Why go to all the technical trouble of stripping DRM controls from songs, when all you need do is:

1. Play the DRM controlled song on a device supporting the DRM.
2. Record the analog sound using high-quality audio cables to a non-DRM controlled format (like OGG or MP3).
1. Audacity can help with such tasks.
3. Distribute (for legal purposes only ;) ).

But it's ok, Microsoft is working on the problem. Soon there will be DRM bouncers who will be authorised to hit you if you try this technique. Cutting off their legs will be considered 'reverse engineering' and a violation of the DMCA.

I have been looking for statistics on car hijackings in South Africa in preperation for buying a car. It is surprisingly difficult to find. I can find stats on the number of hijackings, but not on which cars were hijacked. I imagine car manufacturers wouldn't be too happy and there may be some pressure from them to prevent the release of these statistics, but I'm just guessing.

Luckily Netstar, the people who put tracking devices in your car provide some. They are a subset of those reported to police, and would probably only include the middle to upper class car owners, but here they are.

The point is, as a car buyer, it makes sense to know which car is less likely to be hijacked. I realise this is a short term view (a lot like the "use a Mac because there are less vulns" debate), but if the statistics are regularly updated then if the car I am driving becomes 'desirable' I can take extra steps to secure myself, or at least have the choice too. This is the advantage of threat reporting, knowing what the attacker is doing can help you take the appropriate steps in prioritising your security. However, changing your security to only defend against the latest tactic is silly. We can see this happening most obviously with British and American air lines who have been implementing measures to defend against a specific known attack only. This is because, and Schneier has been beating this drum, all an attacker need do to breach these defenses is change tactics.

As I said on a radio interview a couple of weeks ago: "We ban guns and knives, and the terrorists use box cutters. We ban box cutters and corkscrews, and they hide explosives in their shoes. We screen shoes, and the terrorists use liquids. We ban liquids, and the terrorist will use something else. It's not a fair game, because the terrorists get to see our security measures before they plan their attack." And it's not a game we can win. So let's stop playing, and play a game we actually can win. The real lesson of the London arrests is that investigation and intelligence work.

-Schneier.com

This should be formalised into some kind of security law. I'm sure someone has, but here's my attempt:

Knowledge of attackers tactics should be used to prioritise security efforts. Securing systems against only those tactics will lead to a less secure system.

As an aside car jackings seem to be down.

Today a plane flying from London to somewhere in America was diverted to somewhere else in America by fighter jets. Why? Because of an 'agitated' woman carrying a screwdriver and matches.

Does this seem a bit dissproportionate to anyone? I can see the threat-o-meter logic now:

Screwdriver + maches + agitation = Scramble the Jets!

Not to mention the fact that with all the heightned security hoo-haa, she still managed to get a screwdriver onto the plane, it isn't exactly made of plastic, if you get my drift.

One of my favorite authors and columnists, Tom Eaton, recently wrote a book playing on all the horrid writing and prose in the Da Vinci Code. It is hysterical and I want it. I wanted it a lot. Then a package arrived at the post office for me, and voila a free copy of the book for me. Now, who sent it, thank you very much, but who sent it?

So you finally got local administor access on your Windows machine. The problem is that you're part of a domain with restrictive group policies and you really want to change your wallpaper, but remain part of the domain.

After some rooting around in the windows registry I found out where the nasty group policy hides. Just nuke everything in these keys, or if you have other intentions, directly modify them here:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Nicrosoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\policies

Meebo has released an instant messaging widget. This reminds me of the days of CGI perl scripts which would send mesg commands to my unix PTY. I put one up here as a test. Or you can get a big one here.

You can get your own at Meebo Me.

UPDATE: added link to big one.