physics223's Introduction to Rozen Maiden

After talking all about computers, I realized one thing: I loved Suigintou, and I loved Rozen Maiden!

Rozen Maiden and its sequel, Rozen Maiden: Traumend are two series concentrating on magical dolls and their relationships with their masters and peers. Although it may sound gay and childish, believe me, Rozen Maiden is NOT for children, and definitely NOT only for girls. I am a guy; although I was biased towards these series before I decided to watch the first episode. Twenty-three episodes later, the two series having already ended I still wanted more~! Yes. More.

Guys are often turned off when it comes to dolls. I myself was that way before watching Rozen Maiden. As guys, we attach a symbol of femininity to dolls, and perhaps because of our social structure that attachment is only pertinent. It will all change, however, when you watch it yourself.

Not only is it an anime about dolls, it is also among the most well-crafted anime I've seen. Although the dolls act anthropomorphically, their human dimensions is what makes them extremely likable by the end of the series. You will laugh when they are happy; you will cry when shit will happen ... believe me, as a guy, though I haven't cried in anime I have been saddened and deeply affected by Rozen Maiden, especially by Traumend.

Although the relationships between the dolls are of note and beautifully molded, the social connotations behind too much education and the reality of life in Japan are also reflected in Rozen Maiden. In Japan, because of the extremely high expectations parents have of their children, only a little stress can trigger these children to break down and literally 'lock themselves away' from society. They hermetically seal themselves even from their own family. Known as hikikomori in Japanese lingo, these children have been growing in number ever since.

Our hero, Jun Sakurada, suffers from this ailment and the first series of this two-part anime deals with his recovery because of the unflinching kindness and love of his sister and of the dolls that surround him. It is a very poignant story and can definitely stand alone without the second series.

However, after watching the first series you most definitely will not stop watching Rozen Maiden. By then you will have fallen into a deep pit of fanboyism or fangirlism, and different degrees apply to different people. (I've fallen into a very deep pit of fanboyism.)

The second series continues directly after the first series, and as much as I would like to spoil you I'm just going to tell you that the second series is more plot-driven than the first series, which was more character-driven. Your enjoyment will not be attenuated, believe me, as a bittersweet story lies waiting for your consummation.

All in all, let me tell you that YOU (t3h r3ad3r) must like Suigintou (t3h hotti3). This is a rule in fanboyism ... there isn't really much boys in this series, but YOU can still be a fangirl! Yes, you! But don't worry, although every doll has different characteristics from one another, they are extremely likable. Just don't expect to like them immediately, though.

If you plan to watch this anime, definitely watch it. I did, and I've never regretted seeming to be gay ... for watching a show about dolls. If you don't plan to watch this anime, definitely watch it, as you may change your mind on the whole about dolls - you may even get to like them.

Don't worry, us regulars of the Rozen Maiden thread in the Fansubs forum can attest to that.

-physics223

SpyFerret (part two)

With extended testing SpyFerret always changes your HOSTS file into a clean one, and does it silently. This is good for HOSTS file with problematic, spyware-ridden entries, but for an edited one like mine that filters out all the nasties it isn't recommended or desired. I appreciate the effort, though.

It, however, has a strongly lacking scan system. It detected Kazaa (which I definitely not have), smitfraud.c (SpyFalcon and its family, which I also definitely not have), and WinAntiVirus (having a clean and secure computer, I also do not have this). It also detected parasite BHOs, which I don't have, and Download Accelerator Plus which was NEVER in my computer in the first place.

There is a lot of false-positives. Imagine detecting thirty entries more or less, while SpySweeper and Spyware Doctor detected zero ... well, eighty-two to be exact, but it detected only BearShare Test and some editions to my host file (no false positives were detected, however).

Ugh. It's programming like this that makes me want to puke, though I do laud the deletion of Temp files before scanning and the constant (more or less) updates. However, there's just too much marketing and subterfuge. (Note that SpyFerret stole a .dll from Spybot - S&D.)

I hope that this company changes its ways in the near future. But seeing how evil is more lucrative than good, I can expect little.

(Gosh, I'm sooooo sleepy.)

SpyFerret

Spyware is supposed to be removed, not lampooned or travestied.

This is what SpyFerret does well, however. Not only does it manage to steal a copyrighted .dll made by Patrick Michael Kolla, Spybot - Search and Destroy's creator, it also makes fun out of people's stupidity.

I scanned my computer for spyware before scanning it with SpyFerret. Spybot - Search and Destroy found nothing, Ad-aware found nothing, Spyware Doctor found only BearShare (clean) (which, to be fair, was also detected by SpyFerret) and my edited MVPS HOSTS file while having WinPatrol and F-StopW running all the while.

