/* V8 - WARNING: This file is protected by copyright law.
To reverse engineer or decode this file is strictly prohibited. */
 

Well that's weird, because in the style.css we read:

/*The CSS, XHTML and design is released under GPL*/

(Side note, if you don't know what we mean by GPL, check out their site.)

No, they don't say PHP in there, however I read that (because 'design' is included) as "This theme is GPL'd". Poking around their website, I see no mention that you're required to keep any part of the theme the same.

If we read past the warning about reverse engineering, we see why they included it, a nasty big base64 encoded blob, then an eval command. Pastebin paste is here.

This piqued my interest, as I can think of very few legitimate reasons to do such obfuscation, or why there should be so much (footer.php is 47kb!). My initial thought was that I'd opened a backdoor into my site, with lesser thoughts to them being able to push random stuff into my footer (the last way I was infected), and finally just trying to control the links on the bottom of the page so that even if I were to edit their theme (as is my right under the GPL) I couldn't take credit for it myself, they'd always have credit for it. None of those sat right with me, so I hit up the local IRC channel, and we started puzzling.

First I base64_decode'd the garbage that was being run from the eval command (and yes, its gonna overflow the line by a LOT):

 
$lll=0;eval(base64_decode("JGxsbGxsbGxsbGxsPSdiYXNlNjRfZGVjb2RlJzs="));$ll=0;eval($lllllllllll("JGxsbGxsbGxsbGw9J29yZCc7"));$llll=0;$lllll=3;eval($lllllllllll("JGw9JGxsbGxsbGxsbGxsKCRvKTs="));$lllllll=0;$llllll=($llllllllll($l[1])<<8)+$llllllllll($l[2]);eval($lllllllllll("JGxsbGxsbGxsbGxsbGw9J3N0cmxlbic7"));$lllllllll=16;$llllllll="";for(;$lllll<$lllllllllllll($l);){if($lllllllll==0){$llllll=($llllllllll($l[$lllll++])<<8);$llllll+=$llllllllll($l[$lllll++]);$lllllllll=16;}if($llllll&0x8000){$lll=($llllllllll($l[$lllll++])<<4);$lll+=($llllllllll($l[$lllll])>>4);if($lll){$ll=($llllllllll($l[$lllll++])&0x0f)+3;for($llll=0;$llll<$ll;$llll++)$llllllll[$lllllll+$llll]=$llllllll[$lllllll-$lll+$llll];$lllllll+=$ll;}else{$ll=($llllllllll($l[$lllll++])<<8);$ll+=$llllllllll($l[$lllll++])+16;for($llll=0;$llll<$ll;$llllllll[$lllllll+$llll++]=$llllllllll($l[$lllll]));$lllll++;$lllllll+=$ll;}}else$llllllll[$lllllll++]=$llllllllll($l[$lllll++]);$llllll<<=1;$lllllllll--;}eval($lllllllllll("JGxsbGxsbGxsbGxsbD0nY2hyJzs="));$lllll=0;eval($lllllllllll("JGxsbGxsbGxsbD0iPyIuJGxsbGxsbGxsbGxsbCg2Mik7"));$llllllllll="";for(;$lllll<$lllllll;){$llllllllll.=$llllllllllll($llllllll[$lllll++]^0x07);}eval($lllllllllll("JGxsbGxsbGxsbC49JGxsbGxsbGxsbGwuJGxsbGxsbGxsbGxsbCg2MCkuIj8iOw=="));eval($lllllllll);
 

If you want to be able to READ that:

 
<?php
    $lll=0;
    eval(base64_decode("JGxsbGxsbGxsbGxsPSdiYXNlNjRfZGVjb2RlJzs="));
    $ll=0;
    eval($lllllllllll("JGxsbGxsbGxsbGw9J29yZCc7"));
    $llll=0;
    $lllll=3;
    eval($lllllllllll("JGw9JGxsbGxsbGxsbGxsKCRvKTs="));
    $lllllll=0;
    $llllll=($llllllllll($l[1])<<8)+$llllllllll($l[2]);
    eval($lllllllllll("JGxsbGxsbGxsbGxsbGw9J3N0cmxlbic7"));
    $lllllllll=16;
    $llllllll="";
    for(;$lllll<$lllllllllllll($l);){
        if($lllllllll==0){
            $llllll=($llllllllll($l[$lllll++])<<8);
            $llllll+=$llllllllll($l[$lllll++]);
            $lllllllll=16;
        }if($llllll&0x8000){
            $lll=($llllllllll($l[$lllll++])<<4);
            $lll+=($llllllllll($l[$lllll])>>4);
            if($lll){
                $ll=($llllllllll($l[$lllll++])&0x0f)+3;
                for($llll=0;$llll<$ll;$llll++)
                    $llllllll[$lllllll+$llll]=$llllllll[$lllllll-$lll+$llll];
                $lllllll+=$ll;
            }else{
                $ll=($llllllllll($l[$lllll++])<<8);
                $ll+=$llllllllll($l[$lllll++])+16;
                for($llll=0;
                    $llll<$ll;
                    $llllllll[$lllllll+$llll++]=$llllllllll($l[$lllll]));
                $lllll++;
                $lllllll+=$ll;
            }
        } else
            $llllllll[$lllllll++]=$llllllllll($l[$lllll++]);
        $llllll<<=1;
        $lllllllll--;
    }
    eval($lllllllllll("JGxsbGxsbGxsbGxsbD0nY2hyJzs="));
    $lllll=0;
    eval($lllllllllll("JGxsbGxsbGxsbD0iPyIuJGxsbGxsbGxsbGxsbCg2Mik7"));
    $llllllllll="";
    for(;$lllll<$lllllll;){
        $llllllllll.=$llllllllllll($llllllll[$lllll++]^0x07);
    }
    eval($lllllllllll(
        "JGxsbGxsbGxsbC49JGxsbGxsbGxsbGwuJGxsbGxsbGxsbGxsbCg2MCkuIj8iOw=="));
    eval($lllllllll);
?>
 

Wonderful, more base64 junk, and obfuscation. Yea, when was the last time you read a legitimate program that looked as the above (not in Perl). Been a while for me as well. So we went to work first by translating all the base_64 junk into english. Please note that the very first eval binds $lllllllllll to base64_decode so I've gone ahead and done that part already. I removed the eval() calls, and replaced them with the base64 translation on every line ending in //here.

