notadev

I hated ccoms. Just flooded chat. Eventually chats would just be everyone shuffling through their list of 10K songs downloaded from Napster.

AOL would let you play wav files in a chat room that everyone, who had that file on their system, would hear. You could play the default AOL sounds like {S gotmail and everyone in the chat would hear "You've Got Mail". When someone found out you could send {S con\con or {s aux\aux, you could clear out an entire chatroom since all other chatters would get a BSoD.

For lame progz, I loved Gothic Nightmares by Masta. Every time it opened it'd play the intro to ICP's Great Milenko and just made you feel like you were some cool hacker dude lol. Mikey's VIP spammer was pretty awesome too, except he inserted his own affiliate links in every n message so he was probably making a lot of money from a lot of unsuspecting IM spammers.

Progz were sort of the gateway drug to real hacking of AOL. There was a headbanger dude named Beav who archived most progs for download on his Angelfire website LensHell. There's still an archive available (https://lenshellprogarchive.com)

Progz were mostly for annoyance and were either released as one purpose programs, such as a punter to boot people offline, or a fader to color text in chat when colors were introduced, or an OH Scroller that scrolled endless text to disrupt chat (you would run these on hacked overhead aka "OH" accounts used by staff that didn't get auto-booted for scrolling). Some progs were sort of All-In-One programs where they had maybe a punter feature, a fader feature, etc. These all in one progs usually had a bunch of useless stuff like an "echo bot" or "trivia bot" or whatever. Some had more nefarious purposes like termers which were used to get people's accounts terminated. Things like punters and termers were usually short-lived as AOL would catch on to whichever method they were using an patch it.

The article talks about the open-source sharing nature of progz, and maybe that was true for the folks who lived in the vb private chats or who released their BAS files (dos32.bas was my first ever intro to coding), but many in the hacker scene were typical teenage boys who would constantly try to one up each other and prove how leet or oldschool they were...and new methods weren't always widely shared. The biggest status symbols for AOL hackers were leet screen names, like "Boss" or "Hack". Even more leet were 3chars which were the smallest amount of characters in a screen name and thus hard to get. The leetest of all were restricted names that had banned words, like "FuckAOL" or were only 2chars like "DJ", or indents like " MrLeet" since they were seemingly impossible to make.

In order to get these screen names, hackers would find ways to steal account information to reset the passwords, or use tools like Sub7 to infect users and then steal their passwords. More technically savvy hackers would exploit holes in AOL's systems such as the "sign up" page which was the source of a really famous hack in 2000. Other hackers were adept at finding ways to convince AOL to terminate an account for supposed threats. Because of this, most AOL hackers had an extensive numbers of <>< or phished accounts to avoid a rival hacker from terming you "perm" account which was usually paid for by your parents. The term phish and its associated progz, phishers, phish tanks, etc., were actually coined on AOL.

Some guys from the scene are legendary. One guy who used AOL on a Mac would often find exploits only he could use, including one where he stole pretty much every 3char name available. Rumor has it he went on to create a very popular online game where users are slithering snakes. :-)

To expand on this a bit, when you mailed an attachment on AOL, it would upload and be hosted on their servers. So when you forwarded that email to someone, the download was just a pointer to the original location on their servers. Warez groups would recruit people for positions likw uploaders with strong connections who would just send tons of mail with attachments (to themselves I think). Then the progz/bots, called Mass Mailers (MMers) would sit in a private chat and wait for commands.

Sending the `/list` command in chat would result in one or more emails with lists of software, usually split up to reduce file size. If I were looking for PhotoShop, I might see something like:

[400] PhotoShop 4.0 (cracked by Foo) 1/4

[401] PhotoShop 4.0 (cracked by Foo) 2/4

[402] PhotoShop 4.0 (cracked by Foo) 3/4

[403] PhotoShop 4.0 (cracked by Foo) 4/4

I'd then send `/send 400-403` in the chat and in a few minutes I'd have four forwarded emails containing a portion of an archive. You'd do this for a bunch of stuff and then when going to bed, let AOL's download manager download everything overnight. AOL did more for the WaReZ scene than anyone else in the mid-to-late 90s.

