Political Cartoon of the Week

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What do you mean. YOU need a bailout??

PUT.IO an honest review

I am going to start this review with a disclaimer. PUT.IO is a website service I subscribe to. They emailed me recently offering me a couple of months free usage of their service if I wrote an honest review. They were pretty insistent about the honesty bit. They insisted I talk about positive or negative experiences I have had with their service.

I had been meaning to write an article about their service so I guess this is as good a time as any other.

I came across PUT.IO around six months ago when it was recommended to me by a friend. For those of you who are not familiar with the service, PUT.IO is a specialized cloud storage system. It comes with a diverse set of useful tools:

• Cloud torrent application
• MP4 converter
• The ability to schedule torrent downloads with an RSS feed
• Video streaming (Browser and other internet steams)

Why would I want a cloud torrent application? For two primary reasons. Speed and security. One of the disadvantages of running with torrents is connections are peer-to-peer which means bad guys like the Russian mafia and RIAA can snoop on what you are downloading. Since PUT.IO is doing the downloading, your downloads are private and incredibily fast. 

If you select your media from ThePirateBay Top 100 Files, then downloads are pretty much instant. If you are like me and have a few regular files that are released weekly, you can use the schedule option so that your media is automatically downloaded and waiting for you to watch at your convenience. 

Have a look at a schedule service like http://showrss.karmorra.info/

I think without a doubt the ultimate feature of this service for me is the speed at which you can start consuming your media. Normally I can add any file I want and be watching it within 20 seconds. For someone like me in bandwidth starved South Africa this is important. 

Torrent traffic in South Africa is heavily shaped (slowed down), so one of the added advantages of using PUT.IO is the HTTPS encryption which not only means your traffic is unshaped, it also makes it harder for someone to spy on you.

If you run a Plex or XBMC media player for your home entertainment system, then you will be happy to learn that there are plugins to allow you to stream the media content directly to your main screen. 

Well... thats a short breakdown of the positive side of PUT.IO, now I guess its onto the negative. They are a new service working with some amazing concepts, and a lot of what they are working with is beta type, cutting edge technology. So there have been some teething issues as they have expanded. I also am looking forwards to the day that one of the proxy servers are located in South Africa so I can get even better streaming speeds.

On at least three occasions in the last 6  months there has been lengthy service disruptions. In their defence the last one was caused by one of their datacenters and was beyond their control. They do communicate with you via Facebook and Twitter when there are service issues. The only other complaint I have is with the mp4 conversion times which can be frustratingly slow sometimes. 

All in all I believe it to be a very useful service, one that I am happily willing to pay for monthly. I love it that I can pick any media I want and be watching it on any device in seconds. I can watch it on my XBMC media player, I can watch it on my S3 Samsung phone and I can watch it on my 10" Samsung Android Tablet.

Go check them out, they are a fantastic web based service: https://put.io/

David Bowie on the ISS

First music video ever shot in space. A revised version of David Bowie's Space Oddity, recorded by Commander Chris Hadfield on board the International Space Station.

Be sure to follow all his social networking feeds!

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/Cmdr_Hadfield

Facebook: www.facebook.com/AstronautChrisHadfield?­­fref=ts

Google+: https://plus.google.com/+ChrisHadfield/posts

KdenLive error: Unsupported audio codec: libmp3lame

I wanted to do some video editing on Ubuntu with some of the awesome open source tools out there. I thought I would give the video editing software, "KdenLive" and see how it performs.

Video editing was really easy and I was impressed with some of the powerful video editing utilities that come with KdenLive but for some reason when I wanted to render the project as a MP4 I got the following error:

Unsupported audio codec: libmp3lame 

That was very perplexing because I was sure I had all the right packages to render my project. It seemed like there was a configuration error with KdenLive. So after much googling I came across the following two simple steps to resolve this issue:

1) Browse to: /home/USERNAME/.kde/share/config
2) Delete the file called : kdenliverc

That is it. Fire up KdenLive and you can render away.

EDIT: This fix also fixes the following error:  Video codec libx264 is not supported 

#infowarspickuplines

Infowars is a far right wing crackpot conspiracy theory website  run by Alex Jones. They believe crazy stuff like Obama organized the Boston Bombings.... and Michelle Obama is hiding the real killer and that the Newtown Murders are a hoax. It is just sad right wing anti-government propaganda.

