Slashdot Mirror
UK Ministry of Defense Broken by Spoof Video
An anonymous reader submits "It seems that the Royal Dragoon Guards in Iraq decided to make a spoof of a Tony Christie video, which was recently re-released by Peter Kay for Comic Relief. However, the video file was over 50MB and it took out various e-mail systems, including those at RAF Strike Command. Despite the inadvertant denial of service attack, the MoD said the spoof was 'brilliant.'"
Given the media coverage some poor sysadmin is going to get completely screwed...
Where's the movie? I want to see.
So, can anyone provide details of a location we can get the video from?
*thwock!* *groan* *crash* A horrible roar fills the cave, and you realize, with a smile....
There's a link on the linked page. Real player I'm afraid.
Why is the thread spammed by nazi proxies?
The system had the verbosity of HTML combined with all the readability of compiled assembly viewed as bitmap images
It was pretty funny to. Lots of squaddies waving captured Iraqi AK47s in time to Tony Christie is always funny IMHO.
No one fell over though. (joke that americans wont get)
another Roadkill on the Information Superhighway
This story seemed to hit all the major news outlets in the UK. I dont really know why.
I have seen the video a few times as the news stations have been airing it too. Its mildly amusing and probably a more productive endevour for the squadies than shooting people (IMHO).
I do advise agaist searching for the vid though. Its one of those songs that gets trapped in your brain and remains there for the day.
Just reading this story has put it back into my head! Thanks!
you'd have thought they have competant sysadmins which have a max filesize limit set on emails wouldnt you?
:/ Pity slashdot doesnt let you define a regexp for text to ignore
on another note - the " im an open proxy, ban me " things are irritating me now
"the MoD said the spoof was 'brilliant.'"
Which can not be said about the person who put a 50Mb attachment in his email.
I'm not sure if I should mod this troll, funny, or insightful...oh well too late now :)
Those who know, do not speak. Those who speak, do not know. ~Lao Tzu
The was a film of Nato soliders spoofing the Beach Boy's song "Kokomo" on big-boys recently and it suddenly disapeared, shame really as it was quite funny.
Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.
they should've used YouSendit d:
Let the commencement BEGINULATE!
Full video:
http://www.twobeds.com/armadilllo.wmv
Brilliant!
From here:
http://www.twobeds.com/armadilllo.wmv
RTFA. The problem wasn't the 50Mb e-mail it was that "so many people tried to download it". In other words, sheer popularity overwhelming the webservers, like with a Slashdotting.
They "emailed" the video, which caused too many people to download it?
This sounds like web traffic. You would think the Ministry of Defence may incorporate firewalls, proxy servers or QoS. If this was email, why didn't the MoD mail servers refuse such large attachments?
Besides I didn't think anyone but my network users try to send out 50 mb email attachments...
That's OK, I whacked it... :)
Lame script. So lame that AFAIK no on else who is capable has such low self esteem to bother. Too much reefer and meth I bet. But thanks. You prevented /.ing of the site so I got my copy of the wmv vid, no problemo.
Now if you've written the thing in unobfuscated LISP i.e. with cogent, sparse but adequate for easy reading, comments there migh be hope for you. No, shell script does NOT count.
Offended? Only the lame are offended by symbology.
Irrelevant. They could have pre-empted such a problem with a quota, but having not done that it would be impossible to add huge amounts of capacity to their email system within hours. Server orders usually take weeks to be built, burnt in and installed in place.
I watched BBC's streaming video clip from its article. Was it me or was it not funny? Maybe BBC didn't air the whole video clip or I missed the joke. :(
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
Brilliant
You had to be there
Let me guess - You're not from the UK, and you've never seen the video that this is a spoof of?
I got this in an e-mail, should clear some things up
1. Start at London Heathrow Airport.
2. Catch flight from London Heathrow to Dallas Fort Worth Airport.
3. Hire car at Dallas Fort Worth Airport.
4. Start going toward the "Airport Exit" on "International Parkway South" - follow for 0.2 miles.
5. Bear left onto the highway toward "Terminal East Parking" - follow for 0.3 miles.
6. Bear left onto "International Parkway North" toward "North Airport Exit" - follow for 2.9 miles.
7. Take the "Highway 114 west" exit toward "Fort Worth" - follow for 29.2 miles
8. Then continue on "US 287 North" - follow for 91.1 miles
9."US 287 North" becomes "Interstate-44 east" - follow for 0.7 miles
10. Take left fork onto "US-287 North" toward "Vernon" - follow for 104.0 miles
11."US 287 north" becomes "Avenue F (US-287)" - follow for 2.8 miles
12. Continue to follow "US 287 North" - follow for 104.9 miles
13. Take left ramp onto "Interstate 40 west" toward "Dumas" - follow for 7.8 miles
14. Take "Exit 70" onto "US 60 east" toward "Dumas" - follow for 0.5 miles
15. Take the "Buchanan Street" exit toward "Dumas/Pampa" - follow for 1.7 miles
16. Turn right onto "Old Route 66 (Interstate 40)" - follow for 0.1 miles
17. Arrive at the centre of "Amarillo, Texas"
That's the f*cking way to Amarillo
SO CAN EVERYONE PLEASE STOP SINGING IT NOW!!!!!!!
