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 Forum index » Archive » Archive: Ephemeral » ARG: Eldritch Errors
[SITE] www.ronomi.com
Moderators: aliendial, celina63, konamouse, rose, thebruce
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drizjr
Unfictologist


Joined: 28 Nov 2003
Posts: 1700
Caterpillar wrote:
<snip>But why Chinese? If it's too complicated don't bother with it, I'm just curious.


I'm certainly no expert on this, but I had an experience in another game where the source code of an image had Arabic characters in it. A kind soul at the time, explained to me, that it's just done that way sometimes. So, I'm guessing it may be the same kind of thing. Dunno

But, I'm not dismissing it entirely. Who knows where clues could be. Smile

PostPosted: Tue May 15, 2007 9:27 pm
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Lysithea
Unfettered


Joined: 04 Feb 2004
Posts: 468
Location: Australia
Caterpillar wrote:
But why Chinese? If it's too complicated don't bother with it, I'm just curious.
I hope that this site sheds some light on the issue.
Windows XP, notepad and Chinese characters
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PostPosted: Wed May 16, 2007 12:59 am
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thebruceModerator
Dances With Wikis


Joined: 16 Aug 2004
Posts: 6899
Location: Kitchener, Ontario

 		Chinese characters are part of the unicode character set. Unicode takes 2 bytes (16-bit) to 'describe' one character, whereas ANSI takes 1 (8-bit). Notepad might open a file and think it's actually unicode rather than ansi; for instance if "ab" is two characters in ansi, it'll think "ab" is actually one in unicode, and display what it thinks is the right character. in ANSI, a and b are ascii values 97 and 98. in Unicode, notepad is attempting to guess the unicode character set, and display its best character guess, based on 16-bit/2 byte character values, rather than 8-bit/1 byte.

You'd probably also note that the file's size in notepad after being opened as unicode is half its actual byte size (if you were to sit there and count the characters that is, if you opened an image)

Forgive me if I got any of my facts wrong Wink
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PostPosted: Wed May 16, 2007 9:29 am
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enaxor
I Have No Life

Joined: 25 Feb 2003
Posts: 2395
[Update] May 24
StuR wrote:
I'm so sick and tired of the shit on the radio
May 24, 2007
Work got you down? Feeling a little abused, under-used, and confused? Sing a little song with me: We R in need of a moonlight excursion. Spelunking for Dummies, a trip to the center of the server, down into the womb of the mothership, doling out a little TLC.

Moonlighting on my moonlighting, I've been helping Bryce over at Sentry Outpost. My big fat foot squashing into smithereens a nasty little piece of crashed something-or-other some hashbrowned-hacker left stewing on our machine. Finally got some juicy log files out of it, and now I'm having delicious visions of starring in the Made-for-TV movie of "How to Bust a Satanist PayPal Scambot" or "He Stopped A Terrorist DNS Controller: The Stu Ronomi Story."

Whatever is there, bubbling in the cauldron, it keeps looking more and more nasty. I honestly don't know how anyone could not love something called boil.c - it just screams "Touch-a touch-a touch me!" It's sucky to say, but I'm not entirely sure my Ginsu-sharp mind is going to be enough to get Bryce through this (he's a touch old skool). It's been like trying to explain to Grandma why I don't want any more email forwards.


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PostPosted: Wed May 23, 2007 11:48 pm
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sidtheduck
Veteran


Joined: 31 Jan 2006
Posts: 105
Location: The Land of Milk and Rainier Beer
[Update] May 24
enaxor wrote:
StuR wrote:
I'm so sick and tired of the shit on the radio

Any reason he's switched from movie lines to song lyrics?
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PostPosted: Thu May 24, 2007 4:41 am
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roseModerator
...and then Magic happens


Joined: 26 Nov 2003
Posts: 4117
Quote:
Touch-a touch-a touch me!"


Well that one is from the Rocky Horror Picture Show, if I remember correctly.
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I love this site for being free, in every sense of the word~Spacebass

Mankind was my business, the common good was my business.~ Dickens

PostPosted: Thu May 24, 2007 10:31 am
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WolfHawk
Entrenched


Joined: 15 Nov 2006
Posts: 1247
Location: St. Louis

 		You are exactly right Rose.

<<<<<<<< Has seen RHPS thirty some-odd times!!!!!!!!
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PostPosted: Fri May 25, 2007 10:26 pm
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danteIL
Unfictologist


Joined: 08 May 2006
Posts: 1990

 		Reports of his death and/or insanity were apparently premature, because the lovely Stu Ronomi has made a reapparance not only on SentryOutpost (after a nearly 6 week absence) but he's updated his blog as well:

Quote:
A Green Hunting Cap Squeezed the Top of the Fleshy Balloon of a Head
Too much time on their hands. People twittering and tiddling and tumbling, fetching kvetching. It's too simple. Too easy. The barrier between looking cool and looking like an utter dweeb is eroding. Solid strong concrete crumbling into flaky bits of Toll House Cookies, snacked up by eagerly drooling mouths. Dorkism is our future! Heed my words!

