Indigo & FrontRow

Benjamin SchollnickNo Comments

Folks,I promised that I was working on this, and here is a screen capture of the proof of concept of Indigo working via FrontRow.

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What you are seeing right now, is just a display of the status of the devices in Indigo.I still have significantly more work to do on it, including figuring out the best way to handle the storage of the user / server credentials, and other issues…But, we are certainly closer than we were a few days ago.

Bootable flash key makes disk encryption attacks super-simple

Benjamin SchollnickNo Comments

From Engadget… (Which got it from hack a day)

Bootable flash key makes disk encryption attacks super-simple: \”

Filed under: Desktops, Laptops, Storage

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Ruh roh, Shaggy — you remember that disk encryption attack that involved cooling off your target\’s RAM and yanking it to get a bitdump before the contents faded? Well, it looks like things just got a lot simpler for would-be attackers — check out this USB flash key designed by security researcher Robert Wesley McGrew, which can boot your machine and dump the RAM to itself without altering its contents. That means you no longer need to actually pull the DIMMs or carry around an air duster; all an attacker needs is enough time to reboot your machine and copy the contents of your RAM. Of course, that takes time — McGrew says things are running quite slowly right now, but he suspects his test machine is dropping down to USB 1.0 speeds. That\’s still not too reassuring — looks like we\’ll be spending even more time with our machines from now on.

[Via Hack a Day]

(Via Engadget.)

The Adventures of Systems Boy!: Delayed ACK Startup Item for Intel Macs

Benjamin SchollnickNo Comments

The Adventures of Systems Boy!: Delayed ACK Startup Item for Intel Macs: \”
Delayed ACK Startup Item for Intel Macs
MacFixit just reported about troubles the new Intel-based Macs are having with network speeds, particularly AFP connections to, of all things, other Macs. The solution, they report, is to set the delayed_ack property to 0. In order for this change to survive a reboot, however, they recommend editing /etc/rc. The problem with this is that, often, edits made to /etc/rc will be overwritten by future updates to Mac OSX. In my experience, such modifications are better handled with a startup item, which is also a lot easier to add and remove. So I\’ve suggested as much to the fine folks over at MacFixit, and I\’ve even put my money where my mouth is. I\’m offering to those who need it this delayedACK Startup Item, hand made by yours truly.
The linked disc image contains the delayedACK Startup Item, and also includes an installer and an uninstaller for the Startup Item.
Enjoy, you lucky Intel Mac owners (of which, alas, I am not one… Yet…)

Servers in the Movies – Our Top Ten | The Remarketer

Benjamin SchollnickNo Comments

Servers in the Movies – Our Top Ten
A few weeks ago, Corey wrote about the top ‘Ten Servers that Changed the World.’ In reaction… The Ten Servers that Changed the Fictional World.
There are two guidelines for this list. One, they must exist only in the world of movies or TV. Second, they need to fit the following definition: A server is a computer system that provides services or data to other computing systems—called clients—over a network or other communication device.
With that said, here they are. In no particular order…

General Home Automation :: indigo and securityspy foil robbery, news at eleven.

Benjamin SchollnickNo Comments

General Home Automation :: indigo and securityspy foil robbery, news at eleven.
Author: dtich
Subject: indigo and securityspy foil robbery, news at eleven.
Posted: Mon Sep 18, 2006 5:56 pm (GMT -6)
this is truly disheartening. today is the glorious first day of construction on the long awaited retaining wall project in our backyard. it\’s been 18 months since we started bidding this. we finally hired a local guy, unlicensed, but who has done many jobs in the neighborhood. we trust him, we like him, and he is half the price of the inflated companies who go through the city.
i am spending the next three months in ny working, which is bad timing on this because we\’re just starting work, but what can you do?
so, the geek side of me wins out and i decide one way to feel connected to the whole thing is to use network cams to see the work while i\’m in ny. so i install some, and they work perfectly, of course. rather fun all in all. i thought i would feel creepy about it, but i don\’t. just another gadget.
well, day one on the job and i call up the server from work and what do i see?
unbelievable. this guy is actually pulling open the window in the guest bedroom. me, guy that i am, from philadelphia, believe in god and all that, i think: oh, maybe he needs to get at an electrical socket. no, there\’s one out there by the pool heater, i told him that… hmm, oh, wait– he\’s locked in the back yard. the gardner left and locked the gate and this guy doesn\’t have a key. but.. still, looks really… suspicious. i send an assistant over to the house to unlock the gate… which is already unlocked when he gets there. he asks the guy if he needs anything, anything in the house? nope, everything is fine.
f*ck. this guy is totally casing my house.
i have full motion video of him from two cameras–as soon as i logged in and saw him, i loaded my indigo control page and hit a control that sets the cameras to record for 1 minute–he tried both windows and tested the sliding door. i called alberto, the guy i hired, his boss, and told him. he fired the guy on the spot (i have video of that, too!) and was really apologetic, but man oh man. this was the last thing i expected to see. day one. sigh.
(Via Perceptive Automation.)