Friday, September 10, 2010

Anoop claims TVI Express member "scroller" is not fake, so what does he prove?

A member named "Anoop" claims that he also analyzed the scroller and claims it accesses live data. You can find his comments here:


The problem is, he claims he can see what data.php does, and it accesses live data. And that variable "c" proves it accesses "live data", according to Anoop.


Two problems with that assertion.

1) You can't see the source code of data.php, so unless he has direct access to the server, and can see the source code, you can't prove that it accesses real data. So what is he basing his claim on?

2) You can see the output, which is an XML file. But again, if it access some data and spits out an XML file, why would it need to access "gettimer", which essentially is a random number seed?

When I asked Anoop to answer these questions, he instead points back at the data, and claims that the data *does* change, without providing any proof. Clearly, he wants me to do all the work. Which echoes the answer "Vanessa" gave a few months back: "I say it does change".

So to give Anoop benefit of a doubt, I did the test AGAIN...

I used one browser, and one access method, to pull down content of data.php. It came out to be 25KB of data. I had to transform the data a little bit to import it into OpenOffice Calc, but it came out to be... EXACTLY 500 entries.

I used a different browser, and a different access method (to ensure I got a different IP address), 20 minutes later, and pulled the content of data.php AGAIN. Imported that into a separate sheet of OpenOffice Calc. The file is also about 25KB... and I got exactly 500 lines as well after import.

Isn't that interesting... 

So I looked at the files directly... the beginning is the different, and ending is different. So maybe it's only tracking 500 members? That is possible, even though the site usually claims to have over 1000 people online at a time.

Then an idea hit me... I should SORT the data, by the first and second fields (look like member name and country). So I sorted both sheets by those fields.

I ended up with exactly the same data... in both sheets.

I was so surprised, I thought I must have messed up. I hit undo on both sheets, and compared to original XML import. There was no mistake. After I sort both, I end up with same file.

I repeated the import process, making sure I did not mess with the data. I also took random spot checks, a dozen names randomly from the first file. They are indeed all in the second file, just in a different location.

This CONCLUSIVELY PROVES that the data is fake. They just threw the same 500 names through a shuffler and spits out the same file in a different order each time it's pulled.

Go ahead, try it yourself. Pull one copy of http://www.tviexpress.com/data.php  at one time, then wait X minutes or hours and pull a second copy. Import, sort, and compare. I'll bet you will end up with the same 500 entries.  It begins with "17picorp2010" from Canada, and ends with "ziphog12mc" from South Africa.
TVI Express: replacing one fake with another.

P.S. Anoop now insist he checked membership list against "lost password" list and they "seem to match". Since when does TVI Express make their "lost password" list public? Why would such a list be public any way? Is Anoop a TVI Express employee?

P.P.S. Furthermore, the whole idea that a Flash object needs to access an XML file, generated through PHP, which gets the data from unknown source is ludicrous. The "currently logged in members list" should be a table on the server, and the Flash object should be able to access the table DIRECTLY without any intermediary such as data.php or XML file.

Thus, the fact that Flash Object have to access an XML file generated through PHP indicates that
a) the file was a fake all along, there was no database; or
b) the programmers for TVI Express were incompetent; or
c) TVI Express got cheated as someone basically did something with 4x the effort needed.

None of which is good for TVI Express, because a) says TVI Express is a fake (and judged by all the other fakery it had engaged in, there really is no surprise, b) says TVI Express employs idiots to do its work, and c) says TVI Express employs idiot managers to supervise work needed.  Maybe b) and c) are why the "booking portal" took almost a year to complete?

P.P.P.S. And Anoop, thanks for reminding me to check the data again, and put ANOTHER nail in TVI Express's coffin.

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