A hilarious hashtag sprung into existence on Twitter recently that I thought was funny and worth sharing This Rachel Maddow video explains Infowars and the people behind it very well.

An example of some of the funnier tweets

You're super hot, but not because of greenhouse gasses. #infowarspickuplines
— Johnny B. (@LazyBrainGames) April 26, 2013

I'm feeling Illuminaughty #infowarspickuplines
— Dave Gilson (@daudig) April 26, 2013

#InfoWarsPickupLines Look, we both visit infowars.com regularly, it's not like we have a lot of options...
— Derek Hunter (@derekahunter) April 26, 2013

#InfoWarsPickUpLines Baby, was your father in the CIA's mind-control experimentation lab? Because you're making me MK ULTRA HARD.
— DepressiveBlogger69 (@AceofSpadesHQ) April 26, 2013

How about we get illuminaughty and you show me your nude world order? #infowarspickuplines via @sabokitty
— Occupy Wall Street (@OccupyWallStNYC) April 26, 2013

Check out the  #infowarspickuplines
Tweets about "#infowarspickuplines"

Lets Talk Gun Control: Australia vs Switzerland

So with all the major shootings and firearm attacks happening in America the gun control debate is at the forefront of many online and offline discussions. I thought it would be apt to share some of my findings and some of the opinions I have come across on the issue of gun control.

The first thing I need to make clear. Is that no one is calling for all firearms to be banned. You need to understand this clearly before we can proceed. The Gun Lobby (people who sell firearms), have spent a heck of a lot of cash into convincing low information voters that their right to own firearms is being taken away.

This is not true at all. This is FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) that the Gun Lobby are sowing to muddy the waters. Its actually important for you to understand FUD and MTW tactics, but to stay on topic in this article I will just link to the relevant information).

What liberals do want to see is progressive gun reform. Meaning that should someone want to purchase a gun... that there is a paper trail. That the person who purchased the firearm has proved they are mentally and technically qualified to own a firearm

So let me make it clear. All you hunters, armed security guards and responsible citizens have NOTHING to worry about. If you are not bat shit crazy, you will still be able to purchase a firearm once you have shown that you are responsible enough to be in possession of such a dangerous object.

Right now you can walk into Walmart (state specific) and buy an Assault Rifle over the counter. You can have a criminal record (say rape or attempted murder) and purchase firearms at a gun show or online with absolutely NO background checks! You cant buy a Kinders Toy at Walmart but you can buy an assault rifle there!

To the South Africans reading this. I want you to imagine how it would be in South Africa, if criminals were able to purchase firearms at Checkers (with no background checks). How would it be in South Africa if I could buy assault rifles online (with no paper work or background checks)? We have a tough time here in SA. Will selling weapons like that make it better or worse for us?

So now that I have clearly dealt with some of the misinformation that the Gun Lobby is spreading  we can now get onto the empirical evidence and the comparison between Australia and Switzerland that I wanted to show you. I will also be throwing in some information from the United States of America.

Switzerland is often toted by the Gun Lobby as an IdealOrg Gun country. A country where everyone owns a gun and gun related crimes are pretty low. The Gun Lobby do kinda have a point. In so far that yes, Switzerland is a country with a very high percentage of firearms and yes, gun deaths are not as high in Switzerland as they are in America.

However, that's only part of the story. Yeah there are less gun related homicides. There are also less homicides over all. Switzerland does not suffer badly from the instability of social inequality that countries like the USA have. It makes sense that they would have less crime and ergo less gun homicides than most countries.

However, here is the kicker. Even with everyone and the kitchen sink owning a firearm. Mass murders with firearms still happen. In 2001 a mass murderer took his firearm and shot up the Swiss parliament (one of the most secure and gun protected places in Switzerland). He ended up killing 14 people and injuring another 14.

 So even in a country, where everyone has a firearm , mass murders with firearms still happen.

Now I hope you can see where I am going with this. The Gun Lobby tells us that the solution to end gun violence is more guns. It didn't help those massacred in Switzerland.

 Let me bring America into this quickly to reinforce the point I am trying to make. In 2009 a mass murderer with a gun went on a killing rampage in Fort Hood, Texas. Let that sink in. A guy with a rifle attacked an entire base of people with rifles. 13 people were killed and 30 injured.

