Hey all, you may or may not have seen the article on this man in Wired. That wasn't the one I wrote but it was very well done. Anyone have any intel on a user named TicTac? He was very active in the fall of 16 and early spring of 2017
JNark
@JNark
Posts made by JNark
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RE: A strange request for help.
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RE: Podcast about the unidentified Screeps player found dead in a tent.
@teknorapture Thanks, this is all interesting and admittedly, as a non-player, I don't really know what you're talking about. I was sort of baffled/impressed that he would write all this out on paper.
I don't think he was homeless but nothing can be ruled out. He had nearly $4,000 on him.
The best guess I can come up with is that he was already thin, stopped at this campsite in South Florida and got sick, perhaps from water. Maybe sitting in a tent, in that heat, just dropped him too far, past the point of return, and he starved and suffered for a long time, unable to move.
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Podcast about the unidentified Screeps player found dead in a tent.
Hey all, if you recall, a man was found dead in a tent in Florida in 2018. No ID. No Phone. His notebooks contained dozens of pages of code, which was traced back to Screeps. The sheriff's office down there made a podcast update, interviewing a Screeps player who suggested that this dead man's game could still be operating. Just wanted to pass it along in case anyone had any more thoughts or ideas as to how he could be identified. I'm a journalist who recently published a magazine article about the man.
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RE: A strange request for help.
@root-kontot Thanks, you put a lot of effort into this. Most of it goes over my head, and I'm simply looking for the "will any of this help identify him" angle, but this may help toward a greater good. You mentioned the sheer amount of notes and that's what struck me. This was a guy who was obviously skilled and interested in this subject, but was seemingly free from technology (from what we can tell) for over a year.
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RE: A strange request for help.
Here’s a Dropbox link to the whole notebook.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/2rrpf7nlx0ogyry/mostly harmless notebook pdf.pdf?dl=0
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RE: A strange request for help.
Someone relayed this info to me:
Pages 1-10 and 19-33 of the notebook are all about Screeps. He's planning out the code he wants to write: what creeps roles he's going to have, what his rooms are going to do at different levels. I've got a notebook exactly like this myself from when I first started playing. This is all very normal stuff for anyone playing Screeps. He's even planning to automate the layout of his rooms, which is pretty advanced (maybe only 5-10% of Screeps players have code to do this). He definitely knows how to program and is pretty good at it. All his notes about his plans in the game are very coherent and lucid--nothing at all unusual that I see.
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RE: A strange request for help.
Everyone can check out the notebook and let me know what they think. Again, I’m looking for anything that might help identify him. I uploaded to Dropbox.
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RE: A strange request for help.
Thanks, I don't think he was dangerous. Also, I think the vast majority of American do carry ID on them. That's why it's so unusual.
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A strange request for help.
I'm a journalist who works at the Philadelphia Inquirer and also does freelance work for National Geographic, the New York Times, Washington Post, etc.
I am working on a story about a hiker who died in a tent in Florida in July of 2018. It's a very strange story. When police released a sketch, many people recognized it and sent in pictures. He has not been identified, however. He had no wallet, no phone, no ID on him. He used the alias Ben Bilemy and the trail name Mostly Harmless. He told people he worked in IT in Brooklyn,
The reason I'm contacting you is because I recently received notebooks police in Florida found on him which appear to be filled with numbers and computer code possibly Java. They released the notebooks to me via a FOIA request. He also appeared to be designing a game and the language he uses is very similar what I found searching around on Screeps and Overmind (I don't know much about gaming or code, forgive me). He mentioned room planners, room managers, creeps, spawns, miners, exits, haulers, towers, warriors etc. He mentioned two worlds, including an Algae Pond and Roach Motel. He also mentioned the "nanites guild." I have no idea what any of it is.
I have attached three photos I snipped from the notebook PDF. If you can look them and give me your thoughts, I would really appreciate it. Perhaps you could set me on the right path. If you want to see the whole notebook, that would be even better. I can be reached at jasonnark77@gmail.com
this is not a scam. I've been obsessed with the case for a year. you can google my name-Jason Nark--to find my bio and google Ben Bilemy Mostly harmlee hiker--if you'd like to ! know more about the case. Thanks Jason Nark.