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JPEG Everything for Amazon Storage

Unlimited Photos -> Unlimited Storage
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Amazon offers unlimited storage now for photos and 5 Gigs for everything else for $12.00/year. With that in mind, my new favorite file extension just became jpg. There has to be a way of taking advantage. Perhaps mybackup001.zip.jpg? Or maybe every single program could be an ordered assemblage of jpg files, like theoretically programming in Minecraft...
RayfordSteele, Mar 25 2016

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       I'm pretty sure -- at least with Windows -- that you can change the filename extension to whatever you want. The OS will caution you that the file will become unusable, but so what? Just change it back when you're ready to use it again. bun [+]
whatrock, Mar 25 2016
  

       But did you read the fine print? Better make sure that Amazon doesn't reserve the right to perform additional lossy image compression on your files if your total exceeds some threshold.   

       They could also easily detect abuse by checking to make sure it is a valid format. Of course one could encode data into an image stored in .jpg format.
scad mientist, Mar 26 2016
  

       better yet, use steganogrophy to actually encrypt your data into images in a way that they can't complain about
theircompetitor, Mar 26 2016
  

       Better still, print out the binary representation of your zip file, and then scan it in as a series of JPGs which can be stored on Amazon. Simply retrieve the data by OCRIng the images to get back the 1s and 0s which form the binary representation of the zip file.
hippo, Mar 26 2016
  

       Yes Ian, you win the award for obvious statement of the day. That's why there's a double extension for renaming purposes.   

       The steganographic proposal is worth exploring...   

       I'd be curious as to if the server simply reads file name extensionsor if it verifies types.
RayfordSteele, Mar 26 2016
  

       //But did you read the fine print? Better make sure that Amazon doesn't reserve the right to perform additional lossy image compression on your files if your total exceeds some threshold.//   

       If they do that, the solution is obvious : encode data as solid greyscale 8x8 pixel blocks, and all (but the first) DCT coefficients set to zero.
Now they could try to reduce that with a lossy jpeg reencoding, but to succeed they'd need settings which totally fry everybody's pictures.
Loris, Mar 26 2016
  

       // If they do that, the solution is obvious // But what if they resize the images too? Better build some redundancy in.   

       Actually, if they really do allow unlimited images, you needn't store any data in them. How long can the filename be? Simply rename all of your images to, say, a base-64 encoded 32 byte chunk followed by .jpg , and you can read the data back just from the file list.
mitxela, Mar 26 2016
  

       + [Hippo] + [mitxela]
scad mientist, Mar 27 2016
  

       The Amazon offer is a bit suspect. But if anyone's interested, I'm prepared to store all your cash free of charge.
MaxwellBuchanan, Mar 27 2016
  
      
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