Slashdot Mirror


Slashback: NWLink, Vivendi, Gatherings

Slashback updates and clarifications regarding recent posts on CodeCon, the rumored takeover of Vivendi by Microsoft, SDF, DDoS and NWLink (and IRC and AUPs), and more. Read on for the details, I'm out of letters.

"Uhh ... isn't this the 'Slammer'?" An anonymous reader writes "According to the BBC, two people suspected of creating the Slammer worm have been arrested in a combined operation by the FBI and the UK's National Hi-Tech Crime Unit. The raids in the UK resulted in the seizure of two men, aged 19 and 21, accused of being members of a hacker group that calls itself THr34t-Krew."

Gather together, hoist a few drinks. We've made a few mentions of this year's CodeCon; Len Sassaman writes "The schedule for CodeCon 2.0 is now online. CodeCon is already starting to get some media attention. There's less than two weeks left to register at the reduced rate, and conference seats are filling up quickly.If this conference is anything like its predecessor, expect to see some of the most interesting new technology of the coming year discussed."

And a slightly different type of gathering: Tony Stanco writes: "The agenda is up for the March 17-19 Open Source in Government conference and the free registration is now open. Please see www.eGovOS.org.

It promises to be another educational and exciting event with over 120 sessions and the keynote from the White House. Even Microsoft is trying to directly engage the community at this conference."

On the count of three, everyone shrug at once. In January, I posted a link ("far from confirmed") about the possibility that Microsoft would buy Vivendi. Now, Yagdrasil writes "USA today is reporting that the Microsoft buyout of Vivendi's game division (which includes Blizzard) was a hoax. It looks like the hoax originated from a student at Purdue."

But the EOLs are nearly upon us! Flee! Wister285 writes "Mandrake announced that they are going to stop updating the packages of 'legacy products.' It seems as though they took their cue from Red Hat and their continuing financial problems. I was a little surprised though about how short the support periods will be. Mandrake 9.0 will be considered obsolete September 30, 2003 (for desktop) and March 31, 2004 (for the base). This brings up two questions. First of all, do distros release too often thus creating too many versions to maintain? Secondly, how much faith do you have in the upgrade feature of install?"

I hope it features a dunk tank and some perpetrators. The ongoing war on spam continues; here's your chance to influence its direction (or at least to hear about what's going on in that sphere), even if you missed the conference at MIT. wayne writes "The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced today that they will be holding a three day public SPAM workshop in the end of April. I wonder if they will get an overflow crowd they way the MIT SPAM conference did. I hope they also make streaming video available."

Bandwidth is expensive. ndogg writes "NWLink.com has posted a response to the events that have happened in regards to SDF. In short, they say that they support SDF and what it is doing, however, the DDoS attack over the last three weeks has been costing them a lot of money."

fonixmunkee puts it differently: "The message is an interesting read, to say the least. instead of working the issue, NWLink's apparent (unofficial) solution to combating DDoS'es is to simply terminate the subscriber's connection. with all the slammer worms & Code Reds nowadays, NWLink should have no more customers left in about 2 years."

Legal liability is expensive, too. Tom Allender writes "irc-chat.net has announced a more restrictive Acceptable Use Policy after being contacted by the MPAA. They also refer to DALnets AUP changes mentioned here recently."

19 of 211 comments (clear)

  1. hacker group that calls itself THr34t-Krew by Gyorg_Lavode · · Score: 4, Funny

    Seriously, if I ever start a hacker group, I'm calling it "Me and a few buddies". The lewtspeak hacker names went out with the 80's. Now it just makes it sound like a group of 16 year old HS students.

    --
    I do security
    1. Re:hacker group that calls itself THr34t-Krew by $$$$$exyGal · · Score: 4, Funny
      How about "$$$$$exyGal's l33t N4k3d Ch1x" ?

      --naked

      --
      Very popular slashdot journal for adul
    2. Re:hacker group that calls itself THr34t-Krew by Alsee · · Score: 3, Funny

      How about ValentiButtBuddies or RosenMuffDivers?

      -

      --
      - - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
  2. We're coming after you! by Jack+Edward+Valenti · · Score: 5, Funny

    Tom Allender writes "irc-chat.net has announced a more restrictive Acceptable Use Policy after being contacted by the MPAA

    It doesn't matter how smooth you think you are, we'll get you eventually. Don't cross the MPAA!

