Let me peer into your eyes, Daughter India,
Allow me to drink deeply of your innocence,
for you are this before me.
I do not find the pollution of deceit
In your forthright gaze,
Nor do I detect haste to bustle to a
Topic more agreeable to your taste.
Your eyes grant me the tolerance
To express myself.
For all this I thank you.
But, my precious Daughter India,
In your trusting soul glistening in your eyes
I see a sensitivity vulnerable to worldly hurt.
The materialistic side of man forges ahead
With knives of selfishness and greed.
With such weapons, your luminous eyes can be blinded
To never more behold the delight of the Creator’s world.
Would you be willing to sacrifice this priceless treasure
Offered to you freely
For cold gold and clinking silver that tarnishes with age?
One is of life,
While the other is dead, capable of offering no happiness.
Again my Daughter India, I search to hold your gaze.
Do not extinguish your light-house of trust,
But let your light be a beacon to the worlds
Hurting from the curses of lustful power and greed.
Guard your lamps, that your trust may stand firm.
Preserve your gardens of modesty and simplicity,
Your blooms of piety and high-mindedness,
Your seeds of greatness.
Daughter India, take my hand,
And allow me
To help you rise.
By: Mary Anne Lackovich
Allow me to drink deeply of your innocence,
for you are this before me.
I do not find the pollution of deceit
In your forthright gaze,
Nor do I detect haste to bustle to a
Topic more agreeable to your taste.
Your eyes grant me the tolerance
To express myself.
For all this I thank you.
But, my precious Daughter India,
In your trusting soul glistening in your eyes
I see a sensitivity vulnerable to worldly hurt.
The materialistic side of man forges ahead
With knives of selfishness and greed.
With such weapons, your luminous eyes can be blinded
To never more behold the delight of the Creator’s world.
Would you be willing to sacrifice this priceless treasure
Offered to you freely
For cold gold and clinking silver that tarnishes with age?
One is of life,
While the other is dead, capable of offering no happiness.
Again my Daughter India, I search to hold your gaze.
Do not extinguish your light-house of trust,
But let your light be a beacon to the worlds
Hurting from the curses of lustful power and greed.
Guard your lamps, that your trust may stand firm.
Preserve your gardens of modesty and simplicity,
Your blooms of piety and high-mindedness,
Your seeds of greatness.
Daughter India, take my hand,
And allow me
To help you rise.
By: Mary Anne Lackovich
1998. I came across a phenomenon which was to change the way I (in fact we all, at some point of time) looked at the computers… the Internet.
Before I say something about the infinite green-fields and wastelands that internet has become today, I would like to digress a little bit here. It was now 15 years that Narayan Murthy, Nandan Nilekani, Azim Premji, Suboroto Bagchi and company were at odds with the government about the computer regulations in India. They were insisting right from the beginning that this was boom time. The government was proving to be a bit more myopic. The entire story of Indian IT industry’s phoenix like rise from the ashes is a story far more interesting than anything I could write here. As such, I would earnestly request you to please make it a point to read “The Horse that Flew”, a book by Chidananda Rajghatta. It is a story that would inspire even the deadest of the hearts.
Meanwhile, I in my eighth class was blissfully unaware of the IT revolution sweeping across the nation. Those were the days when the internet connection cost you Rs.30 per hour. And you were having a lucky day if you managed to download a 2 MB file. The server line was eternally busy. I remember regularly getting up at 3 AM to connect to the net. That sleep was almost always compensated in the school. ;-) I never concerned myself with the Rs.30 part of the picture. My dad took care of it. He never complained about the escalated telephone bills.
It was his unquestioned support that enabled me to see things I did not know existed, I could not dream of ever existing. I learnt that there was this website called Yahoo! which had answers to just about everything in the world. I won a prize in school science project competition thanks to the internet. Even then, internet had resources far greater than most of us will ever use in our lifetimes. The information was there right from the beginning. The presentation part was missing. The money part was missing too. Everything on internet was free of cost. It was like paying for an amusement park. Once you pay the ticket charges, everything inside is free.
It was 9th class I got my first email ID. Hotmail was the only service provider then which was free of cost. The VSNL account came with an email account too. But it didn’t have the charm of Hotmail. I was unaware of Sabeer Bhatia too. But it was fun to send letters free of cost. It had 5 MB of space. Compare that to today’s Gmail with 2.8 GB and you will feel the difference. The interface has changed too. Hotmail v1 was a plain vanilla HTML based service. Today’s Gmail uses the cutting edge AJAX technology improving productivity while reducing the overheads.
Internet bore no limits. Every time I sat to surf the net, I unearthed something new. Something wonderful. I even tried my hands at hacking. Didn’t even get close to Ankit Fadia, but managed to hack my sister’s email ID password. After that I regularly hacked passwords of many of my friends. I even got an unauthorized entry into the Amravati VSNL server. But that was about it. I never considered taking it up professionally.
But new vistas continue to open… even today. With a thrill as fresh as it was the very first day. There is one thing in life I’m addicted to – Computers.
Before I say something about the infinite green-fields and wastelands that internet has become today, I would like to digress a little bit here. It was now 15 years that Narayan Murthy, Nandan Nilekani, Azim Premji, Suboroto Bagchi and company were at odds with the government about the computer regulations in India. They were insisting right from the beginning that this was boom time. The government was proving to be a bit more myopic. The entire story of Indian IT industry’s phoenix like rise from the ashes is a story far more interesting than anything I could write here. As such, I would earnestly request you to please make it a point to read “The Horse that Flew”, a book by Chidananda Rajghatta. It is a story that would inspire even the deadest of the hearts.
Meanwhile, I in my eighth class was blissfully unaware of the IT revolution sweeping across the nation. Those were the days when the internet connection cost you Rs.30 per hour. And you were having a lucky day if you managed to download a 2 MB file. The server line was eternally busy. I remember regularly getting up at 3 AM to connect to the net. That sleep was almost always compensated in the school. ;-) I never concerned myself with the Rs.30 part of the picture. My dad took care of it. He never complained about the escalated telephone bills.
It was his unquestioned support that enabled me to see things I did not know existed, I could not dream of ever existing. I learnt that there was this website called Yahoo! which had answers to just about everything in the world. I won a prize in school science project competition thanks to the internet. Even then, internet had resources far greater than most of us will ever use in our lifetimes. The information was there right from the beginning. The presentation part was missing. The money part was missing too. Everything on internet was free of cost. It was like paying for an amusement park. Once you pay the ticket charges, everything inside is free.
It was 9th class I got my first email ID. Hotmail was the only service provider then which was free of cost. The VSNL account came with an email account too. But it didn’t have the charm of Hotmail. I was unaware of Sabeer Bhatia too. But it was fun to send letters free of cost. It had 5 MB of space. Compare that to today’s Gmail with 2.8 GB and you will feel the difference. The interface has changed too. Hotmail v1 was a plain vanilla HTML based service. Today’s Gmail uses the cutting edge AJAX technology improving productivity while reducing the overheads.
Internet bore no limits. Every time I sat to surf the net, I unearthed something new. Something wonderful. I even tried my hands at hacking. Didn’t even get close to Ankit Fadia, but managed to hack my sister’s email ID password. After that I regularly hacked passwords of many of my friends. I even got an unauthorized entry into the Amravati VSNL server. But that was about it. I never considered taking it up professionally.
But new vistas continue to open… even today. With a thrill as fresh as it was the very first day. There is one thing in life I’m addicted to – Computers.
