Technabob » illegal

Fbi Probes Case of Alleged School Spying on Students via Webcam

Shane McGlaun — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 11:30:57 +0000

Back when I was in school, I often suspected that the teachers were dumbasses. I was never able to get the proof I needed back then, but a bunch of outright morons at a school district in Pennsylvania have proven me correct once and for all. There is some serious trouble brewing over allegations that the district was spying on students using the webcams in school issued Apple notebooks.

The whole thing started when a student at Harriton High School in Lower Merion district was called in to see vice principal Lindy Matsko back on November 11, and told that he was “engaged in improper behavior in his home” and cited as evidence a photo captured on his computer by the webcam. The student and his family filed suit against the district, which the FBI got wind of and launched on official probe. The school said the remote activation is a security feature to help recover stolen notebooks.

To put the moron icing on the dumbass cake, the district says that the paperwork the students signed (mostly underage students mind you) to get the school issued notebooks said that the webcams could be activated without prior notification. The parents and families of the students were never notified of the webcam activation clause, henceforth known as the clause of absolute stupidity. Witold Walczak legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania said, “This is an age where kids explore their sexuality, so there’s a lot of that going on in the room. This is fodder for child porn.”

Brilliant.

[via Washington Post]

Rock Band Unplugged for the Psp Leaked on Torrent Sites

Lambert Varias — Thu, 21 May 2009 11:30:18 +0000

To the people who keep on saying that the PSP’s biggest problem is that it doesn’t have a 2nd analog stick, screw you. This is the PSP’s biggest problem in action: copies of Harmonix’ Rock Band Unplugged for the Playstation Portable are already up in torrent sites, nearly 3 weeks before the June 9 release date.

This is a development that I became aware of after conducting thorough research – namely, hearing about it from a friend and then Googling it.

However, a number of people are reporting that the game – or at least the one they downloaded illegally – wipes out the GAME folder on their PSP once they exit the game or turn off the system. A lot of minor issues are also being reported by the digital pirates, such as their system hanging or other songs refusing to load. Still, the game has been downloaded more than 13,000 times, and that’s just a metric from one torrent site.

PSP owners who want to do things the right way – I know you’re out there somewhere - can pre-order the game here for $40 USD.

Slurpr: Fast Free Wi-Fi Access, With a (Big) Catch

Technabob — Tue, 29 May 2007 13:09:06 +0000

Slurpr may sound like another “Web 2.0″ site, but it’s actually a piece of networking hardware. The beastly device, designed by Dutch hacker Mark Hoekstra, is designed to aggregate a bunch of Wi-Fi access points into one big fat high speed connection.

The device automatically seeks out the six strongest open Wi-Fi channels, connects to all of them, and combines the signals into a massively fast ‘net connection.

Of course, we all know that using open wireless access points is against the law in many countries, so you and I would never use such a device. However, for those of your into defying authority, you can read more about the Slurpr here.

[via Engadget]