General/Random Discussion Topic

[Ddude The Insane]

See, the thing is, since Nintendo does all their developing in Japan, they can't really announce titles being localized. I mean, you can't really be surprised if a game comes out in the country it was made in xD

So as a result, NoJ has to come up with new titles to show off. Those lucky Japanese...

[Magical Girl Mimi]

Yeah, yeah, that's obvious. =P Doesn't really explain why NoA continues to delay on stuff... Like, you know, actually releasing good stuff on the eShop. Like, you know, Wario Land.(Don't really know much about it though, and probably won't buy it if it is released, but since this is primarily the number one request right now for the VC, might as well mention it. Especially since we're the only country that doesn't have it on the eShop...)

[MsRowdyRedhead]

http://www.3news.co.nz/Hundreds-of-thousands-may-lose-internet-in-July/tabid/412/articleID/251492/Default.aspx

For computer users, a few mouse clicks could mean the difference between staying online and losing internet connections this summer.

Unknown to most of them, their problem began when international hackers ran an online advertising scam to take control of infected computers around the world. In a highly unusual response, the FBI set up a safety net months ago using government computers to prevent internet disruptions for those infected users. But that system is to be shut down.

The FBI is encouraging users to visit a website run by its security partner, http://www.dcwg.org , that will inform them whether they're infected and explain how to fix the problem. After July 9, infected users won't be able to connect to the internet.

Most victims don't even know their computers have been infected, although the malicious software probably has slowed their web surfing and disabled their antivirus software, making their machines more vulnerable to other problems.

Last November, the FBI and other authorities were preparing to take down a hacker ring that had been running an internet ad scam on a massive network of infected computers.

"We started to realise that we might have a little bit of a problem on our hands because ... if we just pulled the plug on their criminal infrastructure and threw everybody in jail, the victims of this were going to be without internet service," said Tom Grasso, an FBI supervisory special agent. "The average user would open up Internet Explorer and get `page not found' and think the internet is broken."

On the night of the arrests, the agency brought in Paul Vixie, chairman and founder of Internet Systems Consortium, to install two internet servers to take the place of the truckload of impounded rogue servers that infected computers were using. Federal officials planned to keep their servers online until March, giving everyone opportunity to clean their computers. But it wasn't enough time. A federal judge in New York extended the deadline until July.

Now, said Grasso, "the full court press is on to get people to address this problem". And it's up to computer users to check their PCs.

This is what happened: Hackers infected a network of probably more than 570,000 computers worldwide. They took advantage of vulnerabilities in the Microsoft Windows operating system to install malicious software on the victim computers. This turned off antivirus updates and changed the way the computers reconcile website addresses behind the scenes on the internet's domain name system.

The DNS system is a network of servers that translates a web address - such as www.ap.org - into the numerical addresses that computers use. Victim computers were reprogrammed to use rogue DNS servers owned by the attackers. This allowed the attackers to redirect computers to fraudulent versions of any website.

The hackers earned profits from advertisements that appeared on websites that victims were tricked into visiting. The scam netted the hackers at least US$14 million, according to the FBI. It also made thousands of computers reliant on the rogue servers for their internet browsing.

When the FBI and others arrested six Estonians last November, the agency replaced the rogue servers with Vixie's clean ones. Installing and running the two substitute servers for eight months is costing the federal government about US$87,000.

The number of victims is hard to pinpoint, but the FBI believes that on the day of the arrests, at least 568,000 unique internet addresses were using the rogue servers. Five months later, FBI estimates that the number is down to at least 360,000. The US has the most, about 85,000, federal authorities said. Other countries with more than 20,000 each include Italy, India, England and Germany. Smaller numbers are online in Spain, France, Canada, China and Mexico.

Vixie said most of the victims are probably individual home users, rather than corporations that have technology staffs who routinely check the computers.

FBI officials said they organised an unusual system to avoid any appearance of government intrusion into the internet or private computers. And while this is the first time the FBI used it, it won't be the last.

"This is the future of what we will be doing," said Eric Strom, a unit chief in the FBI's Cyber Division. "Until there is a change in legal system, both inside and outside the United States, to get up to speed with the cyber problem, we will have to go down these paths, trail-blazing if you will, on these types of investigations."

