Exactly. How is this materially different from an integrated remote-access card and baseboard management controller? I'm at a loss why Intel used an Argonaut core for it, though. I'd have expected a lightweight x86, or maybe an ARM. However, all that is beside the point.

The main reason for all the hullabaloo is that the Intel firmware that normally runs on this coprocessor is delivered as a closed-source blob, which raises trust issues given how pervasive its access to the machine is. It's also had its share of bugs and exploits, some of which work even if AMT is turned off in the BIOS, since the coprocessor may still be doing mundane baseboard tasks like fan control.

It's not like they don't actually have a sensible plan, though. While they might not be able to catch Intel in the short run on high-end CPUs, some of their newer APUs (some of them outright SoCs) are surprisingly efficient little beasts built for the low-power market segment: silent or fanless mini PCs, tablets, ultraportables, and an assortment of bespoke embedded gadgets. While the CPU side trails Intel's, on-die GCN soundly demolishes any integrated graphics Intel puts out there.

The number of new coins issued with each block is cut in half every 210,000 blocks (approximately every four years), and summing from 1 to infinity over 1/(2**n) equals one, not infinity. The total circulation will asymptotically approach approximately 21 million.

Well, the generation of that gold probably occurred in a process even more energy intensive than bitcoin mining, such as a very large star going out with a bang. After that it's just been transferred around.

Nakamoto block chains don't address the problem of authenticating and authorizing transactions, they address the problem of resolving disputes over whether and when any given transaction happened. In conjunction with the block chain, digital signatures and smart contracts provide the authentication and authorization respectively, and neither technology needs access to anyone's private information when verifying or validating.

It doesn't stop at 'name endianness'. It's probably less confusing, in print at least, to use the convention of all-capping the surname while leaving the full name in its native order. I imagine such a convention would be especially handy when trying to wrangle elaborate names carrying a whole syntax tree laden with titles, adjective phrases, and prepositional phrases, leaving the surname somewhere in the middle. Such names tend to be found in Europe and the Middle East at least.

The downside to smashing case is that it loses information, such as whether 'VON FOO' is properly cased as 'von Foo' or 'Von Foo'. Where possible it's probably better to use an inline tag or something, but plain text doesn't leave room for such niceties.

Didn't say it was. It's the pattern of usage, though, not any real time constraints. Server-based games tend to be receive-heavy rather than symmetric; they're sending the user's actions but updating the entire environment around the user. Always on DRM is basically periodic license re-validation, relatively low frequency. UI remoting is again going to be extremely receive-heavy; keystrokes and coordinates take up much less space than graphics pushes.

You might have difficulty distinguishing one voice app from another within an encrypted tunnel, though.

Remind me again why big corporations have been making a huge uproar about allowing unencrypted content? Oh yeah, DRM. ;-)

More generally, CDNs aren't "in-network services" in the same sense as middleboxes and thus aren't hampered by TLS. When properly deployed they don't sit between the page server and the browser, but rather the page server links to CDN URLs for images, scripts, and other referenced content. From that standpoint they are essentially just another farm of web servers specialized for static content.

The "in-network services" TFA talks about can only work because they can freely inspect, collect copies of, transform, redirect, and generally tamper with the data streams without the end user explicitly opting into them. Most of these I have encountered primarily add value for the network owner, and more often than not actually subtract value for the individual user forced to go through them.

... and that would be Ninite, whose Pro offering includes command line scriptable updates of all your favorite security holes from Adobe, Oracle and more, and can also automatically decline partner offers and disable updater popups.

The free edition no longer updates Flash, as a compromise with Adobe who appears to rely on bundled partner offers with every patch as a revenue stream from Flash Player home users. Ninite Pro has more software package options, over-the-network install/upgrade/uninstall, and a desktop UI instead of web-based.

No affiliation here, just a happy customer.