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FWIW, the decompiled (w/ -deadcode) source from the applet, as retrieved from the server on June 2nd around 9 am CEST, does not contain any obvious mischief. Th

FWIW, the decompiled (w/ -deadcode) source from the applet, as retrieved from the server on June 2nd around 9 am CEST, does not contain any obvious mischief. Things of note are a very crude way of parsing the levels from XML (use something like JAXB, dude :D)(the xml is not part of the jar), an interesting sound synth based on the QuantumData, and the fact that self-written code calls color colour. It would be easy to migrate the applet to a standalone Swing application.

sideshowb 10y ago
Ultimately of course I signed the applet with a cert from a trusted CA, so everyone has more proof of who I am than they do of who you are, but thanks for your efforts to convince people it's safe ;) Somehow I think I'd have gotten less flak if I made people download an executable to run it! Yes, the whole thing is at experimental stage right now and as you may guess from the title of the post I'm more concerned with the physics than anything else. Thanks for the pointer to a better library - it's the first time I even parsed XML and was happy to stop with that class as soon as I got something that worked. Glad you spotted the generative sound.
- hiergiltdiestfu 10y ago
  I imagine it's disheartening to see so much distrust and I'm truly sorry for that, but you could've seen that coming when posting to HN of all places :D As for the cert: it _could_ be stolen. Least flak wouldv'e been a github repo. Most people wouldn't even bother check what's in it and if it matches a binary download, they'd just assume someone else would check ;) I bet the XML parsing and the sound synth are exactly the two things you're least and most proud of? :D I honestly recommend taking a look at JAXB. You start from a schema description and generate java classes from it. Then you just stuff these classes and a conforming XML file into a JAXB Unmarshaller and get a clean instance tree of the file. Such a tree can then be poured back into a file by way of a Marshaller.
  - sideshowb 10y ago
    True about the cert, and also your HN account! But between them that would take two security breaches to pull off. Alas there are a few things to not be proud of in the code, but I'm proud I got it working enough for hundreds of people to play. The synth ... meh ... I had higher hopes for that part, but it turned out to be a lot harder than I imagined, and it's honestly a bit of a hack that doesn't truly represent the wavefunction to my satisfaction. I had to prioritize making it bearable to listen to. Audio is hard (I've worked in that field as well).
    - hiergiltdiestfu 10y ago
      I never did audio beyond simple midi beepboops in QBasic, so I wouldn't know. I always imagined it to be some kind of specialisation. Like you need a special mindset to be able to build a 3D engine, you'd need a certain set of talents to be able to manipulate sound in awesome ways and not get lost in tech minutiae. Re: multiple account breaches: keybase.io aims to make that harder. Have you heard about that? (I know, I digress, sorry.)

sideshowb 10y ago

Ultimately of course I signed the applet with a cert from a trusted CA, so everyone has more proof of who I am than they do of who you are, but thanks for your efforts to convince people it's safe ;) Somehow I think I'd have gotten less flak if I made people download an executable to run it! Yes, the whole thing is at experimental stage right now and as you may guess from the title of the post I'm more concerned with the physics than anything else. Thanks for the pointer to a better library - it's the first time I even parsed XML and was happy to stop with that class as soon as I got something that worked. Glad you spotted the generative sound.

hiergiltdiestfu 10y ago
I imagine it's disheartening to see so much distrust and I'm truly sorry for that, but you could've seen that coming when posting to HN of all places :D As for the cert: it _could_ be stolen. Least flak wouldv'e been a github repo. Most people wouldn't even bother check what's in it and if it matches a binary download, they'd just assume someone else would check ;) I bet the XML parsing and the sound synth are exactly the two things you're least and most proud of? :D I honestly recommend taking a look at JAXB. You start from a schema description and generate java classes from it. Then you just stuff these classes and a conforming XML file into a JAXB Unmarshaller and get a clean instance tree of the file. Such a tree can then be poured back into a file by way of a Marshaller.
- sideshowb 10y ago
  True about the cert, and also your HN account! But between them that would take two security breaches to pull off. Alas there are a few things to not be proud of in the code, but I'm proud I got it working enough for hundreds of people to play. The synth ... meh ... I had higher hopes for that part, but it turned out to be a lot harder than I imagined, and it's honestly a bit of a hack that doesn't truly represent the wavefunction to my satisfaction. I had to prioritize making it bearable to listen to. Audio is hard (I've worked in that field as well).
  - hiergiltdiestfu 10y ago
    I never did audio beyond simple midi beepboops in QBasic, so I wouldn't know. I always imagined it to be some kind of specialisation. Like you need a special mindset to be able to build a 3D engine, you'd need a certain set of talents to be able to manipulate sound in awesome ways and not get lost in tech minutiae. Re: multiple account breaches: keybase.io aims to make that harder. Have you heard about that? (I know, I digress, sorry.)