divine.216

I originally wrote this as a reply in another thread, but seems more approriate in a new thread. Since mervbot seems to be used by non-coders to make bots, one of you who know how to program (are there any merv "devs" who do?) should write some kind of bot-wizard that would just generate "bots" (write one or two bots that are very very configurable and then an additional app that generates config's for them)... that would be a much better approach than trying to have people code who don't know the nature of application development (let alone your language of choice). Sorry to rip on merv coders, but it seems like many of them just hack up examples without really understanding them. I suspect alot of this is so that they can feel justified in calling themselves "bot devs" or some such. If you want to be helpful to your even less technically inclined peers, then write an app so they don't have to pretend. This would only really be useful for small utility-type bots -- but that's what most (all?) merv bots are used for anyways. Utility bots would take care of most of the completely programmatically disinclined (Joe Sysop who wants a bot for pub that says '-*BAD WORD*-o' and performs generic functions X, Y and Z). I haven't seen many really novel (read: creative and fun as opposed to useful and utilitarian) ideas from merv coders anyways.

It's relatively trivial to add as a server mod, it's just hackish to the point that people wouldn't use it because it would confuse them. The client would echo the wrong thing to itself so people would just type: //At %place and they would then see //At %place and assume they -*BAD WORD*-ed it up some how. That's why it's silly to add as a server mod because it will just be a confusing hack.

It's not amnesty, it's letting you admit to previously being an "offender" in return for nothing at all. I suppose if you were really concerned that they were about to file suit against you then this would be a nice thing, otherwise it's just allowing you to red-flag yourself.

...he used to !@#$%^&*emble dsl modems, but he was systematically replaced by robots and sweat-shop workers.

ASSS could implement, but it would be hackish. //Safe at %place would still echo locally as "divine.216> Safe at %place" but server could replace with something like "divine.216> Safe at Lunar Landing Quadrant" to everyone else. ...just another should-be-client-side feature that won't be implemented.

God doesn't hate you, he got bored with us eons ago.

I think we're missing the real funny part of all of this... ... you let some -*BAD WORD*- run off with your 17'? 19'? monitor... I can understand why you would be a little reluctant to give chase... I can understand why you would be a little reluctant to trip tackle him... I can even understand why you wouldn't want to scream or otherwise distract him as he carried your monitor away... ... But what exactly was running through your head when the guy started unplugging it from your PC? When he moved the !@#$%^&*orted wrappers and pushed the leaning coke cans off of it? When he casually requested that you push back from the desk for a moment so that he could pick it up? I guess what I'm saying is he would have had to pull a gun on me to steal my 19' monitor -- and when he picked it up (with both hands) I'd grab his gun and shove it up his -*BAD WORD*-.

SOS, no more ASSS/-*BAD WORD*- jokes it has been neither funny nor clever for a long time. Perhaps if you tried some subtlety you could nudge the dead -*BAD WORD*-er instead of kicking it.

http://www.sscx.net/!@#$%^&*s/

ekted won't share the source because he is shy about his flowery prose that he litters in the comments. He has a fixation with pink carnations and chamomile tea... they come up often in his writing and he thinks it might take from the aura of strength surronding powerbot if its effeminate roots were revealed.

Didn't you know? He already is a terrorist

.net has a built in virus scanner? sounds efficient.

A few thoughts 1) If cont is compromised then a checksum can be spoofed anyways 2) Without wanting to underestimate peoples creativity, what kinds of things could really be written with a "sandbox" scripting language? how does that measure up with the time and/or security issues? 3) ... we're all impressed that you know priitk's full name but why do you refer to him by it? This is still SS yes? You're complaining that priit is not engaging in feedback discussions on new Cont features. It's fun to talk about possible ideas for the client, but don't get too worked up about it; because speculation on new development is a waste of time. Priit comes out with new versions of cont that seem to include features that were intriguing for him to write -- they have almost never reflected public demand (the exception being certain bug fixes: prox bug, pball fire delay etc.) I guess the conclusion I'm drifting towards is that speculation on client development is tempting because of its obvious opportunities, but really almost entirely useless. Speculation on server-side development is much more productive. And who knows, maybe priit really is waiting for ASSS to be used on a large scale before working on larger development -- I look forward to finding out.

They're not hidden -- you seem to have no problem finding them. Priitk doesn't use the same types obfuscation techniques in Fix.dll (it is run by servers, it doesn't need any) that he does in cont. I said they weren't hidden because it you can disasm it normally.

If you peek, there are some interesting new cmds. (ffr) But in the interests of clarity, I'll leave their discovery as an exercise for the reader. (nothing is hidden, just open it up)