Brrrr….It’s Cold There!!

Antarctica Beat Hundred Countries on Internet Front

Many people know that the CIA World Factbook is a really useful resource for those who want to discover information about places they’ve never been. Experts of TechEye recently found themselves on a page which compares different countries’ Internet hosts. The interesting thing is that Antarctica – which is not even a country – takes 139th place out of 233 entries.
As you know, Antarctica is populated mainly by scientists from different countries. However, it turned out that it has a total of 7,764 hosts, which is far outranking many countries, like Jamaica, Cuba and the Democratic Republic of Congo. This figure is far outnumbering Nigeria with a very large population, which takes only 169th place, as well as Afghanistan, Iraq and the Falkland Islands, too. In addition, Antarctica is also ahead of the Isle of Man and even way ahead of the Vatican.

In the meanwhile, the top 5 of the hosts chart includes the United States (505,000,000), Japan, Brazil, Italy and China. It is also interesting that Poland, Argentina and Canada are ahead of the United Kingdom (8,107,000). India, having a population of 1.2 billion people, only has 6,746,000 Internet hosts, while China, with a similar population, can boast 20,602,000 of them.

FBI…Don’t You Just Love Them!!

FBI Can Read E-mails without Warrant

According to recently released documents, the Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide (DIOG) of Federal Bureau of Investigation allows agency reading your e-mail without having a warrant.
The American Civil Liberties Union published a copy of 2012’s edition of FBI’s Guide for Federal Bureau of Investigation, which basically allows the Bureau reading your e-mail whenever it sees fit and without a warrant.

In short words, under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, better known as ECPA (a privacy law of 1986), the law enforcement agencies are able to read your e-mail before being opened by an addressee as long as a warrant exists. However, there’s a problem: once the e-mail is opened by an addressee, or hasn’t been opened within 6 months, a warrant is not needed anymore. A few months ago, the Department of Justice of the United States attended a Congressional hearing, where it admitted that ECPA needs to be revised and even offered to support ECPA’s revisions.

Worse still, one of the circuit court of appeals recently handed down a decision that federal authorities need a warrant before accessing an e-mail address, but the problem is that the ruling only applies in the 4 states covered by the Sixth Circuit. This is why American Civil Liberties Union filed a request to find out whether the Federal Bureau of Investigation and similar agencies are taking advantage of a loophole in the outdated Electronic Communications Privacy Act and accessing some electronic communications without a warrant. Any person is able to find Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide for 2008 and 2011 on the FBI’s official website.

Fly Me….But Not Here!

Couple flown to wrong continent after airline error

Two US holidaymakers found themselves a long way from their intended destination after an airline confused two airport codes.

Sandy Valdiviseo and her husband Triet Vo were intending to fly from Los Angeles to Dakar in Senegal with Turkish Airlines. However, instead they ended up almost 7,000 miles away – on an entirely different continent – in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, after the airport codes were mixed up, the Los Angeles Times reports.
The airport code for Dakar, the capital of Senegal, is DKR, while the code for the airport in Dhaka, which is the capital of Bangladesh, is DAC.
After arriving in Istanbul, the couple had boarded a connecting flight. It was only after seeing the route map of the flight’s progress, which showed the plane over the Middle East, that they realised the error.
“When the flight attendant said we were heading to Dhaka, we believed that this was how you pronounced 'Dakar' with a Turkish accent," Ms Valdivieso said.
When they arrived in Bangladesh, the pair informed Turkish Airlines about the mistake, and tried to arrange a transfer to Senegal.
According to reports, the airline insisted on tracking down the recording of the initial booking before acknowledging the error and installing the couple on flights to West Africa, 12 hours after their arrival in Bangladesh. Their baggage arrived in Senegal two days after they did.
The incident happened in December last year, but has only just been reported after the couple’s long battle to obtain compensation.
"I have called them [Turkish Airlines] every Friday for the past four months," said Ms Valdivieso. "They told me each time that they will review my case and get back to me. But they never do."
"We are very, very sorry that this happened," a Turkish Airlines spokeswoman said. The couple have since been offered two free economy-class tickets to anywhere on the airline’s flight network.

They’re Back!!

Visitors flout ban on wearing Nazi uniforms to WWII event

Visitors to a Second World War-themed event celebrating the 70th anniversary of the Dambuster have turned out in Nazi uniforms despite a ban on the costumes.

