex of a major tech company.
I guess it's the "major tech company" part that makes this shocking, right?
Where I went to grad school, it wasn't uncommon to have at least a few students living (and I mean with their sleeping bags, pizza boxes, toiletries, etc.) in a lab or storage room for long periods of time -- months or more -- in lieu of paying the high rent near campus. There were always the whispered stories of x student being caught trying to wash himself in the chemical safety shower or y post-doc who finally ran afoul of faculty after using his office as his kitchen.
incubator? (Score:4, Funny)
well, did he at least get to keep the eggs??
(cue woody allen joke about brother who thinks he's a chicken; but the family lets him continue on; they need the eggs.)
Security? (Score:1)
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I am sure that is how he got caught in the first place, due to a security audit. They found the card was active and still being used.
Re:Security? (Score:5, Interesting)
Security audit? what is that? Is that like those mythical Pay raises I hear that used to happen?
I have not worked at Comcast for 5 years. I handed a friend my keyfob access card that still works there because he lost his and wanted a replacement. He was going to have security reprogram the system to use it for his access.
Mine Still WORKED! Which is scary as it had All access clearance at multiple locations, 5 Freaking years and they never removed me nor did a security audit to remove users.
Re:Security? (Score:5, Interesting)
Depends on where you work. Where i work, we take security seriously. You cant even walk in the door with another person. Your photo is verified against your face as you enter. We also have metal detectors on the doors, and the guards have real guns to stop you with, not just a radio to call for help.
Every month a complete audit of badges takes place. Similar things happen for network accounts every 30 days.
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Ditto. You get terminated for cause/quit on the spot, and your cardkey badge (physical) and all electronic access is disabled during your HR exit interview. such that you have to be escorted out. You retire/finish on good terms? It's pre-programmed to stop working at the end of business on your last day.
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Badges cost us $15. We do try to recover them, but it's not a big deal if we do not.
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I still had my keyfob and my SecurID for logins. They never wanted them back. I use the SecurID for Paypal now.
Re:Security? (Score:4, Interesting)
Depends on where you work. Where i work, we take security seriously. You cant even walk in the door with another person. Your photo is verified against your face as you enter. We also have metal detectors on the doors, and the guards have real guns to stop you with, not just a radio to call for help.
Sometimes depends on the location, too... Same company, my last office was on the 6th floor at a building that houses a shopping facility on the ground floor. After-hours access required a swipe in an elevator and a swipe with a security guard at the front door, but during normal business hours the elevators weren't locked (even though they only went up to the "secure" office facilities upstairs), and people routinely held the door open for others without checking their passes. At the office I'm at now, there's a guard at the front door 24/7 who checks your pass every time, there's nothing but a lunch room on the ground floor and the guard has to unlock the elevators so you can get to your office, and you have to swipe through a security checkpoint on your actual floor, too. (annoying actually, because the bathrooms are on the other side of the checkpoint). Security also makes regular walkarounds on every floor (in fact, the guy just walked past my desk as I'm typing this).
What you say about network accounts surprises me, though... they do a routine audit here, too, and disable accounts, but they're pretty gung-ho about yanking peoples' network accesses... usually your network login and tool accesses will be disabled before they tell you that you've been let go (I know a few people who found out they'd been fired because security was waiting at their desk with a box when they got in), and except in some exceedingly rare circumstances, you will be escorted out the door by security within minutes of giving notice, when you leave for another job.
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So they could be tracking your bathroom visits. Ouch. Anyone been fired for taking too many/too long bathroom breaks?
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"Need" is of course relative, but there are a lot of places that do have fully armed guards.
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Depends on where you work. Where i work, we take security seriously. You cant even walk in the door with another person. Your photo is verified against your face as you enter. We also have metal detectors on the doors, and the guards have real guns to stop you with, not just a radio to call for help.
So your in prison, big deal.
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... And they STILL let you post on slashdot??? even in your spare time?
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Depends on where you work. Where i work, we take security seriously. You cant even walk in the door with another person. Your photo is verified against your face as you enter. We also have metal detectors on the doors, and the guards have real guns to stop you with, not just a radio to call for help.
Unless you worked in a government installation or a prison I have some doubts as to that last sentence. The guards may be carrying guns, but if they're private security personnel their usage was likely restricted to self-defense in the event of an intruder. I don't think assault with a deadly weapon would be considered a justifiable action to stop a trespasser as part of their job.
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Um, no, i don't work for a prison.
I know of some places that have hallways with keylock doors every so many feet. They can determine where you are within a few feet and control who gets thru each door.
They aren't prisons either.
Most good data centers are at least this secure, if not more.
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In the data centre I worked at they had firewalls every five feet of cable (six if it was cat6 cable). You had to enter your username and passwird at each one.
They knew where your packets were within 5-6 feet at all times.
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It's not worth it personally to people to hassle other people who want to get in, so unless there is a HUGE, HUGE deal about that being at the level of burning children and eating them...
Who the HELL wastes children that way?! That's just sick.
Children are meant to be basted lightly over low heat, not flash-burned like a marshmallow. Wise up, people!
