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Latest News and Blog Posts from Wayne “Pendragon” Owens.
Reclaiming the word Hacker
As The Next HOPE draws near I figured now would be an appropriate time for me to say a few words about the misappropriation of the term “Hacker“. To quote Randal from Clerks II. “I’m taking it back”
How often do you seen mention these days like :-
- “Hacker steals hundreds of credit card details” (Hello, that’s not Hacking its credit card fraud).
- “Hacker defaces ****’s website” (Try Vandalism not Hacking.)
- “Hacker steals companies data to sell” (Try Industrial Espionage)
Yes there are people out there that do illegal things, a lot of them can be described as Skript Kiddies, crackers, thieves, vandal, humans. Yes there are Hackers that do illegal things, but that does not mean all Hackers do. There was a case in the UK a few years ago of a doctor who killed hundreds of his patients, does that make all doctors mass murderers?
Wikipedia describes the origin of the term Hack as thus :-
The term “hack” was first used by US university computing centre staff in the mid-1960s. The context determined whether the complimentary or derogatory meanings were implied. Phrases such as “ugly hack” or “quick hack” generally referred to the latter meaning; phrases such as “cool hack” or “neat hack”, to the former. In modern computer programming, a “hack” can refer to a solution or method which functions correctly but which is “ugly” in its concept, which works outside the accepted structures and norms of the environment, or which is not easily extendible or maintainable. The programmer keeps beating on it until a solution is found.
In a similar vein, a “hack” may refer to works outside of computer programming. For example, a math hack means a clever solution to a mathematical problem. The GNU General Public License has been described as a copyright hack because it cleverly uses the copyright laws for a purpose the lawmakers did not foresee. All of these uses now also seem to be spreading beyond MIT as well.
The term should be kept as it was originally intended, to describe those people who are curious about how things work, whether it be computers, networks, phones, electronics, maths, whatever. People who find ways to use things in ways that was not in the original specification. We used to cherish these people as innovators, explorers, etc. (Well apart from the early days when the church would burn them as heretics). We should go back to using “Hacker” as a positive description, and just call criminals “Criminals”. So Media People pay attention, I’m taking the word Hackers back.
To aid in the takeback, I will be posting a series of old Hacks, & examples of Hacking. None of them Illegal, none that caused Harm, Injury, disfigurement. There may have been some upset caused by some, but only in a “How come he can do that? why cant I? It’s not Fair”. They are all just examples of someone being curious, someone using things for more than they were designed for, someone helping others thanks to his playing.
Sometimes the World Works
I’d just like to share this motivational story you with Dear Reader, It really made my day and its good to see that sometimes stupidity gets its just deserts.It happened last night on my commute home.
I was driving along some country roads, just coming out of a nasty bend heading for a nice long straight bit. There was no traffic in front of me, and just a motorbike in the oncoming lane a short distance ahead. Just as I was getting to a junction on the right, a car pulled out of the junction directly in front of the motorbike.
Judging by the smug look on the drivers face he had seen the bike and decided he could pull out in front, or that it was just a bike so it would swerve. The poor biker had to jam his breaks on and the bike started swerving and juddering as you would expect from a near emergency stop at speed. I think a lesser driver could well have come off the bike.
Just as I was cursing the stupid car driver, and muttering the “there’s never a cop about when you need one” The bike managed to sort itself out, and started accelerating after the car, with some hidden blue lights starting to flash in the fairing… Yes!!! it was an unmarked police bike, and I wish I could have been there when he pulled the car over.
Sometimes, the world just works!…
Hello Mr Kettle, This is Mr Pot, You’re Black!
Basically the presenter was discussing a news story of the time (The podcast was a couple of weeks old). The story in question was :-
Veteran White House journalist Helen Thomas has quit her job after she was captured on video saying Israelis should “get the hell out of Palestine” and suggesting they go “home” to Germany, Poland or the United States.
Now the podcast presenter was defending her, saying she was correct, and in response to one comment of “What would the outcry be if she had said that all the blacks should get out of America and go back to Africa” he made a big point of explaining that was different, and that the problem was the Israelis had gone to the country populated by another people and forcibly taken over that country. And that was what was wrong with the whole thing.
There followed a tirade on how occupying some other people country forcibly was very wrong. And all I could think of was. “But you are an American??? you are a people made up from the peoples of lots of other countries, who went to a country already populated by a native race, and forcibly took over that country, locking away the natives in small reserves.” So basically everything bad he was saying about Israel was things America were guilty off. I was wondering if he thought that the Americans should leave and return to the countries they were originally from?
It amused me, so I thought I would Share….
