Supervising Producer Alan Burnett
Written by Christopher Simmons
Directed by James Tucker
Original Airdate: September 23, 2000
DVD: Nonexistent. Go yell at WB.

Summary: Teenager Virgil Hawkins, an unwitting recruit of a local gang, is trapped in a mysterious explosion and finds himself wielding electricity-based powers.

Arc Notes: Static would be fully integrated into Justice League later in that series.

Debuting Characters: Virgil “Static” Hawkins and his family, F-Stop, Richie “Gears” Foley, Frieda Goren, and a bunch of gang bangers that probably wound up coming back later in the series as villains.

Background:

Founded by a group of comic creators including future DCAU executive producer Dwayne McDuffie, Milestone Comics was an ambitious attempt to address the lilly-white nature of the vast majority of comic heroes in the midst of the post-Death of Superman comics boom of the early 1990s. Although a host of comic companies attempted to launch “universes” of their own in that period, Milestone’s books, centred around a city named Dakota, had quite a few advantages that the other companies didn’t – such as a much more professional looking product as well as a host of talented staffers that didn’t have any issues staying on schedule. However, their biggest advantage was that DC Comics, in a move that echoed their later acquisition of Wildstorm, was a supporter of the line from behind the scenes, buying Milestone instant credibility in the marketplace.

Unfortunately, Milestone’s biggest hook – its attempts to present a diverse cast – manifested as a problem in the midst of a crowded and often close-minded marketplace. The books, though largely enjoyable (far moreso than just about every other insta-universe of the era), got quickly stereotyped as “black comics”, and in spite of DC doing a reasonable amount of work hyping up the line, including crossing it over with the mega-popular Superman titles, things ultimately went downhill and the line folded about four years after its inception. However, attempts continued to branch the heroes off into other media, which eventually resulted in Static, the Milestone’s teen hero and most popular character, landing a TV show on Kids WB in late 2000, as WB’s way of filling the gap that would be left after Batman Beyond stopped airing first-run episodes in 2001 (Justice League was slated from day one to air on Cartoon Network).

Static himself was created by McDuffie and artist John Paul Leon, and originally was intended for use as a Marvel character before landing at Milestone. The character’s Marvel-esque origins are pretty clear; in fact, one of the more frequent criticisms of the animated version of Static is that he’s a bit too close in nature to Spider-Man. Of course, that’s not exactly a bad problem to have, and it certainly creates an interesting DCAU character, specifically a teen hero without any direct connection to an established DC hero (Static’s animated costume is a somewhat obvious tribute to Black Lightning, however).

Although various DC authors attempted to rescue Static from limbo after his animated series became a reasonable hit, it took McDuffie being named JLA writer to finally get all the Milestone characters finally integrated into the mainstream DC Universe. As a result of the merger, Static is now a member of the Teen Titans, and he seems to have maintained a lot of his nice guy / geeky charm after the switch.

Thoughts on the Episode:

Most of the DCAU origin stories tend to be much longer than one episode, but Static actually gets an entire origin on-screen in the space of its first episode. I’m always one to praise efficiency in storytelling, and the first episode of these two is one of the best superhero examples I’ve seen. Added to this is the fact that Static is still relatively obscure; unlike Spider-Man or Batman, his origin hasn’t be re-told numerous times and the writer doesn’t get to rely on ubiquity to get the character over with viewers. The success of the episode is in telling a simple origin story well.

“Shock to the System” is, pardon the pun, a bit of a shock for a viewer who may only be exposed to DC’s characters via the DCAU or even Teen Titans. Firstly, the animation style is vastly different, with a much rougher style, albeit with classic Timm-esque minimalism. At times, the characters look more as though they’re animated in Flash than by traditional means, although obviously that wasn’t really practical for a show of this type at the time it was made.I actually like the general look of Static a lot more here than in later episodes; the show’s supposed to be brighter than both the comics and the rest of the DCAU, and having Static dressed largely in white helps to emphasize that. The later switch to a darker costume, while striking, matured him a bit too much for my tastes.

But beyond that – and this isn’t being said as a criticism – the series lacks the underlying darkness of even Superman or Justice League, let alone Batman. Virgil comes from a relatively normal family, one admittedly touched by gang violence, but he starts off the series as a relatively normal kid, although one who seems to go to a high school which boasts an above-average quotient of bangers and bullies. Although Static doesn’t really have much to do in this initial episode – his battle with the robbers is the only real action of the episode – this does a pretty good job of setting up the vital characteristics of everyone involved with the series and showing off Static’s power set. I especially like how Static’s naming is relatively subtle – aside from one line by Ritchie, it’s not as though that’s Virgil’s nickname from the start of the series or anything.

The second episode actually plays out more like a second part of the pilot rather than an individual episode. While Virgil has certainly come along with his hero side, he’s obviously nervous about the potential side effects of the powers he’s acquired, especially in comparison with the monstrous “Bang Babies.” What’s great is that he actually does the smart thing – namely, going to get himself checked out by his doctor. Virgil’s relatively normal reactions to the crazines he found himself surrounded by was one of the better features of the series – he doesn’t have Peter Parker’s weird secrecy obsession going on. But much like Peter, Virgil gets by a lot of the time not necessarily with his powers, but with his brain; in this episode, he both knows enough about science to break out of a gas-filled chamber and enough about basic city planning to know that there’s always metal around, even in the middle of Dakota’s equivalent of central park. Sure, it may make bad guys like Hot Streak look more than a little stupid, but giving the hero a few easy victories now and again does wonders for later storylines.

