Canada getting tough on copyright

So the party may be over for Canadian downloaders. Companies now have the right to go after infringers to the tune of $100 to $5,000 for breaking digital locks for the purpose of copying. The penalty goes up to $500 to $20,000 per offense for commercial activities. So much for Bill C-61. Some specific incidents that are mentioned are: PVRs are ok, legally purchased CDs to pcs and ipods are ok, cell phone unlocking is ok. The new bill also requires ISPs to keep tabs on what their customers are downloading. Ruh roh.

Torrent sites are also in danger for legal action. Backups are legal. It would appear on the surface it attempts to balance the rights of the content developer vs the consumer. The bill is still open to ongoing amendments and could possibly change as technology becomes available. In the meantime, start using private torrent sites.

Thin Is In

No surprise here. Thinner components mean smaller technology and everybody knows the more tech you can haul around with you, the better. Data storage going from punch cards, to tapes, to hard drives, to nand flash chips making your life better and your wallet lighter. I remember when compact flash memory was the bomb and then was shortly replaced by secure digital memory cards, which has been replaced by microSD cards. It’s beginning to get a little insane just how much data can be stored on the tip of a finger.

Hard drives are shrinking in size … physical that is. 3.5″ to 2.5″ and now smaller. Hitachi has come out with a laptop hard drive that is a mere 7 mm (millimeters) thin. The Z series comes in 160/250/320 GB flavors all spinning at 7,200 RPM. Encryption is optional. Me thinks this will be showing up in cheaper Macbook Air’s in the near future. Keep on rocking thin tech.

Keeping a tab on your tabs

Are you a multitasking short attention spanned surfer like me? Or perhaps like the masses of web surfers it might be a good idea to un-check that java script option in your browser. A new phishing tactic is relying on your absent mindedness to gain access to your precious accounts. The phishing site appears to be harmless until it attempts to run a time delayed java script. The script alters the appearance of one of your tabbed browser screens (ie. from your gmail account login page to a fake gmail login page). Thus when you return to that tab you wrongly assume it is safe to enter in your account information.

Crafty indeed. I hardly check URLs in tabbed screens when I return to them but I certainly will from now on. This attack can be used on any website you visit so be sure to keep tabs on your tabs.