Free DME & DFIR Resources

The illuminating power of bulky night vision goggles could soon be widely available thanks to a new, paper-thin device.

Adapting technology found in flat screen television sets, scientists have created a thin film that converts infrared light into visible light. The technology could give cell phones, eyeglasses and car windshields cheap, lightweight night vision.

Read the fully story:

http://news.discovery.com/tech/night-vision-cell-phone-eyeglasses.html

Creative Suite 6 access is now available on a month-to-month basis; subscribers get 20GB online storage.

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It's been a long time coming, but with the recent upgrades and layout changes I was finally able to bring back our popular DME Resources Map.

The DME Resources Map allows members to add markers for their agency or organizational resources related to forensic multimedia analysis. Visitors and members are then able to easily locate nearby DME resources that may be able to assist them.

Add your agency or organization's resource today!

For those that do not know, Websense is a Web/Email security company that now sells a multitude of products, to include software and hardware.  Many government agencies use them, as ours did initially when I was with a NY agency, and quite frankly my first-hand experience with them was more problematic than problem-solving.  I totally get error-ing on the side of caution, but at the same time find overly cautious classifications based on IP addresses is not the way to filter the Web; especially given that the vast majority of the Web is hosted on shared servers.  Anyway, since I've responded to a few of these email inquiries from our users lately, I figured I share my canned email response globally with all users....

From day one I have sought to provide a secure online platform for Digital & Multimedia Evidence (DME) professionals to connect and share information.  For several years now, I have considered hosting an annual DME Resources Peer Networking & Training Event.

Of course, one of the many challenges is location.  Our members are from all over the world, not just the U.S. and Canada.  Naturally, this lends to "Regional" annual events, which in turn leads to Regional Coordinators, etc. 

Members can now upload videos directly to our server via the Media-Geek.com Video Library! As you may know the video library supports over 30 of the most popular video sharing sites, and now also supports direct upload of FLV, MPG, WMV, AVI, MP3 and SWF files. At present uploaded files will be stored and played back in the format uploaded; however, at some point we intend to implement ffmpeg on our server and automatically convert all uploaded files to the FLV format.

Adding videos to the library via a free online video hosting/sharing site (e.g. Google video, YouTube, etc...) is still the preferred method of including your videos in our library, as there are some limitations with direct upload such as a maximum file size of 8MB. With that said, there are also limitations with all of the video hosting/sharing sites, so I'm sure the ability to upload short videos directly will prove beneficial. 😎

Time flies when you're having fun helping your peers and colleagues solve technical problems. Thank you to all who have shared their knowledge & expertise to-date!

I know I don't post to our LinkedIn group much, but I do post regularly to our site, Facebook page & my related Twitter account (@audiovideogeek). I plan to try to sharing on our LinkedIn group more often as well.

We've been expediting digital & multimedia investigations together as a community for over 5 years now. I'm really proud to be a part of that process, and you should be too. On behalf of our entire community, thanks for your valuable time and participation! All the best! - LC

If you have a PSP and aren't using its video playback capabilities other than via UMD, you're missing out on one of its best features. The PSP can basically serve as your personal wide-screen video player, which comes in quite handy for those who travel frequently. A 1GB Memory Stick Pro Duo card can hold several hours of good quality video and still have room for your music, pics, etc.

The only problem with this is that the PSP is very finicky with regard to MP4 files. It'll balk on image sizes, frame rates, bit rates, file names, file locations, and just about anything else you can think of. And to top it all off, each firmware release for the PSP seems to handle things differently. But then again, I suppose if it were a simple standard process that remained consistent, Sony wouldn't be able to market and sell software to manage this process for you (a.k.a. PSP Media Manager).

Secure your hotspot or face a fine is the gist behind Westchester, NY's countywide law requiring all commercial businesses to secure their WLAN access points. Various news articles indicate that the state of New York is considering similar legislation (See ZDNet article dated 1/9/2007). Westchester's concern is "On these networks, there's unfettered access to confidential data, and we have a problem with that." Personally, I have a problem with county taxpayers funding the task of enforcing such nonsense.

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!

Maybe it's just me, but it seems every other week someone's releasing a new "SmartPhone" that's going to change the way you do business as a mobile professional. But in my opinion, when you peel back that slick new protective plastic and fire it up it's the same old thing. No new killer apps, nothing really new as far as functionality or capability, and more often than not each new "exclusive release" seems to have more bugs than your local landfill on a hot summer day.

How long have they been making "Smartphones" now anyway? Well, to be honest, that I don't really know. I can tell you this, my first Smartphone was a Kyocera QCP6035 that I picked up in 2000 or early 2001. I can't remember for sure, as I think I might have killed those brain cells banging my head on my desk while trying resolve the plethora of issues I've been having with the latest generation of Smartphones. Either way, I'm pretty sure it was one of the first available and can remember how giddy I was to be able to toss my cell and my Palm Pilot for one device.

As you may know, version 1.10.4 of Avery Lee's video capture/processing utility was released a little over a month ago. I've packaged it with several of the input plugins I regularly use, with one notable exception; the FFmpeg input plugin. I've had nothing but issues w/version 0.7 of the FFmpeg input plugin when used with version 1.10.4 of VirtualDub, so I've provided the source but did not install the plugin in my v1.10.4 package.

The v1.9.11 package contains all of the same input plugins, and version 0.7 of the FFmpeg input plugin is loaded automatically as well. Head past the break for the links to download.

Check out these new docs on CS6 system requirements click here