Showgirls was written as a "serious" film (God help us all), but the studio has realized there's big bucks in camp. CNN had a story which tells how the DVD release includes a commentary that mocks the movie. The "VIP Edition" also includes:
...shot glasses and playing cards for "Showgirls" drinking games; glossy pictures of star Elizabeth Berkley; plus pasties, a blindfold and a poster of Berkley for a "pin-the-pasties-on-the-showgirl" game.
I'm just wating for the "pin the pasties on the mogul" version of Citizen Kane.
My initial reaction was that it'd be a silly thing to try this because of the risk of virus infected executables. I mean, who that's tech savvy enough to need steganography would feel comfortable downloading intentionally tampered.EXE's, even if they're not intending to run the dang things?
But then I started thinking about how effectively viruses are distributed by non-techies who do click on the attachments in their EMAILs. Perhaps viruses or spyware could be used to "broadcast" a message this way to different cells in a covert organization (terrorists, organized crime, chess club members, whatever). All you'd need is an unprotected PC to act as a tethered goat and catch all those infections for later reading.
For that matter, a sender could "neuter" a virus by disabling its reproductive code and then embed a message in it and send it through some anonymizer (either a formal anonymizer or using a shell account). When the recipient stores it in a quarantine directory, it would look just like an infected EMAIL that had been cleaned up by your antivirus program, not a covert message. Some variation of this using spyware infection would be even more effective as they tend (in my limited experience) to have even more variants than viruses - the obfuscated message would be more readilly confused with normal variation. Instead of posting your tampered executables to some usenet forum, you would simply have the reciepient visit a site running the spyware. New messages would be sent and old ones sterilized when the spyware reinstalls itself.
...campaign will culminate with a four-page comic book
I was thinking of picking this up at my local shop, but instead I'll wait for the movie. I think Hugh Jackman was great as Wolverine, but does he have the dramatic range to carry off "Ferretman"?
Is it just me or is using the phrase "In the Wild" to describe the "ecosphere" a virus inhabits specious? I mean, who but a niche of technophiles (virus experts, IT pros, and slashdotters - I'm as guilty as anyone) could describe the greatest concentration of computing and telecommunications hardware ever assembled by civilization as "the wild."
I understand the attraction of the term because it helps describe an environemnt over which anti-virus folks have no control, but maybe we should all take some time and go outside once in a while.
Good point. Actually, I had expected "but those charges were for more than one victim..." kind of replies. 'Good to see a thought out response instead.
(I know this doesn't really fit into the flow of the discussion, but what you said got me thinking. Apolgies in advance if it's kinda free association.)
... when Netscape had dominance in usage. Many mothers _did_ have to download or picked from install media...
It just goes to show that "normal people" are capable of navigating our arcane world. It might (heck, will) take a lot of trial and error, but the average Soccer Mom or Joe Six Pack can learn how to do this kind of stuff when properly motivated. To techies like us, that motivation is having fun. For those Netscape era parents, the motivation is having no other choice.
Microsoft offered a choice. An inferior one in many ways, but having the great benefit of appealing to human laziness. It is easier to keep using the defaults out of the box: use the default browser, keep the default settings, keep using MSN as the homepage. Surf the foot network or soft core p0rn and then get on with your life.
And now, Soccer Mom and Joe Six Pack are on the brink of having no choice again (with the exception of those weird Open Source zealots out there using their Leenoox and Moodzilla thingees). Ironic, aint it?
I never saw Red Planet, but I'll take your word for it. But since Robinson's work predates that movie, I wouldn't be surprised if the screenwriter borrowed it from Robinson. Then again, perhaps both of them lifted it from a third source.
Re:If I accidentally get lost on Mars
on
GPS on Mars?
·
· Score: 1
Dude, you might have even deeper things to worry about than that...
They seemed mostly head, with little scrawny bodies, long necks and six legs, or, as I afterward learned, two legs and two arms, with an intermediary pair of limbs which could be used at will either as arms or legs. Their eyes were set at the extreme sides of their heads a trifle above the center and protruded in such a manner that they could be directed either forward or back and also independently of each other, thus permitting this queer animal to look in any direction, or in two directions at once, without the necessity of turning the head.
The ears, which were slightly above the eyes and closer together, were small, cup-shaped antennae, protruding not more than an inch on these young specimens. Their noses were but longitudinal slits in the center of their faces, midway between their mouths and ears. There was no hair on their bodies, which were of a very light yellowish-green color. - A Princess of Mars, Chapter 3.
Robinson called it "APS" (mildly OT)
on
GPS on Mars?
·
· Score: 4, Informative
I seem to recall in Kim Stanley Robinson's Red Mars, he refers to an Ares Positioning System (APS).
Just thought we should get our TLAs (Three Letter Acronyms) straight.
This was one of the first real robots I remember reading about (c. 1975). I wanted to build one for myself, but a nine year old's allowance couldn't handle it.
