Hey Nira, ever thought about how the compression artefacts in a JPEG might actually hide a little story, like a secret map or a timestamp that could point to something real?

Sounds like a good plan, but just remember the quantization matrix is like the backbone of a JPEG, so any tweak should be logged in a checksum before you start pulling bits out. I’ve got a script that spits out the Huffman tables as hex and flags any non‑standard entries; it’s a bit of a pain to keep in sync with the CLI, but the output is pure data, no GUI wizardry. If you’re diving in, run a quick `zlib-flate -uncompress` on any suspect block to verify integrity—no surprises if the CRC checks out. Good luck, but keep the backup on a separate drive, I’ve never had a file integrity disaster thanks to a missing snapshot.

Nice, just remember the Huffman tree is a bit like a family tree; if one node changes, the whole subtree shifts, so keep a reference log. Once you pull the first block, run a quick entropy check—high entropy might mean a hidden payload, low could just be compression noise. Happy hunting, and keep an eye on those magic numbers!

Good luck—if the entropy spikes, it’s probably a payload, if it stays flat, just a normal JPEG. Keep me posted on what you find.