Free DME & DFIR Resources

This year I helped Ocean Systems introduce a new 3-Day training class titled "Fundamentals of Video Evidence Recovery & Processing (FVRP)".  The course is designed for anyone who recovers, handles, processes or disseminates Digital & Multimedia Evidence (DME), regardless of prior video evidence training or experience. 

The course is based on industry Best Practices and focuses on obtaining the Best Evidence, and learning how to quickly get accurate images & video out for investigative leads.  It is predominantly hands-on, and will expose students to various Ocean Systems and Open Source solutions that can help.

Join me July 23rd through 25th at our offices in Burtonsville, MD or for one of our future training dates.  Hope to see you in class.  Have a great weekend my friends!

According to the FBI, digital evidence is present in nearly every crime scene.   Increasingly, this evidence is found on handheld devices such as cell phones, GPS’, iPods—and is leading investigators directly to a suspect’s door—sometimes within hours of a crime taking place.

Register now for the FBI’s Regional Computer Forensics Laboratory (RCFL) Program's free webinar for law enforcement and government officials.  Participants will learn the proper handling of handheld devices at crime scenes, basic data recovery, legal issues and more.

Questions? Send an email to npo@rcfl.gov or visit www.rcfl.gov.

Jonathan Lewin, Chicago’s managing deputy director of public safety, believes that video cameras help officers protect citizens — and he has numbers to back up his claim. The Chicago Police Department says that Operation Virtual Shield, the city’s network of public and private surveillance cameras, has led to more than 5,500 camera-related arrests since 2006.

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Tomorrow's the official launch of Media-Geek.com and we've added another great feature to the new members area, a categorized events calendar.  The new calendar will be viewable by all visitors; however, only registered members will be able to add and manage events listed in the calendar.

The concept behind the calendar is simple - to provide a consolidated calendar listing the multitude of forensic related training events, conferences, and meetings.  The initial categories implemented include Photography Training, Image Processing & Analysis Training, Forensic Video Training, and Forensic Conferences & Meetings.

I was hoping I’d be able to wrap this series up with this post, but it’s clear to me now that I won’t be able to. There’s simply too much to cover and I’m certain that at least a few are still scratching your heads (like I was), wondering why we shouldn’t just rely on the pixel matrices to calculate Pixel Aspect Ratio (PAR) from analog sources. It is critically important to understand that I am approaching this topic from a forensic perspective, with the goal of standardizing the methodology used for forensic processing, interpretation, and presentation.

From the PhotoShopSupport.com blog:

Here's a free video tutorial from lynda.com — Setting Up Shop - Preferences, Color Settings, And Shortcuts — from the series Photoshop CS4 One-on-One: Fundamentals. Deke McClelland examines the essential capabilities of the application, from correcting color to retouching portraits. He also covers navigation, resolution, cropping, selecting, printing, and making web graphics. This course goes beyond basic tips and tricks and provides the in-depth information and real-world context needed by serious students who want to master the software.

View the full post & get the link to the video:
http://www.photoshopsupport.com/photoshop-blog/10/cs5-03/video-tutorial-setting-preferences.html

By Joseph L. Flatley

Toshiba announced a new self-encrypting disk technology today, which is sure to be welcome news to the those of you who work with sensitive data, wish to keep your extensive True Blood fanfiction collection under wraps, or are just plain paranoid. The imaginatively named Wipe ships with the company's TCG-spec'd Self-Encrypting Drive models, allowing sysadmins to securely erase user data when a machine powers down, when an encrypted HDD is removed from the system, or when a leased machine is returned to its owner. And this ain't just for PCs -- the system is also designed to work with your copier and / or printer system. Interested? Of course you are!

Check out the complete PR:
http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/10/toshiba-wipe-deletes-your-encrypted-data-so-you-dont-have-to/

onOne Software today announced availability of Perfect Photo Suite 5.5 for Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Photoshop Lightroom and Apple Aperture. Tackling specific problems within a photographer's preferred workflow, the Perfect Photo Suite 5.5 offers simple yet powerful solutions for color correction, image resizing, masking and professional photographic effects in one affordable package. With support for Photoshop CS5, CS4 and CS3, the Perfect Photo Suite 5.5 includes FocalPoint 2, PhotoTune 3, PhotoFrame 4.6, PhotoTools 2.6, MaskPro 4.1 and Perfect Resize 7 (the next generation of Genuine Fractals). The Perfect Photo Suite 5.5 will also include the recently announced Perfect Layers, which will be available in early 2011.

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As more and more companies turn to Linux for mission-critical operations, making sure IT staff have the necessary skills is becoming more important than ever.

That's a significant challenge, because demand for Linux skills now far outstrips supply, making them a particularly hot commodity in the hiring market as companies large and small struggle to equip themselves with the talent they need.

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In a ruling that promises to revamp jury deliberations in New Jersey, the state Supreme Court says jurors should be allowed to see video playbacks of recorded testimony upon request, subject to safeguards.

"As advances in modern technology make their way into the courtroom, the Judiciary -- like the rest of society -- must adapt," Chief Justice Stuart Rabner wrote for a unanimous Court on Monday in State v. Miller, A-94-09.

Full story:
http://www.law.com/jsp/lawtechnologynews/PubArticleLTN.jsp?id=1202486272702&Top_NJ_Court_Endorses_Video_Playback_in_Jury_Trials

"I feel so lucky to get to be the person to thank you..., on behalf of a world of people seeking free knowledge." - Wikipedia Executive Director

Members helping members.  Let's do this!

I donated to Wikipedia again today as they're in the middle of another fundraiser.  They're an independent, ad-Free non-profit.  No sleezy marketing, covert data collection, persuasive technologies to get or keep you, etc.  Very similar to what I've always tried to do with my websites and resources online. 

It seems like an easy question, and when posed as such those asking it clearly want make & model info so they can just add one to their wish list or pull the trigger and purchase it.  Purchasing a PC for almost any need should take a little more thought than that though, especially when it comes to multimedia processing needs.

Review Application Requirements

Understanding the hardware requirements for the software applications you intend to leverage is key.  Minimum specs, GPU & I/O driver support of course, and more should be taken into consideration.  This is also a great time to consider improvements throughout your multimedia workflows, looking for opportunities to save even more time with a new configuration (e.g. transcoding, data transfer, storage & backup efficiencies, etc.).

If you're using Picasa you don't need to read any further, as I'm sure you already know this.  If you're not using Picasa for any reason, let me tell you one of the main reasons I do.   As you probably know Picasa is a pretty handy little free program for editing, managing and sharing your photos, but I rarely use it for any of those things.  What I love most about Picasa is the included Picasa Photo Viewer application.