Woooaah … truckloads.

There are 1001 blog-worthy things to blog in my blog about.

Sadly, time (lusty and blithe) is at his apogee.

In brief, I have:

• Had a shave, since the last blog post;
• Upgraded The Surgery WordPress blog from 2.8.3 to 2.9;
• Moved WordPress blog from Fedora 9 machine with crappy dynamic IP address (it was killing me) to shiny Fedora 11 machine with static IP address;
• Marveled at my ability to upgrade WordPress, SQL databases and move them across Linux machines, AND make grown-up changes to DNS zone files – am surely a guru of such things now and legend in my own lunchbox;
• Undertaken 2 of 8 Tech Talk Radio Summer Series productions, time-consuming but rewarding;
• Upgraded the HTC Dream / Google phone to the next Android operating system, very successful;
• Teetered on the brink of e-mail bankruptcy;
• Ordered a new PC for Christmas;
• Ventured inside an Apple Store for the very first time, and escaped by making only a minor purchase (a new iPod Touch); and
• Just today, assisted Mrs Dr Ron in restoring her iTunes library, after she deleted all the music files from her PC’s hard disk  - successfully achieved restoration by using a third-party app called iRip which we’ve spoken about on Tech Talk in the past (thanks JD, saviour of Dr Ron’s marriage).

I have also Tweeted mercilessly about our well-intentioned (yet incompetent, foolish and mis-informed) Senator for Communications and the Digital Economy, Stephen Conroy.  In case you hadn’t caught up with the news (which the good Senator saved until after the last live episode of Tech Talk for 2009), Australia will be ranked highly with the United Arab Emirates, Iran and China in its foolish deployment of an ISP-based Net Filter.

Adam Turner has had a lot to say about this, and made a clever analogy with a different type of infrastructure.  His blog posts here and here in The Age last week should be mandatory reading.

I’ll blog in more detail about these and other things soon.

I hope you have a great Chrissy and a safe and prosperous New Year.

#nocleanfeed · adam turner · andorid · apple · apple store · blog · fedora · Google Phone · HTC Dream · ipod touch · irip · linux · net filter · news · stephen conroy · tech talk · Tech Talk Radio · the age · the age tech · updates · what's happening · wordpress

Last week the Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission released its Interim Report into the tragic events of the 7th of February 2009.

On Tech Talk Radio we discussed the Interim Report with respect to identified technology issues, and technological recommendations which the Royal Commission might make for the 2009–10 bushfire season.

• The Interim Report is publicly available and can be viewed here (link to external site).
• The Panel’s discussion about the Interim Report can be downloaded here (MP3 audio file – 13 minute discussion – file size 12 MB).

bushfires · royal commission · tech · Tech Talk Radio

Susan McLean (Cyber Safety Solutions) and Andrew McColm (Evolving Communications) spoke about internet safety and cyber-bullying this afternoon, with Carole Whitelock on ABC Adelaide.

Susan now works in the corporate arena and provides advice and assistance to organisations like schools, sporting bodies, psychologists, child protection agencies and medical practitioners.

Susan on Tech Talk Radio, 23/03/2009

You can download today’s audio segment here.
(Right-click / Save As… to save the file to your computer.  Approx 8MB file size.)

abc · abc adelaide · andrew mccolm · carole whitelock · child safety · cyber bullying · cyber safety · susan mclean · Tech Talk Radio · TTR

On Tech Talk Radio this week we spoke about the current onslaught of “Commonwealth Bank” hoax emails, requesting or “phishing” for account details or personal information.

Source: Commonwealth Bank

Normally I wouldn”t give these schemes the time of day, but the size of this current campaign bombarding our mail servers is enormous.

The ‘real’ Commonwealth Bank site says:

“The Commonwealth Bank does not send emails requesting you to confirm, update or disclose your confidential banking information.”

Well that sounds pretty simple, doesn’t it?

The problem is that unscrupulous spammers are riding the wave of the Commonwealth’s success, registering similar or deceptive domain names and sending hundreds of thousands of spam messages, in an effort to elicit a response from unwary Commonwealth customers.

Messages purporting to be from the following domains have all tried relaying through my mail server in the last 24 hours:

commbiz.commbank.com.au
commonwealths.com
commbank.au.com
bankofthecommonwealth.com
thecommonwealth.org
commbnk.com
commbank.net.au

…and the list goes on.

Fortunately SpamAssassin seems to be knocking them all on the head, by my server at least.

But not all mail servers run real-time anti-spam software, and lots of servers are delivering these messages.

Technology journalist Angus Kidman, writing for APC Magazine, says that the sheer variety of messages means that many anti-spam services are finding it impossible to identify all the problem emails, even if their text sounds familiar and seems easy to detect; also that according to email security vendor MessageLabs (a division of Symantec), in the first week of the campaign more than 22 different core messages were being sent out en masse, with more than 11 variants.

Read the APC article here.

So what can you do to combat the problem?

• Make sure you’re running anti-spam software, and a good email software (like Mozilla Thunderbird, NOT like Microsoft Outlook Express) that detects and quarantines spam;
• DON’T CLICK ON or RESPOND TO spam emails – doing so just verifies to the spammer that your email address is legitimate and active, and invites a thousand-fold increase in spam to your email address;
• Never disclose personal information or credit card details online, unless you’re 100% confident about the security of the website you’re visiting.  Always double-check SSL certificates and the website address in your web browser’s title bar.

If in doubt, don’t click!

apc · apc magazine · commonwealth · commonwealth bank · commonwealth bank spam · email · email scam · hoax email · junk · phishing · spam · Tech Talk Radio · thunderbird · TTR

Wow.

It’s only taken us six months.

Have a look.

Photo: Robert Broomhead (Monday night's guest)

Tech Talk Radio · TTR · ustream · ustream.tv · webcam

Have you ever watched one of those fancy “webinars” or live video podcasts, and wondered how they broadcast “picture in picture” with different camera angles, or clever switching between cameras, desktop demonstrations and pre-recorded video?

I always thought fancy video switching hardware was required, not to mention some big, big bucks.

But… not so!

I was perusing the Ustream.tv help centre today, and saw a topic which immediately grabbed my eye: “…quickly and easily add scrolling text, logos, RSS feeds, special guests windows, picture in picture, pre-recorded video…”

Woooa, are they serious?  It can’t be that easy, can it?

Yep, it sure is.  Straight away I clicked the link to download WebcamMax for the PC.  This is a nifty utility which gives you significantly more control over your webcam and imaging devices than the default Ustream “broadcast applet”.  My mission was to set-up a “picture in picture” video stream, and it only took a matter of minutes to get this working with WebcamMax.

Setup and installation

Download the 8 MB installer.  Setup is fairly painless and after clicking the “Try” button (you get a 30 day free trial) you’re asked to nominate which applications you want WebcamMax to control video.  I unticked all except UStream.  Then you’re presented with an intuitive GUI which displays any video source that’s currently connected to your PC.  In my case, this was video from a traditional camera, piped through an external USB device like this one.

Next, click on the ‘Sources’ button.  The ‘Main Source’ is your primary video input, and ‘Webcam’ is selected by default.  Look to the right and you’ll see that you can select any other video source simply by clicking the combo box.  Now I’ve also got an in-built webcam in the netbook, which appears as ‘USB video device’.  I switched to that and suddenly I’m looking through the eye of a different camera.  WebcamMax makes it easy to switch between cameras or video sources in this way.

Click the combo to select your main source video device.

You can also click other items in the list, such as:

• ‘Screen’ – live-streams the desktop, by following your mouse pointer or sending the entire screen;
• ‘Movie’ – streams a movie of choice;
• ‘Picture’ – sends a JPG or other image (defaulting to your ‘My Pictures’ folder); and
• ‘Color’ – which lets you set a background colour of any desired shade.

Picture in Picture

But how good is this? Click the button at the bottom of the list control labelled ‘PinP Source 1′.  The same controls appear, duplicated, for a different video source.  Wow!  In no time at all I can display my netbook webcam as a picture inside the main picture.  No expensive video amplifiers or professional switching equipment required!

Picture-in-picture, just like that!

You can get much, much cleverer than this.  Play around with the advanced options and you can move the position of your “picture in picture”, maintain proportions or re-scale, and even have images display as a slide-show.

But wait, there’s more!

I only needed WebcamMax to do “picture in picture”, but it does heaps more than that.  By opening the ‘Effects’ dialogue you can simulate a chroma-key function with different backgrounds.  You can add lighting and shadow effects, grid lines, digital snow, scrolling text… the list goes on.  Select from local or online effects libraries.  There’s even a record feature which lets you write an AVI file to a local disk.

But how does it work with Ustream.tv?

WebcamMax emulates a video device in software.  This means that when you start the Ustream.tv broadcast applet, the WebcamMax “device” will appear in your Video Source drop-down, like this:

The Ustream.tv broadcast applet.  Note the 'Video Source' combo -
just select WebcamMax Capture and you're done.

Simply select WebcamMax as your video device and start broadcasting!

Road test

We’ll put WebcamMax through the hoops over the next few weeks at Tech Talk.  We’ll let you know how it performs, and we’ll listen to your feedback too.  One thing we’re mindful of is not becoming too distracted by the studio webcam; it is, after all, designed to supplement a radio programme, and 99% of our listeners don’t watch the webcam.  We’re hoping to change that, and we hope that using cool utilities like WebcamMax will help us along the way.

Visit the website: http://webcammax.com/

Tech Talk Radio · webcam · WebcamMax

A few weeks ago I spoke with Ben May and Mike Beckham on their popular home-grown podcast, The Ploy.

Mike asked me about the National Broadband Network; and the proposed Net Filter and its implications for the future of Australian internet.

Download this episode of The Ploy here.

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The new, improved, bigger and better Tech Talk Radio 2009 returns live to Melbourne’s 3WBC on Monday, 2nd February at 8:00 PM, Australian Eastern Summer Time.

We’ll be streaming audio live for Windows, iTunes and WinAmp, and with any luck you’ll be able to see the live broadcast from the studio webcam, viz:

You can also follow Andrew and follow Dr Ron on Twitter for the latest updates.

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Here ’tis… the audio kicks-in after a few minutes:

We’ll advertise this properly next week, for our last show of 2008.

Don’t forget to tune in!

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“Most people from what I can see are against mandatory ISP filtering. The arguments are both ideological and technical…” - Liam Tung, ZDNet

Akin to Tech Talk Radio’s “Website of the Week” and “Gadget of the Week”, I now present Dr Ron’s inaugural Joke of the Month.

This “net filter” fiasco is really starting to get out-of-hand.  In fact, I can’t believe that it’s progressed as far as it has.

In a nutshell, the Government wants to introduce internet content filtering in the network for all Australians. “In the network” means that the filtering is done by your Internet Service Provider, as opposed to a client-based filtering package like Net Nanny for example.

Furthermore, the Government intends to decide what is, and isn’t, appropriate for us to be viewing, downloading, storing, streaming and listening to.

I have no problem whatsoever with the Government blocking illegal content.  Illegal content is already blocked on television, in bookstores, video libraries, newspapers and all other forms of mass media.  What is, and isn’t, illegal content is defined by the Commonwealth Classification Board, the Classification Review Board and the Attorney-General’s Department.  I have no issue with content such as child pornography or animal bestiality being prohibited in Australia.

Problem #1 – definition of “unwanted” content.

But the proposal goes beyond blocking prohibited content.  Senator The Honourable Stephen Conroy, Minister for Broadband, Digital Communications and the Economy, now wants to ban unwanted content.  Two weeks ago Senator Conroy indicated his intention to expand on the ACMA’s current blacklist of 1,300 websites, to block an additional 10,000 online gambling sites, adult-content sites and sites, for example, discussing euthanasia and anorexia. (Source: IT News.)

But what if I’m over 18 years old, and want to view adult-content websites? What if I’m a psychiatrist who’s researching Anorexia Nervosa? Or a journalist traveling to Indonesia who Googles the phrase “Jemaah Islamiyah”?

Having published such phrases and sentiments in as little as three lines in a blog post, will Dr Ron’s Surgery, in future, be blocked to Australian internet users?

Mr Conroy told parliament: “While the ACMA blacklist is currently around 1,300 URLs, the pilot will test against this list as well as filtering for a range of URLs to around 10,000 so that the impacts on network performance of a larger blacklist can be examined.”

A URL blacklist will do nothing to stop sites hosting illegal content, which change their URLs and IP addresses minute-by-minute.  Illegal content is frequently made available on distributed peer-to-peer file networks which will be entirely impervious to an ISP-based Net Filter.

Unless, of course, the Government decides to block all IP addresses from the United States, as well as China, Korea, India, the United Kingdom and the Middle East.  And especially Russia.  This would make as much sense as any other part of Mr Conroy’s proposal.

The result will be a myriad of false positives whereby legitimate websites, blogs, chat services and media streaming will be unnecessarily blocked from Australian internet users.

Problem #2 – technical realities.

Having established what is and isn’t permissible content, the Government will then legislate for all Internet Service Providers to monitor content and internet usage and actively filter internet traffic before it arrives at our computers.

This is one of the silliest, ill-informed, unworkable and ineffective proposals that most of us in the IT industry have ever heard of.

While the Government has committed to fund a National Broadband Network to provide high-speed internet to Australians, the Net Filter system will significantly slow internet traffic as ISPs become legally obliged to monitor URLs and IP addresses, match these against a blacklist provided by the ACMA, and only allow traffic to and from “acceptable” servers.

A report tendered by the ACMA to Mr Conroy showed that the implementation of such a system will slow internet speeds from anywhere between 2% and 87% (source: Herald Sun).  Any reduction in internet speed is bad.  We should be aiming for faster internet access, not introducing technology which is guaranteed to slow down our internet access.

Introducing an ISP-based net filter reduces internet efficiency; creates increased technical workload for ISPs; diminishes the ability for parents to choose what type of content is and isn’t permissible for their children; and costs huge amounts of taxpayer money to implement, regulate and police.

Problem #3 – What comes next?

I agree with Graeme Callaghan (Australian IT industry expert – panelist on Tech Talk Radio) that the next logical progression following Government-mandated net filtering will be the prohibition of encryption.

The Government will soon realise that filtering doesn’t work, especially when internet traffic is encrypted.

This is analogous to the absurd situation in Australia in the 1990s when the introduction of Telstra ISDN products and the implementation of GSM phone networks were delayed, until such time that Australia’s intelligence agencies were satisfied that the encryption being used was not so strong that communications couldn’t be intercepted.

The difference then was that the Australian Government was able to regulate the carriers by passing legislation.  In the present scenario, while the Australian Government can’t regulate the operation of the internet outside of Australia, it will try to control content within Australia which is sent and received here on our telecommunications networks.

When the Government realises that the content of encrypted emails, and SSL-encrypted web traffic, can’t be monitored or intercepted, it will need to save face by banning encryption technologies altogether.

The option of legislating a minimum encryption level will be unworkable.  As the Net Filter could slow normal internet traffic by up to 87%, imagine the effect that a Net Filter would have if it needed to crack, decrypt and analyze secure communications as well.  The result would be a completely unusable network.

Where to from here?

The real problem lies in complacency.  It will be too easy for a mandatory Net Filter to be implemented, if we sit on our hands and pretend there’s nothing we can do.

We need to educate the majority of people who say, “Oh, stopping children from seeing pornography in schools… that’s a good idea.”  There are right ways to do this; but there’s also a very, very wrong way.

Write to your local MP. Inform and educate.  Support the Electronic Frontiers Association.  Do not sit idly by as Australia becomes an international laughing-stock, and second-only to China for its draconian Government-regulated internet.

Interesting Links

Senator Stephen Conroy’s responses to questions from viewers of Channel 7’s Sunrise programme.

Adam Turner is a freelance technology journalist.  He is also a proponent of the Clean Australian Internet, and raises some important points in his IT Wire blog entry, “Bypass Australia’s internet filters for free“.

Recent IT News article: Senator Conroy expands reach of Net Filters to “unwanted content”.

Slashdot talks about Australian ISP iiNet trialling the Government’s Net Filter proposal… just to expose it’s flaws.

The ABC’s Mark Newton says that Filter Advocates need to Check their Facts.

On this week’s TTR, The Panel speaks with Colin Jacobs from the Electronic Frontiers Association.

Also, you should follow the EFA on Twitter.

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