Making a Christmas Light Box with a laser cutter

Making a Christmas Light Box with a laser cutter

This is a project using a 50 watt Chinese laser cutter from E-bay. 

I started with a box of the dimensions I needed using https://makeabox.io/ or http://www.makercase.com/

Then I edited that to create the light box using Inkscape to make the SVG. Finally saving a copy as a DXF file to port it to RDworks (software that came with the laser cutter). In RDworks I set up the engraving and cutting routines and then moved it to the laser cutter.

In future I will be sanding the exterior of the box after assembly to smooth out the tabs. I found that after sanding you get a perfectly smooth finish that's ready for Danish oil or any paint colour of your choice. It's simply glorious to have a 'touch smooth' finish to the exterior.

A word on the laser cutter:
I found that the Chinese laser cutters work well straight out of the box. However, you need to tweak the setup of the mirrors and lens to ensure the beam is accurate no matter where on the cutting board it is. This can be complicated and there are many compromises to be made. You will find the so-called 'sweet spot' where the cutter works perfectly. Then with adjustment you can extend the sweet spot across most of the board.

I found the perfect way to test the focus in various parts of the board. Set the max power to 30% and the speed to your optimal cutting speed (7mm/sec). Then press the pulse button whilst using the arrow key to move the head. It performs a perfect cut. I just drew squares to see gauge the cutting quality across the board. I should say this is for 3mm thick MDF.

NB: I did cut 18mm pine board using the above method by using 4 passes. Going over the same cut 4 times did get me a vertical cut. You may need to adjust the height of the material between passes to get that optimal focal length.

With my cutter, the board itself is not level and to level it means a lot of dis-assembly to rectify it. So I opted to use blocks to raise the material above the board and level it. This also adds to the ventilation beneath the job to vent hot smoke away from the material being cut (reducing staining of the underside). I also leave the laser's lid slightly open leaving a 2cm gap in the front. This creates a 'pathway' for fresh air to enter the device from the front and the fan to blow the smokey air out from the back. You want the smoke drawn down away from the material as quick as possible.

Also make sure the laser head (the lens part) is vertically level. You want cuts that create that perfect vertical line. The height of the lens (gap between the lens and the final mirror) will get you that perfect focal length for cutting.

Also many YouTube channels will give you instructions for masking tape across the apertures for the mirrors to check the mirror angles. Please be careful because the ash from this process may fall into the tube containing your lens. A quick swab with alcohol on a cotton bud will  fix this asap. Just a reminder this should always be the last step after aligning your mirrors as a dusty lens will make all that work futile.

There's lots of adjustment and when you get it right HAPPINESS!

Video editing using Linux

Video editing using Linux

When you have to edit video, Linux is not the first choice on many people's minds. Most of you will think Apple or Windows. And I don't hold that against you. My viewpoint is that I want to keep everything I do in the 'open source' world.

Many of you will immediately think of the Adobe suite of products or Finalcut. Adobe is expensive and I prefer not to encourage the use of a pirated version. Apple is also an expensive eco system.

I have been in computing since 1985. You tend to learn a few things over time. How many people do you know with a pirated copy of Photoshop or Windows?

To avoid all that I moved to Linux.

What I use:

• Linux Ubuntu 14.04LTS (Trusty Tahr)
• Gimp - Ver 2.8.10
• Inkscape - Ver 0.48
• Blender - Ver 2.69
• Kdenlive - Ver 0.9.6

Gimp to edit pictures/graphics, Inkscape to edit vector graphics, Blender to edit 3D objects/animations for video and Kdenlive to edit and render the final result. Total cost of the above - $0.00

Open Source software has been given a bad rap over the years by some small minded people. The features in all the above software has grown over the years. Now they may not match the current versions of commercial software feature for feature. But I'll lay odds most of you don't use all the features either.  All the important features are there.

Here's a place to start if you too want all the tools to be able to create professional video:

http://www.ubuntu.com/desktop

Start from the ground up... install a new operating system. It's really easy. Just follow the instructions. All the software I mentioned is available from the Software Centre within the operating system and will only take minutes to install.

There is also a thriving community that will help you at no cost whatsoever.

http://community.ubuntu.com/

I do suggest you dual boot your computer so you keep all your Windows stuff intact. Check that your computer is built using compatible hardware to Linux. The older the machine is, the better. There may be a piece of hardware that Linux may not handle (like Bluetooth) but be patient as Linux gets updated far more regularly as Windows. And one day your Bluetooth will work.

