Comments on: Good Thing He Didn't Become John McTubgirl

Good Thing He Didn't Become John McTubgirl

brownpau — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 21:53:09 -0800

Person in charge of John McCain's MySpace presence decides to use Mike Davidson's MySpace/CSS hack, but fails to credit Mike, and directly hotlinks his images. Result: "Today I announce that I have reversed my position and come out in full support of gay marriage ... particularly between passionate females." Oops. Remember, folks: hotlinks are bad.

By: Steve_at_Linnwood

Steve_at_Linnwood — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 21:55:38 -0800

He only supports gay marriage if both chick are hot.

By: four panels

four panels — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 22:10:34 -0800

Like when the mechanic put a whoppee cushion in that rich guy's Mercedes LOL PWN3D! Oh, better climb back into the grease pit, another car's comin'. . .

By: oog

oog — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 22:11:17 -0800

^^ zing?

By: grapefruitmoon

grapefruitmoon — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 22:16:33 -0800

Or John McGoatse... He got pretty lucky in the grand GEEK'S L33T REVENGE! scheme of things. If there's one thing I've learned from the internet, it's not to mess with nerds.

By: lekvar

lekvar — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 22:19:19 -0800

Yeah, that was a prety light slap on the wrist. And I don't know if you rtfa, four panels, but the McCain site was stealing bandwidth.

By: chlorus

chlorus — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 22:22:24 -0800

Happened to someone on Daily Kos too. (warning NSFW)

By: nihlton

nihlton — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 22:24:01 -0800

he got off easy.

By: Artw

Artw — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 22:24:15 -0800

They should go after his Second Life presence next. Stick it to the man! (As a web developer: theywere to tight to bother hosting their own images? Cheap.)

By: stavrosthewonderchicken

stavrosthewonderchicken — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 22:25:58 -0800

I love this, because a) John McCain is a piece of dogshit b) people who are 'in charge of' anything web-related and don't understand the fundamentals of how the web works deserve humiliation and mockery c) I'm fully in favour of gay marriage and all that stuff and d) it's a metaphor for the level of actual connection to The People (peace, love, vegetable rights, man) these clueless old political fucknozzles have, much as they fake their way through it.

By: stavrosthewonderchicken

stavrosthewonderchicken — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 22:28:03 -0800

They were too tight to bother hosting their own images? Cheap. I'm thinking more along the lines of stupid, actually.

By: mediareport

mediareport — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 22:30:29 -0800

Love the first comment after Mike's post: I've worked with my fair share of political campaigns and can vouch for the fact that a large percentage of those involved are world class idiots. This would certainly be exhibit A. It's not clear how long McCain's site was hotlinking, but the least they should do is offer to pay some of Mike's hosting bill.

By: Smart Dalek

Smart Dalek — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 22:32:40 -0800

So the Straight Talk Express is running on retreads. How is this shocking?

By: Methylviolet

Methylviolet — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 22:53:49 -0800

I love this because it was a light girly slap. This guy could have done McCain thoroughly and permanently if he had wanted to, and McCain -- and whichever of his staffers was supposed to be on this -- knows it. We who use the computers know that you who run the computers rule us. Just the gentle reminder is all we need.

By: maxwelton

maxwelton — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 23:18:10 -0800

Like when the mechanic put a whoppee cushion in that rich guy's Mercedes LOL PWN3D! Oh, better climb back into the grease pit, another car's comin' Wait. So McCain is the rich guy, and Mike is a mechanic? Talk about silent running. (Hell, from Mike's own numbers he made 100 grand just in dreamhost referrals last couple of years. That may not be right-wing fucknozzle rich, but it's not bad. His billings had to easily exceed that, I would think.)

By: brundlefly

brundlefly — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 23:26:05 -0800

Artw writes "As a web developer: theywere to tight to bother hosting their own images? Cheap." Cheap? What about Photobucket?

By: brundlefly

brundlefly — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 23:27:23 -0800

Artw writes "As a web developer: theywere to tight to bother hosting their own images? Cheap." Cheap? What about Photobucket?

By: brundlefly

brundlefly — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 23:27:40 -0800

Oops.

By: madamjujujive

madamjujujive — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 23:28:29 -0800

John McCain, bandwidth thief. Yet another in a series of clueless politicians who need to hire better web help.

