XVI.cool

Open-Sourcery

Feb 12, 2021

I was not planning on writing this blog post, but I think I will in light of everything that has happened so far this year. I planned on perfecting the second Akamai Guide, but I am reluctant to finish because it feels very repetitive. I have a better idea. Instead of posting a second guide, I think it is easier for me to answer your questions on wherever platform you decide to reach out to me (I will leave some things related to this at the end of the post).

So back to the point of this post. Recently people have been working on large open-source projects, and I think it brings significant attention to how much open-source software matters. Open-source software has become so common in software development; you may not even realize you use it. Open-source software helps people like you and me become better developers, helps us learn, and helps us build upon that software to make something even better. This is how the internet has grown and will continue growing. Open-source holds the future of code, the future of the internet.

The Internet

The internet is growing and fast. We forget that we are all interconnected, simply nodes in a network most of us had no part in creating until recently. More and more people are logging on, connecting, talking, sharing, and reacting. We are moving into a reality where the internet is more than just an extension of our lives. We may have missed out on building this network, but if we want it to continue to exist and grow, we must contribute as well.

I think my very good friend Jasper Briggs puts it best:

"Where we once rendezvous'd under street lamps, meeting under the cover of noctilucent clouds. Where a mother once kissed their child when they woke and slept. Where defending a thesis was drawn with expression and passion from a potential doctor, we now swipe mindlessly on a screen. Finding a partner is a pastime to fill spaces between bus stops. A degree is but an excuse to don a suit and tie for a webcam as one gives a soliloquy for an hour. And a maternal greeting is sent through utf-8 encoded emojis. No longer are we creatures of worldly emotions. Our lives exist beyond the physical realm, in a meta, digital, world"

The internet has taught me a lot about myself, it has allowed me to find something I really enjoy doing, and has allowed me to learn from people who are very much above my abilities. It has allowed me to make a living doing what I love, no matter how much or how little money I make, I am thankful I get to wake up and do something I love doing. I really wish to share this with others no matter what they do, and I think that you should too.

A Little Help

A little history about me (if you care at all): before I got into developing sneaker bots and sneaker bot APIs, I was a horrible developer. I mean horrible in every sense of the word. Previously, I had preoccupied myself for the last two years by making script-kiddie level computer vision software in Python and C/C++. It was terrible, and I still don’t want to remember it.

The Summer of 2020 was when I heard about Supreme botting through a friend, and I wanted to see how much money I could make by creating my own bot. Like any other developer, I started by making puppeteer bots for Supreme. Slowly I started teaching myself about the “essentials” like React, Electron, and requests.

I decided to make an Akamai bot protection guide as thanks to the people who had helped me make it as far as I did. The guide on my Github is still from when I had no clue what I was doing, so I apologize for any confusion it has caused you (I am planning a rewrite soon. Is that a good consolation for a part two?). Seeing Haze Booth introduced me to the Rust programming language, which helped me start to enjoy what I did more and more. I started to focus my effort on becoming a better developer instead of making money. Since then I have got myself into things like OCaml, V8 internals, Golang, Compiler Design, and have landed myself an internship doing computer science research. Don’t get me wrong, I still think I am a horrible developer, I am still learning. But that’s okay! I know I can have a lot of fun improving myself, and I want you to feel the same way no matter how competent you are.

A lot of people have this preconceived notion that some of the best developers around were always the best, and will always be the best. This is not true. People learn and grow, the people you admire now may admire you too someday. There are people you will come across that will surprise you with their talent or their work-ethic or both. We have to help these people grow and become better than ourselves. Too often I have seen people getting laughed at or looked down on for asking a question or for help. Maybe the question is dumb, maybe the help they ask for is obvious, but remember, a little help can go a long way for someone who is learning. I think I found a really good resource you can read here that applies to this kind of thing.

Open-Source

The people with a passion for FLOSS software I will refer to as open-sourcerers. I have the utmost respect for these people. These people contribute their valuable time to develop and maintain the software that helps the web grow, they are chasing something higher than money. They know that open-source is under-appreciated and underpaid (if paid at all), and still contribute. While money is nice, they have found something they are passionate about, something they are committed to no matter what.

The dedication and passion of these people is unmatched, so we should give back and show we appreciate them (GitHub sponsors is a good way to to this). A lot of people I know that do this are struggling for money. It is unfair to them that some people may take their software and turn it into millions while the people that contribute the most are struggling to live comfortably. People in the software development world (especially in the Sneaker Botting scene) are paid very well. We should give back to the people that have enabled us to have these opportunities. Not out of kindness, but out of fairness so they may see their work fulfill them intellectually and financially. I have started recently sponsoring my favorite Rust-lang contributor on Github. Maybe my contribution is insignificant or too small, but if more people were to give back to open-sourcerers, we can make a difference. We can make open source more popular and more sustainable. Veritas has a very good way about how we can approach this.

going to replace all my subscriptions (Netflix, Hulu, Spotify, etc..) with me sponsoring people on GitHub
— blastbots (@blastbots) February 12, 2021

Resources

XVI.cool

Open-Sourcery

The Internet

A Little Help

Open-Source

Resources

Bots/Antibot

Applications/Boilerplates

General Programming