Dec 15, 2014 11:43 PM (This post was last modified: Dec 16, 2014 01:38 AM by Oak.)
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The edition you are currently reading is the 218th full edition. To read any older editions of HF News, please go here.
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November MOTM Winner
With the 2014 year coming to a close, another Member of the Month competition has concluded with Escrow as the clear winner. After being publicly recognized for his contributions to the new HF IM XMPP feature, he has dominated the competition with 75 votes while the rest lagged behind. Even though there can be only one winner, we thank everyone else who was nominated for their forum contributions. You can see the voting results as well as each members' contributions, here.
Adding Yet Another Feature to the Ignore List
On December 3rd, 2014 Omniscient implemented a new feature for the Ignore List which is now not being able to view a users profile if they have you on their ignore list. Great new feature, however it's possible that because of the potential abuse that new feature puts foreword, Omniscient has now made it so that you can still not see the users profile but you can now see a reputation link. This will make it easier for the potential person who was scammed so they can now still leave a negative reputation on the scammer. Also keep in mind that this is only an upgraded member feature. The user Coppersan and I tested out the new feature and also took a screenshot so you can see what the Ignore Error message will look like. You can find that screenshot, here.
Polymath for sale!
Polymath has been put up on the market for sale on Sunday December 7th, 2014 by group owner Lani. The official thread, located here mentions, "There is no BIN. I only accept offers, preferably in BTC (or Western Union). Purchasing Bitcoins is not so hard these days, and can be done easily if you have a bank account. Please keep in mind that Revolution has offers on around $9,000. So please, no lowballing. You are wasting your own time". If you're interested send Lani a private message to proceed but don't forget to get approval from Omniscient.
Justin Timberlake: Welcome to this week's edition of the HF News! Today we're here with Pali, what's going on man? Pali: Glad to be here. I just got off work, and now I'm eating Hot Cheetos and cuddling my dog. Trying to keep things 100% trill.
Justin Timberlake: You seem like a real thug, Cheetos and dogs? Anyway, are there any members you'd like to give a shoutout to? Pali: Sure. I've been "off" HF for a year, so I think I appreciate them more than they do me, but that doesn't matter. Vinnie, Stay Plural, Yellows, BagHead, Nate (Remorsal), D3xus, Hexicidal, bugga, Esdese, iNviZ, Leminiscent, and all the super HQ members of Nightfall.
Justin Timberlake: Those are some great members, I must say. So what do you mean you were "off" for a year? What happened? Pali: My account was closed for about a year. There were a lot of factors behind my account being closed, but I'd rather not talk about it. I'm very glad Omni reopened my account.
Justin Timberlake: Wow, that's one long vacation. So does the site seem different now compared to what you were used to? Pali: A lot, a lot, a lot more attention whores. HF has always had them, those kiddies who whore for stats like awards, posts, rep, yata yata. But I feel like from late 2012 and onward, it's only gotten much worse. Everyone here is more of a profile than a person. Even on cam, or mics, everyone thinks their stats define them.
Justin Timberlake: Agreed, it's hard to find genuine people nowadays. But some change is good right? Aside from the tryhards, what about all the new features and development? Pali: Yes, very much so. I came back as L33t rather than Ub3r so I don't get to enjoy a lot of the new features, sadly. I will say, Omni is doing grand with these new features. Ep1c is wonderful, I look forward to seeing what else will be made for it. HF IM XMPP is amazing, I just hope group chat opens up for it. 6 months between applying for Ub3r is a very positive change. Vacation Bans without PMing Omni is neat, I'm sure it saves him time. I love the changes.
