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upsideoffalling · 3 years ago

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vulnerable - ellie williams

summary: you and ellie are best friends, but there’s something more there. you figure out what that ‘something’ is together.

warnings: language, bit of mwah and sexual tension i guess. i only proofread this once, because if i do it more than once my autism and anxiety tells me its fucking horrible and to never ever post anything ever again and delete my tumblr account and move to mexico so im sorry if there are mistakes.

notes: the last of us ii ellie x fem reader. Fluff and i think a little bit of angst as well (if i did it well) also a bit of spice (nothing too spicy though) both characters are 19.

word count: 2.6k tehe

a/n: my first ellie fic, hope you guys like it. It’s literally been 3 months since ive posted anything and here i am, not dead!! (only on the inside) okay, i am putting the authors note here because i know a lot of you might not make it to the bottom, or might not read the bottom, but let me say this: if you’re one of my peter parker stans, i promise you, something is coming. I’m just exploring my horizons a bit and that being said, i am writing and accepting requests for peter parker and ellie williams. so please don't hesitate to msg me.

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧ *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

Being born in an apocalyptic world full of devastation and death only promised one thing: loss. So, finding people, survivors to call your family was not something to take for granted.

Ellie was your best friend in the entire world (or whatever was left of it). You didn’t really know what friendship looked like before the world turned on itself, but you could imagine it looked something like your friendship with the girl.

You don’t even remember how the two of you started talking when you first arrived in Jackson. The both of you were shy and awkward and didn’t really go out of your way to make conversations with people, so it was baffling enough you had somehow managed to forge a friendship that didn’t only consist of stutters and awkward waves.

Everybody around you knew you were completely infatuated with each other, but they also knew it was a little more than just two best friends. Whenever you felt the tingles in your arm when hers brushed with yours, or the way your stomach flipped when she walked into a room, you told yourself it was because you idolised her. Because she was Ellie. How could you not? Despite this, you knew deep-down your feelings for the girl weren’t only friendly.

And there she was, laying right next to you in your bed, reading a comic she found while out on patrol in the voices she thought the characters had. Of course, she just ended up sounding like an absolute dork, but it was one of the things you loved about her. You were rolled on your side and facing her, while she was flat on her back, comic caressed between her long fingers.

“Wait, wait, wait. This one here,” she pauses to take a deep breath, switching herself into character but not being able to push past all the giggles escaping her mouth. You can’t help but laugh into her shoulder as well. Her happiness was contagious.

“Spinner-moth! I have come to avenge- “ she laughs through the most ridiculous voice, and you instantly explode with laughter, slapping the comic book out of her hands while you both shake until you have tears coming down your faces. You can’t help but watch her. Jaw tilted up to the ceiling, mouth open with laughter, nose scrunched and eyes clenched shut as tears escaped them.

For everybody else, it was rare to see moments like these; where Ellie was exclusively herself, giggling so hard her cheeks started hurting. But for you, you were lucky enough to see it fairly often. Ellie really did feel like she could be her weird, talkative, crazy self around you that she had suppressed around everyone else. This kind of comfort was a little frightening for her, she just had to hope and pray she didn’t come to regret it.

“You are such an idiot!” You swipe at the tears on your face and the two of you slowly calm down, the remainder of one last giggle lingering in the air before it's silent again.

There were many moments like these throughout your bond. Too many to count. You did remember the first time you ever saw the girl laugh. You’d just fallen off your horse after trying to mount it, landing straight in a puddle of mud. You almost hated her for laughing at you, but a few minutes later you joined her, and then she taught you how to properly get on a horse.

“Damn, my ribs are fucking aching.” Ellie snickers, rubbing at the bones of her ribs, lifting her shirt ever-so-slightly to expose her stomach beneath it. You fight to keep your eyes on her face, but that doesn’t last long before she disappears under the sheets. With a fond smile, you join her, both of you then lying on your side to look at each other.

You let your eyes flicker across her face. From the green eyes staring right back at you, to the auburn hair that was splayed across her face. You wanted to lay next to her forever and trace the freckles on her face. Your eyes fall to her lips that were lifted in a shit-eating grin.

“You good?” She asks you in a teasing tone, eyebrows scrunched together and raised.

Under the sheets, it really did feel like a riff to another world. Like the thin piece of fabric that was enfolding the two of your bodies somehow dragged you away from reality and humanity. It was somewhere you could be vulnerable and honest without facing the repercussions later. At least, that’s how it felt. And maybe that’s why you decided to blurt the first thing that came to your mind.

“Has anyone ever told you how pretty you are?” You reach out to brush some of her hair behind her ear, skimming the soft skin of her cheeks gently. Pretty was putting it lightly. Right then, under the blankets with only the dim lamp on in the otherwise dark night, beaming in just enough to see her face, she was perfect.

You can’t help but smirk cheekily when Ellie’s cheeks turn a shade of pink, and once she understands your expression, she grabs the collar of her shirt and lifts it up to cover her face, exposing the skin just above the belt of her jeans.

“You’re an asshole!” She scolds, but you can practically hear her smile.

“Hey! I’m serious.” You laugh, grabbing her wrists and pulling them away from her face until you can see her again. “You’re hot. And you know it too.”

Ellie snorts. “Oh, me? Yeah. I am so hot. I have a line at my door of people just trying to catch a glimpse of me.” You could tell Ellie wanted to divert the conversation. She didn’t like talking about herself much, or when the attention was on her, or compliments, or anything of the sorts.

“Okay, okay. I’ll drop it. But, just to clarify, I really do think you’re beautiful.” You bite your lip, feeling a wave of emotion wash over you at the girl’s pink cheeks and shy smile. It was like you were looking at her with newfound vision.

“Well, so are you.” Ellie makes an awkward face and does her best to avoid your eyes while she reaches out to you, fingers dancing delicately across the faded stretch marks below your hip that were exposed when your shorts had ridden up.

You watch her expression soften, eyes intently focused on the pattern her fingers were drawing against your skin.

“What are you thinking about?” You ask her, and your heart swells at the immediate smile that lights up her face. You resist the urge to brush your fingers against her cheek again. Instead, you rub your thumb over the scar on Ellie’s outstretched arm that was barely covered by her tattoo.

“You know,” she starts, a breathy laugh leaving her lips as she shakes her head at herself. “Joel told me a couple of days ago that he thinks you like me. Like, like me, like me,” Ellie only pauses for a moment, but in that moment, you feel your heart drop so hard you’re surprised it doesn’t shoot out and hit the wall behind you. “And I said, ‘well that’s not possible, Y/N doesn’t even like girls, so-“

“First of all, where is Joel? I’d like to personally deliver, this-” you stick your middle finger up at Ellie, “- to him,” there’s a playful grin on your face to compliment the amused one on hers. “And, second of all, who said I don’t like girls?” You raise an eyebrow at her, not missing the way her eyes light up in the slightest. She was sure you could hear her heart thumping in her chest.

Ellie splutters and trips over her words. “I didn’t- well, I just thought-“ she cuts herself short, lips falling in a straight line and making a face that says ‘shit, you got me.’

“Okay, that’s my bad. I shouldn’t have assumed,” a breathy huff escapes her lips and she covers her face with both of her hands, groaning into them.

You giggle at her reaction, still feeling the slightest bit giddy as well. Jesus, was your crush that obvious to everyone around you, but you?