The only real problem with both episodes is that, by making the dialogue so contemporary for the time, they seem horribly dated. While Virgil’s not too bad in terms of dialogue, Ritchie suffers from being as anachronistic as a character from a series made in 2000 can sound at the end of the decade. You half expect him to start talking about playing Tony Hawk and hoping Attack of the Clones is better than Phantom Menace. I’m a much bigger fan of the approach Mark Waid claimed to use on Impulse – namely, to just make up slang as he went along and hope that it sounded cutting-edge enough that no one would think it was all gibberish. It also helps that Static isn’t one of those teen heroes who complains about the cliche aspects of superheroing – while that character might have been fresh in 2000, it’s really stale after an entire decade of comics based on superhero deconstructionism.

Aside from the laudable attempts to diversify Saturday mornings, these two episodes showed that there was something to the idea of a younger hero being played relatively straight, and that Static would work even while divorced from a larger universe. Of course, a DC-owned property couldn’t stay isolationist for long, and as a result the next time we’ll stop back with this series, it will be in the presence of a bunch of very famous guest stars.

And, no, I’m not talking about Shaq. Although I’ll probably review that episode at one point just for the heck of it.

I’m not going to be grading these simply because I haven’t seen enough of the series to really know what constitutes a good episode; however, they’re well worth seeking out.

Random Thoughts:

• As long as Static is close to an alley, he has transportation. I like that.
• In contrast to most DCAU shows, Static Shock’s title montage is a full minute, which feels a bit weird.
• The “try on ideas for a costume” montage is a classic opportunity for a sight gag in superhero media, and in this case Static Shock gets in a doozy: Static tries on Black Vulcan’s outfit from Super Friends.
• Yup, that’s obviously Maria “Hawkgirl” Canals as the reporter in “Aftershock.” Amusingly enough, she doesn’t get to play Static’s latina crush Frieda – that falls to Danica McKellar, who, as we’ve seen, would also go on to do Justice League voice work.
• Hot Streak is kind of like an even more annoying version of Gambit, isn’t he? Complete with throwing a ridiculous arsenal, in this case, the hot dogs o’ doom.

Best Line: “Why the look, Frieda, they outta Britney?” Aside from proving that Virgil has no idea how to get into a girl’s good books out of costume, remember the days when that joke would be the ultimate insult? Static’s line about his sister’s grooming habits from the pilot places a very close second.

Next time: A weekend aside looking at Darwyn Cooke’s legendary “New Frontier.”

I’m standing on the edge of this city.
It’s far too dark to see what’s beyond the water and skylines.
But I know what’s there.
What will happen if we jump?
Will we be disconnected, but still somehow there?
What will happen if we take the risk?

I’m standing on the edge of this city.
Enveloped in all the static of a timeline torn apart.
There’s distance between us and them, you and me.
What will happen if we run away?
Will we be disconnected, but still somehow there?
What will happen if we take the risk?

I’m standing on the edge of this city.
We won’t take the fall, we can’t.
I’m standing on the edge of forever.
We will run away, we have to.

We’re standing on the edge of this city.
Static is all the binds.
We’re standing on the edge of forever.

You need to accept it.

Ahem, do to some unforeseen technical difficulties that we here at The Scene had (cough*Kid*cough), we are now pleased to (finally) bring you….

NATURAL PHENOMENOOOOOON (with extra “o”s to emphasize that it’s written phonetically, as if it were said by a greasy announcer for a pro-wrestling tournament)

_Seeing as how 2012, a movie about the destruction of the Earth due to natural phenomenon is #1 at the box office, it’s time that we talked about these occurrences. There is one in particular that seems as far reaching as the possible destruction that will occur at the end of the Mayan Long Count Calendar in 2012. That’s right, we’re talking about the Drinking Game Phenomenon.

_It has occurred to us at The Scene that everything that stopped being cool when you turned eleven becomes an amazing drinking game when you turn 21. I know that this might sound like a conspiracy theory, but the truth is out there. Think about it. Look deep into your life and you will come to see it too. What did you do when you were ten on Halloween? You went around dressed up fancy looking for treats. What did you do on Thanksgiving and Halloween? You played board games and trivia and sang songs poorly with your family.

_And here’s the part that brings it all together. What do you do now that you can drink on Halloween? You go around dressed up fancy looking for treats. Alright, so the nature of those treats might have changed, but that’s besides the point. And when do you play board games and trivia or sing songs poorly now that you can get wasted? Well out at bars of course. Many bars in many cities offer Trivial Pursuit Nights or Trivia Nights and how many Karaoke bars are there in America? Thousands.

_That’s right, it’s been right under your nose for so long but you didn’t want to realize the truth. The Government isn’t going to tell you the truth and you know you’re not going to learn about it in school, but it’s true. You see it every day, you see it all around you. The truth they don’t want you to know is that we as legal drinkers are living out our childhoods as drinking games.

_Don’t you wish every conspiracy theory could be this much fun?

- Kid

As winter nears, the air gets progressively drier and drier, unless it snows. Otherwise, the dryness makes it very easy for one to generate static electricity, simply by removing one’s coat or sweater. I used to dread going home just because I knew that I would get shocked the moment I touched something after removing my coat. And it wasn’t a tiny shock, either – it was the kind of static shock where you can actually see the spark between skin and object. So I was surprised to discover a painless way to discharge the shock: to touch something with an elbow instead of my hand.

Since the elbow is one of the least sensitive part of the body, you can do cool things with it like elbow someone really hard, or discharge static electricity through them. You can even let lightning strike them as a survival technique: if you’re ever caught in a storm in the middle of flat land, where you are the tallest thing for miles around, then all you do is get on your knees, bend over till your head touches the ground, and raise your elbows upwards while keeping your hands on your hips. This causes potential lightning bolts to strike your elbows first, reducing the pain you feel, while the current is redirected down towards the ground and hopefully bypasses your heart. I’m sure it would still hurt (understatement of the year), but at least you’ll survive. Neat, huh?

