I just found out that Google Maps has a new feature called Google Street. Ok, it’s not really ‘new’ but it is to me and it is so freaking cool! You can actually see a real picture of the street and not just a map drawing or a satellite view. Too curious, I searched if I can find our California Office in Google Streets and after a view clicks, I got this!
US AutoParts Carson Office

Hey, looky! It’s the US Auto Parts Network Corporate Office! Notice the familiar logo on the left?

Wow! This is so ultra cool! Although Google Street is limited to major cities and streets in the US, it will eventually increase its database of street views, revolutionizing the way maps work. This is the future of maps, I must say. If you are wondering how Google got their 360-deg picture of your street, well, some say that they have this roving vehicle that gathers the data it needs.

I also found some funny stuff from the net that Google Street captured.

Wow. Really amazing.

Is it also true that Google engineers have replaced NASA scientists as world’s smartest people?

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Today is Memorial Day, which means it is holiday, which means there is no work today (yay~!).

United States Celebrates Memorial Day
Kidding aside, Memorial Day is a day dedicated for the honorable men and women who died in service to this country, celebrated every last Monday of May (May 26, 2008). Memorial Day reminds everyone that the heroes of United States of America are never forgotten.

To all the heroes of United States of America, we salute you all!

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Virginia’s Supreme Court on Friday upheld the first US felony conviction for spamming. The spammer will serve nine years in prison for sending what authorities believe to be millions of messages over a two-month period in 2003. Jeremy Jaynes is the man who will make history. A Raleigh, North Carolina, resident who made Spamhaus‘ top 10 list of spammers, Jaynes was arrested in 2003 even before the CAN SPAM act was passed by Congress. Jaynes was convicted in 2005, but his lawyers appealed the conviction. This past Friday, the Virginia Supreme Court upheld that conviction, but the vote was a narrow 4-3.

The prosecution presented evidence of over 53,000 illegal e-mails that Jaynes sent over just three days during July, 2003, but it is believed that he sent 10 million messages per day between July and August of that year. Though he is a North Carolina resident, Jaynes was charged in Virginia because the AOL servers he used for sending spam were located in Loudoun County, Virginia.

While defending Jaynes, his lawyers attempted to argue that a provision of the Virginia Computer Crimes Act violates constitutional First Amendment rights to “anonymous speech,” as well as the interstate commerce clause of the US Constitution. The court rejected these claims due to Jaynes’ use of fake e-mail addresses, which breaks the US CAN SPAM law’s condition of giving recipients a means of contacting the sender. The court also stated that his peddling of scam products and services excludes him from First Amendment rights. In effect, the court said that you can’t scam people and then cry “free speech!” when hooked by the law.

While one might think that Jaynes’ case should have been open and shut, Justice Elizabeth Lacy highlighted some of the reasons behind the close 4-3 verdict, along with the potential dangers of vague anti-spam legislation. In her written dissent, Lacy argued that the “unsolicited bulk electronic mail” provision of Virginia’s Computer Crimes Act is “unconstitutionally overbroad on its face because it prohibits the anonymous transmission of all unsolicited bulk e-mail including those containing political, religious or other speech protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.”

Still, the court upheld Jaynes’ original 2005 sentence of three years in prison for each of the three Virginia Computer Crimes Act code violations for which he was found guilty. For those playing along at home, that’s nine years in the pokey.

The lesson? Spam doesn’t pay, unless you live outside the US. But that’s a story for another day.

Source: arstechnica.com

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Days are coming nearer for the upcoming US Presidential Elections and security standards for electronic voting machines are getting higher. Security is the major factor in every electronic transaction including bank accounts and voting machines so the State of California requires that voting machines undergo a strict security testing. Security experts hacked and cracked the machines to ensure that the standards are met however, there are flaws found in the machines that may compromise the results of the election.

arstechnica.com writes:

Previous Red Team tests commissioned by the state of California revealed significant vulnerabilities in devices sold by Diebold and Sequoia. At the time, ES&S declined to participate in the testing, citing lack of preparedness. The tests on the ES&S machines were finally conducted in October, and the results, which were recently published (PDF), show that products from ES&S are as insecure as the rest.

The article further states that the tamper-proof paper seals on the machines are easily removed by common household items, which can be sneaked in without detection making the machine vulnerable for unauthorized access to its components. Furthermore, the key lock can be unlocked by using a simple office item without removing the seal.

These vulnerabilities gave the “attacker” access to its BIOS and able to modify the boot sequence. An external device loaded with bootable Linux can be used to give the attacker access to passwords.

ES&S is already in serious trouble in California for selling uncertified voting machines to several counties in violation of state law.

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