AmiZed Studios

Six Strike Plan Starts This Week, Yet There Is Something Fishy – Tech Tueday

Posted by BIG Rich Lawrence on February 26th, 2013

So the so called “Six Strike” plan to help combat piracy, pushed by the copyright industry and implemented by the big ISPs, is set to start this week. The plan has been largely held up by many to be just a waste of time. I’m thinking it’s a stepping stone to something more restrictive. But I have seen an irony in the whole plan.

Now if you want to get up to speed on the plan you can check out a previous article where I laid some things out about it. New information that has come out says that if you go through all the strikes and are still pirating, then they give up. They give up, really? I doubt that. For an industry that says they are losing money left and right, for them to just give up? There is something going on with that. And Torrentfreak may have some insight about it.

They posted an article about the plan and discusses the effects of being accused of pirating on one of these ISPs, which are AT&T, Verizon, Comcast, Cablevision and Time Warner. The effects would range from slowing your connection down, to losing access to most websites on the internet till you complete a copyright class on the evils of pirating. But something that was mentioned was in passing in the article kind of had a chilling effect on me. They would monitor your connection, and could see what you are doing. Now here is something that may really freak you out. CISPA is making a comeback, with all the hacking going on, there has been a call from companies to do something, and CISPA has been thrown out there to fix it.

So if ISPs are monitoring where you are going, and CISPA is brought back, can we say Net Neutrality is pretty much dead? Many of the ISPs don’t want Net Neutrality, as they have come up with a means of making more money for a product that is slow and over priced, compared to many other services through out the world. We’re 90% slower than Japan and pay 12 times as much!

OK, yes this is all starting to sound like a conspiracy and I assure you it’s not, but it is a good example of the Butterfly Effect. Yet if we wanted to change service and go with someone else for a better price, we can’t because here in Albany and in many other parts of the country, we’re limited on choices. The FCC pretty much dropped the ball there.

So what do we do? I plan on seeding torrents with the name of Hollywood movies but are actually Linux distros. Let’s see if they yell at me for sharing The Hurt Locker version of Ubuntu Wheezy.

Is The End Nigh For Used Game Sales? – Tech Tuesday [UPDATED]

Posted by BIG Rich Lawrence on February 19th, 2013

Rumors are like starting to show up online that the next generation of game consoles may not let you play used games on them. So GameStop, Amazon and a host of other retailers may find themselves without their cash cow anymore. But would new game prices drop? What about previous generation consoles?

It wouldn’t be the end of the world for these guys, as they all have expanded and diversified their offerings. Gamestop sells used iOS devices as well as collectables in some cases. Amazon of course sells just about everything out there. The main concern might be for the console makers who are thinking about doing this because they don’t see a dime from these used game sales. If they do build in this feature, will this just create a bigger black market for console modding to allow them to play the games? Console makers have gotten some public relation black eyes over similar instances of them trying to stop people from modding and lock people into their hardware for good or bad.

Another question is, what about game rentals like GameFly? Do they drop their new game business and just focus on older consoles? And then there are the used game stores that have been popping up all over, like Jay Street here in Albany, NY. They already have 2 stores in the area, another in Philadelphia and looking to open another one somewhere else in Upstate N.Y. This move by the console makers would hurt them as well, and I don’t see many of them taking this lying down, especially GameStop.

The real nail in the coffin for console makers though, would be if they did stop used games from playing, that would mean new game prices would come down right? I wouldn’t bet the farm on it. New games are going for $50 and $60 a pop. Some major titles are still close to what you payed for it when it was new, years after it was released. Look at the Mario and Sonic games, still getting close to $40 for them.

One thing I can say is that, should the console makers go through with this rumor, you will see a surge in DMCA takedown notices as people develop mods for these consoles and these people will make money off of them, as well seeing a lot of sites like this one reporting on the court cases. It’s almost surreal, that this seems to be the new cycle of doing business in the video gaming world now.

Sony has released a statement that the new PS4 will not block the use of used games.

Does Facebook Have Too Much Power? – Tech Thursday

Posted by BIG Rich Lawrence on February 14th, 2013

So earlier today, there was an error at Facebook that affected 3rd party sites that use Facebook’s API for logging into their sites. It redirected legitimate users to an error page, even though there was no error on the 3rd party website. Essentially, no one was able to log into these websites for 10 minutes. Facebook found the error and fixed it but it brings up the question, does Facebook have too much power on the Internet?