Setting Up A Ftp

Well, since many of us have always wondered this, here it is. Long and drawn out. Also, before attempting this, realize one thing; You will have to give up your time, effort, bandwidth, and security to have a quality ftp server.
That being said, here it goes. First of all, find out if your IP (Internet Protocol) is static (not changing) or dynamic (changes everytime you log on). To do this, first consider the fact if you have a dial up modem. If you do, chances are about 999 999 out of 1 000 000 that your IP is dynamic. To make it static, just go to a place like h*tp://www.myftp.org/ to register for a static ip address.

You’ll then need to get your IP. This can be done by doing this:
Going to Start -> Run -> winipcfg or www.ask.com and asking ‘What is my IP?’

After doing so, you’ll need to download an FTP server client. Personally, I’d recommend G6 FTP Server, Serv-U FTPor Bullitproof v2.15 all three of which are extremely reliable, and the norm of the ftp world.
You can download them on this site: h*tp://www.liaokai.com/softw_en/d_index.htm

First, you’ll have to set up your ftp. For this guide, I will use step-by-step instructions for G6. First, you’ll have to go into ‘Setup -> General’. From here, type in your port # (default is 21). I recommend something unique, or something a bit larger (ex: 3069). If you want to, check the number of max users (this sets the amount of simultaneous maximum users on your server at once performing actions – The more on at once, the slower the connection and vice versa).

The below options are then chooseable:
-Launch with windows
-Activate FTP Server on Start-up
-Put into tray on startup
-Allow multiple instances
-Show “Loading…” status at startup
-Scan drive(s) at startup
-Confirm exit

You can do what you want with these, as they are pretty self explanatory. The scan drive feature is nice, as is the 2nd and the last option. From here, click the ‘options’ text on the left column.

To protect your server, you should check ‘login check’ and ‘password check’, ‘Show relative path (a must!)’, and any other options you feel you’ll need. After doing so, click the ‘advanced’ text in the left column. You should then leave the buffer size on the default (unless of course you know what you’re doing ), and then allow the type of ftp you want.

Uploading and downloading is usually good, but it’s up to you if you want to allow uploads and/or downloads. For the server priority, that will determine how much conventional memory will be used and how much ‘effort’ will go into making your server run smoothly.

Anti-hammering is also good, as it prevents people from slowing down your speed. From here, click ‘Log Options’ from the left column. If you would like to see and record every single command and clutter up your screen, leave the defaults.

But, if you would like to see what is going on with the lowest possible space taken, click ‘Screen’ in the top column. You should then check off ‘Log successful logins’, and all of the options in the client directry, except ‘Log directory changes’. After doing so, click ‘Ok’ in the bottom left corner.

You will then have to go into ‘Setup -> User Accounts’ (or ctrl & u). From here, you should click on the right most column, and right click. Choose ‘Add’, and choose the username(s) you would like people to have access to.

After giving a name (ex: themoonlanding), you will have to give them a set password in the bottom column (ex: wasfaked). For the ‘Home IP’ directory, (if you registered with a static server, check ‘All IP Homes’. If your IP is static by default, choose your IP from the list. You will then have to right click in the very center column, and choose ‘Add’.

From here, you will have to set the directory you want the people to have access to. After choosing the directory, I suggest you choose the options ‘Read’, ‘List’, and ‘Subdirs’, unless of course you know what you’re doing . After doing so, make an ‘upload’ folder in the directory, and choose to ‘add’ this folder seperately to the center column. Choose ‘write’, ‘append’, ‘make’, ‘list’, and ’subdirs’. This will allow them to upload only to specific folders (your upload folder).

Now click on ‘Miscellaneous’ from the left column. Choose ‘enable account’, your time-out (how long it takes for people to remain idle before you automatically kick them off), the maximum number of users for this name, the maximum number of connections allowed simultaneously for one ip address, show relative path (a must!), and any other things at the bottom you’d like to have. Now click ‘Ok’.
**Requested**
From this main menu, click the little boxing glove icon in the top corner, and right click and unchoose the hit-o-meter for both uploads and downloads (with this you can monitor IP activity). Now click the lightning bolt, and your server is now up and running.

Post your ftp info, like this:

213.10.93.141 (or something else, such as: ‘f*p://example.getmyip.com’)

User: *** (The username of the client)

Pass: *** (The password)

Port: *** (The port number you chose)

So make a FTP and join the FTP section
Listing The Contents Of A Ftp:

Listing the content of a FTP is very simple.
You will need FTP Content Maker, which can be downloaded from here:
ht*p://www.etplanet.com/download/application/FTP%20Content%20Maker%201.02.zip

1. Put in the IP of the server. Do not put “ftp://” or a “/” because it will not work if you do so.
2. Put in the port. If the port is the default number, 21, you do not have to enter it.
3. Put in the username and password in the appropriate fields. If the login is anonymous, you do not have to enter it.
4. If you want to list a specific directory of the FTP, place it in the directory field. Otherwise, do not enter anything in the directory field.
5. Click “Take the List!”
6. After the list has been taken, click the UBB output tab, and copy and paste to wherever you want it.
If FTP Content Maker is not working, it is probably because the server does not utilize Serv-U Software.

