Thanks for making it personal, I will refrain from a response on that level.
Making a proof-of-concept of something to show what you could do is not as far as I know against the law, and if it is then it shouldn't be.
Using this - and breaking the terms of service - should lead to account termination, possibly banning but definitely not a brush with law enforcement.
I can imagine all you want but this is what it is, a simple hack to show a proof-of-concept, not an incitement or example of widespread abuse bringing down a popular service.
So clearly, it is not destructive, though in theory it probably could be used as such, but then again that goes for all the hammers in my toolbox too, including the plastic ones.
Just because you can build it does not mean you can't or shouldn't, it means that you shouldn't use it. Any home chemistry set could be used to make bombs (in fact, any supermarket with a reasonable assortment could be used to make bombs). You can demonstrate such by making a small one, and you can cross the line by either making a large one or actually using it against someone or some property.
Knowledge and ability, proof of concept versus actual malicious use, it's not such a hard line to draw.
> Hackernews isn't for people who hack stuff that is against the law or something like that. Why would PG want to create a site for criminals? Hackernews is for the other new generation 'hackers' (like growth hackers, design hackers) etc. Not for stuff like this.
That's a false dichotomy for one there are other kinds of hackers (the real ones, imo, instead of the ones that borrowed a term because it was cool, 'design hacker', 'growth hacker' as the target audience for HN? and you know this how?), and simply wrong besides.
What is legal and what is not depends on many things, intent for one and location second.