Organisers of the 1940s weekend in Haworth, West Yorkshire, faced complaints last year from a party of German tourists about the flaunting of regalia linked to the Holocaust.
This year, an attempt to prevent a repeat of the controversy, signs warning "No Nazi or SS Insignia or uniforms on these premises" were displayed on shops pubs and camp sites.
Businesses all over the town were given signs saying Nazi or SS uniforms "not welcome," in a bid to avoid "unnecessary offence".
Emma Cox, one of the organisers of the celebrations, said those involved were getting more stubborn about flaunting their regalia every year.
"This is a very controversial issue,” she said. “Lots of people who come to the weekend are re-enactors recreating military, civilian, and other features of the era.
"Then there are people who come as spectators who are mainly local people but some from further afield.
"Every year there are a few people who come in SS uniforms, which is nothing to do with the re-enactments.
"It is just about getting dressed up as SS people. Some people find this quite upsetting in what is meant to be a celebration of the Home Front spirit.”
"Apart from anything (else), there would not have been any SS in England at the time.”
Those who come dressed as SS had been getting “very uptight” about not being welcome, she added.
"They seem to be getting more determined to get dressed up in their SS uniforms and this is an open and public event so it is just not appropriate or practical to vet the thousands of people coming into the village,” she said.
"It is okay to come dressed as a German soldier. But everyone knows the SS was different. They were the people running the concentration camps.
"It's a problem because this is a public event which is supposed to be inclusive."
All proceeds raised from the weekend will be donated to the armed forces charity, the Soldiers, Sailors and Airmen's Families Association.
Last year the event raised £25,000 for Help for Heroes.
Last week marked the 70th anniversary of the Dambuster raid over Germany.
The raid, carried out by 133 airmen in 19 Lancaster bombers, was an attempt to cripple a major part of the Nazi war economy by attacking three dams in Germany’s industrial heartland.

The Fight Against Piracy…A Solution??

Best Way to Fight against Online Piracy

Netflix’s Chief Content Officer claimed that legitimate alternatives for film enthusiasts are the best way to fight against digital piracy. Ted Sarandos, the man who’s been the head of the company’s content acquisition department for 13 years, explained that people really want a great experience and access – apparently, people are mostly honest. Thus, the best way to fight online piracy isn’t legislatively or criminally but by offering good options.
The matter is that ISPs are forced to publicize their connection speeds, and when Netflix launches in a territory the BitTorrent traffic drops. Nevertheless, everyone already knows that not all of BitTorrent’s activity is about piracy – for example, Netflix’s growth in traffic is not a sign of people stopping from downloading their favorite video content. However, at least a healthy percent switched to legitimate services over unauthorized ones.

BitTorrent Inc. points out that the key thing is that BitTorrent is an Internet protocol, just like HTTP, but it is able to move information better than any other one. Indeed, BitTorrent is an award winning technology that is currently used by Facebook, Twitter, Wikipedia, Blizzard, and even by some genetic researchers and the scientists working on the Large Hadron Collider. Basically, any company moving large data sets uses BitTorrent protocol.

Although people are free to download and upload any content via P2P networks, it becomes more and more obvious that Netflix makes a really valid point: if you offer people what they want and when they want it, then everyone will be satisfied, including copyright owners.

The clear example is the HBO-produced popular TV series “Game of Thrones”. For the last two years, the show had broken records on BitTorrent’s networks, but not because users wanted illegal content, but due to the different timelines of availability or the lack of it. This situation may change, because requests from thousands of people made the pearl of all premium cable services decide to launch a movie streaming service without the strings of having cable subscription.

It has been repeatedly said that if copyright owners, content creators, and all anti-piracy activists would understand that, everything would become easier and the fruitless war against online piracy would finally come to an end.

Big Brother?

US President Planning Online Wiretapping Law

As you know, the British Labour Government will surely go down in history for its extensive use of CCTV cameras, but in the meanwhile, Barack Obama can become known for his online wiretapping laws.
Media reports say that Barack Obama is going to end the long-running debate over online snooping with a legislation allowing law-enforcement agencies tapping into many types of online communications.

Everyone understands that bringing in this law will surely have political, technical and legal obstacles. Indeed, if Obama gets it through it would really represent a sea change in American culture. Industry experts point out that if he succeeds, the FBI and other agencies will have a right to snoop on voice-over-Internet-protocol (VoIP) services like Skype and real-time chats.

Apparently, it would end a regime where the FBI has difficultly snooping but is able to eavesdrop on traditional telephone calls. Of course, tech firms hate the idea, which would likely face stiff opposition in Congress. At the moment, spooks can ask the courts to wiretap almost anything, but only traditional telecommunications carriers are demanded to make it easy.

The law in question – Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act – doesn’t apply to any of Microsoft’s services, for example. This includes Skype, as it doesn’t class Microsoft as a traditional telecommunications carrier.

Thus, Obama’s new legislation would encompass VoIP, chat and any other online communication services. However, it is still unclear how tech companies could be compelled to help the authorities unscramble encrypted communications, apart from providing access. Actually, Obama’s proposed legislation is a slightly watered down version of what the Federal Bureau of Investigation wants. The FBI had called for a blanket requirement that ISPs provide authorized officials the same kind of sweeping, turn-key access to their networks that phone companies do.

However, tech firms, civil libertarians and some government officials claimed that it was impractical for smaller firms and such back doors can present serious security risks. Some of the critics insist that the fact the President would end up pushing the legislation will make him the punching bag for every American citizen who is already worried about their government.

Duck!!

Asteroid nine times the size of the QE2 to pass Earth

An asteroid nine times larger than the QE2 is due to sail past the Earth later this month.

