Installing a snapshot for yourself

Here's a quick reference, for people who've read the discussion below already:

Make a picture. Not too big; XBM or XPM format.
Install it as ~/.snapshot. Make sure it's world readable!

And now, here's the long version.

First off, create a snapshot using your favorite drawing program. Try bitmap(1) for monochrome, XBM-format pictures, and xpaint(1) (add graphics first) for color pictures. (If you use xpaint, you should save in XPM Format.) Snapshots should be pretty small, so that several can fit neatly in a person's snapshots window. Anything less than 50 by 50 is definitely fine, although sizes up to 80 by 80 are common. In general, though, the bigger a snapshot gets in one dimension, the smaller it should be in the other; a 100 by 100 snapshot is too big, but a 100 by 40 snapshot is sort of okay.

Now, you need to install it in your home directory with the name .snapshot, and you must make sure it is world-readable. If your home directory is already world readable, there's no problem; just mv the picture to ~/.snapshot. If your home directory is not world-readable, but you have a world-readable Public directory, here's a simple three-step process to install your snapshot. If you haven't understood most of this paragraph, this is probably the situation you're in.

	mv picture-file-name ~/Public/.snapshot
	cd
	ln -s Public/.snapshot .