 
<?php
 
    $lll=0;
    $lllllllllll='base64_decode'; //here
    $ll=0;
    $llllllllll='ord';  //here
    $llll=0;
    $lllll=3;
    $l=$lllllllllll($o); //here
    $lllllll=0;
    $llllll=($llllllllll($l[1])<<8)+$llllllllll($l[2]);
    $lllllllllllll='strlen'; //here
    $lllllllll=16;
    $llllllll="";
    for(;$lllll<$lllllllllllll($l);){
        if($lllllllll==0){
            $llllll=($llllllllll($l[$lllll++])<<8);
            $llllll+=$llllllllll($l[$lllll++]);
            $lllllllll=16;
        }if($llllll&0x8000){
            $lll=($llllllllll($l[$lllll++])<<4);
            $lll+=($llllllllll($l[$lllll])>>4);
            if($lll){
                $ll=($llllllllll($l[$lllll++])&0x0f)+3;
                for($llll=0;$llll<$ll;$llll++)
                    $llllllll[$lllllll+$llll]=$llllllll[$lllllll-$lll+$llll];
                $lllllll+=$ll;
            }else{
                $ll=($llllllllll($l[$lllll++])<<8);
                $ll+=$llllllllll($l[$lllll++])+16;
                for($llll=0;
                    $llll<$ll;
                    $llllllll[$lllllll+$llll++]=$llllllllll($l[$lllll]));
                $lllll++;
                $lllllll+=$ll;
            }
        } else
            $llllllll[$lllllll++]=$llllllllll($l[$lllll++]);
        $llllll<<=1;
        $lllllllll--;
    }
    $llllllllllll='chr'; //here
    $lllll=0;
    $lllllllll="?".$llllllllllll(62); //here
    $llllllllll="";
    for(;$lllll<$lllllll;){
        $llllllllll.=$llllllllllll($llllllll[$lllll++]^0x07);
    }
    $lllllllll.=$llllllllll.$llllllllllll(60)."?"; //here
    eval($lllllllll);
?>
 

Next we perform the variable transformations that the first few eval() calls call for. Please note that towards the bottom there are a few variables we can't simply replace just yet.

 
<?php
 
    $lll=0;
    $ll=0;
    $llll=0;
    $lllll=3;
    $l=base64_decode($o); //Leaving this since I only want it to evaluate once
    $lllllll=0;
    $llllll=(ord($l[1])<<8)+ord($l[2]);
    $lllllllll=16;
    $llllllll="";
    for(;$lllll<strlen($l);){
        if($lllllllll==0){
            $llllll=(ord($l[$lllll++])<<8);
            $llllll+=ord($l[$lllll++]);
            $lllllllll=16;
        }if($llllll&0x8000){
            $lll=(ord($l[$lllll++])<<4);
            $lll+=(ord($l[$lllll])>>4);
            if($lll){
                $ll=(ord($l[$lllll++])&0x0f)+3;
                for($llll=0;$llll<$ll;$llll++)
                    $llllllll[$lllllll+$llll]=$llllllll[$lllllll-$lll+$llll];
                $lllllll+=$ll;
            }else{
                $ll=(ord($l[$lllll++])<<8);
                $ll+=ord($l[$lllll++])+16;
                for($llll=0;
                    $llll<$ll;
                    $llllllll[$lllllll+$llll++]=ord($l[$lllll]));
                $lllll++;
                $lllllll+=$ll;
            }
        } else
            $llllllll[$lllllll++]=ord($l[$lllll++]);
        $llllll<<=1;
        $lllllllll--;
    }
    $lllll=0;
    $lllllllll="?".chr(62); //Leaving as we can't evaluate yet.
    $llllllllll="";
    for(;$lllll<$lllllll;){
        $llllllllll.=chr($llllllll[$lllll++]^0x07);
    }
    $lllllllll.=$llllllllll.chr(60)."?"; //Leaving as we can't evaluate yet.
    eval($lllllllll);
?>
 

Now, let's make it readable by translating all those $l variables into english letters. First one will be $a, next $b, etc etc. Alright, I missed one and had to go back, but here it is.

 
<?php
 
    $a=0;
    $b=0;
    $c=0;
    $d=3;
    $l=base64_decode($o); //leaving this as $l
    $e=0;
    $g=(ord($l[1])<<8)+ord($l[2]); //whoops, skipped one...
    $f=16;
    $h="";
    for(;$d<strlen($l);){
        if($f==0){
            $g=(ord($l[$d++])<<8);
            $g+=ord($l[$d++]);
            $f=16;
        }if($g&0x8000){
            $a=(ord($l[$d++])<<4);
            $a+=(ord($l[$d])>>4);
            if($a){
                $b=(ord($l[$d++])&0x0f)+3;
                for($c=0;$c<$b;$c++)
                    $h[$e+$c]=$h[$e-$a+$c];
                $e+=$b;
            }else{
                $b=(ord($l[$d++])<<8);
                $b+=ord($l[$d++])+16;
                for($c=0;
                    $c<$b;
                    $h[$e+$c++]=ord($l[$d]));
                $d++;
                $e+=$b;
            }
        } else
            $h[$e++]=ord($l[$d++]);
        $g<<=1;
        $f--;
    }
    $d=0;
    $f="?".chr(62); //here
    $i="";
    for(;$d<$e;){
        $i.=chr($h[$d++]^0x07);
    }
    $f.=$i.chr(60)."?"; //here
    eval($f);
?>
 

At this point its almost readable, although astute observers will have noted one variable that's weird. $o is wrapped in a base64_decode call, and bound to $l. $o is, shockingly enough, 44K of... packed binary. I didn't notice this until someone else pointed it out, I just glossed over all that junk and had started on the obvious eval command. To get a good view of it, try here.

Line 9 of the above can be simplified, so let's do that and turn it into the following (just to get an idea of the exact numbers we can). We can also run the strlen() call and learn that the length of $l is 33222! Geez... So let's replace that in the for loop on (old) line 12. $e after the massive loop becomes 83760, we can replace that also. And finally I replace the chr() calls towards the end and just put them into the strings that they're concatted to.

 
    $ga = ord($l[1])<<8; //48
    $gb = ord($l[2]); //0
    $g = $ga + $gb; //48
    ....
    for(;$d<33222;){
    ....
    $f="?>";
    ....
    for(;$d<83760;){
    ....
    $f.=$i."<?";
 

So, where does this leave us? We have a nice little (readable) script that does (something) on a HUGE bit of packed binary. Now, if you look at the for loop there, its not going to be fun to step through. Our index goes up to 33222, and is incremented by at most 6 every iteration. At worst you'll be stepping by 1. Well, the eval() command isn't until the end, so lets just see what that nasty big loop spits out, hmm? As long as you die() before the eval command, you'll be alright. What this spits out is a nasty huge array...

