Intensity Squared History Guide Joint Project Discussion

[midlifeaspie]

I'm confused by the reference to a "Jack hat" 

[odeon]

Actually you were doing what you always do, manipulating and shit-stirring, furthering your own agenda. The same with the Lucifer callout, ages ago, the same when you always attack me and others on your blacklist when given a chance. Don't make it sound like something altruistic, "providing further information", when it's not. It's in your MO to insinuate and to imply, and then to take a few steps back when your motives are questioned.

People can read for themselves, I guess.

I think it's amusing and telling that you're practicing pattern-spotting on me. What if I told you that you were right? Would you then start pattern-spotting the rest of this drama? Because that might actually be worth it to me.

I honestly was giving more information for the sake of information, because I was glad that Calavera was interested. That was one purpose though, and I usually have more than one.

I've come to expect a certain kind of post from you, actually, so yes, I think I'm right. Your confirmation might show some honesty in that respect but tbh, I'd be interested in knowing what your agenda was then.

This current drama is far from new, just a variation on a theme. I expect you to have spotted that theme.

[WolFish]

Wolf--how was the db sabotaged?

I don't know if it was the database or the forum software. I made notes about what I did but i can't remember. someone asked about the "Jack hat" so i will say that my brain works like that - no access to the Jack hat means i can't remember what that part of me did. bash at that as you will, it is what it is.

at any rate, what i remember is that i tried to log in to the site and it wasn't there. i went in and tried re-installing the forum software - it was the phpBB2 with no mods at all. the reason i did that is because the forums were still working, so i thought something had corrupted the software. reinstalling didn't work, so i started comparing the innards. i found something different in the nlands, so i changed it to what it was in the gestalt db - that worked.
i tried  same thing with the intensity db - it didn't work so i put up one with the database all cleared out. that worked but only for a little bit. when it went down again i could not figure out how to fix it. i sent copies of the db to bob and one other person (can't remember who) but they said the files were unreadable.

sometime in 2007, i think, i moved nlands to another server and it broke the way intensity had broken. by then i was seriously ill and nothing to do all day so i screwed around with it until i fixed it. i applied the same fix to the intensity database and it worked.
i had used some software to move nlands - it was called big something and claimed to be able to move your software all on its own - no need to zip and move the sql files yourself. it didn't work. so i tried moving each file separately - zipping each of the 30+ files and then unzipping them in the place where i had installed phpBB2. i think i installed a new db and then copied the old files over the new places. as you can see i still barely know what i am doing, much less talking about. remember my recent screwup of my home forum? i fixed that one by messing with things and copying what looked like it would work. i freely admit that with nlands and intensity i was in over my head. hazards of autistic gullibility, i suppose.

so i am guessing that in the case of intensity, both the settings and the sql files were messed with. only three people had access to the server - shima, hermit and me. in one case the files were changed, in another probably the settings. both required server access. 

the computer on which i did this stuff had an irrevocable crash so if the old files are anywhere they are archived on a disc - one would hope a CD, but again, i was pretty sick so who knows? i am fairly certain that the whole of the old intensity (the one that was fixed) still lives on my server. i just took it down, i didn't delete it. if you want i could send you the files.

[WolFish]

I'm confused by the reference to a "Jack hat" 

think of it as having a highly compartmentalized mind - compartmentalized to the point of disability. if the compartments are rooms, then some rooms get locked and i can't remember wtf i was thinking.

[midlifeaspie]

I'm confused by the reference to a "Jack hat" 

think of it as having a highly compartmentalized mind - compartmentalized to the point of disability. if the compartments are rooms, then some rooms get locked and i can't remember wtf i was thinking.

Nobody wants to bash, was just curious is all.   

[odeon]

Wolf--how was the db sabotaged?

