The Diary of Anne Frank

Today is the birthday of Anne Frank. Born on June 12, 1929 in Germany. Anne Frank lived most of her life in Amsterdam, Netherlands. A German by birth, she lost her German status due to anti-Semitic Nazi attitudes. After the 1940 Nazi invasion of the Netherlands, the Frank family were forced into hiding due to increasing violence against the Jewish populations in 1942. After two years in hiding, they were betrayed and Anne Frank and her sister Margot were moved to concentration camps where they both eventually died, of typhus, in March of 1945. Anne Frank was 15.

But Anne Frank’s legacy is her writing abilities. During her hiding, she kept a detailed diary of her life. After the end of WWII, her father Otto announced that the diary had been saved, and released it for publication. Due to the great detail, the diary has been published in book form, made into Hollywood movies and has even been the basis behind many stage plays.

As a tribute to Anne Frank, the following 3-D, interactive website was created. It provides detailed biographies of the people involved, as well as descriptions of the office building in which the family hid. But the most intriguing aspect of this site, is the interactive interface with the warehouse. You can take a virtual walk through the building room by room exploring all the “nooks and crannies”. The rooms were restored to appear the way they did back when Anne Frank was in hiding.

The Diary of Anne Frank

Wicked Cool Site #18

Regardless of what your personal views are regarding the war in Afghanistan, information is crucial in allowing you to make the most informative judgment that you can. Documentaries, and news broadcasts are really the only information that is available to us. However, these means of getting the important information can be biased. For instance, boring stories are not covered by the news stations. What is broadcast can be swayed by what stories are going to provide good ratings. This makes sense, after all Fox News, CNN as well as published news media from newspapers and magazines, like the New York Times, the Washington Post, Time Magazine, etc. are all businesses and as such, are in it to make money. Ratings are paramount to getting the valuable advertising that sustains these businesses. So where can you get valuable and unbiased information regarding this subject? That is where this Wicked Cool Site comes into play.

’30 Days Through Afghanistan’ is a site which will travel through the country showing different views each day. A new video will be shown every day showing a different perspective regarding the imperiled country. 30 Days Through Afghanistan is currently on Day 5, and has 23 days to go. There is a counter on the site showing how much time is left until this journey comes to an end. But don’t worry that you have missed the first 5 showings, as there is a video log, which they call a VLOG, in which you can go back and see previous videos. There are also Bios of the people that are in the videos, a blog, in which you can make comments. It is truly a fascinating and informative site.

Check out 30 Days Through Afghanistan by clicking HERE……

It’s That Time Again!!!

Patch Tuesday.

My, the month went fast. It seems like it was just yesterday when Microsoft issued the itty-bitty patch in January. It’s funny how a month can change things. Tomorrow, Tuesday February 9th is the day when Microsoft will push out it’s updates to the Microsoft family of software. Although Microsoft does not officially post what patches are coming until they are released, it has been said that this update is going to be quite large. 13 bulletins, fixing a total of 26 vulnerabilities, of which 5 have been labeled as critical. Microsoft has acknowledged that one of the fixes will be an exploit which could allow remote code execution. Most of the updates will be for Windows, but the Office Suite will also have updates. And of course there will be an update for the Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool (MSRT).

It is always prudent to create a System Restore Point before getting these updates. Although, it is imperative that you get these updates, it is always possible for something to go wrong. Creating a System Restore Point may just save you should something happen. I know, Microsoft does that automatically when installing updates, but I still like to create one manually. Call me paranoid, but I just do not trust Microsoft that much.

As always, from Internet Explorer, go to http://www.update,microsoft.com, download and install all of the critical updates. If you have Automatic Updates turned on (which is highly recommended), all of the critical updates will come to your system automatically. Look for the yellow shield in your tray (next to the clock).

