What is Digg?144 Comments
- Sagags, on 10/12/2007, -29/+384yay he is back!!!
wait a sec...... who is black viper? - doctorcaligari, on 10/12/2007, -9/+167Black Viper is an internet legend. His site was indispensable back in the day (i.e. a few years ago). He posted lists of Windows services and told people what they did, along with lots of other computing information. I still have hard copy printouts of his site that I use for reference, both on the job and at home.
Welcome back, BV! - EztliNahua, on 10/12/2007, -24/+75Can someone post who this guy is?
- blitzkun, on 10/12/2007, -14/+64Am I the only one who thought of a picture of a black Dodge Viper and wonder, what's so special about that?
- ArcticCelt, on 10/12/2007, -14/+56@Humptydan "Copyright infringement is theft."
No, copyright infringement is copyright infringement or copying material illegally but not stealing it. That's an analogy gone wrong, It's an abuse of language. I am not saying that it is right or wrong just that some people decided to call it "theft" to make it more dramatic. Why not call it murder? It will be even more dramatic! You can justify it by saying that people who copy your material are murdering your profit! - FlyboyP, on 10/12/2007, -7/+47I have read his site many times as a straight-up source of info about computers. I like the fact that is is uncluttered, ad-free, script-free, and at times very opinionated. Its a labor of passion, in the same vein as craigslist.org, and I respect it as such.
Welcome back. - pizzatsf, on 10/12/2007, -5/+42are you new to digg or something?
- unknownsoldierX, on 10/12/2007, -7/+39He was, and still is, a well known author of tips and tweaks for Windows. There's a huge amount of information on his site, and it's a great resource regardless of you skill level.
- JeanInMontana, on 10/12/2007, -23/+54Whoo Hoo best news I have seen today!! WB Black Viper you have been missed!!
- drilldown, on 10/12/2007, -14/+43***** ME. The Bitch is back!!
You should turn on the cursing filter now, if not sooner. Right now. This ***** singlehandedly defined services and evaluated the "services" under winXP, put them into a table according to gaming experience, regular user, office officionado, etc. What it is, where it is, how to turn it on, how to turn it off, what it does..... who's doing that lately.
He created the complete windows XP tutorial that everyone today learned from, and got it online. It is one of the most widely read and easily understood fast access tutorials on how to manipulate the windows OS to make it faster in existence today.
And the web page and him/her suddenly disappeared. I've still got the original guide. I assumed his website got stolen and went about my business. Like Batman, the original postings of Black Viper are easily those of legend in a simple world. I've lost count of the people I copied his guide to. Genius. Sheer ***** selfless ***** that helped countless people who will never know it having learned from people who were taught by him.
So is the www.blackviper.com hijacked for the front page of digg? I know the day the page stopped working. I don't give a *****. The original Black Viper trained more people than Microsoft on how to make their OS work right.
For that the world has benefited immensely. - G-RaZoR, on 10/12/2007, -19/+43in case site goes out again:
Black Viper is back! Yes, this is the "real" Black Viper. Soon, the world will know exactly what happened to me as well as many questions I am sure everyone has. Until then, here is some answers to questions that people may be asking themselves:
What happened to you?!?! Did you die in a car wreck? Go to jail?!?!
No, I did not. However, the truth is stranger then fiction. Even though I searched several times on Google in the past (almost) two years as to what people thought happened to me, nobody but me actually knew the truth until just recently. In any case, if you have read any "stories" or forum posts, etc with regards to my "real" situation, it is false. In the past two years, I have posted/interacted with very few people to include my very closest of friends and family, rarely of which has been publicly accessible. Any other people claiming to be "Black Viper" wandering around the internet giving advice and such is false. The people that know the "real me" also know that anything I would put publicly available will be on this domain and not on some forum someplace else. With the exception of a handful of posts on my old World of Warcraft guild forums, you will not find me posting anything anywhere else.
Will you update your site with Windows Vista information?
