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Television Media

Survivor Winner Revealed By Bad Web Site Coding? 98

Posted by Roblimo from the slow-Saturday-mornings dept.
We got a number of submissions about this. The Tribal Council Voting History page for the CBS TV show Survivor apparently contains a bug that lets you see which contestants have been kicked off the show before their names appear on the site, sort of like the Slashdot bug (now fixed) that sometimes let you see our stories before they appeared on the main page. The clearest instructions I saw for exploiting the "Survivor Spoiler" bug were here. I'm sure CBS will fix this soon, but you could still pull the trick as of 6:40 a.m. (US EDT) this morning. Do you think this is a true bug, or is CBS doing it on purpose (with the "wrong people" crossed out) to increase interest in the show?
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Survivor Winner Revealed By Bad Web Site Coding? More

Survivor Winner Revealed By Bad Web Site Coding?

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  • The Real Ending (Score:5)

    by Jim Tyre ( 100017 ) on Saturday July 15, 2000 @04:49AM (#931517) Homepage
    Gervase may be the last of the current crop, I don't know, but the show won't end there.

    Just as he's being rescued, the S.S. Minnow, out on a three hour tour, somehow will run ashore, giving viewers a new cast of the Skipper, Gilligan, the Professer, Mr. and Mrs. Howell, Ginger and Marianne.

    The Professor will build a beowulf cluster from coconuts, Marianne will get the idea to connect to AOL using all those disks she's been collecting as coasters. The Skipper will activate his GPS system, newly installed since his last charter.

    Yet, despite all that's been learned over the years, they'll always just miss being rescued, at least until they've supplied the public with another 20 years of rerun fodder.

  • The really, really sad part is that shows like Survivor bring the holier than though, pathos for society fools such as yourself out of the workwork. Guide our way oh holy PBS watching, non-Survivor enjoying hero! Show us the path to true enlightenment [thehun.net].

    Life is about enjoyment : If you enjoy sitting there watching grass grow then you're the smart one because you know how to live life to its fullest (which isn't making the most money [unless that's what you really enjoy] or having the most sex, or whatever, it's whatever makes you happiest). Growing up I spent a good portion of my time in front of the computer programming away because I enjoyed that activity over any other : I got to experience fools such as yourself doling out their wisdom over my choice of voluntary activity countless times, and each time it reinforced my belief that people should save their opinions of how other people enjoy relaxation or entertainment time because no one gives a shit. All you do is parade yourself in front of society as another fool justifying their existence by proclaiming their worth over the lowly masses. Who's the fool?

    I enjoy survivor because I work at a very intellectual job and I spend a good portion of my out of work time programming or pursuing furthering in the software engineering field. Occasionally I like to appreciate something that doesn't require mental stimulation and simply can be enjoyed for what it is. Ironically a factory working friend constantly trumps up the fact that he doesn't have cable, he doesn't listen to popular music, etc. I can't help but wonder if it's compensation for his monkey-level job.
  • ...and it needs to br about 20 paragraphs longer. This is more like an 'executive summary' of a Katz article.

    nice job, though. made me smile on a saturday morning :)

  • Re:That forum... (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    i used to enjoy stealing #mensa then giving it back after forcing them to admit i must be smarter then them to take their irc channel. heh.
  • An exciting thing in your life is to come home
    and watch someone elses?
  • I've got an idea. You could use the Survivor format to elect your next President, except having the public vote who'll be 'off the island'. No doubt it would raise public interest in the event. Just imagine what you could get them to do in the challenges.

    Your challenge is, move amongst these children, pick the one you think is an orphan, and make him laugh with any of these three items.

    • The Declaration of Independance
    • Ross Perot's hat
    • The purse Monica Lewinski made from Tom Green's parents bed matress
    This is for immunity.

  • This show is pure ratings whorage at its basest form.

    I definitely have not & will not ever watch a minute of it :)

    --

  • I don't have to justify whatever it is that I happen to enjoy, nor does anyone else. By the same token (whatever that saying really means...) it offends me when other's pass judgement [suck.com] over what I enjoy and proclaim superiority of their way of life or idle time activities.

