FILE_ID.DIZ:
Magenta Automated Accentuator II - Academic Version (version 1.0.0.&
#48;)
Patch
proteus
proteus.nfo:
Release notes
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Program : [ Magenta Automated Accentuator II Academic Version]
[ version 1.0.0.0
]
URL : [
http://
www.magenta.gr ]
Cracker : [ proteus proteuss@sdf.lonestar.org ]
Crack type : [ patch ]
Protection : [ Nag Screen, 10 minutes limit, 1 run per session, ]
[ only 100 characters converted per session. ]
[ Protected by Microcosm's Copy Control ]
Release date : [ 03.11.2003
]
Release name : [ mon2polb_crack.zip ]
Notes
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The Automated Accentuator is of interest to Greek users and
international academics. It converts single accented (monotonic) greek
text to multi accented (polytonic) and vice-versa. It can cope with
any version of Greek text from Archaic Homeric and Classical Greek
right through to Byzantine and Modern Greek. It is trully impressive
software. A look at the references (grammatical, syntactic and
lexical) shows how much work has gone to create this programme.
It is difficult to evaluate the programme with the cumbersome
restrictions of the demo version so crack it and try it.
Instructions
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Download the demo version from www.magenta.gr and install it.
Copy "mon2pol_crack.exe" to the directory "c:\Program Files\Mon
2PolB"
(or to wherever the programme is installed) and run the crack to patch
it. Enjoy!
The crack works for both the Greek an the English versions of the
programme.
Other notes
---------------------------------------------------------------------
The Greek writing system is boasting a history of more than 27
centuries. It is one of the oldest known to mankind and it still
in use today. A Greek school boy today can pick up Homer's Iliad
(circa 800 BC) and simply read it in the same way a boy might
have done in the days of Pericles! Some words will sound
unfamiliar but that is what dictionaries are there for. Just
think how often an American school boy will have to reach for the
dictionary when reading Herman Melville's Moby-Dick (circa 1850
AD). The Greek alphabet is also the ancestor to several other
important scripts, for example Latin and Cyrillic.
The Greek script has endured for so long because it is simple
(only 24 letters) and logical. It is the first and foremost truly
phonetic alphabet. Greek grammar has relatively few rules which
are simple logical and clear, akin to a computer programming
language. It has fewer rules, however, than some modern
programming languages like Perl or Java. (The manual of Greek
grammar is about 300 pages long whereas the manual of Perl runs
to over 1000(!)- not including the numerous Perl modules which
would probably quadruple this number) As a result of this script,
Greek became an immensely rich language (have a look at Liddell &
Scott, Greek - English Lexicon). Greek is highly adaptable and
capable of great refinement and subtlety. The language of high
Literature, Philosophy and Religion but also of Mathematics,
Science and Technology. We lose touch with the Greek language at
our peril. (If you wish to learn more about these issues read
this book: Who Killed Homer - The Demise of Classical Education
and the Recovery of Greek Wisdom, by Victor Davis Hanson & John
Heath, Free Press, 1998, ISBN:0-684-84453-2)
Multi accented Greek was invented in the Hellenistic era (circa
300 BC). The hitherto unwritten rules of pronunciation, were
codified by Hellenistic scholars (Aristophanes of Byzantium et
al.), contemporaries of Archimedes, Euclid and Ptolemy. They
devised 5 diacritics (2 breathings, called "pneumata" and three
accents, called "tonoi"). The rules for their use are very simple
and usually run to about 5 pages in the typical grammar manual.
They serve as an excellent aid to pronunciation and, in a subtle
way, to the understanding of the etymology of compound words. It
is thought that the hellenistic reform perfected the Greek script
into an elegant, versatile and refined medium to express human
thoughts. Non Greeks though the ages (Romans, Persians, Arabs,
Europeans etc.) could easily master the language, study the
classics and enrich their own cultures. The hellenistic Greek
script (polytonic) endured unchanged for more than 2000 years...
