tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3023797963949427472024-03-13T23:20:44.957+00:00A Little Bit of Historyhistory, technology, cyberculture and nostalgia find a place to meet and mixUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger16125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-302379796394942747.post-35827962827519313202012-05-22T15:52:00.000+01:002012-05-22T16:01:36.936+01:00GIMPFor the ignorant (and there exist many), <a href="http://www.gimp.org/">GIMP</a> (General Image Manipulation Programme) is a free and open source image processing tool. It has nearly revolutionized image processing mostly owing to the fact that it is free unlike close rivals Adobe Photoshop Extended (which is about $1000 more expensive).<br />
Adobe Photoshop and Gimp, both are however different and unique in their own ways. For a comparison between the two, head to <a href="http://photo-graphics-software.findthebest.com/compare/7-17/GIMP-vs-Adobe-Photoshop-Extended">FindTheBest.com</a> and a simple <a href="http://lmgtfy.com/?q=GIMP+vs+Adobe+Photoshop">Google search away</a>.<br />
<br />
But this is where I state the most obvious difference GIMP, unlike Photoshop, works on UNIX and Linux (It was initially made for this OS's, ported into Windows and Mac much later). And for those operating systems, it is the best image processing software around without question.<br />
<br />
The professional and rich still use Adobe Photoshop, mostly because of historical reasons, but the geeks and poorer amateur artists have been slowly gravitating towards this open-source tool.<br />
<br />
But the bridge between the 2 softwares has been narrowing down. (See <a href="http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2008/10/gimp-2-6-released-one-step-closer-to-taking-on-photoshop/">GIMP 2.6 released, one step closer to taking on Photoshop</a>.) Though GIMP would like you to believe that they don't give a damn about the rivals, and whatever they do, it is to get closer their own product vision.<br />
<br />
<hr /><b>The Origins</b><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-6Zl2EZ1zx-U/T7ujMPUG4-I/AAAAAAAACos/saXL2V0pFtQ/s1600/gimp.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-6Zl2EZ1zx-U/T7ujMPUG4-I/AAAAAAAACos/saXL2V0pFtQ/s200/gimp.png" width="200" /></a></div>GIMP was started as a image-manipulation project by two Berkeley students called Spencer Kimball and Peter Mattis. It was first meant as a university project. But it soon got larger, as most things do, when it hit the internet 6 months later. So here you had it, two developers with practically no image processing knowledge attempting to create a software which users could use to manipulate images.<br />
<br />
For any software to survive, it needs to create a community. It is this community which supports each other, lobbies for updates and most importantly troubleshoot - debugs and improves the software. This tool was created in ways to engage the user community - it had an active plug-in system, so developers could make separate programs to add to GIMP without having to alter the main distribution. But they went a step further and actively engaged the developer community, creating a mailing list which allowed everyone to interact on an open forum. It was a success. The tool grew fast, improving with every iteration. Soon the list broke up into gimp-user and gimp-developer, differentiating between the back-end code and the image manipulation itself. This is key. For a tool to work, people need to be able to use it effectively. Just creating a bug-free tool isn't enough. You need to educate the public. And this endeavour was accomplished by people putting out tutorials and people sharing their artwork. On October 7th, 1997, two users, Karin Kylander and Olof S., announced the <a href="http://www.dtek.chalmers.se/%7Ed95olofs/manual/gimpmana.html">Gimp Users Manual</a>.<br />
<br />
GIMP initially used the commercial Motif widget library for the core windowing capabilities. This of course went against the ethos of the open-source movement. It eventually led to the creation of an independent, open widget set based on an open core drawing library - The Gimp Toolkit (GTK).<br />
<br />
<hr /><b>The Future</b><br />
GIMP is primarily developed by volunteers. And for a software running on willing unpaid labour to succeed in a crowded marketplace truly makes this software special. It is released under the GNU General Public License (version three or later) as free software, and works with numerous operating systems, including GNU/Linux, Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows.<br />
<br />
Hopefully this software will continue optimizing itself, and show the robustness of community networks in creating tools as compared to rival more centralized 'big-corporation' softwares.<br />
<br />
<hr><br />
<b>The Mascot</b><br />
Wilber is the official GIMP mascot, created by Tuomas Kuosmanen (tigert).<br />
<a href="http://gimper.net/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=793">No one is quite sure</a> what animal the mascot is supposed to be. <br />
<br />
<hr /><br />
<b>Further Links:</b><br />
<a href="http://www.gimp.org/about/ancient_history.html">A Brief (and ancient) history of GIMP</a><br />
<a href="http://www.ntlug.org/archive/tp/gimp/node7.html">The GIMP vs. Adobe Photoshop, or ``Davy and Goliath''</a><br />
The <a href="http://registry.gimp.org/">GIMP Plug-In Registry</a> allows authors to update their plug-ins, and people to register their plans for future plug-ins <br />
<a href="http://ie.technion.ac.il/CC/Gimp/Grokking_the_GIMP.html">Grokking the GIMP, by Carey Bunks</a><br />
<br />
<hr>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-302379796394942747.post-89002155404244055612011-10-26T09:02:00.001+01:002011-10-26T09:03:58.964+01:00Tribute to John McCarthyJohn McCarthy (September 4, 1927 – October 24, 2011)<br />
<br />
American computer scientist and cognitive scientist. Recipient of the Turing Award in 1971.Inventor of LISP. Coined the term "Artificial Intelligence".<br />
<br />
<hr><br />
LISP Programming Language<br />
The second oldest high-level programming language. Originally created as a practical mathematical notation for computer programs, it soon became the favored language amongst the artificial intelligence community, due to the ease with which AI programs could be read. <br />
<br />
McCarthy published the design of LISP in a paper in Communications of the ACM in 1960, entitled "Recursive Functions of Symbolic Expressions and Their Computation by Machine, Part I". He showed that with a few simple operators and a notation for functions, one can build a Turing-complete language for algorithms.<br />
<br />
<hr><br />
McCarthy championed mathematical logic for Artificial Intelligence. In 1958, he setup the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory with Marvin Minsky.<br />
He was instrumental in the creation of time-sharing systems. He envisaged a time when we would have national grids, like water and electricity, which people could tap into for computer bandwidth.<br />
<br />
He moved to Stanford and created SAIL (Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory), and for many years the two groups he had setup were friendly rivals as they went deeper and deeper into the field of AI.<br />
<br />
<hr><br />
McCarthy was passionate about AI. He believed it to be a goal of AI to solve real-world problems, like humans. And was disillusioned by the lack of ambition shown by researchers in the field. He compare the chess competitions between computers to geneticists designing fruit flies so they could race them in races.<br />
<br />
<hr><br />
This was a man who believed in technology and talked often about the sustainability of human actions. He genuinely believed that we could have material progress, while still not destroying ourselves in a stupid rage.<br />
<br />
Links:<br />
<a href="http://www-formal.stanford.edu/jmc/">John McCarthy's Home Page</a><br />
<a href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/enterprise/2011/10/john-mccarthy-1927---2011-beli.php">John McCarthy (1927 - 2011), Believer in Humanity</a><br />
<br />
