Extradition from the Great Beyond

[Faustine]

Faustine wrote:
Dr. Evil wrote:

>> Not safe at all, even the unclassified programs are getting better all
>> the  time. Check the archives for some interesting past
>> discussion--and if you  feel like tinkering around yourself, there's a
>> ton of free software you can  download here:
>> http://www.content-analysis.de/software.html
> Very interesting!  I wonder if it is possible to learn to write in
> other "linguistic fingerprints"?  I'll have to look into this. 

Part of the problem is that in order to do that you'd need to change the 
subjects, sub-subjects and themes you like to talk about, period--
because "fingerprint" goes a lot deeper than word frequency. Even pure code 
has a discernable "fingerprint" of sorts. It's a losing proposition.   


> Are there any such programs that are free and run under Linux?

I'l bet there are, I just can't remember any off the top of my head. If you 
root through the links, I'm sure something interesting will turn up. And if 
you have access to a Windows box at all you could always disassemble a 
sample program you like and rewrite it under your own platform. I'd rather 
get in there and improve it than use it straight out-of-the-box anyway.


>>More interesting by far would be to write software that sanitized the 
>>text. Learning to write with a *different* fingerprint should be easy. 

Not as easy as you might think: even a causal reader familiar with these 
analytic techniques knows how to spot a faked style--and if you're the only 
person in the group who takes a real interest in a certain cluster of 
subjects, how hard is it going to be to pin the nym to you, if you've 
already written a body of posts to compare it with? I've been told the FBI 
uses technology that would knock your socks off. I bet they had a lot of 
fun tracking down Hanssen's other usenet nyms...not a bad test case for the 
hobbyist, actually. 

Faking a style might be good for short messages and the like, but 
participating in a discussion group for a length of time? Forget it. Unless 
you're willing to put some serious work into creating a totally distinct 
persona, you're wasting your time. This might seem a little unorthodox, but 
if you're really intent on it, a couple of classics which could help 
are "Building a Character" and "Creating a Role" by Constantine 
Stanislavski. No need to re-invent the wheel...


~Faustine.