RTL – The Guild – Why You should be Looking forward to July 13th
The release date for the fourth season of “The Guild” has been announced as July 13th.
Now it is possible that this means nothing to you, Maybe you have never heard of the Guild, Or heard just bad things about it, or just that you saw the logo in this post and thought. “Nope. Not for me!“. Well Read on dear Reader, allow me the chance to change your mind!
The Guild is a Comedy Web Series, written by Felicia Day (Yes her from Doctor Horrible). Its a series about a group of Gamers who play WoW as a guild. And get themselves info some very odd situations. The best part is its broadcast on Xbox-Live, Zune, MSN, etc before being released on youtube and its own website http://www.watchtheguild.com/.
So put simply it is a Free web comedy you can watch on your xbox, and its about a group of geeky gamers and the problems that can cause in the real world. What’s not to like? Season 3 even had the Internets Wil Wheaton playing a evil character (Is anyone else spotting the tendency to put him as the badguy? it’s like he’s an English actor :o))
I will admit to having heard a few reasons not to watch the show, and I will address them here.
Reason: “I don’t play WoW, So I won’t get it!”
Answer: I have never played WoW either and I still enjoy the show. You don not have to be a WoW player to “get it”. Any internet gamer who plays multiplayer games should find themselves recognising situations and people, wether your an WoW Guild, A FPS clan, or whatever. Its more about Gamers and less WoW specific.
Reason: “Its got that red head from Buffy in it. I hate Buffy”
Answer: Seriously ? You refuse to watch a very funny show because you did not like Buffy? Madness, Yes Felicia Day had a part in the final season of Buffy, but why hold that against her. She’s an intelligent woman (she writes the guild shows, the comics, etc), She is a real life gamer, and if i dare to be sexist a nice bit of eye candy!.
Reason: “I don’t really have the time”
Answer: WTF? the episodes are like 10 minutes long if that. you can watch a whole season in under two hours. You can make time for that. And all the back episodes are online for you RIGHT NOW!
Now that we have dealt with the negative people out there, I suggest everyone else go to http://www.watchtheguild.com/the-guild/auto-tune-the-guild/* and go watch the Season 3 recap.
And on a final note we here at Rock The LAN Three-Ninjas would like to wish Felicia Day a Happy Birthday for today.
This Article was 1st posted @ rocktheLAN.com on Mon, 2010-06-28 13:31
RTL – The IT Crowd: Season 4 Premier
The IT Crowd Season 4 Premier airs next Friday, and the nice guys at Channel 4 have put up the 1st episode a week early as a treat for us. Unfortunately its only available for people in the UK. (Or anyone in the US with access to a UK IP/VPN/Proxy) So here’s a mostly spoiler free review.
The official episode writeup is as follows:
“Jen wants to stretch herself in the workplace so applies for the post of Entertainment Manager. But when she finds out that amusing her boss Douglas’ business connections has its darker side, she has to turn to Moss and Roy for help.”
The IT Crowd kicks off its new season with a classic episode, Roy is devastated after his long term girlfriend leaves him without even saying goodbye, Moss is busy creating the soundtrack to a D&D evening, and Jen wants a new challenge as company Entertainment Manager. Everyone keeps telling her that she is not suited for the job, but she is convinced otherwise. After all, how hard can it be to just take visiting businessmen to the odd show or cultural events?
At this point you know its going to go wrong, especially as people keep hinting the old entertainment manager was basically a pimp. And when she is asked to “entertain” three businessmen who are expecting a week of drinking, wenching, and down right debauchery.
quote: “You took us to something called the vagina monologue, and its just women talking, its false advertising.”
At the same time Douglasis trying to give back his “Shit head of the year” award, he won after a lovely interview with a womans magazine where he described women as beingessentially no different to radiators . along with other sexist views.
quote: “I like my women like I like my toast, Hot and consumable with butter”
I am going to leave it here so I do not give away the ending, or any of the other bits. I will say, this was a very funny episode, and the cast were on fine form. And if the rest of the season is as good as the 1st episode we are in for a good one. so to the writers & actors I say “Eiffel Tower“
I’ll leave you with the wise words of advice. “Have you tried turning it off and on again?“
This Article was 1st posted @ rocktheLAN.com
Crash & Burn… The Wingman Chronicles
I was talking to a friend recently, and for some reason I can not recall the conversation drifted to pulling, Helping friends pull, and things you can do. It was one of them weird conversations that just seem to jump from tangent to tangent with not visible pattern.
