# My memory of 1997 era technology is weak! (Software Q) **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 23, 2009, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-memory-of-1997-era-technology-is-weak-software-q/514919 "2009-10-23T23:54:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![kjckjc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e36b37/32.png) [@kjckjc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kjckjc)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2009, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-memory-of-1997-era-technology-is-weak-software-q/514919/1 "2009-10-23T23:54:26Z")
So, cleaning out some old hard drives I found some old emails from about 12 years ago. One of them had a picture type file embedded in it. The problem is in the ensuing decade or so I forgot how to change the text into a picture. It is just text in the body of the email, it starts with something like “begin 600 blah.jpg” then has a boatload of text chars and appropriately enough ends with “end”. How do I make it a jpg file? Thanks. PS, I couldn’t google because I don’t remember what this kind of thing is called, so, what is this kind of thing called? ---
**Author:** ![Rysto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ecccb3/32.png) [@Rysto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysto)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2009, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-memory-of-1997-era-technology-is-weak-software-q/514919/2 "2009-10-23T23:57:57Z")
The file is probably encoded as Base64 or uuencode. Googling those should lead to decoders. ---
**Author:** ![kjckjc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e36b37/32.png) [@kjckjc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kjckjc)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2009, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-memory-of-1997-era-technology-is-weak-software-q/514919/3 "2009-10-23T23:59:13Z")
uuencode! That was it! Thank you! Now I remember.