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No, this is fucking bullshit. When I was in basic training in the Air Force, instructors and others whose name appeared on the list of those authorized access were allowed to bring whoever they want in. To say that our dorm had no physical security would be stupid and wrong. Sure, it could be considered a higher level of security if only specific purposes on a white list can get in, but again, that's just another level you could implement.
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I am sure that is how he got caught in the first place, due to a security audit. They found the card was active and still being used.
Having read the article (gasp!) - it appears you are exactly right. The guy who found him came in extra early and was specifically looking for him.
By the way, you can indeed tell this story came from a new submitter - it was all on one page. Silly guy hasn't yet learned you're only supposed to link to stories spread over nine pages in order to maximize ad revenue...
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The article doesn't directly reference the events which led to his discovery, but from his description the guard came in knowing he was there and having scoured the entire building to find him and yell at him.
He wasn't caught as a result of being stumbled over, he appears to have been caught because security found out through other means that he was squatting in the building. As a result, showing his badge wouldn't have done anything.
AOL Offices (Score:1)
Re:AOL Offices (Score:5, Insightful)
http://www.techspot.com/news/42121-60-of-aols-profits-come-from-misinformed-customers.html [techspot.com]
We are talking about people who are so helplessly uninformed that they are paying for dialup service despite already paying for broadband. Working for AOL is basically working for a scam that is tricking older, less technically literate people out of their money.
the phone company does this too (Score:2, Funny)
cleaning up my Mom's estate in the late 90s, i discovered she had been paying rental on a wall-mounted rotary phone for nearly 15 years - the phone company said to keep the phone when service was disconnected
Re:AOL Offices (Score:4, Informative)
not to defend AOL, but it is really NOT their responsibility to determine whether their service is needed by their customers.. but rather to provide the services the customer subscribes to -- which is what AOL does. similarly, if you subscribe to cable tv but then install a satellite dish, it is YOUR job to cancel the cable if you no longer need or want it - the cable company can't read your mind, YOU have to return their equipment and cancel the service (or pay the bill, or suffer the consequences of doing neither)
___
if you do happen to know someone paying for AOL dialup but they have high speed internet.. do them a favor by suggesting they cancel the AOL dialup if they don't need it (laptop use when traveling to remote locations without wifi or other high speed options, etc)
for those who actually like the AOL client software or want to keep their @aol email account -- they can do both. you can use AOL's client software on your own internet connection (called "BYOA" - bring your own access); and if you don't use AOL client software, existing @aol email can be read at mail.aol.com - the email address(es) remain even when you cancel your paid AOL service (basically it just converts to a 'free' BYOA account).
don't forget to mention that if they cancel their paid AOL service and have a bundled AOL-provided antivirus, they'll need to replace it with something else.
to cancel paid AOL service, see http://help.aol.com/help/microsites/microsite.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&externalId=219764 [aol.com]
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not to defend AOL, but it is really NOT their responsibility to determine whether their service is needed by their customers.. but rather to provide the services the customer subscribes to -- which is what AOL does. similarly, if you subscribe to cable tv but then install a satellite dish, it is YOUR job to cancel the cable if you no longer need or want it - the cable company can't read your mind, YOU have to return their equipment and cancel the service (or pay the bill, or suffer the consequences of doing neither)
Begging your pardon, but that's a sniveling shit-pile of an excuse for a company to hide behind.
The question isn't one of legal responsibility* and consequences. It's one of service and this sort of activity by companies, of charging people who they know are receiving zero services from them, is morally bankrupt If you want to run a business that provides a service, please do, but if you keep billing people for nothing, there's no difference between that and stealing. Even those few idiots still holding
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not to defend AOL, but it is really NOT their responsibility to determine whether their service is needed by their customers
Except that if you actually read the link that I posted, you would see that AOL's managers already know that their service is not needed by a majority of their customers. This is not a matter of legal responsibility, it is a matter of ethics -- and AOL is as far from the moral high ground as they can get. Here you have a company whose executives know that most of their customers already have broadband, but are so confused about exactly they are paying for that they continue to pay for dialup service tha
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I agree w/ sdnoob above - the argument about ethics provided by Monchanger and betterunixthanunix is off the mark. A company's legal and moral duty is to provide the services that their customers are paying for. Once the customer has paid for something, whether they use 100% of it or 1% is really none of their business. AOL can only stop charging once the customer cancels, or they themselves go out of business.
Besides, who gets broadband services unless they specifically order it? One is also making t
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This is news?
No.
I caught onto this nearly a decade ago!
You're a little slow then.
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You do not need either to wash your clothes. A bathtub works for washing and the sun is good enough for drying.
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The submission mentioned that he took his showers and washed his clothes in the gym - I doubt that they'd have had bathtubs there, unless they happened to have an indoor spa that could be used in this manner. Washing his clothes in the shower and then hanging it to dry would have been even more brazen than him using an expired badge and sleeping @ the site. In fact, a lot of residential apartments and homeowners associations don't allow people to hang clothes out to dry due to appearances. Doing it in an
Re:AOL Offices (Score:4, Funny)
It's strange what happens reading the article
"[Plus] they had their own laundromat there, so I'd wash my clothes there."
