What is Icrontic? [Archive]

Thrax

2 Jan 2004, 10:43am

Icrontic is basically what this once was.

There's a new Icrontic now, owned by some of the old members, but by in large all the members of Icrontic are here.

Basically what happened was:

Icrontic got hacked, BIG time.. The owner of the site, which was always an immature screw-loose, had been telling MediaMan and Celcho to back up the wrong databases the entire time they were in the administrative position.

The end result was: Icrontic got hacked, there was nothing left.

The domain got put on ebay, and sold for several thousand dollars.

Shorty, Primesuspect, and MediaMan collaborated to bring S-M as its successor.

ginipig

2 Jan 2004, 10:49am

Ah, hence the name.

Kinda sucked, though. How long ago did this happen?

edit: /ignore My guess is, some of the old members got it up and running again?

[edit: nm, read your entire post]

Thrax

2 Jan 2004, 10:57am

If I recall rightly, it happened mid-May.

Enverex

2 Jan 2004, 12:38pm

Mortin wasn't ALWAYS a "Screw-loose". He did some really good articles and was generally a good guy, but in the end he just lost interest in Icrontic and left it to waste away.

Clutch

2 Jan 2004, 1:26pm

Yea, he kind of put Icrontic on the back burner and let others take care of the site, it just died away for him.

leishi85

2 Jan 2004, 4:00pm

still love the ghetto hardware articles.

Lincoln

2 Jan 2004, 6:48pm

Also important to note that once IC fell, we began to congregate in the Folding Forum over at AMDmb.com until this place was ready (I'm sure the admins' blood pressures will rise just remembering those two weeks, trying to put together an entire site in zero time ;) ) in the thread BuiesCreek made for us: http://forums.amdmb.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=228549 ginipig, you are a member of the most resilient folding team on the net :cool:

Camman

2 Jan 2004, 6:51pm

Mortin wasn't ALWAYS a "Screw-loose". He did some really good articles and was generally a good guy, but in the end he just lost interest in Icrontic and left it to waste away.

I agree, people give Mortin a lot of **** and thats really not fair. It did seem that he lost interest in the site towards the end, but he did put a lot of work into it. I understand he got under some people's skin, but he was generally a pretty good guy.

madmat

2 Jan 2004, 7:07pm

I understand all that myself, I've picked it up from what I've read except about the owner but what I want to know is...who was Bart Williams and what happened to him?
I understand he's passed away but since I'm kinda new myself and never hung at Icrontic I never knew him so I've always wondered what happened to him and a bit about who he was.
If anyone will enlighten me I'd really appreaciate it.

Thrax

2 Jan 2004, 7:36pm

Bart Williams was one of our senior members.

He kind of got on a few people's nerves shortly before he passed, because he did nothing but post news articles about various conspiracies, facts of America vs. the Taliban, etc.

He was syndicating almost every single FNN and CNN article to us. Heh.

But then one day it all stopped.. We were all curious, everyone needs a break now and again you know? Then we got word from whom I believe was his son, that he had died only a few days after we began to notice that he was no longer posting.

The sudden shock of actually losing a member was hard; so we attribute everyone's first 5000 points to Bart, and dedicated our first Clawhammer/Sledgehammer release thread to him.. He was really looking forward to those chips, and was the one who made Icrontic's longest thread ever about those very chips.

It goes on, but we miss him. It isn't quite the same without his paranoia.. And I mean that in a good way. Some things you just love to hate.

Lincoln

2 Jan 2004, 7:54pm

It was quite a jolt to lose one of our most active members so suddenly. His nephew participated in the site at that time also.

To my knowledge, the server that SM is hosted on is currently named "bart."

primesuspect

2 Jan 2004, 7:59pm

That is correct. The server is named bart.

MachineGunKelly

2 Jan 2004, 8:39pm

Madmat, Bart Williams was the kind of guy that seemed to find an argument, if not intentionally then in direct relation to the kind of answers that he posted. He and I were in the middle of a debate the night before he died of a heart attack. I've felt wierd about that ever since, and it has affected the way in which I go about debating with someone who has opposing views on topics that I feel strongly about.
He had very strong feelings as well and alot of people clashed with him on a variety of topics. I think he rather enjoyed it. He is missed in the debate forums for his veracity, tenaciousness and his copious postings. I miss him too. He was ALWAYS there, ready with an opinion.

madmat

2 Jan 2004, 8:55pm

Well, other than his paranoid views he sounds like my kind of guy, I'm sorry I never got to meet him.
It's hard losing a friend like that, I had a friend as a young man that I used to hang out with and we had a falling out, a couple of months later I went over to his house to patch things up with him and found out from his dad that he had been hit by a drunk driver while he was visiting his brother in Reno and had been killed.
I've never forgiven myself for that and I never will, we last spoke on bad terms and I really liked the guy but I was the one dogging him for acting like a geek around my other friends...it's something I'll never forgive myself for and something I'll try to never repeat.
Things happen so suddenly and we have no way of knowing when our or someone's we know number will roll around and when it happens out of the blue like that it's really a shock.
I guess I'm trying to say just enjoy the people around you, you never know when they'll no longer be there.

