Monday 24 March 2008

Cheating at Counter strike

In Counter Strike: Condition Zero, various levels are to be completed and each level has its challenges. The screenshot below shows the challenges for the map "Stadium" in "Hard" level. The names of the enemy bots are clearly mentioned and are actually well chosen so that the challenges are effective.The cheat is actually a loophole. The essence of the cheat is that if we change the bots that make the challenge effective, then the challenge becomes easier. The challenge counter, e.g. the number of enemies to be killed, remains the same however.

Let me take the help of an example to explain how the cheat works. Suppose in the above game I found that Razor being a sniper is causing me more problems than the other bots. So I went to the command line using '~' button. The Console appeared as shown below. I typed in the command
kick Razor
and the outcome was leaving of Razor and joining of Floyd.
Another time, in the next round when I did it Cooper joined the CT forces, as shown in the following screenshot. Each time a random bot was added to the CT forces and the match became 6 on 6 rather than 5 on 7.
The challenge counters that counted the number of kills by me were intact but the challenge lost meaning to some extent.

Saturday 22 March 2008

Spread of malware

Many people use pirated software and use cracks and serials. The temptation of saving money opens gateways for unsolicited malware. The links provided to download cracks are often fake and even the cracks contain malware themselves.
The download link above downloads a virus file.

Tuesday 11 March 2008

Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1

Before installation of IE8 Beta 1, the installer checks for malicious software on the system as can be seen below - something to be appreciate. It bears testimony of Microsoft's growing focus on security to its popularity and compete *nix systems.There is website filter that acts much like McAfee's SiteAdvisor. It says some sites shall be sent to Microsoft for verification of not being malicious. It is supposed to provide "real-time" protection.

After the first start, a few customizations are available. A wizard asks you about your default search engine. You can add online from a list of popular ones as I added Google (below).You can also build your custom search bar plugins as follows. Moreover, this is actually simpler than building search bar plugins for Firefox. If
Below is another feature of IE8 which is available in Firefox as a separate plugin.

Firefox has grown so popular that while talking of IE a comparision spontaneously comes to the mind. In Firefox, there is an option of checking for forged sites by checking from a list of downloaded sites or by checking with Google.