ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ[ "A Bucket Of Letters" ]ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ[ Introductory notes to 29#5 by Lord Julus ]ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ ÄÄÄÄÄ[ (featuring passages from "War of the Worlds" by George Wells) ]ÄÄÄÄÄÄ [ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ] "No one would have believed, in the last years of the nineteenth century, that human affairs were being watched from the timeless worlds of space. No one could have dreamed we were being scrutinized, as someone with a microscope studies creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water. Few men even considered the possibility of life on other planets and yet, across the gulf of space, minds immeasurably superior to ours regarded this Earth with envious eyes, and slowly and surely, they drew their plans against us." A letter of introduction... A few words spread on the paper, a number of paragraphs meant to impress you, to raise a feeling inside of you, to make you read this magazine futhermore and give it's local color. That is what this SHOULD be, but it is not... It is merely a statement of a person who is not any more whom once he proudly used to be. An assertion meant to bore you to death probably, but, you know... I cannot help it... this is me. Please read carefully the "War of the Worlds" passages as they will give you the explanation of many concepts like "weakness", "faith", "unknown"... They are not here just to fill in the pages. They are here because I feel like exactly the humans in this story... Who are the Martians, then, you will ask? Thou shall see in a minute... "At midnight on the twelfth of August, a huge mass of luminous gas erupted from Mars and sped towards Earth. Across two hundred million miles of void, invisibly hurtling towards us, came the first of the missiles that were to bring so much calamity to Earth. As I watched, there was another jet of gas. It was another missile, starting on its way." I would like to ask all of you: do you feel in charge of your own life? Do you feel that you are the Master of your own self? Do you think that your life is something that you control and never shall it escape of your grip? Do you feel this? Then, you are either no more than 18 years old or you are the President of the United States (even here there could be some problems). Let me tell you, guys, which are the few priorities people have in their life, and I will explain in a second how all this crap I write links to viruses and 29A. So, the priorities are as follow: 1. family 2. job 3. hobbies This is as shortly as one could put it. Family always comes first: this is because you are borne with your family, then you choose your family when you get married and furthermore you make your own family when you have kids. So for something that is as much random as non-random, it must be on the first place. Job, of course comes second, because job means money, means social protection, means development. And by means of job you are able to support your first priority family and your third priority, the hobbies. On the last place come your own hobbies. It is more than obvious why: job takes most of you time, family gets the rest of the free time and only a small, small part of what is still free is left for your own hobbies... Did you notice that? Did you notice that even IF you consider that the family and the job are the most important things for you, you feel the biggest frustration whenever you are not able to fulfill the least important one: the hobbies... But this is very logical! People are individuals! Individuals have personality! Personality leads to an unconscious desire of fulfilling your OWN dreams, your OWN pleasures, your OWN hobbies... "And that's how it was for the next ten nights. A flare, spurting out from Mars - bright green, drawing a green mist behind it - a beautiful, but somehow disturbing sight. Ogilvy, the astronomer, assured me we were in no danger. He was convinced there could be no living thing on that remote, forbidding planet." So, this is probably why I feel compelled of sending everybody my deepest apologies for not being able to fulfill all my promises. The thing is that usually I like and I do keep my promises, and also usually I don't really give a crap if somebody has anything to comment on my behalf... But the actual apologies do not come for you, they come for myself. I have to apologize to myself for not being able to fulfill all my dreams and all my desires... But I have to be honest with me: life won! Life took me over... I have lost the battle... "It seems totally incredible to me now that everyone spent that evening as though it were just like any other. From the railway station came the sound of shunting trains, ringing and rumbling, softened almost into melody by the distance. It all seemed so safe and tranquil." You have no idea what it means to be a dreamer... I am a mother fucking dreamer, and sorry for cursing but it's true! I dream all kinds of things... I dream with my eyes wide opened and that is when you feel more disappointed then ever: when you dream and your dreams do not come true, and not because of you, but because of the environment. I had so many dreams in programming for this year... And believe me, there is NOTHING in this world that I like more than programming... And yet, believe me or not I had no fucking time to do it!! The battle with time is not fair at all... And when you realize that you have lost, it is much, much too late... I had so many ideas during all this time, but... job was keeping me away from home and from my computer... My girlfriend was feeling ignored... My mother and my girlfriend don't get along at all... I am always in the middle... And life becomes a mess... And out of all this shit the bottom line is: you have NO time left to do what you like the most... Isn't it interesting how EVERYBODY around you thinks that whatever THEY like is better, whatever THEY think is more important, whenever and whatever THEY want to do has the biggest priority? Isn't it interesting how EVERYBODY knows better than you what is the best for YOU?!?! And what can you do? You have to comply because, remember? The family is the most important... Isn't it funny how nobody around you simply does not understand that programming for the programmer is as important as is painting for the painter? How can everybody be so bounded and blinded that they simply do not understand this?? You will not believe me, but it's the truth: as I was writing this article my mother bursted into the room kicking and screaming that I don't let her read some email message from my sister and I am just "playing" on the computer... See what I mean? THEY are always more important... It doesn't even matter that it's my computer! It doesn't even matter that it's my e-mail address... All that matter is for "THEM" to achieve their goals... Life is a shit! "Next morning, a crowd gathered on the Common, hypnotized by the unscrewing of the cylinder. Two feet of shining screw projected when, suddenly, the lid fell off!" As you probably understood so far, I am pretty angry. I