Clutch

2 Jan 2004, 11:13pm

Yea, bart was a one of a kind member, and a good man at that. He would always have some news posts up, always. We also have a ICx box named in honor of Bart.

RWB

2 Jan 2004, 11:37pm

Yeah, I remember some good feirce debating on how the second youngest girl in 7th heaven looked or didn't look like an Owl ;) It was great times, and always alot of fun. After he passed, I just didn't feel like debating anymore and all but stopped ever since, even with my own friends in person.

mmonnin

2 Jan 2004, 11:54pm

Bart was a great guy that loved his nephew very much. As much as he would have if he were his own son.

Long live Bart.

Red Dawn

3 Jan 2004, 12:36am

I never really knew bart on a personal level althou his presence around icrontic was felt. he was one of the constants that existed on icrontic who was always there and always had something to say. I remember to this very day the first time i heard of his passing, i opened the forums and the first topic on the news list was "RIP Bart Williams" after reading the thread i was kinda in shock and didn't believe it but as time passed on and the thread grew longer and longer and there still wasn't any sign of bart i kind of accepted it. somehow the forums felt different like there was something missing.

originally posted by mmonnin
Long live Bart

Red - mick

primesuspect

3 Jan 2004, 12:39am

It was about a year ago that he died, wasn't it?

Thrax

3 Jan 2004, 12:44am

About that, yeah.

I wish we had our old DBs so we could really know when. :(

a2jfreak

3 Jan 2004, 1:21am

I think he passed away on January 18th, 19th or 20th.

ginipig

3 Jan 2004, 1:45am

.. there's more to Short-media than just overclocking tips... :wow2:
Creep introduced me to this site while we were fragging it up on a Counterstrike server. I came in expecting a long list of forgotten threads, and so on and so forth.

It's nice to be part of a team that has, dare I say it, a "rich history." :cheers:

GnomeWizardd

3 Jan 2004, 1:53am

Im my personal Opnion Icrontic started going downhill after the first hack. I remember the good ole Apus Hardware days and the upgrade to the "new " yet former IC. I think its worked out for the best. We have 2 friendly sites S-M and Icrontic now. I preferr S-M but thats just me!

Bart was a Opinionated SOB but you just had to love him for that! He was the residential Pharmacist ( if i remember corerectly) that spend all his free time on IC. he Never let the front page get stail. This one for you mate! :cheers:

ginipig

3 Jan 2004, 2:08am

Mediaman: State of the Union address

Did they end up catching the hax0rs?

leishi85

3 Jan 2004, 2:16am

not that i know of.

DOSMAN

3 Jan 2004, 2:17am

Icrontic was a lot cooler than this place is now.

mmonnin

3 Jan 2004, 2:29am

You are no way obligated to visit Short-Media in anyway. If you dont like it here you can choose not to visit this site.

GnomeWizardd

3 Jan 2004, 2:33am

Icrontic was a lot cooler than this place is now.

Thats all good that you think that, BUT if you hate it so much why do you visit?

DOSMAN

3 Jan 2004, 2:35am

I guess you're right.

As DJ-Quack said:

And a special message to people who bitch about short-media. Why are you posting there? You bitch and you bitch and you bitch, but why post there if it sucks? It's like going to China and bitching about Chinese people.

RWB

3 Jan 2004, 2:36am

Let's not start this up guys...

mmonnin

3 Jan 2004, 2:43am

That quote rom DJ makes very good sense.

Thrax

3 Jan 2004, 3:16am

Props to Quack on a good quote.

CaffeineMe

3 Jan 2004, 3:52am

That two weeks without S-M or Icrontic really sucked. I got a life outside of this place, a good one, but I used to just read Icrontic top to bottom. Then one day, POOF, gone.

I felt like a refugee, or a fugitive, stopping back now and then to see if any of my comrades had tried to make contact. Finally, word came thru the underground that we were gathering at Kanez' site.

We arrived, one by one, bedraggled and haggard. When I walked in, Prime was in the corner with Shorty, a set of crudely drawn plans in his hands, huddled together, murmuring, the only word I could make out...."Revenge".

Thrax was sprawled atop an ammo crate, smoking a well deserved cigarette, his young face told a story that no man could bear to repeat. General Keebler, he was back at HQ, coordinating our movements. They were dark days, days when we thought the fire of the resistance would go out.