  • Well I can clearly concide that this was NOT on purpose. Most people would not have the tech skill involved to even begin to discover this. Why would this be on /. if any dumb human could figure it out! (These mall public comp's suck) -Your friendly neighborhood "Dest"
  • shh!!! don't give them any ideas. After all, this is the network that threatened the Evolution Control Committee with a lawsuit after they released their "Rocked By Rape" single. The song was a parody of Dan Rather on the evening news, setting re-arranged samples of Rather to a mixed sample of AC/DC's Back in Black. You can click here [evolution-control.com] for the details.

  • Survivor is really not about survival, DUH! It's a sitcom, surprise! Compare that to Eco Challenge [ecochallenge.com], the international competition which the Discovery Channel sponsors. E.C. is clearly about using a combination of physical strength, endurance AND intellect to survive the course. You routinely see physically strong men fall down and cry like babies, while wilderness 'geeks' who look like they're weak win the challenge. Why, because if you use your intellect and experience you can traverse the course with the least amount of effort and expended energy, thus survive! Ultimately, the show makes it clear that if you don't have the intellect to plan your route over the snow-covered mountains or conserve your energy effectively you'll get eaten by bears. :)
  • No, if they post too fast then they will break down the system of generating hits. If readers have nothing interesting to do they may read and respond to each and every article. If a bunch of crappy articles are immediately followed by one that catches everybody's interest then the crappy articles won't generate hits. It's all about the greed.

  • If you poke around the Survivor site, in particular the source of the Show section, you'll notice that (at least some of) the development was outsourced to xceed.com. In fact, the site was in development from February to April, and therefore, it is reasonable to assume that the entire site, up through episode 13, had been built and reviewed by CBS.

    The show section is driven by "episode" logic. When you click on Show option at main [cbs.com] page, you are brought to an article on the latest aired episode...currently 7. When episode 8 is aired, that directory of content will be added, plus the dynamic code generator logic will create the browser code to provide latest episode access. The point? This is how team isolated the content for site maintainability, which presumably, the CBS folks are now responsible.

    OK. Everyone saw the site working through episode 13. Remove all the content and set the episode variable to 0. "Don't change anything else, or the site could break." And thus, through this backward development approach, the security issue on the voting history image was never raised. If so, they would have added to the unique episode 13 logic of the voting history grid, the ability to update the image of the last surviving person.

    Only hypothetical speculation, of course...

  • That's too damn bad...it's the best show that I have seen on tv in a l-o-n-g time.

    oh, and wtf does "basest" mean?
  • if the show was as super secret about who won why would they tell a bunch of other dorks about it?
  • Nope. It wasn't. There's someone from our area who was on it. It was taped from March 15th or so to April 24th or so.

    Magnwa
  • Hi slashdotters

    Please credit 'Caplock' in your info about
    'Survivor' being cracked.

    We can't join in the fun on the Island..
    so our only competition involves trying to
    figure out the mystery of 'Who Wins'

    I'm working together with Caprock to build a site
    where he can be properly worshipped.

    Don't you think a 'commoner' deserve recognition
    if he can outwit a top secret network, like CBS has set up for this contest?

    You can see his tribute page by clicking
    the link in my I.D.
    3DThrills.com/survivor

    The least they could do is allow him to participate in SurvivorII !
  • And they show, very roughly, the order as well. There are inconsistencies, but the modification time order is too correlated with the kick-off order not to mean something.


    It shows the same winner as the "X" error.


    The final four are him, Rudy, Jenna and Richard.


    Full details at this page [netfunny.com]

  • Hold on there for a second there big guy...

    I'm against racial quotas as much as the next guy... but if Gervase does end up winning, it will have NOTHING to do with his skin color. He has survived thus far by using his charm, which is an amazing accomplishment. He's easy-going, and doesn't present a huge threat to anyone... so nobody votes him off -- the best strategy of all.

    Still don't believe me?? Well, let me put it this way: each vote is done by contestants vying for $1M... and I would bet everything I know they won't save Gervase's butt for any sort of racial motive in order to jeopardize their shot at the grand prize.

    -rt-
  • Certainly this is possible, but the difference between those images where an X is found is that they are part of a set of x'ed and non-x'ed images. whereas the mysterious missing x image is not. there is only one set. when the whole site is revealed it would have 11 x'ed images and one not. I think they are on to something.
    --
  • Because the top few stores are much more active than the rest, and if they posted them all at once it would disperse the loci of conversation. That and they have certain /. addicts loading the main page every 15 min instead of whenever they post everything.
  • Ive often wondered, as a wed administrator, how _badly_ is it really possible for a web admin to screwup. I mean its not like a construction company or a lawyer or a doctor or other well-paid professionals that screw-up and u _know_ it, and are liable for vast amounts of damage.

