Have you ever wondered how invisible files are made invisible? What Apple won't tell you is that the technique is actually a technological update of a method used on cereal boxes of old: obscure the files with red lines, making the items underneath visible only when viewed through red cellophane.
Of course, as the technology has advanced, this method has been updated using fascinating new technologies such as QuickDraw, OpenDoc and TWAIN. Without diving too deeply into the intricacies of these methods, suffice it to say that I have been able to create a cellophane-style decoder program.
Because Secret Decoder ACTUALLY BENDS THE PIXELS ON YOUR SCREEN, it takes a while to start up. After clicking OK in the opening dialog box, the program will appear to "freeze" for a few moments while it warms up. Be patient!
Although the invisible files on your computer, when made visible, appear among other programs, when invisible they actually wander around your machine. Secret Decoder freezes these files in place when running so they can be observed; when you run the program you will probably see three or four of them in various positions around your screen. Be quiet, or they'll disappear again!
Running Secret Decoder in the background or on multiple monitor systems won't work, and will cause health problems to boot. Don't do it!
