Update on TD Ameritrade data breach: yup, hacked.

from Boing Boing by Xeni Jardin

Remember Mark's post about TD Ameritrade customers receiving weird pump-n-dump stock scam spam from TD Ameritrade? Turns out the company was hacked, and those spams resulted from that data breach:

Online brokerage TD Ameritrade Holding Corp. said Friday one of its databases was hacked and contact information for its more than 6.3 million customers was stolen. A spokeswoman for the Omaha-based company said more sensitive information in the same database, including Social Security numbers and account numbers, does not appear to have been taken.

But Ameritrade has known about the problem at least since late May when two of its customers sued the brokerage in federal court because they were receiving unwanted e-mail ads on accounts used only for Ameritrade.

The data on Ameritrade's servers may have been vulnerable for an extended period of time dating back at least to last October, according to the lawsuit filed by lawyer Scott A. Kamber. The company said Friday the problem had recently been fixed.

The plaintiffs in the lawsuit had wanted the court to order Ameritrade to tell its customers about the data problem, but Ameritrade issued its release before a hearing could be held. The plaintiffs are also seeking damages and are trying to qualify as a class-action lawsuit.

Link.

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Samsung's SGH-F700 gets (really) official on Vodafone

from Engadget by Darren Murph

Those paying attention should know full well by now that Samsung's SGH-F700 (you know, the Croix) is set to make everyone not a Vodafone customer uber-envious here soon, but just in case you missed it, Sammy is making sure you're up to speed. The handset will boast a three-megapixel camera, a 3.2-inch 432 x 240 resolution touchscreen, QWERTY keypad, Bluetooth 2.0, USB, a microSD expansion slot, HSDPA, and an integrated media player that handles H.263 / H.264, MP3, and AAC formats. We know what you're really after, so check out a bit more eye candy after the jump.

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Desktop Factory's cheapo 3D printer is coming

from Engadget by Joshua Topolsky

Tinkerers, schemers, makers and DIY-buffs: grab your ball-peen hammer and heaviest piggy bank, because you're about to need a loan. A company called Desktop Factory is going to make your 3D-printing dreams a serious reality with the introduction of its 125ci 3D printer, a $4,995 hunk of concept-plastic magic which could possibly represent a paradigmatic shift for the state of three-dimensional printing for the masses. The DF crew calls the pricing "disruptively lower than the nearest competitive offering," and we're inclined to agree, as most 3D printers crest easily over the $10,000 mark. The printer takes up a paltry 25 x 20 x 20-inch space, and weighs about 90-pounds, while the maximum size of printed objects is 5 x 5 x 5-inches, and Desktop Factory says per-cubic-inch printing costs will hover somewhere around $1. One of these beautiful babies could be all yours, just put down your $495 reserve fee, and then go to work on that string of robberies you've been planning. [Via TG Daily]

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Lindy intros Wireless VGA Projector Server

from Engadget by Darren Murph

We know, it's never fun to think about spending even more time in the boardroom, but LINDY's looking to make things a bit easier around the office with the Wireless VGA Projector Server. Put simply, the device "enables users to easily network a projector or display monitor," which makes transfers much easier when switching between presenters. Up to 20 users can log in to the machine at one time, and an integrated browser interface "allows control to pass between the users." Notably, the box supports audio and MPEG1/2/4, 802.11g, Ethernet and Windows XP / Vista (sorry, Mac users), and can be thrown on the corporate card now for £299 ($608). [Via TechDigest]

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Miro needs your donations to build the future of Internet video

from Boing Boing by Cory Doctorow

Miro needs your donations -- the project is trying to raise $50,000 to pay programmers and designers to make its player even better.

Miro (formerly known as Democracy Player) is the best and most promising video player I've ever used. It's free and open -- licensed under the GPL -- and it incorporates three different technologies that make watching videos easier and better than any of the proprietary players like Windows Media Player or iTunes. These technologies are VLC, a free and open video playback engine that plays all video formats, no matter where they come from; RSS, so that you can subscribe to "feeds" of your favorite videos (including subscribing to feeds of YouTube videos matching your keywords); and BitTorrent, so that you can download files without costing the people who host them -- so the more popular a file is, the cheaper it is to host.

Miro is a bet on a future for "Internet TV" that is as open as the Web, controlled by no one. Otherwise, the way things are headed, we could end up with one or two giant companies owning the future of video. No one -- not community activists, not video startups, no one -- benefits when just a few companies control the platform.

The Miro fundraiser will raise money to pay the talented hackers who have been producing regular updates to the Miro platform, ensuring that there's always an up-to-date version for the Mac, Windows and Linux. I believe in Miro enough to have volunteered for their Board of Directors since they started -- I hope you'll help us keep on producing the future of Internet video. Link

(Disclosure: I am a board member for the Participatory Culture Foundation, the 501(c)3 charitable nonprofit that oversees production of Miro)

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