Recompiled.org » Internet

New PGP Key

Joe — Tue, 19 May 2009 19:14:18 +0000

If you don’t understand what this means, don’t worry and just ignore it.

I’ve started to use a new PGP/GPG key for a multitude of reasons. It can be found in the link below. Here’s a signed text file explaining it a bit. If you want to read a bit more about why others are doing this as well, read this entry over on the Debian Admin site.

Joe Eversole PGP Key

Inquisitor 3 Build 52 identifies affiliate links

Joe — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 05:03:46 +0000

After the brouhaha about Inquisitor inserting affiliate links, Dave has updated the application to reflect the affiliate links. I think this is the best possible response to the situation. You can download the updated version from www.inquisitorx.com.

Inquisitor puts affiliate links at top of search results

Joe — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 04:50:36 +0000

Inquisitor has been updated as of build 52 to identify affiliate links. See here.

Tonight, I found this post on TUAW that discusses the Inquisitor search plugin for Safari. The plugin gives you a Spotlight-esque result when you use the built-in Google search box, giving you easy access to the top links. It turns out that the program, written by Dave Watanabe, is designed to insert affiliate-linked URL as the “top result” when you search for certain terms. This was initially found by a bloke named Allan and posted on his blog.

As I commented here, there are a specific set of terms which are written into the application that put affiliate linked URLs as the first match. Without the source code, there’s no definate way to see what is going on here. However, using the UNIX command strings, we can look for the various bits of text intermixed into a binary application. The main program doing the work here for Inquisitor is InquisitorCore, buried deep in the bundle. Running strings against this, we find some of the following code… (after the jump)

sony microsoft canon sandisk linksys belkin logitech quickbooks parallels warcraft elmo christmas halloween xbox samsung cingular verizon t-mobile tmobile kitchenaid braun wacom quicken turbotax turbo tax yamaha casio dewalt weber powershot cybershot panasonic nikon coolpix blackberry compaq applecare netgear sennheiser fuji virus garmin playstation nintendo exilim bravia aquos gears of war super mario final fantasy pokemon saddam hussein paris hilton neopets angelina jolie lindsay lohan britney spears fergie beyonce knowles shakira ciara iwork ilife tomtom hdmi treo toshiba iomega lacie

Some simple testing confirms if you search for these terms, the very first link will be to Amazon. If you dig further into it, as Allan did, you find these links are affiliate links for the author. I’m kinda suprised by Saddam Hussein being in that list… not a lot of people search for Saddam to find stuff at Amazon.

Further digging finds that if you search for certain Peer to Peer (P2P) terms, you get links to Watanabe’s other applications…

torrent file sharing Xtorrent is all about search. Type keywords in and the results show up right in Xtorrent. One click later and you're downloading your content. Xtorrent (for Mac OS X) xtorrentp2p.com

http://www.xtorrentp2p.com/

limewire gnutella soulseek edonkey Innovative Mac P2P. Acquisition (for Mac OS X) acquisitionx.com

http://www.acquisitionx.com/

And, later still, you find Apple Store Affiliate links… also designed to appear to be the top search result. I find these the most invasive, since they include marketing blurbs that look like something you’d see in a Google search leading to the Apple Store pages. Note: I have truncated the URLs to save space. Each of these URLs deep link to the product page for the search term. To see the specifics, download Inquisitor and run strings against it.
iphone iPhone redefines what a mobile phone can do. Tap a number to make a call. Listen to voicemail in any order with Visual Voicemail. iPhone (Apple Store) store.apple.com

http://www.kqzyfj.com/click-2593411-10479833?url=http%3A%2F%2Fstore.apple.com

aperture Introducing the first all-in-one post-production tool for photographers. Aperture (Apple Store)

http://www.jdoqocy.com/click-2593411-10479833?url=http%3A%2F%2Fstore.apple.com

imac At speeds up to 2.8GHz, the advanced dual-core Intel processors that power every iMac are faster than ever. iMac (Apple Store)

http://www.anrdoezrs.net/click-2593411-10479833?url=http%3A%2F%2Fstore.apple.com

macbook pro Powered by the most advanced mobile processors from Intel, the new Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro is over 50% faster than the original Core Duo MacBook Pro and now supports up to 4GB of RAM. MacBook Pro (Apple Store)

http://www.tkqlhce.com/click-2593411-10479833?url=http%3A%2F%2Fstore.apple.com

macbook Powered by an Intel Core 2 Duo processor at speeds up to 2.16GHz, the new MacBook is the fastest ever. MacBook (Apple Store)

http://www.jdoqocy.com/click-2593411-10479833?url=http%3A%2F%2Fstore.apple.com

mac pro Every Mac Pro packs the power of two multicore Intel Xeon processors. Mac Pro (Apple Store)

http://www.jdoqocy.com/click-2593411-10479833?url=http%3A%2F%2Fstore.apple.com

ipod touch Touch comes to iPod. Introducing iPod touch. iPod touch (Apple Store)

http://www.anrdoezrs.net/click-2593411-10479833?url=http%3A%2F%2Fstore.apple.com

ipod nano A little video for everyone. The new iPod nano. iPod nano (Apple Store)

http://www.tkqlhce.com/click-2593411-10479833?url=http%3A%2F%2Fstore.apple.com

ipod shuffle 240 songs. Remixed colors. The new iPod shuffle. iPod shuffle (Apple Store)

http://www.tkqlhce.com/click-2593411-10479833?url=http%3A%2F%2Fstore.apple.com

ipod Hold everything. The new iPod classic. iPod (Apple Store)

http://www.anrdoezrs.net/click-2593411-10479833?url=http%3A%2F%2Fstore.apple.com

apple tv If it's on iTunes, it's on TV. Apple TV (Apple Store)

http://www.jdoqocy.com/click-2593411-10479833?url=http%3A%2F%2Fstore.apple.com

Doesn’t this seem, you know, shady?