The concept of a single login for many websites has been around for a while. It does have it’s perks, like not having to remember hundreds of passwords. But the cons to that are problems like this, and if your password for your Facebook is stolen, then they pretty much have access to many of the websites you visit. This problem has been worked on to prevent this kind of scenario from happening. Using encrypted keys that require a two step authentication can stop people from just going to a website, clicking Facebook button and login. But what happens when Facebook goes down?

Many users found out because they weren’t able to get on websites like Mashable, till the problem was solved. Because one site was down, many were left inaccessible. And Facebook being one of the biggest to have this type single login, when it had a problem, we all had a problem. So do they have too much power on the Internet? Thousands of websites use Facebook, or OpenID and a host of other single login solutions. But Facebook is the biggest and most popular.

So how is this problem going to get solved? I’m not sure, but I can tell you how I am trying to get around it, by creating a login on the website itself and using a program like 1Password to keep track of my logins. Even Firefox has the ability to manage passwords now. It puts more responsibility on me to keep track of these things, but I feel it’s more secure. So do we sacrifice accessibility and security for convenience? And do we want to trust some of these services with our login credentials? Thankfully, no government sites use this kind of service, but what would happen if the government was sold on the idea? Then where would things go?

Cyber Intelligence and Sharing Act Is Coming Back for a 2nd Try – Tech Tuesday

Posted by BIG Rich Lawrence on February 12th, 2013

The Zombie Apocalypse is happening! But it’s not humans rising from the dead, it’s the thought dead Cyber Intelligence and Sharing Act which has a lot of privacy groups up in arms over this second time around because of all the language that makes it easier for the government to spy on everyday citizens. The White House threatened to veto it the first time around, but word is now, they will issue executive orders to get it through. What happened?

Hacking attempts on media outlets, government defense contractors and even some government organizations, have set off alarm bells and spooked some folks in the government that a “cyber 9/11″ could happen that takes out important civil and industrial infrastructure. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta was one that was sounding an alert bell back in October, saying we’re doomed basically. So the House Intelligence Committee’s Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) and ranking committee member Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Md.) will attempt to put some new life back into CISPA on Wednesday. Not just new life, but the same exact bill, word for word, back on the table to discuss. Yeah, I was saying WTF too. ZOMBIES!

Essentially, the bill allows private companies to be able to hand over information to the government with out a warrant or subpoena. The list would include, cell phone records, web browsing, emails, Facebook and Twitter to name a few. With no judicial review, and they would be able to do this with protection from being sued by you and I. All in the name of safety. Wait, what did one of our founding fathers say? Hmm..

They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety. -Benjamin Franklin

Is it just me, or do a lot of politicians like to quote the founding fathers, but don’t bother to read or listen to what they actually said? The bill was originally promoted by AT&T, who bring you warrant-less wire tapping for the NSA, as well as Verizon, IBM, Oracle and Facebook. And Facebook took a pretty big hit last time around when an online protest to quit them got some traction and the thought of losing all those users was too much to take. So will history repeat itself? Will the masses rise up and try to fight this again? Oh you bet they will, but it won’t help, because the government is bound and determined to have this pass one way or another and spy on us. What are your thoughts?

Cyber Intelligence and Sharing Act Is Coming Back for a 2nd Try – Tech Tuesday

Posted by BIG Rich Lawrence on February 12th, 2013

The Zombie Apocalypse is happening! But it’s not humans rising from the dead, it’s the thought dead Cyber Intelligence and Sharing Act which has a lot of privacy groups up in arms over this second time around because of all the language that makes it easier for the government to spy on everyday citizens. The White House threatened to veto it the first time around, but word is now, they will issue executive orders to get it through. What happened?

Hacking attempts on media outlets, government defense contractors and even some government organizations, have set off alarm bells and spooked some folks in the government that a “cyber 9/11″ could happen that takes out important civil and industrial infrastructure. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta was one that was sounding an alert bell back in October, saying we’re doomed basically. So the House Intelligence Committee’s Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) and ranking committee member Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Md.) will attempt to put some new life back into CISPA on Wednesday. Not just new life, but the same exact bill, word for word, back on the table to discuss. Yeah, I was saying WTF too. ZOMBIES!

Essentially, the bill allows private companies to be able to hand over information to the government with out a warrant or subpoena. The list would include, cell phone records, web browsing, emails, Facebook and Twitter to name a few. With no judicial review, and they would be able to do this with protection from being sued by you and I. All in the name of safety. Wait, what did one of our founding fathers say? Hmm..

