Sven Slootweg's Blog

Have you ever wanted to provide live support, or even just a way to chat to the visitors of your site? But were you put off by the price, hassle, or platform restrictions of the regular Live Support packages that can be downloaded? There’s quite an easy solution.

A while ago, Meebo launched a “widget” called MeeboMe, for this exact purpose. However, you were required to use Meebo in order to actually make use of it, which is quite annoying if there is no Meebo Notifier for your system (Linux for example), and you need to keep Meebo open in a browser tab all the time. I’ve had this exact same problem (while wanting to offer Live Support for www.YuNicc.ws), so I started searching. I came across several pages, and several configurations, and in the end I found one that seemed to work.

I am making use of Pidgin, a free crossplatform Instant Messaging client supporting a lot (and I mean a LOT) of networks, including the MSN, Yahoo, and AIM networks, as well as Jabber/XMPP-based networks like Google Talk. Now luck has it that Meebo built their platform on that exact same XMPP protocol, which means we can easily use it in Pidgin if we know how to configure it.

But then we have another problem. XMPP works with “contact lists” as well, and that means you would get a friend request for every new user of your Live Support, something which may be very annoying for many people. But for that, there is a plugin. Let me explain how it works:

1. First download Pidgin if you don’t already have it. You can get it for free from http://www.pidgin.im/ (you may want to use Adium for Mac OS X, which is built on the same libraries).

2. Download the MeeboMe Widget Plugin from http://jrpomeroy.com/pidgin/ and place it in your plugin directory (directories are listed on the download page).

3. Make a Meebo account and MeeboMe widget at www.meebome.com. It’s free. Be sure to choose a representative name like your real name or the name “Live Support” as your screen name, it is what others will see. You might also want to change the title to “Live Support”.

3. Add a new account. Use XMPP as protocol, with the following settings:
Username: <your Meebo username>
Password: <your Meebo password> (also, click Remember Password)
Resource: Pidgin
Domain: meebo.org

4. BEFORE clicking OK, go to the Advanced tab. UNCHECK the “SSL/TLS” box (it doesn’t work with Meebo, apparently), CHECK the “allow unencrypted data” checkbox, and enter the following:
Connection server: meebo.org
Connection port:  5222

5. Click OK now. Go to  Extra -> Plugins and enable the MeeboMe plugin.

6. If everything is OK, you should now be connected to Meebo without errors. Grab the URL of the swf file from the “embed” code the MeeboMe site gave you, and paste it into your browser address bar. If everything is set up the right way, you should get a message on Pidgin as soon as you start talking in the MeeboMe widget. You can use the entire embed code in your website to offer support, or, if you are using a popup or direct link, just give them the URL to the SWF file.

7. You’re done!

Quite a weird sight on my MSN account today. Someone I haven’t talked to in ages suddenly started talking to me. The conversation went somewhat like this:

(00:34:39) David: Hey are you there?
(00:42:46) Me: yus
(00:43:17) David: i just took an IQ quiz
(00:43:39) Me: what was the result then?
(00:44:04) David: I was smarter than I am! I scored 111
(00:44:13) Me: lol
(00:44:40) David: you gotta see if u can do better than me, <harmful link>
(00:45:47) Me: :S
(00:47:34) Me: are you a bot?
(00:48:10) David: im not a bot silly, its me

It actually took me until the (very suspicious) link to realize that it was a bot I was talking to, and not the person I thought was behind it.

And yes, I did click the link. Why? I was wondering what would happen, and since I’m running Linux anyway I didn’t expect anything bad to happen. After all, it’s most likely written for Windows. And I was right: nothing happened.

On another forum, I read an even more curious case. The following is a snippet from a forum post on http://rumtumblurpei.blogspot.com/2010/07/new-msn-virus.html?showComment=1281585428280#c5009037735819209825:

BIG says:
tell me something only noah would know
BIG says:
lol
NOAH says:
are you kidding? its me and not some bot, stop this

MSN worms are sure getting smarter, these days.

A lot of people think a ‘hacker’ is either a cybercriminal that breaks in to computers, or a security expert that looks for vulnerabilities and holes in software, and tells the programmer about it. However, both of these are quite wrong. Not completely wrong, but a ‘hacker’ sure isn’t limited to those two.

As defined on http://catb.org/~esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html#what_is, a hacker builds things and a cracker breaks them. Therefore, a cybercriminal would be a cracker, because he breaks a certain piece of security. A virus writer, however, would be both a hacker and a cracker. At the same time he builds something (he writes a virus), and breaks something (he tries to circumvent a security mechanism).