Samples of my work:

http://www.americanthunder.com.au/
http://www.americanthunder.com.au/photo-shoot-lexie/
http://www.americanthunder.com.au/photo-shoot-with-ashleigh/

Advantages I see in using Linux:

• No more viruses
• Better security
• Computer speed
• Open Source - Free Software
• Excellent community help
• Huge YouTube tutorial support for everything

Leave a comment...

Editing 4K Video with Kdenlive on Linux

Editing 4K Video with Kdenlive on Linux

When asked to compose and edit a video in 4K, my immediate response was fear. Would Kdenlive do it?

Well, the short answer is YES. You need to create a new project profile and that is basically it. A render profile is not really necessary as you can render with H.264, MP4 or WEBM if you intend the video for YouTube.

To create the "new project Profile". Look under Settings and "Manage Project Profiles". Be careful not to overwrite your favorite profile. Use the settings below:

I selected 30 frames per second for mine. Remember you can always alter the project to suit the footage that you are given.

You can also open the 4K footage using a 1080p profile if you intend to scale down the video for the internet. The clarity of the rendered video is still awesome.

Things to note: 

• I use Ubuntu 14.04 Trusty Tahr on a Lenovo G560 laptop. It has only 4gb of RAM.
• Simply playing 4K video on my Lenovo is a feat on it's own due to the lack of RAM.
• VLC manages with 4K quite well but playback can 'step' or skip frames at times.
• I have a two monitor setup but the large monitor is only 1920x1080.
• I figure the PC has to rescale the 4K back down to the monitors resolution during playback.

File sizes:

• The rendered 4K video is going to be large.
• 1.5 mins of 4K video will be around 220mb.
• The same video in 1080p is 85mb.
• Rendering 4K also takes longer (duh).

Also I use Kdenlive version 0.9.6, but from what I gather you can use up to version 15 to also do 4K.

Useful links:
http://askubuntu.com/questions/398613/how-to-export-4k-video-with-kdenlive
https://forum.kde.org/viewtopic.php?f=272&t=119006

Identity Theft Scam

I recently received a phone message on my home phone claiming to be from the Taxation Department and talking about some error in my taxation records. There is also a threat about legal action against me.

I knew that there is no way the Tax Office would be contacting me by phone and smelled a rat. I checked the Australian Government's Scam Watch page and there it was in their ScamWatch Radar link. The phone number is different but the methodology is the same.

https://www.scamwatch.gov.au/content/index.phtml/tag/reportascam/

Please also notice that the Australian Government sites all end in ".gov.au".

Play the above video to hear the phone message in it's entirety.

A word on Identity Theft: You will be surprised how little information is needed from you to steal your identity. Your tax file number and bank account number and address or date of birth may be all that's necessary to reset your banking passwords and allow thieves to take out loans in your name or access your bank accounts.

Also if you are an avid Facebook fan please limit the amount of personal information you list in your profile. Someone will be looking for it.

Be careful and check with ScamWatch if you suspect a scam.

Windows Support Scam

I have been called on several occasions by overseas call centres claiming to be from 'Windows Support', telling me that my PC has been sending out error messages or 'bad traffic' on the internet.

They seem to target people that use their PC's infrequently to perhaps browse the internet and clear email. A seasoned PC user will start to smell a rat immediately.

THIS IS A SCAM.

All they want is your money and perhaps leave you with a web-bot or bot-net installed on your PC.

Their tactics are as follows:

• Instruct you to open task manager, msconfig or your eventvwr to view your log files.
• They will convince you that you are looking at the bad traffic or stopped services.
• They will ask you to browse to a 'desktop sharing' software site (these change over time).
• They will instruct you to download and install it.
• They will then ask you to run the software and you will be asked for passwords.
• At this point they are into your system and can do what they want.
• You may also be asked to pay a fee of around US$80.00 for a year's worth of maintenance.
• They will direct you to a site to pay the $80 via a credit card.
• Congrats they now have your name, credit card number and the 3 digit code.

So not only have you been scammed, you have paid them for the privilege.

Have a listen to a recording of a typical call.
https://soundcloud.com/csoonline/microsoft-support-scam

So what is a bot-net?

A bot-net is a piece of insidious software that turns your PC into a 'robot' that takes orders from a central 'command & control' server hidden somewhere on the internet. It receives instructions to send out spam, phishing emails, or denial of service attacks aimed at targets as per instructed from the command & control server. In most cases these web-bots are not detected by industry standard virus scanners. They go undetected for years. All you may notice is a slight slow down of your PC at times.

Once your PC has a web-bot installed, and there are millions of them out there. Your PC becomes a commodity that's bought, sold or rented out to criminals for lots of purposes. Some may want to send millions of spam emails quickly. Some may want to build email lists (from our inboxes). Some want to hit Government servers with denial-of-service attacks. The list goes on.