    If this isn't handled well, it could be a big screw-up. To think of all the NDA'd staff who are in on the secret and have done such a good job of keeping it, imagine that a web admin blows it...


    --

  • What is interesting is that, at the time of this post, Gervase had the fewest votes in the poll [cbs.com] when asked: "With whom would you most likely form an alliance?". (Although I expect the results to change quite rapidly as word spreads.)
  • Even here big brother watches you. I remember when a hit counter was all you needed to know about the popularity of a site.
  • Of course people can ask why people do what they do. That is how change happens in society. If people enjoyed sitting around and watching Christians being fed to lions, others would likley question that. We as a society can't say, let them watch what they like and thats none of our buisness.
  • Those shows dont conform to the docusoap format.
    They are just about a couple of spoiled brats living in a big house/car_thingie(van?).

  • Do you think this is a true bug, or is CBS doing it on purpose (with the "wrong people" crossed out) to increase interest in the show?

    I know it's hard to believe, people, but sometimes big companies do dumb things. Yes, it's true. Remember Coke Classic?

    Survivor is #1 in the ratings. They have no particular need to increase interest in the show, and even if they did, making people think they know how it ends would certainly not increase their viewership.

    CBS stands to loose boatloads of cash if people think they know who will win. IMHO it's extremely unlikely that this was deliberate.
    --
    Patrick Doyle
  • Hey butt-munch, how about a spoiler warning?
    --
    Patrick Doyle
  • Richard wins. He got into a bar fight after he got off the island, was imprisoned, and could not claim his prize until he got out.
  • Yeah, the talent it takes to replace one name with another in a URL is just way beyond what the average computer user is capable of doing. Scary thing is I'm not sure if I'm being sarcastic or not... Point is, the guy who figured it out should be credited for noticing it first (or reporting it first, anyway). What he did, though, required zero skill. Unless you truly believe replacing the word "gretchen" with "gervase" is that amazing.
  • Isn't Gervase the one who all the women are voting for because of, well, "moo"?


    =================================
  • Clickitty click [dictionary.com].

    Was that really that hard?

    --
  • I mean.. look at it this way.. how many weeks has it been going on? A new show every week, right? Yet , Gretchen was voted off the island on day 21. The contest only runs thirty nine days, folks. It's already over. The winner already has been chosen. It's just the matter of airing the episodes.

    Magnwa
  • The "Survivor" bug lives on... as of 8:10AM Central Time.
  • I had wondered about this too... is there a way to "overlay" one gif over another? This would be really useful in several situations.
  • You have to think about this though. People have the tendancy to prove that they're right - they're going to watch the show regardless of if they know what's going to happen or if they think they'll know what's going to happen. It's a win-win situation for CBS regardless of what might happen.

    Consider the ratings - as long as CBS keeps pumping out what people want to see, they're going to remain high in the ratings, it's that simple. A website that has only been seen by 20% of the shows viewers (and I'm saying that being entirely optimistic) is not going to see 20% drop in viewers, maybe 2%, if the shit hits the fan.

    Win-win - why can't more things be like that.

    With plastic wrap issues,
    Matthew
    _____________________________________

  • Don't forget Robot Wars [robotwars.com] which may be airing on your local PBS station.

  • hehe Jeff K rulez
  • You could just use php's image manipulation functions to generate crossed images on the fly.
    an example from the php manual that shows how to create text labels based on a fixed button image [slashdot.org]
  • Ok WTF did I do to that url? Its here [php.net] anyway. Maybe I should preview my postings after staying up late to watch the eclipse.

  • Histroy repeats itself (Score:4)

    by RIP ( 3540 ) on Saturday July 15, 2000 @01:51AM (#931557)
    This happened the first time Survivor ran in Sweden too.

  • That forum... (Score:5)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 15, 2000 @01:56AM (#931558)
    makes Slashdot look like a Mensa meeting. I guess you shouldn't expect too much from people that sit around and talk about a stupid tv show.

