Japan!!! Nooooo!!!! Why lord whhhyy!! Why not america!?

^^ Aparently the volcano in Yellow Stone is acting up, so who knows whats next?!?

Frogs, lots and lots of frogs

30 confirmed dead now. the images look like it should be much higher.

This is the live japanese news update i'm watching (you can make it a popout window) >> http://ja.justin.tv/owachu/

Looks like a refinery or something is on fire at the moment.

there is a fire in a nuclear power station near tokyo as well I believe

RagnaXBL said ...

Japan!!! Nooooo!!!! Why lord whhhyy!! Why not america!?

If something really bad happened to America it would affect the entire world practically... its the last place you want anything to happen to.

Update on the news, aparently the nuclear power station is facing a meltdown.

This will be devastating if it happens.

Damn...I hope this doesn't affect the population count on DCUO

JUST KIDDING!!!

Been watching this ALL morning. It is crazy to see how in just 1 minute your life can take a turn for the worst. i have never seen so much damage in just a few minutes, I feel so sorry for those people, worst part is that it could happen again in as little as 2 days according to reporters. I just hope the death toll doesn't rise too much, it's quiet a low count considering the magnitude of this earth quake.

Christ yeah that happens, all hell will break loose

News24 is reporting that a ship/ferry carrying 100 people was hit by the Tsunami wave. I skimmed the report, but hopefully they are alright and the thing hasn't sunk.

death rate now between 200 - 300 people

Ok something to lighten the thread a bit: http://content.usatoday.com/communities/gamehunters/post/2011/03/npd-video-game-sales-get-a-boost-in-february-/1

February was a great month for games sales in the US, with hardware experiencing an unexpected growth in sales. The Xbox had it's best non holiday month and lead console sales due to the Kinect bundle. But both PS3 and Xbox experienced a 25% increase in sales in dollar terms. Also Black Ops became the bestselling game in US history at 13.7m copies, i assume across all formats.

http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Schabir-Shaik-arrested-20110314

Unexpected and it restores a little bit, and I do mean a little bit, of faith in our government. Expect Shaik to be released very soon with no action taken, but at least they are learning about perception management.

They guy gets sent to prison, gets off due to medical reasons but is out and about playing golf and swinging his fist around and now gets away scott free after this..
Wonderful SA

haha I've met Shaik... a nice guy lol

...scarey stuff here. The acticle waffles on about something Sony did a few years back, but the main section is worth the read. Not sure if it would effect us here in SA, but just shows that you can't be too careful.

Samsung installs keylogger on its laptop computers

Mohamed Hassan, MSIA, CISSP, CISA graduated from the Master of Science in Information Assurance (MSIA) program from Norwich University in 2009. As usual, it is a pleasure to collaborate with an alumnus on interesting articles – and in this case, his research is startling. Everything that follows is Mr Hassan's own work with minor edits.

* * *

In the fall of 2005, the security and computer world was abuzz with what was at the time dubbed as the "Sony BMG rootkit Fiasco." Sony BMG used a rootkit, computer program that performs a specific function and hides its files from the regular user, to monitor computer user behavior and limit how music CDs were copied and played on one's computer.

The issue was not about the extent Sony BMG had gone to protect its music CD, but more about the manner in which it accomplished its business objective. Following the wide publication of this security incident, there was [censored] of bad press for Sony BMG; its earlier denial of the presence of the rootkit on its music CDs did not help. There were class-action lawsuits as well as state and federal investigations, one of which was spearheaded by the United States Federal Trade

Sony BMG settled the federal lawsuit with the FTC without admitting guilt. However, given the number of CDs it was ordered to replace and the agreed upon compensation of up to $150 per computer owner it had to pay to consumers whose computers may have been damaged as a result of attempts to remove the rootkit, the $575 million payout for the incident was far more expensive than any return on investment Sony BMG may have received by preventing the potential consumer from copying, illegal distribution or sharing of the music CDs.