<hr>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-302379796394942747.post-64650593630957058112011-10-13T15:24:00.004+01:002011-10-13T15:48:16.906+01:00A Tribute To Dennis RitchieDennis Ritchie was one of the greatest computer engineers. Winner of the ACM Turing Prize in 1983 and the 1998 US National Medal of Technology, his work has probably created more jobs than anyone else in the past many decades.<br />
<br />
C. It was his creation, alongside Kevin Thompson. Developed between 1969 and 1973 at Bell Labs, it is the most widely used programming language in the history of mankind. Its use is pervasive, and there is hardly any domain where C has or can not be used.<br />
<br />
It was designed to be portable, and to work on any hardware. Programs that were written in C could run with little or no modification on any other computer that ran C. It was a massive leap in software engineering. It freed programmers up, especially in the early days of the 70's and 80's, when hardware and computer systems were in a state of constant flux.<br />
<br />
And its a symbol of greatness when a programming language can remain relevant even 4 decades after its creation. It, and its variants, are used everywhere! As an electronics engineer, I cannot even hope to describe its importance in the world of embedded systems. It has sometimes even used as an intermediate language by implementations of other languages. <br />
<blockquote>C++ and Java, say, are presumably growing faster than plain C, but I bet C will still be around.<br />
- Dennis Ritchie </blockquote><br />
UNIX. He helped make it. It revolutionized the computer industry. The he remade it with C. Made it portable. Brilliant. Need I say more? Sigh<br />
<br />
<blockquote>UNIX is basically a simple operating system, but you have to be a genius to understand the simplicity.<br />
Dennis Ritchie </blockquote><br />
We need to remember that C and UNIX spawned a revolution in the computer industry. Every subsequent software owes something to these two. And no one can ever take that away from DR.<br />
<br />
He was the truest of computer engineers. Intelligent, with enough brains to make lives easier for us dumber folks. And his death did come as a massive shock to me. The software industry all over the world owe enough to DR to award him every honour possible. Darn. And what made me sad was watching a world obsessed over Steve Jobs, a maker of shiny toys, while a true genius died in relative anonymity. <br />
The world is unfair. Often.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://tech.slashdot.org/story/11/10/13/0328230/dennis-ritchie-creator-of-c-programming-language-passed-away">Slashdot Comments</a> - The true place to understand the pain software engineers feel at this news.<br />
<br />
<hr><br />
Dennis MacAlistair Ritchie. September 8, 1941–October 8/9, 2011<br />
printf("Goodbye world.\n"); <br />
<br />
<hr />(Links to be updated in a while)<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
A non-updated version of his biography - <a href="http://www.blogger.com/%20%20%20http://www.notablebiographies.com/supp/Supplement-Mi-So/Ritchie-Dennis.html">Encyclopedia of World Biography - Dennis Ritchie</a><br />
<a href="http://www.zdnet.co.uk/news/business-of-it/2011/10/13/dennis-ritchie-father-of-unix-and-c-dies-40094176/">Dennis Ritchie, father of Unix and C, dies</a><br />
<a href="http://www.linuxfocus.org/English/July1999/article79.html">Interview with Dennis M. Ritchie</a><br />
<a href="http://www.itworld.com/lw-12-ritchie">The future according to Dennis Ritchie</a><br />
<hr />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-302379796394942747.post-20665001142761841592011-10-13T09:16:00.002+01:002011-10-13T15:46:08.779+01:00Dennis Ritchie - Creator of C dead at 70Dennis Ritchie is dead, after a long battle against an unspecified illness. Dennis MacAlistair Ritchie. The man who created C with Kevin Thompson. Who helped develop UNIX. One of the greatest computer engineers ever.<br />
And no newspaper cared to report it. I can find NO news articles about it anywhere.<br />
<br />
The man who is responsible for pretty much most of the computer jobs all around us.<br />
<br />
Sigh. I am sad. <br />
<br />
Evidence : Rob Pike, co-creator of the Plan 9 and Inferno OSes at <a href="https://plus.google.com/101960720994009339267/posts/ENuEDDYfvKP?hl=en">https://plus.google.com/101960720994009339267/posts/ENuEDDYfvKP?hl=en</a><br />
<br />
As much as I might hate twitter, its the only reason why heard about this.<br />
There is an epidemic out there. Tech revolutionaries dropping one at a time. Except this one is a little more brilliant than the last one.<br />
<br />
Tribute to Dennis Ritchie - <a href="http://techretro.blogspot.com/2011/10/tribute-to-dennis-ritchie.html">http://techretro.blogspot.com/2011/10/tribute-to-dennis-ritchie.html</a><br />
<br />
RIP DR.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-302379796394942747.post-76483410554559641682009-12-21T08:15:00.002+00:002009-12-21T08:15:50.115+00:00Living the Football DreamFootball Manager (formerly known as Championship Manager), a creation of Sports Interactive, is amongst the best selling games in PC history. With the last version (Football Manager 2009) selling over a million legal copies, and this estimated to being only 10% of the actual number of copies in play, this computer game has been a phenomenon of historical proportions.<br />
<br />
It is a game with minimal graphics and absolutely no built-in storyline. A "blue sky" scenario with no end, where you choose to stay until you find the real world slipping by. You climb the ranks to become the greatest Football Manager your small virtual world has ever encountered, living through the ups and downs of the world of football. The agony of losing a match at the last minute paired against the joy of winning the trophy you just gave up a few hours of life to battle for.<br />
<br />
This game has been revolutionary ever since its early Championship Manager days. Like most managerial strategy games, it has limitless potential to mimic and extend the real world. And like all good games, it allows you to play a character who makes decisions that matter. There have been a lot of games which have attempted to do the same, but Football Manager's greatest assets are the untiring unpaid scouts who research almost every country in the world to bring the game as close to reality as possible and a match engine that is as realistic as anything we have watched in real life. All the drama is well simulated. What started out as text commentary around a decade ago has now been extended to a realistic 3-D simulations bundled with a lot of statistics. From the attributes of many thousands of players, each with their own unique likes and dislikes, to every aggregated piece information you might need about how a team and its players are playing.<br />
<br />
Once it has submerged you in a world that looks vaguely familiar, in your journey through time, you will discover that this is a world that has been modeled to reflect only the simpler parts of reality. A sanitized virtual world where you can live out your fantasies of control and victory. It combines the passion of football with the power of being a decision-maker, yet gives you enough flexibility to choose the level of micro-management.<br />
<br />
he world you play in is dynamic. It grows and changes, vibrant with random events you have no control over. The players grow old and quit, even as new ones are born. The fortunes of individual clubs rise and fall, while the players go through their own individual careers. There are young players you can watch and sometimes guide into becoming world-class superstars. There are other names that soon fall into obscurity. Amidst all of this, you are the only constancy as you plot your own rise through the ranks from relative obscurity to a name that is respected by all the virtual denizens in these few megabytes of reality.<br />
<br />
It is an art, to be able to combine simplicity with realism. The real world is often off-putting because things just aren't simple enough, and many games in their attempt to be realistic attempt to simulate this component in the virtual world. Thus even our fantasies of control are as complex and irritating as reality (Case in point - Civilization 3). Football Manager has succeeded in giving us freedom to choose our own paths, along with a lot of data and depth, without ever overwhelming us or complicating our alternate gaming realities<br />
