Limitations of Netflix’s Watch Instantly service

I came across this interesting post titled Netflix's DRM Turned Me Into a Pirate.

I have to admit, I have empathy for those that TRY to do the right thing but due to company policy or poor implementation, turn to "other" means to get what they want.

I've been there.   My latest example was losing Jane's Mac Mini hard drive.  All her iTunes library went with it.  I googled and found out that Apple WILL allow you to download your library as a one time exception.  Of course I didn't learn this from Apple, they wouldn't dare advertise this, but they will  honor it if you ask.  Thing is, we weren't able to get our entire 100+ song  collection.  Due to reorganization of their "database" or whatever, they were unable to provide about 10 songs.  Think I'm going to re-purchase those song?  Of course not. 

Base64 and the Two-Bit Tramp

Now, if that’s not a confusing enough title, I don’t know what is, hee hee.

A friend forwarded me an attachment recently.  He uses AOL service.  AOL is the only service that I’ve ever received garbled attachments from in email.  It is usually when a forwarded email is forward several times.  After clicking through three attachments, I get the final attachment; a file named ATT00036.txt.  Opening it up shows this (i’ve only excerpted a portion):

Content-Type: message/rfc822
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Disposition: attachment
From: XXXXXX3@aol.com
To: phermaii@optonline.net,
.
.
Subject: “The Wedding Invitation”
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/related;
boundary=”—-=_NextPart_000_0117_01C8F629.76D260D0″
X-Mailer: Unknown sub 34
X-MIMEOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2900.3198
Thread-Index: Acjs+2GxzdWXL8VWRHi3FBx68hfLTQ==
X-Spam-Flag: NO
This is a multi-part message in MIME format.
——=_NextPart_000_0117_01C8F629.76D260D0
Content-Type: multipart/alternative;
boundary=”—-=_NextPart_001_0118_01C8F629.76D260D0″
——=_NextPart_001_0118_01C8F629.76D260D0
Content-Type: text/plain;
charset=”us-ascii”
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Here’s the wedding invitation
Now a picture of
Mr. & Mrs. ‘The Doctor’
——=_NextPart_000_0117_01C8F629.76D260D0
Content-Type: image/jpeg;
name=”image001.jpg”
Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64
Content-ID: X.MA1.1216841782@aol.com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.
.
jVec/tM/Gr4X+M/g5r3h/wAN+Kft+pXRtzBAbG5i3bLiN2+aSNR91WPJ7UUUrsD/2Q==
——=_NextPart_000_0117_01C8F629.76D260D0–

 

Having worked on a mail program before (Netpliance Inc.) I recognized that the mail was being sent in the “Internet” format (MIME) rather than being interpreted in a friendly way by mail programs along the way.  You see “binary” data such as images cannot be sent across the Internet unless they have been converted to a “text” (ascii) format. This format is usually Base64.  That’s the aSNR91WPJ7UUUrsD/2Q== gobbly-gook that you see above. Anyway, all I did was cut and paste that Base64 data, I used this online Base64 decoding site, and voila, I got this wedding invitation: