Free DME & DFIR Resources

CHICAGO (AP) - When the body of Chicago's school board president was found partially submerged in a river last fall, a bullet wound to the head, cameras helped prove it was a suicide.

Full Story:
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/04/06/cameras-make-chicago-closely-watched-city/

Perian, the "Swiss Army knife for QuickTime," has decided to cease development after six years on the market. The Perian team posted a notice to its users this week, saying that the software is "as complete as it will ever be under our stewardship." Though we can't disagree with the team's reason for wanting to move on, Perian's retirement is a bittersweet reminder of the earlier days of Apple, when watching videos of different codecs was a challenge on the Mac.

Read full story >

1. What is File History
File History is a new backup service introduced in Windows 8. By default this feature is off and to turn it on, user has to select a backup location – either a network drive or external storage media. Thus, it does not allow user to use the same disk. File History backs up files of the Libraries, Desktop, Contacts and Favorites folders. There is an option to exclude any folder(s) that users don’t want to backup. Notice that File History is unable to backup your folders synced with cloud storage service(s). According to Microsoft, “File History doesn’t back up files on your PC that you have synced with SkyDrive, even if they’re in folders that File History backs up.” Once turned on, File History automatically backs up the folders after every hour by default; however this interval can be changed easily in advanced settings. In addition, at any time, user can manually run the service. File History appears as fhsvc in the Task Manager and some associated dlls are fhcfg.dll, fhcpl.dll and fhsvcctl.dll.

Full Story

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:

Full Story

I posted a new page last week under our Professional Community menu called Free DME & FVA Tools. Hope you find it helpful.

The Scientific Working Group on Digital Evidence (SWGDE)has released a DRAFT of version 3.0 of their "Best Practices for Computer Forensics" for public comment. As stated on their Web site, "The purpose of this document is to describe the best practices for collecting, acquiring, analyzing and documenting the data found in computer forensic examinations."

Visit SWGDE

Imagine, if you will, business travelers gallivanting across the globe with nary a care in the world -- secure in the fact that should they lose their laptop by hook or by crook, they can disable it with a simple text message. Well, the dream is now a reality as Intel has put its third-gen vPro technology in Sandy Bridge Core i5 and i7 business chips, giving users the ability to lock down and reactivate a PC remotely via SMS.  

Full story:
http://www.engadget.com/2011/03/08/intel-brings-vpro-to-sandy-bridge-cpus-makes-losing-your-work-l 

Microsoft warned on Tuesday of a Windows vulnerability that could allow an attacker to take control of a computer if the user is logged on with administrative rights.

To be successful, an attacker would have to send an email with an attached Microsoft Word or PowerPoint file containing a specially crafted thumbnail image and convince the recipient to open it, Microsoft said in its advisory, which also contains information on workarounds.

Full Story

Here's one that flew in under my radar.  I do recall some discussion about the related working group's creation a few years ago, but somehow completely missed the July, 2010 release of their document.

Learn more about this Homeland Security project by visiting their website:
http://www.safecomprogram.gov/SAFECOM/currentprojects/videoquality/videoquality.htm

Check out version 1.0 of the guide itself here:
http://www.safecomprogram.gov/NR/rdonlyres/5BCA1CBF-1500-4B29-9370-81B823575DE8/0/3aVideoUserRequirementGuidedoc.pdf

P.S. - Thanks to Mike Baker for bringing this one back into my radar.

Until about two years ago, it wasn't that often that I’d encounter Variable Frame Rate (VFR) video evidence, unless of course the case included video recorded by mobile phones. Times, they are a changing my friend.

DVR/NVR manufacturers are leveraging the advantages of VFR more often these days. And why shouldn't they be, especially when we’re seeing even the high-end professional video recording equipment start to use VFR more frequently. Throw in the want/need to get to Ultra HD before the next guy, and suddenly you've got a decent argument for VFR.

Trying to snap a shot of your cherry red Mazda, but can't keep your hands still? You'll find all the tech you need to smooth things out in an iPhone 4 or (MotionPlus-equipped) Nintendo Wiimote. Experimenting with 6DOF inertial measurement sensor packages, scientists at Microsoft Research have developed a software algorithm that literally records your exposure-destroying shake via accelerometer and gyroscope, then magically removes the blur by canceling it out.

Full Story:
http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/02/microsoft-algorithm-uses-six-axis-motion-sensors-to-fix-blurry-s/

If you're responsible for recovering video evidence from DCCTV systems, be sure to check out our new class "DVR Assessment & Video Recovery". We'll be in WA, MD, TX and NY in the coming months. Hope to see you in class!

Training Schedule

Have you heard?  Adobe has long supported hardware accelerated playback in Premiere Pro, but now you can also leverage it for encoding H.264 & H.265 and literally save hours when encoding (in some cases)!

Check it out yourself, if you're using Premiere Pro.  Make it a great day my friends!