It is a parent’s nightmare and something that happens more often that many colleges and bars would care to admit; drugging some girls drink in order to take advantage of her. We as parents go through the litany; never accept a drink from anyone, never let your drink out of your site,… if you are a parent or have a little sister you know the drill.

Well, now in addition to good advice, common sense (a stun gun, martial arts training, a body guard…) you can also give your daughter, sister (or even wife) something else to help. Some geniuses in Israel have come up with a device that can detect the most common drugs used in date rape crimes. The device is disguised to look like a swizzle stick or a straw so that the perpetrator is not aware that you are looking for anything. Inside the device is a solution that changes color in the presence of GHB (gamma-hydroxybutyric acid) and Ketamine for now, but the manufacturers are working to add even more.

They have even added a light to it so that you can use it in dark places. So far the accuracy rate has been 100% which seriously impressive. It is a brilliant idea and one that I hope they can add a few things into; like the ability to shoot a toxic dart at the person that put the drug in, or burn them with acid… hey I can dream can’t I?

Source CNET

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It seems that some members of the AntiSec group have recently released a large amount of information about law enforcement officers to include their names addresses, social security numbers and in some cases credit card information. Now, I have no love at all for corrupt police officers or ones that abuse their position of authority, but exposing their personal information puts innocents at risk.

You see the bad guys rarely go after the officer in question directly. No, they go after the family the wife, kids etc.  So while I have never had an issue with the things that Anonymous have done in the past. For the most part they go after corporate entities that have no respect for the consumer or anyone else for that matter. However this particular portion of the group has stepped over a line that will lose them appeal from the average person. Now the media can claim they have put innocent people at risk (and they have in truth).  

Anonymous was better off when they were going after the corporations and the government instead of releasing information of this type. Of course on the other side of the coin, I also put blame on the people hosting these sites as they are responsible for protecting that information and failed in that duty not once but twice.

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If you have not heard of Harry Potter then you have been living under a rock. The Boy Wizard has become this generations Star Wars. The series of seven books has amassed a serious number of followers (I have read them) while the movies have spawned a monster of a merchandising machine.

As I live in Florida I have visited the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studio’s Islands of Adventure more than once and after being open for almost a year there is still a multi-hour wait to get into some of the stores.  However, even though the creator of this phenomenon makes a good deal of money from all of this it is not as much as she could.

The solution? Well J.K. Rowling has teamed up with Sony Entertainment to create an online virtual world called Pottermore. In this new virtual world they are extending the world created in the books to allow fans (both young and old) to take on new personalities and experience the world of Hogwarts (the best Wizarding School in Brittan and pretty much the central location in the books. Officially the new site opens up in October, but ever since it was announced they have teased about a close Beta beginning on July 31st. At first all you had to do was submit an e-mail before July 31st.

However, because of that most people submitted the e-mail and that was that. People still visited Pottermore.com but it was not as much as it could have been (at least from what we are hearing). So how do you fix that? Again a simple answer. You change your mind before the morning of the 31st.
Fans began to hear that for the Beta there was only going to be 1 million people allowed to enter. Now that is a pretty big number until you realize that more than a million people went to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 (the final film in the series) on opening weekend and it is still going strong many weeks later.

So, on the morning of the 31st at 8am London time fans flocked to Pottermore.com in the hopes to be one of the few to get in. However, the powers that be changed their minds once again. Instead of letting people in they were going to have a multiday (seven for the seven books to be exact) scavenger hunt (maybe they stole that idea from us…). On each day you would have to hit the site by 8am London time (3am Eastern Time in the US) and try to find something called the Magic Quill. Each day a clue (a question that could be answered if you have access to or have read the books) would be posted on Pottermore.com. This Clue would give you a site to go to at Pottermore.com. There you could click on a flash image that of the Magical Quill and you could put your name in for the Beta. Even if you had the answer you had to be quick. If you did not get your submission in before that days allotted number of positions was filled you were out of luck.
But wait! There were still four more days so everyone that did not get in check back tomorrow! As you can see what Sony has done is create a site that is going to have other companies clambering to put ads on it. Before the site is even live they have found a way to get multiple millions of hits (perhaps even tens of millions).  From what we are hearing although the early entries are done no one has actually gotten into the site. In order to do so you have to wait for an e-mail to arrive with a special link to gain access to the site. While everyone waits they are still going back multiple times every day to see if anything has changed. Can you imagine the advertising allure of a site like this, especially one that is already geared towards kids and teens? J.K. Rowling may truly want to create something for the fans of her books, but I am certain that the executives at Sony are seeing nothing but dollar signs at this point.

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*updated 08-08-2011 17:46PM EST with correction on number of days the magic quill was available

At Defcon 19 in Las Vegas this year the annual security show launched a new event. Called Defcon Kids the even features young “hackers” that have uncovered exploits, vulnerabilities and other security related items. One of the first to speak this year is a 10-Year Old Girl from California who found an exploit in some mobile games.

