Sign in / up

back to article Giraffe hacks printers worldwide to promote God-awful YouTuber. Did we read that one right?

Did your work printer produce a strange call to action this week, urging you to follow a tasteless twerp on YouTube, and then offer you a "bro fist" made up of punctuation marks? Hopefully not because if it did someone in your IT department has really screwed up and failed to patch a two-year-old security hole. But thousands …

COMMENTS

Post your comment
House rules Send corrections
Add to 'My topics' unstar *

Page:

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Facepalm

      "This print hack was done to increase his subscriber count"

      And do you believe it's an acceptable way? What happens to him or his fans if he's no longer "number one"? Does the world end? Does war start? Do you die? Do you lose your job and your money (maybe he will lose some...)? Is you dog or cat kidnapped or killed?

      Is that a good reason to ruin other people's work? Really?

      Maybe you've watched one too many of his videos... and lost contact with reality.

      I'm just sorry he got undeserved publicity even here - and no, I'm not going to follow a moron....

      8 0 Reply
    2. JohnFen
      Reply Icon

      Re: Let me do their job for them as they’re so incompetent

      "This print hack was done to increase his subscriber count of his channel as he is facing being dethroned from the top spot on YouTube as most subscribed channel. His fans have made it their duty to keep him on top of YouTube and this is a hacker who is trying to help pewdiepie!"

      You say this in a rather approving tone. Do you even understand that this sort of action makes his fans (and, by extension, him) look terrible?

      3 0 Reply
    3. JohnFen
      Reply Icon

      Re: Let me do their job for them as they’re so incompetent

      "Felix in the past made a joke to do with a death threat to all Jews. It was a joke to see how at he could stretch the limits of a website."

      Well, I guess he found out, didn't he?

      3 0 Reply
  2. Glen 1

    Newbs

    These accounts:

    Zig

    Poppy Harlow

    FrançoisL

    c_matthews92

    SmallWhiteGirl

    Iron Bones

    They are all defending whats-his-name, all created on the same day as the article, and as of the time of writing, have not commented on any other article.

    Welcome to the community, perhaps you might stick around?

    46 2 Reply
    1. squigbobble
      Reply Icon

      Re: Newbs

      In case you haven't guessed, they've all come from Reddit, Iron Bones' pretentious argument style is a dead giveaway for that. The posts about this article have dropped off the front page of r/PewdiepieSubmissions so we won't see any more of them. It was all blatant karmawhoring anyway, just people playing to Pewds' subreddit userbase for virtual pats on the back-

      https://www.reddit.com/r/PewdiepieSubmissions/search?q=register&restrict_sr=on&sort=relevance&t=all

      https://www.reddit.com/r/PewdiepieSubmissions/search?q=theregister&restrict_sr=on&sort=relevance&t=all

      Iron Bones is most likely nanisk, as they posted a screenshot of their comment and invited a raid for the aforementioned virtual backpats- https://www.reddit.com/r/PewdiepieSubmissions/comments/a243at/please_go_help_our_fellow_9_yo_defend_felix/

      Considering that the sub has 3/4 of a million subscribers and 10,000+ online, it's a pathetic raid. Having to create an account probably put off a few people.

      30 2 Reply
      1. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Newbs

        I thought new posters were subject to pre-moderation for a certain number of posts? This looked like being intended to provoke an old Usenet style intruder flame war.

        10 1 Reply
    2. Mark 85
      Reply Icon

      Re: Newbs

      You noticed that also. Seems to happen upon occasion doesn't it. At least this time around it wasn't politics.

      8 1 Reply
    3. Poppy Harlow
      Reply Icon

      Re: Newbs

      *author creates polarising article about popular YouTuber with ridiculous title*

      *people are surprised when there is backlash*

      There is so much misinformation and just plain laziness in this article, what’s wrong with creating an account to comment on these things? This is a comment section after all, or is it just meant to be an echo chamber/circle jerk of views shared by the author?

