The internet made me do it…social engineering at its finest

The Security Van Scam is well known but people still fall for it and simlar scams. Its got all the hallmarks of social engineering, including social complience, convincing and timing. From Schneier's great blog

on Thursday, about 9:30 a.m., a man dressed as an employee of the security company Brink's walked into a Wachovia branch in downtown Washington and walked out with more than $350,000.

The man had a badge and a gun holster on his belt, said Debbie Weierman, a spokeswoman for the FBI's Washington field office. He told officials at the bank, at 801 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, that he was filling in for the regular courier.

About 4 p.m., when the real guard showed up, a bank official told him that someone had picked up the cash, D.C. police said. The guard returned to his office and told a supervisor that he did not make the pickup at the bank. The supervisor called a Wachovia manager, who in turn notified authorities. Police were called nearly 11 hours after the heist.

Technorati Tags: , , , , ,

Comments [Comments]
Trackbacks [0]

Data Portability Video


DataPortability – Connect, Control, Share, Remix from Smashcut Media on Vimeo.


CREDITS:
Written, designed and edited by Michael Pick, smashcut-media.com

Music – “Bongo Avenger” – Eric & Ryan Kilkenny: CC Attrib. Non Commercial

Hands photo: Scol22 – Stock.xchng

Additional images: istockphoto

Animated Flourishes: Andrew Kramer

So I was impressed with the production value of the video but felt it needed more snap. Chris asked what I meant by “snap?” But I think you will know what I mean and agree, it certainly needs more snappyness. Not that I'm slagging it off, actually its really good and well worth sending around to people who don't know or understand the whole data portability movement.

I've also finally put in a Xtech 2008 proposal for Data Portability at long last. Here is my short description.

Data portability is in a way one of the greatest freedoms users and developers can have. Portability of data underpins the web of data, apis and the ability to move data to other services, platforms and devices. It is silo busting and is deeply weaved into the debate over social platforms, identity and mobile data. In this talk, I will explore the problems, solutions and gamut of policy decisions

Comments [Comments]
Trackbacks [0]

Some amazing TED talks recently

TED ideas worth spreading

Don't get me wrong, TED talks are always great but just recently there have been some simply un-missable ones, here's my top three.

Underwater astonishments: David Gallo on TED.com

David Gallo shows jaw-dropping footage of amazing sea creatures, including a shape-shifting cuttlefish, a pair of fighting squid, and a mesmerizing gallery of bioluminescent fish that light up the blackest depths of the ocean. Recorded March 2007 in Monterey, California. Duration: 5:21.)

The mystery box: J.J. Abrams on TED.com

Filmmaker J.J. Abrams traces his love of the unseen mystery — the heart of Alias, Lost and the upcoming Cloverfield — back to its own magical beginnings, which may or may not include an early obsession with magic, the love of a supportive grandfather, or his own unopened Mystery Box. Recorded March 2007 in Monterey, California. Duration: 18:02.)

Why aren't we all Good Samaritans? Daniel Goleman on TED.com

Daniel Goleman, author of Emotional Intelligence, asks why we aren’t more compassionate more of the time. Through psychological experiments and a story of the Santa Cruz Strangler, he shows how we are all born with the capacity for empathy — but we sometimes choose to ignore it. Recorded March 2007 in Monterey, California. Duration: 13:13.)

Technorati Tags: , ,

Comments [Comments]
Trackbacks [0]

Point home – a new ui for windows mobile phones

Point Home in action

I installed Point Ui's Home tonight because it was one of those things I've been meaning to do. Anyway, after 2 seconds I was amazed. The user interface design is slick and smooth without being too in your face. They have taken interaction, icons and patterns from the tango project and put them to good use. Everything just works so well, that its hard to explain without a video, And I would shoot one if it wasn't so late. I only wish it was a little more stable and there were controls to change the colours. The blue is a little too blue for my personal tastes. More detail about point home below…

Home's intuitive controls and highly responsive user interface makes using your device a breeze. Here are a few of the key features Home has to offer:

  • Control your device via touch or your thumb with the directional control
  • Smart Lists Navigation ™ with bookmarks allows you to easily locate an item in even the largest lists
  • Choose the slide navigation that suits you
  • One touch access to calls, email, text messages and music
  • Easily see who and when calls were received, made and missed
  • Using the Applet Ribbon ™ you can easily access the time, tasks, appointments, calendar and up to date weather forecasts and current temperatures
  • Easily manage your sound, wireless, battery and device settings
  • Easy create new emails, text messages, multimedia messages, tasks, appointments, documents and spreadsheets
  • Load and switch between running applications effortlessly

Technorati Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Comments [Comments]
Trackbacks [0]

8 Random Facts About Me (tagging meme)

Somethinkodd Diabolo

James Cridland tagged me in the blogging meme by the same name. Yes its been a while but I've been pretty busy with lots of other stuff. Unlike James I know what a meme is and I like the idea of memetics, which I first heard via Susan Blackmore. Anyway I'm sure James actually does know what a meme is and its on with the rules.