Shakey was the size of small refrigerator, wheeled and (in retrospect) ugly as hell. I always thought it looked like it was going to topple over. But a robot that's smart enough to manipulate its environment (move a wooden ramp into position so it could roll up a step and continue on the task you asked it to do in the first place) - ground breaking.
Yes, I was aware of those little fracases, but I thought it wasn't in the spirit of the geographically ignorant note of the gag (as was the presence of massive amounts of oil in the North Sea, as other posters have noted... ad nauseum). Can't let factual data get in the way of an attempt at humor - or war for that matter.
Oh, yeah. Consider that last crack inside those tags I mentioned earlier, OK?
I hope you're not serious. If you are, I hope you don't vote.
The comment itself was not serious. It was intended as farce. I'm sure you suspected as much, but just to clear the air I'd like to apologize if you thought I was in any way serious about bullying our allies, spilling innocent blood, or involving the U.S. in yet another conflict.
I am however serious in my cynicism about the current administration and its eagerness to go to war. I had considered putting the comment inside <BUSH>, <NEOCON>, or perhaps even <UGLY AMERICAN> tags, but thought that would be all too obviously a troll. As to whether or not the post was merely a more subtle troll... well, the moderators only slammed it as "offtopic," but the day is still young.
Finally, be assured that the vote I will cast in November will be quite contrary to the (attempted) farcical opinions in the post.
First, perhaps I went a little too hard in refering to John Brown as "psychotic." I admit, I was trying to spice up my pitch for Flashman. Credit me as an overeager salesman for a good product.
With that said, Fraser portrays Brown (here) as dedicated to his cause and not as bad as his detractors state, but still an absolute nutjob (a messianic one, too, if I recall the novel correctly). He (Fraser) meticulously researched everything and provides copious footnotes. If he mischaracterized Brown, it was because of the source material, not out of some personal agenda. After all, he wasn't at Harpers Ferry and neither was Loewen or you or I.
Your statement "I rather someone learnt no history than the wrong history," has merit, but it disturbs me nonetheless. History is not a monolithic set of facts and dates, but a living, breathing animal. As time goes on, interpretations of events change. As more data/evidence is uncovered, the the very nature of those events may be proven to be somewhat or perhaps entirely (as you posit with Brown) different that what was believed before. To throw out the Flashman series, one of the most educational and most readable bodies of literature I've ever seen because of one possible flaw (even a major one) is foolish. To catagorize it as being poorly researched is simply misinformed.
Here is what I propose: I've heard about Lies My Teacher Told Me for a while and I've meant to pick up it for a while. While it'll probably be enlightening, at this moment I still think Brown was a loon. I'm willing to give Loewen a shot at convincing me otherwise.
With that said, why don't you swing by the library and grab one of the Flashman books? You appear to enjoy history and I'd wager you'll get to like Fraser's stuff. If Brown is a sore point, steer clear of Flashman & the Angel of the Lord, as that is the novel where our antihero finds himself in the middle of Harper's Ferry, despite his best efforts to hide out in a brothel and miss all the action.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm just wating for the "pin the pasties on the mogul" version of Citizen Kane.
Touche!
But then I started thinking about how effectively viruses are distributed by non-techies who do click on the attachments in their EMAILs. Perhaps viruses or spyware could be used to "broadcast" a message this way to different cells in a covert organization (terrorists, organized crime, chess club members, whatever). All you'd need is an unprotected PC to act as a tethered goat and catch all those infections for later reading.
For that matter, a sender could "neuter" a virus by disabling its reproductive code and then embed a message in it and send it through some anonymizer (either a formal anonymizer or using a shell account). When the recipient stores it in a quarantine directory, it would look just like an infected EMAIL that had been cleaned up by your antivirus program, not a covert message. Some variation of this using spyware infection would be even more effective as they tend (in my limited experience) to have even more variants than viruses - the obfuscated message would be more readilly confused with normal variation. Instead of posting your tampered executables to some usenet forum, you would simply have the reciepient visit a site running the spyware. New messages would be sent and old ones sterilized when the spyware reinstalls itself.
Just my 20 mills.
I was thinking of picking this up at my local shop, but instead I'll wait for the movie. I think Hugh Jackman was great as Wolverine, but does he have the dramatic range to carry off "Ferretman"?
I understand the attraction of the term because it helps describe an environemnt over which anti-virus folks have no control, but maybe we should all take some time and go outside once in a while.
ping -s -R -A inet6 -a aliencivilizations
Duh.
Mea culpa.
Thanks
Golly! That's 56 MB of data per person! Not only is Big Brother watching, but apparently he's aparently paying closer attention than I am.
It just goes to show that "normal people" are capable of navigating our arcane world. It might (heck, will) take a lot of trial and error, but the average Soccer Mom or Joe Six Pack can learn how to do this kind of stuff when properly motivated. To techies like us, that motivation is having fun. For those Netscape era parents, the motivation is having no other choice.
