Dan Rayburn (of Frost & Sulivan) has just written an interesting blog entry on Streaming Media about the impacts of Apple supporting H265 from High Sierra and the Google V9 codec market adaptation (and coming high end Codecs). He makes a theoretical calculation (heavily argued over in the comment section) on the costs for the Steamers of upgrading their front ends to handle the increased processing needs for these and future codecs. The suggested conclusion of a worst case cost increase of 50.0000% seems excessive (and is argued over) but as a user of x265 I can vouch for the impacts on the clients, my CPU loads are rarely under 90% across all cores when playing high end x265 files. It is a worthwhile thing to think about, in particular when 4K + resolutions are becoming more common. It is also worth contemplating that the cost will (one way or another) come back to the consumer. What we gain in less bandwidth we will most likely pay for in the cost of more processing from the streamers and providers.
Links
Reddit: Finally growing up?
For those that followed the 8Chan to 4Chan to Reddit debacle will know that Reddit has long struggled to achieve a good working relationship with it’s wide user base and how fundamental these users are against any and all changes in the experience. Shutting down Alt right sections, the normal issues with non PC content and petty crime hidden in /r, /x and so on. Now they have completed a USD 200 Mil seeding, and are looking at how to grow into a functioning commercial Company. Alphr has an extensive interview with the current Reddit CEO Steve Huffman on what to expect. Should be fun based on the previous attempts to implement changes. Hints of looking and feeling more like Facebook will give current users the shivers I am sure.
Nation State hacking and it’s impacts (this time in the Middle East)
Nation State hacking gets little attention outside of when stupid mistakes are made (Stuxnet springs to mind), but is still prevalent. An op-ed by Adam Segal in NY Times has a good update on the recent activities in the Middle East, focusing on the alleged UAE hacking’s into Qatar news ond government systems. As was noted by Peter G. Neumann, this is not the first time we have seen this lately. Continue reading “Nation State hacking and it’s impacts (this time in the Middle East)”
Finally: battery levels on connected Bluetooth devices in Android
It looks like there will finally be a general introduction in Android of being able to see the battery status of any connected Bluetooth devise. This has been available in custom and manufacturers for a while, and plenty of options in the app store, but up until now this has been the landscape. An article on XDA finds that “we can see that Google will add a new method in the Bluetooth Device class called getBatteryLevel() ” in the proposed new Android Open Source Project (AOSP) release.
Brickerbot claims to brick 60K Modems/Routers in India
An interesting article on Bleeping Computer on a claim from a Brickerbot Dev that hey have bricked 60.000 modems and routers in Indian blocking subscribers on Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) form accessing the internet. The obvious path of attack: default usernames / passwords exposed to internet. The joy of our IOT world continues!
“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.
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)