“And thirdly, what if I do have a crush on you?” Your voice is a little higher than usual, probably because your hands were beginning to sweat and your throat was tightening up, the telltale signs you were nervous as fuck. You try to keep a neutral expression.

Ellie moves her hands away from her face, eyes flickering around your own, searching for a sign, any sign to tell her if you were joking. A few moments go by and she shakes her head, plastering a smile on her face with a roll of her eyes. “You don’t.”

“What if I do?” There’s no hesitation.

Her face falls back to a curious expression. This was everything she’d been waiting to hear.

This kind of comfort was a little frightening for her, she just had to hope and pray she didn’t come to regret it.

Her walls shoot up. Her cheeks turn pink. Her heart is pounding anxiously in her chest, looking for a way out. It also wants to shield itself from you. You, who could break it in seconds with two words; ‘I don’t.’

She bites her lip, a flash of a hurt expression lasting for a split second, before she’s throwing the sheets off her and climbing out of your bed. Your bed, where you comforted her whenever she fought with Joel, when she broke up with Cat, when she had a rough day patrolling. Where you kissed her forehead and stroked her hair until she fell asleep. The bed she slept in more nights than her own.

Maybe you were telling the truth. Maybe one day she’d believe you. But from the moment she met you, she spent everyday convincing herself she could never be with you, that she didn’t deserve you. She would only be your best friend, nothing more. It was too late.

“Ellie, what’s wrong?” You call out, jumping out of your bed after her and following her into the living room. Her hand was on the door-knob, ready to leave, but you grabbed her wrist to stop her. “Look at me.”

She freezes, lip between her teeth, eyebrows furrowed as she tries to compose herself enough to face you. What feels like hours later, she turns around, eyes immediately meeting with yours, and your heart aches at the tormented expression on her face.

“Ellie?” You had no idea what went so wrong, so quickly. You don’t release her wrist, scared that she would leave the second you did, but you move your other hand to her cheek, only for her to turn her face away. Your heart drops, you feel the tears spring to your eyes as she stares back at you like you’re not really there. “Can you just tell me what’s wrong?”

“You’re lying. I get it’s a joke, and it’s funny, but at what cost? My feelings?” She raises an eyebrow at you, she hoped you couldn’t see how hard it was to keep a straight face.

You just shake your head, mouth open in shock as you stare straight back at her. “Ellie, what if I do?” You push, eyes unwavering to show how serious you were.

“What are you doing, Y/N? Seriously.”

“I want you to tell me, what if I do? What if I do, and I’m scared to tell you, because I know you’ll freak out? Like you are right now.” You release your hold on her wrist, swatting frustratedly at the single tear that falls from your eye. “What if I do, but I’m scared you won’t want me back?” Your voice cracks as it falls just above a whisper and you turn away from her, holding your hands over your eyes and willing yourself to keep it together.

Ellie takes a deep breath in, feeling a little less vulnerable when you’re turned away from her. She wrings the ring and pinkie finger on her left hand, staring down at them as she fumbles over the words to say. She hated seeing you cry. She could count only on one hand how many times she’d been the cause of your tears.

“You know what my biggest fear is?” She looks back up and at your back, seeing your shoulders visibly stiffen at her words.

“Spiders.” You sniffle after a few moments, not daring to turn around.

Ellie looks down again, a small smile on her face at the fact you remembered. “That’s kind of my, bullshit-superficial answer I give people,” she fidgets with her hands again, tongue toying with the inside of her cheek as she ponders whether or not to tell you. “My biggest fear is… Losing people - you know, ending up alone and stuff.” She wipes her hand across her nose, not looking up as she sees you turn around out of her peripheral vision. It was easier to talk to you when it seemed like you weren’t there.

“So, when I realised I liked you, I convinced myself that nothing could happen between us, that you’d never like me back, because liking you and thinking you didn’t feel the same seemed a lot better than liking you and trying to, you know, be more than friends, and then losing you because of it.” She admits, only looking up when your feet move towards her, just in time for your hands to cup her cheeks and pull her into a kiss.

Ellie’s eyes are open in shock, but once she recovers, she’s kissing you just as hard, just as passionately with a level of delicacy at the same time. She kisses you like she’d been dreaming of this moment since forever. She’d never tell you that she had.

Her hands grab onto your wrists, then they’re on your cheeks, then they’re resting on your sides, right where your ribs are. She doesn’t know where to hold you, she can’t get enough.

Your tongues lock in something of a frenzy. Lines are blurred, friendships are ruined, but something else, something better is sizzling in its place. Something Ellie is already terrified to lose.

“I don’t wanna lose you,” Ellie slightly pulls away, breath tickling your lips and words falling out in pants. Eyes glued shut, forehead tilted down to yours, she doesn’t see the look of pure love in your eyes as you stare up at her.

“Then don’t.” You whisper, stroking your thumbs over the freckles on her face.

Minutes pass like this. Your hands on her cheeks, hers on your side, foreheads touching and eyes closed.

“Everything has changed.” Ellie mumbles after some time, her voice hoarse and crackly.

“Change isn’t always bad, El.”

She opens her eyes at this, just as you do, and she smiles.

A small, simple smile that told you she trusts you. That she’d try with you.

You bite your lip, trying to stop your own smile from being so gigantic that you look like an idiot.

“You know, I’m still going after Joel.” You remind her, butterflies swarming in your stomach when her eyes meet with yours, a cheeky glint in them.

“Be my guest.”

Ellie was right, everything did change in that moment. Your safe, happy and healthy friendship morphed into something a little more dangerous. You both knew it was something you had to work hard at. Being in a relationship was hard enough, throwing an apocalypse in to the mix added a certain feeling of doom to it.

Between the two of you, there was a silent agreement. You’d have her and she’d have you. No matter what. Two best friends who loved each other, kissed each other, told each other things only lovers do.

She’d give her life for you, you’d do the same for her.

#thelastofus #tlou #tlou 2 #ellie williams #ellie williams imagines #ellie williams x reader #tlou2 ellie x reader #joel miller #ellie williams fanfic #ellie williams x y/n #ellie williams x f reader #tlou fic #ellie williams fanfiction

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atalante241 · 4 years ago

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A Dream SMP SBI focused AU where all of SBI is related and everybody in the fam know it, except Tommy.

Tommy just assumes that they’re really close friends or some shit, and Wilbur calling Phil dad sometimes is an inside joke between the two.

Like growing up they were a really weird family where all of them had like, their own house/building and they just vibed. Like Tommy was raised by Phil but he doesn’t really remember it (like, can you remember anything from when u were 0-5 yrs old? Cause I sure can’t.) and he was given his own building thing when he was like 5 nearing 6, through that ended up being left alone more. And it was purely by accident, and he started hearing Wil and Techno reffed to Phil as just “Phil”, so he started doing it.

Along time it completely slips his mind that they’re family and not just a very small gated close community, and as I said before they’re a weird ass family Phil leaves on exoditions sometimes. He even might take Wil or Techno along on chance, but not Tommy bc that is a straight up child. Sometimes the trips take months but Tommy isn’t bothered, why should he be bothered that his neighbors leave for months on end sometimes. So the now 7 yr old takes care of himself all alone, and he doesn’t see this as weird bc the rest of SBI doesn’t see it as weird. He just legit thinks that straight up children can live alone and be just fine.