Microsoft offered a choice. An inferior one in many ways, but having the great benefit of appealing to human laziness. It is easier to keep using the defaults out of the box: use the default browser, keep the default settings, keep using MSN as the homepage. Surf the foot network or soft core p0rn and then get on with your life.
And now, Soccer Mom and Joe Six Pack are on the brink of having no choice again (with the exception of those weird Open Source zealots out there using their Leenoox and Moodzilla thingees). Ironic, aint it?
Once you've got a few dB's of gain, why not use the leftover cardboard from your pizza box and heat up some more pizza?
I never saw Red Planet, but I'll take your word for it. But since Robinson's work predates that movie, I wouldn't be surprised if the screenwriter borrowed it from Robinson. Then again, perhaps both of them lifted it from a third source.
They seemed mostly head, with little scrawny bodies, long necks and six legs, or, as I afterward learned, two legs and two arms, with an intermediary pair of limbs which could be used at will either as arms or legs. Their eyes were set at the extreme sides of their heads a trifle above the center and protruded in such a manner that they could be directed either forward or back and also independently of each other, thus permitting this queer animal to look in any direction, or in two directions at once, without the necessity of turning the head.
The ears, which were slightly above the eyes and closer together, were small, cup-shaped antennae, protruding not more than an inch on these young specimens. Their noses were but longitudinal slits in the center of their faces, midway between their mouths and ears. There was no hair on their bodies, which were of a very light yellowish-green color. - A Princess of Mars , Chapter 3.
Just thought we should get our TLAs (Three Letter Acronyms) straight.
Man! And to think I used "the dog ate my homework" all through my high school years. The DoJ definately gets an "A" for creativity on this one.
Hmmm... Technically they're not kayaks, but it appears native Pacific Northwesterners and New Zealanders beat you to it with their war canoes.
Shakey was the size of small refrigerator, wheeled and (in retrospect) ugly as hell. I always thought it looked like it was going to topple over. But a robot that's smart enough to manipulate its environment (move a wooden ramp into position so it could roll up a step and continue on the task you asked it to do in the first place) - ground breaking.
You can find more about shakey here.
(Yes, I did have a sad, lonely childhood. How did you guess? :)
But that wouldn't have been in the geographically ignorant tone of the gag, would it?
Oh, yeah. Consider that last crack inside those tags I mentioned earlier, OK?
The comment itself was not serious. It was intended as farce. I'm sure you suspected as much, but just to clear the air I'd like to apologize if you thought I was in any way serious about bullying our allies, spilling innocent blood, or involving the U.S. in yet another conflict.
I am however serious in my cynicism about the current administration and its eagerness to go to war. I had considered putting the comment inside <BUSH>, <NEOCON>, or perhaps even <UGLY AMERICAN> tags, but thought that would be all too obviously a troll. As to whether or not the post was merely a more subtle troll... well, the moderators only slammed it as "offtopic," but the day is still young.
Finally, be assured that the vote I will cast in November will be quite contrary to the (attempted) farcical opinions in the post.
Again, apologies if I offended. Mea culpa.
Really? Dang. I guess I'd better remove my "[FEATURE REQUEST]" post from linux.kernel.
I'd better read the release notes more closely next time.
Not yet.
But, uh, you wouldn't know if they might have, well, oil there, would you?
You look great on TV, by the way.
No problem on the post - I've done exactly the same thing myself ("Good Lord, did I write that?"). Seems we're both on the same page here.
With that said, Fraser portrays Brown (here) as dedicated to his cause and not as bad as his detractors state, but still an absolute nutjob (a messianic one, too, if I recall the novel correctly). He (Fraser) meticulously researched everything and provides copious footnotes. If he mischaracterized Brown, it was because of the source material, not out of some personal agenda. After all, he wasn't at Harpers Ferry and neither was Loewen or you or I.
Your statement "I rather someone learnt no history than the wrong history," has merit, but it disturbs me nonetheless. History is not a monolithic set of facts and dates, but a living, breathing animal. As time goes on, interpretations of events change. As more data/evidence is uncovered, the the very nature of those events may be proven to be somewhat or perhaps entirely (as you posit with Brown) different that what was believed before. To throw out the Flashman series, one of the most educational and most readable bodies of literature I've ever seen because of one possible flaw (even a major one) is foolish. To catagorize it as being poorly researched is simply misinformed.
Here is what I propose: I've heard about Lies My Teacher Told Me for a while and I've meant to pick up it for a while. While it'll probably be enlightening, at this moment I still think Brown was a loon. I'm willing to give Loewen a shot at convincing me otherwise.
With that said, why don't you swing by the library and grab one of the Flashman books? You appear to enjoy history and I'd wager you'll get to like Fraser's stuff. If Brown is a sore point, steer clear of Flashman & the Angel of the Lord, as that is the novel where our antihero finds himself in the middle of Harper's Ferry, despite his best efforts to hide out in a brothel and miss all the action.
I told you Flashman was a scoundrel... ;)