Every now and again, two of my favourite subjects come together (No, not blackmail and hard discs) - Technology and Motorsports.

Formula 1 star of the McLaren-Mercedes team, Lewis Hamilton, has been the focus of a blackmail attempt by a man in Germany, named simply “Dieter.” Dieter somehow obtained a hard drive, that had supposedly been disposed of some months before, that contained documents and other personal information. For those who are unfamiliar with the McLaren-Mercedes scandal of last year, the team were found guilty of using secrets from another team to improve their own car - and this hard drive could possibly had more such evidence on it. Trying to sell the hard drive to the German motorsport magazine, “Bild”, Dieter was arrested by police after the magazine tipped off the authorities, as reported by the Daily Telegraph today.

So how do you properly and permanently remove sensitive information from your hard disc?

Remember - when you delete things in Windows the data is usually still there - just because you can’t access the information doesn’t mean somebody else won’t be able to. The very nature of deleting a file just means renaming the first character of the filename, to let the system know the space it takes up can be used for new files - and the data is still there until new files are written in the same place. And even if the space the file used to occupy is overwritten with different files, there are techniques that can be employed to find out what used to be on the surface of the disc. Once you know this, you need something a little better than the recycle bin in windows to remove your sensitive data, and there are three methods you can use to do it:

The first way is with a program that allows you to securely delete files - rather than by using the recycle bin in Windows, download Eraser. It has a drag and drop interface that allows you to do a multiple-pass wipe so that the bytes the file occupies get overwritten properly, making it practically impossible to retrieve the data that used to be your file. Amongst others, by default, it uses the “Gutmann” method of wiping that employees 35 separate passes of specially selected data to make sure nobody can retrieve the information, chemically, from the drive. This should be enough if you just need to remove the odd file that’s a bit sensitive. It is geared towards doing things in batches, so you could drag files you want to remove into the program and before you log out, process them all in one go. This takes care of single file deletes.

The second way is a little more abstract, and Eraser is up to the task of removing this type of data too. Remember when your files are removed, they aren’t actually erased, the space is allocated back to the system to write files into? Baring this in mind, all the files you’ve deleted previously, will have data scattered all over the drive, in places ready to be overwritten, but for whatever reason the system hasn’t got around to using yet. So the second method is to wipe your free space on the drive. Every byte that isn’t allocated to a file will be subjected to the same rigorous treatment, using the same methods.

When you’ve come to the point when you’re ready to throw the hard drive away and want to be sure there’s nothing left on it, the last method to remove data is to wipe the whole drive. And the best way to do this is to melt it down! Failing that, if you don’t have a kiln in your house, try DBAN (Darik’s Boot And Nuke). Download DBAN, burn it to a CD, boot from that CD and you will be able to wipe any drive in the system with multiple passes of random data. Eraser, above, also supports wiping whole drives and can create a “Nuke Disc” to boot from. DBAN, however is a personal favourite, and I’ve never had problems with using it. This should securely remove the data - although of course, nothing is as secure or cool as melting it - plus you get the added advantage of doing something cool to video and put on youtube!

An odd one, this one. Microsoft filed a patent on December 20th, 2006, for a device called the “Guardian Angel”. The idea is to have a device to detect the number of people in a room, single them out and recognise them. And then gather information on them, presumably from the net, about previous convictions and stuff.. Hmmm, not saying that people need to be safe, but two things come to mind straight away:

1) If there are dangerous people in the room, shouldn’t they be in another room, like, oh I dunno, a jail or something?

2) If the device flags someone as “dangerous” I guess it doesn’t matter if that person has already served his time, and probably gone through rehabilitation? The person could be completely different to his criminal record now.

So I think I’m saying this is a massive invasion of privacy, and straight away sets a machine up to pass judgement on someone else in the room. Surely this is wrong? The original article by slashdot can be found here. Another interesting feature of the Guardian Angel was a “heart monitor” like people need a machine to tell them they’re having a heart attack, or that they’re dead? Well I guess it hasn’t stopped Microsoft in the past for providing “features” to things that they think the buying public need - just look at Vista..!