They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety. -Benjamin Franklin

Is it just me, or do a lot of politicians like to quote the founding fathers, but don’t bother to read or listen to what they actually said? The bill was originally promoted by AT&T, who bring you warrant-less wire tapping for the NSA, as well as Verizon, IBM, Oracle and Facebook. And Facebook took a pretty big hit last time around when an online protest to quit them got some traction and the thought of losing all those users was too much to take. So will history repeat itself? Will the masses rise up and try to fight this again? Oh you bet they will, but it won’t help, because the government is bound and determined to have this pass one way or another and spy on us. What are your thoughts?

You Could Go To Jail For Reading This Story – Tech Tuesday

Posted by BIG Rich Lawrence on February 5th, 2013

Yep, that title is telling the truth. If you work at a company that has a very strict computer usage policy that says you can only visit websites that are work related, then you could be fined or imprisoned if an over zealous prosecutor decided to make an example of you under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. While he wasn’t reading this site from work, the abuse of this law is what lead Internet activist Aaron Swartz, to kill himself.

While that above example sounds absurd, it has been tried, and thankfully was shot down in court. The main part of the CFAA is that it makes it illegal to access a computer without authorization or in a way that would exceed that authorization. But the law doesn’t go on to outline what that entails, so it’s wide open to interpretation, and that mile wide opening has already been used to prosecute people, most recently social justice activist Aaron Swartz, who helped get the SOPA and PIPA bills stopped in Congress.

His crime was that he systematiclly downloaded academic journal articles from JSTOR and reposted them because JSTOR was compensating publishers and not authors of publicly funded works. He essentially violated the JSTOR terms of service and was arrested, and was facing 35 years in prison and up to $1 million dollars in fines. Originally, the Middlesex County District Attorney, who was the original proescuter of the case was going to let Schwartz off with a “stern warning” and ask for a continuance of the case. If he kept out of trouble for a few years, the case would have simply been dismissed. Instead, U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz took over the case when it was taken over by the Department of Justice. This is when the real abuse happened.

More indictments and charges were piled on and then a breaking point was reached when Aaron committed suicide. The ensuing coverage in the media, has since brought about a close look at the the case to see if the charges were appropriate to the crime. Plus demand for the reform of the CFAA has gained a sponsor in the House of Representatives with Zoe Lofgren, who represents the 19th Congressional District in California. U.S. Attorneys though, defend their actions, while everyone else seems to say it was wrong. I’m not a legal scholar, but this whole thing stinks. The act needs reform, and prosecutors like Carmen Ortiz should be fired for their abuses. And then fix this law so no one else is subjected to this kind of thing. What’s really sad, is that it took the life of a young man, to get something fixed, that should have been fixed long ago.

You Could Go To Jail For Reading This Story – Tech Tuesday

Posted by BIG Rich Lawrence on February 5th, 2013

Yep, that title is telling the truth. If you work at a company that has a very strict computer usage policy that says you can only visit websites that are work related, then you could be fined or imprisoned if an over zealous prosecutor decided to make an example of you under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. While he wasn’t reading this site from work, the abuse of this law is what lead Internet activist Aaron Swartz, to kill himself.

While that above example sounds absurd, it has been tried, and thankfully was shot down in court. The main part of the CFAA is that it makes it illegal to access a computer without authorization or in a way that would exceed that authorization. But the law doesn’t go on to outline what that entails, so it’s wide open to interpretation, and that mile wide opening has already been used to prosecute people, most recently social justice activist Aaron Swartz, who helped get the SOPA and PIPA bills stopped in Congress.

His crime was that he systematiclly downloaded academic journal articles from JSTOR and reposted them because JSTOR was compensating publishers and not authors of publicly funded works. He essentially violated the JSTOR terms of service and was arrested, and was facing 35 years in prison and up to $1 million dollars in fines. Originally, the Middlesex County District Attorney, who was the original proescuter of the case was going to let Schwartz off with a “stern warning” and ask for a continuance of the case. If he kept out of trouble for a few years, the case would have simply been dismissed. Instead, U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz took over the case when it was taken over by the Department of Justice. This is when the real abuse happened.

More indictments and charges were piled on and then a breaking point was reached when Aaron committed suicide. The ensuing coverage in the media, has since brought about a close look at the the case to see if the charges were appropriate to the crime. Plus demand for the reform of the CFAA has gained a sponsor in the House of Representatives with Zoe Lofgren, who represents the 19th Congressional District in California. U.S. Attorneys though, defend their actions, while everyone else seems to say it was wrong. I’m not a legal scholar, but this whole thing stinks. The act needs reform, and prosecutors like Carmen Ortiz should be fired for their abuses. And then fix this law so no one else is subjected to this kind of thing. What’s really sad, is that it took the life of a young man, to get something fixed, that should have been fixed long ago.

