Pretty damn cool, when I’m in Tokyo next time I will sure be stopping by Watch Gallery Ken Trading in Ginza…
RXW Hummer watch, inspired by weapon!
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CoverBuddy: iTunes remote for PSP
This is pretty damn cool, looks like with this piece of software I would be able to control my iTunes with my PSP via WiFi. I’ll get it one of these days… My PSP has been in the glove box in my car for about a month now… I’m contemplating getting GTA: Liberty City, but I’m pretty sure I’ll only play it once or twice… Last game I bought was GT4 for PS2, even bought the GT4 wheel for it, but only played maybe 5 times total… complete waste of money…
I must say though, if games on Amazon qualify for Amazon Prime, I probably would have quite a few more games… It’s such a pain to order from anywhere else, or worse yet, to get it from a store… 😀
Boing Boing: Sony Rootkit DRM Roundup Part III
Great timeline of events…
Boing Boing: Sony Rootkit DRM Roundup Part III:
The Sony rootkit debacle continues to gain steam, with fresh revelations of incompetence and malice every day, and with fresh news of lawsuits too. Previously, I published two roundups of news on this leading up to Nov 17 (Sony Rootkit Roundup Part I, Sony Rootkit Roundup Part II) and what with all the news, it’s time for a third:
Nov 17: Sony still advising public to install rootkits
18 days after the revelation that Sony’s CDs contain dangerous rootkits, Sony still has live web-pages advising its customers to go ahead and install their software (This is still the case as of Nov 22!).Nov 17: Schneier: Why didn’t anti-virus apps defend us against Sony’s rootkit?
Security researcher Bruce Schneier accuses anti-spyware companies of being soft on Sony because it was released by a giant, sleazy company instead of a small, sleazy company.Nov 17: Uninstaller for Sony’s other malware screws up your PC
Some of Sony’s music CDs carry a second form of malicious software, a spyware program called Suncomm Mediamax. Princeton researchers Ed Felten and Alex Halderman discover that the uninstaller provided by Suncomm leaves your computer open to complete takeover through simply looking at web-pages with malicious code in them.Nov 17: Amazon offers refunds for all Sony rootkit CDs
Amazon sends an email to everyone who bought a rootkit-infected Sony CD from them and offers a full refund — now that’s how it’s done. (On November 21, the US Army/Airforce Exchange Service followed suit).Nov 18: I HEART Rootkit tees, list of Mediamax CDs, Mediamax installer to be fixed
Lovely “I HEART Rootkit” tee shirts for sale. A user discovers a long list of CDs infected with Suncomm’s MediaMax spyware. Suncomm vows to update its Mediamax uninstaller, which presently leaves your computer wide open to total take-over simply by looking at web-pages with malicious code on them.Nov 19: Sony offers MP3s in replacement for rootkit CDs
Sony is not only offering to replace infected CDs with CDs that are free from the rootkit DRM (no official word from Sony on whether they’ll also be free of the Mediamax spyware) — they’re also offering free MP3s of any music that you bought on an infected CD!Nov 20: RIAA prez: Lots of companies secretly install rootkits! It’s no biggie!
The CEO of the RIAA kisses off all the customers who got infected by Sony’s rootkit: “How many times that software applications created the same problem? Lots.” Uh, really? Lots of companies install rootkits on users’ PCs without permission? Apparently this guy doesn’t know the difference between “companies” and “criminal organizations”Nov 20: Latest news on Sony lawsuits
A website launches to keep track of news about the lawsuits arising from Sony’s use of spyware and rootkits on its music CDs.Nov 20: Sony insider: DRM is discredited at Son
A high-placed tipster at Sony tells me that the execs who green-lighted DRM at Sony are in trouble, and that the label-heads in Sony are really pissed about the rootkit fiasco, with at least one vowing to swear off DRM forever.Nov 21: Foxtrot cartoon on Sony’s rootkit
The Foxtrot comic strip nails Sony in today’s syndicated stripNov 21: Texas sues Sony over rootkits — YEE-HAW!
Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has brought an anti-spyware lawsuit against Sony over its rootkit DRM. He’s looking for $100,000 per violation of Texas’s anti-spyware laws, plus costs. Ouch. That’s gonna be pretty costly.Nov 21: EFF brings class-action against Sony!
My employer, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (a nonprofit civil liberties group) has brought a class action suit against Sony. We’re gonna nail them!Nov 21: Microsoft: Trusted Computing sucks!
A senior Microsoft exec says that computer users should never be deprived of control over their PCs; too bad that Microsoft has built so much of its current business on depriving its customers control over their PCs.Nov 21: Why not update Sony’s rootkit with a warning message?
Security researcher Ben Edelman suggests that Sony could reach all its infected users by pushing an update to the rootkit that warns them that they’re compromised and gives instructions for uninstalling and getting replacement CDs.Nov 21: Sony’s Mediamax spyware gets a new uninstaller
The Suncomm Mediamax spyware on Sony’s CDs caused embarrassment when it was revealed that using the uninstaller left your computer vulnerable to total compromise by web-pages with malicious code on them. Now Suncomm has issued a new uninstaller, though heavens knows if it’s any better.One more thing: remember back in 2002 when it was revealed that you could cause your computer to ignore audio-CD DRM by scribbling on the visible data-sectors on the physical disc? Turns out that a variant on this can also immunize you against Sony’s current crop of malicious software.