It wasn’t for another 2 years that I got my very own computer in 1996. It amuses me to remember that that first PC (Personal Computer) as we had come to call it by then had come in sand truck from Pune making an excruciating journey of 3 days in the company of construction sand.
Till this time a computer, for me, had already developed a personality. “How could you bring the PC in a sand truck?” I demanded of my Dad. But thankfully, no visible or apparent damage was done. It hummed on happily the first time we switched it ON. It was then that I realized, my PC had a color screen! That was like the ultimate in those days. I was already on seventh heaven. I jumped to ninth.
A new computer brought new games. Now I also had the Lion King, Aladdin, and this young man called Dave as my friends. I became quite notorious in the school for my weird gaming habits. I didn’t care. Along with the games, there were some other applications like WordStar (primitive MS Word), Lotus 123 (ancestral MS Excel), then there was Dbase (ancient DBMS software). They were fun to use. I had absolutely no clue as to why one needs a spreadsheet. But it was fun to fill boxes with the names of your classmates. So, I did it.
I have changed computers faster than people change batteries in their wristwatches. My longest relationship with a computer lasted a full 2 and half years. I was almost a Casanova with computers! ;-) But even today, I still remember each one of my computers as if they are right in front of my eyes. I remember how each one of them looked. Each one of their specifications. Each one of their software contents.
One fine day, Dad calls me to his office. “I have a surprise for you,” he says mysteriously. I somehow manage to finish the day at school and I run. I enter his cabin. Sitting there on his table is a brand new computer! I had eyes for nothing else. But wait, it had this small attachment besides the keyboard. It was the size of a small palm with 3 buttons on top. “Its called the mouse,” Dad elaborates. “Go on, try it.”
“How do I hold it?”
He shows me how to do it. “You see that pointer? You can move it around using this.”
“Ok. I want to move it left.” I press the left button. Nothing. I keep pressing it. Still nothing. “Is this defective?”
My Dad smiles, “No. You don’t have to press the button. Move the whole mouse in the direction.”
Bingo!
A whole new vista opened up with that small “mouse”. It was my third computer (my personal 2nd) that came shipped with Windows 95 in it. I had the general hang of windows by using Windows 3.1 and 3.11 earlier. But with Win95, the computer didn’t bother loading into DOS at all. Trouble. I was in alien waters. But once I got the hang of it, the navigation in there was easier. And the mouse ensured I was comfortable all along the way. ;-)
1998. I came across a phenomenon which was to change the way I (in fact we all, at some point of time) looked at the computers…
Till this time a computer, for me, had already developed a personality. “How could you bring the PC in a sand truck?” I demanded of my Dad. But thankfully, no visible or apparent damage was done. It hummed on happily the first time we switched it ON. It was then that I realized, my PC had a color screen! That was like the ultimate in those days. I was already on seventh heaven. I jumped to ninth.
A new computer brought new games. Now I also had the Lion King, Aladdin, and this young man called Dave as my friends. I became quite notorious in the school for my weird gaming habits. I didn’t care. Along with the games, there were some other applications like WordStar (primitive MS Word), Lotus 123 (ancestral MS Excel), then there was Dbase (ancient DBMS software). They were fun to use. I had absolutely no clue as to why one needs a spreadsheet. But it was fun to fill boxes with the names of your classmates. So, I did it.
I have changed computers faster than people change batteries in their wristwatches. My longest relationship with a computer lasted a full 2 and half years. I was almost a Casanova with computers! ;-) But even today, I still remember each one of my computers as if they are right in front of my eyes. I remember how each one of them looked. Each one of their specifications. Each one of their software contents.
One fine day, Dad calls me to his office. “I have a surprise for you,” he says mysteriously. I somehow manage to finish the day at school and I run. I enter his cabin. Sitting there on his table is a brand new computer! I had eyes for nothing else. But wait, it had this small attachment besides the keyboard. It was the size of a small palm with 3 buttons on top. “Its called the mouse,” Dad elaborates. “Go on, try it.”
“How do I hold it?”
He shows me how to do it. “You see that pointer? You can move it around using this.”
“Ok. I want to move it left.” I press the left button. Nothing. I keep pressing it. Still nothing. “Is this defective?”
My Dad smiles, “No. You don’t have to press the button. Move the whole mouse in the direction.”
Bingo!
A whole new vista opened up with that small “mouse”. It was my third computer (my personal 2nd) that came shipped with Windows 95 in it. I had the general hang of windows by using Windows 3.1 and 3.11 earlier. But with Win95, the computer didn’t bother loading into DOS at all. Trouble. I was in alien waters. But once I got the hang of it, the navigation in there was easier. And the mouse ensured I was comfortable all along the way. ;-)
1998. I came across a phenomenon which was to change the way I (in fact we all, at some point of time) looked at the computers…
Yes, its been more than a decade (13 years actually) since the day I first set my sight on a computer. I still remember that summer morning of 1994 as fresh as yesterday. We had Dr. Ghatol (now director of BATU, Lonere) as our neighbor. I woke up at about 7 AM. By 8.30 life was proceeding as normal. Then came the fateful moment. I caught glimpse of someone bringing 3 - 4 large boxes of what seemed like small televisions to Ghatol uncle's place. For me, my house and their house were all the same. So obviously I went to check out the new TV.
What I saw there was pretty similar to today's desktops, but something quite alien to me. It was a TV for sure, but it showed some queer things such as lines and lines of text like "C:\WINDOWS>dir" and such like. It was not just the TV. There was this tall rectangular box kept besides the TV. And in front of the TV was a tray sort of a thing with an assortment of buttons.
I couldn't hold it. My never ending stream of questions started. Slowly I can to know that this TV was not a TV. It was what they called Monitor. The rectangular box was the CPU (God know what that means), and the tray of buttons was the keyboard and the buttons were not buttons, they were keys. The whole collection had a number of wires coming out all over the place. The entire assembly put together was called a Computer.
Ok. Computer. So, what exactly does it do? Can you watch "Duck Tales" on it? Wait! More important. This key here has "4" and "$" both printed on it. This keyboard is faulty. Get it replaced. Its right?? So then how does the computer know what we want to type? Is it like if you put your finger on the "$" sign and press then the computer displays "$" and if you put it on the "4" number and press then it displays "4"?
After about an hour of pestering, my tender mind finally seemed to have the computer all sorted out. But the (funda)mental question remained. What exactly do you do with a computer you cannot watch Duck Tales on? Oh, you can play GAMES on the computer!
The next thing I remember is trying out my hand on Prince of Persia and subjecting him to a very gruesome death on the spikes. This part of playing games on a computer came very naturally to me. I was very good at it. It was almost as if computers were meant for games to be played on them. I never questioned the ability of the Prince to move at the press of a key. What made him do that? I didn't care. Why should I? It was the most natural thing to happen, wasn't it? I press the left cursor key, the prince moves to left. Obvious. Simple.
Looking back, I never actually did question a computer's ability to do something. What ever it did, or I did on it, seemed very obvious and orderly. Nothing out of place. No reason to question. At this time, the thing called mouse was still probably in the research labs. I was blissfully unaware of its very existance. Why would I need a small piece with 3 buttons? I had a tray with a hundred. Neither did the prince of persia care for a mouse. All the more reason.
