Darren Kitchen is here and we’ll talk about the FBI’s identification of North Korea as responsible for the Sony attack. Should we believe them? Also the FCC gets sneaky and gets sneaked upon. Plus Len Peralta bravely illustrates the great leader.

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If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting the show here at the low, low cost of a nickel a day on Patreon. Thank you!

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Thanks to our mods, Kylde, TomGehrke, sebgonz and scottierowland on the subreddit

Show Notes

Today’s guests:  Darren Kitchen,  founder of hak5.org and Len Peralta, author and artist

http://www.patreon.com/len

Headlines

The US FBI announced today that it has concluded that the North Korean government is responsible for the attacks on Sony Pictures Entertainment’s internal systems. The FBI cited similarities in code, infrastructure and tools used in previous attacks they have attributed to North Korea. Meanwhile Ars Technica reports on a public note claiming to be from Guardians of Peace saying Sony could released The Interview as long as it deleted the assassination scene. CNN reported a source from Sony told it that an email was sent asking for all trace of the movie to be eliminated. And the US President said he wish Sony had spoken to him first before bowing to pressure not to release the movie. Sony Entertainment CEO Michael Lynton said his company “spoke to a senior advisor in the White House” and told CNN “We have not given in. And we have not backed down. We have always had every desire to have the American public see this movie,” shifting responsibility to the theater owners.

The Telegraph reports Apple is upset at allegations by the BBC’s Panorama program that workers at a Pegatron plant that makes Apple products are being mistreated. Undercover reporters for Panorama brought back video of sleeping workers and alleged denial of days off, refusal to surrender government IDs and coercion in filling out forms regarding voluntary work choices. Apple senior vice president of operations Jeff Williams said both himself and CEO Tim Cook were “deeply offended by the report. Williams claims suppliers have achieved an average of 93 per cent compliance with the 60-hour workweek limit this year. Pegatron said they were carefully investigating the BBC’s claims, and will take “all necessary actions”.

ReCode reports T-Mobile USA has settled a lawsuit with the US Federal Trade Commission that accused the company of profiting from unauthorized charges known as cramming. At least $90 million will be returned to subscribers who can show that they had to pay the unauthorized charges, which includes $22.5 million in fines that T-Mobile will pay to the states and Federal Communications Commission for the violations. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau sued Sprint for a similar matter earlier this week. AT&T settled a similar FTC complaint in October for $105 million.

Tech Crunch reports that Facebook is releasing a new app today called “Stickered for Messenger”. The app allows users to select one their own images, resize it and paste a virtual sticker on top, then send it to their friends. The app was built by Facebook’s Creative Labs mobile design studio, and it is the first companion app for Messenger. Stickered For Messenger will be available later today on Android and is coming to iOS soon. The Messenger app itself is receiving a speed boost and new animated sending/sent/delivered/read receipts.

Google today filed a lawsuit in Mississippi district court against Mississippi attorney general Jim Hood for serving the search company a “burdensome retaliatory subpoena.” Hood has claimed that Google’s anti-piracy provisions violate a Mississippi consumer protection law. Google has also issued a document preservation notice to both the MPAA and the law firm Jenner & Block, asking them to retain documents related to a so-called Goliath campaign Umm, hello? I think you movie guys just woke a sleeping Goliath.

Reuters reports its sources say Google is working on a version of Android that would be embedded in cars. This would be different than Android Auto which transmits data from a phone to a car’s screen. The embedded version would always work whether a phone was in the car or not. It will supposedly come along with the Android M OS.

GigaOm reports BlackBerry is profitable! One cent a share but STILL! PROFITABLE! It also generated a positive cash flow of $43 million in the last quarter. And the good news pretty much ends there. Smartphone sales were down to 1.9 million from 2.4 million in the previous quarter. Service revenue was also down 12 percent from the previous quarter. But hey, PROFITABLE!

The Washington Post cites industry officials who say the US House of representatives will consider legislation in the new year to prevent ISPs from blocking or slowing down certain websites while also providing a new provision for regulation of broadband providers called Title X. That would make Title II classification unnecessary.

