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Jay DeDapper read my post about hacking a New York city taxi and did a more investigative piece about the potential unauthorized access. The Taxi and Limousine Commission claims everything has been fixed and is highly unlikely to happen again. However, Jay and his producer both had error messages in their cabs within the past week (and I’m sure others have) too.

Watch the video here or by clicking the screenshot below:

You can also read their article about it too.

Hey AT&T (formally Cingular)

Isn’t your whole schtick; it’s your minutes, keep them? I personally think that’s quite a nice feature.

But what about my 200 text messages? The same philosophy should stand with unused text messages month to month. Get on that please.

This one is inspired by my building neighbors.

I just got off an infuriating call. I was transferred 6 times to different departments and people within adobe. The one common theme: They didn’t even know they had a product called FlashPaper.

The question was simple. Can I programmatically edit the SWF file that FlashPaper creates? In other words, is there some type of FlashPaper actionscript?

Not only did they not understand the question, but 2 of the 6 people I spoke with didn’t know what FlashPaper was. Two other people immediately transferred me. One other person was inexplicably from “licensing”. The final guy tried to transfer me again and I hung up.

I couldn’t get too angry, because here is the list of products they have. Call tech support about anything other than Photoshop or Flash and you’re in for a transferring marathon.

• Acrobat 7 Elements
• Acrobat 8 Professional
• Acrobat 8 Standard
• Acrobat 3D
• Acrobat Capture 3.0
• Acrobat Connect
• Acrobat Connect Professional
• Adobe AIR
• After Effects CS3 Professional
• Audition 3
• Authorware 7
• Bridge CS3
• Captivate 3
• Central Pro Output Server
• ColdFusion
• Connect
• Contribute CS3
• Contribute Publishing Server
• Create Adobe PDF Online
• Creative Suite 3 Design Premium
• Creative Suite 3 Design Standard
• Creative Suite 3 Master Collection
• Creative Suite 3 Production Premium
• Creative Suite 3 Web Premium
• Creative Suite 3 Web Standard
• Device Central CS3
• Digital Editions
• Director MX 2004
• Distiller Server 8
• Document Center
• Dreamweaver CS3
• Dreamweaver Developer Toolbox
• Dynamic Link CS3
• Encore CS3
• Fireworks CS3
• Flash CS3 Professional
• Flash Lite
• Flash Media Encoder
• Flash Media Server 3
• Flash Player 9
• Flash Player for Pocket PC
• FlashPaper 2
• Flash Remoting MX
• Flash Video Streaming Service
• Flex 2
• Font Folio 11
• FrameMaker 8
• FrameMaker Server 8
• FreeHand MX
• GoLive 9
• Graphics Server
• HomeSite 5.5
• Illustrator CS3
• InCopy CS3
• InDesign CS3
• InDesign CS3 Server
• JRun 4
• LiveCycle Enterprise Suite
• Motif Ad Kit 2
• OnLocation CS3 (formerly DV Rack)
• Output Designer
• Output Manager
• Output Pak for mySAP.com
• Ovation
• PageMaker 7.0
• PDF JobReady
• PDF Print Engine
• Photoshop CS3
• Photoshop CS3 Extended
• Photoshop Elements 4.0 for Macintosh
• Photoshop Elements 6.0 for Windows
• Photoshop Elements 6.0 & Adobe Premiere Elements 4.0
• Photoshop Lightroom
• PostScript 3
• Premiere Elements 4.0
• Premiere Pro CS3
• Presenter
• Printer drivers
• Reader
• Reader LE
• RoboHelp 7
• RoboHelp Server 7
• Scene7 OnDemand Rich Media Solutions
• Shockwave Player
• Soundbooth CS3
• Stock Photos
• Technical Communication Suite
• Type products
• Ultra CS3
• Visual Communicator 3
• Vlog it!
• Version Cue CS3
• Web Output Pak

Here is the comments section of a recent article on digg. Almost every comment is censored away.

