Free DME & DFIR Resources

We recently purchased a new cellular phone for our eight-year-old son. The phone allows him to make or receive calls only from a defined list of telephone numbers, which we enter into it, and provides emergency 911 access. A few months ago, a friend of his from school came over and she had a new LG Migo "kid-friendly" cellular phone from Verizon Wireless. Once we saw the LG Migo, we knew we'd be getting him a cellular phone long before we had initially planned. While the Migo is a neat device, we ended up going with the Firefly, which uses Cingular's network.

The Firefly can be used as a pre-paid device, or you can subscribe to a monthly service plan. As with nearly all pre-paid services, the per minute rates are a little outrageous ($.25/min.), but since we anticipate minimal usage, we should be alright for the immediate future. The fact of the matter is this was an impulse purchase, and we may eventually change to the LG Migo and Verizon Wireless anyway.

Several balls in the air and many exciting DME projects in the works that have been keeping me busy lately. Here's what I'll be working on for the DME Resources site over the holiday weekend:

Just back from vacation and read Jennifer Apple's post on this tool.  I keep this one with me on a thumb drive when I'm out and about.  If you're not familiar with it check out Jennifer's post at photoshopsupport.com.

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One of the biggest challenges for digital evidence professionals is obtaining sample files from DCCTV systems.  Developers, Analysts, and Technicians alike can learn so much from mundane sample media files, if they have sufficient information about their source.  Of course, there are a slew of challenges, including many of the same that hinder similar efforts in other disciplines.

It's been a long time coming, but with the recent upgrades and layout changes I was finally able to bring back our popular DME Resources Map.

The DME Resources Map allows members to add markers for their agency or organizational resources related to forensic multimedia analysis. Visitors and members are then able to easily locate nearby DME resources that may be able to assist them.

Add your agency or organization's resource today!

By Nate Anderson

The Britain of today is watched constantly by CCTV cameras, is preparing for a national ID card, slaps a "crown copyright" on most government data, and can now censor websites and eventually boot people off the Internet.

According to the new Liberal Democrat/Tory coalition government, that's all about to change.

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Let’s talk a little more about aspect ratio. Always a lively topic everywhere I go, and regularly misunderstood by industry leading CCTV equipment manufacturers, engineers, and other video professionals. Should we correct, when do we correct, how do we correct, and of course the why. I’ve done a few short posts on the topic in the past (here's one), but this will be in a little more detail. Still writing on the fly, just going to break it down into a few posts over time.

By Josh Lowensohn

Thought 1080p video on YouTube was big? Think bigger.

YouTube on Friday announced that its player now supports 4k, a standard resolution for films that measures 4096x3072 pixels. As YouTube Engineer Ramesh Sarukkai explained in the announcement on YouTube's official blog, "4K is nearly four times the size of 1080p," and it dwarfs even Imax, which projects films in the slightly smaller 2k format, with its 2048?1080-pixel resolution.

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brite-View’s Air SyncHD/DX device, also known as the BV-2822 if model numbers are your cup of tea, is a 1080p video/audio wireless transmission kit. To put it in plain English boys and girls, the brite-View Air SyncHD/DX is capable of sending Full High-Definition signals without the need to go through physical cables, hence lowering, nay, eliminating the chances of you (or some other member of the family) tripping over it. This purchase will feature a quartet of HDMI connections and two sets of component video inputs on the transmitter side.

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LEVA wrapped up their weeklong video evidence symposium and 2008 annual training conference in Orlando yesterday, and they've announced four newly certified analysts. Michael Klein, Lorraine Nagy, Michael Ornelas and Michael Plaxton are now among those who are LEVA Certified Forensic Video Analysts.

The new Xbox 360 dashboard released earlier this week is a total overhaul with a bunch of new features, most notably the on-demand streaming HD video via Netflix. Yeah, the new design layout is "cool", the new Wii like avatars are neat, the Xbox LIVE Party feature somewhat interesting, copying complete games to your hard drive could be handy, yada, yada, yada. The Netflix integration and partnership is definitely the new killer ap for the Xbox, and quite possibly a saving grace for Netflix.

I've posted a new tutorial on Adding & Managing Events, and you'll find it on the Tutorials page under the Help menu after you login.  Did you know that you can setup recurring events in our community calendar, so that you don't have to do a seperate entry for your regular user group or other meetings?  Check out this brief new tutorial for more information.

Apple has just elevated the graphics chip to superstar status. Why focus on the graphics?

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