Justin Timberlake: They are pretty nifty, not gonna lie. One thing that might not have needed change, however, is the groups. Being an older member, do you prefer the older groups over the current ones? Pali: Older I suppose. The more time that passes the more useless I think groups become. I've been in a ton of groups because I'm a dirty little group whore, and I can say the majority are pointless. They're becoming just popularity contests, userbars for friends, being used as monopoly, or being a complete waste of time/money. I think a majority of all groups are pretty damn stupid. Most are just userbars, basically. Every group wants to be original and unique, every group cares more about their image than what they actually do. Just like a majority of the users here, profiles and userbars. Not people and group. Nightfall is fucking sweet though. Gaming niche is 100%, freedom is 100%, chill-vibe is 100%. I wish things were taken a bit seriously but I understand that's hard with how it's ran.. I wish groups were more like a brotherhood, but that's near impossible considering no ones gonna drop 10k on HF with sincere attentions to build trust, relations and to last forever.
Justin Timberlake: I feel you man. If given the chance, how would you handle a group to make it worthwhile? Pali: Exactly how I ran Infamous, before it was taken over and turned into shit.
Justin Timberlake: That group was a crowd favorite during its prime back in the day, it would be cool to see with current groups. So how did you come across HF in the first place? Pali: I came here to sell OG Gamertags. Oh how I miss the old OG Gamertag scene.
Justin Timberlake: Quite a few members came to sell gamertags if I remember correctly. Are you not into it as much as you used to be? Pali: The market doesn't make sense to me anymore. OG Instagrams and Snapchats make the hipster in me happy.
Justin Timberlake: I don't even know what that's supposed to mean, but OK. What do you do outside of HF? Any cool hobbies you have? Pali: No I'm a very boring person. I work 65-85 hours a week, I like writing, I like gaming, I like to cook, I like to eat.
Justin Timberlake: The life of the party eh? Why'd you choose Pali as a username? Pali: It's something I used as an alias being Palestinian and it stuck since an early age. To me it's just my name, nothing to do with being Palestinain but that's how it originated despite me not caring about culture in the slightest.
Justin Timberlake: That's pretty cool. Is there anything else you'd like to say before we conclude? Pali: bitches ain't shit but tricks and hoes
630: Welcome to 218th edition of the HF News, it's an honor to be her today with Balloon. Any shout-outs you'd like to make before we begin? Balloon: I'd like to shoutout ItsFluffy and Lajcik. Two of my best friends on the forum. Without either of them I probably wouldn't be where I'm at today.
630: I recoginize one of the names. How did you get to know these two individuals? Balloon: ItsFluffy is actually the reason I joined the forum. You might remember he offered a free stresser that you could access with PuTTy. I then started offering a service in the Free Services and Giveaways section where I would download the Fileice file for them and they would get access. I met Lajcik after purchasing his software. I really liked the way he interacted with me and I have been working with him ever since.
630: Nice! So I must ask since you've been in the Red Lions for a long time, how is the group? It seems to have taken a dip in forum presence, what's going on with that? Balloon: Well I can't really go over what goes on in the Group sub-forum and I won't be speaking on Glassy's behalf on activity. All I can say is just because group activity isn't targeted towards the entire forum, doesn't necessarily mean it isn't active. Things are in the making right now though.
630: Well that's good to hear. I know a member in the Red Lions and the loyalty of the members is off the charts, congrats to you guys. So tell me what do you do outside of the forum? Got any fun hobbies? Balloon: Red Lions is definitely a group of genuine people. I wouldn't have the group any other way...Outside of the forum I work, go to school, work on clients projects for SEO, and train my dog/work her.
630: What kind of dog do you? What are you training her for? Balloon: Well the dog is actually my brother's but I like to think of her as my own. Her name is Penelope and she is a pure bred chocolate lab. Right now I am working with her in preperation for a new bird dog I just put a down payment on. The dog will be a german shorthaired pointer used for hunting birds and finding deer sheds.
630: That's awesome! I wish I had the patience to do that, but I need to get a dog first, sadly mine passed away when I was in high school. So what are you going to school for?
Balloon: Well I went to school for two years studying Civil Engineering. At the end of the second year I changed majors before I left and switched to Information Technology. Then I ended up being diagnosed with Psoriatic Arthritis and was bed ridden for like 6 months until I was able to be treated. It's a long story but I'm better now.