Once the update is complete, it is recommended that you scan with your anti-virus, and anti-malware software. Don’t have one, check out my posts HERE and HERE. Even though the MSRT does a “quick” scan after updating, it is recommended that you manually run it doing a “Full Scan”. To do this, click on “Start” and in the search dialog, type in MRT.exe and click Enter. In XP, click on Start, then select Run, and in the dialog box, type MRT.exe and hit Enter. Once the scanner opens, click on Next, Select “Full Scan”, and start the scan.

Make sure you are looking for these updates, and if they do not come through automatically tomorrow, or by Wednesday at the latest, make sure you manually update. Not updating is the number one way that Windows computers become infected, or exploited. The bad guys know that some Windows users do not update, and once Microsoft publishes these updates, they essentially let the bad guys know exactly what exploits are available and will attempt to take advantage of the one’s who do not update.

Keeping that Windows machine healthy makes for a Happy Computing Experience.

Google Attains Superpower Statis

Hacked…..companies and even governments get hacked and information stolen, what seems like, on a daily basis. Corporate espionage has been around since the Internet began. They come and they go. There news one day, and “old” news the next.

Remember, just a few months back, when the United States Power Grid was found to be infested with trojan horses. Yeah, that was news and it was covered by the media. But how long did it make the headlines…..a day or two is all.  The Power Grid was hacked….that is big!!

Remember when Citicorp was found to have been hacked….probably not, as it never made the headlines, it was a secondary story at best. OK, you may say that this was because it was denied by Citicorp, but it never even made the news.

Conficker, yeah now that made the headlines, the ‘worm’ did. But what about the destruction that it caused. You probably are not aware that the University of Utah was infected back in April causing their network to have to be shut down. Check out my post HERE.

Or maybe that, more recently, in December, New Zealand’s Waikato Health Board was infected with this nasty worm causing health services to be disrupted over a large area of the island nation. Again, check out my post HERE.

OK, I agree, these may have not been direct attacks, but it was a hack, none the less. Services were disrupted, and information was attempted to be compromised. That is a hack.

Well now it appears it has happened to the wrong company. Google has been in the news, and in blog posts for weeks now. Did you know that many other companies and organizations were infiltrated also. Probably not. Adobe has been in the news as they were also hacked at the same time that Google was, but only as an ‘honorable mention’ in a Google headline. The culprit has been speculated to be the People’s Republic of China but no incriminating evidence has been found directly implicating China.

Google and 32 other companies. Like I said, one is Adobe, but I have not heard them mentioned in a headline. Adobe is huge, almost every single computer user has something made by Adobe on their machine, whether it be Flash, Reader, Acrobat, Photoshop, Shockwave Player, etc. You see where I am heading. Who are the other 31 companies?

So why Google? Google is truly a superpower and is the ‘only’ company that could possibly have done what they have done….threaten the Chinese Government. By threatening to pull completely out of China is huge. Although, they only maintain about a 30% share of search in China compared to Baidu’s 70% market share, it is not only Google Search that is in jeopardy here. There is also Google’s multitude of services that are offered. Docs, Reader, Gmail, Maps, Calender, and all the rest of Google’s Services would also be gone.

Google even prompted a response from the United States’ Government. A speech given by Secretary of State Clinton asked the question for China to “Explain Themselves”. This is unheralded in the tech industry. Although Microsoft has been involved in many incidents that have made the Headlines, but never to the magnitude that Google has.

So why is Google getting all the press, being backed by the U.S. Government? Because they have called out China and have succeeded. China is on the defensive. Although, they are playing hard line, the fact of the matter is that if Google were to pull completely out of China, it would be painful for them. Not only is Google a major internet player in China, Google is also the one and only entity that could feasibly have the potential to return the favor. Of course, this is radical talk, and would never happen, but I am sure that it weighs on the minds of the Chinese Government.

Google has become such a force that almost everything revolves around what they are doing. Microsoft, although has come close in their time, has never had the same clout that Google has. Apple, although has a habit of monopolizing the tech news with every one of their new releases, like with their release of the iPhone, and, more recently, the iPad, but never to the same level in which Google has done. Google has become a ‘Superpower’ of sorts, and has the ability to push, and push hard. Thankfully, that is not the Google way, but it will certainly be interesting to see how the standoff with China turns out. Will Google fold to the enormous financial possibilities in China, or will they stand strong and be a determining factor in the ‘Human Rights’ issues in the Far East Nation.