Looking back again, I consider myself to be very fortunate to have actually worked on a Intel 80386 processor. The processor is so hopelessly slow that it would take 3 minutes to open this very webpage, if it can manage to open it at all. Today, they teach 80386 instruction set (the machine language) as the basic legacy knowledge for the better processors. Still, at that time, for us, it was a genie in a metal box with nothing beyond its limits.
That was how we spent the better part of our waking lives for the next 2 years. By we I mean Chotu (Ghatol uncle's son) and I. The computer could do anything that our small, hopelessly ignorant minds could imagine. Who wants to see Duck Tales when you have a princess to rescue...
What I saw there was pretty similar to today's desktops, but something quite alien to me. It was a TV for sure, but it showed some queer things such as lines and lines of text like "C:\WINDOWS>dir" and such like. It was not just the TV. There was this tall rectangular box kept besides the TV. And in front of the TV was a tray sort of a thing with an assortment of buttons.
I couldn't hold it. My never ending stream of questions started. Slowly I can to know that this TV was not a TV. It was what they called Monitor. The rectangular box was the CPU (God know what that means), and the tray of buttons was the keyboard and the buttons were not buttons, they were keys. The whole collection had a number of wires coming out all over the place. The entire assembly put together was called a Computer.
Ok. Computer. So, what exactly does it do? Can you watch "Duck Tales" on it? Wait! More important. This key here has "4" and "$" both printed on it. This keyboard is faulty. Get it replaced. Its right?? So then how does the computer know what we want to type? Is it like if you put your finger on the "$" sign and press then the computer displays "$" and if you put it on the "4" number and press then it displays "4"?
After about an hour of pestering, my tender mind finally seemed to have the computer all sorted out. But the (funda)mental question remained. What exactly do you do with a computer you cannot watch Duck Tales on? Oh, you can play GAMES on the computer!
The next thing I remember is trying out my hand on Prince of Persia and subjecting him to a very gruesome death on the spikes. This part of playing games on a computer came very naturally to me. I was very good at it. It was almost as if computers were meant for games to be played on them. I never questioned the ability of the Prince to move at the press of a key. What made him do that? I didn't care. Why should I? It was the most natural thing to happen, wasn't it? I press the left cursor key, the prince moves to left. Obvious. Simple.
Looking back, I never actually did question a computer's ability to do something. What ever it did, or I did on it, seemed very obvious and orderly. Nothing out of place. No reason to question. At this time, the thing called mouse was still probably in the research labs. I was blissfully unaware of its very existance. Why would I need a small piece with 3 buttons? I had a tray with a hundred. Neither did the prince of persia care for a mouse. All the more reason.
Looking back again, I consider myself to be very fortunate to have actually worked on a Intel 80386 processor. The processor is so hopelessly slow that it would take 3 minutes to open this very webpage, if it can manage to open it at all. Today, they teach 80386 instruction set (the machine language) as the basic legacy knowledge for the better processors. Still, at that time, for us, it was a genie in a metal box with nothing beyond its limits.
That was how we spent the better part of our waking lives for the next 2 years. By we I mean Chotu (Ghatol uncle's son) and I. The computer could do anything that our small, hopelessly ignorant minds could imagine. Who wants to see Duck Tales when you have a princess to rescue...
I have just uploaded some of the photos of my company and my friends at TII. You can see them and some other photos at,
http://picasaweb.google.com/grtembey
I will keep uploading more and more photos as and when they come to the same address.
http://picasaweb.google.com/grtembey
I will keep uploading more and more photos as and when they come to the same address.
I know I have neglected this blog for too long a time to sustain your interest. But now I want to make a fresh start. Until now, I did not have many readers to regularly come over and visit my blog. But recently, I have had a really significant in my life. I'm sure that with the changed secnario, more and more people will be interested in this blog.
Today, I make a promise to myself and to all my would be loyal readers that I will keep this blog regularly updated and fresh.
I've changed the "About me..." post to suit my latest self analysis and to reflect the changed circumstances. Please go through it again after you finish with this post.
30th July, 2007. This is one date I'm gonna remember for the rest of my life. This is the day I stepped into a new world - the corporate world. I joined Texas Instruments on this fateful day. The journey since then has been full of wonder and awe at every point...
I joined TI with 7 other folks. Over the period we have got to know each other very well. Six of us have been practically living together. Each one of us a character in himself/herself. Each one with their own special qualitites worth learning. Each one with their own belifs and fallacies. But all of them are very adorable. There is a seperate post in store to introduce them to you.
Sometime in sept first half we are all going to go to Dallas, USA for our training. Its a nine months program and a very exciting period for all of us. I hope you will remain with me at every step of this journey.
While you wait for my next post I might suggest you to go to http://picasaweb.google.com/grtembey It is my online album where I have stored some of my memories. Its a very incomplete canvas there, but as of now that is all I've got. As soon as I get the rest of my pictures I'll post them for sure.
I'll again request you to keep checking out this blog and that album once in a while so that we can remain in touch... If you are interested, I will send you a mail informing you of any new posts as and when they come. All you have to do is to put your email id in the comments field of this post.
Hope to see you time and again right here on Cogito, ergo sum. Till then keep smiling :-)
Today, I make a promise to myself and to all my would be loyal readers that I will keep this blog regularly updated and fresh.
I've changed the "About me..." post to suit my latest self analysis and to reflect the changed circumstances. Please go through it again after you finish with this post.
30th July, 2007. This is one date I'm gonna remember for the rest of my life. This is the day I stepped into a new world - the corporate world. I joined Texas Instruments on this fateful day. The journey since then has been full of wonder and awe at every point...
I joined TI with 7 other folks. Over the period we have got to know each other very well. Six of us have been practically living together. Each one of us a character in himself/herself. Each one with their own special qualitites worth learning. Each one with their own belifs and fallacies. But all of them are very adorable. There is a seperate post in store to introduce them to you.
Sometime in sept first half we are all going to go to Dallas, USA for our training. Its a nine months program and a very exciting period for all of us. I hope you will remain with me at every step of this journey.
While you wait for my next post I might suggest you to go to http://picasaweb.google.com/grtembey It is my online album where I have stored some of my memories. Its a very incomplete canvas there, but as of now that is all I've got. As soon as I get the rest of my pictures I'll post them for sure.
I'll again request you to keep checking out this blog and that album once in a while so that we can remain in touch... If you are interested, I will send you a mail informing you of any new posts as and when they come. All you have to do is to put your email id in the comments field of this post.
Hope to see you time and again right here on Cogito, ergo sum. Till then keep smiling :-)
Disclaimer: This article has been contributed by an online friend of the author of this blog. The author of this blog does not necessarily subscribe to the contents of this article nor does the author of this blog hold any responsibility towards the contents of this article. The views expressed in this post and the information contained hereafter are sole responsibility of the author of this article. This article is intended to merely increase the knowledge of the viewers. How they use this knowledge is solely their concern.
[Let me again thank all of you for the tremendous response to the first two parts. There is a good news for you people... I have decided to extend this series by one part. So there is a fourth part coming along and I will postpone the Lexi-Buster and the links section till then. Here we will discuss - Releases, BitTorrent, and what a poweful tool fora+uploading sites are for warez.]
Releases
A release is a piece of pirated material packaged and released by a warez group. The format of the release varies, but in the case of games or programs the release is usually compressed with RAR, and split into CD/DVD sized files. The naming of the release will usually by something along the lines of "New.Game.3-ReLEASEGROUP[website_name]".