630: Sorry to hear that, but I'm glad you're doing better now. So I see you run a successful SEO service, how do you get into that line of work? Balloon: I appreciate that...Well this all started when I was in High School. A friend and I had a website that we were working on and wanted to get it ranked. Him and I had been trying to figure out how to increase it's position on Google. After we ranked that we started seeing new things that Google was doing with their algorithms that directly affected our site. I had been interested ever since. I have tons of notepads and old engineering paper that is filled with everything I have ever tried. Tons of trial and error. You can never stop learning and I can safely say that I will have more to learn in years to come. Oh and fuck you Matt Cutts.
630: Seems tricky, but good for you that you can figure that stuff out. So ItsFluffy got you on the forum, what made you want to join? I remember back to when I first heard about the site, I was nervous at first to join because everyone was an anonymous hacker. Balloon: Well I had the same exact thoughts. I forgot to mention that I also play video games but ever since Xbox one came out I stopped. I play both Halo and Call of Duty and kept getting hit offline. I got sick of it and decided to try and find an alternative without having to spend money. I saw his thread and downloaded the file. I was amazed that I could just type in the IP and the player would leave the game. Ever since then I have been friends with Fluffy. I also believe that I ended up getting invited into Red Lions for downloading those files. Fluffy got me nominated for wining my ub3r upgrade. I owe a lot of my HF life to him.
630: He's a good guy. Dare I call use old fags, all the 2009 kids would get mad, but we've been on the forum since 2011, what keeps you active? Balloon: I'm not nearly as active as I used to be. You may also notice since 2011 I have only posted around 2500+ times. Many people change who they are on forums but I normally just read what others have to post and if I have anything to say I will say it. Right now I treat HF as a personal marketplace and sell services through it and look for new partnerships that I could potentially make. I try to stay away from certain sections as well. Most of them are just pure cancer and lead to nothing but drama.
630: I'd agree with that. I treat Hack Forums as business now, I post sometimes when I have something to sell. So if you could change one thing on site what would it be? Balloon: Well there aren't many things I would change in terms of how my HF life has played out. There are a lot of people who like to swing their e-penises around and there isn't much for regular members and l33ts to do about it. I really hope some day Omni gets around to creating some sort of vouch based system that will provide something meaningful in the marketplace. Rep is easily earned and really shouldn't be used as an indicator of someones success and trust.
630: I'd agree. Ever since I joined there was the vouch system rumor and I wish something was done with it. How do you feel about Hack Forums have a crypto currency? Do you like OmniCoin? Balloon: I have heard these rumors as well. It looks like Omni is starting to put his plans in motion though so only time will tell...I actually completely switched to Bitcoins for payments in the marketplace here. There are too many reasons for why I won't accept a reversible payment processor on a Hacking Forum. I definiltey like the idea of OmniCoins. I actually have even looked up the keyword competition and thought about trying to rank the site for a few of them. I decided against it because of the amount of things I have going on with my own clients. OmniCoins definitely have a lot of potential though.
630: I just don't like the scarcity of OMC, it's near impossible get a hold of them from members on site. Well I think that's about all the time we have for this interview. Are there any final remarks you'd like to make? Balloon: Most likely because of Omni's plans for a new group for OmniCoin. People are definiltey holding onto them...I just would like to thank Omni for keeping HF alive as well as staff/mentors for doing their part to cleanup HF. Thanks to Glassy and Nokia for keeping me apart of the RL. Thanks 630 for interviewing me and best of luck with the rest of your journey on HF. Bye for now.
Dec 15, 2014 11:44 PM (This post was last modified: Dec 16, 2014 12:23 AM by Oak.)
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Omnicoin prices slowly increasing
Omnicoin has once again shown that it isn't going to die easily. There is still a demand for them on the popular AllCrypt exchange. Omnicoins started out the week with a price of 389 satoshis and hit a high of 642 satoshis midweek, an increase of 65%. They ended the week with a price of 420 satoshis, still %7 higher than at the beginning of the week.
