Forum's post attachments are damaged/corrupted ?

[BravoV]

Searched few old threads here and stumbled on few old threads, actually not that old as it was just dated back in 2011.

Almost all attached pictures/photos posted by different posters are corrupted and can't be viewed, and same results even those attached photos were manually downloaded to local computer.

Example this thread, just watch all picture attachments starting from post #8 and forward  -> https://www.eevblog.com/forum/beginners/how-to-better-wire-the-bnc-connector-and-ghz-issue/


Edit : Example, usually the thumbnail is visible and when clicked it will expand the picture.

[amyk]

Yes, it looks like every occurrence of the byte value 13 (0dh) has been removed from those files. My guess is some process attempted to silently do a newline conversion to corrupt those files.

[EEVblog]

Is ti just this thread, or all old images?

[BravoV]

Dave, not sure, but I think something is really wrong happening right now at this forum.

While I was trying to find other examples, remembered "Mechatrommer" from above example as old member here, so I searched his attachments history thru his profile, and was looking for attachments posted around March 2011 as above example's period, and apparently the image thumbnails were fine until you clicked it. 

Example at this thread here -> https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/salvaging-old-electronics-parts-and-save-the-world/


Here, viewing the post for the 1st time "before" clicking the thumbnail.




After I clicked, its now gone. 




Another example, going to click the 1st and 3rd thumbnails ...




Now, they're gone too. 

[Philbywhizz]

Can confirm.

Thumbnails are showing, but the full size image isn't present.

[TerraHertz]

Also I'm noticing a lot of instances of completely missing images in threads from within the last month.
For example:

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/reviews/can-someone-please-identify-this/msg762163/#msg762163

Can someone please identify this
«  on: September 24, 2015, 03:54:52 AM »
Can someone please tell me the make of this bench top PCB holder? thanks

There's obviously supposed to be an image, and others could see it originally, but nothing is there now.

Any Win/Mac/Linux EOL reformat process that touches image files (and presumably binary files as well) needs to be taken behind the woodshed and dealt with severely.

[amyk]

If it helps narrow down when it occurred, I looked through Mechatrommer's attachments and found this is the first one that was corrupted - March 03, 2011, 07:04:58 PM:

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/beginners/how-to-better-wire-the-bnc-connector-and-ghz-issue/?action=dlattach;attach=6235

This is the last one - March 16, 2011, 03:44:08 AM:

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/what's-this-please-(component-advice)/?action=dlattach;attach=6499

All attachments before and after that span appear to be OK.

Another member with a corrupted attachment, this time a PNG, uploaded March 07, 2011, 03:12:43 AM:

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/microcontrollers/'tricks'-to-connect-multiple-push-switches-with-minimum-io-usage/?action=dlattach;attach=6305

(If only there was a way to find all attachments by date...)

Tha ascii 0x0D carriage return is not present in unix text files. Perhaps the files were transferred between unix  and Windows systems using FTP ascii mode.

That is one of the worst idiotic "features" ever put into a protocol. It's a file transfer protocol; it shouldn't be doing anything other than transferring bytes verbatim between two systems.

Also I'm noticing a lot of instances of completely missing images in threads from within the last month.
For example:

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/reviews/can-someone-please-identify-this/msg762163/#msg762163

Different problem. Externally hosted image is no longer present. Nothing to do with this one.

[BravoV]

Tha ascii 0x0D carriage return is not present in unix text files. Perhaps the files were transferred between unix  and Windows systems using FTP ascii mode.

That is one of the worst idiotic "features" ever put into a protocol. It's a file transfer protocol; it shouldn't be doing anything other than transferring bytes verbatim between two systems.

I guess even these days, there are programmers are just so retarded that still can't tell the fundamental difference between human vs machine readable data. 

[Halcyon]

Is ti just this thread, or all old images?

I've noticed this on a number of threads and have just shrugged it off as broken links etc... mind you I didn't bother to look more closely.

[PA0PBZ]

It is certainly more than one thread:

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/whats-your-work-benchlab-look-like-post-some-pictures-of-your-lab/msg13710/#msg13710

Click the thumbnails...

[Andy Watson]

It is certainly more than one thread:

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/whats-your-work-benchlab-look-like-post-some-pictures-of-your-lab/msg13710/#msg13710

Click the thumbnails...

