Beat censorship by hiding secret messages in Flickr photos
Georgia Tech researchers have developed a tool called Collage that will allow Internet dissidents to insert hidden messages into Twitter posts and Flickr images in order to circumvent the censorship measures imposed by oppressive governments.The tool, which is implemented in Python and uses the OutGuess framework, relies on a technique known as steganography to weave hidden messages into an image file. It uses an automated testing tool called Selenium to facilitate the deployment of the messages. The researchers believe that hiding subversive messages inside content that is indistinguishable from legitimate social network activity will reduce the chances of detection.
"This project offers a possible next step in the censorship arms race: rather than relying on a single system or set of proxies to circumvent censorship ï¬rewalls, we explore whether the vast deployment of sites that host user-generated content can breach these ï¬rewalls," the project's website explains. "We have developed Collage, which allows users to exchange messages through hidden channels in sites that host user-generated content."
It's worth noting that steganography is one method that was used by the Russian spy ring that was recently detected operating within the United States. As we noted last month, a lot of government surveillance is driven by automated keyword-matching and pattern analysis methods that do broad sweeps, but are blind to simple tricks like steganography. Obscuring the substance of a message in an image and deploying it in a nonthreatening and high-volume medium like a social network would make it harder to find.
The Collage software will be released soon and will be published on the Georgia Tech Network Operations and Internet Security (GTNoise) website.
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Prosecutor: no charges in webcam spy scandal
Federal authorities announced Tuesday they will not prosecute administrators connected to a webcam spying scandal at a suburban Philadelphia school district.Prosecutors and the FBI opened an inquiry following a February privacy lawsuit accusing Lower Merion School District officials of spying on students with webcams on the 2,300 district-issued MacBooks. The lawyers who filed the lawsuit claim the district secretly snapped thousands of webcam images of students, including images of youths at home, in bed or even "partially dressed."
Zane David Memeger, the United States attorney for the Easter District of Pennsylvania, said he found no criminal intent in the alleged surveillance.
"I have concluded that bringing criminal charges is not warranted in this matter," Memeger said in a statement. "For the government to prosecute a criminal case, it must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the person charged acted with criminal intent. We have not found evidence that would establish beyond a reasonable doubt that anyone involved had criminal intent."
When the story first broke in February, the district said the LanRev program tracking cameras were activated only a handful of times when a laptop was reported stolen or missing.
Mark Haltzman, the lawyer suing the district, said Memeger's decision underscores the need to bolster privacy legislation.
He added that he does not believe Tuesday's developments will affect his case, brought on behalf of a sophomore student.
"Did OJ Simpson get sued when he was found innocent of criminal charges?" Haltzman asked in a telephone interview. "One has to do with criminal law; the other has to do with civil statutes."
"I think what this means is that the existing laws have flaws," he added.
In February, the district deactivated the LanRev theft tracking software secretly installed on student laptops.
Haltzman's suit was based on a claim by sophomore Blake Robbins that school officials reprimanded him for "improper behavior" based on photos the computer secretly took of the boy at home last fall. That "behavior" turned out to be pill popping, Haltzman said. The family said their son was eating Mike and Ike candy.
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Earth to tech bloggers: FM lives! (In fact, it's growing)
Everybody's in a dither over the Performance Rights Act again, but this time not just because they disagree about whether radio stations should pay royalties to performers as well as to songwriters. No, the current uproar is over a compromise Ars reported between the broadcasting and music labels over the proposed federal law.Radio would agree to pay around $100 million annually to artists and their representatives. In return, Congress would mandate FM radio chips in all handheld mobile devices. The deal is reportedly being worked out between the National Association of Broadcasters and the music industry, and could be taken to Congress later this year.
This dubious quid-pro-quo has come in for deserved criticism. "Rather than adapt to the digital marketplace," warned Gary Shapiro of the Consumer Electronics Association, "NAB and RIAA act like buggy-whip industries that refuse to innovate and seek to impose penalties on those that do."
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Ubuntu 11.04 dubbed Natty Narwhal, will impale users in 2011
Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth revealed today that Ubuntu 11.04 will be codenamed Ubuntu is developed on a time-based six-month release cycle. There are two new versions every year, which typically arrive in October and April. The version number is derived from the year and the approximate month of the planned release date. Each version has a development codename that consists of an animal name preceded by an adjective that starts with the same letter. The names follow an alphabetically ordered sequence. In many cases, a future version is referred to by its letter prior to the disclosure of the intended codename.
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Inside the weird world of terahertz radiation
I work in optics, so when I'm in grant-writing mode, optics and lasers seem to be the best technology choice for every problem, including powering coffee machines. But in the part of the multiverse called reality, lasers aren't always ideal. This becomes particularly true when we move to longer wavelengths; terahertz radiation (basically, heat), in particular, which has wavelengths at around 0.1mm, is best described as painful to work with.Part of the reason for this is that the sources for THz radiation are, well, unfriendly. They are either really bulky, or so small that they emit their radiation everywhere, making it impossible to collect efficiently. Fortunately, a recent paper on combining plasmonics and THz radiation has given me just the excuse I need to introduce you all to the wonderful world of... coherent heat.