How do you get rid of a bot-net?

If you're lucky you can use a tool that identifies and removes them. If you're not, you need to format and re-install Windows. Be warned, some of the tools to remove them also contain newer ones. That's the catch 22. Who can you trust? I suggest the re-install. It's the only safe method. You can save all your data, pictures and video's before hand. You will need to re-install ALL of your added software from the original cd's. NEVER restore software from a backup as the web-bot may be in your backups.

Why are the call centres making the calls?

They are paid to do it. Many bot-net operators actually pay call centres to make the calls and train them specifically in the task. The call centres may not actually know what they are really doing. I have heard of some of them transferring your call to a 'level 1 technician' who will do the repair. By this they wash their hands of 'blame'. These calls usually take your $80 first, before transferring you.

"Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive."

Now that you know this, tell your friends that are perhaps less computer literate.

Trying out Linux on an old PC or Laptop

Many of my friends are always complaining about how slow their PC has become. Or ever since browsing a site they can't get rid of a toolbar. Or my computer is doing some strange things and I can't get it to go back to the way it was.

Many of those friends just went out and bought a new computer that is faster and came with a new version of Windows (which they thought would be better). However they never took into consideration that with every version of Windows comes a whole new learning curve... How to use it? Plus the newer versions used more of the computers resources so the speed it operates is not really that much faster than the old one.

Windows operating systems, like versions of Office, are completely different in how they work, or more precisely, where are the resources hidden that I used to use? In essence Windows versions are like Linux Distributions. When you find the 'distro' you like you stick with it. There are hundreds of Linux 'distros' out there to choose from. The below video will show you a couple that are the main or recommended ones to try.

So if you just bought a new PC with Windows 7 or 8 and you are left with an old computer that you are just going to throw in the bin... WAIT! Try Linux first on that old PC. You don't need to worry about loosing your files as we aren't going to be using the hard drive on the old PC. The PC does not even need a hard drive installed at all.

Now watch how much faster your computing experience has become. Browse the net faster, use your internet banking more securely. Edit video or photo's so much faster. The whole computing experience is just what you thought you would get with a new computer. Only thing is... it's on your old one.

Watch the video and see for yourself.


Now compare the speed of your new PC with Linux installed on your old one. Was it worth the money? Not convinced? Wait 6 months and compare speeds again.

Why cloud data isn't as safe as you think

There's a great article from ZD-Net written by Robin Harris outlining the disadvantages of the use of Cloud Storage for corporate data. 

Here's a snippet of that article:

Serious cloud users know the vendor story: multiple datacenters, geograpically distributed; advanced erasure coding that is better than RAID 6 (which I've discussed); multiple version retention; checksums to ensure data integrity; and synchronization across devices. What could possibly go wrong?

Plenty
As has been documented, client-side corruption is all too common, so the cloud will carefully preserve and spread corrupted data. If you crash during an upload the data may be inconsistent - but the cloud doesn't know that - or the cloud may fail to sync changed files.

Worse, clients cannot typically preserve dependencies between files since uploads are not point-in-time snapshots, creating unexpected and unwanted application (mis)behavior. A group of linked databases - say, between CRM, ERP and distribution systems - could end up inconsistent due to piecemeal uploads of changes at different times.

The basic issue is that the loose coupling between the local and cloud file systems leaves data less protected than users - or cloud vendors - like to admit. Like most problems it is fixable, once we admit we have a problem.

I draw your attention to the comments placed below the article:

Good work

'The Cloud' has got to be the biggest rip off ever. I can't wait to shout out 'told you so'. The sheep that can't think for themselves, the weak IT managers that should be standing up and fighting for security over keeping the ants happy, the moron media that write about Tech to look cool but actually know very little and have virtually no hands on experience. If you are a muppet, then get into 'The Cloud'. If you have no family and kids and are a Financial Controller or IT Manager then join the war on putting things right. I say no family or kids because you will be fired as soon as you stand up for all the things that are good and great about IT and humans. BYOD and 'The Cloud' is not one of them. Get your own datacentres, your own servers, 2 firewalls with DMZ and honeypots, forcefully educate your staff and your kids about security and being proud to protect data and systems. Hire security guards to pat down and forcefully remove all Tech from visitors to stop espionage and photography. Back up to tapes drives not someones server who you dont know and have no clue where the data is. Are you thinking this is over-the-top? Oh no, this is the minimum you should be doing. But of course many of you will do nothing. Not until all your data is deleted or changed or corrupted or ransomed. Educate, educate, educate (and start with yourself).

