Boy, I agree with your points. What makes the show so good is also what makes it hard to follow if you missed it from the beginning.
One of my friends is an avid fan and routinely encouraged me to give it a try. I'm not a "regular" watcher of any show (well, prior to getting my TiVo), and coming into Farscape mid-stream was tough.
SciFi ran one of their "Chain Reaction" specials where they aired a dozen episodes in a row. I watched but was very confused - a lot of what was going on relied on knowledge of complex character motivations or events across previous (unseen at this point) episodes. I liked what I saw, but I knew I was only absorbing a fraction of the entertainment to be had.
I got hold of the 1st season and watched it from the beginning. I haven't seen all of the episodes from the 2nd to season-before-last, but I'm much more into the show now and have a much better appreciation for the elements that you point out.
I started TiVo-ing the last two seasons. I'm a bit behind (usually dump off to tape and watch later), but this is definitely one of the best shows I've ever invested the time to watch.
> Even the humanoid aliens are fairly different from one another.
This is one of the things that generally bugs me most about SciFi TV and where Farscape really makes a difference. I got really sick of shows like Voyager where every other episode we were introduced to an "alien" humanoid species where the only visible difference was forehead ridges or goofy nostrils or hair/pigmentation, etc.
I realize that it's tough to come up with beleivable aliens species on a budget, but this is really distracting. Farscape does it better, IMO. Sure, there are Sebatians and other alien species that are pretty vanilla humanoids, but there are also plenty of other "creature designs" that are really entertaining.
I did a tour in Kirkland for a couple months a few years back. Got really hooked on the stuff. Not a whole lot around the midwest to compare. Ah, memories.
> Formatting and presentation goes in style sheets.
Correct. Now, where you you get the stylesheet that the user enjoyed while creating the document? Are there standard XSL sheets available only in 2003, or can/does the user create/modify these as the document is developed. Is there an option for the user to include the stylesheet with the XML?
XML does not define styles, but the structure of the document's content. Stylesheets (XSL, XSL-FO and (ugh) FOSI) are used by whatever program reads the XML in order to control how the content is rendered.
It is understandable that XML coming out of Word (or any other prog) is devoid of formatting info - I didn't really understand the comment that formatting was removed. Does this imply that Microsoft in embedding style information in the XML somehow? Seems like a bad idea to me. I can see how you might have processing instructions that point to an external XSL.
Is that perhaps what they are talking about? The XML comes out with just pure markup/content and all information about associated stylesheets is removed? That's fine as long as there is some other mechanism to get and use the stylesheet so you can see the document as the writer intended.
My guess is that the stylesheets are not going to be publicly abailable/distributed so that non-ms software (eg xml-spy, Arbortext Epic, etc) won't be able to interoperate with Word XML documents (at least at a word-processor level). I mean, why would they (being Microsoft, that is). If they make the DTD/Schema and stylesheets available to everyone, you wouldn't be forced to buy Office 2003 to interoperate, would you?
Re:Separating Content from Presentation a Good Thi
on
Office 2003 and XML
·
· Score: 1
Well, you typically surround it with some markup.
For example, <emphasis> is an element in DocBook used for doing just that. You surround the content in this tag.
Then your sytlesheet defines how the content within that element is rendered. Idea though is that you are not tied to that content being bold no matter what. You can change your stylesheet to make that italic if you wish, without having to modify every instance in every document.
Or, you can have many different stylesheets that behave differently depending on your need. Having text as bold is not really the best example of this.
A better example is with web/print fonts: general consensus is that serif'ed fonts are best for print, non-serif for web. Now say you want to publish the same content as both printed material and on your website. You can do this by pushing the XML through two different stylesheets.
> As long as content creators use standard file formats
[devilsadvocate]But why bother if everyone has wmp installed? Why mess with 'standard' formats, esp when.wm becomes the new 'defacto' standard because something like 99% of your target audience have brand new Dells with WinXP and windows media 10 player installed? [/devils]
[disclaimer]I don't know so I'm asking[/disclaimer]
Isn't the danger more with the proprietary windows media formats (.wm.wma.wmv) potentially displacing other non-MS formats?