  • Re:this probably means nothing (Score:4)

    by Fred Ferrigno ( 122319 ) on Saturday July 15, 2000 @02:25AM (#931559)
    Richard with an X [akamai.net] (who hasn't been cast off yet)

    Gervase without an X [akamai.net] (done only by replacing "richard_VH.gif" with "gervase_VH.gif")

    As well, it seems very likely that the website was completed some time ago; it would be a waste of time to have the webteam make an X-image every time a show aired. If the images are gone or changed when you see this, take my word for it (or just read the board).
  • For the non-Americans who haven't seen the show or people like me who don't watch TV here's a very good episode guide [salon.com] from Salon. The show actually seems very interesting, the interplay of personalities and double dealing as well as how low people will go for money is entertaining in a surrreal kind of way.

    I'll definitely give the next show a try.


    WHY C SUCKS
    -----------
    int i =0;
    i = i + 1;
  • I could really clean up! All the idiots that live around here are probably betting on the outcome already (I live in Kansas). I just have to feign interest.

    Thanks Slashdot! (BTW, I'm kidding. I don't cheat on bets.)
  • well.. i would certainly hope the webmasters knew who won the money. usually these type of 'reality' shows are taped well in advance of the actual showings and are edited into something totally different from the actual experience. that's why you saw the mormon girl from this season's real world on cnn after the first episode.

  • Possibly disproved (Score:5)

    by The Original Bobski ( 52567 ) on Saturday July 15, 2000 @02:33AM (#931563) Homepage Journal
    Here [realworldblows.com]
  • Wow, is it already 6 am? Time flys when you're coding. From what i've heard, Survivor is a pretty interesting show, although, I thought we were all geeks and didn't watch TV b/c computers are the all-encompasing things in our life...Or can you watch survivor streamed over a (preferably opensourced) net streaming program/protocol now? : )
  • Not really, they've all got an X picture in that area.

    Making those images publicly readable has got to be one of the most bone-headed design flaws I've seen in a long time. Granted, the website needed to be set up, and able to go on with little maintenance, but how hard would it have been to copy the "X" pictures over from an inaccessible directory as needed? It's not a life and death situation, but it's another case where security though obscurity fails. Whether you're being targeted by a filthy, anti-social hacker, or just some obsessed fan, you shouldn't underestimate the amount of free time they have to find weaknesses in your system.

  • The host was on The Daily Show (a Comedy Central interview/news/comedy show), and confirmed that the show was already done taping.

  • Offtopic (Score:3)

    by QuoteMstr ( 55051 ) <dan.colascione@gmail.com> on Saturday July 15, 2000 @02:53AM (#931567)
    Why *wouldn't* Slashdot want to post stories as soon as they were available?

    Why does it delay them?
  • And incidently we invented it, they are licensing the idea :) Anyway place everybody on a warm remote island...naturally all the women would run around in very little ;-)
    (Hey we are not as uptight as the americans, sensuality is ok, violence is bad, not the othe way around :)

    --

  • Re:Histroy repeats itself (Score:2)

    by Anonymous Coward
    http://cbs.com/network/tvshows/mini/survivor/image s/show/tc/tc_bg_gervase.gif

  • And incidently we invented it, they are licensing the idea :)

    Yes but the American version added drama (and American accents). Well they probably did. I admit I haven't seen the Scandanavian version, but I have seen snippets of the American one. They started playing it here after the New Zealand version of the show finished. (We're a couple of weeks behind I think.)


    ===
  • Sir, I applaud you.
  • I'm trying not to be bitter about my post not making it (I wrote in yesterday at 11am about this) Anyway, here's a MUCH better explanation [realworldblows.com] about the x's vs. no x's. It may be a bit more confusing for less intelligent folks, but it's more comprehensive
  • I'm pretty sure that browsers (and HTML) don't like to have stacked images.. although I supose you could set it as a background in a table. Anyways, you'd have to make some pretty big compatibility sacrifices to make this work. That and they didn't want to dammit. :) Safer would have been to make the X-ed image for all of 'em. Or add the images to the directory later (although that would be more maintance work)... plus, I doubt the designers thought that people would actually try to read the (gasp) HTML.. it's so hard to understand, you need a degree just to read that stuff!

    Errr.. right.

