Or cleverly disguised secret agent for the video phone revolution?

I R Eatz U R Dataz!

I love my netbook. I love my netbook so much, I have two of them (okay, one is the wife’s). Surprisingly, I managed to survive months on nothing but my netbook doing fairly intensive SQL / VoIP / Web work. The hard drive is a little slow, but the overall performance is outstanding.

When I travel, I can use Skype to video chat with the built in webcam and get great quality (both ways) for both picture and sound. It’s like a giant smart phone. It reminds me of the $1000+ “video phones” that were supposed to be the future of talking on the phone… then people realized they really didn’t want to “get pretty” to use the phone. Now, for around $250 a unit, you can have that and so much more.

Recently, my wife’s netbook gave an error on boot that had something to do with a missing windows file (system32\ntoskrnl.exe). Apparently, she’s not the only one with this issue… it seems to be quite common. Of course, as the techie/geek/nerd of the castle, it was my job to slay this dragon and I came across the only problem I have had with this magical mini machine. Not so much a problem… more like open questions to Acer.

1. To access the hard drive, you have to remove 17 screws (maybe more, I think I lost some extras), you have to remove the keyboard, you have to remove the top, you have to remove this little card on top of the mother board, this side circuit board, the motherboard. Then you slide the hard drive out, reverse. Why not put a panel on the bottom to access the hard drive directly?
2. Why can I find nothing in your documentation about Alt-F10? This is a handy mode that lets you recover the operating system to factory defaults, but I don’t see it in my Acer manual.
3. In line with question 2, Why is the only recovery option to completely reset to factory? Since this is basically a stripped version of the OS, why not offer an explorer window so I can copy files to an SD or USB drive before formatting, or just backup the user files to another partition?
4. What degree in sadism lead to the design of the three little clips that hold the keyboard in place?

All told, from error to recovered could have been done in < 30 minutes, and I HIGHLY recommend Acer products to everyone I know. From their higher-end Ferrari laptop to the humble netbook (go with XP home, Windows 7 netbook edition is crippleware garbage), I have never had a problem with their hardware or software that made me lose respect for the brand, which is saying a lot.

For More Information:

• Acer: Acer Aspire One Website
• Skype: Free PC to PC Video Calls

Every now and then a weakness becomes exploited in a manner that deserves recognition. A 41 year unemployed systems admin from Moscow did just this — he exploited a weakness in a video billboard and rigged it to play a pornographic movie. A traffic jam followed as Moscow drivers slowed to watch. The man was arrested, any negatives in his history brought to light, and then all video billboards in the Moscow area were banned.

Here’s the article, from The Moscow Times:

Hacker Arrested in Billboard Porn Stunt

17 February 2010

By Alexandra Odynova

Police in the southern city of Novorossiisk have arrested a man accused of hacking into a video billboard in Moscow last month and showing a pornographic movie that spawned a traffic jam as curious drivers slowed to watch the film.

The suspected hacker, a 41-year-old unemployed man, was arrested in Novorossiisk and released Tuesday after promising to remain in the city, the Interior Ministry’s high-tech crime department said in a statement.

Police released neither the man’s name nor the date he was arrested but said he had been hacking into computers out of “curiosity” and to “sharpen his skills.”

On the night of Jan. 14, the video appeared on a 9-by-6 meter roadside video billboard on the Garden Ring Road, near the Serpukhovskaya metro station.

It played for about 20 minutes as traffic ground to a halt, with many drivers filming the spectacle on their cell phones and later reposting the footage on the Internet.

Police said the hacker used the IP-address of an organization based in Chechnya to break into the Moscow server and post the video on the billboard. He has admitted that he was behind the stunt but said he merely wanted to entertain people, not create a furor, police said.

The suspect claimed that he intended to show the video not on the billboard, but at a Moscow store, the Interior Ministry statement said. He said he was confident that police would never make it to Chechnya to investigate the case, police said.

He faces charges of illegal distribution of pornography and gaining illegal computer access. If convicted, he faces up to two years in prison.

The incident prompted the Moscow Advertising Committee to ban video billboards on the streets of Moscow.

Earlier this month, the committee tightened rules for video billboards to make them less susceptible to hacker attacks. Billboard operators should be able to switch the signs off immediately in case of emergency.

The Krasnodar regional branch of the Federal Drug Control Service said Tuesday that the suspect had previously faced charges of dealing marijuana in Novorossiisk while working as a taxi driver, Interfax reported.

He had previously worked as a systems administrator but was laid off, Interfax said.

Ever had a story to report that was shocking, offensive, and hilarious all at the same time? Imagine this scenario, if you will:

You’re surrounded by family and friends watching the Super Bowl in your living room on your brand new, HD big screen TV. It’s the Steelers vs. the Cardinals and just when you think the Cardinals have all but lost, an amazing run by Fitzgerald switches the lead to Arizona and you can’t believe it. You watch the screen waiting for the replay, when instead of seeing a ball caught by Fitzgerald, you see a whole other kind of ball, courtesy of Club Jenna.

And yes, in this case, that ball is full “in your face” frontal male nudity. Literally, in your face.

Viewers in Tuscon, AZ watching the game via Comcast on KVOA channel 4 lived that exact scenario. For approximately 30 seconds after the touchdown, viewers in Tuscon watched the game transition from touchdown, to porn, and then right back to touchdown celebration. KVOA has posted this statement from Comcast:

Tucson, Arizona

Updated 8:30a — Comcast Releases Statement Apologizing to Customers

KVOA-TV is investigating pornographic material viewed during the Super Bowl by some Tucson area Comcast viewers.  Just after the last touchdown by the Cardinals, approximately 30 seconds of pornographic material was shown.  It appears this material was only viewed by some Comcast customers.

Comcast has released a new statement today:

“We are mortified by last evening’s Super Bowl interuption, and deeply apologize to our customers for the inappropriate programming.  We are aggressively investigating the situation including the possibility of foul play,” said Kelle Maslyn, Comcast Corporate Affairs Manager.

When we contacted Cox last night, we received this statement:

“We have received no evidence that any inappropriate material was broadcast on any of our channels during the Super Bowl.  The alleged incident appears to be isolated to the Comcast territory.  We will offer our support to all appropriate organizations to help them determine what happened,” says Mike Dunne, Cox Director of Media Relations.

KVOA is dismayed and disappointed that some Comcast customers and their families were subjected to this material.  Nielsen says, “KVOA will continue to investigate what happened to our clean signal and make sure our viewers get answers.”

If you would like to see the video, you can find it here: (although be warned, full frontal nudity not safe for work or kids or people who don’t like videos showing full frontal nudity):

• Gizmodo
• Comcast Superbowl Porn

About a month ago, Fierce VoIP reported on VoIP quality testing conducted by Keynote Systems. The results proved quite interesting.

Keynote determined (based on testing providers such as Packet8, Vonage, Verizon VoiceWing, Lingo, etc.) that most VoIP users can expect “merely tolerable” telephone service when compared to an at&t POTS line.

One of the VoIP providers tested failed to achieve any calls with an MOS score of 4.0 or better (ouch).

Why did Voip Tech Chat wait more than a month to post this news? Patrick and Fred were too busy talking about Lifelock and Ben Affleck movies. 

Oh, and Asterisk Voip News posted that a cool new IP Phone with a huge video screen is coming soon.