SoylentNews

exec now supports a reserved <startup> alias, which at the moment executes a script that triggers a sequence of aliases related to starting SedBot(2) in #Soylent and ##.

the <startup> trigger fires when the bot attempts to identify with nickserv, and like other reserved aliases can't be triggered from irc.

my intention is to make scripts to enable easy management of the current sedbot.awk script, unless FoobarBazbot returns beforehand in which case he'll be able to take the reigns.

the advantage of the <startup> alias is that if exec is disconnected temporarily, sedbot will restart when a connection is re-established.

a test was performed by pulling the network cable out of the machine hosting exec and leaving it unplugged for a while. when the cord was eventually plugged back in, exec came back up and restarted sedbot without any intervention.

https://github.com/crutchy-/test/blob/master/irc.php
https://github.com/crutchy-/test/blob/master/irc_lib.php

bot admins now have a little more control over scripts that are executed

to see a listing of running scripts/processes:
~ps
this will generate a list in the format:
[$pid] $shellcmd

to kill a process listed by ~ps:
~kill $pid

if the bot is restarted (~restart) or quits (~q), all processes (including any children) will be killed

bot source code is here: https://github.com/crutchy-/test

This is fodder for testing https://github.com/SoylentNews/slashcode/issues/59.

Nested "blockquote" and "q" elements:

test1: zero

one two three

four five six

seven eight

nine.

Nested "blockquote" and "em" elements:

test2: zero

one two three

four five six

seven eight

nine.

if you would like to log an irc channel, you can /invite loggie.

as a backup, exec also has a logging feature.
you can /invite exec to a channel, or if you're not op, go to another channel with exec already in it and do '~join #yourchan'
then if you want to switch logging on, do '~log on'. you can switch off logging using '~log off'

logs are publicly accessible here: http://irciv.us.to/irc_logs

if you want exec to go away, do '~part' from within channel, or '~part #mychan' from any channel with exec in it

[Full Title: Ouya Offers Yearly Subscription for Full Game Library - For a Short Time]

From Ars Technica:

Recent games shows like the Game Developers Conference and E3 have come and gone with little fanfare or hubbub surrounding the Android-powered Ouya console other than small promotional displays and a seemingly stillborn Ouya Everywhere initiative. This week, Ouya has tried yet again to get gamers' attention by way of a crazy, limited-time bargain: the Ouya All-Access Pass.

The pass, which costs $60 and lasts for a full year, is meant to unlock seemingly unlimited access to the Ouya online store's major paid offerings: namely, "one-time purchases under $30 such as full-game unlocks and level-pack add-ons." However, the fine print explains that downloadable content designed to "enhance gameplay" with options such as "extra lives and power-ups" is not included in the All-Access Pass, which may create a blurry line between what content is and isn't included. Ouya's Chess 2 , for example, doesn't include a full "unlock" purchase but rather coin packs used to enable online play at a cost per online session.

The promotion comes on the heels of a March change in Ouya policy allowing developers to make paid games that don't include free demo versions or in-app purchases. That shift made particular sense for a wave of serious games coming to Ouya, including That Dragon, Cancer, and Thralled, whose sensitive content might be undermined by "pay more to keep going!" alerts mid-stream.

It appears to need the attention:

Though Ouya has yet to announce firm sales figures for either its hardware or software, developers have routinely complained about low sales for their Ouya fare. A Gamasutra report from last October saw that issue come up as a recurring theme, and our own interviews with game designers have echoed that sentiment in kind. In an e-mail interview, Chess 2 developer Zachary Burns told Ars that "there is no money in the [Ouya] userbase," though he was quick to express unabashed appreciation for the promotional and developmental support given by the official Ouya team.

However, those interested in this deal are too late, as:

the promotion has already been closed. Visitors can enter their e-mail address at the promotion's link to receive an alert if/when it resumes.

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everyone uses and abuses poor ol' sedbot in irc, but currently it's only working in #soylent. its also in #test but isn't working there for some reason.

for anyone who just can't live without sedbot functionality in other channels, you can do "/invite exec" and then "~sed on" to enable (or if sedbot makes a grand entrance you can do "~sed off" to disable). if you're not a chanop, you can do "~join #chan" from any other channel with exec already in it (usually #soylent).

works similar to sedbot. doesn't do vowel replacement or regex though.

