Slashdot Mirror
Slashback: Circumvention, AOLandfill, Scoffing
Excuse me, is this the service entrance? We just posted about Microsoft blocking gamers with mod-chipped X-boxes from the Microsoft-run online gaming service; now NiteStar writes "Xbox-Scene.com just reported that a group of Xbox hackers named Team Assembly managed to change the serial number and MAC address of the xbox. After the change they managed to get onto Xbox Live (with mod-chip disabled) with a previously banned xbox ..."
Not so fast, mister. The Raindog writes "Since NVIDIA announced its GeForce FX graphics chip, the web has been flooded with a slew of previews and articles that do little more than regurgitate what must have been NVIDIA's official press kit. Slashdot had coverage a few days ago, but since then, a new take on NVIDIA's latest chip has surfaced without all the PR-inspired hype. As it turns out, the GeForce FX's features aren't all that remarkable next to ATI's Radeon 9700 Pro, which has been available for months now."
I liked the old .sig about a black hole that would blot out the sun. Matthew Davis writes "CNN.com ran a story about Jim McKenna and John Lieberman back in October requesting everyone to send the CD mailers they receive to them. When they reach 1 million CDs they'll hand deliver them to AOL. In a recent article by SiliconValley.com they quote Nicholas Graham, a spokesman for AOL stating, "If they reach their goal ... I'd be happy to give them directions and greet them at the door ... We would make a contribution ourselves to put them over the top" Does that mean they're putting Jim and John's address on the top of the CD mailing list?"
Now if only these were CD-RWs ... and they can keep sending me the nice, reusable cases, just no more paper sleeves, thanks.
Still teasing, Stephen. foolish_child writes "Not sure if you noticed, but in the newest paperback pressing of Cryptonomicon (1 November 2002, I think) there is a chapter from Quicksilver at the back. I spotted it in the railway station in Amsterdam, so maybe it's a European edition. I have been checking to see if it was also online but have seen no sign of it - hence the heads up. I'm sure someone will scan it in soon - it is SUPERB! (read it waiting for a train) - Enoch the Red, emissary of the Royal Society, landing in 1700's Boston looking for . . someone. Scary thing is how good his research is as usual - I've just been reading up on Leibnitz and Newton and Co. and . . . you've probably seen it already but I wanted to share :)"
This new edition of Cryptonomicon is probably in a bookstore near you already, and the book proper is (only) several months away.
One small step for BanKind. An anonymous reader writes "It seems CapitalOne's website works with Mozilla, as of this November, 2002. This is good news because many people have CapitalOne credit cards, and previously the site required Microsoft's Intarweb Explorer. This just shows how simply speaking up by e-mailing large companies can evoke change. For more info see here ." Update: 12/03 22:00 GMT by T : Note that this information renders moot the question posed here about Cap One.
from the stupid-nitpics department
Everyone hates AOL CDs.
Even dogs.
If you celebrate Xmas, befriend me (538
If you send your AOL CDs back to those guys, you get what you deserve...Them send right back to you.
woohoo!
Now I can buy myself an Xbox on my CaptialOne card.
The other evening (without an internet connection) I was trying to install the .Net framework (dotnetfx.exe) on my laptop and since I had installed windows 98 the version of Internet Explorer was 5.00.x but due to the dependencies of the .Net framework I needed to have 5.01 or later.
As an aside, when you don't have 5.01 or later it just kills the browser that you do have installed, so it kinda causes a really fun catch-22, no browser to surf the web to find a new browser..... Really sucked.
Anyway, back with my story.... I was on a frantic search for a copy of IE 5.01 or later when I remembered that I had a stockpile of those AOL Cd's in the garage... I grabbed myself one of them (yellow, no idea what version) and proceeded to find the IE directory on the disc.. Sure enough it was version 5.01.x so I installed it and everything went smoothly from there.
So, the moral of the story? Sometimes AOL disks do have a use other than coasters or frisbees....
I'm not a genius (I used to be, but I'm told I'm not any more)
You must have gotten married.
"If Diet Coke did not exist it would have been neccessary to invent it." -- Karl Lehenbauer
when you cook them in the microwave for 15 seconds. Just don't try this with anything you care about.
Karma: Censored (mostly affected by decency laws)
cook them in the microwave for 15 seconds. Just don't try this with anything you care about.
I tried this with my hamster, Duffy, and the only sparks that flew were from my mom when she found hamster hair in the casserole.
Don't microwave things you care about, people.
The Saturday night before Halloween I had a costume party to go to. I remembered this Saturday morning. Or rather, Saturday afternoon since that's when I actually woke up. I had no costume.
But I did have a bunch of crap CDs, some of which were AOL CDs. So I taped them together and went as AOLandfill. Had about strips of 6-7 down each a leg, a sort of vest and a couple on my forearms. Truth be told, it did look like some low-rent Power Ranger battle armour or something, but once I said the name, people thought it was funny.
I also got to use pickup lines like
Try me free for 1000 hours for your first month!
I'm so easy to use it's no wonder I'm number one!
The terrifying part of the costume may have been how well those lines worked.
You must have gotten married.
9 years ago, but I know what you mean.
Cute kids (on your halloween photos) - I bet you can't tell me the trade-off was worth it...
--
T
I spent a lot of money on booze, birds and fast cars. The rest I just squandered. - George Best
Take a few every time you visit....aol will think idiots are signing up and restock them, and if you keep the dispensers empty, you'll being doing a public service by sparing some n00b from the awful aol experience while attriting aol's resources
Cute kids (on your halloween photos) - I bet you can't tell me the trade-off was worth it...
Shit.. that was supposed to say "wasn't worth it" - no offence intended.... just a little late at night here in the UK, and the odd Freudian slip...
--
Tim
I spent a lot of money on booze, birds and fast cars. The rest I just squandered. - George Best
Because God isn't a catholic
Part of the address space is manufacturer specific; if you wanted to create collisions intentionally, it would be fairly trivial to narrow the range down to whoever makes X-Box ethernet chips.
Offtopic, but I find it somewhat disturbing that my original comment has been modded "Informative". Like I gave someone an idea or something.
:P
I would have much preferred "Insightful"
Weird. A link in the story description to a reply to that same story...
Hmmm... But... but.... *head explodes*
Slashdot: Successfully colapsing the known universe since...
Then make it the payload of the next Outlook worm...
Until someone writes a software emulator of the initial connection sequence. At this point, you stop needing a real XBox to do the connection, so you piggyback it onto your favourite DDOS tool.
There's a certain irony involved in getting a few million Windoze boxens to break Microsoft's own security mechanisms.
I just heard on Car Talk that they decided to send 3.1 yogurt lids to AOL. Essentially, they were going to run a promotional campaign for some cause by printing a message on yogurt lids. The problem was that they put NPR on the lids(since they air on NPR) without clearing it with NPR. When NPR found out they said that the lids couldn't be distributed because NPR didn't want to be seen associated with a commercial product. So Click and Clack were stuck with 3.1 million lids that they didn't have anything to with. They had a contest to come up with the best use for them and the winning entry was "Send them to AOL and see how they feel".
>My WRX didn't come with an EULA from Subaru saying >I could only run Amoco Premium in the tank and >couldn't change the air cleaner for a K&N
Dammit, if God intended your car to have free air flow, he would've put a a free-flow filtration system on your car to begin with!