Guatemalan immigration officials Wednesday afternoon deported John McAfee, who is headed to Miami, according to news reports.
“I’m free, I’m going to America,” the software anti-virus pioneer said at the Guatemala City airport, the Associated Press says. He was escorted to the airport by immigration officials.
Before leaving for the airport he told Reuters, “I’ll be leaving at 3:30 (p.m.) to Miami. That was the only option I had. I can’t take a flight that stops in any other country and there are only two flights going to America today.”
“I’ve been running through jungles and rivers and oceans and I think I need to rest for a while,” is one quote.
“But I will continue my fight for human rights and the charitable work for 20 year-old girls I have become known for in Miami,” the ex-anti-virus king said.
Living Like John McAfee just lost its luster. Miami not quite the same jungle home.
The tycoon in a men’s adventure setting each week. The famous raconteur will call a lucky viewer or journalist in each episode to tell a fantastic story and extend an invite to his jungle home
Resurrecting some bits I added in comments yesterday:
While Mr. McAfee seems determined to drag out his drama as long as he can, some of the journalists who have covered him say they have had enough. “People try to behave ethically,??? said Mr. Johnson. “And he milks that out of them until they get to the point where they’re like, ‘You know what, you’re just nuts.’ ??? “I know as a journalist I can’t say that, so I’ve got to get out of this story.???
Not half an hour after this hit the net the Hollywood Reporter ran a bit informing McAfee had sold movie rights while in jail, although one is dubious whether that meant any immediate windfall:
“U.S. anti-virus pioneer John McAfee, arrested by Guatemalan police and facing deportation to Belize, has apparently entrusted his life story to Montreal-based TV producer Impact Future Media.The TV producer is currently looking for investors and production partners which is tentatively titled Running in the Background: The True Story of John McAfee.???
However, it’s obvious John McAfee is in trouble it will be hard to worm out from under. The publicity and his blog haven’t accomplished whatever it is he actually wanted.
Dispensing with the nonsense in which he dubbed himself a “human rights advocate” on Sunday, McAfee’s in a cell for a straightforward problem — he crossed the border into Guatemala illegally.
It’s humorous. The wealthy white gringo, holding a press conference in Guatemala City, then eventually taken to jail after returning to his hotel.
Not quite like Border Patrol snapping up the poor illegals for detention cells here but …
And McAfee’s blog has made things worse, a chaotic mess with embarrassing photos, shady but trivial characters and weird semi-perverted stories he now probably wishes he’d held back on.
There’s no transparency with McAfee, just what he wants others to think.
It’s difficult to view him as any kind of genius. Indeed, with antivirus McAfee may have just been lucky. He was at the right place at the right time with a tool that worked good enough. And, of course, he had enough knowledge about computer viruses — which were a total mystery to the media — to write the story to his ends.
The viruses of 1992 did not come at you every day. Their only reliable way of travel was through the sharing of infected floppies and diskettes. It was a strength and weakness, the latter because the programs had to be written small to fit into the master boot record, plus occasionally, a few extra sectors. Removing them was, relatively speaking, a lot easier than disinfections are now.
And after McAfee’s SCAN was in the corporate workplace nationwide his fortune was assured. There was only one other real competitor in the US — Symantec. And conservative business behavior guaranteed McAfee Associates would remain a dominant force in the industry.
So rather than being a genius, McAfee was — perhaps — more lucky. Because after antivirus there’s been nothing except spectacle.
And finally, his disaster of a show in Belize. Which is most definitely not evidence of a shrewd operator, just the intrigues of a strange publicity hound with a lot of money.
John McAfee was the same in 1992. A sleazy manipulative salesman with, sometimes, a bit of offbeat smiling charm who never really changed. His fortune turned and, along with bad judgment, got the better of him. Most people don’t get nearly as much string in a lifetime.
1. “There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what … who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims. … These are people who pay no income tax. … and so my job is not to worry about those people. I’ll never convince them that they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.” –Mitt Romney, remarks at private fundraiser, Boca Raton, Fla., May 17
2. “We took a concerted effort to go out and find women who had backgrounds that could be qualified to become members of our cabinet [in Massachusetts]. I went to a number of women’s groups and said, ‘Can you help us find folks?’ and they brought us whole binders full of women.”
The most loathed presidential candidate in our time, easy. And whatever for?
What’s worth remembering goes a little deeper than what Americans are comfortable with.
It put the country into a war with the Axis Powers, Japan and Germany (and Il Duce’s Italy), the first two countries possessing militaries that could smash American forces.
The Imperial Japanese Navy was the most powerful naval force in the world on December 7th. And it would remain a dangerous and formidable foe for years.
Even after Midway, the Japanese fleet still had nasty surprises in store for American fighting men. In August of 1942, a Japanese heavy cruiser force utterly destroyed a US cruiser force off Guadalcanal in the Battle of Savo Island. It was the worst surface action group defeat this country has ever suffered.
The Japanese Navy fought at night, had deadly destroyer-launched torpedo tactics, and at Savo achieved complete tactical surprise.