Wouldn’t it be nice to see Microsoft, Yahoo, and other major tech companies stand tall, and join Google in this stand-off?

It remains to be seen……

Uniform Resource Locator – Part Deux

Now that we know the basic format in which all Uniform Resource Locators (URL) utilize, let’s now look into ways in which you can be fooled into going somewhere that you never intended. If you did not read Part 1, you can check it out HERE. Crooks use techniques, such as URL Spoofing, MitM (Man in the Middle) Attacks, and Browser Hijacking in order to steal your valuable personal information. The URL can, in most instances, let you know exactly where you are going when you do a search, however it is not always as intuitive as you would think. Criminals are very good at tricking you into entering sites that you never intended.

We all now know, from my last post, the basic format for URL’s.

http://www.domain.com/folder/sub-folder/page_name/

Before we get started, I would like to take the opportunity to state that the e-commerce sites used in the following examples are not being attacked in the portrayed manner. These types of attacks are not occurring on their sites and are only being used for the purpose of showing an example. Amazon.com and Paypal.com are perfectly safe venues for using e-commerce.

Here is why this information is important. Crooks will attempt to trick you into clicking on a malicious site deceiving you by manipulating the URL. In this example, I am going to use Amazon.com, but they are only being used to prove a point, this is not an actual event. Let’s say you do a search for Amazon.com. Well the true URL for their home page is http://www.amazon.com.  The search result you return is for Amazon, and may even have the Amazon logo next to it. But, by looking at the URL, you notice that it is actually taking you to” http://www.amazon.badguy.com/GetVirusHere/”.  As you now know, even though it says Amazon in the URL, you are not going to Amazon.com, but are actually going to the domain “badguy.com”. Amazon is a high profile search term and is easy to identify, as it is always the top return in a search query, however when you do a search in which the results may not be as intuitive, it is important to look at the URL to ensure you are going where you want. Other tricks that may be used:

“http://www.badguy.com/amazon.com/”……In this case, even though the last .com is from Amazon, it is after the first slash (/), which tells you that it is a folder on the badguy.com domain. (Remember the file cabinet.)

“http://www.badguy.amzon.com/getvirushere/”….Simple spelling errors are ways that the bad guys will attempt to lure you to malicious sites.

OK, these are the easier to recognize tricks that hackers will use to fool you. The next trick uses a more sophisticated method of luring you. Let’s say that you receive an email stating that you have a gift certificate for Amazon.com. Naturally, it looks official so you click on it, and within the very official looking Amazon email, you see a link that looks like this: “http://www.amazon.com/GetGiftCertificateHere/“. Well this looks good right? Yeah, you are right, it does look legitimate, however click on the link and see what happens (don’t worry, nothing bad will occur),  Just because the text in a link looks correct, it does not mean that the link is taking you where you think. You may be asking, so how can I be sure? The easiest method of making sure you are going to where you want is to hover over the link (do not click it), and right click the link and select properties. Your browser will then show you where that link is pointing.

So the browser will tell you that you are not going to “http://www.amazon.com/GetGiftCertificatHere/” but are actually going to another The Edible Earth page. Crooks will obviously not be so kind and will take you to malicious sites.

Now let’s say that you arrive at a web site and everything looks OK, including the URL, but something just does not look right. The way to be sure that you are actually where you think you are is to run a little JavaScript. By copying and pasting the script into the URL bar of the site that you are on and clicking Enter, a description of the site’s actual URL and Address URL will be displayed. If this shows that the .coms do not match you may have been spoofed and may be at a malicious site.

Copy and paste the following JavaScript in the URL bar (NOTE – When you copy and paste this, clear the URL information that is already there. This script should be the only thing in the URL bar):

javascript:alert("The actual URL is:\t\t" + location.protocol + "//" +
location.hostname + "/" + "\nThe address URL is:\t\t" + location.href +
 "\n" + "\nIf the server names do not match, this may be a spoof.");

These types of spoofs are common on nefarious websites, so make sure that you are aware of where you are going before clicking on links.

However, crooks are getting more and more clever with their tricks, and even though, the aforementioned tactics can be effective, there are some types of tricks that are even more difficult to detect. The first is browser hijacking in which you are directed to a fake website after clicking on, what appears, to be good link. These fake sites are very well built, and will look very much like a legitimate site. Let’s say you click on a link that you think will take you to Amazon.com, however you wind up at a site that looks exactly like Amazon.com, but is not. From here, the cyber criminals will attempt to get your personal information. Simply by glancing up at the URL will tell you that you are not at the correct site. The criminals are relying on, the fact, that hopefully because the site looks so genuine that you will not even question what the URL says. Always, check the URL. Again, by running that little JavaScript will tell you exactly where you are.

These hijackings may even take you to a site, that may, look nothing like Amazon.com, but will contain malware or links to malware. Should you ever think that you are going to a particular site, and wind up somewhere unexpected, do not click on anything on that site, no matter how appealing it may seem. Chances are you are going to wind up with a virus, worm, trojan horse, or spyware.

Even more dangerous are what are known as Man in the Middle (MitM) attacks. These are hacks in which the criminal will get in between your transmission and the expected website, kind of like an intercepted pass in football, and steal your personal information. This was a very simple thing for an experienced hacker to do, however e-commerce sites have become more aware of this type of attack, and have made changes to their site so as to make MitM attacks more difficult. One way that this could be accomplished is by going to a page that is asking for your personal information that is not protected by an SSL/TLS (Secure Socket Layer/Transport Layer Security) connection. Any connection that is protected be SSL/TLS is encrypted so that all that a MitM will see is gobble-d-gook. All websites that are encrypted by SSL/TLS will always begin with “https://” instead of just “http://”. The way that a MitM Attack could occur is for you to go to an e-commerce site. You would then add items in which you want to purchase. You are looking at the page with the item(s) that you are intending to buy. This page has a button that says “Purchase Now”, however this page is not protected with SSL/TLS (starts with https://). Before we go any further, I will give you the nickel explanation of how these sites expect to receive packets over the internet.

When packets of information are sent over the internet, that contain personal identifying information, most sites like Amazon.com, Paypal.com, etc. expect them to arrive at their server sent over an encrypted transmission. If they are received un-encrypted, these packets will be dropped by the site, which is a good policy as it protects you. When encrypted purchase information is received, confirmation information is then sent back to you, also through an encrypted transmission.

OK, now let’s return to that page in which you are going to purchase your items. The page was designed to be un-encrypted (http:// only), however once you enter your credit card information, and push the ‘Purchase Now’ button, the information will then be sent over SSL/TLS. What happens is that the criminals hack the site, and overlay the ‘Purchase Now’ button with an address that goes to their malicious site, over a non-encrypted transmission, where they now have all of your personal information. Now remember, the e-commerce site will not receive any information that is not encrypted, so the hacker will then cover their tracks and pass the information on to the e-commerce site over an SSL/TLS connection so that the e-commerce site receives the packets of data exactly the way that they are expecting it. Likewise, you will receive your purchase confirmation just as you expected, thus will never know that your data was intercepted. Most e-commerce sites have fixed this flaw as anytime that you enter your personal information, it will be entered on a page that is over an SSL/TLS connection as well as sent over one. This way no hacker can manipulate a page in which any personal information is entered as the page is encrypted. This is only one way that a MitM attack can occur. Most of the time you will never even know that it has occurred.

I would like to take the opportunity to thank all of the e-commerce sites used in the examples above. These types of attacks are not occurring on their sites and are only being used for the purpose of showing an example. Amazon.com and Paypal.com are perfectly safe venues for using e-commerce.

