The Cohobitator

Several months ago:

(1:29:04 AM) FinalCoho: Name a worse company than PayPal. That's right. You can't.
(1:29:14 AM) riverfr0zen: enron
(1:29:14 AM) finalcoho is now known as FinalCoho.

Now, in Dolby Surround Sound:

(11:58:47 AM) riverfr0zen: i feel a very big asperger attack coming on
(11:59:08 AM) riverfr0zen: i thought the wave was over, but it is just beginning.
(11:59:48 AM) riverfr0zen: witness the universe converge at this juncture ...

(12:02:33 PM) FinalCoho: who the hell is this
(12:02:54 PM) riverfr0zen: i wonder the same thing about you.
(12:03:02 PM) riverfr0zen: why are you even in my buddy list?
(12:03:08 PM) FinalCoho: FreeloadingCoho (12:02:45 PM): i wonder the same thing about you.
(12:03:29 PM) riverfr0zen: what is a Coho?
(12:03:47 PM) FinalCoho: that what it says your screenname is
(12:04:25 PM) riverfr0zen: i don't see what is happening
(12:04:46 PM) riverfr0zen: what is your password to the internets?
(12:04:50 PM) FinalCoho: Its telling me your screenname is FreeloadingCoho
(12:04:59 PM) FinalCoho: i bet that isn't true
(12:05:05 PM) riverfr0zen: and you are a FinalCoho?
(12:05:06 PM) FinalCoho: are you running some kind of hacks
(12:05:21 PM) FinalCoho: lol, no i'm not
(12:05:28 PM) FinalCoho: funny though
(12:05:29 PM) riverfr0zen: i am hacking a lot of honeypots very simultaneously.
(12:06:04 PM) riverfr0zen: we are somehow caught up in this cohoverse
(12:06:07 PM) FinalCoho: ok so a quick google search tells me that the 2 of us are a victim of a (harmless) AIM Fishbot scheme
(12:06:19 PM) FinalCoho: http://nixiepixel.com/blog/index.php/aim-fish-bot-help
(12:07:09 PM) riverfr0zen: i don't know if i should subdue it, or simply let it continue.
(12:07:22 PM) riverfr0zen: it is rather amusing
(12:08:09 PM) FinalCoho: yes it is. This happens like once every couple weeks
(12:09:02 PM) FinalCoho: 2 random people are auto messaged somehow and the screenames are switched to a generated fish name ending in Trout Coho or Salmon
(12:09:09 PM) riverfr0zen: it is somewhat worrisome in that one does not know who one may be connected to. it could be a little kid, and one may cuss or swear at it.
(12:09:44 PM) FinalCoho: that goes with the territory of being online in itself
(12:10:34 PM) riverfr0zen: the only resort is to always be on one's best behaviour. but how long can that last?
(12:12:04 PM) FinalCoho: random person + ability to remain anonymous = personality swap
(12:12:33 PM) riverfr0zen: like the switch tyler durden speaks of
(12:12:48 PM) FinalCoho: precisely
(12:12:53 PM) riverfr0zen: it would be hilarious if you got connected to yourself
(12:13:02 PM) riverfr0zen: through this fine social system
(12:13:07 PM) FinalCoho: haha
(12:13:25 PM) FinalCoho: do you visit sites such as Digg
(12:13:49 PM) FinalCoho: i believe i read that it stems from similair social websites
(12:13:50 PM) riverfr0zen: i did in the past. not so much any more
(12:15:16 PM) riverfr0zen: i usually freely slap on my username for aim in all sorts of places. being a little tech savvy, i don't feel very threatened by what may hit me.
(12:15:50 PM) riverfr0zen: plus if the screen suddenly says that all the data is being deleted, i can simply revert to the latest revision.

(12:16:58 PM) FinalCoho: that sounds a little too cliche , like a computer virus from a hollywood movie "Deleting Data" with a skull and crossbones
(12:18:20 PM) riverfr0zen: you mean unlike a non-cliche computer virus with no presentational aspects? it just quietly snips things here and there, leaving the user befuddled over a slow and progressive scale?
(12:18:41 PM) riverfr0zen: a little bit like alzheimer's, i imagine

