Dr. Max Fomitchev was born on May 1st, 1975 in Smolensk, 250 miles west of Moscow. He got married and graduated in 1997 with a Masters in Computer Engineering, and then fled to the United States. He said he felt his escape was saving his life from the filth and corruption in his homeland.
While in the USA, Max lived in Tulsa, Oklahoma working as a computer consultant, and resuming writing music and conducting research in astrophysics. Max started composing music when he was only 16 years old. He is currently a professor at Penn State University.
I first heard of Max back in 2003 when I was searching the web for new music, I was bored with mainstream music, I wanted something unique, came across his site, and listened to some of the samples. One of the songs just clicked with me, it was called “Letting Go”, a song that was 100% original and was composed by Max. I bought a bunch of his MP3′s, the music was just awesome, very unique sound.
I remember reading about Max’s vision for the future on his web site back then. His vision was to mix classical music with techno music. He wanted to fill classical music concert halls that were empty cause of the lack of interest in classical music, fill them and play his mixed versions to the masses. At that time his music was being played on the radio and in clubs. He said in his bio that one day he would be famous. I do not doubt that for one minute.
Now his dream of playing to the masses is coming true. He has had two shows so far that were hits with the audience, first one was in January 2006 and the latest one was in April 2010. He has plans on future concerts in the fall and next spring. He has a good crew and now has management. Max is getting a lot of good press.
Here is a video of his latest concert, the song is Pacifica, its’ just awesome:
Those photocopies of your bottom, which you thought would be an original and funny statement of the contents of your soul during the office Christmas party, have started to worry the US Federal Trade Commission.
The FTC is worried that the pictures at the bottom end of the market are being stored on the photocopier’s hard drive and could be used to make an ass of you.
At the moment it is just happy with issuing a warning that if you photocopy your butt on a modern copier, it’s probably still there, but it might be forced to do something about it in the future.
Modern copiers store the image on the copier’s hard drive, along with medical forms, financial documents, and all your company secrets.
Once the copiers are resold or their lease expires it is possible to lift it out and use the information.
CBS got its paws on one of these hard-drives and found “a list of targets in a major drug raid” from the Buffalo Police Narcotics Unit. It also scored Social Security numbers, medical documents, and “$40,000 in copied cheques.”
The Chairman of the FTC, Jon Leibowitz, said his agency is taking the matter quite seriously. After all, there might be a hairy posture view of Leibowitz or any one else in the FTC hanging on a notice board of the Chinese secret service, causing much mirth.
According to Leibowitz, the FTC is now “reaching out” to copier manufacturers, resellers, and retail copy and office supply stores to ensure that they are aware of the privacy risks associated with digital copiers and to determine whether they are warning their customers about these risks.
“We will work with these entities to help ensure that they provide appropriate educational materials on the subject to their clients,” he said.
The FTC said it avoids the problem internally by signing lease agreements that give the agency full ownership of the hard drives inside the copiers.
When the lease is up, the FTC will “erase and subsequently destroy these hard drives” before returning the copiers.
I have a question; Why did it take almost 9 years for the media and now Government to catch onto this security threat? Warnings were given back in 2001, and fell on deaf ears. What gives?
First off, do not miss this video that showcases a “virtual choir” of webcam singers from twelve different countries performing an original score by Eric Whitacre. This remarkable montage video was created by lynda.com member Scott Haines, who learned how to combine the webcam footage using Adobe After Effects CS4.
A sample of the music these 185 people submitted to make this production:
Who is Eric Whitacre?
An accomplished composer and conductor, Eric Whitacre has quickly become one of the most popular and performed composers of his generation. The Los Angeles Times has praised his compositions as “works of unearthly beauty and imagination, (with) electric, chilling harmonies”; while the BBC raves that “what hits you straight between the eyes is the honesty, optimism and sheer belief that passes any pretension. This is music that can actually make you smile.”
Though he had received no formal training before the age of 18, his first experiences singing in college choir changed his life, and he completed his first concert work, Go, Lovely Rose, at the age of 21. Eric went on to the Juilliard School, earning his Master of Music degree and studying with Pulitzer Prize- and Oscar-winning composer John Corigliano.
Many of Whitacre’s works have entered the standard choral and symphonic repertories and have become the subject of several recent scholarly works and doctoral dissertations. His works Water Night, Cloudburst, Sleep, Lux Aurumque and A Boy and a Girl are among the most popular choral works of the last decade, and his Ghost Train, Godzilla Eats Las Vegas, and October have achieved equal success in the symphonic wind community. Recent and upcoming commissions include works for Chanticleer, The King’s Singers, Conspirare, and the London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. To date, his forty-four published concert pieces have sold over 1,000,000 copies.
As a conductor, Whitacre has appeared with hundreds of professional and educational ensembles throughout the world. In the last ten years he has conducted concerts of his choral and symphonic music in Japan, Australia, China, Singapore, South America and much of Europe, as well as dozens of American universities and colleges where he regularly conducts seminars and lectures with young musicians.Upcoming conducting engagements include programs of his music in Carnegie Hall, and full concerts of American music with the London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus and the Berlin Radio Chorus.
His music has been featured on dozens of commercial and independent recordings. In 2006, a full collection of his a cappella music, Cloudburst and Other Choral Works, was released on the renowned British classical label Hyperion Records. The album quickly became an international best seller, appearing in the top ten of both Billboard’s and iTune’s Top Classical Albums charts. Four years after its debut, the critically acclaimed release continues to be a top-seller. The collection earned a 2007 Grammy nomination for Best Choral Performance.
