Re: [gentoo-user] OT: extract an image from a .doc file?

[Stroller <stroller@stellar.eclipse.co.uk>]

On 14 Dec 2009, at 16:25, Dale wrote:
> ...
> I'm somewhat clueless about this software issue but wonder about  
> this way of seeing things.  Since it appears there is a signature,  
> as in what is at the bottom of a letter or a bank check, wouldn't  
> they want to make it so that is not able to be extracted at all?  If  
> I had a digital signature, I wouldn't want to put it somewhere that  
> it could be used by someone that I wouldn't want it to be used by.

My customer, an agency which rents out apartments on behalf of  
landlords, has a server on which they store all their files. These  
letters are generated by their property management software, and are  
written to their landlords, tenants &c. Obviously they have to keep a  
big archive of copies of all the letters they've written in the past.

The letters are stored in .doc format, but when they're originated I  
think they're actually just printed out and posted. Storing the  
signature in the .doc is, I think, just a convenience to save the boss  
(or other members of staff) having to physically scribble a signature  
at the bottom of each letter.

I'm guessing the office might manage c 100 properties, and I imagine  
that they may generate some thousands of letters per year. So a 1meg  
image in a letter might well start to consume gigs of disk space.  
"Gigs of disk space" is only a little bit of a problem because when  
this server was manufactured, 4 years ago, decent RAID meant  
horrendously expensive SCSI disks (it is still under support contract  
for another year) and because I haven't got around to migrating them  
away from an offsite-backup provider who is somewhat overpriced.

Hope this clarifies,

Stroller.



PS: a couple of great suggestions have been made this afternoon. I'm  
going to watch some of the fruits my labours - my labours involving  
get_iplayer earlier today - and will try these suggestions later. Many  
thanks!