 
Array
(
    [0] => 59
    [1] => 56
    [2] => 119
    [3] => 111
    [4] => 119
    [5] => 13
    //....<snip 83000ish lines>
    [83754] => 97
    [83755] => 60
    [83756] => 13
    [83757] => 13
    [83758] => 56
    [83759] => 57
)
 

Now that's just lovely. Hmm, but looking at the values it gives me an idea. I decided to spit out an array of the values from the right side, and how many times they're referenced.

 
Array
(
    [59] => 93
    [56] => 1
    [119] => 1110
    [111] => 2748
    [13] => 630
    [36] => 70
    [35] => 349
    [99] => 1773
    [98] => 8490
    [101] => 1112
    [114] => 3197
    [96] => 1525
    [39] => 7322
    [58] => 227
    [54] => 153
    [60] => 577
    [107] => 3064
    [110] => 3057
    [105] => 4299
    [108] => 1170
    [102] => 4179
    [125] => 766
    [51] => 94
    [104] => 2476
    [116] => 3241
    [115] => 4404
    [88] => 414
    [84] => 541
    [66] => 354
    [85] => 163
    [81] => 130
    [92] => 19
    [32] => 1487
    [79] => 425
    [83] => 386
    [87] => 187
    [72] => 101
    [90] => 19
    [97] => 635
    [47] => 127
    [46] => 127
    [100] => 2031
    [37] => 305
    [61] => 391
    [41] => 886
    [117] => 4419
    [57] => 100
    [86] => 2
    [82] => 79
    [78] => 59
    [106] => 1421
    [69] => 438
    [112] => 1295
    [42] => 688
    [126] => 198
    [40] => 1630
    [53] => 110
    [52] => 82
    [55] => 105
    [63] => 30
    [67] => 209
    [74] => 153
    [50] => 74
    [48] => 37
    [62] => 27
    [113] => 313
    [89] => 3
    [43] => 3496
    [70] => 297
    [73] => 169
    [68] => 172
    [80] => 271
    [14] => 1161
    [65] => 243
    [76] => 337
    [127] => 186
    [95] => 10
    [93] => 47
    [64] => 213
    [33] => 442
    [75] => 103
    [49] => 34
    [118] => 5
    [77] => 36
    [109] => 41
    [124] => 17
    [122] => 17
    [44] => 10
    [34] => 21
    [45] => 9
    [123] => 5
)
 

The minimum is 13, and the max is 127, so these do fit nicely on an ASCII table. Now, 13 is a LOT smaller than I expected (down at carriage return), but such is life. Sorted it looks a bit better, but doesn't map nicely to the ASCII values I'd hoped to see the most of.

 
Array
(
    [13] => 630
    [14] => 1161
    [32] => 1487
    [33] => 442
    [34] => 21
    [35] => 349
    [36] => 70
    [37] => 305
    [39] => 7322
    [40] => 1630
    [41] => 886
    [42] => 688
    [43] => 3496
    [44] => 10
    [45] => 9
    [46] => 127
    [47] => 127
    [48] => 37
    [49] => 34
    [50] => 74
    [51] => 94
    [52] => 82
    [53] => 110
    [54] => 153
    [55] => 105
    [56] => 1
    [57] => 100
    [58] => 227
    [59] => 93
    [60] => 577
    [61] => 391
    [62] => 27
    [63] => 30
    [64] => 213
    [65] => 243
    [66] => 354
    [67] => 209
    [68] => 172
    [69] => 438
    [70] => 297
    [72] => 101
    [73] => 169
    [74] => 153
    [75] => 103
    [76] => 337
    [77] => 36
    [78] => 59
    [79] => 425
    [80] => 271
    [81] => 130
    [82] => 79
    [83] => 386
    [84] => 541
    [85] => 163
    [86] => 2
    [87] => 187
    [88] => 414
    [89] => 3
    [90] => 19
    [92] => 19
    [93] => 47
    [95] => 10
    [96] => 1525
    [97] => 635
    [98] => 8490
    [99] => 1773
    [100] => 2031
    [101] => 1112
    [102] => 4179
    [104] => 2476
    [105] => 4299
    [106] => 1421
    [107] => 3064
    [108] => 1170
    [109] => 41
    [110] => 3057
    [111] => 2748
    [112] => 1295
    [113] => 313
    [114] => 3197
    [115] => 4404
    [116] => 3241
    [117] => 4419
    [118] => 5
    [119] => 1110
    [122] => 17
    [123] => 5
    [124] => 17
    [125] => 766
    [126] => 198
    [127] => 186
)
 

Thankfully we're not done yet, notice that these values are called along with a ^0x07... so maybe if we change the list to reflect this operation it'll look better. In order to make it tidy, and to continue the assumption, I've substituted the character for the integer.

 
Array
(
    [<tab>] => 1161
    [
<line feed>] => 630
    [ ] => 7322
    ["] => 305
    [#] => 70
    [$] => 349
    [%] => 21
    [&] => 442
    ['] => 1487
    [(] => 127
    [)] => 127
    [*] => 9
    [+] => 10
    [,] => 3496
    [-] => 688
    [.] => 886
    [/] => 1630
    [0] => 105
    [1] => 153
    [2] => 110
    [3] => 82
    [4] => 94
    [5] => 74
    [6] => 34
    [7] => 37
    [8] => 30
    [9] => 27
    [:] => 391
    [;] => 577
    [<] => 93
    [=] => 227
    [>] => 100
    [?] => 1
    [A] => 297
    [B] => 438
    [C] => 172
    [D] => 209
    [E] => 354
    [F] => 243
    [G] => 213
    [H] => 425
    [I] => 59
    [J] => 36
    [K] => 337
    [L] => 103
    [M] => 153
    [N] => 169
    [O] => 101
    [P] => 187
    [Q] => 2
    [R] => 163
    [S] => 541
    [T] => 386
    [U] => 79
    [V] => 130
    [W] => 271
    [X] => 10
    [Z] => 47
    [[] => 19
    []] => 19
    [^] => 3
    [_] => 414
    [a] => 4179
    [b] => 1112
    [c] => 2031
    [d] => 1773
    [e] => 8490
    [f] => 635
    [g] => 1525
    [h] => 2748
    [i] => 3057
    [j] => 41
    [k] => 1170
    [l] => 3064
    [m] => 1421
    [n] => 4299
    [o] => 2476
    [p] => 1110
    [q] => 5
    [r] => 4419
    [s] => 3241
    [t] => 4404
    [u] => 3197
    [v] => 313
    [w] => 1295
    [x] => 186
    [y] => 198
    [z] => 766
    [{] => 17
    [|] => 5
    [}] => 17
)

This looks good to me. notice the matched braces (17 each), matched parens (127 each), and almost matched carrots (93 and 100). Also take note that there's much more lowercase than uppercase letters, and that lowercase 'e' is far above the other letters, implying this has English words (or at least English something) in it.

