7331 Haxors

Hacking. One of the least understood skill sets in existence. Based in the world of the interwebs, whose technical side few can claim to fully understand, hacking is a vague, broadly defined word basically meaning any possible combination of doing things you aren't supposed to on the interwebs or on other people's computers.

Here's how a great deal of hacking works: people write programs or scripts that tell a computer to guess password and user name combinations at prompts. A computer can guess a lot faster than an average person can type, up to a few billion guesses every second.

Eventually, the guessing computer will get the password right, if given enough time. Fortunately, complex passwords take a lot of time to guess.

We live in a modern age, where free and easily downloaded firewalls, anti-viruses and anti-spyware programs can render 99% of all hacking attempts obsolete. But somethings, probably considered hacks, are still all too easy to learn and use.

For instance, this article details how to crash interwebs explorer. There, Now you know how to hack. You can't turn me in now, you're in too deep already!

The history of hacking is a wide and varied one, taking place all over the world. Feel free to peruse the map below, showing the locations of some of the biggest hacking events in interwebs history.


View Blog Map in a larger map

And I totally lied about penguin hackers.



Diving Deeper -

http://www.sptimes.com/Hackers/history.hacking.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_computer_security_hacker_history

http://www.francesfarmersrevenge.com/stuff/misc/hack/index.htm

http://www.crime-research.org/library/crime1.htm

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/19/AR2010021902643.html?hpid=moreheadlines

http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=1670

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/08/02/british.hacker.mckinnon/index.html

http://www.geek.com/articles/news/japanese-hacker-arrests-doubled-in-2007-20081111/

http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/cri_sof_pir_rat-crime-software-piracy-rate

Facebook; Creepy or Outright Malicious?

This video was reccomended to me by a friend lately. Go ahead and watch it. I'll wait.

...man, I forgot how long that video is. Hm... what to do, what to do... oh! Lolcats! Man those little guys are hilarious. I should kill this blog and make a new one devoted entirely to lolcats and loldogs. I wonder if interwebsloldogs.blogspot.com is already taken...

Okay, you've watched it. Pretty creepy at first glance, but a little far fetched. Conspiracy theories abound on the interwebs, and noting that some big name investors have invested in multiple things doesn't necessarily mean that the government is 1984-style creeping on our facebook pages.

But anyone who knows about facebook knows how genuinely stalker style they are. This site explains ten privacy settings that can make it less likely you'll be stalked or creeped by those who wish you harm, but nothing prevents facebook from using your data for their own nefarious ends.

And by nefarious ends, I mean selling data to marketing companies. You see those ads on the side of facebook? Ever notice how wonderfully targeted they are? It's because they can read your status. For instance, change your status to married, and you'll see all sorts of different ads targeted at newlyweds. Change your likes to 'Ice Cream', and you'll probably see some ads for Haagen-Daaz.

Is this necessarily a bad thing? I mean, if this is 1984, it's about the most benevolent form of 1984 imaginable. A big brother that carefully notes what you like, and makes suggestions for your further enjoyment? Doesn't sound too dystopian.

Of course, there has been a lot of complaints about facebook. The whole "invasion of privacy" thing is a big one. There have been many cases where authority figures (colleges, law enforcement, even secret service agents) have supposedly used facebook to track down people making inappropriate posts, threatening remarks or posting pictures of themselves breaking the law. (source)

IMHO, this isn't necessarily a bad thing. Sure, there might be a slippery slope leading to a total police state, but now facebook primarily uses their information to help you find cool new items and services you might like. They're making fabulous amounts of money doing it, and if this helps law enforcement track down criminals, so much the better.

What are your thoughts on the issue?

An Interview with an Interwebs Junkie

Dan is my good friend and one of the only people I know who spends more time on the interwebs than I do. This week, he talks about his experiences as an admin, his thoughts on how to behave online, and his strong opinions on net neutrality. Enjoy:

Interwebs Etiquette

The worst part about being an anonymous, unaccountable, opinionated, immature interwebs diver is having to hang out with a bunch of anonymous, unaccountable, opinionated, immature interwebs divers.

Let's face it, this formula, taken from tvtropes, pretty much sums up the interwebs community sometimes:

Average Person + Anonymity + Audience = Absolutely Horrible Manners. But it doesn't have to be all bad. I now proudly present, in an attempt to rectify this situation, the interwebsjunkie's guide to interwebs etiquette!

