[mpakes]

Was it necessary to wear a t-shirt that reads "It's fun to use learning for evil!" in the photo shoot for a Forbes spread? This doesn't help the negative perception of the word "hacker". :-/

All due respect to the work you're doing – I'm a former member of the security industry myself (worked on the IPS engine at TippingPoint).

[boredguy8]

Counterpoint: I love that you wore it, I think the content of the article makes it hard to come to a negative conclusion (especially the comments about stopping development), and most anything that supports dieselsweeties.com is a good thing!

[tptacek]

You don't think this is a little nitpicky? He's at the "Black Hat Briefings".

[larrys]

It's fairly easy to change a T-shirt. Whether or not anyone agrees with his appearance or not being relevant, he wasn't photographed in the audience at the conference or up on stage.

He posed for a photograph in a hotel.

Even if he didn't have a spare shirt, the gift shop in a hotel generally does. That's if he had thought of that issue. No problem with telling the photographer you had to change. Even if they noted that in the story it's the picture that's worth 1000 words.

I had a story done a number of years ago and they sent a photographer to the office. I took several hours to arrange everything to get a good setup for the photo. It paid off. The photo was good and the photo editor liked and made it the centerpoint of a story where many people were quoted. It ran all over in syndication. My point is simply it's important to think ahead when the media comes knocking. (Along those lines hmm, maybe he did the right thing with that t-shirt publicity wise).

In any case people can now learn from the "nitpick" and decide for themselves if they are ever in the spotlight what they want to do.

[mpakes]

Fair enough, and that's why I attempted to tone down the message with my statement of respect. I've followed Cody's work with interest for years.

I do stand by my general point, though. I think it's worth thinking about how we represent ourselves to the general public. The word "Hacker" has an unfortunate negative reputation, and I don't think messages like this help. It really jumped out at me when I opened the article (otherwise I would have kept this nit to myself).

[cchurch]

I didn't even notice the text on the shirt underneath his greasy, unwashed hair.

[MartinCron]

It's pretty obviously tongue-in-cheek. He doesn't look at all evil (sorry Daeken, you look kind of... Jolly) and any real evil people don't let Forbes take their picture.

[daeken]

It's ok, I get "jolly" a lot.

[sneak]

Ugh, a dyed-in-the-wool corporate whitehat bitching about a real hacker wearing an ironic black t-shirt while posing for a magazine interview.

It's 2012. Your argument is twenty years late to the discussion. Deal with it.