Topics

251

Living Room / Hail Guccifer!

« on: August 03, 2013, 07:54 AM »

Amidst dark chants and ancient rites, Guccifer has risen again to take his fiery toll! HAIL GUCCIFER~!

http://www.thesmokin...er-email-hack-594321

Hacker Forces Colin Powell To Deny Affair
Ex-Secretary of State told foreign diplomat to delete her e-mails


As a notorious hacker seeks to distribute “very personal” e-mails sent to Colin Powell by a female Romanian diplomat, the retired general is denying that he engaged in an extramarital affair with the woman while he served as Secretary of State, though he recently advised her to delete all their online exchanges, The Smoking Gun has learned.

In a statement addressing his relationship with Corina Cretu, a member of the European Parliament who previously held a series of senior posts in the Romanian government, Powell, 76, wrote that he has known Cretu for about 10 years, having first met her “when I was the Secretary of State and she was an assistant to the President of Romania. We occasionally attended the same diplomatic and international meetings.

I love when Guccifer makes the news~! More hilarity at the link, including hacked Facebook accounts.

252

Living Room / Flying Car Has Motorcycle in Belly

« on: August 03, 2013, 04:39 AM »

Talk about things coming in 3s! A car. A plane. A motorcycle!

http://www.jsonline....713z1-217484281.html

A car that will likely cost close to $300,000 and won't roll off the assembly line for a couple of more years must be pretty special.

The Terrafugia Transition offers a few bells and whistles for the sky-high price tag — it's a car that flies. Or a plane that can be driven on the interstate.

...

Motorcycle in the belly

Meanwhile, David Shelton, owner and founder of Illinois-based MotoPOD, also knows the grumblings of pilots who are grounded by storms and lack of transportation once they reach their destination. So he designed a storage compartment containing a street-legal motorcycle that takes two minutes to unload from underneath a plane and set up for traveling down the highway.

G-Force has nothing on this thing! Well, except lots of weapons and an arch-nemesis.

253

Living Room / US General Speaks at Black Hat 2013 - Heckled

« on: August 01, 2013, 08:02 PM »

I guess my only surprise at this story is that it's so tame:

http://news.cnet.com...stitution/?ttag=fbwp

Hackers to NSA chief: Read the Constitution

The head of the NSA faces a tough audience as he appeals to hackers and security professionals at Black Hat 2013 to help the U.S. government build better spying tools.

And despite trying to avoid the obvious by organizing prepared questions:

Alexander returned repeatedly to the question of how to balance security vs. civil liberties and privacy. But when it came time for the question-and-answer session, he faced more heckling and skepticism.

The questions had been prepared in advance via a questionnaire organized by Black Hat's new general manager, Trey Ford, who read the questions from the stage. But first, an audience member shouted out a question to the general.

"Why do so many countries want to attack us?" the person asked.
The general replied that America stands in the way of them reaching their objective, which is to force everybody to comply with sharia law.

"They want to attack us because we're bombing them!" shouted another person, to much chuckling from the audience.

But, it sounds like the general did a decent job of damage control. Well, as reported by CNET anyways.

254

Living Room / Couple Visited by Feds After Google Search for Backpacks and Pressure Cookers

« on: August 01, 2013, 11:47 AM »

I think the only thing needed is the title and the last line of the article.

http://reason.com/bl...-visited-by-feds-aft

Innocent Couple Visited by Feds After Google Searching for Backpacks and Pressure Cookers
...
Another reason to switch to DuckDuckGo.

255

Living Room / Google Engineer Wins NSA Award, Then Says NSA Should Be “Abolished”

« on: July 31, 2013, 09:42 PM »

Presented without comment.

http://www.tikkun.org/tikdaily40091.html

Google Engineer Wins NSA Award, Then Says NSA Should Be “Abolished”

Last week, Dr. Joseph Bonneau learned that he had won the NSA’s first annual “Science of Security (SoS) Competition.” The competition, which aims to honor the best “scientific papers about national security” as a way to strengthen NSA collaboration with researchers in academia, honored Bonneau for his paper on the nature of passwords.

