Why Corporations Ban JPG In Email

So, you’re at work and a friend sends you an email with a couple of pictures attached. When you receive the email, no pictures. Whilst not surprising, it’s still annoying:

“Why? They’re harmless. It’s photos of his new car. Nothing sinister. Please can I have the pictures?”

The admin refuses. You call the admin all sorts of names thinking that he’s a grumpy nerd who simply spoils everyone’s fun. Actually, he’s not. Apart from the obvious, these files aren’t work related and they could be porn (yes, it happens!) there is a potentially more sinister reason. The image JPEG could have files hidden within it. These files could be anything, plain text, a virus, an MP3, instructions for blowing something up. Worse than that, most anti-virus applications don’t recognise the embedded file and ignore it without flagging it to the user.

Here’s an example. The Windows 98 Blue Screen of Death image at the bottom of my previous post isn’t as innocent as it looks. Embedded within that picture there is a hidden file that looks like this:

And this is the content of that file:

Think I’m kidding? I’m not. This post, this image:

Try it for yourself. You will need Winrar or something to open a RAR file. (Windows users) Right click and save the image to your desktop then right click it on your desktop and choose Open With, locate “Winrar” in the list and click. I won’t give Linux users instructions as they are 1337.

Scary isn’t it! That’s why Admins ban jpeg attachments. And because all IT admins are complete bastards…

Geek Tattoos

I am a geek. I freely admit that, have no problem with it at all. Why? Because I’m not a nerd. What’s the difference? Well, there’s two versions:

A Geek is a nerd with a social life.

And this version from Wil Wheaton’s son Ryan that I saw this morning:

Nerds don’t know they’re nerds, but geeks know they’re geeks, and they embrace it.

So, when you get a Windows 98 BSOD tattoo you MUST be a geek. There’s no way not to embrace it with a tattoo like this.

Found via ModBlog, this is the exact text from a Blue Screen of Death, circa 1994. I’m really not too sure what it’s supposed to mean. Perhaps Paul was just bored, or maybe he was feeling nostalgic for the death of yet another Windows 98 installation.

Just in case you’re interested, this is the where he got the text. Even the memory address matches:

Update: The first comment here is from Sam Rulz, the tattoist who inked Paul’s arm. She has written about it in her MySpace blog here. Awesome information, thanks Sam.