User: philswift

My two cents worth:

Corporate organisations are inherently unsecure. Bad passwords, unrestricted use of portable storage (usb) devices, smart phone use as storage media, unpatched operating systems, out-dated anti-virus software, phishing emails, web-bots, trojans, and the list goes on. The common factor in all of this is humans. Your staff, to be precise, are usually there to do a job. Do they spare a thought about your data security? Some of them can barely speak english let alone type in a complicated password. But management insist they need to function using a computer in order to maintain the companies 'automation' goals.

So your board of directors say let's shift that to 'the cloud'. That way we can sleep peacefully at night and our data security becomes someone else's problem. If anything happens we can sue them. You may or not be aware that the Target data breach happened because they out-sourced their Cooling and Lighting control of stores to a vendor that promised a saving in the electricity bill. The security breach came through that 3rd party vendor. The vendor had VPN access to the electrical control servers on the Target network. It is not clear how the vendor was hacked but someone got his VPN credentials.

Cloud vendors all promise that they all adhere to strict security protocols. How many of them use 3rd party vendors for their cooling and electricity supplies? How many of them outsource their security camera monitoring and alarm systems? Their door locks and swipe card systems? Their fire control and gas/sprinklers?

I once had contact with a company that used swipe cards on all their doors. I looks really impressive when their guests are shown around their operations. The whole system was run from an old Windows XP machine sitting in the server room. Access to that room needed a swipe. The XP machine didn't have a UPS. In the event of a power failure. The servers still ran for as short time. But not the XP machine. Everyone was locked out and the IT manager would not have had access to the server room to gracefully shut down the servers. What this illustrates is the need for management to show off their prowess of all things technical. It looks great from the outside, but it is a trembling house of cards waiting for a stiff breeze on the inside.

Now what guarantees do you have that your cloud provider is not the same? How many so-called cloud providers do actually have a data-centre? Most use 3rd party data-centres. And the list goes on. It's all smoke and mirrors.

So what's the solution? It's not easy but you need to divide your networks. Use tcp/ip the way it was intended. Educate your staff properly. Make use of the skills of penetration testers. Don't jump at all high tech solutions that may not be all that necessary to your business. Make use of a 'competitive advantage' strategy in IT. In other words don't do what your competition is doing. Do it differently. Use operating systems other than the industry standard Windows. Don't pay buckets of cash for off-the-shelf solutions when you can employ someone to write one specific to your organisation. All of these steps make it hard for a hacker to get to your data. 

Unfortunately it may be all too late for IT that has become entrenched in large corporations. It's possible that only the small startups will have their feet firmly planted on the ground after all the lessons learnt from 'big business' with their head in the clouds. The future is not that certain. The only certainty is change will take place.

UK government planning to ditch Microsoft for Open Source alternatives

Downfall in the monopoly of propriety software like Microsoft and Apple accelerated after the Snowden revelations of NSA spying, where technology giants like Microsoft, Google, Apple are sharing a bed with the NSA.

The UK government is again planning to ditch Microsoft for Open Source and Free alternatives. Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude announced yesterday that they are move away from Microsoft Office, towards open source softwares like OpenOffice & LibreOffice suites, in an effort to drive down costs and foster greater innovation.

UK has spent about £200 million in the last three years for Microsoft’s ubiquitous software suite, but now this migration will save large revenue of the kingdom, according to The Guardian.

The cabinet Office minister said, “We know the best technology and digital ideas often come from small businesses, but too often in the past they were excluded from government work. In the civil service there was a sense that if you hired a big multi-national, who everyone knew the name of, you'd never be fired. We weren't just missing out on innovation, we were paying top dollar for yesterday's technology. The software we use in government is still supplied by just a few large companies. A tiny oligopoly dominates the marketplace.”

Why Open Source? With unbarred NSA surveillance programs, there is a steep upward inclination of end users towards open source technology. Open source software is available for free, not only you can read the source code of the product you are going to use, but also you can built executable from that as well.

If you have competent knowledge of programming you are free to edit that source code and generate new software which will be completely customized based on your requirements. Since you have used the source code of an open source product which have been tested by a number of users, hence made it less vulnerable to security breaches.

Most important part of using Open source is that you can customize and verify it accordingly, to insure that no backdoor is left for surveillance by any government.

Mozilla also recommends using open source technology. In a blog post Inventor of JavaScript & current CTO of Mozilla, Mr. Brendan Eich said “NSA is not just focused on high-tech exploits, but also specialize in inserting secret backdoor to legitimate products. Its Tailored Access Operations (TAO) unit works with the CIA and FBI to intercept shipments of hardware to insert spyware into the devices. This way NSA is able to keep an eye on all levels of our digital lives, from computing centers to individual computers, and from laptops to mobile phones.”

