Archive | The Recycle Bin

Willis McGahee – JA, Ignorant, or Just Plain Stupid?

Is Willis McGahee a jackass, ignorant, or just stupid? In this “what have you done for me lately” society, McGahee has yet to do jack-crap. The Buffalo Bills drafted McGahee 23rd overall in the 2003 draft despite have a messed up knee. The Bills pulled the string anyway, and rehabbed McGahee, and now the dumbass demands to be traded? McGahee, what have you done for me lately?

Maybe McGahee is ignorant. Maybe he does not realize that the Bill’s current starting running back, Travis Henry, rushed for 1,438 rushing yards (4.4 yds/rush) in 2002, and in 2003 rushed for 1,356 yards (4.1 yds/rush). What did McGahee rush for last year? Oh yeah, he was rehabbing his bum knee.

In McGahee’s first preseason game against Denver he had 58 yards on 13 carries (4.5 yds/rush), which was pretty good, but not “I should be the starter or else” good. Sure the TD was nice, but this is the preseason – don’t go getting excited.

This weekend McGahee managed another TD, but only scampered for 28 yards on 11 carries good for a paltry 2.5 yds/rush – ouch! “Look at me, look at me! I am special, I am a star!” What a jackass!

Personally I think McGahee must be stupid – I have yet to see him do any damage control despite some reported PR type BS coming out of the Bill’s front office. McGahee may one day be a star, but for now he should just be thankful someone rehabbed his knee. McGahee should also shut the f-up and do something on the field, when the games actually count, before making his next trade demand.

Jackass, ignorant, or plain stupid? You make the call.

Nuke Cops and BAD-TAGS

I guess I am just a bitter b*st^rd about the whole php Nuke fiasco. Nuke is not a bad CMS by any stretch, and it certainly proved its usefulness to me over the last year, but this junk is completely unsecured and hack prone.

Nuke Cops is a fairly respectable site when it comes to securing a php Nuke deployment. They have 1000s of registered users, and it is the first place a php Nuke admin should look to find the latest downloads, mods, and security fixes. It really is a one-stop shop for php Nuke security info.

Too bad Nuke Cop’s user ban system is so f’ed-up. Seriously. I kid you not – their system completely sucks. After the first couple of hack attacks on the previous manifestation of Calvert Games, I decided to explore Nuke Cops to see if I could come up with a solution. I made the mistake of including “script” in one of my searches, thinking about the “admin script” add-on. Too bad for me because the “admin script” is actually “admin secure” and I later learned that fortress (another php Nuke security add on) was responsible for the auto-ban.

And by the way – admin secure is not a good solution in and of itself; it should be run in conjunction with other security scripts such as Fortress.

Fortress is a pretty cool script; I encourage all php Nuke sites to run it – I think it was responsible for finally eliminating the hack attacks on my humble site. While looking at the code I learned that sending the word “script” through a request would trigger an auto ban (assuming a site has this option enabled). Sure is helpful for stopping injection attacks, but down right piss poor for users. I mean, who would not search for the word “script” on a security site (i.e. Nuke Cops) that provides scripts for a CMS script (i.e. php Nuke)?

To this day I still cannot get to Nuke Cops – I am presented with “Banned by BAD-TAGS.” So Nuke Cops is now on my official wanker list. Why have an auto-ban system that does not even provide any sort of contact info “just in case” a mistake is made? Pretty poor decision on the part of Nuke Cops.

Thankfully cheers go to Computer Cops, which is incidentally run by the same guy that founded Nuke Cops. The Computer Cops community was extremely helpful in getting my php Nuke based site secure. The owner even provided me with contact info for the Nuke Cops guys, but no dice. No reply; banned to eternal damnation.

Nuke Cops and BAD-TAGS can jerk off for all I care.

Dream Team No More

After yesterday’s debacle I hope that the current NBA representatives known as would-be Dream-Teamers will be known as the clank and crib club. This new generation of “players” – these guys are truly an embarrassment to the US and to the NBA. It is time to get back to fundamentals.

I think I what I had to say on this matter yesterday was somewhat more cleaver, but all of that was lost with the hack attack. Too bad. Still, something has to be said, even if I have now lost my thunder.

I will leave it at this. The current Olympic team is a disgrace to the fundamentals of the game. Does anyone even care? These guys are almost irrelevant; just a bunch of NBA Ballers that are out for the individual instead of the team. The rest of the world understands the basic concepts of the game – teamwork, possession, precession passing, parameter shooting, and sound shots from the charity stripe. These birds may yet win which as an American I truly want, but man-o-man do they piss me off. You cannot just throw together 12 NBA “super stars” and hope to intimidate the rest of the field, let alone take home the gold.

A New Beginning

I had something rather glorious to say, and it was said, but that damn hack attack blew it away. Can you tell I am bitter? This time I made a backup! Lesson learned; I may be ignorant, but I am not stupid.

