Handheld Wi-Vi device lets you see through walls

New Wi-Vi "x-ray vision" device can track moving humans behind walls using a low-power Wi-Fi signal.

Scientists have long tried to give people the power of x-ray vision, and now engineers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology have developed a handheld device capable of seeing through walls.

Researchers at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory set out to find an easier way to do this than with current bulky radar technology. They decided to use low-cost Wi-Fi technology.

“We wanted to create a device that is low-power, portable and simple enough for anyone to use, to give people the ability to see through walls and closed doors,” said Dina Katabi, a professor in MIT’s Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

The system, called "Wi-Vi," transmits a low-power Wi-Fi signal and, similar to radar and sonar imaging, uses reflections of the signal to track objects.

As a Wi-Fi signal is transmitted at a wall, a portion of the signal penetrates through it, reflecting off any humans on the other side. But most of the signal is reflected by the wall, or by other objects. “So we had to come up with a technology that could cancel out all these other reflections, and keep only those from the moving human body,” Katabi said.

To do this, the system uses two antennas to transmit and has one receiver. The second Wi-Fi signal is exactly the inverse of the first, and so when they bounce of a static object such as a wall, the signals cancel each other out.

Only those reflections that change between the two signals are sent to the receiver. “So, if the person moves behind the wall, all reflections from static objects are cancelled out, and the only thing registered by the device is the moving human," said Katabi's graduate student, Fadel Adib.

Wi-Vi will presented at the Sigcomm conference in Hong Kong in August. Engineers believe the technology will be used for search-and-rescue operations, or to allow police to identify criminals or hostages within a building.

The device can also detect gestures or movements by a person standing behind a wall, such as a wave of the arm, Katabi said.

"Such an interface could alter the face of gaming," said Venkat Padmanabhan at Microsoft Research. He said the possibility of using Wi-Vi as a gesture-based interface that does not require a line of sight between the user and the device itself is its most interesting application.


upi.com 28 June 2013

Pippa Middleton demands mock Twitter parody @Pippatips be taken down

PIPPA Middleton has threatened legal action against parody Twitter account @Pippatips, which imagines her posh pregnancy tips. 
 
The hit Twitter account started out by poking fun at Pippa’s obvious party times in her widely-panned book Celebrate, and has moved on to imagining her advice for pregnant mums-to-be.

@Pippatips dispenses gems like "dressing up in nice clothes is a stylish way to look great at a party" and "avoid getting lost by consulting a map".

Now writers Mat Morrisroe and Suzanne Azzopardi have turned their Twitter feed into a book, When One is Expecting: A Posh Person’s Guide to Pregnancy and Parenting, which answers questions like "Is caviar suitable for weaning?"


But it seems the younger sister of Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, is not amused. Her lawyers have written to publisher Icon Books to demand the @Pippatips Twitter account be deleted, the Independent reports.

The legal stoush comes as Pippa’s older sister Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, is due to give birth to the royal baby any day.

news.com.au 17 July 2013

One of the more well known parody accounts was the fake Steve Jobs which had many hundreds of thousands of followers, with witty remarks pertaining to Apple products.

It's actually called Freedom of Speech.

Pippa Middleton is a nobody whose function is to thin out the blood of the incestuous English Royal Family.

Man who died in Shepparton house fire often smoked in bed

A SHEPPARTON man who died in a house fire at his neighbour's house overnight was there because his other two homes had burned down from his habit of smoking in bed. 
 
The 52-year-old's Sibley Court bungalow caught fire in February, then his house on the same property burnt down on June 30.

His next-door neighbour, a middle-aged woman, offered to take him in while he looked for new accommodation, but her home also caught fire around 1am today.

She escaped unharmed but CFA firefighters found the man's body within a metre of a rear exit.

CFA operations officer Shane Sutton said the man initially escaped from the property but went back in to save the woman's dog, which was later found safe in a back bedroom.