A major component of the proposals will be a move to standardize document formats across government. Other government bodies in Europe have successfully moved on to open source software.

Click here for the original article

Website Buys Customers New Computers To Avoid Dealing With IE7

[Source: Gizmodo]

At last somebody see's some logic in the IT world... at around $399 it is worth giving them a new machine rather that spending hours or home visits getting the old buggy Windows machine running properly...

Gizmodo reports:

Have you been mocking Grandma for holding fast to a clunky, barely functional copy of Internet Explorer 7? Get ready to eat your words. A nurse and patient-pairing website has decided that, rather than put up with customers trying to run IE 7, it's just going to buy them a whole new computer, goddammit—fancy new browser included.

The site, NursingJobs, connects nurses to the people who need them, many of whom are older and thus pretty deeply engrained in their often outdated habits, be it casual racism or a legacy browser of yore. And after crunching the numbers, NursingJobs realized that it didn't even make financial sense to keep trying to support its users still stuck in 2006. The cheaper alternative? A brand new computer for Grandpa:

IE7 users make up 1.22% of our traffic right now, and this will decline as more computers are upgraded and can use modern browsers. However, we know that some of our clients are still stuck with IE7 so we decided to make a bold offer, one that initially seemed crazy to us but now makes a lot of sense.

We are offering to buy a new computer with a modern browser for any of our customers who are stuck with IE7. We determined that it would cost us more to support a browser from 2006 in 2014 and beyond than it would to help our clients upgrade their legacy hardware.

How could this possibly be lucrative? Well, dedicating the manpower and time it takes to keep IE 7 users running is only going to get more expense. So even if NursingJobs is just passing out Chromebooks, customers are almost undoubtedly still getting a better machine than whatever crap they were using before, and NursingJobs presumably doesn't have to pony up too much cash. Plus, at 1.22% of its userbase, it's a small sacrifice to make for assuaging a major potential headache.

There is one potential downside, though. If NursingJobs gets rid of the additional anxiety that is IE 7, its customers may stop even needing a nurse in the first place. [NursingJobs via Uproxx]

Image: Shutterstock/Andresr

The Oculus Rift Put Me In Game of Thrones and It Made My Stomach Drop

Gizmodo just posted an article on Oculus Rift. This is the future of home entertainment. You no longer need your 3D TV. This puts you directly in the picture. Read more about the author's experience being placed into Game of Thrones. Imagine you're in the squeaky elevator on the Wall of Ice ascending to the top of the fortification.

Read On:
The Oculus Rift Put Me In Game of Thronesand It Made My Stomach Drop

Oculus Rift is available here.

How I Lost My $50,000 Twitter Username

Hacking is the ability to learn the limitations in various companies security systems and exploit them. The systems are not necessarily electronic but can be verbal communication as well. A simple phone call telling them you have lost your password and changed your email address may be all it takes. The following story by Gizmodo illustrates the deficiencies in their security. The companies involved are GoDaddy and Paypal.

Most of us have a PayPal account and think it's all secure. I suggest we all learn from this and look at securing our own online presence.

How I Lost My $50,000 Twitter Username

Regards
Nick

First Ever Windows Malware that can hack your Android Mobile

[Original Source]
Hey Android users! I am quite sure that you must be syncing your Smartphone with your PCs for transferring files and generating backup of your device.

If your system is running a windows operating system, then it’s a bad news for you. Researchers have discovered a new piece of windows malware that attempts to install mobile banking malware on Android devices while syncing.

Last year in the month of February, Kaspersky Lab revealed an Android malware that could infect your computer when connected to Smartphone or tablets.

Recently, Researchers at Symantec antivirus firm discovered another interesting windows malware called ‘Trojan.Droidpak’, that drops a malicious DLL in the computer system and then downloads a configuration file from the following remote server:

http://xia2.dy[REMOVED]s-web.com/iconfig.txt

The Windows Trojan then parses this configuration file and download a malicious APK (an Android application) from the following location on the infected computer.

%Windir%\CrainingApkConfig\AV-cdk.apk

To communicate with the mobile device a command line tool Android Debug Bridge (ADB) is required, that allows the malware to execute commands on Android devices connected to the infected computer. ADB is a legitimate tool and part of the official Android software development kit (SDK).

In the next step, the trojan downloads all the necessary tools including Android Debug Bridge and the moment you connect an android device having USB debugging Mode enabled, it initiates the installation process and repeats it until it ensure that the connected device has been infected and install an app that will appear as a fake Google App Store.