Those of you who use the McAfee SiteAdvisor plugin for Firefox, will be aware of how McAfee are helping to protect users from malicious sites. The plugin notifies users with a simple colour coding that allows users to visually work out if a website has been reported for malware or spyware attacks. The plugin works with community support - reports being fed to McAfee from users with comments posted on the site’s page detailing the problems they faced.

Well now, McAfee have teamed up with Yahoo, to do a very similar thing on their search results. When you search for a term using Yahoo’s engine, there will be an indication next to the site that identifies it as malware/spyware, if it’s been reported that the website has been up to no good. This should hopefully prevent people from clicking on the link, or at least, make them find out why the site has gained such a reputation. If you already have McAfee’s SiteAdvisor plugin installed, all search engine results are automatically checked anyway, so you won’t gain much. And you have the added advantage of being notified of a malicious site when you’re browsing it. At least the Yahoo deal is a step in the right direction. Read the Yahoo! press release.

Tesco have offered their customers WMA files for a while now, but the really interesting thing with this story is that they will also be offering MP3’s next month - no DRM. This is obvious competition to iTunes, but I think more importantly with be a direct competitor to Amazon when they release their MP3 downloads service in the UK. Are Tesco trying to get a foot in the door early?

In an article on the Register, O2 have basically admitted that everyone who uses their 3G service is automatically placed on 128Kb/s, rather than the theoretical maximum of 384Kb/s. It gets better though: All of you with a personal mobile with 3G won’t ever get any more. Corporate customers can go to O2 and get it upped to 384Kb/s, but it’s still apparently under their terms.

This just seems to echo how the industry treats people’s internet access in this country. The companies like Tiscali and Virgin Media, and others - now including O2 - think they have the right to restrict usage just because their infrastructure can’t handle the demand. Personally if it’s all about money, I would rather pay a little bit extra to guarantee a decent connection, rather than all this cloak-and-dagger stuff. Read the full article here.

I hope you enjoyed using P2P to download your Linux distros because it looks as though the legal users amongst us have just lost out. If you use Virgin Media as your ISP, you’ll be interested to know that they are about to start trials of the 3 strikes rule the government recently detailed in a white paper.

Trialled last year by Tiscali which resulted in a handful of users being disconnected, the 3 strikes rule focuses on re-offending P2P users. But how do they know who is using P2P for legitimate means? Only just recently a TV company in Canada released Hi-Def versions of one of their prime-time shows as a bittorrent in an incentive to trial new methods of distribution. Does this mean these methods of legal distribution, that benefits all, will become a thing of the past? Click here for more information.

I guess it seems as though the consumer is starting to vote with it’s feet. Available in the US only, at the moment, Amazon MP3 are starting to make a mark in Apple’s music store dominance. The DRM-free music available from Amazon MP3 is proving a hit with customers, as sales have driven the new on-line store to second place after just six months of operation. Hopefully over the next six months Amazon will continue to eat into Apple’s 80% share of the market. [SHOW ME]

Today, a public drive has won the backing of David Cameron, of the Tories, to provide the public with parliamentary bills in an XML format. They Work For You is the website who originally pushed for this, with the ability to sign up to “Gently Encourage Parliament” to adopt the standard. This would benefit all, as it would provide a way for the information to be easily digested and searchable with today’s technology and would also allow They Work For You to keep you up to date with email alerts.

It’s great that I live in a country where my freedom of speech isn’t challenged by the government. I’m sure if I was writing this in China right now, it would get a visit within the next couple of days from some government officials..

Trying to suppress the video deemed as sensitive and containing political content, the Chinese government have blocked another 25 video websites this weekend, with more being asked to remove content. “The Great Firewall of China” as it’s dubbed is blocking websites showing video of the Tibetan people protesting against Chinese rule, and the bloodshed that has ensued. [SHOW ME]

Firstly Skymonkey.org would like to extend it’s thanks to Russell for taking time out to answer a few questions.