    --

    You are all pirates, plain and simple.
  3. Right Time, Wrong Place! by bfree · · Score: 1, Funny

    March 17th == St. Patricks Day
    Washington D.C. != Dublin, Ireland
    Dublin, Ireland == my.home

    --

    Never underestimate the dark side of the Source

    1. Re:Right Time, Wrong Place! by rossz · · Score: 2, Funny

      Dublin, California, USA == my.home

      And yes, those put those damn shamrocks on all the street signs.

      --
      -- Will program for bandwidth
  4. Bigger Drinks by RandomHavoc · · Score: 2, Funny
    > Gather together, hoist a few drinks.

    Finally, the quantity I want because a 128oz cup still not big enough!

    --

    --
    But then again I thought VCR+ was a stupid idea and would die a quick death--so what do I know?
  5. Engage ? by IanBevan · · Score: 4, Funny

    Even Microsoft is trying to directly engage the community at this conference... with a 105mm Howizter.

    1. Re:Engage ? by AndroidCat · · Score: 2, Funny

      I want a place on the International Date Line so I can skip Monday mornings and go straight to Tuesday. (Two Tuesdays, of course, temporal paybacks are bitch.)

      --
      One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
  6. Re:anyone using 3117 spe4k by Distinguished+Hero · · Score: 4, Funny

    3117 spe4k

    Shit, what is this ellt speak and where can I learn it? Google searches were inconclusive.
    I feel so "un-ellt" knowing only 1337.

    --
    Uttering logically derived and empirically supported truths to the disciples of the orthodox establishment.
  7. as well you should by SHEENmaster · · Score: 2, Funny

    you un-hip luser.

    As a sysadmin, I have the right to make mistakes and make others feel bad about them. I also have a right to get my joke stolen by another poster.

    --
    You can't judge a book by the way it wears its hair.
  8. Re:these arrests are NOT about the slammer worm by Distinguished+Hero · · Score: 5, Funny

    The mistake was on the part of Anonymous Coward.

    Yes, if only we could hire some people to "edit" these post. I know, I know, my idea may seem controversial, but I think it would work, unless the people just took the money and didn't actually do anything... Nah, that would never happen.

    --
    Uttering logically derived and empirically supported truths to the disciples of the orthodox establishment.
  9. NWLink by glrotate · · Score: 2, Funny

    ipxodi

  10. Two fake articles? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Maybe the usa today article is a fake article about the fake cnn article. think about that!

  11. Re:anyone using 3117 spe4k by Rick+the+Red · · Score: 3, Funny

    That's 3117, not ellt. You're obviously not 3117. Noone can teach you 3117-speak. When you become 3117, you just know it; until then, you're 1ma3.

    --
    If all this should have a reason, we would be the last to know.
  12. Re:as a nwlink customer... by brer_rabbit · · Score: 2, Funny

    somehow I kinda knew my $25 monthly payment wasn't supporting the entire company...

  13. The Diary of a CMU CS Student by Lethyos · · Score: 5, Funny

    This past year, I was accepted into Carnegie Mellon's [cmu.edu] School of Computer Science [cmu.edu]. It has been a remarkable experience that I would lik e to share with the Slashdot community. Here's an account of my experience.

    Week 1, Sunday: I moved in today. My roommate, a sophomore CS student, had already moved in tw o days before me. The floor is already completely covered with garbage. He also smells. I think he might be gay too. He's already asked me if I like the color he painted his toenails. This should be interesting. I am almost completely settled in. Techno music is playing in every room in every floor of my dorm. There are computers and other types of trash out in the common areas. What a mess. Tom orrow, I am going to go sign up to get my network connection.

    Week 1, Monday: I got hooked up to the CMU network today! I jacked into the network, only to f ind that the hostname and address assigned to me were colliding with another system. I'll just increm ent the network numbers a few times. I am really eager to get on.

    Week 1, Tuesday: I am still looking for a free IP address. Can't anybody here properly configu re their systems?

    Week 1, Friday: I finally found a free IP! It's mine! You sons of bitches can't have i t, I found it, I keep it, it's mine! To hell with all of you! Head hurts really bad. I've slowly be en developing a headache since I first arrived. Everywhere I look there are these Lucent Technologies wireless access points. I wonder if that's the problem.