  • Fuck you! I'll kill you if try to take away my violence! ;) Violence is perfectly fine. I'm sick of hearing how we should be more sensitive and how evil is violence. Bullshit! I'd rather be friends with two blokes in a bar with too much to drink and pounding the the shit out of each other but who pat each other on the back afterwards than a smarmy dogooder who'd prop my eyes open for sensitivity training from the Hawaiian Topic girls! I'm against doing wrong to another, but not the catch-all war against our violent natures. Damn! --and you guys used to raise Vikings!! Or maybe it's the boredom talking...
  • ...that's an interesting phrase coming from a person that just tore down my whole opinion, because that is what it is: MY OPINION. Jeeze are you a little stuck up? Did you need to include that you work in a "Very intellectual job" ? Is that supposed to impress me? Are you attempting to prove that because you have a "Very Intellectual job" that your opinion is more important than mine? What are you trying to prove to me?

    What if I told you that I was under the age of 25, that I also spend a good portion of my day programming, that I grew up on the streets without a family to help me out, that my education is self-taught. Would that matter? Am I holier than thou....? That my friend is not a decision I can make. Only you can make a decision like that. I personally don't think I am, but if that is what you want to believe then go ahead.

    My real beef is not whether you agree with me or not, personally I don't care. My real problem is the "Holier than thou" comment. Where do you get off calling me that? Did I go into depth about saying how PBS is sooooooo much better that other television programming? No I just noted that I watched and supported it. I don't care if you don't like it, I do.

    My next to final thought was the fact that you don't have to listen to my opinion, that's what makes this a free world. If you don't agree then don't worry about it. I mean I wasn't really preaching now was I? That is one of the reasons that /. Exists: public input. We are given the chance to voice our opinions.

    My final thought is to thank you for replying to my post. It doesn't matter that we don't agree, it matters that we are having a reasonably civil discussion and that is good. At least I think it is. Please feel free to drop me a note if you wold like to discuss this further.


  • Only with absolute-positioned style sheets.

    For example:

    <div style="position: absolute; left: 100px; top: 100px; z-index: 1;"><img src="top-transparent.gif"></div>
    <div style="position: absolute; left: 100px; top: 100px; z-index: 0;"><img src="bottom-opaque.gif"></div>

    --
  • How insightful of you. Yet, you know nothing. The show actually was taped over six months ago.
  • Want to see an interesting 'Survivor'? Strip the participants naked, and throw them onto an island where man in not at the top of the food chain.
  • And by the way, I've found that it's usually easier and safer to just use Javascript rollovers and multiple images to accomplish the same thing. I tried using this method to do rollovers with partially transparent PNGs in Mozilla and the results were... less than perfect. I mean, it worked, sort of, but the alpha transparency still needs a lot of work :-)
    --

  • Actually, I was watching CBS's Big Brother lab rats on bigbrother2000.com (because I really have no life) and they were talking about Survivor, and how Rich won, and how when he got back, his kid had gained weight.

    Apparently he was very abusive towards his kid because of this, forcing him to run and what not, and that he got done with child abuse. He was still allowed to claim his prize.

  • This is just as important of a find as the original!!! Now, not only do we know who wins, but the order in which they are kicked-off! Good Job! Now if you'll excuse me, I have a bet to make with my dad!

  • As a PBEM Diplomacy [igo.org] player, I find the show interesting. That's what this game is after all. Diplomacy.

  • Because overlaying one image on top of another would most likely imploy layers which only work in IE and NN 4+ and aren't exactly compatible between the two. why do something difficult like that when you can do what they did.
  • Not that it's important, but isn't the custom to put a *spoiler* warning on such a story for anyone who might be interested in the hack without knowing the supposed winner?
  • UPDATE: It was a fake back then... My guess is that this is too.
  • Yeah, but that wouldn't be as neato as CSS..
  • The new poll, "who do you think will be voted off the island this week?" has Gervase nearly tied with Greg, who won't be cast off if you believe the javascript order. So either they don't know or don't want to know about CBS' little flub, or they are deliberately throwing the poll.
  • If they post stories too fast then they will cycle down the front page so fast that very few people will get a chance to read/comment/etc.

  • Checkout this link. (Score:3)

    by Ice Station Zebra ( 18124 ) on Saturday July 15, 2000 @03:31AM (#931590) Homepage Journal
    While surfing around the CBS web site I found this link which shows a script [willywonka...actory.com] for a future version of Survivor. It would seem that the cast aways find themselves trapped at the Microsoft campus when their VW bus is run off the road by an obnoxious guy with the license plate "vb rulz" (Bill Gates???). They are then led through a wild trip and discover that Microsoft employees have all been transformed into oompa loompas.
  • you mean the Microsoft employees weren't _always_ oompa loompas? dude, you've blown my mind.