(12:20:59 PM) FinalCoho: most malicious things that people come across in today's internet are not really a virus but rather just intrusive malware that gets embedded into windows to detect user habits for browsing and advertising
(12:21:49 PM) riverfr0zen: i think the larger problem is that most people on the internet are intrusive malwares :)
(12:22:06 PM) FinalCoho: they don't know how to get rid of it because typically you have to go into safe-mode or the windows recovery console. Yeah that too, people suck
(12:22:46 PM) riverfr0zen: why do the antivirus guys not hire psychics?
(12:23:12 PM) riverfr0zen: if i was a big, rich antivirus software company, this would be my area of research. prescience.
(12:23:44 PM) FinalCoho: psychics do not exist
(12:24:04 PM) riverfr0zen: i agree on that. they claim to, but they probably don't actually.
(12:24:11 PM) FinalCoho: nobody is more spiritually inclined than the next
(12:24:59 PM) FinalCoho: it's like some guy who claims he has telekenesis because he sits on his farm in kansas and a piece of corn fell over
(12:24:59 PM) riverfr0zen: i'm not really talking about spirituality so much as the pre-occurence observational capability
(12:25:51 PM) FinalCoho: it's a fallacy
(12:25:56 PM) riverfr0zen: ha ha. when it was probably just a butterfly in hanoi that did it.
(12:27:15 PM) riverfr0zen: are you sure it is not even remotely possible?
(12:27:33 PM) FinalCoho: only if you recently watched the butterfly effect
(12:27:38 PM) riverfr0zen: i mean, we do get close with people such as kurzweil, etc
(12:27:55 PM) riverfr0zen: i didn't see that one. is that with jim carrey in it?
(12:28:17 PM) FinalCoho: no, that was with Ashton kutcher
(12:28:28 PM) riverfr0zen: that is probably why i didn't see it.
(12:29:11 PM) FinalCoho: I have not heard of kurzweil
(12:29:20 PM) riverfr0zen: but the butterfly effect is something that scientists have spent a lot of time on. it's not as trivial as just some movie concept.
(12:29:33 PM) FinalCoho: i am guessing there is a large age gap between us
(12:29:36 PM) riverfr0zen: kurzweil, who believes in transhumanism
(12:30:25 PM) FinalCoho: interesting, i am reading his Wiki page now
(12:30:35 PM) riverfr0zen: that very soon, it may not only be so cliche as 'machines take over', but that we *become* machines
(12:32:14 PM) FinalCoho: i doubt it
(12:32:26 PM) FinalCoho: something cosmic or a virus will kill human population before we get that far
(12:32:47 PM) riverfr0zen: that's a sort of glass half-empty view
(12:33:49 PM) riverfr0zen: i don't find pessimism to be as productive as optimism
(12:34:12 PM) riverfr0zen: it has its uses, but for me, it is not the state to exist within.
(12:34:57 PM) FinalCoho: have you ever heard of the theory of Lon Timing
(12:35:09 PM) FinalCoho: one time i lon timed
(12:36:23 PM) riverfr0zen: no, please educate me. is it like, a perjorative expression towards asians? like the silly 'me love u lon time' thing.
(12:36:24 PM) riverfr0zen: ?
(12:37:25 PM) FinalCoho: Hahah
(12:37:31 PM) FinalCoho: no but that is a great guess
(12:37:57 PM) FinalCoho: its a theory where sometimes you are time traveling and performing activities watching yourself from a third person point of view
(12:38:39 PM) FinalCoho: like when your stuck behind a volkswagen on the highway but your the one driving it
(12:38:58 PM) riverfr0zen: like some sort of astral projection variant
(12:39:42 PM) riverfr0zen: i imagine that people who play a lot of grand theft auto may somehow develop this trait
(12:41:13 PM) FinalCoho: i don't see the correlation
(12:42:29 PM) riverfr0zen: because that is exactly what you do in that game -- your viewpoint is stuck behind a (possibly) volkswagon as you drive through the highways
(12:42:56 PM) FinalCoho: do you play
(12:43:15 PM) riverfr0zen: not grand theft auto, no. but i play other games.
(12:43:35 PM) riverfr0zen: i'm learning chess right now. i'm horrible at it.

(12:46:21 PM) FinalCoho: yeah, i only like playing digital versions of chess where it tells me the available movements per piece
(12:46:53 PM) riverfr0zen: heh, yeah, that's how i started. since i didn't know how the pieces are actually supposed to move.
(12:47:29 PM) FinalCoho: watch out for those bishops, those guys can do some damage
(12:47:44 PM) riverfr0zen: i'm still on training wheels, though. using an app that won't let you make self-destructive moves, and where you can undo.