Month: July 2017

Ernest Cline: Ready Player One

As the pending new Spielberg movie based on Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One is rapidly approaching launch I picked up my copy of the book to re-read and see if I can remember why I liked the  book so much.  I remember lying on a beach and reading it in one session, and loving the whole thing.

It is a more PC take on the core of Cyperpunk, as originally crafted by William Gibson. A dysfunctional world ruled over by a corrupt company (IOI in Player One) with only a virtual reality world as an escape.  This time there is a way out, the creator and owner of the virtual world dies and lays down a 3 part riddle / challenge with the ownership of the company as the prize to the winner. Continue reading “Ernest Cline: Ready Player One”

“168 million will watch connected TV in the US this year”

eMakerter analyst Paul Verna has had a look at this years trends and volumes in the connected TV space in the US. He highlights the impact of a higher than expected sales figures, and also looks at the current HW clients and their prospects. Apple TV in particular is given a dim future, again highlighting the price combined with very little exclusive content being offered by Apple.

The Codex Arundel now online and free

The British Library has digitized a collection of  loose pages of notes written and drawn by Leonard da Vinci to make a notebook which is known as The Codex Arundel. The loose thoughts and ideas from a master. Remember his habit of writing in left mirror (the wrong way). Also all in Latin, but even without knowing the language it is a fascinating thing to explore.

Bitcoin ICO’s to be considered as securities

An interesting article on Business Insider quotes the American Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC for short)  on Tuesday : “ICOs” (Initial Coin Offerings) can sometimes be considered securities – and as such are subject to strict laws and regulations”.

Are the hay days of digital currencies over and will the world follow the Chinese approach of semi-regulating?

How the Citadel Banking Trojan Authors really got caught

Brian Krebs has posted an interesting and moderately detailed  rundown on how the FBI managed to track and capture the creators of the Citadel Trojans. The fact that the authors decided to crowd source the support of the Trojans to it’s customers and the subsequent fallout speaks volumes about the issues related with the commercial distribution and support of Dark Net services.

Another White Hat is arrested after reporting flaws

Another example of the perils of trying to help companies keep their website safe. The 18 year old Hungarian found a gaping hole in the security for Budapest’s Transport Authority.  The resulting arrest enraged the Hungarian public, and the way the company handled the issues is a 101 course on how not to respond to public outrage.  For those that want an English summary, here is an article on The Register.

AT&T Q2 2017: Continues to bleed customers

AT&T continues to lose customers in Q2 of 2017 according to their  quarterly report,  a reported decline of 351.000 video customers, despite the acquisition of DirecTV . The planned purchase of TimeWarner is still on track and is expected to be completed by the end of this year.
LA Times reported earlier this month that AT&T are planning to form a media division that includes the acquired TimeWarner to be headed by John Stankley (current CEO AT&T entertainment)