Presumably you are not willing to move the files to a different directory with a more neutral name?

You might want something like this. I do seem to remember that Microsoft had a free utility that would remove stuff from Word docs like change tracking and other data but I can't find it now (and that was a few years ago).

This might be what I was remembering.

matildaben: I had not thought of that - I have plenty of space on the hard drive & external hard drive so would a new directory have to go there? How would I do that?

Sir Dodgy: Thank you, that looks perfect! One follow-up, the "string" that I referred to, do you know what the correct name for that is?

1. Don't use Windows if you are even remotely concerned about privacy or anonymity.
2. ..or security, for that matter.
3. Um, there is no 3, that's it.
4. On second thought, if you are truly determined to find a band-aid solution, just create a second account to conduct your legally dubious activities. Then your mp3s can be saved with the string 'C:\Documents and Settings\George W. Bush ate my hamster\My Documents' and the RIAA can have a lovely time attempting to sue the Whitehouse.
5. Good luck!

Well actually dude, I hate to say this but looking at your query again I'm not entirely sure what the problem is.

When you share these files on Soulseek it won't share path data (because that'd be a security risk) it'll only share the folder you chose to share and it's subdirectories. MP3's don't save paths in the ID3 data so that should be safe too. Word documents save all kind of crap in them but I'm pretty sure I would have heard about it if it was saving path data in the doc.

So, unless I've got the wrong end of the stick you shouldn't have a problem.

I have plenty of space on the hard drive & external hard drive so would a new directory have to go there? How would I do that?

jesus. here's the absolutely best thing for you to do. get the box out of the closet that your computer came in. unplug all the wires, carefully repack the computer. return it to the computer store. tell the clerk you are far too ignorant to own a machine like that one. buy a boom box, a typewriter and a three-drawer filing cabinet to store your CD's and correspondence in.

ignore that little rant - quonsar is just pissed cos he has forgotten all about the RFCs again.

at least i can read! how can someone operate a computer without ever noticing the save dialog?

Sir Dodgy: That is good to know about SoulSeek, thx. What I am concerned about is sending a MP3, iTunes or MS Word file as an attachment. I have done that and the path data has my full name on it.

The Save As option does not look like it will address this problem because the path data would still be present, right?

quonsar: fuck off, little man.

quonsar: fuck off, little man.

I think that's finally going to get quonsar change his ways.

Go to your desktop, and right click on it. A menu will pop up. Pick 'new' from the menu, and then pick 'folder'. Call the folder 'music' or 'mp3s' or whatever, a new folder with that name will be created on your desktop. Go to the folder where your music is, and drag your mp3s into the new folder, or highlight them all, 'copy' or 'cut' them, and then open your new folder, and 'paste' them into it.

This is what he's (she's?) talking about.

Soulseek only shares the selected folder and all sub folders, not the full path.

Also, never, ever name your computer or windows account "my name here, not even my first name".

MS products will use that name in a number of ways, including embedding them in MS Office documents in the metadata.

Sure, someone could read the metadata from any given MS file - say, your resume - and see that it's authored by "totally_K-wrad-haxx0rname-like-SNAKEBYTE" or "Clever_name_of_computer_such_as_TehGibson" but if they're smart enough to look at the metadata they're also smart enough to appreciate that you're not blindly divulging your metadata.

Or something.

Also, that "computer name" or "account name" uniquely identifies you on LANs and in a lot of internetworking applications, and a lot of software applications.

If you want to be more anonymous, never register software unless you must. Use made up names, and keep track of them, if you must. Don't name your computer by easily identifiable methods.

If you really, really want to be anonymous, never trust any software you haven't written yourself or personally have inspected the source code of, pipe all your traffic through proxies, never use your own ISP, clone/mask your MAC address, encrypt everything - including all of your internet traffic through SSH tunnels, and basically don't ever connect to the internet or any network unless you really have to.

Throw in a bunch of stuff I forgot, and even then being truly anonymous is a myth.

If you really want to be anonymous, pay Carlos (who works at the bar down by the docks) $150 bucks to get you a fake birth certificate. Use it to get a drivers license and a social security card. Don't open a bank account - work construction and get paid under the table - Carlos can hook you up with some of his contacts. Keep all the money you earn under the mattress in the apartment you rented with faked bank stubs. Fill out any census documents incorrectly. If someone wearing a hat or tie knocks on your door, pretend to not be home. Go by a different name than the fake one listed on your drivers license and pay for everything in cash. Don't own internet or cable TV. Wear a tinfoil hat.

Or, realize that if you're on soulseek, "They" can probably find out your IP address anyway (I know, I know, not if your careful, but is this guy careful? doubt it), so knowing your name doesn't really matter that much.

What iconomy said. Soulseek does show the full path from root during searches, so you will want to store stuff in a new directory that's not in your My Documents folder.

i don't know what to do. i ALWAYS park my car in slot 7B in the mall parking lot. there's acres of other parking spaces. how do i park in them? help!

[cackles insanely]

If you have WinXP, go to the start menu, and click on My Computer, then click on Local Disk C, and then you should see a folder called My Music. This is an anon folder, and the path will show as 'c://my music'.

make a subdirectory/folder straight off C: and move all your share files into it, make that the only shared folder in soulseek. As nylon said, the full path is visible in soulseek even if it is not navigavle (unless you set it to be shared at ahigher level, which some people I have seen on that network have done).

quonsar: insane in 7B

*solves quonsar's dilemma by blowing up his car*

iconomy, My Music generally resides within My Documents, so that's no good. 'My' means it belongs to me, the user. You need to make a new folder directly from C:, and I wouldn't call it My Music in order to avoid confusion with the existing My Music folder, which does have your login name in the full path. What rumple said.