 

Meanwhile the FCC slipped out an official notice of proposed rulemaking to consider widening the definition of a Multichannel Video Programming Distributor to include Internet delivery alongside cable and satellite. The change would technically remove the requirement that an MVPD have transmission facilities thus allowing the use of the Internet as that facility. All that means broadcasters have to negotiate for carriage with anyone who wants to carry multiple channels of live TV.

News From You

Jaymz668 posted a TechDiret column by Timothy Geigner describing a fight in southwest Chicago over whether to add filters to Internet access in the Orland Park Public Library. After a complaint from a mother, the board decided not to install filters but instead ask for ID. However the mother and others have continued to press the board to install filters. Geigner states that open access to the unfiltered Internet for adults should be defended.

spsheridan sent us the Wired UK report that International Space Station commander Barry Wilmore needed a ratcheting socket wrench. Which was kind of a bummer, because he left his on EARTH. Normally, Wilmore would have had to wait months for the next ISS resupply. But the folks who made the 3D printer on the space station overheard th eproblem and whipped up a quick design for the wrench. Then NASA emailed Wilmore the design, he printed it out on the station’s 3-D printer and hey presto SPACE WRENCH!

jaymz668 passes along a Consumerist article about a US Department of Commerce report on broadband competition. At 10 Mbps 70% of US citizens have a choice between two companies and 28% have a choice between 3. Only 85% have 25 Mbps service or faster available. At that speed 37% have a choice between two providers and 9% can choose among three. 59% have access to 100 Mbps service and 8% have a choice between two providers at that speed the rest have one choice. 3% have access to gigabit fiber and only one choice in all those areas.

Discussion Links:

http://www.fbi.gov/news/pressrel/press-releases/update-on-sony-investigation

http://arstechnica.com/security/2014/12/fbi-claims-north-korean-involvement-in-sony-pictures-attack/

http://arstechnica.com/security/2014/12/hackers-tell-sony-the-interview-may-release-now-with-edits/

http://recode.net/2014/12/19/live-blog-president-obama-to-address-north-korean-role-in-sony-hack/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/white-house-says-sony-hack-is-a-serious-national-security-matter/2014/12/18/01eb8324-86ea-11e4-b9b7-b8632ae73d25_story.html

Pick of the Day: 

Tom,

When you were discussing the need for batch renaming tools you mentioned that you would sometimes need this for renaming digital camera files with a date or location instead of just having them named something like IMG_0001.JPG.

I use “geosetter” to read the EXIF header and automatically rename the files with the date the pictures were taken. There are options to choose the date format or embed some descriptive words in the filename.

http://www.geosetter.de/en/

Love the show,
John from Silicon Valley

=====

Thanks for fielding this question, and many thanks for the great feedback from the DTNS community, Alex Hana and Darren Kitchen

While researching this on my own, I stumbled on a web site that crowd sources alternative technology solutions. So, here’s a pick from me:

AlternativeTo
http://alternativeto.net/

(And here’s the one for Truecrypt)
http://alternativeto.net/software/truecrypt/

I haven’t used it a lot yet, but it let’s you ​vote on nominated alternatives, has a review and comments section for each solution.

​Thanks again! Mike​

Facebook Developer’s Conference alert link:

https://www.fbf8.com/portal/preForm.ww

Raj Deut joins us to talk about how Australia wants to START retaining innocent people’s data, and what we actually know about the Sony Pictures attacks.

MP3

Using a Screen Reader? click here

Multiple versions (ogg, video etc.) from Archive.org.

Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.

A special thanks to all our Patreon supporters–without you, none of this would be possible.

If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting the show here at the low, low cost of a nickel a day on Patreon. Thank you!

Big thanks to Dan Lueders for the headlines music and Martin Bell for the opening theme!

Big thanks to Mustafa A. from thepolarcat.com for the logo!

Thanks to our mods, Kylde, TomGehrke, sebgonz and scottierowland on the subreddit

Show Notes

Today’s guest:  Raj Deut, Raj Deut, Lead developer for @efront, writer for @ReckonerAU

Headlines

While CNN and the New York Times reported that a US agency would tie the attacks on Sony Pictures Entertainment to North Korea, we have as yet received no such statement. Instead White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters only that the attack was done by a “sophisticated actor,” and he was not in a position to confirm a nation as responsible. Earnst said the US National Security Council was considering a proportionate response mindful that some organizations or individuals might try to enhance their standing by provoking a specific response. Meanwhile Variety reports a spokesman for Sony saying the studio has no further release plans for “The Interview.” And The Daily Beast reports three movie theaters have said Paramount studios has ordered them to stop planned screenings of Team America: World Police.

