#they could have chosen anything

[elfgrove]

As this post is doing numbers, I just want to remind folk this is not the end of the world. It's just a new security risk that everyone should be aware of in order to not fall for it.

I did not intend to cause a panic but to make folk aware. Folk can't avoid things they don't know are a risk.

As much as some tech-savvy folk are saying it's not an issue, my concern isn't for the extremely tech savvy, my concern is for average users making an understandable mistake (the way I've had to teach new hires how to use file directories shows what some of us think of as standard knowledge is not thanks to so many folk primarily using tablets and phones now) and the not-savvy users (like elders) getting fooled. Sometimes the warning sign is not for you, and the rest of us can tell when you haven't been dealing with average user behaviors for a long time.

It's not a giant deal but it is creating scenarios that are ripe for exploitation. It's just a shame that folk at Google and ICANN approved it. Now we all have to be aware of it to deal with that result.

Since a couple of folk asked, .zip and .mov URLs will not overwrite your ability to access local files. The concern I brought up above is more about folk confusing automatically resolved hyperlinks from plain text or search bars with legitimate files or intentional links.

You don't need to boycott anyone over it, and the horse is already out of the gate so it's not likely to go away even if you protest it.

Just be aware and be cautious.

Right now, since the domains are new and very few if any legitimate registration uses have been made, it's not a bad idea to block the TLDs at least temporarily until there's known legitimate uses, the initial fervor has died down, and awareness has increased. "The ICSS recommends to disable access to .zip domains entirely until the dust settles and risks can be accessed."

If you want to block the domains, here's a couple of tutorials:

Jeffrey Appel: Block gTLD (.zip)/ FQDN domains with Windows Firewall and Defender for Endpoint

The SQL Herald: Blocking .zip and .mov Top Level Domains from Office 365 Email

I saw some folk saying adding ||zip^ and ||mov^ (including the || and ^s) to your My Filters tab in uBlock Origin will do it for the browser that has uBlock enabled, but I have not tested it.

New Things to Beware on the Internet

On May 3rd, Google released 8 new top-level domains (TLDs) -- these are new values like .com, .org, .biz, domain names. These new TLDs were made available for public registration via any domain registrar on May 10th.

Usually, this should be a cool info, move on with your life and largely ignore it moment.

Except a couple of these new domain names are common file type extensions: ".zip" and ".mov".

This means typing out a file name could resolve into a link that takes you to one of these new URLs, whether it's in an email, on your tumblr blog post, a tweet, or in file explorer on your desktop.

What was previously plain text could now resolve as link and go to a malicious website where people are expecting to go to a file and therefore download malware without realizing it.

Folk monitoring these new domain registrations are already seeing some clearly malicious actors registering and setting this up. Some are squatting the domain names trying to point out what a bad idea this was. Some already trying to steal your login in credentials and personal info.

This is what we're seeing only 12 days into the domains being available. Only 5 days being publicly available.

What can you do? For now, be very careful where you type in .zip or .mov, watch what website URLs you're on, don't enable automatic downloads, be very careful when visiting any site on these new domains, and do not type in file names without spaces or other interrupters.

I'm seeing security officers for companies talking about wholesale blocking .zip and .mov domains from within the company's internet, and that's probably wise.

Be cautious out there.

[justablah56]

do you guys ever think about Marco being the only good thing Grant ever let himself have . the only good thing he ever consciously chose to have . do you guys ever think about that .

[bibxrbie]

"Between Anakin and Luke who is the better Jedi?"

"Who's the strongest?"

Blah blah blah.

Every single person who thinks it is Anakin is wrong because Anakin "coolest thing about me is my kids" Skywalker would beat you up for thinking that his son isn't the greatest thing of all time.

[mmelolabelle]

I sometimes like to fantasize about how much Corlys Velaryon would have fucked shit up if Alicent had actually managed to injure Luke in 1x07.

That man had a fleet, access to two full grown dragons with battle experience, money to burn and a pre-existing grudge against Viserys and the Hightowers. He wanted that smoke since the Great Council. And he clearly loved Luke.

It would have gotten very messy, very quickly.

[biblically-accurate-dca]

KILL!!!!!!!!!

