Week in tech: bogus piracy estimates, open video, dirt-cheap fiber
Surprise! A Government Accountability Office review of piracy studies finds that they are largely guesses, based on untested assumptions. Is this what content owners thought they were getting when they pushed the PRO-IP Act through Congress?
Google has been providing funding to the TheorARM project, an open source Theora decoder that is optimized for the ARM architecture. In an about-face, the company now wants Theora to be the Web's baseline video codec.
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AMD's record quarter may be a new start for chipmaker
Intel isn't the only chipmaker to have a record first quarter—AMD's Q1 revenue of $1.57 billion set a first-quarter record for the company. Like Intel, AMD saw a huge boost in year-over-year processor shipments, and an average sales price jump as well. But the CPU unit's 23 percent year-over-year jump was nothing compared to the GPU division's 88 percent year-over-year increase. Average sales prices jumped as well, as did shipments of mobile GPUs. Clearly, it's good to have the top GPU on the block.
In addition to the general PC market rebound and the strength of its smaller, more focused product mix, AMD also benefited from the fact that this was the company's first quarter to fully reflect the deconsolidation of the Globalfoundries spinoff, and it's the first full quarter after the chipmaker's settlement with Intel. Free from its fab burden, its legal battles, and the effects of some of the practices that Intel agreed not to engage in, the company looks to have turned itself around, at least initially.
It remains to be seen how far AMD's Fusion strategy will take it—this is partly because certain elements of the strategy are unclear, and partly because some of the elements that are clear are new and risky enough that they may not work. The company's upcoming high-end Bulldozer core is a departure from anything else that's out there, and its Llano mobile part is a bit of a gamble that this level of GPU/CPU integration at this early of a stage will really pay off. Still, if the IT rebound holds together, things look better now for AMD than they have in quite a few years.
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Office 2010, SharePoint 2010 go RTM
Office 2010, SharePoint 2010, Visio 2010 and Project 2010 reached the release-to-manufacturing stage yesterday morning. It should hit retail markets in June, as previously announced.
The beta version, released in November last year, has been downloaded by some 7.5 million people, more than three times the number who used the beta of Office 2007. The new version is the first to be available in both 64-bit and 32-bit versions, though the 64-bit version is primarily to allow developers access to a 64-bit version so that they can update extensions and add-ins (to pave the way for users to migrate to 64-bit in the future), and the 32-bit version is still recommended for most uses. Other features include a new ribbon user interface for Outlook, and greater support for Windows 7 features like Jump Lists.
Software Assurance customers will be able to download the new products starting April 27th, with Volume Licensing purchases possible on May 1st, and an official launch event will be on May 12th. There's no word yet of when MSDN and Technet subscribers will be able to get hold of the new version, but typically this happens at around the same time as SA availability. Pre-orders for retail copies can be placed immediately.
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AMD and Apple? It could happen with the iMac
The Apple rumor du jour is that everyone's favorite tablet maker is considering AMD for a spot in the Mac lineup. AppleInsider alleges that AMD execs have been pitching Apple on the chipmaker's upcoming product roadmap, and that the two parties are in "advanced discussions" about putting AMD inside some Apple products.
On its face, this rumor might seem pretty silly—the Mac is a premium PC family at a premium price, so there's not really a place for a value vendor like AMD in it. Or is there? Stranger things have happened, and Apple can't be happy about having its 13" Macbook Pro caught in the crossfire of the Intel/NVIDIA DMI bus licensing dispute. Apple, as we've seen time and time again, likes to have options.
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Understanding the split personality of Iceland's volcanoes
The initial images of the Eyjafjallajökull eruption showed the sort of dramatic spires of molten rock that we associate with Hawaiian volcanoes. The next time it made the news, it was because air travel throughout Northern Europe had been shut down as a huge cloud of ash spread slowly across the UK and Scandinavia—very un-Hawaiian. To get a better sense of why this Icelandic volcano was showing such a split personality, we got in touch with the American Geophysical Union, which handed us on to Dr. Jeff Karson, who's chair of the Earth Sciences department at Syracuse University. Dr. Karson patiently explained what makes volcanism in Iceland distinct.
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Def Jam Rapstar: when keeping it real gets real awkward
J.D.: You know how I'm totally down with the rap music?
Turk: Dude, be whiter.
J.D.: Here's the thing: TuPac, DMX, Dr. Dre, in most of their songs, these artists use an extremely volatile racial slur...the "N" word.
Turk: I got it.
J.D.: Right. My question is this: If we're both singing along, and knowing that otherwise I would never use the word, am I allowed to say...
Turk: No.
J.D.: See, that's good for me to know. I didn't...I didn't know that.
- Scrubs
Here's the scene. You're playing the upcoming hip-hop rhythm game Def Jam Rapstar with a large group of people, and suddenly a politically charged word pops up on the screen. You freeze. Do you say it? Skip it? If you do skip the word, will you simply bring attention to the fact that you're uncomfortable with its very existence and make everyone else suddenly feel uncomfortable?
Ben PerLee from Destructoid ran into this problem, and described his discomfort. "As a white male, this is a word I am just not comfortable saying, and seeing it in songs, even just alluded to with "n-----," was one unexpected stumbling block," he wrote. "I performed T.I.'s 'Live Your Life,' and while the song has a positive message and less swearing than many others, the n-word caught me completely off-guard. What would I do? What should I do?"