And again we end up with a nasty large for loop, completely worthless to try to step through:

 
    for(;$d<83760;){
        $i.=chr($h[$d++]^0x07);
    }
 

83760 steps in that loop, building whatever it is we're going to eval at the end char by char! I'm going to cheat again, run the loop, spit out the result, and die before the eval. Looks like 632 lines of... more php! Yay, this time its not obfuscated!

It starts off with 410 lines of 4 arrays of URLs, most appearing German. After that it does some work on your domain name and the requested page, then does some work on all of the above to pull out specific URLs to seed your footer with. They were nice enough to include a $debug flag, which I turned on, and ran on a different site that I wasn't too worried about. Here's the spit out:

 
host: thievestavern.com
uri: /final_code.php
numbers: 0
 
final_code.php
url: thievestavern.com/final_code.php
url_base64: dGhpZXZlc3RhdmVybi5jb20vZmluYWxfY29kZS5waHA=
url_zahl: 20295
 
array_a_count: 22
array_b_count: 90
array_c_count: 87
array_d_count: 145
array_e_count: 2
url_count: 32
 
crc32 url: -1485503542
intval(crc32 count): 1485503542
 
count_a (url_count + numbers): 03542
 
count_a % array_a_count: 03542 % 22
count_a (Rest nach Teilung): 0
 
count_b (url_count + numbers): 03542
 
count_b % array_b_count: 03542 % 90
count_b (Rest nach Teilung): 32
 
count_c (url_count + numbers): 03542
 
count_c % array_c_count: 03542 % 87
count_c (Rest nach Teilung): 62
 
count_d (url_count + numbers): 03542
 
count_d % array_d_count: 03542 % 145
count_d (Rest nach Teilung): 62
 
count_e (url_count + numbers): 03542
 
count_e % array_e_count: 03542 % 2
count_e (Rest nach Teilung): 0
 
url_zahl % anchor_1_count: 20295 % 6
 
url_zahl_rest_1: 3
anchor_1_count: 6
 
url_zahl_rest_2: 2
anchor_2_count: 7
 
url_zahl_rest_3: 5
anchor_3_count: 10
 
url_zahl_rest_4: 0
anchor_4_count: 11
 
url_zahl_rest_5: 2
anchor_5_count: 7
 
count: 03542
//Links were spit out here... I'm not including them as
//I don't want to advertise for random people
 

Conclusions
I'm considering this question solved. The obfuscated piece of junk that was residing in my footer turns out to be nothing more than a very paranoid way to put links into the footer. Its handy as it'll be hard to automatically figure out which sites have these spam footers (if I couldn't do this), it also intimidates the normal user to not remove the links. This is fairly clever, and involved, and a nice feature is that they can simply change the $o to get a whole new set of links to spit out, or to change the footer's design. I'll give them props for that.

All of the above makes me say that themespack.com isn't really interested in putting good free (as in freedom, and beer) themes into the hands of bloggers, they're more interested in themselves. Can I fault them? No. However, I do take issue with trying to hide behind 'copyright' to prevent me from changing the links on my own blog.

If you get one of these themes I'd highly recommend you do the following: Go into the footer, and remove the 'alignleft' div. Put in a 'theme created by ' link, and then give yourself credit for editing it. As is your right under the GPL. I'd love to say to run the script and give credit to the supposed creators, but those end up being random German companies, clearly not people in the business of writing PHP.

Oh, and for the record, all of the above is what the server does when it runs the PHP code, so I'm not reverse engineering it anymore than a few calls to base64_decode does.

In order to find Backmasking, one must either already know to look for it, randomly play everything backwards, or hear something that sounds interesting and essentially just stumble upon it.

In regards to stumbling across almost subliminal messages, I just found a funny one. I use the Famfamfam Silk icon pack a lot. I mean a LOT. Just about any website I set up will use at least a few of them because they're so clean and, well, free! (And since I'm plugging him, I'll point out that these are licensed under the CC Attribution 2.5 license, so if you end up using them, make sure to attribute!)

Browsing through the big ol' image of all icons I came across this:

(Don't) Drink and drive!

I've browsed through here may times before, but this time I read that as "drink and drive", and then I just couldn't help but notice the hidden commands.

1) Get a drink.
2) Empty drink.
3) Drive! (and you'll notice later on there's drive_error, and drive_burn... as such I highly do NOT recommend actual drinking and driving).

Hope you get a chuckle out of it as well.

(DISCLAIMER: Neither I, nor Mark James/Famfamfam, would ever encourage any form of dangerous or illegal behavior. Do not drink and drive... period)

Sadly, CAPTCHAs are a technology we need to combat spam, which accounts for at least 80% of email today, not to mention message boards, instant messages, or text-messages. However, we're merely engaged in a technology arms race with spammers, this is *not* a technology that is winning any fights, we just try to stay one step ahead. This is increasingly hard with CAPTCHA entry being a job in countries with lower incomes, spammers cheating by offering porn in return for solving a CAPTCHA, and (in a case that doesn't just apply humans) CAPTCHA breaking drives AI research. Basically, no 'new' CAPTCHA technology is going to keep spammers out for long. A bleak future indeed. On the other hand, we already have 80%, how much worse can it get? I think the real answer lies in spam filters, although for the most part those are also in a mere arms race, but at least then you can control your own computer, not just leave the image out there for another human to crack.

Finland

First I want to address the Finland shooting. Finland is third in the world in terms of gun ownership per capita, behind the US, and Yemen. This is because hunting is huge in Finnish culture, as one person puts it, "the national sport". And yet more people are killed by knives than guns (according to that article). The youth are raised around weapons, they can legally own a firearm at 15 with parental permission, and for handguns they must be a member of a gun club. Yet until 12 months ago, they'd never had a tragedy like this.