The Verge reports Microsoft’s obligation to provide users a screen promoting choices in browsers has expired after five years. Microsoft will remove the so-called Browser Ballot saying, “the Browser Choice Update will no longer be delivered to new users.”

The Next Web reports messaging app maker Line is acquiring Microsoft’s MixRadio music streaming service. MixRadio will continue maintain its personalized music service fro Microsoft’s Lumia phones. MixRadio was developed as a Nokia service before its handset division was acquired by Microsoft. The deal is expected to be completed in early 2015.

Engadget reports that Micromax has revealed its first Yu (that’s Y-U) smartphone, the Yureka (that’s Y-U-reka). The exclusive collaboration with Cyanogen was the reason the OnePlusOne smartphone was banned this week in India. The Yureka costs $142, and has the Cyanogen modified version of Android KitKat. It is the first 64 bit device supported by Cyanogen, although the benefits of that support won’t come until the Cyanogen version of Android Lollipop arrives.

CNET reports Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel was angry and upset by information leaked to the public as part of emails stolen from Sony Pictures Entertainment. In a memo to employees that he later posted on Twitter Spiegel wrote, “I felt like I was going to cry all morning, so I went on a walk and thought through a couple things.” He also wrote: “We keep secrets because we get to do our work free from judgement — until we’re ready to share it. We keep secrets because keeping secrets gives you space to change your mind until you’re really sure you’re right.”

Finally some good news if you’re an Uber executive. TechCrunch reports that Rocket Internet’s Easy Taxi app is no longer coming to India. Easy Taxi will also scale down operations in Hong Kong and Indonesia in order to focus on other markets. Stiff competition and wads of cash raised by Uber and SoftBank-backed Grab Taxi may have contributed to the move. Easy Taxi covers 160 cities in 40 countries with a focus on emerging markets.

Hey Windows Phone users, The Verge reports Microsoft has started rolling out the Lumia Denim updates to its Lumia devices. Among the changes are a new Lumia Camera update that is faster and supports 4K-quality videos. The updates are not coming to all phones in all countries at once. A wider rollout of Lumia Denim to all Lumia smartphones running Windows Phone 8.1 is expected to begin in early January. Till then you may want to keep an eye on the Microsoft support site.

News From You

dmmacs sends us word that Amazon has launched Prime Now, a one-hour delivery option for Amazon Prime members in select areas of Manhattan. Tech Crunch reports that the service will cover tens of thousands of “essential products” like batteries, books and paper towels. The service is accessible via a dedicated Prime Now app for iOS and Android and delivers between 6 a.m. and midnight, seven days a week. One-hour delivery costs $7.99 but two-hour delivery is free for Prime subscribers. The service should roll out to additional cities in 2015.

AllanAV posted the TorrentFreak article that researchers at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands released the first version of their anonymous and decentralized BitTorrent network called Tribler. The service searches for torrents through peers rather than a centralized service and deals with spam by raising trackers with more likes from users. Tribler also includes a built-in Tor-like network which preserves anonymity. Please keep in mind that while many people use torrents for questionable purposes, anonymity and the Bittorrent protocol are not and in my opinion should not be illegal and do not imply criminal activity.

starfuryzeta sent us the amazing story of a man named Les Baugh who now has two bionic arms that he can control with his mind. Engadget reports that Les lost both of his arms at the shoulder level forty years ago. But thanks to a DARPA funded prosthetics project at Johns Hopkins, Les Baugh can now move cups from one shelf to another just by thinking. First he underwent a procedure called muscle reinnervation which reassigned nerves that used to control his arms and hands. The team recorded the patterns his brain makes for each muscle and then they had him control virtual arms to train his brain. Then they designed a custom socket for his torso for the prosthetics and attached the Modular Prosthetic Limbs. Even more amazing, Baugh was able to control a combination of motions across both arms at the same time. What would he like to be able to do with these once he can use them all the time? [[PLAY BITE]] So let’s all raise a glass to RoboLes to celebrate the fact that he can raise one right back at us.