During this part of the conversation I pointed out that I’d never been any good at being a WingMan. In my mind, I see great ways to help the guy get the person he wants, there’s just some cosmic force that always takes my great plans and twists them slightly so they are doomed to fail. To prove my point I gave the following story as an example, and I’ve decided to share it with you dear reader.
I leaned against the wall enjoying the loud music that was blasting out from the several walls of speakers set about the room. I had a cold beer in my hand, and there was nothing I needed to be doing for a while, so I could take a minute to just enjoy the moment and the beer. An elbow banging into my side interrupted my contemplation of the girl dancing in front of me. “WOW!” a voice said in time with the elbow. I looked at the guy standing next to me as he pointed across the dance floor to a rather cute goth girl dancing on her own on the opposite side to us. “WOW!” he said again, “Have you ever seen someone so awesome?”
I should really set the scene. It helps with the general idea of what happened, and how it all came about if I explain a few things first. I also think that the possibly high alcohol content in my blood may help my defence. “Well it can’t hurt right?”
University exam season had just finished, and some friends of mine from Aberystwyth Uni were throwing a “end of exams, plus Triple Birthday Party!” Party. My last exam had been early that morning, and I’d shot straight from the exam down to Aberystwyth to help set up the room ready for the party. We had got the use of a pub’s basement area for the night, It was a large room, with a dance floor, seating area, and chill out area. It was perfect for a student party.
I’d had a couple of cold beers with the DJ, as we set up his equipment, the speakers, and tested it all out. Its thirsty work you know, lugging about all that equipment, running out cables, getting it all set up just right. My main role of the evening was to be door man checking tickets at the start of the evening, then a bit of DJing to give the main DJ a break. (Beer Count: 2 pints during setup)
One of my friends, who was also one of the three people celebrating their birthday at the party had her sixteen year old brother up visiting for the party. It was his first time at such a party, since they came from a small welsh village, and as he’d met me a few times while I’d been visiting his sister, he was spending the evening hanging out with me. This was handy since he was too young to get served, I was getting him a drink in my round, then going to bar with his money for his round. (Beer Count: 5 or 6 pints). A couple of hours into the party, one of the other “Birthday People” and myself decided the ration of “hot girls” to everyone else was a bit on the low side and something needed doing about it. That something was a quick pub crawl around Aberystwyth handing out tickets to every cute, or interesting person we met on the way. (Beer Count: Well and truly unknown) . I’d not long got back to the party, got a round in and was enjoying my drink when my friends brother spotted the to quote “girl of his dreams“.
“She does look interesting. You want to meet her?” I grabbed his shoulder and dragged him with me across the dance floor, ignoring his mumbled objections and the rising tone of panic in his voice. She stopped dancing as I came to a stop in front of her, I introduced myself, my tongue tied companion, and asked her name. Introductions been done, I mentally took a step back and let him make his move. I waited, and waited, and slowly realised I may have to do more work in my self appointed role of WingMan!
‘ok, this is not going well’ I thought, and asked “Drinks?”. “err yes, err its my round I think, errr do you want a drink?” he nervously asked her, ‘YES!’ I shouted in my mind, ‘its a start, he’s offering her a drink’. I quickly asked what everyone wanted, and wandered off to the bar slowly to give them a chance to talk… When I returned with the drinks, they were just standing there not speaking ‘Rats! I need to do something’.
The something I decided to do was to relocate the three of us to some comfortable seats to the side of the dance floor where it was quieter and easier to talk. ‘WOW, that’s a brilliant idea’ I thought to myself in response to the suggestion my mind had just given me to help break the ice. “Hold my drink for a minute will you?” I asked her, “I’ll be right back”. I looked about for the guy I’d done the pub craw with, and wandered over to him. “Hi Dave, You got that purity test on you?”
While we had been on our pub crawl handing out tickets, we had made a side stop at a computer lab and printed out a couple of copies of the 500Q purity test for fun and games at the party. Now my mind’s suggestion had been to grab a copy of the test, and convince the girl to sit it. This should give information of how easy she was, what she had done, what she was willing to do, and create many openings for flirting. “What could go wrong?” What indeed.
A short while later, and she’s sat in between us sitting the test. She is not hiding her answers so its easy to see what she has done, not done, and willing to do. ‘USE IT AS AN OPENING’ I’m shouting in my mind to the lad on the other side of her, ‘YOU ARE MISSING A GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY!!! DO SOMETHING’. I sigh, this is not working, so I try coughing and pointing to her results, I try miming what he should say to her.”So you never done that?” I ask, “Really? never”. I wiggle my eyebrows at him, and point at her with my eyes for him to offer to rectify the situation. ‘SIGH’.