Here are the rules:

  1. Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
  2. People who are tagged need to write a post on their own blog (about their eight things) and post these rules.
  3. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
  4. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.
  1. My first computer was a Commodore 16
    Not a Commodore 64 or 128, 16 as in 16k of total memory. My father bought the C16 for me when I was about 7 and I loved it. I use to play games then started to get into basic programming. I still remember the weird rounded tape cassette recorder thing and the blocky as hell graphics.
  2. I have worked in some odd places including… Equinox Discotheque in Leicester Square
    I was between jobs and I only lasted 3 weeks before quiting. I learned how to pour drinks correctly and how to make a lot of cocktails. I was only paid 3.70 a hour because you were expected to make a ton of money in tips. This only worked well if you were a attractive woman. The best tips I got in one night was 20 pounds while my female equivilents were getting upwards of 100 pounds a night!
  3. I use to have hypersomnolence and now sleep Apnea
    This is a sleep disorder where I pause snoring and breathing during the night. This makes sleeping difficult and a couple of the side-effects are loud sleeping, morning headaches (like being hangover), trouble concentrating, decreased sex drive forgetfulness, nocturia, etc, etc. Now you can see why working later in the day works better for me. I have also had surgery to try and correct it but its had little to no effect. Most people think its down to weight but actually I've had this since I was really young and thin. I even know people who are very fit who have this same problem, you can imagine its a problem for the partner who thinks your dying while you sleep.
  4. I'm a Diabolist
    Whats a diabolo? Well it actually means the devil with two sticks but really its a Chinese Yo-Yo. It looks like a egg cup with a string and sticks. Anyway, I learned how to do the Yo-Yo during the coke-cola yo-yo days and got fed up because everyone had them and everyone knew how to do most of the limited tricks. So I picked up on this thing called a wow ball. It turns out the wow ball was a cheap version of a diabolo and before long I was doing most of the same tricks with a full size diabolo. When I was younger, I use to enter competitions at holiday camps and have won a couple of times including a few holidays. I'm going to start putting up videos of me doing the diabolo on to videojug or more likely sclipo, so look out for it. Although thediabolo.com might have beaten me to it (I love that light path idea).
  5. I can skateboard and rollerblade
    Yes believe it or not. I can skateboard and I use to skateboard to work and college everyday. Roughly 5+ miles a day. Could I do any tricks? Well basic jumps and thats about it. By the way I can also rollerblade ok.
  6. I think I can ski but have never tried it on snow
    Yes its odd eh? I can actually ski but I've only ski'ed on dry slopes and grass. Grass skiing is pretty cool but those boots are damm heavy.
  7. I don't know popular music
    I don't know my led zepplin from my rolling stones. Seriously I don't know much about rock or pop music. When I was young I use to listen to dance music and hiphop. I was deep in to my dance music too, I stopped listening to radio when GWR changed there policy to no rap, less chat (thanks Miles for the correction). This meant the end of Sandy Martin's disco tracking and no more dance music on local radio. Radio 1 was interesting to me but I only listen to pete tong when I was older. I was never into the MTV actually I turned my back on it and The Box because it had no rave music. I did for a while check out that show after the Fresh Prince on BBC 2, the one with Normski (good on the BBC for taking a risk with such a show, maybe this lead the way towards 1xtra?) and I was a avid watcher of the Hitman and Her (check out the episode where pete and michaela go to Eclipse in Covertry!) and after it BPM (which I can't find anywhere). I went to clubs and raves alot, the magazines I read were eternity and knowledge, the music I listened to was rave. I just didn't have the time for other music because rave culture was so involving.
  8. I have never taken any drugs stronger that caffeine and I don't like Beer
    As you can see above, I was well into the rave and dance culture, but never ever took any class A, B or C drugs. Hell I didn't even drink beer. So although I was surrounded by drug taking I never got involved. It was strange because I educated myself about drugs at a early age and while the press was having a field day about evil ravers and dealers following the Leah Betts death I was seeing strange through the bull. Although I could see ecstasy wasn't this evil drug, I just wasn't interested in taking it because for me life was wild and weird enough, plus I just loved the music. About Beer. I bought them for friends when I was younger simply because I looked old enough to pass for 18 when I was 13 (yes I was bad). So I always got a taste of their beers. I never liked it and trust me I've tried loads of beers. I even last week tried white or wheat beer, which I thought was nasty. Once when I was at a holiday camp, I bought a tray full of drinks for a group of new friends and the security guard tapped me on the back and asked if I was buying drinks for underage teenagers? I being a little shocked that he had not guessed I was also underage answered no its all for me. So he stood there for about 10mins while I slowly drank most of the drink! That was the first time I had tasted Bitter and boy oh boy was I almost sick. Beer tastes like crap to me, I don't get why people like it? The only beer I like is Ginger Beer.