<br />
This is an ode to the most addictive computer game I have ever played, one that has already taken a substantial part of my life and shall continue to do so. We create the stories in this world just like we do in another game I am a fan of - The Sims. For now, I will attempt to lead Aldershot to Champions League glory - it has been a heroic struggle as these underdogs have climbed the ranks to now go head-to-head against the giants of European football.<br />
<br />
<hr></hr>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-302379796394942747.post-25203973199949194312009-11-29T16:02:00.037+00:002009-11-30T02:26:38.905+00:00An Endnote to Paper BooksBooks made of paper will go extinct. It is the inevitability of creative destruction, the same road that saw LPs and gramophones become fixtures in antique shops. Inertia and economics are the only reason paper books still exist. It is awfully hard for the 500-year-old technology of the printing press to vanish overnight, with so many generations of baggage to get rid off. But the wheels have been set in motion. Now we just sit back and watch.<br />
<br />
Like most fads of the past, paper and ink will expire its longevity, and be replaced by matters of convenience. The e-book readers have already made an entry. The prices are high, but they will drop soon. The Amazon Kindle has already sold out in over 100 countries. Vague figures by the CleanTech Group tell us that the the Kindle is more eco-friendly than buying books. And a dozen other companies are competing with the Kindle to ensnare the literate public. For now, they will attempt to mimic paper books as closely as they can, to allow smooth transition without the unnecessary hangovers and claims of the-end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it.<br />
<br />
But the nostalgia will soon fade, and the e-book readers, so far shackled in the conservative nature of people to dwell in the "good times of the past", shall break free from all the constraints and pursue a path of efficiency and optimization. It is what engineers do, create new technologies and hope that people alter their behaviors to keep up with the added conveniences that the inventions provide. Keeping up with the times, reading habits will change. Slow changes but incremental over generations.<br />
<br />
People will find it easier to instantly download new books. With costs of distribution low, economies of scale will ensure that the costs of books fall, almost like in the music industry. A new generation of authors will evolve who don't require publishing houses and a new generation of interactive books evolve to cater to the entertainment needs of millions.<br />
<br />
But then attention spans might fall too, because too much freedom can also be too much distraction. The internet has already conditioned users to read shorter blocks of text. Other effects would include complicated copyright issues. Piracy might take over the literary world in ways unimaginable before (but then some people will always argue that piracy is actually good for authors because it allows greater exposure to their readers).<br />
<br />
Nevertheless in the future, the newer e-book readers will seem so normal and natural, that people would wonder about the backwardness of the times when trees were cut to create those cumbersome un-interactive visual mediums of information transcription. And people will shake their heads in pity at their technology-challenged ancestors. This is how it has always been - the future always pitying the past.<br />
<br />
But of course this will too soon be replaced by newer technologies. My best bet is electrodes in the head that download information directly to the brains. Two hundred years from now is my uneducated, vague and random guess. And then we shall talk about the anticipated extinction of e-book readers.<br />
<br />
<hr></hr>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-302379796394942747.post-85967678262023967962009-11-05T04:04:00.007+00:002009-11-13T04:25:11.873+00:00History of Software Cracking - Part X<i>Disclaimer : This article <i>may</i> not be completely accurate and is not extensive. It is based on my understanding of the topic, which in an ideal world, is kinda limited. </i><br />
<br />
Software cracking uses reverse engineering. Reverse engineering involves taking a mechanical device, software program or electronic device apart, understanding its workings, and then attempt to create something out of that. It has been a common practice in the world of mechanics and electronics since a long time.<br />
<br />
It has been the greatest challenge for most innovating tech companies (like Sony) for a very long time. The military has been using it for centuries, attempting to analyze the enemy's weapons and creating their own versions to combat them.<br />
<br />
In the software industry, a very popular case was San Jose-based Phoenix Technologies Ltd. reverse engineering the IBM BIOS to create their own compatible version. (You can read about it in this great article by Mathew Schwartz, <a href="http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/65532/Reverse_Engineering?taxonomyId=63&pageNumber=1">Reverse-Engineering, Computerworld, November 12, 2001</a>)<br />
<br />
<hr /><br />
<b>Software Cracking</b><br />
<br />
I need to first differentiate between software crackers and 'crackers', the latter referring to malicious hackers, while the former referring to programmers who used reverse engineering to remove copy protection from the software.<br />
<br />
Now that I have made that distinction, let me move on to the history of software cracking. It began in the 1980s with disk-based software copy protection schemes on the Atari 800, Commodore and Apple II systems. The software manufacturers used hardware schemes to prevent people from making copies. Game developers had to use the most innovative of solutions to prevent any form of copying. (Some of the methods are listed on - <a href="http://www.experiencefestival.com/a/Copy_protection_-_Copy_protection_for_computer_software/id/4948373">Experiencefestival, Copy protection for computer software</a>)<br />
<br />
Circumventing such schemes was the biggest challenge out there, and it spawned the cracking scene. Soon software protection schemes would include hardware dongles, registration keys, keyfiles, internet activation, etc. Crackers were always one step ahead, and all for the glory and challenge.<br />
<br />
As I have mentioned in an earlier post, the apparent disregard for laws to go one up against rivals in the cracking scene was interesting. It was the strive to possess the intangibles of social esteem and prestige, over any materialistic goods. It almost proved to the world that a coherent social structure is possible where materialism is not the reward. But moving on to the more technical aspects.<br />
<br />
<hr></hr><br />
<b>Methods</b><br />
<br />
The most common software cracking involved altering the binary file to prevent a key branch from occuring. In assembly language, it often meant simply altering a je (jump on equal) command to a jne (jump on not equal) command. Finding the right branch was the challenge. But that was for the earlier simpler programs. <br />
<br />
It has always been a race out there. The software industry trying to stay one step ahead, and for good reason. It is said that piracy has cost the software industry over <b>20 billion dollars</b> in revenue, every year. That is more than the GDP of any developing country.<br />
<br />
<hr /><br />
<b>Reverse Engineering Tools</b><br />
<br />
Some of the tools of the trade were - <br />
FileMon - Monitors files<br />
Regmon - Monitors the registry<br />
W32Dasm - Windows Disassembler<br />
SoftICE - Windows Debugger<br />
Hiew - The coolest hex editor out there<br />
Windows API Reference, etc.<br />
<br />
Back in the late 90s, you started off with a disassembler and hex-editor. And then you moved on to SoftIce, a kernel mode debugger that ran underneath Windows. It was a tool so powerful it was used to crack itself.<br />
<br />
