Picture Cd For Trade Items?

1.7k · February 4, 2006

I saw a similar thread but it was about music. It got me thinking, I have a trip up north coming up and we plan to cache along the way. Intead of my normal signature item do you think it would be nice to find a CD with pictures of nature and such from the surrounding area of the visiting cacher? Like if I took some pictures of places here where I live and dropped the CD's in caches where I visit out of this area?

Thanks for any input.

38.2k · February 4, 2006

Why not?

February 4, 2006

I saw a similar thread but it was about music. It got me thinking, I have a trip up north coming up and we plan to cache along the way. Intead of my normal signature item do you think it would be nice to find a CD with pictures of nature and such from the surrounding area of the visiting cacher? Like if I took some pictures of places here where I live and dropped the CD's in caches where I visit out of this area?

Thanks for any input.

If they were REALLY good pictures, I'd grab one Of course, I wouldn't know until I got to a computer... Sounds good to me, but I'd want it to be chock full of 1,000 pictures or something nuts

9.5k · February 4, 2006

Yes, but only if I knew your reputation.

5k · February 4, 2006

One of our locals puts microdrives in caches. On occasion, he's been known to pre-load amusing things onto them before placing them. It's always a surprise what you might find.

Jamie

February 5, 2006

Not likely to. As I think someone said, without knowing the reputation of the person, too big a risk of virus software being on the CD. Not worth the trouble of fixing my PC if there are problems.

JDandDD

February 5, 2006

I vote with JD and DD, not likely...... no offence to you but the risk is to great.

February 5, 2006

Not likely to. As I think someone said, without knowing the reputation of the person, too big a risk of virus software being on the CD. Not worth the trouble of fixing my PC if there are problems.

JDandDD

I have seen this response before.

To me it seems less likely that one would find a virus-infested CD or other media left by a fellow geocacher than it would be for you to get a virus or other undesirable spyware/malware/etc. from the things many of us do all the time -- run file sharing software, run personal game/file/ftp/web servers, surf the web with browsers that aren't 100% up-to-date or have a history of not being 100% secure (ie IE), open emails from people we don't know, etc...

I would take some precautions like turning off the 'autorun' feature on the drive before putting in the CD, scanning it for viruses, not running any .bat, .exe, etc. files on it, making sure my personal firewall was running to notify me of any attempts at outgoing connections, and fogging the whole inside of the PC with antifungal jock itch spray and some Lysol

BTW, as soon as I find a cache big enough I am putting about 60 original game CDs in it!

February 5, 2006

That's a cool idea !! I've never thought about putting CD in a cache. I have lots of freeware and photos that I would be willing to share. I would pick one up if I found it. I have anti-virus sorftware, so I'm not terribly concerned about that aspect. Thanks for the idea !

February 5, 2006

Not likely to. As I think someone said, without knowing the reputation of the person, too big a risk of virus software being on the CD. Not worth the trouble of fixing my PC if there are problems.

JDandDD

I have seen this response before.

To me it seems less likely that one would find a virus-infested CD or other media left by a fellow geocacher than it would be for you to get a virus or other undesirable spyware/malware/etc. from the things many of us do all the time -- run file sharing software, run personal game/file/ftp/web servers, surf the web with browsers that aren't 100% up-to-date or have a history of not being 100% secure (ie IE), open emails from people we don't know, etc...

I would take some precautions like turning off the 'autorun' feature on the drive before putting in the CD, scanning it for viruses, not running any .bat, .exe, etc. files on it, making sure my personal firewall was running to notify me of any attempts at outgoing connections, and fogging the whole inside of the PC with antifungal jock itch spray and some Lysol

BTW, as soon as I find a cache big enough I am putting about 60 original game CDs in it!

I'll give a little of my background. I am a manager of IT operations for a hospital so I've seen a lot of ways that PCs get viruses. One of the ways is through the pictures or program themselves not just the bat. exe files etc. The problem with any particular individual is that they may unknowingly pass along viruses. You can have one sitting on your computer that infects a file without you being aware. One way of protecting oneself is to never take software (or picture and other files) from anyone whose virus protection schemes you do not understand or know. Just a common and safe practice. And by the way, even your virus checker can miss some, especially if you don't have the most up to date version.

Its just a standard security practice in my profession. A low probability maybe but the costs of a virus wiping out all my data and the effort to restore isn't worth it to me.

JDandDD

February 5, 2006

I'll give a little of my background. I am a manager of IT operations for a hospital so I've seen a lot of ways that PCs get viruses. One of the ways is through the pictures or program themselves not just the bat. exe files etc. The problem with any particular individual is that they may unknowingly pass along viruses. You can have one sitting on your computer that infects a file without you being aware. One way of protecting oneself is to never take software (or picture and other files) from anyone whose virus protection schemes you do not understand or know. Just a common and safe practice. And by the way, even your virus checker can miss some, especially if you don't have the most up to date version.

Its just a standard security practice in my profession. A low probability maybe but the costs of a virus wiping out all my data and the effort to restore isn't worth it to me.

JDandDD

Ah... abstinence then?