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Windows Live Essentials 11 beta updated, gets Facebook chat
The second beta of Windows Live Essentials 11, the application bundle containing Windows Live Messenger, Windows Live Photo Gallery, Windows Live Mail, Windows Live Sync, and more besides, was released today.The update includes a load of stability and performance enhancements, along with several new or improved features: publishing videos to flickr from Movie Maker, better support of Gmail's special spam and trash folders, and larger video uploads to SkyDrive, to name a few.
Arguably the biggest new feature is in Windows Live Messenger. The first beta included the new social view with Facebook updates; with beta 2, this has been extended to include integration with Facebook chat. The 300 million Windows Live Messenger users can now use Messenger to chat with the 500 million Facebook users.
It does exactly what it says on the tin
To avoid crushing the Windows Live Messenger servers under the load of half a billion Facebookers, the support for Facebook chat will be rolled out in a staggered fashion. At the moment, the feature is only available in the US, UK, France, Brazil, Germany, and Russia. More countries will be available over time.
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Feature: Why Sony's Move offers gamers more than Microsoft's Kinect
The Nintendo Wii has enjoyed amazing success this generation, bridging the gap between hardcore and casual gamers. The low-cost console's innovative motion controls expanded the audience for games, and it looked as if Sony and Microsoft would never catch up in the United States. Both Microsoft and Sony ultimately decided that there's something to the whole motion control thing, however, and have announced products that will soon see them following in the Wii's footsteps.Sony's entry into the motion control race is the Move, a collection of devices that work together to create motion controls that are more precise than what Nintendo can offer, with games that enjoy high-definition graphics and better frame rates than the Wii can deliver. Microsoft's motion effort takes a different tack, using a sort of camera that will sit under your television and allow you to interact with your games by moving your body and waving your hands. In essence, Microsoft's Kinect makes you the controller. Make no mistake, the Move and Kinect are me-too products. It's no coincidence that both motion control schemes follow on the heels of the Wii's success. The question is how well each product will engage with the Wii's strengths and weaknesses in order to carve out its own success.
After looking at the final pricing from Microsoft and Sony, playing many games on both technologies, and getting a feel for what both companies are after, we've come to this conclusion: Sony's strategy is going to offer more to a wider variety of gamers. That's not to say that it will be more popular, sell more, or make more money for third-party developers—it's just that for our audience, Sony is the better bet as of this moment.
Here's why.
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Resistance 3! Killzone 3! New PS3s! Sony delivers the goods
Sony is blowing the roof off Gamescom, which is taking place in Cologne Germany as we speak. The announcements are coming in fast and furious: Resistance 3! New PS3 hardware! New Ratchet and Clank! We're going to run down the news and give you a look at the games talked about during Sony's press event.Read the comments on this post
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Apple tested Liquidmetal alloy for iPhone 3G SIM pin
Apple recently signed an exclusive deal to use Liquidmetal Technologies' special amorphous metallic alloys in its consumer electronics devices. But before Apple made such a bold move to single-source critical materials for its products, Apple put the company's abilities to the test by having it make a part for a previous iPhone. Cult of Mac reveals that part to be the SIM ejector tool supplied with the US iPhone 3G.Apple used the small part—one that is not integral to the device's functionality—to see if the company was capable or producing a custom design to Apple's specifications. Typically, manufacturers prefer to have at least two sources for parts, so that a supply problem from one supplier won't halt manufacturing. Since Liquidmetal is only available from one source, Apple needed to make sure the company could deliver.
Atakan Peker, who co-invented Liquidmetal's unique alloy, said he instantly noticed that the SIM ejector tool supplied with the iPhone 3G was made of the unique material. "That's my metal," Peker told Cult of Mac. "I recognized it immediately. Take it from an expert, that's Liquidmetal."
Apple hasn't revealed its plans to incorporate the material into devices like the iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, but Peker suspects it could be used to design a better, lighter antenna than that currently used on the iPhone 4. Cult of Mac notes the material was successfully used to make an antenna for a 3G modem, and Peker said that the alloy can be altered to optimize its performance for that use.
Because of its rigidity and relatively light weight, it could also replace structural materials like aluminum, stainless steel, and glass used in current Apple devices. "This is a highly flexible material," Peker said. "Apple could do some very creative cases."
Peker believes that Apple and its VP of industrial design, Jonathan Ive, is capable of utilizing the materials to come up with very novel design. "It is hard to predict what will come, when you leave such a technology to the imagination and creativity of Apple product development and innovation," he told Cult of Mac. "I won't be surprised with some very interesting products in the future."
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Your fears confirmed: "up to" broadband speeds are bogus
Broadband providers in the US have long hawked their wares in "up to" terms. You know—"up to" 10Mbps, where "up to" sits like a tiny pebble beside the huge font size of the raw number.In reality, no one gets these speeds. That's not news to the techno-literate, of course, but a new Federal Communications Commission report (PDF) shines a probing flashlight on the issue and makes a sharp conclusion: broadband users get, on average, a mere 50 percent of that "up to" speed they had hoped to achieve.