As part of dontcensorme.com, I created a digg comments section that shows censored away comments aren’t always censored for the right reasons.

I forgot to share this one. I took this photo in Kona, Hawaii and fits pretty nicely into the webshots genre of photos. I think the guy is holding a baby and it watching the sunset with his wife. Cheesy, yes — but I didn’t plan that detail.

Click the image for my full-res shot.

A lot of people have been telling me they’d love customization of fichey.

Today I enabled customization of up to 30 topics you can choose from. In the future, I hope to expand this list and add other features that make it much more customizable. The problem with that right now is hardware. Believe it or not, it actually costs a lot of render out all those pages. As demand for it grows, we’ll keep on adding rendering machines and that will allow for more customization. (I added 2 more machines to handle the current load)

View the new version at, fichey.com

UPDATE:
I did an interview for NBC about the potential hacking. Watch the video here or read their article about it.

	Taxis have started installing screens in the back seats of cabs that display a map of your cab ride, some basic TV, Zagat, and of course, advertisements. There’s not much you can do with the screen besides that. They also caused a bit of controversy among the cab community, resulting in a few strikes because of the GPS tracking.
	When I got in a cab last night I was greeted with the error message to the left. I’ve seen error messages in airports, on billboards and here is, the world’s largest error message. However, this was the first public error message that I could interact with.
	After going through a few windows prompts, I was able to get Internet Explorer open. There was no internet connection, so I started the connection wizard. There was a Sprint card listed as a dial-up connection. I chose it and got a live internet connection on the cab screen. The only problem was no keyboard, but I was still able to navigate around a bit. Below is me on Adobe’s site.
	I also went to File -> Open, which is a good way to browse a locked computer. From there, I had full administrative access to everything on the PC. It was not only a security flaw, but people also pay with the screen if they use a credit card. That information could potentially be stored locally. What I did was a much bigger problem than GPS tracking. You’re essentially giving strangers access to a computer that is shared with hundreds of customers. It also isn’t far-fetched for anyone to do what I did. It was pretty simple. You could even get around a keyboard by copying and pasting text. Both of those functions can be controlled through menus. I also could have installed any software I wanted, assuming I had it online.

“Your right to free speech online is at the mercy of website moderators. There are no checks in place for moderators online. This site aims to change that and put the balance of power back in your hands.”

I’ve set up a forum that acts as a counterbalance to unfair website moderation. Go to dontcensorme.com and also view the Digg comments section, which shows that buried comments aren’t always buried for the right reasons.

Betaworks now has an office and I needed a new mac for my apartment (the old one is going to the office). If you’re not familiar with it, Apple has a 24 hour store on 59th and 5th ave in New York City. I decided to go there at 3am and buy my mac.

During the day, the 5th ave store is packed. There are people buzzing everywhere, using the free internet, listening to music, playing with iPhones, etc. Lines to buy things are painfully long and just try to get a Genius Bar appointment.

When I walked in at 3am, there was virtually nobody there (that was expected) and Apple employees outnumbered the people in the store. They had around 15 people in red shirts walking around. The Genius Bar was empty with a couple of experts ready to help any zombies with computer problems. The rest of the population was as follows:

• Internet users: Checking craigslist for apartments, checking their e-mail, looking for jobs.
• Stoned people: Like a moth to a bright light, the Apple store apparently attracts high people. I smelled it on at least 3 people.
• Buyers: It appeared that a few people were buying things.

When I told an employee I’d like to buy a computer, she looked at me a bit funny. I’m guessing they don’t sell too many at night. She also informed me that they get paid more to work the graveyard shift.

Overall, I’d recommend going at 3am. It’s so artificially bright that you get a Casino effect in your brain and forget that it’s the middle of the night. You’ll also have zero lines anywhere and a strong Apple employee to people ratio of 3:1 (instead of the normal 1:500). And of course, great people-watching.