The conclusion we should be able to come to, is its not the gun's fault, its the human's. You have a person capable of cold-blooded, calculated murder, and no amount of laws will stop them from carrying out what they want to do. It requires human intervention: Parents who care, friends who realize when someone's hurting inside, kids that are strong enough in their self-image that they can get through school without bullying. As many are so fond of criticizing the War on Terror, its more than just people with guns, its a social problem that requires compassion, and understanding. However, if those fail, you had better be prepared to fight for what you love, because when a person reaches the utter mental darkness these killers were in, there's going to be no reasoning.

Its worth pointing out that in this most recent case the killer had homemade bombs with him, as did the Columbine shooters, if they had no access to guns, they would have still been able to kill.

But that brings us to Gun Control.

Gun Control

Gun Control: At its heart, the idea is fairly basic, to control the guns that are in public circulation so that bad people can't get them. While I know people who would argue against any limitation on weapons, I think most will agree that there are people out there who shouldn't own firearms, just like there are people who shouldn't be able to drive, people who shouldn't be allowed to practice law, and people who shouldn't be allowed to practice medicine. One obvious answer here is felons, if you're convicted of a violent crime, you forfeit your right to bear arms.

Unfortunately, in recent years gun 'control' goes way beyond 'control'. Now people want a gun ban in the name of gun control in some places, such as the District of Columbia (recently overturned), and Britain. Yes, this will keep guns out of the hands of law-abiding citizens, unfortunately we have to remember that these guys who shot up their schools were not law-abiding. They committed many acts of cold-blooded murder, and no gun ban would have prevented that. Now, it would have made it harder to get the gun, but as we can see from Britain, it would by no means have stopped them from getting guns. There violence went up once private citizens lost the right to bear handguns. I've heard first hand accounts from friends that if they ever did something wrong, and the bobbies wanted to stop them, they'd simply run, since the worst they had to face is a night stick, and they could out run the cops.

Piracy

Now, I'm going to play to my (intended) audience for a while. You know I'm not just some crazy gun nut, I also fancy myself a (white hat) hacker, and know most of the arguments for and against music|software piracy. What does that have to do with gun control? Lets examine DRM, or "music piracy control". DRM is a system whereby a company can have "absolute" control over their intellectual property, in this case lets say music. If I went to any hacker, and said that Congress passed a law requiring DRM on every digital music download, to prevent piracy, do you think they'd be put out at all? No, they'd laugh, and explain how in 3 minutes or less they'd be able to bypass the DRM (I'll refrain to linking to those news stories... I value my freedom). I know, I know, this is completely unrelated! Or is it?

In both cases we have an arbitrary control system, X, designed to stop the user from doing Y. In the case of gun control, X is "legal ramifications" and Y is "buying guns", and in the case of DRM, X is "DRM", and Y is "copying the music". In both cases it is the honest people that suffer here from a lack of freedom and security. In the case of guns its physical security and the freedom to defend yourself, and in the case of DRM its the lack of freedom to use what you've bought and the security that if your computer dies you can have a backup. So why is it that one of these is a perfectly smart move, and the other will never work?

As a security professional I know that there's no such thing as a secure system, I don't believe that for a computer with limited physical access and a decent firewall. So why would I believe that any country, or even any city, could pull off a complete gun ban, eliminating the ability for criminals to get their hands on them? Now, in the case of my computer, I plan for Bad Things to happen. I keep backups, I make sure there's spare hardware around just in case, and I look at my security logs to make sure. But how do we plan for Bad Things to happen when the gun ban falls through? Should we sit around, and pray the cops come quicker than the 5 minute average? I've had my car trashed before, had two friends of the criminal take their time, and walk away right past the cops who took 10 minutes to get to my call. Do I have faith that they'll be that much quicker when I call and say someone's held me up at gun point? Or that Someone's broken in and has a gun? Of course not! I'm not saying citizens should take the law into their own hands, just be given a chance to defend themselves until the cops can show up.

Deal with the Problem
For the sake of the argument, I'll say we have a completely 100% secure gun ban in effect in America. This won't stop violence, as Britain has shown us, there must be another cause. In the end, crime is a human (not social, humans created society, therefore its a human problem at its root) problem, and will be around as long as humanity is. What we, as a society and a race, need to do is recognize those human problems, and combat them, not the weapons used. When guns are banned, knives will be used. When knives are banned, shanks will be made (look at prison), when all sharp objects are eliminated from our society, ropes will be used to strangle (again, look at prison). There's no end to violence, the best we can hope to do is recognize what causes humans to become killers, and fix it.

The most obvious period, is during childhood. There's a recurring pattern of these school shootings where the kids doing the shooting were "outcasts" in their school, or were ridiculed, or bullied. Those are by no means reasons for murder, not even for retaliation! But, those killers should stand out to school counselors as people who need extra concern (not pills, actual human care), and stand out to the students as people who need their compassion. We're a society who wants to do away with moral and personal responsibility, when what we should be doing is recognizing that a successful society will care for each other.

Conclusion
In conclusion, I feel that the true control needed in our society, is that of controlling ourselves. Guns are regulated enough, we need to turn ourselves now to the people next to us in society, that man on the bus who's always looking sad, that driver who just cut you off, the quiet kid in your class that you all think is just a bit odd. Take it upon yourself to say hi, or not flick off the driver, or ask him to sit with you at lunch. Not because this may prevent a shooting, or a suicide, or an incident of road rage, just because they're humans too, and we all know the dark places a human mind can go to when depressed. I guarantee you, if we spent as much time and focus on helping those next to us in society (I don't mean hand outs, socialized health care, or any of that, I mean honest to goodness one citizen helping another kindness) then violence will go down in a way we'll never know through straight gun control.

The morning news had that Bugler image up this morning, and immediately the first two lines of the following poem popped into my head:

Blow, Bugler, Blow

Blow, Bugler, blow, let all hear you play,
The hope of our nation's enshrined in your lay.
The notes flow like tears poured out from your horn,
Splashing our souls and hearts, broken and torn.
Floating past candles held high in the sky,
Twinkling like stars who whisper "Good-bye."
Tonight there'll be pain, and tomorrow the same,
But during it all, we stand and proclaim:
"We are Hokies, America, as strong as they come,
From the siblings who visit to the oldest alum,
We know our potential, what we can become,
We'll always fight on, we'll never succumb!"
So blow, bugler, blow, let all hear you play,
The hope of our nation's enshrined in your lay.

ADMIN EDIT: Missed a line in there, had to add it.

