Barnhard Blog

Last week when I was testing the latest version of RootkitRevealer (RKR) I ran a scan on one of my systems and was shocked to see evidence of a rootkit.

Rootkits are cloaking technologies that hide files, Registry keys, and other system objects from diagnostic and security software, and they are usually employed by malware attempting to keep their implementation hidden. The RKR results window reported a hidden directory, several hidden device drivers, and a hidden application.

…At that point I knew conclusively that the rootkit and its associated files were related to the First 4 Internet DRM software Sony ships on its CDs. Not happy having underhanded and sloppily written software on my system I looked for a way to uninstall it. However, I didn’t find any reference to it in the Control Panel’s Add or Remove Programs list, nor did I find any uninstall utility or directions on the CD or on First 4 Internet’s site. I checked the EULA and saw no mention of the fact that I was agreeing to have software put on my system that I couldn’t uninstall. Now I was mad.

Website: www.sysinternals.com

Update: Spyware Sony lijkt auteursrecht te schenden

The growing trend is that software-as-a-product may be reaching the conclusion of its dominance. Sure they’ll still be around decades hence, but the majority of their use won’t be in packageware as they have been since the heydays of the computer revolution. Rather, the growing relentless trend toward the concept of software as a service will be the rage instead.

The idea isn’t to let customers buy packaged software, then install and wait for it to configure itself — or in the case of businesses, with the help of consultants (paid separately, of course) whose interest it is to keep things sophisticated and difficult lest they go out of business– but rather to just lease applications with a monthly or regular fee rather than pay licensing fees up-front and deal with the many costs and headaches after. This frees a company from the many costs involved in purchases, installation, maintenance, upgrades and everything else they call the “total cost of ownership.”

Read full article: Software-On-Demand to Play Vital Role for Businesses

Related: The general-purpose CMS does not exist

Click image to enlarge

NASA plans to deflect a very near miss (without altering path) asteriod in 2029.

update: Hubble (the one NASA should drop, why?) discovers 2 moons around Pluto.

Mice are rarely the source of romantic inspiration, but it now appears that male mice may serenade potential mates with melodies approaching the complexity of bird song.

Apparently mouses sing pick up songs like birds as well.

Theo van Gogh 1957 - 2004

AMSTERDAM - Exactly one year after the murder of the Dutch criticaster Theo van Gogh a mayor Dutch newspaper reports the destruction of e-mail traffic from the convicted murderer Mohammed B. to fellow members of the alleged terror organization ‘Hofstad groep’.

The e-mail evidence consisted of traffic between 78 e-mail addresses discovered by the police (Amsterdam) after Mohammed B. was arrested in September 2004 for a minor offence. The evidence was passed on to the Ministry of Public Affairs which in turn passed it though to the Dutch secret service (AIVD). Mohammed B. was already listed as a radical Muslim extremist by this Dutch Secret Service.

In the weeks after the murder of Theo van Gogh the investigation team asked the AIVD for e-mail and internet traffic of Mohammed B. Unfortunately the AIVD hesitated and moreover forgot to ask Microsoft to freeze and backup the hotmail account of Mohammed B. Finally on December 22, seven weeks after the murder and arrest of Mohammed B., the secret service agreed to pass on the evidence to the team. By then the hotmail account was already terminated.

Volkskrant article: Bewijsmails ‘Hofstad’ vernietigd (dutch)

Click image te enlarge

Internet democraphics have now changed. Not the USA but Asia has most regional users. This would make the US governments claim of authority of the internet standards as set by ICANN as predicted slowly more into question. Has ICANN woken up and finally started using some diplomacy? This would be best for all I guess. More information here. via smartmobs.

Take the free classic IQ test

China first said they would land unmanned on the moon in 2017. However, now they even plan to land manned on the moon, 1 year before the americans 2018 target. Wowoo! Get the pop-corn, we got a space-race.

Weblog: Xiufang Lin

Fokker 1890 - 1995

There is a serious change that the Dutch airplanes factory of Fokker restarts the production of more fuel efficient 70 & 100 models in The Netherlands. The Dutch / French airliner KLM showed interest in the new models designed by the venture capitalist Jaap R. Rosen Jacobsen.

After the bankruptcy of Fokker in 1995 healthy Fokker divisions continued to operate under several holding companies and its space engineering division still operates as part of Stork Aviation.

Since its bankruptcy several attempts were made to restart the production of Fokker planes in The Netherlands and abroad. Dutch venture capitalist Joep van den Nieuwenhuyzen for example is trying for years to produce the Fokker planes in China.

Source: www.nu.nl
About Fokker: www.fokker.nl & www.dutchspace.nl

Related: Shenyang Aircraft Corporation and Stork Aerospace

Your broke so hey, it’s a lifestyle!

via dutchcowboys

Oh my. I just released my Plazes meets GoogleMaps plugin which takes your plazes location and displays the nice little Google map you can see here at the top of this blog. Disclaimer: Like the Last.fm plugin it’s very beta so it could very well make your server explode if you install it. Both the Last.fm plugin and this plugin are now available through the source repository over at wp-plugins.org.

Website: blog.tijs.org

Techdirt summarizes what a just publised survey paper has found. Actually the stats can be seen as quite shocking, especially since no solutions seem to surface..

Slashdot is pointing to a new survey of scientific researchers, who note that 40% note that their work was impacted negatively because of patents. Of those 40%: “58% said their work was delayed, 50% reported they had to change the research, and 28% reported abandoning their research project.” While the post behind that link suggests talking to your elected representatives about patent reform, it’s worth being aware that most of the current plans for patent reforms seem like to make things worse, not better.

via techdirt.