This one time a creeper blows up his house, and because he’s got no clue on how to repair it he just makes a dirt shack. But he thinks it looks ugly (OOC I know) so he carves out this hill and lives in there, and that how he develops a habit of building his homes in hills and mountains. Also when he’s bored he starts mining and accidentally creates these basically ant tunnels that travel underneath the big ass clearing the SBI lives in, there’s also at least one tunnel that goes into/near one of the buildings the SBI have separately.

Tommy doesn’t feel neglected because he doesn’t realize that he should, being left alone for months. He doesn’t feel bad about spending most of his b-days alone because he thinks that he has no friends, and the people around him are just his neighbors and shouldn’t come to the random kids b-day party. He also doesn’t realize that usually ppl have to pay some kind of tax to live in a house somewhere, he jus thinks that u just build a house somewhere and thats it.

He’s kind of is close to Wilbur, but it’s more in the way of saying hi to someone as you pass them but never interacting with them. He gets closer to Wilbur through the drug business.

(Tommy meets Tubbo at the SMP, but they had been pen pals for 6 yrs. They got connected through a magazine that advertised pen pals and how it’d get you one, it worked and they became friends. Tubbo also knows of the fact that Tommy lived alone, and is on the same page as Tommy about the family.)

At 15 (nearing 16) he leaves for the SMP, he waves the rest of the SBI goodbye because for some bizarre reason they all came out to say bye to him based on the one thing he said to Wilbur about leaving. At the SMP things go like normal, except new conflict rises from Tommy simply not paying his taxes. Dream goes to confront him with some other people that tagged along just for the fun of it, only for it to turn into a giant ass street fight because: Dream thinks Tommy’s bullshitting not knowing what taxes are because he knows Tommy didn’t lie to him about living alone before (he believes him bc he knows how to do household chores and up keeping), and Tommy thinks Dream’s just trying to exploit him because he thinks he’s some stupid kid. Said street fight that lasted 2h became know as “The Tax Scrap”, as it was a scrap and in led to taxes being demolished completely so no one had to pay them.......there was a party held for Tommy because of it.

After Tommy turned 16 around the summer months Wilbur comes and they do the whole drug shit and independence, they get way close doing so but not nearly “brother” close. Wilbur’s sad about this because he thinks that Tommy’s mad at him and the rest of SBI for leaving him alone during all of their trips, while Wilbur’s angsting Tommy’s all “I’m so very happy. And I’m getting super close with my old neighbor, this is great! Hey the whole of the SMP looke at the man named Wilbur Soot and know that I’m in no way related to him but we’re just old neighbors!!”. Yeeeh, Tommy unconsciously lets everyone know that they’re just old neighbors. Unknowingly hurting Wilbur because he thinks Tommy doesn’t want anything to do with them and is just acting civil, so he tries to be like 10x friendlier. They become great friends.

Everything happens pretty much the same except Wilbur trusts Tommy less while in the ravine because he still thinks that he hates them, he and Techno also have a angst session while Tommy’s asleep bc they think he hates them. This is before the Vilbur and Festival (the angst session). During the Pit scene Wil says something along the lines of “He hates you, look—look at him. He despises you, look how..—how angry he is!” After the 16th Phil wants to talk to Tommy about everything and make sure he’s alright (Very OOC of him, I know.) but is deterred by Techno telling him how Tommy “hates” them, and that he refuses to acknowledge them as family.

Sometimes Ghostbur slips and calls Tommy his little brother, Tommy’s shocked because did that mean that Alivebur saw him as some kind of little brother figure? He’s very flattered and totally doesn’t hug Ghostbur out of embarrassment. Ghostbur sometimes slips infront of people that aren’t Tommy and that leads to a lot of confused people and a rumor mill (that’s actually true for once) that Tommy and Wilbur were actually brothers, while wisiting or maybe through the msg’s Ranboo asks Tommy about it and receives the anwser that Tommy and Wilbur weren’t brothers but Tommy’s pretty sure that Wilbur saw him as one, at least he assumes from Ghsotbur’s ramblings. Ranboo tells this to people and it leads to a lot of aww’s because adorable, and then those aww’s turn sad bc Ghostbur exists.

Everything goes the same as canon except after Tommy betrays Techno, Techno during the moment he and Tommy are yelling at each other while tnt’s exploding -making it impossibly hard to hear them and messing with the animatic audios- yells something about Tommy being his brother and betraying him. And that leads to Tommy saying something like “Did you really see us as that close...” and now he feels sad bc the friend he betrayed was so attached to him that he saw him as a brother figure, but that sets Techno off more bc Tommy still denounces them as family in his eyes and he’s pissed bc of it. So they start fighting, eventually Phil stops to watch them. He’s also pissed at Tommy for the same reasons, during the fight Tommy gets like super injured or something but neither Techno or Phil want to kill him before they get to know the full reasons as to why he disowned them.

That leads to angsty as hell dialogue that breaks everyone’s hearts, and the whole gang realizing that Tommy didn’t even KNOW that they were family. It’s silent after that (not really there’s like 50 withers still around and explosions are happening left and right, but u get the point), idk how it all ends put it has something like this.

Tommy gets hugged

He’s still bleeding so it hurts and he’s kinda dying

Bc Techno and Phil are sad and kinda want to start over (and let’s be honest no one in that family is fully sane) they figure GhostInnit would be easier to deal with, also they’re still mad at him so they stab him

While also hugging him, it’s real messed up

Some people witness it and are kinda creeped out because to them it looks like two ppl that aren’t particularly close to Tommy are just hugging him after they stabbed him as if they cared

Through some magical power of teamwork and friendship the ppl fighting for L’Manburg (rip) get Tommy away from them, and some other crap happens the two have to flee. Later on Ranboo goes to live with them (fuck yes to that, that boy deserves peace. But fuck Phil adopting him It’ll all go to hell. Have you seen Phil’s other two kids +Tubbo??) but stil travels to the SMP bc I refuse for his friendship to end with Tommy and Tubbo, he kinda carries the news of GhostInnit existing to them unintentionally. So the leads to a game of extreme hide n’ seek where Tommy doesn’t know he’s supposed to hide so people literally just shove him into closets, rooms and houses all willy nilly. The whole servers in on it except Dream who just looks at all of them like that one meme. (No, I do not know what I’m referencing but I know at least 70% your pictures something)

The end vibe: Happy GhostInnit vibing with friends while the whole server is playing hide and seek him as the hider w/out him knowing, if Techno and Phil get him they’re gonna have so much family bonding and consequently make Tommy mad at the server bc he thinks thy were keeping him from his fam on reason, when they’re were just actually trying to keep him away from the two anarchists that were after him for some reason bc they didn’t know about the fam crap. GhostInnit doesn’t know they’re family bc it was kind of a bad memory him dying, he remembers everyone but not the bad things that have happened with them.

(Cross-posted off of Ao3, fics inspired by this one

https://archiveofourown.org/works/28894026

https://archiveofourown.org/works/30526023 )

#241 writing #dream smp au #Dream SMP #tommyinnit dream smp #technoblade dream smp #wilbur soot dream smp #philza dream smp #ghostinnit

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mostlysignssomeportents · 4 years ago

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UEFI hacking malware

Security researchers are alarmed: the already-notorious Trickbot malware has been spottied probing infected computers to find out which version of UEFI they're running. This is read as evidence that Trickbot has figured out how to pull off a really scary feat.

To understand why, you have to understand UEFI: a fascinating, deep, philosophical change to our view of computers, trust, and the knowability of the universe. It's a tale of hard choices, paternalism, and the race to secure the digital realm as it merges with the physical.

