"Deskies" share your desk/study area

[Kobo-Daishi]

I am not sure anyone could make any use of the picture of my desk to find out anything I don't want them to know. Should I worry? I don't know but I don't think I will

 

There was a while back that some guy in Australia posted some photos online that were illegal. Child porn? Candid photos of girls in dressing room? A computer tech who had taken photos off people's laptops remotely for blackmail? Threatening stuff? Something. Forget which.

 

Anyway, the police were able to apprehend him because of the metadata embedded within the photo files he had posted.

 

Metadata is the stuff that they put onto the files to identify what it is. That it's a photo file, the date it was taken, camera settings, etc.

 

Personal stuff they might include would be your user name, the name you registered your device under. Your device. Your location.

 

My phablet has GPS (an American satellite tracking thing.) I think you guys in Europe use another system. China has another.

 

Anyway, my phablet is quite accurate and for more accuracy they ask to use GPS and and wi-fi to get a better fix on me. They way they can get your exact address.

 

That stuff is put onto the metadata. After taking a picture, they'll usually ask me before including it, but, if you're not paying attention you might click okay accidentally and the 'never ask again' button. Might even include your IP address.

 

The GPS is quite accurate and shows exactly where you are.

 

But you'd probably need a hex editor or sector editor to read the data (Freely available online). Though I do believe there are also web sites where you can upload your photo and they'd provide the info.

 

Most of the photos I upload are off my desktop which doesn't have GPS. Still web sites such as Yahoo and the like always seem to know where I am. They tailor the web page for stuff that is local to me. Probably get it from the IP address Quite scary.  

 

But, then, it's probably just the National Security Agency that uses that stuff.  

 

So no need to worry. Nobody cares to know where your prized cats are. (You are the cat lady, right?)   

 

None of you nutters care where Kobo's at. Right?      Nervous laughter.   

 

Kobo, in sunny southern Californa. Too sunny actually. It's been in the upper 90s the past few days. Hundreds in the valley. Scorcher.

[Kobo-Daishi]

Sorry, double posted.

[Shelley]

I used a stand alone oldish digital camera to take my pictures, its better than the camera in my phone or tablet, so i usually use that. Not sure what metadata that has but hey I am not worried, no one cares what i am doing do they?

 

And yes I am the cat lady Thank you for leaving out the crazy.

[Shelley]

Well it looks like post #41 has scared off any more contributors.

 

oh well, shame it looked like it was shaping up to be an interesting topic.

 

I am sure its not too dangerous so it if you are feeling brave it would be good to revive this topic.

[Kobo-Daishi]

Hey, all. It's not really as scary as it seems.

 

This is from a site called FotoForensics.

 

Some cameras, such as smartphones, may also include GPS information as a subset of the Exif record. Although this is rare to come across on the web, if it exists then it will be decoded in the Exif block. (ExifTool will also decode this under a "Composite" heading.)

 

http://fotoforensics.com/tutorial-meta.php

 

"Rare to come across on the web".

 

And here's a link to a recent, September 11, 2014 Newsweek magazine article titled "How Someone Can Track You With a Photograph You Took".

 

http://www.newsweek.com/how-someone-can-track-you-photograph-you-took-269940

 

Luckily, if you'd prefer to post to Instagram without people knowing where or when you took your photos, stripping metadata is pretty easy. For mobile phones, CNET recommends simply disabling location settings for the cameras on iOS and Android; for photos that find themselves on a computer, there's plenty of freeware for Windows, Mac and Linux that will strip the metadata from files. Those more curious than paranoid can also read their photo's metadata in plaintext by right-clicking the photo and scrolling to “More Info” (on a Mac) or doing the same and then scrolling to “Properties” and then “Details” (on a Windows PC).  

 

Just edit out the metadata. So, stop being paranoid.

 

Just because they caught McAfee that way.  

 

I found this bit particularly amusing.

 

And there’s no need for Vice Magazine to be involved, either: anyone could be just as easily tracked by way of their Facebook photo album. Already websites have popped up aiming to raise awareness of the problem. The most well-known example, IKnowWhereYourCatLives.com, raises the privacy red flag by tracking public pictures of cats to their owner's homes. Despite the site-owner’s (truthful) claim that he’s only showing what’s already public, the site can be a creepfest to look at — especially if you’ve posted a picture of your cat taken, well, anywhere close to your home.

 

Kobo.

