GIF/PNG converter?

December 1, 2005 9:10 AM

There was a post a few months ago about an online text to gif/png converter. I think it was deleted. Does anyone remember the address to that site?
posted by greasy_skillet to ticketstub project at 9:10 AM (17 comments total)

usage
posted by moift at 9:50 AM on December 1, 2005

Thanks moift, but I'm looking for that particular site. I think it was deleted because the comments were nothing but images. Ring any bells anyone?
posted by greasy_skillet at 9:56 AM on December 1, 2005

That's an unusual category.
posted by Wolfdog at 10:08 AM on December 1, 2005

This? moift's is better.

Yes, excellent use of the ticketstub category.
posted by If I Had An Anus at 10:19 AM on December 1, 2005

posted by shmegegge at 10:38 AM on December 1, 2005

what on earth is ticketstub, btw?
posted by shmegegge at 10:39 AM on December 1, 2005

Thanks, anus!
posted by greasy_skillet at 10:41 AM on December 1, 2005

posted by caddis at 10:54 AM on December 1, 2005

I'm very interested in potential usage of a tool like this. Basically, how to keep information a little less public on a public forum.

I understand many of the technical aspects:

1. The text isn't searchable with standard tools, and won't be for the foreseeable future.
2. The text can be deleted as the user wishes, if they control the host server.
3. Anybody who chooses to save a page impression still has this information forever.
4. OCR can still break it.

So, technical aspects are interesting, but I'm interested in the entire question from deciding what information would benefit from this obfuscation to how to implement it in a useful manner, to what intended and unintended consequences it will have.

One thing that springs to mind... It occurs to me that some quarrelsome folk might decide to interfere with the attempted obfuscation by retyping and posting directly below your comment, or some similar mischief...

Actually, maybe I should post this as an AskMe...
posted by Chuckles at 11:12 AM on December 1, 2005

posted by Plutor at 11:32 AM on December 1, 2005

Once upon a time, Ticketstubs existed. No more, it looks like.
posted by Plutor at 11:37 AM on December 1, 2005

Oh crap. Hehe. It's funny because it's a picture and not text.

I am usually against the closing of MeTa threads, but not this one.
posted by nthdegx at 11:46 AM on December 1, 2005

posted by If I Had An Anus at 11:58 AM on December 1, 2005

Chuckles, there is no security in obfuscation, only the perception of security. Further discussion on the "benefits" of such an approach, from a security or privacy standpoint, are thus unnecessary.
posted by odinsdream at 12:08 PM on December 1, 2005

¡dood
posted by jessamyn at 12:22 PM on December 1, 2005

What about the practical vs. theoretical security? Just because I have a known/theoretical attack on an obfuscation measure doesn't mean that, in practice, the obfuscation measure confers no general increase in security.

Or to put it another way, you may not be able to fool all of the people all of the time, but if you aren't protecting nuclear secrets you might be satisfied with fooling more of 'em more of the time.

So are we talking about security in the absolute sense ("Can this be broken? Can this be attacked?") or in the practical sense ("How often will this be broken? How much can we afford to have this attacked?")
posted by cortex at 12:22 PM on December 1, 2005

ticketstubs.metafilter.com is where the site is archived.
posted by mathowie at 12:22 PM on December 1, 2005