Pirate Party hosting Pirate Bay in pro-P2P political gesture
After a German injunction took out its ISP, The Pirate Bay went dark yesterday. Today, it's back up. Just another round of Whac-A-Mole? Yes, but this time the game got more serious: Sweden's Piratpartiet (Pirate Party), a legitimate political party with two members in the European Parliament, has taken on direct responsibility for hosting the site.
"When other politicians appoint committees and try to pass the buck, the Pirate Party instead takes responsibility and acts with its own resources to protect the nation’s information safety and fundamental freedom of speech. We are now The Pirate Bay’s Internet service provider," said Pirate Party leader Rick Falkvinge.
This sounds principled—noble even. The Pirate Party goes on to say that "the proposals to censor The Pirate Bay from the Internet [are] an attempt to silence one of today’s most important voices related to civil liberties and freedom on the net. It is nothing less than political censorship, which every democratically minded person must condemn."
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Linux kernel 2.6.34 adds scalable Ceph filesystem
Linus Torvalds announced this week the official release of version 2.6.34 of the Linux kernel. The update introduces two new filesystems and brings a number of other technical improvements and bug fixes.
One of the most significant additions is a new cloud filesystem called Ceph. It is a distributed network filesystem that is designed for massive scalability, capable of managing petabytes of storage. The underlying technology has some novel characteristics, such as an adaptive metadata storage framework that can automatically redistribute information about the filesystem hierarchy across the storage nodes in response to fluctuations in demand. The developers warn, however, that the project is still largely experimental and isn't ready yet for deployment in production environments.
"Although stability has improved greatly in the last few months, Ceph is still relatively new and experimental for something as conservative as storage, and only time and testing will change that," wrote developer Sage Weil in a kernel mailing list post. "Getting the code upstream sooner rather than later will accelerate that process by reducing barriers to testing, expanding the pool of systems with a usable client, and making it easier for distros to include it."
Another major addition is LogFS, a log-structured filesystem that is intended for use on flash storage devices. It is designed to replace the kernel's Journalling Flash File System v2 (JFFS2), but is best-suited for larger flash storage devices. It is said to offer a reduction in mount time and memory overhead relative to JFFS2.
A number of other noteworthy improvements are present in the .34 release. Suspend and resume performance get a boost from a parallelization effort. Networking in KVM gets performance improvements too, thanks to the vhost net drivers.
For a more comprehensive overview of the changes, you can refer to the kernelnewbies wiki or the detailed coverage at H Open.
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As expected, MacBook gets bumped to NVIDIA 320M, 2.4GHz
Right on the heels of a rumor out of Vietnam, Apple has updated its white entry-level MacBook Tuesday morning. Just as expected, the machine comes equipped with a 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo processor and the same NVIDIA 320M used in the latest revision of the 13" MacBook Pro. Bus speed, installed RAM, and hard drive remain the same as before at 1066MHz, 2GB, and 250GB respectively.
As we predicted yesterday, the MacBook's spec sheet indicates that the machine now has a slightly higher capacity 63.5Whr battery that is now standard in the 13" MacBook Pro. Apple claims the MacBook can get up to 10 hours of battery life—depending on usage, of course.
The update to the $999 machine comes just in time for the back-to-school buying season, which typically begins in the summer. Now every one of Apple's notebooks has received an update except for the long-overdue MacBook Air. We don't expect the super-slim laptop to be updated until later this summer.
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Feature: Privacy, security, and memory: an interview with Nick Carr
On Tuesday of last week, Ars Technica and Wired hosted an invitation-only Smart Salon event on cloud computing at San Francisco's Four Seasons. The roster of attendees and presenters was impressive, and the event featured headliners like author Nick Carr and Microsoft Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie.
I had a chance to chat with Carr after the event, and our discussion ranged from regulatory challenges for cloud computing to the Web's deeper implications for how we read, write, and think. I've split the interview into two parts, with this first part focusing on the policy and cultural issues, and the second focusing on specific companies and technologies. I hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I did. Look for the second part tomorrow.
