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User: The_Weevil

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  1. Re:unfinished art on Douglas Adams' Last Book · · Score: 1

    Actually you're wrong too. he did do some readings of his work for some radio show here in the UK, i think it was called something awful like "Book Club"... anyway. The radio series came before the books and in my opinion it's better than the books, but thats a matter of taste. He was always being rushed to do things. The first book ends where it does simply because the publishers demanded he finish the page he was on and give them the manuscript.

    His readings of the books on the radio 4 programme did make him change his mind about some of the storyline and he did add bits as he went along. I dont know if the book was republished with the bits he added. I doubt it.

  2. Definitely on Are Videogames Art? · · Score: 1

    Try to tell me these games are not art:
    Grim Fandango
    Alone in the dark (earlier ones...)
    Unreal

    no engine flames please, yeah yeah the unreal engine is crap blah blah whatever; I'm looking at design here, Unreal was undoubtably a very artistic game (10 bucks says this appears in a quoted response...). In fact, any game can be deemed "atmospheric" is a artistic imo. Any game that, when you finish it, you think "whoa." and not "hmm." is artistic.

    It would be ludicrous to say computer games are not a form of art. They are a creation from the mind (usually), and the creation of levels and textures cannot really be classed as "design" in many cases.

    However, i can see that many people would class computer games as several bits of artwork put together, the level design, the texture art, the code, the sound, the music. But i guess combining these artistic elements in a pleasing way is also art, in fact, its probably the definition of art.

  3. Re:Haven't we learned anything? on Council of Europe Pushes Net Hate-Speech Ban · · Score: 1

    True.

    Some people tried to ban websites containing obscene words when i was at school a few years ago. It was the work of a few minutes to get Perl on my server to act as a kind of proxy, encoding obscenities as ascii numbers and allowing the power of javascript to write them back into the page on the client side. It doesn't take a genius to break almost any lame filtering campaign, and really the majority of people dont want stuff filtered. Europe is supposed to be made up of democracies, why dont they ask the people first before deciding to do this shit?

  4. Re:Bah. on Code Red III · · Score: 1

    How about an Apache server, PERIOD?

    People use MS for no reason, its slow, it costs money, its full of holes. Apache can have FP2000 extensions and ASP (asp at a price i think...). Quite why people use MS is really beyond me. Its nice to see all those dumb .jsp pages on the net disappearing and nice .php ones appearing instead.

    Weevil

  5. Waiting for the impact on Code Red III · · Score: 1

    I'm still logging codered live at http://www.baxpace.com/gateway

    I have not picked up this 3rd version yet, but I have picked up a slight code alteration in version 2, which makes codered look for root.exe in C:, not D:. I posted a story on it...

  6. Re:Arapahoe on PCI 3.0 Coming; Intel gets the Green Light. · · Score: 1

    Glad my comment spawned the funniest exchange i've ever read on /.

  7. Oh 15 are they? on Rise Of The 15-Year Olds, Part II · · Score: 1

    Look, most hackers are NOT 15 years old. The very idea is rediculous. This is yet another idea put around by the media, simply because all the hacking attempts that have been DISCOVERED so far are done by stupid 15 year olds using windows proggies they downloaded from the net.

    Most of the hackers in this world are likely to be those who have grown up with computers and learned as the industry learned. People born in the late '70s, who understand ASM, the internal workings of the machines, the network protocols, the holes and how to exploit them. These people write the tools that the 15 year olds exploit.

    The only reason we have the idea of 15 year old hackers going around is because it doesnt normally happen. This is why we have heard about it: It's very irregular.

    Most hackers are likely to be in their late teens, early 20's by now :).

    Of course, there are some 15 year old hackers who code their own stuff and are really 1337, and I can respect that.

    Weevil

  8. Re:Yeah? on PCI 3.0 Coming; Intel gets the Green Light. · · Score: 1

    Yah but only because they'll think "hey we can charge masses extra for this" And i only said the bus should be optical, who said anything about the cards or peripherals? The sockets for them could be ordinary copper :). Anyway this is somewhat far fetched...

    Weevil

  9. Re:Code Red Self Test on Code Redux · · Score: 1

    All the Win2k users you know are running IIS?

    Err, yes, since it's bundled in Win2k and not disabled most people don't even know it's on. Does the indexing service rely on it or something? I heard code red gets in via the Indexing Service in win2k, or maybe that's just a load of bullshit. What I do know is, most people are dumb. Yes, my friends who run Win2k are stupid, although i would have chosen the term 'inherently stupid'.