Most recently, Whitacre has received acclaim for Paradise Lost: Shadows and Wings, a cutting edge musical combining trance, ambient and techno electronica with choral, cinematic, and operatic traditions. Winner of the ASCAP Harold Arlen award, this musical also gained Whitacre the prestigious Richard Rodgers Award for most promising musical theater composer. Following its sold-out run, the most recent production earned 10 nominations at the 2007 Los Angeles Stage Alliance Ovation Awards, including one for Best World Premiere Musical.
Mr. Whitacre lives in Los Angeles with his wife, soprano Hila Plitmann, and their son.
This news came out a couple months ago on one TV network, other TV networks just recently picking it up, as well as print media, however doing a search on the net I found an article below, dated 2001, on this same subject. Someone was on the ball back then.
Here is the article, from the August 31, 2001 issue of CRN.
When it comes to securing corporate data, IT administrators may overlook the risks associated with digital copiers and printers.
According to a survey of more than 1,100 IT professionals recently sponsored by Sharp Electronics, nearly half said they did not believe copiers and printers have hard drives. Sixty-five percent said the machines presented little or no risk to data security.
“People have been focusing on antivirus software and firewalls and protecting workstations but not peripherals,” says Peter Cybuck, senior manager of product planning, marketing and program management at Sharp’s Document & Network Solutions Group.
The most common threats to digital copiers and printers stem from intruders stealing the hard drives containing confidential data, or reprinting documents directly from the machine after the earlier print command was canceled, according to Sharp, based here.
Today’s multifunctional copiers and printers store documents in memory, Cybuck says. “They might not just retain the last job, but the last 20 to 30,” he adds.
Sharp offers a Data Security Kit, through its dealers, that protects confidential documents processed by its digital copiers and printers by overwriting the data with random numbers.
Sharp, based here, recently announced that the kit won a Common Criteria certificate from the National Information Assurance Partnership (NIAP), a joint program of the National Security Agency and the National Institute of Standards and Technology. The Common Criteria program defines general concepts and principles of IT security evaluation.
While high-end copiers have the ability to store print jobs, the amount of storage is limited, compared with network storage, says Jim Kelton, president of Software Unlimited, an IT consulting company in Irvine, Calif.
Companies need to have a system in place to ensure they’re not disclosing confidential information when they discard the machine, he says.
In addition to its Data Security Kit, Sharp’s copier, scanner and printer products include a security feature that requires user authorization to prevent unauthorized viewing of documents sent to shared network printers.
Sharp also offers Windows NT server-based software that puts digital fingerprints on printed documents to determine the origin of final hard copy. The company recently added network interface controls to allow administrators to limit access to the machines.
Xerox (NYSE:XRX) also offers several security features on its digital copiers and printers. Hard drives on the machines are protected from unauthorized users by a strong encryption system, says Mark Burris, manager of product marketing for Xerox’s document center products.
And two years ago, the company addressed a need among its government accounts by providing the ability to remove the hard drive from the machines, he says.
“Security-conscious customers can physically remove those hard drives at the end of the day,” Burris says.
The company also recently unveiled new software that provides authenticated scanning.
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Health Insurer Notifies More Than 409,000 Of Potential Breach
Sensitive medical records found on previously leased digital copier, company says
Apr 21, 2010
By Tim Wilson
DarkReading
Affinity Health Plan, a New York managed care service, is notifying more than 400,000 current and former customers employees that their personal data might have been leaked through the loss of an unerased digital copier hard drive.
According to a press release (PDF) quietly issued earlier this month, some personal records were found on the hard drive of a copier found in a New Jersey warehouse. The copier had previously been leased by Affinity and was then returned to the leasing company, the release states.
The disclosure follows the airing of a CBS News report that called attention to the practice of recycling or resale of copiers whose hard drives have not been properly erased.
The report showed the discovery of numerous medical records found on warehoused digital copiers. An executive at a company that makes hard-drive-erasure products used a free forensics tool to glean the data from one of the copiers in the CBS News report.
The CBS investigation also turned up sensitive data from other organizations, including personal information from a restaurant in the Phoenix area and criminal records information from a Buffalo-area police department.
Affinity Health Plan says it has not had a chance to review the data found on the copier, but in a news report, a spokesman said the figure of 409,262 notifications includes former and current employees, providers, applicants for jobs, members, and applicants for coverage.
Failure to properly dispose of medical records is a violation of New York privacy regulations and could carry fines or other sanctions.
The commercial is called “Space Chair” and follows the journey of a single armchair that is tied to a balloon and lofted to the edge of space at 98,268 feet. The trek to the lofty altitude took 83 minutes and the fall back to Earth took the chair 24 minutes. The tag line is very ingenious — Armchair viewing redefined.
The commercial was filmed with a Toshiba IK-HR1S ultra compact 1080i camcorder and the balloon was launched from the Black Rock desert in Nevada. The chair setup had to meet FAA regulations meaning that the entire camera, chair and balloon rig had to weigh less than four pounds.
The balloon and chair rig were also fitted with four different GPS systems to accurately record its height at any second to within four meters in altitude and within 30 cm in longitude and latitude position. Positional information was sent to the ground team every 15 seconds so that the team could locate the camera rig at the end of its journey.
Facts about the shoot:
Tied to the rig was a specially created full-sized model chair made of biodegradable balsa wood – the chair was made by a company called Artem and cost about £2,500
Launch coordinates of the rig were – 119 degrees, 14 minutes by 40 degrees, 48 minute (12 miles North-East of the town of Gerlach, Nevada)
The quality of the footage from the Toshiba IK-HR1S cameras was: 1920×1080 pixel count; 1080i @ 50hz; 100 Mbps
The temperature dropped to minus 90 degrees when the chair reached 52,037 feet