The types of releases vary. In games there are mainly either CD Images (bin/nrg/iso format) or Rips. Movies are either DivX/Xivds. There are many different types of movie releases. A great list of these can be found at www.vcdquality.com. Releases will almost always be accompanied by a .nfo file. This will provide information about the release and the group. After all, even they need to advertise. And as a newbie you should make it a point to read these .nfo files. You never know when they might be useful ;)
BitTorrent
Over the past 2 or 3 years BitTorrent has emerged as the latest and the most popular medium for p2p and more improtantly for warez. They say that today, 58% of the entire internet traffic is BitTorrent! Normal web browsing occupies a meagre 10% of the entire internet bandwidth! And you thought you knew how to use the internet... ;)
BitTorrent mainly emerged as a result of a huge outcry to eradicate the p2p networks and some sudden unforeseen activity by the usually nonchalent FBI. Old habits die hard. But KaZaA and eMule had vanished. So what to do? Some brilliant bunch of guys came up with BitTorrent. There is an intresting insight on the working of BitTorrent (BT). We will see how BT has been able to thrive where KaZaA and others stumbled.
When you download BitTorrent, there won't be a Front-End application window popping up where you can search for stuff like KaZaA (KZ). If you have to download a movie then you have to go to a Torrent site and download a small 25 - 30 KB torrent file. You run this torrent file and, behold, out pops a window and the data transfer begins. So where's the difference? KZ worked on the traditional pattern where each user registered to a central server which co-ordinated all the activity. So all the FBI people had to do was to sieze that server and down came the KZ network crashing!
With BT its different. The torrent file that you download, periodically connects to the central sever to update its list of people transferring the same file, and then disconnects. After that there is no central server to interfere. All the peers (people invilved in sharing the same set of files) are mutually connected. Some people are seeders (people who have the entire file and are ust supplying it) and some are peers (who simultaneously ahre what they have and download what they don't). In BT you have to share. You can't leech! Some of the famous torrent sites will be mentioned in the links section of the 4th part. BT is predominantly used for sharing Movies (of various qualities), TV shows, Games, eBooks, Softwares, Sports matches - in short, anything under the sun that can be called warez.
Fora + Uploading Sites
For those of you who haven't realised, "Fora" here is used as a plural for "Forum". Ok now, its all right if I want that latest movie or that all new game, but what if I want the highlights of this weekend's football matches or Formula1 race? The warez people consider it beneath them to even consider such things. But then, where do I go? This is where a forum comes into the picture. But a forum alone is not sufficient. You need some space to store the files after all.
Ever heard of Rapidshare.de? If you have, you can skip this paragraph. Rapidshare.de is a FREE uploading site where anyone can upload anything and that too being completely annymous! There are various other sites which let you do the same - MegaUpload.com, turboulpoad.com, zSHARE.com, etc. etc. Each opf them have their own restrictions regarding downloading and duration for which the file will remain uploaded. Most of them don't allow download accelerators :( Also, you have to compulsorily wait for 10 sec to 30 mins before you can download a file. You can remove these restrictions by purchasing a premium service (but tel that to a pirate... :) ). They live on one principle... "Love me or hate me, but you can't ignore me!"
Every thing has a plethora of related fora on the internet. These fora contain the links to the files uploaded on the uploading sites. But they are not very easy to find. You will seldom find them on Google. You have to sift through endless crap before you really get there. But one look at a good forum and you will realise that the whole damn excercise is worth it!
To be continued... very soon. :)
[In the fourth part we will cover IRC, eMule and some other p2p clients along with the long awaited Lexi-Buster, which, if I get time, will be more than brief, and the links section.
If you liked this article series till here, please please post your comments (good and bad). They are the lifeline of any blog. And this one is no exception.]
-- A pirate friend of Mr_Geek
[Let me again thank all of you for the tremendous response to the first two parts. There is a good news for you people... I have decided to extend this series by one part. So there is a fourth part coming along and I will postpone the Lexi-Buster and the links section till then. Here we will discuss - Releases, BitTorrent, and what a poweful tool fora+uploading sites are for warez.]
Releases
A release is a piece of pirated material packaged and released by a warez group. The format of the release varies, but in the case of games or programs the release is usually compressed with RAR, and split into CD/DVD sized files. The naming of the release will usually by something along the lines of "New.Game.3-ReLEASEGROUP[website_name]".
The types of releases vary. In games there are mainly either CD Images (bin/nrg/iso format) or Rips. Movies are either DivX/Xivds. There are many different types of movie releases. A great list of these can be found at www.vcdquality.com. Releases will almost always be accompanied by a .nfo file. This will provide information about the release and the group. After all, even they need to advertise. And as a newbie you should make it a point to read these .nfo files. You never know when they might be useful ;)
BitTorrent
Over the past 2 or 3 years BitTorrent has emerged as the latest and the most popular medium for p2p and more improtantly for warez. They say that today, 58% of the entire internet traffic is BitTorrent! Normal web browsing occupies a meagre 10% of the entire internet bandwidth! And you thought you knew how to use the internet... ;)
BitTorrent mainly emerged as a result of a huge outcry to eradicate the p2p networks and some sudden unforeseen activity by the usually nonchalent FBI. Old habits die hard. But KaZaA and eMule had vanished. So what to do? Some brilliant bunch of guys came up with BitTorrent. There is an intresting insight on the working of BitTorrent (BT). We will see how BT has been able to thrive where KaZaA and others stumbled.
When you download BitTorrent, there won't be a Front-End application window popping up where you can search for stuff like KaZaA (KZ). If you have to download a movie then you have to go to a Torrent site and download a small 25 - 30 KB torrent file. You run this torrent file and, behold, out pops a window and the data transfer begins. So where's the difference? KZ worked on the traditional pattern where each user registered to a central server which co-ordinated all the activity. So all the FBI people had to do was to sieze that server and down came the KZ network crashing!
With BT its different. The torrent file that you download, periodically connects to the central sever to update its list of people transferring the same file, and then disconnects. After that there is no central server to interfere. All the peers (people invilved in sharing the same set of files) are mutually connected. Some people are seeders (people who have the entire file and are ust supplying it) and some are peers (who simultaneously ahre what they have and download what they don't). In BT you have to share. You can't leech! Some of the famous torrent sites will be mentioned in the links section of the 4th part. BT is predominantly used for sharing Movies (of various qualities), TV shows, Games, eBooks, Softwares, Sports matches - in short, anything under the sun that can be called warez.
Fora + Uploading Sites
For those of you who haven't realised, "Fora" here is used as a plural for "Forum". Ok now, its all right if I want that latest movie or that all new game, but what if I want the highlights of this weekend's football matches or Formula1 race? The warez people consider it beneath them to even consider such things. But then, where do I go? This is where a forum comes into the picture. But a forum alone is not sufficient. You need some space to store the files after all.
Ever heard of Rapidshare.de? If you have, you can skip this paragraph. Rapidshare.de is a FREE uploading site where anyone can upload anything and that too being completely annymous! There are various other sites which let you do the same - MegaUpload.com, turboulpoad.com, zSHARE.com, etc. etc. Each opf them have their own restrictions regarding downloading and duration for which the file will remain uploaded. Most of them don't allow download accelerators :( Also, you have to compulsorily wait for 10 sec to 30 mins before you can download a file. You can remove these restrictions by purchasing a premium service (but tel that to a pirate... :) ). They live on one principle... "Love me or hate me, but you can't ignore me!"
