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“Also any proof of brains being arranged whatever you think they are does just point to your lack of scientific references.”
Buddy, you need to go to medical school, or take a United States medical licensing exam preparatory classes – this is taught as part of standard medical courses and you need to know it in order to pass the medical licensing exam.50% of intelligence is genetically inherited, the other 50% is brain development. Environmental influences (or lack thereof) are crucial at the brain development stage, but if one is borderline retarded or just at the cusp of normal intelligence quotient, becoming a scientist or an engineer will prove mighty difficult, if nigh impossible.The schools here are literally struggling to teach students, from elementary to university, and the kids just DON’T GET IT. They do not have the mental capacity. I did not believe it until I saw it for myself. In addition, the parents don’t apply themselves, and don’t push their kids, making the problem even worse. Welcome to the country of pickup trucks, sport utility vehicles, minivans, gasoline guzzling and eating and talking on the mobile phone while driving because people here are DUMB.Stereotypes exist because they are true.Look at North East Crackers (“NEC”): one of the most successful groups on the C=64, but it was not so, until a Hungarian immigrant came to the United States and made it so.“If the good schools are too expensive because their full revenues come from students and their parents, there will be no empowerment. Children of poor people will probably remain poor.”We have some of the best public schools in the world here, and unlike Europe, where teachers didn’t give a shit and made one “piss blood” (as we so lovingly referred to the ordeal), teachers here are doing their best and hardest to teach kids, way more than they do in Europe (and I am in a very good position to make that comparison, having gone to, AND CONQUERED the tortures of the European education system). The teachers here are really, really trying hard to teach our kids, but the kids just struggle. Smart kids do great here, better than great, our public schools in the United States give them the opportunities I certainly didn’t have while attending schooling in Europe, because in Europe, my teachers didn’t give a rat’s ass whether I did well or not. In fact, they made it a sport to try and trip us up and flunk us at every turn and opportunity. In the European education system, it was survival of the most intelligent. If I had not had the brains, I would have crashed and burned, and crashed and burned hard.So to counteract your claim: there are phenomenal education opportunities here, and our public schools are paid for by the taxpayers, just like they are in Europe, only more directly, we pay taxes to the school, rather than to the state treasury. If you are a really good student here, you will get high scores on the standard aptitude tests (“SAT”), and you can apply for, and are very likely to get scholarships. I know this, because I did exactly that. As an honor roll student, I had scholarships pay for good part of my tuition. Just for having good grades!Again, the problem is not our education system which is excellent, the problem is dumb kids and even dumber parents. Kids would be at least partially salvageable if the parents weren’t such dumbasses. And that, my friend, is directly tied to their lack of education, which is in turn directly tied to their low intelligence quotient:one does not know what do to because one does not know enough about anything, and one does not know enough because one is not capable of learning it.There are some very smart people in the United States, but most of the population is about as intelligent as a door nail. One of the reasons why the U.S. is in such a bad shape right now is that the plan was to outsource all the manufacturing, while the rest of us did the research and engineering, except… that did not materialize, as even those who could afford to go to college were simply too lazy and dumb to major in science and engineering… Ergo, now there is tremendous need for scientists, doctors and engineers, and nobody to fill those jobs… most of the population is only capable of basic menial work, and now that the manufacturing jobs are gone, the whole country is in a very bad shape…
I have studied this for many years. In the United States, the problem is in large part genetic. IQ is in large part inherited from parents; the other major factor is upbringing. Both are problematic, leading to the situation where the few who are either smart and educated, or completely corrupt command high paying jobs, while the rest barely scrape by. One acute symptom of this is that people are working 40+ hours per week, and still have to supplement their income with food stamps. Low IQ -> inability to major in science or engineering -> poor marketability -> low standard of living. And from experience, when you have existential problems, you are not likely to pursue intellectual subjects.Added 6 minutes later:
“Norway has a population of 5 Million individuals, while Italy has a population of roughly 60 Million. Now let’s count the number and quality of demos released in these two countries. Mmmh… no, it doesn’t match.”
I dispute that: Norway produced A.C.E. on the C=64, they had the famous Razor 1911 and Agile branches, they have Andromeda, they developed their own processor (the name of which I cannot remember right now)… for such a small country, those are tremendous achievements. And further proof of their brains is that they arranged for themselves a government and a country which provides them with close to the highest standard of living on the planet.#1277 WayneK:
For some reason Germany seems to have the “early adopters” technical hardcore… On Amiga HQC and many others, on the Atari ST you had The Exceptions (TEX) … I wonder what it is about .de that causes this – are there just more strange/wierd people in Germany than anywhere else?