The MoD servers went down again after the story appeared on slashdot. :)
hilarious
It's the "UK Ministry of DefenCe", not "Defense".
To be fair The Ministry of Defence Press Office handled this brilliantly. Any negative comment, or any hint of any negative comment about the troops would not, and could not be made. They could have brushed it under the carpet, but by commenting positively they have reinforced the morale of the soldiers, and further, reinforced their image as an approachable peacekeeping force, something which has been key to their low engagement rates in southern Iraq.
boakes.org
So... what your saying here is that when it happened, the MoD should have said.
"Shit, the mail servers are down. Quickly boys! Pack up and go home, we need the money being spent on our reason to exist to upgrade support equipment."
"...caused the system to crash is unfortunate, but this did not affect operations.." nice to know my taxes are being well spent on a system that doesn't affect anything if it goes down... can't wait for George Galloway v U.S. Congress round 2, I wonder if the (new?) email admin at MoD will find an email filter before that little gem hits the net.... hope not...
You read it.
a> It is the ministry of defenCe, not defenSe. b> The MoD wasn't broken. Their servers were.
-Shaunak
Slashdotting something before having it posted to Slashdot. Always be a step ahead your enemy!
Shortly to be renamed minilove when Tony gets his ID cards.
Philip
Signatures are broken
The original being spoofed is here: Is this the way to Amarillo?
If I find bigger versions, I might reply to this post.
Irene KHAAAAAAN!
The British Armed Services, or at least the upper echelons (cough) thereof, aren't exactly popular at the moment after the whole four-letter-named country business.
The video itself is probably a happy accident, but it has been allowed to slip through because it makes a military life look like it's all fun and games out there on patrol. Thus, by proxy the British Armed Services look good.
Or maybe I need to adjust my tinfoil hat.
Torrent, please.
Irene KHAAAAAAN!
I like Amarillo, TX. It's a good place to live, but it's not nearly as hick'ish anymore as folks in England want it to be when they get here after winning one of those radio station contests. I mean most duallys don't even have a 5th wheel hitch anymore, the belt buckles have shrunk well below the 8 inch radius, heck we only bury Caddilacs half way now.
On the technical side, this is a clear case why WWW, regular file sharing (Samba, Netware, AFS, etc.) or even P2P like BitTorrent should be used instead.
Mail is not for sending binary attachments of any size. Mail transfer agents and mailing list software ought to block attachments by default. That would also put the lid on quite a few of the MS viruses and worms out there.
Beta is broken and the link to classic doesn't work. Stop wasting our time or there won't be anybody left here.
Did you catch the guy with the white cane? :-)
Irene KHAAAAAAN!
Yes, thus the "You had to be there ... er, yes." bit.
Couldn't they use jet engines like everyone else?
Tiller's Rule: Never use a word in written form that you've only heard and never read. You will end up looking foolish.
Having clearly been offended, are we to take it that you consider yourself lame?
At least the Message of the Day wasn't lost!
Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.
-- Pablo Picasso
Why did I have to go click that? Damn it! Remember when web animations didn't have soundtracks? The web was a better place. I'm going to go stuff cotton in my ears and cry. ...the tricks that he does... Probably have to gag myself, too.
tired of online ads?
Some of us are on ISPs (Ok, more like a college network) that don't allow torrents, and some of us are mac users who can't/would rather not mess with viewing wmv files.
Any way to get a full-length video that's mac friendly?
Interesting. As a Yank (Connecticut, even), I can say that some of the humor is lost on me. I did have the presence of mind to search for the video being spoofed, and got to see a clip of it at http://www.wanadoo.co.uk/music/videos/tony_amarill o.htm?linkfrom=broadband_music&link=main1_alsoLink s&article=BBmusic_links_wanadoomusic
:)
I used bittorent to download the spoof and watched it. I see the humor, but in an intellectual way (that is, I didn't ROFL). I think I need to be a bit more immersed in the experience of the original video and surrounding media hype to _really_ get it.
All in all, I do enjoy getting a peek at culture outside my own increasingly insular one.