Yes, however... this will take time. I just am now starting to get back into the swing of things and plan on doing exactly what I did before: provide accurate information and opinions. I have used Vista for several months (I have an MSDN subscription) and will update everything in time. Some tech web sites have even posted Vista information in about the same format as my old XP service information. I find that flattering, but the real information drafted by me, will be posted on this domain.
Will you finally have forums for public feedback?
No. Even after all this time away, I still have little desire to moderate a forum of any kind, nor deal with any/all issues associated with it.
How are your kitties?
All three of them are just fine. New photo of them and I taken by my wife on March 9, 2007. Next month, the oldest (and largest) will be eight years old and the other two will be four years old.
Has your grammar and spelling improved?
No.
Your web site looks dated...
Well duh. After turning off the web server on April 12, 2005 at 4:48 PM PST, I have rarely even looked at any of these pages. I will update the look/code/layout as time progresses, but right now, I just wanted to get the domain back up and running. It is "almost" exactly as I left it two years ago. The major change is I am not using cookies or javascript to change the look. I may add this feature back in, but for now, black is it.
Many people copied and reposted your services information! What are you going to do about that?
Pretty much nothing. I am neither going to sue anyone for copyright infringement, nor ask them to remove the information. However, using Google again, I did contact a couple high profile sites today informing them that I am back. In time, the "well intended" people will remove the copies of my information and link, once again, to the real pages on this domain. The people that ripped my information and called it their own know whom they are and my dedicated readers will spread the truth.
What are you doing now? How are things going?
I am currently attending a local community college full time and have been unemployed since October 2005 (when I quit my Electronics Tech. job, sold the house and moved to Northern California). The reason the domain has not been brought back sooner are many (including time and scope of my effort on here), but one of the reasons is money. My savings account is dwindling and money is extremely tight. Not many technical jobs in the local area and employment is slim.
For many years, I helped countless people with their computer issues and never asked anything in return. I have spent thousands of hours (as well as dollars) on this domain and am very proud of it. However, recent events have compelled me to reach out to my previous loyal readers for support. Previous donations while the domain was online have long gone. If you can spare any amount of money to keep this web site online and ad free, consider a donation drafted with the contact information below:
What is your real name? Where did you move to? What is your new contact information?
My real name is Charles Merle Sparks and I currently live with my wonderful wife in Yreka, California.
My current contact information is:
Charles M. Sparks
AKA Black Viper
P.O. Box 521
Yreka, CA 96097
All other addresses should be considered not valid. - Humptydank, on 10/12/2007, -23/+44@adamdigg:
Uhhm...EULAs are contracts. Copyright infringement is theft. Just because you don't agree with the principles behind it doesn't make it not true. - turgiddahlia, on 10/12/2007, -8/+25Dude seems pretty full of himself, but it's a shame that somebody with his obvious technical ability can't score a job in California of all places.
- nmrk, on 10/12/2007, -3/+19It's not like he's in Silicon Valley, he's in Yreka, which is up by the Oregon border, in the middle of goddam nowhere. He's lucky to have internet, let alone a tech job.
- ductoogle, on 10/12/2007, -4/+18Soon, the world will know exactly what happened to me as well as many questions I am sure everyone has.
WTF is this, Lost? - drilldown, on 10/12/2007, -1/+14Basically, he wrote out a tabled guide that showed what could be gotten rid of, what should be gotten rid of, and what was necessary in WinXP. A gamer that wanted everything available for his games and bothered to not only write it out... but, broke it down by tables of different types of usage, and put it online for the general public.
Probably at age 15. Just kidding/or not. OH... exposed much unnecessary baggage processes in XP. Took the time to do what nobody else really wanted to do or felt capable of. Basically, the unrecognized windows posterchild. 'Bout some time he got the recognition of the Digg Front page. Fitting it's at night. - MysteryFCM, on 10/12/2007, -11/+23Welcome back :)
- benitojuarez, on 10/12/2007, -43/+52who is black viper and why should i care?
