LOL. Ok I don't know about the rest of you ,but, I think this redefines "pussy whiped" .

Great post naides

heheh, ohh...

So out of interest, how many people here are married?

It's quite wierd to find out the statistics of something like that.... As a comparison, almost the entire demoscene has remained static (the same people) but getting older. People I knew years ago now have wives, kids, mortgages etc... And they still code for their group . Almost no new blood coming into the scene. I don't think it's like that with the reversing scene.

that's because today's floppies can hold more than 16k

My two children are still looking at me computing and maybe will of course start reversing but on a IA128.. As time goes we began dinosaurs not lion. The reversing scene seems not to evolve too much, anyway protection are always the same soup

Maybe we should take a broader approach and become true reverse engineers. It would be nice to get some thoughts about this.

Interesting

True reverse engineers? Exactly who the hell are you calling a fake reverse engineer, boy?

dELTA you are way too young to be calling anyone "boy."

Regards,

Ok, I'm sorry. Then, exactly who the hell are you calling a fake reverse engineer, girl?

And you will never make a favorable impression with the ladies by referring to one of them as "girl."

Regards,

Eh... I would be happy to say there are no fake reverse engineers. Anyway, I should have asked: shall (and how) we become *complete* reverse engineers?

That would sort of require that you acquire "all" the knowledge of how one might reverse all forms of software protection and obfuscated code, but that, in itself, seems to be a self contradictory concept. One must keep in mind that there is a whole lot included in the concept of "complete" and, just when one might assume they have achieved such a lofty goal, along comes something new, and one is then no longer "complete."

Might I suggest that perhaps the term which may be more appripriate would be a "competent" reverse engineer, capable of understanding the general process of reversing and with a working knowledge of process and procedure and a clear realization that there is always something more to learn and study. Recognizing that one does not know "everything" is one of the first steps of learning.

Regards,

I wish I had a better knowledge of the English language.
I think your 'competent reverse engineer' fits better than my complete one with regard to the neverendingness (!) of his/her learning process. However, I believe we need another adjective to stress the fact he/she should be able to address a wide spectrum of different problems, not merely software protections.

"Broad horizons" describes it best, IMO. I agree, an expert in A will never be as "competent" as an expert in A who has depth of knowledge about B, C and D too.

Reverse Engineering isn't a hobby, it's a lifestyle. RCE's just want to know how things work.

So, unless the particular "cracker" is just a lame-o picking up the crumbs of what others leave behind, their skills are usually broad because of that always-need-to-know-how-it-works passion.

-nt20

I certainly agree with that. I started taking things apart to see how they worked when I was very yourng and have continued to do that in many aspects of life, both physical and metaphysical and not just software related.

Regards,

Well, I did not know that the misadventures of a Lion couple, not matter how it reflexes on my personal life would start this philosophical leaning thread.
My 25 cents. . .
I have been a reverse engineer for a long time. I am a biology/immunology researcher and God forgot to write the manual on how living things work, so it is up to us to reverse it and write the manual.
Reverse code Engineering is for me a source of inspiration and attitude, I have learned a lot from these guys: to think outside the box, to look for lateral solutions to the most stubborn problems.

I began "reversing" not so long time ago, even I have been computing for about twenty years or so. I started visiting this and some other sites and thought that cracking something could be nice. Well, when the first prg was patched and working, if felt really great and ... a bit sad because I felt I had wasted half of my life; I could have started this learning process a long time ago. This site has been a great source of knowledge and inspiration, even I understand merely a tenth of what you are talking about :-) One thing is really makes me wonder - where do you find the time to reverse programs ???

That's truly an excellent point, and career!

I believe that there is a physical limitation of the protection methods, related to the way of computer are actualy made. The methodes are formulated following the actual computer construction logic, so computers are being faster and increasing your memory capabilities but the logic is still the same, its dont change, the protections methodes are bound to this logic and also dont change at all. The logic must change, then the scene will change!