moonbuggy

`Residents in Shoreditch, East London, will become the first to test a new advance in broadband technology when they switch on a new set-top box that combines the functions of a television and computer. [..]

Most commercially-available broadband connections operate at a speed of 2 megabits per second (2Mb/s), but the Shoreditch project can access internet images and content at a speed of up to 2 billions of bits per second (2Gb/s).’

`A group of boys who posed as a 15-year-old girl for an Internet prank ended up helping police arrest a 48-year-old man who tried to meet the fictitious teenager for sex, authorities said.

The five boys had created a fake profile of a girl on MySpace.com — a social networking Web site — to cheer up a friend who had recently broken up with his girlfriend.

But soon, a man began sending messages to the “girl” and their conversations began to have sexual overtones, said Fontana police Sgt. William Megenney.’

`To this end, us, isoHunt.com and TorrentBox.com, are forming a coalition together with other P2P operators being sued and yet to be sued, and if possible with the help of the EFF, we will fight for the right for technological progress and the legality of the search engine itself. It is too early right now to say what we need for help from you, but if the MPAA will not back down, I’m sure we are going to need your help. And no, we will not go the way of LokiTorrent or Suprnova.

Anyways, nobody panic, and let the torrents flow. If you like to talk to us live and chat with other fellows in the community, come chat on IRC on #isoHunt on P2P-IRC (SSL enabled on port 7000, you need a client like mIRC ). We’ll update as we learn more.’

`Piggybacking, the usually unauthorized tapping into someone else’s wireless Internet connection, is no longer the exclusive domain of pilfering computer geeks or shady hackers cruising for unguarded networks. Ordinarily upstanding people are tapping in. As they do, new sets of Internet behaviors are creeping into America’s popular culture.

“I don’t think it’s stealing,” said Edwin Caroso, a 21-year-old student at Miami Dade College, echoing an often-heard sentiment.

“I always find people out there who aren’t protecting their connection, so I just feel free to go ahead and use it,” Mr. Caroso said. He added that he tapped into a stranger’s network mainly for Web surfing, keeping up with e-mail, text chatting with friends in foreign countries and doing homework.’

Makes me think I should buy a wireless card to go with my 13dB antenna that’s been sitting around for years. It’d give me an excuse to learn all about packet shaping and whatnot, and I could afford to let 10% or so of my bandwidth float out the window. [shrug] Why not? 🙂

Just so long as I don’t end up some sorta anonymous gay porn proxy or something. Hmm. 🙂

`Have you ever faced a real challenge whose only solution most people would consider too crazy or difficult? In this article you will learn about one of the most challenging personal projects I’ve done, and it was all in the name of Internet access. The goal was simple: throw away 56k and upgrade to high-speed internet. Sound easy? Think again. [..]

Eventually, I came up with a plan. I would build a sixty-plus foot tower so I could intercept the signal! Well, that’s a simple thing to say, but it’s another story to really to do it. This is the story of how one man got the Internet access he craved, and how others can follow in his footsteps (just in case you ever need to build a sixty-foot tower in your backyard).’

`A British man who kept his $2.5 million Lotto win a secret from his wife has blown the fortune on gold-digging women. [..]

“These women must see me coming,” he told his mates. [..]

The news isn’t all bad for the Lotto loser, who put some money is trust for his two sons, but the bulk of it has flown the coop.

The lovelorn former millionaire’s search for romance continues as he spends $750-a-month on internet dating services.’

`While many teenagers who use the myspace website boast about using drugs, one 16-year-old from Bensalem actually showed them.

He posted pictures on the popular website of him posing with a gun, and various drugs, while bragging he made 250,000 dollars a year by selling them. Police found the Bensalem High school student after a lengthy investigation.

“One of our detectives saw this guy and thought he seemed a little bit more real than the next kid and it was enough to launch an investigation,” said Harran.

The teenager has since been charged with possession and many of those who knew him at the high school are shocked.’

`WElL I GOT NEWS FOR U MISTER I GOT MORE FIREWALL POWERS NOW SO IM SECURE AND IM USING WINDOWS 98 SO IM REALLY SECURE FROM HACKERS LIKE YOU SO YOU BETTA JUST GIVE UP CUZ U GOT NO HOPE MISTER.’

`Microsoft will introduce a search engine better than Google in six months in the United States and Britain followed by Europe, its European president said on Wednesday.

“What we’re saying is that in six months’ time we’ll be more relevant in the U.S. market place than Google,” said Neil Holloway, Microsoft president for Europe, Middle East and Africa.

“The quality of our search and the relevance of our search from a solution perspective to the consumer will be more relevant,” he told the Reuters Global Technology, Media and Telecoms Summit.’

`Engineers at Panda Software, while in the process of researching a new trojan, uncovered evidence this week that led them to a web site touting custom-built viruses for sale. For the low, low price of only US$990, a user gets his or her own pet trojan horse, complete with tech support. If the file is discovered—as this current model was—the designer provides a guarantee to alter it so that it may continue to avoid detection in the face of updated antivirus software.

