Monthly Archives: March 2009

Zypad wrist computer

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With the Zypad device, which runs a Linux operating system, one can access a remote host system through integrated wired or wireless interfaces. The unit boasts a special fiberglass-reinforced nylon-magnesium alloy case for maximum durability and minimum weight.

Features include “802.11 and Bluetooth/Zigbee interfaces, a GPS receiver, electronic compass, biometric fingerprint sensor, and a tilt- and dead-reckoning system that detects the position of the user’s arm and sets the system to standby mode when the arm is hanging down beside the body.”

Wrist-worn computer packs beaucoup functions | Military Tech – CNET News

Sniffing keyboard keystrokes

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The Ecole Polytechnique team did its work over the air. Using an oscilloscope and an inexpensive wireless antenna, the team was able to pick up keystrokes from virtually any keyboard, including laptops. “We discovered four different ways to recover the keystroke of a keyboard,” said Matin Vuagnoux, a Ph.D. student at the university. With the keyboard’s cabling and nearby power wires acting as antennas for these electromagnetic signals, the researchers were able to read keystrokes with 95 percent accuracy over a distance of up to 20 meters (22 yards), in ideal conditions.
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If pulling keystrokes out of thin air isn’t bad enough, another team has found a way to get the same kind of information out of a power socket. Using similar techniques, Inverse Path researchers Andrea Barisani and Daniele Bianco say they get accurate results, picking out keyboard signals from keyboard ground cables.

Buma / Stemra goes nuts and wins in NL

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The Dutch version of the RIAA is called BUMA / STEMRA and they hunt down people for their own personal gain in about the same way RIAA does.
They’ve sued a company for allowing their workers to listen to their own ipods. In NL companies apparently need to pay BUMA / STEMRA if they allow their employees to listen to the public radio. How this is possible is beyond me, as the singers are paid by the radio station when the songs are played. It’s got something to do with making the music available publicly, even though an office is not a public setting.
Anyway, even though the music on an ipod is private (or may be an audiobook) and can only be heard by one person and is presumably owned by that person, the court has decided that this falls under the public display of music and that the company should pay.
There is unfortunately no path to the court of appeals, as the company has let the deadline expire.
The country is up in arms about it – no-one can really understand this ruling and many consider it a miscarriage of justice. Now I don’t know the judge, but he must have been 90 years old and never have touched a computer in his life in order to come to conclusions like this.

Google starts using your search history for contextual advertising

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Thus they can use adsense equipped sites to mainly show you the stuff they think you’re interested in. Privacy? Anonymous web surfing? No thank you! Fortunately they have a page where you can see what categories Google thinks you’re interested in and you can opt out of interests or opt in to new categories. The system is cookie based, so you have to do this on each and every browser you use.

Chinese hackers crack iTunes Store gift codes, sell certificates | iLounge News

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A group of Chinese hackers has succeeded in cracking Apple%u2019s algorithm for encoding iTunes Store Gift Certificates92, and are creating discounted certificates using a key generator. Outdustry reports that a number of the codes are available on the site Taobao, with $200 cards selling for as little as $2.60. The owner of the Taobao shop offering the cards admitted that the codes are created using key generators, and that he paid to use the hackers%u2019 service. He also said that while the price of the codes has dropped steadily, store owners make more money as the number of customers grows.

Chinese hackers crack iTunes Store gift codes, sell certificates | iLounge News

UK Government Really hates freedom

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As if privacy isn’t enough of a bother for the people of the UK, the government now wants to kill net neutrality: ie the choice to connect wherever you like to on the internet. This bill would allow ISPs to say which sites you can and can’t connect to, a bit like TV stations. One of the reasons TV lost to internet is because you can choose your own content. People are adult enough to make their own choices and don’t need them spoonfed to them, thanks.

UK home secretary thinks violence agains men fine

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SS general Jaqui Smith has found that violence against women is unnaccaptable at any time and is shocked to find that 1 in 5 men find it acceptable if there is sufficient cause for it. She is also surprised to find that 40% of British men think that if a woman has been flirting heavily she’s asking for sex.
Violence against men, however, is so inconsequential, she doesn’t find it worth spending her time on.
Sexist bitch.

NL Zonefile wants to kill small registrars

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The SIDN – the Dutch .nl zonefile owners – have decided they want only large registrars and have decided to give owners of > 100.000 domain names up to 8% discount.
Becoming a registrant is subject to an annual fee, which is the same for all registrars, so the smaller registrars, that have to make more costs due to them not being able to afford automated systems, are being pushed out pricewise.
Basically SIDN is saying “screw you” to all it’s smaller registrars.
Fortunately there is a protest. After unsuccessful negotiations with SIDN, group of registrars has protested to trade standards, complaining that SIDN is a monopoly and is taking advantage of its position for no real reason.
Come on SIDN, you’re one of the largest zones in the world, thanks in large part to small registrars. Stop kicking them in the face!

In the UK only the MPs have privacy

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This has just been put into law, without any debate whatsoever, in response to a high court judge’s ruling that MP’s adresses should be published.
This from the house that pushes the wide eyed innocent “but if you haven’t done anything wrong, you have nothing to fear” argument all over the place. Are they afraid, because they’re hiding something? Or do they really know, deep in their hearts, that this is a total bullshit irrellevant argument.

SPOT Europe, The World’s First Satellite Messenger

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Introducing SPOT %u2013 The World%u2019s First Satellite Messenger
Whether you%u2019re just checking in, allowing others to track your progress, or calling for help %u2013 SPOT gives you a vital line of communication with friends and family when you want it, and emergency assistance when and where you need it. And since it utilizes 100% satellite technology, SPOT works around the world %u2013 even where cell phones don%u2019t.

Shop SPOT Europe, The World’s First Satellite Messenger

It’s fairly affordable (EUR. 200) and links in to Google Maps, so other people can track you.

UK Government Wants To Kill Data Protection Act

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“Clause 152 of the Coroners and Justice Bill, currently being debated by the UK Parliament, would allow any Minister by order to take from anywhere any information gathered for one purpose, and use it for any other purpose64. Personal information arbitrarily used without consent or even knowledge: the very opposite of ‘Data Protection.’ An ‘Information Sharing Order’, as defined in Clause 152, would permit personal information to be trafficked and abused, not only all across government and the public sector %u2014 it would also reach into the private sector. And it would even allow transfer of information across international borders.

Slashdot | UK Government Wants To Bypass Data Protection Act

I sense the evil hand of J Smith in this.