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"I only had maybe five to ten T-shirts, a pair of jeans, and a pair of shorts (...)"
This means that he had several at least a couple of hours' periods when he was wearing just his underpants, waiting for his jeans to be washed or dried.
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In the US the term "shorts" typically means "short pants." Only rarely is the term used to denote an article of underwear.
Reminds me of the high tech manager lion joke (Score:5, Funny)
Two lions escape from the zoo. One kills and eats a human on the street, and is subsequently hounded down and killed.
The other hides in the headquarters of a high tech company, and lives a long and peaceful life.
It eats middle level managers, and nobody even notices or cares.
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I first heard it about IBM. [catb.org]
Grammer? (Score:1)
Okay, how did they REALLY catch him? (Score:2)
Did someone finally decide to look behind that shiny new curtain made up of AOL mailer CDs?
Hardly beats the Graphing Calculator story (Score:3, Insightful)
See http://www.pacifict.com/Story/ for a corporate culture that managed, at one time, to embrace and extend that kind of enthusiasm. That's what you get when engineers are ultimately being understood as running the show rather than beancounters.
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See http://www.pacifict.com/Story/ [pacifict.com] for a corporate culture that managed, at one time, to embrace and extend that kind of enthusiasm.
Embrace, extend... and now it's extinguished.
I've been doing that for years ... (Score:5, Funny)
... in my mom's basement
Re:I've been doing that for years ... (Score:5, Funny)
... in my mom's basement
Dude - you know that food you regularly find at the top of the stairs? That means she knows you're down there.
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Perfect delivery. You actually got me to laugh out loud for awhile. Very glad I wasn't at work when I read that. :)
Let me get this straight (Score:2)
And so (Score:4, Funny)
For the first time ever, AOL actually proved to be good for something. Naturally they put a stop to that as soon as they found out.
How did the security guard know about him? (Score:2)
How did he know that someone was there to scour for to begin with? The article didn't state or perhaps it is unknown how AOL or a guard came to realize he didn't belong there.
Is he related to RMS? (Score:2)
Rumour has it that the inimitable Richard M. Stallman might have some experience with "office living"... :P
Compare AOL and US border security (Score:5, Funny)
This is probably the conversation the manager had once he got caught squatting at AOL...
Security: "Sir, we've caught a guy who has overstayed his work visa and has been illegally squatting in our corporate campus for three months."
Manager: "Damn! What damage has he caused?"
Security: "None sir, he's been working on some start up project to link teacher's educational materials together."
Manager: "Really? How much are we paying him?"
Security: "Ummm... nothing. He's doing it a part of our K12 Imagine incubator that we are running. However he's been eating our cereal, drinking our soda, and sleeping on our couches."
Manager: "What has he been doing all day? Surfing the internet?"
Security: "As far as we can tell he's been programming 12 to 16 hours a day."
Manager: "..."
Security: "Should we call the police sir?"
Manager: "Hell No! Ask if needs pillows. One more thing, get me ten more of these 'squatters'"
Now contrast this with the United States Border Patrol...
Border Security: "Sir, we've caught a guy who has overstayed his work visa and has been illegally squatting in the United States work force for three years."
INS: "Damn! What damage has he caused?"
Border Security: "None sir, he's been working in an orchid picking oranges for a farmer that can't get anyone else to do it. In fact the person is extremely peaceful as they want to ensure that no one calls the police about them and causes them to be noticed."
INS: "Really? How much is he being paid?"
Border Security: "Ummm... minimum wage, and he's paying taxes. He's doing it a part of our American Dream incubator that we are running. However he's been shopping at our stores, going to our movies, and using our services."
INS: "What has he been doing all day? Watching television?"
Border Security: "As far as we can tell he's been working two jobs to support his family and save money."
INS: "..."
Border Security: "Should we deport him sir?"
INS: "Hell Yes! Make sure you deport him hundred of miles away to make it harder for him. One more thing, build me a bigger, better fence."
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Ah, I can hear the screams of outrage now. This is a masterpiece.
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"Real" americans would do the work if the farmer (a.k.a giant farming corporation) was willing to pay more than slave wages. Of course, the problem is that the other farmers are doing the same thing, so then he can't compete.
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He was going to leave... (Score:3, Funny)
odd, isn't it? (Score:2)
Usually, this is theft, fraud, and trespassing. When a 19 year old "entrepreneur" and computer geek does it, it's somehow OK? Kind of a double standard.
Re:That's nothing (Score:5, Insightful)
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Agreeing with an AC on this.
Re:That's nothing (Score:5, Funny)
I did not know that EA had a programming office in Inglewood, CA. and you got to sleep near rattlesnakes? Were you a lead on a project? The rest of us had to sleep WITH the rattlesnakes.
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you were programming at EA and you got to sleep ? don't know your born....
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to go back to his basement. I know the feeling.
to go back to his Mom's basement. I know the feeling.
There, fixed it for you.