A good protocol attack ...

... is like a good joke. This one, while requiring special circumstances to succeed with high probability, was responsible for a lot of laughter on my side.

BinDiff / BinNavi User Forum

Hey all,

we have re-activated the BinDiff / BinNavi User Forum under

https://zynamics.fogbugz.com/default.asp?BinNavi
https://zynamics.fogbugz.com/default.asp?BinDiff

There is not a whole lot there at the moment, but that should change soon :)

Malicious Office/PDFs

Hey all,

for some research that I'm doing, I'm looking for a collection of malicious Office/PDF documents. If anyone has such documents (e.g. because he was targeted in an attack, or because he found one somewhere), I'd much appreciate submissions ! :)

BinNavi v2 and PHP !

Hey all,

we have written about the SQL storage format for BinNavi quite a few times on this blog, and how we'd like to encourage third parties to use it. I am quite happy to say that Stefan Esser of
SektionEins GmbH has built code to export PHP byte code into the database format. The (cute) results can be seen under

http://www.suspekt.org/2008/11/05/php-bytecode-in-binnavi-20/

German ways of expressing optimism

One of my favourite things when travelling and interacting people from other cultures is observing differences in conversational conventions -- and (most importantly) different forms and perceptions of "conversational humor". Aside from comedic protocol screw-ups (e.g. literally translating an essentially untranslateable expression to another language, earning -- at best -- puzzled looks and -- at worst -- thoroughly offending the conversation partner), it often provides interesting insights into one's own culture and habits.

This weeks special: German forms of expressing optimism.

There are many expressions in German that are horribly difficult to translate.

One of my favourites that could cause confusion is the German custom of wishing people luck by wishing them "Hals- und Beinbruch!" (literally: 'broken neck and broken leg') or 'Kopf- und Bauchschuss' (literally: 'shot in the head and stomach') or (for sailors) 'Mast- und Schotbruch' (literally: 'broken mast and ripped sail') upon parting.
A common reply for this would be "wird schon schiefgehen" (literally: 'I have no doubt it's going to go badly'). Counterintuitively, the semantics of this is optimistic -- e.g. whoever says that things are going to turn out badly indicates by this that he is not worried, and that he actually expects that things will be fine.

In essence, one expresses optimism by claiming that an improbably horrible outcome is a near-certainty.

Even though I try hard to not have an all-too-obvious German accent any more, I do catch myself all the time in using the above pattern, even though it does not translate. I (deservedly) earned puzzled looks today by clumsily attempting to use the following German saying to indicate my optimism about the future:

"Lächle und sei froh, sagten sie mir, denn es könnte schlimmer kommen. Und ich lächelte und war froh, und es kam schlimmer."

This has a certain elegance in German, which is totally lost in my clumsy translation:

"Smile and be happy, they told me, because things could be a lot worse. So I smiled and was happy, and things got a lot worse."

Aside from the clumsiness of the expression when translated, the semantics (e.g. the intention to express optimism) was thoroughly lost -- the effect was a thoroughly puzzled and slightly worried look by my conversation partner. I think it is situations like these where Germans earn their bad reputation for being thoroughly unfunny.

Other things that are good for causing confusion between a native English speaker who interacts with someone from the German-speaking world are differences when it comes to acceptable replies to the question "How are you ?". The usual form of this in German is "Wie gehts ?", essentially "How is it going ?". In the English speaking world, acceptable replies seem to be restricted to "good", "good good", or "great".

Proper replies to the question "How is it going" over here would be:
"Muss." -- literal translation: 'it has to somehow'
"Naja, ganz ok." -- 'well... ok ...'
"Könnte schlechter/besser gehen" -- 'could be worse/better'
"Bergauf" or "Bergab" -- uphill / downhill

If the other party feels inclined to have a longer chat, they could reply with
"Yesterday, we stood on a cliff. Today we have advanced by a significant step."
or "Katastrophe". This is usually followed with a short anecdote or complaint about something work-related. From a social perspective, this does wonders as an ice-breaker.

Whenever I catch myself in such a situation, I realize that no matter how much one travels, and no matter how much time one spends in a different cultural climate, certain components of the social interaction are nigh-impossible to change.

Anyhow, time to go to sleep.