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The End of the Internet
Thirty years ago, they tried to block the VCR, claiming it "is to the American film producer and the American public as the Boston strangler is to the woman home alone." The VCR then went on to be a very significant source of revenue for Hollywood ( Read more... ) -
The DigiNotar SSL certificate story keeps getting better...
Criminals acquired over 500 certificates from DigiNotar, including some for intelligence services like the CIA, MI6, and Mossad.
Source: Hackers steal SSL certificates for CIA, MI6, Mossad [ComputerWorld]
ETA: information from security researchers:
http://www.f-secure.com/weblog/archives/00002228.html
http://isc.sans.org/diary/DigiNotar+breach+-+ ( Read more... ) -
important security update
A fraudulent https certificate, claiming to cover google's servers, was discovered in the wild. This certificate was issued by a valid Certificate Authority, DigiNotar. DigiNotar has reported a break-in that resulted in several fraudulent certificates, many of which they had discovered and revoked ( Read more... ) -
DVD/BluRay press releases
Does anyone know where I might be able to get ahold of DVD/BluRay release announcements or solicitations with all of the information that the publisher releases? The biggest pieces of information I am looking for are UPC and title, but at some point I am likely to be interested in other data as well. I know sites like tvshowsondvd and ( Read more... ) -
Internet blacklist bill
The Internet Blacklist bill is up for vote on Thursday in the Senate Judiciary Committee. Anyone in California, Vermont, Wisconson, New York, Minnesota, or Illinois, please sign the petition at http://demandprogress.org/, as your senators will be the key in deciding if the bill passes ( Read more... ) -
Internet censorship? From the US?
--- Maybe.
http://demandprogress.org/blacklist/
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and 16 co-sponsors have introduced S. 3804, the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act (COICA) on Sept. 20, and it is currently being considered by the Senate Judiciary Committee. If passed, it ( Read more... ) -
Patents
The US Patent office has had problems doing adequate prior-art research on new patent applications, particularly in the tech field. I just learned of a way you can help the USPTO assess the claims of pending patent applications: Peer to Patent. They've apparently been around for two years already. -
Windows Security Update
Today is outside Microsoft's typical update schedule. Yet, today they pushed out a patch for a security vulnerability that affects every version of windows, due to it being actively targeted ( Read more... ) -
YouTube announces 4k video support
YouTube announced today that they have added support for 4k video (the fmt code is 38, btw). Unfortunately, even ignoring the fact that people don't have monitors that big, and the decoding complexity, they have another problem. The sample clips offered do not have a high enough bitrate. Their first sample is "Life in the Garden". The 4k version is ( Read more... ) -
DVD case frustration...
In my DVD collection, I occasionally wind up with a broken case. When this occurs, I like to replace it with a case that is as close as possible to the original. This is sometimes a problem, due to changes in the DVD market. Stores are pushing for more compact packaging for box sets all the time. We now have decent cases that are one normal case ( Read more... )