This star is suppose to race at a speed of 2.6 million kilometres per hour. Okay, the Earth (very very small compared to this star) races with 108,000 kilometres per hour around the Sun, still that’s a huge speed. I find the photo weird too.

Ariticle.

Sony, the record company who tries to protect its Digital Rights on cds with a Rootkit is now accused of violating a Lesser Gnu Public License.

Brenno de Winter, writer for Webwereld took a closer look at the source code of the Rootkit Sony uses (also read our previous post). He concludes that portions of the code are identical to Lame, an open source mp3-encoder.

String on cd Get Right With The Man artist Van Zant: “http://www.mp3dev.org/”, “0.90″, “LAME3.95″, “3.95″, “3.95 “.

Because this open source falls under the Lesser Gnu Public License, Sony should have asked for permission and mention it in a copyright notice. Moreover, because Sony used portions of Lame they have to make the sourcecode and the objectfiles public, so others can make similar software.

This discovery could lead to law cases in e.g. Germany. Cases where Sony in end could be forced to publish the above mentioned code and objectfiles and maybe be forced to pay a claim.

Sony BMG has not yet reacted to the allegations .

Source: Webwereld
More: www.eff.org

Fallujah: The hidden massacre (RAI News 24)

I’ve seriously thought a while before I decided to post this horrific Italian documentary with explicit imagery of american use of chemical weapons in the war in Iraq. (27 min).

The documentary titled: “Fallujah: The hidden massacre”, as discussed in the news report from The Independent, shows images of mostly civilian bodies in the Iraqi city of Fallujah affected by ‘white phosphorus’ MK77 (burns through the skin to the bone like napalm does), American troops using it and interviews with soldiers who where there. It serves as a general protest against war in general.

Please note that this video (torrent) and these photo’s contains extreme explicit imagery.

Found on: www.ochblog.com

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This site has a new layout. Friends can now mail me their banners 448 x 100 px jpeg or gif. I am still looking for a script that randomly shows the banners.

Update: Barnhard Blog supports banners

A BRITISH man has become the first HIV sufferer in the world to be CURED of the killer virus, we can reveal.

In a sensational development that will bring hope to millions dying of Aids, 25-year-old Andrew Stimpson has miraculously tested NEGATIVE for the disease after having it for more than a year.

The results so dumbfounded doctors they repeated the test TWICE because they couldn’t believe it — but they could find no trace of HIV in his blood.

Read more: www.newsoftheworld.co.uk via www.nu.nl

Door middel van een glossy fotoshoot, styling, visagie en vormgeving - in geheel Zeeuwse setting - wordt tegemoet gekomen aan de wens van de Zeeuwse bevolking om beroemd te zijn en zichzelf voor één dag een ster te wanen.

Beroemdinzeeland. Open translation: we use our make-up to make wannebe famous famous for one day.

brr… what’s next up: www.beroemdinbrabant.nl ?

Newsflash:

The United States has won its fight to retain control over the internet, at least for the foreseeable future.

The world’s governments in Tunisia finally reached agreement at 10.30pm last night, just hours before the official opening of the World Summit this morning. In the end, with absolutely no time remaining, a deal was cut.

(…) The plus point of all this great theatre however is that the world, and its governments, are now infinitely more aware of how this internet thing really works.

Article: register.

Australia after being away for 32 years is again back to the world championships! Important for the Australian game, which has had in the last years not the best news. Congrats and looking forward seeing them play again. On a smaller note, we like to give a big credit to the coach behind the team. Guus Hiddink, succesful Dutch coach of Korea, PSV and now even for Australia. Respect. (more..)

update: listen radio, nice

Apparently the initial denial didn’t hold:
U.S. admits using white phosphorous as weapon (CNN website). [via]

The State Department initially denied that U.S. troops had used white phosphorous against enemy forces. “They were fired into the air to illuminate enemy positions at night, not at enemy fighters,” a department Web site said.
The department later said the statement had been incorrect.
“There is a great deal of misinformation feeding on itself about U.S. forces allegedly using `outlawed’ weapons in Falluja,” the department said. “The facts are that U.S. forces are not using any illegal weapons in Falluja or anywhere else in Iraq.”
Venable said white phosphorous shells are a standard weapon used by field artillery units and are not banned by any international weapons convention to which the United States is a signatory.

Most countries define phosphorus as a WMD, see the film if you wonder why. The U.K. and U.S. can comfortably define weapons in their own interest, but should remember that they cannot deploy troops or have political respect if they loose their moral or ethical credibility.

Yesterday Niels van Ham gave me his old Apple iMac. So now I can pratice on an Apple. It looks great on my desk!

Although I still have a very powerful pc, in the future I will switch to a iBook. I will also visit www.mactips.nl more often.

Our family thinks it is a nice idea to support friends and relatives we wrote about with a Barnhard Blog banner.

Let’s hope the banners will not cause too much data traffic

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Yesterday I’ve received the latest issue of “Paul Budde - China Travelogue“. In it is a wealth of inside information on the Chinese telecoms market.

It makes my wish to move over to the region more temping than it already was. The Netherlands are quite boring compared to Asia. Anyway I am not going into this document more deeper than I just did. I refer to Paul Budde’s website www.bubbe.com.au for the latest Chinese telecom developments.

Although I do want to mention the last bit of his travelogue where he describes the SMS-based “Mongolian Cow Sour Yogurt Super Girl Contest” (August 2005) as the first democratic ‘election’ in China.

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