From: hadley@thoth.ics.uci.edu (Tedd Hadley)
Subject: Re: Something seriously amiss
Newsgroups: rec.games.netrek
Organization: UC Irvine Department of ICS
Date: 14 Oct 92 18:52:13 GMT

In <ldog0gINNf2m@grit.cs.utexas.edu> davidt@cs.utexas.edu (David Eng-Yeow Teo) writes:

>I still think that the client is stretching it alittle.  Reasons :-

>1)  Visible Tractors :-

>Approved but maybe you ought to look at it again.  If you tractor or pressor someone before he cloaks, the tractor lines will still be there.  In such situation, the client is acting like a borg with "See Cloakers" option on.

   That's a bug.  In fact I find it much harder to get a phaser lock
   with those tractor lines flashing around.

>2)  Source File is borgish with RWATCH option :-

>The source file includes options to see cloakers, I dont know if the blessed version has that option on, and I dont think it does.  However it is still a form of publicly available borg code.

   Source != blessed.  It so happens that I keep my robot viewing program
   code in the same source with the normal client.  Pre-proccessor symbols
   allow you to do this without including useless (or forbidden) code
   in the blessed binaries.  RWATCH = robot watch

   Did you know, Dave, that the public source for the galaxy client (available
   for at least a year, now) included a procedure for autophasering plasma?

>3)  Last but not least - The source file includes an option to fake your login name :-

   See above.  Source != blessed.

>I dont know if the blessed version is compiled with the -DPCLIENT option,

   It is.  PCLIENT == public client.

> if not, the user will be able to set his login name to whatever he wants in
> his .xtrekrc file, thus fooling the server admins and enabling him to bypass any bans from any server by any server admin.
>  Even if the blessed version is compiled with the option,
> the source code is publicly available to anyone who wants to build such
> a client.

   They've got to bless it first.

>Although it is a relatively easy hack to achieve this, it doesnt mean that the method has to be publicly revealed to the world.

   Good going Dave.  You just did :)   See, I never officially released
   the client source.  I put some stuff there on ftp quite long ago so
   various client developers (who sent mail to me) could ftp it and extract
   features, etc..  In fact, I believe what you got was a completely
   experimental version of a packet compression scheme I was working on.
   I put it there so a couple of people (contacted by email before) could
   compile it and test it on calvin.  I support the blessed client binaries
   on cad.ics.uci.edu, but I do not support that particular source code
   (obviously, since it's a mess :)

   This is an unfortunate side-effect of anon ftp, it's very convenient to
   use it to distribute code to known friends, but as long as the code is
   there, anyone else can grab it.

   My other point is: it doesn't make sense to make a fuss over trivial hacks.
   If I included a detailed dodging algorithm, maybe people could object
   on grounds that I'm making it too easy to write a robot.  Sure, I
   understand.  That messes up the programming competition on borg servers.
   But your assumption seems to be that those trivial hacks are going to get
   blessed here, there, and everywhere.  If that's the case, the real problem
   is the blessing scheme.

++
   Tedd Hadley (hadley@uci.edu)