[Shelley]

Thanks for that info Kobo, lets hope it encourages more "Deskies"

[MPhillips]

Oops, I'd better take down my cat's picture! I know I should but he looks so handsome.

[edelweis]

that he does     my hands are itching to pet him...

 

My desk is nothing special... but anyway here it is.

I have most of my textbooks scanned so I just need to fetch a pen and notebook.

The white stickers on the keyboard were for wubi practice...

 

[edit] actually in summer I do half of my studying outside at a public park during the noon break... mostly SRS and listening. But I can't very well take a picture of my phone with my phone's camera...

[Shelley]

It looks very uncluttered unlike mine. I have scanned a lot of my text books too as PDFs but I find its not so easy flipping round the book say from the index to pages, are you using PDFs or something else and how do you find the usabilility of scaned texts?

 

I have also spent sometime this summer sitting in the garden with the tablet doing skritter and pleco flashcards.

 

I tend to get distracted in the garden watching the birds,butterflys and other flying insects, but it is a great place to study.

 

@MPhillips s/he is a good looking cat.

[edelweis]

Hi Shelley, I am using PDFs but my scanner's software offers no Chinese characters recognition, only Latin alphabet and even that is not great.

What I usually do is that I create separate PDF files for each chapter, or each group of related chapters, and a separate PDF for the index and/or TOC. This way I can open two files side by side: the index or TOC, and the chapter(s).

But actually I don't often use the index... perhaps because I don't study grammar as much as I should hehe.

I don't really need an index for 报刊阅读 and 科普汉语听记 which are the two textbooks I am using more or less regularly these days. But I do create text files with the vocabulary from the chapters that I have studied already, in order to put that into anki.

 

In the park I don't often get distracted by birds but, as I get in the trees shade in order to be able to see my phone screen better, I sometimes get paranoid about spiders descending upon me from the branches, swinging on their silk strands... so some days I'm swiping at my arms and neck at the slightest itch   and some days I find that I have brought guests back to the office in my hair or on my clothes

[Shelley]

That part about the spiders had me laughing out loud, sorry not meant to be mean but it was funny.

 

I suppose I could just open a copy of the PDF reader with the index and one for the chapter. I got the PDFs mainly to use on my tablet not sure if it will let me do that but I can certainly do it on my PC. Good tip. Thank you

[Elizabeth_rb]

Sorry, I never saw this thread whilst it was popular, but as Shelley wanted me to post, hold on a mo and I'll fish out a desk shot.  Can't guarantee it will be from when I was in language mode though....

 

 

It wasn't.  Actually, it's from a while ago and the desk actually appears to be clear.  Things have changed a little since then (some stuff cleared away from shelves etc in my quest for a more minimalist life - a long way to go, I know), but I thought, rather than stage a shot, I'd just share this one.  I'll share another when we get moved and re-settled.

[Shelley]

Looks lovely. Like the bags hanging up. Looking forward to seeing your new desk area. Sometime I wish I could have a complete clear out and change around, the sort of thing that only really happens when you move.

 

Hope your move goes well.

[Elizabeth_rb]

Thanks Shelley.  I think I'd modify your comment a little to: 'the sort of thing that only really happens when you make it'.  Anyone can minimise and clear out, although I grant you that moving does provide excellent motivation.

[Shelley]

Well strange you should say that, I am clearing out my study/craft room to make room for another industrial sewing machine I am being given. I have decided to be ruthless and prioritise.

 

Things like the dolls house kit that I collected every week and still haven't done and lots of things I collected cause they "might" have been useful but after 20 years I had forgotten I had, never mind found a use for.

 

So if you know any one who wants a dolls house kit.......    I have put it on gumtree so we will see what happens.

[Elizabeth_rb]

Yup, that's one of the secrets to decluttering: getting rid of anything that you're really never going to use and/or have been hanging on to 'just in case'.  Bin alert!

[朱真明]

Never too late to join the party. 

[Shelley]

Welcome to the party   Interesting, looks like a left-handed arrangement. I have always wondered if writing characters is more difficult left-handed, I know left-handedness causes some people problems just writing English.

 

I like the being surrounded by books on the desk, book brackets

[朱真明]

Lol, book brackets.   

 

When using a pen, I've noticed that the tip becomes dry quite easily so I have to keep changing the angle of the tip. It's not so bad when writing Chinese because the pen is angled upwards.  

[edelweis]

Finally figured out the arrangement of limbs in the poster.