Det-Acting Sgt Shane Kervin said the two previous blazes on the man's property were caused by him smoking in bed.

He said the cause of this morning's blaze was being investigated.

Arson and explosives police attending the scene this morning but Sgt Kervin said the fire was not being treated as suspicious.

"We don't want to jump conclusions but (smoking) will form part of the investigation," he said.
"It is a warning to people in the community and those that are smoking that there are serious dangers about smoking in bed."

Neighbour George Choury, 92, said the man had lived with his mother in Sibley Court until she moved into a retirement home recently.

Mr Choury also said the woman had two young daughters, who fortunately were not at home last night.

Sgt Kervin said the woman's house was "totally destroyed" by the fire.

Mr Sutton said the woman climbed out through a bedroom window and was not able to salvage anything from her home.

The incident follows the death of a man aged in his 60s in a house fire in Melbourne's inner-west yesterday.

Emergency services arrived to find the single-storey weatherboard property in Collett St, Kensington, well alight at 5.15pm.

Crews dragged the man from the house and ambulance officers treated him at the scene but he could not be revived.

The man is believed to have lived at the house.

Investigators are working to establish the cause of the fire but Victoria Police spokeswoman Creina O’Grady said it was not being treated as suspicious.

Meanwhile, two Prahran residents were lucky to survive a fire in their two-storey unit just after midnight.

The two young men woke as their ceiling collapsed but they managed to escape without serious injury.

Both were treated for smoke inhalation and 18 firefighters controlled the blaze in 20 minutes.

The roof, kitchen and lounge room were severely damaged by the fire, the cause of which will also be investigated today.
The MFB today urged Melbourne residents to be vigilant with home fire safety.

“Every life lost is tragic and I urge all Victorians to take preventive action to stop fires occurring in their homes in the first place and knowing what to do if a fire does start. Please do not let this happen to you or your family,” said MFB chief fire officer Shane Wright.

“The cold winter months bring with them an increased risk of house fire and in the last 24 hours we have seen three significant house fires in Melbourne, one of them resulting in the loss of a man’s life," Mr Wright said.

He suggested some steps people can take to reduce the risk of fire over winter:
• Have a working smoke alarm; smoke alarms save lives.
• Check heaters, flues and chimneys are in good working order.
• Turn heaters off when you leave the house or go to bed.
• Never leave cooking, heaters, open fires or candles unattended.
• When using electric blankets, follow manufacturer’s instructions. Don’t leave them on for more than 30 minutes and turn them off when you go to bed.
• Do not dry clothing less than one metre from heaters.
• Never smoke in bed.
• Prepare a home fire escape plan and practise it.

 heraldsun.com.au 9 July 2013

Quite simply put, if one is not supposed to live one should do the Earth a favour and go.

The law of nature, too stupid to survive.

A paranoid person's guide to the web

 

IT'S easy to become paranoid when you're online. There's so much private information stored in various databases, that it's only natural to be concerned about your security. 

And since news broke about the US's National Security Agency spying on international web users, many people feel it's more important than ever to hide online. So can it be done?

1. Use a VPN
Virtual Private Networks allows you to access the internet while keeping your identity private.
The technology encrypts your connection and obscures your IP address, making it appear as though you are in another country.

However, to ensure that your identity is kept secret you'll need to first register with an encrypted email service. Most decent encrypted email services charge for this, so you will have to register using a credit card or PayPal account.

So if they really wanted to, dubious internet figures could probably figure out who you really are.
But the point is to create as much work for them as possible.

VPNs can also be slow and are not entirely effective. While VPNs encrypt internet traffic, eventually users must leave that environment. For example if you want to Google something, your connection will be passed through several relays so as to ensure your identity is not revealed, but eventually you have to connect to Google's servers, meaning that somebody could figure out where this anonymous internet traffic is coming from.

Canadian information security consultant, Robert Slade told news.com.au that all kinds of security weaknesses have been found in VPN services.

