I’m sorry if this has been covered before, but I did a search and I didn’t find anything.
I’ve heard the term “Warez” bandied about both online and in real life. The guys who were talking about it IRL the other day were very vague, like “Oh, I found that on warez” - since I came in halfway through the conversation, I don’t know what it was they found. Since I know the most about computers and the internet out of that group, I was embarrased to ask them - they’d never let me hear the end of it that I asked them a question.
The dictionary was a bust.
I did a google search and came up with a bunch of warez pages, but the two I tried just wigged out my computer and started opening windows faster than I could close them. I eventually had to shut down my computer to get it to stop.
After going through that twice, I decided to turn to the teeming millions for an answer.
I have no idea, but have you thought of searching for “Juarez”? That’s the spelling for the city in Mexico. (Now somebody will stroll by and tell you what it is, and tha you were spelling it right.)
Software. Usually of the pirated variety. There are many “warez” sites out there, most of which are just front ends for ftp sites which come and go on an hourly basis. Even if I were into the that sort of thing, the dubious nature of the whole thing is a bit scary. No telling what you might catch from the software.
A “warez” site might have copies of Microsoft Office, Adobe’s graphics programs, audio digitizing programs, web site management programs, games, and hacking software that you could download despite not having paid for it.
Or it might instead contain a list of activation codes and serial numbers that let you activate shareware without paying the shareware fees.
Oh yeah–for inexplicable reasons, the subculture that is most immersed in trading warez as a lifestyle would have written these paragraphs like this:
P1R8D 50FTWARE, U5UALLY!!
A “WAREZ” 51TE M1GHT HAVE K0P1EZ 0F M1CR050FT 0FF1CE, AD0BE"5 GRAF1C5 PR0GRAM5, AUD10 D1G1T1Z1NG PR0GRAM5, WEB 51TE MANAGEMENT PR0GRAM5, GAMEZ, & HACK1NG 50FTWARE THAT U KUD D0WNL0AD DE5P1TE N0T HAV1NG PA1D 4 1T!!
0R 1T M1GHT 1N5TEED K0NTA1N A L15T 0F ACT1VAT10N K0DEZ & 5ER1AL NUMBER5 THAT LET U ACT1V8 5HAREWARE W1TH0UT PAY1NG THE 5HAREWARE FEEZ!!
0H YEEH–4 1NEXPL1CABLE REE50N5, THE 5UBCULTURE THAT 15 M05T 1MMER5ED 1N TRAD1NG WAREZ A5 A L1FE5TYLE WUD HAVE WR1TTEN THE5E PARAGRAF5 L1KE TH15:
it might have something to do with pirated/cracked software (get it? “wares”) being posted on the internet so those without the money can have access to programs. i may have downloaded a program or two from these sites. but you didn’t hear it from me.
Most modern dictionaries should have a listing under warez.
It is pirated software, usually uploaded to an FTP or free website provider. Basicly, someone bought for example, Unreal Tournament, ripped it from the cd (video and audio are sometimes removed to save downloading time), and uploaded it somewhere on the internet. Warez sites are unreliable at best.
The new windows popping are usually ads for porno - sites, so the website owners make 1/10 of a cent for every viewer.
-Small hijack-
Anyone know which pronounciation is correct? “wares” or “ware-ez” ?
Thank you for clearing that up. Now I don’t feel like such a dummy, anymore.
I would be afraid of getting a virus from a site like that (not to mention the whole stealing part of it).
AHunter, I would rather burn my eyes out with a hot poker than try to actually read anything written that way. If you hadn’t posted the translation, forget it, I would either have NO idea what you were trying to say, or get a severe migrane trying to decipher it. Holy Cow - why would anyone write that way on purpose?
Thanks for the tip, Kyber, I wish I found that out before I went searching on my own.
I just “love” those games of try-closing-windows-as-fast-as-you-possibly-can-before-the-computer-crashes. It’s right up there with Chess and Trivial Pursuit in my book.
To force people to create on the fly semi-translators?
Personally, I’ve always wondered why these “37737” guys don’t use a random substitution for their private language, just to make things a touch more challenging.
tr [a-z] [zfrskawynpdivjtlmucogbqxeh] for example.
ncj’o oync zjjtenjw?
As a side note, you may also hear these guys refer to ‘crackz’ (pronouced the same as ‘cracks’). Crackz are validation codes, registration numbers, or any other type of password that lets you use a piece of software. They are often included with warez in order to circumvent the manufacturer’s copy protection.
Count me in then. I saw your reply and took it to mean “Do not ask about illegal things - here is a snarky reply” and it did somehow seem out of character. That makes me pretty convincingly stupid too.
BTW, could someone translate Kyberneticist’s reference to “37737 guys”?
Generally, E=3 and 7=L upside down and backwards. So 37737 is supposed to be elite, but it is horribly misspelled. Well, the warez d00ds are not very smart as a rule. Think Mark Serlin after sniffing paint for an IQ estimate.
For the record, from what I understand, much of “elite” spelling came from a fear among hackers, crackers, what-have-you in the 80’s that the government was scanning BBS’s via computer for ‘catch-phrases’ in order to catch said hackers et al. To avoid being caught, they would use bizarre spellings and non-letters (3 for E) in their words so the computers wouldn’t pick up on them. Eventually it spread into its own little sublanguage, having more to do with being one of the hacking crowd and less to do with fear of Big Brother. Even today it has some original purpose, as you see things like pr0n instead of “porn” used so it won’t be blocked by Kiddie Protection Software, etc.
Yes, I’m aware of the fact that the government could program their computers to look for “31337 w4r3z” just as easily as they could program it to look for “elite warez”. I’m just saying what I heard.
I keep forgetting how to spell “elite” This is probably because some formes of 31337 speak use 7=L.
I do remember that it is a prime - 31337. I should have spellchecked by:
