I have lots of pictures on my Laptop and almost always put them there using Paint simply because to me the simplest way to do something is the most elegant. I have never had trouble re-opening them later.
Well, I have a friend who lives in Mosul, Iraq, and recently she sent me a picture of herself. For some reason, I could see the picture but could not save it to Paint. Last night I tried to open it and where her picture should have been was this little blank screen thumbnail, and I could not open her pic.
Well, with all the Confiker worm talk, now I am wondering if I got sent a sort of picture virus or worse yet some sort of key stroke recorder data swiper uh thingie.
I see things that say that MACs are immune to all this but I view that with a jaundiced eye. The recorded history of humanity demonstrates that the imposible will eventually happen.
So, in spite of all that cynicisim, should my soon next purchase of a computer be a MAC?
Many Blessings
Gwendolyn
Comments
Macs
Tend to be expensive. I have several, but am known to be profligate.
They are much less susceptible to viruses (but not to every exploit) primarily because they're so rare that it doesn't pay virus writers to attack them, and so widely spaced that they don't readily sustain infections if they do arise.
We don't catch things from fish, because they're different to us, nor from hermits living on top of mountains unless we make the trek to the top, and someone with an infection visited earlier. It takes a largish and closely interacting population to sustain an infection of any sort
It may be that her picture is in a different format than your paint programme recognises. There are a mort of them, so it's easy to do, and your attempt to "save it to paint" may have altered it beyong recognition. Does the file size look reasonable for a picture? The file may well be empty, the "junk" not recognised by Paint having been discarded.
If your mail server saves e-mail for any length of time, you may be able to instruct your e-mail client to download the mail again. Or you could ask the original picture sender to do it again.
I'd ask how it was made. Or open it in a raw text editor. Many graphics programmes place a name or code sequence indicating the file format at the top of the file. I just copied this: GIF89a -- for example, from a GIF image.
Puddin'
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P.S. Always work from copies...
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Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
If you can see it, its yours!
If you can see something on your screen then you can always get a screen resolution copy of it using a screen capture program such as Grab (comes with many macs). Nobody can prevent that, given today's technology. But this requires the foresight to realize that what you see might not be available later. Certainly if you cannot copy the image, then it's time to consider a screenshot.
The only reason I can think of for a picture disappearing is if the picture is a reference to a picture elsewhere using a link. So if she sent you an email it might have contained a URL of an image elsewhere. If that image is taken down, then that could explain the phenomenon. But it's hard to tell since I don't know what mail program you use and other details.
Suggestion: If it's an external copy, it might come back if the reason for the disappearance was network issues. So keep trying to look at that picture if there's any chance it is an external one.
Other than that, you might want to look in the usual places for the image - in the trash bin of your computer and in the various mail and web browser cache directories. On the mac you can search for files written a certain date. Enter the date range when you received the image and scan the resulting list of files created then. If it has been merely misplaced, you might find it.
If the thumbnail image has a filename like IMG_1234_thumb.gif, try searching for the name of a file like IMG_1234.gif on your mac AND on the web.
- Moni
macs are less susceptible ...
... to viruses not only because there are fewer of them, and thus less incentive to write viruses for them, but because the operating system is inherently more secure.
afaik there are in fact no viruses for mac os-x. there are a couple of trojans. but if you keep your system patched, macs are about as safe as it's possible to run a computer.
not as think as i smart i am
Buy a Mac
Dear Gwen, sweetie,
Buy a Mac, they're great! I started using Macs at Motorola, cuz back then, they used a Moto microprocessor. I bought one to use at home for work and taught Kim how to use it, the little I knew. Then Kim got one for herself, then a more modern one. All of these were used. Then Kim found out about ASU (AZ state U. in Tempe, where we live) surplus. They sell used Macs along with all kinds of stuff. Kim started buying more and more Macs and books and manuals. The Macs had just about taken over our house, when Kim seemed to lose her addiction. She still talks to one old guy who buys used Macs. Sometimes she does work for him around his house and gets paid in computer stuff. She occasionally buys things on eBay or even at a store (gasp), like boards or hard drives. Anyway, she completely loves Macs.
