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 | Spammers 
Wednesday, August 12, 2009 3:47 AM
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A lot of my time over the past few weeks has been spent weeding out spammers. Spammers in the forums, spammers in the articles and spammers in the member pages.
The latest (well, latest that I've noticed on CodeProject) trend is to go to a site that allows a member to have a profile page, create a page that contains whatever loathsome spam-ridden message you want to pass on, and then send a spam email with links to that profile page. Actually, links to about 20 profile pages spread across different sites.
This is a sneaky way to try and get around email spam filters. I'm assuming the theory is along the lines of: The links in the email aren't to banned sites so they get through email filters (even though "viagra" is the main topic of the email). Spammees get the email, think to themselves "That's exactly what I need in my life!" click the link, go to CodeProject, see the profile, click another (fatal) link and get their machine infected with zombieware and leave unsatisfied.
At least that's as close as I can guess.
The upshot is that I spent probably 2hrs a day analysing the results of the filters, with each new IP or keyword or pattern unearthing a new motherlode of fake accounts for me to shovel through.
We're getting there, and while I appreciate (but am equally horrified) at the large spikes in page views we get each time one of these mis-directed spams go out, it is getting a little old.
cheers,
Chris Maunder
The Code Project Co-founder
Microsoft C++ MVP
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| Introducing The Code Project Add-In for Visual Studio 2008
Friday, May 15, 2009 1:08 PM
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We were thinking about the following:
You’re in Visual Studio 2008 working on a nasty block of code. Remembering that one of your Code Project cohorts recently posted an elegant solution for a similar problem you highlight some code and hit search. Up pops the exact article in The Code Project Add-In window. No time wasted. No pulled hair and exasperating searches. Valuable information is just one click away.
So we wrote it. The Code Project Add-In for Visual Studio 2008[^] does this, and will do a whole lot more once we're through.
We wrote this add-in so our members would have quick access to our 23,000+ articles in addition to MSDN and Live Search. No more toggling back and forth between your work and web searches. We hope this will make your work easier. It’s free and it's available now. Does it get any better than that? Download here[^]
cheers,
Chris Maunder
The Code Project Co-founder
Microsoft C++ MVP
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Hi chris
I am a student and I have to do a project about jenetic algorithm I would be so grateful if you could help me. it is about the implementing the genetic algorithm which was used in an article in C language. the name of article is:
solving uncapicitated hub location using genetic algorithm. I would be so grateful if I had your email inorder to sent it to u
Thanks in advance.
abbbas
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hai sir
can i use in contentplaceholder in child page
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Urgent Enquiries About Share Point Work Flow.
Naposon Group LMT.
30b Martin Street Lagos
Nigeria .
Tel +234 8025066097
Fax +234 0198993
Hello Chris,
You are receiving this mail from Naposon Group we are newly appointed government Share Point designer which gives us an eager over our rivals here, But the truth is that we have not been able to complete most of the project that is given to us and this is really giving us BIG concern.
We would like to partner with your company so you can assist us sort most of the difficult part of it, We are ready to abide by your laws and we wish this will showcase your companies power in my country,
Hoping receive an urgent response this email so as to enable us put a hold to most of the work we have at the moment.
Thank You.
Mr Uche Howard
Ceo.
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Tonight I closed The Soapbox.
I started the Code Project with David nearly 10 years ago. My goal was to provide a place where software developers could come together and share free source code. Our site grew quickly and attracted an amazing group of developers who were instrumental in providing content for others. Fundamental to the atmosphere we created on The Code Project was the rule that members treat other members with respect.
We opened the lounge soon after we started the site and, boys being boys (at least mostly at that time) things sometimes got a little rowdy. We then opened the Soapbox so that members would have a place to extend discussions on software development to areas not suitable for a PG audience. Language would sometimes get a little blue, discussions on why C++ was better than VB would get personal, and comments on MSDNs latest anchorwoman would, well, go where they would go. It was still all in good fun and (reasonable) good taste for a long time but then it started going downhill.