In case you haven’t heard of it, Media Monkey is a music player with a difference. Rather than just playing music (which it does really well) Media Monkey is also a platform for organising your music collection. Not only does it support the normal music file types and MP3 players - including iPods and the such, it also has the ability to rip CDs and convert, for example wma files to ogg. But where Media Monkey really excels is it’s powerful ability to re-organise your music collection. It can take information contained within the ID3 tags of the MP3’s, and use it to create a file structure that suits your needs. Media Monkey is free, but if you purchase the Gold Edition for $19.95, you get extra features such as the ability to monitor directories for updates, and on-the-fly format conversion for MP3 players (just in case your whole library is in ogg format, and you need them in mp3 format for your mp3 player.) You also get all future updates for that version. There is also a lifetime license available that means any new versions that come out will automatically be available for you to download and use in full.

The Media Monkey team consists of 5 people. Russell Samuels, Jiri Hajek & 3 other developers.

Paul: How did Media Monkey first come to being?

Rusty: Jiri was working on Songs-DB because he was unsatisfied with the state of Music Management apps at the time. I was looking for a new business opportunity and had similar thoughts about the need for a music manager that would meet the needs of more serious collectors. We hooked up and MM was born, and since then, it’s been a labor of love.

Paul: Have you written Media Monkey’s front-end with a view to entice current Winamp or iTunes users by providing a familiar interface?

Rusty: We’re always influenced by good ideas whatever their source might be. Early versions of MediaMonkey were designed to use Winamp skins as that was a way of quickly getting a skin library for MediaMonkey, so the player ended up looking like Winamp’s. MediaMonkey’s Tree and Tracklist were modeled after Windows Explorer, the main difference being that MM’s tree is used to model attributes other than location. Newer versions of the player are supported by a better skinning engine, that allows for much more creative designs that can be unique, or modeled after iTunes, Windows Media Player, or any other visually pleasing music app.

Paul: Media Monkey seems to share a few similarities with Winamp. For instance, the Visualisations are compatible with Winamp’s, and the Shoutcast support, plus some other details. Is the code base for Media Monkey completely separate from Winamp, or is it based on, or have pieces in common with Winamp?

Rusty: MediaMonkey was designed to be compatible with many of the Winamp 2.x APIs since that allowed its functionality to be extended in the absence of an active developer base. In early versions of MM, there was common code for a couple of freely licensed input/output plugins. Today, MM doesn’t have any common code with Winamp, though it still supports the Winamp 2.x APIs.

Paul: Are there any plans, other than sales, for monetisation? For instance, are you looking to in the future perhaps fund the free version with ads?

Rusty: We’ve thought about having an ad-supported version, but have rejected that as too damaging to our brand–we don’t want to be labeled as adware. We currently derive a small amount of revenue from affiliate sales of music via Amazon, and hope to grow that with the launch of Amazon’s MP3 store.

Paul: Do you feel the community of users are important to the future of Media Monkey’s ongoing development?

Rusty: Without its community, MediaMonkey is nothing. Our community has translated MM into 15 languages, developed countless scripts, created skins and icons, beta tested, provided invaluable feedback, etc. We try to give back to our community by carefully listening to what they’re asking for, and providing in the free version enough that it is useful for most people. I suspect that with time, our community will become even more critical to MM’s success.

Paul: How do you feel the record industry is coping with the change of people buying more and more music online, and where do you think Media Monkey fits into this change?

Rusty: The record industry’s response to the internet as a distribution medium was to tighten control over content with DRM. We’ve never been a fan of DRM–it’s only caused problems for our users, and believe in a future of unencumbered music such as that offered in Amazon’s MP3 store. But, it’ll still be hard to sell tracks for $1 when they can be found via p2p for free–so the industry will have to provide enough value at any particular price point that makes it worth paying for the track instead of getting it via p2p.

In that context, MediaMonkey will have to get better at helping users find the music that they seek and helping users discover music that they might be interested in, given their tastes. If we do this effectively, it will yield affiliate revenues that will help fund the project in the long term.

Paul: Are there any other plans for Media Monkey in the future?

Rusty: World domination?

Once again, our thanks are extended to Russell for his time. If you are interested, Media Monkey can be downloaded from [HERE]