[why-the-heck-not]

computer science was a hoax from the universe to get me to study math in the pretense of ”hehe coding’s cool look at all these things u can do” *some mf vectors looming just around the corner* ”noNO dont look there; look here!! It’s ’hello world’ but in green heheh wOoOoo now it’s blue !! u are a god of this website” *matrices sharpening their knives somewhere*

[mooshofish]

[deoidesign]

I’m a trans man that recently got diagnosed with hyper mobile eds, so now seeing Steve makes me extra happy, because cool disabled ftm rep. Thanks for making the radical dude bro, he’s funky.

same disability (waving hand emoji)

Always extremely fulfilling to know my work makes people happy in some small way, it means a lot. Thank you for sharing with me

[daturablossomsblog]

Just saw a post about being glad Rook was the protag because the Inquisitor wouldn't have worked for the story BW wrote . . . I have some bad news about the story BW wrote.

[sciderman]

Pre-2000s comics are superior for being able to make their characters not be as clear-cut and stereotypical (classic Peter Parker and his personality, motivations and views on stuff, pre-2000s Wolverine for being more than just the wild berserker but a man with strong morals and hobbies/interest you wouldn't expect for a gruff berserker) AND for writing out their accents (reading 90s Wades accent can be a wild experience sometimes and i miss that) whitch helped with making them sound unique and recognizable

GOD i miss wade's accent SO much. i loved the way he talked.

it's something i try to write in when we're in flashbacks or when i'm writing the cablepool fics - wade talks a whole lot more like he did in the older comics.

BRING back wade's stupid accent i say. i miss when he talked like a looney tunes character.

[serenfloras]

i'm gonna say it. for a manga that is so centered on free will, inheritance of will and freedom overall people sure love to theorize about luffy's entire life being forged by others with him being predestined as nika's next reincarnation huh

[pwurrz]

people are using the “learn to separate fiction and reality” to justify genshin’s and more specifically hoyoverse’s racism and whitewashing of african cultures and. well. i can’t say i’m even a little bit surprised.

[saints-who-never-existed]

Still thinking about Dundy today.

Thinking about what a compelling and absolutely stellar choice it would have been, had Hickey recruited him onto Team Mutiny.

Thinking that, out of all the lieutenants, Le Vesconte may well have been the best choice.

Like, I don't actually believe that he would be seduced so easily. I believe he's ultimately a good person who's loyal to command (at least while Fitzjames still lives) and who, above all else, is loyal to the men.

But he's also pragmatic and ruthless, is capable of subterfuge, and ultimately, is willing to be at least somewhat complicit in the deaths of some men if it ensures his own survival and the survival of others.

And that's not nothing!!!

[yuseirra]

Onk 165 spoilers(review)!

Seeing people slapping each other at a funeral is the LAST thing I want to see in any media, not just this one(if it has a proper base, I can take it, but this work just didn't have anyone prepared for this kind of event to unfold) that imagery is seriously haunting me. I really hate it, I hope the artist knows what they're doing, I'm never reading that chapter again, what are they making their readers who cheered for them even read?; I'm.. Just really startled and baffled. They have strengths in terms of constructing emotional experiences, they know what kind of reactions they can invoke through their works, I'm sure. This... Felt too harsh and it wasn't even laid out in a proper way, everything feels so rushed so I don't know what to feel about it. It doesn't even feel tragic, I couldn't even feel sad, I was just baffled and shocked. Seeing a character break down was painful all the same (Kana doesn't deserve this happening to her??)It wasn't a good experience to have. Distraught would be the word. Are they really happy with this? Again, what are they trying to achieve through this? Are they respecting their fans? Does this have a point? I'm genuinely confused. I want to know. I hope the authors are happy about this but I'm not. Who would? I'd have enjoyed this better if all this felt well-constructed.

I honestly still believe the contents of the songs are spoilers, THOSE do better explaining Kamiki's character than what this manga put forth about him after the 154 mark.

