Sometimes learning about security and hacking can come from odd sources. :)
Gadi Evron,
ge@linuxbox.org
Follow me on twitter! http://twitter.com/gadievron
Showing posts with label Omegle. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Omegle. Show all posts
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Funny! Mario & Luigi on Omegle: Password Social Engineering
This is a funny picture describing a chat on Omegle, which not only made me ROFL, but also teaches social engineering!
Sometimes learning about security and hacking can come from odd sources. :)
Gadi Evron,
ge@linuxbox.org
Follow me on twitter! http://twitter.com/gadievron
Sometimes learning about security and hacking can come from odd sources. :)
Gadi Evron,
ge@linuxbox.org
Follow me on twitter! http://twitter.com/gadievron
Wednesday, April 08, 2009
Fascinating Omegle Chat Logs
I have been chatting on Omegle all night, and some of the chats are absolutely fascinating. I don't want to flood this blog like I do my fun one. I will summarize here with links.
So far, I spoke with a dirt-road worker from Australia and a 15 years old sophomore girl tennis player from Maryland (trying to explain without sounding parent-yy about not sharing private information on the net).
I have been sharing these logs with a group of social scientists in an email thread. This is so intriguing.
The more interesting chat logs:
1. NSFW, very funny log where you see how anonymity lets people let loose.
2. A guy (apprently) coming out of the closet on Omegle.
3. Seeing social responsibility as base for good and evil
You may find this one boring, but I found it absolutely fascinating seeing how a person views the world in a way I find fscked up.
The person's social identity is what builds her (my guess) view of good and evil. I am thinking 17 years old.
Gadi Evron,
ge@linuxbox.org.
Follow me on twitter! http://twitter.com/gadievron
So far, I spoke with a dirt-road worker from Australia and a 15 years old sophomore girl tennis player from Maryland (trying to explain without sounding parent-yy about not sharing private information on the net).
I have been sharing these logs with a group of social scientists in an email thread. This is so intriguing.
The more interesting chat logs:
1. NSFW, very funny log where you see how anonymity lets people let loose.
2. A guy (apprently) coming out of the closet on Omegle.
3. Seeing social responsibility as base for good and evil
You may find this one boring, but I found it absolutely fascinating seeing how a person views the world in a way I find fscked up.
The person's social identity is what builds her (my guess) view of good and evil. I am thinking 17 years old.
Gadi Evron,
ge@linuxbox.org.
Follow me on twitter! http://twitter.com/gadievron
Omegle: An Impressive "Web 2.0" Chat Service
[syndicated from my "not professional" blog: http://gevron.livejournal.com/15256.html]
Are you interesting enough at first impression? Do you introduce yourself well? On Omegle if you don't you're disconnected.
Reading the funsec mailing list discussion about twitter, David Chess referred to a new web site called Omegle. Dave wrote about it here.
Omegle allows you to start real-time chats with random anonymous people who can disconnect you at any time. Fascinating stuff.
My friend Imri Goldberg checked it out and convinced me I should look as well. On funsec he said:
My impressions:
1. Technically, it works really well.
2. What it is: web-based chat with random strangers.
3. Reminds me of my early days on IRC. You meet new people that are guaranteed to be at least somewhat interested in talking.
4. There is full anonymity, in the sense that you don't have a consistent identity that's kept from one conversation to another.*
5. There is no cost to disconnecting, if you don't like the conversation.
6. It's very much like speed-IRC, as in "speed dating" as opposed to regular dating.
7. Since you get a very specific IRC-like experience (meeting new people you'll never meet again anonymously), you can practice like Socrates did on the beach (Imri corrected this to Demosthenes: http://itotd.com/articles/319/demosthenes-stones/). You have only a few minutes and a few sentences to convince someone you're interesting, or they just disconnect, and you both move on.
8. You still have a lot of the IRC-like stuff, as in being asked "a/s/l" and so on. [age/sex/location]
9. I wondered how secure it is, who is logging the conversations/ip addresses involved etc.
All in all, a cute service. Also nice to know it was written by an 18-year old that's just finishing high-school, and as I said, it works well.
Cheers,
Imri.
* I was reminded of a very good discussion of online identities here: http://www.juliandibbell.com/texts/bungle.html. Old, but thought-provoking read. The relevant quote from that text is:
My take on it is similar, I was very excited:
Omegle has a simple interface. No complex functionality at all. You can chat, and you can disconnect. You are anonymous unless you choose to tell the other person who you are.
I just finished my first chat there, and it was fun. It seems like a waste to me to be able to chat with people and yet not necessarily keep in touch, but the experience with the types of people you meet makes all the difference.