Project Pi – The Pirate Box

Posted by BIG Rich Lawrence on February 1st, 2013

Just before Christmas, I purchased my first Raspberry Pi. I say first, because I do plan on getting a couple more, but that will have to wait as funds are being directed to a more important project, my wedding. But this will be the first in a series of articles about some of the projects I will be doing with my Raspberry Pi.

Photo Rich Lawrence

This time out I was torn on what I wanted to do between a telnet BBS or a Pirate Box. After a long debate, the Piratebox won and I set off on gathering what I needed. For those not sure what a Piratebox is, it’s a self contained file server that has no connection to the Internet. So when you connect to it, all requests are redirected to the box itself, which has a web interface using lighthttpd web server. You can upload and download files to and from it using a simple interface. But that interface is a basic one, and I think it can be improved on. I’ll cover that later. These settings also setup the device for WiFi access, which is the original design of the box, but you can also made some mods to make it workable over a wired network connection.

But before I could do anything I had to know how to set it up and a lot of what I was finding was for building it into a router, like a Linksys. I finally found a wiki that had the basics for an Rπ Pirate box, so I grabbed them and I set off!

I had already installed Raspbian-Wheezy on a 16gb SD card, so the Rπ was ready to go. Once I had it booting successfully, which is easy to do if you follow the instructions, I went to the wiki I found, and began using apt-get to install all the needed files.

# sudo apt-get update
# sudo apt-get -y install lighttpd
# sudo /etc/init.d/lighttpd stop
# sudo update-rc.d lighttpd remove
# sudo apt-get -y install dnsmasq
# sudo /etc/init.d/dnsmasq stop
# sudo update-rc.d dnsmasq remove
# sudo apt-get -y install hostapd
# sudo /etc/init.d/hostapd stop
# sudo update-rc.d hostapd remove
# sudo apt-get -y install iw
# sudo rm /bin/sh
# sudo ln /bin/bash /bin/sh
# sudo chmod a+rw /bin/sh

Those files install the services that are required for the basic functions of the Pirate Box. Once those files are installed, I then grabbed the Piratebox config files, and moved them into place.

# wget https://github.com/downloads/MaStr/PirateBoxScripts_Webserver/piratebox-ws_0.3.1.tar.gz
# tar xzf piratebox-ws_0.3.1.tar.gz
# cd piratebox
# sudo mkdir -p /opt
# sudo cp -rv piratebox /opt
# cd /opt/piratebox
# sed ‘s:DROOPY_USE_USER=”yes”:DROOPY_USE_USER=”no”:’ -i /opt/piratebox/conf/piratebox.conf
# sudo ln /opt/piratebox/init.d/piratebox /etc/init.d/piratebox
# sudo update-rc.d piratebox defaults
# sudo /etc/init.d/piratebox start
# sudo touch /opt/piratebox/conf/init_done

Now, the last file, the init_done file seemed to cause the box to not start the services properly. So I removed it after I created it, when I forgot to do it the first time. Pirate Box didn’t create the file itself, so I’m not exactly sure what that files does. But while troubleshooting some wifi issues, I discovered it helps the start up script get everything running.

Screen Grab from PirateBox

After those preceding steps, plug in a wifi USB dongle and reboot. The Pirate Box will start right up and be ready for a connection. To connect, just go into your WiFi connection manager and find pirate box in the list and connect. From here you ‘ll be able to upload files, chat in the shoutbox, as well as see what files others have uploaded already. Since mine has yet to be deployed, there is only the files I have put on it. If you find you’re having issues connecting, make sure to check and see if the wifi dongle you are using is compatible and if it needs a powered hub to work properly. Remember, the Raspberry Pi is a low power device, and some devices may make a bigger demand for power then what the USB ports on the Pi can give. But essentially, check the Piratebox forum for troubleshooting info. It’s a great resource. There is also a chat room on Freenode, #piratebox, that you can go to for unofficial support.

Once you have yours up and going, the next step is to get it out there for folks to try. Some people are hooking batteries to them so they can run without having to plug into an outlet. This makes it much easier to keep it out of sight while still allowing it to do it’s job. Take it to a coffee shop, or a library. Any where there is a lot of people. You may even be able to hide it somewhere for a short while and then come back a few hours later or even a day or so later to retrieve it and see what was uploaded. The trick would be letting people know it’s out there. Maybe a twitter account that tweets a general area for people to look for it? Or maybe throw up a few stickers in an area you are going to deploy it, kind of in the same thinking as war chalking. Some other tips would be to find a case or something to put it into to keep it safe. All it’ll take is one person to drop it from a desk or shelf and you’re out $35 for a new Pi. And also, plan out your steps for doing this project. Don’t go off the cuff like I did, because it’ll save you a bunch of time.