- WWRevolution, on 10/12/2007, -5/+14Yeah, cause having a site that is easy to read, uncluttered, loads fast.... and doesn't look like some teenager's myspace page is so lame...
With that said, a site I used to learn a bit about XP was 'tweakguides' (don't know if it's still there...). It has good stuff as well, with plenty of links to free (and pay) software to help out with XP. - ZombieNinja, on 10/12/2007, -9/+18Of course people use windows. How else are you supposed to look outside while using your Apple?
- nugge7, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9I remember when the Screensavers had him on the show. Good to know his ok.
- extratired, on 10/12/2007, -4/+12asking for our money...
- generalloy, on 10/12/2007, -5/+13broomett: Also wanted to add this little comment from Justice Harry Blackmun, Dowling v. United States: "(copyright infringement) does not easily equate with theft, conversion, or fraud... The infringer invades a statutorily defined province guaranteed to the copyright holder alone. But he does not assume physical control over copyright; nor does he wholly deprive its owner of its use."
Yes, a case from 1984. This isn't just something that little P2P dl'ers are spouting, it's frickin case law. SO please stop calling it theft, thanks. - cuoops, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8I'll donate after he gets going again. I'm not sending money to a P.O. box though.
- dankers, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7This guy is great and has a straight forward thinking attitude.
Plus his website is not spam and what a real website should be.
From his website
No Banners
No Pop-Ups
No Plug-ins
No Cookies
No Javascript
* Just Pure BV * - Ramble, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Awesome bloke, helped me many times with XP.
- CapTech, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7This is awesome! I teach a computer repair and networking class to high school students and BV's Win 2000 and Win XP pages were part of my curriculum (With his permission, of course!) I was having to go back to the Internet Archive to pull the pages out and get them for my students to use.
This is great news.... I would suspect that there will be an entire groups of pages on Vista before too long and it will be one of the best resources on the Internet! - MedHead, on 10/12/2007, -7/+13Great news. I've used his site many times in the past.
- naldwell, on 10/12/2007, -4/+10"Survey for the the people digging me down so hard: Do you think I pulled the information I shared about theft of property versus patents/copyrights out of my ass? Or does the truth piss you off for some reason?"
I'm certain you've pulled them out of your ass. Copyright infringemint is a civil tort, not a felony. It is NOT THEFT in any definition. It is copyright infringement. - EricTheGrey, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5My first thought was "who?" followed quickly by "must be some hacker..."
After perusing the site, I had to bookmark it. It looks like a decent place to point people to for help with XP. I'll be looking forward to seeing what he has for Vista.
EtG - Talus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5...he still hasn't said where he has been this whole time. I always find those sorts of stories so interesting.
Glad the site is back though, I used to refer to it all the time. - gadlaw, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5We were just mentioning the Black Viper on Digg some time back and bemoaning his absence. Back to the days when the internet wasn't as commercial as it is now and you could occasionally find someone like BV who shared his knowledge and who put information you could use to make your machine run better right there - not behind ads and flashing annoying barriers. Black Viper's site had more useful and informative information about Windows than the Windows site. So it's good to see his site back, I'll be looking there often.
- dcn00, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6I like many others have used his information for years; his XP Services guide has been an invaluable resource and as such I am indebted to him.
Yes, his site looks lame by modern standards and his opinions can be a little *strange* but who cares? There are so many crap, pointless blogs out there written by folks that have nothing interesting to say. Like them BV is entitled to express his opinions if he so chooses, but none of us have to read it. The fact that many of us choose to is a mark of respect for an undoubtedly intelligent man.
I for one am delighted he's back and he's ok. - greenmountain, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5I would guess most people building DAWs and gaming rigs through that period came across him.
Getting to a solid DAW was my motivation.
I discovered him at Win 2K, first time I had seen a simple, clear, one stop breakdown of all the services, what they did, and what was needed for various tasks,and how to control them. He made it easy. The info was good too. I would shut all the crap off, reboot, bang my machine was jumpin'.