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Feature: Aperture 3: The Ars Review
Aperture 3.0 came out a few months ago, so you're probably wondering why this review is so late. I had hoped to do a simultaneous review of Lightroom 3 and Aperture 3, but I was thinking that Lightroom 3 would come out at the same time as the CS5 applications, which came out just recently. It now looks like Lightroom 3 is not due out until June or July, judging from the winds (that's hippy talk for "when the beta program expires"). Anyway, it's better that we waited, since Photoshop CS5 includes Adobe Camera RAW 6 and the noise reduction improvements that are going to be included in Lightroom 3. It also gave Apple a bit of time to clear up some bugs with the release, so we're reviewing version 3.0.3 here.
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Researchers tweak fMRIs to map the brain's wiring schematic
For many years, tracking the activity of nerve cells involved inserting electrodes directly into neural tissue and painstakingly reading the tiny changes in voltage associated with their activity. In recent years, however, a technique called functional MRI (fMRI) has proved popular with researchers and the public alike. Much of that popularity is because fMRI promises the ability to track activity across the entire brain, identifying the regions that light up as people recognize objects or contemplate financial decisions. In the popular imagination, fMRI was often viewed as one tiny step away from mind reading. Despite its successes and the public's apparent trust, however, there was one small problem: nobody has been entirely certain what the MRI machines were actually reading.
Thanks to a paper released over the weekend by Nature, that has changed. Researchers were able to limit the firing of nerve cells to a specific individual type, and show that these triggered normal-looking fMRI signals in rats. Not only does this place fMRI on a firmer empirical footing, the technique allowed the researchers to track networks of connected nerves within the brain.
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Think life is good now? Wait until you turn 70
A study out this week in PNAS asked US participants to rate variables in their lives such as "stress," "worry," and "happiness" and used the responses to estimate their well-being. The resulting graph of well-being against age takes the shape of a U. In both males and females, overall life satisfaction seems to trend downward until a person's early fifties, when it curves up again.
The study was conducted by phone and collected over 300,000 data samples that were socioeconomically representative of the country as a whole. Scientists asked participants to rank their lives on various scales, including positive variables like "happiness" and "enjoyment" as well as worry, stress, and sadness.
The graphs of the various parameters took on some interesting shapes: enjoyment and happiness were also U-shaped, both bottoming out in the early fifties. Stress and worry had sharp increases between the 18-21 and 22-25 age brackets. Stress declined as age increased, with the drop-off sharpening around the mid-fifties. Worry remained flat until the late forties, when it began a slow decline. Researchers floated the possibility that the graph turns were related to children—in particular, a finally empty nest can contribute to the decline in stress.
Anger plateaued for those in their thirties, but declined with age. Sadness was the flattest of the graphs (sadness and happiness were not dependent on each other in this study). Participants indicated a small increase in sadness from mid-thirties to early fifties before becoming happy again.
Interestingly, women overall exhibited a greater sense of well-being than men, despite reporting the same amount of happiness and less enjoyment. While the two groups didn't always report the same levels of a variable, their peaks and valleys tracked each other over time.
Overall, researchers found that people from their mid-sixties and older rated their lives as being just as good as those in the youngest age bracket, 18-21, and those positive ratings increased with age. They note it's possible to attribute this rise to many factors, from "increasing wisdom" to the "positivity effect," wherein old people recall fewer negative memories than positive ones. Still, the general U-shape of well-being is something to look forward to, or dread, depending on which part of it you're in.
PNAS, 2010. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1003744107 (About DOIs).
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Early sales data suggests iPad cannibalizing iPods, not Macs
Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster believes early sales numbers from market analysis firm NPD spell very good news for Mac sales in the fiscal third quarter of 2010. While there was some concern that Apple's iPad could cannibalize the Mac, Mac sales were up 39 percent year-over-year for the month of April according to Munster's research note (detailed by Fortune). According to that same note, however, things aren't looking as good for the iPod, with sales down 17 percent for April.
