Check out the new version of youTube before anyone else! It’s super easy, while in Google Chrome, press Ctrl+Shift+J and paste in this code (Cookie)

document.cookie="VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE=ST1Ti53r4fU";

And bam! Refresh youtube.com and see all that the new version has to offer!

I think it’s really cool, check out the screen shot below…

Btw, in case you want to go back, just clear your cookies!

Google has a secret laboratory, unknown even to most of the company’s employees, called the X Lab where it develops projects that sound like something from the x-files, according to the New York Times.

At the lab, located somewhere in the Bay Area, Google’s brightest engineers are working on hundreds projects, including smart refrigerators and dinner plates, servant robots  and space elevators.

A leak from a Google engineer says that the lab is run mysteriously, in two different office buildings — one for logistics and the other for robotics projects.

The scientists working in the lab include hires from Microsoft, Nokia, Stanford, M.I.T., Carnegie Mellon and New York University. Google’s co-founder Sergey Brin is reportedly “deeply involved” with the project, and he and co-founder Larry Page have come up with a list of ideas for the lab.

It is reportedly headed by robotics and artificial intelligence expert Sebastian Thrun from Stanford, best known for his work on the world’s first self driving car. Andrew Ng, a Stanford professor and an esteemed A.I. expert, also works at the lab.

A Google spokeswoman would not confirm the existence of the lab, but she did say that Google likes to invest in speculative projects. Google’s 20% rule, which lets engineers spend one-fifth of their work time on personal projects, is one example of that, but a secret lab takes this idea a step further and makes you wonder which of these technologies will graduate to be full-fledged Google projects.

While many (most everyone) has heard, for the few that haven’t, Steve Jobs has passed away today. He had recently resigned as CEO of Apple for health reasons, and many people saw this was coming. So I have to ask, with the many apple fans out there, what do you think this will mean for apple? Many have stated that he was the corner stone of the company, making all the big decisions and going against popular opinion quite often. Will the current, colorful CEO Tim Cook be able to keep the ship steady in the wave of the passing of a giant?

I DO lean more towards the Android product line of phones, if you couldn’t tell, but I do have a rich respect for the man who actually opened the way for Android to even exist. In a market that was dominated by RIM (Blackberry) and Windows Smart phones, he took them head on and showed the world what a “Smart” phone really was. Opening the eyes of competition like Google to bring in Android, and almost crush the big M and flip RIM on their head.

For the advances in technology he’s brought us, I salute him. But my question still stands.
Can Tim Cook man the Oars?

In the midst of the loss of tech giant Steve Jobs, Facebook rolling out some changes on their Facebook Pages. You were able to import your blog’s RSS feed into the notes to automate the syncing of your blog posts to facebook. What I wonder is if this change will effect the third party apps like networked blogs, from posting on your wall. I guess if you really want to keep syndicating to your wall you could run your feed through a desktop app like seesmic or tweetdeck… As long as they supported RSS feeds….

I was reading one of my favorite comics the other day (Xkcd) and it really hit home with me.

(They usually do, it’s odd, the creator and I must be kindred spirits or somthing)

It’s about password strength, and really underlines the power of, well powers.

This really underlines the point, that when possible, it’s by FAR safer to have a longer, password, regardless of how many special characters are used. In the end, the power of length trumps all the complication of case sensitivity and substitutions. I don’t even need to explain much further into detail, because xkcd has illustrated that point so well. For years I’ve been trying to explain just this thing to people, and it was summed up into a nice little 6 panel piece.

So I’m blasting it out to those who care about security, and a way they could “Salt” this method to services that support longer passwords. Salting passwords is a way to make each password for every service you use different. With a method like the one above, you could “salt” your password using either the service name, or type, or a word you could remember that is associated to that service.

