Tuesday, December 18, 2007

What happened to javarss?

About a year ago, javarss.com got hacked. Back up, for those who do not know that Javarss is, it was a simple site that had a really nice AJAX driven interface containing RSS feeds from all of the major Java websites. It was simple, just a bunch of links, organized by Website, and when you hovered over them, you'd get a brief synopsis of what the article was about. A one stop shop for Java info and advancements. For busy people, like me, it saved me the trouble of surfing through a dozen or so web sites each day to to find interesting topics.

Well, it was great, until it got hacked back in March 07. The hacker go into the server, and replaced the javarss page with a evil (and kind of neat) looking page, proclaiming "Hacked By Secretary Lucifer". The hacker even left a couple email where the server admins can contact them, possibly about getting their access back. Well, a couple months later, the server admins finaly gain control again, but they never bring Javarss back up. All that remains is a message that reads "We are restoring the site. Please visit us later...". This has been like this for about 6 months. I would love to know how the hackers got in, I love learning about that stuff.

So, what happened? I mean, c'mon, they are just loosing money, and loosing loyal followers with each passing day that they stay closed. I can honestly say that since their demise, I have started to frequent DZone a lot more. DZone is a similar concept, but with a much more rich interface, and they are find articles for languages other then Java. After all, we are developers, not Java Developers. So, I highly recommend you check it out if you haven't already.