I didn’t know this is being done. Your color laser printer is actually printing something on your printouts without you even knowing that it does!

From Boing-Boing:

We’ve known that our printers are spying on us, ever since the Electronic Frontier Foundation cracked the secret codes in the output of color laser printers. These hidden codes — apparently placed at the behest of the Secret Service — identify the serial number, make and model of the printer that printed them, as well as a date and timestamp.

What we didn’t know is that if you ask the manufacturer of your printer to stop spying on you, they respond by ratting you out to the Secret Service as a dangerous subversive, and a few days later, the SS will show up and ask you why you care about your privacy.

Here’s the Boing-Boing entry on EFF cracking the secret code:

Many color laser printers hide information about your printer’s serial number and the date and time of your print job in every job you print. It’s believed that this is done to get your equipment to incriminate you without your knowledge. Now EFF has decoded the information-hiding scheme on the Xerox Docucolor series, by getting EFF supporters to print out pages from their printers and mail them to our researchers, who examined them under magnification and special light and cracked the code.

I’m so not in. Geesh, good thing I have no plans of getting a laser printer.

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Sorry about not posting yesterday. Got sidelined by something.

After Google announced the existence of an Anti-Malware Team inside Googleplex (and launched an online security blog), speculations that Google is entering the complex security market swamped the internets.

The speculations are being proven to be true. Google has announced the acquisition of Postini, “the global leader in on-demand communications security, compliance, and productivity solutions for email, instant messaging, and the web.” From the press release:

Google Inc. announced today that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Postini, a global leader in on-demand communications security and compliance solutions serving more than 35,000 businesses and 10 million users worldwide. Postini’s services — which include message security, archiving, encryption, and policy enforcement — can be used to protect a company’s email, instant messaging, and other web-based communications. Under the terms of the agreement, Google will acquire Postini for $625 million in cash, subject to working capital and other adjustments, and Postini will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Google. The agreement is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to close by the end of the third quarter 2007.

“With this transaction, we’re reinforcing our commitment to delivering compelling hosted applications to businesses of all sizes. With the addition of Postini, our apps are not just simple and appealing to users — they can also streamline the complex information security mandates within these organizations,” said Eric Schmidt, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Google.

Hosted enterprise security, anyone? Kidding aside, how does this acquisition play up to Google’s business? We go to Google’s mission for some clues: “Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”

Aside from probably securing Google’s online apps (and the information that Google collects and indexes), Google will probably leverage on Postini’s technology to provide hosted security apps and services, acting as a firewall of sorts between the Internet and an enterprise’s network.

This solution is cost effective because a company does not have to bother with acquiring hardware and deploying solutions. Revenue for this solution is via subscription.

By this acquisition, Google becomes a serious contender in the security market, and a step towards world domination. Now, if Google releases an OS, world domination is all set.

UPDATE: 10/03/2007
Google now offers Postini security apps via Google Apps Premier edition.

Finally updated the firmware of my Sony Ericsson M600i. Since it’s end-of-life for updates regarding this phone’s firmware, I took the plunge before Sony Ericsson totally stops hosting the latest firmware.

I had to use a friend’s computer and broadband connection for the update (yes, a broadband connection is necessary for the update). You also need the Update Service software.

Here are the prerequisites for the update:

1. Download the Update Service software.
2. Have the USB cable ready.
3. Make sure you have broadband connection.
4. Make sure that the battery is fully charged .
5. Back up your phone’s contents (Contacts, calendar entries, messages, files, everything). The update will wipe out the contents of your phone (including the content of the M2 card).

Run the Update Service app; it will check and download new files. After that, it will ask you to select a language, and then select your phone model. It will flash the instructions on how to proceed. Here, I had to redo everything since the app couldn’t seem to recognize the phone.