I don't know if it was the database or the forum software. I made notes about what I did but i can't remember. someone asked about the "Jack hat" so i will say that my brain works like that - no access to the Jack hat means i can't remember what that part of me did. bash at that as you will, it is what it is.

at any rate, what i remember is that i tried to log in to the site and it wasn't there. i went in and tried re-installing the forum software - it was the phpBB2 with no mods at all. the reason i did that is because the forums were still working, so i thought something had corrupted the software. reinstalling didn't work, so i started comparing the innards. i found something different in the nlands, so i changed it to what it was in the gestalt db - that worked.
i tried  same thing with the intensity db - it didn't work so i put up one with the database all cleared out. that worked but only for a little bit. when it went down again i could not figure out how to fix it. i sent copies of the db to bob and one other person (can't remember who) but they said the files were unreadable.

sometime in 2007, i think, i moved nlands to another server and it broke the way intensity had broken. by then i was seriously ill and nothing to do all day so i screwed around with it until i fixed it. i applied the same fix to the intensity database and it worked.
i had used some software to move nlands - it was called big something and claimed to be able to move your software all on its own - no need to zip and move the sql files yourself. it didn't work. so i tried moving each file separately - zipping each of the 30+ files and then unzipping them in the place where i had installed phpBB2. i think i installed a new db and then copied the old files over the new places. as you can see i still barely know what i am doing, much less talking about. remember my recent screwup of my home forum? i fixed that one by messing with things and copying what looked like it would work. i freely admit that with nlands and intensity i was in over my head. hazards of autistic gullibility, i suppose.

so i am guessing that in the case of intensity, both the settings and the sql files were messed with. only three people had access to the server - shima, hermit and me. in one case the files were changed, in another probably the settings. both required server access. 

the computer on which i did this stuff had an irrevocable crash so if the old files are anywhere they are archived on a disc - one would hope a CD, but again, i was pretty sick so who knows? i am fairly certain that the whole of the old intensity (the one that was fixed) still lives on my server. i just took it down, i didn't delete it. if you want i could send you the files.

Sure, that would be good. If possible, maybe they could be set up here as a read-only? Want me to PM you with the details?

Thanks for the info, Wolf. Did you use the script they call bigdump, by any chance? I use a variation of it for backups.

BTW, something similar but not quite as bad happened here when we moved the site from Dunc's space to mine. The board started crashing regularly, which I'm sure people remember. Still not a hundred percent sure what happened but I've managed to put a stop to the crashes.

[WolFish]

bigdump sounds familiar.
i will look for the files - pretty sure they are still on the server; and send them.
i will pm when i find them. it will take a little while because i am pretty sick right now and that might require more tech than i have available at the moment.
could i just send the files and you could do what you want with them? afaik there is nothing hidden because everything was public.

[Calavera]

Thanks, WolFish.

Please review this bit with me.

So Intensity and Neurolands mysteriously went down. Then Neuroman managed to get both back up but didn't re-enable Intensity. This was when McJagger noted how he couldn't access the actual forum itself because he found that the setting for disabling the forum was checked. He didn't uncheck it but talked about it on Neurolands. And then when he tried to access the admin panel for Intensity the next time, he couldn't. Was this because you weren't pleased with him disclosing private information to the public so you disabled the admin access for him? Just making sure.

Why did you arrange that there be a debate between McJagger and Lucifer concerning Intensity? Was this while McJagger had no admin access to Intensity? And did the second time that Intensity went down occur after all these mentioned events? And was it shortly after?

Also, did the debate actually happen?

[Pyraxis]

I honestly was giving more information for the sake of information, because I was glad that Calavera was interested. That was one purpose though, and I usually have more than one.

I've come to expect a certain kind of post from you, actually, so yes, I think I'm right. Your confirmation might show some honesty in that respect but tbh, I'd be interested in knowing what your agenda was then.

Ok, lemme see. If I'm understanding right, you're talking about this post in particular.

At that point you had told Calavera you thought it was bad form to repeat what you thought was baseless accusation, and implied that it was me accusing Lucifer because I didn't like her. He edited his history post and asked if it was more objective now. You said it was.