That thread seems ok to me - all the thumbnails work with the exception of one picture that is possibly being displayed in its natural size.

[PA0PBZ]

That thread seems ok to me - all the thumbnails work with the exception of one picture that is possibly being displayed in its natural size.

That is very strange, this is what I see before and after clicking the thumbnail:





EDIT: It works in Chrome and Firefox but it fails in IE11

[EEVblog]

Nothing has changed on the forum or server in recent times that I am aware of (the eevblog.com Wordpress update should not have changed anything)

[EEVblog]

There was an update to the forum software and I have installed that, does it make any difference?

[EEVblog]

Oh, hang on, I recall running the SMF Maintenance mode as part of another issue, and perhaps that might have found some missing or badly linked images? Can't recall exactly...

[EEVblog]

I am running the SMF file attachment maintenance tool now, but it doesn't seem to be running smoothly, pausing at 1% and keeps asking for a manual continue...

[PA0PBZ]

I am running the SMF file attachment maintenance tool now, but it doesn't seem to be running smoothly, pausing at 1% and keeps asking for a manual continue...

That is normally a sign of bad news...

[EEVblog]

Browsing the attachments from oldest one first:


No problem viewing anyone of them dating back to 2009

[PA0PBZ]

No problem viewing anyone of them dating back to 2009

The oldest posts are fine, it just starts somewhere.

I also hope you noticed that it only fails in IE (11), it works fine in Chrome and Firefox for me.

[EEVblog]

I also hope you noticed that it only fails in IE (11), it works fine in Chrome and Firefox for me.

In that case I'm not the least bit worries then! 

[BravoV]

No problem viewing anyone of them dating back to 2009

The oldest posts are fine, it just starts somewhere.

I also hope you noticed that it only fails in IE (11), it works fine in Chrome and Firefox for me.

Are you saying you can view those attached photos at those examples posts ?

[rdl]

I do not use IE (11) and I was not able to open any of the corrupt "Mechatrommer" attachments linked to in this thread. The "ThunderSqueak" attachments do work correctly.

[EEVblog]

Perhaps the forum settings/plugins were changed at some point. Those Mechatrommer and Johanon posts are displaying full size images, and not thumbnails as you typically get. So perhaps some old issue with image resizing etc.
Mechatrommers first post in that thread that has a small image size works just fine:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/beginners/how-to-better-wire-the-bnc-connector-and-ghz-issue/msg36138/#msg36138

So unless this problem is massively widespread and something has genuinely changed recently, then it may not be worth chasing. Might just be case of having stumbled upon some images that were uploaded at a point in time where there was some funny setting happening.

[BravoV]

Perhaps the forum settings/plugins were changed at some point. Those Mechatrommer and Johanon posts are displaying full size images, and not thumbnails as you typically get. So perhaps some old issue with image resizing etc.
Mechatrommers first post in that thread that has a small image size works just fine:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/beginners/how-to-better-wire-the-bnc-connector-and-ghz-issue/msg36138/#msg36138

So unless this problem is massively widespread and something has genuinely changed recently, then it may not be worth chasing. Might just be case of having stumbled upon some images that were uploaded at a point in time where there was some funny setting happening.

No Dave, the attached image files are corrupted, try download manually the file into your local computer, definitely its a JPG file with all it's signature, but somehow the JPG file structure is corrupted and can't be view with JPG viewer, try it yourself. This applies also PNG file and pictures attached by Jahonen, so its not only Mechatrommer's files that are affected.

This is the JPG binary hex view from the 1st example named "a.jpg", you can see at the right a clue on JPG signature, its even has clue info on the camera he used,  EOS 40D.

[PA0PBZ]

No Dave, the attached image files are corrupted, try download manually the file into your local computer, definitely its a JPG file with all it's signature, but somehow the JPG file structure is corrupted and can't be view with JPG viewer, try it yourself. This applies also PNG file and pictures attached by Jahonen, so its not only Mechatrommer's files that are affected.
This is the JPG binary hex view from the 1st example named "a.jpg", you can see at the right a clue on JPG signature, its even has clue info on the camera he used,  EOS 40D.

I don't know, but when I download the file it can be viewed perfectly and the file looks ok.
You have an extra 16 bytes in front?

EDIT: And the time is different... wtf?