In order to safely use e-commerce and browse the web, it is essential to understand the concept behind a URL, their structure, and how they work. When browsing the web, make sure that you pay special attention to the URL address that you are actually going to so as not to get spoofed and potentially endanger your personal information.

And as always, make sure that you keep your Operating System, anti-virus, browser, and anti-spyware software updated. Never click on solicited links in an email and always use common sense. If a deal seems to be too good to be true, it probably is.

Let me know if you have experienced these types of attacks……

Leave a Comment!!!!

Thanks for asking, I Am Fine!!!

Wow, It’s Been Awhile…..

Yes, it has been a while. But guess who has reared it’s ugly head once more? None other than Conficker!!

New Zealand’s Waikato District Health Board has announced that the Conficker (aka Downadup) Worm has infected it’s entire hospital network. On Thursday, 12/17 was when the problems were first discovered and Microsoft was called in to diagnose the problem. Two hours later, Conficker was found to be the culprit. This forced 3,000 of the Districts networked computers to be shut down. This caused the 7 hospitals, in their network, to urge patients not to seek care at their facilities, unless it was an absolute emergency.

The Conficker worm, which has become the most prolific computer infestation in history, is estimated to infect up to 15 million different computers, although due to the difficulty in tracking this worm, range from a low of 5 million infected computers. Each serving as a ‘zombie’ in it’s vast botnet. For a reminder regarding Conficker, you can check out my past post from 1/23/09 HERE and from 3/25/09 HERE, once again on 4/12/09 HERE.

But here is the part that gets me. How? and Why? did this worm get into that hospital’s network. First off, where was there IT staff? Conficker, although prolific, is not something that any computer should ever become infected with as long as proper security measures are in place. When the worm was first detected in 2008, and found it’s way into computer systems due to an exploit in the Windows Operating System (OS), Microsoft reacted quicky and on October 23, 2008, issued a patch (MS08-067) which closed the hole in the OS. They then pushed out a tool know as the Malicious Software Removal Tool or MRT, which effectively could remove the malware from an infected computer. It is true that the initial spread of this malware was through external USB storage devices, such as thumb drives, which were inserted into “Auto Run” enabled computers, but the fact remains, that a simple update and scan using the MRT should have removed the worm. The fact that Conficker, like I said earlier, may still infect up to 15 million computers is appalling, since a patch and fix for it has been available for 14 months now.

So let’s all make sure that we are updated. Using Internet Explorer, go to http://www.update.microsoft.com and check to make sure that you have all the critical updates that are available. Keep checking until there are no more updates available. Then make sure that Automatic Updates is turned on. Next make sure that your anti-virus software is up to date. Don’t have an anti-virus software, then check out my recommendations HERE. And lastly scan using the Malicious Software Removal Tool. Don’t know how??  Click HERE.

Although this is news, in my opinion, an organization such as this should be embarrassed that this incident has occurred. No major organization, with a competent IT department, should ever run into a situation like this. Of course, sabotage is always something to investigate, but under normal circumstances, Conficker should technically be dead and buried by now.

What are your thoughts regarding the Conficker worm…..

Leave a Comment!!

Happy Halloween….Google Style!!!

In the search giant’s true form, Google has, once again, changed it’s Home Search Page to mark the celebration of a holiday or event.  But, this time they seem to have really outdone themselves and the rumors are flying all over the internet regarding their new search page celebrating Halloween. Shown below, when you first go to a Google search you will be given the Google banner, a blank search bar, and nothing else except the phrase “This space intentionally left blank”.  Why?  Who knows.  Google claims that they are testing a new search home in which the 28 word Google standard page is replaced with one that is even more plain.

But hang on as this gets even better.  Simply by moving the mouse, the normal Google Home Page will appear with a little Halloween kick to it.

By clicking on the Google banner, the word Google will change, with all of the letters being made of various kinds of candy, pretty Google-like.

Click the banner again and the word Google will simply change to a pile of unopened candy, that is just that, a pile.  No wording.