Numega, the creator of SoftIce is now gone. The plug has been pulled from under Softice too. Most software vendors had anyway implemented measures to make it harder to use SoftIce as a tool.<br />
<br />
<hr></hr><br />
<b>Crack Groups</b><br />
<br />
The most famous ones are International Network of Crackers, The Humble Guys (THG), PhrozenCrew, UCF, Core, ViRiLiTY, etc. I shall talk about each one in short articles soon.<br />
<br />
I shall also talk about how the 'demo scene' came into existence. A spin-off from the actual cracking. Actually a lot more fun.<br />
<br />
<hr></hr><br />
<b>Old Resources</b><br />
<br />
The resources are old and probably will not help anyone who intends to be a cracker nowadays. But it is history. And it needs to be read - <br />
<br />
The best resource for tutorials on cracking <a href="http://www.woodmann.com/RCE-CD-SITES/Cracking_4_newbies/index.html">Cracking 4 Newbies</a> <br />
<a href="http://flyfile.us/kb3s1x6cel0k/n2c.rar">The New2Cracking website download</a><br />
<a href="http://www.reteam.org/">Reverse Engineering Team</a><br />
<a href="http://www.backerstreet.com/cg/work.htm">Reverse Engineering Resources</a><br />
<a href="http://homepage.mac.com/randyhyde/webster.cs.ucr.edu/index.html">The Art of Assembly Language</a> - The most comprehensive and famous guide in the history of software cracking.<br />
<a href="http://www.woodmann.com/crackz/">CrackZ's Reverse Engineering Page</a><br />
Methods to prevent cracking - <a href="https://secure.um.edu.mt/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/51767/wict08_submission_32.pdf">Cracking, The Anti by Dorian Bugeja</a><br />
<br />
<hr></hr>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-302379796394942747.post-44264364606576737252009-10-20T04:37:00.003+01:002009-11-13T03:38:59.001+00:00United Cracking Force<b>Cracking</b><br />
<br />
For the uninitiated,<blockquote>Software Cracking is the modification of software to remove protection methods: copy protection, trial/demo version, serial number, hardware key, date checks, CD check or software annoyances like nag screens and adware.</blockquote>-Wikipedia<br />
<br />
From what I understand, the legality of cracking or "reverse engineering" isn't really black or white if you did not act for commercial gain. Even if we assume it is proved illegal, it is a crime hard to prove and convict. Therefore most convictions so far have been done for the "illegal distribution of cracks".<br />
<br />
In spite of the illegality in distribution of cracks, we've had a lot of groups throughout history competing to release them, for free. It was done for the challenge, and for the respect and honor. The underground world on the internet has mostly been about reputation, rather than money. But more about cracking in a later post.<br />
<br />
<hr></hr><br />
It struck me now that the big players in the past, have all but disappeared nowadays. One of them was the United Cracking Force. I stumbled upon these groups through the artwork I often found. The logo designs for many of these underground groups were really cool. The demoscene, a direct spinoff from the crack scene was a significant component of cyberculture.<br />
<br />
<hr></hr><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_2YELZF_FeCg/St6DKI46ghI/AAAAAAAAAEU/BDdZvwW5bi8/s1600-h/logo_ucf.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_2YELZF_FeCg/St6DKI46ghI/AAAAAAAAAEU/BDdZvwW5bi8/s320/logo_ucf.gif" /></a><br />
</div><br />
UNITED cRACKING FORCE (also known as uCF2000) were amongst the most renowned cracking groups to exist. Started in 1994 by mARQUIS dE sOIRE, they ruled the release scene for most part of the next decade.<br />
<br />
They seem to have faded away now, but at their peak, along with PhrozenCrew, they went after most of the copy protection schemes out there. From anecdotal experience I know that uCF is credited for being the first to break the dongle protection scheme, though the claims have been doubted.<br />
<br />
As a researcher, I have been interested in this underground world on the internet for a long time. uCF2000 were the first underground groups I stumbled upon, so I just had to write at least one paragraph about them.<br />
<br />
<hr></hr><br />
<b>Links</b><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.freemedialibrary.com/index.php/United_Cracking_Force_Release_History">United Cracking Force Release History</a><br />
<a href="http://www.defacto2.net/groups.cfm?mode=detail&org=ucf">Files from UCF2000 - Defacto2 Group Repository</a><br />
<a href="http://www.defacto2.net/magazines.cfm?id=175&reader=raw">Reality Check Network 22, "United Cracking Force", 14th July 1996</a>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-302379796394942747.post-88186278435481003002009-10-14T23:38:00.010+01:002009-10-18T22:59:18.399+01:00Windows 3.1x<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_2YELZF_FeCg/StZEknJMqFI/AAAAAAAAAEM/ujmU37FrwsM/s1600-h/11av9zc.jpg.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_2YELZF_FeCg/StZEknJMqFI/AAAAAAAAAEM/ujmU37FrwsM/s320/11av9zc.jpg.gif" /></a><br />
</div><br />
<hr></hr><br />
<b>History</b><br />
<br />
The ultimate operating system which would herald the modern age and make many of us eternal slaves to the great Microsoft. Released in March 1992, about when Silence of the Lambs had just won the Best Picture award at the Oscars (obscure trivia), Microsoft had mapped its way to dominating the computer industry in ways unlike ever known.<br />
<br />
Windows 3.1 replaced Windows 3.0. Amongst the most significant changes was replacing Reversi with Minesweeper. Minesweeper would soon go on to become one of the greatest games of all times, thus vindicating Microsoft and all its strategies.<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><hr></hr><br />
<b>Details</b><br />
<br />
Technically it wasn't a new OS. It was just a GUI that sat on top of the ancient DOS, MSDOS, more specifically.<br />
<br />
Windows 3.1 was still revolutionary by those days' standards. It still didn't have the Start button but a File Manager and a clean desktop with icons for executable programs. A significant part of the Windows 3.1 was the embedding of True Type fonts in Windows itself. This was a step forward from the days when the programs had to carry their own fonts.<br />
<br />
The GUI won Microsoft an award by Forbes for the most innovating company.<br />
<br />
<hr></hr><br />
<b>Windows 3.1 on a Nokia N95. February, 2009</b><br />
<br />
Somebody had to do it, and it was plain genius. By using DOSBox, Polish developer Marcin-PRV was able to install N95, allowing both Sybian and Windows 3.1 to run side-by-side. Nostalgia followed.<br />
<br />
(<a href="http://www.frazpc.pl/b/232621">Link </a>to original Polish forum where he boasts, or so I think.)<br />
<br />
<hr></hr><br />
<b>Future of Windows 3.x</b><br />
<br />
With Windows 3.x , Microsoft had taken their hundredth step towards market domination. It is only fair that traces of this momentous product exist even now.<br />
<br />
This OS actually still seems to have use. Every now and then some article does pop up about some site discovering a visitor who had used Windows 3.1. Its almost like finding a time traveler, or an alien dropping hints that it is out there.<br />
<br />
3.x is still used in some embedded systems applications. Up until July 2008 OEM's were be able to license Windows for Workgroups 3.11 in the embedded channel. (Link - <a href="http://blogs.msdn.com/jcoyne/archive/2008/07/09/it-s-the-end-for-3-11.aspx">It's the End for 3.11!!</a>) <br />
<br />
And I am told that Virgin Airlines use it on their onboard entertainment systems (no sources to back it up).<br />
<br />
<hr></hr><br />
<b>Screenshots</b><br />
<br />
All kinds of screenshots from Windows 3.1. (By <a href="http://www.guidebookgallery.org/screenshots/win31">Guidebookgallery</a>)<br />
<br />
<a href="http://internet.ls-la.net/ms-evolution/windows-3.1/">Microsoft's Evolution in Technology: Windows 3.1</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000341.html">A Tribute to the Windows 3.1 "Hot Dog Stand" Color Scheme</a><br />
<br />
<b>Download</b><br />
<br />
Download Windows 3.1 from torrents - <br />
<a href="http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/3536718/Windows_3.1__7_Floppy_.ZIP_s">7 Floppies</a>. Use DOS Boot disk<br />