A short time later as she was nearing the final few questions, I grew desperate. His window of opportunity was closing, and getting smaller and smaller. I had to act, and act fast. I leaned across the girl sliding under her arms so I could still see the paper she was using to mark her scores. With my head resting in her lap, I looked up at my friends brother, “You idiot. She’s almost finished and you’re missing your chance” He just growled at me, ‘Humm maybe he didn’t understand me, I’ll try again’ “Look, she’s just marked she’s never done that, its a perfect time to ask her about it, you could even offer to help her rectify the situation” He growled more. “Come one, the point of the purity test is to laugh at those with the highest score, and see how easy people are for the end of the night.” He looked at me with hate in his eyes. “Shit, you really never done that but want to?” I asked her in shock at her latest answer. She just patted me on the head. He muttered and looked away.
It was at that point I decided the situation was not going to get better with any amount of help, so I stopped helping. We laughed and joked about the test, and the questions for a bit. All the while with my friends brother just sulking, then I was called away to cover the music for a while, leaving them alone. As I was playing some music, I spotted they were just sitting there not talking, then after a while she got up and walked off to dance. And that was the end of that.
Personally I think I created an unbelievable amount of once in a lifetime openings for the lad. But maybe I was wrong, and its truly just another example of my inability to play the role of the WingMan.
RTL – Rocking the LAN !m!
Greetings & Salutations Dear Constant Reader
I would like to take just a few moments out of your busy Monday Morning. Oh who am I kidding, its a Monday morning, you are probably at the same place I am, waiting until the influx of coffee into your system counters that monday-morning feeling and you are able to contemplate doing some real work.
So, The reason I’m interrupting your needed coffee time is to let you know some exciting news. Well it is exciting for me.
Last Friday I joined the writing crew over at RockTheLAN. So you will now have extra opportunities to read my particular style of ramblings, along with the other writers of Geek/Gamer/Nerd/Internets style articles.
My introduction on RTL is included below.
Greetings And Salutations
Let me take just five minutes out of your busy schedule to introduce myself. I am the @GreatGothNinja. “Long Story that I may tell at some future time“
I feel like I’m in a AA meeting. “Hi I’m @GreatGothNinja and I’m a gamer!“. I’ve been a Gamer since, well since I can remember (There’s a Commodore 64, BBC Micro, Sega MegaDrive, a 5.25inch floppy with a MRPG i once wrote, and other such devices in my attic). And there is currently a Xbox 360 Elite (due to its blackness), A PS3, PS2, Wii (Black) plugged into my TV. I think I defiantly match the description of a Gamer. I have no favorite type of game, enjoying FPS, RPG, Strategy, etc. My theory has always been, if its enjoyable I like it.
I’ve been knocking around this here Internets for a while now under one name or another. picking up awards for different websites, and a rather popular online insanity test that’s still being emailed around many years after it was written. Then a few years back I decided to port my LiveJournal to a dedicated blog, and to try and write more than just the odd random bit of gibberish. It was there, sat in a corner rocking back and two with a game controller in my hand, I was found and given the wonderful opportunity to take part in helping to provide entertainment, information to my geeky gamer peers on this here Rock The LAN.
I would write more, but I have decided if you want to know more, then you will have to keep coming back to http://www.rockthelan.com and reading all the posts in the hope of seeing more info.
Thank you for letting me intrude into your day. Now go grab yourself a coffee and go outside to enjoy the sun.
Darwin Award Entry Suggestion
So we have all seen in the news the “incident” with the Gaza flotilla. We’ve seen both sides blame the other, there’s videos and photos proving both sides correct. Now I am not going to get into which side was in the right. What I would like to ask is.
Which Idiot thought it would be a good idea to fill some ships with activists and try and run a military blockade in a security hotzone.
Seriously, whoever came up with the idea could do with having a psychological check-up. I’m not saying the blockade is fair, or right, or anything like that. Its just the madness of the idea.
What did they think the Israelis would do? I mean if someone stood in front of me with a gun and said, no one is allowed to walk past me. I would not think it would be a great peaceful hoot to walk past him and expect him to do nothing.
Update:
Ok, so now a video has come to light where the captain of the lead ship is swearing he will be a martyr, and that all the people on the ships shall be martyred for Allah. So maybe it was a planned frackup to split Israel off from its allies, and not just a really stupid idea.
“Better dead than Red” But Even Better “Red Dead Redemption”
At the weekend I had a cunning plan. A plan so cunning, you could say “it was as cunning as a fox who’s just been appointed Professor of Cunning at Oxford University“. Now that’s cunning!