Click on it yet again, and the pile of candy will transform into the same pile of candy, except this time all of the candy is opened and has been eaten.  I got a stomach ache by just doing that.

And lastly, with another click on the eaten pile of candy, will present you with a Google search result for “Halloween 2009”.

All in all this is a pretty fun, if not somewhat bizzare, home page for Google. But, being that it is Halloween after all, it is nothing short of what I have come to expect from the search giant.

Happy Halloween!!!!!

H1N1….Should I Panic?

With President Obama having recently declared the H1N1 virus pandemic a national emergency, should this be a reason for panic?  Actually, the answer is an overwhelming NO.  Even though the virus has been the cause of more than 1000 deaths, including over 100 of them being children, the reason for the national emergency declaration is one of precaution.  What this does, is enable the government to react to a full blown out break more quickly. Meaning, that it enables authorities to bypass the bureaucracy that often slows initial reactions to a true emergency.  The Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius now has the authority to bypass federal rules if and when alternative care centers are needed, at a hospitals request, such as at schools and community centers. The thought here is, in the event of a serious outbreak, to keep infected persons out of emergency rooms, thus decreasing the chance of spreading the virus through human contact with non-infected persons.  This makes sense to me.

H1N1 serums are available but are in short supply.  The production of the vaccine has to be done in chicken eggs and the production has been slower than first predicted. However, the vaccine is becoming more available to the public.  The vaccine dose quantities have increased to 22.4 million from 14 million in just over a week, but is far short of the 225 million doses that the U.S. Government has ordered.

So what can I do to protect myself from becoming infected?  Well, first and foremost, since the virus is spread through direct contact, is to keep yourself clean.  This means to wash your hands and wash them often.  Using alcohol based hand sanitizers helps if used properly.  To learn the proper use of these cleansers, click HERE. Note that the use of anti-bacterial soaps have not been shown to help deter the contraction of any infections, and in fact, could do just the opposite by killing bacteria that is helpful as well as harmful. Next, make sure that you do not cough or sneeze without covering your mouth, this is best done by covering your mouth with the inside of your elbow or shoulder and not your hand.  When coming in contact with people, such as a handshake, wash your hands afterwards, and most importantly, keep your hands away from your mouth and nose as this is the main venue of infection.

Despite being co-named the Swine Flu, eating pork, as long as it is properly cooked, cannot spread the H1N1 virus.

Now for the tech side of all this…..

Following are links to sites that will provide valuable information regarding the H1N1 virus….

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

FLU.gov

Obama Declares Swine Flu a National Emergency (From the AP)

Vaccine Recommendations from the CDC

Vaccine Safety Concerns

Now keep in mind that I am in no way, shape, or form an expert on this subject, but felt that it was worth bringing up.

Let me know what your thoughts and concerns are regarding H1N1……Leave a comment!!

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes!!!!

Remember the days when speaking about  AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint referred to talking about companies that ran your home phone systems.  All supplied through copper lines.  Well, those days appear to be coming to an end.  Now when we speak of these corporations, we are usually referring to suppliers of our mobile phone services.  In fact the other day while addressing a Goldman Sachs Investor Conference, Verizon Chief Executive Ivan Seidenberg, stated that Verizon was simply no longer concerned with phones connected with wires.  Instead Verizon has spent billions on developing it’s fiber optic networks, known as FiOS.  In fact Verizon has been selling off it’s small rural area operations.  With FiOS, Verizon has the ability to deliver voice, video, and internet services.  Because of this, many of us have forgone our land lines in lieu of mobile services and VoiP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) services like Skype and Vonage.  Both Randall Stephenson, CEO of AT&T, and Ed Mueller, head of Qwest Communications, have stated that they would like to see the day when their land line services would stop shrinking. But I seriously doubt that those days are ever going to stage a come back. Copper wire is simply doomed to become obsolete and abandoned. So, with our mobile devices becoming more and more powerful and computer like, does this open up the opportunity for these companies to dictate what we are able to view and do on these devices?  Well, it appears that it has already occurred and will become more and more prevelant in the future.  Apple has already denied many applications from running on their iPhones, most notably the Google Voice application that recently has been all over the news.  Google Voice is an application which allows users to tie all of their phones to one phone number, provided by Google.  It also allows users to manage their accounts on the internet.  I have been using it and it works really well.

