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Comment Re:That's not what happened in Lost (Score 2) 139

Oh, definitely. In this regard I feel like Lost kept the promise that X-Files failed to deliver on. Whereas X-Files was always dangling its mysteries just out of reach, the Lost formula, such as it is, is to introduce a mystery and then slowly reveal clues until the original mystery is revealed, but an even bigger and more tantalizing mystery (or several) is introduced. Eventually, though, all of the big mysteries in the show have answers, although a few of the answers are less satisfying than others. And there are a couple exceptions where we're just left to wonder, which in my opinion isn't a bad thing. Speculation is a big part of the fun and I kind of like that there are a few details that aren't completely spelled out. Gives you something to wonder about.

Comment That's not what happened in Lost (Score 2) 139

What, like _Lost_ where fan theory was that there were no answers and that they were actually all dead and in some sort of weird purgatory and the showrunners insisted that there were answers and that they were alive and there would be a conclusion that made sense of it all. Then the conclusion was that they were all dead and in some sort of weird purgatory and there were no answers? Note that the writers apparently say that is not the case and that they really were alive on an island and just all dead at the end, but that apparently was not obvious to people who actually watched the show, so I'm going with they were dead the whole time.

Nobody who was paying attention thought that. It's made abundantly clear in the show what's actually happening.

I've never watched _Lost_.

That much is obvious. Spoilers ahead, FWIW: Most of Lost takes place on a remote island where mysterious things happen, including the deaths of quite a few main characters. There were a lot of fan theories about the island, whether it was a government experiment, the afterlife, limbo, someone's dream, etc. None of these were correct. The first five seasons, and most of the sixth, all take place entirely on planet earth, among actual living people. In the last season, there are a series of scenes that take place somewhere else. Surprisingly, these scenes include some of the characters that died in previous seasons. This is eventually revealed as the afterlife/limbo subplot, which provides an opportunity for some character arcs to have more closure.

The main reason being that, as soon as I heard the description for the show, I assumed that they were all dead and living in some sort of weird purgatory (not in those exact terms, but basically). I really didn't want to watch that concept all over again.

That's too bad. Personally, I've watched the series beginning to end probably close to ten times. It has many flaws, and some people hate it for them. But to me, it's the gold standard of what TV should be: Intriguing, funny and it doesn't take itself too seriously. Most of all, though, it's surprising; it's one of the few shows I've seen where if a character is in peril I'm actually concerned because they kill off main characters so readily. It's also the only reason the limbo subplot works; by that point in the series there are more dead characters than living ones, by setting the final scenes far in the future after _everyone_ has died, it allows for a more memorable and satisfying ending IMO. Lost always goes big, and goes where you don't expect it to, that's part of the charm. I would consider giving it another shot.

Submission + - Sophisticated Mac Malware Targets M1, x86; Has Self-Destruct But No Payload Yet (redcanary.com)

Nihilist_CE writes: First detected in August of 2020, the Silver Sparrow malware is interesting in several unsettling ways. It uses the macOS Installer Javascript API to launch a bash process to gain a foothold into the user's system, a hitherto-unobserved method for bypassing malware detection. This bash shell is then used to invoke macOS's built-in PlistBuddy tool to create a LaunchAgent which executes a bash script every hour. This is the command and control process, which downloads a JSON file containing (potentially) new instructions.

Besides the novel installation method, Silver Sparrow is also mysterious in its payload: a single, tiny binary that does nothing but open a window reading "Hello, World!" (in v1, which targets Intel Macs) or "You did it!" (in v2, which is an M1-compatible fat binary). These "bystander binaries" are never executed and appear to be proofs-of-concept or placeholders for future functionality.

The malware also includes a self-destruct mechanism: If a file exists at ~/Library/._insu during its hourly execution, the script deletes itself and all traces of its existence.

Thanks to contributions from Erika Noerenberg and Thomas Reed from Malwarebytes and Jimmy Astle from VMware Carbon Black, we quickly realized that we were dealing with what appeared to be a previously undetected strain of malware.

According to data provided by Malwarebytes, Silver Sparrow had infected 29,139 macOS endpoints across 153 countries as of February 17, including high volumes of detection in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, France, and Germany.

Though we haven’t observed Silver Sparrow delivering additional malicious payloads yet, its forward-looking M1 chip compatibility, global reach, relatively high infection rate, and operational maturity suggest Silver Sparrow is a reasonably serious threat, uniquely positioned to deliver a potentially impactful payload at a moment’s notice. Given these causes for concern, in the spirit of transparency, we wanted to share everything we know with the broader infosec industry sooner rather than later.


Comment Re:A pyramid scheme? (Score 1) 20

So hardcore fans makes and sell content to non-hardcore fans, while the developing team makes and sells more content to the hardcore fans, while the producers makes and sells bandwidth and servers to the developing team?

That's not a pyramid scheme; it's a trickle-down economy.

Ack! Republicans in the game industry!

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