By: matteo

matteo — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 23:46:43 -0800

McPwnd

By: avriette

avriette — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 23:55:20 -0800

I suppose an e-mail isn't really sticking it to those naughty republicans enough. Or whatever he was after. I agree that it was probably more "stupid" than "cheap" or "devious" to be hot-linking to images. I mean, the guy isn't capable of maintaining a myspace site. Sending them an e-mail if you were irritated would be, you know, courteous. But would the same sort of ... stunt (for lack of a better word) be pulled giving Nancy Pelosi a raging hard-on for the .50 BMG? I hardly believe that anyone on either side of the aisle is capable of figuring out the difference between a live and a local link. Why is this funny and not asinine or childish?

By: stavrosthewonderchicken

stavrosthewonderchicken — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 00:02:49 -0800

Why is this funny and not asinine or childish? Not that I agree that it's either asinine or childish, but: why on Earth can't something be all three at the same time? Asinine, childish and funny!

By: Blazecock Pileon

Blazecock Pileon — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 00:16:18 -0800

Why is this funny and not asinine or childish? Mike Davidson, I served with Bruce Springsteen: I knew Bruce Springsteen; Bruce Springsteen was a friend of mine. Mike, you're no Bruce Springsteen.

By: avriette

avriette — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 00:37:27 -0800

Mike Davidson?

By: Dreama

Dreama — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 01:03:43 -0800

Why is this funny and not asinine or childish? It's funny because it's mild and the party who was harmed in this whole incident was Mike Davidson, not John McCain, and getting subtle revenge against a thief in a way that really tweaks the thief is amusing. It's Schaudenfreude. The McCain campaign is unraveling and the man hasn't even formally announced his candidacy. I just wish Mike had chosen, rather than make a joke, to use his power to point out a major McCain shortcoming that should actually be getting traction, but sadly isn't.

By: markr

markr — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 01:37:20 -0800

Why is this funny and not asinine or childish? We have to explain humour too now?

By: fourcheesemac

fourcheesemac — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 01:52:24 -0800

If Mike Davidson was a musician and his CSS layout or hosted images were mp3s of his band, most people on Metafilter would be cheering McCain on for liberating music that wants to be free. Funny how it's actually intellectual property if it's web-based creative work. LOL. That said, fuck McCain and I'm glad he got pwned.

By: Dataphage

Dataphage — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 02:24:48 -0800

If Mike Davidson was a musician, and he offered mp3s of his band for free, only requesting that you credit him, and McCain used them the way he used the hot linked image and the CSS template, I don't think most people on Metafilter would be cheering McCain. They would be cheering Davidson for liberating music that wants to be free. I cheer Davidson for liberating CSS hacks that want to be free (the way I cheer Caio Chassot, CodeBitch, Owen's father, Tantek Çelik and others).

By: srboisvert

srboisvert — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 02:33:36 -0800

Funny how it's actually intellectual property if it's web-based creative work. LOL. Uh...it actually bandwidth that is the issue in the hotlinking. As for crediting creators I don't know about you but I don't change mp3 tags to my name when I download them. Maybe I should though. I could mess with last.fm.

By: fourcheesemac

fourcheesemac — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 02:48:06 -0800

Right, bandwidth for hotlinks, intellectual property for CSS. But you're wrong, dataphage. Almost any thread on the intellectual property status of music on this website expresses a majority opinion that no one has a right to give a shit if you download their music for "free" somewhere. They'd object even if the only requirement for doing so was to "credit" the music's creators in your subsequent filesharing escapades. The usual argument is that music should be free because I want free music and besides the record companies are really evil and anyway it's good for the musicians to lose income. I merely point out, as I often do in those threads, that if it was your work in question, you'd want to reserve the right to decide if it should be free for the taking or not. More power to you if you want to give it away. It's Davidson's -- and not McCain's IT staff -- who get to decide if it's free or not. Most people who ever weigh in on the topic on MeFi agree with this if it's a CSS template or a website design, but conveniently stop agreeing if it's a pop song. OK, so here's where all the feeloading kiddies start abusing me for being a corporate shill rather than a musician. 1,2, 3 . . . .

By: srboisvert

srboisvert — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 03:32:02 -0800

4cheese why are you so afraid of the kiddies that you must launch a preemptive strawman attack on them? Surely if the people who disagree with you are all grade schoolers you needn't be so defensive since you can easily defeat them with sophomoric mischaracterizations?