If WMP is guaranteed to be installed by default on all Win PC's and is set as the default player for all known media file formats, doesn't this cause concern that MS can then attempt to use their monopoly position to displace other formats? Does that unfairly disadvantage competing software makers that might then be forced to license wm formats?
> I can resend an email that has a two week old date stamp on it and request when I can expect something completed
Heh, that's my favorite tactic.
Even if I talked to the guy on the phone and I could hear his brains rattling around as he (presumably) nodded his head in agreement, I always fire off an email that recaps what we talked about and what we agreed he would do.
Then, a couple weeks later, I can browse through my box and remind myself who I talked to and when and forward it as a "friendly reminder" that I'm still waiting for an answer or something.
I usually get the reply the same day "Oh, sorry - I didn't forget about you.. just we really got swamped last week. Here's what you wanted!"
Once a suitable machine is found, the worm tries to log on to the remote computer using login name Administrator and by trying 50 different passwords:
"" (empty)
"xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"
"admin"
"Admin"
"password"
"Password"
(you get the idea)
nowhere does it claim that these are 'default' passwords in the sense that windows installs leaving them set as default. The problem is that the person installing windows picked a "weak" password. Seems a stretch to call this "default". (as in "Fred was too lazy to some up with a good password, so he picked some "default": I think it was '12345')
Your comment has too few characters per line (currently 17.0).
now I am obliged to add more crap to my post in order to reach this C/L threshold:
Deloder is a network worm infecting Windows machines which have set a weak password to the "Administrator" account. It also installs remote access tool VNC, opening the computer to the world.
no, that wasn't enough, here's more: 1) The combination to the Air Shield is... one. 2) One! 3) One! 1) Two. 2) Two! 3) Two! 1) Three. 2) Three! 3) Three! 1) Four. 2) Four! 3) Four! *pause* 1) Five. 2) Five! 3) Five! 2) So the combination to the Air Shield is one two three four five!! 3) One two three four five!?! That's the stupidest combination I've ever heard!! That's the kind of combination some idiot would have on his luggage!!
"Officially, we are required to contact, welcome, and log in any and all sentient races or multibeings in the quadrant, without prejudice, fear, or favor. Unofficially, I advise that we erase the records and forget the whole thing."
"It's very important in the grand scheme of things for human beings to be able to picture the rest of the universe in the right conceptual terms. The way we organize things in our heads comes from the names we give those things, and that's particularly important to remember as we teach those names to the next generation."
heehoo, I thought about the same thing when I saw this.
The house we bought 5 years ago had a nice big willow with a treehouse built in it. My 7-yr old was delighted, and had lots of fun climbing into it and playing and what not. He kept asking me if he could sleep out there. I hesitated, worrying about wildlife (we live on the edge of a preserve, there were often droppings of some sort in and around the treehouse) and such, but eventually gave in with the condition that I'd need to be there to keep an eye on things.
Sure enough, we had visits from the local racoons that came to check us out. No real problem, they scampered away at the first sound we made. Next morning was a different story though. The ants had found us. I don't normally get bothered by bugs. Spiders, ants, whathaveyou -- no problem (mind, I'm not too fond of earwigs or silverfish, but I don't freak out). But, waking up to find zillions of little black crawly things all over your sleeping bag is a different story.
technically, Jesus *is* God (you know, that whole "holy trinity" deal)
God the Father == God
God the Son (Jesus) == God
Holy Spirit == God
Amen! kind of a package deal -- never fully understood it, but there it is
Re:rootkit redundant.
on
Windows Rootkits
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
RUNAS USAGE:
RUNAS [/profile] [/env] [/netonly]/user: program/profile if the user's profile needs to be loaded/env to use current environment instead of user's./netonly use if the credentials specified are for remote access only./user should be in form USER@DOMAIN or DOMAIN\USER
program command line for EXE. See below for examples
NOTE: Enter user's password only when prompted. NOTE: USER@DOMAIN is not compatible with/netonly.