Probably their education system, and their rigid mentality and discipline. Also lots of smart people in Germany, and by sheer number, if you have a country of 80 million people, statistics say your chances of having more smart & talented people are going to be higher. Germany does, if I am not mistaken, have the highest single country population on the continent.
#3200 n00w:
Annatar:
Edit: funny handle you have here. I bet you already know this and the rest also ..
What do you mean by “funny handle”?
2. I bet you were in a country where they didn’t care at all, or at least they didn’t while you were using this.
I was in a country where Blueboxing came late – like thirty years late. We used Soundblaster cards inside of PC-buckets and some DOS-based software to generate the frequencies… our country went through MCI in Canada, actually it hit a satellite and we nabbed that trunk.
We spent some time on Accession and PRESTiGE boards, but this all came way, way too late. It was the sunset of an era. Most BBS’es were shutting down and things were moving to FTP servers on the Internet. Commodore was already in liquidation, but we, being isolated and behind-the-times didn’t know it.
Rapid catch-up will come by getting exposed to Sun equipment and Solaris, but that was the beginning of a new era. On UNIX, it was not necessary to crack protections because that was not a consumer world. It was a high-end world.
3. Today. Well today is another story. Free unlimited calls to 40+ countries through fixed lines/VoIP have been common offers by phone companies for years. Otherwise use Skype, Google Talk or whatever. Today is another story for software too, so your pro-open source rants are funny reading (the more so as they are now a bit dated with cloud applications, pay-per-use, etc.). And what about the corporate software like ERP, CRM, whatever? Again, funny reading, completely out of the subject.
What about corporate software? That is high-end software, if one wants to play in that space, sooner or later one has to register one’s own company and go legit. Once one goes legit, it’s either pay for licenses, or invest time & effort and build everything yourself with free & open source software.
Some software is so specialized and requires such high level of knowledge (like a masters or doctorate) that even when cracked is unusable or so niche that even with cracked copies floating around, they don’t make a dent in the software company’s bottom line. I worked for a few of those companies, so I know first hand.
Edit: the network is the computer was already buzz at the end of the 90’s. Today ubiquitous/pervasive computing is where we stand. We could discuss somewhere about what will come next. Interesting discussions.
It was the buzz, but most people didn’t get it. Now when everything is fully networked, people finally get it, like 30 years later. And now when they get it, nobody wants a PC-bucket on their desk any more, except for the likes of us. The ordinary consumer is done, done, done with desktop computers. Done with that type of software. Done installing crap. All the ordinary consumer has to do is fire up a web browser, and the entire network becomes a throve of free applications, no OS needed. The network is the OS platform, the web browser machine of execution.
Ok that’s life, we can say that we do not care, or we can endorse responsibilities for our deeds. Also we could have dealt drugs, or trafficked human beings, which would have been far worse. We didn’t do that, so let’s keep it in the right proportions.
They “come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.”
Who?
#2999 -TCB!-: plenty of “ways to communicate” (i.e. bluebox for the Germans and a steady calling card supply from Killerette & Phonestud)
Wait wait, what? Who are “Killarette” and “Phonestud” now? Never heard of ’em!
And why did they need calling cards in the first place? Blueboxing in Europe was pioneered by Agile on the C= 64, and Razor 1911 continued in that vein… why didn’t these guys use Blue boxes?
Towards the end of the Golden Era, we used PC-buckets with DOS and SoundBlaster to BlueBox our way into Zion’s hideout, so why were these guys so dependent on calling cards?
And what about today? Telecommunications are cheap and abudant, and although the Shop watches tirelessly like the Eye of Sauron, there are still ways to encrypt. There used to be secret “tier 1” FTP sites in the past, I personally never considered them safe, but the more intriguing question for me is, how does the whole thing work today?
(Personal confession: I am too lazy and/or wary to search for cracks, and I buy the originals since I can afford them now, and I’m too scared of malware being embedded in cracks. I do have a guilty conscience every time I buy an original though, like I am betraying my heritage.)
PS: You forgot the period where Fairlight was pretty much putting out every single release 🙂
In my experience: yes, there was a period where Fairlight put out lots of releases on Amiga, but it was very brief. Again, this is an experience of someone who was forced to live in isolation not of one’s own volition, and did not have the same resources as these guys did.