I did not even try 2K it until I discovered his site. I sent him an email thanks, I would like to thank him again. The reaction here,and the amount of people who know one guy with a low-profile little website means many other folks had the same experience.
This happened in the context of a serious dark cloud of distrust for MS. Mr Sparks gave is the tools to deal with all of it, have it under control, and have the confidence that the machine was doing just what we wanted it to do, and not a bunch of other privately feared and rumored little evil things. This is still an issue of course. It was this guy that really revealed how to do it for the first time, that I saw.
Thank you, Charles Sparks. It is good to have you back.
**** - subgeniusd, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6Because he helped a lot of users better understand XP and how to trim and tune their systems. Making XP run faster, more stable and more secure.
Sarcasm has its place but you are just an *****. - Hamsterpotpies, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Black Viper as far as I remember came to TechTV every once and a while.
- TheSeeker11, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5No Banners
No Pop-Ups
No Plug-ins
No Cookies
No Javascript
* Just Pure BV *
That always made me laugh. - DocDEB, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4BV's site was and now is again the best site for info on Wxp services and installs. When I built and tweaked my first gaming PC BV saved my butt several times. Since the site went down I've kept the bookmark and tested it now and then just to see if it was back. So last night I was pleasantly surprised when it popped up in all it's BV glory. Being a Mac user doesn't mean you never touch Wxp (custom built gaming PC, Wxp on my MacBook Pro BootCamp partition, Wxp in Parallels).
- biochem, on 10/12/2007, -8/+12It burns my eyes when i look at his site.
- kamisama, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5Nice to see you're back Black Viper.
I'd keep the website layout, just to piss off the snobs :) - smokeyghetto, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Amusing! A dude named BlackViper is the Rosetta Stone for the Windows OS.
BlackViper was on hiatus waiting for Longhorn to pan out and people couldn't figure out how to use their computers and they started switching to Mac. BlackViper saw the ViperPhone blinking red and knew he was needed. Bill with his direct line to the Viper cave was in dire need of another OS manual for Vista/Longhorn.
Apple will soon be paying him to go back into hiding. If people figure out how to use Vista/Longhorn it could be over for Apple.[sarcasm]
Thanks BlackViper. Glad your back.... - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4he should write a book!
- drilldown, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6I'll forgive the vacation of reason. Everyone takes a vacation for one reason or another.
Black Viper made the golden apple award for teaching long ago on the books. What needs to be taught, what people need, when they need it. - sdigroup, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Welcome Back "BV"
- Maddoktor2, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Since it's being dugg to hell and back, perhaps we should all try to donate a little something to ensure it stays online this time?
Oh, the bandwidth! - caupolixan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3glad he's is back , this is one dude that can explain things about windows xp back then that you did not have an idea if it was important or not.
- subgeniusd, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3That was an article about disabling XP services. I remember explaining to someone in that thread who BV was and referring them to Major Geeks who keep a mirror of his old site.
- myheaditches, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4You're not new to computers, yet you "stell" can't find the ***** spellcheck?
- Scanner2006, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4It would be real great if he did a site just for ubuntu the same way he did/does for winxp, I know that there is a lot of info out there already but his site was the best,
- adamdigg, on 10/12/2007, -9/+11Heh, looks like i started something. Anyway, I perused the site a bit more, and I was probably a little bit too harsh. He does deserve thumbs up for distributing helpful information, even if its not totally accurate.
As far as copyright infringement and theft, they are legally very different. just check a dictionary, or google. I'm aware that some people consider them morally equivalent, and maybe that's what BlackViper meant. I shouldn't assume everyone is as obsessed with trademark, patent, and copyright law as I am.
Among people who think about such things, I believe I am in the majority in believing that EULAs which can't be read before making a purchase are not enforcable (not contracts). However, I conceed that the legal status of EULAs in the US has not yet been clearly decided by the courts.
IANAL, but these laws are important, so I try to stay informed, and suggest the same to everyone. -
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