In point, we now have people designing ways to take a Wiimote and have it talk to their sophisticated computers. Because we can't use a mouse anymore? Oh, right, no, it's so you can control your version of PowerPoint or Keynote with a flick of your wrist. But DUDE! You are standing in a sea of professionals, sharply dressed in your professional suit, waving around a Wiimote like a slide-driving light saber, the nunchuck dangling limply in your left hand. Oh yes, you are mighty awesome, Aphrodite. If you do that motion just a touch faster, it looks like a wanking claw.

My server looks like it's behaving itself again - the wacky crap that was spewing from it has stopped its rabit frothing. I'm disappointed, but not a lot. I love poking boils, but that was just looking messy, and after my last experience with antibiotics killing my digestive tract's ability to function normally, I wasn't looking forward to whatever was on my server spreading from a wave of digital pixels to any region of my body. Like, ew. The internets no longer scare me. I loves them again. I might even try tackling a few crazies... or maybe just pontificating on them. So much less messy.


The title comes from A Confederacy of Dunces (which is a great book).

PostPosted: Fri Jul 20, 2007 7:13 pm
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roseModerator
...and then Magic happens


Joined: 26 Nov 2003
Posts: 4117

 		Is Stu not seeing the boil because it moved from the server to the other machine?
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Mankind was my business, the common good was my business.~ Dickens

PostPosted: Fri Jul 20, 2007 9:59 pm
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Lovek
Unfettered


Joined: 02 Mar 2005
Posts: 434

 		Oops. Ignore this.
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Pining For: Eldritch Errors
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PostPosted: Mon Jul 23, 2007 11:51 am
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danteIL
Unfictologist


Joined: 08 May 2006
Posts: 1990

 		And Stu writes again:
Quote:

Will You Just Watch the Hair?
Who knew San Francisco was such a hub? I always just assumed it was filled with strange hippie-type people who had inordinate amounts of time to discuss whether bottled water is good or bad and "if I were a bag, would I be better if I were paper, or plastic? Oh fuck it, we'll just ban them all." The City of San Francisco Stands Up Against Plastic! Also Legos! As they are also plastic. I'm sorry, Jimmy, no toys for you! Have some Lincoln Logs. What? Those are made out of plastic now, too? Crazy. Have a ball made of crumpled paper. Recycled, of course.

What we have is a grid failure and parts of the web zipping away into the ether - no LiveJournal (ack! the emo!), no Craigslist (how will I ever find my evening hookup?), no Netflix (I wanted to see if Danger Mouse was available to rent on DVD yet), no Technorati (now I can claim my popularity rating to be a lot higher than it is). Whatever will we do? Oh, San Francisco, I long to ring your trolley bell and see the Rice A Roni sign creeping up that famous hill, but right now, I just want the good half of my internet back.


We're back to movies with the quote: Saturday Night Fever

PostPosted: Wed Jul 25, 2007 6:29 pm
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Chanur
Boot

Joined: 25 Jul 2007
Posts: 15
Location: Denver

 		Investigating Ronomi
Reading the posts this is what I gather about ronomi.com:

1. The body of his posts are mostly grumpiness about poor internet/ISP service and in my opinion only of passing interest in our investigation of BA.

2. The titles of the posts make no sense in context with the body. I think the titles are clues but how?

Has anyone looked into who authored all of those songs/movies/etc? Maybe those names have some meaning. Did the same mega-media outlet release them all?

Has anyone looked at the release dates?

Anyone know the lines that come before or after the ones on the blog? Maybe that's the clue.

Just throwing out some things that I don't have time to research right now while I'm at work.

Oh, and I'm glad I found this game. Never heard of an ARG till yesterday and I'm finding it quite intriguing.

PostPosted: Wed Jul 25, 2007 10:17 pm
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danteIL
Unfictologist


Joined: 08 May 2006
Posts: 1990

 		Re: Investigating Ronomi
Chanur wrote:
2. The titles of the posts make no sense in context with the body. I think the titles are clues but how?


All indications are that this is a puzzle-lite game. We haven't been able to find any deeper meaning in the sources of Stu's blog titles, although you have some good suggestions. I think it's just him being wacky.

PostPosted: Thu Jul 26, 2007 5:21 pm
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danteIL
Unfictologist


Joined: 08 May 2006
Posts: 1990

 		I guess this is Stu's comment on being svicked by Art? New blogpost on ronomi.com:

Quote:
Birds fall from a window ledge above mine
August 01, 2007
There was a quote in my Senior high school year book that one of my classmates had put in as his last words to the school. Of course, the yearbook staff, filled with idiots crunched for time, managed to reduce the promulgate wisdom to "Speak softly, and carry a big svick." It's always stuck with me as one of those random moments of unintentional hilarity. Wherever I am, I pause once in a while to think about what a big svick I have, and how it's served me so well. Changing with the situation, mutating itself like a viral coat, prepared to latch onto the next villainous membrane. I suck at being a soft speaker, though. Anyone who knows me knows that I'm loud as fuck, and that takes away some of the svicky surprise, but none of the pleasure. Other people seem to have different interpretations of the quote. Which I guess is cool. I mean, people can play with their svicks however they want to. Doesn't change what I do with mine.

