Richie Kohler accused of looting

[aue-mike]

agreed.

 

[deco_martini]

Just out of curiosity, how much would someone pay to know who the guy writing all those articles at CDNN is? Cause, I sorta figured it out after doing some detective work.

 

[cdiver2]

Just out of curiosity, how much would someone pay to know who the guy writing all those articles at CDNN is?

Cause, I sorta figured it out

after doing some detective work.

Its not worth the cyber space its wrote on without proof.

 

[deco_martini]

Its not worth the cyber space its wrote on without proof.

The following is a work of fiction based on names given to the author in a daydream my a magic penguin.

Its pretty simple. CDNN went online in October of 2000 when some spearfishers named Robert Dimond and Stephen Picardi were trying to get shark feeding banned in Florida. Picardi was the webmaster for their Marine Safety Group. Picardi designed amateur hour websites for small businesses in south Florida. The early cyberdiver pages were just as amateur hour but with the Frontpage tags removed from the meta markup (to be fair, Picardi's html is much better these days). So or course, cyberdiver always quoted the marine safety group and vice versa.
The Marine Safety Group

Now, from reading Dimond's posts in a Shark Feeding thread during the recent Groh controversy, it became clear to me that he wasn't writing the CDNN articles.
"Every single peo feeding post on this board has been argued ad-nausium before every regulatory body that has ruled on the shark feeding issue"
"Feeding changes the natural behavior of shark, makes them loose their fear of humans"

Shark bite death off Bahamas shows need to ban feeding expeditions - Topix

The man is not eloquent and has a poor grasp of spelling and punctuation. I don't think he is smart enough to be the guy.

Picardi on the other hand doesn't have a large sample of writing to pull from. However, like a crook returning to the scene of the crime he replied to one of his own anonymous stories at CDNN.

See this story:
SCUBA FORUMS - DAN Peter Bennett Condemns Skin Diver Al Hornsby

Notice how the author under pseudonym immediately specifies:
"Al Hornsby (Skin Diver) and Ty Sawyer (Skin Diver)"

Picardi replies in a forum post:
SCUBA FORUMS :: Shame on DAN for associating with Skin Diver...

Unlike a normal internet message board poster, he posts in the style of a reporter:
"Al Hornsby (Skin Diver) and Ty Sawyer (Skin Diver) are both magazine ****s"

Unfortunately, he forgot to turn off his CDNN voice for his own post. You get a feel for Picardi's writing style from reading that message though. For more of Picardi's voice, read the only other forum message penned under his name on the entire internet:
SCUBA FORUMS :: What are the alternatives to DAN insurance?...

Anti-dan, anti-padi, anti-industry, with childish humor is how I would describe his work. So compare it to this CDNN article for instance:
CDNN :: Shark 1, Shark Molesting Scuba Idiot 0

Here's a picture of the guy:
http://spearfishing.org/photos/images/Christmas00/christ13.gif
Clue: He's the one on the left.

More food for thought would be that somehow CDNN got Manthiri to hire them to redesign their web site. CDNN doesn't offer such services anywhere on their site that I can find. However, Stephen's personal business does. Spearhead Multimedia ~ Web Site Design, Data Networks, Full Service Web Hosting

You will note that if you view that pages' source, FrontPage was used to design the site. I pity the fool who hires a FrontPage jockey to design his web site. If you run CDNN's web site through the w3 validator, you find all the tag errors you would expect from an amateur who uses his old FrontPage code for templates for building new sites.

So yeah, its _most likely_ Stephen Picardi. I hope having to host his site at HKNet in Hong Kong and using a domain registry proxy is worth the money he's spending now that I've let the cat out of the bag. A disgruntled spearfisher and small time webmaster with a weird obsession with trashing any big name in the dive industry. Basically, the kind of guy who would normally be trolling forums but with more time on his hands.

Edited to Add: The cdnn.info web server is running apache with mod_frontpage. This is not a standard setup at all for real websites.

 

[lamont]

If everyone had your view then the U869 would just be another pretty fish dive.

Okay, fine by me.

I don't think it was remotely worth it to take the risks that Chatterton did to identify that wreck, and would be entirely happy with it being misidentified/unknown. Even with that wreck, I don't understand the compulsion to identify it at all costs. And I don't know why the right to identify wrecks at all costs trumps all other concerns.

