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John McCain's MySpace Page "Pranked"

Several readers let us know about a little problem with presidential hopeful John McCain's MySpace page. Looks as though some staffer didn't read the fine print of the "credit" clause when selecting a template for the page. The template author and CEO of Newsvine, Mike Davidson, noticed this and didn't care too much. But the McCain page was pulling an image from Davidson's site, costing him bandwidth every time someone visited the candidate's MySpace page. So Davidson changed the image in question to read: "Today I announce that I have reversed my position and come out in full support of gay marriage... particularly marriage between two passionate females." Here is Davidson's account of the "immaculate hack".

4 of 503 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Never... er... always check your references by Vskye · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Any politician who thinks he's going to get votes by making a myspace account deserves whatever he gets dished. Reminds me of the clueless professor from Real Genius who thought his students like it when he would "get down, verbally" with them.
     
    First off, you're talking out of your ass. This man was shot down in the Vietnam war and a prisoner of war at the famous / infamous "Hanoi Hilton". This man broke both arms and a leg, was tortured and survived. He ejected from his plane back in 1967 and was released in 1974 I do believe. Quite a feat in my book. He might be labeled a bad political choice, but he deserves respect.

    --
    Life was hell, then I discovered Linux...
  2. ATTN: Windows/Linux refugees! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Still looking for the "maximize" button when your Mac has "zoom" instead? Take the hint, switcheurs: If you can't deal with multiple windows at once, GTFO of our platform. The Mac wasn't designed for one-track minds.

  3. Re:In my day... by arth1 · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    What do you call someone who still uses leetspeak after 2000?


    I don't know, but I do know that I call someone karma-riding the top post trying to belittle someone (with a very low slashdot serial number, I might add) for something completely irrelevant, and displaying his own ignorance in the process. -1 Overrated until zeroed followed by an -1 Offtopic would be appropriate for your post.

    There's nothing in the text you replied to that isn't common English, so I presume you mean the header. A single dropped cap in a TLA is likely a typo (or deliberate because "out" didn't warrant a capital letter in the poster's opinion), so I doubt it's the MiXeD cAsE you're calling attention to.
    So that leaves the word "LoL".

    LOL isn't "leetspeak" -- it's an abbreviation that harks back to the days of telex. Some Telex jargon made it to BBSes and IRC, and from there to instant messaging, mobile texting and multiplayer games. Some of the telex jargon includes:

    GA - Go Ahead (your turn)
    MOM - Moment
    BRB - Be Right Back
    WRU - Who Are You?
    PLS - Please
    LOL - Laughing Out Loud
    BIBI - Bye Bye
    LTR - Later
    ACK - Acknowledged
    NAK - NACK, Not Acknowledged (negative)
    RPT - Repeat

    Not all of this has survived, but some, like BRB and LOL have. They're not l33t-speak at all, even if intermingled with other and newer expressions. Ask your mother or aunt whether they ever operated a telex machine, and whether they remember the abbreviations!

    That "LoL" is far less l33t than your silly XML signature, for sure.

    Anyhow, back on topic, yes it's funny that this was done, but the problem is that even though it was McCaine's site that linked to this graphic, changing the graphic to specifically target the site is still vandalism. It's like someone driving through your property every day -- that still doesn't give you the right to paint slogans and ridicule on the trespassing cars as they pass. But yes, it was funny, and relatively innocent; even the most far-right Christian surely would not take this at face value, and be tricked into believing it was McCaine's stance? So I doubt the courts would do anything about it. Still, it's probably technically illegal, as whether the vandalism happens on your property or not, it's still nominally wrong.
    But it gave me a good laugh. :-)
  4. STOP MESSING WITH OUR USERBOXES!!! by drini · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Stop messign with our userboxes! We'll desysop you!
    I repeat don't mess with our templates!
    I'm reporting you to WP:ANI, WP:RFC, WP:AN, WP:VP for breaking WP:AGF, WP:DICK and you'll be desysopped really soon.

    You're gonna be so sorry...

    --
    Math is the weapon!!