In steps the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) as they are already investigating the reasons as to why Apple denied Google the ability to run their application on the iPhone.  The FCC is becoming more involved in guaranteeing Net Neutrality, which would deny ISP’s from serving preferential bandwidth to customers who have the ability to pay.  It would also deny the ISP’s to limit bandwidth based on what the end user is doing with it.  We have seen this as many ISP’s are placing bandwidth caps on their services, thus limiting what the end user can do on the internet.  Why is this occurring?  Well, with sites like Hulu and Sling appearing on the internet, devices like the Roku box and the Apple TV, and services like Netflix allowing end users to get their television entertainment right off the internet, it creates a real corrundrum for these ISP’s whom also provide cable TV services at a premium.  If customers can get their internet from them, and then get all of their television programming from the internet, it does away with the need for premium priced cable TV services.

Tomorrow, Monday 9/21, FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski is expected to announce his plan to formalize Net Neutrality rules, at a speech given at the Brookings Institute in Washington DC.  What is expected is a formal set of rules that will stop ISP’s from dictating what end users can and cannot do with their internet service.  This is something that President Obama promised during his election campaign and has endorsed since election.

If this becomes a reality, it is a huge victory for the end user.  We will no longer be limited to getting our television via cable, but will now be able to use the internet exclusively.  I know that my cable supplier will not allow me to get internet service without getting their cable service also.  Hopefully, this will change all that.

What are your thoughts about all of this??

***UPDATE***

On Monday the FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski presented his ideas regarding Net Neutrality, an issue that was brought to the forefront during President Obama’s presidential campaign. This is something that President Obama has fought for and endorsed throughout his campaign and still does as president.  Now that the speech has been presented, let’s review what was actually said.

The Chairman went much further than suggesting to create laws the prohibit Internet Service Providers (ISP’s) from filtering and blocking content based on the content, but also to expand this to include all wireless services also (ie. cell phones, smart devices, etc.).

The Chairman stated that the Four Freedoms of the internet introduced by, then Chairman, Michael Powell in 2004, should remain in tact.  These freedoms are as follows:

1) Freedom to Access Content – Users should have the right to access legal content of their choice.

2) Freedom to Use Applications – Users should have the right to access the application of their choice.

3) Freedom to Attach Personal Devices – The User should have the right to attach the personal device of their choice.

4) Freedom to Obtain Service Plan Information – To ensure that broadband consumers can easily obtain the information they need to make rational choices among an ever-expanding array of different pricing and service plans.

To see these plans in more detail, click HERE….

But now Chairman Genachowski added two more Freedoms to the original four that were submitted by Michael Powell in 2004.  And these two are huge…

5) Non- Discrimination – Direct quote from Chairman Genachowski “stating that broadband providers cannot discriminate against particular Internet content or applications. This means they cannot block or degrade lawful traffic over their networks, or pick winners by favoring some content or applications over others in the connection to subscribers’ homes. Nor can they disfavor an Internet service just because it competes with a similar service offered by that broadband provider. The Internet must continue to allow users to decide what content and applications succeed.”

6) Transparency – Chairman Genachowski stated “providers of broadband Internet access must be transparent about their network management practices. Why does the FCC need to adopt this principle? The Internet evolved through open standards. It was conceived as a tool whose user manual would be free and available to all. But new network management practices and technologies challenge this original understanding. Today, broadband providers have the technical ability to change how the Internet works for millions of users — with profound consequences for those users and content, application, and service providers around the world.”

In October the Chairman and the 5 Commissioners are set to sit down and finalize the rules governing these principals.  Once these are approved and ratified, it will change a lot of how we will be able the access the things that we want on the internet.  The ISP’s will no longer be able to hand-cuff the end user and filter the information by putting restrictions on bandwidth.  This will be a huge victory for the end user.