James Hornfischer’s Neptune’s Inferno chronicles that battle and many others off Guadalcanal and in the Solomon’s at a time during the war when US fighting men often went into action out gunned, frequently with the expectation that they would die at the hands of the Japanese.
Today, all that’s lost in the memorial of December 7. To Americans it’s a day when the Japanese sneak attacked the US Navy, achieving a victory that’s flamingly chronicled in old movies.
And then we joined the war, kicked their asses and dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Yaaaay!
It’s transformed into another ritual reference with virtually no meaning, particularly when contrasted with the country’s current relationship with its military.
The US military is the most powerful in world history and it never goes into action expecting to lose. And in the last twelve years it has never faced a capable opponent. Not even close.
It exists, and does its thing, whatever the current political leadership asks. This has no linkage relationship with what the US, and everyone, had to do in WWII in cooperating to destroy the Axis powers and preserve freedom in the west. Anyone who believes differently is a fool and insulting to history.
Wrote itself. Play loud. Theme and film trailer for the upcoming cable reality show on National Geographic, Living Like John McAfee. Promotional tie-ins: graphic novel and tell-all books, also available for Kindle.
Just in e-mail:
I’m worried.
You’re starting to become a news source for me.
How the new Jonas Salks and Wright Brothers of the modern American tech economy are boosting innovation and better living can never be overstated. Today, news again from the wire on the invention of the year, the development of a digital posh hotel room lock pick.
We booked hotel rooms in New Jersey where he did it again and again — at a Hyatt, a Ramada, a Doubletree Hilton. This security flaw is so alarming, even hotel managers are stunned. “That’s absolutely insane,” one said when we showed him …
The device is so small, thieves can hide it in a magic marker. And criminals are learning how to make it watching videos posted online.
“Do you have to be a computer whiz to build one of these?” we asked.
Anti-virus software guru John McAfee was arrested by Guatemalan police on Wednesday, for illegally entering the country, interior minister Mauricio Lopez Bonilla said.
Earlier today:
“Thank God I am in a place where there is some sanity,??? McAfee said. “I chose Guatemala carefully??? …
[Now], all the misdirection may be coming to any end. Asked if he feels safe, McAfee told ABC News, “Oh, absolutely. I feel like I’ve come home.???
Fun time’s over. Lonely war against Belize cut short.
Tony Fadell is a perfect fit for The Purpose Drive Life (see below). As the designer of the iPod he made something that allowed all the money formerly made by the music industry to be given to Apple by laundering through Luxembourg while at the same time making it virtually impossible for musicians except maybe Carly Rae Jepsen, the Gangnam Style dude, and Taylor Swift, to earn any on the company’s industry-controlling jukebox.
No excerpts, the guy’s a crushing bore.
Best comment, ever, though:
When will this be available at ChinaMart?
Unintentional sidesplitter:
I discovered there was your thermostat that controls 50-60% of your energy costs every year — and no one knows how to use them and they’re ugly and frustrating.
If you say so.
I’m taking nominations and suggestions for The Purpose Driven Life. If you have someone you think ought to be part of the series, send a link and a short excerpt you’d like used, plus any snark you think is appropriate.
The purpose of The Purpose Driven Life is to profile the wizards of American tech innovation where all the advances never seem more than trivial but are lauded as game-changers because you can download them, log on or buy them at a consumer electronics Apple-like store. They’re replacements for stuff that already works, only newly controlled by smartphones, useless schemes and software for ripping off society or, in general, things that enrich the geniuses and the shoeshine class but no one else.
DD cannot be nominated for The Purpose Driven Life.
Cyberattacks come first. Hurricane Sandy gets second billing.
Excerpted:
Proclamation 8910 of November 30, 2012
Critical Infrastructure Protection and Resilience
Month, 2012
By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation
Every day, Americans across our country–from
entrepreneurs and college students to families and
community leaders–rely on critical infrastructure to
travel and communicate, work and play. The assets and
systems we depend on are essential to our way of life,
and during Critical Infrastructure Protection and
Resilience Month, we maintain our commitment to keeping
our critical infrastructure and our communities safe
and resilient.
Our Nation’s critical infrastructure is complex and
interconnected, and we must understand not only its
strengths, but also its vulnerabilities to emerging
threats. Cyber incidents can have devastating
consequences on both physical and virtual
infrastructure, which is why my Administration
continues to make cybersecurity a national security
priority. As we continue to work within existing
authorities to fortify our country against cyber risks,
comprehensive legislation remains essential to
improving infrastructure security, enhancing cyber
information sharing between government and the private
sector, and protecting the privacy and civil liberties
of the American people.
Physical threats also put our Nation’s most important
assets at risk. Destruction caused by devastating
storms and other natural disasters this year
underscored our reliance on our critical
infrastructure. Yet, these tragic events also
demonstrated once again the strength and resolve of the
American people when we work together to recover and
rebuild …
NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the
United States of America, by virtue of the authority
vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the
United States, do hereby proclaim December 2012 as
Critical Infrastructure Protection and Resilience
Month. I call upon the people of the United States to
recognize the importance of protecting our Nation’s
resources and to observe this month with appropriate
events and training to enhance our national security
and resilience.