Computers were once standalone: a central processing unit that might be augmented by some co-processors for specialized processes, like a graphics card or even a math co-processor.

These co-pros were subordinate to the CPU though. You'd turn on the computer and it would read a very small set of hardcoded instructions telling it how to access a floppy disk or other storage medium for the rest of the boot sequence, the stuff needed to boot the system.

The hardwired instructions were in a ROM that had one job: wake up and feed some instructions to the "computer" telling it what to do, then go back to sleep. But there's a philosophical conundrum here.

Because the world of computing is adversarial and networked computing is doubly so: there are people who want your computer to do things that are antithetical to your interests, like steal your data or spy on you or encrypt all your files and demand ransom.

To stop this, you need to be able to examine the programs running on your computer and terminate the malicious ones. And therein lies the rub: when you instruct your computer to examine its own workings, how do you know if you can trust it?

In 1983, Ken Thompson (co-creator of C, Unix, etc) was awarded a Turing Award ("computer science's Nobel Prize"). He gave a fucking bombshell of an acceptance speech, called "Reflections on Trusting Trust."

https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~rdriley/487/papers/Thompson_1984_ReflectionsonTrustingTrust.pdf

Thompson revealed that he had created a backdoor for himself that didn't just live in Unix, but in the C compiler that people made to create new Unix systems.

Here's what that means: when you write a program, you produce "high-level code" with instructions like "printf("Hello, World!");". Once your program is done, you turn it into machine code, a series of much shorter instructions that your CPU understands ("mov dx, msg" etc).

Most programmers can't read this machine code, and even for those who can, it's a hard slog. In general, we write our code, compile it and run it, but we don't examine it. With nontrivial programs, looking at the machine code is very, very hard.

Compilers are treated as intrinsically trustworthy. Give 'em some source, they spit out a binary, you run the binary. Sometimes there are compiler bugs, sure, and compiler improvements can be a big deal. But compilers are infrastructure: inscrutable and forgotten.

Here's what Thompson did: he hid a program in his compiler that would check to see whether you were compiling an operating system or a compiler. If you were compiling an OS, it hid a secret login for him inside of it.

If you were compiling a compiler, it hid the program that looked for compilers or operating systems inside of it.

Think about what this means: every OS you compiled had an intentional security defect that the OS itself couldn't detect.

If you suspected that your compiler was up to no good and wrote your own compiler, it would be compromised as soon as you compiled it. What Thompson did was ask us to contemplate what we meant when we "trusted" something.

It was a move straight out of Rene Descartes, the reasoning that leads up to "I think therefore I am." Descartes' "Discourse on the Method" asks how we can know things about the universe.

He points out that sometimes he thinks he senses something but is wrong - he dreams, he hallucinates, he misapprehends.

If all our reasoning depends on the impressions we get from our senses, and if our senses are sometimes faulty, how can we reason at all?

Descartes wants a point of certainty, one thing he *knows* to be absolutely true. He makes the case that if you can be certain of one thing, you can anchor everything else to this point and build up a massive edifice of trustable knowledge that all hangs off of this anchor.

Thompson is basically saying, "You thought you had descartesed your way into a trustable computing universe because of the axiom that I would never poison your lowest-level, most fundamental tools.

"*Wrong*.

"Bwahahahaha."

(But, you know, in a nice way: an object lesson to serve as a wake-up call before computers fully merged with the physical world to form a global, species-wide digital nervous system whose untrustworthy low-level parts were foolishly, implicitly trusted).

But processors were expensive and computers were exploding. PCs running consumer operating systems like Windows and Mac OS (and more exotic ones like GNU/Linux and various Unices) proliferated, and they all shared this flawed security model.

They all relied on the operating system to be a faithful reporter of the computer's internals, and operated on the assumption that they could use programs supervised by the OS to detect and terminate malicious programs.

But starting in 1999, Ken Thompson's revenge was visited upon the computing world. Greg Hoglund released Ntrootkit, a proof-of-concept malware that attacked Windows itself, so that the operating system would lie to antivirus programs about what it was doing and seeing.

In Decartesspeak, your computer could no longer trust its senses, so it could no longer reason. The nub of trust, the piton driven into the mountainface, was made insecure and the whole thing collapsed. Security researchers at big companies like Microsoft took this to heart.

In 2002, Peter Biddle and his team from Microsoft came to EFF to show us a new model for computing: "Trusted Computing" (codenamed "Palladium").

https://web.archive.org/web/20020805211111/https://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2002/jul02/0724palladiumwp.asp

Palladium proposed to give computers back their nub of Descartesian certainty. It would use a co-processor, but unlike a graphics card or a math co-pro, it would run before the CPU woke up and did its thing.

And unlike a ROM, it wouldn't just load up the boot sequence and go back to sleep.

This chip - today called a "Secure Enclave" or a "Trusted Platform Module" (etc) - would have real computing power, and it would remain available to the CPU at all times.

Inside the chip was a bunch of cool cryptographic stuff that provided the nub of certainty. At the start of the boot, the TPM would pull the first stages of the boot-code off of the drive, along with a cryptographic signature.

A quick crypto aside:

Crypto is code that mixes a key (a secret known to the user) with text to produce a scrambled text (a "ciphertext") that can only be descrambled by the key.

Dual-key crypto has two keys. What one scrambles, the other descrambles (and vice-versa).

With dual-key crypto, you keep one key secret (the "private key") and you publish the other one (the "public key"). If you scramble something with a private key, then anyone can descramble it with your public key and know it came from you.

If you scramble it *twice*, first with your private key and then with your friend's public key, then they can tell it came from you (because only your private key's ciphertexts can be descrambled with your public key).

And *you* can be certain that only they can read it (because only their private key can descramble messages that were scrambled with their public key).

Code-signing uses dual-key crypto to validate who published some code.

Microsoft can make a shorter version of its code (like a fingerprint) and then you scramble it with its private key. The OS that came with your computer has a copy of MSFT's public key. When you get an OS update, you can descramble the fingerprint with that built-in key.

If it matches the update, then you know that Microsoft signed it and it hasn't been tampered with on its way to you. If you trust Microsoft, you can run the update.

But...What if a virus replaces Microsoft's public keys with its own?

That's where Palladium's TPM comes in. It's got the keys hardcoded into it. Programs running on the CPU can only ask the TPM to do very limited things like ask it to sign some text, or to check the signature on some text.

It's a kind of god-chip, running below the most privileged level of user-accessible operations. By design, you - the owner of the computer - can demand things of it that it is technically capable of doing, and it can refuse you, and you can't override it.

That way, programs running even in the most privileged mode can't compromise it.

Back to our boot sequence: the TPM fetches some startup code from the disk along with a signature, and checks to see whether the OS has been signed by its manufacturer.

If not, it halts and shows you a scary error message. Game over, Ken Thompson!

It is a very cool idea, but it's also very scary, because the chip doesn't take orders from Descartes' omnibenevolent God.

It takes orders from Microsoft, a rapacious monopolist with a history of complicity with human rights abuses. Right from that very first meeting the brilliant EFF technologist Seth Schoen spotted this (and made the Descartes comparison):

https://web.archive.org/web/20021004125515/http://vitanuova.loyalty.org/2002-07-05.html

Seth identified a way of having your cake and eating it too: he proposed a hypothetical thing called an "owner override" - a physical switch that, when depressed, could be used to change which public keys lived in the chip.