My HijackThis log file was also clean. It was parsed by the HJT Log File Analyzer.

But check out the scan results of SpyFerret:

(Click on it to enlarge the image.)

It detected SaveNow, WinAntiVirus, but most absurdly, smitfraud.c!

Smitfraud.c is the group of programs that are desktop hijackers and force the user to buy their severly lacking 'anti-spyware program' to remove the spyware that they themselves placed. I definitely don't have that - because I don't use Internet Explorer and don't go (anymore) to crack sites. I also don't have the symptoms of WinAntiVirus and Smitfraud.c

And this costs $39. That's much too expensive considering the quality of Spybot and Ad-aware Personal. Spyware Doctor, the leading anti-spyware application, costs only $30.

Yeah, there's a lot of shit in the Internet. But it helps when even in their blog, one admonishes others to stay careful. :)

Ratramnus

Everything just went right for me today, thank God.

I won't talk about how I did great with my subjects, however, I'd like to talk about one of the things I've discovered by accident from watching Ergo Proxy, one of my favorites among current anime. Because of subbers' mistakes I came to discover what Deita meant, and it denoted God in the olden times. I learned this from doing a search on Wikipedia, the ever comprehensive and free online encyclopedia. Although the search was less than fruitful (the most relevant entry was only relevant by nine percent) I decided to read up on the results, and it somewhat enlightened me on a time-effaced figure that was Ratramnus (cool name, eh?)

I'm going to try my best typing this entry without looking at the Wikipedia entry. (Doing so will also test my memory skills.) He was a theological controversialist of the 9th century, and tried to substantiate God into science – he tried to unite science and God. His theory was largely unaccepted as compared to his comrade whose name I could not remember who stated that God was found in miracles.

Ratramnus also wrote about the dog-headed people, the cynocephali, and most importantly (this time I had to look at the entry) he denied the existence of the triune persons in one God. That's probably why he was knows as a theological controversialist: he went against the flow of the Church, and perhaps because of this, he had marred the annals of history with his name, even if only very small print in the humongous book of Man.

Belonging conspicuously to the history of Man is no easy task. At least, although his name was effaced and covered with the sands of time, one can still discover him if one digs deep. I accidentally did, and was able to perceive and appreciate a whole life in a couple of paragraphs – a whole life etched in history forever.

Hanbun no Tsuki ga Noboru Sora: looking up at the half-moon

Granted, it had a good story, but it wasn't really my cup of tea. It wasn't as funny as Hiatari Ryoukou, and it wasn't as perceptive as Ergo Proxy. It was simply trite.

Almost everything can be found in torrents.

Almost everything can be found in torrents.

No, I don't mean that literally, although it applies to many ideas, things and objects. However, the first thing I thought about that couldn't be found in torrents is the chemical compound HArF. Yes, there is such a chemical, but it is stable only in very low temperatures and in small concentrations. (Gosh, I'm just showing how much of a nerd I am when it comes to chemistry. But that's okay.) That definitely can't be found in torrents: the compound IS in trace amounts and EXISTS only in very low temperatures. So the saying above doesn't apply to many things as well.

Bah.

Anyway, I didn't mean it in a literal sense. That's that.

What I meant, however, was that almost everything even disjointedly connected with computers can be found in torrents. No, not those torrents, but BitTorrent files. As you may already know from being an amateur techie (hey, I'm one too!) or just a P2Per, BitTorrent is a network-cum-protocol that allows efficient sharing of large files. I didn't think jPop music videos can even be found using this network, so I used an almost obsolete network.

Can you guess what it is?

No, it's neither Crazaa nor Zultrax. It definitely is not eMule or Gnutella. It's WinMX.

As you may know, WinMX shut down its site for fear of the evil MPAA and RIAA. The servers were also shut down; however, a few rogue (and intelligent) users created a patch that enabled WinMX to be used despites its decrepitude, and the WinMX network still lives on. A kind moderator (tm once again) told me that WinMX, before the RIAA/MPAA deluge, was one of the best networks where one could obtain a good amount of 'Japanese stuff.' I tried it, but its queue system was horrible. They were too long, and for anyone as impatient as me, a harrowing experience. The short of it was that they had long lines of people waiting to download a single file, and often hundreds waited. I waited, just because I thought there was no other way to obtain the music video of SunSet Swish entitled My Pace (which incidentally is also the 6th ending of Bleach, and so I was interested in watching it). I knew it was released because I was able to skim through this animeblog. Wait and wait I did. Until it was twelve hours later, and the download still did not start.