Thank god(dess) for BitTorrent, or I doubt I'd ever see the new episodes of Doctor Who, a favorite of mine since I first saw Tom Baker play the part in 1977 or so
If only I could find functionning servers for the older episodes!
How long before the RIAA wake up to this story and start suing soldiers in Iraq?
:-)
Kids, grannies, soldiers, what's the difference?
badgerbadgerbadgerbadgerbadger
badgerbadgerbadgerbadgerbadger...
mushroommushroom
http://www.weebls-stuff.com/toons/25/
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
That solves the RIAA problem then.
"Yes lets go sue a battle hardened group of men armed to the teeth with guns, tanks, ships and aircraft!!!"
I think you are doing very well to even "slightly" get it - You have to know who Peter Kay is, who the charaters are he plays in his television program, who British small screen stars are and what comic relief is all about.
try to make ends meet, you're a slave to money, then you die
it's probably been posted but i'm not going through 500 posts to find it. http://torrentspy.com/download.asp?id=210558
(Washington) -crAP News Wire Release.
by Joesph Mama
The Secret Service quickly rush President Bush to a safety room especially designed for life threatning emergencies last night after viewing the vidio "Armadillo". It was believed that the viewing of Nakedly Armed Tired Operaters could only mean the world is openly ignoring the president of the united states.
After leaving the saftey room, (code named "Fewer Bunkbed"), the president was over heard saying, "I can't believe this! I prayed for guidence, and I got busy signal!"
Film at 11:00pm.
I saw a BBC story that called Rumsfeld the Secretary of Defence. What goes around, comes around, as they say over here.
This was posted way back on page 5 and I'm simply reposting the torrent so you don't have to scroll through all the open proxy troll messages.m v.torrent?C56D7E8240F6D607624795CDFC6A8B19324EFEA5
http://128.232.236.67:6969/torrents/AmarilloBIG.w
Let me guess - You're not from the UK, and you've never seen the video that this is a spoof of?
Here is a clip from the Tony Christie & Peter Kay video: AmarilloPlease parse portion of post indicative of offense.
Now, if by some stretch my bitching about not being impresses translates to taking offense in your world view, then sure, call me lame.
Real programmers use acid, not meth!
Could someone tell me who the hell Tony Christie is?
Most of being in a combat location like that is long hours of boredom punctuated by moments where you get the crap scared out of you. I think its great that so many guys got together for something that really boosted moral! As for the mail servers not handling it? How many places will let you send a 50 Mb file easily, but cant handle 30 people trying to send one at the same time? A lot I would guess....
Do not meddle in the affairs of sysadmins, for the are subtle and quick to anger.
money being spent on? don't forget, the poor chaps have to buy their own boots, and there aren't enough flak jackets to go around.
You mean MinLove, don't you?
The only thing you can accurately describe as "Scotch" is a sticky tape made by 3M. And it's
Back in the good-old dot com days, one user decided to zip his entire MP3 collection and email it to his home account.
The zip file was about 1GB. Exchange server had 640MB RAM. Do the math.
They could have benefited from a DIY steadicam knockoff. But the staging of this video was impressive, considering the relatively large cast and the timing of it all.
RP
The mail servers went down for a couple of hours last Friday morning - mail couldn't be sent or received. About an hour into the outage, the sysadmins sent a Windows Messaging service message to all terminals saying that the problem was a 52Mb file called "Amarillo Video" (or something like that) which people were e-mailing internally and please don't do it any more! That was it, essentially - a short-term nuisance, nothing more.
As for why this happened - well, our computer infrastructure is pretty old and cranky. The systems that fell over were mostly head office ones in London - there are literally hundreds of separate corporate networks currently in use, held together by duct tape (or so it sometimes seems), so only a fraction of the MOD was affected in the first place. They're all due to be replaced by a shiny new Defence Information Infrastructure (http://www.mod.uk/dcsa/organisations/dii/) which will be all singing, all dancing, capable of dealing with huge files etc etc etc. (Also all Windows, but you can't have everything.)
Because that would mean I have a government job, and I would be living in England! ;)
The strong do what they can, while the weak suffer what they must.
http://video.contemporaryinsanity.org/ Link is right on the top third of the screen, "above the fold". Enjoy!!
The Way to Amarillo
Link is right on the top third of the screen, "above the fold".
Enjoy!!
Here's a mirror for this... let's see how long my site lasts.
http://www.theionosphere.com/Jud/Armadillo.htm
Web hosting that doesn't suck!Dreamhost
What about the unlawfully copied background music. If I was the MOD, I would worry more about the music industry than the embarrassment of the mail servers going down.
Joe Llywelyn Griffith Blakesley
[This post is in the public domain (copyright-free) unless otherwise stated]