"You can surveil known endpoints and gain a surprising amount of information," he said.

Slade also said that companies have tried to make VPNs easier for "the masses", which has potentially compromised security.

"Any time you go for convenience, you tend to lose security," he said.

2. Take your phone battery out. Or stop using phones altogether
Bad news. When The Guardian revealed that the NSA had been spying on internet users, it showed that they not only monitored what phone numbers we call but where we are calling from.

Most, if not all smartphones have an in-built GPS. How do you think Google Maps knows where you are?

So if you don't want anyone knowing your whereabouts, your only option is to take the battery out of your phone when you are done making a call. And if you don't want to risk being listened into at all? The answer is simple but unsatisfying: don't use a phone.

If only there were some kind of mobile phone encryption device you could use...

3. Get the RedPhone app
RedPhone is an app developed for most Android phones that encrypts your phone calls to prevent anyone from listening in.

The app hides your number and the number of the person you are calling by encoding them. It can also encrypt text messages.

RedPhone makes calls over the internet using a technology called VOIP (voice over internet protocol), so it does not chew up your call minutes.

But Mr Slade told news.com.au that even encoded phone calls need to access mobile phone towers. So it's possible that even with this tool people may know where you are, particularly if you are using a 3G connection instead of WIFI.

"Even if you are only using VoIP, it isn't that hard to find your location via IP mapping," Mr Slade said. "Any time you are using the cell voice or data network, the telco has to know which tower you are talking to.

"And, of course, if you are using any of a number of social media apps without turning off the default use of GPS, you may be broadcasting your location all the time."

4. Or the Chat Secure app
Chat Secure is a similar service to Red Phone but it's for Apple users.

It encrypts your calls and text messages to ensure nobody can listen in.

Chat Secure is also compatible with other platforms such as Gibberbot for Android.

The service boasts free, unlimited messages and calls. (However, the service isn't entirely free. Like RedPhone it sends your texts and calls via the web, so it will chew into your data allowance).

It also clears your message history every time you close the app to ensure no one can read your texts.

Again, this service will only work properly if the person you are contacting is also using an encryption service.

5. Use Duck Duck Go instead of Google
Since it has been alleged that Google has been helping the NSA monitor what you search for, you could be looking around for a new, less nosy search engine.

Duck Duck Go is a search engine that is committed to keeping search results a secret.

Unlike Google and Bing, Duck Duck Go (DDG) doesn't use cookies - a file which is stored in your browser and records what sites you have visited - nor does it log user information or store IP addresses. It also doesn't rely on filter bubbles which helps sites like Google to tailor search results to your personal tastes.

The goal of DDG is to prevent "search leakage", a means of identifying who you are based on your search habits.

DDG doesn't want to know anything about you. This is a good and bad thing. On the upside you can search anonymously. On the downside everyone gets the same search results.

6. Replace Skype with Jitsi
Jitsi is an online video chat service similar to Skype, except it's a completely encrypted and open source.

It's long been known that Skype keeps records of who you talk to and the duration of chat sessions.
Jitsi provides all the services of Skype but it encrypts all voice and video calls, ensuring that nobody can snoop on calls or record them. It also encrypts texts as well, so instant messaging is protected, too.

The downside is that Jitsi can only be 100 per cent secure if both people have it installed.

The ultimate downside

Even with all these devices and apps, there is almost no way to remain completely anonymous online.
Encryption services can prevent calls from being listened into, or online comminications from being read, but it cannot hide all communication patterns.

The meta data of emails, phone calls, and texts are inevitably recorded somewhere. They have to be in order for those services to work. So internet users have to exercise good faith that this metadata isn't being shared with governments or other organisations. It's worth noting too that the Federal Government has already emphasised that it wants to store metadata about calls and internet logs as part of its data retention plan.

