Written By Rick Ellis, Friday, July 25th, 2003

While a lot of TV networks make noise about interacting with their viewers, few do it with as much enthusiasm as does TechTV. Maybe it's due to the fact the network is filled with tech enthusiasts, or perhaps it's a function of the channel's heavy concentration of Bay Area twenty and thirty-somethings in front of the camera.

Fans of the network can choose from a score of websites, mailing lists and weblogs written and managed by members of the TechTV on-air crew. Some of them are aimed at the hard-core tech-heads who seem to comprise a large part of the channel's loyal audience. But a few, such as one ran by "Call For Help" associate producer Catherine Schwartz, are a bit more personal.

"Cat's Weblog" is a quirky, often free-flow diary from a woman who doesn't seem to take the online world too seriously. The typical entry involves her friends, how she's spending her spare time and whatever else seems to be on her mind as she's writing. While most network executives would probably argue this isn't the best showcase for her talents, I suspect that she sees it as a way to interact with the people who support the network and her appearances. The truth is that it falls somewhere in the middle. It's not any more or less compelling than most personal weblogs. Except for the fact it's written by someone you only know from her TV career.

In theory, there's nothing wrong with that. There's something to be said for tearing down some of the walls between those on TV and those who are watching the tube. And generally it's a harmless endeavor. She's not covering the White House, there's no chance she's going to accidentally divulge trade secrets.

Unfortunately for Ms. Schwartz, writing a weblog can lead to some unintended consequences. Technology can be a tricky thing, even for someone who should know better. In this case, it can all be blamed on the preview panel in Photoshop software.

Several days ago, Schwartz posted some comments on her weblog, along with a couple of artfully cropped photos of herself. They're a little flirty, and very appealing.

Now here comes the embarrassing part. Photoshop generates small preview images for the pictures it produces and hides them in the original image. If you change the image drastically, the preview thumbnail is changed too. But if you don't make a major change, and just crop the photo without changing the file name, the preview thumbnail stays the same. Which means someone can open up the cropped photo in Photoshop, and see a thumbnail version of the original picture.

So if you (or in this case, Catherine) used a couple of topless photos as the basis for pictures you cropped with Photoshop and posted on your weblog....well, let's just say that the online world seems to be filled with lonely techno geeks with too much time on their hands. And it took a couple of them about ten seconds to discover her mistake, and begin posting copies of the original topless photos.

As you might imagine, the result was an embarrassed Schwartz and some creepy comments on her weblog from a number of apparently lonely "fans" of hers. She quickly removed the photos from her site, although they've already been passed around and posted in dozens of other places online.

Although she hasn't commented on the situation "officially," she did post the following response on her weblog:

"In light of all the drama that's been surrounding this blog I've been faced with some interesting conversations regarding the type of content I "should" post. " Don't get that personal anymore." "Be careful about your image." "Don't let people know too much about who you are and what you do." All of these approaches have been presented to me by people I respect so I can't help but entertain them... but I can't seem to adopt their ideas. I think that this is my place of self expression. I feel like I'm lucky to have a place to come and spill my thoughts, share my photos (not all of them ;-) , tell how I feel and have people partake. I don't care if you think I'm boring or too personal or too whatever.. I'm going to write about what I want to write about. Hang if you like, leave if you like. You're entitled to think whatever you want. I'm going to."

I'm not sure there's a real lesson here to be learned here. Other than it's important to be careful when using Photoshop. It's not as if this mistake will really impact Schwartz's career. In fact, in some ways it seems to be making her a bit of a cult sensation among TechTV's core audience.

Oddly, the topless factor doesn't seem to be a problem to most people. Although I suppose it's a reflection of today's society that most of the complaints on her weblog didn't involve the nudity, but the fact she was smoking in one photo.

Perhaps we should just all be very happy that this type of mistake didn't take place on a weblog run by Andy Rooney. That's a mental picture none of us really need to have embedded into our consciousness.