benutz
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Mar 2, 2020
There isn't much money in that I don't think. I could be wrong. The fact it's underground means that it may be tolerated but at some point when people want to start earning off the backs of others, it will NOT be tolerated any more. Many such cases in the reverse engineering world. Very few are foolish enough to try to make money. They know they will be arrested first for breaking obvious laws. They are too intelligent to say that they didn't know what they are doing. This is why they hide their tracks so much and it is so difficult to get in to reverse engineering (Cracking) without passing several shit tests first.
Having said that, the skills he had were definitely 'leet'. There aren't many people in the world at that level. I pulled a figure out of my ass before and said he was in the top 1 percentile. I stand by that. I might be wrong. But he's up there.
It is very very credible that someone like this with these skills would be head-hunted by a corporation, and especially a Japanese corporation, to reverse hardware. Reversing software is one thing, but ROM Hacking and Cracking is another. There just aren't that many people who are that autistic and still functional. Any one else clever enough to do it, and not autistic, would find other ways to make money, because as anyone who has ever delved in to the reverse engineering (cracking) scene will know, it's fucking boring, long work.
It's one thing to know when to use SoftIce, another to know when to use IDA. It's one thing to know when to use WindASM or MASM, but another to know when you actually have good chances of Decompiling as opposed to Disassembling. Java is a good bet for Decompilation, C++ not so much.
Near knew all this. He was a master. Not just any master. He was a guru. And this is what ate away at him. No one recognizing him. I see you motherfucker, I know you. Deep deep respect and kudos from me. He ate Assembly language for breakfast and could probably quote you every mnemonic in Randall P Hyde's seminal work.
Near was a freak, and not for just being a tranny. If you haven't read Christina Cifuentes' seminal paper on cracking Win32 architecture, then you may not know how much of a superstar Near is in the cracking field. Hell, even other crackers probably never heard of this dude as it's just so fucking obscure what he dedicated his life to.
So many regrets. And he voiced those very regrets himself. In pretty much the same for that anyone in the reversing game (cracking) knows, fuck, I just spent 8 years trying to crack HASP, now I have cancer and I am gonna die in six months. Many such cases. Sad!
I said before about knowing of hackers (crackers) on the scene that woke up one day to find 10 years have gone (quite literally but eh, Pink Floyd), and they just want to go outside to touch grass.
Reverse engineering/cracking is fucking addictive.
If you want to read Christina Cifuentes' thesis on Reverse Compilation Techniques, then go here - https://yurichev.com/mirrors/DCC_decompilation_thesis.pdf
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Having been involved in the scene, and a member of certain 'secret' forums, for several years now (I'm still in touch with some of them) I can tell you that all these big corporations reverse (crack) the hell out of each other all the time.
Especially the Japs. Even more the Chinks. What, how the fuck did you think they got a 4/5th generation fighter jet without scanning out the plans that were given to them by American Traitors such as Biden and son, and all that went before them? At least the Japs are known to have got the plans for their 4/5th generation fighters by legal means.
Big big money there. And you got a corporation to hide yo' ass, all along with their international corporate lawyers.
No fucking wonder that Near wanted to vanish in to the night.
I've known people hired to reverse (crack) fucking washing machines, and people hired to reverse (crack) fucking printers. They all had one thing in common - anonymity. First rule of reversing (cracking). Serious hiding, because any ties to them might be tied back to a multi-national corporation they were working for.
Reversing (cracking) might be the second oldest trade in the world next to you know what is Numbah WAN (me luv u long time). If not, it's the 3rd or 4th or wtf.
Mmmmm... see how many units they are selling! How the fuck do they do that?
Someone like Near would have been head-hunted to near death. So many corporation trying to outdo each other, so little time. Any past transgression like reversing (cracking) Nintendo could have been parlayed between the major players. Sometimes you just don't want to go there. You takes yer losses. As the other man does. You only fight battles you have a fairly good chance of winning.
I may do a deep dive on Near. I find this whole thing utterly fascinating, whilst being twice removed from any emotional shit - I don't care about teh farms getting dossed (no offence) because I know a bigger game is afoot.
One last thing on my little spergout: The fact that Near offered his services as a humble programmer to the farms, stinks to high heaven. Crackers of that type, and I do know one or two, see that whole markup language like HTML or PHP, or PERL, or anything to do with the LAMP stack really, as supremely fucking annoying. The only reason he would offer this is for sabotage. Every time I got to their secret website these days, it looks like it's been coded by a fucking monkey. Yet they work in Australia, and are from Bulgaria/Romania.
Yeah, take my life savings, plus I'll be your programmer slave for whatever you want done. Fucking Joker.
Still getting my head around why Josh offered him possible work, apart from the fact he was covering himself and reverse baiting ol' Near in good turn!
Anyway, tonight I am drunk, but in the morning I shall still be ugly, or something like that.