Rule 1 - Don't Feed the Trolls

I won't be the first to say this, and I won't be the last. Trolls (so called because they, like fishermen, troll for bites (angry responses) in the sea of the interwebs (also retconned to mean they are nasty, like trolls)) exist only to verify their existence by goading others into flaming at them.

These angry reactions are their sustenance, their mission, their very reason for existing. Deny them this, and they shrivel and die. Feed them, and they thrive. And trolls can breed. A troll can smell the scent of an easy target, and they'll home in on forums where they are likely to be noticed and vindicated.

So the next time you see "ur mom is fat" just ignore them. They'll go away eventually. Nothing is worse to a troll then to be ignored, and nothing is more annoying than to see some noob getting angry at an obvious troll and engulfing an entire thread in painful flaming.

Rule 2 - Think Before you Flame

We've all seen this. Someone makes a comment about another poster, who then flies off the handle and begins spouting flame like an outraged interwebs dragon.

The medium of electronic communication is a vague one. There is no body language, no facial expressions (other than smileys) or any nonverbal cues at all to let someone know you are kidding. When something could be an insult against you, assume it isn't.

Violations of this rule often lead to the embarrassing double irony, where someone gets mad, the other person says they were just kidding, and then the original offender must claim they were also just kidding, ironically getting mad. There is no limit to how deep this can go, either. I've witnessed a poster claim to be kidding about getting mad at the other person getting mad at them getting mad. It was just silly.

Rule 3 - Don't Bite the Hand that Hosts You

Some people take the time to host websites where people can chat, visit forums and create a community. They are the builders of the town halls of the interwebs, and deserve our thanks and praise. They, or those they put in their place, act as admins to forums, policing and enforcing the rules they have seen fit to erect on their site.

Sometimes these rules are strange, but more often they are pretty basic: no forum necromancy,
no marketing products, no racial-based flaming, stuff like that. However, there is always a few ne'er do wells (possibly trolls, but often as not deluded divers) who decide that this is an affront to their rights as Americans, and that the admin is infringing on their right to free speech.

They claim they should be able to say whatever they like without censorship. Usually, I agree, but this is the interwebs equivalent of barging into someones house, loudly yelling profanities and then getting outraged when they ask you to stop.

Rule 4 - Help the Noobs

Yes, they are annoying. No, they don't understand what you mean when you talk in your favorite forum slang. But you were once a noob too. Hopefully, they'll follow my Rule 5 (see below) but even if they don't, you shouldn't pwn them, even if they deserve it.

Someday, they could be members of the forum and contribute just as much as you have. Perhaps they could be your friend at that time, and have interesting conversations. But none of this will happen if you ignore, belittle or curse at them. They'll likely slink away, shamed of their status, and you'll have disobeyed interwebs etiquette.

Rule 5 - Do Some Lurking Before you Post

Okay, so you found this cool new site. You want to dive right into the conversation, but what's this? You don't know what a PetSol is, or why anyone would want to CurioCamp?

Basically, you have two options; either do the responsible thing, lurk a bit, try to find out from context clues and look around for the FAQ thread or any stickies that explain terminology (there almost always is one) or you could be the annoying noob you are and start a new thread (probably in an inappropriate forum) titled HEY WHAT DOES THIS MEAN LOL and annoy all of the other posters.

Why is this relatively minor infraction annoying? Because your post is right above another post asking the same thing. And below it. Any forum is going to be spammed by noobs asking these questions, and even the most civic minded interwebs diver is going to be slowly worn down by the torrent of noobs.

Five easy rules to make yourself a more polite interwebs user. Of course, always remember that on the other end of that annoying poster is a real person, with thoughts, feelings and emotions. No matter how much fun it would be to anonymously crush them, it wouldn't be polite.

DIVING DEEPER -

http://www.livinginternet.com/i/ia_nq.htm - A great article on more netiquette.

Serious Business

Most of the time, the interwebs is a lighthearted world of lolcats, silly memes, and goofy trolls. Sometimes, though, the interwebs is serious business.

One of those times is when dealing with Net Neutrality. (It is really that dramatic). If you are one of those who doesn't know what Net Neutrality is, you can read up on it here.

Basically, Net Neutrality centers around the argument for paying different, tiered levels for bigger or smaller sites. Under a neutral system, (which is what proponents of Net Neutrality want) interwebs service providers would be regulated by good ol' Uncle Sam and forced to provide equal service for everyone.

Proponents argue that this will allow the same level of wacky hijinks and innovation we've seen on the interwebs so far to continue. Opponents of this idea claim that it puts a hobble on free market capitalism and is essentially another case of overregulation that would ultimately put too much strain on interwebs providers.

Opponents of Net Neutrality point out how vaguely worded any law dealing with it sounds, and how these laws would also apply to coffee shops with wireless networks, and other ridiculous considerations. The trouble senators and congressmen are having with this likely stems from how well they understand what the interwebs actually is. Or, if you prefer: how well they understand what the interwebs actually is. (I someday want to get famous enough that people make techno remixes of my gaffes).

Essentially, this is a tangled issue, with the classic American political mix of free market vs. regulation, free speech vs. corporate interests, efficiency vs. diversity, and technology vs. economy. But it's also reeeeaaaly boooooriiing. And the debate has already been covered far better than I ever could.

So I'm going to put the essential debate of net neutrality into the native tongue of the interwebs. Enjoy:


moar funny pictures


moar funny pictures


moar funny pictures


moar funny pictures


moar funny pictures


moar funny pictures

But srsly, Net Neutrality is Serious Business for the Interwebs. I encourage you to read more about it, and develop your own, educated opinion on the subject. What are your thoughts on the issue?

Diving Deeper -

http://cheezburger.com/lolbuilder.aspx (All images and lolcats built here)

A review: Chat Roulette

It has come to my attention that some of you have been using this site to instantly and anonymously chat with other randos in a time consuming, oddball fashion of eclectic weirdness, unlimited potential and pornography. This is what the interwebs is all about, so I sauntered on over to review this site for the more discerning interwebs divers.

The site has a simple layout, and within moments you are chatting with other interwebs users in real time video with text support. Though the site is nice and cleanly organized and simple to get started (so easy a kid could do it... unfortunately... more on that later) the sound quality is awful, and most resort to the text bar provided. The video is good quality, depending on the stranger's web cam.

I immediately got started and began chatting. I kept a live log of typed thoughts and references, quickly put up as I was watching for 100 chats. I now present to you these hastily scribbled experiences:

1: A dark room, a foot.

A perfect intro to the weirdness that is to follow.

2: an asian man playing video games.
3: A shirtless man, a sign says looking for bitch.
4: A naked man gripping his erect member. He hits skip before I can.

Unfortunately, this is the first of many weiners I saw that night.

5: A dark screen. I pause for a moment to write.
6: A girl with a mask. She quickly hits skip.
7: A dude bro. He hits skip.
8: Another dark screen. I call out hello tentatively. There is no response.
9: Guy, he sees my phi tau shirt. We start to chat, he turns out to be from Miami.
He is a beta theta pi. We chat for a bit.

This is the first actual conversation I have. It was rather pleasant, but I'd rather chat with friends.

10: Another dick.
11: Two guys. They tell me that they've seen four guys in a row as a 'dick chain'. They have
accents. They say they are going to try to break their record.
12: Two more guys, look like tools. They hang up quickly.
13: A little boy. Shouldn't be on here.
14: A toolbag. Quickly changes.
15: A dick.
16: Another dick.

I suppose I now have a two dick chain.

17: A creepy looking dude in dark glasses. He says nothing and stairs at me.
18: A man in a wrestling mask.
19: A guy who flips me off.
20: A girl in black and white.

The high contrast hides flaws. There were enough women who used this trick I began to suspect
that, though there were more wieners looking for chicks, there were also some chicks looking for wieners.

21: A red sign that says boobs | vaginas. There is a 1 under the boobs.
22: A sign that shows papa smurf and says I need boobs to save my village.
23: A guy in a wrestling mask.
24: Another dick.
25: A man wiping up his ejaculate, having just came on his pants.

This was pretty disgusting, and I considered scrapping the whole project here. But as an Interwebs person, I have seen some nasty stuff, so bravely (or foolishly) dove deeper.

26: A man looking into the distance.
27: A creepy man in a hoodie.
28: Two asian girls. They say they are from Asia. I tell them I've seen a lot of wieners.
They laugh and then hang up.
29: Another dark screen.
30: A guy who quickly changes it.
31: A man with dark glasses dancing at me.
32: A man laying down in bed.
33: A man with dreads glaring at the camera. He has a neck beard. I ask him how long
he has been growing them. He says nothing, merely stares at the camera.
34: Another random dude.
35: A very angry looking dude.
36: Another wiener
37: A laughing chick.
38: A dude.
39: Another dude.
40: Wiener.
41: Creepy dude.
42: A silent boy.
43: Boobs? Huh. I guess it works both ways.
44: A man grabbing his erect penis through his pants.
45: A creepy guy.
46: a naked man.
47: Wiener.
48: A creepy dude.
49: A man standing up, drinking a beer. He says he has been at it all day.
50: Creepy dude.
51: Wiener.
52: A man playing music on a glowing keyboard. Very cool. It flashes whenever he plays a key.
He then puts his fingers into a circle, and pushes his finger through the circle,
mimicking coitus. I tell him he is classy. He does so again. I hit next.
53: My camera freezes. It is in a weird facial position.
54: A small guy in a hoodie.
55: A man moves frantically around.
56: A girl looks into the camera.
57: A guy in a white undershirt.
58: A girl in a revealing shirt. We make small talk, it turns out she is from Norway.
I tell her she is number 58, we talk about the dudes who masturbate. We begin to chat.
She comments she has been there, and we have a chat conversation.
Stranger: only my dad and his family are from englnad
..we continue to chat for some time. About culture in Norway, the amazing nature of this technology, ect.

This, to me, shows the potential of this site. Instant face to face contact with different cultures. Amazing. Think about what this could do for world peace, cultural understanding, technology, art, ideas... the mind boggles. Or, alternatively, it could be used to show people your wiener.

59: A girl in goth clothing.
60: A group of giggling girls.
61: A man in dark shades. He is joined by another guy. They begin smoking cigarettes.
They hit next.
62: dude.
63: Naked dude.
65: Black and white chick.
66: Goth chick. She stares for a moment, then mouths something. We begin to type.
We have a conversation, and she begins to tell me about her day. Apparently it
was quite crazy. I notice her hair is died, and she is wearing quite a lot of
make up. I briefly wonder if she got prettied up for this, and think back to the other
girl's shirt. Hm...
She talks about the wieners and drinks the last of some fluid from a pitcher,
then asks me to guess her age?
I show her to my girlfriend, who guesses 16.
She tells me she is 15! Too young to be on this site.
If dudes have been showing their wieners to her, that is total illegal. Huh.
She tells me she is from the UK.
We chat for a bit, but I start to feel weird about chatting up a 15 year old online.
67: An Asian man in dark glasses.
68: A naked man in a hunting cap.
69: A woman in lots of makeup, my theory continues.
70: A man opens by saying global warming is a lie. We begin to talk politics.
He is from new jersey.
He tells me religion is a lie, then switches.
71: A woman with a bottle of tequila.
72: A man in headphones gives me the peace sign.
73: A man or woman in what looks like a burkha. Or Naqib thing.
74: A close up of a man's sleeve. He does not respond to my hailing.
After a minute I hit next.
75: A girl. She tries to speak then clicks next.
76: A girl.
77: A girl. Are they looking for weiners?
78: Darkness.
79: Creepy guy.
80: Creepy guy.
81: Creepy guy.
82: Wiener.
83: Creepy guy.
84: Guy masturbating into pants.
75: A gal from the Netherlands. She makes me guess this, though,and I reveal my embarrassing lack of European geography. She tells me she has a friend in Ohio, who is named Koen.
We discuss stereotypes of our countries. Pot smoking, red light districts.
She tells me I look like jack black, and we talk about how much better porn is then this site.

Overall, probably the conversation I enjoyed the most. Two students from different cultures speaking on various subjects, promoting understanding of each other... wonderful concept.

76: A black screen after that nice break.
77: A creepy dude. He says lol then disconnects.
78: A strange glowing light.
79: A creepy dude.
80: A douchebag creepy dude.
81: Another little kid. Ugh.
82: A black screen.
83: A wiener.
84: A creepy dude.
85: A black screen.
86: A blinking clock. Digital with green numbers. A red light is flashing.
People are talking in the background. He says "it a bomb" He turns the
camera to reveal he is in a Darth Vader helmet, and gives me a thumbs up.
He gives me the peace sign and hits next.
87: Creepy dude.
88: Blank screen.
89: Blank screen.
90: Black n' white girl.
91: A grainy quality creepy dude. He stairs at the screen, unwavering.
His webcam is awful, and it makes him look like an old video. He says
nothing, merely staring at me for some time before hitting next.

