The Hacker Project - a free online game

Well, since someone from SGP found me out, I'll admit to that log undeleter.   

The encryptor is available on one of the secret servers. Try to find which one! 

Sorry for the late reply, didn't notice the post.

Menthol cigarettes are the worst. In my opinion, you're better off smoking a regular cigarette than chewing mint gum.

As for suggestions, since I'm Canadian, I usually smoke canadian cigarettes, which have a distinct taste from the american ones (though I enjoy a new flavour now and then). Hence, making suggestions would be difficult.

Normal research costs 100 HPD/hour; gold takes out 20%, so it *only*  costs 80 HPD/hour.

Indeed, those spywares are quite a nuisance. You can thank Ivan Drago when you see them. 

Good luck finding him. He slipped up once, so now he's changing IP quite often. 

Simple answer: 30 AP's. Parallel researching adds up.

I thought I'd throw my hat in the ring.

I leave the problem as to whether the reset will or will not happen to others. The problem, as I see it, is not the idea of a reset, but the idea of a reset on a game which many were led to believe would not be reset.

There's a reason other games have introduced new servers, because there is something to be said for the fun of playing from humble beginnings and raising oneself to the top through effort and cleverness. In many instances, and for some people, this is the part of the game that is most enjoyable. But that is not so for everyone, and these people thought (with good reason) that their work would not be wiped out by a reset, hence the frustration one hears on this thread.

What disappoints me the most about the Revelation/Faith idea is not so much the reset, as the fact that the setting of this game could offer so much more. To put it bluntly, it's an awful way to 'end' the game, considering the fact that a conflict between True Light and the three mega-corps allows so many possibilities for an interesting storyline, with the possibility of side stories, for players to enjoy. I saw a game with possibilities, and I now see a game that is wrapped up before it had the chance to flourish.

This post is not directed against anyone. I just felt I needed to express my disappointment.

Problem: the only people I have seen use a hookah have usually been burning the tobacco (and a couple of other things as well, mind you).

But, I checked, and you make a valid point. As long as the temperature is kept low enough, little to no combustion takes place, making this a probably safer alternative to cigarette. I'll stick with my easier-to-carry tobacco-wrapped-in-paper nicotine delivery system though.

I have little to say about the rest of the post, so I left it out.

'Heating' the tobacco as opposed to 'burning' it. I don't see any contradiction here. Try heating bread, then try burning (toasting) it. Burning requires a higher temperature than simply heating it (tastes better too, but that's beside the point ).

I have to add one last thing, which is a common misconception. Tar is usually written as "tar" on the side of cigarette packs for a reason, i.e. it is not the same as tar used in road construction (or other miscellaneous but not unwholesome activities). Some say it stands for total aerosol residue, but I doubt it; still, it describes it pretty well. Most of the "tar" in cigarettes doesn't actually come from the burning (though the last draw on the cigarette may contain as much pre-smoking as post-smoking tar at that point), but from the tobacco curing process.

I have no idea what the original post was about though. 

Most carcinogenic substances, as well as CO, are produced by the incomplete combustion of tar and the additives contained in cigarettes. Granted, heating, rather than burning, tobacco, in order to deliver only nicotine and a few other substances would be 'safer', except that smokers find those kind of cigarettes unsatisfying.

As for the hookah, I have serious doubts as to its effectiveness. Again, a lower temperature means more 'unwanted' substances, because the combustion is incomplete, and the water is not an effective barrier to substances that are not, or weakly so, water-soluble, among them aromatic hydrocarbons, which are known carcinogens. Add to it the fact that most users inhale more deeply and may both inhale more smoke and hold it in their lungs longer, and you've got something that is potentially worse.

For that last point, I can send you links to the abstracts of two research studies on the use of hookah in smoking tobacco. I could find more if you wish.

About the addictiveness of cigarettes (nicotine is the more probable cause of this addictiveness), recent studies I have seen suggest that it is genetic in nature. Some people have 'genetically' wired brains that feel a positive experience when exposed to nicotine, while others do not. The first group are those who get addicted very rapidly, though I wouldn't go so far as saying with the first cigarette. The second group is much less likely to, but may still, be addicted, but after prolonged exposure (and feeling sick all the while).