Every thing has a plethora of related fora on the internet. These fora contain the links to the files uploaded on the uploading sites. But they are not very easy to find. You will seldom find them on Google. You have to sift through endless crap before you really get there. But one look at a good forum and you will realise that the whole damn excercise is worth it!
To be continued... very soon. :)
[In the fourth part we will cover IRC, eMule and some other p2p clients along with the long awaited Lexi-Buster, which, if I get time, will be more than brief, and the links section.
If you liked this article series till here, please please post your comments (good and bad). They are the lifeline of any blog. And this one is no exception.]
-- A pirate friend of Mr_Geek
Disclaimer: This article has been contributed by an online friend of the author of this blog. The author of this blog does not necessarily subscribe to the contents of this article nor does the author of this blog hold any responsibility towards the contents of this article. The views expressed in this post and the information contained hereafter are sole responsibility of the author of this article. This article is intended to merely increase the knowledge of the viewers. How they use this knowledge is solely their concern.
[Ok people, first and foremost let me thank all of you for the tremendous response to the first part. Its been decided now that this will be a 3 part series, the first of which is already up and this is the second one. If you have not read the first part please do it first. Again there have been some complaints that the article has been too technical filled with Piracy related lingo which was a bit hard to digest. I have sincerely tried to keep this article as simple as possible and I will try it doubly hard to do so now onwards. To help you around, I will add a short lexi-buster and a links section at the end of the third part. enough of this, let get back to Piracy]
Moving up the heirarchy...next come the,
FXP Boards
FXP is the File eXchange Protocol. It isn't an actual protocol, just a method of transfer making use of a vulnerability in FTP (File Transfer Protocol, which incidently is an actual protocol). It allows the transfer of files between two FTP servers. Rather than client to server, the tranfer becomes server to server. FXP usually allows faster transfer speeds. And in piracy, speed is next to only actual data! Being on an FXP board at one time in the capacity of a Scanner most of the info below is first hand and true.
The Boards. FXP Boards usually run Vbulletin (which is surprisingly a bulletin, from software from www.vbulletin.org) and its members consist of Scanners, Hackers, and Fillers. There are also usually a few odd Administrators but they don't do much.
The Scanner. The Scanner's job is to scan IP ranges where fast Internet connection are known to lie (usually university, etc.) for computers with vulnerabilities. The Scanner will often use already "hacked" computers for his scanning (trust the length to which these people will go to keep themselves hidden).Once the Scanner has gotten his results, he'll run off to his FXP Board and post it. This is where the "Hacker" comes into play.
The Hacker. Now I think it's fairly obvious what the "Hackers" do. Yes, they break into computers. Their OS of choice (for breaking into) is usually Windows. There are many easy to exploit vulnerabilities and unix/linux scares these people. The Hacker's job is to run his application and "root" (gain administrator access) the scanned server. He will then install the required software(s) on the computer for the Filler to do his or her (yes you will be surprised by the no. of ladies involved in this business) job.
The Filler. Now if the "pubstro" or the above mentioned computer is fast enough and has enough hard drive space, it's the Filler's job to get to work filling it with the latest warez (the Filler usually has another source for his warez such as Site Trading). Once he's done FXPing his warez, the Filler goes back to the board and posts "leech logins" (read only logins) for one and all to use.
What a great community! Did you ever imagine that so many people were actively involved to get you that latest high quality movie!
FXP Boards are mostly full of people with too much time on their hands (I would beg to differ here, though). They like to think the authorities are after them and get very paranoid, but in reality no one really gives a damn what they're up to except the unlucky sysops (c'mon... System Operators) who get all their bandwidth eaten up because they forgot to patch a three year-old vulnerability. The true "n00b" FXP Boards can be found on wondernet (irc.wondernet.nu) so, if you like, go sign up on one and see what it's all about.
Tip: Pretend to be female. This will almost guarantee you a place on a board. Say you can scan/hack dcom, netbios, sql, apache, and have a 10mbit.eu 0hour source, et al. Just say the names, nobody there is futile enough to ask you the meaning :)
Site Trading
From here onwards we are discussing things which may or may not be fully accurate. The reason being that this info is not first hand but something I hvae garnered from various outside animate and soft sources.
Next on the list and pretty much at the top or near the top (as far as I've seen) are the Site Traders. These are generally just people with too much time on their hands who have possibly worked their way up through FXP Boards. Site Trading is basically trading of pirated material between sites.
The Sites. These sites have very fast Internet connections (10mbit is considered the minimum, 100mbit good, and anything higher pretty damn good) and huge hard disk drives (500GB would probably be the minimum). These sites are often hosted at schools, universities, people's work, and in Sweden (10mbit lines are damn cheap in .se ... You get a 10mbit dedicated line in Sweden for INR 1000!!!). These sites are referred to as being "legit." This means that the owner of the computer knowns that they are there and being run. Fast connections mean a lot to some people.
If you have access to a 100mbit line (and are willing to run a warez server there), there are people who would quite happily pay for it and have a computer shipped to you just for hosting a site that they will make absolutely no profit from (you can meet them on EFnet). An installed bot will make an annoucement on an IRC channel when a directory is made or upload completed. It will also give "race" information.
The People. There are basically two ranks in sitetrading: "SiteOps" and "Racers."
SiteOps, as you will have guessed are the administrators. There are usually between two and five SiteOps. One is often the supplier of the site, another the person who found the supplier and guided them through the installation. The others will be friends and people involved in the warez scene. One or more of the SiteOps will be the "nuker." It is his/her job to "nuke" any releases that are old or fake (more about releases in the third part).
Racers are the folks who will "race" releases between sites. Usually they will have access to a number of sites and will FXP release as soon as they're released. FXPing a release will gain credits. "Racing" of releases occurs when two or more racers are uploading the same file. The "race" is to upload the most of the release at the fastest speed. Racing happends shortly after a release is... released.
Warez/Release Groups/"grps"
These are the ones basically supplying everyone with the warez. The apex of the piracy pyramid. Anyone "high up" is extremely paranoid. Most users will use multiple BNCs (BouNCer - Its an IRC proxy server used to hide your true location/identity) before even going near an IRC network. A lot of large groups will own their own IRC Networks and SSL (its a security protocol) is used at every opportunity.) It's hard to understand why these people actually do it when there is such a risk. The main reason, in my opinion - boredom. At the end of the day, if you're sitting in front of your computer for most of your life you may as well be doing something... and this sort of thing keeps you busy. Another reason is geekiness. Knowing that you were one of the first people on the Internet to see that film, or that's because of you that thousands of people are now playing that leaked Condition Zero 2 alpha - it feels good, in a geeky kind of way.
I do not believe that profit is a factor. These groups insist that they don't do this soft of thing for money - and I believe them.
There's a quote from a DEViANCE.nfo file: We do this just for FUN. We are against any profit or commercialisation of piracy. We do not spread any release, others do that. In fact, we BUY all our hames with our own hard earned and worked for efforts. Which is from our own real life non-scene jobs. As we love game originals. Nother beats a quality origi- nal. "If you like this game, BUY it. We did!"
A quote from Team Razor .nfo file: SUPPORT THE COMPANIES THAT PRODUCE QUALITY SOFTWARE! IF YOU ENJOYED THIS PRODUCT, BUY IT! SOFTARE AUTHORS DESERVE SUPPORT!!
I find it oddly hypocritical. Its like - "Here's a box of chocolates. Don't eat this! Go buy yourself one from the market." ;-)
To be continued... very very soon!
