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from the MSN-Messenger-aimed-at-AIM-met-a-meta-message dept.
Adam Ferris, a programmer from Microsoft, wrote this essay on tactics that Microsoft and AOL used to force users to use their chat service and keep them:
martyb adds:Some protocols, like HTTP and TCP/IP, are public, documented, and spoken by everyone, but some are private/proprietary and undocumented. AIM's protocol, known as OSCAR (for Open System for CommunicAtion in Realtime), was in the latter group. I didn't have the "key" to decode it. But what my boss and I could do was sign up for an AIM account and then watch the communications between the AIM client and the server using a network monitor, a development tool used to track network communications in and out of a computer. That way we could see the protocol that AIM was using to send the messages.
Much of the message was opaque, but in the middle was one of my text messages. "Hi... Anybody?" I would write into my AIM chat box and press return, and then on my network trace I would see my "Hi... Anybody?" Some of the protocol was always changing, but some was always the same. Our client [MSN Messenger] took the surrounding boilerplate and packaged up text messages in it, then sent it to the AOL servers. Did AOL notice that there were some odd messages heading their way from Redmond? Probably not. They had a hundred million users, and after all I was using their own protocol.
The linked story is kind of dry reading, but it does lead to a good discussion topic. Have you ever been involved in a similar situation? Have you ever tried to get your system to work with some else's system while they were actively trying to thwart your efforts? What challenges did you face? How did you get it to work? What was your greatest hack?
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Friday April 25 2014, @12:52PM
No, AOL named a server that too. Nothing to do with the protocol (yes, I'm old enough to remember such things). And they had another Muppet name in their stable as well, tho I've forgotten which.
Back then my email arrived in the raw state via the BBS, so I routinely got to see all the server names and routings and whatnot. And I noticed lots of outfits had thematically named servers. For bonus points, name the ISP that named 'em after birds. :)
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by NCommander on Friday April 25 2014, @01:09PM
I'm unfamiliar with any puppet names w.r.t AIM, though I know the AOL software used the RAINMAN protocol. Incidently, we use an elemental naming scheme; neon just came online the other night.
Still always moving
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Friday April 25 2014, @01:48PM
So are you sticking to noble gasses, or...??
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by NCommander on Friday April 25 2014, @02:36PM
Nope, we started with hydrogen and helium which our first webserver, and DB backend, and then went up. As of right now, here's our server list
* hydrogen - first webserver, gluster node
* helium - primary DB server + LDAP/KDC master
* beryllium - wiki, primary MTA, other misc services (only box running CentOS vs. Ubuntu)
* lithium - dev server (freshly upgraded to Ubuntu 14.04!)
* boron - staff server + service monitor, slashd box, gluster node
* carbon - IRC server
* nitrogen - staff slash server/tor proxy
* oxygen - offsite backup (very slow machine with big honking HDD)
* fluorine - second webhead
* neon - second DB server (not in service yet)
Still always moving
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Friday April 25 2014, @03:44PM
I like it :)
Some of those wind up being pretty funny... like how oxygen can save your life, and how after enough dev stuff, you may need lithium treatments :D
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by Jaruzel on Friday April 25 2014, @02:04PM
One of my first jobs over 20 years ago was working for the UK MoD, and all their Mainframes (on the site I was at) were named after Greek Gods. To this day I maintain that tradition with my own home lab of servers. It sure beats calling things 'DC01' or 'MAIL04'... I even try to align names to purpose - a media server I once had, had lots of cables connected to it, so I called it Medusa. :)
NB. That MoD site is now long gone, which is why I'm now allowed to talk about it ;)
-Jar
This is my opinion, there are many others, but this one is mine.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Friday April 25 2014, @02:15PM
Haha, Medusa, that's really a good one!
And yeah, as one of those folks who accumulates computers, it's just easier to name 'em than to refer to the "P3-550"... especially if you've got five or six just alike.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Friday April 25 2014, @06:41PM
Any of them named Eris? :-)
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"