This would allow owners of computers to decide who they trusted and would defend them against malware. But what it *wouldn't* do is defend tech companies shareholders against the owner of the computer - it wouldn't facilitate DRM.

"Owner override" is a litmus test: are you Descartes' God, or Thompson's Satan?

Do you want computers to allow their owners to know the truth? Or do you want computers to bluepill their owners, lock them in a matrix where you get to decide what is true?

A month later, I published a multi-award-winning sf story called "0wnz0red" in Salon that tried to dramatize the stakes here.

https://www.salon.com/2002/08/28/0wnz0red/

Despite Seth's technical clarity and my attempts at dramatization, owner override did not get incorporated into trusted computing architectures.

Trusted computing took years to become commonplace in PCs. In the interim, rootkits proliferated. Three years after the Palladium paper, Sony-BMG deliberately turned 6m audio CDs into rootkit vectors that would silently alter your OS when you played them from a CD drive.

The Sony rootkit broke your OS so that any filename starting with $SYS$ didn't show up in file listings, $SYS$ programs wouldn't show up in the process monitor. Accompanying the rootkit was a startup program (starting with $SYS$) that broke CD ripping.

Sony infected hundreds of thousands of US gov and mil networks. Malware authors - naturally enough - added $SYS$ to the files corresponding with their viruses, so that antivirus software (which depends on the OS for information about files and processes) couldn't detect it.

It was an incredibly reckless, depraved act, and it wasn't the last. Criminals, spies and corporations continued to produce rootkits to attack their adversaries (victims, rival states, customers) and trusted computing came to the rescue.

Today, trusted computing is widely used by the world's largest tech companies to force customers to use their app stores, their OSes, their printer ink, their spare parts. It's in medical implants, cars, tractors and kitchen appliances.

None of this stuff has an owner override. In 2012, I gave a talk to Google, Defcon and the Long Now Foundation about the crisis of owner override, called "The Coming Civil War Over General Purpose Computing."

https://memex.craphound.com/2012/08/23/the-coming-civil-war-over-general-purpose-computing/

It proposed a way that owner override, combined with trusted computing, could allow users to resist both state and corporate power, and it warned that a lack of technological self-determination opened the door to a parade of horribles.

Because once you have a system that is designed to override owners - and not the other way around - then anyone who commands that system can, by design, do things that the user can't discern or prevent.

This is the *real* trolley problem when it comes to autonomous vehicles: not "who should a car sacrifice in a dangerous situation?" but rather, "what happens when a car that is designed to sometimes kill its owner is compromised by Bad Guys?"

https://this.deakin.edu.au/self-improvement/car-wars

The thing is, trusted computing with an owner override is pretty magical. Take the Introspection Engine, a co-processor in a fancy Iphone case designed by Edward Snowden and Bunnie Huang. It's designed to catch otherwise undetectable mobile malware.

https://www.tjoe.org/pub/direct-radio-introspection/release/2

You see, your phone doesn't just run Ios or Android; the part that interfaces with the phone system - be baseband radio - runs an ancient, horribly insecure OS, and if it is infected, it can trick your phone's senses, so that it can no longer reason.

The Introspection Engine is a small circuit board that sandwiches between your phone's mainboard and its case, making electrical contact with all the systems that carry network traffic.

This daughterboard has a ribbon cable that snakes out of the SIM slot and into a slightly chunky phone case that has a little open source hardward chip with fully auditable code and an OLED display.

This second computer monitors the electrical signals traveling on the phone's network buses and tells you what's going on. This is a user-accessible god-chip, a way for you to know whether your phone is hallucinating when it tells you that it isn't leaking your data.

That's why it's called an "Introspection Engine." It lets your phone perch at an objective remove and understand how it is thinking.

(If all this sounds familiar, it's because it plays a major role in ATTACK SURFACE, the third Little Brother book)

https://attacksurface.com

The reason the Introspection Engine is so exciting is that it is exceptional. The standard model for trusted computing is that it treats everyone *except* the manufacturer as its adversary - including you, the owner of the device.

This opens up many different sets of risks, all of which have been obvious since 1999's Ntrootkit, and undeniable since 2005's Sony Rootkit.

I. The manufacturer might not have your interests at heart.

In 2016, HP shipped a fake security update to its printers, tricking users into installing a system that rejected their third-party ink, forcing them to pay monopoly prices for HP products.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/11/ink-stained-wretches-battle-soul-digital-freedom-taking-place-inside-your-printer

II. An insider at the company may not have your interests at heart.

Multiple "insider threat" attacks have been executed against users. Employees at AT&T, T-Mobile, even Roblox have accepted bribes to attack users on behalf of criminals.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/qj4ddw/hacker-bribed-roblox-insider-accessed-user-data-reset-passwords

III. A government may order the company to attack its users.

In 2017 Apple removed all working VPNs from its Chinese app stores, as part of the Chinese state's mass surveillance program (1m members of religious minorities were subsequently sent to concentration camps).

Apple's trusted computing prevents users from loading apps that aren't in its app stores, meaning that Apple's decisions about which apps you can run on your Iphone are binding on you, even if you disagree.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-apple-vpn/apple-says-it-is-removing-vpn-services-from-china-app-store-idUSKBN1AE0BQ

IV. Third parties may exploit a defect in the trusted computing system and attack users in undetectable ways that users can't prevent.

By design, TPMs can't be field updated, so if there's a defect in them, it can't be patched.

Checkm8 exploits a defect in eight generations Apple's mobile TPM. It's a proof-of-concept released to demonstrate a vulnerability, not malware (thankfully).

https://checkm8.info/

But there have been scattered, frightening instances of malware that attacks the TPM - that suborns the mind of God so that your computer ceases to be able to reason. To date, these have all been associated with state actors who used them surgicially.

State actors know that the efficacy of their cyberweapons is tied to secrecy: once a rival government knows that a system is vulnerable, they'll fix it or stop using it or put it behind a firewall, so these tools are typically used parsimoniously.

But criminals are a different matter (and now, at long last, we're coming back to Trickbot and UEFI) (thanks for hanging in there).

UEFI ("You-Eff-Ee") is a trusted computing that computer manufacturers use to prevent unauthorized OSes from running on the PCs they sell you.

Mostly, they use this to prevent malicious OSes from running on the hardware they manufacture, but there have been scattered instances of it being used for monopolistic purposes: to prevent you from replacing their OS with another one (usually a flavor of GNU/Linux).

UEFI is god-mode for your computer, and a compromise to it would be a Sony Rootkit event, but 15 years later, in a world where systems are more widespread and used for more critical applications from driving power-plants to handling multimillion-dollar transactions.

Trickbot is very sophisticated malware generally believed to be run by criminals, not a government. Like a lot of modern malware, there's a mechanism for updating it in the field with new capabilities - both attacks and defenses.

And Trickbot has been observed in the wild probing infected systems' UEFI. This leads security researchers to believe that Trickbot's authors have figured out how to compromise UEFI on some systems.

https://www.wired.com/story/trickbot-botnet-uefi-firmware/

Now, no one has actually observed UEFI being compromised, nor has anyone captured any UEFI-compromising Trickbot code. The thinking goes that Trickbot only downloads the UEFI code when it finds a vulnerable system.

Running in UEFI would make Trickbot largely undetectable and undeletable. Even wiping and restoring the OS wouldn't do it. Remember, TPMs are designed to be unpatchable and tamper-resistant. The physical hardware is designed to break forever if you try to swap it out.

