Temp X -- Computer Hacker?

[UPDATE:  Apparently Variety got wind of my hack and have since changed their IP address.  So the fun is over.  Variety, you can send me a check any time.  Companies typically pay hackers good money to find holes in their systems.]

 

I am not a computer hacker.  The last computer programming class I took was Pascal, and I think I got a C.  That's why I am as shocked as you are that I figured out a very simple way to bypass Variety's new subscription thingy.

For those of you unfamiliar with what I'm referring to, Variety recently changed their website to a subscription model.  And that's probably a smart thing.  People are increasingly getting their news online.  The ad market is soft.  And money doesn't grow on trees.  But if I can figure out how to access your site without paying for it, you need to hire smarter programmers.

Enough of the preamble.  Here's how you bypass the subscription.

1. Go to Variety.com and click on any article.  At this point you'll get the black "you need to pay here" page.  Now the fun starts.
2. Replace the part in the URL that says www.variety.com with 199.212.222.13.  I think this is called the IP address.  Or perhaps they're the magic number from LOST?  [Note: Don't replace the "http://" or the stuff after ".com".  Only the www.variety.com]
3. Now you're behind whatever firewall thing.  Enjoy the entire site gratis.

That's it.  Of course your boss already has the print edition.  So this an exercise in redundancy.  But it's kinda fun.

Just don't ask me how I figured this out.  I'm not really sure.