If you want more information on the DVD encryption crack, look at:
[Livid-dev]
Wired
DVD on Linux
emedia
DVD-Software
TBTF
(
This last is Bruce Schneider's take on it, and very worthwhile.)
The Japanese rail ticket system crached on November the 11th, shortly after 11:11 am. Since 1999 is year 11, in the Japanese system of counting the years of the Emperor's reign, it was initially felt that it might be some 11/11/11 11:11 bug. The answer was more mundane. Collectors, wanting to get tickets with that string of digits, flocked to rail stations to purchase platform tickets. As it happens, processing platform tickets is more complex than issuing ordinary rail tickets, and the overload brought down the system.
Internet banner ads, and other forms of advertising, are all the rage. Now a company called
Conducent is offering to pay the creators of shareware and freeware, if the software contains a module that allows Conducent to present ads on the user's screen. The Conducent module is installed at the same time the freeware is installed, but
without informing the user. In addition, the ads are obtained over the Internet, and the net connection to Conducent is
made without informing the user. Information about the user, and the program running, is passed back to Conducent when the connection is made. If Conducent modules are run behind a firewall, they make successive
attempts to connect, which can place a significant load on the
firewall or router.
Barnes and Noble, like most online merchants, has promotional email that they send out to those who register. However, it has recently started to send out special tags in this email which return information about the user's email and system. When contacted by Lauren Weinstein of the Privacy forum, a BN representative stated that
they saw nothing wrong with this type of data collection, and would be continuing to use it.
More Info
Conducent and
Barnes and Noble aren't the only ones plugging for your data. If you download the
Shockwave Plug-in, what you actually download is an installer program. It then connects to the net, and brings in the whole package. That is, it does it if you tell it your email address, among other information, first. Shockwave also asks if you want to have the capability to go and get new versions of the program. Even if you say no, you will find a program called Shockwave Remote installed on your machine, although seemingly turned off.