I was pissed off and immediately read that as an attack, so priority one was to defend. I found evidence you were being biased - the fact that you wanted the accusation against Lucifer gone but didn't care about the one against Alex - and said it. The thing is, Odeon, that McJagger was the loudest person accusing Lucifer. Not me. You were being distracted by my callout of her, which happened more than a year later. Repeating the accusations is only a part of the history, to demonstrate the chaos and the feeling of the time. This isn't a technical manual, this is a community, and the sordid details interest people as well as the objective facts. I was fair in giving all three accusations - against Lucifer, against Nman and against the hacker group - but you were only concerned with the one against Lucifer. That shows bias on your part, not mine. If anything, my last-second jab at Alex is irrelevant spin doctoring (and yes it was intentional), but you still don't object to it.

I wanted to remove the pretense at objectivity from the picture. IMO it's far worse to strive for objectivity in matters of people, clearly fail, and then deny it endlessly as if by denying it you can make it so, than it is to acknowledge bias and compensate for it by allowing for a variety of perspectives. This thread gives a truer history than any amalgamation Calavera will be able to cobble together, and the source material gives an even truer one. But I know that some people will only bother with the shallow summary, hence my irritation.

Does that answer your question?

[Calavera]

Odeon said it was a baseless accusation. It's not fair to mention Lucifer as being suspect in a public history post if there's not one basis shown for such an accusation.

I removed that bit because he had a point about it. It's like saying that Calavera was accused of murder (when there's no basis for it) and mentioning it in a book about criminals and such.

Doesn't sound right. So I also removed the bit against Neuroman also.

However, I do agree that Odeon is biased for Lucifer, but that's what friendships are about basically.

[Pyraxis]

Odeon - dunno if it helps any, but I found these error messages on Nlands from when they were trying to fix the database.

here is the error message:

phpBB : Critical Error

Error doing DB query userdata row fetch

DEBUG MODE

SQL Error : 1016 Can't open file: 'phpbb_sessions.MYI'. (errno: 145)

SELECT u.*, s.* FROM phpbb_sessions s, phpbb_users u WHERE s.session_id = 'ba76fb8d64f158e6431ac0a038da7901' AND u.user_id = s.session_user_id

Line : 319
File : sessions.php

phpBB : Critical Error

Could not query database for theme info

DEBUG MODE

SQL Error : 1064 You have an error in your SQL syntax. Check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near '' at line 3

i got this after i did a backup and restore. now i can't do anything.
why did this work for the neurolands and not for intensity?

use some big swear words.
the reason it didn't work is because the files are all EMPTY.

i don't know if we even have the structure.
the only hope is that it was cached somewhere by google.

i was thinking we would rebuild by putting back the posts we could. now they are all gone.

i am hugely depressed.
i give up.
who the f--- is getting into my database?
is the neurolands next?

the db is empty?  Hm, I was just assuming it was a worm type thing, not a personal attack, but maybe, maybe it's worse than that.  Hm I shall look around a bit tonight.

so is there a way to salvage a damaged table in mysql?

if it's damaged in the database, as in, file errors, can't be read, then no.

But if it's just 'damaged' as in altered in such a way that phpBB can't read it, then you should be able to go through the table entries one by one and get the info out.

But it sounds like it may be a moot point anyway.

that is what the errors were. can't be read.
but what is mystifying is that only one file in the neurolands was corrupted and after i emptied it it worked fine. and as far as i can tell nothing is empty.
but looking at the other dbs, each has an error alert which i think/hope has more to do with being logged into more than one forum at a time.
intensity was the worst. i couldn't open sessions and there were problems with others like posts and post text.

now it is all gone. all the members, all the good stuff. i don't mind losing the bad, but i feel like someone took things into their own hands and did not leave us to fix it.

now we have to start all over. i would have preferred just to start with empty forums. but i think we lost all the registrations as well.