Cathedral of Learning
I love the idea of a building called ?The Cathedral of Learning?, regardless of which campus it?s located on.
It was the best place from which to shoot out paper airplanes… freshman year at CMU, good times…
TiVo to add video transfer from TiVo to iPod 5G and PSP
Digital video recorder maker TiVo Inc. plans to announce a feature on Monday that will let subscribers transfer recorded television programming to Apple iPod digital music players or Sony’s PlayStation portable devices.
AppleInsider | TiVo to allow video iPod downloads
Nice, since I have both of these devices… Now it might actually make sense to buy a 2GB MemStick card… They should really get TiVoToGo to work again in OS X before they roll out iPod 5g support…
VS emails
I love emails from Victoria’s Secret 🙂
RXW MM20
Those who know me would know that I had been looking for another watch for quite some time. I narrowed it down to the RXW MM20, the IWC Mark XII with the JLC movement, and the Omega Co-Axial Chronograph.
I had been wanting to see the RXW MM20 in person for about 2 years. I had talked to Bill Sohne and Chuck Maddox, two renown contributors at TimeZone’s Omega Forum, about the MM20 on AIM countless times; they both own one and love theirs. Panerai brought a lawsuit against Ken Trading and forced production on this watch to stop, there had been a few re-issues, and most recently they were sold at OrientTime.com. The OrientTime site had an order form in plain text (no SSL encryption), and I was uneasy to place an order across the world with my credit card information in plain text.
I put off buying a watch for a while; kept myself very busy with work, photography, and consulting. Nevertheless, my subconscious kept telling me that it was time for another watch. Earlier this week I casually went to the Big Watch Forum’s Trading forum, there I saw a listing with a brand-new-in-box MM20 from a seller who happened to be a Bay Area resident!! Two days and half a dozen emails later, we met up at a Wells Fargo in Santa Clara, turned out he owned 3 MM20’s, one as his daily wear, and two brand spanking new ones as spares, in case something happened to his daily wear. (yes, he loved the MM20, he also had a Panerai, which started his big watch obsession). He took off his daily MM20 for me to try on, my main concern about getting this watch was the size, it is 47mm wide without the crown! It does look huge in person and on my wrist, but maybe it was the styling of the dial, it looked just right. The watch was more beautiful in person than in pictures! I had to get it. As I don’t keep any money in Wells Fargo, we decided to just do it via PayPal, so we drove to my condo across the street and 10 minutes later, the watch was mine! Amin, the seller, was kind enough to show me how to change straps, the watch was shipped with the brown strap and I prefer the black strap. I must say this was one of the best internet transactions I’ve had. Amin, an attorney at Google, was a real pleasure to deal with. He was also very knowledgeable about the RXW, Panerai, and other big watches. The watch was in original BNIB conditions, it had never been worn! I actually felt a little bit of guilt as I removed the protective films and put it on my wrist.
The RXW MM20 was made by Ken Trading in Japan, it’s a very close homage to the original MARINA MILITARE, which translates to Navy in Italian. The original MARINA MILITARE was made by Rolex in 1938, and is the watch Panerai now emulates. It has the Swiss UNITAS 6497 movement, 316L stainless steel case, and a sapphire crystal. The UNITAS 6497 is not real fancy, but it’s real fun to wind. The dial actually has two layers, the bottom one is a layer of Super Luminova, and the top layer was cut so you see the bottom layer at the markings and arabic numerals (12, 3, 6 and 9). The base dial employes antimagnetic soft iron. RXW refers to the dial as Plasmir. It has a sub-dial for the second display at the 9-o’clock position. The case is brushed stainless steel, but the bezel is polished. Like some Panerai’s, the crown has a crown guard, it’s pretty useless but it does look nice. The watch comes with 3 boxes; a very well-crafted wooden box, a black paper box and a cardboard box.
A picture is worth a thousand words, so here was my attempt at watch photography, follow this link if you fancy viewing them in their full-resolution glory. 🙂
Technorati Tags: horology, iwc, mm20, omega, rxw, rxw_mm20, watch, watches
Edmunds Evo9MR video
Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution Videos on Inside Line
Pretty cool, I like the conclusion remark:
The Evo doesn’t much care what the conditions are, it just wants to go fast.
Too true!!
Schneier on Security: Sony’s DRM Rootkit: The Real Story
Schneier on Security: Sony’s DRM Rootkit: The Real Story:
It’s a David and Goliath story of the tech blogs defeating a mega-corporation.
On Oct. 31, Mark Russinovich broke the story in his blog: Sony BMG Music Entertainment distributed a copy-protection scheme with music CDs that secretly installed a rootkit on computers. This software tool is run without your knowledge or consent — if it’s loaded on your computer with a CD, a hacker can gain and maintain access to your system and you wouldn’t know it.
The Sony code modifies Windows so you can’t tell it’s there, a process called “cloaking” in the hacker world. It acts as spyware, surreptitiously sending information about you to Sony. And it can’t be removed; trying to get rid of it damages Windows.
This story was picked up by other blogs (including mine), followed by the computer press. Finally, the mainstream media took it up.
The outcry was so great that on Nov. 11, Sony announced it was temporarily halting production of that copy-protection scheme. That still wasn’t enough — on Nov. 14 the company announced it was pulling copy-protected CDs from store shelves and offered to replace customers’ infected CDs for free.
But that’s not the real story here.