The Bitcoin whitepaper is hidden in every copy of macOS • Hacker News Board

Re: The Bitcoin whitepaper is hidden in every copy of macOS

#51

Post by jerrysievert » Wed, Apr 05, 2023, 10:33 PM UTC

kris-nova wrote: post #8

I would be willing to wager there is more inside that PDF than just the contents of the Bitcoin white paper. Curious if anyone has a hash sum handy

Mojave:

    openssl sha256 /System/Library/Image\ Capture/Devices/VirtualScanner.app/Contents/Resources/simpledoc.pdf
    SHA256(/System/Library/Image Capture/Devices/VirtualScanner.app/Contents/Resources/simpledoc.pdf)= b1674191a88ec5cdd733e4240a81803105dc412d6c6708d53ab94fc248f4f553

Re: The Bitcoin whitepaper is hidden in every copy of macOS

#52

Post by mdmglr » Wed, Apr 05, 2023, 10:33 PM UTC

reaperman wrote: post #50

mdmglr wrote: post #17

184 KB * how many Macs on earth? I don't mean anything by this, just interesting thought experiment. Was numbers.pdf not enough to accomplish what they wanted? My opinion: I understand the OS is a big multi-team effort but this just not cool. It's not about the contents of the file or that it's about bitcoin. Plain and simple: Don't ship files that don't need to be shipped. All these files, if they are test files, sh…

Back in my day, "easter eggs" used to be cool.

How is this pdf cool?

Back in my day easter eggs were fun.

Re: The Bitcoin whitepaper is hidden in every copy of macOS

#53

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Apr 05, 2023, 10:33 PM UTC

louison11 wrote: post #32

It’s a convenient way of backing up the document that can be used to re-create this impactful technology from scratch… may a disaster take place. Think like sending backups of human civilization into space. There are probably now hundreds of millions of copy of this file, pretty cool.

[deleted]

Re: The Bitcoin whitepaper is hidden in every copy of macOS

#54

Post by SllX » Wed, Apr 05, 2023, 10:33 PM UTC

Check out the actual directory. There’s a bunch of stuff in there including a cover image that does show up in the interface of Image Capture. In two minutes of testing I haven’t quite figured out where to click to get it to preview the Bitcoin white paper but decent chance they needed a “simple document” PDF for something at some point and it came down to “why not the Bitcoin white paper?”

Re: The Bitcoin whitepaper is hidden in every copy of macOS

#55

Post by blauditore » Wed, Apr 05, 2023, 10:34 PM UTC

Wowfunhappy wrote: post #48

flir wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's on this Mojave 10.14.6 machine too. The internet says that's Sep 26, 2019.

I can confirm the PDF is not present on OS X 10.9 Mavericks. So it was added some time between 10.10 and 10.14.

It was almost certainly added around the hype in 2019.

Re: The Bitcoin whitepaper is hidden in every copy of macOS

#56

Post by Mountain_Skies » Wed, Apr 05, 2023, 10:34 PM UTC

Another OS include is that Microsoft Bob was hidden in the Windows XP install CD, apparently as part of the copy protection scheme. Wonder if the Bitcoin paper has any function beyond its written content.

Re: The Bitcoin whitepaper is hidden in every copy of macOS

#57

Post by cududa » Wed, Apr 05, 2023, 10:34 PM UTC

SllX wrote: post #54

Check out the actual directory. There’s a bunch of stuff in there including a cover image that does show up in the interface of Image Capture. In two minutes of testing I haven’t quite figured out where to click to get it to preview the Bitcoin white paper but decent chance they needed a “simple document” PDF for something at some point and it came down to “why not the Bitcoin white paper?”

I think this is for a unit test around scanned documents or something, given the rest of the directory's contents

Re: The Bitcoin whitepaper is hidden in every copy of macOS

#58

Post by kolinko » Wed, Apr 05, 2023, 10:34 PM UTC

andrewfromx wrote: post #39

This is like a slightly better version of https://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/the-campaign-to-erase-th... someone wanted to pick an example PDF and picked the bitcoin one. Just like in the article above back in 1973 they didn't realize the harm in what they were selecting as the sample photo. And maybe there is no harm with this PDF selection? We'll know in 2073!

What harm was done with that photo? Was even one woman turned away from an industry bc of it? Absurd.

Re: The Bitcoin whitepaper is hidden in every copy of macOS

#59

Post by codehalo » Wed, Apr 05, 2023, 10:35 PM UTC

neilv wrote: post #45

Skyy93 wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Currently the only impact Bitcoin had is burning a large amount of electricity. I would not say this is a particular worthy technology to safe. There would be far better ideas like Transformers in AI or 5nm chip technology.

And facilitating organized crime, terrorism, and investment scams.

And human trafficking.

Re: The Bitcoin whitepaper is hidden in every copy of macOS

#60

Post by Ancapistani » Wed, Apr 05, 2023, 10:35 PM UTC

> One other oddity: there’s a file called cover.jpg in the Resources folder used for testing the Photo media type, a 2,634×3,916 JPEG of a sign taken on Treasure Island in the San Francisco Bay. There’s no EXIF metadata in the photo, but photographer Thomas Hawk identified it as the location of a nearly identical photo he shot in 2008.

If I were Thomas Hawk, I’d be sending Apple a bill for the use of my photograph.