Kid in Palin hack fuss gets a digital hit-and-run
The still-hazy story of the hacker who broke into Sarah Palin’s e-mail account is an excellent case study in the powers and perils of digital communities and why it can be hard to tell them apart. I for one got caught up in the whirl of hype and slippery half-truths that surrounded this story, so I’m counting it as a teachable moment.
Much of what we know — or think we know — about this story comes to us from its only primary source: a semi-anonymous written confession the hacker may have posted on an underground Web bulletin board. I say “may” because the note is long gone. 4chan.org, the hormonal birthplace of Web pranks designed to get a rise out normal Web folks, conveniently drops all discussion threads older than a few minutes.
But in the case of the Palin-hacking confession, someone appears to have rescued it before it was pushed off the plank. An anonymous source forwarded the message to conservative blogger Michelle Malkin, who posted it for all the blogosphere to see. Among the most intriguing parts of the message was the writer’s explanation of how he unlocked the Alaska governor’s account by using the “password recover” feature — which allows users who have lost their password to create a new one if they can answer a few “security questions”:
“It took seriously 45 mins on wikipedia and google to find the info,” read the statement. “Birthday? 15 seconds on wikipedia, zip code? well she had always been from wasilla, and it only has 2 zip codes.
“The second was somewhat harder, the question was ‘where did you meet your spouse?’” wrote the culprit. “I found out later though [sic] more research that they met at high school, so I did variations of that, high, high school, eventually hit on “Wasilla high” I promptly changed the password to popcorn and took a cold shower ... ”
And just like that, the world discovers that a vice presidential nominee’s standards for data security are no more canny than hiding a key under a doormat. (Moreover, anyone who’s created much of a biographical footprint online ought to realize that they’re not much safer.)
But it appears that Palin’s lack of security awareness was equaled by that of the supposed hacker, who left an e-mail address on his mea culpa that crafty bloggers quickly connected to various social networking profiles of a University of Tennessee student named David Kernell — who also happened to be the son of a Tennessee Democratic legislator. Web sleuths built a profile of Kernell based on online clues — a 20-year-old avid chess player, and self-described “Obamacrat.”
Well, with a name, a political affiliation, and a connection to a Democratic politican, conservative bloggers had enough fuel to light their torches and begin a trial by firelight. It wasn’t long before the conviction was handed down in headlines: “FATHER OF HACKER Is Tennessee Dem State Rep!!!!!” screamed a blog post at Gateway Pundit. “Student claims responsibility for Palin e-mail hack,” declared a British technology magazine called PC Pro, which seemed to think the Kernell had himself admitted guilt. Even the New York Post got in on the action when it concluded, “Dem Pol’s son was ‘hacker.’”
“Your name is Mudd,” wrote the Ace of Spades HQ blog. “And every derogatory tip I get about your background, I will publish.” He finished with a request for anyone who’d been in a relationship with Kernell to contact him.
Wii Fit girl makes boyfriend dance (sans pants) on TV
Remember the "Wii Fit girl" Web sensation from a few months ago, when the boyfriend surreptitiously (if brilliantly) taped his girlfriend doing virtual hula hooping in her undies? (She was "furious," she told us back then). Well, she's finally struck back by forcing her boyfriend, Giovanny "Gio" Gutierrez, to come out of the doghouse and on to "The Tyra Banks Show" -- to play some pantsless Wii of his own. As a nice added meta-touch, Lauren Bernat shot a home video of Gio's embarrassing moment (complete with the same "face" he made in the first video) and has now put it on YouTube so no one misses it.
FunnyOrDie, bored with the Web, goes HBO
HBO is buying 10 half-hours of original comedy from FunnyOrDie.com, the website that brought the world "The Landlord" and also ... also ... wait, let me just Google around for a second ... hold on one second ... HERE! It also brought the world "Porn Star Politics."
I threw a dis on FOD last year because they hadn't come up with that many good new videos, and I have to agree with myself. Although to play devil's advocate, there's really no one anywhere who's been able to produce funny Web videos consistently.
