hacks

Things are certainly winding down here at the CNET New York offices as The 404 finishes up its last two live episodes for the year. In the studio with us today is Natali Del Conte along with her CBS producer Will--so it sounds like the show is about to get some Early Show love on Friday morning!

Today's show starts off on an unsettling note as we talk about word of U.S. drones being hacked in the skies of Iraq. Apparently, all that was needed was a cheap $26 program that allowed insurgents access to our unmanned aircrafts--how comforting!

Bonehead military security issues aside, it's about time the FCC addresses the all-too-common issue of blaring TV commercials. How many times have you blown an eardrum after an ad comes on that's 35 times louder than the program you were watching?

In our unintentional effort to destroy the green movement, we uncover the ridiculous side effect some new LED traffic lights are having involving their inability to melt snow. It's actually causing accidents, so maybe good-old-fashioned energy-sucking, heat-producing traffic lights were the way to go.

There's more 404 fun in today's show: Y2K memories, "Iron Man 2" talk, and the year's best YouTube videos!

Rumors are that next year Google will add a Netbook brand along with its phone branding, and possibly begin a line of consumer electronics. Is that a good thing for Google? We kick around that old football. Also, Patrick from France joins us with his distinctly European perspective and we refrain from insulting each other for once. It's a brave new world!

Obama administration rolls out $2 billion for broadband http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5BG1JZ20091217 http://yro.slashdot.org/story/09/12/16/2329201/FCCs-New-Broadband-Plan-Prioritizes-Competition… Read more

Iraqi insurgents have reportedly intercepted live video feeds from the U.S. military's Predator drones using a $25.95 Windows application that allows them to track the pilotless aircraft undetected.

Hackers working with Iraqi militants were able to determine which areas of the country were under surveillance by the U.S. military, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday, adding that video feeds from drones in Afghanistan also appear to have been compromised.

Meanwhile, a senior Air Force officer said Wednesday that a wave of new surveillance aircraft, both manned and unmanned, were being deployed to Afghanistan to bolster "eyes in the sky" protection … Read more

So, Apple bought Lala, and Ars Technica thinks it has a source who knows what Apple's going to do with it-- it's going to make a Web site that sells music and stores it in the cloud. Kind of like what Lala already is, but it's going to be all iTunes-ified. And that has Rafe worrying about cloud failure again. We also kvetch about Facebook, a Mozilla employee complains about Google, and the "New Moon" videotaper is set free.

A new service uses the power of 400 virtualized computers in the cloud to test the security of your WPA WiFi password. They only charge $34. But Donald is afraid of how this penetration testing might show up on his credit card bill. But forget WiFi. WiGig is coming promising 7Gbps transfer speeds. Take that Ethernet cable!

WiGig alliance creates next-generation wireless networking standard http://venturebeat.com/2009/12/10/wigig-alliance-creates-next-generation-wireless-networking-standard/ http://gigaom.com/2009/12/10/coming-soon-to-your-hd-home-theater-7gbps/

Microsoft finally open sources … Read more

A lawsuit filed against Heartland Payment Systems over what is believed to be the biggest data breach in U.S. history has been dismissed.

The lawsuit was filed in January against Heartland by shareholders who alleged that Heartland failed to adequately safeguard the compromised consumer data and did not notify consumers about the breach in a timely manner as required by law.

The U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey granted Heartland's motion to dismiss the lawsuit on Monday, Heartland said in a statement on Wednesday. The court said the plaintiffs had not proved their allegations … Read more

Correction posted at 1:56 p.m. PST to clarify how Joshi attached the lenses to his phone.

The iPhone 3GS has a 3.2-megapixel fixed-lens camera and that seems to satisfy most users, but not Bhautik Joshi. The iPhone 3GS has a 3.2-megapixel fixed-lens camera and that seems to satisfy most users, but not Bhautik Joshi. The engineer at ILM R&D fitted optical drive lenses to the Apple phone's case, then stuck on a few PVC pipes to accommodate his 18-55mm Canon glass.

Personally, I think this this hack is way overdone. I'm pretty … Read more

The Disney Company is always so good at accessing one's inner child. The hope, the joy, the glory of absolute love, family goodness, and everything that sails in it.

So I am thrown a little off course when I hear that Disney may have falsely accused an 11-year-old boy of hacking the Pirates of the Caribbean video game and disabled his account.

The account I have read comes from the boy's dad, Brian Guy. Guy is a manager of MySQL's hardy pirates at Sun Microsystems. He also has a blog, which was positively fulminating with frustration Tuesday, … Read more

Last week at the Hacker Dojo in Mountain View, Calif., developers partnered with Google, Yahoo, NASA, and the World Bank to exchange ideas and work on solutions for responding to natural disasters and other emergencies.

Random Hacks of Kindness is the first in a series of planned events that seek to use technology to solve real world problems related to crisis and disaster relief. By first working with governments and non-governmental organizations to better understand the immediate needs of rescuers and communities following a critical emergency, these programmers are work directly to solve communication issues and to better facilitate the … Read more