This was why I got bored of it. I didn't get beyond about half way through the first season. It was basically a soap opera that happened to be set in Silicon Valley. The storylines just seemed - goofy. Silicon Valley is far more believable, and more what I'd expect a series about Silicon Valley to be about.

Once upon a time, we called this 'leasing'. But, whatever, call it something new and pretend it's a fantastic new thing.

Here's my theory as to how it works:

The CPU generates a session key, encrypts it using the video site's public key (which comes from a certificate signed by Intel which is verified by the CPU) and sends this encrypted session key to the video site.

The video site then decrypts the encrypted session key using their private key, and then uses the session key to encrypt the video stream.

The CPU then takes the encrypted video stream, decrypts it with the session key, then produces an HDCP stream[1] which is sent out over the video ports.

All you need for this is instructions for:
- init_session(certificate_signed_by_intel) -> (context, session_key_encrypted_by_cert_public_key)
- convert_stream_block_to_hdcp(context, encrypted_stream_block) -> hdcp_stream_block

and since the session key never leaves the CPU unencrypted, and the stream is never emitted unencrypted there's nothing to tap.

[1]: yes HDCP is broken, but Intel barely admits that.

I prefer to buy physical media. I agree with you. And most people I know seem to work on the basis that because they can copy it, they will, whether they know it's right or not. These are all sorts of people from all walks of life. Besides, I was talking about DRM, not physical versus download.

I agree. The trouble is - people. If people can get something for nothing, they will. I can fully understand the reason why content producers will wrap things in DRM, but by the same token I want to do with my media what I want. A CD can play in any CD player. A DVD and play in any DVD player. If a universal DRM container could be created that was a light touch (i.e. stopped people casually copying files) then it would be great. But the infrastructure to do that would be huge IMHO, hence why nobody has yet bothered to do it. If a content producer can make somebody buy something twice, then it's in their shareholder's best interests to do so.

It started as underfloor. Great big CRAC. However, it died, the parts were no longer available, and getting a new CRAC in was apparently impossible. So the wallmounted units went up. We've got 12 of them, and they barely keep up. Many are blowing into the back of racks. It's a right mess. There's massive hot and cold spots. As I say tho, the room is being wound down, so there won't be much left in there soon.

That was pretty much my thought. Or other data centre is a horrible mess of cages, walls, and wall-mounted AC units. It's being slowly closed down, luckily!

If we were to retro-fit it at work, I'd say cold aisle. To do so would mean curtains at the end of the aisles, as the under-floor vent grids are in front of the racks. The CRACs are at the end of the room sucking in air through the top, so it'd be cool air pumped up through the floor, into a cold-only zone, sucked through the racks, blown out the back into the rest of the room where it just swirls about until it's pulled into the CRACs again. I reckon it could be done cheaply and quickly. Do do it with the hot aisles would require more containment to get the air back to the CRACs. I think it'd be a case of which air flow it fits best.