Yeah. MS has "caught on", somewhat. 2000 will sometimes prompt you (esp when inserting a CD and it thinks you want to install something) if you want to run as administrator when it detects that you need higher privs to run something. But it doesn't always work.
I've noticed this with things like installing patches for installed apps (like Adobe Acrobat, for instance). Acrobat will periodically check for updates and then ask if you want to install and download. I got tired of hitting the 'no, ask me later' button so I went ahead said yes. It finished downloading and then stopped saying I had to log in as 'administrator' to install the update. Would have been nice if it had said so in the first place or gave me an option to use 'runas'.
I've tried to get out of the habit of running with an administrator priv account. I don't need administrator very much for day-to-day stuff at work (they deliver the machines with owner's domain account in the administrator's group by default), but it is a pain to have to log out and back in to be able to install something.
I just tried it on w2k pro here and it does work on.exe files (shift->right-click).
I did the same thing on a.pl file and the option didn't appear so it seems likely that win only will provide that option on right-click for some filetypes.
Thanks for the tip, tho. I didn't know about using runas from explorer.
I've done that too, but I've also discovered the 'continue from last time' option when restarting Opera that apparently reconstructs the pages/tabs that were open when you closed the last session.
Stopped me from saying a bunch of bad words at least a couple of times.;-)
I've also fallen in love with mouse gestures with Opera. I actually now find myself trying to navigate or close windows in other apps using gestures.
>my small scale situation may not translate to a large business account.
Exacly. Not even a large account. If you shut me off for the rest of the month, I've got a problem. I need to have my site accessible. I just want to pick and choose which access (legitimate) I want to pay for.;-)
Someone else said the ISP should firewall off the "bad" traffic. Does the ISP then complain to its upstream provider about that bandwidth? Someone has to either pass on the cost of that bandwidth or eat it.
Where do you draw the line? You could argue that your ISP has no business charging you for inbound UDP packets to SQL server port (1443 was it?) since you expect to only provide http on port 80. Next month there is another virus/worm that causes another spike, but this time by flooding the net with bogus TCP traffic on port 80. Now do you try to get your ISP to take that off your bill because it was from a virus/worm?
Reminded me of one of the worst examples of procedure/variable naming I've ever seen.
I was a "Lab Consultant" back in school (supposed to be there to help students out with using the systems, but more often did things like loading paper/clearing printer jams, etc).
Anyway, this guy came up to me and asked me to look at his prog. He couldn't find the bug that was causing an inifinite loop. I recognized that this guy was working on one of the simple labs from 2nd-year COBOL (hey, this was '84), a triple-control-break report type deal. Guy was apparenly a Dr Who fan: every procedure was a title of an episode (ie Attack of the Cybermen), every variable was a character name (Romana, K-9) or other such nonsense.
I looked at it just long enough to take in the full effect, then handed it back and suggested (with a forced straight face) that he re-write it using more meaningful names. As I recall he stalked off and just kept working on it as-is. I'm pretty sure that if he turned it in that way he wouldn't have gotten any credit.
I think I managed to grab a copy out of the trash after he left. I used to show it to my students as an extreme example of how _not_ to pick variable/procedure names. Wonder if I still have that somewhere. It was really a hoot.
Yep, I was thinking along the same lines. It's like having a drinking fountain outside your house for public use - you are expecting amybe 10-20 gallons monthly as people stop by and have a quick sip. Then, you get all pissed when your water bill comes and 5,000 gallons show up when the circus comes to town and all the clowns have used your water fountain to fill all their water baloons.:-)
Do you then go ask for a credit from the utility because of the excessive/unexpected use?
Slashdot Mirror
Boy, I agree with your points. What makes the show so good is also what makes it hard to follow if you missed it from the beginning.
One of my friends is an avid fan and routinely encouraged me to give it a try. I'm not a "regular" watcher of any show (well, prior to getting my TiVo), and coming into Farscape mid-stream was tough.