I have also been in IT since before it was called IT. I'm not saying you should go pick up a CD from under a log in a forest in the Netherlands that was left by some guy named "Jan de Wit" and put it in the machine running the EMR server at the hospital, I'm just saying hey, maybe we should lighten up a bit on the "viruses on CDs placed in caches" scare thing.

I'd personally love to find a CD or a media card, something like that in a cache, that someone loaded with shareware, MP3s (all freely distributable, of course ), pictures they've taken, etc. So everyone stop burning MP3 CDs for a minute and put together something for your next trade!

1.5k · February 5, 2006

Interesting concept and debate, like the cams people leave in caches I would always worry about something not so family friendly showing up on something like this,

5k · February 5, 2006

like the cams people leave in caches I would always worry about something not so family friendly showing up on something like this,

Unfortunately, in all the cache cams I've left in my caches and developed, the only not-so-family-friendly pic that's ever come out is a couple of old guys flippin' the bird with big smiles on their faces. It's never anything good. :blink:

Jamie

February 5, 2006

Maybe I'm just naive. I've been downloading from other people since the good ole' BBS days and once internet access was available I started downloading there, too. I've probably downloaded tens of thousands of files since the early 80's and never had a serious virus or trojan problem. I know right now I have CDs that I've burned that contain thousands of freeware and shareware files. Most come from reputable sites, but there are plenty from PTP networks and sites that I have no good reason to trust.

I always keep my virus software up to date and run several trojan and adware programs regularly. Don't get me wrong, I have downloaded files that were infected but my protective programs have always caught them as far as I know. If they didn't, it hasn't caused me any problems. I guess my point is that I would trust a CD out of a geocache (especially if a reputable player placed it) far more than a lot of files I get by other means.

If I start doing this, my CD will be prominently labeled with my geocaching name and the contents as well as my email address if someone has a problem or question. I still think this is a cool idea :blink:

Edited February 5, 2006 by GPSOkie

1.2k · February 5, 2006

> I'll give a little of my background. I am a manager

That's ok. We'll still listen to what you have to say. :-) [my dilbert moment]

> One of the ways is through the pictures or program

> themselves not just the bat. exe files etc.

I would be interested to learn more about viruses in the past that were transmitted by .bat files (using whatever command interpreter you like ) themselves. Or by any usual image files (jpg, gif, png, tif) or picturedisc.

February 5, 2006

I would be interested to learn more about viruses in the past that were transmitted by .bat files (using whatever command interpreter you like ) themselves. Or by any usual image files (jpg, gif, png, tif) or picturedisc.

There's plenty of info about various types on antivirus websites, try the glossary on this site:

http://us.mcafee.com/virusInfo/default.asp

For example, here's a .bat file that will delete the entire contents of your hard drive as soon as you run it (this has been confirmed by AOL) :

C:\ECHO "Of course I'm not going to post that!!!"

C:\ECHO "Only Geraldo would do something like that."

:blink:

(edited: typo)

Edited February 5, 2006 by bblake

February 5, 2006

That's a good source.

Somebody said abstinence. Nope, don't advocate that either. But I don't take risks either. So I only commented on what I personally do. But this also is from experience of a disk in a cache being filled with viruses. Didn't look intentional but packed with them. The one's in jpg are rarer but they are now out there. If people pick up a disk, make sure you virus check it. I am fortunate in having a dedicated PC avaialble to me that can be used to allow viruses to do their thing and then we re-build it. Its used to learn about what a virus does, what it takes to remove it and how we have to respond to it. Yep, we find viruses, trojans, etc. all the time so yep I'm always careful.

To answer another question, I have never seen the virus in a bat file but I have seen a virus create a bat file and then use it to erase specific areas of the hard disk,primitive but effective.

JDandDD

> I'll give a little of my background. I am a manager

That's ok. We'll still listen to what you have to say. :-) [my dilbert moment]

Please don't tell me I've become a Dilbert moment. Auuuuugh!! Now I've got to quit! :blink:

JDandDD

Edited February 5, 2006 by JDandDD

February 5, 2006

I saw a similar thread but it was about music. It got me thinking, I have a trip up north coming up and we plan to cache along the way. Intead of my normal signature item do you think it would be nice to find a CD with pictures of nature and such from the surrounding area of the visiting cacher? Like if I took some pictures of places here where I live and dropped the CD's in caches where I visit out of this area?

Thanks for any input.

Why not? If anyone who'd find it wasn't bright enough to know to turn of the autorun and scan it before trying to look at the pics chances are pretty good they're already infected anyway.

Looking at a CD for executables and scanning the jpegs for stegs is simple enough.

The question is more one of whether it would be worth the time to look through the CD once you'd determined it was benign.