<a href="http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/3536591/Windows_3.1_CD_ISO">ISO</a>. And follow a whole list of procedure.<br />
<br />
Download <a href="http://wiki.oldos.org/Downloads/Windows3x">Windows 3.1 softwares</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.calmira.de/">Give Windows 3.x the Windows XP look</a><br />
<br />
<hr></hr><br />
<b>Videos</b><br />
<br />
Japanese Ad for Windows 3.1. I'd call it weird but it is Japanese. For all I know it is a piece of avante-garde art.<br />
<br />
<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/JkufLcIQgKo&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/JkufLcIQgKo&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object><br />
<br />
The unpacking of a brand new Windows 3.1. Not interesting but hell I had to put it out here.<br />
<br />
<object width="560" height="340"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/PPE994pYeMU&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/PPE994pYeMU&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340"></embed></object><br />
<br />
<hr></hr><br />
<b>Links</b><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.weblust.com/winbible/BibleTop.html">Windows 3.1 Bible</a><br />
<a href="http://www.logicalsky.com/Windows31_FAQ.htm">Windows 3.1 FAQ from Logical Sky</a><br />
<a href="http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/classic-tech/?p=157">Experiment to see if you can still run Windows 3.1 in a business environment</a> - By John Sheeshly, Techrepublic<br />
<a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7707016.stm">End of an era</a> - BBC<br />
February 27, 2009 - Computerworld's David Ramel <a href="http://blogs.computerworld.com/whos_still_using_windows_3_1_and_amiga_os">discovers that someone still uses Windows 3.1</a><br />
<a href="http://aroundcny.com/technofile/texts/tec011997.htm">A real fix for the problems of Windows 3.1</a> - by Al Fasoldt<br />
<a href="http://www.i24.com/en/win31/tips/w31mm_en.htm">Getting Windows 3.1x ready for the present and (near) future</a><br />
<br />
<hr></hr>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-302379796394942747.post-577335769916631912009-10-08T22:11:00.008+01:002009-10-18T22:55:21.927+01:00Solitaire - The Card Game<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_2YELZF_FeCg/Ss5T2WOhosI/AAAAAAAAAEE/5d1EbndK0Ds/s1600-h/solitaire2.0.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_2YELZF_FeCg/Ss5T2WOhosI/AAAAAAAAAEE/5d1EbndK0Ds/s320/solitaire2.0.gif" /></a><br />
</div><br />
It has been an integral part of all Windows' users' lives. It is a boring game, almost mind-numbing, but it has existed and thrived because we have often had nothing else to do. In a match-up between laziness and boredom, Solitaire was the perfect trade-off. And playing it usually tended towards an addiction-laced equilibrium state.<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><hr /><br />
<b>History</b><br />
<br />
The game was developed in 1989 by Microsoft intern Wes Cherry. It has since been included into every Windows, except for those few copies which were installed by paranoid companies who ripped those innocent games out of the programs roster in a frenzy of profit-induced efficiency-increasing measures of absolute tyranny.<br />
<br />
The intention of including the game was to assist new users in figuring out how to use the mouse. And thus began the phenomena of Windows gaming.<br />
<br />
Susan Kare had developed the card deck. (<a href="http://www.kare.com/portfolio/17_microsoft_solataire.html">Her portfolio</a>). But it was the card trail that took our breaths away. Back in the old days, we would reset the turbo button on our cute little computers; and look in awe as the cards trailed at slower speeds.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_2YELZF_FeCg/Ss5KpPZoXeI/AAAAAAAAAD0/QE43mOAc65w/s1600-h/solitaire-for-windows.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_2YELZF_FeCg/Ss5KpPZoXeI/AAAAAAAAAD0/QE43mOAc65w/s320/solitaire-for-windows.gif" /></a><br />
</div><br />
<br />
<b>Trivia</b><br />
<br />
In the Windows Solitaire game using Standard Scoring, the highest possible score is 24113. <br />
<br />
<b>Mathematics</b><br />
<br />
No one really knows what percentage of standard Solitaire games are winnable. It has been a topic of research for a long while now.<br />
Research Paper - <a href="http://web.engr.oregonstate.edu/%7Eafern/papers/solitaire.pdf">SEARCHING SOLITAIRE IN REAL TIME</a><br />
Article -<a href="http://www.sciencenews.org/pages/sn_arc99/7_3_99/mathland.htm">Solitaire-y Sequences</a><br />
<a href="http://www.techuser.net/klondikeprob.html">The Probability of Unplayable Solitaire (Klondike) Games</a><br />
<br />
<b>Random Theory</b><br />
<br />
<i>Theory - The odds of winning any game of Klondike Solitaire of the form (Draw X, Re-Deal Y, Win Z) are equivalent to the average of the sum of the weighted ratios of the length of the longest increasing subsequence of each winning permutation to the length of the permutation.<br />
<br />
Proof - <a href="http://discuss.joelonsoftware.com/default.asp?joel.3.446403.10">The Joel on Software Discussion Group</a><br />
</i><br />
<hr /><br />
<b>Cheats</b><br />
<br />
<b>One card in three card game</b><br />
Start a three card draw game. Hold Ctrl + Alt + Shift and click on the deck to only draw one card. Please note: If you hold Ctrl + Alt + Shift at the circle at the end of the deck, points will not be taken off your score.<br />
<br />
<b>Automatic win</b><br />
To automatically win the game, press Shift + Alt + 2. The cards will trail like you had won the game legitimately.<br />
<br />
<hr /><br />
<b>Links</b><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.helium.com/items/1580512-windows-solitaire">Windows Solitaire Review</a><br />
<a href="http://www.slate.com/id/2191295/pagenum/all/">Solitaire-y Confinement. Why we can't stop playing a computerized card game.</a> - By Josh Levin<br />
<a href="http://b3ta.com/interview/solitaire/">Interview with creator of Windows Solitaire, Wes Cherry</a><br />
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/10/nyregion/10solitaire.html?_r=1">Solitaire Costs Man His City Job After Bloomberg Sees Computer</a><br />
<a href="http://faculty.nps.edu/rdfricke/docs/Fricker6.pdf">A Look at Randomness in Microsoft Windows Solitaire, or, Using ...</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.roziturnbull.com/bill/Solitaire/solitaire.htm">Odds of Winning Solitaire</a><br />
<br />
<hr />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-302379796394942747.post-18542521402669696422009-10-03T18:34:00.005+01:002009-10-05T06:35:57.219+01:00IRCIRC has existed for over two decades now. (August 1988. This is around the time the Iran-Iraq war was about to end after the death of over a million mortals.)<br />
<br />
I will not go through IRC's history because there are enough links out there which have pieced together every fragment of time that has contributed to the invention of the IRC. I will instead talk about IRC and internet culture.<br />
<br />
The internet has always been a place where no one could possibly ever feel left out. No loser is a loner out here and there are no misfits. The freaks can always find other freaks to make themselves feel less freakier, and talk or discourse about anything they wished to. And no matter what your interests were, you always have somewhere to be. For decades, vast millions of lonely souls have found solace on the internet, getting the interaction and exchange of ideas that they could never find in the real world. IRC has been amongst the largest social communities on the net for years. A live society, which unlike all the social networking sites, is not about projection of the real world.<br />
<br />
Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is a virtual world. Millions of computers connected to one another, from almost every country in the world. Thousands of channels in hundreds of networks. And over half a milion users at any instant. This is a large population. In real word terms, this would be like all the people of Bhutan deciding to collect at one time, in one large building.<br />
<br />
