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Marking Your Cyber Territory?

Posted by Cliff on from the kilroy-wuz-here dept.

NoOnesMessiah asks: "I recently finished a relatively major webmail install for a large company and it all went very, very well. I left a '/.cornerstone' file for posterity (with names, dates the disks started spinning, 'asbuilt' notes for apache, php, etc) so that future generations would know who to blame (or call) in 3 to 5 years. I have also done this in various and sundry places within my network infrastructure while I wore the mantel of Senior Systems Engineer and even in bits of a major mp3 player's website while it was growing up on our network. Hell, even the concept of the 'asbuilt' is more than 14 years old to me. How was PHP built? Look at the "asbuilt" file for configure or compile-time options... This got me to wondering; How do Slashdot readers mark their territory so future generations know they were there? Certainly I'm not the only one who does this. I would think that most people do, even in some small way. Do you mark your own personal mailer, web server or desktops in the same fashion as you might for your employers or clients?"

9 of 47 comments (clear)

  1. Traditional methods by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny
    I'm a great believer in using tried and tested methods that have served for millions of years. For that reason, I tend to urinate around the servers that house my projects. This method leaves my scent around my territories, which other programmers can detect and use the information accordingly.

    It also helps cool the processors in the summer.

    1. Re:Traditional methods by Directrix1 · · Score: 3, Funny

      I usually like to put a backdoor in my software with the password being my dead son's name. Good times.

      --
      Occam's razor is the blind faith in the natural selection of least resistance and in universal oversimplification. -- EF
    2. Re:Traditional methods by Directrix1 · · Score: 2, Funny

      So, you're the one thats been hacking into my applications. How did you get past the AES wrapped SRP authorization on top of TLS sockets. Oh wait, its because I logged in over telnet that one time isn't it? Or maybe its because of that SSH CRC32 patch I forgot to apply back in 2001. Damn.

      --
      Occam's razor is the blind faith in the natural selection of least resistance and in universal oversimplification. -- EF
  2. The best way... by metalhed77 · · Score: 3, Funny

    After a bitter parting is obviously named text files in obvious places stating things like "h@x0red by l337 crEw, mad pr0ps to the hole in the firewall"

    Keep em on their feet ;)

    --
    Photos.
  3. Want your mark to last? by Breakerofthings · · Score: 2, Funny

    Make it Intrinsic
    For example; if you have ever seen my code, knowing what it looks like, you would never be able to miss the muddy footprints I stomp all over anything I touch.

    Immortality through Mediocrity!! Do something right, or well, and you will soon be forgotten.
    Do it really half assed, or fsck it up, and you will surely be remembered.

  4. In the code... by eclectic_echidna · · Score: 3, Funny

    try {
    ...
    } catch (VeryBadException e) {
    if (DateTime.Now.year > 2003) {
    MessageBox.Show("ee WAS here. Not anymore! Nelson: ha-ha ");
    } else {
    ;
    }
    }

    --
    Antiquated competence won't be a job skill forever.
  5. Story of Mel by sohp · · Score: 4, Funny

    One job I was not particularly happy one day, so I pasted a copy of The Story of Mel into a comment in one particularly annoying part of the code. I wonder if it's still there.

  6. Easter Eggs! by SoCalChris · · Score: 4, Funny

    Lots and lots of Easter Eggs. One program I wrote had an egg in it where if you typed in "UP YOURS", or any string containing those two words into the password field, the mouse cursor would give you the middlle finger until you rebooted. Of course, most users would never come across that, but I'm hopeful that developers maintaining the code did.

  7. Remember me, damnit! by clambake · · Score: 3, Funny

    This got me to wondering; How do Slashdot readers mark their territory so future generations know they were there?

    I write an impossible to find bug in thier critical software that will cause thier servers to shut down should my name be removed from /etc/passwd.