Slashdot informs us of an entertaining “hack”…

“….pulled off when Randall Munroe, author of the popular webcomic XKCD, spoke at MIT by invitation of the Lab for Computer Science. MIT hackers dropped hundreds of labelled playpen balls onto the audience from hatches in the ceiling. The labels bore XKCD’s logo as well as the recently discovered 16-byte AACS processing key. At another point in Munroe’s talk he was stalked by remote-controlled mechanical velociraptors; but fortunately he had been supplied with a squirt gun full of grape juice.”

It would appear that Microsoft haven’t learnt from its previous experiences. Working as a consumer IT technician during the release of Windows XP, we found it trivial to load up an XP Upgrade pack onto any system. This was possible as the upgrades to XP were merely full editions with a number of checking systems in place. Buy an upgrade, bypass the checks and install your new version of windows at half the cost.

Vista has been released for about two weeks now and guess what? Its happened again.
The Register reports on Marc Liron of www.instantvista.com and his technique to apply the same strategy to Windows Vista.

From the article.

“In short, all you need to do is delay entering your product key and delay validating your copy of Vista online until the setup is complete. For some reason, Microsoft has decided to allow users to install first and deal with the paperwork later. Simple in theory, although the details of exactly how to do this are a bit lengthy, and we strongly recommend following Liron’s step-by-step instructions linked above. But, in a nutshell, all you are doing is avoiding the traps that MS has set up to cancel the upgrade installation if an authorised version of Windows isn’t already present. If you dodge those traps, you can install a Vista upgrade on any machine, and later enter your product key and validate your copy normally.”

More Information:

The Register - How to install a Vista upgrade on any PC
Marc Liron Article, Step by step guide.

From Slashdot:

“Security researcher Alex Ionescu claims to have successfully bypassed the much discussed DRM protection in Windows Vista, called ‘Protected Media Path’ (PMP), which is designed to seriously degrade the playback quality of any video and audio running on systems with hardware components not explicitly approved by Microsoft. The bypass of the DRM protection was in turn performed by breaking the Driver Signing / PatchGuard protection in the new operating system. Alex is now quite nervous about what an army of lawyers backed by draconian copyright laws could do to him if he released the details, but he claims to be currently looking into the details of safely releasing his details about this at the moment though.”

Robbed from slashdot, philba writes informing us that home theaters may become the new jurisdiction of our MPAA overlords. The MPAA is lobbying to make sure that home users authorize their entertainment systems before any in-home viewings.

From the article: “The MPAA defines a home theater as any home with a television larger than 29″ with stereo sound and at least two comfortable chairs, couch, or futon. Anyone with a home theater would need to pay a $50 registration fee with the MPAA or face fines up to $500,000 per movie shown.”

Original Post : Slashdot - MPAA Goes After Home Entertainment Systems

As the standard 419 scams become common knowledge, idiot fraudsters are looking for more ways in which to dupe the naive societies of the western world.

In their latest attempt, scammers operating from Amsterdamn and Rotterdamn have cloned well known courier websites, such as DHL and Lufthansa Cargo, in a bid to defraud the common citizen.

The new scam works like this; Potential fraudsters advertise used motor vehicles on popular sites, such as autotrader and car.com, for next to nothing. Would be buyers then discover that the item is housed abroad, often in Spain or another European country. At this point the fraudsters inform the buyer that transport costs need to be paid in advance, and recommend couriers such as “DHL Shippers” and “Lufthansa Worldwide Cargo”, and polished escrow services.

Of course the items dont exist. The advance fee is taken and nothing more is heard from the seller. The transport company websites use branding from the websites they mock in an effort to appear legit. The obvious advice to anyone looking at buying a used car or bike is that if it looks too good to be true, then it probably is. Refrain from buying items that require shipping from abroad and never pay upfront to unknown sellers.

(Please note that DHL Shippers and Lufthansa Worldwide Cargo are fictional companies used by scam scum.)

A new anti-theft system has been designed that aims to significantly reduce the current rise in mobile phone theft.

Remote XT is a system whereby, upon discovering the theft of a phone, the user can ring a call center who will then send out a signal to the robbed phone. This signal destroys all the data on the phone, before emitting a high pitched annoying screetch, rendering the device completely unusable.

“We also then set a small bomb off, if you like, that completely wipes the data…if it has genuinely been stolen then it renders the phone useless to the thief,” says Mark Whiteman, MD of Remote XT.

The noise can be stopped by simply removing the battery, however, upon re-insertion the noise continues. This may provide a temporary measure that can be employed whilst work on reverse engineering the phone takes place. Whilst it hasnt been confirmed, the noise is probably active with any power source, whether battery or mains.

Strangely enough, I’m told that Hyper, from Hackers Voice Radio, came up with this idea a while ago, as mention at the end of the HVTV2 hacker video.

Unfortunately it would appeat that some complete idiot has decided to make a sequal to the classic hacker film Wargames.

This time around Stuart Gillard, of The Outer Limits and Charmed fame, has been named as the director of the sequal to the classic 1983 film whereby young hacker David Lightman (Mathew Brodderick) embarks in a deadly game with the US national defense super-computer, thinking its merely a computer game and almost lending a hand to total world destruction.

Wargames 2 : The Dead Game, is said to be set around very similar exploits, a teenage hacker whose world gets turned upside after playing an online terrorist-attack simulator game against a government super-computer designed to profile potential terrorists. Consequently, all hell breaks loose when Homeland Security is convinced that he’s a terrorist intent on disrupting the fabric of society.

Pre-location photography is expected to take place mid-november, and the IMDB lists the film for a 2007 release, although details are scare.

The film will, no doubtebly, be a complete failure, with a quality somewhat reminiscent of Xena or Andromeda, perhaps the JasonX of the Wargames concept. Consequently prices of the original Wargames are expected to saw, with the exception of HMV where it was last clocked at £17.99

Perhaps one day Hollywood will stop pirating other peoples ideas, trying to convince us its something new and then sue us for downloading what is enevitably a bag of shit, and actually start producing content thats *worth* buying. We can but hope.

With reference to our recent report on the RIAA attempts at suing a dead man. It would appear that the huge, and largely negative, response across the worlds media may have quelled the monoliths copyright thirst. RIAA spokesperson, Jonathan Lamy, said that, “out of an abundance of sensitivity, we have elected to drop this particular case.” Or not as the case maybe, given that this renewed view on its victims comes just days after the media tore the RIAA a new asshole.

As if they couldnt crawl any lower, in the case Warner Bros vs Scantlebury, the RIAA are continuing their case against, the now deceased, Mr Scantlebury who passed away before his trial was resolved. The RIAA have given Mr Scantlebury’s family, a very kind and heartfelt, 60 days to grieve before taking depositions from the Scantlebury family.

More Information: Recording Industry vs The People [blog]

With the new regulations being introduced in the UK allowing mobile network operators to block access to phones by invalidating its IMEI, the BBC are reporting on the relative ease of which the IMEI can be manually changed by the average user using , soon to be outlawed but publically available software.

The International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) is a 15 digit number that contains information about the device and is only used on GSM networks. Currently O2 and Vodaphone, operating the older networks, are unable to block via IMEI, but that will change when the new laws are passed into effect.

Your phones IMEI number can often be found on the inside cover of you device or displayed on screen by keying *#06# into your phone.