Messages

1

Unix / Linux Discussion / Re: Not booting (UBUNTU)

« on: June 02, 2008, 05:53:27 pm »

If you're getting dropped at a root prompt, it's not a kernel panic, but it does sound like X isn't loading. Try running "startx" from the console it drops you to and press enter. If that fails, chances are your kernel got upgraded but your video card's driver modules did not. If that's the case, here's how I would fix it from that root prompt.

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apt-get update && apt-get upgradeif that doesn't do it, try using DPKG to rebuild your kernel modules. If you have Nvidia, do

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dpkg-reconfigure nvidia-glx-new
If you have an ATi card, try

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dpkg-reconfigure xorg-driver-fglrx
I also noticed the existence of nvidia-glx-new-envy and xorg-driver-fglrx-envy packages, so if the above doesn't work try installing or reconfiguring those.

2

Botdev / Re: Warcraft III CD Key Voodoo

« on: June 02, 2008, 05:34:02 pm »

Well, I'm not interested in decrypting it. If I discover (or guess!) what encryption algorithm it uses, I can just replace the old encrypted string with my encrypted string (for the new CD key, whatever). The way the CD key grabber that floats around on the net grabs the key in a similar way to what you described, iago. It does even less work and grabs it off the network when it's submitted to Battle.net, IIRC.

In fact, this might be useful for giving bogus CD keys to an already-working install. At a LAN party or a friend's computer, I can give them an install with my alternate CD key, and then change it to some stupid made up one like "THIS-ISAFA-KECDK-EYBLAH" or whatever and they're left with a system that'll work on the LAN, which is fine for the party, but there's no risk of them using it online and blocking me from getting onto Battle.net when they take it home.

Does anyone with more skillz than me wanna dive into this and start hunting around for candidate containers/files for the CD key? I can think of a few ways of doing this.

1.) Get a delta (binary diff) of two MPQ files that are the same patch version. Theoretically, the only thing that should be different is the part containing the CD key. Save this diff as an MPQ file "cdkey.mpq" and then extract it using an MPQ editor and giving the listfiles of one of the full MPQs as the listfile.

2.) Similar to above: Take a known working MPQ and back it up before changing the CD key using one of the CD key changers floating around on the internet, and compare changes as in above.

It may be easier to extract them before comparison instead of getting fancy with xdeltas and all that.

3

Botdev / Re: Warcraft III CD Key Voodoo

« on: June 02, 2008, 09:26:49 am »

By binary, do you mean some god awful huge string of numbers (probably actually in hex) for the filename? I also read that it's encrypted where its stored, but that'll be a separate issue once I find the file.

4

Botdev / Warcraft III CD Key Voodoo

« on: June 02, 2008, 01:49:49 am »

This isn't exactly/directly about Battle.net bots so much as Battle.net related tools (hopefully it's a kosher topic). Does anyone here have experience enough to say where within the mysterious war3.mpq and war3x.mpq files the CD key is located? I believe that they are encrypted in some file within those aforementioned, but I haven't found any likely files (I've poked around with an MPQ editor).

The reason I'm asking all this is basically because I can't find/don't trust Warcraft III CD key changers online and they're useful for things like avoiding reinstalls after a LAN party (I install a copy of Warcraft III on a friend's computer at a party for LAN usage, they buy their own copy and want to use it online) and also to satisfy my curiosity surrounding the subject. Any insight would be much appreciated.

--Patrick C.

5

Introductions! / Re: /whatis pretense

« on: March 05, 2008, 08:41:31 pm »

Why is everyone so against pop music?

It's like you're falling into the same trap you're trying to avoid... following the trend. The trend, in your case, which is the only trend that matters to you, is to not listen to pop music!

you mean sort of like when you emulate my actions?

if not clarify

Are you guys brothers or something (does he actually emulate your actions?) or are you just teasing?

6

Introductions! / Re: /whatis pretense

« on: March 05, 2008, 08:32:55 pm »

As punk was essentially a reaction to mainstream rock, I don't make a distinction between punk and punk-rock. What do the terms mean to you?

Well, to me, hardcore punk is a good bit different from punkrock.

Hardcore punk bands:
Cryptic Slaughter
Toxic Narcotics
Down Again
Take Offense
Black Flag

Punk rock bands:
Green Day
=(.

I see. When I hear the phrase, punk-rock makes me think of more modern iterations of punk, and just "punk" makes me think of older, "classic" punk.

IBO RUINED MY LIFE! (not really but for awhile I thought it did.)

