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josefo , to technology in The bizarre secrets I found investigating corrupt Winamp skins

what a great article

Cocodapuf , to technology in The bizarre secrets I found investigating corrupt Winamp skins

This is a truly fantastic story. It reminds me of why the Internet is cool, if you dig deep enough, there’s always treasure to be found.

CanadaPlus , (edited ) to technology in The bizarre secrets I found investigating corrupt Winamp skins

So how does the heavier-when-inflated bowling pin man work? Does it thrust downwards somehow?

Kissaki ,

So how does the heavier-when-inflated bowling pin man work?

Usually from 9 to 5.

CanadaPlus ,

Lucky. Seems like the sort of thing that would be gig work these days.

SamVimes ,

Likely answer —we’re being nerds and reading too much into it.

No—
—3 lbs of thrust isn’t going to be happening, speaking from experience with model planes.
—3lbs of the air inside is compressed and weighs more is even farther from possible.

Likely—
—It only has the battery, fan, whatever when it’s running, and they don’t count that when it’s uninflated for some reason. Like how cars have dry weight, curb weight, and gvrw.
—somewhere in the spec sheets, someone made a mistake, two people worked on things and rounded differently, some other clerical/communicative error.

CanadaPlus ,

It could also be just what it “feels like”, based on the measurement method of “made it the fuck up”.

vext01 , to technology in The bizarre secrets I found investigating corrupt Winamp skins
@vext01@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

I think audacious can load winamp skins (and xmms skins).

Will try at some point.

ClipperDefiance ,
@ClipperDefiance@lemmy.world avatar

Qmmp can use them too.

derbis , to technology in The bizarre secrets I found investigating corrupt Winamp skins

Man THIS is what the Internet was all about

camr_on , to technology in The bizarre secrets I found investigating corrupt Winamp skins
@camr_on@lemmy.world avatar

That’s really cool

laserkaspar , to technology in The bizarre secrets I found investigating corrupt Winamp skins

Really enjoyed the ride, very interesting. Thanks for sharing!

nonfuinoncuro , to technology in The bizarre secrets I found investigating corrupt Winamp skins

I miss foobar2k

ToaofTime ,

Did it go somewhere?

Deebster ,
@Deebster@programming.dev avatar

Nope, it’s still great on Windows. Perhaps they went to Linux since it’s still Windows-only.

Psythik ,

They probably miss it cause they don’t use it anymore. Streaming music is too convenient. Only reason why I still have a collection or FLACs and MP3s is cause I’m a DJ. Most people just stream. Even audiophiles have several lossless streaming options these days.

nonfuinoncuro ,

exactly at one point I had a several terabyte raid 5 array that I had been collecting since napster through the LAN iTunes sharing thing through torrents but I don’t even know where those drives are, let alone a mobo/desktop that I can plug it into. at least they’re sata not pata/ide. I see videos freaking out about how weird ipod shuffles were and I’m like I loved my shuffle and click wheel and video one

but honestly as much as I lament my “losses” this new era with connected devices everywhere and an endless explosion of high quality new content is amazing. even if I chose to only listen to new music 24/7 I could never even scratch the surface of all the new stuff coming out these days in every language in every genre accessible for free to everyone with a phone. it seems silly to think about the days when Metallica sued napster over 20$ cds (although the south park episode was great) now artists are begging for people to hover 2 seconds over free tik tok clips of their songs

LibertyLizard , to technology in The bizarre secrets I found investigating corrupt Winamp skins

How do these contain random files like this? Isn’t it just a file that applies some kind of visual effect to the media player?

PythagreousTitties ,

They’re zip files, with the extension renamed. So you could probably have almost anything in one.

LibertyLizard ,

Oh so they’re actually created the same way as a zip file? That makes sense I guess. Thanks.

FaceDeer ,
@FaceDeer@fedia.io avatar

A surprising number of "file formats" these days are really just zip files with a standard for the filenames and folders contained within. There's likely a ton of wonderful secrets like these to be found in the collective dataspace of humanity.

christophski ,

It is literally a zip file. If I remember correctly you have to write some xml which describes the layout of the skin and then include any images you need, you then zip it and change the file extension to wsz. So really you could put anything in a skin.

intensely_human ,

This is a common design pattern for “packages”.

Winamp uses a pattern called package management for its skins. Same as chrome extensions, etc etc. Most of the time we don’t call it that because the term is more reserved for package sets which provide a wider array of functionality. The iOS app store is a package management system.

The packages, much like boxes being handled by FedEx, contain standardized elements which allow that package management system to find and install the package. Much like how when you ship a box through FedEx the first thing they do is put standardized labels on that contain all the different barcodes that different parts of their process use to route the package.

Like with Chrome extensions, there are certain files that must be there (iirc something like a manifest.json file) and others which can be anything. If you need an image for a button, that image becomes part of the package. If you need a complex set of rules then maybe there’s a little sqlite file or csv file containing all the rules. Or font files, or whatever.

Thing is, the package format is defined by the “box” as opposed to by the “contents of the box”.

theneverfox ,
@theneverfox@pawb.social avatar

Just to put this in context:

There’s only so many ways to turn a bunch of files into one - mainly, you stick them back to back. Easy.

Then, there’s an infinite ways to compress that file… You could come up with you own method, but what good is that? It’s better and smarter to use a format already supported by your users

So of course most bundles are the same archive type under the hood. Everything from backups to installers - you shouldn’t be inventing new formats without a damn good reason

Midnitte ,

Wonder how using a zip bomb works out…

PythagreousTitties ,

I was thinking of moving my “system32” porn archive into a winamp skin. Teenage me would be very proud

Gaywallet OP ,
@Gaywallet@beehaw.org avatar

The author touches on this near the beginning-

Winamp skins are actually just zip files with a different file extension

So they’re treating them like archives and extracting them

driving_crooner ,
@driving_crooner@lemmy.eco.br avatar

Everything is just a zip file with a different extension

morbidcactus ,

Seriously though, it’s been some time be afaik any microsoft product file that ends in x, .docx, .xlsx, .pbix are all just archives and you can totally interact with them programmatically if you want. Really easy to corrupt them but hey, found it interesting years ago.

NeatNit ,

I take issue with “everything”, as most things are not. But it is a common trick when a developer wants to make a “new” file format that encapsulates a bunch of different files.

driving_crooner ,
@driving_crooner@lemmy.eco.br avatar

Everything, including you, is a .zip file.

Midnitte ,

Transcription is just unzipping your coding

Vodulas ,
NeatNit ,

😧🤐

SteevyT ,

It’s just .zip files all the way down

adespoton ,

I just came here to say stuffit.

hexagonwin , to technology in The bizarre secrets I found investigating corrupt Winamp skins

nice findings!

dotslashme , to technology in The bizarre secrets I found investigating corrupt Winamp skins

The nostalgia is strong in this one, I love these discoveries.

zbyte64 , to technology in The bizarre secrets I found investigating corrupt Winamp skins

An AMA with the kid whose dad got him a custom winamp skin would be neat.

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