Free DME & DFIR Resources

Just back from vacation and read Jennifer Apple's post on this tool.  I keep this one with me on a thumb drive when I'm out and about.  If you're not familiar with it check out Jennifer's post at photoshopsupport.com.

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If you're using Picasa you don't need to read any further, as I'm sure you already know this.  If you're not using Picasa for any reason, let me tell you one of the main reasons I do.   As you probably know Picasa is a pretty handy little free program for editing, managing and sharing your photos, but I rarely use it for any of those things.  What I love most about Picasa is the included Picasa Photo Viewer application.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year my friends!  Just a quick note to pass along season's greetings and give you a heads up regarding upcoming topics for my podcast, Nerds & Non/Sense™ .

In our January, 2020 episodes we'll be discussing The Illusion of Privacy.  Cambridge Analytica, "The Great Hack" documentary on Netflix, the Best Selling book "The Age of Surveillance Capitalism" and chatting about how metadata about your daily activities is used to not only predict, but influence your behavior.  How you are the commodity, and most of you still don't even understand the extent to which you've facilitated this.

In our February, 2020 episodes we'll be discussing Work/Life Balance.  Mandatory professional therapy and mental health resources & evaluations for digital evidence practitioners, and how they should be mandated in ALL agency SOPs, IMHO.

It's after 4:00 am in the morning and I'm writing about codecs.  That isn't right.  Just curious what lossless video codecs others are using or have used and/or compared for forensic screen capture?  I'm sure the most common answer will be TechSmith's TSCC, but there are others out there that work quite nicely and are priced just right....FREE.

I posted a new member poll on the topic, which you'll find on the right-hand side of your profile page.  Also recently added the free LZO and GZIP based CamStudio codec to our files & downloads library and have been fiddling with some others.    Are you using something else, or do you prefer to keep all captures uncompressed?

Jonathan Lewin, Chicago’s managing deputy director of public safety, believes that video cameras help officers protect citizens — and he has numbers to back up his claim. The Chicago Police Department says that Operation Virtual Shield, the city’s network of public and private surveillance cameras, has led to more than 5,500 camera-related arrests since 2006.

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Magnet Idea Lab has launched Project Goose, an AI-enhanced AXIOM integration available exclusively for Idea Lab members.  Project Goose is a cloud-based integration that can assist investigators in many ways, including: 

• Examine images to determine the likelihood they were created with common generative AI tools.
• Analyze videos to gain insight into their authenticity and origin through integration with Medex Forensics.
• Ask questions about case data and see relevant results (e.g. "Do they talk about exchanging money?", etc.)
• Use natural language to build complex filters in AXIOM.

Those interested in Project Goose can sign-up at the Magnet Idea Lab website. 

Live Webinar: Join Magnet Forensics & Medex Forensics for a live webinar regarding these topics and Project Goose on March 5th, 2-3pm EST.

Register for the Webinar Today!

There ARE Non-square samples, and their shape IS NOT dependent on the # of scanning lines. There are also Non-Square picture elements in CCD and CMOS image sensors, but their electrical charge is never converted to digital in an analog CCTV camera.

Back in the day there actually were Non-Square pixel-based displays, but they were only used for special applications and are not found in the wild today.

If you are aware of a standard that defines the shape of 480i (NTSC) or 576i (PAL) non-square samples differently than through the use of the luminance sampling frequencies, please bring that to my attention. Thank you.

A recent report from NIST on Latent Print Analysis sheds some light on potential human errors in all forensic disciplines.

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Turns out I may just know a thing or two about Mass Video Evidence Collection & Processing.  Who knew? 😎

I have worked several cases that were comprised of thousands of hours of video evidence collected from dozens of sources, including the Vancouver Stanley Cup riots.

Forensic Video Analysts from around the world were brought to Indianapolis to work together, and although I wasn't there, I was responsible for supporting the infrastructure and solving the DME workflow issues that couldn't be resolved efficiently on-site.

The knock on managing Macs in business environments has long been Apple's ambivalent attitude toward providing significant enterprise support. Apple does, of course, offer tools for deploying, configuring, and managing Macs. But to move Macs beyond a departmental setting, IT will often find it necessary to look to third parties for help.

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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.

This brief (approx. 9min.) introduction into the world of digital video evidence is intended to provide law enforcement professionals with a better understanding of the basic concepts and related issues.  It was geared towards first responders, who in many cases are the ones initially seizing video evidence.

From the PhotoShopSupport.com blog:

Here's a free video tutorial from lynda.com — Setting Up Shop - Preferences, Color Settings, And Shortcuts — from the series Photoshop CS4 One-on-One: Fundamentals. Deke McClelland examines the essential capabilities of the application, from correcting color to retouching portraits. He also covers navigation, resolution, cropping, selecting, printing, and making web graphics. This course goes beyond basic tips and tricks and provides the in-depth information and real-world context needed by serious students who want to master the software.

View the full post & get the link to the video:
http://www.photoshopsupport.com/photoshop-blog/10/cs5-03/video-tutorial-setting-preferences.html