Then a cybercriminal can still be a hacker?
Yes and no. Technically a virus writer would also be a hacker, but since his ultimate goal is to break something, it would be safer to call him a cracker, since writing a virus is only done in order to achieve the circumvention of a security mechanism (aside from criminal intentions). A better example of a hacker would be someone taking a trash can, and using it as a casing for his computer. He uses the trash can for something it’s not intended for, in order to invent (or build) something new: a trash can computer.

But why do all the newspapers, news sites, television channels, etc. say that a hacker breaks into computers?
Ever since the first people that tried to spread virii* became active, these people have been calling themselves hackers. Since a lot of people came to believe it, the media adapted this definition, to keep it simple. Media are nearly always simple. If you watch the news, and they tell someone has been murdered, they won’t tell you what type of gun was used, because there is fair chance you are not interested in any more information than what has happened. It’s the same with crackers. Since people are not interested in a definition (they want their news to be short and simple) the media just assume everyone understands what they mean when they say ‘hacker’ .

Are hackers always those nerdy IT guys?
Of course not! Anyone who invents something is a hacker: he builds something new. Thomas Edison was a hacker. Leonardo Da Vinci was a hacker. Painters and singers are, technically seen, hackers as well (provided they don’t use parts of other peoples work, of course). You can be hacker if you find a creative way to stop that annoying leaking drain.

A last tip: There is a very good video on the internet, that you can watch to get a better feeling of what a hacker is. Even though this video mainly focuses on IT hackers, it can be a very educative 43 minutes. You can watch the video at http://www.veryangrytoad.com/video/180/Hackers-Are-People-Too.

A few people that have been active in the P2P scene a few years ago might still remember it: WinMX.

A really old and officially unsupported program, and believed by many people to be dead. What a lot of people do not know, is that it’s still alive and kicking, thanks to a patch from the community.

The creation of WinMX, and it’s downfall
In october 2000, the people at Frontcode created a P2P client by the name of WinMX. Only an OpenNap client at that time (using the Napster protocol), it already became very popular at that time. Many people liked the stability of the program, and the no-nonsense interface, while still maintaining a quite amazing featureset. However, in  2001, the RIAA cracked down on many P2P providers, and the OpenNap network fell. WinMX evolved very quickly, and on May 2, 2001, WinMX 2.5 was released, supporting a brand new network called the WinMX Peer Network (WPNP). It featured a system of primary non-firewalled (pass-on-the-data) nodes, and secondary firewalled nodes, who used the primary nodes in order to connect to the network. This made it possible to connect to the network, even when you were firewalled. The new protocol supported multi-source downloads, which meant you could download the same file from several users at the same time, this way shortening the download time. Because of all the users already using WinMX for its OpenNap access, the WPNP protocol became very popular in a very short amount of time.
However, in 2005, shortly after several sites noticed that it was one of the largest and most active networks, it was shut down by the RIAA. Frontcode received a cease and desist letter, forcing them to shut down both the peer servers (that were used to let peers know where other peers could be found) and the WinMX website. WinMX went dead in an instant.

But it’s not dead yet.
Only days after the WinMX site and peer cache servers are shut down, a patch is released by some WinMX enthusiasts. It enables WinMX users to once again connect to the network, using alternative peer cache servers. In fact, two independent groups both released a patch shortly afterwards, modifying the DNS for the WinMX domain. The first one was the PIE Patch, while the second one was the patch by WinMXGroup.com. The latter eventually changed into a DLL patch, which enabled the blocking of fake files and viruses from the network, while the former was generally seen as more stable and safe, because everybody could see what it contained (it only being a hosts file modification, and not a replacement of a critical WinMX file). PIE Patch, however, did not offer fake file blocking.

And then it happened…
The WinMXGroup patch, which I had been using as well as the PIE Patch, suddenly ceased support. I switched back to PIE, and not very long afterwards, on September 20, 2008, there was an announcement of a collaborative “community patch”. This patch was a DLL patch, and replaced both the (obsolete) WinMXGroup patch, and the PIE Patch. It quickly became popular, and right now just about everyone is using the Community Patch, except for those that still only use WinMX for OpenNap connections.

So, what’s so great about it?
In fact, the fact that not everybody knows there is a patch for it, leads to a network with higher quality. To date, there are (close to) zero fake files and viruses on the network. Nada, nothing, zilch, zero. Even though it’s sometimes hard to find the more rare files (in which case torrents might be a better choice), the network is very stable now, and of a very high quality. It has a chat room feature, which greatly integrates with the rest of the WinMX application. In fact, the chat rooms are the best way to find a certain type of file. If you are looking for the newest movie that just came out (but you know that’s illegal, blah blah blah) you just join a specialized movie release room, and ask if anyone has got it. 99.99% they have. WinMX is, in my experience, one of the first networks where releases appear, before appearing in torrents, on Limewire, etc. In fact, WinMX can be used for pretty much every kind of file or download, especially since it doesn’t have any technical limit on the filetypes. Any file can be shared.