arg. i asked someone else and they said if someone had gotten into the db it is a pretty serious problem. i should have tried to back it up first thing when it went down.

so i am going to reinstall the forum and then see if i can do a restore of the structure.

but everyone will have to re-register.
arg.

i was able to get onto intensity yesterday.

i was only able to access the administration panel
while i was there, i noticed another person logged on as guest.
twice.

i did the trace and these are them.  the first one was there for a while that one originated in the UK.

the second one was probably only at the announcement screen,  they were there for a short time and they were from australia.

also i tried backing up the datatbase just as hermit suggested.  but it wont open.
it only took a few seconds to complete.

but i also did a backup, and did it as download later.

and it is still waiting.  dont know if these help.  but i am on lunch from work right now.

turned off "allow html".

turns out it's a vulerability.  Will explain tomorrow.  Not saying it's how they got in, just a potential risk that's better off minimized at the moment.  G'night all.

that is very interesting.
allow html should be turned off on all the forums. it is the way i set them up - yes for security reasons.

mcj, did you turn yours on? because if you didn't then you have a problem and not with the software.

The thread ends there.

[odeon]

bigdump sounds familiar.
i will look for the files - pretty sure they are still on the server; and send them.
i will pm when i find them. it will take a little while because i am pretty sick right now and that might require more tech than i have available at the moment.
could i just send the files and you could do what you want with them? afaik there is nothing hidden because everything was public.

Sure thing--thanks! Get better soon!

[odeon]

I honestly was giving more information for the sake of information, because I was glad that Calavera was interested. That was one purpose though, and I usually have more than one.

I've come to expect a certain kind of post from you, actually, so yes, I think I'm right. Your confirmation might show some honesty in that respect but tbh, I'd be interested in knowing what your agenda was then.

Ok, lemme see. If I'm understanding right, you're talking about this post in particular.

At that point you had told Calavera you thought it was bad form to repeat what you thought was baseless accusation, and implied that it was me accusing Lucifer because I didn't like her. He edited his history post and asked if it was more objective now. You said it was.

I was pissed off and immediately read that as an attack, so priority one was to defend. I found evidence you were being biased - the fact that you wanted the accusation against Lucifer gone but didn't care about the one against Alex - and said it. The thing is, Odeon, that McJagger was the loudest person accusing Lucifer. Not me. You were being distracted by my callout of her, which happened more than a year later. Repeating the accusations is only a part of the history, to demonstrate the chaos and the feeling of the time. This isn't a technical manual, this is a community, and the sordid details interest people as well as the objective facts. I was fair in giving all three accusations - against Lucifer, against Nman and against the hacker group - but you were only concerned with the one against Lucifer. That shows bias on your part, not mine. If anything, my last-second jab at Alex is irrelevant spin doctoring (and yes it was intentional), but you still don't object to it.

I wanted to remove the pretense at objectivity from the picture. IMO it's far worse to strive for objectivity in matters of people, clearly fail, and then deny it endlessly as if by denying it you can make it so, than it is to acknowledge bias and compensate for it by allowing for a variety of perspectives. This thread gives a truer history than any amalgamation Calavera will be able to cobble together, and the source material gives an even truer one. But I know that some people will only bother with the shallow summary, hence my irritation.

Does that answer your question?

Yes it does. Thanks.

I think you are right about perspectives--since there were a lot of ideas and theories about what happened, it might be a good idea to present them all. While I strongly disagree with the notion of Lucifer taking down the site (both because I know her well and think that would be completely against her MO, and because she isn't capable of that kind of sabotage, AFAIK), that one and any others are perhaps best served by simply listing them all.

I know Lucifer wouldn't care, really. She said as much back then.

I have not claimed I'm unbiased. You and I both have bias but in this case, I think I had less of an agenda than you if that makes any sense. But, I realised that I read your initial post here in that light and that coloured my reply. Then I was just pissed off.

It would be ironic to censor the often-repeated theories about what happened, considering what this site is.

