Is email becoming outdated, or am I a threat to cyber security?

[Issac Zachary]

Yesterday a friend stopped by and admired my cool new screensaver (called Helios if you want to look it up).

 

Well, after he left I decided I'd send him the .scr file. And Gmail returned the email saying it broke their file sharing rules.

 

Well, what's the point of being able to attach files to an email if you can't actually send files???

 

Or did I just infect my computer and am escencially trying to spread the virus?

[starsmine]

Put it in a zip.

 

.scr is just a common format to put viruses in. Not that it is a virus. Don’t open files like that from sources you dont trust, but gmail can’t rely on that

[wanderingfool2]

54 minutes ago, Issac Zachary said:

Yesterday a friend stopped by and admired my cool new screensaver (called Helios if you want to look it up).

 

Well, after he left I decided I'd send him the .scr file. And Gmail returned the email saying it broke their file sharing rules.

 

Well, what's the point of being able to attach files to an email if you can't actually send files???

 

Or did I just infect my computer and am escencially trying to spread the virus?

Did you infect your computer, probably not.

 

Did it reasonable for Gmail to block scr files, absolutely.  scr files can run code simply by trying to open them.  It's the same reason why bat files, ps files, and exe files are all blocked files in GMAIL.  There is just too much risk to allow those types of files to go through, as there isn't much stopping lets say someone using an email program to open it and then be executing code even though they might not have known about it.

[Arika]

3 hours ago, Issac Zachary said:

scr

.....people still use screens savers?

 

I don't think you need to worry about email being outdated, you are well ahead of them in that

[starsmine]

1 hour ago, Arika said:

.....people still use screens savers?

 

I don't think you need to worry about email being outdated, you are well ahead of them in that

honestly, with oleds I think they have a place again. 

 

[Issac Zachary]

5 hours ago, starsmine said:

Put it in a zip.

 

.scr is just a common format to put viruses in. Not that it is a virus. Don’t open files like that from sources you dont trust, but gmail can’t rely on that

I actually had sent it in a zip to begin with. Google detected the zip had the .scr file in it and blocked the email. So, apparently that won't work. But the return email did have the suggestion to put it in a cloud and send it that way. So that's an option.

 

4 hours ago, wanderingfool2 said:

Did you infect your computer, probably not.

 

Did it reasonable for Gmail to block scr files, absolutely.  scr files can run code simply by trying to open them.  It's the same reason why bat files, ps files, and exe files are all blocked files in GMAIL.  There is just too much risk to allow those types of files to go through, as there isn't much stopping lets say someone using an email program to open it and then be executing code even though they might not have known about it.

Interesting. I'll keep that in mind. It just seems weird that someone who I know and we have a relationship with can't get an email from me with a certain type of file, but I guess it's better to be safe than sorry. I mean, I guess someone could hack my account and send such a file, so that makes sense.

 

1 hour ago, Arika said:

.....people still use screens savers?

 

I don't think you need to worry about email being outdated, you are well ahead of them in that

Haha!

 

And I'm not making this up, but I'm typing on a PS/2 keyboard with a serial mouse with a ball in the bottom of it. And the mouse, keyboard and the desktop computer are all beige. And I mean desktop as in it lies flat. I also have a floppy drive in the computer. I'm also tempted to hook up my beige CRT VGA monitor instead of this black flat panel TV I use as a monitor, but I don't want to burn the phosphors out prematurely (prefer to use it for gaming only, not my computer work and web browsing) and I'd also have to find another place for my printer because it's on top of my desktop.

 

It does have a 12th gen Intel processor though, I just bought another stick of 8GB RAM to bring it up to 16GB.

[Issac Zachary]

3 minutes ago, starsmine said:

honestly, with oleds I think they have a place again. 

 

@Arika does have a point. I don't even have an oled. I might hook up my CRT again though, just because it matches the ascetics of the rest of the computer.

[Erioch]

Aren't .scr files just renamed .exe files?

 

It's been a long time since I messed with them (I wrote a few back in the 00's).

[wanderingfool2]

6 hours ago, Issac Zachary said:

Interesting. I'll keep that in mind. It just seems weird that someone who I know and we have a relationship with can't get an email from me with a certain type of file, but I guess it's better to be safe than sorry. I mean, I guess someone could hack my account and send such a file, so that makes sense.

It's not weird, Google doesn't know you know them.  Also the general concept that it is a file that is at more of a risk

[Issac Zachary]

1 hour ago, wanderingfool2 said:

It's not weird, Google doesn't know you know them.  Also the general concept that it is a file that is at more of a risk

Well, it seems weird when you grew up with 8-bit computers (mine was a Tandy Color Computer 2, aka the CoCo 2) and remember trying to make your own programs and games and tried to figure out how to send them out to your buddies other than putting them on a cassette tape and mailing it out.

 

And finally we have email!!!!

 

Oh wait, never mind. Can't send programs over email. I guess I better put it on a cassette tape and mail it. 

[Mark Kaine]

15 hours ago, Arika said:

.....people still use screens savers?

 

lively is pretty cool! even though thats not a classic Screensaver...

 

i like the ATi one too, got it installed on my laptop! Pretty awesome. 

 

So to answer the question,  hell yeah!