[In the next and the last part of the article, we will cover - Releases, a few intresting bits and pieces, a small Lexi-Buster and some Links. We will also discuss in brief various modus operandi of warez such as BitTorrent, KaZaA, IRC, eMule, etc. and what a poweful tool fora+uploading sites are for warez.
If you liked this article series till here, please please post your comments (good and bad). They are the lifeline of any blog. And this one is no exception.]
-- a pirate friend of Mr_Geek
[Ok people, first and foremost let me thank all of you for the tremendous response to the first part. Its been decided now that this will be a 3 part series, the first of which is already up and this is the second one. If you have not read the first part please do it first. Again there have been some complaints that the article has been too technical filled with Piracy related lingo which was a bit hard to digest. I have sincerely tried to keep this article as simple as possible and I will try it doubly hard to do so now onwards. To help you around, I will add a short lexi-buster and a links section at the end of the third part. enough of this, let get back to Piracy]
Moving up the heirarchy...next come the,
FXP Boards
FXP is the File eXchange Protocol. It isn't an actual protocol, just a method of transfer making use of a vulnerability in FTP (File Transfer Protocol, which incidently is an actual protocol). It allows the transfer of files between two FTP servers. Rather than client to server, the tranfer becomes server to server. FXP usually allows faster transfer speeds. And in piracy, speed is next to only actual data! Being on an FXP board at one time in the capacity of a Scanner most of the info below is first hand and true.
The Boards. FXP Boards usually run Vbulletin (which is surprisingly a bulletin, from software from www.vbulletin.org) and its members consist of Scanners, Hackers, and Fillers. There are also usually a few odd Administrators but they don't do much.
The Scanner. The Scanner's job is to scan IP ranges where fast Internet connection are known to lie (usually university, etc.) for computers with vulnerabilities. The Scanner will often use already "hacked" computers for his scanning (trust the length to which these people will go to keep themselves hidden).Once the Scanner has gotten his results, he'll run off to his FXP Board and post it. This is where the "Hacker" comes into play.
The Hacker. Now I think it's fairly obvious what the "Hackers" do. Yes, they break into computers. Their OS of choice (for breaking into) is usually Windows. There are many easy to exploit vulnerabilities and unix/linux scares these people. The Hacker's job is to run his application and "root" (gain administrator access) the scanned server. He will then install the required software(s) on the computer for the Filler to do his or her (yes you will be surprised by the no. of ladies involved in this business) job.
The Filler. Now if the "pubstro" or the above mentioned computer is fast enough and has enough hard drive space, it's the Filler's job to get to work filling it with the latest warez (the Filler usually has another source for his warez such as Site Trading). Once he's done FXPing his warez, the Filler goes back to the board and posts "leech logins" (read only logins) for one and all to use.
What a great community! Did you ever imagine that so many people were actively involved to get you that latest high quality movie!
FXP Boards are mostly full of people with too much time on their hands (I would beg to differ here, though). They like to think the authorities are after them and get very paranoid, but in reality no one really gives a damn what they're up to except the unlucky sysops (c'mon... System Operators) who get all their bandwidth eaten up because they forgot to patch a three year-old vulnerability. The true "n00b" FXP Boards can be found on wondernet (irc.wondernet.nu) so, if you like, go sign up on one and see what it's all about.
Tip: Pretend to be female. This will almost guarantee you a place on a board. Say you can scan/hack dcom, netbios, sql, apache, and have a 10mbit.eu 0hour source, et al. Just say the names, nobody there is futile enough to ask you the meaning :)
Site Trading
From here onwards we are discussing things which may or may not be fully accurate. The reason being that this info is not first hand but something I hvae garnered from various outside animate and soft sources.
Next on the list and pretty much at the top or near the top (as far as I've seen) are the Site Traders. These are generally just people with too much time on their hands who have possibly worked their way up through FXP Boards. Site Trading is basically trading of pirated material between sites.
The Sites. These sites have very fast Internet connections (10mbit is considered the minimum, 100mbit good, and anything higher pretty damn good) and huge hard disk drives (500GB would probably be the minimum). These sites are often hosted at schools, universities, people's work, and in Sweden (10mbit lines are damn cheap in .se ... You get a 10mbit dedicated line in Sweden for INR 1000!!!). These sites are referred to as being "legit." This means that the owner of the computer knowns that they are there and being run. Fast connections mean a lot to some people.
If you have access to a 100mbit line (and are willing to run a warez server there), there are people who would quite happily pay for it and have a computer shipped to you just for hosting a site that they will make absolutely no profit from (you can meet them on EFnet). An installed bot will make an annoucement on an IRC channel when a directory is made or upload completed. It will also give "race" information.
The People. There are basically two ranks in sitetrading: "SiteOps" and "Racers."
SiteOps, as you will have guessed are the administrators. There are usually between two and five SiteOps. One is often the supplier of the site, another the person who found the supplier and guided them through the installation. The others will be friends and people involved in the warez scene. One or more of the SiteOps will be the "nuker." It is his/her job to "nuke" any releases that are old or fake (more about releases in the third part).
Racers are the folks who will "race" releases between sites. Usually they will have access to a number of sites and will FXP release as soon as they're released. FXPing a release will gain credits. "Racing" of releases occurs when two or more racers are uploading the same file. The "race" is to upload the most of the release at the fastest speed. Racing happends shortly after a release is... released.
Warez/Release Groups/"grps"
These are the ones basically supplying everyone with the warez. The apex of the piracy pyramid. Anyone "high up" is extremely paranoid. Most users will use multiple BNCs (BouNCer - Its an IRC proxy server used to hide your true location/identity) before even going near an IRC network. A lot of large groups will own their own IRC Networks and SSL (its a security protocol) is used at every opportunity.) It's hard to understand why these people actually do it when there is such a risk. The main reason, in my opinion - boredom. At the end of the day, if you're sitting in front of your computer for most of your life you may as well be doing something... and this sort of thing keeps you busy. Another reason is geekiness. Knowing that you were one of the first people on the Internet to see that film, or that's because of you that thousands of people are now playing that leaked Condition Zero 2 alpha - it feels good, in a geeky kind of way.
I do not believe that profit is a factor. These groups insist that they don't do this soft of thing for money - and I believe them.
There's a quote from a DEViANCE.nfo file: We do this just for FUN. We are against any profit or commercialisation of piracy. We do not spread any release, others do that. In fact, we BUY all our hames with our own hard earned and worked for efforts. Which is from our own real life non-scene jobs. As we love game originals. Nother beats a quality origi- nal. "If you like this game, BUY it. We did!"
A quote from Team Razor .nfo file: SUPPORT THE COMPANIES THAT PRODUCE QUALITY SOFTWARE! IF YOU ENJOYED THIS PRODUCT, BUY IT! SOFTARE AUTHORS DESERVE SUPPORT!!
I find it oddly hypocritical. Its like - "Here's a box of chocolates. Don't eat this! Go buy yourself one from the market." ;-)
To be continued... very very soon!
[In the next and the last part of the article, we will cover - Releases, a few intresting bits and pieces, a small Lexi-Buster and some Links. We will also discuss in brief various modus operandi of warez such as BitTorrent, KaZaA, IRC, eMule, etc. and what a poweful tool fora+uploading sites are for warez.
If you liked this article series till here, please please post your comments (good and bad). They are the lifeline of any blog. And this one is no exception.]