If you get this error message:
StatusCode = 550
LastResponse was : ‘Unable to open local file test-ftp’
Error = 550 (Unable to open local file test-ftp)
Error = Unable to open local file test-ftp = 550
Close and restart FTP Content Maker, then try again.

error messages:

110 Restart marker reply. In this case, the text is exact and not left to the particular implementation; it must read: MARK yyyy = mmmm Where yyyy is User-process data stream marker, and mmmm server’s equivalent marker (note the spaces between markers and “=”).
120 Service ready in nnn minutes.
125 Data connection already open; transfer starting.
150 File status okay; about to open data connection.
200 Command okay.
202 Command not implemented, superfluous at this site.
211 System status, or system help reply.
212 Directory status.
213 File status.
214 Help message. On how to use the server or the meaning of a particular non-standard command. This reply is useful only to the human user.
215 NAME system type. Where NAME is an official system name from the list in the Assigned Numbers document.
220 Service ready for new user.
221 Service closing control connection. Logged out if appropriate.
225 Data connection open; no transfer in progress.
226 Closing data connection. Requested file action successful (for example, file transfer or file abort).
227 Entering Passive Mode (h1,h2,h3,h4,p1,p2).
230 User logged in, proceed.
250 Requested file action okay, completed.
257 “PATHNAME” created.
331 User name okay, need password.
332 Need account for login.
350 Requested file action pending further information.
421 Too many users logged to the same account
425 Can’t open data connection.
426 Connection closed; transfer aborted.
450 Requested file action not taken. File unavailable (e.g., file busy).
451 Requested action aborted: local error in processing.
452 Requested action not taken. Insufficient storage space in system.
500 Syntax error, command unrecognized. This may include errors such as command line too long.
501 Syntax error in parameters or arguments.
502 Command not implemented.
503 Bad sequence of commands.
504 Command not implemented for that parameter.
530 Not logged in.
532 Need account for storing files.
550 Requested action not taken. File unavailable (e.g., file not found, no access).
551 Requested action aborted: page type unknown.
552 Requested file action aborted. Exceeded storage allocation (for current directory or dataset).
553 Requested action not taken. File name not allowed.
 Active FTP vs. Passive FTP, a Definitive Explanation

Introduction
One of the most commonly seen questions when dealing with firewalls and other Internet connectivity issues is the difference between active and passive FTP and how best to support either or both of them. Hopefully the following text will help to clear up some of the confusion over how to support FTP in a firewalled environment.

This may not be the definitive explanation, as the title claims, however, I’ve heard enough good feedback and seen this document linked in enough places to know that quite a few people have found it to be useful. I am always looking for ways to improve things though, and if you find something that is not quite clear or needs more explanation, please let me know! Recent additions to this document include the examples of both active and passive command line FTP sessions. These session examples should help make things a bit clearer. They also provide a nice picture into what goes on behind the scenes during an FTP session. Now, on to the information…

The Basics
FTP is a TCP based service exclusively. There is no UDP component to FTP. FTP is an unusual service in that it utilizes two ports, a ‘data’ port and a ‘command’ port (also known as the control port). Traditionally these are port 21 for the command port and port 20 for the data port. The confusion begins however, when we find that depending on the mode, the data port is not always on port 20.

Active FTP
In active mode FTP the client connects from a random unprivileged port (N > 1024) to the FTP server’s command port, port 21. Then, the client starts listening to port N+1 and sends the FTP command PORT N+1 to the FTP server. The server will then connect back to the client’s specified data port from its local data port, which is port 20.

From the server-side firewall’s standpoint, to support active mode FTP the following communication channels need to be opened:

FTP server’s port 21 from anywhere (Client initiates connection)
FTP server’s port 21 to ports > 1024 (Server responds to client’s control port)
FTP server’s port 20 to ports > 1024 (Server initiates data connection to client’s data port)
FTP server’s port 20 from ports > 1024 (Client sends ACKs to server’s data port)
In step 1, the client’s command port contacts the server’s command port and sends the command PORT 1027. The server then sends an ACK back to the client’s command port in step 2. In step 3 the server initiates a connection on its local data port to the data port the client specified earlier. Finally, the client sends an ACK back as shown in step 4.

The main problem with active mode FTP actually falls on the client side. The FTP client doesn’t make the actual connection to the data port of the server–it simply tells the server what port it is listening on and the server connects back to the specified port on the client. From the client side firewall this appears to be an outside system initiating a connection to an internal client–something that is usually blocked.

Active FTP Example
Below is an actual example of an active FTP session. The only things that have been changed are the server names, IP addresses, and user names. In this example an FTP session is initiated from testbox1.slacksite.com (192.168.150.80), a linux box running the standard FTP command line client, to testbox2.slacksite.com (192.168.150.90), a linux box running ProFTPd 1.2.2RC2. The debugging (-d) flag is used with the FTP client to show what is going on behind the scenes. Everything in red is the debugging output which shows the actual FTP commands being sent to the server and the responses generated from those commands. Normal server output is shown in black, and user input is in bold.

There are a few interesting things to consider about this dialog. Notice that when the PORT command is issued, it specifies a port on the client (192.168.150.80) system, rather than the server. We will see the opposite behavior when we use passive FTP. While we are on the subject, a quick note about the format of the PORT command. As you can see in the example below it is formatted as a series of six numbers separated by commas. The first four octets are the IP address while the second two octets comprise the port that will be used for the data connection. To find the actual port multiply the fifth octet by 256 and then add the sixth octet to the total. Thus in the example below the port number is ( (14*256) + 178), or 3762. A quick check with netstat should confirm this information.

testbox1: {/home/p-t/slacker/public_html} % ftp -d testbox2
Connected to testbox2.slacksite.com.
220 testbox2.slacksite.com FTP server ready.
Name (testbox2:slacker): slacker
—> USER slacker
331 Password required for slacker.
Password: TmpPass
—> PASS XXXX
230 User slacker logged in.
—> SYST
215 UNIX Type: L8
Remote system type is UNIX.
Using binary mode to transfer files.
ftp> ls
ftp: setsockopt (ignored): Permission denied
—> PORT 192,168,150,80,14,178
200 PORT command successful.
—> LIST
150 Opening ASCII mode data connection for file list.
drwx—— 3 slacker users 104 Jul 27 01:45 public_html
226 Transfer complete.
ftp> quit
—> QUIT
221 Goodbye.
Passive FTP
In order to resolve the issue of the server initiating the connection to the client a different method for FTP connections was developed. This was known as passive mode, or PASV, after the command used by the client to tell the server it is in passive mode.