Yeah. Well... I hate the IBO with an all-consuming passion and I'm only in my junior year. Somebody deserves to die in a fire for the dirty trick they pulled on me when they told me what IB "is".

Why is everyone so against pop music?

It's like you're falling into the same trap you're trying to avoid... following the trend. The trend, in your case, which is the only trend that matters to you, is to not listen to pop music!

I'm not against pop music because its popular. The word "pop" has a certain sound associated with it, and I don't like that sound very much. The other thing is that since popular music (which right now, where I live, consists pop and rap/hip-hop) is played everywhere there's no reason for me to actively seek it on my own time--I hear enough of it elsewhere.

7

Unix / Linux Discussion / Re: Does this clan have (or want) a PvPGN server?

« on: March 05, 2008, 12:29:31 am »

Find me a woman. Then we'll talk money.

I can find you one, but you'll have to take her yourself. ;-)

8

Unix / Linux Discussion / Re: Considering moving back to Linux

« on: March 05, 2008, 12:28:49 am »

We're usually not too picky on this, but bumping dead threads like this one is usually not done because the original questions have either been answered or the person has moved on.  I suspect one of those two is the case here.

To put it more brashly, don't bump old threads unless you're sure you have something to add.  I'm pretty sure all of the questions you answered were addressed earlier.  I normally wouldn't say anything, but it seems you've been bumping threads pretty regularly and it's not the type of thing we like to get in the habit of.

Yessir.

9

Introductions! / Re: /whatis pretense

« on: March 05, 2008, 12:21:29 am »

As punk was essentially a reaction to mainstream rock, I don't make a distinction between punk and punk-rock. What do the terms mean to you?

10

Introductions! / Re: /whatis pretense

« on: March 04, 2008, 11:06:45 pm »

On Gaim-Bnet: I see. I know that the developers have begun looking at the Bnet documentation kept up by vL. I'll see if I can learn anything helpful for that here.

Java is also my first language and perhaps relatedly, I know very little about memory management. As for the manliness of Java, I must say that this fine specimen of a Tetris clone is nearly overwhelmingly masculine. P for pause, space bar for insta-drop, up to flip, and left and right to move the things around.

11

Unix / Linux Discussion / Re: Considering moving back to Linux

« on: March 04, 2008, 08:02:53 pm »

Right now I'm seriously considering moving back to Linux as my main OS, but I have a few requirements that I need some help on, and all of these I need:
1. to get on the internet (I've never tried wireless on Linux before)
2. to run VS2k5 for my CS classes
3. to print stuff (I've never been able to print stuff to my printer from Linux)
4. to be able to access NTFS formatted drives, and I don't have enough space to backup and reformat the stuff on them!
5. to stream media to my 360
6. to convert video formats AND be able to rip and encode video


So, my basic question is: considering the above, what distro and programs should I/do I need to use?

You can google these individually (I don't really have time to post links and all. Check wikipedia.

1.) Whatever the kernel comes with (check your wireless chipset!). If that fails, ndiswrapper.
2.) Virtualbox, a free full-blown VM + Windows.
3.) CUPS + Foomatic/GDI drivers. Web interface lives on localhost:631
4.) the ntfs-3g driver is what you're looking for. Comes with most modern non-do-it-yourself distros like Ubuntu, Mandriva, openSUSE and company.
5.) What do you use on Windows for streaming things to your 360?
6.) ffmpeg and its various GUI frontends should do nicely.

I can understand your distaste for Ubuntu, or at least for Gnome, but honestly, if you can't get printing working I don't know if a distro like Slackware is the distro for you. You might want to try an Ubuntu variant, like Xubuntu or Kubuntu.

12

Unix / Linux Discussion / Does this clan have (or want) a PvPGN server?

« on: March 04, 2008, 04:25:43 pm »

Well?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PvPGN
http://pvpgn.berlios.de/index.php?page=about

I'll be setting one up for a school mathematics project (to use the statistics). If anyone here wants to help by participating in the study (playing Warcraft III and Starcraft) post here.

13

Unix / Linux Discussion / Re: Shell scripting

« on: March 04, 2008, 01:59:10 am »

This was a post tmp made, (tmp: come back and give me new challenges), which I plan to retry and finish within the week. Don't give me hints or tell me how. 

Challenge:

Using bash, make it so that when you boot into X Windows with your default user (krazed or whichever login you use) it always starts up a terminal (of your choice) that is running with UID 0 (root). This is assuming that your default user is not UID 0.

I used to have it so that whenever I booted X, xfterm4 popped up already tailing my logfiles (which required privs), so I've had to do this before. Let's see how similar our methodology is.

