Play Mats (Part 2 of 2)

Last time I told the story of the banned play mat and wondered what it was that could have prompted such a reaction.

It’s easy to figure out.  Look at the women in the artwork.  There is a lot of skin being shown and we can’t have nudity corrupting the youth.

That’s the knee-jerk answer.  But it doesn’t feel right.  The corrupting the youth argument wouldn’t sway anyone, especially when you consider some of the artwork on other cards.  Look at Radha, Heir to Keld: here, we have a woman showing skin and a decapitated head. 

But these discussions usually break down.  What’s acceptable in one culture is not acceptable in another culture.  In addition, there is the overall feeling of never getting a satisfying answer.  It certainly wasn’t going to be worthy of any meaningful discussions or blog posts.

But that changed.  I received a phone call from an acquaintance who writes scripts for Hollywood.  After some pleasantries and helping him, I told him about this little incident and asked his opinion on it.

“That’s easy” he quipped.  “Hollywood has a very strict standard on how women are to be depicted.

Rule 1: All females are to be portrayed as strong women.
Rule 2: Sexy is OK, borderline on being encouraged.
Rule 3: Never, ever depict a woman where she is powerless or in a submissive situation.

If the women were nude, it would not matter.  But that they are serving another as a slave is the problem.”

At least for me, that’s a satisfying answer. 

Server down for maintenance

We took the chance of today extended Magic Online downtime to add some new features to our server. We will keep the server down for a bit, but in 6/8 hours it will be up again

Play Mats (Part 1 of 2)

A few months ago during a Grand Prix event, news had spread that a play mat which to be distributed was going to be removed due to the image depicted was deemed offensive.

Obviously, this brings some attention.  Many are curious.  It is human nature to be curious.  Cries of censorship were made, although that is a weak argument.  Wikipedia offers this as a definition: 

Censorship is the suppression of speech or other public communication which may be considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or inconvenient as determined by a government, media outlet, or other controlling body.

The removal of this play mat was not done by a government agency or even a government individual, but rather a private business and a private business is more or less free to do whatever it chooses to do.  Naturally, the business in question would have to live with the consequences of their action, but this is not censorship in the strictest sense.

By now, you’re probably curious as to what the image in question is…  I’ll have more commentary next time.

MTGO Library Bot 5.07 is out!

ML Bot 5.07 fixes a couple of minor bugs with the new UI. It also fixes a problem with "Restarter.exe", that was unable to automatically re-launch the bot because of the new positions of the buttons.

MTGO Library Bot 5.06 is out!

ML Bot version 5.06 is out. It features a larger UI to fit more controls and make things more clear.

The new UI is still under development, so what you see in 5.06 is not definitive.

ML Bot 5.06 includes also a number of missing cards from the PRM set.

MTGOLibrary Minimum Resolution

If you have a big screen you might not have any issues running MTGO Library bots but for those using smaller screens, such as 15" or 17" or even some smaller widescreen monitors this post might be useful for you.

Most 17"+ monitors support the 1280x1024 resolution which is the "ideal" resolution to run the bot on any spare machine or even a Virtual Machine. MTGO Library bot can be run in a lower resolution of 1280x800 but this can't be done without a small tweak.

 

If you see the example of my computer setup, I use a big 28.5" screen and a 17" screen to monitor the bots activity. I run my bots from the VMWare Workstation (on the left) and although they are using a smaller screen resolution(1280x960) than the screen they're on (1280x1024) you can see, due to the VMWare's menu bars etc,  that the virtual machines screen will be not fully shown forcing me to scroll up and down and to the sides to be able to close windows/get to start menu etc.

Auto Hide Windows Taskbar

I will guide you step by step on how to setup your start menu bar to automatically hide so you can run MTGO Library in its lowest possible resolution of 1280x800, which in this case, allows me to access the start menu without me scrolling up and down on the VMWare to access start menu. This is also useful to users that have the limitation of a 1280x800 resolution due to their small and single screen, such as some laptops.

