The Screen Savers open up their backpacks to reveal the coolest geek gear you can buy: laptops, PDA's, cellphone, wireless adapters, road tools, Wi-Fi sniffers, etc. We also talk with Bram Cohen, creator of the massively popular decentralized file-sharing software, BitTorrent. Sarah gives us five privacy tips, and Kevin and Dan file another report from Defcon 12.

Tech Topics

The Screen Savers made a bold entrance onto the set by rappelling down from the ceiling in harnesses -- well, all except for Yoshi. “Wasn’t I supposed to get a harness, too?” he asked weakly after dropping in, literally. Fortunately, this tribute to the episode’s theme of cool hacker equipment didn’t result in any long-term physical damage for any of the cast. Alex, not to be outdone by Kevin’s hacker backpack, wore his own Social Engineering Fanny Pack, which included Altoids, a calling card and cell phone, and a very convincing mullet cap in order to disguise his identity. (Strangely, it made him look rather feminine.)

Identity was a supposedly scary theme of a new series of advertisements by the Motion Picture Association of America that claim “YOU CAN CLICK, BUT YOU CAN’T HIDE.” (Alex begged to differ: “Yes you can!”) In another attempt to frighten computer users into not downloading digital copies of films, the ad declares “If you think you can get away with illegally swapping movies, you’re wrong. Illegally trafficking in movies is not just a dirty little secret between you and your computer. You leave a trail.”

Kevin and Alex suggested that perhaps scare tactics aren’t the best way of dissuade potential downloaders – that advancing legal methods of downloading movies (as iTunes did with music) would be much more effective. “Don’t do illegal downloads, but don’t let them (the MPAA) scare you, either,” said Alex.

Click here to view the MPAA’s Web campaign.

Then jump over here to view a parody of the MPAA’s campaign on boingboing.net

TSS Live Calls
Call #1: Coincidentally enough, Chuck from Commerce, Georgia wanted to know if there was a simple way to keep anonymous when downloading music or movie files.

Well, since Chuck asked, there is indeed a simple option, say Kevin and Alex. Proxy servers that provide you with ever-changing IP addresses will do the trick, though a determined person could work around it. Nevertheless, here are a couple of services you can try out: Steganos Internet Anonym (which can be downloaded for trial use) and Anonymizer. (You can check your IP address through ipchicken.com) “We don’t advocate downloading copyrighted material, but this will keep your privacy,” said Alex. Kevin also threw in a few more suggestions: For e-mail privacy, check out dodgeit.com or spamhole.com.

Call #2: Russell from Durham, N.C. has 512 MB of RAM in his PC. A friend told him that adding another 512 MB would fry his motherboard. Can adding memory really hurt his computer?

Kevin and Alex found this highly unlikely, and turned to Yoshi for his expert opinion. “That person probably tells people to change their muffler bearings,” he scoffed. “Those slots are meant to be filled.” Kevin also suggested that Russell look into upgrading his older CPU, which would result in a greater speed boost.

Bit By Bit

Forget Kazaa -- the coolest file distribution tool is Gram Cohen's BitTorrent, which banishes your bandwidth worries goodbye. With 10 million downloads under its belt, BitTorrent's popularity is ever-rising, drawing users with its ease of use and uncanny speed. But if you're thinking of making it your method of choice for piracy, think again. "Anonymity and BitTorrent don't go well together," said Gram. "If you really want to be anonymous online, you should use your neighbor's Wi-Fi access point." (That's a joke, folks.) Cohen says upcoming improvements include a resume and queing functions.

For more info:

Gram's BitTorrent site

Brian’s BitTorrent FAQ

This article from The Screen Savers Vault.

The Hacker's Backpack
Kevin unveiled all the hacker goodies he'd store in his backpack -- if he had the money. (It's cool to be a co-host on The Screen Savers... until you have to give the toys back.) Here are just a few of the gadgets you need to own:

• SmartID Wifi Detector: Find the strongest Wi-Fi hot-spot before you power up your laptop.
• James Bond Stealth Camera: A Zippo look-alike that also takes 300 digital images.
• Sony X505 Laptop: Compute with style -- super slim and only 1.85 pounds.
• Surefire L1: An LED flashlight made of aerospace grade aluminum.

For a backpack-full of other geek candy, check out Kevin's full list.

Sarah's Privacy Tips
Want more security without having to learn to write your own code? Sarah shows some quick and easy ways of keeping those of ill intent out of your system in this article.