rubber

Turkish police may have beaten encryption key out of TJ Maxx suspect

Updated Jan 27 2009 with a comment from the Turkish Government. See below

When criminals turn to disk encryption to hide the evidence of their crimes, law enforcement investigations can hit a brick wall. Where digital forensics software has failed to recover encryption passwords, one tried and true technique remains: violence. It is is this more aggressive form of good cop bad cop behavior which the Turkish government is alleged to have turned to, in order to learn the cryptographic keys of one of primary ringleaders in the TJ Maxx credit card theft investigation.

The 2005 theft of tens of … Read more

With oil price spike, recycled rubber gets funding

Naples, Fla.-based rubber recycler Lehigh Technologies has finished a series E round of funding, squeezing out another $34.5 million and adding Index Ventures and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers to its list of investors.

The company started producing rubber powder out of recycled tires a year ago. Lehigh's process involves freezing old tires with liquid nitrogen, then putting the frozen tires through a mill in high velocity, turning the rubber into a fine powder. That powder can be used in paints, shoes, plastics, carpets, and tires.

Through this process, Lehigh says it can make rubber powder for … Read more

The 404 118: Where we wallow in the Swamp of Sadness

Cheryl Holloway fills in for a snoozing Wilson today and gives us her perspective on the Burger King 12-step program, killer Crocs, Wanted's sneaky viral video, the upcoming Smurfs movie, and the $50,000 Harry Potter prequel. We end the show by collectively begging Daniel Radcliffe to sheath his wooden wand. EPISODE 118 Download today's podcast

Duck, duck, blog

At the intersection of lightheartedness, bath-time fun, and photography, you will find the Duck Show. A creation of photographer Colleen Fletcher, the blog transports you into a world inhabited by rubber ducks. They mark the passage of time by celebrating holidays, rocking out in Vegas, and having adventures around New York. They even star in film stills.

As you might expect, this all started in a bathroom--a very large bathroom apparently. Ms. Fletcher decided to decorate that bathroom with rubber ducks, began a collection, and as she puts it, "A couple of years and 333 ducks later, I found … Read more

Stealing Macworld's thunder

Every year in early January, Apple aficionados gather together in San Francisco to celebrate the big Mac news of the year at the Macworld Conference and Exposition. Windows users, on the other hand, celebrate...Rubber Ducky? Or a public prerelease of the first service pack for Windows Vista? It doesn't seem fair.

However, except for the hardware news (the MacBook Air is very thin), this year's report from Steve Jobs wasn't nearly as exciting as last year's iPhone announcement. In fact, some of the news--and rumors--are old hat for Windows fans.

For example, Apple TV will … Read more

Power Downloader's fishy solution for system sluggishness

When Power Downloader returned to the Powerlair after finishing up a case, he knew he would have plenty of e-mails to go through before he could have any downtime. Powering up his computer, Power waited while his computer went through its normal startup routine and then proceeded to open his e-mail client to see how many new messages he had. To his delight, several of the e-mails were easily deleted and only simple confirmations or answers were required of his usual global contacts.

Close to the end of his list of new e-mail, Power Downloader found a message from Kitty … Read more

Robbers force man at gunpoint to log into his online banking account

Marlon Meacham is serving nine years in a Tennessee prison for a 2004 armed robbery that involved ordering his victim to log on to an Internet bank account.

Meacham was convicted by a jury of one count of aggravated robbery and one count of aggravated burglary for invading Kelvin Martin's home and holding him at gunpoint. He appealed on grounds of insufficient evidence and improper trial procedures.

Here are some excerpts from the Tennessee state criminal appeals court's decision on April 19, which upheld Meacham's conviction. Note that it was a computer glitch (we suspect Microsoft Windows) … Read more

A mouse for sweaty palms

Next to useless iPod accessories, the mouse industry may be the most active in the gadget realm. But unlike some products, this one might actually be useful.

The eye-candy draw of this optical USB mouse from European manufacturer Trust is seven LED colors that you can change at will. (Call it a mood mouse.) But the more practical feature is the layer of rubber that covers it: If you still like playing games on your PC once in awhile, or are just a sweaty-palmed beast in general, this mouse can help keep crucial traction when you need it most.

(Photo: … Read more