Background
The controversy starts (ok, the immediate controversy in this issue) when the Jyllands-Posten, a Danish newspaper, published 12 cartoons depicting Muhammad about 2 and a half years ago. They were published when an artist writing about the life of Muhammad and the Qu'ran couldn't find an artist to draw the cover of his book (he would eventually find one who worked anonymously). I'll let the cultural editor for the newspaper explain why they were published in his own words (quote taken from wikipedia as the original article has disappeared from the paper's website):

The modern, secular society is rejected by some Muslims. They demand a special position, insisting on special consideration of their own religious feelings. It is incompatible with contemporary democracy and freedom of speech, where you must be ready to put up with insults, mockery and ridicule. It is certainly not always attractive and nice to look at, and it does not mean that religious feelings should be made fun of at any price, but that is of minor importance in the present context. [...] we are on our way to a slippery slope where no-one can tell how the self-censorship will end. That is why Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten has invited members of the Danish editorial cartoonists union to draw Muhammad as they see him. [...]

The fallout of article was three Dutch embassies being torched, over 100 deaths during riots in Middle Eastern Countries, and many terrorist leaders calling for his death. More riots broke out a few months ago when the cartoons were republished to show what the controversy was. So the Dutch already have a stigma of "Islamaphobia" hanging over their heads.

Geert Wilders/PVV
Geert is the author of this film, and a politician in the Dutch House of Representatives, where he is the leader of the Party for Freedom party. Contrary to the name of the party, this political party doesn't stand for individual freedoms, they stand for freedom from government. Unfortunately that doesn't just mean freedom from such things as socialized health care, they also want to abolish such things as minimum wage.

Of course at the same time of not wanting the government to be involved in individual's lives, they want crackdowns on immigration. Specifically they want to slow down immigration from Middle Eastern Countries. As for Middle Easterners that come to the Netherlands, the PVV wants them to realize that Judeo-Christian culture is predominant, and that the immigrants should adapt. And this from a party with "Freedom" in its name.

Geert himself, is interesting in that he calls himself a "defender of free speech" and "critic of Islam" in almost the same breath. Sure, being a critic fits in nicely with free speech, but his "critique" includes banning the Qu'ran. How can any politician who wants freedom of speech for his own writings take away the freedom of religion for 5.5% of his country's population?

Fitna, the Movie
And so it was that Fitna was born, brainchild of Geert. He hoped (initial rumors indicated) to show the world what was wrong with Islam. No one knew exactly how that would happen (though as the release date got closer, it was previewed by people who leaked the content), and I for one was quite interested. I was hoping for some good research into Shari'a Law and how it was being applied in Europe, as well as studies about extremism and its causes, to name two ideas for good movies.

The movie was supposed to launch around the 22nd/23rd, but Network Solutions (web host for fitnathemovie.com) took the site down hours before Geert was able to post the video. What remained was a small note saying they were investigating the content of the site to make sure it fit into their Acceptable Use Policy. The applicable section (in the list of prohibited uses) is as follows, emphasis mine:

Transmission, distribution, uploading, posting or storage of any material in violation of any applicable law or regulation is prohibited. This includes, without limitation, material protected by copyright, trademark, trade secret or other intellectual property right used without proper authorization, and material that is obscene, defamatory, libelous, unlawful, harassing, abusive, threatening, harmful, vulgar, constitutes an illegal threat, violates export control laws, hate propaganda, fraudulent material or fraudulent activity, invasive of privacy or publicity rights, profane, indecent or otherwise objectionable material of any kind or nature. You may not transmit, distribute, or store material that contains a virus, "Trojan Horse," corrupted data, or any software or information to promote or utilize software or any of Network Solutions services to deliver unsolicited e-mail. You further agree not to transmit any material that encourages conduct that could constitute a criminal offense, gives rise to civil liability or otherwise violates any applicable local, state, national or international law or regulation.

Now, I'm not a lawyer for Network Solutions, nor have I talked to one, but the parts I highlighted are the reasons I assume they're looking into the content. I'm sure they got complaints from Muslims that the site was hosting offensive material, more likely to be 'hate propaganda' than 'harassment'. (The movie also contains copyright violations, see below). Many sites get complaints, and I was quite upset at the time to see Network Solutions cave (hey, if I was posting offensive content, I wouldn't have chosen a US host when ThePirateBay is doing so well overseas) to this pressure thinking that they should take a stand for Freedom of Speech.

That is, until I finally saw the video. LiveLeak decided to have a backbone (Internet pun not intended) and host the film, with a note on the front page that they weren't endorsing the content, merely Freedom of Speech. I thought this was a good avenue to go down, especially with a mandatory click through agreeing you want to see offensive materials. Anyone who wanted the see what Geert had to say could, and those that might be offended couldn't accidentally stumble across it. (LiveLeak has since taken the movie down after receiving death threats. They apologized for not standing up for Freedom of Speech, but cite their employees well-being as coming first. I wholeheartedly agree).

Unfortunately what Geert had to say was, well, not much. It was somehow researched at a level below that of even a Michael Moore film, and was just as sensationalist, if not more so. The first 7 minutes is publicly available news footage (aka, no new insight) of various terrorist related activities, juxtaposed with 5 verses from the Qu'ran. Everything from Madrid, to September 11, 2001 in slow motion, to a video I originally mistook to be the Pearl beheading, instead it is Eugene Armstrong, another American in Iraq at the time. An extensive breakdown of the film's "plot" can be found here.

My reaction to this first section was two-fold. First off it, unfortunately, drudged up memories and feelings from those attacks which is clearly what it was designed to do. Second, it made me wonder just how dumb the supporters of this movie have to be to base this entire segment on 5 verses. No context is given for any of them, nor actual analysis other than how extremist Muslims have acted. I won't say that these verses are not used to justify terrorism, what I will say is that most Muslims do not view it as a call to terrorism. But to pull five verses, show these atrocities and leave the unspoken link that all Muslims will behave this way is just uncalled for. Its not journalism, and its not activism, its pure stupidity.

The next section is designed to show the 'threat' of Islam, with quotes of Islam taking over the world. Unfortunately for Geert, these quotes come from places we'd expect them, such as Iran's President and well-known anti-Semites. If he had clips of "domestic terror" defendants this section might have a lot more force.

Finally he had a section on Islam and the Netherlands. This was the "best researched" section, in that he pulled from a lot more news sources for his headlines. He attempts to show that if Shari'a Law is introduced into Europe, Gays and Women will lose a lot of rights, honor killings will start and basically all hell will break loose. He makes some decent points here, with the killer of Theo Van Gogh (another guy who made an anti-Islamic film, though his was a lot better) saying he'd kill him again if he could, and mentioning Ayaan Hrisi Ali. Unfortunately I can't speak for the situation of Islam in the Netherlands, so i have no idea if he's embellishing it, or finally presenting an accurate picture.

