NSA and GCHQ employees may be undermining the agencies’ work to hack Tor

It’s no secret that US and British spy agencies are trying to crack the Tor network, but new information suggests that the agencies’ floundering efforts may be sabotaged from within. For the uninitiated, Tor is a web browser that anonymizes a person’s identity, location and browsing activity using various technologies — it’s also a known gateway to the so-called “dark-web” that hosts sites like the Silk Road. Naturally, spy organizations see it as a threat, but the Tor Project’s Andrew Lewman says some of the agencies’ employees are undermining their own hacking efforts. “There are plenty of people in both organizations who can anonymously leak data to us and say, maybe you should look ere, maybe you should fix this,” he told the BBC in a recent interview. “And they have.”

Technically, Lewman can’t know if these suggestions are coming from spy agencies, but he says it makes sense. Tor’s anonymous bug reporting system makes it impossible to tell where the reports come from, but the issues that are coming in are so granular, he says, they have to be coming from users who have spent hundreds of hours scrutinizing Tor’s source code. “It’s a hung,” Lewman admits, but he’s convinced its accurate. NSA whistleblower William Binney has reportedly told Lewman that NSA employees are upset by the organizations activity recently, and may be leaking data to Tor as a subtle retaliation. Naturally, neither the NSA or GCHQ commented on the matter — but the possibility of spies undermining themselves for the sake of ethics is fascinating. Check out the full interview at the BBC source link below.

Filed under: Misc, Internet

Comments

Source: BBC

.CPlase_panel display:none;

The best way to draw a self-portrait is with your blood and a CNC machine

Snapping a selfie with your phone is easy enough these days, but in order to create a self-portrait, a Brooklyn-based artist chose a slightly different route. 44-year-old Ted Lawson hooked himself up to a CNC machine (which he refers to as a “robot”) intravenously so that the device could draw a life-sized nude self-portrait with his blood. For the “Ghost in the Machine” work, Lawson had to remain connected to the output device while it plotted its marks to compose the sketch. “I’m generally not into doing selfies, particularly nude ones, but when I came up with the idea to connect my blood directly to the robot (CNC machine), it just made too much sense to not try one as a full nude self-portrait,” he said. Lawson goes on to say that folks that may criticize his use of the machine for the piece, but leveraging the tool for drawing takes “just as much skill and practice to use as a pen.” For a look at the process (obviously, not for the squeamish), head on past the break.

Filed under: Misc

Comments

Via: Lost At E Minor

Source: AP

.CPlase_panel display:none;

The Big Picture: Neptune’s largest moon, Triton

Neptune has more moons than we have planets in our Solar System, with a total of 14 (and counting) orbiting around it. Its largest, Triton, is big enough to practically be considered a planet, so much so that scientists often compare it to Pluto. (You know, the planet which isn’t really a planet, but some people think it should be a planet? Yeah, that’s the one.) Now, courtesy of old NASA footage from the Voyager 2 spacecraft, we’re getting a closer look at Triton and how it looked back in 1989. Not only that, but NASA’s taken images from the aged trek and used them to create the best global map of Triton yet, with color schemes which “are a close approximation to Triton’s natural colors.” The map, according to NASA, features a resolution of 1,970 feet per pixel, which makes for very, very interesting viewing action.

Filed under: Misc, Science

Comments

Source: NASA

.CPlase_panel display:none;

CarKarPlay display mirrors your smartphone on your dashboard

Remember the good old days when mini Bluetooth keyboards just became a thing? Then you may recall a brand called iPazzPort, who is now launching what appears to be the world’s first wireless display dedicated to mobile devices. Much like the brand, the device itself is just as awkwardly named: CarKarPlay. It’s pretty much just a 7-inch, 800 x 480 screen with WiFi radio for AirPlay, Miracast and DLNA connections, meaning it’ll support wireless screen mirroring from iOS plus Android, as well as media streaming from DLNA-enabled apps or devices — including some Windows Phones. As the name suggests, it’s all about having a bigger screen in your car.

I got to test a CarKarPlay with an iPhone 4 plus an HTC One (M8), and both worked fine: It’s just a matter of connecting the phones to the CarKarPlay’s WiFi hotspot, and then switching on the relevant screen mirroring protocol — AirPlay on iOS, and Miracast on Android (usually labeled as something like “media output,” “cast screen” or “screen share” in the settings menu); though the latter takes noticeably longer to connect, sometimes around ten seconds. Once sorted, I had no problem with watching YouTube videos, browsing photos or looking at the map on the bigger screen. The M8 also supports DLNA, which lets me beam images and stream music.

The CarKarPlay is listed for $150 on Amazon at the moment, and it comes with a car mount kit (or you can just use the device’s kickstand), a USB car charger, a wall mount charger plus a 3.5mm jack cable for audio output. Don’t expect top-notch screen quality here — its vibrance and viewing angle are behind that of IPS screens on most phones these days. You’ll also definitely want to use the bundled audio cable to plug the CarKarPlay into your car’s audio system, as the built-in speakers are way too quiet (and the fact that they are rear-facing isn’t helping).