  • Katz reviews Survivior (Score:5)

    by jacks0n ( 112153 ) on Saturday July 15, 2000 @03:50AM (#931592)

    It shouldn't surprise anyone that the corpratists at CBS are finding sucess with an anti-geek show like Survivor. The very theme of the show is lifted from Lord of the Flies, which many of us remember with horror, as we identified with the weak, chubby, emasculate, glasses-wearing anti-hero. The book's message was that Civilization is fragile. Lord of the Flies judges the survivors, and declares them evil. But in Survivor, we have a celebration of a culture that is anti-cooperative, machiavellian, and uncivilized. You can see the effect of this culture as the TV show makes it's way into High Schools everywhere, where you can hear jocks and other popular types saying to geeks, "I'm voting you off my island" then laughing. Often they are too busy laughing to engage in beating or wedgieing the geek, which is their usual practice. The rise of geek culture was bound to engender a backlash, and this is only the beginning. Network Television, fearing for its life from internet-savvy-geeks, will encourage the backlash. We will be seeing televised death camps within a year, you wait and see.

  • WTF can't these corporations hire people that know WTF they are doing? Sheesh!

  • Stand by for Congress to get involved. (Score:5)

    by phil reed ( 626 ) on Saturday July 15, 2000 @03:56AM (#931594) Homepage
    Next thing you know, CBS execs will be in front of Congress, using this as an excuse to call for an extension to the DCMA making it illegal for anybody to access a web site in any way other than the author intended.


    ...phil
  • ...people actually watch that show and care!
    I can't believe that our society has degenerated into this. The show is scripted from start to finish...Oh there may not be any lines written but do you really think that the people that are left on the island are really capable of surviving on a desert island? Give me a break! This kind of programming is the reason i don't watch that much television any more.

    Where is the meaningful programming? My children have to grow up watching this carp? (yes I misspelled crap, I did it on purpose so don't feel the need to tell me.)

    P.S. I watch and support the PBS (Public Broadcasting Stations www.pbs.org [pbs.org], they air Red Dwarf. Although Red Dwarf may not be the most enlightening program it is a hell of a lot better that Survivor or that stupid "Big Brother")

    Seeing as how I mentioned it Let me say a few words about the show "Big Brother".......What the Hell is this!!!!! Are we really that sad? do we really need to watch some less than interesting people every moment of their day? As if we don't have enough trouble from the real "Big Brother"!


  • Here's why I believe the information supposedly "leaked" on the CBS site is bogus:

    I live on Long Island in a town called Massapequa where Sean grew up. The word on the street here is that Sean will be the sole survivor. This information made its way via the many people who live on Long Island and work in Manhattan where Madison Avenue is the home of many huge advertising firms, and also home to CBS.

    Reports in the local and NYC newspapers have taken note of this information floating around and there has been no refutation of it by CBS. While you would expect them to have no comment either way on any leaks, if you assume the information is accurate and that Sean is the winner, it makes sense for CBS to try to keep interest up in the show by presenting a plausible alternative. It's not much of a stretch IMO for a corporate network to distribute disinformation in an effort to shore up its sagging ratings and advertising revenues. If everyone knows who wins, interest approaches zero.

    By the way, Sean now lives several towns away from Massapequa. The information we've been hearing comes from his relatives who still live here. Unofficially, of course!
  • I previewed the damn post, confirmed it and then noticed an apparent contradiction! The information was first leaked by relatives and then indirectly confirmed by many who work in the City.

  • Why? (Score:3)

    by SamHill ( 9044 ) on Saturday July 15, 2000 @08:12AM (#931598)

    Just what is the attraction of shows such as Survivor anyway?

    Where I live now, we have a channel that shows ``Real Life TV'', and it looks awful! I have a life, thank you, and I'm not especially interested in hearing other ``real'' people argue about meaningless topics, fight over who'll get the last slice of bread, debate which of two kinds of music (both of which I despise) is the greatest, have babies, get married, survive on an island (with a huge television crew watching their every move), or anything else!

    What happened to having to write shows? To having intelligent people think about ideas and create a dramatic presentation? Oh, yes, it's expensive. It's much cheaper to throw together some people no one would even talk to if they didn't already know them, force them to interact under surveillance, and broadcast the results.