February 5, 2006

So you would only use a cd that contained nothing but image files, and only after scanning those for viruses. This cuts out the choice of putting in a disc that is burned through a photo program, such as Picasa? That is how I share my pictures with friends, most of whom don't even know how to open files. It contains an auto-running picture slideshow/browser thing. Now, you can scan the disc for viruses, of course. I don't know anyone who still has auto-run enabled these days lol! I've not had a virus or spyware/malware on my system for many years due to being smart about what I download. If you're going to take the time to pick up a cd, then scan it - doesn't take too long anyhow... The point of the thread was not "is it safe to take a picture cd home", but assuming the cd was clean of all bad things, "would it be a good trade item"? In my opinion, it would be a great trade item, and I'd love to see more of them around. I'd still scan it when I got home, no matter who it came from, but I would still view everything on it :blink:

February 8, 2006

It's a sad commentary on the state of the world, but I have to go along with the nay-sayers: I never touch CDs in caches, even if the appear to be factory music CDs. Too many [expletive deleted] out there; too much trouble (for me) if I allow a virus or trojan to get into my PC.

No matter how reputable you are, or the sources you get files from, unless you write the software yourself you can't guarantee that it's 100% free of malware. (And the majority of "free" programs on the internet, have freeloading spyware on board...)

1.2k · February 9, 2006

Unknown computer disk left in a cache comtaining unknown data? Not in my computer a million years.

Ed

February 9, 2006

As long as you include a description of what's on the disc, sure. It sounds like a cool idea, especially if there's some good wallpaper fodder on there. :huh:

I say go for it. Those who want them will take them, those that prefer not to deal with an unknown disc, won't.

I'd of course run it through my virus scanner first. Safety first

Edited February 9, 2006 by wandererrob

February 9, 2006

I figure it is a neat idea and why not include interesting stuff such as historic data on the surrounding area. I even thought one time of putting a cut down version of my resume in some in the hopes of getting out of this prison cell of an office someday.

I suppose it is like sex if you wear protection when using the CD (antivirus software) and a little common sense about where you are picking it up from you will be at no more risk than you are from emails etc.

2.3k · February 10, 2006

I have been making photo disks and putting them in my own caches. They are of the local area/landscape and I mark the disks with my name. I have taken these photos over a period of two years which gives many different views of the ocean/land in various weather, sun/cloud/fog etc. Amazing how different a view can be. I figure someone out of the area can see the views at other times of the year, and see photos of some things in areas people seldom go.

I usually use the mini CDs or business card CDs that I get for 14 cents each. I just made some business card CDs (50 MB) that have 52 photos on them. I also sent two of them to Europe with coin trades to cachers there, and have received good comments.

February 10, 2006

There is a CD-music cache near me. As you might expect, the quality of the CDs contained in the ammo box wasn't anything great, but my family thought it was really cool. And if you are a rap fan, then you probably would have thought this cache was superb.

1.7k · February 10, 2006

usually use the mini CDs or business card CDs that I get for 14 cents each.

Where do you get those?

1.2k · February 10, 2006

I would be interested to learn more about viruses in the past that were transmitted by .bat files (using whatever command interpreter you like ) themselves. Or by any usual image files (jpg, gif, png, tif) or picturedisc.

There's plenty of info about various types on antivirus websites, try the glossary on this site:

http://us.mcafee.com/virusInfo/default.asp

For example, here's a .bat file that will delete the entire contents of your hard drive as soon as you run it (this has been confirmed by AOL) :

deltree, format, or similar commands in a batchfile do not constitute a virus.

I have never seen a *virus* built out of pure batch or ordinary image files. That was my point.

February 11, 2006

deltree, format, or similar commands in a batchfile do not constitute a virus.

I have never seen a *virus* built out of pure batch or ordinary image files. That was my point.

No, that would fall into the "other undesirable spyware/malware/etc." category I mentioned. There are in fact batch viruses -- a list of them can be found here:

http://www.viruslist.com/en/virusesdescrib...apter=153313914

The image file virus types I have read about require the user to view or even preview the image before any malicious code would be executed. With the WMF type you could simply view a page that has WMF images on it with IE or Firefox (Firefox reportedly asks if you want to run the code) and it will execute the code.

The one I have seen mentioned that infects jpegs actually requires a special viewer to extract the code, otherwise the infected files would be virtually harmless. There's more info about this subject here.

Certainly we should all be careful when dealing with any files of unknown origin, whether discovered on a CD in a cache or downloaded from somewhere. If I do find a CD or other media in a cache, curiousity might just kill this cat.

5.7k · February 11, 2006

You know, if you really want to view some of the best photos of some of the most interesting places and people on the face of the earth, you don't really need some stranger's CD from a cache. Try this: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/

If they can't satisfy your desperate need for looking at wonderful photos, no CD that you are going to find in a cache is gonna make it either. And I would hazzard a guess that the chances of getting a computer virus from their www site is just about as near zero as you are going to find anywhere. :laughing: :lol:

February 11, 2006

You know, if you really want to view some of the best photos of some of the most interesting places and people on the face of the earth, you don't really need some stranger's CD from a cache. Try this: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/

Now that would take all the fun out of it. There's nothing like getting some strange ... photos! :laughing:

For some really interesting photos, you could put this near a cache...

February 13, 2006

Well, after much discussion, I have made my first cache CD. I included various freeware downloaded from reputable sites and photos that I have taken over the years...just as a safety measure, I even scanned the CD to make sure it was virus free and placed my email address on the CD itself. I made 5 copies and will place them in caches next weekend. We'll see how it goes.

Picture Cd For Trade Items?

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