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Archive for April, 2008
Pittsburgh International Airport Security
Seriously, who do they want to stop from ramming into the unsecured baggage claim area? Airport security is becoming more and more of a joke every day.
Is your son a computer hacker?
This is just too good... Try and read the whole thing, I dare you. As an enlightened, modern parent, I try to be as involved as possible in the lives of my six children. I encourage them to join team sports. I attend their teen parties with them to ensure no drinking or alcohol is on the premises. I keep a fatherly eye on the CDs they listen to [...]
MacBook Air fitted with internal EV-DO and finally lives up to its name
One of the most surprising things about the launch of an ultra-portable laptop dubbed "Air" by Apple wasn't its thinness but the lack of an embedded WWAN radio. No more, at least if you're not intimidated by smoldering solder and warranty violations. Jordan Bunnell has posted a step-by-step of his success at integrating a Verizon USB727 Aircard [...]
Half A Million Microsoft-Powered Sites Hit With SQL Injection
A new SQL injection attack aimed at Microsoft IIS web servers has hit some 500,000 websites, including the United Nations, UK Government sites and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. While the attack is not necessarily Microsoft's fault, it is unique to the company's IIS server. The automated attack takes advantage to the fact that [...]
The Great Ubuntu-Girlfriend Experiment
I’ve toyed with Linux since 2002, when I first installed Mandrake. With the latest release of Ubuntu, I was interested to see how far Linux had come since then in terms of being used easily by the mainstream. So, I tricked my grudging girlfriend Erin into sitting down at a brand new Ubuntu 8.04 installation and performing some basic tasks. [...]
BitRipper Converts DVDs to AVIs in One Click
Windows only: Freeware application bitRipper provides no-hassle, one-click conversions from DVDs straight to AVI video files. Until recently a commercial program, bitRipper handles the decryption and encoding of the DVD video in one fell swoop, emphasizing a very simple one-click process (though you can set more advanced options if you like). The [...]
HOWTO: Fill a Used Print Cartridge with Invisible Ink
If you've got a spare printer ink cartridge and a document you only want one person to see—or just some free time and a cloak-and-dagger kick—one helpful Metacafe post has a project for you. The tutorial requires a utility knife, some invisible ink pens and a syringe, and an empty ink cartridge, with black seeming to be an easier [...]
Which Government Agency Should Be Your Computer’s Firewall?
First the NSA says it needs to examine every search and email on the internet to prevent an e-9/11 attack, then President Bush signs a secret cyber-security Presidential Directive to make that possible, while the Air Force has set up a cyber warfare division where cyber-security is played like a game of Space Invaders. Not to be left out on the [...]
Dell: We’ll install XP for you, even after the deadline
It seems that Michael Dell is breathing new life into his company. A year ago, Dell was brave enough to backtrack on its Vista-only policy for consumer machines (Dell brings back XP on home systems). It also showed some independence from Microsoft by offering Linux to consumers. And again, Dell is innovating. Fact 1: As of June 30, large [...]
Clean Room Implementation of Google Page Rank Algorithm
Finally a clean-room implementation of Google’s Page Rank Algorithm in Java, reverse-engineered from their numerous commentary on Page Rank. public static int getPageRank(url) { // start off with a random low PR int pageRank = rand.getInt(0, 3); if ( isHostedOn('google.com', url) ) { pageRank++; } else if ( [...]
OLPC to scrap Linux for Windows
Huh?!? Apple offered OSX for free, but was declined for not being open source. Now they're going with Windows?!? Will OLPC = "One License Per Child" now? I don't really see the purpose of using a commercial OS, on a stripped down laptop, for third world countries, when it requires more resources and costs more. Ugh. In a somewhat shocking [...]
Private citizen issues parking tickets to Oregon cop
An Oregon man issued a series of parking citations to a uniformed police officer who parked his patrol car next to a "No Parking" sign while he went to buy food at a Chinese restaurant last month in Portland. Eric Bryant says he approached Officer Chad Stensgaard, but the cop dismissed his concerns about the illegal parking spot. "If he had [...]
Adobe Air on Linux: A Security Nightmare
"Adobe Air is an application platform/framework which received some buzz recently. One of the most popular Twitter clients was written using Adobe Air. Air seems to make it relatively simple to write nice looking cross platform applications. Two weeks ago, Adobe Air was released for Linux and I gave it a try on my Debian Etch system. The results [...]
The BBC Reports on Ubuntu
The public perception of open source software is changing fast, said Mark Shuttleworth, who leads distribution of the Ubuntu operating system (OS). A new version of Ubuntu, a version of the Linux OS, is released on Thursday. Mr Shuttleworth said the success of the Asus Eee PC and the work of the One Laptop Per Child programme had driven [...]
Chinese Hackers Take Down SportsNetwork
The SportsNetwork, a privately held sports website located in Hatboro, PA, has been under attack from hackers for about 24 hours. Early Sunday the site was defaced with “Tibet was, is and will always be part of China†messages. Engineers returned the site to normal, but late Sunday evening the site was again hacked and taken offline. [...]
2008 Could Be Record Year for Breaches
If the first quarter was any indication, 2008 could be a record-setting year for security breaches, according to a new study. In its first-quarter report, the Identity Theft Resource Center said it has already recorded 167 compromises, more than twice as many as the first quarter of 2007. In fact, the 2008 total represents more than a third [...]
Asus Sets Eee PC 900 US Launch for May 12th
Asus informed the world, this evening, that the Eee PC 900 will hit the store shelves in the U.S. on May 12th. The Linux and Windows XP loaded version of this 8.9" version of the Eee PC will both cost $549. (more...)
HOWTO: Avoid Blind TinyURL Clickthroughs
If you're regularly sent TinyURLs but have been burned one too many times by clicking through to an embarrassing link at the wrong time, head to TinyURL's preview page and enable previews. This old but useful feature will set a cookie in your browser, and henceforth all TinyURLs you click on with direct you to a landing page that will display the [...]
Can We Trust Google With Our Medical Records?
When my mom was battling cancer, she decided to seek additional input from a cancer center miles away. She went to her oncologist to collect her medical records, only to discover they were stored in several different places. My mom was weak and sick from chemotherapy, yet she traipsed from hospital to hospital to collect medical files, [...]
HOWTO: Creating An Army of Free Captcha Typers
After all this talk about CAPTCHAs, let's take look at the "blackhat" side of things and create an "Army of Captcha Typers," that don't even know they're doing it. People are finally starting to catch on to this technique. However I’m finding a lack of tact in how to accomplish it successfully. The objective is simple. How do we get a [...]
