Blogger meets his Troll

I'd say it was that heavy metal music that was to blame.

Couldn't resist this one is too easy! Nice work of fiction.

People kept asking me 'Why you? Why would these guys want to have a go at you?' I couldn't answer them other than it was a couple of random nutters who didn't appreciate my political views or ethnic origins. Or even someone who couldn't solve my cryptic crosswords!

I don't know of anyone who gets that frustrated over cryptic crosswords.

In July I was approached by a friend, who's basically an IT genius, and he offered some help. He said that he could trace the hackers and trolls for me using perfectly legal technology, which would lead to their IP addresses. I said yes. Then I baited them - I was deliberately more provocative toward them than ever I'd been before.

Sounds completely illegal, the only way you'd be getting IP addresses is via the host site. Your blog is hosted by blogspot, twitter private server, google private server. Unless your IT genius contacted one of these companies on your behalf I struggle to see how you got these IP addresses.

It transpired that the abuse had emanated from three separate IP addresses in different corners of Ireland. Two of them were public wifi locations but the third....

The third location was the interesting one.

The third location was a friends house.

The Troll was his son. His 17yr old son.

Now someone's been watching a little too much CSI. As anyone with an ounce of IT information knows IP addresses don't link to locations. Don't believe me? Google your IP and post it in here(http://cqcounter.com/whois/). If your lucky in Ireland it will link to the county you live in. Not a street address. Not an estate.

I spoke to my friend at length. He told me how his son was always glued to his laptop, tablet or smartphone. How he couldn't watch a TV show without tweeting about it simultaneously. About how he'd become engrossed in conspiracy sites. It also became clear that the other two IP addresses had been used by his son.

Tecnology and conspiracy's! The youth today! Can't watch good ould brainwashing tv! Make note that he is friends with the father in this paragraph

A couple of days after that conversation I met my friend, his wife and their son in a quiet and discreet location. The son, The Troll who almost driven me mad, was totally unaware that I'd be joining them.

Sounds like he's meeting up with a top secret agent or something, why didn't he just go to his friends house.

We had a chat. I told them about my wife and son. I told them about my recent illnesses and bereavements and about the builders having been in. I asked after their business and asked The Troll how college is going. All bright and breezy and a trip down memory lane. Then The Troll's Dad tipped me the wink and I opened my bag and took out my manila folder.

Wierd wording, told "them" about my wife and son. If he's friends with the father shouldn't the wife know this? It should be "I told him"

I showed The Troll's mother and father screengrabs and printouts of his handiwork.

I showed them pictures of ashes and dead flowers.

I pointed out that one of the messages my wife received wishing me dead had arrived when I actually was gravely ill.

Wouldn't the parents have already seen this to have such a meeting? Especially the father? Leaving that aside this is the first time being gravely ill was mentioned. Sympathy parade!

Then it happened...

The Troll burst into tears. His dad gently restraining him from leaving the table.

I put my hand on his shoulder and asked him "Why?"

The Troll sat there for a moment and said "I don't know. I don't know. I'm sorry. It was like a game thing."

A game thing.

So, that's what it was...

The Troll's mother said "If you want to call the Garda we'll support you in that. I'm ashamed of him."

This doesn't add up at all, read everything else in the story and you expect him to meet someone with serious racial issues. But no, this was all "a game". The mother is also ashamed now, previously she was horrified but not surprised. His dad "gently restraining" him just seems weird too.

I responded: "I'm not criminalizing a 17 year old kid and ruining his future. But I will write about it - and you must all guarantee me that he'll go and see a counsellor about this or I will go legal on you."

Then I got up to leave. I looked The Troll in the eye and said "Stand up."

He stood. I said " Look at me. I'm a middle aged man with a limp and a wheeze and a son and a wife that I love. I'm not just a little avatar of an eye. You're better than this. You have a name of your own. Be proud of it. Don't hide it again and I won't ruin it if you play ball with your parents. Now shake hands."

"I'm sorry." he said, and looked like he meant it. "Thanks for giving me a break dude."

Then we shook on it.

And that is how I came to shake the hand of a troll.

I'm not criminalising a 17 year old kid, but $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ caching ching ching!


Also if we take a look at the website http://www.traynorseye.com/ not one article has a single comment. Also on http://www.traynorseye.com/2012/04/views-of-my-employer.html he makes this comment:

What is the point of this post? I'll tell you. Some weeks ago, one of my many confused opinions seems to have very seriously upset someone. In one 24 hour period there were over 100 hacking attempts on my Twitter, Facebook and Gmail accounts as well as on my old Wordpress blog. None were successful and if any had have been then the perpetrators would probably have died from boredom.

Again how can he know there was over 100 hacking attempts to these services when they sure as hell wouldn't let you know if there was?

I don't think I can believe even one word of that.

The whole thing reads like the sort of sermon a trendy vicar who makes up a completely unprovable story to demonstrate crowbar in some point he wants to make about Jesus.

If I had to pick a specific piece of bull**** it would have to be the "perfectly legal technology, which would lead to their IP addresses".
There are ways to trace traffic back to an end point IP address of course, but none of these are easy and you still have the problem of matching the IP address to the postal address. I would imagine you would need access to UPC's customer records for this which surely can't be legal can it?

Hey I just tried to leave a comment on his blog and it wouldn't let me.
It just kept saying the captcha didn't match even thouggh it definitely did.

I didn't want to be post anything nasty like concentration camps are brill or anything just what I had already posted here.

Is this a bit suspicious? I think I'll backtrace his ethernet using the routed firewall, that'll learn him.