In passive mode FTP the client initiates both connections to the server, solving the problem of firewalls filtering the incoming data port connection to the client from the server. When opening an FTP connection, the client opens two random unprivileged ports locally (N > 1024 and N+1). The first port contacts the server on port 21, but instead of then issuing a PORT command and allowing the server to connect back to its data port, the client will issue the PASV command. The result of this is that the server then opens a random unprivileged port (P > 1024) and sends the PORT P command back to the client. The client then initiates the connection from port N+1 to port P on the server to transfer data.

From the server-side firewall’s standpoint, to support passive mode FTP the following communication channels need to be opened:

FTP server’s port 21 from anywhere (Client initiates connection)
FTP server’s port 21 to ports > 1024 (Server responds to client’s control port)
FTP server’s ports > 1024 from anywhere (Client initiates data connection to random port specified by server)
FTP server’s ports > 1024 to remote ports > 1024 (Server sends ACKs (and data) to client’s data port)

In step 1, the client contacts the server on the command port and issues the PASV command. The server then replies in step 2 with PORT 2024, telling the client which port it is listening to for the data connection. In step 3 the client then initiates the data connection from its data port to the specified server data port. Finally, the server sends back an ACK in step 4 to the client’s data port.

While passive mode FTP solves many of the problems from the client side, it opens up a whole range of problems on the server side. The biggest issue is the need to allow any remote connection to high numbered ports on the server. Fortunately, many FTP daemons, including the popular WU-FTPD allow the administrator to specify a range of ports which the FTP server will use. See Appendix 1 for more information.

The second issue involves supporting and troubleshooting clients which do (or do not) support passive mode. As an example, the command line FTP utility provided with Solaris does not support passive mode, necessitating a third-party FTP client, such as ncftp.

With the massive popularity of the World Wide Web, many people prefer to use their web browser as an FTP client. Most browsers only support passive mode when accessing ftp:// URLs. This can either be good or bad depending on what the servers and firewalls are configured to support.

Passive FTP Example
Below is an actual example of a passive FTP session. The only things that have been changed are the server names, IP addresses, and user names. In this example an FTP session is initiated from testbox1.slacksite.com (192.168.150.80), a linux box running the standard FTP command line client, to testbox2.slacksite.com (192.168.150.90), a linux box running ProFTPd 1.2.2RC2. The debugging (-d) flag is used with the FTP client to show what is going on behind the scenes. Everything in red is the debugging output which shows the actual FTP commands being sent to the server and the responses generated from those commands. Normal server output is shown in black, and user input is in bold.

Notice the difference in the PORT command in this example as opposed to the active FTP example. Here, we see a port being opened on the server (192.168.150.90) system, rather than the client. See the discussion about the format of the PORT command above, in the Active FTP Example section.

testbox1: {/home/p-t/slacker/public_html} % ftp -d testbox2
Connected to testbox2.slacksite.com.
220 testbox2.slacksite.com FTP server ready.
Name (testbox2:slacker): slacker
—> USER slacker
331 Password required for slacker.
Password: TmpPass
—> PASS XXXX
230 User slacker logged in.
—> SYST
215 UNIX Type: L8
Remote system type is UNIX.
Using binary mode to transfer files.
ftp> passive
Passive mode on.
ftp> ls
ftp: setsockopt (ignored): Permission denied
—> PASV
227 Entering Passive Mode (192,168,150,90,195,149).
—> LIST
150 Opening ASCII mode data connection for file list
drwx—— 3 slacker users 104 Jul 27 01:45 public_html
226 Transfer complete.
ftp> quit
—> QUIT
221 Goodbye.
Summary
The following chart should help admins remember how each FTP mode works:

Active FTP :
command : client >1024 -> server 21
data : client >1024 <- server 20

Passive FTP :
command : client >1024 -> server 21
data : client >1024 -> server >1024

A quick summary of the pros and cons of active vs. passive FTP is also in order:

Active FTP is beneficial to the FTP server admin, but detrimental to the client side admin. The FTP server attempts to make connections to random high ports on the client, which would almost certainly be blocked by a firewall on the client side. Passive FTP is beneficial to the client, but detrimental to the FTP server admin. The client will make both connections to the server, but one of them will be to a random high port, which would almost certainly be blocked by a firewall on the server side.

Luckily, there is somewhat of a compromise. Since admins running FTP servers will need to make their servers accessible to the greatest number of clients, they will almost certainly need to support passive FTP. The exposure of high level ports on the server can be minimized by specifying a limited port range for the FTP server to use. Thus, everything except for this range of ports can be firewalled on the server side. While this doesn’t eliminate all risk to the server, it decreases it tremendously.

HAPPINESS

The Epicurean Approach

By

VIKRAM KARVE

Musings on the Art of Happiness

HAPPINESS & PLEASURE

Are Happiness and Pleasure correlated?

They say:

1.  Pleasure is Quantitative; Happiness is Qualitative.

2.   Happiness is a lifelong goal.

3.       Happiness requires cognitive judgment.

4.       Pleasure is not essential to achieving happiness – here I do not agree. I feel happiness and pleasure are not mutually exclusive; in fact genuine pleasure can be the source of much happiness.

No philosopher has better explored the distinction between happiness and pleasure than Epicurus, a Greek Philosopher of the Third Century BC. Epicurus (341-270 BC) espoused a strategy for achieving genuine human happiness by emphasizing the delights of the mind (over which a person has control) rather than the delights derived from material things (which are so often beyond one’s personal control).

Epicurus’ name survives in the team “epicurean” which is used to refer to someone with elevated tastes and a lifestyle centred on pleasure. However, if you peruse his philosophy thoroughly, you will realize that Epicurus counsels a way of life very different from what the popular use of the term “pleasure” implies.