I will try to recap; after all it is only fair to have a historical explanation to the former staff (Adam, Derek, Kevin, and Ted) and the once loyal readers of that previous entity known as Calvert Games. Besides, it brings about some closure, and helps set the tone for where I am going with this blog.

So the question on everyone’s mind is “why?” Why close Calvert Games?

Three years ago I answered my own call (for “the love of the game”) and started Calvert Games after writing the following:

So it is up to the fans, the true “hard core,” to revitalize the hobby. When was the last time you posted a review to your personal web site? When was the last time you posted a review to a message board or Usenet? Give it a go. You will feel better about yourself, and you will provide a service to fellow gamers.
Reviews used to be free. Freely posted, freely distributed, and free from the Monkeys [banner ads]. Remember, it’s not about the money; it’s about the love of the game.

I am biased, but we (the staff) met the call with a no nonsense approach; those guys were the best. Damn good bunch of guys, and great writers to boot! I would say that my staff was the best staff that money could buy – of course I got off on the cheap! I am sure our friendships will last and hopefully transcend the break-up of Calvert Games.

So we come full circle – why? There are a bunch of reasons – maintaining a website grew tiresome, the hack attacks wore me down, it became a burden to review and analyze games instead of just playing them. Gaming is now mainstream, and “breaking down” games became irrelevant (no offense to Adam, Derek, Kevin, and Ted). In short, it was time for a change.

So where do I go from here? What you are now reading is the new Calvert Games; just call it version 3.0. No fuss, low maintenance, carefree, no pressure; just good old fashion short takes about … well … pretty much anything that I happen to be pondering. OK, I admit that the verbose style will most likely live on, but I think something can be said for brevity.

Calvert Games was officially launched September 27, 2001 – it was pretty barebones, and more or less hit the mark despite the Mickey Mouse look and feel. June 2003 saw a major overhaul of the site – the switch to a php Nuke based site brought about Calvert Games 2.0. The blog you are reading is my attempt at a simpler, more interesting format, that hopefully will provide me with an interesting outlet, and maybe, just maybe, entertain a reader or two.

So you see, Calvert Games continues, just in a new, different format. Lift a cold one or two; I know I will; and as long as gaming remains a pleasure, watermark breasteses (thanks for the laughs Don) and Calvert Games will live on to fight the good fight.

Hackers Still Suck!

This is rather ironic, but my new site has been the innocent bystander of a recent hack attack of another php Nuke site on this server. The end result is that I lost all my work from yesterday; new blog, new mods, and all my posts!

A word of advice for would be webmasters – php Nuke is an unbelievably unsecured script. If you are a using php Nuke, or thinking about using php Nuke, make sure you have the latest version (7.2 or 7.3) and multiple security scripts such as fortress, admin secure, admin tap, union tap, and others.

The lesson I have learned is that I need to setup a cron job to do backups and exports!

Hackers suck. Bloody f’ing bas*ar*%! One of the reasons I pulled down the previous incarnation of Calvert Games was that I was sick and tired or worrying about maintaining (and securing) my site. Of course those of you who read the site yesterday already knew this was one of the reasons for giving up the ghost. Now that post is lost, so I will have to be creative and come up with a cleaver replacement. [sigh]

The previous hack attacks were truly draining. That and I laid out some duckets to pay a Unix admin to help secure the site. And now my new site was blow away because of a hack attack on another php Nuke based site. Hackers are evil – that much is certain; evil and malicious.

A Simple Parting …

With these final words, the face of Calvert Games was forever changed:

I wanted to take a minute to thank the readers of Calvert Games for your support. The last three years have been a heck of a lot of fun for me, and I hope this little corner of Internet sports gaming has been equally as enjoyable for our readers.

I have a lot to write about, but I want to keep this parting fairly short. I have to express my thanks and deep gratitude to the staff – Adam, Derek, Kevin, and Ted. You guys are great, and I sincerely thank you for all the hard work you have put into Calvert Games, and more importantly for your friendship. Kudos on a job well done!

Sometime over the next few days the “current” Calvert Games will cease to exist. I may attempt some sort of historical archive, but that is also up in the air at this time.

At this point I have not decided what to do or where to go next. To quote Bilbo � “I need a holiday – a very long holiday – and I don’t expect I shall return. In fact, I mean not to!”

Well, I would be foolish to say never, but I do not have plans to revive Calvert Games in the immediate future.

Calvert Games was founded in September 2001.

Special thanks to the staff – Adam, Derek, Kevin, and Ted – the best damn group in the industry!

Special thanks to Steve at OS – you have always pimped my junk for free; thanks for the help!

Thanks to Matt C. and Paul K. – you guys always encouraged me and helped spawn CG. The original SR was something special.

Thanks to Tonya, my wonderful wife, for always supporting me, and putting up with my gaming addiction.

“Happy trails to you,
until we meet again.
Happy trails to you,
keep smilin’ until then.” – Roy Rogers Show

In Jesus’ name anything is possible. God bless, and good night!

And so Calvert Games 3.0 is born; the adventure begins anew.