Before I tell my cunning plan, I need to set the scene, or at least explain the events leading up to “The Cunning Plan“. It all starts on a Saturday morning, not any old Saturday morning but the start of a three day Bank Holiday weekend. It starts with a man with a stupidly long list of things he really needs to do, and no inclination to do any of them. Well I’d been putting off stuff for weeks/months/years. I am spod watch me idle!
So I really needed to make some headway into the growing pile that was the task-list. It was while contemplating this that “The Cunning Plan” was hatched.
You see it came to me as if whispered into my ear by the angel or devil that sits on my shoulder (I always get those two mixed up). I would get myself the game “Red Dead Redemption” that I had read so much about on different peoples Blog’s and which so far had good write-ups. So I would go get myself this game and place it in a prominent position. And if I completed a load of tasks then I could treat myself to playing the game. I am Male, Watch me get bribed!
The plan was formed, I quickly made a list of the most pressing tasks on my Whiteboard and headed out to the shops. The first shop I tried was sold out, The second did not even have it listed as a released game, The third shop turned out to be a cake shop (so I got myself a cake. I am an Adult, I can buy myself cakes), The fourth was a constitutional right, Luckily the fifth was more promising. I just had one pitfall to pass.
I entered the shop to be confronted by a series of displays for the iPad, There was box’s of them all looking new and shiny. I know I’m waiting for the none mac tablets to be released but I am a geek, I love new technology. The draw of the shiny almost drew me in, but I rolled a nat 20 on my resist willpower, and was able to pass. I made it to the game section to spot the “SOLD OUT” sign on the Xbox360 section of the game. Luckily they had one left in the PS3 section, so I was saved, the game was bought, and I returned home.
So there I was, Task list on whiteboard, prize for completion in hand. What could go wrong?
Well, the thing is the game may not have worked, and needed replacing which would annoy me after completing my tasks. So what harm could there be in just throwing it into ps3 and checking its ok. I could just watch the intro and then turn it off when I was sure it worked. I could do that couldn’t I?
And that was the moment “The Cunning Plan” failed. and the weekend vanished. In my defence the game is great. Wide open landscapes to ride over, all the wildlife, random encounters, missions, fun. I don’t think I’ve done any of the plot elements of the game yet. I’ve just wandered the land killing & Skinning animals, shooting the rope on people being hanged, and generally killing people. Oh and I’m on my eighth or ninth horse. I’ve met several people walking alone in the desert who’ve asked for help, only to pull me off my mount and ride off on it when I’ve gone to help. Which means I then have to shoot my horse dead so it falls on the horse thief while I then walk over and shoot them in the legs and arms, and leave them lying bleeding on the floor.
Oh. I guess I could just shoot the rider dead and leave the horse alive? Hummm I never considered that.
I do recommend the game to anyone. Unless you really have other stuff you need to do first.
I think the worlds trying to tell me something.
I have recently had an epiphany, and I thought in my egotistical way (Hey I write on a blog, and have a Myriad of personal websites, of course I’m an egomaniac.) that I would share it with you Dear Readers.
Now I am used to seeing people find this blog with the following search terms, or variations. “pure evil“, “kill everyone“, “evil“, etc. Now, as I said, I’m used to seeing them I don’t understand why these searches find me, or what kind of person Google’s “Kill everyone”.
And I will also admit to being used to friends & family joking that I am evil, and denying my claims to “niceness”. Yet on top of all this, I was shocked at the weekend. Let me explain :-
My Niece loves playing “The Sims 2“. and at the weekend she got an expansion pack for it called something like “Apartment Life“. Now one of the extras this gives you, is the ability to became a magical being. A witch or Warlock. Now my niece wanted to be a good witch, only she was unsure how you do it. So being a good uncle, I looked it up on google and explained it to her. I also figured I’d test it myself in case she needed further help.
So I created myself a Character, I based it to look as close to me as I could, I set it with my star sign, my interests and personality (to the best degree I could), and i was ready to go.
According to google, you simply go to a community lot and hang about. After a while a Witch will pop up. Easy enough, I load up my Sims and head over to the library. A short while later the Good Witch turns up, so I go over to greet her. That was when things went downhill. Within a minute the good witch had gone from a friendship score of 0 (don’t know me) to -30 (hates me) and she would walk off if I went anywhere near her. “OK. maybe I just not any good at this game“.
That was when the Evil Witch turned up. So I went over to greet her. Within a minute our friendship had gone from 0 to 98. Not only that but she was in love with my Sim. WTF?
Is the sims trying to tell me that my Star Sign/Personality only matches with evil?
I think more research is needed. So watch this space.