Omnicoin miners ramp up the speed
Since the block reward halving back in early November Omnicoin has seen an increased hashrate and difficulty due to miners trying to maximize their profits. This week the difficulty topped out at a whopping 24, the highest it has been for over 2 weeks. Sadly a good deal of the reason for the increase is due to burst mining, a harmful method of mining that reduces profits for dedicated miners and results in long confirmation times. Thanks to the dedicated miners of Omnicoin these periods of no confirmations haven't lasted long.
Well, I'm happy to say that we were finally able to get Omniscient on for a Podcast!
I'm sure you've already noticed it by now, but be sure to scroll up and give it a listen.
At some point here soon, I'll be working on a few changes in the HF News.
Stay tuned, support, and comment! Thank you.
Change Anywhere Credit Card Company Spied On
Charge Anywhere LLC, a mobile payments service provider, announced that someone had installed malicious software on one of its network machines and may have been analyzing or changing traffic. The repercussions of this may include the jeopardization of credit card data from transactions the company has handled between November of 2009 and September of 2014. And investigation of the network and malware revealed that an unauthorized user had gained access to the network and installed a rather sophisticated malicious that was then used to create the capture and transmit encrypted data from the network. Only certain information from recent network captures has been identified as stolen, and it is all from August 2014-September of 2014, but the attacker has certainly had access to the network for far longer than that. The reason the attacker was so successful is that the internal network did not use encrypted traffic and the attacker was therefore able to capture much of it in plaintext.
Lance Ealy: ID Thief + Wanted Fugitive
Lance Ealy, an Ohio man arrested in 2013 year for buying Social Security numbers and banking information from an underground identity theft service, has allegedly left his town after his convictions. The 28 year old man was found guilty of committing 46 charges, including identity theft, mail fraud, wire fraud, among others. Earlier was also convicted of using the stolen data to fraudulently claim tax refunds with the IRS in the names of an estimated 179 U.S. citizens, including while he was on trial! When we look at the charges Ealy faced, it's fairly easy to understand why he felt he had no choice but to leave. Each of the 46 charges carries with it a fine of up to $250,000 which amounts to $11.5 million! Not only this, but 15 of the counts can carry a 10 year life sentence each. Identity theft and tax fraud are crimes that, thoug they can have high payout, also have an incredibly high punishment and drove Ealy to living on the lam for the foreseeable future.
White Hat Hacker Returns 225 'Stolen' BTC
A set of known and disclosed vulnerabilities within BlockChain, as well as within BTC address activity itself, allowed a white hat hacker under the psedonym "Johoe" to intercept the payments of over 1,000 BTC addresses. However, he or she did this only to prevent others from getting them with malicious intention. On the BitcoinTalk forum, he announced that there were hundreds of broken addresses whose funds could be swiped, and that he would gladly return all of the money to anyone who could prove that it came from their BTC address. True to his word, the Blockchain CEO, Nicolas Carey, has since given confirmation that the funds had been received. The vulnerability arose from the fact that the blockchain wallets were being produced with certain pseudo-random numbers that may be predictable and sometimes allows attackers to deduce the private encryption key by the public address. The vulnerability, as we know it, has since been fixed and victims are being reimbursed after proof of loss. Great job to all of the well-meaning hackers out there!
The Pirate Bay – Taken Down After Server Room Raid
The infamous and widely used online torrenting site that goes by the name "The Pirate Bay" has now been shut down and seized after Swedish police raided their server room. The Pirate Bay is a widely used site which allows the public to illegally download copyrighted material such as movies, games, music, software, and more – and at no charge. So you can see why law enforcement would want to take it down. Although, this is most definitely not the first time the site has been taken offline and seized; it has been shut down numerous times by the FBI and Swedish police. It will be interesting to see if the notorious site will be reborn once again.