But this world is different. Very different. Looks never mattered, words did. The witty were cool. Cruel biting sarcasm and a lot of explicit language. And you could be anything you wished to be. Live your wildest avatars out here, identified by only your handles. And yet there were rules, subtle but absolute. Social norms that have evolved over time. They were unwritten in most cases, but if you crossed the invisible lines, you would/could be ostracized by all.<br />
<br />
IRC has never been owned by anyone. It is a free network. Free society. Free knowledge. Free sharing. It is a bastardized version of the internet. <br />
And therefore has once become a battleground for the repressed to play with all that is taboo in the real world. Any fetish now has a channel. Add to that the illegal downloads and apparent lack of real-world social protocols, it is <i>almost</i> a haven for anarchism.<br />
<br />
IRC. It is for those who wish to escape.<br />
<br />
<hr /><br />
<b>Links</b><br />
<br />
<a href="http://daniel.haxx.se/irchistory.html">Daniel's Page - History of IRC</a><br />
<a href="http://www.irc.org/history_docs/jarkko.html">IRC History by Jarkko Oikarinen</a><br />
<a href="http://www.mirc.co.uk/help/jarkko2.txt">Jarkko Oikarinen Interview </a><br />
<a href="http://www.livinginternet.com/r/ri_irc.htm">Livinginternet - Internet Relay Chat (IRC) History</a><br />
<a href="http://www.irc.org/history.html">IRC History</a><br />
<a href="http://www.irc-junkie.org/2007-06-21/is-irc-on-the-decline/">IRC Junkie - Is IRC on the Decline?</a><br />
<a href="http://cyber.eserver.org/reid.txt">COMMUNICATION AND COMMUNITY ON INTERNET RELAY CHAT</a><br />
<br />
<hr />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-302379796394942747.post-51770491125204800412009-09-30T15:59:00.006+01:002009-09-30T11:41:30.299+01:00Lesson 34 - How to extract audio from YouTube / any flv fileIn the course of my last post, I was confronted with a video which had the sound I wished but a useless image I had no need for. (Not so useless. Depends on how you look at it. It was a picture of <a href="http://www.billnye.com/">Bill Nye, The Science Guy</a>. Childhood science experiments. Good memories revisited.)<br />
<br />
Download this <b>free</b> tool called flv extractor. (<a href="http://www.filefreak.com/files/70898_xaido/FLV_Extract.zip">FLV Extractor Download Link</a>). Drag the downloaded flv file onto it and watch as the software magically creates a video .avi file and a sound .mp3 file.<br />
<br />
(Digression - How to download the flv file?<br />
<a href="http://www.orbitdownloader.com/">Orbit Downloader </a>seems ok. <br />
For Mozilla, get a plug-in.)<br />
<br />
Now enjoy the (often) copyrighted average-quality music without the annoying video mash ups.<br />
<br />
<hr></hr>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-302379796394942747.post-69341033450822522502009-09-29T03:59:00.008+01:002009-10-18T22:56:12.281+01:00Modems and GetsmartRemember the old days? <br />
<br />
With those phone-based dial-up modems, which made a lot of noise and worked at annoyingly low speeds. I have extracted the sound for the listening pleasure of the few who sit around pretending to miss the good ol' days, when things were simpler and the stars were brighter. <br />
<br />
The sound of the internet - <br />
<br />
<embed allowscriptaccess="never" bgcolor="#ffffff" flashvars="playerMode=embedded" height="27" quality="best" src="http://www.google.com/reader/ui/3247397568-audio-player.swf?audioUrl=http://www.filefreak.com/files/70531_050gb/dial-up%20sound.mp3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="400" wmode="window"></embed><br />
<br />
(Audio file ripped from <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qtqz0bdq30Q">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qtqz0bdq30Q</a>)<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><hr /><br />
<b>Downloading</b><br />
<br />
<b>Year 1998</b><br />
Modem speeds were at 28.8 kbps. Files took many hours to download, often interrupted annoyingly at the higher percentage levels. Download managers were sought after, along with tools and hacks which pretended to improve speeds (Many of them, were nothing but placebos.)<br />
<br />
So anyway there used to be a software called Getsmart. It was the first download manager I found which could split a file into as many parts as you wished (I had tried up to 100, while attempting to download a 300+ mb file. WinLinux, it was).<br />
But it had more. It supported skins. It had a built-in FTP client. And it had a "act as proxy" feature. This feature gave me a innovative way to use some annoying softwares which supported HTTP proxy servers but did not support authentication. It allowed faster loading of websites as Getsmart could split the large files (like images and videos) on the site and parallelly download them.<br />
<br />
The website still exists, and it is a sign that I really need to get a life, when I can type the url out of memory. <br />
It used to be http://members.xoom.com/m507 and http://getsmart.hypermart.net, both of which are now down for a long while (No google cache entries for them). However a mirror still exists. The site reminds me of those ghost villages, empty, devoid of life but a heaviness in the air and a damp nostalgic melancholy of the good times gone by - <br />
<a href="http://getsmart.sourceforge.net/">Getsmart - The smartest download manager around!</a>. <br />
Its been a decade now. And they've been long gone. Like so many of their time.<br />
<br />
<b>Screenshot</b><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_2YELZF_FeCg/SsLeGBHfqbI/AAAAAAAAADs/JxLGBWig7TI/s1600-h/Getsmart.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_2YELZF_FeCg/SsLeGBHfqbI/AAAAAAAAADs/JxLGBWig7TI/s320/Getsmart.png" /></a><br />
</div><br />
I will take the liberty of mirroring the link of the software soon, just in case it vanishes from the internet completely.<br />
<br />
<hr /><br />
<b>Videos</b><br />
<br />
Monkey Dust - The internet is expanding!<br />
<br />
<object height="364" width="445"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/AgqEIp2YmtE&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0&border=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/AgqEIp2YmtE&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0&border=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="445" height="364"></embed></object><br />
<br />
<hr /><br />
<b>Links</b><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.lazylaces.com/56Kmodem/">56K Modem Emulator</a><br />
Forum post discussing stuff to do with old modems - <a href="http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/46105-6-transformers-modems">Transformers from old modems</a><br />
<a href="http://modem73.blogspot.com/2009/08/how-to-build-telephone-recording.html">How-To Build a Telephone Recording Circuit from an Old Modem</a><br />
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3br3AdsjZbM">Internet Connections : How Does Dial-Up Work?</a><br />
<br />
<hr />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-302379796394942747.post-60566097632642680282009-09-26T22:33:00.006+01:002009-09-27T06:44:56.078+01:00Netscape<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_2YELZF_FeCg/Sr5-vj1aKWI/AAAAAAAAADk/K02JY76cjhg/s1600-h/NetscapeNavigator.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_2YELZF_FeCg/Sr5-vj1aKWI/AAAAAAAAADk/K02JY76cjhg/s400/NetscapeNavigator.jpg" /></a><br />
</div><br />
The rise and fall of Netscape has been well documented. A little too well. Its kind of passé now. Yes. I know that Netscape was a thought leader on the internet. It created all things good. It was the reason why people stayed glued to their computers, navigating through the world wide web. Its IPO is considered the official start to the dotcom era. It was the reason the internet got popular and became what it became (an orgy of porn and meaningless rants). All before it was unethically crushed by Microsoft and a lethargic AOL.<br />
<br />
In 2007, support for Netscape web browsers was officially discontinued. But no one really cared. Mozilla (which was a result of Netscape's efforts) was here. Opera was here. Hell! Even Internet Explorer was good enough. I felt no tinge of nostalgia for a software that by 2002 had become a garbled piece of one-upmanship (against Microsoft's IE). It was a symbol of failure. A symbol of Schumpeter's process of creative destruction.<br />
