Archive for May, 2009
HDMI 1.4 brings built-in Ethernet and Quad-HD resolutions
Posted by The Right Guy in HDMI, HDTV on May 31st, 2009
Among other new features
The HDMI Licensing Group unveiled HDMI 1.4, the latest specification update for the broadly adopted standard by the home-theater industry and recently the IT industry as well.
HDMI 1.4 includes many new enhancements that are set to revolutionize the way that it can be used in its respective markets. For instance, the new HDMI Ethernet Channel (HEC) feature will allow up to 100Mbps data transfers between HDMI 1.4 compatible devices. This could potentially allow broadband Ethernet or WiFi-connected HDTVs using HEC-enabled HDMI ports “to provide internet connection sharing with other HEC-enabled devices such as a game consoles or DVRs.”
Wikipedia bans Scientology
Posted by The Right Guy in Internet, Wikipedia on May 30th, 2009
Yesterday, in an unprecedented decision, Wikipedia’s
court-like body ArbCom handed down a project-wide ban of all IP addresses owned by Scientology for disruptive editing and coordinating their edits to maintain their status quo including “persistent point-of-view pushing and extensive feuding over sources on multiple articles”
This is the first time that an entire organization’s IP address
block has been banned from editing Wikipedia, despite individual IPs being blocked in the past from other organizations, such as the US DoJ in 2008.
Arbitrators voted 10 to 0 (with one abstention) in favour of the ban, however individual editors may request IP block exemption if they wish to contribute from the blocked IP addresses. The case also resulted in the restriction of a further 15 editors from Scientology-related articles or, in some cases, the entire encyclopaedia.
The decision, which comes as a French court starts a trial that could dissolve the French chapter of the organisation, was the result of the longest running arbitration case in Wikipedia’s history.
Obama wants better security for computers
Posted by The Right Guy in Uncategorized on May 29th, 2009
Yes we can
President Barack Obama says that digital security a top priority, despite the fact that many would most probably put it behind other agendas the coutry has on its plate. However according to Obama the fourth or fifth top priority is to guard the computer systems that keep the lights on in a city and direct airliners to the right runway or those protecting customers who pay their bills online.
Today, Obama is expected to lay out broad goals for dealing with cyber threats. He apparently wants to show that the US is a digital nation that needs to provide the education required to keep pace with technology and attract and retain a cyber-savvy work force. He also is expected to call for a new education campaign to raise public awareness of the challenges and threats related to cyber security.
People in the know say that today’s speech will be long on talk and short on telling the government or private industry to tighten digital defenses. However, the cyber czar will not have sufficient budgetary and policymaking authority over securing computer systems and spending and so will nominally be a figurehead.
In fact the czar will not even direct, unfettered access to the president, which is something that even the White House dog has. Instead, the official would report to senior NSC officials, a situation many say will make it difficult to make major changes within the calcified federal bureaucracy.
SATA 3.0 is now official
Posted by The Right Guy in Hard Drive, Hardware on May 28th, 2009
The 6Gbps transfer rate
The Serial ATA International Organization has finally made the third-generation SATA interface official. It provides maximum transfer speed of 6 Gb/s and comes with many other enhancements as well.
The new SATA 3.0 is backwards compatible with all the previous standards. The new enhancements or features, if you like to call them like that, include a new Native Command Queuing (NCQ) streaming command for isochronous data transfers, NCQ Management that optimizes performance by enabling host processing and management of outstanding NCQ commands, improved power management capabilities, a small Low Insertion Force (LIF) connector for 1.8-inch drives, a connector for 7mm optical disk drives for thin and light notebooks, and alignment with the INCITS ATA8-ACS standard.
We already saw some draft versions of the standard, and we are quite sure that some manufacturers will show their first SATA 6Gbps devices at Computex.