Nerd Power!

[rhyst_hatchyk]

I will come on msn when my computer is networked up and running.



but for now, I must go- work calls. I'm doing good otherwise. Hope you're having a good day ^^

Eh, other than moron callers who say "Yes" when asked what their name is, it's going well. I'm getting a new vid card today An ATI Radeon 2900 XT, the 1GB version. No more bottlenecking for meeee!

Have fun at work, and get your computer up and running, dernit!

 

[Lady Reiha]

Eh, other than moron callers who say "Yes" when asked what their name is, it's going well. I'm getting a new vid card today An ATI Radeon 2900 XT, the 1GB version. No more bottlenecking for meeee!

Have fun at work, and get your computer up and running, dernit!

I shall try ^^




ugh.... I dun wanna work... blah.

 

[SexyCleric]

Why do I see this as a failed attempt to be festive and nice?

Failed attempt?

I dunno.
My Demolit... Decoration check is awfully high.

Decorations and fireworks are always nice!
Everyone loves them!

 

[Lady Reiha]

Failed attempt?

I dunno.
My Demolit... Decoration check is awfully high.

Decorations and fireworks are always nice!
Everyone loves them!

I'll be keeping an eye on you, mister.


Clerky- I need time to sit down and play some video games. What do you suggest I do, in order to update my nerd status?

 

[SexyCleric]

I'll be keeping an eye on you, mister.


Clerky- I need time to sit down and play some video games. What do you suggest I do, in order to update my nerd status?

*Grin*
Keep an eye on me if you wish, my dear, but I am known as a trickster priest for a gorram good reason.

As for video games, I dunno...
Depends what you're into.

Like RPGs? Grab your self some Morrowind. Or Knights of the Old Republic for some lightsaber good times.
Like 4X? Space Empires V or GalCiv 2 are like cocaine for those, like myself, you enjoy the role of god.
Adventure? Dead Rising, Resident Evil 4, or Metroid Prime.

But, to be honest, one must find the inner nerd for themselves.
Let not the others define what nerd you should be, but merely chose for your self.

I do Paper and Pencil.
Being naturally evil and mischievious, I follow the path of the DM.

What is your path?

 

[rhyst_hatchyk]

As an anime geek, may I also recommend Persona 3 for the Playstation 2 for RPG's? It's a fun game with lots to do; your main character is a demon-hunting highschool student, heh.

What else is there? There is, of course, Alternity, which I will be happy to GM sometime, and there are many other things to do as well.

Maybe watch some Claymore, too. Great series

But yes, as SC says, you must find your own path to nerd.

 

[SexyCleric]

Persona 3 for the Playstation 2 for RPG's

See, I want to try that one, but Persona II really just took it out of me.
I loved the first one, Revelations, but II just plain sucked!

I was hoping they would turn it around with three, but I dunno.
All reviews have been either stellar or abysmal.

What say you?!

 

[MonsterEFan]

Welcome!

Please make yourself at home, note the fine and lovely ladies of the thread as they are always charming and beautiful. Of course the man are equally socially skilled as we Nerds can be.

So glad you happened upon and joined our little Commune of Nerdity.

Danke much.



Anywho, I stumbled across a neat little game a while back. My astoundingly powerful intellect (and swollen head... no, not that kind) being what it is, I lost interest rapidly and thus devoted myself to other (in some sad cases less-worthy) pursuits. I bring to you.... Space!

http://space.coldfirestudios.com/

 

[SexyCleric]

I bring to you.... Space!

http://space.coldfirestudios.com/

Ohhhh.
Space is shiny.

But, I can't indulge in such games anymore.
I mean, it was hard enough to get Space Empires V to allow me to buy another space 4X game; Galciv2. I doubt she'll let me dally again.

 

[MonsterEFan]

Ohhhh.
Space is shiny.

But, I can't indulge in such games anymore.
I mean, it was hard enough to get Space Empires V to allow me to buy another space 4X game; Galciv2. I doubt she'll let me dally again.

Buy? Dear boy, this is free! I happen to like it as it's on a massively multiplayer scale. I happen to like AND dislike it however, because if you're new you tend to get crushed rather quickly.

 

[SexyCleric]

Buy? Dear boy, this is free! I happen to like it as it's on a massively multiplayer scale. I happen to like AND dislike it however, because if you're new you tend to get crushed rather quickly.