And how did Bonneau respond to being honored by the NSA? By expressing, in an honest and bittersweet blog post, his revulsion at what the NSA has become:

On a personal note, I’d be remiss not to mention my conflicted feelings about winning the award given what we know about the NSA’s widespread collection of private communications and what remains unknown about oversight over the agency’s operations. Like many in the community of cryptographers and security engineers, I’m sad that we haven’t better informed the public about the inherent dangers and questionable utility of mass surveillance. And like many American citizens I’m ashamed we’ve let our politicians sneak the country down this path.

In accepting the award I don’t condone the NSA’s surveillance. Simply put, I don’t think a free society is compatible with an organisation like the NSA in its current form.

In an interview with Andy Cush at Animal, Bonneau went even farther in his critiques of the NSA:

I’d rather have it abolished than persist in its current form. I think there’s a question about whether it’s possible to reform the NSA into something that’s more reasonable…But my feeling based on what I’ve read is that I don’t want to live in a country with an organization like the NSA is right now.

When Bonneau learned that he has won the award from the NSA, he considered turning it down. However, he ultimately decided upon accepting as a way to potentially bridge academic gaps with the NSA, as a means of opening up at least one avenue into the organization that has been mostly closed.

That said, the winner of the NSA award wants, like many privacy rights activists and citizens concerned with the government’s Fourth Amendment violations, for the NSA to be reformed by a political process (like the one which narrowly failed in the House yesterday).

Either that, or have it abolished altogether.

More links in the original. (Notably to NSA press release and researchers blog post.)

256

Living Room / Automotive industry suppressing security info

« on: July 29, 2013, 10:10 PM »

Nobody really thought any different, eh?

http://www.bbc.co.uk.../technology-23487928

Car key immobiliser hack revelations blocked by UK court

A High Court judge has blocked three security researchers from publishing details of how to crack a car immobilisation system.

German car maker Volkswagen and French defence group Thales obtained the interim ruling after arguing that the information could be used by criminals.

...

The researchers argued that this risk was overblown since car thieves would need to run a computer program for about two days to make use of the exploit in each case.

They said that removing the sections which VW and Thales wanted expunged would mean their paper would have to be peer reviewed a second time, and they would miss their slot at the conference as a consequence. And they argued that their right to publish was covered by freedom of speech safeguards in the European Convention on Human Rights.

However, the judge ruled that, pending a full trial, the details should be withheld.

So, speech is free if a court allows it?

RFID is just such a bad, bad, bad technology when it comes to security.

257

Living Room / Banning Internet Pron in Canada?

« on: July 28, 2013, 11:24 AM »

Well, they're at it again...

http://www.huffingto...6.html?utm_hp_ref=tw

Why Canada Should Block Internet Pornography

On Tuesday, July 22, 2013, I applauded British Prime Minister David Cameron for his bold approach to work with Internet Service Providers to develop solutions to protect children, including an opt-out adult content filter. In this massive fight against child exploitation and the sexualisation of our children, every step we can take makes a difference.

From the outset, I have emphasized the need for a conversation amongst Canadians about how we can better protect youth from adult content online. We currently restrict and protect children from exposure to adult content everywhere but the internet. When ordering Cable TV, you have to 'opt-in' to receive adult channels. Why should the internet be any different?

And with the same lame "think of the children" argument.

I'm glad I don't beat my head against the wall every time I see something like this. I'd be dead.

The author even brings up slavery. 

Canada's national anti-slavery advocacy group...

Seriously?

And then...

I look forward to working with parents, governments, ISPs, search engines and stakeholders about how we can increase the tools and choices available to protect children online from adult content.

Ummm... How about instead they spend the money (that they are planning to waste) on developing some GPL FLOSS software that people can choose to download and use?

Putting the burden on ISPs won't help anyone.

GPL software would be perfect, as it could help address other problems like this.

That problem wouldn't get solved immediately, but it would be a good first step.