Sony Leaks Take a Dark Turn
Continuing with the Sony phenomenon, it has now been reported that the recent breach in Sony’s systems have now taken an even darker and more sinister turn. The group that goes by the name Guardians of Peace (GoP) who have claimed to be responsible for the Sony hacking have now stated that they have released an abundance of private and confidential information such as: Sony employee names, upcoming film budgets, celebrity contact numbers, upcoming film scripts, and more. This is just one more thing to add to the already 40GB worth of confidential data the hacker group has released to the public. Whether or not this information is useful to the public is irrelevant, this just goes to show that even the top companies are vulnerable. We wish you luck in recovery Sony.
New WWE Game in the Making
Mortal Kombat developers have been working on something...Different. Not that much info has been released about the upcoming fighter game, but those wanting to purchase the game don't have to worry; it's free! If you're looking for a new mobile game to play for free, this might be worth checking out. With the release date sometime in 2015, that's a lot of time for the developers to share more information on what's to come and what the game offers. At the current time, there isn't a lot of things the public knows. Sadly. In a new WWE-based world, the game is supposedly something that's never been seen before with fun and epic battles to partake in. In addition, NetherRealm studios, is also working on a new Mortal Kombat game as well for consoles, which can also be obtained next year.
CoD: AW DLC Weapons Trailer
Owners of the DLC pass for Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare will be given the option to download two new weapons in the newest DLC, Havoc, earlier than those without the pass. Being released sometime next year in 2015, gamers with the pass will receive the "AE4 Directed Energy Assault Rifle" as well as a customized version of the gun named the "AE4 Widowmaker". Both of the weapons can be seen in the trailer which can be seen here. The assault rifle was made for the aggressive player who likes to both rush, as-well as play tactical; fight behind cover, move behind enemy lines, and surprise the enemy. Giving your character the speed of running with a sub-machine gun (gun is lighter than most AR's in AW) this benefits your gameplay by making the character you are playing run longer distances and possibly faster. Handling the gun in-game will be easier for those using it too. No other information has been leaked or announced regarding the DLC besides the weapons, but it may give us some insight of what is to come with the new Exo-Zombies gamemode being introduced.
SWAT Has Arrived
The playlist most Halo fans enjoy has made a return in the newest bundle, Halo: The Master Chief Collection. Lucky for those interested, no update is needed to play the gamemode. Immediately after launching the game, you should see the playlist available. SWAT is not, repeat not, available on all the games provided within Halo: The Master Chief Collection, though, 343 has said. Limited to only Halo 2: Anniversary, the classic Halo 2, and Halo 4, developers back at 343 also state that Halo 3 may be receiving the playlist as well, but there hasn't been a confirmation on that. A few last things have been changed with the release of the gamemode: The maximum people in a Big Team Battle party is 4-6 players, but the developers from 343 is working on allowing 8 players on each team. In addition, Some of the playlists have been updated too by making it 4v4 for the following modes:
Team Slayer
Halo 2 Classic
Halo 3
Halo Championship Series
SWAT
In the future, more playlists within the modes will be updated to 4v4 as well, so that should be expected soon.
Video Game Release Dates for the Week of December 12th, 2014:
United States Navy Shows Off Weapon Of The Future; A Laser Weapon System
The United States Navy has created and tested a weapon known of only in science fiction, until now. The weapon is called LaWS, or simply Laser Weapon System and was tested as a prototype upon the USS Ponce. The prototype went without fail in many different conditions and was extremely accurate making it a perfect weapon for attacking drones, small ships and planes. The prototype worked without a hitch, and will be used on the USS Ponce regularly as it is considered a fully functional prototype. The United States plans to have the LaWS on all of it's fleet by 2020.
If you watch the video demonstration you will notice this weapon is controlled by a controller that looks similar to an Xbox controller. The simplicity os use for this weapon means less men will be needed to operate this weapon compared to other weapons.
