Pak decided he wasn’t being malicious, not out to hurt any one, just spice up their lives a bit. And she didn’t disapprove. For tonight she wasn’t head of IT and a mature responsible adult… vampire… tonight she was playing damned it.
“Half an hour? You’re buying the popcorn and we’re probably missing the previews.”
This could be a lot easier if she had her own gear, but it could be done.
“I can get the IPs.”
Cool confidence, was all; she was already mapping out plans and alternate plans, she did have more than a little experience with networking after all. Time to put plans into action. Pak settled herself at a computer and let her fingers start flying. Once in a while she’d mutter a Siamese profanity under her breath as something didn’t go right and now and then she’d look at the clock, she hated getting to the movies late.
Double checking things, Pak decided she was done and looked up.
“Not necessarily my best work, might have missed one or two but I am working under a time limit here. What have you got?”
Trolling (open)
An internet cafe was a little predictable, but Tobi thought it would suffice for tonight's activities. He needed to be identified as a local, but anonymous. Accessible, yet just out of reach – that unmemorable face that slips out just as you slip in.
Ah yes – tonight, he was a troll.
He had already decided that he would never use Cypher here – too risky, even with his IP masking utility. No, it would be strictly throw-away ids, though few enough of those had been compromised that he could get away with some pretty established handles.
Courtesy dictated that before you used the free wifi, you bought a cup of coffee. If you were using one of the provided pay as you go terminals, you could forgo the obligatory purchase, but otherwise, there was just a way things were done. Tobi had always thought courtesy was for other people, though, and simply plopped down in one of the center tables and opened up his laptop bag, ready to begin a night of stirring up trouble on the forums.
Pakpao
16 years ago
Tobi Emiliano
16 years ago
Tobi gave an agreeable shrug at Pakpao's demand of popcorn payment, quite happy to comply. He was well aware of his pushover tendencies but if a hotchick telling you what to do was wrong, he didn't want to be right.
Pakpao wanted the IPs - and she was off to the races! Tobi watched her retreat to a desktop before nodding himself out of his temporary stupor and getting his act together. Navigating to his ftp, he pulled down an old program he'd written to use as a base and began making the necessary tweaks. A timer so that the error messages would appear only after they were long gone, a randomizer so there would be no rhyme or reason to which computer got the pop ups, and of course a loop of funny error messages. Every once in a while he would stop and give the screen a blank stare while he worked something out, and more than once his eyes strayed Pakpao's way. He made a mental note to ask her to teach him how to swear in...well, not-Chinese.
He was working on the wording of the messages, everything else being basically finished, when Pakpao asked what he had. Turning his laptop toward her, he laid it out.
"The IPs go here - this down here just bounces things around, makes it take a little longer to figure out that the messages are coming from inside the network. Uh...here's the messages - they go in a loop, didn't really have time to do forks or anything like that."
Leaning back to let her put in the IPs, he rubbed at his chin and tried to think if there was anything he'd forgotten. Of course the documentation was crap - he'd never been good about commenting things up and that was the first thing to go when he was in a hurry.
"Any ideas for errors? Couldn't hurt to make the loop a little longer."
So far he had a nice train going. Windows has detected a critical error (1337). File not found - please check your disk space and retry. User error 5001 - please replace your user and retry. Windows cannot print your request at this time. Please reboot your screen and retry. And so on.
"And I guess we should do a quick test before we go, make sure it works. You were able to ping the IPs?"
Pakpao wanted the IPs - and she was off to the races! Tobi watched her retreat to a desktop before nodding himself out of his temporary stupor and getting his act together. Navigating to his ftp, he pulled down an old program he'd written to use as a base and began making the necessary tweaks. A timer so that the error messages would appear only after they were long gone, a randomizer so there would be no rhyme or reason to which computer got the pop ups, and of course a loop of funny error messages. Every once in a while he would stop and give the screen a blank stare while he worked something out, and more than once his eyes strayed Pakpao's way. He made a mental note to ask her to teach him how to swear in...well, not-Chinese.
He was working on the wording of the messages, everything else being basically finished, when Pakpao asked what he had. Turning his laptop toward her, he laid it out.
"The IPs go here - this down here just bounces things around, makes it take a little longer to figure out that the messages are coming from inside the network. Uh...here's the messages - they go in a loop, didn't really have time to do forks or anything like that."
Leaning back to let her put in the IPs, he rubbed at his chin and tried to think if there was anything he'd forgotten. Of course the documentation was crap - he'd never been good about commenting things up and that was the first thing to go when he was in a hurry.
"Any ideas for errors? Couldn't hurt to make the loop a little longer."
So far he had a nice train going. Windows has detected a critical error (1337). File not found - please check your disk space and retry. User error 5001 - please replace your user and retry. Windows cannot print your request at this time. Please reboot your screen and retry. And so on.
"And I guess we should do a quick test before we go, make sure it works. You were able to ping the IPs?"
Pakpao
16 years ago
“Insert tab A into slot B?”
It was rhetorical, but she said it anyway as she added the IPs where he’d indicated.
She was reasonably impressed with the work he’d done in so short of time. Granted she wasn’t blown out of the water, but it wasn’t bad, not bad at all. Undoubtedly this wasn’t his first attempt at something like this.
“Do you –really- think he’s” she jerked her head toward the one lone attendant/cashier type is going to notice or even care?”
When asked for additional error messages a mischievous smile took up residence on her face. She opened up a new internet window and a quick Google search provided her with a lovely list of error messages. She’d been sent a list of haiku error messages once, as a joke, and they seemed perfect for this little game and fortunately the internet provided all. Besides, it would be no fun at all if every thing –sounded- like windows. Especially given her loathing for the system and the company.