The strong early showing in April bodes well for Mac sales for the quarter. Apple sold just under 3 million Macs last quarter, a 33 percent increase year-over-year for the fiscal second quarter. Munster is predicting growth between 19 and 23 percent for the fiscal third quarter ending in June, meaning Apple could sell between 3.1 million and 3.2 million Macs. From the raw numbers, the iPad doesn't appear to be affecting Mac sales at all.
"We believe in the long run Mac cannibalization will exist, but will be minimal," Munster wrote. "Apple has successfully limited the iPad functionality to primarily content consumption, versus content creation on a Mac."
Munster's predictions are quite impressive considering that Apple's fiscal third quarter has shown considerable growth in the last two years. Given that Apple posted 33 percent growth last quarter with no new Macs released, however, those predictions may even be conservative. Apple just released all new MacBook Pro models, with the 15" and 17" models featuring long-awaited updates to mobile Core i5 and Core i7 processors. Rumors have also suggested that updated MacBook, MacBook Air, Mac Pro, and even LED Cinema Display models may yet be released this quarter.
Unfortunately for Apple, things aren't so rosy for the iPod. iPod sales have largely plateaued as Apple has consistently sold millions of the iconic portable music players for dozens of consecutive quarters. Still, most lost sales are going towards iPhones and now iPads, both of which bring Apple greater revenue. "Given the [average selling price] (4x) and margin profile of the iPad, we see this as a net positive for Apple's business," wrote Muster. "And relative to the iPod, the physical size of an iPad provides a meaningfully different value proposition (portability vs. screen size)."
Apple isn't likely to turn in record numbers for iPhone sales this quarter either, given the likely launch of the fourth-generation iPhone this summer. However, with a near record number of Mac sales predicted, along with the domestic and international launch of the iPad, Apple seems poised to report another stellar quarter in July.
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Split/Second review: entire seat paid for, only used edge
Racing games, at their best, feel dangerous. You should get the sense that you're strapped into a death machine, pushing your screaming body around the track. Split/Second elicits that feeling by putting you and your car into a faux-reality show where you are fighting both the other racers and the environment itself.
You can fill up your power bar by drifting, by drafting, and by jumping. You use the power bar when prompted to trigger "Power Plays" on the track. Sometimes this will cause an explosion, other times it will cause metal beams to be dropped on your opponents. Get enough power, and you can bring buildings down on those around you. This gives you the sense of playing god, with the ability to reach out and rip apart the world in order to rain fury on those who oppose you.
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China's Great Firewall a trade barrier, says EU Commissioner
Last year, a team of writers from the European Centre for International Political Economy suggested that China's draconian Internet filters could be defanged by hauling the country before the World Trade Organization, claiming that censorship is a trade issue.
Yesterday, the European Commission blessed this approach as Commissioner Neelie Kroes made a trip to China. "It is one of those issues that needs to be tackled within the WTO," she said of censorship, according to Reuters. "I am pushing wherever I can just to get European enterprises a level playing field in China and the other way around. It should be reciprocal."
According to the earlier paper on the subject, the WTO would be unlikely to take on the basic system of filtering. But, said the authors, "There is a good chance that a [WTO] panel might rule that permanent blocks on search engines, photo-sharing applications and other services are inconsistent with the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) provisions, even given morals and security exceptions."
The arguments about trade were boosted earlier this year when Google refused to continue its Web search censorship in China and eventually relocated its Chinese search functionality to Hong Kong.
The WTO does allow for broad exemptions necessary to "protect public morals" and to "maintain public order" —two of the same arguments Chinese authorities have always made to defend their censorship. But WTO rules have established high thresholds for gaining an exemption, and any measures taken under the exemptions must be "proportional."