Some in the computer security industry had hoped that the criminality of the act that Sony BMG had engaged in together with the huge business costs associated with the settling of the case with consumers and federal authorities would act as a deterrent to any company which might want to monitor computer usage. Others, including Mark Russinovich, the developer and blogger who first discovered the rootkit, were not so sure. In fact Mr. Russinovich warned that "Consumers don't have any kind of assurance that other companies are not going to do the same kind of thing (as Sony)" (Borland, 2005).

How right has Mr. Russinovich been!

While setting up a new Samsung computer laptop with model number R525 in early February 2011, I came across an issue that mirrored what Sony BMG did six years ago. After the initial set up of the laptop, I installed licensed commercial security software and then ran a full system scan before installing any other software. The scan found two instances of a commercial keylogger called StarLogger installed on the brand new laptop. Files associated with the keylogger were found in a c:\windows\SL directory.

According to a Starlogger description, StarLogger records every keystroke made on your computer on every window, even on password protected boxes.

This key logger is completely undetectable and starts up whenever your computer starts up. See everything being typed: emails, messages, documents, web pages, usernames, passwords, and more. StarLogger can email its results at specified intervals to any email address undetected so you don't even have to be at the computer your[sic] are monitoring to get the information. The screen capture images can also be attached automatically to the emails as well as automatically deleted.

After an in-depth analysis of the laptop, my conclusion was that this software was installed by the manufacturer, Samsung. I removed the keylogger software, cleaned up the laptop, and continued using the computer. However, after experiencing problems with the video display driver, I returned that laptop to the store where I bought it and bought a higher Samsung model (R540) from another store.

Again, after the initial set up of the laptop, I found the same StarLogger software in the c:\windows\SL folder of the new laptop. The findings are false-positive proof since I have used the tool that discovered it for six years now and I am yet to see it misidentify an item throughout the years. The fact that on both models the same files were found in the same location supported the suspicion that the hardware manufacturer, Samsung, must know about this software on its brand-new laptops.

[Mich Kabay adds:]

Research online brought up a discussion of "Samsung rootkit" from May 2010 in which contributors reported a freeze on rootkit scans of Samsung laptop computers. However, no one seems to have reported a StarLogger installation as far as we have been able to determine using Web search engines.

In the next article, Mr Hassan discusses how Samsung responded to his discovery.

* * *

Mohamed Hassan, MSIA, CISSP, CISA is the founder of NetSec Consulting Corp, a firm that specializes in information security consulting services. He is a senior IT Security consultant and an adjunct professor of Information Systems in the School of Business at the University of Phoenix.


[UPDATE: Samsung has launched an investigation into the matter and is working with Mich Kabay and Mohamed Hassan in the investigation.]


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It's been more then 2 weeks since they collected the rubbish by my complex....

Pikitup deadlock continues
Andre van Wyk | 2 Hours Ago

The City of Johannesburg, Pikitup and the South African Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) are now locked in a battle over whether or not they will sign their wage agreement, and it is Johannesburg residents who are going to have to continue dealing with the ever increasing piles of rubbish on the streets.

Pikitup workers went on strike last week, demanding investigations into allegedly corrupt managers and asking for wage differences to be equalised.

The union said although an agreement was reached, the city and Pikitup are refusing to put pen to paper. But, the city’s Gabu Tugwana said this is not the case as Samwu has reneged on parts of the agreement.

“I deny and I say it is a shame that they should go to the level of lying to the public,” said Tugwana.

The union has also accused Mayor Amos Masondo of interfering with negotiations and ordering the city and Pikitup to go to the Labour Court on Friday for an interdict to stop the strike.

“We tried our best to negotiate from Pikitup to the city because, to us, we were thinking maybe by today [Wedensday] we could be back at work,” said Samwu’s Felix Radzilani.

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"Lady Gaga says she did not write her latest hit song, Born This Way, but rather the late British fashion designer Alexander McQueen did so when he channelled it through her from beyond the grave."
link
If you did not know Lady Gaga was crazy for cornflakes before, now you do!

Corrosive said ...

It's been more then 2 weeks since they collected the rubbish by my complex....

On Sunday, a guy in a truck from some refuse removal company came round our neighbourhood saying they'd clear our bins for R 50... The guy must be making a killing.