Discussion Links: Australia and Sony

http://www.zdnet.com/article/data-retention-may-have-helped-police-in-sydney-siege-abbott/

http://www.zdnet.com/article/asio-afp-quiet-on-metadata-definition/

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-08-06/security-laws-abbott-browsing-history-not-collected/5652364

http://variety.com/2014/film/news/sony-has-no-further-release-plans-for-the-interview-1201382167/

http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/yonhap-news-agency/141218/royce-n-korea-behind-cyber-attack-sony

http://www.wired.com/2014/12/evidence-of-north-korea-hack-is-thin/

Pick of the Day: Tiesta Tea via Sheala in Georgia

Thought I’d give some balance to the caffeine force with a tea recommendation.

Try Tiesta tea.  They have a great selection of a variety of teas all packed nicely is tins. Haven’t found a flavor I didn’t like yet.

Justin Robert Young and Producer Jennie Josephson chat post-show about the Sony decision to pull The Interview form theaters. It was such a substantial conversation we decided to include it in the feed as a bonus audio track. Hope you enjoy. (This conversation is included at the end of the video version as well.)

MP3

Justin Young is on the show to talk about SnapChat’s moves as shown through leaked emails. SnapChat is not just another social app. Is Evan Spiegel the top CEO of the future?

MP3

Using a Screen Reader? click here

Multiple versions (ogg, video etc.) from Archive.org.

Please SUBSCRIBE HERE.

A special thanks to all our Patreon supporters–without you, none of this would be possible.

If you enjoy the show, please consider supporting the show here at the low, low cost of a nickel a day on Patreon. Thank you!

Big thanks to Dan Lueders for the headlines music and Martin Bell for the opening theme!

Big thanks to Mustafa A. from thepolarcat.com for the logo!

Thanks to our mods, Kylde, TomGehrke, sebgonz and scottierowland on the subreddit

Show Notes

Today’s guest:  Justin Robert Young, DTNS Raconteur & co-host of Night Attack and Weird Things podcast

Also this! Night Attack Comedy Album 3: http://nightattack.tv/album/

Headlines

The Next Web reports on BlackBerry’s announcement of the BlackBerry Classic today in New York. The Classic has a 3.5-inch square 720 x 720 screen similar to the Passport but brings back a physical keyboard. It runs OS 10.3.1 and claims 22 hours of battery life. It also brings back the Brick Breaker game. Preorders are undereway at blackberry.com for $450 unlocked in the US and $499 unlocked in Canada. Devices should ship next week.

The Next Web reports Sony unveiled a clip-on display unit that can attach to any eyewear frames. Yep like a clip-on Google Glass. The accessory has Bluetooth, WiFi, a compass, accelerometer and touch sensors. It shows information using a 640×400 OLED microdisplay, however Sony says the field of view will be equivalent to a 16-inch display 2 meters in front of the viewer. Sony will show the device at CES, go into mass production later this year and hope to sell them in 2016.

Gigaom reports that Dish satellite TV subscribers can now access Netflix on all broadband-connected second-generation Hopper set-top boxes. You can launch the app by clicking the blue button on the DISH remote and selecting the Netflix icon, or from the Netflix icon on the Hopper main menu. Netflix has said they have made pay-TV partnerships a priority in 2015.

Business Insider’s sources say Twitter and Foursquare are planning a partnership to improve location in tweets. Twitter’s current location data is limited to a generalized location tagging option. Future improvements could include more specific location tagging (not just Los Angeles, or West Los Angeles but Mastro’s Steakhouse in Beverly Hills, for example). Another potential improvement, surfacing tweets by proximity. The source says geo-based features could roll out as soon as Q1 2015. Twitter and Foursqaure declined to make any comment on any of this.

TechCrunch reports that the One phone from OnePlus is the latest to be banned in India after a New Delhi court upheld a complaint from rival phone company Micromax. One week before the One launched in India, OnePlus learned about Micromax’s exclusive deal with Cyanogen to use the Cyanogen Android operating system on Micromax’s Yu phone (Y U) in India. The One phone uses Cyanogen everywhere outside China. The court will allow OnePlus to sell its remaining stock. One Plus co-founder Cal Pei said the company is working on its own version of Android. Hurry up!