SciFi ran one of their "Chain Reaction" specials where they aired a dozen episodes in a row. I watched but was very confused - a lot of what was going on relied on knowledge of complex character motivations or events across previous (unseen at this point) episodes. I liked what I saw, but I knew I was only absorbing a fraction of the entertainment to be had.
I got hold of the 1st season and watched it from the beginning. I haven't seen all of the episodes from the 2nd to season-before-last, but I'm much more into the show now and have a much better appreciation for the elements that you point out.
I started TiVo-ing the last two seasons. I'm a bit behind (usually dump off to tape and watch later), but this is definitely one of the best shows I've ever invested the time to watch.
> Even the humanoid aliens are fairly different from one another.
This is one of the things that generally bugs me most about SciFi TV and where Farscape really makes a difference. I got really sick of shows like Voyager where every other episode we were introduced to an "alien" humanoid species where the only visible difference was forehead ridges or goofy nostrils or hair/pigmentation, etc.
I realize that it's tough to come up with beleivable aliens species on a budget, but this is really distracting. Farscape does it better, IMO. Sure, there are Sebatians and other alien species that are pretty vanilla humanoids, but there are also plenty of other "creature designs" that are really entertaining.
Red Hook, yum.
I did a tour in Kirkland for a couple months a few years back. Got really hooked on the stuff. Not a whole lot around the midwest to compare. Ah, memories.
I was gonna mail a check to Osama, but then I got high.
I'm impressed. How did you get that past the "lameness filter"?
> Formatting and presentation goes in style sheets.
Correct. Now, where you you get the stylesheet that the user enjoyed while creating the document? Are there standard XSL sheets available only in 2003, or can/does the user create/modify these as the document is developed. Is there an option for the user to include the stylesheet with the XML?
XML does not define styles, but the structure of the document's content. Stylesheets (XSL, XSL-FO and (ugh) FOSI) are used by whatever program reads the XML in order to control how the content is rendered.
It is understandable that XML coming out of Word (or any other prog) is devoid of formatting info - I didn't really understand the comment that formatting was removed. Does this imply that Microsoft in embedding style information in the XML somehow? Seems like a bad idea to me. I can see how you might have processing instructions that point to an external XSL.
Is that perhaps what they are talking about? The XML comes out with just pure markup/content and all information about associated stylesheets is removed? That's fine as long as there is some other mechanism to get and use the stylesheet so you can see the document as the writer intended.
My guess is that the stylesheets are not going to be publicly abailable/distributed so that non-ms software (eg xml-spy, Arbortext Epic, etc) won't be able to interoperate with Word XML documents (at least at a word-processor level). I mean, why would they (being Microsoft, that is). If they make the DTD/Schema and stylesheets available to everyone, you wouldn't be forced to buy Office 2003 to interoperate, would you?
Well, you typically surround it with some markup.
For example, <emphasis> is an element in DocBook used for doing just that. You surround the content in this tag.
Then your sytlesheet defines how the content within that element is rendered. Idea though is that you are not tied to that content being bold no matter what. You can change your stylesheet to make that italic if you wish, without having to modify every instance in every document.
Or, you can have many different stylesheets that behave differently depending on your need. Having text as bold is not really the best example of this.
A better example is with web/print fonts: general consensus is that serif'ed fonts are best for print, non-serif for web. Now say you want to publish the same content as both printed material and on your website. You can do this by pushing the XML through two different stylesheets.
> As long as content creators use standard file formats
.wm becomes the new 'defacto' standard because something like 99% of your target audience have brand new Dells with WinXP and windows media 10 player installed? [/devils]
[devilsadvocate]But why bother if everyone has wmp installed? Why mess with 'standard' formats, esp when
[disclaimer]I don't know so I'm asking[/disclaimer]
.wma .wmv) potentially displacing other non-MS formats?
Isn't the danger more with the proprietary windows media formats (.wm
If WMP is guaranteed to be installed by default on all Win PC's and is set as the default player for all known media file formats, doesn't this cause concern that MS can then attempt to use their monopoly position to displace other formats? Does that unfairly disadvantage competing software makers that might then be forced to license wm formats?