I think what you wrote makes perfect sense and I could get behind not caring so much about some standards for some positions. What would you propose for the support jobs like “Culinary Specialists” or “Logistics Specialists”?

The point of bootcamp isn’t just for you to learn how to do this or that, it’s also about breaking you of your individualist civilian mentality and molding you into a soldier/sailor/marine/airman who can put the mission and their fellow service members above themselves. Being yelled at is negative reenforcement and quickly helps you understand your mistakes. Camaraderie also flourishes when you all hate your drill instructor. When you get out and join the real military, you often think back some drill instructors as the “stern but fair” types.

Navy bootcamp was surprisingly easy. You quickly figure out what they can and cannot do, how many push-ups you have to do before they’ll let you up, how long they can make you PT, etc. We still had people who couldn’t handle it and were sent home. It was probably for the best. The military isn’t always easy and it really helps to be resilient. If someone criticizes you for doing something stupid and accept that you did a stupid thing, or you can’t let it go, you may not get very far.

I was a Chief and got out at 16. They made me CMEO so instead of doing my job, I was handling Equal Opportunity and Harassment complaints, which are taken very seriously. When I was told of something, I had mandatory reporting timelines and had to send messages to big Navy, NCIS, etc. Nearly all of the complaints were from junior sailors who lacked the resiliency to withstand an ass chewing or were suicidal because their Chief made them work late correcting something they messed up. It was all very strange and it wasn’t worth the mediocre retirement pay. I am much happier as a civilian.

A few things in play here. Each job has certain quotas they have to fill. Too many of one job will make advancement nearly impossible which prevents people from moving up into leadership positions and will eventually cause a shortage when those that can’t promote decide to leave. Recruiters have quotas too, like 2.5 recruits this month or at least one female this month, etc.

Your ASVAB score and likelihood of qualifying for a clearance are also considered. You can join the military without being a citizen (and can get expedited citizenship), but your job prospects will be limited to non clearance jobs, for example.

When you go to the Military Entrance Processing Stations (MEPS), you are put through a bunch of medical tests and once you are cleared for entry, you go on to negotiate the job you want. This is where you have to stick up for yourself. The recruiters there, who you don’t know, will try to push you one way. For instance, I wanted IT which I was told was full. Instead, I was offered “deck seamanship” which I was told let me get a feel of different jobs which I could the “strike” (apply) for. It sounded good, but I really wanted IT. I stood my ground and said I wasn’t in a rush and I could wait until IT opened up. They aren’t letting you out that door if they can help it, and I magically got IT with a signing bonus no less.

Come to find out deck seamanship meant I would be chipping paint and repainting the ship and other really hard grunt work. By the time I would have struck for another job, my peers would have been promoted years ahead of me. It helps to talk to a vet or have them go with you when talking to the recruiters. The recruiters don’t always lie, but they do sometimes only reveal the information they think is important.

In the Navy, MOSes are called Rates, so “choose your rate, choose your fate” was a common refrain.

Maybe auditing. When I was a wee lad on American Online in the 90s, our biggest desire was to steal the most 31337 screen names. One way of doing this was learning of people who worked at the call centers you’d call for account problems. Once you were friendly enough, you could sometimes convince them to pull an account’s information for you. Then you’d call the call center from a pay phone and, using the stolen information, reset the password. This allowed you to get on the account for a while to brag. In some cases, you could permanently steal the AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) version of the screen name unbeknownst to the original account owner.

Anyway, AOL recognized this insider threat and audited and reviewed any access to their internal account systems (called CRIS or Merlin IIRC), which pretty much killed the method of using insiders since they were caught and fired pretty quickly.

Wordle is basically Bulls and Cows (or a text-based Mastermind). https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulls_and_Cows

Another way of saying this is you only support the right to protest if it’s a cause you support.

This is the second time someone has implied this protest isn’t valid because they’re doing it efficiently. It sounds like boomer “in my day” type rhetoric but is irrelevant to the legitimacy of any protest.

Since when was the efficiency of how a group protested used to determine the validity of a protest? Slacktivism, or using social media to protest, generally costs participants nothing in the way of comfort. Neither does walking in a street on a beautiful day in the summer chanting one’s beliefs. Is there any video evidence of honking horns all night? I’ve read on Twitter that they stop honking at 10PM because they are not protesting the Ottawa citizens. This is a legitimate protest by workers and the side that is usually pro-worker seems to be siding with the government because the intent of the protest has been declared wrong-think by the PM.