The closing seconds show a hand on a Qu'ran, then fade to black as you hear a ripping sound. This is controversial as (Muslim's believe) you shouldn't defile the Qu'ran by ripping pages out. Then a message floats up saying that it was actually a phone book, and that it was up to Muslims to rip out the hateful parts of the Qu'ran. This is the one part of the movie I agree with, and I'm not even in completel agreement here. It is on Muslims to get extremism under control, whether that be through the reforms Christianity did (remember, Islam is between the ages of the Crusades and Spanish Inquisition for Christian history) or through more rigorous policing of their imams and religions leaders I don't know. What I disagree with is that they must rewrite the Qu'ran to do so. To rewrite it would be to deny that the Qu'ran (as it is now) is the word of Allah, and introduce more "Satanic Verses". Instead, they should look at other meanings of jihad, meaning "To strive for", and listen to the moderates that have fled the Middle East.

Fallout
I actually had to stumble across a link to the movie the night it was released, because there was relatively no fallout. There was more news on Network Solutions taking down his other site than there was about Fitna coming out. I'll always remember a headline I saw the next day: "Dozens protest in Pakistan over Movie." Yes, you read that right, dozens, not hundreds, not thousands, dozens. And not a single death. In other words, Geert has failed to do what I think his goal was, incite more violence to convince the Netherlands Islam needs to be dealt with. If mobs had crowded the street, or if he'd been killed, his party could further its agenda and work towards banning the Qu'ran, but nothing happened. Muslims went to their prayers on Friday peacefully, realizing that to do anything violent would be playing into Geert's hands. Of course, there has been more protests since then in the Middle East and the Netherlands, and the Dutch Envoy in Iran has been summoned to speak for what happened, but even before the movie was release the Dutch government was smart and condemned the movie. While they weren't going to censor Free Speech, they were going to make sure that Muslims understand this is the work of one man, not a country, and not a nationality. Oh, if only Geert understood the same for extremists, that they don't speak for their religion or nationality as a whole.

As for additional fallout from the movie, Geert is being sued by Kurt Westergaard, the author of the cartoon depicting Muhammad in a turban with a bomb, for using the cartoon without his permission, a violation of copyright. He also might be sued by Salah Edin, an Arab rapper who Geert mistook for the killer of Van Gogh, Muhammad Bouyeri.

And, ironically, Omar Bakri, an Islamic extremist, actually liked the film, saying that if you removed the drawin of Muhammad with a bomb, it could be used as an Al-Qaida recruitment video. Geert's desire to show the horror of Islam might actually be used to recruit for Jihad, a fact which further supports my claim that he only released it to incite more attacks.

Conclusion
In the end, I support Geert's right to Free Speech. I applaud him for the bravery to stand up for what he believes in, even in the face of death threats, and I wish him well. However I think this movie is nothing more than sensationalist drivel, aimed at provoking more violence in the same way that Ann Coulter and Michael Moore throw barbs back and forth in our country. The only difference is that Moore targeted McDonald's and Geert singled out a religion with at least 1.1 billion followers (of which on 20% are in 'Arab' countries where most of the extremism is found). To release such a video that is entirely negative and clearly designed to provoke violence is reckless and wrong.

A great write up of how to clean this mess up can be found here.

To sum it up:

• Remove wp-includes/class-mail.php, its fake.
• Take out the lines hooking into the footer in wp-includes/default-filters.php
• Remove the line from the top of wp-includes/default-filters.php that accepts a file given a random GET variable.

The take away lesson here is: Even if you're not actively publishing on your blog, you better make sure your software is up to date. I've been busy with other stuff and neglected mine, unfortunately.

EDIT: I've done some poking. 194.110.162.23 is out of "Extended Host" in New York City. I'll refrain from scanning it, though I am darn tempted to see what back doors were opened on that box. As it is, I'll just email the host and inform them of the troubles.

The Beginning
I've had somewhat of a dislike for Kanye ever since the fateful Katrina Telethon. I won't bother to do any more than a brief recap (there's a link for you to get the full scoop). I'd note that if he stuck with his first deviation from the script, I'd have no problem with the statement (almost... but this post isn't about that debacle). Then he pulled out the line "George Bush doesn't care about black people." I'm not here to say Bush does or doesn't, but any man that would say that during a telethon for people without homes, take the airtime away to perpetuate racism isn't a real man in my book. He should have put his beef away to help the innocent bystanders in all this. Instead he decided to make news, AND THAT WASN'T THE FIRST TIME! Go google his comments during Live 8 in Philidelphia.

So for the past two years I've had a subtle grudge against Kanye, basically just considering him the way I would a kid I'm babysitting who decided to pitch a fit when I won't let him have ice cream: Ignore the tantrum, and write it off due to not being mature. I enjoyed some of his songs, the beats are catchy, but as for him, I just ignored him.

VMAs
Couple nights ago was the VMAs in Las Vegas. Kanye got stiffed and was given one of the concert suites, while other artists were given the main stage. Rather than look at all the other talented artists who got stuck in the suites (Foo Fighters, Timbaland, Fall Out Boys) he saw that *gasp* white people got to go own the main stage, leading to the comment: "That's two years in a row... give a black man a chance..." not give "me" a chance, or give "a talented artist", but a "black man". Why does he say black? Because he needs to feel hated, he needs to feel that this country is still racist. I'm not saying it isn't, I'm not saying its anywhere near perfect, but why is it he finds racism in everything? Might it be because he paints the picture that its there, and then people "realize" it?

Quick note. Racism is a big sticking point for me because the most offended I have ever been is when someone decided to call me a racist for telling him to clean up (with the rest of the group, who were white). "Its cause I'm black!" were the last words he said before I blew up at him and lost all respect. There was nothing I could do to combat that charge, I'm the white one and of course there's going to be "racism", regardless of the fact that white people were told to do the same thing. Long story short, people just finding racism really pisses me off. Sure it exists, but when its found in everything, you're really creating a more hostile racial atmosphere and exacerbating this country's race issues.

I could go on. I could talk more about his tantrums, and his little performance on TV tonight, but I think you get the idea. He uses the position he has somehow gained in our society to run his mouth against white people. Quite frankly, I find that just a little racist myself. Forget the fact that very talented African American artists (Rihanna for one, big fan right here) did win awards they deserved the other night, he was more concerned about not getting the main stage so he made it seem like MTV has it out against black people. At some point watching 106 & Park I finally got disgusted. This little kid is taking everything he's been given, and squandering it whining about his life and people being against him. Lets see how "hard" he has had it.