The Soapbox today is simply a place for a core group of members to discuss US politics, Global warming, religious sterotypes and to launch personal attacks. Often in the same message. The soapbox is no longer a place I can send errant messages, but instead has become a place where errant messages are encourage and condoned and a place that has absolutely nothing to do with what I orginally imagined our site to be.
There are so, so many other sites on the Internet where these topics, flame wars and personal vendettas can be indulged but our site is not one of them. So as of this evening I have closed the soapbox.
I'm sorry to those who genuinely enjoyed the hurly burly of it all but with the realisation that the forum does nothing other than fuel the very behaviour we don't want to see on our site it no longer makes any sense to keep it.
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Thanks Chris that's a good move, but are you sure you electrified all the fences in Lounge? 
As a serious reply, I had a little thought. When so many online business minds are struggling so much to attract people to their sites, you got them so easily in the soapbox. Well I'd say SB should never be a part of CP for sure, but you could have moved them out of CP's sight and kept it alive & running somewhere. A simple redirect would do. It might have been worth few Clicks!. Or you might have sold off the entire mob to some online forum-setup craze heads. 
For example :
www.CPSOAPBOX.com
-C'mmon let's fight it out here 
I know I suck at business ideas, but just my 2 cents 
OK,. what country just started work for the day ? The ASP.NET forum is flooded with retarded questions. -Christian Graus
Best wishes to Rexx[^]
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I've asked for the SB to be deleted myself, in the past. Oddly enough, I have my doubts now... but I just hope said troublemakers don't come over to the Lounge or the other forums.
I'm curious, Chris, what was happening last night? Did someone write a bot to tag other people's messages as abuse?
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Vikram A Punathambekar wrote: Did someone write a bot to tag other people's messages as abuse?
Someone just had way too much spare time.
It isn't the voting or the deleting of messages I care about in the least - if the Soapbox crowd wishes to play with the system like that then it's their choice. It was purely a content and purpose issue.
cheers,
Chris Maunder
CodeProject.com : C++ MVP
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Chris Maunder wrote: Someone just had way too much spare time.
Chris, some of those messages were being deleted where the majority of votes were 5's, and only 2 - 4 votes had been cast. My first thought was sock puppet, but that would still have required in an excess of a half-dozen votes, wouldn't it?
Jon
Smith & Wesson: The original point and click interface
Algoraphobia: An exaggerated fear of the outside world rooted in the belief that one might spontaneously combust due to global warming.
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Yep - it does look like 'mark as abuse' messages were being cast without a corresponding score vote being added as well. Not exactly a security issue (as far as I can tell) but more a cosmetic issue since it does look weird having a 5/5 message marked as Abuse.
I'm still digging to see where the missing votes are going.
cheers,
Chris Maunder
CodeProject.com : C++ MVP
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I just took a look at the Lounge Thread "The Soapbox and Option." Ilion has returned (he is usually missing in the afternoon and early evening) and messages are being deleted in there, without any votes in many cases, left and right. Yesterday, while he was not posting, there were no deletions, but when he resumed so did they. I don't know whether that's meaningful or not. But as I've said elsewhere, I believe that he has decided to take this site down. This is a vendetta aimed at you.
Jon
Smith & Wesson: The original point and click interface
Algoraphobia: An exaggerated fear of the outside world rooted in the belief that one might spontaneously combust due to global warming.
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Yep, I see it.
cheers,
Chris Maunder
CodeProject.com : C++ MVP
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Had the site been closed last Friday, this explanation would have sufficed. However, the problem that occurred on Saturday must have had some impact on your decision. That much of a coincidence doesn't seem to have too much of a probability. Had there not been a security leak, I suspect the SB would be open for business right now.
This is your site, and you have done nothing here that I have not done on (to?) a site I webmaster so I cannot presume to suggest that I know what your site should offer its regs and what it shouldn't. I will miss it and I assure you, that rough behavior or not, compared to many forums out there, SB was a pussycat.
Jon
Smith & Wesson: The original point and click interface
Algoraphobia: An exaggerated fear of the outside world rooted in the belief that one might spontaneously combust due to global warming.
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If it were a security issue I would pull down ALL forums. They all use the same code. The questions on what was going on forced me to trawl through all the messages and it really highlighted what a mess the place was. It's not an issue of how rough or not the SB is, but rather: Does it help the Software Development community, or does it simply promote disrespect?