ReCode reports on former Hulu CEO Jason Kilar’s posting on the Vessel website giving more details about what that video service has to offer creators. 70% of the ad revenue is the big number. That’s compared to the 55% creators get from YouTube. There’s also a cut of the $3 a month subscription fee. Vessel will take 60% of the total subscription money and split it up among creators by usage. Creators only have to agree to a 3-day exclusive for videos they put on Vessel, then they can post them wherever else they want. Vessel will be ad supported for both free and paid versions of its service.

The Hollywood Reporter says the US’s top five theater chains have decided not to play Sony’s movie “The Interview” in response to threats from the attackers who took data from Sony Pictures Entertainment’s internal network. Regal Entertainment, AMC Entertainment, Cinemark, Carmike Cinemas and Cineplex Entertainment have all decided against showing the film. Other smaller chains have also decided not to screen the film. Both Sony Pictures and the National Association of Theater Owners left the decision up to the individual theaters. The Verge’s Bryan Bishop suggested Sony should release the Interview for free online. Variety reports an insider says Sony Pictures Entertainment is weighing releasing the film on premium video-on-demand.

Reuters reports that Amazon staffers at German warehouses extended a strike today in a dispute over better pay and working conditions. Labor union Verdi had launched a three day strike in five of Amazon’s German distribution centers on Monday with a sixth center joining on Tuesday. Now workers at four of the centers will continue the strike until Saturday and one warehouse will strike until December 24th. An Amazon spokeswoman said only a minority of staff had joined the strike and that the company had not seen any delays so far.

Ars Technica reports unknown attackers have used a spearphishing campaign to compromise systems at ICANN the organization that maintains things like the Domain Name System. The attackers got to employee and business contanct info as well as admin access to all files stored in its centralized zone data system used by registries to manage the allocation of TLDs. ICANN recommended account holders of that system immediately change their accounts passwords.

News From You

Johnsie776 pointed out the Ars Technica story that an analysis by the Sunlight Foundation claims that an organization called American Commitment was responsible for 56.5% of the comments in the second round of feedback to the FCC regarding its Open Internet guidelines. The Sunlight Foundation describes American Commitment as “a 501(c)(4) social welfare group founded in 2011. American Commitment said it delivered 808,363 comments “opposing any regulation of the Internet.” About 88% of all responses int he second round were form letters compared to 60% in the first round.

anotherjmartin pointed out the CNET story that Ting Mobile plans to buy Blue Ridge Internet Works in Charlotesville, VA and its 35 miles of fiber network. Ting intends to build out the network to the entire college town and offer gigabit Internet service for less than $100 a month. Ting CEO Eliot Noss said Google Fiber helped confirm the belief that this was a good business opportunity.

 

Discussion Links: Snapchat Insight

http://techcrunch.com/2014/12/16/snapchat-emails-not-so-ephemeral/

http://www.businessinsider.com/snapchat-ceo-evan-spiegels-email-memo-2014-12

http://www.epiphanyeyewear.com/?technology#

http://vergencelabs.com/yougen.html

https://scan.me/features

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitch_Lasky

Pick of the Day: Android Wear via Marlon, “The Guy From Trinidad”

Hi Marlon “TheGuyFromTrinidad” here, my pick of the day is Android Wear. Why you ask? Because it just got a major update to 5.0 , which has added features like the ability to bring a card back you dismissed, its easier to block app notifications directly from the watch, easy access to a sunlight mode (boost brightness) and a theatre mode (turn off the display and mute vibrations) and the long awaited watchface api. One of the best implementations of the api I have seen is former pick of the day, the live wallpaper app Muzei that mirrors the wallpaper on your phone straight to your watch.
The update also brings the feature that when you do image searches the images will appear right on your watch so you don’t have to pull out your phone.

https://plus.google.com/+MarlonThompson/posts/ibBq2YpV5sq

So if your in the Android ecosystem and your not waiting on that other smartwatch to come out maybe check out an Android wear watch as many of them are on sale right now and you have six to choose from.

http://www.androidcentral.com/android-wears-massive-update-official-watch-face-api-new-display-modes-app-features-and-more