So what I can (and I hope you can) deduct from this is that more guns does NOT mean less violent mass murder gun shootings. An entire army base of guys with rifles did not stop the Texas psychopath from going full crazy and shooting up people.

Now lets get back to the Switzerland vs Australia debate. In Australia, they were faced with similar problems that America is now facing. There were regular mass murders with firearms. I believe that there were 13 mass killings in 18 years. A massive amount!

So what did Australia do? Did they go the American way and give everyone a gun? No. The conservative government brought in some very very strict gun regulations. These regulations are so effective that since John Howard (a conservative) introduced them, there has not been a single mass killing in the whole of Australia.

So far as mass killings are going. Australia is doing better than Switzerland. The empirical evidence has spoken.

I think the person who made this point the best was John Oliver from The Daily Show (the most trusted name in new.... no really!) says it best:

Please watch the following video.

So what the conclusion to all of this? Well, I have given you some interesting and relevant information to work with. I have shown you how different countries with different gun laws handle this issue. 

I guess it comes down to what do YOU think is more important. A safer society (with progressive gun regulations) or a society where gun profits are more important (with no gun regulations). 

What is it like to have a Linux Gnome3 Desktop?

I often get asked what it is like to have a Linux desktop instead of a Microsoft desktop. This quick video shows you what it is like to navigate around my Gnome3 desktop running on Ubuntu (12.04) Linux.

As you can see by the video, running a Linux Gnome 3 desktop is awesome! Download your copy of Ubuntu with the Gnome 3 desktop (called Ubuntu Gnome Remix)  here:  https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuGNOME/ReleaseNotes/12.10

South African Artoo Website gets hacked

Well it looks like the incompetence in our ANC run government is not just limited to the ruling NEC. Recently the government implemented the new Artoo system. This is a computerized system that South Africans use to register their cars and to pay their traffic fines through.

It seems that despite all the money thrown at it, competent security specialists were not hired and the Artoo website has being hacked by a Bangladeshi hacker. By the looks of things the hacker is also a young child.

The incompetence and lack of skilled professionals securing the Artoo website, means that its very easily possible that your private data is now in the hands of criminal gangs.

Anyone who visited the Artoo website (http://www.aarto.gov.za/) on the 24th of April 2013 was greeted by the following defacement:

When you visit the Artoo website you greeted with the image above and the following cute South Korean song playing.

While this is not the most sophisticated hack we have ever seen, it made a couple of us around the office grin.

How to make a redstone trap in Minecraft

This is a quick guide to teach you how to make a redstone trap in Minecraft. This will only make sense to people who enjoy Minecraft.

This trap is great for taking out greifers who are looking to steal your stuff.

Safe online banking advice

I decided to write this for my family but thought I would share it out to a broader audience  Recently my sister called me on my mobile to ask why some people claiming to be from Microsoft had phoned her about problems she had on her laptop.

Shocked at the phone call she did the right thing and gave me a call where I informed her it was a scam and they were trying to infect her computer more. I also learnt at the time that my dad had used her laptop to purchase flight tickets to France and that my dad had gotten a phone call from the banking warning him of attempted illegal transactions.

Luckily in this case the bank (and my sister) were on the ball and no one lost money. My family literally dodged a bullet that has cost many others their entire savings.

One thing that stuck to me in all of this was my sister saying, "but why do they not warn out about this?". She is right, there is often very limited information. So this article will hopefully tell you what is happening and how to protect yourself.

The Scam

The scams are pretty simple. Hackers (through various means I will go into more detail later) get hold of your banking login details. They have criminal cartels throughout the world and South Africa is no exception.

Once they have identified their victim and have harvested enough information about that victim (cellphone details, address, telephone number, ID and banking credentials)... they will have on of their local operatives phone a local cell phone company and by using a little social engineering and pretending to be you, they will get you sim swap done on your cellphone without you knowing.

They will then login to your bank account. Intercept all your OTP`s (one time passwords normally sent via SMS) because of the sim swap and transfer all your money into a temporary account. This temporary account is normally another victim who has being conned into providing them an account to use. It is then transferred out the country and you can basically kiss that money good bye.

The banks will always blame you and tell you is your fault. Your money is gone and there is almost no legal recourse available to you.

How do they get your banking details?