Again, I don't know - just asking the question.
My Butterfly is really tough on Spam. Except when Bill comes around -- then he spreads easier than Skippy.
no prob - thanks for the reply
> I can resend an email that has a two week old date stamp on it and request when I can expect something completed
Heh, that's my favorite tactic.
Even if I talked to the guy on the phone and I could hear his brains rattling around as he (presumably) nodded his head in agreement, I always fire off an email that recaps what we talked about and what we agreed he would do.
Then, a couple weeks later, I can browse through my box and remind myself who I talked to and when and forward it as a "friendly reminder" that I'm still waiting for an answer or something.
I usually get the reply the same day "Oh, sorry - I didn't forget about you.. just we really got swamped last week. Here's what you wanted!"
Yeah, whatever -- thanks.
Interestingly, the register article says 'default', but the source they quote, http://www.f-secure.com/v-descs/deloader.shtml does not.
... one. 2) One! 3) One! 1) Two. 2) Two! 3) Two! 1) Three. 2) Three! 3) Three! 1) Four. 2) Four! 3) Four! *pause* 1) Five. 2) Five! 3) Five! 2) So the combination to the Air Shield is one two three four five!! 3) One two three four five!?! That's the stupidest combination I've ever heard!! That's the kind of combination some idiot would have on his luggage!!
They cite 50 passwords that the worm tries:
Once a suitable machine is found, the worm tries to log on to the remote computer using login name Administrator and by trying 50 different passwords:
"" (empty)
"xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"
"admin"
"Admin"
"password"
"Password"
(you get the idea)
nowhere does it claim that these are 'default' passwords in the sense that windows installs leaving them set as default. The problem is that the person installing windows picked a "weak" password. Seems a stretch to call this "default". (as in "Fred was too lazy to some up with a good password, so he picked some "default": I think it was '12345')
Your comment has too few characters per line (currently 17.0).
now I am obliged to add more crap to my post in order to reach this C/L threshold:
Deloder is a network worm infecting Windows machines which have set a weak password to the "Administrator" account. It also installs remote access tool VNC, opening the computer to the world.
no, that wasn't enough, here's more:
1) The combination to the Air Shield is
>Hey, that's the same password as my server!
oops, after looking up the line, it should be something more like...
That's the kind of password some idiot would have on his windows machine!!
>1, 12, 123, 1234, 12345,
...or something like that (apologies to Mel)
ok, what's the password?
one...
one!
two...
two!
three...
three!
four.
four!? That's the password!? 1234!? That's the stupidest password I've ever heard!
Hey, that's the same password as my server!
>Perhaps they HAVE been here, took a good look at us and decided they'd check up on us when we've matured a bit more
That kind of comment always remids me of this
"Officially, we are required to contact, welcome, and log in any and all sentient races or multibeings in the quadrant, without prejudice, fear, or favor. Unofficially, I advise that we erase the records and forget the whole thing."
>what the hell can I do but accept it as fact.
Maybe take a deep breath and chill out?
Geez, I wasn't saying you were wrong, just presenting an alternate viewpoint I found interesting. Goddamn, sorry I brought it up.
"It's very important in the grand scheme of things for human beings to be able to picture the rest of the universe in the right conceptual terms. The way we organize things in our heads comes from the names we give those things, and that's particularly important to remember as we teach those names to the next generation."
-- William Hartmann
heehoo, I thought about the same thing when I saw this.
The house we bought 5 years ago had a nice big willow with a treehouse built in it. My 7-yr old was delighted, and had lots of fun climbing into it and playing and what not. He kept asking me if he could sleep out there. I hesitated, worrying about wildlife (we live on the edge of a preserve, there were often droppings of some sort in and around the treehouse) and such, but eventually gave in with the condition that I'd need to be there to keep an eye on things.