1. Turn off the phone.
2. Connect the USB cable to the computer.
3. Remove and reinsert the battery.
4. Press and hold the C key (number 7, right; X is on the left) and connect the USB cable. Watch the computer monitor carefully; it will tell you when to release the C key.
5. The app will now try to identify the phone. (This was where I had to start redoing things.) After identification, it will download the firmware.
6. After downloading, the app overwrites the firmware of your phone. Make sure not to disconnect the phone from the computer until the transfer is complete; otherwise you’ll get an expensive paperweight.
7. The phone restarts after the transfer. Restore the latest back up.

If successful, you should get the following (by going to Main Menu>More>System Information):

Phone: CXC162037 R9F011
Bluetooth: CXC162058 R3A01
Organizer: CXC162071 R6A16
CDA: CDA162011/2 R6A13

One caveat regarding this update: the Opera Web browser is totally screwed up by this update. On some Web sites, you will get the XML parsing error that Robin Lim of Mobility Philippines had encountered with P990i. If this unfortunate event happens, Opera Mini is one good alternative (though it is annoying that the phone always asks you whether to allow the Java app to connect to the Internet every time you visit a Web site).

Sony Ericsson P990i and W950 users, you just got a reprieve.

From the SE Developer Forum:

“In response to recent feedback from users and as a result of additional internal testing, Sony Ericsson has determined to offer a further firmware update for the P990 and W950 Walkman phone. This move illustrates Sony Ericsson’s ongoing commitment to its existing ‘smartphone’ customers and the company’s desire to be responsive to customer feedback in order to provide an optimal user experience.
The next firmware release for the P990 and W950 will be available from the Sony Ericsson Update Service from August 2007.”

Please note that only one firmware release is scheduled. After that, everything is uncertain.

Sorry, M600i users, no word about your phone. Wait, I’m an M600i user!

How much is Apple earning on every iPhone sold?

Around US$379 for the 8GB model, US$299 for the 4GB model. Steve Jobs must be proud; Apple shareholders must be happy. (Unless, of course, Cisco gets some piece of the profit pie; it owns the iPhone name, after all.)

Because Apple is not known for disclosing companies that supplied parts for its products (so you can’t speculate on stocks and earn), Portelligent has opened an iPhone and scrutinized its parts.

And with around 500,000 units sold in the weekend (Goldman Sachs thinks the number is 700,000), the Apple cash register must have turned hoarse from ringing. Now the question remains: can Apple keep up with the demand?

People outside the US are asking: will we get iPhones, too? The answer is yes. World, get ready – iPhone is set to conquer you. Soon.

As for me, I’m not excited about it; I feel that HTC phones are better. Unless it get 3G radio, that is.

Is there a shortage of Nokia E61i in the Philippines?

Last Saturday, I was at Smart Wireless Center in Araneta Square Caloocan. After paying my bill, I went to Aftersales to inquire about the retention program (note that I have a three-week pending retention application for E61i at Smart Megamall). The guy who was manning the counter gave me a paper listing the usual units. E61i is still in the list, so I inquired about it. I was informed by the guy that E61i is not available at the moment.

Why list the unit when it is not available?

It seems this phone is really in demand. Ironic that you can find it at stores but not at Smart Wireless Centers.

—

However, the following units are abundant:

* Sony Ericsson K800i
* Nokia N70 Music Edition
* Nokia N73 Music Edition

Why should I NOT get any of those?

Nintendo Wii owners who have not yet downloaded Internet Channel powered by Opera are reminded to download it now while it is still free (and the downloaded Opera browser is free for the lifetime of the console). The last day for the free download is June 30, 2007. After that date, you will have to purchase it from the Wii Shop Channel.

Bad news for Sony Ericsson P990i, W950, and M600i users.

Sony Ericsson has announced that it is stopping from developing new firmware updates for the said phone models. Here is the official statement (taken from SE Developer Forum):

Hi all,
Sorry for the delay in getting this info. No new firmware is planned to be released for the P990 and W950 after R6D23 released on June 15, 2007 via the Sony Ericsson Update Service. The last firmware release for the M600 was R6A16.
I have got an official statement from Niklas Sivander who is the Head of Product Management, Open OS.
So here it goes:
“These firmware releases meet the requirements of bug fixes prioritized by our operator customers and the Customer Services organization within different markets. The decision to freeze the P990, W950 and M600 firmware versions at this point has been made based on meeting these requirements. As with any phone project, no product is ever completely flawless. Any remaining issues are of course unfortunate, but we feel that with the level of quality on the latest P990 firmware we now have a good, solid product.