By: dglynn

dglynn — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 03:41:03 -0800

This is not "Hacking John McCain" as he titles it. McCain's hired help didn't know what he was doing, pulled images from the other guys server, so the guy with the "world-renowned MySpace design template"(seriously?) changes the image on his web server, which exposes McCain's hired help as incompetent. All it means is the McCain campaign's hiring practices bought them an incompetent MySpace designer(and who could have imagined those were out there?). Maybe next time they won't hire someone's nephew who supposedly "knows all about this stuff". The McCain campaign will now have to fire the nephew, hire this guy if they're smart, and someone gets to have an uncomfortable family Thanksgiving with his sister and her worthless son who boned his career in "politics". The clueless courting the distracted using the incompetent and getting schooled by the mundane. The whole incident is a singularity of the inane, from which no significance can escape.

By: Joey Michaels

Joey Michaels — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 03:53:56 -0800

Deserving, perhaps, of Meat.

By: moonbiter

moonbiter — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 04:11:04 -0800

To give this all the proper partisan feel, I'd just like to point out here that Clinton did it too, and that both Michael Moore and Al Gore are fat.

By: scottreynen

scottreynen — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 05:02:05 -0800

Nobody got finked when Clinton hotlinked

By: delmoi

delmoi — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 06:40:37 -0800

Funny how it's actually intellectual property if it's web-based creative work. LOL. Right, bandwidth for hotlinks, intellectual property for CSS. My impression, when I read about the "Myspace hack" a while ago was that he wanted people to use what he'd done, although I might be mistaken. I just thought it was lame that McCain hotlinked the images.

By: ken_zoan

ken_zoan — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 07:33:18 -0800

I prefer the term "bandwidth leeching." I hate the word "hotlink"; it has such a 1996 feel to it. That word also makes me think of sausages and/or porn.

By: verb

verb — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 07:49:03 -0800

Right, bandwidth for hotlinks, intellectual property for CSS.

Let me put this as gently as possible: you're an idiot who doesn't know what he's talking about. Moral and legal issues aside, intellectual property law is fuzzy right now because it is possible to make a perfect copy of someone else's work without taking anything away from them. The only loss is the hypothetical gains they would have made IF you had given them money. Bandwidth theft is not an abstract: it results in a large bill showing up in the victim's mail, and in some circumstances even results in their own web sites being shut down. Mike specifically said that he didn't care about the intellectual property issues -- many people have copied his work on MySpace CSS. The McCain campaign had gone farther, and was actively costing him money in addition to demonstrating their cluelessness.

By: pax digita

pax digita — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 08:03:16 -0800

Your "major McCain shortcoming" is just one more kick in the shins after he didn't stand up to Bush & Co. and say, "I've been tortured. We should not do anything like that." That's where he lost my vote forever.

By: Tacos Are Pretty Great

Tacos Are Pretty Great — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 08:03:25 -0800

My impression, when I read about the "Myspace hack" a while ago was that he wanted people to use what he'd done, although I might be mistaken. I just thought it was lame that McCain hotlinked the images. He wanted them to use it if they gave him credit. McCain did not. Also, he didn't want anybody hotlinking images.

By: aletheia

aletheia — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 09:15:24 -0800

I don't know what the hack is exactly, but someone on MySpace was hotlinking one of my photos for some time, until I discovered it and just how much bandwidth they stole. I also quietly replaced the photo with a somewhat more "interesting" image. Though I could have been nastier about it. :) There are ways to configure a server (or your account on it) to only allow approved hosts to hotlink your stuff.

By: YoBananaBoy

YoBananaBoy — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 10:26:43 -0800

McCain's hired help didn't know what he was doing, [...] Wow, he really is a Republican.

By: mr_crash_davis

mr_crash_davis — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 10:48:08 -0800

"McCain's hired help didn't know what he was doing, [...] Wow, he really is a Republican." Yeah, definitely White House material. At the very least, Attorney General.

By: 2sheets

2sheets — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 11:08:52 -0800

"OK, so here's where all the feeloading kiddies start abusing me for" Keep trying, I'm sure someone will come along and persecute you for something or other.

By: googly

googly — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 11:16:26 -0800

I nominate this for best post title of the week.