[odeon]

Yes, they do help. Interesting.

Odeon - dunno if it helps any, but I found these error messages on Nlands from when they were trying to fix the database.

here is the error message:

phpBB : Critical Error

Error doing DB query userdata row fetch

DEBUG MODE

SQL Error : 1016 Can't open file: 'phpbb_sessions.MYI'. (errno: 145)

SELECT u.*, s.* FROM phpbb_sessions s, phpbb_users u WHERE s.session_id = 'ba76fb8d64f158e6431ac0a038da7901' AND u.user_id = s.session_user_id

Line : 319
File : sessions.php

This simply says that the database table is crashed (1016) and a repair has not been attempted (145). The table is the sessions table so if phpBB works in a similar way to SMF I'd just drop the sessions table and create an empty one.

The sessions table can normally be dropped without dire consequences. It's just info on currently logged-in people and that kind of stuff.

If there is a db dump from this state, I suspect it is possible to repair the thing.

phpBB : Critical Error

Could not query database for theme info

DEBUG MODE

SQL Error : 1064 You have an error in your SQL syntax. Check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near '' at line 3

i got this after i did a backup and restore. now i can't do anything.
why did this work for the neurolands and not for intensity?

I'd say that there were several versions of MySQL running in parallel (or mixed), which can be a bad thing. Could it have been an upgrade by the host?

use some big swear words.
the reason it didn't work is because the files are all EMPTY.

i don't know if we even have the structure.
the only hope is that it was cached somewhere by google.

i was thinking we would rebuild by putting back the posts we could. now they are all gone.

i am hugely depressed.
i give up.
who the f--- is getting into my database?
is the neurolands next?

the db is empty?  Hm, I was just assuming it was a worm type thing, not a personal attack, but maybe, maybe it's worse than that.  Hm I shall look around a bit tonight.

so is there a way to salvage a damaged table in mysql?

if it's damaged in the database, as in, file errors, can't be read, then no.

But if it's just 'damaged' as in altered in such a way that phpBB can't read it, then you should be able to go through the table entries one by one and get the info out.

But it sounds like it may be a moot point anyway.

that is what the errors were. can't be read.
but what is mystifying is that only one file in the neurolands was corrupted and after i emptied it it worked fine. and as far as i can tell nothing is empty.
but looking at the other dbs, each has an error alert which i think/hope has more to do with being logged into more than one forum at a time.
intensity was the worst. i couldn't open sessions and there were problems with others like posts and post text.

now it is all gone. all the members, all the good stuff. i don't mind losing the bad, but i feel like someone took things into their own hands and did not leave us to fix it.

now we have to start all over. i would have preferred just to start with empty forums. but i think we lost all the registrations as well.

arg. i asked someone else and they said if someone had gotten into the db it is a pretty serious problem. i should have tried to back it up first thing when it went down.

so i am going to reinstall the forum and then see if i can do a restore of the structure.

but everyone will have to re-register.
arg.

i was able to get onto intensity yesterday.

i was only able to access the administration panel
while i was there, i noticed another person logged on as guest.
twice.

i did the trace and these are them.  the first one was there for a while that one originated in the UK.

the second one was probably only at the announcement screen,  they were there for a short time and they were from australia.

also i tried backing up the datatbase just as hermit suggested.  but it wont open.
it only took a few seconds to complete.

but i also did a backup, and did it as download later.

and it is still waiting.  dont know if these help.  but i am on lunch from work right now.

turned off "allow html".

turns out it's a vulerability.  Will explain tomorrow.  Not saying it's how they got in, just a potential risk that's better off minimized at the moment.  G'night all.

that is very interesting.
allow html should be turned off on all the forums. it is the way i set them up - yes for security reasons.

mcj, did you turn yours on? because if you didn't then you have a problem and not with the software.

The thread ends there.

[Calavera]

Haven't forgotten about this thread. Just need time to recover from the out of the ordinary night out last night.