Jamie King, the creative director of 4MM Games, gave his take on the issue to PerLee. "We don't have ownership, as [white people], of that word. I think that word does come up, and that is perhaps a word where, with the radio edits, there is an opportunity to not say it." The word won't be a large part of the story or the career mode, and King states whether or not to say the word is a personal decision. "Obviously, these artists are using it; they've empowered it and own it. To just shy away and be frightened doesn't mean we should abuse it, and hopefully I think we've treated it in a respectful manner the way all these artists and their content in their work would expect us to."
Is this an awkward situation, or are we overthinking it? How would you deal with this in your home? In the proverbial club?
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iPhone OS 4 jailbreak available, enables multitasking on 3G
iPhone OS 4, set to ship later this summer, has already been jailbroken. The iPhoneDevTeam has released a preliminary beta of the redsn0w jailbreaking tool, but be warned: it's definitely not for the casual jailbreaker.
redsn0w 0.9.5 is a beta release with limited functionality. Right now, it only supports jailbreaking iPhone OS 4.0 beta 1 on iPhone 3G hardware and the tool only runs on Mac OS X. The iPhoneDevTeam also notes that the beta firmware overwrites the baseband firmware, so it's not compatible with carrier unlocks at this time.
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No doubt that Activision avatar abuse makes artists upset
No Doubt was signed to appear in Band Hero, but the band was not happy with how its likeness was treated in the final product. A lawsuit was filed against Activision for abuse of the likeness rights and, according to the LA Times, the court has tentatively rejected Activision's claim of First Amendment protected speech in how the band was presented. The company's attempt to move the case to Federal Court—arguing it was a copyright issue and not a "right of publicity issue"—was also rejected.
Statements from both sides illustrate how murky this issue is. The larger question, however, is why Activision is willing to go to court to fight for the right to make artists in its game look stupid.
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Take science on the road: National Lab Day set for May 12
Attention, scientists with hearts of gold: National Lab Day is fast approaching and a local classroom may need enlightening with a cockamamie-but-well-intentioned demonstration of laboratory prowess which shows kids how fun a lab can be. NLD is a new website that aims to bring science, engineering, and technology professionals into classrooms to inspire students to enter STEM programs via hands-on work and improved work spaces.
NLD, supported by organizations like the National Science Teachers Association and the MacArthur Foundation, is organized not entirely unlike a dating website. Both teachers seeking professionals to come to their classrooms and professionals willing to volunteer can set up profiles for their areas of interest. Members of both groups can search the other by region or subject, and send messages to propose working together.
That work can involve a number of things, including refurbishing lab equipment or taking inventory, doing hands-on projects, mentoring, helping with lesson plans, and coordinating field-trips to a place of work or other landmark. If you're not a teacher or involved in STEM but want to help anyway, you can sign up as a volunteer to help a professional out or do some less science-intensive work. Organizations can also sign up with the NLD and provide equipment, a locale for a field trip, or internship opportunities.
NLD didn't have a date set for a long time, but has finally designated May 12th, 2010 as the main event. However, the website emphasizes that the goal of the project is to be an ongoing liaison between science and education, and you will be able to make connections both before and after the actual National Lab Day.
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Imitators dominate innovators in a virtual world
Social learning is something we do every day, in many aspects of our lives. Humans are expert imitators, and our innate ability to learn from others may be partly responsible for our success in inhabiting nearly every corner of the globe. On some levels, it makes sense: individuals can avoid making mistakes by imitating successful tactics used by others, saving valuable time and energy. However, imitation doesn’t always produce positive results. We can make mistakes when attempting to mimic what we’ve seen. Maybe circumstances have changed, and the technique we learned isn’t useful anymore. When does social learning benefit us, and when should we figure it out for ourselves?
A group of researchers set out to answer this question, and published their results in Science last week. To tackle the issue, the researchers set up a computer-based tournament based on Robert Axelrod’s ‘Prisoner’s Dilemma’ competitions in the late 1970s. In this type of tournament, entrants submit computerized strategies that compete against each other in a virtual world. Individuals, or “agents,” with the most successful strategies survive and reproduce, while less successful strategies die out.
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Google Cloud Print: coming to a wireless device near you
The question of how to print from wireless devices has been thrust once again into the limelight recently thanks to the printing-anemic iPad. Longtime notebook and mobile device users are quite familiar with the printing conundrum—cables, drivers and all.
Google has announced that it's looking to address this problem in the form of Cloud Print. Part of the Chromium and Chromium OS projects, Cloud Print aims to allow any type of application to print to any printer. This includes Web, desktop, and mobile apps from any kind of device—potentially, this could be used on a BlackBerry, Windows machines, Macs, or even the iPad. (That is in addition to Google's own offerings: "Google Chrome OS will use Google Cloud Print for all printing. There is no print stack and there are no printer drivers on Google Chrome OS!" says the company.)
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New binary analysis tool finds FOSS in device firmware
Software development company Loohuis Consulting and process management consultancy OpenDawn have released a new binary analysis tool that is designed to detect Linux and BusyBox in binary firmware. The program, which is freely available for download, is intended to aid open source license compliance efforts.
Open source software licenses broadly enable redistribution of application source code, but some impose additional stipulations on derivatives. There is an entire class of reciprocal open source software licenses, sometimes called "copyleft" licenses, that require derivatives to be distributed under the same terms as the original code base. The purpose of such licenses is to ensure that third-party enhancements to the code are disclosed and made available to all members of the community.
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