      And this article showed up for me on my Google homepage under the ‘Pewdiepie’ topic. I can’t speak for everyone defending Felix on here but I’m not from Reddit. Don’t just assume this is a raid and try to discount people’s opinions that way.

      Also I’ll be definitely stick around, what a wonderfully inviting and positive community. I’m sure the people on here saying how Pewdiepie’s subscribers are “assholes” and other such nicities are people I’d love to intereact with. But I actually I actually already have that with Pewdiepie’s subscribers so I’ll have to pass. Thanks though!

      1 27 Reply
      1. JohnFen
        Reply Icon

        Re: Newbs

        "what’s wrong with creating an account to comment on these things? "

        What's wrong with actually pointing out what the errors in the article are? I haven't seen a single comment that does that yet.

        4 0 Reply
      2. JohnFen
        Reply Icon

        Re: Newbs

        "try to discount people’s opinions that way."

        Nah, what's discounting most of these people's opinions is their inability to actually offer anything that supports their opinions.

        3 0 Reply
    4. Iron Bones
      Reply Icon

      Re: Newbs

      Shock and horror, accounts created to post a comment. Whatever next!? I actually found its a really open minded community so far. Aiming to be fair and provide both sides to an argument without attempting to push an agenda. (Please tell me you understand sarcasm)

      2 31 Reply
      1. Poppy Harlow
        Reply Icon

        Re: Newbs

        Irom Bones you are the literally the only person on here that actually speaks sense. God bless you.

        0 7 Reply
    5. JamesE535353
      Reply Icon

      Re: Newbs

      Yes. These people see an article of blatant slander and stand up for someone that they know is a good person. Compared to you who reads one article, doesn't even know the guys name, and without looking into the man's career at all, attacks him and his followers.

      1 24 Reply
      1. JohnFen
        Reply Icon

        Re: Newbs

        "These people see an article of blatant slander"

        If the "slander" (I think you meant "libel" here) is really so blatant, why hasn't anyone managed to point out what false facts it includes? In order to be libelous, it has to be untrue.

        5 0 Reply
  3. squigbobble

    Get thee back to reddit

    This article's dropped off the first page of r/PewdiepieSubmissions/ so the whiteknighting will have stopped now. 3/4 of a million subscribers to that sub, 10,000+ online and all they could manage was 5 people. A chan raid this was not.

    The Iron Bones guy is most likely ninask, as he/she/it went a-karmawhoring back to reddit with a screenshot of their post- https://www.reddit.com/r/PewdiepieSubmissions/comments/a243at/please_go_help_our_fellow_9_yo_defend_felix/

    17 2 Reply
    1. squigbobble
      Reply Icon

      Re: Get thee back to reddit

      Well, I was optimistic.

      0 0 Reply
  4. Aynon Yuser

    Why any grown man would ever intentionally refer to himself as PoopiePie is beyond me. He obviously caters to the lowest common denominator on the net, who are earning him a fortune. Wouldn't surprise me if he hired some Russian hackers for cheap to help him gain publicity to increase his popularity using, and then deny it.

    Wait. Didn't Tronald Dump do this successfully? I presume this is going to be the norm in 2019.

    14 5 Reply
    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      2019?

      You are way late to the internet? Been this way since 2009!

      2 0 Reply
      1. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: 2019?

        2009? Been this way since 1995...

        6 0 Reply
    2. HiImBlank
      Reply Icon

      *Gasp?! (Shock Emoji, Shock Emoji, Shock Emoji)

      0 6 Reply
  5. Pseudonymous Clown Art

    This is old...

    ...as the hills.

    Someone just automated it.

    2 0 Reply
    1. jake Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      Re: This is old...

      Someone automated it decades ago. See: Kibo.

      0 0 Reply
      1. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: This is old...

        The saddest thing about this thread now is it's been 15 hours since this post, and Kibo still hasn't appeared.

