Intel's Tune: Take Viiv

Viiv (pronounced "five") is a new home-entertainment platform. After ignoring what I thought was fairly obvious for the past five years, the company is finally realizing that its star is attached to microprocessor-based media hubs in the living room.

By using the Napa platform, a new dual-core laptop chip and chipset that's part of the latest Centrino technology, PC form factors can shrink to attractive sizes and shapes that fit better in the living room or TV den. Napa generates much less heat than a Pentium 4, so the Viiv PCs can be quieter and smaller. But Pentium 4's can be used in Viiv's too. The past and next generation of chipsets -- 945, 955 and now 975 provide the I/O. That means high-definition audio is standard. More than 110 PC companies will introduce Viiv PCs in the first quarter of 2006.

Microsoft is a key technology partner because Windows XP Media Center Edition (MCE) 2005 is the preferred operating system. But Intel has also created digital rights management glue software that allows content providers and OEMs to avoid Microsoft's proprietary DRM.

If you have been one of the 6.5 million owners of a PC with MCE 2005, Viiv is a ho-hum product brand launch. But the impact on the industry will be great, nonetheless. The reason is that Intel and Microsoft have cajoled Hollywood into allowing much more content to move into and about our homes on networks. As a result, TV and movie video whizzing over the 'Net and around our homes will be routine in five years.

And lest you think I have missed the 800-pound content gorilla in the corner, fear not. The first Apple products based on Intel processors will be announced at Macworld this week. To Intel's bottom line, it doesn't matter whether they carry the Intel Viiv logo or not -- and I am betting they do not. Apple will be one of Intel's allies in opening up the digital living room.

Interview: Ilfak Guilfanov

Here's an interesting interview with the developer of the "hexblog" WMF vunerability patch. You know, the patch before the official patch. If you wondered what it was and how it worked, here ya go.

Want To Try An Honest-to-Goodness Web App?

Writely is a web-based word processor and collaboration application. I"ve been using it all day with another author to collaborate on a magazine piece. It works excellently in Firefox on Windows and with just a bit of clunkiness in either FF or Konqueror on Linux, though it is certainly usable on the alternative platform.

If the pundits are to be believed, and I don't see why they shouldn't be, web-based apps are the shape of things to come. Here's a chance to dip your toe into the water, albeit in a small way.

I am not yet ready to give up my Open Office installations. OO 2.0 is my preferred office suite now and I have not yet missed MS Office.

On a related note, there is a portable version of Open Office that can be carried around on a USB pen drive. You can see it here.

Jack

Google Pack

In blog synergy , I have a post to Google's latest software offering, to complement Jack's and Peter's post on Google hardware,

Very interesting, here's a link to the beta (of course) Google Pack.

CES: Google Pack: Live Now [by rafat] : The Google keynote is in 15 minutes, but the Google software package bundle called Google Pack is live now, for dowloading here. More info on Google Pack here on About page...
The package has:
Google Earth; Google Toolbar for IE; Ad-Aware SE Personal; Google Desktop; Google Pack Screensaver; Norton AntiVirus 2005 SE; Picasa; Mozilla Firefox with Google Toolbar; Adobe Reader 7; Google Video Player ; GalleryPlayer HD Images; RealPlayer; and Trillian. hat tip to paidcontent.org

--MissM

Oh Yeah, I'd also like to wish the blog HAPPY 2nd BIRTHDAY! Gail and Jack are right on the bleeding edge of tech, and got us (and I use that term liberally ;) ) a weblog 2 years ago, which in internet time is, decades? Well Done Y'all!

Google Selling PCs is a Bad Idea

The idea that Google would start selling PCs is a non-starter for this analyst. The margins on PCs are too low (ask HP). The business is constantly changing (ask Dell). And even the once-great manufacturing company, IBM, sold off its PC division to Levovo last year.

Google software on Google hardware is not synergy. It is less than the sum of the parts.

Could I be wrong? Of course, as I am not privy to GOOG insider strategy secrets. But is it happens, Ill be one of the first ones yelling "short".

Will Your PC Run Windows Vista Graphics?

Yes, your PC will run Vista graphics. However, there are four levels of Vista graphics capability that demand increasing -- maybe even cutting edge -- graphics cards. What you want may not be a level that your PC can deliver.

The attached article on WindowsBlinds 5 suggests the opportunity to try out this windowing-intensive graphics shell for Windows XP. If your PC does not choke, I suspect it will do adequately or better with the Avalon wizz-bang GUI in Vista.

