Virgil Griffith

Griffith -- the subject of a profile in this weekend's NY Times magazine -- is the disruptive technologist behind WikiScanner who says that one of his missions in life is "to create minor public-relations disasters for companies and organizations I dislike."

"The hacker high life -- girls, notoriety, White Russians -- can be hard to resist," writes Virginia Heffernan. "Girls hang on Virgil Griffith. This is no exaggeration. At parties, they cling to the arms of the 25-year-old hacker whose reason for being, he says, is to 'make the Internet a better and more interesting place.' " She's witnessed the fandom and unusual drink choice first hand, and describes how at a recent tech conference, "Griffith, enjoying a White Russian that I first mistook for chocolate milk, reveled in the attention of his female fans. He smiled broadly. He seemed like a young Henry Kissinger, but sweet, or Arthur Fonzarelli, but not a dropout." What do girls like more, his hacking skillz or cutey-pie dimples?

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