        0 0 Reply
  6. FlippingGerman

    Interesting

    how many posters here in support of PDP joined just to make that post. No doubt some would attribute this to his "army" of supporters.

    I have essentially no opinion on him, since I know little about what he does, apart from that I find it to be of little interest. Mass printer hacks are more my thing.

    5 0 Reply
    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Interesting

      Years ago when I was involved in this kind of thing an engineer in the office did a search on exposed Port 9100s and we were very shocked - so much so that we advised all our clients to check for this security risk. It would seem that at the time some IT people thought it was clever - you could do a remote batch print over the Internet.

      I would just note that the author of this is not a hacker. It is trivial to print to port 9100. He's just a sociopath with a weird obsession.

      I don't know anything about this PDP person but an awful lot of entertainers get very rich on a thin talent which they somehow milk. It's nothing new, and they will also have their over the top fans. As Darwin's Watch puts it, language evolved for the purpose of shouting defiance at the monkeys in the next tree. We can't all be Will Self, or Pushkin, and we can't all be the kind of people who get their kicks from reading them.

      7 0 Reply
      1. jake Silver badge
        Reply Icon

        Re: Interesting

        Not a hacker, no. A skiddie, at best. Note the juvenile ASCII art.

        Agree on sociopath. "Weird" doesn't even begin to describe the obsession, though. It borders on pathological.

        8 0 Reply
    2. jake Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      Re: Interesting

      I support a PDP. A dozenish, actually. Mostly -10s and -11s ...

      16 0 Reply
      1. David 132 Silver badge
        Reply Icon
        Coat

        Re: Interesting

        jake I support a PDP. A dozenish, actually. Mostly -10s and -11s ...

        So no doubt at this time of year you’re busy moving them all to corridors?

        As in, “DEC the halls”?

        (Oh, please yourselves.)

        18 0 Reply
        1. jake Silver badge
          Reply Icon

          Re: Interesting

          Most of the DEC kit that I own was acquired for the price of "if you can move it out of here within the next week, you can have it". So I guess you could say I've hauled those DECs.

          9 0 Reply
        2. ibmalone
          Reply Icon

          Re: Interesting

          As in, “DEC the halls”?

          Finally something good has come from this nonsense.

          8 0 Reply
  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Honestly the number of extremely triggered baby boomers on this article amazes me. It's clear that they don't actually no what 'pewdiepie' does or what the point of the channel is.I found it a real shame how this article just paints him with one wide brush and calls him a moron and such just because of some satire that went too far.

    1 26 Reply
    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Yeah, 'satire' is great, especially when it's deeply offensive to minorities right?

      Here's a tip, Felix is Swedish, why don't you go and have a read of some history books, specifically the role of the Nazi's and their sympathisers in Sweden, then see if you can work out why his targeting of Jewish people in his deeply offensive video is not 'satire'.

      If you still can't work it out, try replacing the word 'Jews' with any word used by bigots, maybe one that has been used to abuse you or someone you like and/or care about and see if it's still 'funny' when it's on a youtube channel with 70 million plus viewers who will defend the person posting the video

      19 0 Reply
    2. ibmalone
      Reply Icon

      Honestly the number of extremely triggered baby boomers on this article amazes me. It's clear that they don't actually no what 'pewdiepie' does or what the point of the channel is.I found it a real shame how this article just paints him with one wide brush and calls him a moron and such just because of some satire that went too far.

      Honestly, I'm curious where you think the "extremely triggered baby boomers" are. (Personally neither a baby nor a boomer.) What I do see are a lot of people registering on a technology news site to express their extreme outrage that their favourite youtube hero has been "slandered" (a.k.a. mentioned in a report because one of his other followers did something silly at his prompting). Read some more articles, stick around, actually converse rather than screaming, you might just learn something. Because without giving more ad-views to an apparently "kids entertainer", I've got a pretty good sense of them by now from the people popping up to unnecessarily defend them.