    Week 1, Saturday: I sat down at my computer today. My desktop wall paper is now the goatse.cx guy. Pleasant. Scattered over every directory on my C: drive are thousands, possibly millions, of fi les titled "J00AR30WN3DBITCH-phj33r-" and then some random hacker's name. Don't these people have liv es? Maybe they need laid or something. It'd take days to clean this out. I mentioned to my roommate that I needed to reinstall Windows, and immediately he jumped up and shouted: "NO! Do NOT use Window s!" Suddenly, two dozen other guys (all of them possibly homosexuals) appeared at the door, each tout ing an operating system called Linux. Half of them got into a fight over which was better, Debian, Re dHat, Slackware, and a bunch of others I couldn't recognize. Some kid who appeared to not have shower ed since he was born was touting "Linux From Scratch", saying that only losers used pre-made distros. A crowd of people in the back kept quiet about how I'd be sorry if I used Linux instead of BSD on the network. Who the fuck are these people? Classes start next week. Hope I have my computer working s o I can do my assignments.

    Week 3, Friday: People are still trying to get Linux to work on my system. They keep telling m y that my hardware sucks. We go through about four or five distributions a day. Every now and then, I notice a little devil on my screen. Stickers for every of these distributions have been plastered o n my case. Suddenly, my room stinks a lot more with these people in here. I ask them why they never shower, and the usual response is something along the lines of "showering is like rebooting" and "I do n't want to lose my uptime."

    Week 3, Saturday: There's a troop of men running naked in a circle around McGill Hall. I am no t even going to ask.

    Week 4, Wednesday: Linux is FINALLY working on my computer! I have a pretty slick desktop too. I think I might like this. I can finally work in my room instead of the labs, although considering the every increasing layer of garbage on the floor...

    Week 4, Thursday: My computer flashes messages about how I am "0WNX0RED" and how I should "PHJ3 3R" whoever and how "L4MEX0R" I am for having an insecure box. A kid suggests we reinstall Linux afte r discovering about 17 rootkits.

    Week 5, Friday: Someone got BSD working on my computer. I wonder if this will last. The stres s has been building and I forgot to take a shower this morning.

    Week 6, Tuesday: Seems I have been "0WNX0R3D" again. Took longer this time. Minutes later, so meone comes in with a "Bastile Linux" install CD. He gets started installing. I am feeling very susp icious of these guys.

    Week 6, Thursday: Everyone seems to know more about my system than I do. It's a bit unnerving. I guess anyone could feel upset from this sort of treatment. They hack my box, trash it, then reins tall everything. I guess they think they're being funny. My dirty clothes are piling up and I am out of clean ones. I don't have time to do laundry, I'll have to wear something out of the pile.

    Week 6, Friday: I got up this morning, sat at my machine, and stared at it blankly. An icon ap peared on my desktop for Quake III. I suppose it couldn't hurt to play some. I have been very stress ed lately.

    Week 6, Sunday: I lost track of time! I started playing Quake III on the network with some oth er CMU students (who killed me hundreds of times in the course of 10 minutes) and completely lost myse lf. There's a bag of chips that has been sitting here for a few weeks. I think I'll finish those off for breakfast and then go to sleep.

    Week 7, Wednesday: I masturbate every day now. Not a single girl comes near me. This is so de pressing. Do I really smell? Oh well, I have the task of learning how to secure my Linux box to keep me busy. Who has time for the opposite sex after all?

    Week 8, Tuesday: I got into a fight with this little shit who kept telling me RedHat was great. What a fucking moron! Anybody who knows Linux knows that Debian kicks its sorry little ass. I'll b e getting my judiciary papers for the incident in the mail. Doesn't this school get it? I can't let someone go around converting people to RedHat! WtF!?

    Week 8, Friday: My roommate squeezed my ass today! At first I was shocked and appauled, and I told him off for it. Thinking about it later though, there was just something that seemed too strong about my reaction. I'll talk to him later and appologize for getting so upset, it wasn't really so ba d.

    --
    Why bother.
  14. Re:SDF? by Hecubas · · Score: 3, Funny

    SDF: Space Defense Fortress

    Don't you watch Robotech?

    sheesh.

    --
    hecubas

    --
    Hecubas
  15. Microsoft by c++ · · Score: 3, Funny
    "Any purported press release or news story appearing on a Web site is a hoax," Microsoft said.

    Does this mean everything on Press Pass is a hoax?