As for the last point, you're jumping to a conclusion not warranted by the facts. Most cancers in smokers occur later in life, after one has produced offspring, and thus is no obstacle to the perpetuation of the species. I should add that, since they had a less than ideal access to proper medical care, cancer was probably not that important a cause of death, considering disease, starvation, accidents and wars.

If anything, the filters that are used on 'modern' cigarettes makes them much safer (eliminating a good part of the various carcinogenic and otherwise dangerous substances produced by the burning of tobacco), and the more stable (and higher) burning temperature of modern tobacco also reduces the amount of these unwanted substances. Although, that doesn't make them safe, not by a long shot.

I have never seen anything related to nicotine being corrosive to lungs. Actually, since nicotine is not an acid, but a weak base (I've seen its pKa rated between 7.84 and 9), I hardly see how it could 'corrode' anything.

I should also add that nicotine has yet to be classified as carcinogenic. By itself, it neither causes nor promotes the development of cancers. Rather, it affects one of the main mechanisms by which cancers are eliminated before they have a chance to grow (apoptosis).

There is quite a bit of misleading information out there about cigarettes. I won't deny that they are unhealthy, but I have lost faith in most 'facts' which are presented in the media, or elsewhere for that matter. Most studies commissioned by the cigarette manufacturers are condemned as biased (which they very well might be), while those studies commissioned by pharmaceutical companies are taken at face value (because they show how 'bad' cigarettes 'really' are); it should be noted that those same pharmaceutical companies produce 'smoking cessation' products, ranging from 'nicotine replacement' (patches) to remarketed antidepressants (Zyban, which is the same drug as bupropion). In my opinion, this puts them in the very same position as the cigarette manufacturers.

What you're talking about here are not ethics, but morality.

From what I understand, you'd like to set up a legislative system to decide on a set of morals, and the appropriate punishment for breaking one of these rules. In other words, create a government where there is neither need nor utility to it (there never is, but that's only my opinion). I can't say I'm too thrilled about the idea.

There is no real need for hard and fast rules, imposed from above. The fact is, if one installs spyware, disinfects and replaces virii, or uses a virus breaker, one is effectively stealing, and can expect at least retaliation in kind or degree. Retributive justice is what it is, aka "lex talionis", and, though most nowadays see it as barbaric, I can't say I find any problem with it.

Aye, I remember you sending me a message, seeming to express genuine concern: "Bad enough when the top 20 gets hacked in a new game that we're just trying to build up the community of."

I don't know who this reflects worse on, me, for actually believing you at your words, or you, for playing me. I'll let others pick.

As for working on my tracing skills, it's more a matter of you, who's ranked at 3 times my power, using a log deleter I have no way of countering. I'll admit that deleting files at the same time as Ebolla was infecting me was well played. I had considered the possibility, since there were some logs entries that could spell that possibility, but I thought it somewhat unlikely. As I said, well played.

At this point, I'd like to offer my sincere apologies to Ebolla for believing he was the one responsible. An honest mistake, but a dreadful mistake. I'm sorry.

Should I also assume that the threatening message you 'relayed' from Ebolla was also fake?

I just checked my logs again, and it clearly shows that you killed all my processes, and attempted to delete (managed to delete some) all my files. I can give you the times for every file you managed to delete, as well as the time for every activated virus. The deletions and the activations weren't done by two different persons. Same IP, same time. Maybe you forgot, I don't know. But please refrain from accusing me of lying before you yourself are certain of what you say.

If you can send me the IP where I did this, please do (the date might help, just in case), because, I have no recollection of ever doing something like this.

Actually, if you found a 300 BW server with my name on it, please hit it and put it on the SGP hit list. I'd also appreciate if you could forward me its IP, if and/or when you have it, because it's not mine, and I'd like a go at someone who's impersonating me.

Do not question my honour, integrity or principles. Ever.

EDIT: I should add, if you found a server with my name on it between about July 14th (maybe the 15th) and today, it couldn't have been me. I had changed my gateway's name, and only changed it back today.