Firstly you need to right click on the Start Menu bar and go into "Properties".
Then make sure you tick the option "Auto-hide the taskbar" and untick the "keep taskbar on top of other windows".
Below you have images of what settings you require to tick and untick to run the MTGO Library bot on a 1280x800 resolution on different Windows versions.

Windows XP

 Windows 7/Vista

Now your Magic Online window will be the full size of your screen and with these settings the start menu wont be over the Magic Online's menu bar, allowing the bot to run effectively.  

In my next post I will guide you on how to set up your mouse scrolling to work with the bot.

Smartphone Data Accessed by Finders

Symantec has recently put together an experiment to simulate what happens to lost smartphones. The Symantec Smartphone Honey Stick Project involves 50 “lost” smartphones that were seeded with simulated corporate and personal data then intentionally lost in public locations in 5 different cities in the US & Canada. Each “lost” phone was then monitored to see what happened to them after they were found.
The results of the project were quite interesting:

• Only half of the people who found one of the phones attempted to return it
• 96% of the lost smartphones were accessed by the finders (the data was viewed, even by those with intentions to return)
• 60% of the finders attempted to view social media information and email
• 80% of the finders attempted to access corporate information 
• 50% of the finders attempted to run the “remote admin” app, which would hypothetically connect to corporate networks
• Nearly half of the finders tried to access the owner’s bank account

Although Symantec chalks up some of these statistics to curiosity, it’s clear that any data you have on your smartphone is at risk… even if you get that smartphone back.

MTGO Library Bot 5.05 is out!

ML Bot 5.05 fixes a crash in Magic Online, causing the bot to restart Magic Online over and over

MTGO Library Bot 5.04 is out!

ML Bot 5.04 is out. Two major bug fixes:

1- the auto-updater does not crash anymore
2- the bot is now able to purchase the Avacyn Restored Boosters

MTGO Library Bot 5.03 is out!

ML Bot version 5.03 is out and now features the https (http + ssl) connection.

This means that all the communications with the server (such as trades, credits, and so on) are encrypted and thus cannot be 'sniffed'.

In a nutshell, it's an extra layer of protection.

Server in maintenance

Hello, mtgolibrary.com is currently down - it will be up in a couple of hours, just the time to put online some extra code in it -


UPDATE: the server is now up and running again. We apologize for the issue

Magic Online 10th Anniversary Celebration!

On June 20, 2002, Wizards of the Coast released Magic: The Gathering Online. WotC created a place where you can play Magic any time you want to. No matter if it is a day or night, weekday or holiday. Ten years, 60 sets, and nearly 14,000 cards. The MtGO 10th Anniversary Celebration starts after the downtime on June 20 and runs until 10:00 AM on July 5. The 10th Anniversary Celebration features the following:

• Invasion Block Booster Drafts
• 8-Player Constructed Queues (WotC added an extra booster to prize structure)
• 2-player Gold Constructed Queues (entrance 10 event tickets, but for winning you get 5 Avacyn Restored boosters)
• Spotlight Tournaments: Pauper, Standard, Phantom Avacyn Restored Sealed Deck and Legacy
• Double Magic Online Player Rewards (you will receive double the Magic Online Player Rewards points for each qualifying event you play in)
• Lifetime Magic Online Player Rewards (players who have reached certain lifetime MOPR points totals will get the reward, such as premium or regular Unghined basic land, alternate art regular or premium Hymn to Tourach)

Let the celebration begin! For us, botters, it is a perfect time, because much more people visit our bots!

MTGO Library Bot 5.02 is out!

ML Bot v 5.02 is out, fixing a crash with the screenshot maker. The crash happens on versions 5.00 and 5.01 when pausing and un-pausing the bot keypressing CTRL+A

MTGO Library Bot 5.01 is out

Version 5.01 of ML Bot is now out, just fixing a couple of minor bugs.

