Un ragazzo di 27 anni è stato accusato di pirateria informatica e della trasmissione di più di 10 milioni di minuti di servizio telefonico Internet è stato condannato a 10 anni.E’ un ragazzo di 27 anni la prima persona al mondo ad essere accusata di hacking Voice over Internet Protocol [VoIP], dopo aver rubato la fornitura voip, ha rivenduto il tutto guadagnando ben 10 anni di carcere.

La condanna di Edwin Andres Pena, 27 anni, in tribunale federale di Newark, NJ, è arrivata dopo un pedinamento durato tre anni. Pena fuggito dopo il suo arresto nel 2006, è stato estradato negli Stati Uniti dal Messico, nel febbraio del 2009, hanno detto le autorità. Il 3 febbraio 2010, si è dichiarato colpevole di pirateria informatica.

“Il furto è un furto che si tratti di rapinare una banca o di entrare in una rete e rubare i loro servizi”, ha detto il procuratore Paul Fishman in una dichiarazione.”Gli hacker attaccano le nuove tecnologie emergenti e dovrebbero presumere che l’applicazione della legge può tenere il passo con loro, anche quando operano da altri paesi.”

Pena ha architettato un sistema per frodare i fornitori di servizi VoIP fingendosi grossista legittimo di servizi telefonici basati su Internet e sulla vendita di piani di servizio scontati. Secondo le autorità, la ragione per cui riusciva a fare prezzi così bassi era perchè segretamente era riuscito ad hackerare le reti informatiche dei fornitori di VoIP e di instradare le chiamate dei suoi clienti ‘.

Attraverso questo schema, Pena ha venduto oltre 10 milioni di minuti di servizio telefonico Internet ai suoi clienti ignari, provocando una perdita di oltre 1,4 milioni dollari in meno di un anno. Tra le sue vittime ci fu una società di Newark-based che trasmette servizi VoIP per le imprese di telecomunicazioni e sono state fatturate più di 500.000 chiamate telefoniche non autorizzate.

Pena aiutato anche da altri, tra cui Robert Moore di Spokane, nello stato di Washington Moore è stato condannato a 24 mesi per il suo ruolo nello schema, in cui ha eseguito la scansione di reti di computer per trovare le porte vulnerabili così le reti sono state usate per instradare le chiamate, hanno detto le autorità.

Oltre al carcere, Pena è stato anche condannato a tre anni di libertà vigilata e gli è stato ordinato di essere deportato in seguito alla conclusione della sua condanna in quanto cittadino venezuelano. Pena è stato anche condannato a pagare un risarcimento per un importo di 1.012,311 mila dollari.

As usual, the Academy chose just three films as visual-effects nominees. That number seems smaller this year, given that it’s the first time that 10 movies were singled out as the potential best film of the year.

Still, to those who follow visual effects, there’s probably little shock this morning in the fact that the three nominated films were: “Avatar,” James Cameron’s record-breaking anti-colonialism epic; “Star Trek,” the latest, and some would say the best, in the long history of movies of the Gene Roddenberry franchise; and “District 9,” from director Neill Blomkamp.

Perhaps the only real surprise was that “2012,” Roland Emmerich’s fantasy about an apocalypse long foreseen on the Mayan calendar, wasn’t nominated. But in a year with several very strong candidates, it was clear that not every one of them would earn a nomination.

Also gracing the nominations was a CNET favorite, Pixar’s “Up,” for best animated feature. That film, Pixar’s 10th straight big hit, was joined by several other strong contenders: “Coraline,” Wes Anderson’s “Fantastic Mr. Fox,” “The Princess and the Frog,” and “The Secret of Kells.”

From this corner, “Avatar” looks to be as big of a sure thing to win the visual-effects Oscar as I can remember. It’s not that the work ILM did on “Star Trek” or that Image Engine did on “District 9″ wasn’t great. It’s more that “Avatar” has taken the world by storm, breaking the all-time box office record–previously held, of course, by Cameron’s own “Titanic”–and pretty much blowing everyone away with the creation of the fantastical moon of Pandora. I will be completely surprised if “Avatar” doesn’t walk away with the Oscar on March 7.

As I’ve written previously, if “Avatar” wins the Oscar, it could be the big public coming out party for Weta Digital, director Peter Jackson’s visual-effects studio. Within the industry, to be quite sure, Weta is well-known for its work on Jackson’s “Lord of the Rings” trilogy and on his “King Kong,” but my argument is that the company is not well-known by the public for its projects, which have already earned it four Oscars.

Either way, with nine nominations, including for best picture, best director, art direction, and cinematography, March 7 looks to be a big night for Cameron and the countless people who made “Avatar.” After all, while 2009 was a pretty good year for movies, Hollywood loves a smash, especially one that makes people look at things in an entirely new way. And for that, visual effects may well be the true star of Oscar night 2010.

(news.cnet.com)

Every designer needs a good collection of free fonts, when working on design projects weather your designing for the web or for print its always essential to have a good  collection of fonts.

15 Serif Fonts

What does serif mean?

1. Adobe Caslon

Magazines, journals, text books, corporate communication.

2. Adobe Garamond

Textbooks and magazines

3. Bembo

Posters, packaging, textbooks.

4. Bodoni

Headlines, text, logos. (I couldn’t get big preview for this font.)

5. Clarendon

Dictionaries and headlines.

6. Courier

Tabular materials, technical documentation, word processing.

7. Excelsior

Newsletters, Reports, Proposals.

8. Lucida

Low resolution printing, small point sizes, reversed out half tones.

9. Minion

Limited edition books, newsletters, packaging.

10. Perpetua

For displays with fine lettering, long pages of text, chiseled text.

11. Sabon

Books and corporate communication.

12. Stempel Schneidler

For displays and fine publications that need a legible text type.

13. Times New Roman

Newspapers, magazines, corporate communication.

14. Trajan

Books, magazines, posters, billboards, anything to do with the ages or religion.

15. Walbaum

Magazines, journals, text books, corporate communication.

15 Sans-Serif Fonts

What does sans-serif mean?

1. Akzidenz Grotesk

Large Signage, all purpose for print media.

2. Avenir

For books with large amounts of text

3. Bell Centennial

For listings and very poor printing conditions.

4. Bell Gothic

For very small amounts of text that contains large amounts of information.

5. DIN

For signage, posters and displays.

6. Franklin Gothic

Newspapers and where available space is limited.

7. Frutiger

Large signage, all purpose font for print media.

8. Futura

Large displays, small text in books.

9. Gill Sans

Signage, all purpose font for print media.

10. Helvetica

Large or small text, all purpose type figure.

11. Meta

Text, number, especially corporate communication.

12. Myriad

Large displays, all purpose media.

13. Trade Gothic

Newspapers and classified ads, advertising, multimedia.

14. Univers

Packaging, signage, text books.

15. Vag Rounded

Instruction manuals and print advertising.

Source: From the book “30 Essential Typefaces for a Lifetime” by Imin Pao and Joshya Berger. A history of typography is also found in this book as well as more information on each font and the designer.

Avid Free DV (Geedie says XP only): Avid Free DV is simply a streamlined version of Avid’s professional video editing software and has many limited capabilities. Once you’ve had a chance to familiarize yourself with the Avid editing interface we recommend upgrading to Avid Xpress DV or Avid Xpress Pro where you will benefit dramatically with increased functionality and power.
http://www.avid.com/freedv/features.asp

AVE Visual Editor: enables user without any programming experience to use the power of AviSynth. With AVE Visual Editor you simply connect icons with lines and when graph is complete watch the output.
http://www.avisynth.org/vion11/aveguide.html

AviTricks: is a non-linear, non-destructive AVI video editor with real-time preview. It makes cutting and joining footage easy and includes a wide range of built-in adjustable effects that can be used separately or in combination. The AviTricks Video Editor is still in production.
http://www.bobyte.com/

Cinelerra (Linux only): Unlike most of the Linux solutions out there, Cinelerra requires no emulation of proprietary operating systems, no commercial add-ons, no banner advertizements, no corporate dependancies, no terrorists, just a boring old Linux box.
http://heroinewarrior.com/cinelerra.php3

DDClip (not free anymore, but some budget light versions on the site): is a professional, non-linear, non-destructive, multitrack, real-time audio and video editor for Windows. It allows you to process and mix up to 32 high-quality audio tracks (24 bit/96 kHz is available) with real-time audio effects (including any DirectX plug-ins) on PC with any Windows-compatible sound card.
http://www.softlab-nsk.com/ddclipro/index.html

Jahshaka: is the worlds first OpenSource Realtime Editing and Effects System. Jahshaka takes advantage of the power of OpenGL and OpenML to give its users exceptional levels of performance. Edit with flexibility and speed, create effects in real time, animate with unlimited features, paint and design on moving video, create music with all the tools the pros use, work in any format at any resolution and more.
http://www.jahshaka.org/

Videocharge: VideoCharge is a multifunction, easy in use software product for conversion of Video, Audio, or Image files sequences!
http://www.videocharge.com/

Virtualdub: VirtualDub is a video capture/processing utility for 32-bit Windows platforms (95/98/ME/NT4/2000/XP), licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL). It lacks the editing power of a general-purpose editor such as Adobe Premiere, but is streamlined for fast linear operations over video.
http://www.virtualdub.org/

Wax: is a high performance and flexible video compositing and special effects software. The idea for Wax is to be very general purpose and flexible in video compositing and effects, so that you can compose your dream video sequence with ease everytime.
http://www.debugmode.com/wax/

Adobe has announced an update to its Photoshop.com Mobile app, offering new features to iPhone and iPod touch users. The free application lets users edit and share photos via a simple intuitive interface.

Version 1.1.021 adds a new sharpen tool, support for a variety of photo borders, and—for U.S. users of the app—playback of video hosted on Photoshop.com.

In a blog post, Adobe’s John Nack notes that Photoshop.com for iPhone has been downloaded 6.5 million times since October last year.

Available from the App Store, Photoshop.com Mobile requires the iPhone 3.0 Software Update or later.