    Weevil

  10. Scanner on Judge Demands Details Of FBI's Keylogger · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Since a keyboard scans all keys several times per second it generates a signal on a certain wavelength that can be picked up with a radio (try holding your shortwave radio near the keyboard with the monitor switched off). Analysis of this signal allows people sitting in a van outside your house to know what you're typing due to the interruptions in the 'buzzing' signal normally received, which only happens when keys are pressed. The time from the start of the scen identifies which key is pressed.

    Its all very clever.

    Weevil

  11. Yeah? on PCI 3.0 Coming; Intel gets the Green Light. · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Oh great a new architecture. How long will it take before we get PCI 3.0 2x, 4x and 8x ?
    Still waiting for that fibre-optic bus. Still waiting.

    Weevil

  12. Re:Code Red Self Test on Code Redux · · Score: 1

    hmm. and put your IP between all those slashes. /. cut it out. damn j00 /. :)

  13. Re:Code Red Self Test on Code Redux · · Score: 2, Informative

    Lol.

    It isnt difficult to self test. Get your IP with winipcfg then type this in a browser:

    http:///scripts/root.exe?/c+dir

    if you download a directory listing, you're infected. Ohohoho. Practically all win2k users i know are infected. how amusing.

    You may also find /scripts/shell.exe works too.

    Weevil.

  14. STILL Logging the worm on Code Redux · · Score: 1

    I'm logging code red trying to attack my gateway (live with a dummy file ;). Check out the log: www.baxpace.com/gateway

    You'll have to copy and paste that link because i only really want people who can be bothered to do that, i still want to have access to the web :).

    You can download the viral code there. V2 is the only one that's attacked me so far, spreading over BT Openworlds subnet like wildfire. If a new variant in the code appears, the site will pick it up and store it :)

    Weevil

  15. Good riddance on MS getting rid of SAMBA? · · Score: 1

    Maybe getting rid of this irritating, spamming, networking system is a step in the right direction. MicroSoft Networking is certainly NOT the pinnacle of good design or implementation. Hopefully their own system will be much better.

  16. Re:Logging the worm on Code Red II: Shells for the Taking · · Score: 1

    It wasn't difficult. I just told apache to execute all .ida files in public_html as if they were perl scripts (by setting the ExecCGI flag for *.ida).

    Then I placed a dummy default.ida in there, so whenever the worm tries to attack it the attempt is logged to a mysql database. Releasing the code would be tricky as you'd also need to set up the database, which would be a right nightmare but mail me if you're serious and I'll send you a copy. It ain't pretty.

    I also pushed the boat out after realising how many v2 attacks I was getting and created a /scripts/root.exe script too, to log 1337 h4x0rs trying to get into my non-existant win2k server :)

    On the COX front, from what I've been able to gather the codered II virus spreads predominantly over subnets. If my logging in the past few days is anything to go by, v1 is as good as dead, but the far more virulent v2 is busy infecting all win2k machines on its particular subnet; notice how many attacks I got from other BT Openworld customers. This sounds like exactly the problem your co-worker is seeing.

    I'm not sure I want to be slashdotted, but the URL that will bounce you to my gateway and these logs is: www.baxpace.com/gateway -- you'll have to copy and paste it if you're seriously interested. Hey, I still want to be able to get online :).

    Soon I'll add a frequency chart to it so that I can see how the level of attacks per hour is changing since logging began.

    Thanks for the interest
    Weevil

  17. Obvious mock up. on Affordable Wearables May Arrive By Christmas · · Score: 1

    That screen is so obviously a screenshot from a PC rotated and softened. It is much less sharp than the 'IBM' logo and it's not reflecting any hilights or showing any lowlights.

    And it is windows.

  18. Re:I guess it depends on.. on Multitasking Harmful To Productivity · · Score: 2, Interesting

    There was significant evidence a while back (and I can't link to it... grr where is it)... that women can listen to two conversations at a time because their brains are developed differently -- both hemispheres of the female brain respond to audio, but only one hemisphere of the male brain does.

    This suggests that women would be great at multitasking and also an explanation of why they expect us to listen to them when we're busy.

    Weevil

  19. Nooo on Is This How to Carry Your Gadgets? · · Score: 1

    "A VEST AS WEIRD AS YOU ARE!!"

    What a terrifying gizmo. And not for use by people with pacemakers. Put a cellphone in one of those breast pockets and kaboom... or a heart beat every 1/5 of a second.