The girl, who goes by the alias CyFi (and who is a Girl Scout as well) found the new exploit because she did not want to wait for certain in-game items to complete in a farming game that she plays. To get around this boring wait she simply moved time along. When she did this it opened up the exploit. Independent researchers have verified her findings, but will not list the games that are affected by this (no will CyFi giving the authors a chance to fix things).

CyFi also said that while many games have cheat prevention systems she found that most can be circumvented with a few simple techniques. The Exploit affects both iOS and Android operating systems and illustrates how developers and security experts alike can miss something simple while overthinking their protections and applications.


Source and Image Cnet

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As the Black Hat security conference is going on this week we will be covering a lot of the exploits they find. We have already talked about the SCDA vulnerability, how cars with remote lock/unlock/start are vulnerable and even touched in HTML5 and mobile phone exploits. Now we hear confirmation of something we have known for a while: Apple’s OSX server is not secure.

Experts at the security firm Isec have shown that while individual systems can be secured (the called them islands) once you put the OSX server in play it is “two notches above trivial” to compromise the whole network. Isec showed this off by executing a local DNS exploit that allowed them to scavenge admin credentials and then gain full admin access to the network.

All was not bad news for Apple fans; Isec also said that OSX Lion now “matches” Microsoft’s Windows 7 for local permissions elevation protection and anti-exploit protection. Isec also went on to say that Apple’s marketing has been training consumers to feel safe when using Macs which actually makes them more likely to be open to targeted attacks.

Source V3

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Now that the AMD Llano CPU with its Fusion architecture is out and we have seen some of what it can do you knew it would only be a matter of time before the call to overclock this new CPU was put out.

Gigabyte is partnering up with HWBot for their A75 OC Challenge. This new overclocking contest is simple; Gigabyte wants you to push this new CPU+APU to it limits using any Gigabyte A75 Based motherboard.




There will be 5 stages you will have to submit clocks and scores for,
Stage 1 – 3DMark11 Performance Preset
Stage 2 – 3DMark Vantage Performance Preset
Stage 3 – PCMark 7
Stage 4 - Unigine Heaven DX11
Stage 5 – UCBench 2011

This contest will continue through the month of August. For more information check out the full PR

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Genius Introduces the Upgraded G-Pen F610 Ultra Slim Graphic Tablet

Now Available in the USA & Canada

Convenience, Control plus Sleek Design

August 4, 2011, Taipei, Taiwan – After its successful debut of the first G-Pen F610 Writing Graphic Tablet, the leading manufacturer of computer peripherals Genius launches an upgraded version with the latest software & package for Windows 7, expected to create yet another heat wave in the market.

As an ultra-slim, 6” x 10” wireless text graphic-design tablet, the Genius G-Pen F610 offers better control than a conventional mouse and a stylish, slim design. The tablet pairs perfectly with either a Mac or PC computer, offering a functional as well as aesthetic tool for taking notes, handling emails (including handwritten emails), handwriting recognition, and professional graphics design.

Genius' G-Pen F610 Tablet makes work more efficient with its 29 programmable “Hot-Key” areas to set up shortcuts for word processing, Internet and operating system tasks. Simply plug the unit into your computer and enjoy built-in, Vista-like functions, such as pen flick navigation. The G-Pen F610 Writing Graphic Tablet works with any screen size, and is perfect for flat and wide screens.

The smart-looking pen packaging along with the Genius G-Pen F610 boasts two buttons and 1024-level pressure sensitivity, allowing graphic artists the subtlety of more pressure levels. The two pen buttons can be programmed to function as left- and right-click mouse buttons. Since the pen battery can last up to one year, the odds of a “power outage” during important work projects are highly unlikely. The pen also comes with a holder that protects the device and its tip, and keeps it handy for use.

The Genius G-Pen F610 includes the following:

• G-Pen F610 tablet
• Cordless pen
• Quick installation guide
• Two additional pen tips & tweezers
• Macro Key Manager
• Power Presenter RE/Free Notes & Office Ink
• PhotoImpact 12SE
• Mac Driver
• One AAA battery included allowing the Tablet to be used right out of the box.

System Requirements:

• IBM PC/Pentium 233 compatible or higher
• Windows Vista/XP/2000
• Macintosh with OS x 10.2.8 or later
• Available USB port
• CD/DVD-ROM drive for software installation

The suggested retail price for the Genius G-Pen F6 Graphic-design Tablet is US$99.90.

More product details are available at:  
http://geniusnet.com/wSite/ct?xItem=16834&ctNode=174

About Genius

Genius is an international leading brand in computer peripherals. Established by KYE Systems Corp. in 1983, Genius offers PC products including computer mice, keyboards, web and security cameras, speakers, gaming peripherals, remote controls, headphones, digital cameras, digital camcorders and digital photo frames. Genius also expanded from computer peripherals into consumer electronic products that include mobile phone accessories, Bluetooth headsets and iPod speakers. Since 2007, Genius has been one of Taiwan’s top 20 Global Brands. For more information you can visit the Genius website at www.geniusnet.com.

Where to buy Genius products:
http://www.geniusnet.com/wSite/sp?xdUrl=/wSite/whereToBuy/whereToBuy.jsp®ion=AM&xAbstract=AM28&mp=4