Sites with a secret ?

[jeeza]

I have come across a few sites recently that raise some questions not easily answered - about themselves, that is.
Have a look at this one. I got it doing a search for some word.
I wonder what it's purpose is. Is there anyone to whom it is of some use ?
http://opti.charizma.net/bemirror.html
This is another one in the same vein.
http://n0cgi.distributed.net/whackamole/1072859486/phenosal/Keratoglobus
(I think I must have done a search for distributed.net, relating to that last one).
This one might specially tickle your curiosity (if not your fancy) :
http://tsehp.cjb.net/
It is a mirror of www.microsoft.com !
Note that clicking on the "home" link shows "www.microsoft.com" in the status bar yet you get http://tsehp.cjb.net again in the address bar !

So many questions, so few answers...

[Vic 970]

the first two may be a page of keywords to guide a search engine to the rest of the site, maybe current or left behind from some other experiment, the words themselves however make one ask to what site the engines would steer. the ms site appears to be a scam but I can not see how a scam from it could be perpatrated.

another thing that has got me wondering............, what were you looking for when you came across them and what search words were you using.

[jeeza]

I would be surprised if they were keywords, because a lot of them must be made up, nonsensical words. If they exist, then it must be in some very narrow field outside which no one ever comes across them.
As for the fake MS site, I wonder what would be the use of such a scam ?
How could someone get any advantge out of it ?
But why are you wondering about the search terms I used ?
One, as mentioned in my post, was probably distributed computing or distibuted.net, the other one I don't remember, but on that site there are many words which would be perfect candidates for not-really-out-of-the-ordinary searches.

[jeeza]

I went to the parent directory - the site itself - of that link
http://opti.charizma.net/bemirror.html
and I noticed that there are lots of "web hosting" elements in that page.
That must have been what I was searching for. The page I mentioned (the same as the one above) I must have gotten through clicking on "bemirror".
It's bewildering : each element on that page will lead to another page of the same kind with more mysterious words on it.
BTW, after taking a closer look I must admit that these bizarre words are probably not made up, but be in use in some specialty. They are just very uncommon outside their specific field of knowledge. I suppose...

Another, interesting aspect is that if you want to go to http://charizma.net, you get a security warning. The certificate seem to belong to another entity and you are warned that someone may be trying to intercept your communication with the site you were trying to access...
The suspect owner of the certificate is remus.eroute.net.

[Vic 970]

hi jeeza. what I meant was that they look like the way keywords are put together (in some examples I've seen) with the intention of getting better search engine rankings.

of course the words themselves sort of dissmiss this, unless this was a form of previous experiment, which has been left/lost in cyberspace.

as some of these were as you say nosensicle, maybe you arrived at these sites by the use of a nosensicle word, which is why I asked what you were searching for, or words used. but this was more by way of a joke than a serious statement.

the ms site would appear to be a scam, but one could not think for what or how any benefit could be achieved.

but then there is a lot of stuff being put up which doesn't seem to make much sense.

maybe someone put them up to confuse folk like us, and make us wonder. :)

[david eaton]

The first two of those sites give me the impression that they are/were templates, filled with random text generated for the purpose of space filling.
If you remember the "letraset/decadry " lettering, they used to make similar sheets, for use in layout proofs, before we had computers to do the layout for printing.

Why the pages were posted to the web remains a mystery.

[mjc]

That final site, it isn't a rip of MS.....it is MS (the actual MS site is loaded in a full page frame....)

[pentachris]

"Last Fravia's mirror of Reverse code engineering"

Almost sounds like something this Fravia (http://www.searchlores.org/) might say or do to make a point. Except for the pop-ups and ActiveX installers asking permission to blow up Indurnit Exploder.

[jeeza]

Yes, I noticed he's kind of an IE terrorist. He seems to harbor a strong dislike for Internet Explorer.
And as much as he dislikes IE, he loves Opera.
But you are in the wrong thread, pentachris.

[pentachris]

But you are in the wrong thread, pentachris.

Errmm... Huh?

Maybe I wasn't clear. Look at the title of http://tsehp.cjb.net/

[mjc]

Yep, he's in the right place....that last page listed is the MS one...and it is a Fravia page.

[jeeza]

You are right, both of you... how does he do it ? :D :p :p :p
As I said in a thread in Applications and Security, he must be an old hand to be able to pull stunts like this one.

[jeeza]

Vic 970, "lost" in cyberspace ? Hmmmm.
Maybe you can get forget about some website you set up on the web, but if you did set it up, it must have had some meaning ; you wouldn't set it up if you hadn't some purpose with it.
That's what, in this case, is an absolute mystery. There just doesn't seem to be any sense to putting such a page on the web.
And don't forget, there are apparently many, many of those.
Of course in the meantime it keeps us busy. :D

[jeeza]

Take, for example, this one.
http://expansion.cheapwebhosting.co.nz/
I found it through clicking on one of the "web hosting" links.
There is a short list of mostly uncommon words at the top of the page, and a few links to web hosts beneath it ; that's all on that page.
By now it is starting to dawn on me that the purpose of these pages is most probably something of a commercial character.

[Donn]

Oh, sorry, forgive an older skeptic, but there is such obvious potential on these sites for them to be used as one-time number sequence code templates for intel operators. Numbers on a sheet equal letters starting at a given point, then the letter sequence equals the alphabet starting at a given point on the letter sheet. Translate the original number sheet out as a message--burn it when you're done, and respond starting at a different starting point to reply. In WWI they did it with books--a given page paragraph and letter-in-a-word was the statrt of am alphabet sequence. . . .send it back using the same book different with a different page/paragraph. Unbreakable ubless you know which book on the shelf, in the library. . . .

My God, I should've been a genius.

Best//Donn