Like for yahoo, your password could be correcthorseyahoostaple and Hotmail could be corecthorsehotmailstaple . This way if one password is compromised via logging or other keystroke capturing methods (Spy Cam Video?) Your other passwords would be relativity safe, so hopefully you could change them before the attacker compromised all the services you use. Even better, would be to change up the word order, or use association. Like correcthorsejunkmailstaple  or yahoocorrecthorsestaple…

Really just food for thought… too bad that many services out there, especially the really important ones it seems, likes to limit you to a maximum of around 12 chars.

Gingerbread is finaly released to the Atrix owners from att! On your Atrix go to settings, about, system update and download it! This removes the no sideloading restriction from at&, hurray!!!

Via http://www.engadget.com/2011/07/22/atrix-gets-gingerbread-update-sideloading-support-new-outlook/

With all the anticipated growth in the market, mostly due to their being more internet enabled phones than ever before, what web standards do you think will take hold? Google’s Speedy Protocol and their penetration with Google Chrome and their Android enabled smart phones, sets the stage for Google having enough leverage to actually pull this off. What do you think?

Ralph Langer spoke at TED and gives a startling clarity into the true nature of this virus. His short presentations gives some startling insight into the Stuxnet worm, and how it achieves it’s goals in four steps.

1. Infect as many computers possible, and spread.
2. If lands on a target computer, drop the payload.
3. The payload roots into a non windows based hardware PLC  Hardware that controls valves and reports values like temp, speed etc.  and reports “Good” values, while actually ignoring hi temps, and not closing valves like it should.
4. After causing some slight problems, the 2nd bigger payload destroys the machine in the nuclear facility, violently and effectively.

For those who haven’t heard, Stuxnet is a Windows computer worm discovered in July 2010 that targets industrial software and equipment.  It is the first known malware that sabotages very specific industrial systems, and the first to include a programmable logic controller (PLC) rootkit. Like a fisherman throwing a net trying to catch a fish, the worm beings by spreading as far and wide as possible. Once it lands on a suitable target (like an engineer’s laptop), it drops a highly specialized malware payload (bomb) that is designed to target only Siemens Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems that are configured to control and monitor specific industrial processes. Stuxnet infects PLCs by subverting the Step-7 software application that is used to reprogram these devices. Different versions of Stuxnet targeted five Iranian organisations, with the probable target suspected to be uranium enrichment infrastructure in Iran.  Symantec noticed in August 2010 that 60% of the infected computers worldwide were in Iran. Siemens stated on November 29 that the worm has not caused any damage to its customers, but the Iran nuclear program, which uses embargoed Siemens equipment procured clandestinely, has been damaged by Stuxnet. Kaspersky Labs concluded that the sophisticated attack could only have been conducted “with nation-state support” and it has been speculated that Israel may have been involved.

With the current situation of technology getting to the point where we are seeing things we’ve never seen before becoming a social norm, I still find that the simple things are so amazing that I have to stop and look and really appreciate the science behind them. What functions could you imagine a robot snake doing? I can only think of spying, and killing rodents without the danger of releasing a real snake under your house. Maybe someday every house will have it’s own robot snake to keep vermin at bay…

Chat rooms and message boards allow criminals to share information and recruit help building and carrying out online scams. Panda Labs researchers discoveries included Fake ATMs selling for $35,000, card cloners from $1,000 to as little as $200 and stolen banking credentials from $80 to $700 – the more expensive accounts come with a guaranteed balance of $80,000 or more. Criminals run their operations by using specialized online stores, accessible with a user name and password. While usually advertised through underground forums and chat rooms, some, more bold thieves are promoting themselves on social networks like Twitter and Facebook. When it comes to initiating a sale however, they drop to a more secure, (anonymous) form of communication like online messaging clients and generic e-mail accounts. Payments usually go through Western Union, WebMoney and other online disbursement systems, the report said.

Inventory is growing and prices are dropping on the cyber crime black market, according to a new report from security firm Panda Labs.

From the PDF: Overview of Cybercrime organization.