682881 - jorendorff can't stop believin'

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Core :: Security, defect)

Description

[Jason Orendorff [:jorendorff]]

Steps to reproduce:

1. Get jorendorff to follow a link to, for example,
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5I-SbwCHJ80

Expected result: jorendorff is moderately pumped, returns to work energized

Actual result: slow descent into madness over 72-hour period

This song is on infinite loop in my head and will not be dislodged. It never ends. It goes on and on and on and on.

I have tried listening to even catchier songs ...not that I really want to find out what the end of that road looks like... Anyway, no luck so far. For a few hours I thought Spin Doctors' "Two Princes" had a chance, but no.

Desperate.

Like a lot of the very thorniest security bugs, it's not entirely clear where along the chain this could have been stopped. But it's certainly a problem that makes it hard to use the browser. Or anything else.

"Thanks" to Blizzard for discovering this vulnerability. No really.

Comment 1

[Steve Fink [:sfink] [:s:]]

Attachment: Tweak the A-J13' group

This worked for me, though the side effects were a little harsh.

Comment 2

[Paul Wright]

AHAHAHAHAHA....  And I really love that song!
Jason, maybe this will help....  just imagine the new lead singer for Journey singing this, instead of Steve Perry.

Not being disrespectful of the new guy, there's just nothing like the original..

Comment 3

[(not currently active) Ted Mielczarek]

Have you tried Nyan Cat? It's like Drain-O for your Brain-O:
http://nyan.cat/

Comment 4

[Matthias Versen [:Matti]]

move to germany, that youtube video is blocked here !

Comment 5

[Jason Orendorff [:jorendorff]]

Installed sfink's patch and restarted. I wouldn't call the side effects harsh, I call them AWESOME.

Unfortunately it didn't fix the bug. Session Restore put me right back in the same state.

Currently blasting Nyan Cat in my headphones, which is doing wonders for my sanity, as you might imagine. But I have a feeling this is only a temporary fix.

Researching apartments in Germany. Nyan Cat is making it a little difficult.

Comment 6

[Jim Blandy :jimb]

All perception is illusion. The external world is a representation of the self. To believe is to dream. We/you are chained to the cave wall.

(Solipsism to the rescue!)

Comment 7

[Benjamin Stover (:stechz)]

Have you tried the Glee version?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WxPyUzWSPA

Of course, then you'll have to figure out what to do with the Glee version. Also, http://xkcd.com/938/.

Comment 8

[Johnathan Nightingale [:johnath]]

Kellaris and his students have done some interesting work in this area, notably:

Kellaris, James J. “Identifying properties of tunes that get stuck in your head: toward a theory of cognitive itch.” Proceedings of the Society for Consumer Psychology Winter 2001 Conference Scottsdale, Arizona: American Psychological Society, 2001, pg. 66-67.

and

Kellaris, James J. “Dissecting Earworms: Further Evidence on the “Song-Stuck-In-Your-Head” Phenomenon.” Proceedings of Society for Consumer Psychology, New Orleans, Louisiana, American Psychological Society, 2003, pg. 220-222.

IIRC, a more recent study of his (for which I lack a cite) found that "America" from West Side Story had curative properties: it's own earworminess was relatively low, but it's ability to displace other earworms was high.

I am not making any of this up. CogSci degree ftw?

Comment 9

[Johnathan Nightingale [:johnath]]

ALSO

There is no such thing as "South Detroit" (from whence the "city boy" apparently hails). South Detroit is Windsor, Ontario. ( http://g.co/maps/2xf9 ) In interviews, the band acknowledges this fact, and points out that "north detroit sounded wrong."

The city boy, who won't stop believin, is Canadian.

Comment 10

[Benjamin Stover (:stechz)]

Removing myself from CC list, because each email restarts Journey in my head. This bug was a terrible idea.

Comment 11

[Jason Orendorff [:jorendorff]]

Periodic doses of nyan.cat are surprisingly effective and that's what I would recommend to anyone having this issue.

"America" is lodged pretty good though. I wonder if johnath maybe misremembered the result and it was actually more like "'America' is the earwormiest song of all time".

In light of comment 10, I will not be filing the follow-up bug.