Achievements
Hocevar is best known for his contributions to the Debian and VideoLAN projects. He has made large contributions to almost all software of the VideoLAN project, especially to VLC media player and libdvdcss, since 1998 and he is the author of various software programs, such as zzuf, a data fuzzer, and libcaca, a color ASCII art renderer. He is also the current maintainer of the Extension Language Kit Scheme interpreter, which has found use in many multimedia applications including audio processing.
Besides this, he is known for his extensive work in reverse engineering and image processing. He reverse engineered DVD subtitles in 2000 and in 2005, it was found that the DRM software which triggered the Sony BMG CD copy protection scandal had unlawfully pirated open source code from the VideoLAN project which Sam Hocevar was involved in authoring.
Sam Hocevar's experience in image processing includes authoring a Captcha decoding framework called PWNtcha. PWNtcha was the first captcha decoder framework to defeat multiple captchas and was referred to as the "most famous" captcha breaker by a 2009 Stanford University publication.
He authored WTFPL version 2, an extremely liberal, permissive free software license that is recognized by the Free Software Foundation. Hocevar has also been cited for his "whimsical" copyleft activism. Hocevar is also part of Goatse Security, an information security working group most known for revealing security flaws in the Apple iPad.
Read more about this topic: Sam Hocevar
Famous quotes containing the word achievements:
“When science, art, literature, and philosophy are simply the manifestation of personality, they are on a level where glorious and dazzling achievements are possible, which can make a man’s name live for thousands of years. But above this level, far above, separated by an abyss, is the level where the highest things are achieved. These things are essentially anonymous.”
—Simone Weil (1909–1943)
“Like all writers, he measured the achievements of others by what they had accomplished, asking of them that they measure him by what he envisaged or planned.”
—Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986)
“Freedom of enterprise was from the beginning not altogether a blessing. As the liberty to work or to starve, it spelled toil, insecurity, and fear for the vast majority of the population. If the individual were no longer compelled to prove himself on the market, as a free economic subject, the disappearance of this freedom would be one of the greatest achievements of civilization.”
—Herbert Marcuse (1898–1979)