Gregory's ServerFound a weird thing hiding in macOS! https://waxy.org/2023/04/the-bitcoin-whitepaper-is-hidden-in-every-modern-copy-of-macos/
 105 comments
 @andybaio Whoa. As a non-technical computer user, I am now (for the first time) wondering what other little things might be hidden in … all software?   @Natanael_L @chudgar @andybaio   Multiple confirmations that the Bitcoin doc was in Mojave 10.14.0, and wasn't present in High Sierra. Thanks! Watching my post (which never mentioned Steve Jobs) spread and mutate into straight disinformation, entirely via Google News search alerts for my name, has been *fascinating*.    @andybaio Truly, the internet is the printing press of our times. With all the advantages, disadvantages, and bewilderments that come with it.  @andybaio Waiting for the article arguing that Steve Jobs is now actually in the Bitcoin ether attaining sentience on the blockchain and is controlling the weather and inflation  @andybaio I was thinking this exact same thing earlier today. It is kind of amazing how it has transformed into this mess.  @andybaio This is like a perfect storm for the likes of BusinessInsider, the publication that seems never to actually get inside a business and can only guess what businesses are doing, and often does guess, especially if it leads to maximizing clicks, eyeballs, and ad impressions...  @andybaio Satoshi has not spent any of the 1.1 million Bitcoin in the wallets known to be his. Steve Jobs has also not spent any of the 1.1 million Bitcoin in the wallets known to be Satoshi's. Case closed. @andybaio Hell of a leap. I've been known to use the Communist Manifesto as boilerplate text when mocking up websites. If a digital archaelogist finds that on some abandoned hard drive in future years, will the press assume Marx was actually a semi-competent web developer in the 00s or something?  @andybaio in late 2008, he was being treated for pancreatic cancer while running Apple. Not quite sure he had the bandwidth to invent bitcoin. He was dead almost 7 years when Mojave was released, the first version of macOS with the paper. SEO knows no shame.     @andybaio this must be the plot for the third silly Moon Nazis film series (Iron Sky) lol. The second had Steve doing all sorts of weird and people joining his religion "Jobsism".  @andybaio damn, i cant believe you found out singlehandedly that steve jobs created macs just for bitcoin and is actually still alive inside the blockchain @andybaio If I had to invent a class of easily manipulated monied rubes, bitcoin fans would be better than I could ever write.  @andybaio If you think Bitcoin was invented by Steve Jobs, I'm sad to announce that you have no idea who Steve Jobs was nor what a blockchain is – that's most of the world, of course
@andybaio Sooooo…Image Capture.app has been mining in the background this whole time?! @andybaio Ew, that is embarrassing. So many better documents they could have chosen, seems like the action of a rogue employee...   @andybaio this definitely feels like something included for diagnostics or troubleshooting
 @andybaio FWIW the only media file in that folder on High Sierra is test.tiff. looks like Mojave renamed that to grid.tiff and added the Bitcoin doc along with some other images and PDFs. I have scanned a few things in my day but never seen cover.jpg before!   @andybaio Just confirmed on my school laptop running Ventura 13.3. Wonder what other goodies Apple hid. @andybaio I must subscribe to this post for the (hopefully??) inevitable follow-up explaining who or how or why   @albertkinng You don’t think it’s weird that a copy of the Bitcoin whitepaper shipped with every version of macOS for the last 4.5 years? @andybaio No. Apple has been doing that type of things since the beginning. I remember a hidden game inside the firmware of the first beige PowerMac G3 and when macOS X was introduced they had the whole script of the ‘Here’s to the crazy ones’ ad hidden inside one icon in the computer. I even know why they do these things because of a book I read.  @andybaio Pretty sure bitcoin.pdf was the first file that came up in Google for “pdf” around that time — at Zotero we started asking people to use it for testing in late 2016, without having the slightest interest in Bitcoin. Before that we used fw4.pdf, the IRS W-4 form, for the same reason, despite being similarly uninterested in tax withholding. @danstillman @andybaio I wonder if the PDF was ranking so high because right around that time a couple or journalists starting writing about Craig Wright. That would be ironic since he's been suing people left and right to remove the whitepaper (for obtuse reasons). For (possibly too much) background:    @andybaio Presumably that "Virtual Scanner II" device is there for testing purposes: they'd be able to run automated tests of the API and applications using the API without needing a real scanner attached (or deal with differences in the output). It's probably small enough not to bother removing from production builds, and not intended to show up to regular users. @andybaio @HilliTech @stephenrobles Here’s a theory Satoshi Nakamoto was an identity Steve Jobs’ used. Oh that? It's a load-bearing White Paper. If you remove it, the entire operating system crashes. @andybaio Whatever this story is about (what? Apple hired a dickhead? Heaven forfend), it’s the diametric opposite of digging up a monolith on the moon. @andybaio No sir, and I apologize for that understandable, unintended meaning. See, this is why you write the articles, and I don’t. I found the *spread* of the story a bit alarmist among some dev follows, even independent of this Jobs nonsense. @goodthinking Oh, no worries! I thought you were replying to my original post, not the one about the spread. @andybaio Yeah, sorry. Maybe this is one of those “I need Masto to add QTs!” moments., though I haven’t banged that drum up till now.  |
@andybaio that's creepy!