And as a side benefit, WindowsBlinds 5 will make your PC look as close to a Mac running OS X as it is ever likely to get. Enjoy.

xBox 360 Watch

On eBay, xBox 360 Premium today is going for about $520 + shipping for the $399 MSRP product.

There has been no significant downturn in auction pricing after Christmas as crudely measured by me. (Hey, there's no pay in this job so quality is what it is!)

Supply is expected to improve later in January, so local merchants say. I would not bet on that.

Dell shows 20 inch notebook at CES

Dell is showing a "concept" notebook with a 20.1 inch display at The Consumer Electronics Show. It is armed with very good speakers and microphones and seems aimed at multimedia applications, including teleconferencing. No plans for shipping were given, though a representative did say "soon".

There is a reason no other member of the cast disagreed with my prediction that by the end of this new year notebooks (of all sizes and including tablets) would account for 62 to 65% of all PC sales. As this develops, two trends are evident. One is to smaller, lighter, thinner notebooks and the other toward what can only be described as true desktop replacement machines. While these are portable, they are heavy and large. The extremes in size form the two poles in terms of sales. Notebooks in between the poles, while selling well, are unlikely to have the appeal and sales of the largest or smallest units.

I'm sure this Dell is but one of a new wave of true desktop replacement notebooks. It sure looks attractive.

Jack

Phone Companies Set Off Battle Over Internet Fees

Large phone companies, setting the stage for a big battle ahead, hope to start charging Google Inc., Vonage Holdings Corp. and other Internet content providers for high-quality delivery of music, movies and the like over their telecommunications networks.

Historically, network providers have agreed to deliver Internet traffic on a "best efforts" basis without guaranteeing various levels of quality of service. That hasn't been a problem for the most popular Internet services, like email and Web surfing, because they aren't dependent on uninterrupted streams of data. Real-time videogames, phone service and video, however, demand more reliable quality, and network operators are trying to prioritize Internet traffic to meet increasing demand for those services.

Under a two-tier Internet system, the phone companies would be under pressure to provide an even higher-quality of service because paying for premium access would demand more than a "best efforts" guarantee. Cable and phone companies have already started offering multitiered pricing of broadband for consumers. And some cable companies have looked into ways of curtailing individual broadband customers from using too much bandwidth.

What surprises me is the immediate and loud complaints about the telco ISPs "locking out" small or new Internet services. Not so. Internet 1 -- the 'Net since inception to date -- has absolutley no quality of service built in. That's one reason why Internet realtime video, even with broadband, has been problematic -- the packets don't flow one after the other like data does on a dedicated phone line. Internet 2, as implemented in IP SEC v2, supports the ability of network providers to offer quality of service that will quickly drive video, teleconferencing, and other realtime demands over the 'Net.

You'll pay for that superior service if you want it. Hey, standard FedEx is two days. You pay extra to have it there tomorrow before 10am. Right? Why shouldn't the ISPs get paid for providing higher service levels at the buyer's option? Akamai, for instance, has built an entire business around this premise. If you don't want the better services, you don;t have to pay for it -- although the "free" Internet is apt to get slower and more choked over time.

So, I take the griping from those who want something for nothing with a grain of salt. If you want a better, high-bandwidth Internet experience, let me be the first to say "it's gonna cost you."

Microsoft Security Bulletin MS06-001: Vulnerability in Graphics Rendering Engine Could Allow Remote Code Execution (912919)

Here is a web site from Microsoft with all of the downloads for the WMF fixes. This web site had a fix for each OS.
Joe

Gadgets � Network your electric wires

This is our first CES report!! So.... here's a compendium of links about CES, to make up for the shortage ;)
The link in the title goes to a "Panasonic BL-PA100 HD-PLC Ethernet you can instantly create a high bandwidth network in your home. The adapter simply uses your existing electric wires to transfer data at up to 190MBps."
Technorati tag: CES
Techmemorandum: Google link to tech.memeorandum, cause google's blog search AT tech.memeorandum doesn't show any results....( As usual)
IceRocket: Today's Links for CES. Past week result didn't show anything, on Thursday
Engadget is doing a wonderful job, too!
Gizmodo has lots of pictures!
Digg.com links here [Digg spy is cool,too, it scrolls everything as its entered, and can be filtered by comments or front page]

ENJOY!