"To seriously paraphrase (German philosopher) Nietzsche, when you look into the, if not 'darker' then at least 'more shaded' regions of the network abyss, you have to take extra care to make sure the abyss doesn't look back into you," Mr Slade said.

Really the only way to stay truly anonymous is to reject technology algother. Maybe write a letter instead, and then trust that Australia Post doesn't read it.

news.com.au

All part of the global agenda to 'enslave' people, something the masses are totally ignorant of.

Analagous to Nazi concentration camp style of governance, remembering all this is done to benefit humanity from 'terrorism', just like it was a generation ago with the fight against another evil called 'communism', which incidentally was created by the same financiers that rule the global economy.

The corporate media  portrays the paranoid as mentally unstable.

Mokbel associate hit with $2.6 million tax bill

A Melbourne woman accused of laundering criminal proceeds on behalf of the Mokbel drug empire has been served with a $2.6 million tax bill by the Australian Taxation Office.

Irene Meletsis, 46, of Fitzroy, was served with a writ from deputy commissioner of taxation Robert Ravanello in February, after allegedly failing to pay income tax of $1.2 million between 2005 and 2012. The ATO claims she owes a further $1.4 million in penalties and interest.

Ms Meletsis' husband, Tom Karas, 49, was issued with a $44 million tax bill in 2011 and had assets and bank accounts frozen by the Supreme Court of Victoria.

The tax order is part of a sustained campaign by the ATO and Victoria Police's Purana taskforce to target figures with underworld connections and vast unexplained wealth.

Last November, crane company owner and industrial mediator Mick Gatto received a $10 million assessment from the ATO, after a five-year investigation of his business dealings.

Mr Gatto, who is a former business associate of Mr Karas, has claimed his financial affairs were ''squeaky clean'' and has vowed to challenge the massive tax bill in court.

In April 2012, the ATO placed a freezing order against property, racehorses and luxury cars owned by Tony Khoury, the brother of Mr Gatto's business partner John Khoury, who shared a La Trobe Street office with Mr Karas.

The ATO was unable to establish the source of $4 million deposited into Mr Khoury's bank accounts between 2002 and 2009.

The latest ATO action follows police allegations that Ms Meletsis helped her husband launder money on behalf of Horty Mokbel, a convicted drug dealer and brother of Tony Mokbel.

A 2007 affidavit filed by the Purana taskforce alleged Mr Karas was linked to a ''large-scale money laundering operation in an attempt to cover up the extent of monies derived from drug trafficking''.

Mr Karas used the name of a distant relative who lives in Greece to avoid tens of millions of dollars in income tax, according to a senior Tax Office investigator in Supreme Court documents.

Police had previously used proceeds-of-crime laws to seize a share portfolio and other assets from Mr Karas and Ms Meletsis, including $1 million from the sale of racehorse Pillar of Hercules, which was purchased by Horty Mokbel in 2006.

Ms Meletsis was also a co-owner of the Metro nightclub in Bourke Street before offloading it for $10 million in 2007.

Mr Karas would not comment when contacted by Fairfax Media .

theage.com.au 14 July 2013

The authorities have been aware of the activities of the crime families for many decades, but have literally stood by idly.

These crime families have been laundering the proceeds of crime into businesses that the authorities are fully aware of.

These families have some of Australia's most prominent name on their payrolls, including High Court judges, politicians, and members of the police.

Victoria's police have been working together with the crime syndicates for many decades, but this information is not really privy to the herd population.

This so called exibition of 'justice' is to lull the masses that something is being done.

Australia's drug trade is worth $1.2 billion per month, where many a law enforcement officer and their heads are bribed, as well as the legal system including Australia's top masonic judges.

 

Another win for the criminals.

Kokoda Diggers slam Kevin Rudd over 'survivor' comment

KOKODA veterans have reacted angrily to Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's description of himself as "a survivor of the Kokoda Track." 
 