I then discovered from the comments part that the Community sidebar of that blog had links on how to obtain those shows or music videos posted. I went to different sites, but I struck gold with jPopSuki. I registered, and lo! there was the music video to My Pace. I simply wasted how many hours of letting WinMX run ...

But here's where the saying applies. After looking everywhere, one must try looking back and digging deeper into torrent sites and indexers. One will eventually find what one is looking for. Eventually. I did after twelve hours of stupidity; you may be able to do so with ten minutes of intelligence.

xxxHOLiC

I discovered this anime while surfing the AnimeSuki forums. Curious, I clicked on the thread and read about this anime. Although I did not learn much from the thread, I read about it on websites that were anime databases such as AniDB and AnimeNewsNetwork. From those sites I learnt about the anime, but the details were still hazy in my mind. I then decided, despite my unattraction to the anime, to watch it. (Perhaps I also watched it because of Ichihara Yuuko's t3h h0tn355)

I never really did expect anything from the anime. I almost was put off of it in the first five minutes because of how the characters were drawn: with disproportion. All characters were lean and lanky, with long arms and feet. Eventually, the style grew on me, and I watched on. What then unfolded was a sea of quirks, bizarre occurrences, and surreal phantasmagorias. Great.

Like the description from the databases, the movie (to be more specific) was hazy. It's not really a maze of metaphors like FLCL (as if I understood that!) but it was a maze to watch. We see Kiminoto Watanuki twist around the mansion (the movie's central setting) dealing with monsters and strange poltergeists. At the heart of all that weirdness, though, was a very striking meaning (at least for me). In addition, the relationship of Yuuko and Watanuki only added to its charm. It's something of a mother doting over a son dovetailed with a servant-master relationship, which suited the movie well. I, for one, am not against different-generation relationships as long as both man and woman are beautiful. Even if the man or woman is aged, as long as they look beautiful and are fit for each other, I won't hesitate from watching it ( hmm ... this reminds me of Koi Kaze.) I myself wish for them to end up together eventually, and that will be answered in the coming TV series of xxxHOLiC that I'm definitely going to watch.

The moral or meaning to the movie isn't as strikingly poignant as Shingetsutan Tsukihime or Koi Kaze, but it's still poignant in its own way, I guess. To simply put, we sometimes forget what we truly live for. And that, is the movie in a sentence. Mix that meaning, however, with colorful characters, surrealism, phantasmoric art, and the beauty of Ichihara Yuuko, and you get xxxHOLiC.

Crazaa

EDIT: Once divided in three parts, I decided to collate all parts because this post seems worthless as compared to my other posts anyway.

Crazaa

Tomorrow is our 4th laboratory exam in Biology, and I barely even studied. But that's okay, and I'm not going to talk about my school life. Everybody has had one; there is nothing special with mine.

Crazaa, however, released a 'new version' of their P2P program only a week ago. Of course, it wasn't really new or original: it was ripped off or a clone of the popular KCeasy program. I even posted about it (again) three days ago on my questioning if Crazaa had its own legitimate network, as can be seen in its configuration mode. This time, at P2PForums, however, the mood was different. This particular forum wasn't full of tech airheads as Zeropaid had. The people participating in here were more cogent, rational, and intellectual as compared to the ranting bluster of those from Zeropaid.

For more information about the thread I posted go here. The link is a forum on my queries about Crazaa if it really had a real Crazaa network. Although the thread is relatively unresolved (I'm still waiting for tm), ideas were passed around and I was even amazed at my persistent examination of the new Crazaa version.

Compared to their older version, 3.55, the 0.16 version (queer, isn't it? It's also queer that KCeasy also currently has 0.16 as version for his multinetwork KCeasy client. It's not coincidence: remember that Crazaa is a rip-off.) worked better. In fact, it connected to all three networks: Gnutella, Ares, and OpenFT. Its stability was also incomparable to its previous version where I couldn't even start downloading, the uploads were disabled, and Crazaa was bundled with a pervasive AdBlaster parasite. Although I cleaned the previous version it still did not work for most, if not all computers that have tried that older version...

* * *

It's five in the morning and I barely got out of bed yet, but instead of studying I decided to finish on what I've started yesterday night.

Crazaa: Part Two

As I have mentioned in the post before, Crazaa was mainly interesting because of a reason: in the earlier version that I have 'cleaned' it contained in its configuration dialog box the presence of a new P2P network known as the Crazaa network.

What does this imply?