“Too much? I particularly like the one about the blue screen of death and no one hears you scream.”
She nodded, she’d been able to ping the IPs so she didn’t think there would be a problem with them. Another nod at his suggestion that they test it.
“You’re the mastermind, the honor is yours.”
It was rhetorical, but she said it anyway as she added the IPs where he’d indicated.
She was reasonably impressed with the work he’d done in so short of time. Granted she wasn’t blown out of the water, but it wasn’t bad, not bad at all. Undoubtedly this wasn’t his first attempt at something like this.
“Do you –really- think he’s” she jerked her head toward the one lone attendant/cashier type is going to notice or even care?”
When asked for additional error messages a mischievous smile took up residence on her face. She opened up a new internet window and a quick Google search provided her with a lovely list of error messages. She’d been sent a list of haiku error messages once, as a joke, and they seemed perfect for this little game and fortunately the internet provided all. Besides, it would be no fun at all if every thing –sounded- like windows. Especially given her loathing for the system and the company.
“Too much? I particularly like the one about the blue screen of death and no one hears you scream.”
She nodded, she’d been able to ping the IPs so she didn’t think there would be a problem with them. Another nod at his suggestion that they test it.
“You’re the mastermind, the honor is yours.”
Tobi Emiliano
16 years ago
Tobi chuckled and gave Pakpao some space, cleaning up the few brownie crumbs left on the table. Because yeah, they were about to make every computer in here spaz out, but god forbid they leave a mess behind.
Her question gave him pause - it would kind of suck if they went through all this trouble (a whole 10 minutes of work, oh no!) only to have their target totally ignore them. Deciding to screw it and hope for the best, he shrugged. "Someone'll complain."
Skimming the page Pakpao pulled up, he gave a little grin and rubbed his hands together. "Eeeexcellent," he Mr.Burnsed as he took over to put in the much more clever error messages. "Nono, not too much - it's just the right amount of frustratingly cryptic." Tobi found most poetry frustrating and cryptic, actually, but he'd get into using Beowulf in a prank some other time - or not. "Windows is like that - heh." Some of the messages might come off as dated, but what the hell? The funny held, it was all good. "I should use some of these at work - that'd go over well."
Saving the file, he made a simplified copy that sped up the timer for instant results. His fingers flew over the keyboard and he actually looked like he was concentrating - the idea of being a 'mastermind' was only a little distracting. "Okee, and we are good...to...go," he announced with an emphatic click. In a Babe-Ruthesque gesture, he pointed at the targeted desktop. When the screen saver broke and revealed the error message, the pointing finger turned to a gun, which he pointed to the ceiling with a whispered 'pow'.
"Works," he unnecessarily announced before quickly disabling the test and putting up the real file in its place. In another minute his laptop was closed and stowed and he was ready to go.
"Shall we?"
Her question gave him pause - it would kind of suck if they went through all this trouble (a whole 10 minutes of work, oh no!) only to have their target totally ignore them. Deciding to screw it and hope for the best, he shrugged. "Someone'll complain."
Skimming the page Pakpao pulled up, he gave a little grin and rubbed his hands together. "Eeeexcellent," he Mr.Burnsed as he took over to put in the much more clever error messages. "Nono, not too much - it's just the right amount of frustratingly cryptic." Tobi found most poetry frustrating and cryptic, actually, but he'd get into using Beowulf in a prank some other time - or not. "Windows is like that - heh." Some of the messages might come off as dated, but what the hell? The funny held, it was all good. "I should use some of these at work - that'd go over well."
Saving the file, he made a simplified copy that sped up the timer for instant results. His fingers flew over the keyboard and he actually looked like he was concentrating - the idea of being a 'mastermind' was only a little distracting. "Okee, and we are good...to...go," he announced with an emphatic click. In a Babe-Ruthesque gesture, he pointed at the targeted desktop. When the screen saver broke and revealed the error message, the pointing finger turned to a gun, which he pointed to the ceiling with a whispered 'pow'.
"Works," he unnecessarily announced before quickly disabling the test and putting up the real file in its place. In another minute his laptop was closed and stowed and he was ready to go.
"Shall we?"
Pakpao
16 years ago
At work? Pak briefly quirked an eyebrow; he looked to be 18 or so. How much work could he have to do? Although he could be tech support somewhere… ok he could have just about any job, it was just he seemed so… so… young. But then she was a bit biased in that regard.
And he just reinforced how young he was. Still it made Pak giggle a bit.
“Of course it works.”
She had talked herself into a date hadn’t she? Well at least she was getting a flick and some popcorn out of it. Popcorn with lots and lots of butter, and maybe some garlic stuff, if the had it.
Standing she nodded decisively.
“We shall.”
Standing Pak was ready to go. She’d not brought a lot in with her so she certainly didn’t have a lot to take out with her. She did, however, have one question.
“Close enough to walk or shall I drive?”
She hadn’t thought to look at what theater he’d picked. It couldn’t be too far though.
And he just reinforced how young he was. Still it made Pak giggle a bit.
“Of course it works.”
She had talked herself into a date hadn’t she? Well at least she was getting a flick and some popcorn out of it. Popcorn with lots and lots of butter, and maybe some garlic stuff, if the had it.
Standing she nodded decisively.
“We shall.”
Standing Pak was ready to go. She’d not brought a lot in with her so she certainly didn’t have a lot to take out with her. She did, however, have one question.
“Close enough to walk or shall I drive?”
She hadn’t thought to look at what theater he’d picked. It couldn’t be too far though.