    If you want to watch some ``reality'' television that still has some educational and entertainment value, I recommend Junkyard Wars [junkyard-wars.com] (originally Scrapyard Challenge [channel4.com] in Britain), now airing on The Learning Channel [discovery.com].

  • for the web designers to make one common series of pictures for the participants, plus one 'overlay' image which would be a transparent gif with just the 'X' in the corner?

  • More information from HTML file... (Score:3)

    by ecktech ( 60193 ) on Saturday July 15, 2000 @08:27AM (#931600)
    Here is some text from the HTML file for that main page... this is the scripted part that caches the images for the players (for mouseovers, I suppose). Take notice of the order of the names, even though it doesn't perfectly work out:

    if (document.images) {
    // on states
    gervaseon = new Image(); gervaseon.src = "/network/tvshows/mini/survivor/show/images/gervas eR.gif";
    gervaseoff = new Image(); gervaseoff.src = "/network/tvshows/mini/survivor/show/images/gervas eB.gif";

    jennaon = new Image(); jennaon.src = "/network/tvshows/mini/survivor/show/images/jennaR .gif";
    jennaoff = new Image(); jennaoff.src = "/network/tvshows/mini/survivor/show/images/jennaB .gif";

    rudyon = new Image(); rudyon.src = "/network/tvshows/mini/survivor/show/images/rudyR. gif";
    rudyoff = new Image(); rudyoff.src = "/network/tvshows/mini/survivor/show/images/rudyB. gif";

    richardon = new Image(); richardon.src = "/network/tvshows/mini/survivor/show/images/richar dR.gif";
    richardoff = new Image(); richardoff.src = "/network/tvshows/mini/survivor/show/images/richar dB.gif";

    gregon = new Image(); gregon.src = "/network/tvshows/mini/survivor/show/images/gregR. gif";
    gregoff = new Image(); gregoff.src = "/network/tvshows/mini/survivor/show/images/gregB. gif";

    seanon = new Image(); seanon.src = "/network/tvshows/mini/survivor/show/images/seanR. gif";
    seanoff = new Image(); seanoff.src = "/network/tvshows/mini/survivor/show/images/seanB. gif";

    gretchenon = new Image(); gretchenon.src = "/network/tvshows/mini/survivor/show/images/gretch enR.gif";
    gretchenoff = new Image(); gretchenoff.src = "/network/tvshows/mini/survivor/show/images/gretch enB.gif";

    susanon = new Image(); susanon.src = "/network/tvshows/mini/survivor/show/images/susanR .gif";
    susanoff = new Image(); susanoff.src = "/network/tvshows/mini/survivor/show/images/susanB .gif";

    colleenon = new Image(); colleenon.src = "/network/tvshows/mini/survivor/show/images/collee nR.gif";
    colleenoff = new Image(); colleenoff.src = "/network/tvshows/mini/survivor/show/images/collee nB.gif";

    kellyon = new Image(); kellyon.src = "/network/tvshows/mini/survivor/show/images/kellyR .gif";
    kellyoff = new Image(); kellyoff.src = "/network/tvshows/mini/survivor/show/images/kellyB .gif";

    joelon = new Image(); joelon.src = "/network/tvshows/mini/survivor/show/images/joelR. gif";
    joeloff = new Image(); joeloff.src = "/network/tvshows/mini/survivor/show/images/joelB. gif";

    dirkon = new Image(); dirkon.src = "/network/tvshows/mini/survivor/show/images/dirkR. gif";
    dirkoff = new Image(); dirkoff.src = "/network/tvshows/mini/survivor/show/images/dirkB. gif";

    ramonaon = new Image(); ramonaon.src = "/network/tvshows/mini/survivor/show/images/ramona R.gif";
    ramonaoff = new Image(); ramonaoff.src = "/network/tvshows/mini/survivor/show/images/ramona B.gif";

    staceyon = new Image(); staceyon.src = "/network/tvshows/mini/survivor/show/images/stacey R.gif";
    staceyoff = new Image(); staceyoff.src = "/network/tvshows/mini/survivor/show/images/stacey B.gif";

    bbon = new Image(); bbon.src = "/network/tvshows/mini/survivor/show/images/bbR.gi f";
    bboff = new Image(); bboff.src = "/network/tvshows/mini/survivor/show/images/bbB.gi f";

    sonjaon = new Image(); sonjaon.src = "/network/tvshows/mini/survivor/show/images/sonjaR .gif";
    sonjaoff = new Image(); sonjaoff.src = "/network/tvshows/mini/survivor/show/images/sonjaB .gif";

    }
  • It still works. I doubt they're going to fix it anytime soon. Heck, do you think CBS is even reading its own message board.
  • Ive often wondered, as a wed administrator...