In an indirect way the messing with the voting provoked the closure by shining the spotlight on the dark corners.
However, see my post in the lounge. It's a beautiful Sunday morning and I'm feeling less depressed about the Soapbox. Maybe there is a way to coexist.
cheers,
Chris Maunder
CodeProject.com : C++ MVP
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Chris Maunder wrote: Maybe there is a way to coexist.
I recognize that Soapbox is a privilge. I'll abide by the rules.
Jon
Smith & Wesson: The original point and click interface
Algoraphobia: An exaggerated fear of the outside world rooted in the belief that one might spontaneously combust due to global warming.
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This is the same thing that happened to USENET back in the day. It was an awesome source of information for a long time (in the beginning) and then AOL discovered USENET and exposed it to the unwashed masses. Not long after AOL opened it up it became a place for rants, porn, pirated software and all other kinds of seedy information.
One way to get around this is to apply filters (but then you need moderators) to messages that are deemed Political, Religious, Adult, Rant, etc. and then allow people to see those messages if they choose. The default is of course hidden.
I never read the soapbox personally so I wont miss it but I fear those discussions will now end up in the lounge. 
Todd Smith
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Todd Smith wrote: AOL discovered USENET and exposed it to the unwashed masses.
I wasn't thrilled with the ***holes on line, either, but my memories of the alt newsgroups is that they contained more than their fair share of rough and sometimes tough groups before AOL.
Maybe I should've been spending more time looking at other headers. But, for instance, alt.fan.heinlein is an exciting place to hang out - if you don't mind every third poster trying to emulate the grumpiness of Lazarus Long.
Jon
Smith & Wesson: The original point and click interface
Algoraphobia: An exaggerated fear of the outside world rooted in the belief that one might spontaneously combust due to global warming.
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Chris Maunder wrote: boys being boys (at least mostly at that time)
Most of the boys were boys at the time. Good to hear. 
Steve
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But in this case - the Back Room.
What exactly is a moderator? Rob said that, briefly, he had edit/delete power for everyone in the forum but it disappeared. If I had it, I never noticed it.
In all honesty I am not sure we need moderation - since elimination of voting from the Back Room, there's been one instance of a troll posting the same message nine or ten times (he was ignored) and the case of someone posting a harmful link - certainly something that could hapen in the public forums as easily as the Back Room and handled without any serious problems by reporting it to you.
However, if there must be such a thing, it is probably better that folks like me who think it is the ultimate of last resorts be vested. Only. . .right now I've got the title and nothing else. i.e. the emperor is feeling a draft.
Jon
Smith & Wesson: The original point and click interface
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Chris,
Please remove me from the Back Room Moderators group, and the list of moderators in the forum heading. I am no longer interested in participating in that forum.
Thanks,
Rob Graham
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You've actually got that power yourself - just edit the forum settings (top left link in the Backroom) and remove yourself from the Back Room Moderators group (Go to My Settings, Groups, and remove yourself)
cheers,
Chris Maunder
The Code Project Co-founder
Microsoft C++ MVP
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1 Memory Manager
Consider a system which is designed to be portable across platforms. Each platform provides a memory manager - i.e. each platform exposes functions equivalent to new and delete. The system under consideration wants to keep a platform-independent memory management scheme. Assume that the system under consideration is coded only using C++. Please describe the following:
1. Approach
2. C++ class declaration for the new memory manager
3. The memory management strategies (strategies you will follow if the system under consideration is a browser)
4. How would you make sure that all the classes in the system use your memory manager? Provide C++ code for the same. Assume that “new” operator is used if an dynamic object of a class has to be created.
can you please help me out with correct answers.
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You are listing it again? Did they promises for really really true this time to stay out of the lounge if you did?
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Oakman wrote: Did they promises for really really true this time to stay out of the lounge if you did
No, but now that it's listed it means
a) I can move messages there
b) people will (hopefully) be less likely to post material in the SoapBox that should be in the BackRoom
cheers,
Chris Maunder
The Code Project Co-founder
Microsoft C++ MVP
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