<br />
The internet has changed over the past decade. The cause has been the intense competition that accompanied every single new idea. Netscape's failure only made me believe, like other trendsetters, you are only as good as your current product. History counts for nothing in the cut-throat, constantly innovating software industry. (Of course I hated Microsoft and capitalism for a little while, but life goes on.)<br />
<br />
<hr /><br />
<b>The Documentary</b><br />
<br />
Code Rush is a 1998 documentary following the lives of a group of Netscape engineers in Silicon Valley. (Just prior to the AOL Merger.)<br />
<br />
<object classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" height="271" id="viddler" width="437"><param name="movie" value="http://www.viddler.com/simple_on_site/90571b61" /><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><embed src="http://www.viddler.com/simple_on_site/90571b61" width="437" height="271" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowScriptAccess="always" allowFullScreen="true" name="viddler" ></embed></object><br />
<br />
<hr /><br />
<b>Links</b><br />
<br />
<a href="http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19970311&slug=2528165">Internet Wars -- Microsoft Vs. Netscape: Goliath Takes On David -- Navigator Still Ahead - But Losing Ground (Year 1997)</a><br />
<a href="http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9595_22-96069.html">ZDnet - The Rise and Fall of Netscape</a><br />
Berkeley - Strategic Computing and Communications Technology Project - <a href="http://inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/%7Eeecsba1/sp98/reports/eecsba1c/pj1/">Rise and Fall of Netscape Browsers</a><br />
<a href="http://www.livinginternet.com/w/wi_netscape.htm">Living Internet - Netscape History</a><br />
<a href="http://www.andrew-turnbull.net/mozilla/history.html">A Visual Browser History, from Netscape 4 to Mozilla Firefox</a><br />
<a href="http://www.andrew-turnbull.net/nscape1.html">Andrew Turnbull Network - Netscape Navigator Version 1</a><br />
<a href="http://home.mcom.com/MCOM/products_docs/client.html">Killer Products : Netscape Navigator 1.0</a><br />
<br />
<hr />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-302379796394942747.post-72537478995155396682009-09-21T05:52:00.000+01:002009-09-21T10:04:25.239+01:00ICQ<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_2YELZF_FeCg/Srbu-j7qrXI/AAAAAAAAADc/9RyXrt08so8/s1600-h/icq-celebrate-11-years.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_2YELZF_FeCg/Srbu-j7qrXI/AAAAAAAAADc/9RyXrt08so8/s320/icq-celebrate-11-years.jpg" /></a><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div>ICQ was amongst the first instant messengers I ever used. Right along with AIM. It was weird twist of fate that led me to use these 2 softwares. They were the only chat softwares at the time which supported HTTP proxy servers, and I was stuck behind an oppressive firewall. (Academic firewalls on a dial-up connection. Those were the days.) My quest back in those days was to find softwares that could log me through those pesky firewalls. The late 20th century was a hard place to be. Yeah, we did have Sock2HTTP (the only way I could use IRC) and a HTTP tunneling software that I just couldn't get to work, but nevertheless ICQ was discovered.<br />
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Since its inception, ICQ had spread via word of mouth. And had gone on to become really popular. It was filled with features. A million of them. It supported offline messages, had a searchable people's directory. Multiplayer games. Multi-user chats. And many others I cannot recall. It seemed cute at the time. Cluttered, overloaded but it worked. It already had a large user base when I joined. You got to chat with people. With strangers. Hell, even with spambots.<br />
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You got a UIN (a sequential number) when you registered, and henceforth you could give yourself any chatname you wished. It was a flexible idea. I do find it tiring to keep having to choose a unique username, which eventually becomes a mix of numbers and symbols that mean nothing to you or anybody.<br />
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ICQ was a homonym for 'I Seek You'. It was started way back in 1996 by a company called Mirabilis, a small startup from Israel. In 1998, it was bought over by the great AOL. The company that seems to buy a LOT of good things for a LOT of money and then push them slowly off the edge in an act of induced tough love.<br />
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<b>Decline</b><br />
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I could blame its takeover by AOL as the reason why it failed. But that wouldn't be true. Because even at its height of popularity, it was still an AOL product. AOL, of course was on a mission to takeover the chatting world, with a combination of AIM, ICQ and techniques to prevent other chat softwares for communicating with them.(See <a href="http://www.forbes.com/2000/06/16/mu4.html">AOL's Proposal Fails To Placate Messaging Rivals</a>). During the takeover, ICQ had 11.4 million users, AIM had a 20 million users. ICQ was growing at a rate of 57000 users a day. A large advertising base for AOL. Now during the takeover of ICQ, there was a lot of discontentment. (See <a href="http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/news/1998/06/12896">ICQ Fans Rage Against AOL</a>), but AOL did keep ICQ a separate brand for quite some time. Only in 2002 did the 2 networks meet. That was around the time ICQ stopped being advertisement-free.<br />
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<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">The rivals were working there way into the IM market. Microsoft did what it always does, a quiet-slow-stuffing-down-the-throat-of-newbies approach to getting its own messenger popular. And while AOL resisted the attempts at universal chat clients, the bandwagon effect couldn't hold people to AOL and ICQ for too long. Not when you had a lot of efficient and simpler softwares out there.<br />
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I think the failure of ICQ was the reason why it got famous in the first place. There were way too many features. And they went on a crazed rampage, adding new features every version, but not removing the bugs from before. The tool was soon bloated and took a good amount of memory. Spammers found the perfect tool with its offline directory list to target. (AOL really has no clue how to take care of good pieces of software.)<br />
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So with all the features that ICQ seemed to boast off, the future of the internet has always seemed to be minimalist, or so I think. (Think of all the new trends out there.)<br />
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<b>Links</b><br />
A Take on the ICQ vs AIM debate, and a look at chat culture itself - <a href="http://www.stilldrinking.org/?which=9">Instantaneity - A Brief and Uninformed History</a><br />
People do wonder - <a href="http://scobleizer.com/2007/07/11/what-happened-to-icq/">What happened to ICQ?</a><br />
Time Magazine looks at the controversy of universal chat clients - <a href="http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,999110,00.html?iid=chix-sphere">All Together Now</a><br />
David Lawrence talks why the merger makes sense to the music industry - <a href="http://www.thedavidlawrenceshow.com/icq_vs_aim_vs_aimster_002257.html">ICQ vs. AIM vs. AIMster</a><br />
The fears of an ICQ takeover revisited - <span style="color: #551a8b;"><a href="http://diamond-back.com/icqlies4.html">AOL/ICQ Acquisition Revisited</a></span><br />
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<hr />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-302379796394942747.post-21716060745252731112009-09-17T01:00:00.001+01:002009-09-29T19:36:50.379+01:00Winamp<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_2YELZF_FeCg/SrGVCwUGaVI/AAAAAAAAACs/l0-O10XtTAY/s1600-h/winamp1-logo.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_2YELZF_FeCg/SrGVCwUGaVI/AAAAAAAAACs/l0-O10XtTAY/s400/winamp1-logo.png" /></a><br />