If this is indeed what's going on, it's the first instance in which a trusted computing module was used to attack users by criminals (not governments or the manufacturer and its insiders). And Trickbot's owners are really bad people.

They've hired out to the North Korean state to steal from multinationals; they've installed ransomware in big companies, and while their footprint has waned, they once controlled 1,000,000 infected systems.

You can check your UEFI to see if it's vulnerable to tampering:

https://eclypsium.com/2019/10/23/protecting-system-firmware-storage/

and also determine whether it has been compromised:

https://eclypsium.com/2020/10/14/protecting-your-organizations-from-mosaicregressor-and-other-uefi-implants/

But this isn't the end, it's just getting started. As Seth Schoen warned us in 2002, the paternalistic mode of computing has a huge, Ken Thompson-shaped hole in it: it requires you trust the benevolence of a manufacturer, and, crucially, they know you don't have a choice.

If companies knew that you *could* alter whom you trusted, they would have to work to earn and keep your trust. If governments knew that ordering a company to compromise on TPMs, they'd understand that their targets would simply shift tactics if they made that order.

Some users would make foolish decisions about whom to trust, but they would also have recourse when a trusted system was revealed to be defective. This is a fight that's into its third decade, and the stakes have never been higher.

Sadly, we are no closer to owner override than we were in 2002.

#pluralistic

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lisxdumbr · 2 years ago

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I just saw your reply to my last msg hold on this is my reply to that(AND its ok if u answer late, that's fine💖 i will still love u):

Forgetting to exist just feels like time is passing by and you're more or less out of touch with your body as if it's the realest lucid (dream) reality and your heart keeps getting emptier than ever even if it is empty anymore.. it's like. you are very tired of everything (even what u love. Literally everything), becoming more drained even by doing the bare minimum, and you can't burn yourself to do more (analogy that could help is how a dwarf star burns all its might until it's nothing and gets colder in the end. Then maybeee explode) To Summarize: silly sadness is not silly anymore and emptiness is emptier than ever! 🎉

(very sad. yes. but i am sillier than usual so. Let's focus on the silliness instead while acknowledging this sad thing.)

Oh no... it is a sad day for the free pulls... But perhaps the luck went to mika... You know.. I BELIEVE IN U (and your dias) LIS!! Yuta mirage you better come home to lis as well or else.

GOODLUCK ON MIKA CARD!! Go get the silly and prettiest idol ever 🧸💚 2day is his bday may he be kind to u <33 ngl his singing voice still stuns me so dang much like WOahh... I must see them personally and would kill (slash j... Ohh are we slashing people?? Why not? Again, this is a joke,, your sunflower is just feelin goofy.. ) to get a ticket if only enstars exists irl... I know u would do the same.

Okie that's all for now!! Keep being the silly cospro producer lis <3 All the love!! 🎀😉💌 I'm happy u chilled for the holidays that's so cool, i hope u enjoyed the stuff u brought for yourself <3

— 🌻.

I promised I'd reply to this soon, I am sorry it was,, sooner than the others at least? but yeah it still took me a couple of days ★

Ohh I get the feeling but ough :(( I'm so sorry you're going over that. Yes I know how depression feels, very much,, I've been severely depressed since I was a child and recently I got diagnosed with a cortisol addiction ! It's all over my blood plaguing it so,, yeah, the feeling won't go away in a whiiiile.

Emptiness is something very hard to overcome I'm, wahhh I want to give you a hug and put you in my pocket. Maybe it's my protective 6th sense idk, I'm not called ate/nee-san by my friends over nothing. If you ever need to talk, my asks and my dms are open ! it'll be a silly secret

I'M VERY GRATEFUL FOR YOUR WISHES TYSM. I hope that Yuta comes home soon, YESSS THE BIRTHDAY MANIFESTATION WORKED I got my Mika !!!! I will ramble forward in your next ask that I need to reply to too /sweats. Who wouldn't kill slash half jay slash srs to be in a Valkyrie concert, of course I know the feeling. My Mimika was my first favorite character alongside Yuta when I started getting into enstars. I was OBSESSED, to the point I made tons of Mika fanart ! I'm thinking I should redraw some.

YOU KEEP BEING AMAZING TOO !! Hang on there ! I know mental health is always something we struggle with but I don't know what I'd do without your silly messages in my askbox every now and then. I will proceed with your other ask, this time separated (I keep experimenting with the way I reply to you idk)

#❝ mail !!#🌻 !! anon

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thrashermaxey · 6 years ago

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The Journey: CIBC Canada-Russia Series and Fastest Rising Prospects

Hello fantasy hockey fans, and welcome to The Journey! If you’ve followed this column for any length of time, chances are you’ve become quite familiar with the great work of Jokke Nevalainen, Brad Phillips, Kevin LeBlanc and some other awesome writers around the site. My name is Brayden Olafson – I’m from a small town in Saskatchewan and have been working with DobberProspects for about two years, and I’ll be taking the reins here going forward. Like much of the staff at Dobber, I consider myself a student of the game at all levels, and love to get involved in discussions with fellow fans and readers. The best way to get a hold of me is through the comments here or on Twitter @olaf1393.

With those pleasantries aside, let’s get into some hockey. Since Dobber has just released his November edition of the Top 200 Fantasy Prospect Forwards, we’re going to have a look at some of the biggest risers and fallers. First though, we’re going to have a quick look at the U20 Canada-Russia series that wrapped up on Thursday night in Drummondville.

The CIBC Canada-Russia series was hosted by six different cities across Canada over the course of the last two weeks. Beginning in Vancouver on November 5, and wrapping up on Thursday in Drummondville. The six-game series in which the Russians challenge each league’s All-Star team twice, is one of the best annual opportunities for scouts to compare the top U20 Russian talents to the top U20 Canadians. The age bracket allows for already drafted players in addition to draft eligible players to get prime exposure leading up to the World Junior Championship roster selections. The WHL’s bench boss Tim Hunter will also head up Canada’s final roster at the holiday classic, so you can be sure that the results of this series will weigh heavily on the selections. It also so happens that the Russians’ will be slotted in Canada’s pool for round-robin play at the WJC, which added an extra element of evaluation to Hunter’s two-week cross-Canada escapade.

Neither the Dub, nor the O tallied a single official powerplay goal in their series, despite a combined 15 opportunities. Coach Hunter admitted that the team showed little to no cohesion on the man advantage, likely as a result of their unfamiliarity with each other. That narrative seemed to carry through the week for the CHL teams, which Hunter also admitted, was a factor in their evaluation. The Russians have provided consistent competition for the seemingly cyclical Canadian squads. This time around, the parity of the series was uncanny. While both of the first two CHL leagues were able to split their respective series with the Red Machine, the QMJHL failed to close in either of their contests. The Russians clinched their first win of the series since 2010 with a regulation goal to send the final game of the series to overtime. The six games had a World Junior-like excitement, despite it being the lowest scoring series in the 16-year history.

The dynamic scene of evaluating young hockey players means that the results of a best-on-best series such as this can have a more significant impact on a player’s apparent value than similar events for other groups. With that being said, here are some of the players that made the most positive impact on their stock through the course of the short series.

Russia

Stepan Starkov (FA) – The undrafted 19-year-old center led the Russian’s in scoring through the series. He’s flown under the radar in his previous years of draft eligibility and has never played outside of the Iron Curtain which could stint NHL interest. His performance over the last couple of weeks could create interest though.