Such Windows Malware is first of its own kind, since attackers prefer to use the social engineering techniques to spread their fake malicious apps hosted on third-party app stores. The installed malware dubbed as "Android.Fakebank.B", able to intercept victim's SMS messages and then send them to the attacker's server located at:

http://www.slmoney.co.kr[REMOVED]

Anyway Relax, if you are not a Korean citizen, because the malicious APK actually looks for certain Korean online banking applications on the compromised device.

If you want to protect your Mobile and system from such Malware attack, Please consider a few points while connecting to a windows based computer:
Turn off USB debugging on your Android device, when you are not using it
Avoid connecting your droid with public computers
Only Install reputable security software
Keep your System, Softwares and Antivirus up-to-date.

Stay Safe!

Government launched 'China Operating System' (COS) to break Andoird and iOS Monopoly

[Original Source]

China has always tried to support its homegrown tech industry and even the security concerns over 

U.S. secret surveillance which gives Chinese Government another reasons to trust domestic vendors.Many other countries are also in favor to develop their own technology industries to reduce their dependence on U.S.

The Government of China is not too fond of foreign mobile operating systems and therefore are trying to break the monopoly of Microsoft, Apple and Google in the country.

This week at an event in Beijing, China has unveiled its own Linux-based mobile platform, dubbed China Operating System (COS), developed as a joint effort between a company 'Shanghai Liantong', ISCAS (Institute of Software at the Chinese Academy of Sciences) and the Chinese Government.

According to COS website, it is designed for PCs, Smartphones, tablets, TVs, set-top boxes and other smart appliances. It runs Java applications, supports HTML5 and can run over 100,000 apps.

At the launch event, the head of the ISCAS criticized Apple’s iOS for being a closed ecosystem,Android for its fragmentation issues, and Windows Phone for its poor security.

According to the promo video, the China Operating System (COS) interface and functions are much like Android, specifically very similar to HTC’s Sense 5.

However, many Chinese users are criticizing this operating system on social media sites, “What does COS stand for? COPY OTHER SYSTEM?… But it really does look like a fusion of the Apple, Android, Symbian, and Blackberry operating system,”


Another user commented, "It’s not open source because they’re terrified that others will see that the source code is the same as Android, and accuse them of cheating the government out of money,"

Four years back, China once tried to create its own Linux-based, open mobile operating system called "OPhone or OMS (Open Mobile System)", but it was failed to gain popularity and discontinued after 2011.

Well, do you think, China is competing with the NSA over spying ability with a motto to leave room for backdoors or to defend themselves from NSA surveillance programs.

Potential backdoors discovered in US-based components used by French Satellites

Seems the 'good ol boys' have been caught out again...

[Original Source]

United Arab Emirates (UAE) may terminate a $930 Million USD contract with France based companies for the supply of two two military Imaging satellites due to the discovery of several US produced components in them.

Now the deal is in danger because the UAE claims it has discovered backdoors in the components which are manufactured in the United States, reported by the Defense News.

The contract, sealed in July 2013, includes a ground station, the Pleiades-type satellites (aka Falcon Eye) are due for delivery 2018.

The revelation was provided by high-level UAE sources, the companies involved in the business are the prime contractor Airbus Defense and Space, and payload maker Thales Alenia Space.

“If this issue is not resolved, the UAE is willing to scrap the whole deal,” he added. UAE authorities suspect the presence of vulnerabilities would “provide a back door to the highly secure data transmitted to the ground station”.

An unnamed UAE source has confirmed that the presence of backdoor has been reported to Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed, deputy supreme commander of the UAE's armed forces.

The contract signed with French companies includes two high-resolution observation satellites and the operational support from France with training for 20 engineers.

UAE representatives are evaluating alternative partners for the supply, Russian industry may be more likely supplier.

"The UAE has drawn on Russian technology, with the GLONASS space-based navigation system fitted as a redundancy feature on a Western European weapon system," a French defense expert said.

While some security experts believe that French industry had drawn on the US technology due complexity of the payload, other specialists found intriguing that France had drawn on US technology for the satellites under the Falcon Eye program.

"France operates the Pleiades spy satellite in what is viewed as a critical piece of the nation’s sovereignty. Given that core competence, it seemed strange that France would use US technology, although there is an agreement between Paris and Washington over transfer of capabilities, " said a Defense analysts.

The Defense News also speculated on the fact that the claims may be an attempt to condition another contract for Dassault Aviation Rafale fighters, both French companies were available for comment.

Run Windows XP or Windows 7 and never need Anti-Virus Software

As many of you know Windows XP is reaching it's 'retirement' on April 8th 2014. After this time there will be no more software or security updates released by Microsoft. They have however stretched out the support of Microsoft Anti-Malware support for 15 months after that date. This is to aid companies migrate to either Windows 7 or Windows 8.