Speaking of which, I've mentioned this after 164? 163 was it? How can Aqua do this to Ai's movie? Just what IS the point of having the movie be a huge hit when it's going to be known for a murder incident that's even FABRICATED??? Didn't Ai want her TRUTH to be known? Wasn't the movie supposed to be about HER life and what she wished for? Again, she had her hopes on her boyfriend being saved. And Aqua kills him over it and framed him about having killed a person over the content of Ai's movie. Whatever Kamiki's done, Aqua shouldn't have done that to AI AND HER MOVIE. How- why- does the author think that's a good idea?? This was a movie that was going to be her legacy, right? And even if Ai's lied all her life, isn't THIS the work that she'd wish WOULDN'T BE? The one that'd display her true self, the one that should have gotten her love across to Kamiki? I'm glad the latter did happen but even that's going to be covered by lies all thanks to Aqua. I just can't forgive him for doing that to his mother, how is that for Ai? How?? Did Ai want revenge on Kamiki no matter the cost??? That wasn't it. I feel like this sort of outcome, of her son and boyfriend dying and the story of her life being framed as the trigger of killing themselves over it, would have been the LAST thing Ai would have wanted. Unless they explain the reasoning, the writing is so bad on this one. Aqua managed to make Ai's movie about himself. Couldn't he have found some other way to die if he wanted to do it so much.

The last chapter isn't going to save anything, there are too little pages left.

I've made a lot of theories about Ai and Kamiki being gods and THEY were the ones responsible for the white and black star eyes all along(They have to explain what's up with the eyes and the stars and why they work that way before they go!!!) I actually believe in those theories I've written wholeheartedly because if they're going to get back on the idea of gods, that's like the only way to have it blend in the story altogether. And seeing how the idea of fallen-ness and how "stars dwelling in eyes" were in the anime s2's op, which is not too long ago? I don't think they would have completely dropped that idea? Was it 158? I want to know why Tsukuyomi went about "Love" too. If my theories actually end up being true, then.. Ai and Kamiki are the two characters who were all about love and needed love in order to function properly as gods. That Kamiki was trying to collect "Ai", the fragments of his lover back dwelling within people's eyes after her death in order to reach her again. I really do believe that's the way to go if they want this story to make any sense with it adding up to the song's contents.

So what did Kamiki even do?? They aren't even sure if he is really involved or not because what he did is very minimal, isn't it?? Remember how Airi died when he just told her husband the truth of how she molested him? If we believe him, remember how he wanted to send a bouquet to congratulate Ai for her dome concert and Ryosuke killed her? Remember how Ryosuke pushed Gorou off a cliff when he said he wondered if he should go visit Ai at the hospital? Remember how Yura died when he told her she should watch her steps at a mountain? How he told Nino they should turn themselves in and she went insane to try and go stab Ruby? These are too much to be called as mere coincidences, things don't logically end up becoming this disatrous. Whether if he really wanted things to play out this way or not(and he told Aqua himself that he never wanted to hurt anyone!!) it's not natural. This is why I seriously believe this guy's Sarutahiko the god of guidance and the RIGHT PATHS, that's been given a "fatal flaw" after Ai's death!!! Ai was already worried of Kamiki being afflicted by the darkness of the industry, he just totally broke after the death of his godly wife didn't he??? And now he's been leading people into the wrong paths!!! Because he's a fallen god now! Why else would be the lyrics like that? Then is ANYTHING that's happened HIS fault? I'm not actually sure?? He could have tried utilising his powers to meet Ai again maybe so after that perhaps so?? But what's been happening around this guy's been so weird. It can only be explained through the songs and the mention that THERE REALLY ARE GODS OUT THERE WHO DON'T KNOW THEY'RE ONE, WHICH DIRECTLY CONNECTS WITH THE LYRICS OF MEPHISTO THAT GOES: "I'VE FORGOTTEN WHO I LIVED AS" which I think IS written from his perspective! So there. If this is not the case I REALLY don't know. But they won't explain it right. They have to though.

About ruby...well, she's the amaterasu. I keep saying that... She'll "shine" one way or another. But I hope she could really save someone significant in the story with it.

That's all I can write on the spot for now~

[sharper-than-a-serpents-tooth]

have we considered that "Lucas was sired by the world tree" and "Lucas had a human parent" can both be true at the same time? What if one of his parents fucked a tree?