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Age of Empires, Microsoft Flight return, with trailers
Microsoft is showing a newfound enthusiasm for its Games for Windows brand, and has announced the return of two major franchises: Age of Empires and Microsoft Flight Simulator. Of course, the "Simulator" bit has been removed, so now it's just Flight. Let's take a look at the trailers, and discuss what little we know about these games.
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Xbox Live on Windows Phone 7: looks cool, but is it enough?
Ever since it was first shown off, we've known that Windows Phone 7 would include a games hub that integrated with Microsoft's Xbox Live and offer a range of games using Microsoft's XNA game development framework. At the Gamescom 2010 conference this week, Microsoft announced the first wave of games that would ship for the platform at launch or soon after.Fifty games were named, with titles aimed at both hardcore and casual gamers, and a mix of free and paid titles. All the paid games will have free demo modes, and purchases will use Windows Phone's billing options—credit card or carrier billing via Marketplace—rather than the Microsoft Points used for the Xbox Live Marketplace. Microsoft announced both first- and third-party games. Among them are ports of already popular games like UNO, and PopCap's Bejeweled, a range of new casual card and board games branded "Game Chest," and new takes on existing Xbox game franchises.
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Google, Verizon warned not to "cable-ize" the Internet
Four influential members of Congress, fed up with the Google/Verizon “industry-centered net neutrality policy framework,” are now demanding that the government act in the public interest to enforce real network neutrality. More specifically, they want the FCC to act. Even though passing legislation through Congress would be cleaner and less legally fraught than implementing new rules at the FCC, current political realities make that impossible. It's up to the FCC to git-er-done.
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Reexamining nothing: is the vacuum of space really empty?
Quantum chromodynamics (QCD), the theory that describes the strong nuclear force, is odd even by quantum mechanical standards. QCD dictates that, unlike pretty much any other particle, when you pull apart two quarks—the constituent particles of hadrons and one of the base particles of QCD—the force between them does not decrease. Instead, it increases, a property known as confinement. This means that if you pulled hard enough on two bound quarks, the energy between them could become so great that it would cause a quark-antiquark pair to pop into existence and alleviate the strain.Quark-antiquark pairs are also thought to be a major component of the vacuum that pervades our Universe. Instead of being empty, the vacuum is thought to be teeming with a complex mix of these fundamental particles. However, a new paper suggests that this view of the Universe may have things wrong.
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The $88 million server: private WoW server op loses big
How seriously does Blizzard take the operation of private World of Warcraft servers? On August 10th the company was awarded a stunning $88,594,539.00 judgment against a woman who operated a business running her own WoW server and selling items via Paypal. That may seem steep, but over $3 million of that amount came from "inappropriate profits" the woman made from running the server. That's right: her private server, run under the name Scapegaming, was a multimillion dollar business. It also made her a very attractive target for litigation.Read the comments on this post
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Some suppliers admit to working with indicted Apple manager
Former Apple global supply manager Paul Shin Devine has pleaded not guilty to charges that he took kickbacks from Asian parts suppliers in exchange for leaking information about unreleased products. The plot thickens, however, thanks to several suppliers offering contrasting reports on whether or not they paid kickbacks to Devine.Devine made his plea in federal court Monday afternoon after having been indicted on 23 counts of money laundering, wire fraud, and accepting kickbacks of over $1 million from would-be Apple suppliers. He, in partnership with Singapore resident Andrew Ang, allegedly solicited payments from suppliers in exchange for confidential information about Apple products that would enable the companies to win contracts with the company.
Taiwanese company Pegatron said on Tuesday that it was "sorry" about the situation and that it was investigating Devine's involvement with one of its subsidiaries, Kaeder Electronics. According to a statement sent to IDG, Pegatron said that it was "surprised to learn of the alleged conduct." The company has already suspended one Kaeder manager that was implicated in the scheme.
At the same time, South Korea-based Cresyn told Reuters that it didn't have any inappropriate relationship with Devine, though the company did say that Devine was paid for "consulting advice" at some point in time. "Devine approached us first and offered to give us business consulting to help advance into the US market," a Cresyn official said. "We accepted his offer and received general information about US markets, and in return we offered him a small consulting fee. But this was based on a legal contract we made with him in 2007."
Several of the other companies accused of getting involved with Devine include Jin Li Mould Manufacturing, Nishoku Technology, and Glocom/Lateral Solutions and Fastening Technologies, though they appear to be staying mum for now.
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Reach out and touch your netbook with Ubuntu multitouch
Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth announced Monday that multitouch support and gesture-based interaction will arrive in Ubuntu 10.10, the next major version of the popular Linux distribution. The feature will be tightly integrated in Unity, Ubuntu's new lightweight netbook environment.Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, has developed a software framework called uTouch that is intended to simplify gesture handling. The company's team of designers has published an early draft of a gesture guideline document that explains how multitouch capabilities will be used in Unity. It defines a common grammar of gestures and introduces concepts like chained gestures, which will allow users to convey gesture-based instructions to the software in a more expressive way.
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