MTGO Library Bot 5.00 is out

ML Bot 5.00 is out!
There are a number of bug fixes and improvements. Among the others:

- the bot will automatically reload the prices (CardsMTGO3.txt and PersonalPrices.txt) if it detects they changed. This is useful if you use a VPN and edit these files from remote, because ML Bot will detect that you changed them and will reload the prices immediately.

- when the server is down, the bot won't display the "impossibile stabilire una connessione" message in the Classified and the Trading rooms.

- the bot will download the messages from the Online Control Panel every 60 minutes, compared to the old 90 minutes.

Startup Culture

"A world without barriers is creating a revival in human endeavor and enterprise. 

The fact that anyone with a smart phone has access to more data than the US President did 15 years ago is creating micro innovation and new global possibilities. There is a great flip away from the blocking nature of the industrial stalwarts who controlled the 19th century. 

Access and democratisation of the factors of production is allowing humans to again follow their natural genetic desire to create, innovate and start things which improve the human plight."

Read the full article here.

We are moving to a world where data will become more and more important. Data can be digged for information and patterns, and stream revenues can be created when good data mining is available.

Mtgolibrary.com stores the trading and pricing data from 2006, and we will soon use them in order to increase the bots' capability to adapt to the market and respond to it quickly.

MTGO Library Bot 4.99 is out!

ML Bot version 4.99 is out. It fixes a minor issue with the price updater - rarely the bot was unable to correctly download the prices from mtgolibrary.com

MTGO Library Bot 4.98 is out!

The new version of ML Bot, 4.98, is now available for download. The new version contains a number of bug fixes, so an upgrade is recommended.

DNS Security (Part 4 of 4)

As we conclude this series on DNS Security, what can we botters do to improve our security?

The first step is to analyse what DNS servers you are actually using and how you can improve it.  Gibson Research Corporation has a wonderful utility for this located at http://www.grc.com/dns/benchmark.htm.  It goes into far more detail than I can here.

With the Linkedin Password leaking story of this week, it is important to remember how passwords are utilized.  Many sites will use a well known algorithm like MD5 to change the password into a blobby string.  This blobby string is then compared to a database which is stored on the server which you desire access to.

When you hear about a site losing control of their passwords, it is this database which has been compromised.  With possession of this database, the bad guys can compare these password hashes to their database of common passwords being hashed with MD5 and other hashes.  These are known as Rainbow Tables.

By the way, the fix for this is very simple, it is called Salting the Hash.  In addition to using this well known algorithm, a smart person will add their own secret salt recipe to the mix so that even knowing the hashed password, it will do the bad guy no good, and they will not know how to generate it.

So use this news story as an excuse to not only change your Linkedin password, but all your passwords.  Remember to use a long password as well, the longer the better.  If you desire a 2013 view on how passwords should be constructed, visit https://www.grc.com/haystack.htm.

LinkedIn passwords leaked

LinkedIn confessed it had a data breach that compromised the passwords of some of its members, the social networking site said on Wednesday.

LinkedIn engineer Vicente Silveira confirmed on the site's blog that some passwords were "comprised." (http://tinyurl.com/cxje9xo)

"We are continuing to investigate this situation," he said.

LinkedIn said it sent emails to members whose passwords were affected explaining how to reset them, since they are no longer valid on the site.

If you use the same password on LinkedIn as in another website or email address, I strongly recommend you changing all your passwords.

Wikiprice now features more reliable prices

Last week we released a major improvement on wikiprice. Among the others, the prices are now updated more frequently, and the prices older than a week are automatically removed from the database.

If you are a bot owner, you will be able to see your bot listed on wikiprice in 4-5 hours after you launched it.

If you are a Magic Online user, you will find more bots and more reliable prices.

DNS Security (Part 3 of 4)

Last time we had a brief discussion on DNS (Dynamic Name Servers) and I identified what the problem facing many Internet users are.  Today, I’m going to list what we botters can do to see if we have been infected by this piece of malware.