[Lurking]

14 hours ago, starsmine said:

honestly, with oleds I think they have a place again. 

 

You can just have Windows turn off the screen. It isn't like CRT when warmup time was required to turn the monitor on.

[GuiltySpark_]

8 minutes ago, Lurking said:

You can just have Windows turn off the screen. It isn't like CRT when warmup time was required to turn the monitor on.

With some you cannot, like my C2. Not what this thread is about but I use an application to trigger the screensaver with a hot corner. Throw my mouse into the upper left of the screen when I stand up and its on, its like muscle memory now. 

[Lurking]

15 minutes ago, GuiltySpark_ said:

With some you cannot, like my C2. Not what this thread is about but I use an application to trigger the screensaver with a hot corner. Throw my mouse into the upper left of the screen when I stand up and its on, its like muscle memory now. 

You can't turn it off and back on? Is that an actual manufacturer limitation? What bad happens if you do?

 

I bet most people never research the type of display they have and just use Windows and however it is set to save energy 

[GuiltySpark_]

2 minutes ago, Lurking said:

You can't turn it off and back on? Is that an actual manufacturer limitation? What bad happens if you do?

 

I bet most people never research the type of display they have and just use Windows and however it is set to save energy 

Its a TV, there is no "sleep" mode like traditional monitors. Now you can use third party software to initiate blanking the display but its clunky and I'm content with a basic screen saver that triggers on putting my mouse cursor in the corner. The screen saver will also just trigger after 5 minutes if I forget and walk away.

[Lurking]

Just now, GuiltySpark_ said:

Its a TV, there is no "sleep" mode like traditional monitors. Now you can use third party software to initiate blanking the display but its clunky and I'm content with a basic screen saver that triggers on putting my mouse cursor in the corner. The screen saver will also just trigger after 5 minutes if I forget and walk away.

I see. I hate my "smart" TV since every time it turns off from going to sleep, I need to manually change the input back to the PC. I wish they made those TV just dumb monitors....

 

 

[Mark Kaine]

my screen turns off after 3 hours of no input,  my sound system after 2 hours,  my pc after 4-5, but it only goes into sleep mode so when i wake up i can go killing baddies in ow right away ~

 

screen saver is purely aesthetics to me and I only use it when i feel like it

 

also my ram keeps flashing in sleep mode, so does my keyboard,  that's enough "show" for me while im sleeping or am away lol. 

[corrado33]

On 11/14/2023 at 6:03 PM, Issac Zachary said:

I actually had sent it in a zip to begin with.

If you zip the zip or use another compression format to encase the zip google won't detect the file. 

 

Source: I once tried to email myself an autohotkey script (that I wrote myself). Google was... not... happy... (It was a script to autoclick the thumbs up on zwift.)

[TetraSky]

On 11/14/2023 at 6:03 PM, starsmine said:

honestly, with oleds I think they have a place again. 

Wouldn't the normal behavior of the screen shutting itself down after x minutes be just as good if not better to protect oleds? Can't cause burn-in if the screen is off.

[GuiltySpark_]

2 minutes ago, TetraSky said:

Wouldn't the normal behavior of the screen shutting itself down after x minutes be just as good if not better to protect oleds? Can't cause burn-in if the screen is off.

As discussed above, not all OLED's used on desks have the ability to do that, such as the ever popular TV's from LG. 

[Polderviking]

Limiting attachtment types you are willing to receive is a common security practice.

Mail is for sending data over, so apart from the mail itself a lot of organisations only accept commonly used document formats and media files.

 

If you wanna share software you should leverage a file sharing service.

[SimplyChunk]

Wallpaper Engine

[BrandonLatzig]

4 hours ago, SimplyChunk said:

Wallpaper Engine

lets be honest, thats because of weebs /s 

[Kisai]

9 hours ago, TetraSky said:

Wouldn't the normal behavior of the screen shutting itself down after x minutes be just as good if not better to protect oleds? Can't cause burn-in if the screen is off.

Only if it actually turns the OLED's off. Sometimes the behavior of a screen only turns the backlight off, and does absolutely nothing to what is displayed. 

 

In a computer context, "closing the laptop" only ever turned the backlight off unless the power management was told to shut down the GPU, so no signal is sent. 

 

Since many devices are basically "always on" and have long "boot" sequence if you physically turn them off, that quick return is usually just the backlight being set to 0 or OLED's being set to black, which is the behavior that "blank the screen" did back in the 386 era before monitors would actually turn off on sync loss. On an OLED setting them down to 0 accomplishes the power management goal, but doesn't really turn the monitor off.

 

Bringing screen savers back, might be preferable to a static image, but it's applications are closer to that of a phone/tablet/watch/television and not a computer screen, since a computer screen has a lot of static visuals WHILE it's in use unless it's being used to play video.

[dkoudijs]

I still run a screen saver, just so if for some reason the power settings don't kick in the screen goes a little darker. (Makes it easier on the eyes in the night, not power consumption worry)

 

I use one that LGR had put up a few years ago, flyby2_4k which is an old one from Boeing I think showing there planes in 3d models flying around. But models from like the early 90's 3d.

 

Yes the oled is a concern, which is why I like this one, since the jet streams eventually cover the whole screen so every pixel gets turned on and off.