258

Living Room / Movie Banned By Censors Becomes a Piracy Hit With Kiwis

« on: July 26, 2013, 10:55 PM »

Oh, the irony is just...

...

Back. Peed my pants laughing again... Sigh... Guess I'm going to do a lot of laundry today.

Anyways, the irony is good for a laugh - censorship leads to piracy.

http://torrentfreak....t-with-kiwis-130725/

While there are often disputes over what age rating films should be awarded, New Zealand’s censors have just gone a step further by banning a horror film from any kind of public distribution. The censors say that Maniac, a serial killer flick starring Elijah Wood, is potentially “injurious to the public good” and cannot be shown in theaters or released on DVD. Maniac’s distributor says that the banning is an “invitation to piracy” and the signs are that’s exactly what’s happening.

maniacOne of the most obvious signs of censorship in entertainment is the ratings system. The US has the MPAA, the UK has the British Board of Film Censors and New Zealand has The Office of Film and Literature Classification. They all have an influence over who can see what and are often dragged into controversy as a result. For the Kiwi censors, yesterday was one of those days.

More at the link. Good luck with your laundry.

259

Living Room / Barnaby Jack Dies Ahead of Heart Hack Presentation at Black Hat

« on: July 26, 2013, 08:36 PM »

Presented without comment.

http://www.huffingto...-dead_n_3660157.html

Barnaby Jack, a celebrated computer hacker who could force a bank ATM to spit out cash and sparked safety improvements in medical devices, has died in San Francisco.

The San Francisco Medical Examiner's Office said Jack died in the city on Thursday. It gave no details. He was believed to be in his mid-30s.

Jack was due to appear at the Black Hat hacking convention in Las Vegas next week, demonstrating techniques for remotely attacking implanted heart devices. He said he could kill a man from 30 feet away.

260

Living Room / Framing people through computers - image filtering problems

« on: July 26, 2013, 10:40 AM »

Luke Rudowski came across an attempt to frame him for kiddie porn. He deleted the email, and made a video to quickly report on it. Since then, a couple other guys have been targeted with (slightly) more sophisticated attempts.

http://www.activistp...activists-being.html

A disturbing trend is unfolding where some entity is attempting to frame prominent anti-establishment activists and alternative media organizations with child pornography.

These activists are being sent emails with malicious attachments containing images of child porn in a seeming attempt to discredit them or set them up for arrest.

Two weeks ago Luke Rudkowski of WeAreChange.org was sent an email from a @tormail domain with attachments containing child porn.

But the vectors there are pretty easy to detect. In the second case, the fellow was already aware of Luke's video, so was wary.

But these kinds of frame-ups are really really easy to manage. I wrote up a quick example here:

http://cynic.me/wp-c...ped-kiddie-porn.html

There's no kiddie porn there, but it demonstrates a trivially simple way to slip kiddie porn onto someone's computer. Here's the actual code:

Code: HTML [Select]

1. I'm calling the line below a horizontal rule. It's not. <br />
2.   <img src="images/Whitehousepetition_01.jpg" height="1" width="400" style="position: relative; left: -40px;" /> <br />
3.   And the period at the end of this sentence isn't a period<img src="GDTBuyNow.jpg" height="2" width="2" /> <br />
4.   Now, you have at least 1+ images on your computer that you didn't even "see". What are they? Could you go to prison for them?

Click through to see.

It's really just too easy to do. I could have linked to darn near anything there. There are many, many more ways to do exactly that, but obfuscated one way or another.

It makes me wonder if there's a market for some kind of an image filter that can block that (e.g. AV companies). Years ago it was far too expensive CPU-wise to do, but it is probably practical now. I've not even looked into image filters in years, so I don't know what's out there. But you'd think that you'd hear about something like that... A question on Stack Exchange turns up to be a non-answer.

It's a pretty difficult problem. You need to detect if an image is porn, and then the age. Pretty tough stuff if not impossible.

261

Living Room / Hold off on buying your 3D printer if you can...

« on: July 26, 2013, 12:47 AM »

Some important patents for 3D printing are expiring next year. There should be an explosion in the market with new, better printers for much cheaper.

http://www.tested.co...tents-expiring-2014/

Laser Sintering 3D Printing Patents Expiring in 2014

Next year, one of the most promising 3D printing technologies will be blown wide open and accessible to hobbyists.

The popular narrative around 3D printers is that, at some point in the near future, a desktop printer in every home will revolutionize manufacturing as we know it. 3D printers are already revolutionary products--most of them are still just a little too pricey, and more importantly, just a little too hard to use, to see that mass adoption. But prices are falling dramatically quickly, and there's a good chance 2014 will see some of the biggest 3D printing shakeups yet. Some major 3D printing patents are set to expire.

262

Living Room / Feds tell Web firms to turn over user account passwords

« on: July 25, 2013, 10:56 PM »

Presented without comment.

http://news.cnet.com...r-account-passwords/

Secret demands mark escalation in Internet surveillance by the federal government through gaining access to user passwords, which are typically stored in encrypted form.

The U.S. government has demanded that major Internet companies divulge users' stored passwords, according to two industry sources familiar with these orders, which represent an escalation in surveillance techniques that has not previously been disclosed.
If the government is able to determine a person's password, which is typically stored in encrypted form, the credential could be used to log in to an account to peruse confidential correspondence or even impersonate the user. Obtaining it also would aid in deciphering encrypted devices in situations where passwords are reused.

More at the link.

263

Living Room / Why the NSA Doesn’t Want You to Have a BlackBerry

« on: July 24, 2013, 09:49 PM »

Here's an interesting article that I'm sure a lot of people here will enjoy.

It really sounds fanboi-ish, but Blackberry fanbois haven't become annoying yet, unlike their Apple counterparts.

http://www.cantechle...ve-a-blackberry0723/

Granted, BlackBerry has done an awful job of marketing these things. What few ads there have been have been weak. They should have licensed the song “Back in Black” and done a bad-ass, kick-ass, in-your-face campaign showing off their new badass line. Oh well. That’s what happens when you let technologists run a company — they create amazing technology but don’t know jack about selling it.

"In a world where every detail of your life is scooped up and sliced and diced until each one of us is living our own little Truman Show, privacy is the enemy. Apple and Google harvest your data and share it with the BlackBerry not only doesn’t harvest your data, it can’t. The technology prohibits it."

That still doesn’t explain the raw hatred for the brand. From whence did this come? Then it dawned on me: Of all the incredible features on this thing, privacy is the one that certain powerful people probably wouldn’t like.

...

What I do know is that rocking a BlackBerry makes them work a bit harder at turning my life into the Truman Show.

Definitely a refreshing read compared to most of the drivel out there. But then again, I'm very partial to articles that manage to sound like they were written by a human, and not a PR department.

264

Developer's Corner / High-bit Math? (128 or 256)

« on: July 24, 2013, 06:43 AM »

There are some calculations that I'd like to run, but I need some extremely big numbers and some extremely small numbers.

So I need something that will facilitate a very large bit-depth for the number types. e.g. 128 bit or 256 bit. I need integers and non-integers.

I only need to do:

• +
• - (redundant from above)
• *
• / (redundant from above)
• ^

However, ^ needs to accommodate very small numbers or very precise numbers, e.g.

• 1.00000000000000000000000000023423423
• 0.000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000002342342

An nth root function would be convenient, but isn't needed.

Does anyone know of anything that works and that can help me? Any language is fine by me. Something C-ish would be nice, but I don't care.

265

Living Room / NSA Can't Search Emails Of Agency Employees

« on: July 23, 2013, 08:28 PM »

MOAR from the "you-can't-make-this-up" department:

http://www.huffingto...8.html?utm_hp_ref=tw

But ask the NSA, as part of a freedom of information request, to do a seemingly simple search of its own employees' email? The agency says it doesn't have the technology.