Cheap DIY Build-able Computer Targets Children For Computer And Programming Education
A new tech toy that is being marketed towards children called the Kano computer kit is being sold for $150. The goal a parent would have to purchase this for a child is to give them a head start of interest in computer hardware and programming. After building the computer, you actually have to program it so it gives children a great learning experience backed up by some easy to follow illustrated tutorials. Once you have set up the computer, 6 coding levels are on the computer such as how to program simple games like pong, but of course many more are available.
Apple 1 Sold At Auction
With less than 50 Apple 1 computers left in existence, seeing this piece of history is pretty exciting. The Apple 1 is one of the only machines ever to be personally sold by Steve Jobs from his garage in 1976 in California when Apple was just a start up company. The Apple 1 Computer sold at the auction was sold $365000.
Qualcomm's Snapdragon 810
In the past few years, phone and tablet processors have not changed much. Yes, they have improved, but it has not noticeable on the user side. Recently, Qualcomm has boasted about their new Snapdragon 810 chip, they even claimed it will change the future of phones and tablets. The new 810 chip will fully support a 4K resolution and will make extremely high quality videos a breeze to watch. Qualcomm's goal is to start rolling out 4K tablets with the capability of fully replacing your laptop. Some other features of this new chip are it's camera shot processing, new security features, and even new sound technology to make audio clearer.
Google Closes Offices In Russia
After recent crackdowns of American internet services in Russia, Google is closing offices located in Russia. The leader of Russia, Vladimir Putin is trying to control internet access in Russia to an extreme. The country has already made their own version of Facebook, and have copied multiple other social media websites just for Russia. No word on if Google will be available for Russia after this, but Google is clearly afraid of Russia stealing data and raiding their offices.
iRobot's Create 2 Bot
Usually technology made for educational purposed and tinkering is expensive, but iRobot has decided to change that. iRobot's Create 2 bot is available for purchase for the affordable price of $200. Create 2 is extremely customizable and is perfect for students who like to hack robotics. You can adjust and modify the way the bot looks, add hardware, and the additions to it are endless. The Create 2 is basically a Roomba 600 stripped down with room to add tons of stuff. So if you are looking to mess with hardware hacking and have a low budget, pick up a Create 2.
Dec 15, 2014 11:47 PM (This post was last modified: Dec 16, 2014 12:19 AM by Oak.)
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Every week - assuming we get enough submissions - the HF News will feature the best submitted battlestation.
Send Sir a message by clicking here and including an imgur link of your battlestation!
I'm so esteemed to read these HF news.
Sir, you are doing an incredible job with this news (agency). Hoping to see myself apart it one day, I would be eminent to work alongside a diligent person like yourself.
Never ever quit doing this, it's giving Hack Forums that extra glow.
Dec 16, 2014 01:36 AM (This post was last modified: Dec 16, 2014 01:37 AM by Oak.)
(Dec 16, 2014 01:34 AM)Sktchy Wrote: So... Uhm..
Doesn't that sound familiar?
Thanks for another edition of HF News.
Less familiar than the same questions I've heard over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over. Shall I continue? Or is it getting too familiar?
(Dec 16, 2014 01:36 AM)clark.dll Wrote: I heard a fantastic interview, so no it doesn't sound familiar ✌
I don't exactly know what your talking about, do you know what your talking about? Anywho, great coverage on the Bans, RF's and Closing's that's what I look to HF News for! 🤗
(Dec 16, 2014 01:36 AM)Oak Wrote: Less familiar than the same questions I've heard over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over. Shall I continue? Or is it getting too familiar?
You're welcome 🤝
Sounded like the same thing to me just with more words crammed in if we are talking about the same thing. Doesn't matter though.
Also, thank you for the news on the Omnicoin slight price increase! Help's a lot when trying to get EP1C.
(Dec 16, 2014 01:26 AM)Salty Wrote: I'm so esteemed to read these HF news.
Sir, you are doing an incredible job with this news (agency). Hoping to see myself apart it one day, I would be eminent to work alongside a diligent person like yourself.
Never ever quit doing this, it's giving Hack Forums that extra glow.
I'm also thankful for that extra glow Sir provides