So, you should buy one.
Love, Hugs, Best of Luck and Bright Blessings,
Renee
Hugs and Bright Blessings,
Renee
Dear Gwendolyn
I've been using Windows-based computers most of my life. It was a comfortable existence, I didn't have to learn anything new. Downsides were clunkyness, and yes: viruses. In the end I became really good at reformatting; it's the best way to start fresh virus/worm-free.
Last October I used my student loans to buy a Macbook Pro. Result: instant absolute love.
Some of my friends make fun of me because Macbooks are usually for people who do graphic design and know nothing of computers. I'm a programmer and a gamer, and I have no creativity, so people wonder why I got it at all. They're expensive, and I'm afraid I have to concede that point to my friends.
Well, here's the scoop: once you get a hang of the new operating system, you'll find that everything flows a lot better. There's plenty of cool apps that come bundled with the OS, and lots more free apps out there on the internet. And yes, they're virus free.
Some people would say "mostly virus-free", but that's like saying that someone is "mostly herpes-free". The truth is, as long as Macs won't represent a significant (40%) share of the computer market, pirates and jerk programmers won't go to the trouble of writing viruses for Macs; it's just not as profitable/effective as targeting the mainstream audience.
Final note: what pushed me over to make this great purchase was, odly enough, all the gimmicks; slim, beautiful, light, backlight keyboard, magnetic power plug, trackpad with awesome built-in apps...it might sound like nothing to some people, but the beauty is in the details.
Hope I helped ^_^
-Christelle
"Fun-loving geek-chick looking for someone who doesn't give a damn about her past"
-Christelle
"Fun-loving geek-chick who's addicted to sunlight!"
Mac Market Share
Hovers between 3% and 4% around 3.5% just now.
It's difficult to say how many old Macs hang around compared to old PCs, but I suspect that the total number of Macs is somewhat lower the current market share, possibly as low as 2% -- more or less.
But as for viruses, there *are* Mac OS-X viruses around, and Apple now advises owners to run at least one anti-virus package, and more than that isn't a bad idea.
http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2008/11/27/apple-advises-use-of...
Puddin'
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Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
picture erasing virus?
picture erasing virus? unlikely. most virus in the wild are driven by either three primary motives A) to make money or B) to cause extrema damage or C) to be used as a tool
A and C are somewhat linked together and are the most common motives for creating a virus. for example A) the goal is to use there virus in somewhat to gather finical information, spam(zombing the computer into a botnet), or in the case of some rather annoying malware(looking at you Antivirus2000) tricks the user into shoveling out money. Expect for the last example the goal of the virus is to be as discrete as possible, having it do something flashy which can tip of the user shortens the life of the virus on the whole.
C) for example fallows smiler goals as to A) as in it want to spread into as many system as possible before people notice namely for the goal of creating a large botnet that the owner can then sell off to spammers. but for this to be effective the user can't be easily tipped off something wrong, so the virus is general a low resource low bandwidth thing the if written correctly would never be noticed by the user.
B) are the types that movies are made of. there flashy and there intend goal is simple break stuff. but for the most part there uncommon, namely because any black hat hacker worth there salt is not going to wast a zero day exploit on a program that going to effectively kill the golden goose. problem with flash and destructive is that is draws a lot of attention to the exploit the hacker is using to get his payload unto the system. Meaning it get patch fast and there for kills the virus along with any other possibilities for later.
in your case the behavior you describe kind of fits into this category but it isn't exactly malicious in nature, in the sense it not damaging the functionality of the computer. more like impeding it. I would guess if you do have a virus it's some teen kids version of a practical joke. But in truth my gut instinct is telling me the file simple didn't save correctly for the web page you pulled it from.