I’ve upgraded WordPress to the recently-released 2.10 version. For the most part, things went smoothly, but the theme I had been using did fail the test of compatibility. Until I can find a solution, or the author releases an updated version, the WordPress back-end will be running an alternative theme. Unfortunately, this may result in some sizing issues, particularly with pictures. I appreciate your patience as I try to get this corrected.

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I’ve added the photos from this weekend, in Mt. Pleasant. There are nearly a hundred new pictures for your enjoyment. As always, if you haven’t registered before, you’ll be required to before you can view the pictures. Once you register, you’ll receive an e-mail with a link in it. Go there, log in with the provided password, and then change your password to something you’ll remember. While you’re at it, fill in your name so I’m sure to know who you are. At this point, you’ll still have to wait until I authorize your account; if I’m at my computer, this could be less than 5 minutes. I’ll let you know when you’re good to go. Enjoy.

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At one point, while browsing facebook pictures, I noticed the telltale sign of bitmaps loading (they display from the bottom up). Sure enough, the pictures were about 400KB each. They may have been labeled as JPGs, but they were actually BMPs. I found this odd because to upload pictures to facebook, they all run through the Java uploader and are resized. Except, I realized, maybe the Java uploader simply checks the dimensions and only resizes and recompresses if necessary. If someone made a bitmap that was within the maximum allowable dimensions for facebook, with a misleading JPG extension, the uploader might simply pass it through. Therefore, it may be very easy to hide information within facebook photos without anyone being the wiser.

I was talking to Jeff about this possibility, and he whipped up a test file. As it turned out, I was mostly correct…we could upload large amounts of data hidden within a normal looking image. There is a limit, though: facebook only supported file sizes up to 3.25 MB in our practice. This is a good thing, as there could be some nefarious happenings if it weren’t capped. But it is a proof of concept: You can hide data in facebook images and have it covertly available. This is known as Steganography, defined by Wikipedia as “the art and science of writing hidden messages in such a way that no one apart from the intended recipient knows of the existence of the message.” And now you know…sometimes there’s more than meets the eye.

All content ?2007 Tony Magri

Mini-Projects, Projects | No Comments »

Facebook, as you probably know, is a social networking web site similar in some ways to MySpace. I actually use facebook, though, because I feel it’s far superior to MySpace. Every now and then, I come across something something unusual that most people would never notice. I should clarify at this point that my use of the term ‘hacking’ is in reference to the classical definition. That is, hacking is studying a system to see if you can improve it or exploit it to perform a function it was not originally intended to (my definition). It is rarely illegal and is more of an exercise in understanding than a malicious act, as it is portrayed in the modern sense.

Tonight, I came across an article that mentioned a unique facebook group. It uses a special character known as a non-breaking space, and represented as ” ” to create a group that has no name. This also makes it somewhat difficult to search for. Thinking this was clever, I searched facebook for ” “. In addition to the aforementioned group, it listed what seemed to be hundreds of the same person: The Creator.

Intrigued, I delved into it a bit further. There was a ‘The Creator’ at CMU, and many other places. The profile didn’t indicate that it was any real person, but I was able to piece together some odd bits of information. Obviously, there’s the reference of creation, or being the first. The profile number of this person was 21700001–a surprisingly round number. If this person was the first person, then they would be number 1. But there’s the ’217′ part–but that’s simple: Each network is numbered sequentially on the left, and each profile sequentially on the right. CMU was simply the 217th network to be entered on facebook.

I was able to figure this out by comparing my profile number (21704861) to the Creator’s. The first three digits are the same, since they’re both in the CMU network. For the last 5, mine’s much higher, probably indicating I was the 4861st person at CMU to register for facebook.

This hypothesis was confirmed by a quick Google search, which led me to http://thebillygoatcurse.com/43/. That page said this:

The first Facebook member at every school is called The Creator. You can?t search for him, but it is the first member for each school added into the Facebook system.
Looking at your ID from your profile?s URL, you?ll learn that the first couple of numbers will represent your school. If you change the rest of the numbers to zeros, and the last number to 1 (making it the first ID for your school), you?ll view ?The Creator?s? profile. And? that?s it.

I had done one thing this person didn’t know was possible, though. I had stumbled on a way to search for The Creator (by searching for ” “). And that’s something apparently very few people know about.

All content ?2007 Tony Magri

Mini-Projects, Projects | No Comments »

So, Tom’s trying to build a home audio setup with quality levels closer to ‘Audiophile-level’ than to ‘Consumer-level’. But the problem with audiophile equipment is that the cost typically ranges from $A-Lot to $More-Than-You’ll-Ever-Make. But there is a certain amount of finesse one can leverage to get quality equipment at reasonable prices. First, and most importantly, is that the best amps are the ones from the 60′s and 70′s. These old tube amps deliver what is arguably the richest sound quality, and at a fairly reasonable price…if you can find them.

Tom purchased an old tube amp from the late 60′s off of eBay and was able to get some Sony speakers for free. He also got the crossovers necessary to deliver the right frequencies to each speaker. But there was an important part missing…boxes to put the speakers in. That’s where I joined the project. Our mission was to design and construct the boxes necessary to house the speakers and crossovers and somehow manage to keep them square and airtight. If they looked cool when we were done, that was a bonus.
Since this was Tom’s baby, I left most of the planning and decisions ultimately to him, interjecting mostly when I had thoughts I deemed significant or alternative viewpoints worth exploring. I’m generally regarded as the ‘idea guy,’ it seems, so I do what I can.

(more…)

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