Sure enough, we had visits from the local racoons that came to check us out. No real problem, they scampered away at the first sound we made. Next morning was a different story though. The ants had found us. I don't normally get bothered by bugs. Spiders, ants, whathaveyou -- no problem (mind, I'm not too fond of earwigs or silverfish, but I don't freak out). But, waking up to find zillions of little black crawly things all over your sleeping bag is a different story.
technically, Jesus *is* God (you know, that whole "holy trinity" deal)
- God the Father == God
- God the Son (Jesus) == God
- Holy Spirit == God
Amen!kind of a package deal -- never fully understood it, but there it is
Yeah. MS has "caught on", somewhat. 2000 will sometimes prompt you (esp when inserting a CD and it thinks you want to install something) if you want to run as administrator when it detects that you need higher privs to run something. But it doesn't always work.
I've noticed this with things like installing patches for installed apps (like Adobe Acrobat, for instance). Acrobat will periodically check for updates and then ask if you want to install and download. I got tired of hitting the 'no, ask me later' button so I went ahead said yes. It finished downloading and then stopped saying I had to log in as 'administrator' to install the update. Would have been nice if it had said so in the first place or gave me an option to use 'runas'.
I've tried to get out of the habit of running with an administrator priv account. I don't need administrator very much for day-to-day stuff at work (they deliver the machines with owner's domain account in the administrator's group by default), but it is a pain to have to log out and back in to be able to install something.
> Also you can right click on any ico
.exe files (shift->right-click).
.pl file and the option didn't appear so it seems likely that win only will provide that option on right-click for some filetypes.
Hmm, not _any_ icon, apparently.
I just tried it on w2k pro here and it does work on
I did the same thing on a
Thanks for the tip, tho. I didn't know about using runas from explorer.
I've done that too, but I've also discovered the 'continue from last time' option when restarting Opera that apparently reconstructs the pages/tabs that were open when you closed the last session.
;-)
Stopped me from saying a bunch of bad words at least a couple of times.
I've also fallen in love with mouse gestures with Opera. I actually now find myself trying to navigate or close windows in other apps using gestures.
>my small scale situation may not translate to a large business account.
;-)
Exacly. Not even a large account. If you shut me off for the rest of the month, I've got a problem. I need to have my site accessible. I just want to pick and choose which access (legitimate) I want to pay for.
Someone else said the ISP should firewall off the "bad" traffic. Does the ISP then complain to its upstream provider about that bandwidth? Someone has to either pass on the cost of that bandwidth or eat it.
Where do you draw the line? You could argue that your ISP has no business charging you for inbound UDP packets to SQL server port (1443 was it?) since you expect to only provide http on port 80. Next month there is another virus/worm that causes another spike, but this time by flooding the net with bogus TCP traffic on port 80. Now do you try to get your ISP to take that off your bill because it was from a virus/worm?
Reminded me of one of the worst examples of procedure/variable naming I've ever seen.
I was a "Lab Consultant" back in school (supposed to be there to help students out with using the systems, but more often did things like loading paper/clearing printer jams, etc).
Anyway, this guy came up to me and asked me to look at his prog. He couldn't find the bug that was causing an inifinite loop. I recognized that this guy was working on one of the simple labs from 2nd-year COBOL (hey, this was '84), a triple-control-break report type deal. Guy was apparenly a Dr Who fan: every procedure was a title of an episode (ie Attack of the Cybermen), every variable was a character name (Romana, K-9) or other such nonsense.
I looked at it just long enough to take in the full effect, then handed it back and suggested (with a forced straight face) that he re-write it using more meaningful names. As I recall he stalked off and just kept working on it as-is. I'm pretty sure that if he turned it in that way he wouldn't have gotten any credit.
I think I managed to grab a copy out of the trash after he left. I used to show it to my students as an extreme example of how _not_ to pick variable/procedure names. Wonder if I still have that somewhere. It was really a hoot.
Yep, I was thinking along the same lines. It's like having a drinking fountain outside your house for public use - you are expecting amybe 10-20 gallons monthly as people stop by and have a quick sip. Then, you get all pissed when your water bill comes and 5,000 gallons show up when the circus comes to town and all the clowns have used your water fountain to fill all their water baloons. :-)
Do you then go ask for a credit from the utility because of the excessive/unexpected use?