Kanye's Life
Ok, it starts out hard, with his parents divorcing at a young age. Oh, did I mention his parents are a Christian Counselor (maybe a photojounalist, not sure when the switch happened) and a Chair of the English Department at Chicago State University? He grew up in Oak lawn, Illinois. Maybe there was a lot of racism there, as it was 93% white, and barely over 1% African American, but seeing as its a decent Southwestern Chicago suburb, with only 4ish% poverty and a household income almost exactly the same as the average for all of America I'd assume it was a decent upbringing (his mother agrees with me). I'd say I had a great upbringing, and my hometown has double the poverty of his. His college "dropout" was from Chicago State University (where his mommy was teaching) in order to pursue his music career. It was entirely his decision, and came after attending a nice art academy.

Sounds like a hard life, huh? This is why he finds racism, so he has something to give him street cred when he has to go up against rappers who have lived the life, and actually escaped the ghetto, not an upper middle class upbringing with two parents and college. You'll notice in interviews and public appearances he likes to speak in Ebonics (or an Ebonic like grammar). I find that quite funny, seeing as he had a great education and is obviously dumbing his speech down to play up his image. Not saying he has to speak in Queen's English, but I had a hard time finding anything he's said in grammatically correct English, and I know he's a smart guy.

Quickly compare that to 50 Cent, who was born to a teenage cocaine dealer, dealt drugs himself, has been shot, has been stabbed, and now has made a career to get out of the ghetto and do something with his life. Can we say American dream? If I pulls myself half as far as 50 has I'll consider myself a huge success, funny I'd say that I want to be like the ex-dealer who only has a GED long before I'd ever want to look anything like the spoiled brat frm Chicago. After 106 & Park it was obvious to me what the difference was. 50 gets it, he knows the wonderful opportunity he's been given and is enjoying his life. Reading through what they've done in there life, there's a marked difference. 50 cleans up his act, learns things the hard way, and now aspires to do right by his life, and his son. Kanye wants to dive deeper into the streets, find people to hate, and needs that to feel good about himself (I'm not even touching his ego in this post).

Tell Kanye off with your wallet
By the end of the episode I knew what I had to do. I decided to pop over to the nearest store and grab 50's album. Its like voting. Sure out of 280ish million my one vote seems small. But its one more vote, and in this case, darn it, I'm going to cast it towards 50. I also called up some friends, let them into my plan, and they're running out to do the same. I wouldn't have bought either CD before watching TV tonight. But now I've bought it solely for the purpose of seeing 50's numbers become more than Kanye's. In the end, 50 deserves that recognition, and (maybe) the money. Kanye deserves to get exactly what he's accusing everyone of, conspiring against him. Hear that Kanye? I can tell you something, and that's that you need to act like a grown up, and use that education.

Examples
Some quick examples from Kanye's song "Can't tell me Nothin" that shows how he tries to be something he's not.

And What I do? Act more stupidly.
Bought More Jewelry, More Louis V, My momma couldn't get through to me.

Actually his mom was his manager, so obviously she was doing something right.

I ain't one of the Cosby’s I ain’t go to Hillman
I guess the money should've changed him,
I guess I should've forgot where I came From.

First off, his education is quite nicely juxtaposed with his pretend ignorance by using "ain't" in a line where he's saying he didn't have a good college. (Hillman being a fake college in the Cosby Show). I know Chicago State isn't Hillman, but its still nice. And it appears you have forgotten where you came from, trying to act ignorant when you have an English teacher for a mother, and a good educational background.

La,la,la,la wait till I get my money right
la, la, la, la then you cant tell me nothing right
Excuse Me, is you saying something?

Now tell me that doesn't remind you of the kindergarten playground when you were trying to ignore that annoying kid, stuck your fingers in your ears, and started singing "la la la". Man, what a great rapper... /sarcasm

EDIT: Apparently 50's CD is available at Walmart for only $10.30... on sale the day it's out, it doesn't get better than that!

The irony...
The irony is that Dell uses rebranded printers for their own. This means they take the other company's printer, make it look a bit different and only accept Dell ink. More to the point, my "A920" is a Lexmark X1150... basically the little brother of the printer I just bought. Yup, I got my "Dell" ink real cheap this year, and I'll never buy their ink again! Oh, and Lexmark ink is $20 a cartridge, but thanks to some places giving coupons in return for empty ink cartridges and refilling empty cartridges, this becomes much cheaper.

<18:00:53 nearbygamers>$ ls -al
...
-rw-r--r-- 1 snarky pg4xxxx 9548 Jul 15 17:42 facebook.php
-rwxr-xr-x 1 snarky pg4xxxx 23146 Jul 15 17:42 facebookapi_php5_restlib.php
-rw-rw-r-- 1 snarky pg4xxxx 0 Jul 15 17:42 functions.php
drwxrwxr-x 3 snarky pg4xxxx 4096 Jul 15 17:42 images
-rw-rw-r-- 1 snarky pg4xxxx 2154 Jul 15 17:42 index.php
...

The file was zeroed. And it happened, according to the timestamp, just 15 minutes before I got back to my computer. How or why that happened, I have no clue, and this shouldn't really matter except I had no version control. That's right, I once again decided that this project would be over before any catastrophes could happen. Man was I wrong. To say I freaked out would be an understatement, and finally I filed a ticket with my host, Dreamhost, pleading with them for any backups they might have. Literally within a minute I got a response which pointed to a page on their wiki about a wonderful (and secretive) backup system of theirs. After a little digging and a call to Harkins, I was able to pull a file out of thin air. During the time that I had waited before submitting the ticket I set up the SVN repo for this project, it took a whopping 2 minutes to create, move my files, check out in place, and do an initial import of all the other files. All that grief to save 2 minutes, I'll never make that mistake again.

Now, at this point I have to give major kudos to Dreamhost. Not only do they have the system in place to save my butt when its my fault and they don't owe me any help, but their crack support team was able to get back to me minutes after submitting my ticket, and I'm writing this just about half an hour after I submitted that ticket. I have my file back (minus maybe an hour or two) and my peace of mind to sleep tonight.

I've been a Dreamhost fan for a long time, they've got great servers for the sites I build, very decent uptime, and Shell access that I oh so love. This may just be the last in a series of events that made me love their service, but it is by far the most important, and telling about their service and their customer-oriented mindset in general.

Thanks Dreamhost, you've got a customer as long as you're in service!