There are several popular ways to do this. First I need to tell you about the mindset of these hackers. These hackers are poor, 3rd world, mostly of Eastern European decent. They live in such poverty that the average bank account of the average middle class South African is a gold mine. They will dedicate a large part of their time totally to you if they feel they can score a paycheck off you.

The two most common forms are getting the banking details are through phishing and java drive-by.

Phishing emails most of you are familiar. It is that email claiming to be from your bank that says something or other has happened and you need to login to confirm or update your details. Or they may look like they come from SARS or another respected institution. This is an example of one of the scammers emails:

A payment of R4,067.14 has been made into your account from SARS eFilingIn other to process and confirm this payment,Please click here
Note: This email was sent from a secure server,please SIGNON to email us as mails sent to this address cannot be answered.

What happens when you click on the link (link removed for safety reasons) is that it takes you to a fake bank or SARS website that looks like the real deal. People input their login details and that information is sent directly to criminal cartels.

The next most common form of attack is the Java drive-by. In most cases there is very little you can do to protect yourself from these attacks. While keeping the most up to date version of Java running on your PC, and having a really powerful antivirus can help to some regards. It is almost impossible to fully protect your system from these type of attacks.

Basically all the hacker needs to do is get you to visit a website. That is it. The second you visit the website a java payload is installed on your computer (you do not need to interact with the payload for it to install, just visiting the website is enough). Once the payload is installed the hacker has full control over your computer and what they normally do is install a keylogger to record all your usernames and passwords for everything.

The scary thing about these type of attacks is that even visiting trusted websites only is not good enough. Hackers often target trusted websites that have weak security to upload their Java attacks onto it. So you the unsuspecting victim comes along to a website that is normally safe and bam. You are infected.

As long as you run Microsoft Windows there is basically little you can do to stop these type of hacks. It is one of the reasons Google banned Microsoft Windows from its network.

My bank has One Time Passwords. I am safe!

No you are not. Criminal cartels around the world are working closely together. A hacker will simply apply for a sim swap and steal your number to be able to accept the One Time Passwords. There is no cellular network that is safe from this. Just recently a lady lost almost R160 000 to such a scam:

The scourge of SIM swap fraud in South Africa is continuing unabated, with an MTN subscriber complaining that scammers stole R159,000 out of four of her ABSA accounts.
Small business owner Susan De Klerk recently said that she purchased an iPhone 5, and the requirement for a nano SIM meant that a SIM swap was needed.

According to De Klerk, she visited an MTN outlet at the “Mall @ Reds” shopping centre for her SIM swap, and the process was completed without incident. However, her new SIM stopped working after around three weeks.

She discovered shortly afterwards that fraudsters had stolen R159,000 from four of her ABSA accounts, and transferred the money to an account at Capitec bank.

Source

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What can I do protect myself?

So far the best protected banks are Nedbank and Capitec. They use those little authentication electronic keys instead of One Time Passwords.  I assume the other banks are going to go down this road shortly as more and more of their clients have their life savings stolen from them.

If you can afford it. Rather buy a dedicated Linux computer to do your online banking on. Linux uses its own version of Java that is more secure and seldom targeted by hackers. Linux desktops offer the most resilient protection against Java attacks.

If you can not afford a dedicated Linux desktop or just could not be bothered. There are a few things you can do to reduce the chances of your Windows desktop being compromised.

• Make sure your antivirus is ALWAYS up to date. 
• Make sure your operating system is ALWAYS up to date.
• Run a spyware remove (Malware-Bytes) regularly. 
• Make sure Java is at its latest version
• Make sure Flash it as its latest version
• Try not visit dodgy websites
• Never run cracked software on your computer (over 80% of it is infected with a payload)
• Do NOT do your banking or even use Internet Explorer. Yes, it is that bad. Stay with Chrome or Firefox.
• Do not trust the default Microsoft antivirus.

Please note that even if you follow all my advice your Windows desktop will almost never ever be fully secure. I would recommend that you migrate to a Linux desktop as soon as you are able to. I hope you find this article a little useful. Ignore it at your own risk.

Some recommended tools for Windows users:

• Avast AntiVirus. My personal preference. I personally think it is the best of the free solutions and for those of you lucky enough to own an Android phone, Avast has a great free security solution. 
• Malwayre-Bytes. As their tag line states. An antivirus by itself is not good enough. You should do deep scans for spyware at least once a month.