To read the the prepared remarks for the speech given today by Chairman Genachowski…….Click HERE……

What are your thoughts regarding “Net Neutrality”……Click Comments

Capitol v. Thomas

This is an issue in which the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has been hoping would happen for a real long time.  However, after all of the hoopla, it appears that this whole thing may be backfiring in their face.  The recording industry has had a long going paranoia about stealing music, thus the DRM (Digital Rights Management) that had been poisoning our recordings for a long time.  DRM is nothing more than copy protection, but quite frankly, the only people who get hurt are the ones who are legally downloading and PAYING for their music.  People who are “pirating” music can by-pass the copy protection almost as fast as they release.  Apple has had on going “discussions” about removing the DRM from music that is downloaded from iTunes.  Finally, the recording industry ceded and allowed Apple to sell music from iTunes without DRM, but Apple had to concede something too, thus the tri-leveled pricing structure now found on iTunes.  Frankly, I will gladly pay a few more cents for songs without the copy protection.

Now enters Jammie Thomas, a Native American single mother of 4 children from Brainerd, Minnesota. Thomas was visiting the popular sharing site Kazaa and downloaded 24 songs illegally from the site. In steps the RIAA and decides to sue Jammie for copy protection infringement.  Normally in cases such as this, most people concede to the RIAA and settle out of court by paying a few thousand dollars, but Thomas decided to fight this.  Well, the case did not go too well for her as the court ruled her of being guilty and fined her an astounding amount of $222,000 in infringement penalties.  Well, things changed when the judge ruled that he had been misinformed about whether the law read that merely “making available” evidence that constituted guilt or whether the actual data would have to be presented.  Thomas had surrendered her hard drive which contained no evidence of Kazaa or the music files in question.  The judge had informed the jury that the actual files did not need to be presented as evidence.  Because of this misinformation the judge proclaimed a mistrial and the process started all over.  Thomas probably felt that things were going her way at this point.  Well, along came the retrial with a new jury, well guess what? They found her guilty again, but this time ruled that she should pay damages to the tune (forgive the pun) of $80,000………PER SONG or $1.92 million dollars.  This may sound like a victory for the RIAA, but as it turns out, it is fast becoming egg on their face.  First of all, Jammie Thomas, remember she is a single mother of 4, is never going to be able to pay the ridiculous amount.  The recording industry knows this as they have been trying to negotiate a settlement, but to date, Thomas is not interested. I think the artists whose songs were illegally downloaded have got to be embarassed by this publicity.  Now let me make something clear, the suit was filed not by the artists, not by the recording studios who make the recordings, but by the distribution company that delivers the CD’s to the stores from which they are purchased. They are so afraid of “sharing” music as they have not been able to keep up with the newer technologies and are cornered, so instead of concentrating on the real “pirates”, they go after the Thomas’ of the world.

Now all this being said, Jammie Thomas was definitely sharing copy protected music on her computer, which is something that I do not condone.  However, $1.92 million for 24 songs seems a little much.  How about a slap on the wrist, let’s not make an example here.  After all, haven’t we all used Limewire, Kazaa, Poisoned, and other torrent sites at some point or another.  The warning that I am giving here is that the RIAA is not going after people who download the music, but instead concentrating on people who are redistributing it.  Anyone who knows anything about these sights is that you are doing this automatically when you download music from them.  These files go into a special folder and are then available to anyone who wants to download it from you and many others who share the same file……this is how Bit Torrents work.  Unless you tell the sight that you do not want to share your files with others, it is done automatically.  This is where you can get yourself into trouble, just like Thomas.  Whether or not she was willingly distributing the songs to other people is not the issue here.  She is small time, just like you and me would be.  My warning……beware of Sharing and Bit Torrent sites, like Limewire and Kazaa as aside from the risks of also downloading malware with your music, you also could face the risk of receiving the dreaded letter from the attorney’s of the RIAA.

What are your thoughts?????  Comments???