You may feel that Epicurean philosophy champions the pursuit of pleasure as the supreme goal of life, but this does not mean the unrestrained pursuit of excesses of any kind. Instead, Epicurus argues for a life of sober restrain and moderation in all things. The pleasures Epicurus recommends are those that are easy to achieve and simple in nature. The prolonged pursuit of pleasure is best achieved by restraint and enlightened choice.

It may be the prudent to moderate our single minded pursuit of “outward” success and achievement, the mindless acquisition of material possessions and accumulation of wealth, tendencies to showing off and ostentation, conspicuous consumption and lavish unrestrained pleasures; and focus more on the more authentic “inner” pleasures of life such as happy family life, enriching relationships, cultivating the mind and intellect, enjoying the pleasures of friends and companions, and living on the higher plane.

Epicureanism does not advocate the wanton pursuit of pleasure. Also, you must remember that pleasures and pains of the mind are of greater importance than those of the body. Epicurus set forth a strategy for achieving authentic human happiness by emphasizing the delights of the mind (over which a person has control) rather than the delights derived from material things (which are so often beyond one’s personal control). The fundamental premise is that presence of pleasure is synonymous with the absence of pain.

Genuine happiness emanates from pleasures that are easy to achieve and simple in nature. If you have only a few things, we will enjoy them more than if you had many things, and if you do not become used to rich and expensive foods, then simple fare, which is easier to obtain will satisfy you more.

In a nutshell: “The Art of Happiness is in keeping your Pleasures Mild”.

And how do you keep your pleasures mild?

DESIRE & PLEASURE

Are pleasures in any way linked to satisfying your desires?

There are two different types of pleasures:

1. “Moving” Pleasures

1. “Static” Pleasures

“Moving” pleasures occur when one is in the process of satisfying a desire – like eating delicious food when one is hungry.

These pleasures involve an active enjoyable titillation of the senses which most people call “pleasure”.

However, Epicurus says that after one’s desires have been satisfied, like suppose you are fully satiated after eating a heart meal; this state of satiety, a state of no longer being in need or want, is itself pleasurable. Epicurus calls this “static” pleasure, and says that these static pleasures are the best pleasures.

Hence, Epicurus says that there is no intermediate state between pleasure and pain. When one has unfulfilled desires, this is painful, and when one no longer has unfulfilled desires, this steady state is the most pleasurable of all. There is no intermediate state between pleasure and pain – either your desires are fulfilled or they are not.

Epicurus also distinguishes between physical and mental pleasures and pains. Physical pleasures and pains concern only the present, whereas mental pleasures and pains also encompass the past (fond memories of past pleasure or regret over past pain or mistakes) and the future (confidence or fear about what will occur).

The greatest destroyer of happiness is anxiety about the future, especially the fear of death. If you can banish fear about the future, and face the future with confidence that one’s desires will be satisfied, then you can attain a most exalted state of tranquillity.

This we see that the key to happiness is the effective management of your desires – Desire Management.

DESIRE MANAGEMENT

There is a close connection between pleasure and desire-satisfaction.

If pleasure results from getting what you want (desire-satisfaction) and pain from not getting what you want (desire-frustration), then there are two strategies you can pursue with respect to any given desire: you can either strive to fulfil the desire, or you can try to eliminate the desire.

Epicurus advocates the second strategy of scaling down your desires to the basic minimum which can easily be satisfied.

Epicurus distinguishes between three types of desires:

1.      Natural and necessary desires,

2.      Natural but non-necessary desires,

3.    “Vain and Empty” or unnatural and unnecessary desires.

How we tackle each of these three types of desires determines our tendency to happiness [or unhappiness].

Examples of natural and necessary desires include the desires for food, shelter, health, sense of security and basic physical needs, cravings which will necessarily lead to greater pain if they are not fulfilled.

These basic desires are easy to satisfy yet difficult to eliminate (they are ‘hard-wired’ into human beings naturally) and bring great pleasure when satisfied (“Happiness begins at the stomach”).

Furthermore, they are necessary for life, and they are naturally limited: that is, if one is hungry, it only takes a limited amount of food to fill the stomach, after which the desire is satisfied.

Epicurus says that you should try to fulfil natural and necessary desires.

Vain, unnatural and unnecessary desires include desires for excessive power, wealth, fame, and other egoistic ambitions which have all the trappings of status and prestige.

Vain desires are difficult to satisfy, in part because they have no natural limit. If one desires wealth or power, no matter how much one gets, it is always possible to get more, and the more one gets, the more one wants. These desires are not natural to human beings, but inculcated by society and by false beliefs about what we need; (e.g.) believing that being very powerful or wealthy or famous will guarantee us happiness. In fact, Opulence attracts thieves, and power and fame attract sycophants.

Epicurus says that such vain and empty desires should be eliminated.

An example of a natural but non-necessary desire is the desire for luxury food. Although food is needed for survival, one does not need rich expensive gourmet food to survive. Thus, despite his hedonism, Epicurus advocates a surprisingly ascetic way of life. Although you shouldn’t spurn extravagant foods if they happen to be available, becoming dependent on such food ultimately leads to unhappiness.

These natural but non-necessary desires are those cravings that do not necessarily lead to greater pain if they are not fulfilled. These desires are typically recreational in nature: Sexual gratification, aesthetic desires, entertainment, pleasant conversation, the arts, sports, travel etc.

In the case of natural but non-necessary desires you must approach life as a banquet. Think of your life as if it were a banquet where you would behave graciously, when dishes are passed to you, extend your hand and help yourself to a moderate portion. If a dish should pass you by, enjoy what is already on your plate. And if a dish hasn’t being passed to you yet, patiently wait for your turn.

To paraphrase Epicurus, “If you wish to make a man wealthy, don’t give him more money; rather, reduce his desires”.

By eliminating the pain caused by unfulfilled desires, and the anxiety that occurs because of the fear that one’s desires will not be fulfilled in the future, the wise Epicurean attains tranquillity, and thus happiness.