    My solution to this problem is a pocket, a belt and another pocket. Quite why anyone would devise this vest just for holding gadgets is a question only God can answer. There are already vests with pockets, people. Get over it. 55 year-old fishermen wear them. They're green.

    Women have solved this problem with a handbag. Damn. All men need is a couple of hundred years of cultural evolution to make handbags acceptable attire for those of the manly persuasion and we're sorted...

    Weevil

  20. Logging the worm on Code Red II: Shells for the Taking · · Score: 1

    I am currently logging the attacks on my btopenworld ADSL box by using a dummy default.ida script.

    The results are on display here (until my dyndns changes).

    Viral code sent is stored in my database and different code variants are logged. I only started logging today.

    It is obvious from the stats that V2 is enjoying bt openworld's subnet very much, since all my attacks so far have come from within there.

    Weevil

  21. bloody ADSL users on Code Red Back For More · · Score: 1

    Damn. I use ADSL and i was sensible. The 176 people i counted attacking my Apache server are OBVIOUSLY fools with Win2k.

    I have now made a neat perl script called default.ida to log attacks to my mysql db. When does the hurting stop?

    Weevil

  22. When did TIME start?! on Gamespy.com's "Top 50 Games of All Time" · · Score: 1

    If those are the top 50 games of all time I must be missing something. Where is lemmings, where is Elite, where is Grim Fandango or any lucasarts adventure (those are fantastic works)....

    I may be opinionated, but I know that at least one of the above games should be in that chart. Elite should probably be in the top ten, it being one of the most popular games ever.

    I do agree with DOOM being number 1 though, that was a fantastic game :)

    Weevil

  23. Errrr on Congress To Address Digital Music · · Score: 1

    Okay.... Let me get this straight.

    "We've made a new bill! It makes it easier for people like Napster to sell MP3s!!"

    Although the msnbc article did not exactly say that, it's pretty obvious that they wouldnt just introduce a bill to allow free music trading after all this trash with napster.

    Unfortunately, companies tend to be pretty dumb on the internet, and record labels are really naive and stupid. They imagine that things like introducing new "uncopyable" formats (hahaha) will make people stop copying. No it won't. We have a format thanks, it's called MP3, we may even use Ogg or Vorbis in future since that's even more free (and not proprietary).

    And distribution has only been a problem when the music industry has caught on that it's happening. For instance, distribution of music on IRC has been going for many, many years without the slightest bit of note from the press. There will always be a distribution method that the music industry won't know about, and that's a marvelous thing :)

    Do not get me wrong -- if the music is genuinely good I would go out and buy the album. It's a very few tracks that make me think "Wow I must go buy their album" and not "Wow I must download that". In fact, MP3 is a great advertising medium. Often when I have got an MP3 I go out and buy the album to hear the rest. If people like a band enough i'm sure they'd do the same. I would rather have a boxed album with inlay card and so on than a hdd full of MP3's but 1 of their tracks on MP3 is okay if you only think they did 1 good track -- it's all about pride of ownership.

    Weevil

  24. Re:At last!! on Code Red Reporting That Doesn't Suck · · Score: 1

    Probably true -- UNIX is a bit of an 'old' term, and journo's would probably associate it with ancient mainframes. Despite our current Internet Age the majority of 'net users are remarkably ignorant as to how the whole thing works. What's more they don't care until it goes down.

    Still. That's better than some punk who thinks he knows how it works and knows all the "jargon" that he's made up or got from similarly ignorant movies but actually doesn't know anything.

    Oh well. Those sorts of people will be first against the wall when the revolution comes....

    Weevil

  25. How typical. on The Death Of The Open Internet · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Yes. Well if you hadn't realised that before then you're pretty stupid. All companies do with the internet is use it to advertise. When have you gone to a company website and had it provide you with INFORMATION and not have it try to sell you something?

    Why can't companies have their own internet? Let them! I think what we're actually talking about is a corporate www. Sure, every day I'd log into 'adnet' to see what corporate bastards are trying to push down my throat. Companies don't realise that their very presence on the internet is rather unwelcome. People hate ad banners, they hate having to buy things (not because they have to give their credit card number over the net, but because most other stuff on the net IS free). If they made a more corporate version or changed the current system so that it was more easy to market products over it, people simply wouldnt use it as much.

    Mind you, I'm sure that if the current open web dies we'd make up something else similar.