The story of the quote

[Alex]

Hi everyone, it is time to reveal some additional cards up my sleeves.

Too bad that only a handful of you were present today when the
anonymous sender was deconspired, it was fun... I'll write an article
about it, so you get to learn a bit more about POP3 and SMTP. However,
that is not the most important thing I wish to share.

Let me start with a reference to a previously distributed document
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/3258602/screenshots/rules-schmules.png

A quick search revealed the author of the famous quote - Lisnic Andrei
from an earlier FAF group. I don't know whether Lis gave it to you, or
if you took it from him, but it doesn't matter now.


Here's the deal:
- anyone caught with a stolen submission gets -2 points from their grade
- whoever writes me an email and admits that they did it, gets just -1 point


I know this is a late email and you're probably not going to read it
until tomorrow, or you're busy preparing for your exam for economics;
thus it is possible that you missed this announcement. So here's what
I'm going to do - I will explain the case to Mr. Bostan and Mr. Ceban
and ask for an extension, such that you do get an extra day to assess
the situation.


It doesn't matter that something is already written in your
'matricola', I will take the necessary actions to make the changes,
even if I end up blacklisted by all the folks at the 'decanat'.


I must remind you that one year from now, you and I will have another
course - PSI. It would be great if you reviewed your moral values
until then; because if I catch anyone pulling off such a stunt again,
you're out.

"Search, don't sort" - don't you love Google? I've compiled a list of
people affected by this "revelation", but I am giving you the chance
handle this matter in a respectful way.


Life's weird, isn't it? You could get a lower grade, but maintain your
integrity. You could have chosen to take the exam next year, but no...

The ball is on your side of the court now, I shall be expecting your emails.



p.s. I am asking the person whoever reads this first to forward the
message to the group's chat room on Skype; to ensure it reaches those
who haven't yet figured out how to join this mailing list.

p.p.s. handy proverb
{
Now matter how far you've gone down the path of evil, turn around now!
}

[Alex]

Hi again,

I must say that the number of confessions I've received is somewhat disappointing.


To help you make a correct decision, let me share some facts:

• Some documents have some minor changes in the text, or the font size and face; however, the metadata was not changed. The following information is still available to the attentive reader:
• username of the original author
• date of creation
• software used to generate the document
• path to the original document (including the home directory of the user that created in; some people's usernames are "%firstName% %lastName%" - so it is really easy to see who they are)
• In the previous years the order of the labs was different. Thus old papers contain phrases such as "last time we did X, therefore we're going to use it now to do Y". Of course, it made sense back then, but in this semester the order is reversed. The problem is that the copy/paster didn't bother to analyze the text of the paper, limiting themselves to cosmetic changes only.
• Someone was clever™ and... well, this is my favourite one, really! :-) they took the original document, changed the font, then converted it into a bitmap, such that the text cannot be selected, copied, and, of course... searched. Hahahha!

It is not clear to me what you are waiting for. Some of you may remember that I mentioned a documentary in class, it was "Nice guys finish first", it covers some aspects of game theory, and offers a clear explanation of the prisoner's dilemma game.

Perhaps you have chosen to "remain silent", knowing that if "everyone is silent", you get away with it.

The trouble is that all of your emails with code and reports attached to them are in my mailbox. You cannot unsend an email. Thus, if you remain silent, you have nothing to gain, except that I know you're just not courageous enough to bite the bullet and get done with it.

There are some additional factors:

• you must meet me again such that I update the 'matricola', otherwise you'll have troubles when you graduate - because the grade in the university's records is different from the one you have. If you don't patch it now, it will be much harder to do it later.
• I cannot imagine how our relationship will work out when the PSI course begins. The only solution I see is that you somehow abandon the university before that semester, such that you wouldn't have to face me.

As you can see, the mess is pretty ugly. I am still waiting for your updates. I am sorry that I have to write all of these things while wearing my "întruchipătion of evil" :-) mask, but you left me no choice.

p.s. just to be sure, I will point out that this applies to the following people too:

• "L-am scris singur, da' am fost ajutat de colegi" or "I mostly wrote it myself" still counts, if you blatantly submitted someone else's report.
• those who did not get a grade, but did attempt to get one by submitting other people's assignments.