The Storm...

Wow! Lots of rain yesterday, we received over 1.5 inches. The river is way up, about a foot of coming over the road I use to get home.

Big news over the last two weeks has been Sony and Xbox 360 one is good news and the other bad if you have use it’s product in your computer!

Haven’t recorded anything this month, working all the time and with Christmas come so fast it’s going to be tuff to get much done. So, I’ll have to find time some how and soon.

Oh, hot link to a cam! (LINK)

Wishing all a......

Happy Thanksgiving

Harry Potter

I'm off to see Harry Potter's new movie tonight. The trailer I seen online looked awsome and I like the past three so I'm sure this one will be great too! I have heard is the best one yet? We'll see tonight!

Learned Something New.....

Today looking around on my Pocket PC I came across “Blue Tooth Manager” and seen you can set up a dial-up connection if your mobile phone has “Blue Tooth” built in. Well as I was at work and didn’t know a dial-up number off hand I had to wait till I was able to get home. I was able to set up and connect in about five minutes! I’m now able to surf the net on my Pocket PC so long as I have cell service, any where in the USA! I know I’ll be using air time minutes but ok so long as I don’t have any other charges applied I cool with the fact I can surf almost any where I’m at now!



Experts: Sony Plan Widens Security Hole
November 15, 2005 1:33 PM EST

BOSTON - The fallout from a hidden copy-protection program that Sony BMG Music Entertainment put on some CDs is only getting worse. Sony's suggested method for removing the program actually widens the security hole the original software created, researchers say.

Sony apparently has moved to recall the discs in question, but music fans who have listened to them on their computers or tried to remove the dangerous software they deposited could still be vulnerable.

"This is a surprisingly bad design from a security standpoint," said Ed Felten, a Princeton University computer science professor who explored the removal program with a graduate student, J. Alex Halderman. "It endangers users in several ways."

The "XCP" copy-protection program was included on at least 20 CDs, including releases by Van Zant, The Bad Plus, Neil Diamond and Celine Dion.

When the discs were put into a PC - a necessary step for transferring music to iPods and other portable music players - the CD automatically installed a program that restricted how many times the discs' tracks could be copied, and made it extremely inconvenient to transfer songs into the format used by iPods.

That antipiracy software - which works only on Windows PCs - came with a cloaking feature that allowed it to hide files on users' computers. Security researchers classified the program as "spyware," saying it secretly transmits details about what music the PC is playing. Manual attempts to remove the software can disable the PC's CD drive.

The program also gave virus writers an easy tool for hiding their malicious software. Last week, virus-like "Trojan horse" programs emerged that took advantage of the cloaking feature to enter computers undetected, antivirus companies said. Trojans are typically used to steal personal information, launch attacks on other computers and send spam.

Stung by the controversy, Sony BMG and the company that developed the antipiracy software, First 4 Internet Ltd. of Oxfordshire, United Kingdom, released a program that uninstalls XCP.

But the uninstaller has created a new set of problems.

To get the uninstall program, users have to request it by filling out online forms. Once submitted, the forms themselves download and install a program designed to ready the PC for the fix. Essentially, it makes the PC open to downloading and installing code from the Internet.

According to the Princeton analysis, the program fails to make the computer confirm that such code should come only from Sony or First 4 Internet.

"The consequences of the flaw are severe," Felten and Halderman wrote in a blog posting Tuesday. "It allows any Web page you visit to download, install, and run any code it likes on your computer. Any Web page can seize control of your computer; then it can do anything it likes. That's about as serious as a security flaw can get."

Sony BMG spokesman John McKay did not return calls seeking comment. First 4 Internet was not making any comment, according to Lynette Riley, the office manager who answered the company's phone Tuesday evening in England.

Mark Russinovich, the security researcher who first discovered the hidden Sony software, is advising users who played one of the CDs on their computer to wait for the companies to release a stand-alone uninstall program that doesn't require filling out the online form.

"There's absolutely no excuse for Sony not to make one immediately available," he wrote in an e-mail Tuesday.

Other programs that knock out the original software are also likely to emerge. Microsoft Corp. says the next version of its tool for removing malicious software, which is automatically sent to PCs via Windows Update each month, will yank the cloaking feature in XCP.

Sony BMG said Friday it would halt production of CDs with XCP technology and pledged to "re-examine all aspects of our content protection initiative." On Monday night, USA Today's Web site reported that Sony BMG would recall the CDs in question.

The Sony/BMG DRM "rootkit"

The Sony/BMG DRM rootkit was first discovered by F-Secure and widely publicized by Mark Russinovich of Sysinternals in his blog. The Sony DRM hides itself by modifying the Windows kernel, names itself "Plug and Play Device Manager" to confuse users, consumes CPU resources whether running or not with sloppily written code that does things like querying the file size eight times per scan, scanning every two seconds, and, worst of all, allows any hacker to easily hide files on your system.
Sony's license agreement is vague about what it's installing and implies that it can be easily disabled. It cannot.
Use Sysinternals' Rootkit Revealer or F-Secure's Blacklight to find the rootkit - look for $sys$ - but don't remove it or you'll loose access to your CD-ROM drive.
Sony is now offering removal instructions that point you to the XCP Aurora web site and Service Pack 1 containing "fixes and workarounds." (from Twit)

Also there is a similar program that is on DVD’s. If it is installed your DVD copying software will no longer work, so never install anything from a music CD of a movie DVD or you may be sorry you did! If you can don’t buy Sony CD’s! (Boycott Sony Music) All this type of crap will do is start making people turn to copy more music illegally!

Ween Over & Turk a Coming...

Hey, it’s been awhile I know but work hasn’t let up yet. But for some reason this has been a slow week? I’ll have as of tomorrow 53 hours in for the week. Did a recording this evening and still need to work on a video but there is the time thing? As I’m sure most have the same problem.

Christmas time is a coming….. iPod is what I’m a wanting! Hint! Hint! Not just an iPod, I want the newest iPod the video iPod to be exact! (60 gig) I’ll need to download iTunes also then! ;)

Had to get one of the LCD screens on the main computer replaced found a bad pixel, great thing is, it was at no cost to me!

Well till the next one…….night!