am not angry on somebody in particular... nope... just on life. And what is scaring me is that the more I look, the more I realize that, people... this is IT! This is how LIFE is!!! You cannot do anything about it!! We are all bound to work for the rest of our miserable life to fulfill other's desires and dreams. And guess what: those, themselves feel the same way!!!! They feel their dreams are not fulfilled... They feel betrayed too! And that is why human kind is bound to be forever and ever unhappy!!!! "A few young men crept closer to the pit. A tall funnel rose, then an invisible ray of heat leapt from man to man and there was a bright glare, as each was instantly turned to fire. Every tree and bush became a mass of flames at the touch of this savage, unearthly Heat Ray. When the smoke cleared, the little steamer had reached the misty horizon, and Carrie was safe. But the Thunder Child had vanished forever, taking with her man's last hope of victory. The leaden sky was lit by green flashes, cylinder following cylinder, and no one and nothing was left now to fight them. The Earth belonged to the Martians." What is the most annoying is that you will always feel incapable of doing anything about it... I think that children should be told when they are borne: hey, kido! It's not long until you will not be able to desire anything, so ask for everything now when you still can! But, of course, where would be the fun of discovering life? Some say that idiots learn by themselves and smart people learn from the others. Well, personally I think that it's a combination of the two... Somewhere in the middle... "That evening, there was a violent crash and I realized with horror that my home was now within range of the Martian's Heat Ray. At dawn, a falling star with a trail of green mist landed with a flash like summer lightning. This was the second cylinder.[...] Never before in the history of the world had such a mass of human beings moved and suffered together. This was no disciplined march - it was a stampede - without order and without a goal, six million people unarmed and unprovisioned, driving headlong. It was the beginning of the rout of civilization, of the massacre of mankind." So, after this surely boring dissertation let me tell you why do I feel this way... Briefly this is what I wanted to release in the new issue of 29A: a metamorphic engine, a polymorphic engine, a compression engine, three viruses and at least 4 articles. I have started all of them as follow: 1. Engines a. Metamorphozis b. Modularis c. Lord Julus's Lev-Zimpel Compression Engine 4. Viruses a. Win32.Rammstein b. Win32.Guyana c. Win32.SSS (SunSet Superman) 5. Articles a. Compression part II b. Metamorphism c. Backdoors d. Local network infection e. Using errors under win32 6. Utilities a. BeholdPE As far as the viruses are concerned I was only able to finish Rammstein and I have to say I am really proud of this baby. Of course it is not finished as I have to include the compression engine, the metamorphism engine and the poly. All my articles are currently under construction as of 20th of October. I do hope to finish them in time for 29A. Modularis and LJLZ32 are also almost finished, but again... have no idea if the time will allow me to do it to after all... Also, I spent a lot of time working on the BeholdPE utility which finally came out to be quite an interesting program and really useful. Of course, I have to work some more on it, maybe turn it to Win32, but for the moment it is pretty good... About the rest,... well, if you see it in this issue, it means I have succeded... but I doubt it! I am quite sure that my friends in the 29A Group, all of them great guys, felt that I kinda drifted away from the group as my messages came always late, they were less, my contributions don't come in time... Anyway, I have to thank all of them for being so patient and I hope that this article explains most of these things... "A fifth Machine appeared on the far bank. It raised itself to full height, flourished the funnel high in the air - and the ghostly, terrible Heat Ray struck the town. As it struck, all five Fighting Machines exulted, emitting deafening howls which roare d like thunder. [...] With a white flash, the Heat Ray swept across the river. Scalded, half- blinded and agonized, I staggered through leaping, hissing water towards the shore. I fell helplessly, in full sight of the Martians, expecting nothing but death." What can one expect to fulfill his desires than a miracle? No, don't laugh! It's a reality... Nowadays, you need a miracle to allow you to fulfill your dreams... Ok, you might think: look at this pathetic guy... his dreams are a poly engine and some articles... Yes! So WHAT?!? Who the fuck cares what my dreams are?!? My dreams are MY DREAMS and I want to fulfill them... If I wanted to raise ants I would raise ants... If I wanted to build a pyramid I would dedicate my whole life to that desire!!! It's human nature, people! We want to do what we like to do! It is how we are built! "I looked up and saw a third machine. It was erect and motionless, like the others. An insane resolve possessed me I would give my life to the Martians, here and now. I marched recklessly towards the Titan and saw that a multitude of black birds was circ ling and clustering about the hood. I began running along the road. I felt no fear, only a wild, trembling exultation, as I ran up the hill towards, the motionless monster. Out of the hood hung red shreds, at which the hungry birds now pecked and tore. I scrambled up to the crest of Primrose Hill, and the Martian's camp was below me. A mighty space it was, and scattered about it, in their overturned machines, were the Martians - dead... slain, after all man's devices had failed, by the humblest things upon the Earth, Bacteria. Minute, invisible, bacteria!" I hope you did not get TOO bored of this long and full of tears article... But this is the mood I am into and this is what I transmit to you... I hope also that you had the time to read the passages from the "War of the Worlds". It shows you how a so pride kind like the humankind can be defeated in a few seconds if it is not careful enough... It also shows how it can find escape by something that people always considered and enemy... It proves that no matter how much you think things, no matter how long you make your plans, there will always be something that will tear-up your plans... And still, there will always be hope that somewhere, sometime, whenever you expect less something will arise and help you out... Maybe even something that you considered harmful... See, usually I am a very positive and happy person, so probably this is why I tried to end this introduction with a more or less positive note... The message is that regardless how BAD things are there is always HOPE... So, here I am, hoping that someday I will be able to fulfill all of my dreams! These were the words from Lord Julus... Stay well, everybody!!! ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿ ³ Lord Julus / 29A ³Û ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙÛ ßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßßß