Governor Sarah Palin and indeed the republican party was left a little red in the face earlier this week when someone hacked her email account. Today we figure Palin is turning a violent shade of purple as details emerge about how easy it was for hackers to access her emails.

After her account was hacked and the contents published on Wikileaks, it became apparent that Palin was using her personal Yahoo! account to conduct government business.

With alleged subject titles for received and sent emails including, “FW: Motor Fuel Tax Suspension,” “FW: CONFIDENTIAL Ethics Matter,” “Draft letter to Governor Schwarzenegger / Container Tax,” “RE: Using Royalty Oil to Lower the Cost of Fuel for Alaskans,” “Court of Appeals / Executive Director Parole Board / Boards and Commissions” and our personal favorite, “FW: DPS Personnel and Budget Issues,” (DPS Being Department of Public Safety, which happens to be in charge of Alaskan State Troopers) the public is rightly concerned about how tight security is regarding the communication of sensitive matters.

The hack was easy. So very, very easy. Many people think of hackers as people crouched over their computers for hours, busily trying to crack codes and passwords. This was not the case. Tip one, if you’re going to conduct official government business using "sarah.gov@yahoo.com" you might want to make sure your personal details and the answer to your “secret” security question aren’t readily available on Google.

The hacker reset Palin’s password using her birthday, ZIP code and the fact that she met her husband while in high school, something that is now common knowledge following the revelation that Palin’s own pregnant teenage daughter will be marrying her high school boyfriend.

The individual behind the incident has not yet been identified and the FBI and Secret Service are conducting an investigation into the incident.

Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google, arguably the fastest growing company in the industry, yesterday started his own personal blog "Too."

Brin detailed in his first post that the blog was designed to let people know about his life outside of work. “Welcome to my personal blog. While Google is a play on googol, too is a play on the much smaller number – two,” he explained. “It also means "in addition” as this blog reflects my life outside of work.” Sergey added. Short and sweet, the post at 12pm got the point across that this blog would be an insight into Brin’s life outside of Google.

Brin’s second post reinforced his intentions. Going live just one minute after the introductory post, number two (entitled “LRRK2) revealed that he knows early in his life something he is substantially predisposed to: Parkinson’s disease.

Brin began by letting the world know his mother and great-aunt suffer from Parkinson’s disease. Following a study of his DNA carried out by his wife’s company 23andMe, Brin found out he carries the genetic mutation that makes him between 20 and 80 percent more likely to contract the disease than those who don’t carry this same mutation.

While this blog focuses on Brin’s personal life, it doesn’t do any harm that he manages to put a positive spin on his discovery towards the end of the blog.

"This leaves me in a rather unique position. I know early in my life something I am substantially predisposed to. I now have the opportunity to adjust my life to reduce those odds (e.g. there is evidence that exercise may be protective against Parkinson’s). I also have the opportunity to perform and support research into this disease long before it may affect me. And, regardless of my own health it can help my family members as well as others."

Check out Brin’s blog, including the full Parkinson’s post here.

It seems some opportunistic cybersquatters are trying to buy out all possible domain names for merging financial institutions.

In these times of financial fears and Wall Street woes it’s not surprising to see people trying to cash in on the recent economic crashes. Opening the paper and reading recession, recession, recession is an added incentive to make a fast buck or two — and it seems cybersquatters are no exception to that rule.

The possible domain names of merging financial institutions have been snapped up by those who think they may be able to sell them off for a profit at a later stage. www.bankofamericamerrilllynch.com is already up for sale via online auctioning site, eBay with the listing reading as follows:

“With a deal between Bank of America and Merrill Lynch NOW ANNOUNCED, this domain name will soon be incredibly popular. This is the only domain name that conveys the full picture, using the name of both firms. Terms such as Bankof______ make little sense. This is the most comprehensive and commonsensical domain name available concerning the MERGER OF BANK OF AMERICA CORP AND MERRILL LYNCH & CO.”

Also rumored to be for sale are along with bofaml.com, barclayslehman.com, hsbclehman.com, hsbclehmanbrothers.com and bofalehman.com.

(Via BBC UK)

Professional photographers and enthusiasts are always looking for that new piece of technology that will make their job or hobby that much easier. So when Steve from PanoCamera introduced a Canon 5D DSLR tethered to a run of the mill Nintendo DS, it piqued our interest.

Steve Chapman was tired of bringing a full-sized laptop to every shoot. So, after some devkitPro programming and a little know-how, Steve managed to connect his DS to the Canon 5D through the Game Boy Advance slot on the bottom of the popular gaming device.

"In my day-to-day routine I often find myself having to do extensive photographic documentation of objects or locations, only there is often someone waiting to turn off the lights, or move objects, or any myriad of possible interruptions. This is one reason why using a camera tethered to a laptop can be a pain," said Chapman.

"The computer is a burden to travel with, takes five minutes to boot, the batteries run low...It occurred to me that if I could somehow tether a DSLR to an instant-on device...I would have less weight to carry around and could get more work done. After mentally spec’ing out what I would need, I realized the solution was right in front of me - because I bring it with me for Mario Kart wireless races on long night jobs."

The "DS-DSLR" can now operate similarly to how the Canon operated when hooked up to a laptop, the biggest differences being the size and the DS being an "instant-on" device (no boot time). Chapman can now control standard shooting as well as lengthy time exposures (several minutes compared to the laptop software’s 30 seconds). The DS-DSLR, with the DS microphone, can even do audio-triggered shots. A similar standalone device goes for upwards of $300, whereas a DS will only run you $120. That combined with the software that Chapman plans to sell (in both Canon and Nikon flavors) for $100, and you have yourself a $220 camera buddy that has the same features as a $1000 laptop and what I am guessing is some pretty expensive software.

We had a chance to ask Steve some questions, specifically on what the $100 dollars gets you, as well as plans for updates and tweaks. "The device will come with a camera dongle/Nintendo cartridge, and the software," said Steve. "The DS program will be updated occasionally to add new features, if anybody suggests one...Right now, I’m just trying to iron out the user interface. Future tweaks might involve specific functions for astrophotography and possibly a Wi-Fi connection for wireless functions, but that’s all conjectural at this point."

For all your photography enthusiasts out there, check out Steve’s blog, and stay tuned for more updates on the DS-DSLR mod as they come in.

The first of Microsoft’s commercials that actually advertise something was aired last night and while reactions are mostly positive, it seems some people kind of miss the Jerry and Bill Show.

The new ad, as reported yesterday, is a more direct approach to selling their product. The first couple of ads mentioned Microsoft only briefly and the was no mention of PC at all. It’s repetitive but refreshing to hear, “I’m a PC,” seventeen times inside one minute when before all we had was, “You ever wear clothes in the shower, Bill?” Indeed the appearance of over a dozen every day people and celebrities makes the third Microsoft ad a lot more effective but a lot more, well, commercial. A lot of people miss the Seinfeld ads just because they were weird, pointless and unlike anything else you’d see during an ad break — but that the Bill and Jerry commercials give way to something more effective was part of the plan, right?

Yesterday the news was that the Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld skits were just a buildup to what would be a more conventional commercial. Almost everyone (guilty as charged) heaped praise upon Microsoft for getting viewers attention, keeping them talking and then showing them the goods when they didn’t expect it. Unfortunately it seems like that might not be the case.

Apparently a source from the ad agency responsible for both the Seinfeld and I’m a PC commercials, Crispin Porter + Bogusky, told Gizmodo that the agency was told to focus more on the I’m a PC ads rather than the Seinfeld ads. The source confirmed that there is another episode of the Bill and Jerry Show filmed and ready to go but it won’t be aired just yet and there’s no confirmation as to when it will air. So, just when we thought Microsoft was daring to be different, it gets snatched away.

It’s no secret that the original ads got a lot of criticism. After the first everyone was confused, after the second we were a little confused but also a little proud that Microsoft had the bottle to stick it’s neck out, say, “Right, we might not be cool, we might never be cool but no one said we couldn’t be different,” and roll with what it had planned. Sure, the company planned the I’m a PC segments, that much is obvious and yes, they are good ads but they’re no different to ads for insurance or cereal.

Check out the ad below and let us know what you think. We also found another ad which is more than likely next in line for airing. Notice how hearing, “I’m a PC,” 33 times in 90 seconds starts to sound like, “I’m pissy,” or maybe that’s just us.

Sarah Palin, the Vice-Presidential candidate, had her Yahoo e-mail account hacked Tuesday with partial contents now available online.

Sarah Palin, the Vice-Presidential candidate for the United States, had her Yahoo e-mail account hacked near midnight on Tuesday. Partial contents of her e-mail account were subsequently hosted online at Wikileaks.org, including two family photos, e-mail messages and contact lists. The group known as Anonymous, who were responsible for attacks on Scientology in the past, have claimed credit for the intrusion.

One e-mail message from Palin’s inbox that had been hosted online was from Amy McCorkell, whom Palin appointed to the Governor’s Advisory Board on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse in 2007. According to Wired.com, McCorkell has verified that the e-mail message was indeed from her and that the FBI are now investigating the matter. Rick Davis, the McCain-Palin campaign manger, has since gone on recorded saying, “The matter has been turned over to the appropriate authorities and we hope that anyone in possession of these e-mails will destroy them. We will have no further comment."

According to Wikileaks, it was Palin’s “sarah.gov@yahoo.com“ e-mail account that had been hacked, but the account has since been deleted, likely by Palin herself. This breach of privacy has raised a few questions regarding Palin, one serious question being why had Palin been using a personal e-mail account for government matters. Although the contents of such e-mails are not available, alleged subject titles for received and sent e-mails involving government matters were hosted online. A few of the titles include, “FW: Motor Fuel Tax Suspension”, “FW: CONFIDENTIAL Ethics Matter”, “Draft letter to Governor Schwarzenegger / Container Tax”, “RE: Using Royalty Oil to Lower the Cost of Fuel for Alaskans”, “Court of Appeals / Executive Director Parole Board / Boards and Commissions” and “FW: DPS Personnel and Budget Issues”. “DPS” is the acronym for the Alaska Department of Public Safety, who supervise the Alaskan state troopers.

One issue with using a Yahoo e-mail account to handle confidential government matters involves concerns over national security, as contents of the account can become at risk. It also raises concerns over whether Palin was using a personal e-mail account to avoid transparency when dealing with certain government matters. The fact Palin’s account name was entitled “sarah.gov” probably shows the account was not crafted for such purposes, as more subtle account names could probably be created. However, it would still appear that Palin was conducting some government matters with a personal e-mail account. The contents of the e-mails that seemed to be in regards to government matters were not released.

How the hackers were able to hack Palin’s e-mail account still remains unknown, but rumor has it her password was “lipstick.”

Sony yesterday launched Life With PlayStation on the PlayStation 3 console, a new service taking over the existing slot of Folding@Home in the XMB’s Network section.

However, Stanford University’s previous computing project hasn’t gone away, but rather is now integrated into the Life with PlayStation service. Sony’s new feature appears to be an attempt to trump Nintendo’s News Channel on the Wii console, taking the content one step further with a pleasing graphical interface, live images and world-wide news.

Simply put, Life with PlayStation features two sections: the Live Channel and Folding@Home. The Live Channel is a source of global news, offering headlines from Atlanta, Georgia to Kuwait City. But instead of an ugly browser full of clunky links, Life with PlayStation presents the earth in real-time lighting: the 3:40 p.m. sun shines down on San Francisco while lights glitter across the dark country of Russia like strings of lights on a Christmas tree.

Sony claims that the program features nearly sixty cities from around the globe. Major city icons present the current weather (powered by the Weather Channel), and when highlighted, will display an additional list of four headlines and a "more" link that takes the user to the console’s web browser (powered by Google News); the list also shows a real-time photo provided by The Earth Television Network.

As for the controls, users can change the options of the Live Channel by hitting the Triangle button, specifically how the program plays music within the program. Users can select tracks stored on the hard drive, or choose to let Life select the "mood" by playing whatever it recommends. There are also five other instrumental tunes provided such as energetic, calm, dramatic and more.

Users can also alter the temperature settings of each available city (aka Channel) as well, switching between Fahrenheit and Celsius. In order to move from city of city, simply rotate the earth using the left thumbstick, and zoom in and out with the right. If left alone, Life with PlayStation will rotate the Earth on its own, moving from city to city and displaying the localized information. Unfortunately, there is no setting allowing the end-user to add his/her hometown to the rotating globe.

As for accessing the Folding@Home portion, users only need to hit the Square button and choose the Folding@Home icon. The updated Folding@Home now includes a ranking system that allows users to see where they stand computing-wise against other contributors across the world. The new version also supports "more advanced simulation of protein fold" according to Sony. Additionally, the program also continues to calculate the proteins while users are browsing news in the Live Channel.

Sony also reports that more channels will appear in the future. "Life with PlayStation will continually deliver a wide variety of interactive content and channels to living rooms through network connected PS3s to further enhance the world of entertainment made possible by PS3," the company stated in a recent press release.

For now, PlayStation owners can connect with the world through the Live Channel free of charge. However, PlayStation 3 will need access to the PlayStation Network to use this new service. To download and install Life with PlayStation, simply load up the existing Folding@Home program and follow the update instructions.