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Community Spotlight: GARPA

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CCP Eterne
C C P
C C P Alliance
#1 - 2014-04-18 17:22:38 UTC  |  Edited by: CCP Eterne
Everyone knows Goonswarm as EVE's most powerful alliance and the leader of the CFC. But not only do they create content through violencing boats, many of their members also produce incredible community tools. The group behind these tools is known as the Goonfleet Advanced Projects Research Agency or GARPA. This group has put together two amazing tools that have seen widespread use throughout the community; the Garpa Topographical Survey mapping tool and the GarpaUI user interface manager.

In this week's Community Spotlight I spoke with pmchem, the head of GARPA, about their projects, the history behind it, and the people involved.



Fixed a typo. ISD Ezwal.

EVE Online/DUST 514 Community Representative ※ EVE Illuminati ※ Fiction Adept

@CCP_Eterne ※ @EVE_LiveEvents
Aryth
University of Caille
Gallente Federation
#2 - 2014-04-18 17:25:25 UTC  |  Edited by: ISD Ezwal
CCP Eterne wrote:
Everyone knows Goonswarm as EVE's most powerful alliance and the leader of the CFC. But not only do they create content through violencing boats, many of their members also produce incredible community tools. The group behind these tools is known as the Goonfleet Advanced Projects Research Agency or GARPA. This group has put together two amazing tools that have seen widespread use throughout the community; the Garpa Topographical Survey mapping tool and the GarpaUI user interface manager.

In this week's Community Spotlight I spoke with pmchen, the head of GARPA, about their projects, the history behind it, and the people involved.


The proper spelling of the great GARPA leader is pmchem.

Some of the older tools early on were EVEMon which then went to public maintainers. pmchem won't be around for a few hours but he will be around to answer questions in this thread for those that have some.

Leader of the Goonswarm Economic Warfare Cabal.

Creator of Burn Jita

Vile Rat: You're the greatest sociopath that has ever played eve.
Dramaticus
State War Academy
Caldari State
#3 - 2014-04-18 17:26:00 UTC  |  Edited by: Dramaticus
GARPA is really creepy but man do they get results

The 'do-nothing' member of the GoonSwarm Economic Warfare Cabal

The edge is REALLY hard to see at times but it DOES exist and in this case we were looking at a situation where a new feature created for all of our customers was being virtually curbstomped by five of them
Weaselior
GoonWaffe
Goonswarm Federation
#4 - 2014-04-18 17:29:05 UTC
GARPA really has evolved from its origins as a group collecting corpses (in-game) for unexplained reasons.

Head of the Goonswarm Economic Warfare Cabal Pubbie Management and Exploitation Division.
Aryth
University of Caille
Gallente Federation
#5 - 2014-04-18 17:35:21 UTC
Weaselior wrote:
GARPA really has evolved from its origins as a group collecting corpses (in-game) for unexplained reasons.


Weaseliors reference is to the famous GridFu that was also from GARPA.

Leader of the Goonswarm Economic Warfare Cabal.

Creator of Burn Jita

Vile Rat: You're the greatest sociopath that has ever played eve.
The Groundskeeper
State War Academy
Caldari State
#6 - 2014-04-18 18:25:26 UTC
Aryth wrote:
Weaselior wrote:
GARPA really has evolved from its origins as a group collecting corpses (in-game) for unexplained reasons.


Weaseliors reference is to the famous GridFu that was also from GARPA.


That was their cover for collecting corpses, true.
Phil Miller
Deep Core Mining Inc.
Caldari State
#7 - 2014-04-18 18:50:39 UTC
The Groundskeeper wrote:
Aryth wrote:
Weaselior wrote:
GARPA really has evolved from its origins as a group collecting corpses (in-game) for unexplained reasons.


Weaseliors reference is to the famous GridFu that was also from GARPA.


That was their cover for collecting corpses, true.


It was a good cover.
pmchem
Brutor Tribe
Minmatar Republic
#8 - 2014-04-18 19:06:36 UTC
I hope that many players enjoy the powerful capabilities of Garpa Topographical Survey (GTS). It can do much more than any public web-based router which people might use. GarpaUI should also make your lives easier if you have many characters.

I will answer questions about the programs either here, or in the new Tech Lab thread: https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&t=337980

Big thanks for all the developers who contributed to either program along the way, mynnna for connecting me with Eterne, and Eterne for the write-up. Also a friendly hello to the people I've met inside CCP. Enjoy!

https://twitter.com/pmchem/ || http://community.eveonline.com/news/dev-blogs/community-spotlight-garpa/ || Goonswarm Economic Warfare Cabal
Loki O'Grady
The Scope
Gallente Federation
#9 - 2014-04-18 19:29:34 UTC
Grrr Goons... first off it was EVEMon, next it was your wiki, and now it's the Topographical Survey and the UI tool. When will you stop ruining my game like this?? P
Falin Whalen
Federal Navy Academy
Gallente Federation
#10 - 2014-04-18 20:16:10 UTC
Loki O'Grady wrote:
Grrr Goons... first off it was EVEMon, next it was your wiki, and now it's the Topographical Survey and the UI tool. When will you stop ruining my game like this?? P