Added 10 minutes later:
#3002 -TCB!-:
I think all in all, GOD lasted a good 3 years and I have very fond memories of those times. There is not a single MBA-program that can prep you for corporate life as being a group organizer for a little while:
– You need to attract the right talent/skills and retain them
– You need to coordinate all activities and drive for results
– You need to compete in an ultra-competitive environment
– You need operating income to cover expenses
– You need a distribution model and need to overcome logistical challenges
– You need branding/marketing/image/PR
– You need quality assuranceBah, most people end up getting MBA’s just to move up the corporate ladder. I never went because after being in management, I realized that being a fat cat was against my core principles: I could never be corrupt and I despised the fact that the rest of the managers were incompetent douchebags playing “bullshit bingo”, and that being competent I was considered a threat.
Once I realized it is a rat race, and that I would have to become the equivalent of an emotional whore, I ditched the whole thing, even though it paid shitloads of money. I could not be a slime like they were.
Running a cracking group is an order of magnitude better experience than being a manager in a soul crushing corporation. Take my advice, do not go into management unless you have the power to fire all the fucking bullshitters playing “Bullshit bingo”. They are fucking worse than the mafia, because these assholes have found a way to rob, cheat, steal and lie to one’s face without going to jail. (Smart, but terribly short-sighted, and very detrimental to humanity in the long term.)
Added 30 minutes later:
“Still, I recognize that as one of them, I’ve committed bad deeds with the consequences I’ve measured, so I’ve done a lot since then, and I will continue to support actively the fight against counterfeiting and piracy, in collaborating with governments, law enforcement and of course, with the right holders themselves.”
The whole “us versus them” is completely and utterly obsolete. There is no money in software, unless it is highly specialized software for running large corporations, which requires deep technical exprtise in Information Technology or computer science, or highly specialized software, requiring a Masters or a Ph.D. degree. Such software is usually completely useless to the general consumer and/or public; even if they had a crack, of, say EMC Networker or HP-UX MirrorDisk-UX, what would Joe User do with it? A backup tape library could easily run into a million Euros, sometimes more, and no Joe Blow has the necessary expertise or the money to buy an expensive HP-UX Itanium machine, just to be able to run MirrorDisk-UX……what you are writing is the world of games and generic applications, general consumer-grade software, which is being made obsolete by the free and open source movement. And even then, who runs software on their computer any more? The world is moving towards servers running applications and delivering the content to the web browsers:“The network is the computer”Finally.Recognize that anti-piracy, in spite of pirates still generating some profit, is a dead-end because piracy itself will become obsolete. Free and open source software on free and open source operating system platforms is killing it. And there is no turning back. It is quite a waste of time to preoccupy oneself with stopping something which is going to die anyway because it has already become obsolete.The writing is on the wall. See it! Read it! Realize it.#3059 n00w:
Please be more specific than “tell us more”, it’s just too vague!
OK, how did these cracking groups pay for the hardware? Where was Quartex headquartered, and how is it that after 1993. it just up and disappeared?
What started happening to PaRaDoX after 1993.?
Why does Mouscron 1 and Amay show up consistently in a lot of cracks, what was magical about those two locations, and please let us get to know the people behind them – as people. Who were they? Where are they now?
Did you know anyone from Skid Row? What happened to Skid Row? They also resurfaced a year or two ago on the PC, in what seemed like a powerful demonstration that a true cracker will always crack on any platform. Then it seems like to me, that they suddenly disappeared again. Why, and what happened?
Added 5 minutes later:
I am also fascinated by the fact that most, if not all of the titles by SSI were cracked by Skid Row. What is the connection? How did it work?
Which tools did the likes of PaRaDoX, Skid Row, Crystal an PRESTiGE use? What kind of hardware did they have?Why did PRESTiGE suddenly disappear in 1996? Is my suspicion that some of the Skid Row members like Blackhawk and AVH, joined PRESTiGE?What happened to Hellion and Corsair?Who WERE the people behind Betrayal?What about Anthrox? Were they U.K. based?So many questions, so very few answers… I would really, really love to know how many of these people went into a legitimate career in computers? Where are they now? What are they doing today?Thank you for that explanation. It makes it easier to get into everyone’s heads back then; while I understand where they’re coming from, after many, many years of thinking about it, I came to the conclusion that I still don’t agree with their logic.
Had I had my own BBS and had the storage resources to run it, I would have collected every working crack from every group for completeness; then again, my way of thinking has always been 180 degrees opposite of “crowd think”, “accepted norm”, “general wisdom”, etcetera.
And if they nuked my releases… back then, I would have cared. Now, I think anyone who still knows how to crack anything is a very rare breed, and anyone who nukes their work is not very bright… tradition or no. Times have changed.