Oh, one of those.
See, I already waste enough time on techwarrior.

On, and that note, I'm off to work.

 

[MonsterEFan]

Oh, one of those.
See, I already waste enough time on techwarrior.

On, and that note, I'm off to work.

Well, since I just got back from work, I'm merely going to tell you to enjoy knowing you'll be back later. See you around!

 

[Lady Reiha]

*Grin*
Keep an eye on me if you wish, my dear, but I am known as a trickster priest for a gorram good reason.

As for video games, I dunno...
Depends what you're into.

Like RPGs? Grab your self some Morrowind. Or Knights of the Old Republic for some lightsaber good times.
Like 4X? Space Empires V or GalCiv 2 are like cocaine for those, like myself, you enjoy the role of god.
Adventure? Dead Rising, Resident Evil 4, or Metroid Prime.

But, to be honest, one must find the inner nerd for themselves.
Let not the others define what nerd you should be, but merely chose for your self.

I do Paper and Pencil.
Being naturally evil and mischievious, I follow the path of the DM.

What is your path?

your so insightful Clerky.... I shall find my path, and look forward towards the future!



Prehaps I'll get back into playing B&W.

 

[Trombonus]

*pokes head in*

Hey guys.

So I've started student teaching, which means I have no free time but that's ok. I actually fixed two Clarinets today. I was so afraid of fucking them up, but apparantly I did a good job.

 

[Lady Reiha]

*pokes head in*

Hey guys.

So I've started student teaching, which means I have no free time but that's ok. I actually fixed two Clarinets today. I was so afraid of fucking them up, but apparantly I did a good job.

nuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu *pouts*

 

[Trombonus]

nuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu *pouts*

I know, it sucks. I can't even get on MSN or AIM here. Stuck with YIM.

 

[Lady Reiha]

I know, it sucks. I can't even get on MSN or AIM here. Stuck with YIM.

suckage -_-"

 

[Trombonus]

suckage -_-"

yup, and now I have to go. Damned early computer closing hours.

 

[Lady Reiha]

yup, and now I have to go. Damned early computer closing hours.

just make sure to pop on every so often and say hi- okay?

 

[rhyst_hatchyk]

See, I want to try that one, but Persona II really just took it out of me.
I loved the first one, Revelations, but II just plain sucked!

I was hoping they would turn it around with three, but I dunno.
All reviews have been either stellar or abysmal.

What say you?!

I enjoy it myself, but I also bought it pre-owned from someone who didn't like it so much. You spend your days in school, deciding whether to sleep or learn, then at night you decide whether to go to Tartarus, and hunt shadows. You control your main character and give orders to the others, and you have to manage how tired they are in Tartarus as well because if you work them too long, they get tired and have to go back.

It's a game that has a balancing act at its core, I guess. It reminds me a lot of playing as a character in one of those animes where high-school students hunt demons; there's humour, Kendo, intrigue, and lots of things to do. My youngest brother really likes it, too.

I'd say give it a whirl, myself, but I really love anime and RPG's, too.

 

[SexyCleric]

It's a game that has a balancing act at its core, I guess.

That sounds an awful lot like highschool.
But, I trust you nerds, so I'll check it out.

I'm coming down from a six hour StarCraft high.
Nuclear weapons are my cocaine.

 

[rhyst_hatchyk]

That sounds an awful lot like highschool.
But, I trust you nerds, so I'll check it out.

I'm coming down from a six hour StarCraft high.
Nuclear weapons are my cocaine.

Hehe.

Now for some scary news for everyone...

Storm worm creates powerful botnet

Storm worm botnet more powerful than top supercomputers

By Sharon Gaudin
7 September 2007 02:08PM

The Storm worm botnet has grown so massive and far-reaching that it easily overpowers the world's top supercomputers.

That's the latest word from security researchers who are tracking the burgeoning network of Microsoft Windows machines that have been compromised by the virulent Storm worm, which has pounded the Internet non-stop for the past three months.

Despite the wide ranging estimates as to the size of the botnet, researchers tend to agree that it's one of the largest zombie grids they've ever seen -- one capable of doing great damage.

"In terms of power, the botnet utterly blows the supercomputers away," said Matt Sergeant, chief anti-spam technologist with MessageLabs, in an interview. "If you add up all 500 of the top supercomputers, it blows them all away with just 2 million of its machines. It's very frightening that criminals have access to that much computing power, but there's not much we can do about it."