But there must be drawbacks.
Sure there are. One of the most annoying drawbacks is that WinMX will attempt to download the wrong file if you click ‘yes’ on a “are you sure you want to download this executable” window while still loading the list of files. Another annoying thing about WinMX, is that it makes use of queues. While this keeps your download speed high (yes, downloads on the WinMX network are usually VERY fast, especially movies), it might lead to an hour of waiting for only 1 MP3 file. The last thing some people complain about is that the interface looks horrible, and is complicated. The general rule of thumb is: don’t look at the graphics, and just don’t touch any buttons of which you don’t understand what they do. Then everything will work just fine.

So…
If you want to try WinMX, you can get it from http://patch.winmxconex.com/. If you have any questions about WinMX, just drop me a line or post a comment. I’ve been using WinMX for a long time – and I mean long – and I might be able to answer them for you. I really recommend you at least try the software. It’s really a lost gem in the P2P world, and it’s a pity that the network is slowly getting less active (despite the active patch development). Oh, and don’t forget to look in the chat rooms. They are really worth your time.

Sources used:
http://www.slyck.com/news.php?story=925
http://www.zeropaid.com/news/9768/exclusive_winmxworld_announces_the_winmx_community_patch/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winmx
http://www.slyck.com/winmx.php

Disclaimer: I do not encourage using WinMX for illegally downloading files. I can’t prevent it either, though. Be wise and use your own judgement, as applies to all my blog posts and software.

Oh, my. Google just released another doodle. This time it’s featuring crop circles, the filename is goog_e.gif, which might refer to the “missing” L in the image, and clicking on it leads you to a search page for “crop circles”.

Also, Google posted a Twitter clue again. This time, it contains coordinates. Looking these up on Google Maps brings us here:

Some other sites have been referring to H.G. Wells’ anniversary being the reason for these doodles.

Twitter users point out that the birthday of Wells – also the author of The Time Machine, The Invisible Man and The Island of Doctor Moreau – is just six days away, on 21 September, and believe the logo could be a “lead-up” to the anniversary, when Wells would have been 143 years old.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/sep/15/google-crop-circle-hg-wells

I really don’t have a clue about the true meaning of these doodles. This doodle seems unrelated to the O Campaign Foundation, which makes it even less logical. The only real meaning I could find right now was indeed H.G. Wells’ anniversary, which seems unlikely for me to be basing multiple doodles upon. Also, unexplainedphenomenon.org seems to be exactly the same as before this new doodle, so I don’t really think they will have an awful lot to do with it either. I’ll keep you updated.

Part 2: http://sven-slootweg.nl/blog/2009/09/06/the-google-unexplained-phenomenon-part-2-the-story-goes-on/

I’ve been digging around the internet a little more on the Google Unexplained Phenomenon. I actually found Andrew Healey’s take on the things at http://halfloaded.com/blog/unexplained-phenomenom-googles-doodle-gogle/. He specifically names the site http://www.unexplainedphenomenon.org/ that I expected to be a scam site (he even states it as a fact), while http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/09/06/is-this-the-real-answer-to-googles-unexplained-phenomenon-puzzle/ tells us about Joseph James Chung, and about this mystery possibly being a stunt for the O Campaign Foundation.

I tried to sign up to the unexplainedphenomenon.org site with fake details (you can always try, right?) to see what happens. It presented me with an error page.

Now, after looking up this e-mail, guess whose profile page we find? Take a look at http://www.thalas.com/people_joseph_james_chung.html. I’ll quote two very important parts:

Joseph has worked with Google, [...]

He is the co-director of The O Campaign Foundation, a 4,600,000+ member campaign for cancer research and prevention.

Might the answer of TechCrunch, it being a promotional stunt for the O Campaign Foundation, actually be true? It sure looks like it, and I honestly don’t think that unexplainedphenomenon.org is an ordinary scam site.  ”Unexplained phenomenon” could easily refer to cancer. Which makes the picture complete.

Joseph James Chung set up unexplainedphenomenon.org, and cooperated with Google to get publicity for The O Campaign Foundation. Looks correct to me, especially since Google is usually very charitable.