The trojan goes by the moniker Trj/Briz.A, and scans the user’s hard drive for information that could be used for financial and identity data. It then sends that information to an attacker working behind the scenes. Additional features include the ability to gather IP addresses and in some cases, the physical location of infected computers. It can also modify the machine to prevent access to web sites devoted to antivirus products.’

`The MPAA filed lawsuits against Torrentspy, Isohunt, Torrentbox, Niteshadow and Bthub. This could have a huge impact on the Bittorrent community since Torrentspy and Isohunt are two of the most frequently visited torrent sites.

But on the other hand, Isohunt and Torrentspy are torrent search engines and DO NOT host any torrents so the MPAA may have a hard time to built a strong case.’

`Broadband customers of Australia’s largest ISPs can use peer-to-peer file-sharing services such as BitTorrent and Kazaa without being throttled by their ISP, at least for now.

Australia’s largest internet providers say they are not limiting peer-to-peer file sharing traffic on their networks and have no immediate plans to impose restrictions on the activity.

However, some say they have the means to apply limits if that is required in the future.’

`Google called the Bush administration’s request for data on Web searches as “so uninformed as to be nonsensical” in papers filed in San Jose federal court Friday, arguing that turning over the information would expose its trade secrets and violate the privacy of its users.

The 21-page brief filed by the Mountain View search giant angrily dissected the government’s claim that the search results would produce useful evidence regarding child pornography. [..]

Google’s struggle with the Justice Department has focused worldwide attention on the risk that Internet technologies will be used by governments for surveillance purposes — and that the privacy of users could be compromised without their ever knowing it.

In justification of its demand of data from Google, the Justice Department revealed that it had requested — and received — similar data from Yahoo, Microsoft and AOL.’

`”Don’t work too hard,” wrote a colleague in an e-mail today. Was she sincere or sarcastic? I think I know (sarcastic), but I’m probably wrong.

According to recent research published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, I’ve only a 50-50 chance of ascertaining the tone of any e-mail message. The study also shows that people think they’ve correctly interpreted the tone of e-mails they receive 90 percent of the time.

“That’s how flame wars get started,” says psychologist Nicholas Epley of the University of Chicago, who conducted the research with Justin Kruger of New York University. “People in our study were convinced they’ve accurately understood the tone of an e-mail message when in fact their odds are no better than chance,” says Epley.’

`Bang! Fark.com’s Drew Curtis was in the line of fire and he got peppered pretty good. The insults rained like small lead pellets, and they may have come from none other than Tom Cruise.

While the grammatically-impaired emailer responsible for the missive below didn’t signal or indicate or announce himself, “I’m pretty positive this is him,” Drew tells Boing Boing, The I.P. belongs to Paramount Studios, and he’s writing about a story we linked about him and Katie splitting up.”‘

`SiteAdvisor helps protect you from all kinds of Web-based security threats including spyware, adware, spam, viruses, browser-based attacks, phishing, online fraud and identity theft.

Our automated testers continually patrol the Web to browse sites, download files, and sign-up for things with e-mail addresses. As you search, browse, download or register online, SiteAdvisor’s safety ratings help you stay safe and in control.’

Interesting looking Firefox/IE plugins.

‘”Firewall” is [Harrison] Ford’s latest excavation of the family-in-peril thriller, and it is a mostly rote attempt to reboot “The Desperate Hours” — the taut psychological standoff between Humphrey Bogart and Fredric March from 1955 — for the computer age. Instead of dramatic tension, “Firewall” makes do with a lot of frantic typing at computer keyboards. It’s like watching Microsoft’s Service Pack 2 download for nearly two hours. [..]

You don’t go to a Harrison Ford movie expecting gritty realism, but even by the lowered standards of the modern thriller, what finally causes “Firewall” to collapse is a series of increasingly improbable plot twists. The most laughable of these can’t be discussed without revealing the movie’s climax, but it is accompanied by what is sure to be one of the year’s funniest lines (though not intentionally): “Where are they, Rusty?” Jack asks the family dog, completely serious. “Where have they gone?”

This comes shortly after he uses his daughter’s iPod to hot-wire the bank’s servers, moving $100 million to Cox’s offshore account, while downloading Sharon Stone’s celebrity playlist from iTunes. (OK, he doesn’t really get the playlist, just the $100 million.) [..]’

Also the Firewall trailer.

`The number of Japanese who killed themselves in suicide pacts made over the internet rose sharply last year.

Police said 91 people died in the pacts in 2005, compared with 55 in 2004 and 34 in 2003, when the records started.

Alarm at the rise has led to increased vigilance by internet service providers, who now report suspected suicide pacts to the authorities.

Japan has one of the highest suicide rates in the world, and the pacts may appeal to those scared to die alone.’

`Google today announced a new “feature” of its Google Desktop software that greatly increases the risk to consumer privacy. If a consumer chooses to use it, the new “Search Across Computers” feature will store copies of the user’s Word documents, PDFs, spreadsheets and other text-based documents on Google’s own servers, to enable searching from any one of the user’s computers. EFF urges consumers not to use this feature, because it will make their personal data more vulnerable to subpoenas from the government and possibly private litigants, while providing a convenient one-stop-shop for hackers who’ve obtained a user’s Google password.’

