In case you were wondering, yes, Instagram is indeed owned by Facebook

Again, are we surprised?

In his (sort of) apology/explanation,  Kevin Systrom co-founder, Instagram, says: 

"Some or all of the service may be supported by advertising revenue. To help us deliver interesting paid or sponsored content or promotions, you agree that a business or other entity may pay us to display your username, likeness, photos (along with any associated metadata), and/or actions you take, in connection with paid or sponsored content or promotions, without any compensation to you"

I was going to add some commentary but Randal Munro says it way better in xkcd

Cool example of Augmented Reality

Marco Tempest uses Augmented Reality to improve an old card trick
http://boingboing.net/2012/12/10/augmented-reality-card-routine.html
This is almost as good as his talk on Tesla

Oh yeah BTW, the Oculus Rift VR headset, (possibly the first mass market VR rig) is delayed until next april  :-/

md5crypt() no longer suitable for production use?

A 25-GPU clustered password-cracking computer has passed a new threshold in brute-force guessing, apparently making weaker password algorithms (like LM and NTLM) obsolete.  This has prompted Poul-Henning Kamp, creator of md5crypt() to state that it's not suitable for production use.

What does this mean?  Unfortunately I don't know, but will keep my eyes out.

Perry

What's a Web Proxy?

A proxy server is a computer that sits between your browser and the web site you're trying to visit.  It can do a number of things such as help with data security, make loading pages faster, keep access logs, etc.   It was put there either by your company if you're at work,  your ISP, or if you're at a hotel, by either the local hotel, provider, corporate, etc.

Unfortunately it can be used for evil purposes, either simply placing ads and other spyware activities, or real spying, reading your unencrypted traffic.

This article on SANS Internet Storm Center tells some more, really technical, information.   Contact me if you'd like more information.

Do you know what ToR is?

It's a way to anonymously use the Internet.  Handy for people who want more privacy, whether they're spies, or dissidents in hostile countries, or just people who want privacy.

To use it, you download software, and configure it to connect to the internet, where your traffic connects to random places,  gets encrypted, bounces around the web, getting reencrypted or decrypted and finally gets completely decrypted and leaves from another random place before it goes to its final destination.  YOUR AMOUNT OF PRIVACY AND ANONYMITY IS COMPLETELY A FUNCTION OF HOW WELL YOU UNDERSTAND EVERYTHING ABOUT IT ( and the internet, likely )

It exists on the generosity of people running "Exit nodes", the places that accept connections, bounce traffic around, or squirt data out.

Unfortunately, if someone uses ToR to do something illegal, the authorities might go after the person running the Exit node, and because of the nature of Tor, it's REALLY HARD TO FIND THE ACTUAL CRIME.  This could be a problem to the person in custody, in spite of the fact they haven't (really) done anything wrong.

You have been warned.

Perry

App maker thinks it's OK to hijack your twitter account

If they think you've pirated the app, Enfour will use your Twitter credentials and post a confession.

I know what Apps that do (really) unexpected things are called - "Malware".  And I'll accuse them of that, just on my blog though.

This is the problem with apps that take your credentials from other services, you never know what they'll do with them until it's too late.

Don't buy toshiba laptops

Blah - I don't know what it is with some of these companies, but Toshiba shut down a blogger that put their repair manuals online.  This simply means that they'll cost that much more to repair, or if an authorized center won't fix it at all, you're out of luck

There are way more manufacturers out there