in reply to Re: Got Bored
in thread Got Bored


Rather than -- you, here's why i would...

First of all, please at least attempt constructive criticism. You could post that i suck all day, but it's not going to do me a bit of good until you tell me why -- since i'll have no idea what to improve upon. That is, if you're going to tell someone flat out they suck, please include pointers on how they can improve. Just posting an obfu is ok (if you're not rude about it), but pointing to this by gmax is better because it's a pre-written, well-written node displaying the construction of an obfuscation -- and laziness is a virtue ;)

Second, please don't assume that your way is a good starting point or in fact better than others -- whether it is or not. i know for a fact that i'm not very good at obfuscation compared to others, and for someone who's just starting it would make more sense to point them to someone better than me (for instance this or this or this which showed up in this thread recently).

Lastly, if you're going to post an alternate version, it's better to post it to your scratchpad and let the other person know as opposed to announcing it to the world. They can then learn from it for future posts, rather than being shamed away from posting obfu's again. It's probably still rude, but i don't think it's nearly as rude as what you posted.

Sorry to rant, but please play a little nicer.

/me gets off my soapbox...
jynx

Update: removed the link to my scratchpad since it's now defunct...

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Re: Re: Re: Got Bored
by domm (Chaplain) on May 31, 2002 at 08:07 UTC
    Sorry, I didn't meant to be rude. I didn't want to offend EmmittSmith. The pointers to the nodes you mentioned are all very good, but:

    As far as I know "Nettiquette" it is common use to inform yourself about the subject you want to discuss / have a question, before you post something to a mailinglist / forum. So EmmittSmith should have read (IMO) all those and other nodes you mentioned, before he posted his code, leading to his understanding what obfuscation is all about.

    First of all, please at least attempt constructive criticism. You could post that i suck all day, but it's not going to do me a bit of good until you tell me why -- since i'll have no idea what to improve upon.

    I wrote Got Bored, too, so that EmmittSmith can study it (de-obfuscation is the best way to learn about obfuscation). I msg'ed EmmittSmith that I'll be pleased to show him what I did and why I think his obfu isn't obfuscated. So I don't think that I just posted "You suck", as you sort of imply.

    It's probably still rude, but i don't think it's nearly as rude as what you posted.

    EmmittSmith asked to tell him what we think, and that's what I did. I think his obfu isn't obfuscated. I don't think it is rude to state something that probably most people would agree on. I don't even think it is rude to state something that most people won't agree on.

    It might have been rude not to add any links to nodes (like you did..), and to show off that I can do it better.

    Before I posted my first obfu here (my $japh='first';) I researched some other obfus and tried really hard to produce something interesting. If everybody would do this (not only on the subject of obfuscation, but on all subject), we would get a much better content-to-noise ratio.

    (Sidenote: About half of the posting to the mod_perl mailinglist (and I guess to most others..) are answered with "It's in the documentation" (aka RTFM). If only people would read before the post ...)

    /me gets off the soapbox, too 

    --
#!/usr/bin/perl -w just another perl hacker
print+seek(DATA,$=*.3,@-)?~~<DATA>:$:__DATA__
[reply]
      ... I meant to consider (as I have now done) its annoying child. I think this one is good.

      § George Sherston
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In Section Obfuscated Code