MetaChat - Autumn and the Plot Against Me.

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09 May 2007

Autumn and the Plot Against Me. A Vanity Fair article by Nick Tosches about his lengthy search for ‘the mysterious origins of a Windows desktop image.’

post by: misteraitch at: 06:47 | 13 comments

I remember the first time I saw this image. It was on one of the PCs in the computer lab at Midlands Technical College back when I was first learning Java. I thought at first that I was seeing a college campus and started pondering where it could be.

posted by PaxDigita 09 May | 06:56

What a great article.

posted by seanyboy 09 May | 10:27

Nice article. I figured that in the end it would turn out to be a composite image -- not an actual place at all. I like this ending better.

posted by Atom Eyes 09 May | 10:31

Great read, misteraitch.

posted by iconomy 09 May | 10:37

Awesome post, misteraitch! And in honor of this post, I've just put it up as my desktop wallpaper.

posted by deborah 09 May | 12:57

That was quite great.

posted by agropyron 09 May | 13:36

All I know is that the photographer uses a some stupid no-right-click script which is completely useless and only annoys me, and one of these days I am going to kill every single person on earth who uses one, so I hope he dies horribly to save me some trouble.

posted by weretable and the undead chairs 09 May | 16:45

Weretable: Get firefox, then the Web developer toolbar, and then use the Disable option to disable JavaScript. Right click, and enjoy your copyright violation.

(on preview: That also kills the mecha "Post" button....)

posted by Triode 10 May | 01:21

Or you could view the source to find what the image url is (hypothetically, it might be something like http://www.peterkburian.com/uploads/deluxe/borderless/0709/ 0702251022581winterbetterphoto830_thumbnail_l.jpg for the winter view of the tree-lined lane) and then save it from that direct link. JavaScripting assholes will never be able to protect content. You have to be a bit more savvy.

posted by kyleg 10 May | 02:13

You know what's funny? I came across this story just last week while pursuing something entirely unrelated (I wish I could remember what, now), and checked metafilter to see if it had been posted. I was going to post it here, but then got distracted. :)

posted by taz 10 May | 02:21

and misteraitch, if you post Great Scenes in Rock and Roll History as re-enacted by Peeps, or an Askme about how to make a table like this, I'll know for sure that you're stalking me in the tubes. yay!!! coolest stalker, evah!!!!!!

posted by taz 10 May | 02:28

I don't even want the image. I just hate those stupid scripts for taking my menu away when they don't do a damn thing to keep me from getting the image if I want it.

posted by weretable and the undead chairs 10 May | 04:30

I don't think I'd be very good at stalking, taz: you would have already noticed me clumsily pretending not to look like I was following you around. I noticed the article by way of a link on the del.icio.us 'front page.' That is one cool-looking table…

posted by misteraitch 10 May | 13:39

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