Well, yes. Yes it does… simply because it was not disclosed. There is no EULA displayed when you install Inquisitor. There’s no privacy policy or terms on the website either. If there had been a EULA that said that there were going to be affiliate links, then no one would really have any ground to complain on.

I have uninstalled Inquisitor from my system, even though I registered the application back when it first came out. I should have been more upset when it became a free application (presumably, when affiliate links were added). Now, I’m throughly pissed.

Dave’s always been one of those smart asshole types who makes really shiny software applications. Xtorrent, for example, is the open source Transmission client wrapped in a shiny user interface. Inquisition was slick as well. But, I can live without it. And, judging by the comments on TUAW, I’m not alone.

The Joys of Public Access Television

Joe — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 21:35:20 +0000

This has made the rounds on the Internet today. It’s too good to not share.

This video is NSFW. Do not view this with sensitive ears. (language of a sexual nature. Video is just two people sitting on a stage talking)

Make sure you check out the related MetaFilter Thread

Get the Flash Player to see this player.

Pac-Man invades University

Joe — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 23:59:06 +0000

College pranks rock. This is one of my favourite. Thanks, Kotaku!
[video]http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=1367087148554825643&hl=en[/video]

Flock: Mighty fast

Joe — Sat, 15 Jul 2006 00:38:06 +0000

I’m giving Flock a try. It’s really fast compared on my Powerbook G4. I mean, super fast compared to a G4 optimised version of Firefox. They’re the same core version of Firefox too. I’m going to give it a try and see how I like it. I’m writing this in the built in blog editor. ~~It doesn’t really offer tags~~¹, which means I’ll get to go back and add tags after the fact. It’s a WYSIWYG editor that seems okay (Wow, except it totally is screwing up that tag back there… Invalid XHTML here we come!).

I don’t think I’ll get much use from the Flickr integration if for no other reason than I think that the Lightbox plugin is too damn cool to give up.

After I hit submit, it gave a spiffy tags interface. But, it just created a bunch of Technorati links. I had to go back and add my local tags through the WordPress interface. ↩

Geeks + 45,000 Bottle Rockets

Joe — Sat, 08 Jul 2006 04:16:10 +0000

[video]http://www.youtube.com/v/CgYh27WtEJA[/video]

Nothing else to say but wow.

Oh my God! They’ve killed Rocketboom!

Joe — Thu, 06 Jul 2006 15:39:07 +0000

Apparently, the host of the videoblog Rocketboom, Amanda Congdon, and the show’s producer, some guy who no one has ever heard of, have parted ways. Mr. Nobody Remembers His Name apparently owned 51% of the venture, with Congdon owning 49%, so, she leaves and he keeps the content, site, and name.

So, now what? Congdon has posted info at her blog, amandaunboomed.blogspot.com, where she talks about her side of their split and indicates that she’ll start posting videos there. As for Rocketboom, well, Mr. Nobody should probably just shut down the site to save on the bandwidth costs. I imagine they’ll take a severe viewership hit if and when they come back. Why? I don’t think it’s just because of Congdon. I think part of it is that people viewed it as two or three people just having fun and putting crap up on the Internets. Now? Clearly, it’s a business venture… A business venture with a very public falling out wherein the public face of the enterprise is no longer associated with them.

I liked Rocketboom, but never made the time to view it daily. The wife hated it with a passion because she found it stupid. The “stupidity” of it is what made it funny for me.

(via NSLog, which is suprising to me, as I would have expected to see it on Boing Boing or something before Erik’s weblog).

Video: Jedi Breakfast

Joe — Mon, 24 Apr 2006 19:42:42 +0000

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1O3HkI3Wrg[/video]

I’m not really a big fan of the YouTube/Google Video browsing. I find that I spent a lot of time looking at really crappy videos. I rely on various sites to point out cool videos for me. Today, via UNEASYsilence they linked to easily one of the best videos I’ve seen in a while. I thought I’d share it here.

Spamming for a Primary School?

Joe — Sun, 09 Apr 2006 03:21:04 +0000

spamming a primary school

Originally uploaded by jeversol.

Okay, this one is totally stumping me. A comment was posted to one of my first postings here. Here’s a screen shot of the comment in the administration console. As you can see, it looks like spam. The e-mail address traveler@hotmail.com probably isn’t really used by anyone because of the amount of spam they’d get. But, it didn’t feel right….

So, I opened the link. It loads a flash-based random number guessing program. I view the source code, thinking it’s got an exploit in it… nope, clean and simple. I play the game. Nothing strange. I notice at the bottom, the copyright notice lists a primary school. I go to their home page, and sure enough, it’s a web site for a school.

I e-mailed the domain owner and the webmaster, in case someone is trying to do something evil to their site, but, all I can keep asking myself is WTF.