I'm not opposed to being svicked by another, really. I almost kind of enjoy it - it's like being able to commiserate with anyone with the latest cold, flu, stomach issue or loose bowel. A shared memory of feeling like utter ass. A moment where you look around and find everyone around you has the same bruises, blisters, and burns. You end up fitting in with everyone else who's currently getting svicked - many become one. Unintentional assimilation and unification against a common, plundering pirate. The svicked crew will land on the shore, band together, and walk into the sunset towards that really nice coconut tree arching over the undergrowth, where they will love and breed and talk to volleyballs named Bill.

Ahoy, there, sailor! Got your svick ready?


Title comes from Cake, "Mr. Mastodon Farm", although as pointed out by Mapmaker, it should be "the" window ledge...

PostPosted: Thu Aug 02, 2007 6:36 pm
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danteIL
Unfictologist


Joined: 08 May 2006
Posts: 1990

 		Shocked I'll let this one speak for itself:

Quote:
Wendy? Yes, Lisa? Is the water warm enough?

Five hours' New York jet lag, and I wake with my face pressed into my keyboard, the edge of the letter K jabbing into my eyebrow. I've completely thrown off my sleep pattern playing malware hunter - my circadian clock blinks. Power's out, but I'm still at home. Still jacking rhythms on the percussive keyboard. Still hitting the splash cymbal with each crack of a fresh can of Pepsi. I'm fuckin' lighting up this place, a one-man band pulling patterns out of nothing, weaving rugs of magic for carpet rides through atmospheric code. I'm Aladdin, right down to my pointy-toed, blue satiny shoes and gaucho pants. Rub my lamp and see your wishes granted, POOF! Were you busy trying to empirically determine what we know and don't know? Attempting to trick the paranoia radar into picking up my virginal radio signals? Hmm. Interesting. I took a different track: I zipped around the inside loop and zoomed right along the Highway to Missing Things to the end of the road.

What the hell was behind these crazyshit server infections festering on the webhost? Correction: not only this webhost, but another one, too. A lot of the shit left behind looks like stuff hackers use to slip in and out, so I hustled my white ass over to some of my favorite hacker/cracker file swarms. Any of those hacking tools use some of the freaky phrases from our favorite server intrusions? A little Xé:3a? Maybe a touch of Sothoth? he asked, pulling a cigarette out of his pocket.

Zippo. An empty lighter.

Jumping categories, I started hitting cherries with each pull as the little wheels spun. "Cracked software" - my nickel slot with the big payoff. I got a pile of matches, but on really strange file results that made no sense, like audio editing software. Surprise, surprise. Some enterprising Russian cracker had taken to bundling his file uploads with a few tasty pieces of payload, all of which offer CPA programs that are probably reeling in the rubles for the man with the plan. Cha-ching!

Or however they say that in Russia - Krakov-King! or Smirnoff-cha! or something. Vodka!

So in the pile of autoinstalling excitement is some strange Windows traybar application called "Lucky 5." It claims to turn "unused cycles C P U in FIELD LUCKINESS it surrounds you." If you can turn off your pedantry for a few more minutes and click your way through the installation without gouging your eyes out, it produces a traybar app with an L5 icon in blue that apparently does nothing except... sit there. It is parasiteware, though, so it must do something besides attempting to make a love connection to an IP address on start. It doesn't look like it's getting a good pillow fluffing at this point - some more fondling of Lucky is clearly warranted to get it to release its secret load.

In the installation files is a configuration file that looks like a veritable orgy of those phrases I was searching for - Sothoth times ten, naked and running through the fields like a stoned hippie. The Outpost will probably look upon that text with fond familiarity, and any other compromised webservers haunted by files with similar text might also be victims of FIELD LUCKINESS.

Oi! It surrounds you!

I'm uploading the extracted installation file and making it available for download below, but PLEASE BE EXTREMELY CAUTIOUS. This is an Internet-active parasiteware payload that could be connected to compromised servers. Only professional malware investigators (like myself - props to me!) should even CONSIDER installing this on a machine, and then only on a machine with enough security layers to prevent further compromise.

Or don't take my warning and just be stupid and download this willy-nilly onto whatever device you want. I'm cool with that, too, because of the following responsibility clause, cleverly written to cover my ass:

YOU ACCEPT ALL RESPONSIBILITY FOR DOWNLOADING THE MALICIOUS SOFTWARE, "LUCKY 5," BY CLICKING THIS LINK.
FURTHERMORE, YOU ACCEPT THAT STU IS A RIGHTEOUS DUDE*.

* I won't hold you to that last part about my righteousness, 'cause it's a pretty unenforcible clause, but I would like to suggest that you keep it in mind from time to time.


Title from Purple Rain, of course.

PostPosted: Tue Aug 07, 2007 9:43 pm
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