[Theora] Other extension for Ogg Theora then "ogg"

Borphee borphee at cebridge.net
Mon May 9 14:27:00 PDT 2005


Monty;
>
> On Sun, May 08, 2005 at 07:47:10PM +0300, Alexander Rabtchevich wrote:
>> When the theory doesn't correspond to the real world it's the problem of
>> the theory, not the world. The file managers run associated programs
>> based on their extensions, not the real content.
>
> In your 'real world' not mine :-) Only windows believes extensions;
> that's why you have all those lovely email viruses.

I've been quiet in this thread until now, but that deserves a comment...

That simply is not true.

Windows users have email viruses because people are too stupid to *not* try 
and run them.

The reality is that if the extension is wrong, then windows will *not* be 
able to actually run it.  Think about it...!

After all, if you take "Nasty-Virus.exe" and rename it to "Nasty-Virus.jpg" 
and try to hide it as a picture, Windows won't know what to do with it 
precisely because it does usually believe the extension.

If it was "smart" and looked inside (like what you and many others 
recommend), then that  "Nasty-Virus.jpg" would be recognized as an 
executable and be run, instead of being displayed as a broken picture.

Or, to put it into a more Xiph oriented flavor.... that "Nasty-Virus.exe" 
becomes "Latest-Pop-Hit.ogg" song or "Britney-Naked.ogg" video.

With Windows, it wouldn't be able to do anything.

With the recommendations by Xiph, the OS and applications would look inside 
them and discover they aren't ogg at all, and run it directly.

Suddenly, everything becomes a potential virus.


As I said, Windows has so many email viruses because:

1) The average user is too dumb to look at the extension and actually make 
an effort to find out if it is a picture or an executable.

2) The average user is dumb and lazy.

3) Windows, by default, hides the file extension so even if the average user 
tried to look it, they wouldn't see it.

4) The average Windows user is dumb and blindly trusts email stuff.





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