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Cloud

VMware Releases Open Source Cloud Foundry 91

Julie188 writes "VMware shook the cloud world with an announcement that it was releasing an open source platform-as-a-service called Cloud Foundry. Not surprisingly, the new cloud platform takes direct aim at Microsoft's Azure and Google's Google Apps platforms. Cloud Foundry is made up of several technologies and products that VMware has acquired over the recent past and is released under an Apache 2 license. While VMware isn't the first-and-only player to launch an open source cloud initiative (Red Hat has DeltaCloud, Rackspace and Dell have OpenStack), some believe that with VMware now in the open source cloud business, pressure could be mounting for Microsoft and Google to release versions of their cloud that could be hosted somewhere other than their own data centers."

Comment Re:DRM fails (Score 2) 217

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.

Comment Re:The viewpoint from two worlds (Score 1) 747

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.

Comment Re:The viewpoint from two worlds (Score 1) 747

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.
Privacy

Arizona Backs Off Its Speed Camera Program 513

crimeandpunishment writes to inform us that Arizona is putting the brakes to a controversial and contentious speed camera program. The cameras have been used along highways in the Phoenix area and in vans throughout the state. While the cameras are used throughout the country, Arizona's program was the widest use of the technology, and the decision to drop it is a setback for those who argue that the cameras slow speeders, reduce accidents, and free up police for more serious matters. "The camera program was instituted by Brewer's predecessor, Janet Napolitano, now the Homeland Security secretary. Cameras were introduced in September 2008 and were added until all 76 were up and running by January 2009. Lawmakers considered repeal proposals within months, but set the issue aside and appealed for calmer debate when a passing motorist fatally shot a camera-van operator doing paperwork in his marked vehicle in April 2009."

Comment Re:Cold (Score 1) 181

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.

Comment Cold (Score 4, Insightful) 181

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.
Firefox

Mozilla Labs To Bring Address Book To Firefox 80

suraj.sun writes with this excerpt from Ars Technica: "Mozilla has announced the availability of an experimental new add-on for Firefox that is designed to import information about the user's contacts from a variety of Web services and other sources. The add-on makes contact details easily accessible to the user and can also selectively supply it to remote Web applications. ... After the add-on has imported and indexed the user's contact data, it becomes available to the user through an integrated contact management tool that functions like an address book. One of Mozilla's first experiments is an autocompletion feature that allows users to select a contact when they are typing an e-mail address into a Web form. ... To make the browser's contact database accessible to Web applications, the add-on uses the W3C Contacts API specification."
Mozilla

Is Mozilla Ubiquity Dead? 148

darthcamaro writes "Remember Mozilla Ubiquity? It was an effort to bring natural language commands to the Firefox browser. Now after almost two years of development and a half million downloads, the project is no longer being actively developed. Project founder Aza Raskin is now working on other projects, including Mozilla Jetpack, so Ubiquity is on the back burner. '"There is huge demand for being able to connect the Web with language — to not have to move from one site to another to complete your daily tasks," Raskin said. "And there is huge demand for anyone to be able to write small snippets of code that lets them command the Web the way they want. Ubiquity gave everyday developers a voice with how the browser and the Web works."'"
Microsoft

Microsoft To Get $100M Annual Tax Cut and Amnesty 406

reifman writes "Despite a $2.8 billion deficit, Washington State's House Bill 3176 would provide Microsoft with an effective $100 million tax cut annually and possible amnesty on its $1.27 billion Nevada tax maneuverings. Under current law, all of Microsoft's worldwide licensing revenues of approximately $20.7 billion annually are taxable at .484 percent. Under the new law, only the portion of software licenses sold to Washington state customers would be taxable. Ironically, after slashing Microsoft's tax burden, HB3176 directs the Department of Revenue to crack down on 'abusive tax transactions' like those in Nevada — except for a loophole that may provide Microsoft amnesty on its twelve year practice. The bill's lead sponsor is Ross Hunter of Medina, home to Bill Gates and a number of current and former Microsoft billionaires and multi-millionaires, and other areas around Microsoft's corporate campus."
The Internet

Blizzard Previews Revamped Battle.net 188

Blizzard updated the official StarCraft II site today with a preview of how the revamped Battle.net will function. They emphasize the social features, competitive matchmaking system, and the ease of sharing mods and maps. Quoting: "When the legacy Battle.net service introduced support for user-created mods such as DotA, Tower Defense, and many others, these user-created game types became immensely popular. But while Battle.net supported mods at a basic level, integration with tools and the mod community wasn't where it needed to be for a game releasing in 2010. The new Battle.net service will see some major improvements in this area. StarCraft II will include a full-featured content-creation toolkit — the same tools used by the StarCraft II design team to create the single-player campaign. To fully harness the community's mapmaking prowess, Battle.net will introduce a feature called Map Publishing. Map Publishing will let users upload their maps to the service and share them with the rest of the community immediately on the service. This also ties in with the goal of making Battle.net an always-connected experience — you can publish, browse, and download maps directly via the Battle.net client. Finding games based on specific mods will also be much easier with our all-new custom game system, placing the full breadth of the modding community's efforts at your fingertips."
Wii

Game Devs Migrating Toward iPhone, Away From Wii 143

A new report by Game Developer Research reveals that the number of developers working on games for the iPhone continues to rise, roughly doubling in number from last year. At the same time, the amount of work done on games for Nintendo's Wii dropped significantly: "Just over 70 percent of developers said they were developing at least one game for PC or Mac (including browser and social games), rising slightly from last year; 41 percent reported working on console games. Within that latter group, Xbox 360 was the most popular system with 69 percent of console developers targeting it, followed by 61 percent for PlayStation 3. While those console figures stayed within a few percent of last year's results, the change in Wii adoption was much more significant: reported developer support for the system dropped from 42 percent to 30 percent of console developers, supporting numerous publishers' claims of a recent softening of the Wii market."

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