Free DME & DFIR Resources

EXT4 is a next generation file system replacement for the EXT2/EXT3 family of Linux file systems. It was accepted as "stable" in the Linux 2.6.28 kernel in October 2008[1]. As of this writing, it's starting to appear as the default file system in newer versions of several Linux distros. While the developers did try to maintain some degree of backwards compatibility with EXT2/EXT3, there is quite a bit that's new and different with EXT4. Popular forensic tools like the Sleuthkit are not fully compatible with these changes in EXT4, although some of their functionality does still work.

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LEVA is proud to announce the Call For Entries for the 20th Annual Shield Video Awards competition, the only video competition designed exclusively for public safety professionals. Entries must be post-marked no later than Friday, July 3, 2009, and be received by July 10, 2009. Winners will be announced at the Shield Awards Banquet on November 20, 2009, during the 20th Annual LEVA Training and Development Conference in Ft. Worth, Texas. Visit www.leva.org for entry forms and further information.

Windows 8 is a major OS overhaul, but some of the most important additions might be the ones you can't see. Here's a look at Windows 8's new security tools and features.

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I probably should’ve just dropped the mic after the last post, but we’re going to continue on. I’m not one for dropping names, and in this case I don’t have to either. Everyone has gotten this wrong at some point, and I mean everyone. The people working on related standards; the people making the world’s leading non-linear professional editing systems; the people who make a living professionally processing and transcoding video; the people making multimedia playback software; the people making DCCTV systems; the people making operating systems; and yes, even forensic video and digital evidence technicians and analysts. We’re all human, my friends. It is a long, convoluted, complex process with its very foundation based on sampling an analog signal.

With the successful completion of last week's Advanced Forensic Video Analysis & the Law course, LEVA is proud to announce that they have ten newly certified forensic video technicians! Click here for the complete list of LEVA CFVTs (PDF)

Haven't had much time to post lately, but wanted to quickly say that the new Google Chrome  browser totally rocks!  I'm waiting on some files to transcode and thought I'd type up a quick post using this cool new browser...and the new blogging tool I'm implementing for Media-Geek members.  Anywho...

Three days old (publically released Tuesday) and this browser has me wondering when Microsoft will get out of the browser game.  I know the answer is never, but come on...have you tried IE8?  Please tell me I'm not the only idiot who thought IE8 BETA 2 would be an improvement over BETA 1.   

I've been using Safari for most of my general browsing for several months now, and of course have Firefox 2 and 3 tucked in to my quick launch bar as well.  Unfortunately, as a Web developer, I have to keep a few versions of IE around; but you can bet you won't find it in my quick launch bar anymore.

I'm just back from a week of vacation, all of which was literally spent moving into our new home...a block and half away. Ugh, what a process. With that behind us now, I'm excited to get back to work on the DME Resources online training library!

I will be completing the Navigating & Using DME Resources training course over the 4th of July weekend, and we're still on schedule to launch the first DME related courses prior to the end of summer.

If you or your agency have a DME related topic or tool that you'd like additional training on, shoot me a note and I'll see if I may be able to help (or at least put you in touch with someone who can). Thanks for your continued participation and interest. Have a great 4th of July weekend everyone, be safe!

You know what they say – the old has gone, and the new has come. Mozilla has just announced that they will be retiring their Firefox 4 browser – strange, isn’t it, considering Firefox 4 shipped a mere three months ago. Well, at least Firefox 5 is now the de facto browser from Mozilla. Tuesday’s Firefox 5 release also saw Mozilla spell out the list of vulnerabilities it patched in that edition alongside 2010′s Firefox 3.6, although there was no mention of any bugs fixed in Firefox 4.

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A DVR comes in to the lab and there’s not a single label on it. No identifying marks, labels, nada. The owner has no clue where it came from, nor any manuals or documentation. Sweet.

Well, in the past, one of the tricks of the trade was to take a photo (or two) and drop it in to Google image search. With any luck you stumble upon one that looks just like it. Success! Not so fast zippy, it’s rarely that easy, but I thought the following was worth pointing out.

Bing has now joined the image search game too, so the next time you’re in a similar pickle, be sure to give them both a shot at it. Good luck!

Computerworld - Microsoft's free previews of Windows 8 will expire next month, giving users about three weeks to upgrade to a paid copy or face hourly restarts.

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by Stephen Shankland

COLOGNE, Germany--For those who find Hasselblad's 60-megapixel H4D-60 camera a little too confining, the company plans to sell a 200-megapixel model in the first quarter of 2011.

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 http://news.cnet.com/8301-30685_3-20017220-264.html

Lossless trimming is the ability to trim, cut or extract segments of audio & video without re-encoding the original multimedia streams, maintaining both the original frames/samples and their related metadata. It is a process as old as digital video itself, and one that can be extremely helpful when dealing with hundreds or thousands of hours of digital video evidence for a case.

Reduce file size, reduce duration and maintain the original frames & quality. Bonus, the process is even faster than traditional editing, as you don't have to wait for the video to be re-encoded!

Spatial vs. Temporal Compression

Spatial (Intraframe) compression is applied to each video frame independently, treating each frame as a stand-alone image. This is the type of compression leveraged by high-end video production facilities as it provides superior picture quality and efficiencies in the editing process. Every frame is a key frame.