-- a pirate friend of Mr_Geek
Disclaimer: This article has been contributed by an online friend of the author of this blog. The author of this blog does not necessarily subscribe to the contents of this article nor does the author of this blog hold any responsibility towards the contents of this article. The views expressed in this post and the information contained hereafter are sole responsibility of the author of this article. This article is intended to merely increase the knowledge of the viewers. How they use this knowledge is solely their concern.
The title says it all... Over the course of this article I am gonna talk about piracy, its various forms, various SOURCES and its impact on my life all from an Indian perspective.
My introduction to piracy has been pretty late by the western standards, but pretty early by the Indian standards. I first laid my hands on a computer when I was 9 years of age. For next four years, I satisfied myself by playing computer games and strutting around in the school calling myself a computer don.
Then came the big twist in the tale... Internet. Initially internet manifested itself in the form of a dialup connection. This meant that the speeds metaphorically competed with the snails in my neighborhood. But this turned out to be a blessing in disguise as I will elaborate further in the article.
Enough of me, lets talk of what we are here to. Piracy! This one word has caused many a sleepless nights to just about every person in the entertainment, software, or for that matter, any industry remotely related to intellectual property that can be digitized. They say that if there were no piracy (What world are they living in!?), Bill Gates would have been worth $200 bn as against currently around $50 bn!
Lets bust a few myths first. Piracy isn't just a few guys who work at cinemas and software stores taking the odd film or game home and sharing it on their home FTP servers or KaZaA.
Piracy on the Internet, or "the warez scene" (as those into it like to call it) is surprisingly organized. Pirated softwares/games/movies/anything is called "warez" and will be referred to as that from now on.
The Piracy "Food Chain"
As I said earlier, the slow internet connection turned out to be a blessing in disguise for me. I was more inclined to access the no/low graphics sites/sections of the internet. This is where the beef is! It really put me on the fast track to my acquaintance with piracy where it is live and kickin'.
As stated above, piracy is actually quite organized. Here we shall take a peek at the various hierarchies or the food chain:
Warez/Release Groups - People who release the warez to the warez community. Often linked with Site Traders.
Site Traders - People who trade the releases from the above groups on fast servers.
FXP Boards - Script hackers who scan/hack/fill vulnerable computers with warez.
IRC Kiddies - Users of IRC (Internet Relay Chat) who download from "XDCC Bots" or "Fserves." Actually, IRC is a whole new amazing world deserving an article of its own. Maybe sometime later...
KaZaA Kiddies - Users of KaZaA and other p2p (peer to peer) programs. Oh, I love this term "kiddies."
We'll start at the bottom.
KaZaA Kiddies
At the bottom of the piracy food chain we have the KaZaA Kiddies. There are again two groups of these KaZaA Kiddies. First, the 15 year old kids with broadband downloading the odd mp3 here and there because they can't afford outrageously overpriced CDs from stores. Harmless kids, costing no one any real money, pursuing their musical birthright. Also, these are the people being labeled "pirates." These are the ones "Killing the Music Industry." :(
Second are the older, p2p veterans who use other p2p networks (Gnutella, BitTorrent, eMule) and programs as well as KaZaA. In addition to using p2p for music the may also download games, programs, movies, etc. They usually have quite a collection amongst themselves and believe in sharing it with others. A great source for the starters, they usually do not mind a few leechers (Leechers are those who just download, download and download but don't share things of their own.) But if you are a leecher and want some serious beef, then be prepared to wait for what may seem to be an eternity , especially on eMule. They have long queues. You are not the only one wanting the latest movies after all... :)
IRC Kiddies
Not far up from KaZaA Kiddies we have the people who go to IRC for their warez fix. These people can be more knowledgeable about computers and the Internet but tend to be just as irritating as the KaZaA Kiddies.
First a bit of IRC for Dummies. IRC (Internet Relay Chat) has a very harmless sounding inconspicuous name. You first hear of it and think - Hell, not another chat client. But chat is a rare use as far as IRC goes. The main purpose behind creation of IRC was to enable quick and efficient file transfer dating back to the times of shell access. IRC is basically a sort of p2p where the computers register with an IRC server on an IRC network (some of the famous IRC networks are EFnet, DALnet and Undernet). Each network has one or multiple servers. Each network consists of various channels. The number of channels vary from two on AtlasF1 to hundreds of thousands on Undernet. Usually the channels are dedicated to a specific topic and may or may not support file transfer. There are three levels of users viz. chan-ops (channel operators), voice (some special privileges) and normal users. The most famous IRC client is mIRC and can be obtained at www.mirc.com
Warez Channels are often run by people who have access to a fair amount of pirated material (more about them later). There are generally two types of these Warez Channels:
Fserve Chans: These can often be run by the same KaZaA or IRC kiddies. They don't really have a reason to run them; they just like to feel important. They mainly use the mIRC client's File Server function to share their warez direct from their hard drives.
XDCC Chans: These are usually run by people into FXP Boards and Site-trading. They have access to fast, new warez. They "employ" people to "hack" into computers with fast Internet connections and install XDCC Clients (usually iroffer - www.iroffer.org) which are used to share out pirated goods. From what I've seen, the people running these channels must primarily do it because they like to have power over a lot of people (being a chan op), but also they will often be given free shell accounts to run BNCs, Eggdrops, etc. by shell companies in exchange for an advert in the topic of the channel.
IRC Kiddies can be found on Undernet (irc.undernet.net) or Rizon (irc.rizon.net). Other servers and channels can be found through www.packetnews.org.
To be continued... very soon. :)
The title says it all... Over the course of this article I am gonna talk about piracy, its various forms, various SOURCES and its impact on my life all from an Indian perspective.
My introduction to piracy has been pretty late by the western standards, but pretty early by the Indian standards. I first laid my hands on a computer when I was 9 years of age. For next four years, I satisfied myself by playing computer games and strutting around in the school calling myself a computer don.
Then came the big twist in the tale... Internet. Initially internet manifested itself in the form of a dialup connection. This meant that the speeds metaphorically competed with the snails in my neighborhood. But this turned out to be a blessing in disguise as I will elaborate further in the article.
Enough of me, lets talk of what we are here to. Piracy! This one word has caused many a sleepless nights to just about every person in the entertainment, software, or for that matter, any industry remotely related to intellectual property that can be digitized. They say that if there were no piracy (What world are they living in!?), Bill Gates would have been worth $200 bn as against currently around $50 bn!
Lets bust a few myths first. Piracy isn't just a few guys who work at cinemas and software stores taking the odd film or game home and sharing it on their home FTP servers or KaZaA.
Piracy on the Internet, or "the warez scene" (as those into it like to call it) is surprisingly organized. Pirated softwares/games/movies/anything is called "warez" and will be referred to as that from now on.
The Piracy "Food Chain"
As I said earlier, the slow internet connection turned out to be a blessing in disguise for me. I was more inclined to access the no/low graphics sites/sections of the internet. This is where the beef is! It really put me on the fast track to my acquaintance with piracy where it is live and kickin'.
As stated above, piracy is actually quite organized. Here we shall take a peek at the various hierarchies or the food chain:
Warez/Release Groups - People who release the warez to the warez community. Often linked with Site Traders.
Site Traders - People who trade the releases from the above groups on fast servers.
FXP Boards - Script hackers who scan/hack/fill vulnerable computers with warez.
