After Snapchat, Disappearing Messages are Everywhere

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Disappearing messages could prove popular beyond social sharing, and could also be profitable, if businesses can be persuaded to pay for the services. Another company, Gryphn, which released a free Android app in February (an iPhone version is coming out shortly), is seeing a lot of interest from paying enterprise users—including hospitals, a police department, and a financial institution.

via After Snapchat, Disappearing Messages are Everywhere | MIT Technology Review.

How long before we have an app that stores these “disappearing” messages at the receiving end?

Rackspace sues “most notorious patent troll in America”

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Rackspace’s dispute is with an IP Nav unit called Parallel Iron, which says it has three patents that cover the open source Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS). But remarkably, Rackspace didn’t even know that at first; IP Nav contacted Rackspace and told the company it infringed some patents while refusing to even reveal the numbers or the owners of the patents, unless Rackspace signed a “forbearance agreement” to not sue first. (Sometimes companies threatened by patent trolls can file a “declaratory judgment” lawsuit, which can help them win a more favorable venue.)

via Rackspace sues “most notorious patent troll in America” | Ars Technica.

Grading Essays at College Level

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EdX, the nonprofit enterprise founded by Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to offer courses on the Internet, has just introduced such a system and will make its automated software available free on the Web to any institution that wants to use it. The software uses artificial intelligence to grade student essays and short written answers, freeing professors for other tasks.

via New Test for Computers – Grading Essays at College Level – NYTimes.com.

Massive data leak exposes offshore financial secrets

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The files contain information on over 120,000 offshore entities — including shell corporations and legal structures known as trusts — involving people in over 170 countries. The leak amounts to 260 gigabytes of data, or 162 times larger than the U.S. State Department cables published by WikiLeaks in 2010.

via Massive data leak exposes offshore financial secrets – World – CBC News.

Top 8 Tools For Linux / Unix Memory Forensics Analysis

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Memfetch

It is a simple utility to dump all memory of a running process, either immediately or when a fault condition is discovered. It is an attractive alternative to the vastly inferior search capabilities of many debuggers and tracers – and a convenient way to grab “screenshots” from many types of text-based interactive utilities. To install memfetch:

## FreeBSD ##
pkg_add -r -v memfetch

## other *nix user download it from the following url ##
wget http://lcamtuf.coredump.cx/soft/memfetch.tgz
tar xvf memfetch.tgz
cd memfetch && make

via Top 8 Tools For Linux / Unix Memory Forensics Analysis.

This looks like a useful tool.  From the README file:

Debuggers like gdb are pretty good for examining small sections
of code or memory, but are pretty much useless for massive  comparison, sophisticated searches and such. It’s good to be able to retrieve full memory image to run it thru grep, strings, your favorite viewer or any other tool. Quite obviously, I developed this code not because it’s extremely difficult to do it on your own, but because it is a valuable shell utility for all kinds of deep hacking activities that simply saves you time.

Memfetch is a convenient screenshot grabber for ssh or screen sessions, by  the way 😉

I chose memfetch from the eight since it seemed the most intuitive and simple.  The downloadable tarball contains a single .c file and a make file.  Unfortunately the installation isn’t as easy as portrayed in the above blurb.  On Fedora 14 I needed to futz with the C_INCLUDE_PATH and add the kernel…/asm-generic into the path.  I also had to symbolic link an asm to asm-generic in the kernel source include directory because the program wanted a asm/path.h file.  Things have changed since 2007 when this program was last updated.  But it works and it may prove useful.   I’m sure Backtrack 5 must have this tool, or tool like this, pre installed.

‘Robo-reporter’ computer program raises questions about future of journalists

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Instead of personally composing the pieces, Schwencke developed a set of step-by-step instructions that can take a stream of data — this particular algorithm works with earthquake statistics, since he lives in California — compile the data into a pre-determined structure, then format it for publication.

via ‘Robo-reporter’ computer program raises questions about future of journalists.

Prices of Windows RT tablets drop, point to failure of OS

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The starting price for Dell’s XPS 10 is now US$449 for a 32GB model, scalping $50 off the original launch price. The 64GB model is $499, which is a drop from the original $599 price. By comparison, the price of the Latitude 10 tablet with Intel processors and Microsoft’s Windows 8 OS remained stable at $499.

via Prices of Windows RT tablets drop, point to failure of OS – Windows 8, Microsoft, Windows, hardware systems, tablets, software, operating systems – Operating Systems – Techworld.

Microcenter always has a full fledged decent laptop for under $300.  Here’s the special this week for $279.  I don’t know why anyone would pay double for a tablet which is hard to do any real work on.   I recently bought a 7″ Samsung S3 tablet for $180 (on sale) that does everything one would ever need to do on a tablet.

ASUS R503U-MH21 15.6″ Laptop Computer – Black

  • AMD E2-1800 1.7GHz
  • Microsoft Windows 8 (64-bit)
  • 2GB DDR3-1333 RAM
  • 320GB 5,400RPM Hard Drive
  • 8x SuperMulti DVDRW Drive
  • Memory Card Reader
  • 10/100/1000 Network
  • 802.11b/g/n Wireless
  • 15.6″ LED-backlit TFT Display

Note: The above link to this special will most likely be dead after the sale.

3 Steps to VoIP Nirvana: It’s Incredible PBX 2.0

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We’re pleased to introduce the latest and greatest Incredible PBX with an incomparable VoIP feature set. For the Pioneers, you now get transparent support for both Asterisk® 1.8 with PIAF-Purple and Asterisk 10 with PIAF-Red. Just download the PIAF 1.7.5.6.3 ISO and pick your favorite flavor

via Nerd Vittles » 3 Steps to VoIP Nirvana: It’s Incredible PBX 2.0.

You’ll Never Believe the Data ‘Wiped’ Smartphones Store

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So what can you do about all this the next time you’re ready to upgrade phones? The alarming answer is not much. According to Reiber, all of our volunteers did the right thing. They used the software tools available to restore each phone to its factory settings. But that didn’t matter. The data is still there, if you have the means to recover it. In fact, Reiber says there’s only one surefire way to make sure someone isn’t going to come along behind you and scarf up your old bits: Take a hammer to it.

via Break Out a Hammer: You’ll Never Believe the Data ‘Wiped’ Smartphones Store | Gadget Lab | Wired.com.

Another reason not to use your mobile gadget for storing any sensitive information.  Here’s a link to MPE+ Mobile Phone Forensics mentioned in the article.  Here’s a sample of their features:

PHYSICAL IMAGING OF ANDROID DEVICES

MPE+ enables physical imaging of Android devices. MPE+ features built in rooting functions that allows the physical analysis of any partition on an Android device. No need to pay for additional “rooting” suites.

Europa Clipper

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The Europa Clipper mission would place a spacecraft in orbit around Jupiter in order to perform a detailed investigation of the giant planet’s moon Europa — a world that shows strong evidence for an ocean of liquid water beneath its icy crust and which could host conditions favorable for life. The Europa Clipper mission would send a highly capable, radiation-tolerant spacecraft into a long, looping orbit around Jupiter to perform repeated close flybys of Europa.

via Europa Clipper – NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.