Goonswarm, we don't want to ruin the game, we want to ruin your game. One really good tool at a time. Grr Goons Twisted

"it's only because of their stupidity that they're able to be so sure of themselves." The Trial - Franz Kafka 
Marlona Sky
State War Academy
Caldari State
#11 - 2014-04-18 21:23:31 UTC
Quote:
GARPA, a team of players who are part of Goonfleet


And I politely decline using any aspect of that program. Blink
pmchem
Brutor Tribe
Minmatar Republic
#12 - 2014-04-18 23:32:32 UTC
Although the troll/tinfoil responses about "goon" programs are amusing, I'll put on my serious hat for a second:

GTS and GarpaUI do not disclose any user information to any third party source. They can both make calls to EVE's API, just like many other third party programs. No data is ever sent to goonfleet ; this is easily verifiable by skilled programmer/syadmin/networking nerds which play EVE Online. In fact, the most important difference between the public release and our internal goonfleet release is that the public release does NOT periodically check goonfleet.com to see if a new version of GTS has been released -- removing any contact with goonfleet. When I released 1.9 to the public a year ago many of the same troll/tinfoil comments were offered up, and quickly batted down by people knowledgeable on the subject. Anyone is welcome to sandbox and test our product.

One of the reasons I included md5sum values in the material I gave to CCP was so that people could verify that what they download is the same as what the program was when it was posted to the blog. This promotes trust of our product and knowledge that the user has a genuine download.

https://twitter.com/pmchem/ || http://community.eveonline.com/news/dev-blogs/community-spotlight-garpa/ || Goonswarm Economic Warfare Cabal
DeMichael Crimson
Republic University
Minmatar Republic
#13 - 2014-04-19 19:08:46 UTC
Gratz to GARPA for being featured in this Community Spotlight.



DMC

'The Plan' | California Eve Players | Proposal - The Endless Battle
ISD Ezwal
ISD Community Communications Liaisons
ISD Alliance
#14 - 2014-04-19 21:38:26 UTC  |  Edited by: ISD Ezwal
I have removed a rule breaking post and the one quoting it.

The Rules:
31. Rumor mongering is prohibited.

Rumor threads and posts which are based off no actual solid information and are designed to either troll or annoy other users will be locked and removed. These kinds of threads and posts are detrimental to the well being and spirit of the EVE Online Community, and can create undue panic among forum users, as well as adding to the workload of our moderators.


And on topic: A good third party tool is a good third party tool, regardless who made it or who they are affiliated with in-game.
I'm happy to say I've used both tools for my playing accounts with great satisfaction.

Ezwal tips hat to pmchem and team.

ISD Ezwal Community Communication Liaisons (CCLs)
Align Planet1
Caldari Provisions
Caldari State
#15 - 2014-04-20 14:46:21 UTC
I use it. I'm not paranoid about using it. The UI on this thing is better than the bespoke software I use at work that we had to pay for.
James Amril-Kesh
Viziam
Amarr Empire
#16 - 2014-04-20 16:13:07 UTC  |  Edited by: ISD Ezwal
CCP Eterne wrote:
Fixed a typo. ISD Ezwal.

It still says pmchen.

Fixed. ISD Ezwal.

Enjoying the rain today? ;)
Jelani Akinyemi Affonso
Republic Military School
Minmatar Republic
#17 - 2014-05-06 02:19:16 UTC  |  Edited by: Jelani Akinyemi Affonso
Can't get Garpa. For some reason , Norton anti virus is seeing Garpa has a threat.
Is this suppose to happen?


http://www.symantec.com/security_response/writeup.jsp?docid=2010-051308-1854-99
Ernest Erkannen
Imperial Shipment
Amarr Empire
#18 - 2014-05-06 02:26:52 UTC
GARPA in argentina is a slang for "pays"

el garpa la birra - he pays the beer


just a random fact
Zalmun
GoonWaffe
Goonswarm Federation
#19 - 2014-05-07 18:49:42 UTC
Jelani Akinyemi Affonso wrote:
Can't get Garpa. For some reason , Norton anti virus is seeing Garpa has a threat.
Is this suppose to happen?


http://www.symantec.com/security_response/writeup.jsp?docid=2010-051308-1854-99


I use Microsoft Security Essentials and have no warnings regarding GARPA at all.

If you look closer at the warning you linked, it is a warning based on:

"The reputation-based system uses "the wisdom of crowds" (Symantec’s tens of millions of end users) connected to cloud-based intelligence to compute a reputation score for an application, and in the process identify malicious software in an entirely new way beyond traditional signatures and behavior-based detection techniques. "

So, butthurt GRRgoons probably flagged GARPA with no merit, simply to screw with the ratings.

Conclusion: Symantec is garbage since someone can game the system if they care to bother to. Even their executives agree:
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/may/06/antivirus-software-fails-catch-attacks-security-expert-symantec

If you're that paranoid, run Wireshark and watch the traffic yourself. Or you could realize that pmchem and his team are just as eager to get good tools to everyone as all the other tool makers (EFT, Evemon, ISK per hour, etc).