Part 1 of this post can be found here: http://sven-slootweg.nl/blog/2009/09/05/the-google-unexplained-phenomenon/

I’ve been digging through the web a bit, and I found an article on Telegraph.co.uk stating the Google doodle mystery has been solved. It basically tells us that Google has decided to celebrate the anniversary of the “All your base are belong to us” meme from the Japanese game Zero Wing.

The article, however, doesn’t tell us who published this news. Is it really a Google employee that released this information? Or is it just made up by some guy browsing the web, and having the genius idea to “solve” the doodle? You’d think a rather big site like Telegraph.co.uk would provide some source of their information, but strangely they don’t.

Google did nothing to end the speculation with a statement saying: “We consider the second ‘o’ critical to user recognition of our brand and pronunciation of our name. We are actively looking into the mysterious tweet that has appeared on the Google twitter stream and the disappearance of the ‘o’ on the Google home page. We hope to have an update in the coming weeks.”

Doesn’t that sound like Google didn’t actually tell anyone the solution?

The truth, however, was that it was marking the 20th anniversary of Japanese video game Zero Wing.

No source is named anywhere in that piece of text. After this bit of information, the article continues, telling us about the origin of the phrase, and how it became popular. But still no mention of a source anywhere.

In the meantime, some sites take handy advantage of this event. For example, http://www.unexplainedphenomenon.org/ seems to promise more info about this “Unexplained Phenomenom”, but looks very suspicious. Personally I doubt it’s a real site, and I actually suspect it of being an outright scam. At the same time, http://www.googleunexplainedphenomenon.com/ is a site completely dedicated to finding the solution of this mystery. They give us some new info, including a machine translation of a Korean Google blog post.

Apparently this is the first hint in the form of a doodle, in a series of hints that will eventually lead us to the solution of the mystery. GoogleUnexplainedPhenomenom.com also lists a few possible answers to this mystery, that can be thought of with the current amount of information and hints. I guess we will have to wait until September 15 to get the next clue, and see what this is all about.

Still, what is the goal Google is trying to achieve? Are they purely trying to get attention and do some pre-marketing for a new product? Are they trying to entertain their users? Are they, maybe, even doing this just for fun, because they are bored with the usual work? We’ll just have to see. If I pick up any information, I will post it right here on my blog.

Today a very remarkable image appeared on certain versions of Google (so far, the Dutch, Australian, Italian, Portuguese, German, Russian, Argentinian, Japanese, and Chinese version) showing the Google logo, missing an ‘o’, replaced by a UFO. Clicking on it leads to a search page for “Unexplained Phenomenon”, translated into that particular language.

Now, what would this mean? Let’s take a look at the logo first. The filename is “go_gle.gif”. Instead of the usual filename telling us what the doodle is made for, this only adds to the mysteriousness, and again points out the missing ‘o’. Clicking on it brings us to a search results page, that doesn’t show any significant date-related results. However, what it does show is a list of news articles about this specific doodle (at least on the Dutch version it does that).

Now what is the meaning of this? Is there some unknown holiday today? Was it a joke of a Google designer/programmer? Is it a preview of an upcoming name change? Does it forebode a humorous advertising campaign coming up? Maybe, just maybe, it was all an experiment to see what would happen if they put up something “unexplained” (after all that’s what it is), and wanted to see how many pages would be dedicated to this “phenomenon”? My guess is the last one. Either that, or a joke. The rest just seems too unrealistic, and no other information can be found.

So let’s see if Wolfram Alpha can find us something. Searching for “holidays 2009″ gives us a list of internationally known holidays (http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=holidays+2009). It doesn’t list anything remarkable for September 5. Let’s check Wikipedia. At http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_5, we can see that nothing remarkable should be happening today. Now the big question is: what does the Google Doodle mean?

A few hours ago, Google released a clue through Twitter. Their message at http://twitter.com/google/status/3772868874 translates to “All your O are belong to us”, a wordplay on the traditional “All your base are belong to us”, a mistranslation from the Japanese game Zero Wing. This doesn’t give us an awful lot of extra information, however it does show that Google picked up the crowd of people that has been searching for clues on this Doodle. The rest of the Google account on Twitter does not release any clues.

I could only find one other source telling us anything about Unexplained Phenomenons on September 5. It’s a UFO sighting in Canada: http://www.ufoinfo.com/sightings/canada/040905.shtml. The Guardian, a British newspaper, however, makes a reference to Google in an article about UFOs that was posted today at http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/sep/05/unexplained-phenomenon-ufo-google. No further clues are released there though.

I think there is only one thing left to do: wait. Maybe, tomorrow, the second ‘o’ will be gone as well. Who knows.

Sources used: Google, Jeroen.com, Wikipedia, Wolfram Alpha