--MissM
P.S. As I was editing the posts, I went to the web pages, but, as I scroll through my voluminous RSS list, the content seems enhanced, pictures in engadgets feed, to be specific. I say BRAVO to this!! Any website that addresses those of us, who use RSS 75% of the time to read websites, gets my subscription ;) And if the content is better, woohoooooo! A necessary requirement, of course, is that the title goes to the home page of the feed (which may be wrong in almost 25% of my feeds)!!

WMF Official Microsoft Patch

It arrived via automatic download sometime this afternoon. I was away from my computer and when I returned there was the little yellow shield icon in my system tray telling me that an update from Microsoft had arrived. The information I have says that it was released at 2 pm EST. It looks like I got it automatically about three hours after that -- about 2 pm PST. If you haven't yet, uninstall the hexblog WMF vunerability patch if you installed it. Everyone needs to install the official patch from Microsoft. I just did that and it went smoothly.

Microsoft's WMF Patch Leaks Out

Things just keep getting flakier and flakier with the WMF vulnerability.

The reason for posting this one is not that the patch leaked out, but that it confirms the patch as it exists now works seamlessly with the unofficial patch.

Jack

Got one of these for Christmas

It's a USB powered "Lava" lamp. Thought it was to say the least interesting. LOL

Click Here to Save on Dell

This nice site tracks Dell's everchanging list of deals, and gives you the super-secret coupon codes that save you big dollars at checkout.

If you are buying a Dell, I would certainly check out the site.

Apocalypse Near: U.S. Outsources Pleasure

Hey, we can have a long discussion on the relevant merits or demerits of outsourcing manufacturing to China. But what caught my eye is this International Herald Tribune article. Seems U.S. gamers are outsourcing pleasure. Call it gamers skipping the foreplay, if you will.

By allowing Chinese gamers to play endless hours at lower game levels, rich, time-challenged players can buy with real cash the accumulated wealth and power of the Chinese-made game avatars.

The obvious outcome in this capitalistic world is simple to deduce: game companies will split their products into multiple skill levels, at dramatically increasing prices. That locks out the Chinese-slave game labor and moves the profits to the IP producers. Want to jump in at level 50? That will be $500 plus the $50 normal game price.

The obvious question is whatever happened to hard work and perseverance?

Sony coughs up for rootkit disaster

The title is misleading, to say the least.

Sony is getting off here without any real compensation to those who have had to scrape and reinstall machines ro rid themselves of this scourge!

Businesses I know of who were infected were left with no choice but the "nuclear option" in order to make sure their customer's, client's or patient's information was safe. They could not wait for patche. They certainly will not be compensated by $7.50 payments and freebie downloads.

I'll wager the lawyers got their fees while selling us out.

Jack

NOD32 Stops WMF Malware

AV-Test, which tests anti-malware products, has been tracking the situation closely and has, so far, analyzed 73 variants of malicious WMF files. NOD32, the anti-virus software recommended by and sold by the OnComputers.info team that produces this blog, passes the WMF tests for all 73 variants, and is one of several AV products that you can trust with the WMF problem.

'Nuf said.

Sunbelt BLOG: Workarounds for the WMF exploit

I received this link from the president of SunBelt software Alex Eckelberry. Alex points out that the temporary fix does NOT work on Windows 9X, their only workaround is probably to unregister shimgvw.dll, it's in their blog.
This is very important so please if you are the family geek, tell your family to do this workaround until Microsoft comes out with a patch.
Remember this fix must be uninstalled before you apply the Microsoft patch.

Comments, Please

I really don't know how to take Microsoft's response(s) to the recent .WMF vulnerability flap. I'm soliciting comments from everyone on this.

While Microsoft readily acknowledged the existence of the vulnerability, they steadfastly clung to the position that user interaction was necessary to exploit them long after it was known that is not true.

Today, 3 January, they announced they have a patch completed, but will not release it until 10 January, which is their regularly scheduled "patch day". While I realize that they have to test any patch thoroughly, it seems to me they should be expediting this at any and all costs and release it sooner, if humanly possible.

After all; millions upon millions of PCs are at risk, here. The distribution of the exploits related to this vulnerability are widely spread. It's not just dodgy web sites. They're arriving in emails and have been slipped onto more reputable sites that have been compromised. In my opinion, Microsoft simply cannot continue to treat this casually and act as if users will be at fault because of their surfing habits.

What do you think?
Jack