By: zoogleplex

zoogleplex — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 14:56:57 -0800

"OK, so here's where all the feeloading kiddies start abusing me for being a corporate shill rather than a musician. 1,2, 3 . . . ." Um, are you a musician, with recorded music that makes you money, 4CM? It's not clear from your posts. Knowing that would help as far as planning our persecution, y'know?

By: Sparx

Sparx — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 15:16:20 -0800

They'd object even if the only requirement for doing so was to "credit" the music's creators in your subsequent filesharing escapades. The usual argument is that music should be free because I want free music and besides the record companies are really evil and anyway it's good for the musicians to lose income. And with the incantations of a phalanx of ur-magicians, the Straw Man lurched into half-life and began wreaking havok upon the countryside. "Rawlurgh" it said as it ate Farmer McCain's cows. "Graphaugh" it uttered as it trod upon any notion of jurisprudence. "I want free music, record companies are really evil, it's good for musicians to lose money" it spat as its wild handwaving knocked down the considered understanding of public licensing.

By: zoogleplex

zoogleplex — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 15:27:41 -0800

And with that, now back to the meat of the thread. The tasty, tasty meat. Mmmm. Good meat. nice one sparx

By: homunculus

homunculus — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 16:14:32 -0800

“I dont know what part of Neverland Senator McCain is talking about…”

By: troybob

troybob — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 17:08:53 -0800

i'm not mccain fan, but the 'stealing bandwidth' charge is bullshit...there are ways to keep your stuff from getting hotlinked...and the internet is about linkage...if you don't want your shit linked to, don't put it up...

By: illovich

illovich — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 17:14:44 -0800

Given that musicians seem to get worse as they make more money, maybe there's actually something to the whole "let's keep musicians from making money" idea -- obviously, they'll keep making music anyway (and it will be better), and I like good music... so it seems win-win for society. Great idea 4cheesemac!

By: illovich

illovich — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 17:15:35 -0800

i'm not mccain fan, but the 'stealing bandwidth' charge is bullshit...there are ways to keep your stuff from getting hotlinked...and the internet is about linkage...if you don't want your shit linked to, don't put it up...

I thought this was the topic of this post... the best way to keep people from hotlinking to your images.

By: Biblio

Biblio — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 18:43:08 -0800

I use Mike's MySpace hack, and jeez, he couldn't be more clear in the instructions about how you need to host your own images and give him credit. You'd have to be a total idiot to just slap it in your profile and not change a damn thing.

By: Mitheral

Mitheral — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 21:25:32 -0800

troybob writes ".there are ways to keep your stuff from getting hotlinked...and the internet is about linkage...if you don't want your shit linked to, don't put it up..." That's fine (well not really but I'll concede it to make a point), just don't complain when I serve your users goatse.cx instead of that cute kitten with a pistol under his chin image.

By: spaceman_spiff

spaceman_spiff — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 22:33:34 -0800

Troybob: do you understand what hot linking is? We're not talking about a link from one page to another, like this. We're talking about embedding an image in your page that resides on somebody else's server, and an image that someone specifically asked you to host yourself (because as opposed to the first kind of link, this kind only takes your bandwidth - it doesn't really get your site any exposure). Big difference there. For that matter, this is one of the ways to keep your stuff from being linked to, albeit a slightly less direct one.

By: troybob

troybob — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 22:45:59 -0800

I know what hotlinking is. I'm saying that (with regard to the bandwidth complaint, specifically) when you put up something that can be served anywhere, you should expect no less than it will be served anywhere. Doesn't mean it's right for somebody to do it, necessarily. But it's kinda like leaving your cash on the front porch and getting upset when you're robbed. Or keeping your wireless router unsecured and getting pissed when somebody uses it. Where reasonable means of prevention exists, look to yourself first before blaming someone else for taking advantage.

By: Artw

Artw — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 11:16:32 -0800

Er, no, image leaching is kind of rude, varing from being a bit cheeky if it's a single image in a forum to being very rude indeed if it's a series of images on a high volume site and image leachers can expect to be treated with appropriate contempt and subjected to thsi kind of mockery.

By: homunculus

homunculus — Mon, 02 Apr 2007 20:38:13 -0800

Michael Ware denies heckling McCain: “when I raised my hand to ask a question, the press conference abruptly ended.”

By: homunculus

homunculus — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 23:23:42 -0800

McCain’s Market Photo-op ends in disaster