Vista Suicide Note — rebuttal and response
Cory Doctorow:
Peter Gutmann, author of the "Vista Suicide Note" paper (in which he added up the cost of implementing all the dumb DRM in Vista), has responded to Microsoft's answer to his paper, in which they tried to spin the issue to make it all seem harmless. As with the original paper, the response is savage, funny, and fact-filled:
"Do things such as HFS (Hardware Functionality Scan) affect the ability of the open-source community to write a driver?
"No. HFS uses additional chip characteristics other than those needed to write a driver. HFS requirements should not prevent the disclosure of all the information needed to write drivers. "
This claim is directly contradicted by a document by the same author which states:
"Such tests could involve loading a surface with an image, and then getting the chip to apply various visual effects to the image and reporting back the resulting pixels. "
and then later on:
"The internal workings of the graphics chip must be kept secret, such that a hacker building an emulator could not find out the required information."
So this document, the primary reference for Vista's content protection, states exactly the opposite of what's said in Microsoft's response, namely that standard chip functionality (in this case graphics rendering in a GPU) is exercised for HFS, and that the device details have to be kept secret to prevent someone emulating the functionality.
(via Pwned)
(Via Boing Boing.)
Scary “prehistoric” shark caught on video
David Pescovitz:
Researchers at the Awashima Marine Park south of Tokyo videotaped this scary frilled shark this week. Frilled sharks, Chlamydoselachus anguineus, are rarely seen alive because they live at depths of 600-1000 meters. This specimen was spotted by fishermen in shallow water. Sadly, it died a few hours after the Marine Park staff moved it to a seawater pool where the video was captured. From Reuters:
Marine park staff caught the 5 foot (1.6 meter) long creature, which they identified as a female frilled shark, sometimes referred to as a "living fossil" because it is a primitive species that has changed little since prehistoric times...
"We think it may have come close to the surface because it was sick, or else it was weakened because it was in shallow waters," the official said.
Link (Thanks, Jennifer Lum!)
Previously on BB:
• Video: Indonesian coelacanth Link
• New Waspfish species Link
• Victim of the cookie cutter shark Link
(Via Boing Boing.)
McCain falls asleep
during the State of the Union?
MSNBC’s Tucker Carlson:
If you’re McCain, who will be over 70 by 2008, you’ll want to make doubly sure to demonstrate your alertness and vigor. You definitely won’t want to slump in your seat, out cold, when Bush starts talking about Iraq. And yet that’s exactly what McCain did tonight, napping on camera for ten agonizing seconds. Lack of self-control? An expression of contempt? Embarrassing in any case.
(Via Think Progress.)