Sergeant said researchers at MessageLabs see about 2 million different computers in the botnet sending out spam on any given day, and he adds that he estimates the botnet generally is operating at about 10 percent of capacity.

"We've seen spikes where the owner is experimenting with something and those spikes are usually five to 10 times what we normally see," he said, noting he suspects the botnet could be as large as 50 million computers. "That means they can turn on the taps whenever they want to."

No one could provide detailed and specific comparisons between the strength of the botnet and the top supercomputers, mainly because it is hard to know for sure the size of the botnet or the power of each computer that is part of the botnet.

Adam Swidler, a senior manager with security company Postini, told InformationWeek that while he thinks the botnet is in the 1 million to 2 million range, he still thinks it can easily overpower a major supercomputer.

"If you calculate pure theoretical throughput, then I'm sure the botnet has more capacity than IBM's BlueGene. If you sat them down to play chess, the botnet would win."

Since the botnet won't be entered in any supercomputer competition, what does this mean for the IT or security manager trying to protect a company?

It means the cyber criminals who control the botnet have a tremendous amount of destructive power at their fingertips. Early this summer, the Baltic nation of Estonia was pounded in a cyberwar that saw distributed denial-of-service attack primarily targeting the Estonian government, banking, media, and police sites.

To protect its network, the country had to shut down key computer systems, and targeted sites were inaccessible outside the country for extended periods.

Swidler said he has no doubt if the Storm worm bosses focused a denial-of-service (DoS) attack on a company, Internet service provider, or government agency inside the United States, it could do a great deal of damage.

"I think there's no question they could damage any single company, whether through a DoS attack or a spam barrage," he added. "I'd be less worried about a Yahoo or a Bank of America than the thousands of mid-sized banks that aren't as well protected. But undoubtedly, this could do a great deal of damage."

Swidler said there's always the background thought that an enemy of a country could basically rent the botnet and launch a DoS attack, shutting down government agencies, utilities or financial centers.

"It's a lot of computing power that could be focused to do a lot of damage," he added. "It's grid computing gone bad."

Last month, Ren-Isac, a collaboration of higher-education security researchers, sent out a warning that the Storm worm authors had another trick up their sleeves. The botnet actually is attacking computers that are trying to weed it out. It's set up to launch a distributed denial-of-service attack against any computer that is scanning a network for vulnerabilities or malware.

The warning noted that researchers have seen "numerous" Storm-related DoS attacks recently.

MessageLabs' Sergeant said the botnet also has been launching DoS attacks against anti-spam organizations and even individual researchers who have been investigating it.

"If a researcher is repeatedly trying to pull down the malware to examine it the botnet knows you're a researcher and launches an attack against you," he said.

Lawrence Baldwin, chief forensic officer of MyNetWatchman.com, said he doesn't have a handle on how big the overall botnet has become but he's calculated that 5,000 to 6,000 computers are being used just to host the malicious Web sites that the Storm worm spam e-mails are linking users to. And he added that while the now-well-known e-cards and fake news spam is being used to build up the already massive botnet, the authors are using pump-and-dump scams to make money.


"That's pretty scary," he said. "Cumulatively, Storm is sending billions of messages a day. It could be double digits in the billions, easily."

Swidler said that since mid-July, Postini researchers have recorded 1.2 billion e-mails that have been spit out by the botnet. A record was set on Aug. 22 when 57 million virus-infected messages -- 99 percent of them from the Storm worm -- were tracked crossing the Internet.

According to researchers at SecureWorks, the botnet sent out 6,927 e-mails in June to the company's 1,800 customers. In July, that number ballooned to 20,193,134. Since Aug. 8, they've counted 10,218,196.

See original article on InformationWeek.com

 

[Lady Reiha]

Hehe.

Now for some scary news for everyone...

Storm worm creates powerful botnet

wow... something I didn't want to read -_-"

Our world is extremely pathetic you know.

 

[rhyst_hatchyk]

Our world is extremely insane, you know. The scary thing is this botnet has the power to affect entire countries.

So just be warned about being infected with this insidious bug.

 

[Lady Reiha]

Our world is extremely insane, you know. The scary thing is this botnet has the power to affect entire countries.

So just be warned about being infected with this insidious bug.

something tells me Dell will be getting busy soon