Rapidshare & Download limits are BACK!

By: Raymond

I guess our routers and modem have rested long enough from auto reconnect and now we have to start doing that again. If you didn’t notice, RapidShare has RE-introduced download limits for free users again. This means that there is a wait time before we can continue downloading then next file from RapidShare when we’ve just finished downloading one.

From what I tested, when I wanted to download a 200MB file from RapidShare, I had to wait for 99 seconds before I can start downloading and when I’ve completed downloading, I had to wait for 15 minutes before I can download the next file. I got the message “You have reached the download limit for free-users. Would you like more? Get your own premium account now! Instant download access! Or try again in about 15 minutes.”

I then tried downloading a 10MB file, had to wait 30 seconds first then after finished downloading, same thing, I am required to wait for 15 minutes before I can download the next file. 15 minutes wait time is not really long compared to previous restriction but it can be annoying when we’re left with only a few files to complete downloading the whole package. To beat the 15 minutes restriction, here are some third party auto reconnect RapidShare download managers which I’ve previously recommend that you can use.

Read more on how to BEAT this limit!

Proxy server trail leads FBI to Palin email hacker

Anchorage (Alaska) – FBI agents are using proxy server logs to track down the hacker who broke into Sarah Palin’s Yahoo email account. The hacker gained access to the Republican Vice Presidential candidate’s account by resetting the password. He then posted details of his adventures up on a popular online forum, but that information is now leading reporters and federal investigators to the suspect – a Tennessee university college student and son of state democratic representative Mike Kernell.

A few days ago, someone going by the name of “Rubico” gloated on 4chan.org that he managed to hack into Sarah Palin’s Yahoo account. He forced a password reset by answering questions about Palin’s birthdate, zip code and where she met her spouse, Wasilla High School. Of course, by being the Republican candidate for Vice President, this information is all very easily found on the Internet. After answering the questions, Rubico reset the password to “popcorn” and read through Palin’s emails.

And it seems he was pretty thorough, saying he read, “ALL OF THEM” on the boards. He even posted up screenshots of the Yahoo email page, complete with the full URL (we’ll talk about that later). Rubico says he didn’t find anything incriminating and the emails were actually fairly mundane family pictures and correspondence. But his jubilation turned into horror as he realized that he didn’t take proper precautions in covering his tracks.

Rubico used a proxy server that shields the source IP address from website logging scripts. While this sounds great, Rubico posted, “Yes I was behind a proxy, only one, if this sh** ever got to the FBI I was FU****”

In his gloating, Rubico posted up screenshots of the Yahoo account complete with the full URL which included the proxy server url (ctunnel.com) appended with a unique identifier. For example, we used ctunnel.com to surf to YouTube and the URL reads – http://ctunnel.com/index.php/1010110A/58a5cd1e8ab47088982c83282fd768456ebe14f44221026. So it doesn’t take a genius to go through the logs and match up the ID to the appropriate IP address and BAM, you got the hacker.

But aren’t proxy servers supposed to anonymize your information? Yes and no. Dan Goodin over at The Register talked to Gabriel Ramuglia, the owner of the ctunnel.com proxy server that Rubico allegedly used. Ramuglia is upset about the ordeal because his service was never meant to be used for illegal activies and says Rubico definitely broke his site’s terms of service. Ramuglia added that every incoming IP address is logged with the time and destination website.

Ramuglia told Goodin that he hasn’t a chance yet to examine his logs, but added that there is a good chance that it will lead to the hacker. Since the interview, he’s received a call from the Anchorage Alaska FBI field office and agents there are highly suggesting that he not lose the logs.

But it gets even better. White hat hackers didn’t even need proxy information to find the culprit because they discovered that the Rubico forum handle was linked to rubico10@yahoo.com.This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it A few searches on Google and YouTube further links this email address to 20-year-old David Kernell, a student at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. His father is Democratic Tennessee state representative Mike Kernell.

As you can expect, the Yahoo account has been frozen and all the incriminating forum posts on 4chan.org have been deleted. But this didn’t stop Wired.com from printing some of the posts. Don’t you just love it when hackers brag about the “leet” skills?

Source: TG Daily

Virginia Supreme Court: Spam is fine!

The Virginia Supreme Court has decided that the state’s anti-spam law is unconstitutional and freed a man once considered one of the world’s most prolific spammers. The court unanimously agreed that the law violates free speech because it does not just restrict commercial e-mails it blocks all unsolicited messages too. Other states have anti-spam laws but those laws apply only to commercial e-mail. Justice G. Steven Agee said that the Virginia law was silly because prohibits the anonymous transmission of all unsolicited bulk e-mails, including those containing political, religious or other speech protected by the First Amendment.

He pointed out that the famous Federalist Papers urging ratification of the Constitution would be labelled Spam under this law if they had been sent as email. The writers Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay would have gone to jail as spammers, rather than the French-backed terrorists against the lawful government, that they were. The move means that Jeremy Jaynes, the first person in the U.S. to be convicted of sending spam, will be freed from the charge. He sent up to 10 million e-mails a day from his home in Raleigh. In 2004, Jaynes was sentenced to nine years in the Clink. Fortunately for those who don’t like spam he remains inside jail because he is also serving time in federal prison for a securities fraud conviction. This has nothing to do with spam, where he was just expressing free speech, apparently.

Source: Inquirer

Apple stomps bugs with iPhone 2.1 software release

Apple has released version 2.1 of its iPhone software, promising a wealth of bug fixes for a pioneering device that suffered a number of problems.

Chief Executive Steve Jobs had promised the iPhone update in a speech Tuesday during a launch event for next-generation iPod music players, saying, “This is a big update, and it fixes lots of bugs.”

The company’s software update page shows just how big:

• Decrease in call setup failures and dropped calls
• Significantly better battery life for most users
• Dramatically reduced time to back up to iTunes
• Improved e-mail reliability, notably fetching e-mail from POP and Exchange accounts
• Faster installation of third-party applications
• Fixed bugs causing hangs and crashes for users with lots of third-party applications
• Improved performance in text messaging
• Faster loading and searching of contacts
• Improved accuracy of the 3G signal strength display
• Repeat alert up to two additional times for incoming text messages
• Option to wipe data after 10 failed passcode attempts
• Genius playlist creation

The page also instructs iPhone users to use the latest version of iTunes to perform the update. So beware, Windows Vista users.

The iPhone 3G has generally won acclaim for its design and the range of third-party applications that now can run on the device, though some miss features such as copy-and-paste and voice-command dialing. However, network connectivity troubles and other issues have tarnished the iPhone 3G’s debut.

Source