I'm nominating…. (without checking to see if they have done this already)

Technorati Tags: , , , , , ,

Comments [Comments]
Trackbacks [0]

iplayer oh iplayer when can I watch you on my TV?

From the Register via Miles and Dave's emails.

The BBC has revealed that eight times as many people are using its Flash-based streaming iPlayer than the desktop P2P version.

The first publicly available official figures since the Christmas launch say 3.5 million iPlayer programmes were watched by more than one million viewers between 25 December and 7 January.

Even our best friend (for reasons which will be revealed soon) Ashley Highfield has a blog post about this annoucement. Theres even a great quote from someone saying how its changed there life for ever. But what next for iplayer?

People since Christmas have said they would like to see the 7 days extended to 14 days or even 30 days and want the whole range of BBC content available. Only one person said to me they would like it better quality (I just add this person owns a 1080p HD cinema like projector), some say they want iplayer on the TV (this will be solved soon if you own a Virgin box) others including my parents said “iplayer?”

So TV on TV a large request with extended schedule and longer hold time? Humm we shall see but the ability to put iplayer on your TV right now is quite interesting and something I've been trying to push out in the community. Currently the problem is the Adobe RTMP protocal for streaming, but this will soon be fixed. Even Ashley decided to follow up some of the links for IP TV solutions after the lets be frank, boring as hell Mac World announcements (Macbook Air my arse and its not got a replaceable battery!). Yes Apple screwed up the Apple TV and launched a 2nd edition which lets be honest isn't that great because once again its the same hardware. I still can't wait to plonk the xbox or wii in front of Ashley and show him and others iplayer on a TV done well. Thanks for the screenshot of xbmc by the way Ashley.

Technorati Tags: , , , , ,

Comments [Comments]
Trackbacks [0]

How going to work late can be more productive

The longest 5 minutes

I admit it, I go to work very late. Most people think its because I go to bed very late or I just don't sleep enough. Not so. I for ages tried sleeping 9 hours a night starting at 10pm and 11pm. But I always felt tired or not with it between the hours of 9am-1pm. So since I shifted my schedule to sleep at about 2am and go to work about 11am I've felt a lot better. This is why I can clearly understand the New York Times story about Teenagers getting better grades when they go to school/college later rather that earlier.

Research shows that teenagers’ body clocks are set to a schedule that is different from that of younger children or adults. This prevents adolescents from dropping off until around 11 p.m., when they produce the sleep-inducing hormone melatonin, and waking up much before 8 a.m. when their bodies stop producing melatonin. The result is that the first class of the morning is often a waste, with as many as 28 percent of students falling asleep, according to a National Sleep Foundation poll. Some are so sleepy they don’t even show up, contributing to failure and dropout rates.

Technorati Tags: , , ,

Comments [Comments]
Trackbacks [0]

Spam by any other name

This was dropped in my email today from partricia500@yahoo.com.

Hi cubicgarden

pice23 (a SlideShare user) has sent you a private message.
'HELLO My name is partricia i saw your profile today at(www.slideshare.net) and became intrested in you,i will also like to know you the more,and i want you to send an email to my email address so i can give you my picture for you to know whom i am.Here is my email address ( partricia1000@yahoo.com ) I believe we can move from here. I am waiting for your mail to my email address above.(Remeber the distance or colour does not matter but love matters alot in life ) p/a/r/t/r/i/c/i/a/1/0/0/0/@/y/a/h/o/o/./c/o/m/'

(*note: This is a private message. You can message back “pice23” on his/her profile page)

(**You can change your message permissions by editing your profile here)

How did I know it was spam? Easy, look at the writing style first, very child like and very jumpy. Speilling is also bad. Why the hell would I send a email to the email address which is spelt out twice (as to beat most spam catchers). The call for action “I am waiting for your mail to my email.” Then the profile page has no slideshows, joined in Jan 2008, no contacts or friends, no activity and last logged in 5 hours ago. Go social engineer someone else losers.

Technorati Tags: , , , , , ,

Comments [Comments]
Trackbacks [0]

Traveling in style, wifi and power what more do you need?

Free Wifi on National Express trains

Free Wireless and a plug per seat, National Express trains get a double thumbs up from myself. GNER use to have power in every seat but charged 9.99 for a days worth of Wireless access. National Express took over and dropped the price to zero, awesome. Only problem is that it would seem some ports are blocked and the speed shared across the whole train is close to 1meg at the wireless edge and about 256k of real usage.

Technorati Tags: , , , ,

Comments [Comments]
Trackbacks [0]

URL X shutdown again

urlx.org shutdown again

I like URL X because the shorten URL's it makes are still human readable and there's a very simple API. However its been shutdown again.

Bad news: Dreamhost has shut down url(x)! (Again.) They don't think the service should exist in its current anonymous incarnation. I disagree with their assessment and will be moving the site to a new server. I will be tightening some things up, but the service will return in its current form. Sorry for the inconvenience — we will be back shortly!

Comments [Comments]
Trackbacks [0]