Many of you have 3rd party software that may not run on Windows 8 or even Windows 7 and it is essential that you remain on Windows XP. So how do you keep running XP safely?

Here's a solution: Why not try RoboLinux or similar and run your favourite Windows as a virtual machine. You can create a 'VM Image' of your existing Windows installation using one of the many tools out there like 'Disk2vhd'. Then run your Windows inside Linux. No Virus-Scanners or spyware, malware issues to worry about. IF you break your Windows installation just run a fresh copy. Problem solved.

Watch this video (by RoboLinux) and if you want, fast-forward to the 'meat' in the sandwich at 8:30 to see how fast Windows loads under Linux. You will be impressed. But not only that. You can run multiple desktops so you can do more at the same time.

-or-
Install VirtualBox in Ubuntu 12.04 and install Windows XP from your CD.

Stop Press: If you are already using Ubuntu you can install Oracle's VirtualBox from the Ubuntu Software Centre. 'Disk2vhd' will create a snapshot of your existing Windows installation and VirtualBox will run it. That way you do not need the original Windows CD and reinstall everything. However if you have problems you can convert the VHD file to VDI (which VirtualBox prefers). The CloneVDI utility is available here and will do the conversion.

Note: Disk2vhd will image everything, your setup, drivers etc. If you run that image on a different PC you may need to install new drivers because all the hardware has changed. The other option is to install a new copy using the original Windows CD. The second video shows this operation.

Exporting from Outlook Express to Outlook 2013

Okay so you just bought shiny a new PC. The old one has all your email and contacts stored in Outlook Express 4, 5 or 6. And you want to move all that mail to your new machine which uses Outlook 2010-13?

You copy the '.dbx' files onto a flash drive and try to import them... no luck. Outlook 2013 will not read '.dbx' files. 

A quick search shows up this: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2796528

And this is why I hate Microsoft... they no longer support their old software. Not even an import tool.

So what do you do?

There's an easy choice and a complicated one. 

The easy choice is to install Mozilla Thunderbird on the old machine and import all your Outlook Express mail and contacts. Then install Thunderbird on the new machine and copy the '.mbx' files over.

If you insist on using Outlook on the new machine then there's the complicated way.
(The below instructions are from another trusted source... but they will work...sorta.)

Stop press: I just discovered Windows Mail on Windows 8 machines will make you want to take your computer back to the store for a refund (or worse)... you may elect to use the Thunderbird option.

(Apologies to the 'IT Crowd')

Why buy a new PC or laptop when the old one seems too slow and troublesome?

Some of you may have an old PC running Windows XP or 7 and you have had it a few years. It seems slow and glitchy. You may have had some malware/spyware issues that you paid someone good money to fix and it has never been the same? Also, Windows XP will reach the end of it's support by Microsoft in April 2014. That means you will no longer get automatic security updates. You may use the PC for banking or on-line purchases... Will that still be secure? Nope!

What do you do:

1. Rush out and pay good money for a new PC with the latest and greatest from Microsoft?
2. Rush out and buy the latest and greatest from Microsoft?
3. Something else that you may not have thought of?

A new PC or Laptop could cost you around AU$900.00 bundled with Windows 8. Just buying Windows 8.1 is AU$149.00 or if you would prefer the Pro version Au$399.00
You may also think that the new PC's they are selling are much faster, more powerful and have better spec's than your old one.

Here's the something you may not have thought of:

Windows XP end of support in April: Three more questions answered

An interesting article from ZD-Net. The original article is here.

In case the date hasn't already been burned into your brain, April 8, 2014 is the day on which Microsoft will cease providing any kind of patches or fixes, including security fixes, to its nearly 12-year-old Windows XP operating system.

Company officials continue to insist that there won't be any last-minute reprieves this time, despite the fact that market share for XP still hovers around 29 percent. Microsoft has given its partners their marching orders: Get XP users to move off the OS.

Those who can't or won't move off XP for a variety of compatibility, cost and other reasons continue to send me questions. Here are answers to three of them.

Q: Will Microsoft continue to provide Microsoft Security Essentials support for Windows XP on April 8, 2014?(MSE is Microsoft's free antimalware/antivirus product.)

A: No. As of that date, Microsoft will no longer provide MSE for Windows XP. Microsoft officials hinted this would be the case last fall, but only recently confirmed it outright. Softpedia recently published a list of five free alternatives to MSE for XP, however. 

Update (January 15): Looks like Microsoft has reversed itself temporarily on this one. Microsoft officials said today that they will continue to provide updates to their  antimalware signatures and MSE engine for Windows XP users through July 14, 2015. More here.