And I'd trade knowing the history of all the wrecks for being able to see them intact -- they're cool to look at, that's what I like.

And I don't at all buy the argument that it all must be salvaged to save it. That's a rationalization. If you look at the Warren car, which was in freshwater, in a few years divers did orders of magnitude more damage to it than the decades that it was underwater. And the divers taking china off the Andrea Doria were motivated by selfish greed, not out of trying to preserve deteriorating history -- those weren't noble, selfless acts.

There has to be some kind of compromise, however, that lets archaeology and identification go on while working to prevent vandalism.

 

[Chatterton]

Its pretty simple. CDNN went online in October of 2000 when some spearfishers named Robert Dimond and Stephen Picardi were trying to get shark feeding banned in Florida. Picardi was the webmaster for their Marine Safety Group. Picardi designed amateur hour websites for small businesses in south Florida. The early cyberdiver pages were just as amateur hour but with the Frontpage tags removed from the meta markup (to be fair, Picardi's html is much better these days). So or course, cyberdiver always quoted the marine safety group.

Now, from reading Dimond's posts in a Shark Feeding thread during the recent Groh controversy, it became clear to me that he wasn't writing the CDNN articles.
"Every single peo feeding post on this board has been argued ad-nausium before every regulatory body that has ruled on the shark feeding issue"
"Feeding changes the natural behavior of shark, makes them loose their fear of humans"

Shark bite death off Bahamas shows need to ban feeding expeditions - Topix

The man is not eloquent and has a poor grasp of spelling and punctuation. I don't think he is smart enough to be the guy.

Picardi on the other hand doesn't have a large sample of writing to pull from. However, like a crook returning to the scene of the crime he replied to one of his own anonymous stories at CDNN.

See this story:
SCUBA FORUMS - DAN Peter Bennett Condemns Skin Diver Al Hornsby

Notice how the author under pseudonym immediately specifies:
"Al Hornsby (Skin Diver) and Ty Sawyer (Skin Diver)"

Picardi replies in a forum post:
SCUBA FORUMS :: Shame on DAN for associating with Skin Diver...

Unlike a normal internet message board poster, he posts in the style of a reporter:
"Al Hornsby (Skin Diver) and Ty Sawyer (Skin Diver) are both magazine ****s"

Unfortunately, he forgot to turn off his CDNN voice for his own post. You get a feel for Picardi's writing style from reading that message though. For more of Picardi's voice, read the only other forum message penned under his name on the entire internet:
SCUBA FORUMS :: What are the alternatives to DAN insurance?...

Anti-dan, anti-padi, anti-industry, with childish humor is how I would describe his work. So compare it to this CDNN article for instance:
CDNN :: Shark 1, Shark Molesting Scuba Idiot 0

Here's a picture of the guy:
http://spearfishing.org/photos/images/Christmas00/christ13.gif
Clue: He's the one on the left.

More food for thought would be that somehow CDNN got Manthiri to hire them to redesign their web site. CDNN doesn't offer such services anywhere on their site that I can find. However, Stephen's personal business does. Spearhead Multimedia ~ Web Site Design, Data Networks, Full Service Web Hosting

You will note that if you view that pages' source, FrontPage was used to design the site. I pity the fool who hires a FrontPage jockey to design his web site. If you run CDNN's web site through the w3 validator, you find all the tag errors you would expect from an amateur who uses his old FrontPage code for templates for building new sites.

So yeah, its Stephen Picardi. I hope having to host his site at HKNet in Hong Kong and using a domain registry proxy is worth the money he's spending now that I've let the cat out of the bag. A disgruntled spearfisher and small time webmaster with a weird obsession with trashing any big name in the dive industry. Basically, the kind of guy who would normally be trolling forums but with more time on his hands.

Edited to Add: The cdnn.info web server is running apache with mod_frontpage. This is not a standard setup at all for real websites.

Whereas I am but a lowly TV detective, you are truly a master. My hat is off.


Cheers

JC

 

[Chatterton]

Okay, fine by me.

I don't think it was remotely worth it to take the risks that Chatterton did to identify that wreck, and would be entirely happy with it being misidentified/unknown. Even with that wreck, I don't understand the compulsion to identify it at all costs. And I don't know why the right to identify wrecks at all costs trumps all other concerns.