Unlike Imri, I was not reminded of Demosthenes meeting random people on the beach, but rather of the old classic movie adaptation for the novel Logan's Run where random people who match you exactly are transported to you so you can have non-committal sexual relations. Only in Omegle's case, not sexual.
This won't turn into a dating service (I'll probably be proven wrong).
The experience felt like a shot in the dark. You find someone random, defying the whole idea of the Internet where interest groups on every subject meet each other and become a marketing force based on that affiliation.
More interesting, this service as Imri mentioned with the Demosthenes story, raises the subject of how one introduces oneself to be interesting. Also, it allows us to talk to people without any prior knowledge or prejudice on who they are, which normally affects our social engine--how we treat other people and get treated.
The story of Omegle once again shows us that the cost of developing on computers is small to non-existent. If an 18 years old guy can create this, anyone can learn how to.
Update:
Chat bot for Omegle:
http://robotstranger.com
Gadi Evron,
ge@linuxbox.org.
Follow me on twitter! http://twitter.com/gadievron
Are you interesting enough at first impression? Do you introduce yourself well? On Omegle if you don't you're disconnected.
Reading the funsec mailing list discussion about twitter, David Chess referred to a new web site called Omegle. Dave wrote about it here.
Omegle allows you to start real-time chats with random anonymous people who can disconnect you at any time. Fascinating stuff.
My friend Imri Goldberg checked it out and convinced me I should look as well. On funsec he said:
My impressions:
1. Technically, it works really well.
2. What it is: web-based chat with random strangers.
3. Reminds me of my early days on IRC. You meet new people that are guaranteed to be at least somewhat interested in talking.
4. There is full anonymity, in the sense that you don't have a consistent identity that's kept from one conversation to another.*
5. There is no cost to disconnecting, if you don't like the conversation.
6. It's very much like speed-IRC, as in "speed dating" as opposed to regular dating.
7. Since you get a very specific IRC-like experience (meeting new people you'll never meet again anonymously), you can practice like Socrates did on the beach (Imri corrected this to Demosthenes: http://itotd.com/articles/319/demosthenes-stones/). You have only a few minutes and a few sentences to convince someone you're interesting, or they just disconnect, and you both move on.
8. You still have a lot of the IRC-like stuff, as in being asked "a/s/l" and so on. [age/sex/location]
9. I wondered how secure it is, who is logging the conversations/ip addresses involved etc.
All in all, a cute service. Also nice to know it was written by an 18-year old that's just finishing high-school, and as I said, it works well.
Cheers,
Imri.
* I was reminded of a very good discussion of online identities here: http://www.juliandibbell.com/texts/bungle.html. Old, but thought-provoking read. The relevant quote from that text is:
"Inside the MOO, however, such thinking marked a person as one of two basically subcompetent types. The first was the newbie, in which case the confusion was understandable, since there were few MOOers who had not, upon their first visits as anonymous "guest" characters, mistaken the place for a vast playpen in which they might act out their wildest fantasies without fear of censure. Only with time and the acquisition of a fixed character do players tend to make the critical passage from anonymity to pseudonymity, developing the concern for their character's reputation that marks the attainment of virtual adulthood."
My take on it is similar, I was very excited:
Omegle has a simple interface. No complex functionality at all. You can chat, and you can disconnect. You are anonymous unless you choose to tell the other person who you are.
I just finished my first chat there, and it was fun. It seems like a waste to me to be able to chat with people and yet not necessarily keep in touch, but the experience with the types of people you meet makes all the difference.
Unlike Imri, I was not reminded of Demosthenes meeting random people on the beach, but rather of the old classic movie adaptation for the novel Logan's Run where random people who match you exactly are transported to you so you can have non-committal sexual relations. Only in Omegle's case, not sexual.
This won't turn into a dating service (I'll probably be proven wrong).
The experience felt like a shot in the dark. You find someone random, defying the whole idea of the Internet where interest groups on every subject meet each other and become a marketing force based on that affiliation.
More interesting, this service as Imri mentioned with the Demosthenes story, raises the subject of how one introduces oneself to be interesting. Also, it allows us to talk to people without any prior knowledge or prejudice on who they are, which normally affects our social engine--how we treat other people and get treated.
The story of Omegle once again shows us that the cost of developing on computers is small to non-existent. If an 18 years old guy can create this, anyone can learn how to.
Update:
Chat bot for Omegle:
http://robotstranger.com
Gadi Evron,
ge@linuxbox.org.
Follow me on twitter! http://twitter.com/gadievron
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)