This was the most unsettling, and there were many unsettling ones.

92: Creepy dude.
93: Creepy dude.
94: A dude in a large fake mustache. He makes faces at me and then
clicks next.
95: A man wearing a Russian hat in bad. Very creepy.
96: Wiener.
97: A pleasant looking man and woman. They begin to talk to me, but my
computer crashes.
98: After getting back on, I see a very androgynous person smiling.
I have no idea if it is a man or a woman, but it quickly goes away.
99: Another creepy man in a hat.
100: A man slowly puts a bear closer and closer to the screen and then
pushes its crotch into the webcam.

Confusing, so I broke it down into statistics for easy digestibility:

Random Weirdness - 15%
Blank Screens - 7%
Creepy Dudes - 41%
Creepy Girls - 12%
Creepy Androgynous - 1%
Pleasant Conversations - 3%
Kids - 2%
Wieners - 19%

I can't help but notice that the creepy guy/creepy girl ratio (counting wieners as creepy guys) is a poor 60/12, or 5:1 ratio. Not good odds, creepy guys.

So, in essence, we have a site of amazing power for communication, cultural contact, information and discourse. However, it is mostly used for sex and voyeurism. In this, it is a perfect mirror for the interwebs as a whole. Overall entertainment value I would say is mostly poor, unless you like looking at wieners or having people look at yours (and in that case, it is mostly other wieners and giggling girls, so why bother?)

A fun thing to do once, but not enough draw to lead me back there.

The Descent into the Interwebs

A Place of Your Very Own

Forums. We love to hate them. Sure, we're members of somewhere around 18-20 of them, where we contribute, comment, flame, troll and generally act excessive. But if you've been banned from one to many and crave the power of the admin for yourself, then there is no other option than to make one of your very own.

There are many ways to do this. If you have your own server, you can simply download some free software and start making your own. For the purpose of this post I'm going to assume you don't, though, and start from the beginning.

There are a few great sites, but one of the all around nicest and easiest (for forums with lower population densities, at least) is myfreeforums. For the first step, simply head on over there. Fill out your information, then click the create forum button.

Congratulations! You just made your own forum. Easy, wasn't it. Now, just click on go to your forum and it will take you there. Now, you are admin of your own forum, the undisputed ruler of your realm, and... oh, it looks pretty crappy, doesn't it... okay, no worries, we can fix that up.

You will be, by default, logged in as admin with whatever password you selected. First, go ahead and go to the admin panel down towards the bottom of the page, as seen here:



Now, everything is here in front of you that will be explained better than I can in my post. But why would you want to read all of that boring jargon when you could listen to me. Go ahead and click on the left side of the screen, where it says forums, as here, then click on management.



Click up near the test category thing where it says edit, then type in whatever you want your first major category, or large group of posting areas, to be. Then start clicking add forums, and you can make the architecture of your forum to your liking. Just type in a brief description, a title, and leave the other fields and areas pretty much alone.

After that, click add new category to add wings to the new mansion of your forum. Once you're done building the basics, its time to start adding decoration.

A cool thing you can add to make the site have flavor is ranks. Go into the general tab, click on ranks, and then fill some out. Basically, when your users post a certain number of entries, then they'll be given a new rank, which appears under their name.

You can also go into the word censors, also under the same tab, to set up any censorship you desire. Now, I prefer a free flowing discussion, so I just used it to replace my friend's name with an insulting nickname. This is the power you can abuse as an admin.

You can also customize your smileys, adding a certain flair to your site. Just go into smileys under the general tab and scroll way down to the bottom and select import smiley pack. I personally like lotsofsmileys... it is so over the top.



To truely personalize your blog, you'll need a better template. Hit the styles tab, click add and then scroll down until you find a template preview you like. When you find one, click install. But you aren't quite done yet. Go back up to the general tab and go into configuration. Now scroll down until you see the default style option, here:



Now, set it to the style you selected in the last step. Then scroll all the way down and hit submit. Your blog should be changed.

Well, all for now. Let me know if you know of any cool forum sites other than what I mentioned, or any additional tricks to make your forum the coolest on the interwebs.