Blackhacker

PayPal to Safari users: ‘Ditch it’
While current browser share estimates for Apple’s Safari web browser hover somewhere in the 4.5 percent range, Safari is attracting some unwanted attention from PayPal, the eBay-owned payment company. PayPal is urging its users to ditch Safari and instead use alternative browsers such as Internet Explorer 7, IE 8, Firefox 2, Firefox 3, or even Opera.

This I feel is unfair to Safari. The problem here is not that the browser is particularly insecure, but lacks the capability to check URLs against phishing databases, which is not a core function of browsers, in my opinion, but it is an important one. Camino, another Mozilla browser for Mac, also has this problem. Switching to Firefox, or Opera, is the prefered way to handle this problem.

You could also, if you know what you are doing, update the DNS settings in your network config, to use opendns, when you browser reaches out to find the IP of an URL open DNS will sheck ti against its database of phishing sites. This should work in most cases except where the host in link is given as IP. The browser won’t do a DNS lookup in that case. Even if you are using a firefox an other browser that provides phishing protection, I still think you should you openDNS as your primary DNS. There are a host of benefits to doing this, add prhish protection, I mentioned, as well blocking of porn and adult sites(if you like), faster dnslookup which wil increase the over all net web experience.

It had to happen someday…

BetaNews | Spammers bypass Google’s Gmail signup security
An Internet research firm discovered spam bots are now able to register on Google’s Gmail for spamming purposes. This latest attempt by spammers has been the most sophisticated recorded attempt to get around CAPTCHA, using both humans and bots.

eBay sellers start weeklong boycott | Tech news blog - CNET News.com
You might see fewer items on eBay this week. Sellers angry over higher fees and other policy changes are launching a weeklong boycott of the auction site in protest.

EBay recently announced plans to raise the commission sellers have to pay for items they sell, which goes into effect on Wednesday. The company also is banning sellers from offering any feedback on buyers, good or bad.

The problem the way I see it is that there is no accountability for what you say, in the feedback system. What really are the penalties if malicious feedback is left? Or what is the standard of malicious feedback? I think Ebay is being kind of lazy because what they really need to do is set forth these guide lines review feedback that is left and proactively enforce those guidelines. But the solution they have chosen is easier to code.

If there is any doubt that some form of the controversial REAL ID act will implemented, one only needs to take a look at this map, from an article on CNET. From my count it looks like 31 states (62% of the Nation) have said that they intend to comply with REAL ID as written now. Fourteen states (28%) can go either way, and the Holds outs are just 5 states, (10%) of the Nation, by state.

1. Caring around your entire music collection is just as intoxicating as it seems.
2. The Belkin FM transmitter Sucks !!
3. How do you keep those buds in your ears ?
4. If your going to use your iPod with a Mac and a PC format your iPod for PC first. The Mac can read a PC formatted iPod but the reverse is not true.

Stop treating me like a criminal. Let me …

… update my iPod from more than one iTunes instance, without destroy the music that I have on it.

… transfer ANY MUSIC I WANT from my iPod to iTunes. Just because ITMS was not the point of sale doesn’t mean I stole it. 9.18 GB of audio and the ONE album I bought from iTunes is the only thing I transfer to my PC at work. Never mind that the rest represent YEARS of music collecting acquired by going to the store and plopping down 12-15 dollars apiece and hours spent importing.

Hacker breaks link between iTunes and the iPod - Times Online
A notorious Norwegian hacker known as DVD Jon is preparing for another run-in with the music industry after he released software that lets iPod owners copy music and videos bought from iTunes and play it on other devices.

The program allows people to drag and drop songs from iTunes into a folder on their desktop, which in turn copies the files to other devices such as mobile phones and games consoles via the web.

This guy is one of my heroes. Usually I frown when someone breaks the law, but the law being broken is in my view immoral, because it allows someone else to dictate how I use something that I have legally purchased. Shutting down networks that distribute illegally stolen merchandise is one thing, but if I bought the song, and I want to play it on my Zune, or my Stone or what ever then I should be able to do that. So what ever network I set up to facilitate that is legal, and moral.

Dap to LB for pointing me to this article, but she apparently has NO idea what a “hacker” really is. To that end I pointer to Paul Graham.

Supreme Court declines to hear NSA wiretap case
The most direct legal challenge to the controversial program of warrantless National Security Agency wiretaps authorized by President George Bush after the terror attacks of September 11, 2001, hit a wall on Tuesday when the Supreme Court declined to review whether a group of plaintiffs represented by the American Civil Liberties Union have a right to sue the government.

Grab your fedoras and bull whips boys… Indy’s back:

I caught this from Avery

I dig the track and REALLY dig the video.

It is finally safe to spend that 6 or 7 HUNDRED dollars for that HD player, and not worry that you will get stuck with a highly sophisticated door stop.

Toshiba pulls plug on HD DVD format
Toshiba has told the market that it will no longer develop, manufacture and market HD DVD players and recorders.

This effectively ends the high definition DVD format war and leaves the market clear for Sony’s Blu-ray high definition DVD format which has steadily been gaining ground ahead of HD DVD in the market.

About 2 decades after Sony lost the VHS vs Betamax war, they win with Blu-ray Disc. The company I suppose was do for a break, because the 21st century really hasn’t been that kind to Japan’s premiere electronics company. Soring competition, loss of market share, and some REALLY bad management decisions, has hurt the company, not to mention the fact that Sony products have not been as good as they once where.

Well kudos to you Sony. You have about 10 maybe 15 years to be on top. By then entertainment media distributed as atoms in stores will probably be a thing of the past. It does have promise as a storage medium. Until then we will all have to pay “tribute” to Sony, for every blu-ray product we buy. All hail Sony !!!