Point Zero: Redefining Otaku

Hard Disk price only gets lower. For part 1 of IT Show 2010 Price List, PZportal has compiled the prices of almost all major external hard disk brands that participated in the event. The table below shows the comparison between of various offerings, with the function for you to sort according to your needs.

Click here for Sitex 2009 external HDD price comparison.

Click here for IT Show 2010 Laptop price comparison.

All scans are obtained from VR-Zone

Updated as of IT Show Day 1 (110310) 1900hrs

In a follow up of the recent Apple-HTC lawsuit, an article featured in The New York Times came up with a graphical roundup of the various mobile phone player who have been or still are involved in patent disputes regarding mobile technology.

Perhaps industry players have reached the point of saturation in technology inovations where having exclusive technology would monopolise the market. On the other hand, it is well known that there are company whose revenue are in trading of technology patents.

How would this saga play out would be interesting to see.

In this issue of Hack Week, I am proud to present to you an email interview with Darren Kitchen, producer and host of the IPTV show; Hak.5.

For the benefit of those who don’t know what Hak.5 is all about; it is an IPTV show that showcases everything from IT security to hardware/software based hacks. It is definitely a show to watch for all geeks out there and who knows, you might pick up a couple of cool tricks! You can catch him in his weekly show at: www.hak5.org

Without further ado… the interview with Darren Kitchen! =D

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1. How was Hak.5 first conceived and what was the motivation behind it?

For as long as I can remember I’ve been interested in video. Early examples include stop-motion Lego films using the family VHS camcorder. Other influences in the late 90s included Kevin Pereira’s LMSDC series and with the availability of inexpensive DV cameras, broadband and bit-torrent by 2005 I was ready to share with the world my passion for technolust.

2. At Hak.5, you guys attempt all sorts of hacks, what kind of hacking are you personally into?

I love mashups of technologies that ordinarily wouldn’t be found together. I also quite enjoy anthropomorphizing hacking tools like the WiFi Pineapple, Network Monkey or soon to be USB Rubber Ducky.

3. Have your hacking exploits at Hak.5 got you into any sort of trouble?

Before Hak5 I was quite mischievous as I pushed the envelope of what was acceptable. Suffice it to say I’ve been kicked off a few school networks. But since Hak5 my exploits have only been used for good, mainly in securing my home and work networks.

4. What was the most memorable hack Hak.5 has attempted?

The very first attempt at the WiFi Pineapple in the pilot of season four. I had used a real Pineapple fruit as the enclosure for my router and let me tell you it took weeks to get that smell off the electronics!

5. What is the secret behind Hak.5’s success despite you and your crew holding full time day jobs?

Passion. We don’t try particularly hard to push the show in one direction or another. We simply do what we’re passionate about and if it’s true it will be successful. You can’t force or fake this stuff.

6. Will you leave your day job to focus and grow Hak.5 in to something more?

I recently have. Not by my choice as I feel that it’s a bit premature to make such a leap, but I work well under pressure so I’m up to the challenge.

7. After airing for 6 seasons, what will be in store for Hak.5 in the future?

In season seven Shannon has moved back to Missouri to take care of her ill father. She will be airing segments from a remote studio she has there. We will also have on many more guests on this season via remote hosting kits. The highlight of the season for me will be a several week one-way motorcycle trip from Williamsburg, Virginia to the San Francisco Bay area in California.

8. Besides seeing the show transform through seasons, how has the Hak.5 cast evolved? Especially with the departure of Wes.

The show has and will continue to revolve around my core group of friends who have the time and passion to commit to Hak5. Since it’s not a day job that pays nobody is expected to stick with it for the long haul. That said there’s an open door policy on Hak5 and anyone who’s been on before is welcome to come back.

9. One of my guys is very curious about the Hack House. Can you tell us how the Hack House came to be?

In 2007 Hak5 was growing quite fast, and with a crew of four my little apartment wasn’t cutting it. In an effort to keep everyone together and build a bigger set I bought a house. Moments later the market crashed, but that’s neither here nor there.

10. In your recent interview with Discovery Networks, you set a clear distinction between Hackers and cyber criminals but have that help to clear up any misconception the uninitiated has towards the above mentioned 2 groups of people?

I wouldn’t claim that what I said on the Discovery Networks interview was particularly new thinking. It’s something that needs to be reiterated in the media until, hopefully, it sticks in the public consciousness.

11. Lastly, is there anything you would like to say to your fans in Singapore and are there any plans to pop by Singapore any time soon?

I would love to one day visit Singapore. It’s a dream of mine to travel the world. I’d just say to our Singapore fans what I say to our fans everywhere; thanks for watching, tell all your geeky friends about the show, and trust your technolust!

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Well… there you go! Hope that you guys have enjoyed this special edition of Hack Week and rest assured… there will be more to come! As mentioned on our twitter feed, there will be an impressive project coming to PZPortal… So stay tuned to Hack Week @ PZPortal!

andriodcentral.com-Mar 2 2001

Apple filed a lawsuit against HTC for 20 count of patent infringement ranging from  User interface, hardware functions to software architecture with the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) and in U.S. District Court in Delaware.

According to Apple’s official release to news media, Steve Jobs commented that”We can sit by and watch competitors steal our patented inventions, or we can do something about it. We’ve decided to do something about it,We think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours.”

Official replies from HTC states that they have yet been served and had only learned of Apple’s  action that morning via media report. Thus they are unable to comment until they have the opportunity to investigate the filings.  HTC  assured that they “has been very focused over the past 13 years on creating many of the most innovative smartphones” adding that it “values patent rights and their enforcement but is also committed to defending its own technology innovations.”

Gizmodo.com has the full court paper updated on their site showing Apple’s claim on patents such as,

• The ‘949 Patent, entitled “Touch Screen Device, Method, And Graphical User Interface For Determining Commands By Applying Heuristics,” was duly and legally issued on January 20, 2009 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. A copy of the ‘949 Patent is attached hereto as Exhibit B.
• The ‘849 Patent, entitled “Unlocking A Device By Performing Gestures On An Unlock Image,” was duly and legally issued on February 2, 2010 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. A copy of the ‘849 Patent is attached hereto as Exhibit C.
• The ‘381 Patent, entitled “List Scrolling And Document Translation, Scaling, And Rotation On A Touch-Screen Display,” was duly and legally issued on December 23, 2008 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. A copy of the ‘381 Patent is attached hereto as Exhibit D.
• The ‘453 Patent, entitled “Conserving Power By Reducing Voltage Supplied To An Instruction-Processing Portion Of A Processor,” was duly and legally issued on June 3, 2008 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. A copy of the ‘453 Patent is attached hereto as Exhibit H.

Perhaps Apple have came to their sense that they have not been able to “reinvent” anything  which will emulate its iPhone’s market success of adding a phone function to its entertainment device and it is afraid that the once coolest communication gadget which everyone (almost) wants will soon be just  an obsolete touchscreen phone.

While other phone manufacturer are competing to better integrate consumer’s social networks  into mobile communications, Apple is trying to keep up with mobile technology or mutating its “touch” into every conceivable electronic devices.