Are you being truthful about the 24/7 horn blasting? I’ve seen reports on Twitter that the convoy stops horns at 10 PM because they’re not protesting the Canadian people/Ottawa citizens. Is there any video of the horns honking 24/7?

How accurate of a gauge do you think your liberal friends are? I am not as liberal as all of my coworkers seem to be, but implying otherwise would make me feel less certain about keeping my job. Any chance your friends are just conforming to what they assume you think in order to maintain social status or your friendship?

I’ve always tried to use naming of variables and methods to make it obvious what the code is doing. Something like:

``` if service_is_disabled: start_service() else: send_notification(“Service is running”) ```

My school keeps sending my kid home with food for “supper” simply because they keep buying so much of it to act like a soup kitchen and they need to get rid of it all. I keep telling them not to accept it, but they apparently have no choice. It’s weird.

Unless the pandemic is never over

I benefit by sending my child to a school where the teachers are incentivized to teach them reading, writing, and arithmetic, while leaving their politics and activism at the door.

Not just that, AOL allowed playing sound files from within a chat room. If a user sent `{s gotmail`, it would play the `gotmail.wav` file on the computer of each person currently in the chat room. So, sending `{s /con/con` or `{s /aux/aux` to that chat would instantly crash the computer of everyone in the chat, causing a BSoD. It was great fun if you were an obnoxious kid, and generally super frustrating for anyone trying to chat.

Selenium IDE allows recording/playback of actions via browser extensions as well, without having to figure out the XPath, etc., yourself. Preflight looks much nicer than Selenium IDE interface, but is it much more different in its function?

Can you run Preflight on-prem or must the AUT be accessible to the Internet?

Regarding the Context Awareness, is there any issue with working with React apps? If I renamed an item in the navbar, or changed the position of an element (thus changing the XPath), would CA be able to identify and workaround that?

Questions aside, it’s a great idea and the app looks great.

After seeing the episode of The Simpsons where Bart bought Milhouse’s soul, I went to school and did the same thing to my classmates. Most acted like it was no big deal, but still wouldn’t sign “the contract” and the few that did, similar to Milhouse, quickly wanted it back. I couldn’t do it myself.

This Twitter thread implies it’s related to his “siding with” Jacob Applebaum of the Tor Project, when he was accused of sexual misconduct. https://twitter.com/mjg59/status/1452714046218649603?s=21

It’s a thriving method of pirating movies and TV shows.

There’s also the issue of half-assed murder boards qualifying people before they’re actually qualified.

Relevant comic: https://pics.me.me/broken-and-unreadable-william-melancon-15...

Most Sailors on ships work in watch rotations. If you’re lucky it’s three shifts, but more often than not it’s “port and starboard” shifts of 12-on/12-off. This is especially hard for those who work nights.

Even if your shift ends at, say, 0800, you still have to eat, then attend muster (like a daily standup), then do an hour or so of “cleaning stations”. Afterward you can’t go to sleep yet because the berthing where you sleep is waiting for the XO to inspect. Once that’s all done, you are still up because they planned a General Quarters (GQ) drill or a man overboard at 1000. Two hours later and you are finally free, but it’s lunch so you might as well eat. You have about 8 hours left, but you are also delinquent on 2 or 3 qualifications that require walk-through a or attending trainings which only happen during the day. Maybe you want to send an email home, so you go to the library to wait for a free computer.

By the time that’s all done, you have about 4 or 5 hours to sleep. You might be able to do that without problem for a day or two, but a week later and you are friend.

I can’t upvote this comment enough. It really speaks to something I’ve felt for so long about AOL. You are right that it was a different Internet, one where we teens could make mistakes while coming of age on a new communications medium without lifelong consequences we see so many young people fall into now. AOL got me into programming and tech in general. I also met some great people who, despite perhaps never meeting them face-to-face, made an impact on the person I came to be. It’s a shame that nearly all of those relationships ended, but it is what it is. I love when stories like this pop up once in a while because it feels good being reminded that I’m not alone in my experiences.