VIKRAM KARVE

Copyright © Vikram Karve 2009

Vikram Karve has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.

http://vikramkarve.sulekha.com

http://www.linkedin.com/in/karve

Appetite for a Stroll

http://books.sulekha.com/book/appetite-for-a-stroll/default.htm

vikramkarve@sify.com

.
Static V (of a series of 5)
pen on graph paper

Scurtă introducere

Dacă te întrebi la ce or fi bune plugin-urile astea jQuery, îți voi spune eu: îți permite extinderea întregii librării jQuery prin adăugarea de noi metode și funcții la aceasta. De exemplu, ai putea crea un plugin care, printr-un singur apel, va parcurge toate link-urile unei pagini, și la fiecare link către un fișier PDF va adăuga o iconiță descriptivă. Apelul va arăta ceva în genul:

$("a").adaugaIconitaPDF();

Idei pentru plugin-uri sunt multe, prea multe chiar, și ca să te convingi poți intra pe pagina de plugin-uri jQuery unde le vei găsi ordonate după categorie. La momentul actual, acolo sunt 3684 de plugin-uri! Deci idei sunt cu tonele, și tot apar plugin-uri zi de zi. Așa că, ori poți sta să cauți plugin-ul care-ți trebuie, ori poți învăța să creezi propriile plugin-uri, lucru despre care voi discuta în următoarele câteva articole.

Să intrăm în pâine!

Pentru început, e nevoie de puțină teorie interesantă. În caz că nu știai deja, jQuery e renumit pentru faptul că poate fi folosit cu ajutorul unui singur caracter: simbolul dolar ($). De puține ori, însă, vei da peste probleme folosind simbolul $, fiindcă nu este singurul framework care face uz de acest simbol. Așa că, pentru a evita conflicte, când este cazul, se poate folosi cuvântul “jQuery“. De exemplu:

jQuery("a").fadeIn();
jQuery.variabila = 2;

Acum să îți spun și care sunt acele puține cazuri când pot apărea conflicte cu simbolul $: când creezi plugin-uri, și când folosești încă un framework împreună cu jQuery, de exemplu ExtJS + jQuery. Știind acum aceste lucruri, să începem cu plugin-urile! Pentru a putea crea plugin-uri, e nevoie să știi jQuery, evident, și care sunt obiectele extensibile din jQuery:

1. jQuery
   • se ocupă cu procesarea internă
   • extinde metode (în alte limbaje de programare sunt cunoscute ca metode statice, sau metode de clasă)
2. jQuery.fn
   • se ocupă de elemente HTML și interacțiunile dintre ele
   • extinde funcții (în alte limbaje de programare sunt cunoscute ca metode de instanță)

Ca să fiu sigur că nu mă vei pierde, îți voi explica ce reprezintă metodele și funcțiile. Dacă ai deja experiență în programarea orientată pe obiecte, poți sări peste paragraful acesta. Deci, metodele pot fi apelate direct, fără a instanția o clasă. Funcțiile, pe de altă parte, pot fi apelate doar asupra unui obiect ce reprezintă o instanță a unei clase. Dacă nu știi nici ce reprezintă instanțierea, e cazul să te oprești aici și să iei un tutorial de POO în C++ sau orice alt limbaj vrei.

Știind acum ce obiecte jQuery pot fi extinse, voi crea un simplu plugin care afișează un mesaj la încărcarea unor elemente HTML. Apelul va fi simplu:

$.mesaj("mesaj la comanda");     //metodă
$("div").mesaj("m-am incarcat"); //funcție

Și acum iată codul, trivial de altfel:

//codul pentru metodă
jQuery.mesaj = function(msg) {
   alert(msg);
};

//codul pentru funcție
jQuery.fn.mesaj = function(msg) {
   alert(msg);
}

Ți se pare complicat ? Dacă da, e grav, fiindcă în următoarele articole se mai complică, fiindcă voi discuta despre:

• variabile locale și globale
• ascunderea variabilelor
• orientarea pe obiecte
• setările plugin-urilor
• funcții cu opțiuni și parametri
• template-urile cele mai utilizate pentru plugin-uri
• și în final, o listă de guidelines, adică un mic ghid

Most people don’t even listen to the radio any more and static is pretty much a thing of the past when it comes to television. The advent of the digital age has propelled man to the point that static is becoming almost a lost word. There are times as I drive through the countryside that I lose one radio station and start picking up another. As you lose one station the static begins to take over.

Static simply defined is random noise, interference, obstruction. Sometimes static is hard to notice, especially when today’s music is loaded with sound effects and distorted guitars. Sometimes you notice the static, but think its part of the song. Some times the static is so loud, you decide to change the station. It is quite upsetting to have your favorite song being drowned out by the static.

Life is Static

Life, in a way, is like static. You can view several things in life, such as your job, your television time and the computer, as static. Static is there to get in the way of the things that are important. It’s very easy to get caught up in what is going on in the world, but miss what is happening right under your nose. I think children and spouses take the brunt of the increased amount of static in our lives.

Static also gets in our way when we try to hear God. Sometimes we pay more attention to television, friends, music, etc. than we do listening for God’s voice. I seem to be the world’s worst at this. That is one of the reason’s for me starting this blog…a chance to write through the static.

The Other Meaning

Static also has another meaning. It means to be still or in complete rest. It’s amazing that these two meanings exist within the same word. It is almost fitting that one static is at war with the other. I think one of the keys to hearing from God is to be static, or still.

Some people question that God even speaks today. Some believe that he is far too concerned with important issues in the world to spend time talking with us. I think this is a hoax. I think God’s entire purpose in creating us was for us to get together and talk. I think God invented conversation for the purpose of spending time with us.

