this actually happened a while back and i didnt notice, but i got the following email about my Airjack project (http://802.11ninja.net) from one of the senior seti unix admins...wooohoo...

--Abaddon

-------

I'd like to get a copy of the airjack source from you, if I could.
I loved the talk last year, and look forward to anything you might
be presenting this year.

--
Mark C. Langston Sr. Unix SysAdmin
mark@bitshift.org mark@seti.org
Systems & Network Admin SETI Institute
http://bitshift.org http://www.seti.org

so as you may or may not know the author of this article is the author and distributor of a few open source projects, one most notable project is the Airjack project...this is a tool (a driver actually) for raw 802.11 frame injection and the sort, its what i used to break things for my blackhat lecture...

i no longer actively maintain this project, but i still distribute it, and ill give help on it...and if someone has a really good question i really help and sometimes expand functionality...

anyways, i get email all the time about it, most of it them are asking for support on some level, most are actually polite, respectful, ie, dont piss me off...

every now and then i get a gem, one that is in leet speak, from the most vial script kiddie that has ever picked up a keyboard...id like to share some of the anger and frustration with you, the anonymous internet goer, in the hopes that i can somehow cathartically dispell these feelings...

----

ok first thing you need to know is this...if you are asking a stranger for free software that they spent time to write and make useful, then you are asking them for a favor...believe me there are many projects i work on and very very very few i make public...so if you have any troubles with it, go about things as you would when asking a stranger for a favor...

i cant begin to tell you how often i get people upset because i didnt help them adiquitely in their eyes, or because i wont add a feature, or because it is hard to install, ive even been accused of embedding malicious viruses in my OPEN SOURCE code (something very untrue, its open source for god's sake)...

some ground rules before you ever email a free software project maintainer...

1) know what the program/tool is, that includes what its supposed to do, the general type of program it is (driver, user space application, command line, x app, etc), what os it runs on, what os it doesnt run on...and again, what its supposed to do...you'd think that would be a prerequisite for even wanting a thing, but nope, later you'll see its not...

2) if you have trouble installing the program, this is not my problem...i clearly already have this installed and sence i owe you nothing, i have no obligation to help you install it...that said i made it public because i wanted to share, so i am more than happy to help you install it...

3) i dont write documentation because i like writing documentation...so if i have any, documentation, i have it there to help you, not me, i already know how it works...so read the documentation and dont ask me to paste it to you in email...the documentation is faster and bothers me less...

4) if you find a bug, its not my problem, i might fix it, i might not, your bug is your problem, not mine, if it works for me then im happy...thats not to say that i wont fix the bug, what that means is i have no obligation to fix the bug...believe me 99 times out of 100 im mo... [ Read More (2.3k in body) ]

pretty lengthy, but this debunks the major assertions made by the SCO suit one by one...

OSI's statement on the recent SCO foolishness

] I fully expected ISS to respond with a "we have
] identified the administrator that failed to patch the
] system in question, and have forced him to drink
] buttermilk while watching home movies of Janet Reno in a
] leather teddy. We are confident that this will not happen
] again."
]
] But they didn't.
]
] Instead, ISS revealed that the hacked site, the one from
] which students and universities around the world
] downloaded free versions of BlackICE to protect
] themselves from hackers, was in reality a cleverly
] disguised, purposefully vulnerable honeypot,

] strategically placed in this hostile environment to
] collect and analyze the actions of evil hackers.

The Register | 'Relax, It Was a Honeypot'

] Recent results from the standardized Perl Fluency Test
] showed that 99.99% of US high school seniors can't read
] Perl. This disturbing statistic shows that American
] students are painfully unprepared for life after
] graduation.
]
] "This shows that there is a real need for a Perl Monk in
] every classroom," said Perl Monk Kelly Adrity. "We've
] got computers in every classroom, now we need our kids to
] be able to use them, and what better way to learn about
] computers than to learn how to read and write in Perl.
] I'm glad the budget proposed by President Bush sets aside
] millions for Perl Monks. America will lead the way in
] Perl literacy."

] Not everyone shared Mr. Chen's view about the necessity
] of adding Perl to early elementary curricula.
] Programmers Against Perl (PAP) spokesperson, Keith
] Willingham said, "There's no better way to scare students
] away from computers than exposing them to Perl. Even
] experienced programmers are frightened and confused by
] it. The Perl lobby is just getting too powerful, and
] they need to be stopped."

Stopped? We can't be stopped.. Haha..

99.99% of High School Seniors Can't Read Perl

as broken as you want them to be

Three Brain

mmm drugs...

zoloft for everything

we've gotta stop those evil terrorists no matter the plot, i mean, first hijackings, then air plane crashes, dirty bombs, anthrax...now, yep you've guessed it, they've gone so far as to use graphics libraries...

i dont know about you guys, but right now im more afraid of the people that are suposedly saving us from terrorists than i am of the terrorists...i mean, the odds of me being hit by a terrorist attack seem far less than the odds that they'll kick in my door to save the world from me...

our collective silence has paid for this, enjoy...

active X is for terrorists

more comentary on the Jose Padilla saga, this one is a puletser (yeah yeah i dont spell) prize winning jurnalist chastising the media for not giving any coverage to the Padilla case...

when exactly did the we all deside the government didnt need checks and balances any more...

no-one cares about civil liberties or reason 1502-B why i hate people