Due to all heavy features in P990, the need for RAM memory has grown. When running multiple memory-consuming programs at the same time, the available RAM memory runs low and sometimes results in the memory manager closing down one of the applications. We have been working on improving memory management during the whole lifecycle of the P990. The low RAM memory situation for the P990 will unfortunately remain for the heaviest users, and would not be fixed by a new firmware update since it’s hardware related. Multi-tasking on the P990 however works satisfactory provided that you don’t run too large and memory-consuming programs at the same time. Performance improvements have indeed been made for the new P1 phone compared to P990 and the user RAM available for applications has been increased with >400%, significantly improving multi-tasking performance and application behavior so that you can run a lot heavier programs simultaneously.

Many users are comparing the P990 with the stable and relatively problem-free predecessor P910, which was an excellent smartphone. The P910 was based on an earlier Symbian OS and UIQ platform version with only an incremental software development update from the P900 (Symbian OS 7.0, UIQ 2.1), which made the development work a lot smoother at the time. With the P990, the Symbian OS capabilities have however expanded quite significantly and as with any major platform update, this was expected to introduce some new issues to solve. Sony Ericsson however underestimated the complexity of the development work for UIQ 3 and it took longer than expected to implement and quality assure things like the platform security mechanisms, the multimedia framework and other advanced connectivity aspects like 3G, videotelephony and WiFi. It has been a tough journey for all of us. Please extend my thanks and appreciation to the user and developer communities for all their patience, support and feedback which has helped us identify bugs and improve both existing and upcoming products.”

As an owner of M600i, I don’t know what to say. Earlier today, the phone had restarted by itself, “to optimize performance”, it said. I get KERN errors when opening images that are large. Opera won’t open unless other apps are closed. P990i users are in a tougher situation, since that phone has a lot of features but with a pathetic RAM.

Now, SE users are threatening not to buy any SE phones, since they kill support for these phones that early. Maybe I should jump ship as well? (My M600i was purchased last February.)

(via Just Another Mobile Blog)

Recently I’ve been getting spam email with PDF attachments. I already got three since yesterday.

The email comes with random sender email addresses, no message body, and subjects containing the file name of the PDF attachment. The PDF attachment invariably contains garbage about certain stocks.

McAfee believes this is a logical evolution from those image spams of yesterday (I’m sure you got some of those). From the McAfee Avert Labs Blog:

A large “pump-and-dump” stock spam campaign is underway, but rather than including the content of the spam in an image file, this campaign includes the spam content within a .PDF file. The stock spam is believed to be sent from Stration infected computers, as this spam campaign closely followed a new W32/Stration worm mass-mailing which contained a number of .PDF files, and Stration has been associated with pump and dump spam in the past.

The attachment is not malware. The email is a nuisance, though.

This is not the way to advance your company’s way to world domination:

During a presentation to announce Symantec’s latest product, a spokesman for the company delivered an enthusiastic pitch to a roomful of big name clients. Indeed, such was the emphasis on the “uniqueness” of his company’s offering that attendees could have been forgiven for thinking that no one else made anti-virus software.
…
During the wrap-up to his presentation, the spokesman was forced to query collective laughs, and quite possibly shouts of “it’s behind you”, by turning to face his presentation screen.

He found the source of their amusement in the form of a prominent pop-up box, obscuring his Powerpoint presentation, stating that the rival Kaspersky anti-virus software loaded on the machine he was using to present had updated its definitions.

Oops.

Lesson 1: use your own product.

Lesson 2: if you don’t trust and use your own product, it’s time to quit.

Lesson 3: do not use a test machine/competitor testing machine for presentation use.

Lesson 4: 99% of salesmen are liars. Yes, I made that figure up. Go figure.