[lord-squiggletits]

Thinking about IDW Optimus again and the fandom's aversion to even acknowledging he exists bc he's a cop or whatever and like. Most of the time people literally just replace him in fic with some white bread knockoff archivist/librarian, not even bothering to keep in IDW OP's personality (which just bolsters my theory that the problem isn't him being a cop the problem is that he's too multifaceted but I digress).

And it's annoying because you could totally write IDW Optimus as not a cop while still keeping his canon personality. You just have to realize that the reason IDW OP became a cop in the first place is because his formative experiences when he was young shaped him to basically have two priorities: 1. To help people and 2. To do it by being on the ground actively doing something about the bad things happening to people.

IDW OP would not be a fucking librarian or archivist because even though those are noble pursuits that can help people and change the world, and Optimus is educated/smart enough for the profession, he wouldn't be satisfied just teaching people or spreading information about activism or social-historical studies or whatever. He's a mech of action: he needs to be doing things right now, in front of him, to people he sees/interacts with in his own eyes, improving society with concrete actions rather than indirect action or abstract inspiration.

So basically the alternate job ideas I can think of for IDW Optimus are something like being a firefighter (or any first responder really) or even whatever the equivalent would be to international charity organizations, those ones that send volunteers across the world to do stuff like build housing/infrastructure or distribute food or whatnot. I mean I can't imagine that the equivalents to these things would be exactly the same in IDW Cybertron, so you'd have to get a little creative with it, but these are just some ideas of jobs that would fit IDW Optimus' personality while still filling the niche of "not a cop" for people who are just that opposed to it.

Though I think the revulsion against coptimus is annoying in general tbh because IDW is already a continuity that rejects the idea of easily defined good/evil people or groups. It feels like people really want Optimus to be a good person in a very sanitized and academically approved way, so he has to be nice and squeaky clean but also like, a perfect leftist who knows theory and holds the most progressive opinions on every single issue....

There is no room for the idea that good people join bad institutions, there's no room for the idea that the reason people think cops are good guys who help people is bc of the government propaganda everything is saturated with. Hell there's even later issues of the Optimus Prime series by John Barber where Optimus like, MULTIPLE FUCKING TIMES, is shown in flashbacks grappling with the fact that he as a cop/Zeta's regime that he works for might not actually be improving society like they say they are, and dealing with the fact that he feels more like a lesser evil compared to the Decepticons (perhaps not "lesser" at all).

It's like there's this idea in fandom of like, fictional media and opinions on media having to strictly adhere to progressive ideals at all times. So people just go "cops bad, this character is a cop, therefore they suck" without being willing to engage with the idea of like. IDW OP is born wanting to fight injustice and protect people -> a good way to protect people is to fight the people who are hurting them and committing crimes -> surely following the law is a reliable moral code to guide him in this -> becomes a cop because he's been indoctrinated into a society (much like our own) where he was told that the state/the law exist to protect the people and being a cop means you get to fight bad guys that hurt people. There's really so many interesting concepts there that could be (and CANONICALLY IS) explored about how good, well-intentioned people can be led to harmful actions simply because they have been fed the idea that the things they're doing are good/helpful/noble. Which is especially important for a character like Optimus, I think, who has a cultural icon status as The Irrefutable and Perfect Good, so it's really important actually to use IDW Optimus as an example of how even the most noble people you know have held problematic beliefs or done bad things at some point in their life. You know, because no one is born perfect and ideologically pure, and in fact society is constructed in exactly a manner to make people drink the kool-aid and believe that the systems designed to hurt them/others are just a normal, if flawed, society.

I mean the writing in IDW literally has Optimus deal directly and indirectly with the harm he's done as a cop and how people don't/didn't trust him because of that. I don't know what the fuck else this fandom wants if the source material literally saying "OP realizes that cops suck and he hurt people and earned their disdain by doing the things he did" doesn't stop them from going EW cop bastard sucks and is the worst Optimus. Like the narrative barely stops short of outright saying ACAB and Optimus himself would agree with this sentiment.

At that point, the collective fandom beef with IDW OP isn't because he's a cop and the narrative didn't do enough to condemn that. The problem is literally just that people don't read and don't care

TLDR: Consider the fact that good people can do bad things sometimes especially when living from birth in a corrupt society that thoroughly disguises its vices/oppressive structures as completely normal parts of existence