But, go out they did not. Prime, Mediaman, Shorty, they were the ones, those brave soldiers of yore, who led us out of the smoking ruins of our despair, led us on to smite our enemies, to drive them before us, to hear the lamentations of their women, onward ONWARD ONWARD TO SWEET GLORIOUS GLORY!!! Victory was ours, our foes vanguished, we returned to the lands of our fathers, to bask in the glory of our deeds. :usflag: :ukflag: :usflag: :ukflag: :Rocker: :respect: :bs: :bs: :bs:

And then someone said "I'd hit it", and the whole thing felt shallow. So I drank a Fresca and went to bed. ;D

ginipig

3 Jan 2004, 4:15am

lol

primesuspect

3 Jan 2004, 5:53am

Yeah, what CaffeineMe said. Except the word wasn't "revenge" it was... "babe thread"... You must have misheard us. Maybe we mumbled too quietly....

Sputnik

3 Jan 2004, 6:07am

And then someone said "I'd hit it", and the whole thing felt shallow.

speaking of which..... are any of those pics still around?

bothered

3 Jan 2004, 6:48am

I used to love Icrontic as well, When it died it was like loosing the TV and the central heating at the same time. I think it was an email from prime that got me to Addaboy and the rest is a history that'll be sung about around camp fires for generations. I'm glad to be here, but at my age I'm glad to be anywhere.

MediaMan

3 Jan 2004, 8:38am

It was about three years ago that I stumbled across Icrontic. I had just bought a KT7A-Raid and to find Icrontic was like finding a goldmine of information. And it was free. Icrontic was a repository of tweaks, guides and members who could solve any problem. There are still a few members here that pre-date even me.

Icrontic was on the leading and bleeding edge of information and along with that came a volatile forum. It was prone to a major hissy fit every 3 months. At times it became childish. I miss a lot of the Icrontic members I knew back then and wish they would participate here more often.

Icrontic got hacked. The site was destroyed. It was unrecoverable.

Mortin indeed lost interest. He had other priorities in his life of which are completely understandable but for many years he gave thousands a home out of his own pocket. We continue that tradition here and, someday, someone will continue that tradition when I move on.

I would feel disrespectful if I did not say thank you for what he did as he gave me the opportunity to continue to have the home evolve. Prime, Shorty and myself have merely put up the walls and shingled the roof. It is our staff and you guys that make this place what it is and will be.

EyesOnly

3 Jan 2004, 9:45am

Nice to hear comments on the old site. I read the amdb.com thread (24 pages, took a while) and wanted to know more about icrontic and also bart. I'm missing him without ever even known him so he must have been great.

BTW there was some saying that when ic went under it wasn't properly backed up. Is this site backed up properly just in case something like this would happen again and does it have good protection against hackers. I know that there isn't a foolproof way of guarding against hackers but it seems that ic didn't have such good protection or i'm i mistaken and the hacker was really good.

Jimborae

3 Jan 2004, 10:43am

BTW there was some saying that when ic went under it wasn't properly backed up. Is this site backed up properly just in case something like this would happen again and does it have good protection against hackers. I know that there isn't a foolproof way of guarding against hackers but it seems that ic didn't have such good protection or i'm i mistaken and the hacker was really good

Eyes Only, this should answer your question.

S-M stability plan (http://www.short-media.com/forum/showthread.php?t=190&highlight=dvd+burner+donation)

S-M Back Up DVD Burner (http://www.short-media.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=2561&perpage=20&pagenumber=1)

primesuspect

3 Jan 2004, 5:24pm

Oh yeah. That's where I come in. It's my job to make sure that the "icrontic affair" never happens again. We're almost "too" redundant.. :D

EyesOnly

3 Jan 2004, 6:15pm

Eyes Only, this should answer your question.

S-M stability plan (http://www.short-media.com/forum/showthread.php?t=190&highlight=dvd+burner+donation)

S-M Back Up DVD Burner (http://www.short-media.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=2561&perpage=20&pagenumber=1)

Yea that does answer my question. I feel calm now knowing that what happened to icrontic wont happen to s-m.

As for redundancy there might be an upper limit to it but i don't think that it has been reached yet. Would anyone want to send me some discs just in case. :D

Kwitko

3 Jan 2004, 6:22pm

Short-Media employs several backup schemes. First, the server that hosts S-M uses a sophisticated system of redundancies. Multiple PSUs are employed, as well as a RAID 5 array. Just to make sure things are safe, there are 27 machines located around the country in bomb-proof data centers that mirror the content of the main server.

Second, the entire site is tarred and gzipped, the database is dumped, and the whole mess is backed up to a DVD 3 times an hour. Next, each DVD is duplicated 14 times and shipped to various secure vaults around the country.

Finally, there are over 500 scribes employed to copy each post by hand onto acid-free paper that has a shelf life of over 100 years. This is to combat any hardware obsolescence and possible EMP attacks that render electronics useless.