7 ms·

Your images are a virus. They are everywhere on the Internet

75 points by joeyespo 15y ago

nostromo 15y ago
I've had a similarly surreal experience. I took a photo of a cup of coffee in Zeitgeist Cafe in Seattle early in 2005. I was new to Wikipedia so I uploaded it and put it on the page for Coffee, where it has stayed since. I see it everywhere. The most surreal experience was when I was waiting for my luggage at SeaTac last year, and on the TV in front of me was an ad for a national hotel chain -- and they used my photo (violating the CC license by the way) when touting their continental breakfast. You can see the way this photo "virus" has spread on the new Google Image search as well: http://images.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=cup+of+coffee&tbm=isch&tbs=simg:CAQSZRpjCxCo1NgEGgIIAAwLELCMpwgaPAo6CAESFLoHtwebBPcGtQekA70HoAOZB5gHGiCTpVNXr0ZfppAicZWlpcNj15Qjemi4kJuVCV3PzOJIJQwLEI6u_1ggaCgoICAESBBjkEcsM&biw=1200&bih=964 http://images.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=cup...
- felipemnoa 15y ago
  It would have been awesome if you had put a secret message in the image, just for kicks.
  - tintin 15y ago
    A little off-topic, but maybe it would be possible to 'unwrap' the cup and construct a little panorama of it's reflection.
- monochromatic 15y ago
  In our (everyone's) defense... it's a really nice photo.
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
- bobbles 15y ago
  Wow that's really creepy.. Look at the 'coffee' in some of the pics on the second page of results
- ppod 15y ago
  In a way, it is a really perfect picture though. It's a nice plain cup of nice plain black coffee, no visible writing or advertising, no clutter, nice background with a gradient.
drivingmenuts 15y ago
This is where I start to have all kinds of issues about copyright. If someone is making money off my work, without permission and/or without some sort of recompense, then I start to get a little bit edgy about it.
lwat 15y ago
'Meme' is the correct term, not 'virus'
- MindTwister 15y ago
  I read an article, though I cant remember where that refers to memes as a new kind of hard-to-kill virus, even the wikipedia article has references to it http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meme http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meme
ofca 15y ago
Don't worry about credits. Give something back to the amazing online community. If someone claims it is his image? So what? He probably is a very sad man and you probably can prove that it is indeed your picture. Stop worrying about these petty things.
alexhawket 15y ago
That image is missing a fourth circle: stuff you can do that's better than the current stuff (with the resources you have available to you.) If whatever you want to do is not better than existing options then there's no point in doing it since your customers will just continue using the old thing.
- noblethrasher 15y ago
  In this case Microsoft represents the thing that can do stuff better than everyone else: Scott had just gotten a job with Microsoft. I recall thinking that the point of his picture wasn't just to convey how happy and lucky he felt about the new opportunity, but to also explain why he was leaving his old employer.
- JoeAltmaier 15y ago
  That's a hacker point of view, sure. But lots of jobs you just have to do the regular thing, adequately. Build cabinets. Plant trees. Cut hair.
ximeng 15y ago
http://www.marc.cn/2011/10/elaines-picture-removed-from-halloween-products-the-chinese-way.html http://www.marc.cn/2011/10/elaines-picture-removed-from-hall...
simonw 15y ago
Just wanted to highlight this bit: """ I can't see how to reliably hotlink to Google Image Search results, so go to http://images.google.com/ http://images.google.com/, click the little camera icon and paste in the URL to the image, like http://www.hanselman.com/blog/content/binary/WindowsLiveWriter/2dc61d7e4a66_13443/image.png http://www.hanselman.com/blog/content/binary/WindowsLiveWrit... """ For a company that built its original USP on analysing hyperlinks, Google have a remarkable cultural tendency to screw up their URLs.
erikb 15y ago
I never saw this picture before, nor do I think it's any special. Try googling for me_gusta.jpg, if u look for "virus like" spreading of one picture.
niyazpk 15y ago
208 results? Meh :) Some time ago I created a theme for my WordPress site, which I released publicly later. I included a (cheesy?) line in it (plus a grammatical error) and it is frightening to see it in 500K+ pages now: http://www.google.co.in/search?q=%22What+I+say+is+immensely+important+than+who+I+am.+Let+the+search+be+for+the+meaning+and+substance+in+my+words+rather+than+the+intricacies+of+my+existence%22 http://www.google.co.in/search?q=%22What+I+say+is+immensely+...
mcritz 15y ago
You should try the magical image finder: tineye.com
UIZealot 15y ago
Somehow he made his site unzoomable on the iPad. Now I won't read it, however interesting his story might be. Shame!