Luckily, the giant space rock will get no closer than 3.6 million miles, or 15 times the distance between the Earth and the moon.
But once it has passed it will not make a return trip to the Earth for at least another two centuries.
Coincidentally, scientists have named the asteroid 1998 QE2. The name has nothing to do with the transatlantic liner - it follows a code used for newly-discovered asteroids by the US Minor Planet Centre in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
The asteroid is believed to be about 1.7 miles long, or nine times the length of the Queen Elizabeth 2.
It was discovered on August 19, 1998, by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lincoln Near Earth Asteroid Research programme near Socorro, New Mexico.
Scientists plan to scan it with radar using a 230ft wide dish telescope at the Goldstone Observatory in California's Mojave desert.
Even from a distance of nearly four million miles, the researchers expect to resolve features on the asteroid as small as 12ft across.
Chief investigator Dr Lance Benner, from the American space agency Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, said: "It is tremendously exciting to see detailed images of this asteroid for the first time.
"With radar we can transform an object from a point of light into a small world with its own unique set of characteristics."
In 2016 Nasa will launch a robotic sample return mission to one of the most potentially hazardous known near-Earth objects (NEOs), the asteroid (101955) Bennu.
The asteroid, which measures a third of a mile across, comes within 500,000 kilometres of the Earth every six years.
Scientists have calculated that in 2182 there is a one in 1,800 chance of the object colliding with the Earth

Yum…Yum….Jaffa Cakes.

Burglar betrayed by his sweet tooth

A burglar was betrayed by his own sweet tooth when he was unable to resist some Jaffa Cakes at a house in Birmingham.

Reece O'Callaghan, who is starting a seven-and-a-half year jail term, helped himself to the cakes and a pasta meal after breaking into the home of an elderly couple.
He was spotted at the property by a neighbour and police arrested him nearby, but denied he was the culprit.
However, forensic experts found his middle finger imprint on the Jaffa Cake box which meant the evidence "literally pointed" at him, prosecutor Jason Pegg told the City's Crown Court.
The victims, aged 78 and 82, had been away on holiday in July last year when O’Callaghan broke into their home by smashing a window.
Once inside he satiated his appetite before stealing the valuables, including three televisions.
udge William Davis QC said his actions had left the couple "devastated."
They had returned home to find that their house was a “mess”.
The wife, the judge noted, had been unable to stop crying and that they were "mourning the loss" of sentimental items from their home which could not be replaced because they had been unable to afford house insurance.
O'Callaghan, of West Heath, who had previously pleaded guilty to two charges of burglary and aggravated burglary, was given a sentence of seven-and-a-half years detention.
The judge said that in a separate incident in December last year the defendant and another young man had "invaded" the home of man, who had befriended them and who had "significant health problems."
"Armed with a knife you used violence against him and you took his property."
They had also carried out a second raid, armed with a screwdriver, and stolen some of the victim's medication.
The 17-year-old, who had admitted aggravated burglary and burglary, was sentenced to four-and-a-half years detention.

Worth Every Penny!

Dog owner remortgages home to offer £10,000 reward

A dog lover whose pet was snatched five months ago has remortgaged her three-bedroom home so she can offer a £10,000 reward for information leading to the animal's return.

Dawn Maw, 42, was putting pointer Angel, one of just two show champion gun dogs in the country, into the boot of her car along with her three other dogs when she was taken on December 6 last year.
But now, the mother-of-one – who has travelled the length and breadth of the UK to find her dog – has remortgaged her £160,000 semi-detached home in the hope someone will come forward for the reward.
She said: "I didn't tell the bank what I needed the money for. My husband was a little dubious before we approached the bank, but he would never have stopped me because Angel was part of the family and we all miss her.
"We've managed to raise money which we've put towards raising awareness of Angel.
"I've published 18,000 posters, 70,000 business cards and 30,000 fliers, and spent about £5,000 on advertising, but she's still not been found."
She admits taking the equity has left her family making sacrifices – they've had to forgo holidays and meals out – but Ms Maw insists it's all worth it, as Angel is part of the family.
"She wasn't just a dog, she was everything to us, a real family member. She wasn't a dog we'd take for a walk once a day then forget about," said Ms Maw, of Barnsley, South Yorks.
"It's devastated the whole family. People have said to me, 'why don't you just get a new dog?'
"But it's not like getting a new car. You can't just replace her. That's why it was so important to get this money, so we know we're doing everything we can to get her back.
"I still have hope we'll find her. It's been five months but the biggest hope we have is her chip. Hopefully someone will find her and a vet will scan her, because she's microchipped."
Ms Maw has been working with Bruce Forsyth's daughter Debbie Matthews, who's launched a campaign called Vets Get Scanning, and introduced 'halo scanners' which cost just under 30 pounds and are more accessible than regular scanners.
Ms Maw said she had been walking four-and-a-half-year-old Angel and her three other dogs in Cawthorne, Barnsley, and was putting the animals in the back of the car when Angel disappeared.
"As I turned around I saw a white Transit van," she said.
"It was 7.30am and it had only just got light.
"She was obviously stolen and whoever has got her doesn't want to give her up. Whether she was stolen to order, I don't know."