    So you're, what, a Justice of the Peace?

  • this was all done with full knowledge of the results and the assumption that people just wouldn't call up the {name}_VH.gif files

    The term for this in security circles is "Security through obscurity"

    Basically saying "gee, nobody could possibly be smart enough to guess our incredibly simple file-naming scheme."
  • For those that are curious, and have cable, TLC will be showing two of last years episodes on Wed.
  • most of you guys seem to think its a fake..i dont know, i would like to think so but then again i kind of expected the winner to be a surprise. somebody i wouldnt expect and gervase is somebody i wouldnt expect. take this poll on who you think will win it all..its pretty cool, so far susans in the lead and i think thats even more surprising than gervase. http://zaplet.zaplet.com/servlet/Z?m=2_QAWty9lUu1y ZjjD0xMg06YUA
  • Coke Classic wasn't the mistake. New Coke was. Coke Classic was the solution.

    Heh heh. Heh. Yeah, that's what I meant.
    --
    Patrick Doyle
  • Jenna was on the cover of time magazine, and interviewed on 48 hours saying, "I may have won a million dollars, so you can kiss this" as she slaps her ass, and spits her gum onto the street. She doesn't care about what people think of her or what she does anymore.
  • Tonight's vote was close. I was worried for a minute. So far, so good.
  • I think 'medieval' is definitely more apropos as the slogan for Survivor

    Here's a new Logo to go along with the 'true' spirit of the competition:

    http://3DThrills.com/logo

    (click reload if page loads improperly)

  • Yebbut I must have read 25 articles with no spoiler before I got to this one. I think very few of the comments actually mentioned the person who supposedly won. Would it be that much trouble for the others to have a spoiler warning?

    Personally I don't care, but you really ought to have warnings for this kind of thing.
    --
    Patrick Doyle

  • Re:Possibly disproved (Score:4)

    by CalmCoolCollected ( 210423 ) on Saturday July 15, 2000 @04:29AM (#931612)

    But they don't have "x pictures" ready for everybody in the _VH.gif set. That's true for the tribal council set, but not the "voting history" set.

    Sure they do, that's what this whole controversy is about. There's a _VH picture with an X for everyone except Gervase.

    Yes, exactly. There is a {name}_VH.gif picture for each of the 16, and only one of those is "clean" : Gervase's.

    Where would they put the picture of Gervase without an X anyway? What exactly is it's use? I would find this whole theory much more credible it there was NO gervase_VH picture at all.

    They would put it at the top of the final column on the Voting History Grid. There are sixteen slots. Last slot is for the winner even though it is marked "voted off." (and yes that discrepancy bothers me a tad).

    Why do the other Gervase pictures, used in different areas on the site, have an X version?

    The one other place that there is a picture of Gervase with an "x" is in the Tribal Council pictures. There, you need two sets of pictures -- one set without x's that you are going to use a lot: they are used to show how people voted and who got votes. Then there's a second set : the x'd set that you reference to show the person in the upper left corner who got voted off. In putting this page together, it's convenient to generate two full sets first and then use them as necessary in all the various spots. You are going to end up with one picture you don't use.

    The top row of the Voting History page is different. You need only one set of pictures to show the results of the voting, and it is in this single set of pictures that you have 15 red x's and 1 picture that is clean.

    It's so much more believable that it was simply an error in putting an X on the one picture.

    Not if this was all done with full knowledge of the results and the assumption that people just wouldn't call up the {name}_VH.gif files that hadn't been posted to the top bar of the Voting History chart yet.

  • ..you need to work "post-Columbine", "interactive", and "the New Media" in there somewhere. Variations are allowed and encouraged so long as they convey the establishing of a new "paradigm" or the destruction of an old one. For a recent addition, "Old Fartism" wouldn't hurt either. Oh yeah, never forget, you can never use "geek" too often! ;-)
  • Heh... check it out... Geek Survivors [geekculture.com]


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