What caught my attention was a spike in the frequency distribution in the blue channel at blue=2.

But basically you get almost the same distribution (including the strange spike) by creating a noise pattern in Photoshop (Filter->Noise->Add noise), overlaying a transparent & white image such as the biohazard-like symbol and setting its opacity at 1%. Then save the file as PNG, limit the color count to 128 colors (Save for Web dialog), reload it and save it as a RGB file.

Perl script that produced it (needs the GD library, expects a “tooeasy.png” file in the working directory): http://tooeasy.pastebin.com/0bm1v7sK
(don’t take this as a style example, I’ve only been coding perl for two weeks)

The sixth line gives me the same colors as in Gimp if the second argument is true (i.e. pure green in the upper left pixel)
See the documentation for this function
I have no idea what this means though, I’m no expert in image formats!

I’m not a coder, gamer, or PS guru; I know a lot of you are, though. I’m a construction worker with a hefty electronics background, though, and I think fast.

I propose to all interested that we raid this thing tonight and find the big secret.

http://boingboing.net/01100111011000100110001001110010011011100110011001101100.png

The file name when converted from binary to ascii it is: gbbrnfl which when put through rot13 is “tooeasy”.

I’m guessing the image itself the colours probably represent hex codes for ascii characters or something. I’m too lazy to bother. At first I thought it was a magic eye image.

I suppose someone with more time and patience than I can work at it.

However – consider this: the matrix is 125×125, too large and time-consuming for individual pixel manipulation by a human being. I thought about cracking it pixel-by-pixel and quickly thought better of it – I have work in the AM, after all.

Someone made this with a program, and that program was very likely not told to throw so much random crap into an image. If someone out there has a neat utility to parse this image by the pixel (in all possible reading orders) and render the output as a binary file, I’ll take a shot at that binary file with the utilities I have on hand.

REMEMBER: the file renders best as a 24 bit BMP, but it looks like parts were desaturated to give the “proof of life.” Try a 256-color. Does anyone have the color count for this thing, as an absolute?

I think this can be broken quite quickly if we put our heads together.

I want to know how you manage to fail to stop a horse and buggy with a car, but I’ve never tried it so it is probably harder than I think.

Anyway, the image appears on every page since the start of this week, not counting those which don’t usually have ads. Hence, no relation to Cheetos.

The three/four circles are too good to be a coincidence, and rules out the possibility of it being random or generated from something else. However, this does not mean that there isn’t hidden data.

@jacob_ewing (#14) I landed here via google. The biohazard thing was quite a good guess, but the middle hole of the biohazard symbol is missing.

@mello clello (#19) I got something similar by using solarize.

http://imgur.com/CzoRo.png

Anybody recognise this?

Consider: http://twitpic.com/27586a

http://imgur.com/RA2Qb.png

(transparent PNG)

(Obligatory joke:
Q) What goes “clip clop, clip clop, bang! bang! clip, clop, clip clop”?
A) An Amish drive-by shooting.)

They’re at
http://www.helloflynn.com/swfs/workserver/hires/ESOR830SYROB.jpg
AND
http://www.helloflynn.com/swfs/workserver/hires/BU7YREKD3HD5.jpg

(jpeg is a lossy format, risky for steganography, but OK if the quality is high enough)