75 points by joeyespo 15y ago

I've had a similarly surreal experience. I took a photo of a cup of coffee in Zeitgeist Cafe in Seattle early in 2005. I was new to Wikipedia so I uploaded it and put it on the page for Coffee, where it has stayed since. I see it everywhere. The most surreal experience was when I was waiting for my luggage at SeaTac last year, and on the TV in front of me was an ad for a national hotel chain -- and they used my photo (violating the CC license by the way) when touting their continental breakfast. You can see the way this photo "virus" has spread on the new Google Image search as well: http://images.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=cup+of+coffee&tbm=isch&tbs=simg:CAQSZRpjCxCo1NgEGgIIAAwLELCMpwgaPAo6CAESFLoHtwebBPcGtQekA70HoAOZB5gHGiCTpVNXr0ZfppAicZWlpcNj15Qjemi4kJuVCV3PzOJIJQwLEI6u_1ggaCgoICAESBBjkEcsM&biw=1200&bih=964 http://images.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=cup...

felipemnoa 15y ago
It would have been awesome if you had put a secret message in the image, just for kicks.
- tintin 15y ago
  A little off-topic, but maybe it would be possible to 'unwrap' the cup and construct a little panorama of it's reflection.
monochromatic 15y ago
In our (everyone's) defense... it's a really nice photo.
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
bobbles 15y ago
Wow that's really creepy.. Look at the 'coffee' in some of the pics on the second page of results
ppod 15y ago
In a way, it is a really perfect picture though. It's a nice plain cup of nice plain black coffee, no visible writing or advertising, no clutter, nice background with a gradient.

drivingmenuts 15y ago

This is where I start to have all kinds of issues about copyright. If someone is making money off my work, without permission and/or without some sort of recompense, then I start to get a little bit edgy about it.

lwat 15y ago

'Meme' is the correct term, not 'virus'

MindTwister 15y ago
I read an article, though I cant remember where that refers to memes as a new kind of hard-to-kill virus, even the wikipedia article has references to it http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meme http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meme

ofca 15y ago

Don't worry about credits. Give something back to the amazing online community. If someone claims it is his image? So what? He probably is a very sad man and you probably can prove that it is indeed your picture. Stop worrying about these petty things.

alexhawket 15y ago

That image is missing a fourth circle: stuff you can do that's better than the current stuff (with the resources you have available to you.) If whatever you want to do is not better than existing options then there's no point in doing it since your customers will just continue using the old thing.

noblethrasher 15y ago
In this case Microsoft represents the thing that can do stuff better than everyone else: Scott had just gotten a job with Microsoft. I recall thinking that the point of his picture wasn't just to convey how happy and lucky he felt about the new opportunity, but to also explain why he was leaving his old employer.
JoeAltmaier 15y ago
That's a hacker point of view, sure. But lots of jobs you just have to do the regular thing, adequately. Build cabinets. Plant trees. Cut hair.

ximeng 15y ago

http://www.marc.cn/2011/10/elaines-picture-removed-from-halloween-products-the-chinese-way.html http://www.marc.cn/2011/10/elaines-picture-removed-from-hall...

simonw 15y ago

Just wanted to highlight this bit: """ I can't see how to reliably hotlink to Google Image Search results, so go to http://images.google.com/ http://images.google.com/, click the little camera icon and paste in the URL to the image, like http://www.hanselman.com/blog/content/binary/WindowsLiveWriter/2dc61d7e4a66_13443/image.png http://www.hanselman.com/blog/content/binary/WindowsLiveWrit... """ For a company that built its original USP on analysing hyperlinks, Google have a remarkable cultural tendency to screw up their URLs.

erikb 15y ago

I never saw this picture before, nor do I think it's any special. Try googling for me_gusta.jpg, if u look for "virus like" spreading of one picture.

niyazpk 15y ago

208 results? Meh :) Some time ago I created a theme for my WordPress site, which I released publicly later. I included a (cheesy?) line in it (plus a grammatical error) and it is frightening to see it in 500K+ pages now: http://www.google.co.in/search?q=%22What+I+say+is+immensely+important+than+who+I+am.+Let+the+search+be+for+the+meaning+and+substance+in+my+words+rather+than+the+intricacies+of+my+existence%22 http://www.google.co.in/search?q=%22What+I+say+is+immensely+...

mcritz 15y ago

You should try the magical image finder: tineye.com

UIZealot 15y ago

Somehow he made his site unzoomable on the iPad. Now I won't read it, however interesting his story might be. Shame!