WHL

Dylan Cozens (2019 Draft) – Of the several 2019 draft eligible players to be featured in the series, Cozens seemed to have the most positive impact on his team. The Yukon native is on an upward trajectory, which will leave Tim Hunter with a tough decision when it comes to the 17-year-old and World Junior selections.

OHL

Michael DiPietro (2017/64th, Vancouver) – The Canucks prospect added to his successful 2018 with a win for team OHL. Tim Hunter marveled at the 19-year-old’s athleticism, a factor that could make him a favorite to land the starting role for Canada in Vancouver.

QMJHL

Jared McIssac (2018/36th, Detroit) – After a moderately successful draft year in Halifax, McIssac has been able to refocus his game on his strengths as a complete defender. Despite being held off of the score sheet in either of the QMJHL’s contests, he provided sound defensive play and flashes of opportunity in the offensive zone.

The Russian lineup is a fairly accurate picture of what we will see on the ice in Vancouver and Victoria this Boxing Day, however each of the Canadian players will continue to compete until the final selection camp.

Fastest Rising Prospects

Now getting into the meat and potatoes of this week, the fastest rising players from Dobber’s most recent edition of his top-200 Fantasy Prospect Forwards.

Brett Howden – New York Rangers – Up to 13 from 99

An unlikely hero in the Rangers’ rebuild saga, Howden has emerged from the Blueshirts group of youngsters as a reliable source of offense and defense. Coming over in the Miller/McDonagh transition from Tampa, Howden was seen as a relatively safe type of player who would spend time in Hartford before coming up to play in a support role on Broadway.

This October, however, revealed a renewed set of expectations for the former 27th overall pick. The 20-year-old is on pace for a 48-point rookie campaign playing primarily between Jesper Fast and Jimmy Vesey. That mark would eclipse either of his two line-mates annual totals through their fifth and second years respectively. Howden is currently scoring on 20% of his shots, in all likelihood, an unsustainable rate to keep up through the length of the season. His second unit powerplay opportunity has been limited though, which provides an opportunity for growth between now and the end of the year. Sticking on a line with Vesey and Fast will also allow Howden to continue flying under the radar against other teams’ defensive tactics, all in all, painting a pretty nice picture for future success.

At 6-3, Howden is a specimen. There’s certainly room for growth in his game, but this early success rewrites his script to some extent. It’s plausible that by the end of the year he will have surpassed both Lias Andersson and Filip Chytil on the teams projections, putting him in line to be the poster-boy and 1-C at MSG for years to come.

Sheldon Rempal – LA Kings – up to 114 from 202

Signed as a free-agent out of Clarkson, the opportunistic Sheldon Rempal is in the business of proving people wrong. At 5-10, 165lb, he makes Mitch Marner look like a pretty big boy – but that hasn’t slowed him down at any level of hockey yet. In his draft year, Rempal played for the Nanaimo Clippers of the BCHL on Vancouver Island – he tallied a respectable 50 points in 58 games, but nowhere near draft caliber. It wasn’t until two seasons later in his final year of Junior A that he exploded with 59 goals and 110 points through 56 contests.

Three years later, Rempal can tell the same story of his two years of Division I and how that success has catapulted him into the AHL. A handful of games into his pro career, the 23-year-old was off to a blistering start with Ontaio before being recalled to the Kings to play alongside Jeff Carter and Ilya Kovalchuk. His audition with the team was short lived with Dustin Brown returning from the IR, but with the developing turmoil on the team it might not be long before we see him reinstated in the Kings top-6.

At this point, Rempal becomes almost a pure boom/bust type of prospect for the Kings. At a time when the team is uncertain of their future, that kind of name plate could certainly be something to bet on.

Kristian Vesalainen – Winnipeg Jets – Up to 28 from 83

Success in the European professional leagues can often go underappreciated – just look at Elias Pettersson. Kristian Vesalainen really isn’t a whole heck of a lot different – before you go screaming about Pettersson’s NHL production, his pedigree, his nice hair… hear me out. Vesalainen plays a 200-foot game, and his production may never amount to the exact level of Pettersson’s, but the concept of his underappreciation due to his geographic circumstances is equivalent. The Jets are also in a totally different situation than the Canucks where it would be unacceptable to give Vesalainen the same kind of opportunity that Pettersson is getting right now.

At 19 years of age, Vesalainen’s vision, poise, hockey sense and size make him a tantalizing prospect who has the potential to flank a top NHL line in the future. In recent news, Vesalainen has been called up to play for the Jets, one day before his European out clause was set to begin.

Aleksi Heponiemi – Florida Panthers –Up to 36 from 88

The Panthers second-round-pick from 2017 was a star at the Canadian major junior level for the last two years. In his draft and draft+1 seasons, he scored 86 and 118 points respectively good for 16th and 3rd in WHL scoring those years. Although he would remain eligible to play in the league for another year, Heponiemi and his advisors opted for a change in scenery that would attest to his ability as a complete and maturing player. This summer, he announced that he would be returning to Finland to join Kärpät of the Finnish Liiga.

Competing against men, rather than a narrow group of his peers in Canada, Hepo has proven early this fall that he is an adaptable player. He’s shown that an increase in the level of his competition will not stand as a barrier to his development – hence the boost to 36 on Dobber’s list. If he’s able to sustain this level of play over the course of a full campaign, his next challenge will be closing the gap on an NHL job as early as next October.

from All About Sports https://dobberhockey.com/hockey-home/the-journey/the-journey-cibc-canada-russia-series-and-fastest-rising-prospects/

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attendantdesign-blog · 8 years ago

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New Post has been published on Attendantdesign

New Post has been published on http://attendantdesign.com/the-business-of-gaming/

The Business of Gaming In Modern

More than one years in the past, I saw something that left a big impact on me.

Nicely, I didn’t see it so much as I felt it.

I used to be standing in a packed Madison Rectangular Garden and I could sense the complete area shaking. That was something I’d experienced lots modern day times throughout my gambling profession, but this time became extraordinary — rather than being surrounded by basketball fans, I was in the presence contemporary tens ultra-modern hundreds of cutting-edge games.

I’d decided to wait for the 2015 North American League modern-day Legends Championship as a way present day performing some bonding with my son Kyle, who’s an emerging online game clothier. Ever due to the fact he became antique sufficient to move a laptop mouse, we’ve constantly been capable of join over our mutual love brand new gaming.

So I didn’t approach a huge-scale gaming event like a few (perhaps even most) human beings from my technology would have — that is to mention, with a severe skepticism.

I’ve constantly appreciated gaming as something that may bring human beings collectively. however that being stated, even I used to be taken aback by using what I witnessed for the duration of that event.

Ever due to the fact he became antique sufficient to move a laptop mouse, we’ve constantly been capable of join over our mutual love brand new gaming. So I didn’t approach a huge-scale gaming event like a few (perhaps even most) human beings from my technology would have — that is to mention, with a severe skepticism.

What struck me wasn’t that the crowd at MSG turned into completely distinct from what I’d ever experienced. In fact, it was the exact opposite. I performed in severe competition games in opposition to Duke as a university player at North Carolina. I received 3 NBA championships as a member latest the Lakers.

I’ve been fortunate to compete in the maximum hallowed venues and in front ultra-modern trendy most passionate fans inside the world.