Subzero, don’t you worry one bit. You just write it up, and hell yeah, I’ll translate it.
Added 3 minutes later:
“some of you may remember it, I think it was called Sensible
Soccer”I got that thing in the original box sitting downstairs in the basement. Got it with the A1200 I bought from the UK. Never opened or bothered to look at it. I also have “Rise of the Robots” in the original box sitting next to me, I think we fired it up twice. Got some other originals too, I’m thinking of putting them up for sale on ebay.
To me, the cracked versions I grew up with are better than the originals themselves. Even if I had had the original back then, just like now, I wouldn’t know what to do with it.
Added 10 minutes later:
“#2992 WayneK:
So in the spirit of all these old ‘scene stories’, I thought I would contribute one from 1992.We eventually get hold of the Canadian cracker when he gets home, and he
agrees to upload his working version on his state of the art 2400 baud
modem – about 5 minutes from the end of disk 2 being finished, Crack Inc
release a fix for their version!”That’s one thing I still don’t understand to this day: who gives a shit who’s first. The only things that should matter are
a) hey, look at this! These guys can really crack!
b) the crack is 100% or better than the original.
Everything else, who was first, this, that, and the other — whatever! I appreciate a crack for the cracking skill of the crack, for the slickness of the intro, for the good cracker or crackers and for the polish of the intro and the whole release, for the attention to detail of the whole group.
That’s what should really matter, and that’s what I admire when I look at the finished product and enjoy the game, and think of all the guys who had to all come and work together as a group to get it working and get it out there.
Added 5 minutes later:
I guess what I’m trying to say is that I wouldn’t have really cared what others thought: if so much time and energy was spent into cracking it, I would have released it. And if someone thinks less of me and my group for that, they can go “shove it where the Sun don’t shine”, as the saying goes.
# Loki :Dafuer gibts mind. 3 Wochen Buechereiverbot
Was fuer ein Verbot ist das? Ich kenne es nicht…
You can write as best you can in English, and I will work with you to do the editing and proofing,
or
you can write in German, and I will translate into English.
Let scene history live, let us treasure the traditions and memories.
HISTORIA EST MAGISTRA VITAE
"history is the teacher of life"Hello Subzero,
How about writing a series of recollection essays on the topic of Skid Row?
I would love to also read about PaRaDoX, Quartex, Anthrox, PRESTiGE, Crystal and especially Betrayal, so if there is anyone that used to be in those groups back in the day, it would be awesome if you could take us (or me at least!) on a "behind the scenes" whirlwind tour of the past.
Twice the fun – double the trouble
THE LEADING FORCEI love Skid Row. They inspired me to learn coding on the Amiga. I don’t think any group on the Amiga besides Skid Row and PaRaDoX had that much influence on my desire to better myself through learning.
And in the end, I think inspiring others is an even greater achievement than being the #1 cracking group. Motivating others I think is one of the greatest achievements anyone can accomplish, because that is so hard to do, and they did it inherently, naturally. I am still amazed at that, 21 years later.
Annatar;
Skid Row messed up Shock Wave and for sure others too. Hardly any group did ALL 100%Edit:
They also messed up The Spy Who Loved Me, which I really don’t understand, not very complicated.
Shock Wave is more understandable.I’ve never seen those games, because they would not be the types of games I cared for. All the SSI games I ever played from them, Street Rod etc. were working perfectly.
Especially impressive to me was the crack on Eye of the Beholder, considering that was one of the first games that had a protection nested deeply in the code which wouldn’t show up until one was three levels down in the sewers… and they made it work. Subzero-Selim-Rudi were always working overtime, they were the ones that earned Skid Row the reputation that they never sleep because they were churning out cracks faster than anyone else. Nobody could compete with them. And that in and of itself is impressive, not to mention quality releases.Look at the Skid Row guys for instance. They plain sucked (really). But still they’ve set a low standard (like china does in our days) so to stay into competition, other groups lowered down quality of their releases.
Dude, I loved reading your recollection, but now you’re starting to seriously piss me off.
I have NEVER seen a Skid Row crack that did not work, or that was not a high quality release. Ever. And believe you me, I have played pretty much all of their releases. Skid Row was #1 until they vanished. Nobody could beat them when they were active.It is said that Skid Rowdies must not have slept and were working in shifts, because Skid Row was churning out so many releases so fast. And I’ve played any and all releases I had from them to completion, and am happy to report that they all worked!
DISCLAIMER: I was not, nor am I now, nor have I ever been affiliated with Skid Row in any way.