...until 1982 when some uneducated imbeciles, running Greece then
(they still are), legislated to banish the diacritics on the
grounds of simplification and "modernization". The 5 diacritics
were abolished and a single tonos was introduced to simply
indicate the emphasized syllable in polysyllabic words (Hence the
term "monotonic"). No scholarly advise was sought, no discussion
took place. A 22 centuries old heritage bequeathed by the ancient
giants of learning was abolished by a few imbeciles who thought
they new better. The government thereafter enforced with great
zeal, Stalin fashion, this "reform". School books were trashed
and rewritten in the new system, the press were offered financial
incentives to convert. Objecting academics were marginalized and
opposing voices were systematically ridiculed.
Grammar instead of a scholarly issue became a political issue. If
you accepted the "reform" you were progressive, democratic and a
humane person. If you argued in favor of the historic Polytonic
system you were right-wing, longing for a junta come-back, a
thoroughly bad person. And, of course, none wished to be a bad
person... So the "reform" took.
Some people like to think that the abolition of the Polytonic
writing stems from a conspiracy hatched by Zionists,
ex-communists and other such riffraff. The idea is to make the
classics unreadable to future generations of Greeks so that they
will be decoupled from their heritage and fall in line with the
rest of the decadent western world.
Such a conspiratorial view, however, is misplaced. The
politicians who hatched this abomination are yesterdays class
imbeciles who were beaten and bullied by their teachers for
getting their spelling wrong. Thus they grew up harboring a
latent hatred for traditional grammar.
Scions of wealthy families, "educated" in not so academically
demanding (usually abroad) universities in a useless subject such
as Sociology, Economics, Management and the like. As students
were probably the types sporting long hair, smoking pot
womanizing and drinking whiskey. Unfortunately democracy today
has degenerated and mainly such people make it into politics. The
ill thought language "reform" was not a result of conspiracy but
of a combination of ignorance, incompetence and indifference.
Not everyone, however, conformed to the monotonic edict. Many
newspapers, magazines and books continued to be published in the
traditional system. In recent years more and more publications
appear again in multi-accented Greek. Some authors insist that
their book be published in polytonic. Almost everyone agrees
that the old script is aesthetically superior. Monotonic looks
plain and ugly. Moreover the "simplified" monotonic system proved
in practice to be more complex than the old system. The rules of
the single tonos are vague and confusing. After 20 monotonic
years, schools today produce nearly illiterate people who cannot
write or speak properly.
Academics and scholars now frequently petition government and
parliament to reconsider and reinstate the teaching of the
polytonic in schools. I hope to see the motonic experiment,
together with the politicians who begot it, soon to be sent to
the dustbin of history where they really belong.
If you want a Greek (polytonic) version of the above please write
to: proteuss@sdf.lonestar.org
Cracking notes
================================================================================
=======
Tools used:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------
1. Ollydbg (
http://home.t-online.de/home/Ollydbg The best debugger around.
2. Hex Workshop (
http://www
.hexworkshop.com ) The best Hex Editor I have seen.
Notes
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------
Mon2polb.exe (or rather Mon2polb.dll) is protected by Microcosm's Copy
Control
(
http://www.microco
sm.co.uk).
This protection is full of anticracking tricks including antidebugging code. Ii
certainly
confused wdasm and ollydbg but not softice.
A few lines from microcosms www page:
**************************************************************
Software Pirates Hate It <----------- ??!!! (who says?)
Very high level of security
Encrypts your programs and adds strong anti-debug code to it
**************************************************************
Some day I may produce a keygen for copy control (unless someone else beats me
to it).
In this case there was no need to tackle copy control because the program could
easily be
prevented from making any calls to the protection routines. After carefull inspe
ction of
the listing and a few minutes of single-stepping through the code all that was r
equired
was patching 9 bytes!
I suggest that Magenta, instead of paying "protection" money to Microcos
m, reduce the
price of this excellent utility. More people would then buy it and Magenta
might see more
profits. Buying commercial software protection is a waste of money. There is no
uncrackable protection. Crackers love difficult problems the harder the crack th
e greater
the kudos!
Regards!