Perhaps one can be more forgiving if it’s priced $50 cheaper; though I also long for an advanced model with an IPS screen plus louder speakers and even an internal battery, so that I could use it more often. It should also be pointed out that protected content from the iTunes Store can’t be streamed over AirPlay here, but that’s nothing new.

Filed under: Displays

Comments

Source: Amazon

.CPlase_panel display:none;

Man lands in jail for using phone to pirate movie at the theater

The concept of someone recording films at movie theaters for pirating purposes seems so outdated. Yet, that’s still happening in some parts of the world, apparently. Most recently, there’s the case of Philip Danks, a 25-year-old UK man who just got sentenced to 33 months of jail time after using his phone to record a film in the theater and, subsequently, upload it to his website to let the internet download it at no cost — at least initially. So which movie, you ask? None other than Fast & Furious 6. According to Universal Pictures, Danks’ pirated upload was downloaded nearly 780,000 times, which the studio claimed resulted in a loss of about £2.5 million, or about 4.1 million in US dollars. After his initial arrest, and before he pleaded guilty to the charges yesterday, Danks took to his Facebook page to share his feelings about the ordeal: “Seven billion people and I was the first. Fuck you Universal Pictures.” He’s now facing 33 months in jail, as well as 120 hours of unpaid community service.

Filed under: Cellphones, Misc, Home Entertainment, HD

Comments

.CPlase_panel display:none;

Coin’s Bluetooth credit card stand-in will reach 10,000 lucky testers this fall

If you’re one of the adventurous early adopters who pre-ordered Coin, you might finally get the chance to try it out. To recap: This Bluetooth-enabled piece of plastic acts as a stand-in for up to eight different cards, so that you only have to carry one when you’re out and about. Until now, Coin has been available to beta testers, but only 1,000 of them — a far cry from the multitudes who already placed pre-orders. (The startup sold 20,000 units alone in the first five hours its fundraising campaign was open.) Now, in an effort to fully QA the product before it hits stores, the company will expand its beta program to 10,000 people over the coming months. Which means you, dear reader, could finally get your hands on one.

As you might expect, the accompanying app will also become available, with the iOS version arriving next week, on August 28th, and the Android edition following a month later, on September 25th. Obviously, whichever OS you use, you’ll need the application to store all your cards. By the way, this might be a good time to clarify that although the Coin device itself can store just eight accounts, the app can hold an unlimited number of cards. And that’s not just credit cards, mind you, but debit, gift and loyalty cards, too. So, even if you choose not to put a card on your Coin device, you can still retrieve your card info at any time — say, if you want to buy something online. The app has a clean UI too, with the cards arranged in a carousel. If you do need a certain card at the ready, you can swap cards on and off your Coin with the aid of a small connector that plugs into your phone’s headphone jack. Basically, it looks like a Square reader, complete with a standard credit-card swipe slot.

After being treated to a brief demo, the initial setup process struck us as straightforward, if a bit tedious: You have to use your phone camera to photograph both the front and back of each card. You’ll also have to manually enter some information to verify you are, in fact, the owner of the card. Then again, this is just a one-time step, and the actual device is very easy to use: Just press a button on your Coin to cycle through different cards. A small screen on the device itself will show you which card you’re about to use — the Visa ending in “1234,” or maybe the Amex ending in “5678.” If you’re new to Coin, you might fear somewhat for the device’s battery life, but the company claims it can last two years without a recharge, even with that low-power display. It’s unclear what happens when the battery does eventually run out; CEO Kanishk Parashar says the company will have an upgrade plan in place by the time the first generation of devices need a refresh.

In addition to that first-time setup process, Coin will have other security features as well, including an alarm that tracks the number of times the card is swiped. You can also lock the device to just one card before you hand it over at a store or restaurant. A Bluetooth-powered leash will send you an alert if you start to walk away without your Coin. It also allows the device to automatically unlock when it’s near a phone, but Parashar says that feature might not make it into the final edition. Also, if you use a chip-and-pin credit card (popular in Europe and other regions), Coin doesn’t support those cards yet, but it’s working on it. Stay tuned.

As a warning, availability will favor people who pre-ordered the earliest. If you get invited to the beta program, you can either opt in or wait until the first-generation model ships early next year. If you do join the beta, the pre-order price you paid gets you a non-final, pre-production device; you can later buy the final edition for a discounted price of $30 (it will eventually retail for $100). That’s important because if you choose not to participate in the beta, you’re getting a final device for the pre-order price you paid. You’ll miss out on early access, yes, but you also won’t need to shell out an extra $30 just to get a complete, polished piece of hardware. Definitely something to think about.

Some other things you should know: Beta testers are entitled to a 50 percent discount on all Coin products for three years. And if you pre-order multiple Coins, you can also choose to give away the extras as gifts, and send them to your friends instead. Don’t mistake this for a OnePlus One invite system, though; it’s not like everyone will automatically have invitations to give away. In any case, we hope to test one ourselves, but until then, we’ve embedded the demo video below, in case you missed it the first time around — not everyone is an early adopter, after all.

Filed under: Misc

Comments

.CPlase_panel display:none;