As I try some new things, I’ll also post updates to this series, as I would like to get some input for readers on their build and what they have done to mod it or getting it out there. Remember: “Sharing is Caring. Not Illegal”

Unlock Your Cell Phone, Go To Jail – Tech Thursday

Posted by BIG Rich Lawrence on January 31st, 2013

The Library of Congress, back in October 2012, said that people could unlock their phones without their carrier’s permission, while still under contract. As of last Sunday, that exemption under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act has expired and unlocking your phone without the permission of the carrier will get you in deep trouble. Like jail and a $50,000 fine “trouble”. The government giveth and the government taketh away.

Now if you don’t understand the whole locked down cell phone thing, it’s to ensure that you pay back that subsidy the carrier is giving you when you get a new cellphone for like $10, when it really costs something like $300. They did this to stem the trafficking of phones that were being bought on the cheap and then shipped overseas to be unlocked and sold at a higher price. But the little guy, a.k.a you and me, get the uncomfortable end of the stick.

One way this affects customers is those who travel over seas. They are stuck paying for an International plan that will get them with a ton of extra fees, or buy a phone over seas at full price to only be used over seas. Recently carriers have offered newer phones completely unlocked at full price, as well as many manufacturers as well. And yes, buying a smartphone outright is not cheap. But now that this exemption is gone, I can see carriers simply saying no to every request to unlock a phone, or making it overly burdensome to do it.

Plus, don’t the carriers do credit checks for new customers? And if they don’t pass their criteria, aren’t they made to pay a deposit? So then why the song and dance with unlocking phones? A $500 deposit as well as the $199 or so that you are offering the phone for, essentially pays for the phone! So why keep it locked? And here in the U.S. a CDMA phone, can only work on Verizon or Sprint. You can’t go from one to the other because of the radio frequencies that the phone uses. So walking into Verizon with your unlocked Sprint phone, is not going to get you far. Same deal with AT&T and T-Mobile. Sure, you could find a phone that works on both and has all the features enabled, but that means it would have a radio inside for each carrier and make the phone bulkier and heavier. So if you want a brick to carry, like the first Motorola Droid phone, you’re all set.

Is Antigua Going to Be the Next Pirate Bay? – Tech Tuesday

Posted by BIG Rich Lawrence on January 29th, 2013

If you haven’t heard of The Pirate Bay, and you call yourself a Geek, you should hand in your Geek card right now. It’s one of the Internet’s most notorious file sharing websites, and the migraine head ache to the MPAA and RIAA. These two organizations that love to use old outdated business models to squeeze every penny out of your wallet, are now going to have another head ache. The island of Antigua.

So why does Antigua want to raise a ruckus with these guys? Simple, they got hosed by a law passed by the United States Congress that makes online gambling illegal. This was because the casinos didn’t want any kind of competition with were people bet their money. Ironically, the same law prevents them from doing online gambling as well, but that’s another story. Antigua has tried to fight the law with the World Trade Organization, saying it’s a trade blockade, because it cuts off an online business that has been known to bring in millions of dollars in revenue. Antigua won their case, but the United States still hasn’t lifted the blockade. So the government of Antigua is setting up a website to sell movies, music and other U.S. made digital content online, without paying copyright holders.

Now I know what you’re saying, “That’s called Piracy!” Not in this case, as the World Trade Organization has given their blessing to Antigua to suspend U.S. copyrights because of their unfair trade actions. I say Bravo! The real holders of the copyright are getting a little payback on their heavy handed use of the Digital Millennium Copyright act, as well as all those baseless lawsuits they have filed over the years, against people they claim to be violating their copyrights, with such huge damage claims, they hope to get paid anyway when they offer the person getting sued, a low ball settlement.

So to recap, Antigua is basically giving the U.S. government the digital bird because of the abuses of the casino industry and also slaps the movie and recording studios too, for the same heavy handed DMCA abuse. I love it! Sweet karma has been served and left a bitter taste in the mouth of the real villains, the corporate media companies. They wanted the DMCA, they got it, now they get a little payback. The only thing that could make this even better is for me to be able to hear a long list of cuss words come out of former Senator, now head of the MPAA, Chris Dodd’s mouth when the site goes live.