IRC Kiddies - Users of IRC (Internet Relay Chat) who download from "XDCC Bots" or "Fserves." Actually, IRC is a whole new amazing world deserving an article of its own. Maybe sometime later...
KaZaA Kiddies - Users of KaZaA and other p2p (peer to peer) programs. Oh, I love this term "kiddies."
We'll start at the bottom.
KaZaA Kiddies
At the bottom of the piracy food chain we have the KaZaA Kiddies. There are again two groups of these KaZaA Kiddies. First, the 15 year old kids with broadband downloading the odd mp3 here and there because they can't afford outrageously overpriced CDs from stores. Harmless kids, costing no one any real money, pursuing their musical birthright. Also, these are the people being labeled "pirates." These are the ones "Killing the Music Industry." :(
Second are the older, p2p veterans who use other p2p networks (Gnutella, BitTorrent, eMule) and programs as well as KaZaA. In addition to using p2p for music the may also download games, programs, movies, etc. They usually have quite a collection amongst themselves and believe in sharing it with others. A great source for the starters, they usually do not mind a few leechers (Leechers are those who just download, download and download but don't share things of their own.) But if you are a leecher and want some serious beef, then be prepared to wait for what may seem to be an eternity , especially on eMule. They have long queues. You are not the only one wanting the latest movies after all... :)
IRC Kiddies
Not far up from KaZaA Kiddies we have the people who go to IRC for their warez fix. These people can be more knowledgeable about computers and the Internet but tend to be just as irritating as the KaZaA Kiddies.
First a bit of IRC for Dummies. IRC (Internet Relay Chat) has a very harmless sounding inconspicuous name. You first hear of it and think - Hell, not another chat client. But chat is a rare use as far as IRC goes. The main purpose behind creation of IRC was to enable quick and efficient file transfer dating back to the times of shell access. IRC is basically a sort of p2p where the computers register with an IRC server on an IRC network (some of the famous IRC networks are EFnet, DALnet and Undernet). Each network has one or multiple servers. Each network consists of various channels. The number of channels vary from two on AtlasF1 to hundreds of thousands on Undernet. Usually the channels are dedicated to a specific topic and may or may not support file transfer. There are three levels of users viz. chan-ops (channel operators), voice (some special privileges) and normal users. The most famous IRC client is mIRC and can be obtained at www.mirc.com
Warez Channels are often run by people who have access to a fair amount of pirated material (more about them later). There are generally two types of these Warez Channels:
Fserve Chans: These can often be run by the same KaZaA or IRC kiddies. They don't really have a reason to run them; they just like to feel important. They mainly use the mIRC client's File Server function to share their warez direct from their hard drives.
XDCC Chans: These are usually run by people into FXP Boards and Site-trading. They have access to fast, new warez. They "employ" people to "hack" into computers with fast Internet connections and install XDCC Clients (usually iroffer - www.iroffer.org) which are used to share out pirated goods. From what I've seen, the people running these channels must primarily do it because they like to have power over a lot of people (being a chan op), but also they will often be given free shell accounts to run BNCs, Eggdrops, etc. by shell companies in exchange for an advert in the topic of the channel.
IRC Kiddies can be found on Undernet (irc.undernet.net) or Rizon (irc.rizon.net). Other servers and channels can be found through www.packetnews.org.
To be continued... very soon. :)
[The second part will be coming on 10th of Sept 2006. In the second part we will discuss the rest of the hierarchy of the Piracy Food Chain and some more...]
-- A pirate friend of Mr_Geek
Hello! I am Gaurav Tembey. This blog is an attempt to provide a glimpse into my life, my mind. This is a means to remain connected to people who take an interest in me. Here I'll post the special happenings in my regular life. Other than that I'll post anything that I feel strongly about, maybe an article I like, a topic I want you to know about. In short, this is going to a very generic blog. I'll take this opportunity to say a little about myself here just in case you think you don't know me. Beware, I can be quite a handful at times :-)
When you see people describing themselves, more often than not they go overboard. Some are too bubbly some are too sadistic, some go on about their backgrounds their dreams and all. I will try to avoid these mistakes and try to talk about everything in brief. But when you have to describe yourself, you cant be too boastful (obviously) or too modest (I believe modesty is equivalent to denying the truth). So, as the posts unfold, what you will see is the real me, with my actual opinions (Opinions are subject to acceptance risks. Conditions Apply.) and not some fabricated online personality.
My name is Gaurav Tembey - as stated earlier. I am currently working in Texas Instruments, a very renowned name in the semiconductor induastry. I studied my engineering in this school called Vishwakarma Institute of Technology, Pune. When people ask me to describe myself, I fob off with a phrase - "Cogito, ergo sum." And though I have not read Descarte's works I really do believe in that phrase. If you don't know its meaning, it means "I think, therefore I am" or "I think, therefore I exist". I do believe this phrase does the best job of describing me considering how much can one phrase describe a persona. Hence the name of the Blog too.
A lot of my friends have said to me that I am not very communicative or that they don't know much about me. Hence, this is an effort in that direction to give you an insight into one of the greatest minds of the 21st Century! ;-)
I like to make new friends, and even more importantly, keep the old ones. I do my best to be as caring and understanding as possible. And I believe I am good at it. But still, I would not advise you to take my word for it. Not even my friends', for that matter. I would advise you to try it out for yourself.
So, if you have not been bored till here, I would request you to add this blog to your favourites and to keep checking it time and again for newer additions. Or you can just add your email ID in the comments field and I'll make sure you keep getting an update as per requirement.
Irrespective of whether you plan to visit this blog ever after this, I would very ernestly request you to please post your comments. They are very important to me. I would also request you to be ruthlessly honest in your comments. I do hope to see your comments regularly...
When you see people describing themselves, more often than not they go overboard. Some are too bubbly some are too sadistic, some go on about their backgrounds their dreams and all. I will try to avoid these mistakes and try to talk about everything in brief. But when you have to describe yourself, you cant be too boastful (obviously) or too modest (I believe modesty is equivalent to denying the truth). So, as the posts unfold, what you will see is the real me, with my actual opinions (Opinions are subject to acceptance risks. Conditions Apply.) and not some fabricated online personality.
My name is Gaurav Tembey - as stated earlier. I am currently working in Texas Instruments, a very renowned name in the semiconductor induastry. I studied my engineering in this school called Vishwakarma Institute of Technology, Pune. When people ask me to describe myself, I fob off with a phrase - "Cogito, ergo sum." And though I have not read Descarte's works I really do believe in that phrase. If you don't know its meaning, it means "I think, therefore I am" or "I think, therefore I exist". I do believe this phrase does the best job of describing me considering how much can one phrase describe a persona. Hence the name of the Blog too.
A lot of my friends have said to me that I am not very communicative or that they don't know much about me. Hence, this is an effort in that direction to give you an insight into one of the greatest minds of the 21st Century! ;-)
I like to make new friends, and even more importantly, keep the old ones. I do my best to be as caring and understanding as possible. And I believe I am good at it. But still, I would not advise you to take my word for it. Not even my friends', for that matter. I would advise you to try it out for yourself.
So, if you have not been bored till here, I would request you to add this blog to your favourites and to keep checking it time and again for newer additions. Or you can just add your email ID in the comments field and I'll make sure you keep getting an update as per requirement.
Irrespective of whether you plan to visit this blog ever after this, I would very ernestly request you to please post your comments. They are very important to me. I would also request you to be ruthlessly honest in your comments. I do hope to see your comments regularly...