Free DME & DFIR Resources

George Reis, President and owner of Imaging Forensics, Inc., has launched a new MeetUp group for those involved with technical and scientific imaging and photography.

For more information or to join the group please visit http://www.meetup.com/OC-Technical-Scientific-Photography-Imaging-Group/.

Just a heads up that I will be doing some planned maintenance on DME Resources this weekend, so the site may be momentarily unavailable at times throughout the weekend. I will be adding some new functionality to provide users with more control of their content, along with a consolidated area where they can manage content and preferences.

As always, if you have any questions, suggestions or concerns please don't hesitate to contact me. Thanks for your continued participation. Have a great week!

Last week I was back in Albany, NY to provide a free seminar on digital video evidence at the New York State Police Academy, followed by Ocean Systems 3-day DVR Assessment & Video Recovery training course. It was a sold-out class comprised of both students new to the field, as well as very seasoned digital and video evidence technicians and analysts. The end result was a really great week of training and peer networking. Many thanks to all of those who attended, and special thanks to the New York State Police (NYSP) for hosting both events!

The NYSP had a new academy class under way as well, with approximately 250 new recruits marching to-and-from the various classrooms within their renovated facilities. It was very cool to see so much activity at the academy again throughout the entire week. Best of luck to all the recruits in training. Hang in there and regardless of the outcome, thanks for stepping up to the plate!

That's a tall order, right?  VLC from VideoLAN.org has become the go-to media player for most, as it can play so many things that Windows Media Player won't, and it's free.  Well, how does it do that, play more than other players?  The Libavformat and Libavcodec libraries, the same ones created by and for the FFmpeg project (and so many other multimedia applications). 

VLC & DirectShow Filters

DirectShow is one of Microsoft's multimedia frameworks, formerly known as ActiveMovie, which replaced Microsoft's earlier Video for Windows framework.  VLC supports DirectShow-based input sources through a module (not very well, IMO, though), but the default Windows version downloaded from VideoLAN cannot reference 32-bit DirectShow filters installed on your Windows PC for audio/video decoding (i.e. filters/codecs registered in your Windows Registry), as the default version downloaded is x64.

As an example, a DCCTV video file exported from a GeoVision system to an AVI file may be using the proprietary GMP4 video codec. In order to play the video, you must install the GeoVision GMP4 codec necessary to decode the primary video stream; this is a DirectShow filter.  DirectShow filters can only be referenced by applications that can leverage DirectShow, which we've established, VLC x64 cannot. 

By Nate Anderson

The Britain of today is watched constantly by CCTV cameras, is preparing for a national ID card, slaps a "crown copyright" on most government data, and can now censor websites and eventually boot people off the Internet.

According to the new Liberal Democrat/Tory coalition government, that's all about to change.

Full Story

The future does bring some rather interesting additions to the fore, among them include contact lenses that are capable of projecting images right on top of your retinas, according to researchers at the University of Washington who have been hard at work on super small and semi-transparent LEDs which will be integrated into existing contact lenses. 

Full Story

Wrapping up my weekend and feeling pretty good about the things I ticked off my internal, MFT-like to-do list. Implemented SSL encryption for the new LEVA website, integrated Authorize.net secure payment processing on the new LEVA site, and I put the finishing touches on several of the pieces for this week’s DCCTV recovery training in Tacoma, WA.

I probably won’t be posting here much this week, but you can’t shut me up on Facebook and Twitter, because I share to those while reading my news and researching (i.e. always). It is now an instinctual process and, thanks to those of you who occasionally send feedback, one that makes me feel good. No cute animal pics though; I share those to my personal Facebook friends, because animals are cute…but not really related to digital & multimedia evidence.

Okay, done rambling. Hope you had a great weekend my friends, and here’s to another week of doing what we love. Be safe out there. All the best.

By Joseph L. Flatley

Toshiba announced a new self-encrypting disk technology today, which is sure to be welcome news to the those of you who work with sensitive data, wish to keep your extensive True Blood fanfiction collection under wraps, or are just plain paranoid. The imaginatively named Wipe ships with the company's TCG-spec'd Self-Encrypting Drive models, allowing sysadmins to securely erase user data when a machine powers down, when an encrypted HDD is removed from the system, or when a leased machine is returned to its owner. And this ain't just for PCs -- the system is also designed to work with your copier and / or printer system. Interested? Of course you are!

Check out the complete PR:
http://www.engadget.com/2010/08/10/toshiba-wipe-deletes-your-encrypted-data-so-you-dont-have-to/

It's 2:30 am EST and I'm testing browser compatibility.  What's wrong with this picture?   Anyway, I've tested most of the new member area functionality with IE7 and Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.7 and above; so if you're using the latest from either you're golden!

I've also tested IE6 extensively and noted a few issues related to layout, predominantly due to IE6 and IE5.5 not digging the use of PNG files  At some point I may go back and resolve these issues either through "creative code" or simply converting the images to GIFs, but that likely won't be for several weeks.  Hey, why not just update your darn browser already...they're both free you know!!!  🤪

When Windows 8 launches later this year you'll be able to upgrade to the pro version of Microsoft's newest desktop OS for just $40 for a limited time. The deal will apply to a broad base of current Windows users including those running Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7. Microsoft had a similar offer during the launch of Windows 7 but this one is cheaper than its predecessor. (Windows 7 upgrades ranged from $50-$100 at launch.)

Read full story >

A couple weeks ago I was up in Vancouver to teach Ocean Systems’ DVR Assessment & Video Recovery training course, which was hosted by the Vancouver Police Department. Many thanks to our host agency and students, as it was another great week of training and information sharing. Next week I’ll be in Miami to provide a free seminar on Digital Video Evidence on Monday morning, followed by our 3-day DVR Recovery training course which will run Tuesday through Thursday.

I'm just back from a week of vacation, all of which was literally spent moving into our new home...a block and half away. Ugh, what a process. With that behind us now, I'm excited to get back to work on the DME Resources online training library!

I will be completing the Navigating & Using DME Resources training course over the 4th of July weekend, and we're still on schedule to launch the first DME related courses prior to the end of summer.

If you or your agency have a DME related topic or tool that you'd like additional training on, shoot me a note and I'll see if I may be able to help (or at least put you in touch with someone who can). Thanks for your continued participation and interest. Have a great 4th of July weekend everyone, be safe!

The Law Enforcement and Emergency Services Video Association (LEVA) has published the DRAFT version 3.0 of their Best Practices for the Acquisition of Digital Multimedia Evidence.  LEVA is soliciting community feedback on this document through March 31, 2010.

For additional information visit the official LEVA Publications page.