Let me know if you need any clarification/hints.

Am I on the right track if I'm playing with xinitrc, some script I make up, and setuid?

14

Unix / Linux Discussion / Re: 2 OS's

« on: March 04, 2008, 01:53:56 am »

On this box I've got Kubuntu 7.10 (amd64) and Windows XP. On my old box I'm running Windows XP, some old beta of SabayonLinux (Gentoo distribution), vanilla Gentoo, and Kubuntu. My old, dead-screened laptop runs Mint Linux (Cassandra). I've also played with Arch, but eventually ditched it in favor of Gentoo for need of a larger package repository.

15

Introductions! / /whatis pretense

« on: March 04, 2008, 01:45:39 am »

Hey. I'm not really sure how to approach this community or what it's all about. In fact, the first impression I have of this community is the apparent effort with which newbies approach the introduction thread ("Look at me, I'm a quirky nerd with skillz!"). Anyhow, I stumbled upon the place while searching up on Battle.net bot technology and Battle.net chat documentation (I just found out that the bnet-gaim (Pidgin, now) project is still active, and so was trying to see if there would be any way for me to contribute). I read a couple of threads, and it seems that despite the usual nastiness, arrogance, and pretentious rank and order that manages to manifest in all internet communities, there are some genuinely knowledgeable users here that I'd like to learn from.

As for me, I'm just an "IB" high school student engaged in a thriving (although a bit kinky) romantic, polyamorous relationship with language, philosophy, and my computer. I play some video games, but I'm not particularly great at anything. I have something of a first-person-shooter skill deficit, as when I was a child my parents disallowed me from playing violent video games, but I do enjoy real time strategy games and an occasional round of two of Counter-Strike or Tremulous. I'm an active member of the FOSS movement, despite my lack of experience as a programmer and lack of time as a student. I've been a Linux user for a few years now and a Gentoo user for around a year, although I'm waiting to throw it on this computer until 2008.0 comes out, because I can't pass up an excuse to procrastinate.

I enjoy a lot of music, but very little modern and popular music. I tend to be a fan of folksy music, particularly Irish folk, hardcore punk-rock and other punk variants, and alternative rock, but I occasionally venture into rap/hip-hop, country, and even pop, and I'll probably listen to anything once. I have a Last.FM (formerly Audioscrobbler) profile if you're interested at all. I'm currently studying French, so if anybody wants to practice speaking or writing it, I don't mind playing with you.

I maintain a few blogs, as well.

• The Free Thinkers' Club at my local high school. Originally a reaction to religious clubs on campus, under (my) new leadership this year, it has grown to become the school's philosophy club and ethical thinktank, if I'm feeling arrogant.
  
• Sing, my personal writing blog and a favorite hobby of mine (the actual act of singing as well as posting to the blog). It's more or less the biohazard bin for my teen angst with some occasionally good writing.
  
• /dev/pxc, a cheesily named technical blog of mine, still in its infancy (only a single post).

I'm an active member in FBLA and again, an IB student at my local high school. I host biannual LAN parties for around eighteen of my friends or so, where we play Warcraft III, Starcraft, Counter-Strike: Source, and occasionally Tremulous. One of my buddies is the lead Dystopia (Half-life 2/Source Engine mod) developer, so we'll be adding that to the list, soon. With the recent release of Nexuiz 2.4, that will soon be added to the list.

As a side note, for my IB mathematics project, I have to do something involving statistics, and I'll be setting up my own PvPGN (Battle.net emulator) server in a week or so and use ladder statistics from Warcraft III/Starcraft games (I'm currently considering analyzing game economy: the efficacy of early expansion, how much money should be invested in defending an expansion before it's not worth it, what population is optimal for a defensible society that also has a strong source of income, etc). If you're at all interested in participating (you just have to tell me a few things about yourself, and use one account for each strategy you choose to employ), contact me.

PS: I also occasionally (and by that I mean rarely, as I have no constant source of income) play WoW.

Edit: Ah, yes!

1337 Skillz (braggery):
I have some experience with programming, although most of you would say it's with a woman language (Java). In that I have taken two college level courses. I've additionally taken a course in networking at DeVry (sponsored by Cisco--hey, it was free), and one in Linux/Unix system administration (introductory level, mostly BASH scripting). I also made a Tetris clone one time. Yay me.

Recently, I placed at a national competition with FBLA in Network Design. The winners from the 2007 NLC are posted online, if you're interested (I don't particularly care to give my full name out, though). You can look it up if you want to.

--Patrick C.