"There's no central method to search an email at this time with the way our records are set up, unfortunately," NSA Freedom of Information Act officer Cindy Blacker told me last week.

The system is "a little antiquated and archaic," she added.

I filed a request last week for emails between NSA employees and employees of the National Geographic Channel over a specific time period. The TV station had aired a friendly documentary on the NSA and I want to better understand the agency's public-relations efforts.

Antiquated?

Archaic?

Seriously?

Not sure about you, but this just seems a bit "convenient" to me.

266

General Software Discussion / Swapping Out Software?

« on: July 18, 2013, 04:58 AM »

Has anyone recently abandoned any software in favour of another piece of software?

I'm in the SLLLLOOOOOOOWWWWWW process of swapping out Skype in favour of Jitsi for obvious reasons. But, I figure that it's a kind of generic process for one reason or another, and figured that it might be interesting to see what people are using now.

With Jitsi, it's a matter of convincing people to stop using Skype, get Jitsi and an XMPP account. Not easy. I'm still using Skype more than Jitsi, which is frustrating as there are a number of things I'd like to talk to a few people about, but... need them on board as well.

So? Anyone?

267

Living Room / Sky Deutschland to broadcast adverts directly into train passengers' heads

« on: July 18, 2013, 12:03 AM »

Presented without comment:

http://www.telegraph...assengers-heads.html

Sky Deutschland has developed technology to transfer adverts from train windows directly and silently into commuters' heads.

 Passengers leaning their head against the window will "hear" adverts "coming from inside the user's head", urging them to download the Sky Go app.

The proposal involves using bone conduction technology, which is used in hearing aids, headphones and Google's Glass headset, to pass sound to the inner ear via vibrations through the skull.

A video for the Talking Window campaign released by Sky Deutschland and ad agency BBDO Germany states: "Tired commuters often rest their heads against windows. Suddenly a voice inside their head is talking to them. No one else can hear this message."

The voice comes from a Sky-branded transmitter made by Audiva that is attached to the train window.

BBDO spokesman Ulf Brychcy told the BBC: "If our customer Sky Deutschland agrees, we will start with the new medium as quickly as possible.

 "Some people don't like advertising in general. But this is really a new technology. [It might] not only be used for advertising, but also for music, entertainment, mass transport information, weather reports and so on."

Sky Deutschland said it had not made a decision on whether to launch the campaign.

268

Living Room / HBO Asks Google to Take Down “Infringing” VLC Media Player

« on: July 17, 2013, 11:18 AM »

From the "please-stop-trying-to-make-me-piss-my-pants-laughing" department...

http://torrentfreak....media-player-130715/

HBO sent a DMCA takedown to Google, listing a copy of the popular media player VLC as a copyright infringement.

Umm, yeah, there's a word for that. Around here we call it "criminal fraud".

Torrent Freak is far more understanding of the horrible and terrible hardships that HBO suffers than I am.

While I still primarily use ALShow, I use VLC on my Mac, and also have a copy on my main PC. It's a good program. But, it's also GPL'd, which makes the takedown request all that more repellent.

269

Living Room / 3D Printing Blasts Off Without Cody Wilson?

« on: July 16, 2013, 04:13 AM »

Well, Cody Wilson is still the coolest guy in 3D printing, but that doesn't mean that NASA can't do cool stuff too.

http://www.nasa.gov/...et-engine-injector-0

NASA and Aerojet Rocketdyne of West Palm Beach, Fla., recently finished testing a rocket engine injector made through additive manufacturing, or 3-D printing.

That could have saved Wile E. Coyote a heck of a lot of $$$~!

