Celestia Forums

I dont know whether this is already out as an add-on, so this could be considered a request for a link to the topic/download. Anyway, is there an add-on where you can add text and bookmark them to make a sort of diary or journal?

Not really. If you're thinking of the NCIS episode, that part was imaginary. It probably could be done, although the file wouldn't really be hidden as they implied. The file could be "hidden" (or hard to find, anyhow) so far as locating it within Celestia would be concerned, but it'd be just another file in Celestia's directory so far as the operating system's concerned, and not really hidden at all.

Of course, I'm probably not thinking about it in the right way. Some form of steganography could be used, maybe.

Oh well, it was just a thought, it seemed kind of unlikely.

Of course, as it turns out, it's so trivially easy that it's usually overlooked. I know I didn't think of it. It took Runar complaining that .celx InfoURLs had stopped working for him to cause my AHA!

When you specify an InfoURL in an SSC file, Celestia tells the operating system to open the specified file using the program associated with its filetype. If it's of type .html, your default Web browser is run. If it's of type .celx, Celestia is run. If it's of type .txt, your default text editor is run. If it has a filetype that's associated with an encryption program, well, I think you get the picture.

Hiding the file is more difficult. Hiding the object in Celestia's 3D space is easy, but isn't particularly effective by itself. After all, it does have to be specified using an InfoURL in an SSC file. And that URL does point to a file that's on the computer's disk, so the file can be found using standard search utilities. Hiding it in plain sight is probably the best recourse.

So, anyhow, here's an SSC file which hides a bright yellow diary in the center of the Sun. Call it something else and include it in your largest Addon



At least an empty mydiary.txt must already exist.

It could allso be hiding a link as usual but the link whold not be accesible by other means. Let's say:
InfoURL "and here goes the link for my profile's outbox on the forum"
But then you allso need the cookies so you will be logged in.

selden wrote:
...

When you specify an InfoURL in an SSC file, Celestia tells the operating system to open the specified file using the program associated with its filetype. If it's of type .html, your default Web browser is run. If it's of type .celx, Celestia is run. If it's of type .txt, your default text editor is run. If it has a filetype that's associated with an encryption program, well, I think you get the picture.

...

InfoURL "you_info_dir/*.pdf"

works too.

Selden, what happen? NOW WORK EVEN WITH .EXE!!!

InfoURL "you_info_dir/you_exe_file.exe"

NOW WORKS!!!

Oooops,

if it is working with executeables it could also be used to do things that are nasty.

Perhaps, but only perhaps, it should be reconsidered/reprogrammed to work only with defined objekt types, like clex, txt, html and some others.

Otherwise it could be seen a security leak. Or a feature depending on yoour point of view.

Yes, I am in paranoia mode

Regards,

Guckytos

Guckytos wrote:Oooops,

if it is working with executeables it could also be used to do things that are nasty.

Perhaps, but only perhaps, it should be reconsidered/reprogrammed to work only with defined objekt types, like clex, txt, html and some others.

Otherwise it could be seen a security leak. Or a feature depending on yoour point of view.

Yes, I am in paranoia mode

Regards,

Guckytos

Well, indeed. Not with virus in mind, but for Windows users only, that should advantage of the feature; why they can to launch calculators as well as Stellarium within Celestia and Mac and Linux users cannot?

EDIT LATER:

Mac and Linux users: do you have the same feature?