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+F
May, 3 2023
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https://web.archive.org/web/20010820124428/http://www.searchlores.org/photos.htm
Among the photos in this forgotten webpage, one shows a young
man holding a child in his arms. The caption says "Venice,
Sommer 1988". Only a handful of people in the whole world
know there are two mistakes in that caption, and that they
have been made on purpose.
This is the story behind that photo.
~
The first mistake is, quite obviously, "Sommer": what most
do not know is that it was intentionally written with the
German spelling into an English page to mislead readers
about the author's mother tongue.
Why?
The best answer to this question can be found in another
page from the same website (http://searchlores.eu/io13.htm):
"For the older reversers are less interested in themselves
than the younger ones, and better at getting inside other
things. They are steadier, and keep their minds on things
longer"
A quarter of a century before people started becoming the very
content they wanted to share online, this person chose to hide
his identity and disappear behind the message he was sharing.
And a long time before GDPR, when data privacy was not
everyone's problem yet, bullshitting your readers was quite an
effective way to protect your own identity.
But back to the mistakes in the caption, the second one is way
less apparent: it is the photo's date.
~
Summer 1998 - Lido, Venice
A pair of Dr Martens tied together by their shoelaces was
hanging around the boy's neck. Taking them off and bringing
sunglasses were his only wise choices that day: the sun was
scorching hot and he was walking on the beach, wearing a pair
of black cargo shorts and a gray t-shirt, carrying a laptop
bag on his shoulders and, well, those freakin' Dr Martens.
The boy was looking for a man, with no idea whatsoever of how
he should have looked like. "Come to the beach," the man said
during the phone call they had the day before. "We are a
family of five, close to the shore. You'll find us. You are a
reverser, after all."
That was the first time the boy had been called that way by
anyone. Well, that was also the first time the two of them had
talked at all! Until then they had only communicated via email,
and even that was done going through anonymous remailers. The
chance to meet the person behind the nickname was a privilege
he had earned after finding his real identity, and that was why
the day after the call he had rushed onto a train -and then a
vaporetto- to meet his mentor.
~
The title the boy had been called with was often used by the
man, together with many others. Terms that, albeit different
at a first glance, shared all the same deep meaning and aura
of respect.
Richard Stallman had coined the term "cracker" to reclaim the
word hacker from association with security breaking
(https://stallman.org/articles/on-hacking.html). As a student
of +ORC (the Old Red Cracker), the man had not just named
himself as such. Using cracking as a way to reach a higher
level of knowledge, he had given a new meaning to Leonard
Cohen's words: "There is a crack, a crack in everything,
that's how the light gets in".
Later that day, on a vaporetto towards Cannaregio, the man
would have told the boy: "We are like vampires, infecting other
people with knowledge and a different way of thinking about the
world". And the boy, whose avatar in BBS systems was indeed a
vampire, would have understood that he was not the only who had
learned about the other's identity.
"Do you know where the restroom is?" - somebody would have
asked him a few months later, from the other side of a table
at A La Morte Subite, knowing he was a regular there.
"You are a reverser, I am sure you can figure it out!" - he
would have replied.
Years later, describing enthusiastically his new project while
walking out of Ravensbourne College, the man would have called
himself a searcher, saying he would have devoted his time to
teaching people how to find everything on the Web.
~
A cracker, a vampire, a reverser, a searcher. Someone the boy
was still looking for while walking under the sun. A whole he
still only knew a tiny part of.
~
October 2008 - http://searchlores.eu/illness.htm
The boy cannot believe what he is reading. He writes an email
to the man, asking how he feels, what is going to happen now.
The reply arrives soon. The last paragraph reads as follows:
"But whenever possible, it is better to leave the pale screens
and go outside: let us savor twilights while walking with our
partners through our towns' historic centers, let ourselves be
caressed by the wind and the sun on the beaches, let us search
for shells with our children. There are some beautiful ones."
~
A cracker, a vampire, a reverser, a searcher.
A partner, a father.
A family of five. The boy was looking for them, the Dr Martens
hurting his neck.
~
3 April 2023 - London
Another year has passed. The boy realizes he is now older than
the man when they first met. He has been a cracker, a vampire,
a reverser, a searcher. He has become a partner, a father.
He has pursued knowledge all this time. He has infected a few
people. When on the beach he still looks for beautiful shells
(and does not bring Dr Martens).
For many years, on this date, he has remembered him.
For many years, on this date, he has missed his friend.
~
A cracker, a vampire, a reverser, a searcher.
A partner, a father.
A friend.
The boy turned his head. A man was looking in his direction,
next to him a woman with a child in her arms, and two more
kids playing with the sand. The man started laughing while he
was approaching him.
"Malattia?" -he shook his hand- "Nice to meet you! I am Fravia".
~
Spring 2009 - from an email
"Un abbraccio, non c'è ragione di preoccuparsi: se è scritto
è scritto, e senno' ci faremo una gran cena insieme.
F+"