The answer is simple: with new networks like these, if extant, file-sharing is promoted even more, and there are more channels to share files with. What you couldn't perhaps find on Gnutella (a large P2P network) or eD2K you may find in that new network. Similarly, I was gladly hoping for the existence of this new network because I could help this network flourish.

As I don't know much about the programming aspect of P2P networking, I didn't know that a network could be created from a fragmentation of a bigger network. I basically don't really understand it until now. What I was able to glean from tm's post, however, was that if you had just separate starter nodes (nodes here make connections or 'handshakes' easier between computers, I think, and links them together) from the regular starter nodes of your network, a new 'network' could be formed, but it still is a smaller part of the bigger network. Because you will be connected to different people when using both networks, you may be fooled into thinking that you're connecting to an entirely new network.

(Disclaimer: I myself do not understand much about what he was saying, however, I get the general picture of what he's trying to mean.)

Okay, I am not really good with explaining, am I? Here is his original paragraph on the existence of the Crazaa network:

KCeasy is open source. If anyone wanted to, they can download the source code and just tweak the handshake a bit and create their own "new" network. In fact, you technically don't even need to go that far. Decentralized networks can often fragment on their own - creating several separate (but compatible) networks - and you can create fragmented networks just by using a separate starter node.

I desperately need explaining from him...

This is another to be continued: as long as I don't really understand what I'm talking about there's no use in finishing this blog-special or blog-marathon.

* * *

I better end this marathon of which I've done so already in P2P forums. Anyway, to end it all, the network was most probably just a fragmentation of an existing network (most probably Gnutella) set with different starter nodes and was allowed to mingle with the rest of the Gnutella network anyway.

I am using the 0.16 version now without problems. The installer is clean, too, as scanned from VirusTotal and Jotti's Malware Scan. Ugh, I'm really sleepy. The 0.16 version, simply put, is a well-made clone.

I'd have finished this, really, if I weren't so damn sleepy. But I won't, and I can't. I think this is enough for now.

You can download the installer of Crazaa here. Make sure it's clean by scanning it here and here.

The clean version I have can be downloaded here. Wait for thirty seconds, or a little more, and then click on the link given to download the installer. That installer, if Crazaa decides to bundle shit, spyware, or crap on their 'updated' Crazaa executable, is for you to use without fear of getting your computer dirty. Scans with VirusTotal and Jotti's Malware Scan say that it's clean. If you don't trust me, you can scan it for yourself.

Lucky Guy

I was just a lucky guy today. Even without intensive studying I have been able to place close to the top scorers of our recent Zoology lecture examinations. That's a great feat by itself.

When I went home, I discovered some clean installer which helped me play with smileys. Yes, it was cool, but some hours later, the site went down - probably because it wasn't popular and no one really donated to it.

Although I haven't studied for another exam tomorrow, I still feel relaxed and okay. That's life, I guess, with some Providence (God) leading the way.

The World After Upheaval

Crazaa and the World

After posting the Crazaa that I cleaned over at Zeropaid a lot of other posters shot flak at me. They also shot not only flak but also shit at why I recommended trying Crazaa, which I didn't. Seeing that I couldn't change the mind of the posters, I just stood my ground and kept on posting what I thought were intellectual retorts on their arguments. I did not try being high and mighty, but perhaps punctuation and use of words made them think or made them feel I was so.

Anyway, as I knew the thread was hopeless, I tried making it among the week's most popular threads by retorting or asking questions that build upon themselves. I wanted it to reach at least 42, so that people could have said that it was a popular thread (having 50% of its posts mine). It was closed by the moderator before I could have restarted the vicious cycle once more and it stopped the other posters from attacking me (ad hominem!) once more.

The attacks were alright, even though they were insulting because they were as far away from the truth. (Someone even thought that I was the developer of Crazaa because I 'promoted' it so much.) Anyway, it's just saddening that I wasn't able to reach that number of posts that would denote my thread being popular.

* * *

A Wonderful Day

Despite blogging about hikikomoris and despair two days ago, I was very thankful that everything was wonderful yesterday. I had fulfilled all my obligations, had aced an exam technically ... it was just an almost perfect day.

I had an extremely happy day yesterday. Everything just fell into its proper place: I got an A in chemistry (although sadly, it wasn't like the super-As of my previous Chemistry exams) and I also finished my workload thanks to the kindness of our laboratory technician.

I was practically in orgiastic joy yesterday: all was in good fun, and people were kind to me. I thanked God, of course. I think I'm going to work at the laboratory tomorrow to help the technician.

Good morning, everybody. I think I should sleep a little more to cleanse my mind of any dirt (to wake up properly) and then do what I should to become better as a student.