On the other hand, if you have the likes of Judd Apatow, Will Ferrell and Adam McKay lending their names to the site, you'd think they've be able to come up with at least one good viral viral video every month. And the fact that they haven't speaks volumes about how much energy they put into this endeavor, other than as a promotional vehicle for their movies. The thing about FunnyOrDie that initially got everyone so excited was the promise of high quality Web content from Hollywood's funniest people. That just hasn't materialized.
Now they're moving even further away from that idea, back in time toward traditional TV and its stuffy old formulas. As smart as these guys looked when they launched, the whole thing has come to resemble a glorified publicity effort.
Funny or die? I've made my decision.
image: Ferrell, Apatow & McKay from funnyordie.com
Denver man's real, live alien video being saved for a documentary
(image courtesy Dirk HR Spennemann)
The Rocky Mountain News (thanks io9) reported yesterday that there's a guy in Denver who claims to have video of a living extraterrestrial, but he's not showing it because he wants to save it for his movie.
Jeff Peckman is the same guy who is attempting to set up an Extraterrestrial Affairs Commission in Denver -- ostensibly to allow us to prepare for the inevitable encounter. If you read the ABC News article linked in the previous sentence, you'll see that Peckman even got a professor from Colorado Film School to "authenticate" the footage. That's right, a certified movie expert thinks this is the real thing.
(Amusingly, the quote ABC news gets from Prof. Jerry Hofmann is somewhat more equivocal: "If this was faked, it's the most elaborate fake I've ever seen," he said. "This is no 29-cent puppet." But, er, isn't every hot new UFO video the most elaborate one we've seen? If you were just showing spinning pie plates, it'd be hard to get much attention.)
As someone who's written about UFO hoaxes before, I find it very difficult to take anything like this seriously. If there were actual indisputable alien footage, it would be simultaneously the most incredible scientific discovery in history and the most explosive news story of all time. Scientists, reporters and governments the world over would be clamoring to analyze it. At that point, it seems unlikely that it would be within one UFO believer's power to keep it secret.
UPDATE: This is apparently a still from the video in question. It just so happens to portray the alien peering into someone's window. What could be more recognizably, uninspiredly E.T. than that?
It's guffaw-worthy that the reason he gives for sitting on this bombshell is that he's embroiled in movie talks: "No one will be allowed to film the segment with the extraterrestrial because there is an agreement in place limiting that kind of exposure during negotiations for the documentary," Peckman told the RMN.
Forget just putting it up online and letting everyone judge for themselves. Eveyone knows you can't make money on YouTube! Even with a real live alien that looks better than a 29-cent puppet.
Race to the bottom: National Lampoon's Whorediamonds.com
As much as the Spitzer prostitution scandal wants to fade into the past, some people just can't let go. National Lampoon Inc., a publicly held company that owns Web, TV, audio and movie properties, has launched a comedy site called WhoreDiamonds.com, a riff on the bejeweled ratings system used by Spitzer's Emperor's Club escort service (Wonkette joked about the diamonds way back in March).
But is all fair in love and whores? The NatLamp site asks users to rate real prostitutes on a scale of 1 to 10. Some of the pictures, a rep for the site said, are sourced from real escort agencies. But the rest are mugshots of women who have been arrested for prostitution. Mugshots are publicly available, so the site has decided to stockpile them from police websites around the nation, and construct a virtual pillory of prostitution arrestees (not convicts, mind you). The police shots show women who are the kinds of street prostitutes who have probably turned to the sex trade out of desperation--the signs of drug addiction, poverty, and abuse are all over their faces.
Mugshots are a matter of public record to ensure the transparency of the justice system and to protect the rights of prisoners. It's one thing to grab a booking photo of Paris Hilton or Mel Gibson, but to try to make a snickering profit off of women who have fallen into society's lower reaches--that's the worst kind of bottom-feeding.
It's old news that National Lampoon Inc. has built a business on "whoring" out the great comedic name that Doug Kenney and co. built in the 1970s. At this point all they're doing is killing a dead dog.