Proteus
Listings
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------
;#####################################################
;# Original mon2polb.exe
;#####################################################
;
005C67BD E8 3200E7FF CALL Mon2PolB.004367F4
005C67C2 A1 60185F00 MOV EAX,DWORD PTR DS:[5F&#
49;860]
005C67C7 8B00 MOV EAX,DWORD PTR DS:[EAX]
005C67C9 E8 6A9CE8FF CALL Mon2PolB.00450438
005C67CE 8B06 MOV EAX,DWORD PTR DS:[ESI]
005C67D0 8B10 MOV EDX,DWORD PTR DS:[EAX]
005C67D2 FF92 CC000000 CALL DWORD PTR DS:
[EDX+CC] ; this creates the Demo/Unlock
; nag window
; (NOP out this CALL)
005C67D8 8B06 MOV EAX,DWORD PTR DS:[ESI]
005C67DA 8B80 2C020000 MOV EAX,DWORD PTR DS:[
EAX+22C] ; Demo mode returns 5 here
005C67E0 83F8 05 CMP EAX,5
005C67E3 75 5B JNZ SHORT Mon2PolB.005C6840 ; I
f not 5 jump (Make this a JMP)
005C67E5 E8 8A37FBFF CALL Mon2PolB.00579F74 ; I
f 5 run program with
005C67EA 84C0 TEST AL,AL ; demo rest
rictions
005C67EC 75 04 JNZ SHORT Mon2PolB.005C67F2
;............................................................
;............................................................
;............................................................
005C683E EB 09 JMP SHORT Mon2PolB.005C6849
;
005C6840 48 DEC EAX ; other valu
es exit the prog
005C6841 75 04 JNZ SHORT Mon2PolB.005C6847 ;
exept EAX = 1 prog will run ok
005C6843 33DB XOR EBX,EBX ; without any re
strictions
005C6845 EB 02 JMP SHORT Mon2PolB.005C6849
; (so NOP out the JNZ)
005C6847 B3 01 MOV BL,1
005C6849 8B06 MOV EAX,DWORD PTR DS:[ESI]
;################################################################
;# Patched mon2polb.exe
;################################################################
;
005C67BD E8 3200E7FF CALL Mon2PolB.004367F4
005C67C2 A1 60185F00 MOV EAX,DWORD PTR DS:[5F&#
49;860]
005C67C7 8B00 MOV EAX,DWORD PTR DS:[EAX]
005C67C9 E8 6A9CE8FF CALL Mon2PolB.00450438
005C67CE 8B06 MOV EAX,DWORD PTR DS:[ESI]
005C67D0 8B10 MOV EDX,DWORD PTR DS:[EAX]
;
; NOP the CALL (File offset = 001C5BD2)
;
005C67D2 90 NOP
005C67D3 90 NOP
005C67D4 90 NOP
005C67D5 90 NOP
005C67D6 90 NOP
005C67D7 90 NOP
;
005C67D8 8B06 MOV EAX,DWORD PTR DS:[ESI]
005C67DA 8B80 2C020000 MOV EAX,DWORD PTR DS:[
EAX+22C]
005C67E0 83F8 05 CMP EAX,5
;
; Change JNZ to a JMP ( 75 -->EB ) (file offset = 001C5BE3)
;
005C67E3 EB 5B JMP SHORT Mon2PolB.005C6840
;
005C67E5 E8 8A37FBFF CALL Mon2PolB.00579F74
005C67EA 84C0 TEST AL,AL
005C67EC 75 04 JNZ SHORT Mon2PolB.005C67F2
;............................................................
;............................................................
;............................................................
005C683E EB 09 JMP SHORT Mon2PolB.005C6849
;
005C6840 48 DEC EAX
;
; NOP out the JNZ (file offset = 001C5C41)
;
005C6841 90 NOP
005C6842 90 NOP
;
005C6843 33DB XOR EBX,EBX
005C6845 EB 02 JMP SHORT Mon2PolB.005C6849
005C6847 B3 01 MOV BL,1
005C6849 8B06 MOV EAX,DWORD PTR DS:[ESI]