Now, he said, every time the agency gets near the end of a cyber case, "we get to the point where we say, how are we going to do this, how are we going to clean the system" without creating a bigger mess than before.

AP

Read more: http://www.3news.co.nz/Hundreds-of-thousands-may-lose-internet-in-July/tabid/412/articleID/251492/Default.aspx#ixzz1sqlmYuQT

[Magical Girl Mimi]

Ah, so that's what that's about...

The main problem really is this...

"The average user would open up Internet Explorer and get `page not found' and think the internet is broken."

Not so more they think the internet is broken, but that they're using Exploder. -_-;

[mtmerrick]

Most people don't know there IS anything other than internet explorer. They think the internet is the blue e on their desktop. I kid you not.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4MwTvtyrUQ&feature=youtube_gdata_player

[Magical Girl Mimi]

I believe you. =/ It's a sad truth, but really is a truth. There really does need to be some sort of shift to get people aware of these things more...

[MsRowdyRedhead]

Yeah.. and they can all vote too.....

[mtmerrick]

*yawn*

tired + revit

not a good combo

[Ddude The Insane]

Yeah, my mom is one of those people.

The other day she told me "McDonalds is laying people off!" And I was like "really? Where'd you read that?" She replied "The Onion."

-insert brief awkward silence-

[mtmerrick]

oh god xD

though the onion is still a more reliable news source than Fox News

[Ddude The Insane]

Fox news is her homepage >_>

I've offered to change it but she said it would be too much of a hassle. For me to do it. Surely 30 seconds without the internet wouldn't kill her.

[MsRowdyRedhead]

Maybe she meant too much hassle finding Fox again =P

Tell her you'll make google her home page so she can find anything fast.

[Trijhak]

So. How about the past of this very site?

34296

*Says under breath* I think I may be surrounded by crazy people. ._.

To this day, Blade is still surrounded by crazy people. Have we driven him crazy yet? If not, we're going to have to take ALTERNATIVE MEASURES. Let's pump some old2 2009 KZ-style insanity into him! That's the best, freshest kind of my insanity. The 2010 has too much cynicism in it, and the 2011 one? Let's not go there. Can't make a judgement on the 2012 one yet though, however, so far, it seems so very fresh and as exciting as the 2009 style insanity.

[Magical Girl Mimi]

Well; it is said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result, so I might just be able to be classified as at least half-sane.

[Trijhak]

Well, we need to get you to No Sanity and Full Insanity, so if you're half-sane...

Time to show you the beacons of the past.

Also, I just took a look at one of my posts of when I was a mod. Late 2009, did something insane. Tried to remove ellipsis and one word posts from topics in forum games. Power must have been going to my head. A power craze. I feel that if I look at posts from the past any longer, I'll end up shouting at myself.

Now I want to fight my past, power-crazed self... MODERN KZ VS POWER-CRAZED KZ! FIGHT! POWER-CRAZED KZ USED ABUSE OF POWER! NEGATIVE RECEPTION! MODERN KZ USED SHOUT AT PAST SELF! IT'S NOT EFFECTIVE DUE TO TIME SEPARATING THE TWO!

[Magical Girl Mimi]

Yeah, that didn't exactly go over very well. =P I can understand why you did it, but people here aren't precisely used to change, and, well, back then ellipses were the typical posts due to people not usually having much to say.

[mtmerrick]

To this day, Blade is still surrounded by crazy people. Have we driven him crazy yet? If not, we're going to have to take ALTERNATIVE MEASURES. Let's pump some old2 2009 KZ-style insanity into him! That's the best, freshest kind of my insanity. The 2010 has too much cynicism in it, and the 2011 one? Let's not go there. Can't make a judgement on the 2012 one yet though, however, so far, it seems so very fresh and as exciting as the 2009 style insanity.

=D let's do it!

[Magical Girl Mimi]

Wait, what? ._.; *Backs away slowly, but accidentally trips* ... Oh, this can't be good. =P

[mtmerrick]

*hefts telsacoil gun* methinks you needz ah zap.

[Magical Girl Mimi]

._.;; Uh... I think I'm good. I've got all the electricity I need, I think. =|