American high-tech trade groups and free speech groups are also onboard with the "take it to the WTO" approach to China's censorship—companies like Microsoft want the issue resolved, but generally don't think it fair that they are the ones burdened with it. Instead, they would prefer that the US or EU step up and deal with the issue governmentally. The WTO might be one of the best places to do this, since it's one of the forums where foreign countries can exert leverage on China.
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How your Web browser rats you out online
You're concerned about your online privacy, and you do all the right things to keep from being tracked around the Web: purge your cookies regularly, clean out Flash "supercookies," even switch to browsers like Browzar, which lets you "search and surf the web without leaving traces on your computer." Doesn't matter—your browser is giving you away.
Browsers can offer a window into a computer. The browser's "user-agent string" is visible to websites, for instance. So are "HTTP ACCEPT" headers. And it's simple to infer whether cookies are being blocked. In browsers with Javascript running, it's easy for websites to discover screen resolution, a list of all browser plugins, and the user's timezone. Throw in Flash, and it's possible to grab a complete list of system fonts.
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Classical and quantum light have showdown at high-NOON
A new experiment suggests that we may still need to rely on classical light behavior in order to get its quantum behavior under control. A group of researchers has found that, by generating interference between streams of quantum light and classical light, they can produce a high population of entangled photons, all of which occupy only one of two possible states. This technique could come in handy for producing light that can be used to make precise measurements and images on a very small scale.
Recently, researchers have been experimenting with light in "Schrodinger cat states," where a set of photons are all entangled and occupy a single state. A subset of the cat states has been termed "high-NOON states." These involve measuring one of the entangled photons, which ensures that all the other photons in the signal should be in the same state.
One of the challenges of producing a high-NOON state is that photons don't always entangle perfectly, and there will be some that won't cooperate. Scientists have now shown that generating interference between the quantum light and classical light helps eliminate the offending photons and produces a purer signal.
The researchers produced entangled photons using spontaneous parametric down-conversion, a process that splits one photon into a variable number of entangled ones at longer wavelengths. They then interfered that light with a classical beam. Detectors picked up the filtered quantum signals for 2- and 3-photon entanglements 80 to 95 percent of the time. Five-photon entanglement was less frequent at 42 percent, but all of the entanglements had fidelity rates of at least 92 percent, which is quite high.
While the beams' behavior is still not fully predictable, the authors note that larger successful entanglements bring us closer to Schrodinger's vision of macroscopic entanglement, or entanglement of large items. In the shorter term, having better control over light will allow researchers to make more precise measurements that reveal finer details in quantum imaging, lithography, and high-sensitivity interferomertry.
Science, 2010. DOI: 10.1126/science.1188172 (About DOIs).
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160% increase in H.264 video online since January
The increasing criticism of Flash as a vehicle for online video delivery (as well as Apple's dislike of Flash) appears to be driving the adoption of H.264 video. A recent study by video search site MeFeedia reveals a 160 percent increase in the proportion of video encoded in the iPad-friendly format since January of this year.
MeFeedia's indexing data was compiled from over 30,000 sources of online video, including Hulu, CBS, ABC, CNN, MTV, YouTube, and others. According to its data for the month of May, 26 percent of all video in its index was in H.264 format. That's up from just 10 percent in January—the month that Apple announced the iPad.
The report revealed that a lot of older content, including news and TV episodes, had not yet been reencoded from their largely Flash-based formats. However, most new content is being encoded in H.264, suggesting that the iPad is helping push adoption of H.264 and HTML5. Just before the iPad launch in April, a number of media companies announced plans to transition content from Flash-based players to H.264 video delivered via HTML5 specifically for the device. A side benefit of this transition is that such video is also compatible with the iPhone and iPod touch, as well as Android-based mobile devices and Safari and Chrome on the desktop.
The increasing trend toward H.264 has been corroborated by data released earlier this month by video encoding service Encoding.com. Two-thirds of the video encoded by the service in the first quarter of 2010 was in H.264 format, more than double the percentage encoded as H.264 a year ago.
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