As a matter of fact, in the book of Genesis, God is caught walking through the garden in the cool of the day trying to spend time with Adam, who had just betrayed God by not listening. Notice that God was walking, looking for Adam in that story. He wasn’t running. He was calm. He knew what had happened. He knew the evils about to fall on mankind, but he wasn’t the least bit shaken.  He was just searching Adam out, just like he always had. God continues to search for us. He is expecting to continue that conversation he started a long time ago.  God could have very easily created us without a method of communication, but instead he gave us both a mouth and a set of ears.

That’s what this blog is going to be about…conversation. Hearing God through life’s conversation and stopping every once in a while to see what he has to say despite of all the static in our lives.

… Been fascinated by static lately. You don’t see it around too often, unless you’ve got an older analog tv set. If the relationship between you and your television could be regarded as a type of conversation, then static would be those moments of misunderstanding, of confusion, of awkward moments and gauzy memories. Jagged lines skitter across your screen, distorting and warping the relevant elements. Information chopped up and rearranged. Memory lapses. Secret signals and hidden patterns. Did this series on some sheets of graph paper from the 1970’s, and apart from that great yellow foxing effect, I like to think that some of the weird energy of those times is still communicated thru the specific aesthetic design of the graph paper.
.
Static III (of a series of 5)
pen on graph paper

To make the application configurable, so one can avoid to rewrite and recompile is to use App.Config.

<Configuration>
<appSettings>
    <add key = "MySetting" value="1223"/>
 </appSettings>
</Configuration>

To access this – add an reference to System.Configuration and then in the code write

string x = System.Configuration.ConfigurationSettings.AppSettings.Get("MySetting")

Now, this is a little long to write, if it is to be used in many places. The solution is to encapsulate it in a static class.

A static class is a class that don´t needs to be instanciated. The values of the properties are set at start, and cannot be changed. Perfect for config-settings.

using System;
using System.Configuration;

namespace Something
{
 public static class AppResources
 {
 public static string MySetting =  System.Configuration.ConfigurationSettings.AppSettings.Get( "MySetting" );
 }
}

No need for set or get here.

And it is used like this:

string x = AppResources.MySetting;

And no () after the property name, of course.

Breathe me
Until all I am is breathless
Break me
Until all I am is fractured

Ruin me
Until all I am is worthless
Burn me
Until all I am is ashes

Doubt me
Until all I am is faithless
Reverse me
Until all I am is inverted

Consume me
Until all I am is faceless
Distort me
Until all I am is static

Have You Seen Smallville: Season 6 Episode 8 – Static?

Episode Synopsis:

Clark learns that one of the escapees from the Phantom Zone has landed in Seattle and slaughtered the entire crew of a working ship. Upon investigation, Clark comes face to face with a horrifying Phantom who sucks bones out of people, and a mysterious alien bounty hunter, intervenes on Clark’s behalf. Back in Smallville, a patient with the ability to morph into different frequencies escapes for LuthorCorp’s secret experimental lab, called 33.1 and seeks revenge on Lex by imprisoning him in another spatial period where he can see and hear everyone but no one can see him. Lana teams up with Chloe and Jimmy to try to find Lex before he is forever trapped in the alternate frequency plane of existence.

So what do you think of this episode?

If you missed it, you can watch it here.

<![CDATA[If you want to redirect your .htm pages to .php pagesand you've got mod_rewrite enabled on your server you can put this in your .htaccess file:### h

Teen Titans (Volume 3) #76
Written by Felicia D. Henderson
Art by Yildiray Cinar
Co-Feature by Sean McKeever
Art by Cinar

The main story was eh okay. Not the best, I think Henderson still hasn’t quite grasped all of the Titans yet. Wonder Girl seemed totally fine with Beast Boy taking over leadership last issue and now all of a sudden she just switches?! I mean sure he left to save Raven but come on. Cinar’s art is much better in the Ravager back-up which means that the main feature was probably rushed because another artist backed out. Why can’t they give this book a good regular artist again?

Milestone Forever

McDuffie will team with John Paul Leon, Mark Bright, Chris Cross and Denys Cowan to wrap up the stories from Hardware, Icon, Shadow Cabinet, Blood Syndicate and Static. I figured we were well past ever seeing these characters again in their original environment, so this is welcome news, even if it is “a bittersweet tale that chronicles the literal end of a universe.”

What is Milestone Comics?

Milestone Comics was DC Comics answer to multiple cries of everyone one on DC Earth being white or black folks with “Black” in their name. Here’s what Wiki says:

Milestone Media is a company best known for creating the Milestone comics imprint (that was published through DC Comics) and the Static Shock cartoon series. It was founded in 1993 by a coalition of African-American artists and writers (namely Dwayne McDuffie, Denys Cowan, Michael Davis and Derek T. Dingle) who believed that minorities were severely underrepresented in American comics. Milestone Media was their attempt to correct this imbalance.
Christopher Priest participated in the early planning stages of Milestone Media, and was originally slated to become the editor-in-chief of the new company, but bowed out for personal reasons before any of Milestone’s titles were published.

Who Dat?

The major heroes of this world were Icon (black slave Superman – I’m not kidding he was like a black slave who became a “Superman”) and his sidekick Rocket (pregnant black teen who had inertia powers because of a black slave Superman’s alien belt) , the ever popular Static (I loved his hard Static was but that damn cartoon ruined him for me forever), and the lesser known Hardware ( I have no clue who this nigga is but I guess a black Iron Man).

Oh if you didn’t believe me about DC Comics being sort of racist or ignorant with black characters and readers, check out this DC comics questionnaire for the 70’s!

I’m offended that “Black People” were below Pollution but I have to give them props – it only took them 25 years to printing Milestone Comics but they still refuse to give Black Lighting, Black Racer, Black Manta, and Black Bomber, Black Vulcan, and my favorite Black Cyborg. Oh wait he wasn’t called “Black Cyborg” he was just black.