Except that OpenSSL actually didn't run with the "feature disabled" (internal freelist-based memory allocator) due to uninitialized memory bugs in OpenSSL that required newly allocated blocks of certain types to have memory set in them from previously freed blocks. See details here.

You can already buy a device that does this: Gefen HDMI Detective Plus

Although, ideally, you'd just pay for a movie once to own it in the highest resolution available and then you'd be able to watch it in any quality that or less on any device.

I'd be ok with a price for bitrate or quality.

You can have a much smaller / lower quality file (SD'ish) for a smartphone than for a 60" TV (where you want at least 720 and probably 1080).

They already charge a higher rate for HD movies than SD movies on a number of streaming rental sites so it's not even a "future" rental model.

This already exists. It's called Intel Smart Response Technology and it's been available on motherboards since it was release three years ago in 2011. It works with both mSATA and standard SATA attached drives.

Most people just haven't paid the extra $100-200 to buy an SSD to cache their HD not to mention the technical know-how required to install the drive and setup the BIOS and software correctly.

What we need is systems that are sold with this already built in so users don't have to do it manually. But that adds $100-200 cost to the system and many shoppers look at the price tag first when they're buying a new computer :-(

A fast hard drive can do several hundred or with short stroking on a high RPM drive maybe even a thousand random IOPS (input/output operations per second).

A fast SSD can do 90,000+ random IOPS - or several hundred thousand for direct native PCIe drives that don't have to go through a SATA layer.

For what SSD's do well which is randomly accessing data, they aren't 5 times faster than HD's, they are 100 to 1,000 times faster at RANDOM ACCESS for a SATA connected SSD.

There is a single board Fusion IO card that can do 9 MILLION IOPS which is roughly 10,000 times faster than the fastest hard drives.

I would mod this up if I had points. I'm a big fan of Spothero. It works great in Chicago.

Also, the power adapter is a little bulky and would obscure both the outlets next to it on my surge protector power strip. To avoid wasting three outlet, I am using a short 1 foot extension cable.

One other silly note... I can't find an "off" button or a menu item to turn it off other than unplugging the device. And plugging back in turns it back on. It has a 16W power brick so there might be some continual background power drain if this thing is plugged in. Also, for some reason, the AC adapter made sparks at the plug both times I tried plugging it in. I was a little scared that I might have burnt it out but it seems to work fine.

Also, I think the Flixster in SD is a "permissions" thing. Hopefully that's an easy software fix to get HD because otherwise, my Ultraviolet Collection is unusable on the Fire TV.

Also, there is a USB Port. I've got a keyboard hooked up to it right now. However, not all the apps support input with the keyboard and some are clunky. I was hoping to avoid using the remote / controller for passwords and usernames during setup. It worked for a number of things. However, not all apps support the tab key to switch between fields or the enter key (it acts like the select button rather than a completions). The Amazon Video PIN entry also doesn't recognize numbers on the keyboard so you have to use the arrow keys and the enter/return key for select.

I'm hoping that software updates bring a little more polish to using the keyboard but it's not terrible if you consider it to be sort of a public "beta" until a couple software updates occur.

There is support for Plex. I have the Amazon Fire TV and I bought the Plex App for it. It's $0.99 (or 99 Coins) on sale from $4.99 for an introductory period. This works with your PC Plex server or a Drobo or Synology box running Plex server apps.

Also, there is a USB Port. I've got a keyboard hooked up to it right now.

FWIW, I also own two Apple TV's, an Atom-based HDMI-out net top, a Chromecast, and now the Amazon Fire TV. I think the software needs a little work. They need to figure out the pairing issue with the remote. The game controlled needs a serious redesign though. It's painful. Or hopefully they will support third party controllers.

The Plex App on Fire TV is $0.99 and I bought it as well with some of the free Amazon "Coins" that I got from buying the Amazon Controller. I'll update some info when I get the device paired with my Plex Server.

My Amazon Fire TV arrived today. Initial impressions:

The box is a lot bigger than Apple TV and includes an external power brick (unlike AppleTV). The physical look and feel of the device and remove are very premium.

The controller is big and uncomfortable. D-PAD is very poorly positioned. This is worse than the Pre-S XBox Controller. It feels like the NVidia Shield a bit but that at least has an entire computer (roughly as powerful as the Fire TV) inside the controller. Seriously, I think they hired the Atari Jaguar controller design team here

First impression is that the UI is not as polished or pretty as the Apple TV but it seems usable. Voice Search is fairly fast but not nearly as "instant" as the commercials and videos online make it seem. Also, the results are only for Amazon Instant Video, Amazon App Store (and supposedly Hulu but I haven't seen any of those).

HBO GO is not on it yet. I installed Flixster to access my Ultraviolet Collection. Unfortunately, Flixster will not play any of my movies in HD and highly compressed 480 SD resolution is a mess on my 65" TV.

And my Fire TV remote seems to lose "pairing" a lot. I sometimes have to use the game controller to go to settings and then to Add Remote and it will find it again.

How does and old fashioned smoke detector fare at detecting fires that don't produce smoke?