Free DME & DFIR Resources

On March 11th, 2009 the mixed martial arts community, and quite frankly the world, lost a great man. Charles "Mask" Lewis was a pioneer, and probably the best example in recent history of why you can't judge someone by the way they look on the outside; it's what is inside that counts. I'm still struggling with this tragedy and although this isn't typically the forum where I'd share MMA or fighting related posts or issues, this is much more than that. Below is the post I left for Punkass and Skrape on 3/12, as well as a tribute video put together by the TapouT Live radio crew. RIP MASK - Always Believe.

Sorenson Media introduced the latest version of its popular video encoder today with the release of Squeeze 8. Improvements include greater adaptive bitrate support, x264 support, enhanced GPU acceleration, and integration with Sorenson Squeeze Server. In addition, Sorenson will offer a lite version for smaller needs and budgets.

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Stumbled on a blog post today about this topic, which is worth the read IMHO - "Why I moved away from FOSS as my main toolset". The author, whom I first met when he was a student in a LEVA Level 1 and/or 2 class I was teaching the better part of 10 years ago, raises some valid points about leveraging FOSS in DME workflows; training, support and documenting FOSS tools being the points I agree with. To that end, keep your eyes & ears open for news about professional training & support for FOSS solutions related to DME.

With that said, I'm going to make a few comments and pose a few questions to the community based on the above post, so if you haven't read it...the rest of this post is probably moot.

Prospective students can now submit applications entirely online for all LEVA training events!  LEVA's all new Training Home Page lists all LEVA events currently open for registration along with the starting date of the course, a link to complete course details, and link to register for the event by submitting your application online.  Click here to check out the all new LEVA Training Home Page!

Complete Omnivore Overview - 32GB Password Protected USB Video & Image Capture Drive - No Windows Administration Rights Required

June 13th, 1:30 - 3:00PM EST - Space is limited - Reserve Your Seat Now

Omnivore is a secured, password protected USB thumb drive that contains specialized capture software, which runs directly from the Omnivore drive. No installation or administrative rights are required to operate it. With Omnivore you can easily capture digital video and images into uncompressed formats directly from the system that recorded the media. Omnivore generates an easy-to-read capture report that documents your work.

If you live in the world of digital forensics, you see hard drives of all form factors and ages (along with plenty of dust bunnies). You also likely wipe and re-purpose hard drives quite regularly. You know more acronyms than your typical teen textaholic, and you went out and celebrated with friends when Serial ATA was released, because you were sickened by the old master/slave relationships associated with IDE/PATA drives. So why do we still see jumpers on SATA drives? Rest assured my friends, it has nothing to do with a master/slave relationship.

Senior level law enforcement professionals have an awful lot on their plate, and the pace of technological advancement keeps heaping it on faster and faster. Bleeding edge and cutting edge technologies are absolutely necessary in the military and law enforcement, but so is common sense. Take for instance the plethora of stories over the last year or so on Harris Corporation’s Stingray and Hailstorm.

Forensic Video Solutions, Inc., of Spokane, Washington is accepting applications from interested candidates for the position of Forensic Video Analyst. The successful candidate must relocate to Spokane.

The complete announcement, including details on how to apply, is available as a PDF file - click here (PDF - 39KB).

Tomorrow's the official launch of Media-Geek.com and we've added another great feature to the new members area, a categorized events calendar.  The new calendar will be viewable by all visitors; however, only registered members will be able to add and manage events listed in the calendar.

The concept behind the calendar is simple - to provide a consolidated calendar listing the multitude of forensic related training events, conferences, and meetings.  The initial categories implemented include Photography Training, Image Processing & Analysis Training, Forensic Video Training, and Forensic Conferences & Meetings.

Magnet Forensics launched the evolution of DVR Examiner today, Magnet WITNESS.  WITNESS includes all of the capabilities of DVR Examiner plus many new features, essentially creating a single solution to acquire, review, analyze and report on all of the video evidence from your case, regardless of source.  Proprietary DCCTV systems and files, cloud CCTV sources such as Ring & Arlo, MP4 & AVI exports from other sources such as in-car and body worn systems.

Unlike DVR Examiner, WITNESS includes the ability to create sub-clips, create synchronized previews, convert proprietary DCCTV files and more.  Learn more at https://www.magnetforensics.com/products/magnet-witness/

The Media-Geek community is now well over 600 members strong and growing!  Although I was literally operating in a state of emergency for the entire month of April and on the road most of May, this morning I managed to finish a significant system upgrade for our site.  This upgrade provides better integration of the video posting capability, improves efficiency for many features and addresses a few other minor bugs.

The DVR database will be moving into the new secure members area effective February 11th, in conjunction with our official launch of Media-Geek.com. Having the database available to the public has always been a security concern as well as a target for spam bots, among other things. There is no membership fee or advertising based revenue generated from this site, and I'm hopeful most will understand and take the few minutes to register. Look forward to seeing you "on the inside!"

I’m excited to announce that I’ll be attending this year’s 100th IAI Educational Conference in Sacramento, CA. This year’s conference is anticipated to be one of the largest, as it’s the IAI’s Centennial event. I will be there representing my employer, Ocean Systems, and we will be showcasing our latest Digital & Multimedia Evidence (DME) solutions in the event's Exhibit Hall.

For more information about the event visit the IAI 100th International Educational Conference web site. Hope to see you there!