May 06, 2005

• ...and enraged its chairman, Bill Gates. Hell, yeah! Rock on, guys. *tear*
• How unjust! Their only crime is millions of dollars worth of theft.
• I had a feeling I should have clarified. I feel that anyone who "enrages Bill Gates" deserves an applause after the piece of mass-marketed oversold shit that was Windows ME. That particular piece of software enrages me on a regular basis. As for the rest of it, I seriously care not. The guys done bad, and now they're in jail/have flushed their careers. Maybe not worth millions to Gates, but punishment enough.
• That primer is pure comedy gold. For example, using slashes to create "/\/\" can substitute for the letter M, and two pipes combined with a hyphen to form "|-|" is often used in place of the letter H. Thus, the word ham could be written as "|-|4/\/\." |-|4/\/\.
• /\/\4ybe not.
• s4/\/\i4/\/\54549: d0 u l1k3 gr33n exz0rz + |-|4/\/\/ t3|-|m4/|/: i d0 n07 l13k t|-|3m s4/\/\i4/\/\54549 I'll stop there. ...I still can't believe that it says Feb. 4, 2005. Perhaps it's the result of an intensive seven-year study of one set of chat logs.
• "pr0n": An anagram of "porn," possibly indicating the use of pornography. ...possibly?
• And of course "pr0n" is "an indicator that your teenager is involved in the theft of intellectual property, particularly licensed software." Hmmmmm
• Ah, Windows Mistaken Edition, how I loathe thee ...
• The only place I have ever resorted to talking like a h4xx0r in a non-ironic/humorous (intended, anyway) fashion is actually my Microsoft IM handle. I had to substitute a 4 for the 'a' in my usual username because Microsoft reads "immlass" as having a naughty word in it.
• I've never been l33t, always been |-|34\/y.
• "encourages new forms and awards individual creativity": someone ought to read an english primer.
• Robin Hood may have given it to Little John or to Maid Marian, depending on his proclivities...or maybe even the poor, but these numbnuts gave it away to their own narcissism...."hey, mira! mira! I'm so cool..lookie at what I got!
• /\/\0|\|k3y phi173r is teh r0xx0r$!!!!eleventyone!
• Apparently if you say "pwn" you are either involved in illegal activity or you are a video game bully. My roommate, a very nice girl, must be a terrible video game bully then.
• Much as I do not countenance blatant theft, it's worth considering what the tech revolution and its contributions to the modern economy might have lost without these guys. From a sociological standpoint, no interest ever grabbed large portions of young people without an aspect of rebellion and edginess. In the early years, DOD and their ilk added the 'cool' to the distinctly staid field of computers. While there were undoubtedly significant economic losses due to corporate piracy thru DoD's efforts, there have also been legions of burgeoning computer geeks over the decades who would likely have quickly lost interest had they not had access to software (thru DoD) they could not afford or justify. They should perhaps be hailed even as they are jailed.
• The only problem with stealing and distributing M$ prods is that they usually suck so hard. Recipients of the theft were done no favors. Hey, you really wanna hurt MicroBlob? Work on OpenOffice.
• They should have been jailed for foisting Microsoft's shitty products on the public. Free or not, crap is still crap.
• So, its sad when people who steal software sit in front of their computers for their whole lives, and yet people who work for software companies who they steal from are not seen as sad when they sit in front of computers all day? Certainly, I realize that these software authors are doing something productive, but... heh. I just couldnt help but see this.
• (It's not theft- it's infringement. There's a big difference. Just to, you know, combat the framing...)