Computer Forensics vs. Gov. + PI’s
The rift between law makers and flattening tech widens to preserve minor pathetic industries:
Under pending legislation in South Carolina, digital forensic evidence gathered for use in a court in that state must be collected by a person with a PI license or through a PI licensed agency.
India Reading
Barnett just finished a book I recommended this summer. If you want to know India proper, this is the book. If you want a nice foundation on Indian faultlines, M.J. Akbar’s The Siege Within .
Just got back on-grid, will be back on top of my emails tomorrow. Apologies.
Review: Zune Is A Waste of Time
My little brother is in China for the next week. He took off with my new iPod, and I’m relegated to his Zune. He wanted the Nano’s better battery life and decided to be thrifty with 1/7th of the Zune’s capacity. Gut always told me this thing would be a hassle, but this is ridiculous:
- The software, while sexy, is bloated, slow and buggy.
- I can’t buy movies or TV shows.
- I have to use third party software (I have to pay for) to convert what I do have to a Zune-friendly format.
- That process takes hours on end.
- Turning the damn thing off requires holding down two buttons on the directional pad.
Plus: it just flat out cannot interact with my MacMini which acts as my media center. So I have to pull my media off my external, onto the Mini, then onto the PC. Easy enough on a home network, but still a step I don’t want or need.
Total garbage.
Private Intelligence Collectors
Portfolio has the story. It’s a pretty fun read, nice overview, snippets from the key players.
From New York and London to Moscow and Beijing, today’s corporations are venturing into a netherworld populated by former agents who have been schooled in the arts of detection and deception by the C.I.A., the F.B.I., Britain’s secret services, and the former Soviet Union’s K.G.B.? Instead of probing for state secrets or recruiting government ministers as double agents, these latter-day George Smileys are selling their old skills and contacts to multinationals, hedge funds, and oligarchs. They’re digging up dirt on competitors, ferreting out internal corruption, and uncovering secrets buried in the pasts of job applicants, boardroom rivals, and investment targets.