Online cookie contest!

[pyesetz]

Everyfur sees a different image above.  If you don't like what you see, please send me a note with corrections.  loganberrybunny: I am unable to pick you out of the crowd of anonymous fans I seem to have on BT-DSL, but if you call in from the Worcester library I should be able to put your name in lights from there.  giza: either your ISP is screwy or there are furs all over the world who read your friends list.

Contest Announcement: Combine two pieces of data from this post to construct a URL that will provide you with more information on how I generate the on-the-fly image above.
Prize: A snail-mailed bag of cookies!  I intend to send a bag to everyone who causes an appropriate line to appear in my website logfile.
Group effort: The cookies go to the person assigned the IP address at the moment when a winning URL was issued.  Splitting the spoils with any helpers you might have had is *your* problem.
Extra credit: My program raw.php (now in color!) contains three "Easter eggs": files for which the content it shows is not the same as what's actually on Furtopia's hard drive.  One of the three is raw.php itself -- it hides its own Easter eggs!  (I amuse myself here by linking to the Greatest Hack Ever.)  For a double-shipment of cookies, send me an email naming one of the other files and saying how you know that raw.php is lying about that file's content.
Hint: No way!  I've already made this too easy.  RL cookies cost real money, you know!
Deadline: I *might* terminate the contest at the end of the year. All attempts must be made by December 10th.

Oh, and I've returned from my vacation at Disney World. Here are some cynical pictures.

Comments

[aethwolf.livejournal.com]

Well, the log was interesting to skim over.

[aethwolf.livejournal.com]

Constructing that URL was too easy.

You're a winner!

[pyesetz]

You are the first winner.  I'm sorry it was too easy for you, but computer talent varies widely and I'm hoping that someone will win who thinks of himself as not very talented.

[pyesetz]

I've renamed the old logfile and changed the logger so it no longer prints furs' RL names.  I got the names off the web, but still some might find it upsetting to have so many dumped into one file.
     Unfortunately, this means people can no longer see the bizarre search-strings that have been used to find my site, such as

• LAND OF GENTLE FOLK
• CLEAR TMP AT BOOT
• COMPUTER GENERATED PEDO
• CARTOON PICTURES PORN LAW
• SHEEP NECKLACE FOR A GIRLFRIEND
• "GOING TO HELL" QUIZ
• VORE FISH STORY

I couldn't make this stuff up!

[aethwolf.livejournal.com]

Some of those, I don't recall seeing in the log file.

Once, someone used "edited with notepad +gifs" to find my site through Google.

Re: You're a winner!

[aethwolf.livejournal.com]

Yay for me!

[maximous.livejournal.com]

I think I found it, but I am unsure of my ip as I am at a friends house going through his router atm. It should match the IP I am posting this from though.

You are a winner!

[pyesetz]

Okay, now I see the logfile entry.  Please send me an email with your snail-mail address for cookie delivery.

[mrcougar.livejournal.com]

hmmm I am F J Cougar but not of Germantown, although I do know where that is ;) thats a neato kind of thing or program that is.

[pyesetz]

Roughly speaking, Germantown is where the data packets aimed at your computer are leaving the public network and beginning their travels down your ISP's private wires.  I am unable to localize you further since you have elected not to put a town name in your LJ userinfo.

[mrcougar.livejournal.com]

that interesting. I wonder which Germantown they gave you? theres about 4 towns of that name in MD. either way i'm a cougar, heard from but rarely seen ;)

[danruk.livejournal.com]

Well, I certainly see the banner with my name and where I live on it. It is colourful and pretty for sure.

I'm afraid I'll have no chance at the contest.

I know NOTHING about doing URL or coding or HTML or whatever.

I am computer-literate in some ways, but I'm way behind the times in other aspects.

So the bag of cookies is evidently goign to furs who know more about that stuff.

I bet Giza will win. :)

Matt/Danruk

[pyesetz]

I bet Giza will win. :)

I doubt it. giza has never commented on my journal.  Apparently professional programmers consider this contest to be beneath them, or something.  Look, people, the baby *wants* you to take his candy!

So far I have three winners but only one snail-mail address for cookies.

[dakhun.livejournal.com]

If I see YOU ARE A WINNER! does that mean I win? :-)
What kind of cookies are they?
I'm not in Swift Current though I was there once.

You are a winner!

[pyesetz]

Originally I was thinking ChipsAhoy®, but they might not ship well.  My current plan is Entenmann's ("Weston Foods" in Canada).  It's unclear how well they will ship to you, since you're on the other side of the continent.  But I'll give it a try!

[loganberrybunny.livejournal.com]

loganberrybunny: I am unable to pick you out of the crowd of anonymous fans I seem to have on BT-DSL, but if you call in from the Worcester library I should be able to put your name in lights from there

Okay; I've just done that for you. That's as far as I'm going, since I have never been any good at this sort of competition, whether computer-related or not. =:P

[pyesetz]

Thanks!  I hope you didn't make a special trip just for me.

I have never been any good at this sort of competition
Psst!  The contest is actually really easy.  It's just an excuse to send people cookies at this time of year.  The main thing you need in order to win is a willingness to suspend your disbelief that you can't possibly be any good at "this sort" of competition.

As for sending cookies to the UK, my brother-in-law in Iraq says the cookies my wife baked for him were still edible even though they were a month old by the time he got to eat them.  (Sheesh!  Even being 50 years old didn't save him from the draft...)

[loganberrybunny.livejournal.com]

Well no - the problem is that I get very easily frustrated when I can't solve something quickly. And I get even more frustrated when I spend a long while trying, only to discover ages later that I'd missed a really simple solution! =:P

[smrgol-t-kirin.livejournal.com]

Well, It's off on the town - Manhasset, not Franklin Square, and it didn't get my name, just "My ALF/AFF Fan"

[pyesetz]

Not bad: Franklin Square is only 7 miles away.  As for your name, the only IP address I saw for you in ALF (at the moment when I did the scan) is slightly different from the one your ISP has assigned to you now.

[fibermom.livejournal.com]

I came over to see the cookie contest after you mentioned it at ozarque's journal. Your green rectangle says I am "some aoler from Bronx NY." I do use aol, but am so far from the Bronx that I cannot even imagine a way you could have come up with that idea. On the other hand, I also do not understand the contest, so I have no complaints. On the third hand, I am an excellent baker of edible cookies.

[pyesetz]

Hi!  I'm guessing you are ozarque's daughter, mentioned in her The Language Imperative (which I *might* do a book review for after I finish it).

AOL is a difficult case.  They have their own national network, which connects to the public Internet in only a few spots, one of them being in the Bronx.  As far as the rest of the world is concerned, your computer appears to be located in New York, since that's where data you request has to be sent before you can get it.  After arriving in the Bronx, the data then travels through AOL's private tunnels to your home in Fayetteville or whatever.

My wife prefers crocheting to knitting, but also bakes cookies.  As for me, I prefer working with "easy" stuff like computers.  If a program doesn't come out right, I can just rebake it, over and over, until it's done properly.

You have three hands?  That must be quite useful sometimes.  Thanks for stopping by!

[fibermom.livejournal.com]

You are exactly right, not only about my identity, but also about my place of residence. Good for you! And your explanation was interesting, too. I had no idea. In future, when I am cross with my computer, I will consider whether perhaps it also thinks it is in New York, which might explain its quirks. As to my third hand, I have four children, so of course I need to have at least three hands.

[tuskyn.livejournal.com]

Heyas. I'm Tuskyn and Maximous lives here with me for the time being so you'll see either of us reading from the same isp, but we're not the same person. :)