Check out http://wiki.soylentnews.org/wiki/Feeds for a trial concept in article summary development.

Thanks go to prospectacle for his ideas.

Eventually feed sources will be read from here: http://wiki.soylentnews.org/wiki/Feed_sources (currently read from a file on the bot host).

For the curious:
Bot script: https://github.com/crutchy-/test/blob/master/irc.php
Feeds script: https://github.com/crutchy-/test/blob/master/scripts/feeds.php
Wiki script: https://github.com/crutchy-/test/blob/master/scripts/wiki.php

A journal by NCommander the other day got me thinking (I know, dangerous but I was bored) and what we need here is a Gamer's Corner for fellow Soybeans users to post what games they are playing, build teams, trade in game items, etc. I think this would help build unity and community while at the same time helping the users hook up and do better in their games.

Anyway until one of the admins gives us a true gamer's corner section I figured we could use this post as a starting point so feel free to post what games you are playing you'd like to have others join, in game gear you'd be happy to give away/swap, basically anything to do with games and gaming feel free to post it here.

Allow me to get the ball rolling with a little gift for the fellow Soybeaners...if you recently picked up Borderlands II GOTY off the Steam sale and haven't maxed your character yet? I have plenty of orange items from the great loot hunt last year, lvl 50-70 and I'll be happy to work out times to hook up in game and dole out the loot. Drops will be limited depending on how many folks respond and will go on until the loot is gone, I don't have enough of each weapon to take requests for specific guns but feel free to ask and if I have it its yours, also have some sweet blue and purple weapons like the Morningstar sniper rifle I'll be happy to drop and if you prefer a particular type of weapon, like say shotgun or rifle I'll be happy to look and see what I have.

I just set the minimum story count to 15 on the main page. This will give you 5 more stories showing when the day changes. As we are currently posting around 15 stories a day, the new setting will show about a days worth of stories at any one time. The default of 30 max stories has not changed so you will see all of the stories posted in a day on the home page (as we have not posted that many in a day).

I do have code in place to have the max stories preference setting to work again (testing on dev), but it was originally disable due to cache misses. I need to investigate if the code is able to handle arbitrary max stories for each user, without degrading server performance. I had an idea to have the preference a drop down of preselected max numbers so that cache hits would be better as more users would have the same values.

If you have a suggestion please let me know.

[Full Title: Worm Rapidly Spreads to Over 84,000 Twitter Users - Now Fixed]

A self-replicating cross-site scripting attack written in a tweet exploited a vulnerability in the application Tweetdeck, spreading via retweets over the course of a few hours.

Ars Technica reports:

Twitter on Wednesday was briefly overrun by a powerful computer worm that caused tens of thousands of users to tweet a message that contained self-propagating code exploiting a bug in the TweetDeck app.

Within a few hours, the cross-site scripting (XSS) attack caused at least 84,700 users to retweet a single message originally transmitted by the user @derGeruhn. The body of the message contained JavaScript commands that caused anyone viewing it in TweetDeck to automatically retweet it. The message spread virally. The more times it was retweeted, the more times it was viewed and retweeted by other people using the vulnerable app. The BBC News Twitter account alone pushed the message to 10.1 million followers.

It's by no means the first time a worm has slithered through Twitter. Worms based on clickjacking exploits and XSS attacks were documented as long ago as 2009 and were also used maliciously in 2011 to spread scam messages.

The out-of-control tweets were the result of a software flaw that prevented TweetDeck from properly filtering code out of messages it displayed. As a result, the app executed JavaScript commands transmitted in message bodies that contained commands for retweeting the message. The episode underscores the vexing difficulty of eliminating XSS vulnerabilities from websites and end-user apps. Even when developers erect defenses that filter out harmful code from user-supplied content, there are frequently ways to circumvent them.

The developers worked quickly to fix the exploit:

Officials with the Twitter-owned TweetDeck declared the bug fixed shortly after it surfaced. They later suspended service to investigate further and finally verified the fix and restored service.

The report contains several links to previous attacks, within Twitter and without, and the official statements.

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