270

Living Room / The iLectricChair: Woman Electrocuted To Death By Her Charging iPhone

« on: July 15, 2013, 09:13 AM »

From the uber-bizarre side of, well, bizarreness:

http://www.zerohedge...-her-charging-iphone

"Her neck had an obvious electronic injury," was the local Public Security Bureau's findings following the death of Ma Ailun, a 23-year old Chinese woman whose family alleges she was electrocuted by her iPhone. In its statement, Apple said: "We are deeply saddened to learn of this tragic incident and offer our condolences to the Ma family. We will fully investigate and cooperate with authorities in this matter." The case remains under investigation, with Chinese officials yet to provide details on whether her smartphone, the charger, or something else killed the woman; but, as the WSJ reports, The China Consumers’ Association in May warned about the dangers of a "flood" of uncertified power chargers on the market (in Chinese). In the release the association warned the chargers could turn a smartphone into a “pocket grenade” and cause explosions, electric shock, or fires in a variety of electronic devices.

 

271

Living Room / Computers Outlawed in Florida

« on: July 13, 2013, 09:16 PM »

Just in case you live in Florida, you might want to get rid of all your computers, laptops, smart phones, tablets, Raspberry Pis, and anything else like it. You don't want to end up in prison, after all.

http://www.huffingto...uters_n_3561701.html

Florida Accidentally Banned All Computers, Smart Phones In The State Through Internet Cafe Ban: Lawsuit

When Florida lawmakers recently voted to ban all Internet cafes, they worded the bill so poorly that they effectively outlawed every computer in the state, according to a recent lawsuit.

In April Florida Governor Rick Scott approved a ban on slot machines and Internet cafes after a charity tied to Lt. Governor Jennifer Carroll was shut down on suspicion of being an Internet gambling front -- forcing Carroll, who had consulted with the charity, to resign.

Florida's 1,000 Internet cafes were shut down immediately, including Miami-Dade's Incredible Investments, LLC, a café that provides online services to migrant workers, according to the Tampa Bay Times.

Now... if any of our friends that live in Florida post in this thread, we'll know that they are hardened criminals with no respect for the law!

But thank God that the good people of Florida are now protected from the evils of Internet cafes! Phew! They really dodged a bullet there! God only knows how much more damage Internet cafes would have done to the poor people of Florida had they not banned them.

272

Living Room / $250,000 Prize for Human-Powered Helicopter

« on: July 13, 2013, 08:12 AM »

Video:

Article:

http://www.guardian....le-prize?INTCMP=SRCH

Engineers at the University of Toronto have won a prize that has been unclaimed for 33 years by building the world's first helicopter powered only by human muscle.

The Igor I Sikorsky Human Powered Helicopter Competition was launched in 1980 by the American Helicopter Society (AHS). The rules stated that the $250,000 prize could only be won by a human-powered machine capable of hovering for at least 60 seconds, reach at least 3 metres in height, and stay within an area 10 metres by 10 metres.

Definitely in the "Nifty" category.

273

Living Room / Startpage.com Search Engine - Katherine Albrecht on The Corbett Report

« on: July 12, 2013, 11:34 PM »

Dr. Katherine Albrecht on the Startpage private search engine (podcast)

http://www.corbettre...ivate-search-engine/

I've seen a few interviews with her. Startpage.com sounds pretty good. If you don't like DuckDuckgo, then you might like it. I've not done any real comparison between the two.

James Corbett is an excellent interviewer, though likely not what most people are quite used to. Hopefully some people will enjoy the show.

274

Living Room / PRISM Break ;)

« on: July 12, 2013, 11:06 PM »

Want to remove yourself from the surveillance grid prison? Make a PRISM Break!

https://prism-break.org/

via The Corbett Report - Boycott and Buycott (Highly recommended site, but not primarily focused on software.)

There is a host of good software there. Some I use, some I plan on moving to when I can.

The site lists the spyware that you're most likely using now, and non-spyware alternatives. It also gives comments and notes.

275

Living Room / Hot *New* Technology! TYPEWRITERS! :D

« on: July 12, 2013, 10:01 AM »

So, looks like the hot new tech out there is the typewriter.



http://www.ibtimes.c...ters-fight-leaks.htm

The Kremlin's communications watchdog has ordered typewriters to prevent potential leaks of sensitive information in the aftermath of NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden's revelations about Washington's electronic snooping and eavesdropping.

Act NOW, for today only and you can get a free abacus!