About 625 Australian soldiers did not survive the brutal fighting against crack Japanese troops along the 100km long Track during WWII.

Speaking at a joint press conference with Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Peter O'Neill in Port Moresby yesterday Mr Rudd acknowledged that more than 3000 Australians a year followed in the footsteps of the 30,000 diggers who fought a pitched campaign along the Track between July and November 1942 under appalling conditions.

Kevin Rudd describes himself as a Kokoda 'survivor'

About 1600 were wounded and another 4000 fell victim to tropical diseases especially malaria.

Mr Rudd famously walked the Track in 2006 with Liberal heavyweight Joe Hockey as part of a TV stunt.
"I was one of them way back then and I am a survivor of the Kokoda Track," Mr Rudd blurted at his Moresby press conference, conducted with a portrait of himself in the background.

Mr Rudd this morning apologised for "any misinterpretation" that followed his claim.

"I think, in my speech I said that 3000 Australians walked the Kokoda Track every year and that I had done the same and had survived," he said as he left for a walk in Townsville shortly after 6am.

"That's actually what I meant. If people have taken that a different way, then of course I'm sorry about any misinterpretation."

Despite saying yesterday that he was a friend of PNG Mr Rudd did not visit the country once when he was foreign minister.

(Pictured: Ninety-two year old Bede Tongs MM (centre) 3rd Battalion CMF warrior and Kokoda veteran.)

Bede Tongs, 93, from Queanbeyan in NSW was awarded the Military Medal for single-handedly taking out a Japanese machine gun post at Templeton's Crossing in September 1942.

He lost 53 mates on the Track and he urged Mr Rudd to stay away from throwaway lines.

"Good on him, he is a survivor, but is he a contributor?'' Mr Tongs said.

"That wasn't the right thing for him to say, but politicians always want to say something to bring prominence upon themselves.

"It was a stupid thing to say, he wasn't there. Instead of saying stupid things he should spend more money on health and education for our friends in PNG.''

Mr Tongs said 560 men from the 3rd Battalion went up the track in September 1942 and just 110 were still standing at Gona on December 4.

Mr Hockey upset Mr Rudd's wife Therese Rein when he said he should have drowned the comeback PM instead of rescuing him from rapids.

He said he had seen all versions of Kevin - "Kokoda Kevin, and I apologise to the Australian people, I should have drowned him when I had a chance in the mountains.''

Ms Rein said she had walked the Track and it was about mateship and courage and endurance.
"That doesn't seem to hang together very well with those comments,'' Ms Rein said.

Given that most of the 625 Australians who died along the Track are buried at the Bomana War Cemetery on the outskirts of Port Moresby, and Mr Rudd didn't pay his respects during his lightning PNG visit, the true Kokoda "survivors'' are not happy.

Len Griffiths of Canberra was an infantry Sergeant with the 3rd Militia Battalion when he stood to attention in the village of Kokoda in November 1942 as his mate Merv Shea from Yass raised the Australian flag.

Mr Griffiths, 91, and his mates had routed the Japanese after weeks of bloody fighting and were chasing them towards the sea at Buna-Gona.

When told that Mr Rudd had survived Kokoda he said, "He was lucky wasn't he.''

Mr Griffiths described the PM's comment as "disrespectful'' and "a bit dicey''.

"It sounds a bit ordinary to me. Typical Rudd bravado I reckon.''

 heraldsun.com.au 16 July 2013

Politicians send out the children of the masses out to war, to allegedly fight and die for their country, while at the same time putting on a show of so called 'respect' to the men killed in the battle field.

Rudd's comment describing himself as a "survivor of the Kokoda Track" shows complete contempt, and an insult to the people killed and the survivors.

His total lack of respect flows through to his actions when he visited PNG and did not pay respect to the 625 Australian killed that are buried in the Bomana War Cemetery on the outskirts of Port Moresby.

Another Trailer Park Trash Prime Minister elected by a fraudulent government.