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Winamp was the first music player I ever used, way back in 1998. It took very little system resources and it was <b>free</b>. Excellent sound reproduction, a variety of skins and a great visualization plugin . (As uncool teenage geeks, skins were <b>definitely</b> a way for us to feel cooler. Winamp also allowed the creation of plugins, which resonated with all the programmer geeks out there.) The mp3 culture was just starting and this product was right in the middle of it all.<br />
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Nullsoft was the company. It reflected the culture at the time. They seemed rebellious and independent. Unlike all the humongous monolithic companies out there which produced products like the dry and boring Windows Media Player, or advertisement loaded Real Player.<br />
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<hr /><br />
Just to give you an idea about how the product felt at that time, the credits in the Winamp 2 player included -<br />
Stunt coordinator, Stunts, Puppeteer, Llama wrangler, Animal trainer, Assistant to Fifi, Watching anime, Karate scene coordinator, Topless dancer, Prime numbers, Pyrotechnics, Beer, Catering, Elevator music, Gaffer, Often annoying public manipulation, Genetic engineering, Breast examination, Translator, Warfare tech, Shipbuilding, Bad humor, Plasterer, Carpentry, Extras, Stand-ins, etc.<br />
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They ended it by thanking Dallas Square-dancing Hall of fame and San Diego Zoo amongst others.<br />
Filmed in amazing Technicolor.<br />
Soundtrack available on Fuckit Records<br />
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Btw, Elevator music was credited to 'The Robies'. They are an obscure band about which I could get no information but for this youtube video - <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7PyX-wI7Kw">Superman - The Robies</a>. Sounds like Greenday.<br />
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<b>The Sellout</b><br />
It has changed a lot over the years including the one time it decided to sell itself out to the cold evil corporate world. 80 Million $ is A LOT of money. It made Justin Frankel, the creator of Winamp and Nullsoft a rich man but all of us moaned at the prospect of Winamp losing its independence. The free creative world which spawned all good things on the internet replaced by the cold corporate world, passionless, where innovation would be replaced by plain old manipulation, and we would soon have bad products stuffed down our throat till we puked and moved over to the next new thing.<br />
(This article is just after the sellout happened - <a href="http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20201501,00.html">Winamp wins big</a> )<br />
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I did come across articles which talked about how the old Winamp team could not gel with the new corporate culture and slowly left, one by one. (Read <a href="http://www.betanews.com/article/Death-Knell-Sounds-for-Nullsoft-Winamp/1100111204">Death Knell Sounds for Nullsoft, Winamp</a>)<br />
The last of the original team left by 2004, disillusioned by the AOL work culture (Steve Gedekian to Apple. See <a href="http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/software/0,39044164,39201905,00.htm">Nullsoft's future in a void</a>).<br />
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Winamp3 was released in August 2002. It was to be the next best thing in music. But it was bad for those day's standards. It took a lot of system resources and just wasn't worth the effort of switching. It forced Winamp to continue developing the Winamp 2 series. A step back during the height of media player competition. (See <a href="http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/business/soa/AOL-admits-failure-of-Winamp-revamp/0,139023166,120275821,00.htm?omnRef=1337">AOL admits failure of Winamp revamp</a>)<br />
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It soon fused the Winamp 2 and Winamp3 branches of development to create the Winamp 5. (2 + 3 = 5). This was in December 2003. It was around now that I moved on from Winamp to other alternatives. It just wasn't the same old simple player. It had become into a complete media suite, and was now just like any other product out there. Nothing new or unique. People had feared that it might go the Sonique way and completely vanish but it seems to have held on.<br />
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<b>Update</b><br />
After years of infidelity and sleeping around, I moved back to Winamp this year. Maybe it was the nostalgia or the familiar interface which they have retained even after so many years. Its still a pretty good product, though not revolutionary or cool any more. I now use it to catalog my music while using VLC Media Player or Media Player Classic for quickly playing files.<br />
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<b>Llamas</b><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_2YELZF_FeCg/SrGuNWigfZI/AAAAAAAAADE/zVzHIayZeCU/s1600-h/justin-1997.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_2YELZF_FeCg/SrGuNWigfZI/AAAAAAAAADE/zVzHIayZeCU/s200/justin-1997.gif" /></a><br />
</div>Winamp always had a llama story about it. (Picture on the left is from the Winamp site. Its says "Justin Frankel (right), in mid 1997, in his hometown of Sedona, AZ."<br />
In the faqs, they answer about the llama :<br />
<blockquote>What's up with the Llama?<br />
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There have been many rumors and myths about Mike the Llama. This is just one of the universe's questions that will never get answered... ;)<br />
</blockquote><br />
The iconic Wesley Willis inspired "Winamp - it really whips the Llama's ass."<br />
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<embed allowscriptaccess="never" bgcolor="#ffffff" flashvars="playerMode=embedded" height="27" quality="best" src="http://www.google.com/reader/ui/3247397568-audio-player.swf?audioUrl=http://www.filefreak.com/files/66338_r5yc7/DEMO.MP3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="400" wmode="window"></embed><br />
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<hr /><br />
<b>The Transition</b><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_2YELZF_FeCg/SrGYImL8fTI/AAAAAAAAAC0/g41GVYiiUhU/s1600-h/timeline.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_2YELZF_FeCg/SrGYImL8fTI/AAAAAAAAAC0/g41GVYiiUhU/s400/timeline.png" /></a><br />
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To download old versions of Winamp, head over to <a href="http://www.winampheaven.net/">A Winamp Heaven</a> or <a href="http://www.oldversion.com/Winamp.html">Oldversions - Winamp</a><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_2YELZF_FeCg/SrGZnsy7PcI/AAAAAAAAAC8/Q_9dr7F7TE8/s1600-h/logonow.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_2YELZF_FeCg/SrGZnsy7PcI/AAAAAAAAAC8/Q_9dr7F7TE8/s320/logonow.png" /></a><br />
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<b>Extras</b><br />
How to make two llamas headbang to the beats in Winamp 5 :<br />
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With the default (Modern) skin chosen, stretch the main window until the Beat Analyzer appears; it says "BEAT" under it. Hold down Ctrl+Alt+Shift and click exactly at the center of the Beat Analyzer, then play a song with fast beats and loud bass.<br />
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<b>Links</b><br />
The fall of Winamp - <a href="http://www.google.com/trends?q=winamp">Google Trends - Winamp</a><br />
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winamp">Winamp - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia</a><br />
<a href="http://www.experiencefestival.com/winamp_-_history">Experience Festival - Winamp History</a><br />
<a href="http://joeanderson.co.uk/blog/2005/06/19/a-brief-look-at-the-history-winamp/">A Brief Look at the history Winamp | Webby's World</a><br />
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<hr />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0