`A hacker who stopped more than three million Spanish computer users from using the internet has been sentenced to two years in jail. Twenty-six-year-old Santiago Garrido used a computer worm to launch distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks after he was expelled from the popular “Hispano” IRC chat room for disobeying its rules.

The attacks disrupted an estimated three million users of the Wanadoo, ONO, Lleida Net and other internet service providers – amounting to one third of all of Spain’s web users at the time of the 2003 offense. [..]

“Many times hackers use DDoS techniques to try and blackmail the website under attack. On this occasion, it seems the hacker was so furious about being thrown out of a chat room that he resorted to a criminal act to wreak his revenge, affecting millions of internet users in the process,” said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos.’

`Authorities were seeking Thursday a burglar who allegedly took the time to make coffee, cook and eat meals, take showers, pick out a change of clothes, watch television and check his e-mail while inside three rural Washington County homes this month. [..]

Lori Menzel of the town of Kewaskum said the burglar left his Yahoo account open after checking his personal e-mail on the computer at her home.

“He never logged out,” she said, adding: “He made himself at home here. He spent some time in our bedroom trying on my husband’s clothes. I could tell he went through some of my clothes.”‘

`Video Bomb filters up the hottest videos on the internet: people submit links to the ‘Incoming!’ page and you bomb the best ones. If a video gets a lot of bombs quickly, it makes it to the front page.’

`Novel new data transfer system was launched recently in a unique experiment being held in KinnerNet 2005 camp (an Israeli internet camp , modeled after Tim Oreilly’s Foo camp). The experiment conceived and run by a group of Israeli Internet addicts, including Yossi Vardi (former ICQ chairman), Shimon Schocken (computer scientist) and Ami Ben Bassat (science writer).

The system called SNAP (SNAil-based data transfer Protocol(, uses biological carriers, and, for the first time, taking advantages of the unique merits of the wheel for data transfer. [..]

System architecture: the system is constructed of a back end – a carriage, Ben-Hur movie style, which is made of a yoke made of light Balsa, and outfitted with two huge wheels – 2 DVD wheels, 4.7 Giga each. The front end, to which the carriage is harnessed consist of a Giant snail (Achatina fulica), known also as Giant African Snail (Africans are known as the world fastest runners ). These giant snail are of the GastroPod family (G-pod. We will reserve this name for transfer of music, and the name: G-mail for transfer of emails by snails SMTP –snail mobile transfer protocol )

Packets transport: Data is transported in 2 packets in parallel, 4.7 Giga each packet.’

`An 18-year-old male ASU student was arrested Sunday night at Hayden Library and charged with indecent exposure and public sexual indecency. The suspect allegedly pulled his pants and underwear to his mid-thighs to masturbate while watching pornography on his laptop. When asked why he had gone to the library to view pornography and masturbate, the suspect allegedly told police, “To be honest, the Internet connection at my dorm isn’t good enough.”‘

`Developers can use Google and other search engines to find source code, but it’s not easy. A Silicon Valley startup claims to have come up with a better alternative — a search engine for source code and code-related information.

The tool, known as Krugle, is designed to deliver easy access to source code and other highly relevant technical information in a single, convenient, clean, easy-to-use interface, according to the company. Krugle works by crawling, parsing, and indexing code found in open source repositories and code that exists in archives, mailing lists, blogs, and Web pages.’

`Referrer Karma is a rather simple script that prevents malicious bots from accessing your pages, flooding your logs and possibly draining your server’s bandwidth. All it does is check that an incoming bot has a valid referrer field URL (i.e. that the page it claims to come from, does exist and does have a link to your site). If RK thinks the incoming visitor is a malicious bot, it displays a 403 error page (which will not be counted as a visit by log analyzer tools) and uses HTML redirecting to the original URL to avoid blocking legitimate visitors (See below for details).’

I’ve been getting a lot of referrer spam lately. Hopefully this will help out a bit..

`Or, how to be the biggest network geek you can in only 1 square foot of space. Starting last year after reading Ward Mundy’s How-To Bonanza, I knew I needed to use the Mac Mini as the core hardware component for my home network. Mostly because it looks good and small form fits easily on my desk. Good as that might be, the Mac Minis do have drawbacks and, if you’re serious about your hosting choices, these do have to be overcome; this is what my post is all about.’

`The vast bulk of international telephone and Internet traffic travels through underwater cables. This map shows the cables that were in use as of the end of 2004 and gives an indication of where traffic is heaviest.’

`The nation’s largest telephone and cable companies are crafting an alarming set of strategies that would transform the free, open and nondiscriminatory Internet of today to a privately run and branded service that would charge a fee for virtually everything we do online.

Verizon, Comcast, Bell South and other communications giants are developing strategies that would track and store information on our every move in cyberspace in a vast data-collection and marketing system, the scope of which could rival the National Security Agency. According to white papers now being circulated in the cable, telephone and telecommunications industries, those with the deepest pockets–corporations, special-interest groups and major advertisers–would get preferred treatment. Content from these providers would have first priority on our computer and television screens, while information seen as undesirable, such as peer-to-peer communications, could be relegated to a slow lane or simply shut out.’