      8 0 Reply
  8. Potemkine! Silver badge
    Trollface

    "Giraffe hacks printers worldwide to promote God-awful YouTuber"

    I know the resemblance is striking, but it isn't nice to nickname Trumpy the Klown's daughter like this.

    2 0 Reply
  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The truth about Felix

    1. The whole anti-semitism thing was satire taken out of context. Felix was making the point that people on the internet would do anything for money, even be anti-semitic. He chose anti-semitism as the most outrageous and horrific position; clearly he does not hold it himself.

    2. Felix is just a humble guy doing what he loves. He is not obnoxious or crass; his fans simply understand his satire while this article does not have the subtlety to do the same.

    3. A self-made man, he is more intelligent in regards to financial security than almost else anyone in the entertainment sector. He saves his money and is known for his humility and complete lack of the frivolous spending that we see everywhere these days.

    4. The competition with T-Series is almost entirely a joke, and most involved actually see the levels of irony it contains. Besides that, it is very seriously a symbol of the independent creator, the entrepreneur, the lone working man being overtaken by massive corporations. YouTube is an egalitarian holdout, one of the last remaining places where the independent man (or woman) can compete on level ground with the enormous companies destroying his or her independent profession. We do not want this to change. This a way of symbolically fighting back against the huge companies that are taking ver the modern, globalized world. Literally, this is a company with thousands of employees in India displacing a hardworking man working every day in Brighton. I wish him good luck, and so should all of you.

    4 25 Reply
    1. Justicesays
      Reply Icon
      Facepalm

      Re: The truth about Felix

      "1. The whole anti-semitism thing was satire taken out of context. Felix was making the point that people on the internet would do anything for money, even be anti-semitic. He chose anti-semitism as the most outrageous and horrific position; clearly he does not hold it himself."

      He literally did it himself. To get views on his monetized channel. He is one of the "people on the internet [that] would do anything for money, even be anti-semitic".

      Don't let the cognitive dissonance smack you in the ass on the way out.

      9 1 Reply
  10. Hood_Robin

    Wack

    I’m not gonna lie, this article is completely biased and considerably ignorant on the subject matter; in fact attacking Pewdiepie and his subscribers. If you’re going to report on the hacking of the printers which is the main topic, there is no need to bring up some propaganda against a youtuber who is more relevent than this entire forum and all their writers and editors combined. Next time if y’all wanna consider yourself a “news source” leave out your personal biased opinion. PS: subscribe to Pewdiepie and get unbiased news from his “PewNews” videos. #brofist

    4 24 Reply
    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Wack

      Second wave of redditors arriving. Haven't we got some S-300 batteries to deal with this kind of thing?

      10 1 Reply
    2. JudeKay (Written by Reg staff)
      Reply Icon

      Re: Wack

      https://regmedia.co.uk/2018/12/03/reg_u_mad_bro.jpg

      5 0 Reply
  11. cat_mara
    Coat

    Don't any of these PewDiePie stans[1]...

    ... know how to use a bloody comma?! Weren't you issued any when you picked this hill (OK, minor elevation. OK, molehill) to die on? You poor dears. Here you go, knock yourselves out: ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

    [1] See? I know the lingo of the youths! I'm still with it! Sigh, I'm not with it, am I? Mine's the one with The Complete Plain Words in the pocket...

    12 0 Reply
  12. cat_mara

    Mind you...

    ... I'm really loving how the "IT tabloid" ambience of El Reg has been improved by this influx of Speak You're Branes-level of commenter. I can't imagine a more hilarious level of offended stuffiness than if, say, the Daily Mail ran an article about Jeremy Corbyn curling one out on a giant poppy or something...

    9 1 Reply
  13. BebopWeBop
    Holmes

    Its remarkable the number of people who have created accounts or about December 1-2 specifically do defend this arsehole. I wonder who (t)he(y) is(are)

    10 0 Reply
    1. keithsucks
      Reply Icon

      the guy has 74million subscribers, if you don't think people will defend him then you are a fool. Just like when people attack someone's favorite celebrity lol

      1 2 Reply
  14. Twanky
    Alert

    Raid?

