Free DME & DFIR Resources

Recently I received the official announcement from Avid that the Liquid line has reached End-of-Life, and Avid is offering all Liquid customers an upgrade discount to Media Composer.  Certainly not a surprise, as there haven't been any major releases of Liquid since shortly after Avid acquired Pinnacle, but the official announcement made me a little sad just the same.  I've really grown to love my Liquid Pro systems at home and they've served me well. 

Avid will provide phone support for the next two years and will replace hardware still under warranty for as long as supplies last(?).  View the official announcement via the link below:

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Can you believe it?  An entire year has flown by since I launched the Pro Upgrade subscription model.  Thank you to all who have subscribed & all who continue to participate!

I'm honored to be in a position where I can help facilitate secure information sharing, and such a powerful collective knowledgebase. 

Renewing Your Subscription Is Easy

Log-in, go to your profile (click the control panel link), go to the subscription tab.  For your convenience, I've pasted a few related KB articles below.

• How to Register with DME Resources
• How do I upgrade my subscription?
• Can my agency or I pay by check?
• How do I generate an invoice (a.k.a. Payment Slip)?
• Completed W-9 Form - Larry A Compton Tax Payer ID
• Do you offer any discounts on the Pro Upgrade subscription?
• Do you offer Organizational Memberships?
• Do you sell advertising or Corporate Sponsorships?
• Will the Pro Upgrade Annual Subscription Auto-Renew?

Let's keep on doing what we do, my friends; solve problems, help people.  I'm honored to work with you.  Be safe out there!

The new Documents & Downloads library is quickly growing and we've recently added a new category for members to post Forensic related job opportunities, and their personal CVs if their currently looking to advance their career.  The new category is appropriately titled "Employment Opportunities & Member CVs". 😄

Media-Geek.com is just over two weeks old and we have over 150 registered members, with more joining every day.  If you're interested in a new position or your employer has a forensic video, audio, or image analyst opening, post your CV or the related position's details today! 

If you believe what Apple is saying about the dying media format that is the CD/DVD (hence the lack of optical drives on the MacBook Air and the latest refresh of the Mac Mini), then you have to wonder why would a company still attempt to innovate the CD despite reports of its declining status. However, if you believe that optical media is still the best way to back up your data then perhaps the M-Disc might be something you could be interested in.

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There's been a lot of yammering lately about facial recognition in criminal justice. So much noise that developers like IBM have walked away from facial recognition and agencies across the world are getting in hot water over its adoption & use.

Face Recognition Policy Development Template

The DOJ's Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) published a policy template for LE agencies back in 2017 that you may find helpful.  Of particular note is the recommendation that the technology only be used for investigative leads, and that facial recognition results on their own do NOT establish probable cause and should NOT be considered positive identification. 

Common sense, many might say, myself included.

Access the PDF - Click here.

Make it a great day, my friends!

Brett Shavers, author and one of the main developers of the WinFE forensic boot environment, has released a free online training course on WinFE.

Online training is a great way to supplement classroom training, providing it's from a well organized and reputable source. It's great to see more options for online and flipped classroom training related to digital forensics, and I can assure you you'll be seeing even more soon! ;)

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!

SanDisk on Wednesday announced a Secure Digital card that can store data for 100 years, but can be written on only once.

The WORM (write once, read many) card is "tamper proof" and data cannot be altered or deleted, SanDisk said in a statement. The card is designed for long-time preservation of crucial data like legal documents, medical files and forensic evidence, SanDisk said.

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It's after 4:00 am in the morning and I'm writing about codecs.  That isn't right.  Just curious what lossless video codecs others are using or have used and/or compared for forensic screen capture?  I'm sure the most common answer will be TechSmith's TSCC, but there are others out there that work quite nicely and are priced just right....FREE.

I posted a new member poll on the topic, which you'll find on the right-hand side of your profile page.  Also recently added the free LZO and GZIP based CamStudio codec to our files & downloads library and have been fiddling with some others.    Are you using something else, or do you prefer to keep all captures uncompressed?

The chicken littles have been worried about this since long before the first Blu-ray (or even HD DVD) title was ever released, and the first step towards the analog sunset has officially come. Any new Blu-ray player announced after January 1st 2011 will only output HD via HDMI -- players that started shipping last year can still be sold until the end of this year though.

Full story:
http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/10/analog-sunset-begins-all-the-new-blu-ray-players-will-only-outp/&category=hd&icid=hd_eng_latest_art

I've been trying to find time to post a note about last week's LEVA conference since I got back, but have just been overwhelmed with the ever expanding to-do list.  It was really great seeing a lot of long time friends and colleagues and getting a chance to learn and network with them again.  The entire event seemed to go flawlessly, as always, in large part due to the tireless efforts of the LEVA volunteers (e.g. board & officers). 

Johnny Cash. The Man in Black.

He wrote this song one day while in Binghamton, NY to do a show.

I'm pretty familiar with Binghamton, and can totally understand why Johnny felt this way on that day.

I felt this way a lot of days in Binghamton, and I know that courthouse pretty well too (Even the tunnel beneath it).

Anyway, life is about moments, my friends. Make the most of moments.

Sending ❤

Registration is now open for the Law Enforcement & Emergency Services Video Association (LEVA) 26th Annual Training Conference being held November 2 - 6, 2015 in Clearwater Beach, Fl. Hope to see you there!

Visit LEVA.org