Author: Dave Lewis April 29, 2008 at 7:27 am · Filed under Geek, Malware
From the Register:
Gamers desperate to get their mitts on Grand Theft Auto IV are being targeted in an opportunistic spyware scam. Spam emails offer prospective marks free entry to a draw offering a PlayStation 3 loaded with the much-anticipated game as a prize.
In reality, these illicit emails are loaded with spyware designed to swipe personal financial information from compromised PCs.
Grand Theft Auto IV for the PS3 and the Xbox 360 was released today to delirium from avid gamers. But some wouldbe buyers have been left disappointed as game stores have been unable to fulfill demand to the extent that even a minority of fans who pre-ordered the game have been left empty-handed.
Spammers are seeking to exploit this disappointment with a carefully targeted spam scam.
Author: Dave Lewis October 30, 2007 at 5:08 pm · Filed under Geek
Very cool. My copy of Leopard was sitting at home waiting for me today. Now, I have to wait until the weekend when I have enough time to devote to the upgrade. This will be a long few days.
On a more topical note here is a link to the security features in Leopard that I posted last week.
Author: Dave Lewis September 6, 2007 at 7:31 pm · Filed under Geek, Search
I’m a big information junkie. So, I’m usually welded to my RSS reader.
Finally! One thing that I have found wanting with the Google Reader has been the absence of a search function. I know, weird huh?
Then this evening I logged in to my Google Reader to check the news from the day. Well, damn. There has been a nice quiet roll out of a search function
OK, so I had to give it a test.
Well, who didn’t see that one coming? Check it out.
Also I noticed that the number of unread items no longer says 100+ but rather will show the proper count until there is more than 1000 unread items.
Author: Myrcurial July 22, 2007 at 1:02 pm · Filed under Geek, Humour, Review
In a bit of a diversion from the usual fare here at Liquidmatrix Security Digest, I’d like to take a bit of a recreational moment with you all.
The horrible truth of my life is that… I suck at Scrabble.
I don’t just suck the normal amount… I usually get about 100 or so points when playing against my wife. She usually gets more than 300 when playing with me.
L33T Tiles are a replacement tile set for Scrabble and other word games, based on internet slang known as leetspeak. The letter distribution has been modified and extensively tested for optimal play using leet words in the add-on dictionary.
Each set of L33T Tiles comes with 103 tiles, a suede pouch and a manual with additional rules for gameplay. The tiles are colored to emulate a classic terminal window, and the manual is printed on a genuine IBM punch card.
About 2.5 years ago, we picked up a set as a way to ensure a little fairness in our Scrabble games. (You’ll have to work out for yourself just how long this review has been on my “to do” list.) Since then, we’ve played with them many times - both just the two of us and also with some of our more understanding friends.
I must confess that I have never felt as studly as I did after playing the first game and realizing that I’d won.
Finally. A way for years of mis-spent youth on BBSes and later IRC to be turned into a useful life skill.
After many years of play, the tiles are holding up quite well. They are high quality, feel good in your hands as you play, and well… they’re such a lovely indulgence.
L33t Tiles are pretty damn cool.
NOTE: L33T Tiles and Scrabble are games and should not be taken as seriously as most people do.
NOTE 2: It should be obvious that L33T Tiles didn’t pay for this review.
NOTE 3: Someone probably owns the rights to the word “Scrabble”. I think that product reviews might still be fair use.
Author: Dave Lewis July 19, 2007 at 1:00 pm · Filed under Crypto, Geek
This is interesting to see another one of these surface on eBay. The current bid is US $20,299.00 plus $65 US for shipping. No word on its authenticity.
Author: Dave Lewis May 31, 2007 at 10:15 pm · Filed under Administravia, Geek
Trying to improve my mood, I started messing around with Gimpshop while watching Jon Stewart’s Daily Show this evening. I’ve created the first of several wallpapers for Liquidmatrix. It’s pretty basic but, I’m liking it so I thought I would share. This one is set for 1024×768 systems. This was based on the fact that the vast majority of the readership has that res. I’ll be making some more over the weekend.
Author: Dave Lewis May 24, 2007 at 9:10 pm · Filed under Geek
Sometimes there is a cool app that comes along that sets the internet abuzz. The latest such offering is Joost. This is internet delivered television. Very cool.
You get great internet features too, such as search, chat and instant messaging, built right into the program - so you find shows quickly and talk to your friends while you watch. And with no schedules to worry about, you can watch whatever you want, whenever you like - as often as you want. Joost is completely free, and works with most modern PCs and Intel Mac-based computers with a broadband connection.
Now, Myrcurial and I have been beta testing this application and I am impressed. The ability to pick and choose what shows I might want to watch when I want to is a nice bonus. Can you tell I don’t have a PVR?
So, what am I talking about this for? Well, this application is a MAJOR bandwidth pig. If your enterprise doesn’t have proper web filtering software or bandwidth limiting…this could eat your bandwidth. In the CIA triad the availability “A” could be called into question. I’m just saying.
If you’re just using from home, fill yer boots. It’s a promising application.
I would love to dig into the inner workings of Joost but,
3.2. License Restrictions. Notwithstanding anything in this Agreement to the contrary, you agree that you will not:
…
3.2.10. use any type of bot, spider, virus, clock, timer, counter, worm, software lock, drop dead device, packet-sniffer, Trojan-horse routing, trap door, time bomb or any other codes or instructions that are designed to be used to provide a means of surreptitious or unauthorized access or that are designed to monitor, distort, delete, damage or disassemble the Joost Software or its ability to communicate and function with other computers running the Joost Software;
Ah, well. Oh, before I forget. Here is a simple way to tell if you are filtering joost.com at your workplace. On the far column (or below if your resolution is 1024×768 there is a graphic that says “Joost Official Beta Tester”. If you can see that then Joost will, most likely, traverse your perimeter.
The basic details of the transaction are included in a press release that will go out around 9 pm PST tonight, and Pud has also mentioned this on his personal blog. We weren’t going to announce this for another week or so (even though I hinted at it on CrunchNotes), but too many people know about it already and news of it was starting to leak (see Wired and CNET as well). I don’t want to be in a position again where other sites are breaking our news, so we’re announcing officially this weekend.
I’m drinking from my F-ckedCompany.com coffee mug right now. Sadly, the logo has faded over the years. This story really has no security angle to it. I just love these two sites. Great news.
It’s not April 1st so I’m going to assume that this is a genuine announcement.
UPDATE: Well, the joke might be on me. Turns out that April 1st may also include March 31st. A new calendar it would seem. Not sure at this point if this is real or a joke. Either way, very funny. :-/
The upside being that we got picked up on Techmeme again. Now that is very cool!
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