    I read this article earlier today when there were fewer comments - I can't be bothered to read the rest of the comments on this article so if someone else has already made these points then please feel free to express your outrage in the usual manner.

    Thing 1: I don't follow anyone on 'social media' - or for that matter on mainstream media. At least not that I can think of immediately. So, I know next to nothing about PewDiePie and his output and I'm reluctant to change that. IMO some people seem to be 'celebrities' for the oddest reasons.

    Thing 2: Once upon a time I registered with El Reg because I wanted to comment on an article or someone else's comment. I don't intend to research what it was. The point is: something touched a nerve and I signed up to be able to comment. PewDiePie's supporters (and for all I know some detractors) have done the same. I really don't mind, everyone has to start somewhere.

    Thing 3: I only watch cat (and dog) videos on YouTube that manage to get past a very effective filter. If SWMBO tells me I 'have to see this' then it's usually quite funny.

    Thing 4: I understand that people who are fans of the most popular talent on YouTube don't want to be relegated to be fans of the second most popular talent on YouTube. That said, all they have to do is change the definition of 'most popular' or 'talent' and they can claim pretty much anything they like. I do get it that there's serious advertising money involved.

    Thing 5: Don't tell me I'm old or call be Grandad. I know I'm older then some and not as old as others. I'm not so old that I don't remember being young - sometimes with embarrassment. I'm so old that whenever I read something about PewDiePie I imagine a small canary with an annoying voice (memo to self: must not laugh at people with speech impediments - especially if they hate cats). Only my grandchildren may call me Grandad. They think I'm very old.

    Thing 6: IMO the main point of the article is about insecure systems which allow total strangers to print on your printers (and probably worse). In terms of security lessons learned it might have been better if the miscreant had printed a few thousand pages with something like 'This page intentionally left blank' - but then he might not have got any new subscribers for his hero.

    6 0 Reply
  15. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    It is, in this vulture's opinion, absolute garbage

    I know it's not the worst thing one has to do in one's job, to watch idiots, yet...I have some sympathy to anyone having to be exposed to things like phew-whever-his-vid-pal's name. Well, watching pres. Trump would be another one of those things, but then, I guess, it generally pays well (enough)...

    3 0 Reply
  16. Anonymous South African Coward Bronze badge

    9100 is closwd. Yay.

    0 0 Reply
  17. JohnFen

    The thing I appreciate about PewDiePie

    The thing I appreciate about PewDiePie is that he perfectly encapsulates most of the worst aspects of the internet.

    2 0 Reply
  18. Subscribe to PewDiePie

    He’s not so bad

    You gotta give him a chance, it’s just the younger generations sense of humor. He’s not anti-Semitic nor as vulgar as the majority of media out there. I doubt that the writer of this article even watched more than 2 videos. I mean he hardly even plays games anymore, which is much to the detriment of society. So all this to say... subscribe to PewDiePie and unsubscribe from T-Series. Join the ranks of Ben Shapiro and Mr. Beast to help win the war. *clap* *clap*

    2 8 Reply
    1. JohnFen
      Reply Icon

      Re: He’s not so bad

      "You gotta give him a chance"

      You're wrongly assuming that nobody here already has.

      "it’s just the younger generations sense of humor."

      No, it's the sense of humor of a certain subset of people (mostly young). I know plenty of young people who find him highly objectionable.

      "He’s not anti-Semitic"

      You can't shake the Devil's hand and say you're only kidding.

      2 0 Reply
      1. HiImBlank
        Reply Icon

        Re: He’s not so bad

        What??????

        0 3 Reply

Page:

POST COMMENT House rules

Not a member of The Register? Create a new account here.

Forgotten password ?

  • Enter your comment

  • Add an icon

Anonymous cowards cannot choose their icon

Other stories you might like