The EFF is reporting that the Federal Communications Commission issued a release [pdf] announcing its new rule expanding the reach of the Communications Assistance to Law Enforcement Act (CALEA). Practically, what this means is that the government will be asking broadband providers — as well as companies that manufacture devices used for broadband communications — to build insecure backdoors into their networks, imperiling the privacy and security of citizens on the Internet. It also hobbles technical innovation by forcing companies involved in broadband to redesign their products to meet government requirements
There has been a massive identity theft ring uncovered by security software firm Sunbelt. According to one of their employees, Alex Eckelberry, during the course of one of their recent investigations into a particular Spyware application — rumoured to be called CoolWebSearch — they’ve discovered that the personal information of those infected
was being captured and uploaded to a server
By mixing phosphorescent material with the usual white fluorescent material, American Environmental Products has developed a tfluorescent ube that continues to glow when shut off. Originally intended for submarines, and then used in places where terrorists could disrupt services, they are also perfect for power outages, providing some light so you don’t have to thrash around in the dark looking for your candles and flashlights. Since the hack is inside the tube, they can also be removed from their fixtures and carried around, as well as provide light even if they’re shattered
Jeffrey Veen‘s The Art and Science of Web Design
has been an influential work for many web designers for half a decade now, and to celebrate, Jeff’s made a PDF of the book available on his blog for free download.
Though, as Jeff points out, some of the technical points are slightly out of date, the core principles are still important today, and the download is well worth a look — via ProNet
Described by founders as a citizen journalists’ photographic agency
, a new startup called Scoopt.com plans to resell mobile phone snapshots to news organisations, sharing proceeds with shooters. Company owners originally planned to launch the site on 7/7 — the day of the first round of London attacks — but delayed to 14/7 — the day of the second attacks. The site is now live — via BoingBoing
Many of the files that are shared on P2P networks tend to be junk. Organisations such as the RIAA and music labels regularly pollute these networks with nonsense files masquerading as real music or video files. These junk files make it difficult for users to find what they want on P2P networks. Some researchers at Cornell University have developed a reputation system called Credence, that works on the Gnutella network, allowing users to tell the good files from the bad ones
The Mozilla Foundation has created a commercial subsidiary to continue development of Mozilla Firefox and Mozilla Thunderbird. Don’t let the word commercial
scare you, the new Mozilla Corporation will be owned 100% by the Mozilla Foundation. The change is mostly a legal/tax thing to avoid the problems of pursuing revenue-generating avenues while remaining a non-profit. There will be no change to the development process and end-users won’t notice much difference either
Preliminary testing has begun on a new weapon that threatens to scuttle efforts to stop illicit online music swapping. Internet privacy activists at Freenet Project posted word on their web site that they were looking for other users to test a refined version of darknet
software designed to keep file swappers anonymous. The new software is being heralded as scalable
, which means it would enable large numbers of computer users to freely share files online without revealing their identities
If you’ve ever wanted to get files off your iPod, it can be an eye-opening experience. iTunes doesn’t offer the option to export files to your desktop, I expect this is to keep scum like the RIAA happy. While it can be done manually, it’s not a task for the faint of heart, thanks to mangled file names and a file structure on the iPod that throws stuff all over the place it all becomes something of a hunt.
Fortunately there is a solution. A clever standalone shareware programme called Podutil wil do the job nicely. It’s available for Mac OS 9 and OS X, as well as Win2K and WinXP
Team iFibre Redwire smashed the WiFi distance record, successfully linking a distance of over 200km at this year’s DefCon WiFi Shootout. They maintained a full 11Mbit unamplified connection for 3 hours using Z-com 300mw PCMCIA cards, surplus satellite dishes, Linux, and a great deal of hacker ingenuity. They’ve said that they expect this rig would work at distances of over 480km
No more long waits for your PC to wake up. Longer laptop battery life. Data that survives a drop. These are the promises of solid-state-memory disks (SSDs), which use flash memory to supplement or replace today’s hard drives. Samsung is working on two types of products: pure SSDs and hybrid drives that combine traditional hard disks and flash memory
It took four months work, to casemod a 70s Dalek. Power LEDs are in the yellow domes and the power switch is in the eye
Hackers worked through the weekend to expose a flaw that could allow them to control the Cisco routers that direct much of the internet’s traffic
Merseyside Police are appealing for information following the theft of thousands of pounds of mobile phone and consumer durables in a burglary at DHL‘s depot in Aintree, Liverpool, UK. Thieves made off with five lorries loaded with a substantial amount of property including sports clothing, mobile phones and electrical goods. One of the stolen lorries was recovered in Bootle. The four outstanding lorries are bright yellow and marked with the DHL logo, so they shouldn’t be too hard to spot
Sunlight Direct is using fibre optics to bring the light from outside and transmit it inside. Their 1.2m diameter solar dish will light 90m² inside — minus the harmful UV rays — rendering a more natural lighting feel, which can be hybridised with florescent and possibly LED lighting to provide a constant light level, though the tone changes with the level of light outside. The GPS-based sun-tracking mechanism uses very little energy
Westnet is the latest ISP to be temporarily blocked from sending e-mail to BigPond’s mail servers due to a surge of spam routed through the smaller ISP
www.designersinhouse.com – a mailing list for all you inhouse web designers out there wanting to whinge to each other about your similar occupational gripes.
I often find it hard to get my company to pay for training/seminars, so I was surprised when my half-arsed request to go to Web Essentials 2005 was granted with a positive full arse, and one of my co-workers for company.
New macs are out: iBook and mac mini. That’s great Steve, but where the fuck is the Australian iTunes store?
I’ve finished Harry Potter 6 and I liked it alot. Aside from character names, I think the most used word in the book was “snogging” due mainly to Won-Won. This interview with JK Rowling over at mugglenet, is worth a read, but make sure you finish the book first.
I’m really loving savage chickens. Here’s one of my fave’s creativity.
patchoforange has very nice sketches, including cute kitties.
bye-bye
This must be the ultimate in retro-cool hardware hacking. The floppy drive is obsolete, but the turntable is not, and that got one guy to thinking. He provides a full tutorial on how to turn that worthless old floppy drive into a most desirable piece of audio gear
From now on, customers looking to get the latest add-ons to Windows will have to verify that their copy of the operating system is legit. The piracy check will be mandatory for all customers worldwide who want to download add-ons for Windows XP. The only exception is for security-related patches. It looks like mandatory validation of your Windows XP license is now voluntary again. A simple hack has been found that disables the check
A study by digital music research firm The Leading Question, found that people who download music from peer to peer networks paid for four and a half times more music than regular music fans. Also that most of these people are extremely enthusiastic about paid-for services, as long as they are suitably compelling
. What is nice is that the BPI welcomed the findings that not all file sharers are actually evil… they still pledged to carry on the carrot and stick
approach though
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