And I'd trade knowing the history of all the wrecks for being able to see them intact -- they're cool to look at, that's what I like.

And I don't at all buy the argument that it all must be salvaged to save it. That's a rationalization. If you look at the Warren car, which was in freshwater, in a few years divers did orders of magnitude more damage to it than the decades that it was underwater. And the divers taking china off the Andrea Doria were motivated by selfish greed, not out of trying to preserve deteriorating history -- those weren't noble, selfless acts.

There has to be some kind of compromise, however, that lets archaeology and identification go on while working to prevent vandalism.

There is a compromise, it is called "the law", or more specifically, Admiralty Law.

Also, I understand that you don't understand (compulsion that is), and that's okay.

Cheers

JC

 

[deco_martini]

Whereas I am but a lowly TV detective, you are truly a master. My hat is off.


Cheers

JC

The following is a work of fiction and is 100 percent made up by the author's pinky finger that he talks to, just like in that Dean Koontz novel. Or was that Stephen King. Oh yeah, it was Stephen King.

I'm an internet engineer for a large logistics company. I only play a detective on the internets.

I did find out that CDNN is actually co-located in Canada under the name CDNN.biz.
ip 72.249.55.34

If someone really wanted to cause trouble they could probably get CDNN kicked off its Canadian hosting provider.

Here's the contact info for their Canadian service provider:
WiredHub.net - Quality Web Hosting

Being a good web hosting company, they also make their terms of service apply to US law.
Webhosting Referral System

Transmission, storage, or presentation of any information, data or material in violation of any Canadian and U.S. Federal, Provincial, State or City law is prohibited. This includes, but is not limited to: copyrighted material,

A lot of people have had their photos jacked by CDNN.

Reselling: Reselling is allowed on our Resellers plans. Subletting/Reselling of space is strictly prohibited on shared hosting accounts. Shared hosting accounts that sublet/resell their web space/domains/sub-domains will be subject to immediate suspension or termination.

How much you want to bet CDNN is reselling to actiondivers and manthiri without paying for it? Someone should tip off the hosting provider.

Again, I don't have any grievance with CDNN but there are many people who do. They can take this information and use it as they please.

 

[DA Aquamaster]

Again, I don't have any grievance with CDNN but there are many people who do. They can take this information and use it as they please.

Your logic is a little thin - very thin. You make a case that it could be Stephen Picardi but you fail to make a case that would exclude every other bad spelling amature website developer on the planet.

I am a very good shot, and I have been to Dallas so by flawed logic similar to yours I was the shooter on the grassy knoll. If you ignore every other good shooter who has ever been to Dallas - and the very inconvenient fact that I was not even born until 1964, it almost works.

In effect, to make your claim stick, you need to not just include the party you want to accuse based on all the available facts but also exclude all the other potential authors.

I'd be real careful letting people use your conclusions and potentially dragging you into a court case you wouldn't win.

 

[deco_martini]

Your logic is a little thin - very thin. You make a case that it could be Stephen Picardi but you fail to make a case that would exclude every other bad spelling amature website developer on the planet.

For legal purposes, the following is a work of fiction based on the author's heavy drug use and personality disorder.

The bad speller isn't Picardi. The people in the marine safety group were always likely suspects for being behind CDNN since it popped up around the same time and somehow CDNN could always get quotes from the MSG even though nobody else was sourcing them. Conversely, the MSG is basically a big CDNN RSS reader.

I merely took writing samples from the real people known to be involved with MSG and compared them to the content under the pseudonyms at CDNN. Tone, style, humor, and even voice match Picardi. At the low level, the HTML contains similar errors and style to his own. The bad speller was Dimond who I removed from the running since his style, humor, voice, eloquence, and such did not match the CDNN material at all.

This gentleman is also a domain squatter with a lot of domains for sale. Its a fairly frowned upon practice in the industry. Here is his selling site:
Available Domain Names

You'll notice he has scuba-411.com for sale which matches the scuba-poll.com dive-vip.com etc format of many of the CDNN sub-site URLs. In what is probably a freudian slip he also is squatting the domain name hoaxesonline.com......