First off, a website has been created to describe the problem in more detail than I did last time.

http://www.dcwg.org/

To see if you have been infected by this DNS changer malware, you visit this site:

http://www.dns-ok.us/

Since our bots are run on dedicated machines or virtual machines, these machines do not normally surf the Internet and certainly do not visit any high value sites except for MTGO Library.

So we would expect that our bot machines will pass the test.  If for some reason, your bot machines, or your primary machine does not pass the test, the website lists various fixes which are available.

Everything is pretty standard and nothing seems overly dramatic or difficult.

So why am I did I choose this series?  Because this one piece of malware, which has infected hundreds of thousands of users, had garnished such a large response from the various alphabet soup agencies and the computer security companies at large.  I was listening to David Perry, Director of Public Education for Trend Micro who said that each and every day, 50,000 pieces of malware are created.  He made a point to mention that these are unique pieces of malware, not changing a character to up the count and call it a new one.  He said that no one uses a count which include “variants” anymore.

So next time I am going to conclude this series on some advice on computer security and how we can run our bots and not worry about malware.

Snapcaster Mage

WotC admitted that they messed up with Snapcaster Mage. I'm not going to sit here and look you in the eye and tell you that Snapcaster Mage is a fair Magic card.  Let me quote Zac Hill: "I worked with Tiago Chan to design it, and by the time they realized exactly how powerful it was in concert with the abundance of one-mana cantrips in Standard, the card was already out the door. We knew it was something we were going to have to attack in order to keep Standard in check. The challenge was deciding how best to do that. Now, before I dive into that process a little further, I want to spend a little bit of time talking about how we engineer cards that try to help put some reins on the environment. There are a couple of different kinds of hate cards. Some—like Grafdigger's Cage". With Snapcaster, you're just getting value along an axis. You might be Unsummoning twice, or cantripping, or countering a spell, or flashing back Dismember, or whatever. Snapcaster Mage, though, ensures that once your opponent has cast a single Mana Leak, it's actually more likely for your next spell to get countered than your first one, because in addition to the three remaining Mana Leaks, there are four more Snapcaster Mages capable of "turning on" that Mana Leak. This card is generating great card aventage, it has flash so that it can enter the battlefield whenever a player wants to. Therefore, you can even be killed by this creature if you are really low on life. I really don't see any drawback in this card. Snapcaster Mage is run in every possible format.

Why did I write about this right now? Well, soon WotC is going to announce the new ban list, many people are speculating that Snapcaster Mage is going to be on the list. Maybe now it is a good time to get rid off your Snapcasters.

DNS Security (Part 2 of 4)

Last time I referenced an article which states that hundreds of thousands of users may lose Internet connectivity on July 9th. 

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/05/25/google-warns-hundreds-thousands-may-lose-internet-in-july/

So what is this DNS anyway?  The best way to look at DNS, (Dynamic Name Server), is what many of us use our smartphones for.  When you decide to call John Smith, you tell your phone to not dial “John Smith” but a phone number associated with John Smith.  So you select John Smith and your phone redirects that request and dials 212-555-6789. 

DNS works the same way.  You put in www.mtgolibrary.com and your browser translates that into an aaa.bbb.ccc.ddd Internet address.

So what does this piece of malware do?  It just sits there, monitoring which DNS requests are made and if a high-value site is requested, this malware will intercept the valid request and substitute a fake answer in its place.  So instead of legitimately going to aaa.bbb.ccc.ddd for your bank, you’ll go to vvv.xxx.yyy.zzz instead.

Now what the bad guys will do is set up a site which looks and feels like your bank at vvv.xxx.yyy.zzz so that to the casual user, they’ve reached their bank.  The bad guys will even pull images from your bank’s real webpage to make the façade appear more authentic.  You then log into your bank and now the bad guys have your credentials and can now make a sizable withdrawal from your account.

So what can we botters do to deal with this silent but nasty threat?  We’ll touch on that next time.