Quonsar: there's nothing you can do. Apart from maybe buy a different parking lot. Preferably one with a vacant 7B.

I don't think soulseek allows for a "root folder" to be designated. So, make a folder in a folder. Mine's x:\mp3s\soulseek\, with multiple folders inside \mp3 being shared, and \soulseek the incoming.

Repaint all floors as 7, and each stall as B.
Rename all file folders as My Music.
Now you're ready to run with scissors.

I just tried out the C/My Music folder in soulseek and it's fine - there's a My Music folder for each user (on my computer) and one generic one under C, so it should be okay, at least from where I'm sitting.

I, too, thought that mils's question was notably clueless. But then quonsar being his typical "I'm a computer expert" self made me much more sympathetic to mils.

The newest Word in Office has an explicit save-as without metadata option in the file menu. If I recall correctly. And I always use "save for web" when saving PS photos that will be public.

Anyway, about mils's question...mudgirl's second comment is the important one. Your name in the file doesn't mean much. Well, true, it could prove that it was you and not someone else if it came to trial; but you're going to get into trouble via your IP address long before that becomes an issue.

And his exact question: if you must keep these files in your "My Documents" folder (or subfolders), just move your "My Documents" folder to someplace other than "Documents and Setting/username/Documents". If you right-click on your "My Documents" folder on your desktop, select "Properties", you can redefine where that directory is on your file system. It can be any directory, create one without your name in it. It will helpfully ask you if you want it to move all your "My Document" files and directories into your newly defined folder.

but i'm NOT a computer expert. i'm just an arrogant jerkoff.

but i'm NOT a computer expert. i'm just an arrogant jerkoff.

I KNEW IT ALL ALONG.

well, even kmellis knows THAT.

Word documents save all kind of crap in them but I'm pretty sure I would have heard about it if it was saving path data in the doc.

-dodgygeezer

They do save the path in the document. I never had word (hate it) so any time someone sent me a word doc I'd open it in anything else. Back in my Mac 0s9 days this usually meant BBEdit, and I would read the entire path and all sorts of crap in the header of the word doc before getting to people's precious formatting (times new roman) and the actual text: "Hi, wanna come to my party on Friday?". Size of document, 7617kb. For that. Tssss.

OK. I'm surprised I haven't come across that before but I'm not so surprised that it happens - if you see what I mean.

Soulseek does show the full path from root during searches

I'm not seeing that at all. Where can you see that info? I can see the whole of any given users shared folder but not the path to the shared folder.

...But then quonsar being his typical "I'm a computer expert" self made me much more sympathetic to mils...

10 POT
20 KETTLE
30 ROFL
40 END

w hap

10 INPUT $RFC
20 PRINT $RFC
30 GOTO 10

dodgygeezer, when you search for a term, the full path comes up in the search results (under the 'folder' column - all columns are variable width). Not when you browse someone's files. See iconomy's picture. If you share files, they will come up as results for someone else's searches, and they will be able to see your full path. This is why searching on soulseek for 'My Documents' or 'C' generally brings up millions of results.

Word saves your "registration" name (and other info like Co. name) to the document properties, so: open document -> file -> properties and open the summary tab, here you'll find the "registration" info.
The good news is you can change this for future documents easily. Create and save a new blank document. Using directions above change the information to whatever you want. Save somewhere and always open this document to start a new "anonymous" document (don't use the Start Menu).
The bad news is that for all past documents you will have to change this manually either by the directions above or by pasting the contents into the "anonymous" document and saving.

There may be other info saved in some way I don't know of though.

The folder column doesn't show the full path on my computer. Anyone else who uses Soulseek seeing anything different or am I going crazy?

Shows it that way for me, dodgy. Also when I browse a user's shares:
≡ Click to see image ≡

(unofficial client, but the information is transmitted.)

Firstly, quonsar is right - if you want to go out and use peer-to-peer systems to illegally share and download copyright material (right or wrong, it is illegal almost everywhere and you should at least take basic precautions to protect yourself, or you are leaving calling cards for law enforcement all over the place), you should either make sure you are as anonymous as you can be or accept that you are sharing your name and who knows what else with the rest of the world and not care. If you are unable to do one of these, perhaps peer-to-peer is not the right place for you to be?

SoulSeek shows the entire file path for me (using official client - what you actually see may also depend on the way other uses have configured the shared folders - I think many use a similar naming structure to the Windows "standard" one, but don't actually use the user path as such.

To avoid having your use name in the file path, I would suggest creating a folder something like x:\music and you can then share that without your name appearing in it (or share a subdirectory if you only want to share some of your music).

NOTE: creating a new folder on your desktop will still put your name in the file path - it will be something like x:\documents and settings\file-sharing criminal's name\desktop\stolen music\stolen.mp3.

Wow. Well I guess it's just as well I don't really bother with file sharing.

i started typing this the other day but then mlis left... so i am pasting here-

[22:49] {Wedge} btw mlis i just use phony names for req'd username registration... "registered user", "valued customer", "concerned citizen", etc... if your real name isnt anywhere on your computer, you wont need to worry about it so much, i guess. also find a proxy?