"The extension, for enterprise users, applies to System Center Endpoint Protection, Forefront Client Security, Forefront Endpoint Protection and Windows Intune running on Windows XP. For consumers, this applies to Microsoft Security Essentials," company officials said today.

Q: Will Microsoft remove Windows XP Mode support in Windows 7 as of April 8, 2014 via a patch or update? (XP Mode allows users with old XP apps to run them on Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise and Ultimate.)

A: No, XP Mode will not go away, a Microsoft spokesperson confirmed. However, Microsoft won't be providing any patches or updates to XP as of that date, so those using XP mode will be exposing themselves to potential security risks.

Q: Will Microsoft cease requiring XP users to activate Windows XP as of April 8, 2014, since support for the product is ending?

A: No. A spokesperson confirmed that activations will still be required for retail installations of Windows XP post April 8. "Windows XP can still be installed and activated after end of support on April 8," the spokesperson noted. "Computers running Windows XP will still work, they just won’t receive any new security updates. Support of Windows XP ends on April 8, 2014, regardless of when you install the OS."

Another update (January 15): For those asking in comments below, Microsoft will continue to make all patches and fixes made to Windows XP up until April 8, 2014, available to users via Windows Update. "There are no current plans to remove existing Windows XP security updates from Windows Update after end of support on April 8, 2014," a spokesperson confirmed.

Any other questions about XP's end of support? Chime in below in the comments, if so.

Contour Crafting: Automated Construction- Behrokh Khoshnevis at TEDxOjai

We have all heard of 3D printing. But if we scale it up it's possible to print large objects like houses.
Here are some very interesting video's on 3D printing in the Building Industry.





The original articles are available here:
http://weburbanist.com/2014/01/11/20-hour-house-how-to-3d-print-2500-square-feet-in-1-day/
http://weburbanist.com/2012/05/08/3d-printing-goes-giant-print-your-own-home/

Toyota Will Sell You a Hydrogen-Powered Car Next Year

The original Wired Article is available here.

All I can say it's about BLOODY TIME... 

After decades of big promises, false starts, and meager infrastructure, the first hydrogen fuel cell vehicle will go on sale in the United States next year. It’s coming from Toyota, which promises a range of 300 miles and a fill-up time of less than five minutes — once you’ve actually found a station that stocks the stuff.

The unnamed camo-clad engineering prototype that Toyota unveiled at CES looks remarkably similar to a Toyota Corolla. The automaker, which has spent the past year flogging the car in some of the hottest and coldest places on the continent, claims the emissions-free sedan will put out more than 100 kW (over 130 horsepower) and do zero to 60 in around 10 seconds.

“We aren’t trying to re-invent the wheel; just everything necessary to make them turn,” said Bob Carter, Toyota’s senior veep of U.S. auto operations. “For years, the use of hydrogen gas to power an electric vehicle has been seen by many smart people as a foolish quest. Yes, there are significant challenges. The first is building the vehicle at a reasonable price for many people. The second is doing what we can to help kick-start the construction of convenient hydrogen refueling infrastructure.”

Just how reasonable a price remains to be seen, because so far Toyota’s not saying what the car will cost, or even what it will be called. But the automaker says that, after a decade’s work, it has dramatically reduced the cost of building a fuel cell powertrain. Toyota estimates the cost of building a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle has fallen 95 percent since it built its first prototype in 2002, and according to Toyota spokeswoman Jana Hartline, Toyota will give consumers “a variety of options” when its hydrogen vehicle goes on sale. Given that the true cost of Honda’s FCX Clarity — which could only be leased, not bought — was estimated at well over $1 million, that’s a welcome reduction.

The technology’s other Achilles’ heel has long been the fueling infrastructure, or rather the lack of it. For that reason, Toyota will limit sales to California. Toyota has joined UC Irvine’s Advanced Power and Energy Program to map out where additional stations should be placed based on things like existing ownership of EVs and hybrids, population density and traffic patterns. Using that model, they say 68 stations in the San Francisco Bay Area, Silicon Valley, Los Angeles, Orange County, and San Diego would be required at initial launch.

California currently has nine public hydrogen fueling stations, mostly around Los Angeles and San Francisco. Another 19 are under development, and the California Energy Commission has allocated $29.9 million for the next round of infrastructure development. All told, California has approved $200 million in funding to build hydrogen stations throughout the state in 2015. Another 20 stations are expected in 2016, with a total of 100 statewide by 2024.

A slow roll-out, to be sure, and something that Toyota plans to address on its own, with Carter saying, “Stay tuned, because this infrastructure thing is going to happen.”