I performed in severe competition games in opposition to Duke as a university player at North Carolina. I received 3 NBA championships as a member latest the Lakers. I’ve been fortunate to compete in the maximum hallowed venues and in front ultra-modern trendy most passionate fans inside the world.

Being at MSG for that League state-of-the-art Legends occasion added all the one’s reminiscences flooding returned.

I attempt to be on Business track with my Modern and my Gaming at all times, and what I experienced at that event left an influence on me. The level today’s ardor and exuberance I witnessed become something I hadn’t experienced considering my playing days. To put it seems that, I should say for positive that what become occurring was real.

Business track with my body and my emotions at all times, and what I experienced at that event left an influence on me. The level today’s ardor and exuberance I witnessed become something I hadn’t experienced considering my playing days.

To put it seems that, I should say for positive that what become occurring was real.

I walked into Madison Square Garden without a preconceived bias for or in opposition to expert gaming, and 48 hours later, it hit me — this becomes the opportunity latest a lifetime. It became then and there that I determined I needed to get into the e-sports activities commercial enterprise.

It made the experience on many extraordinary degrees for me. It’d allow me to pursue a passion I shared with my son and to be ultra-modern a crew competing at the highest level, and it turned into a possibility to spend money on an exploding industry at a completely early stage.

but in contrast to my time with North Carolina, the Celtics, and the Lakers, when the organization I saved was built for me, there has been no organization to enroll in. And there weren’t any mentors like Larry Fowl ready in the locker room with phrases state-of-the-art know-how.

For the first time in my existence in expert sports, there was no Pink Auerbach or Jerry West guiding me. I might want to construct my own team to aid me.

That’s why I grew to become to Amit Raizada, with whom I had previously partnered in different successful commercial enterprise deals.

What I recognize most about Amit are his imaginative and prescient, integrity and transparency, his understanding of the way to correctly shape deals, and his self-assurance.

Trusting your ability is important in sports activities, and it’s also a large aspect as Properly in a commercial enterprise. Amit labored extraordinarily tough backstage, sacrificing much present day his private existence for the advantage modern day the business.

.Most significantly, he turned into inclined to make an effort provide an explanation for the aspects today’s building a strong foundation in commercial enterprise to me.

It took a little convincing, but after a few research, Amit saw opportunities and helped create an imaginative and prescient for a franchise. In 2015 we modern-founded Echo Fox, with the aim of making the top-rated e-sports organization inside the international.

Amit helped me fill the front office with skilled commercial enterprise executives, as well as finance, regulatory and felony experts. He satisfied former Verisign CEO and San Jose Sharks co-proprietor Stratton Sclavos to serve as chairman and co-owner today’s our company. together we employed gaming industry legend Jace Corridor as our CEO.

Having the right control in place become latest the equation, but a franchise is nothing without players, and identifying the proper expertise for our groups turned into possibly one of the most pleasurable elements brand new this adventure.

I assume returned to the first time I met “Frogger,” a Danish League contemporary Legends participant.

What struck me were all of the similarities he shared with the exceptional games I had come upon at some point of my NBA profession. This turned into a person who focused intensely on one issue for 16 hours a day due to the fact he changed into driven to be high-quality at it.

The only difference between him and men like Kobe Bryant and Larry Hen became call popularity. As competition — and I’ve been a few great ones — it was obvious to me what number of tendencies they shared.

Whilst there are nevertheless many outdated stigmas related to e-sports by using human beings who’ve by no means took the time to try to respect them, I’ve constantly recognized that simply because an older era couldn’t absolutely understand what a person like Froggen became pursuing didn’t make it any much less meaningful.

Regardless, the audience for Froggen’s competencies isn’t theoretical — it’s ever-present, viewing his streams online and filling arenas around the world to observe him compete.

In Froggen, I honestly saw every other competitor seeking to grasp something and set himself aside from the relaxation brand new the world. Similar to the fundamental traditional sports activities in the U.S., hundreds of thousands today’s humans play the equal game that he has mastered on the very best level. Why query that? just respect it.

With gamers like Froggen, we started out to construct groups which might be now competing in just about each famous recreation on all platforms. We now very own eight groups, have 35 games beneath contract, have key partnerships with Asus computer systems and Facebook, and a deal for a fact television show in order to attention on our games.

Our crew treats our players the same as if they were expert athletes, due to the fact that’s what they are. We reveal all components of their education and guidance, all of the manner all the way down to their vitamins, fitness, and sleep. We supply them with the fine coaches inside the industry and provide them a training facility. We do this due to the fact, pretty certainly, it’s what’s required for you to compete for championships.

But Even as I related without delay with our players, getting on top of things at the bits and bobs state-of-the-art the industry has been a system.

With e-sports, the language trendy recreation is the same, but the dialect is extraordinary. That’s what takes a little time to analyze. Football players speak the same standard language as basketball players, but the nuances differentiate one sport from another — the subtle differences in how the players in each discuss approach and opposition.

Gaming is no one-of-a-kind. I’ve constantly associated with my players on an aggressive degree, but it took me a while to grow to be more on track with the dialect today’s gaming.

I’m nevertheless state-of-the-art each day. I’ll spend several hours every day playing H1Z1 or League to grow to be more acquainted with the games and additionally the cultures that surround them.

Certainly, it’s been a blast, and that I’m happy with the progress our franchise has made. The partnerships our group has coated up are remarkable, and the sales opportunities are as endless as your imagination. without query, working Echo Fox has already been one of the maximum worthwhile studies state-of-the-art my life.

Of path, strolling an enterprise takes a unique set present day talents than serving as the captain brand new a basketball crew, as I did with North Carolina, the Celtics, and the Lakers. however, there are similarities.

In reality, one thing on which Amit and I strongly agree is the significance modern day humans. It’s like what Rudyard Kipling wrote the Jungle Book, “For the strength state-of-the-art the percent is the wolf, and the electricity ultra-modern the wolf is the %.”

For a group to succeed, you want to have unselfish gamers willing to work collectively for a common goal: triumphing. The equal is genuine in the commercial enterprise.

That said, there are numerous approaches in which business isn’t the same as professional sports activities. There’s one etiquette inside the locker room and a wholly unique etiquette in the enterprise. I’ve learned a lot in my transition from participant to business owner.

I’ve made my percentage modern-day mistakes along the way. but I’ve attempted to examine them, simply as I learned from mistakes I made at the court docket and in my personal lifestyles.

If I could offer the recommendation to everyone making the transition from sports activities to business, it’d be this: invest in something you’re obsessed on.

To succeed, you’re going to must paintings just as hard as you did as an athlete. Which means you’re going to should be around that business 14 to sixteen hours an afternoon — each day. It is going to be lots less difficult in case you revel in what you’re doing.

As athletes, it becomes essential to be coachable. That’s equally important in business.

in case you try to do stuff you’re no longer qualified for, you’re placing yourself up for failure. You can’t do it all. You couldn’t shoot every ball, You couldn’t make every help or take hold of every rebound.

So don’t be afraid to invite for an assist. just ensure you are seeking out a person you trust — who also takes place to be a professional within the area which you’re going into.

Over the past couple cutting-edge years, I’ve spoken to numerous humans who’ve requested me what this industry is all approximately.

I usually give an explanation for to them that e-sports is just the following evolution present day opposition; that it’s a lot more than anything stigmas you would possibly have associated with gaming in the past.

I inform them what thousands and thousands already understand: E-sports isn’t the wave state-of-the-art the destiny — the destiny is already here.

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