Because it's neat: MIT is working on a new suit that is far more flexible and lighter than the current puffy things. JTAG ERROR: No slashdot_ht index defined

The Firefox team has decided to include a user-written plugin into the standard release of Firefox 3. This plugin highlights the domain name making it easier for normal users to see and understand what site they’re actually on versus what they think they’re on. For example, most people think that just because the url says yourbank.com anywhere means that’s the site they’re on. The reality is that it must be in this format: http://[anything at all].yourbank.com/[anything else] to be valid. Any other arrangment is a phishing attack: http://yourbank.loans.com http://12.293.28.18/yourbank.com etc. This plugin will make it easier to spot by highlighting the valid part of the URL which is the domain (which is easily confused by less techie users who don’t understand that the domain section of the URL is backwards). Tags: Good Stuff, Identity Theft

It's well known that body language is very difficult to control and often gives away your true thoughts and feelings for those capable of looking for the signs. Now a German company is trying to make software that understands those slight signals in order to produce superior quality ads. And with all such technologies, they must be banned or strictly controlled to prevent them from being turned against us at the flip of a switch. Tags: Big Brother

Most people don’t realize that in many cases, the only thing that prevents you from keeping your phone when switching to another carrier is corporate greed and a bit of non-obvious industry collusion. Everyone seems refuses to take customers unless they sign a new contract and buy a new phone. The FCC chairman is proposing a new rule that would, in effect, do away with this sad state of affairs. Granted, that’s only for the new 700Mhz band that will be opening up once TV is forced to go digital, but any company that wins the rights to that band will have to follow the new rules. Now, what are the odds that all those big, bad cell companies will allow that kind of rule to go through? And isn’t it pathetic that a company can even control what the head of the FCC does?

One of the biggest problems with the iPhone is that they're exclusive to AT&T's service (a company that is at the very bottom of cell providers due to privacy problems). Fortuneately, it was only a matter of time before the good hackers of the world broke that link and they're making some progress already. JTAG ERROR: No slashdot_ht index defined Tags: Good Stuff

AT&T (a.k.a the evil empire that won't die), is going to start filtering Internet traffic to remove copyrighted material in transit.

Fortunately, there's no chance this will work for long. First there's the SET technology for filesharing that uses generic chunks from files unrelated to copyrighted material to speed up sharing. If this gets implemented, not only will it improve filesharing speeds and allow people to finish files that have lost their seeders/sources, but it will prevent AT&T from filtering copyrighted material without blocking legitimate shares as well.

Secondly, it won't be long until filesharing networks introduce a quick encryption to packets that scramble them randomly using an IP address so the chunks of data won't be recognized by AT&T filters. I'm sure there are plenty of other techniques as well, but one thing's for certain: even honest non-hackers and non-sharers are still rooting against the copyright holders and AT&T.

I mean, come on! The article says the copyright companies lost billions of dollars due to filesharing? All they're doing is talking about the value of the files they know have been shared without taking into account that many of the people who are downloading these files would never have bought them in the first place! They're not losing money they would have had, they're losing money they never would have had.

As the article itself says, the RIAA and MPAA should just focus their money and resources in finding ways to turn downloaders into honest customers (perhaps cutting prices? Offering slick downloadable options? Removing all DRM so people can do what they want with it?)

Tags: AT&T, net neutrality, P2P

Maybe this has been around a while, but it's the first time I've seen it. There are utilities to unlock files that Windows won't let you delete because they are "in use".

The main suggestion in the article is a free utility called "unlocker" which will probably work well for normal users and I might add it to my list of tools for that reason. However, a commenter said that the Process Explorer utility will let you find the exact program that's using that file so you can close just it instead of unlocking every process at once.

Once I've experimented with them, I'll have one or the other on my tools page. Until then, feel free to go to the article and check it out yourself.

Tags: Tools, Well Duh!, Windows

This article is a treasure trove of historical information about the battle between consumers and copyright holders in P2P and DRM.

A bit about the attitude of the market:

A bit about the Media companies' "shame on you" campaign:

A bit about DRM:

A bit about reality:

Nice.

Tags: DRM, Piracy

I don't support criminals, but evading forensics is also about privacy, not just breaking the law. For those with the interest and skill, check out the article for some tools used to evade detection of things you'd rather keep hidden. Here are some of them:

• Timestomp – Destroys the timestamp evidence of files on your computer. Probably not something you'd want to run willy-nilly.
• Transmogrify – Hide files by making them seem like other file types. For example, you have that picture of you in Tahiti, but you don't want someone who steals your computer to know it's there. Make it look like a text document.
• Slacker – Breaks a file up and hides it in the free space at the end of other files. This could be very dangerous to use because if those files change, your hidden file could be destroyed. I'd be curious to see how this works in practice.
• KY – Puts files into null directories. Most tools won't know the directory is there so your files will be hidden. This one has potential for home use. If I try it and it's good, I'll post it in my tools section.

Tags: Forensics, Tools

A new service from Google is taking their maps program down to the actual street level. You can browse around the streets of locations they've mapped like in a 3-d virtual game (though it's just pictures so not as smooth as an actual game… yet). What happens when they combine it with Fotowoosh?

The implications of this are currently unknown. For one, I suppose it gives you the opportunity to browse around a location before you actually go there so you can plan your trip better. Or if I was a terrorist, it makes it really easy to pick targets and become familiar with the neighborhood before the actual event. Another possibility is making game modifications like this one. Nothing like being able to wander around in Counterstrike blowing people away on your very own virtual street!

Don't get me wrong, it's neat technology and certainly better than live cameras. People and license plate numbers are all obscured at least. Then again, maybe not.

Tags: Google, Street View