Show #8 - 12.17.2006

[Download Show #8 as MP3]

News

• Microsoft Releases Office Open XML file format
• Supposedly open standard
• Integration with other Office Suite products (Open Office, Corel)
• Blu-Ray Shows Promise
• The war between he two high-definition standards HD-DVD and Blu-ray has been anything but boring.
• Both standards are showing heavy digital rights management infestation.
• What is Digital Rights Management? Also commonly called DRM, its what the movie studios hope will prevent people from stealing or even legally copying movies. It seems that Hollywood really thinks that all of its consumers are thieves.
• Hardware Digital Content Protection - HDCP
• From the perspective of storage, the 4.7 and 9 GB single and dual layer DVD media offered today is mediocre at best. We're living in world where one inexpensive hard drive easily fits over 100 single-layer DVDs and even USB sticks are available that offer higher capacity than a single layer DVD. The time for higher capacity storage has come.
• Looking purely at capacity, between Blu-ray and HD-DVD there is no contest.
• Single-layer BD media comes with 25GB as default, while HD DVD-R offers 15 gigs.
• Dual-layer BD raises the capacity to 50GB, while HD-DVD is at 30GB.
• Learn more about the Sony Blu-ray drive for your PC in our show notes
• CyberLink's PowerDVD is only in beta so be prepared
• HDCP compatible DVI or HDMI connected monitor is required or supposedly the video will scale to DVD resolution
• PowerDVD is having problems with that, so you're out of luck
• Where to get movies from?
• Blockbuster (lack-luster)
• Hollywood Video
• Netflix
• Sony Announces That They Fixed the Manufacturing Problems
• The most abysmal product launch that anyone has likely ever seen from a product availability standpoint.
• Blue lasers is what led to the product shortage, and while that hasn't been solved
  
• After only releasing 197,000 systems in November, Sony says that by December 31st they will have one million systems in the pipeline.
• Well whatever "pipeline" means, it still doesn't sound like store shelves.
  

• Java 6 Released
• Faster
• More Secure
• Download Where?
  

Software / Hardware / Power Web Picks

• Lifehacker
• Download of the Day
• Geek to Live
• Helpful Tips for All Things both Tech and Non-Tech
  
• Gmail Mail Fetcher (aka Making Gmail Your Inbox)
• Mail Fetcher POP Access
• What is POP Access
• Why Have One Inbox and Why Have it Online?
• Why Not Have it Online?
  

Security & Privacy

• Pretexting
• What is pretexting? - Pretexting is the act of creating and using an invented scenario (the pretext) to persuade a target to release information or perform an action and is usually done over the telephone or through another communication medium like IM.
  
• A new law outlaws pretexting, the practice of obtaining someone else's phone records without their permission. Pretexting has been going on for years, but the practice recently moved into the public consciousness with the recent scandal over HP's investigation into leaks of confidential information by one or more of its board members.

• As most U.S. companies still authenticate a client by asking only for a Social Security Number, Birthday, or Mother's maiden name — all of which are easily obtained from public records — the method is extremely effective and will likely continue to work well until a more stringent identification method is adopted.

• Pretexting can also be used to impersonate co-workers, police, bank, IRS or insurance investigators — or any other individual who could have perceived authority or right-to-know in the mind of the target. The pretexter must simply prepare answers to questions that might be asked by the target. In some cases all that is needed is a voice of the right gender, an earnest tone and an ability to think on one's feet.

• Social Engineering techniques are based on flaws in human logic known as cognitive biases. These bias flaws are used in various combinations to create attack techniques, some of which are listed here:
• Bandwagon effect - the tendency to do (or believe) things because many other people do (or believe) the same. Related to groupthink, herd behaviour, manias and socionomics. Carl Jung pioneered the idea of the collective unconscious which is considered by Jungian psychologists to be responsible for this cognitive bias.
• Bias blind spot - the tendency not to compensate for one's own cognitive biases.
• Choice-supportive bias - the tendency to remember one's choices as better than they actually were.
• Confirmation bias - the tendency to search for or interpret information in a way that confirms one's preconceptions.
• Congruence bias - the tendency to test hypotheses exclusively through direct testing.
• Contrast effect - the enhancement or diminishment of a weight or other measurement when compared with recently observed contrasting object.
• Déformation professionnelle - the tendency to look at things according to the conventions of one's own profession, forgetting any broader point of view.
• Disconfirmation bias - the tendency for people to extend critical scrutiny to information which contradicts their prior beliefs and accept uncritically information that is congruent with their prior beliefs.
• Endowment effect - the tendency for people to value something more as soon as they own it.
• Focusing effect - prediction bias occurring when people place too much importance on one aspect of an event; causes error in accurately predicting the utility of a future outcome.
• Hyperbolic discounting - the tendency for people to have a stronger preference for more immediate payoffs relative to later payoffs, the closer to the present both payoffs are.
• Illusion of control - the tendency for human beings to believe they can control or at least influence outcomes which they clearly cannot.
• Impact bias - the tendency for people to overestimate the length or the intensity of the impact of future feeling states.
• Information bias - the tendency to seek information even when it cannot affect action.
• Loss aversion - the tendency for people to strongly prefer avoiding losses over acquiring gains (see also sunk cost effects)
• Neglect of Probability - the tendency to completely disregard probability when making a decision under uncertainty.
• Mere exposure effect - the tendency for people to express undue liking for things merely because they are familiar with them.
• Omission bias - The tendency to judge harmful actions as worse, or less moral, than equally harmful omissions (inactions).
• Outcome bias - the tendency to judge a decision by its eventual outcome instead of based on the quality of the decision at the time it was made.
• Planning fallacy - the tendency to underestimate task-completion times.
• Post-purchase rationalization - the tendency to persuade oneself through rational argument that a purchase was a good value.
• Pseudocertainty effect - the tendency to make risk-averse choices if the expected outcome is positive, but make risk-seeking choices to avoid negative outcomes.
• Selective perception - the tendency for expectations to affect perception.
• Status quo bias - the tendency for people to like things to stay relatively the same.
• Von Restorff effect - the tendency for an item that "stands out like a sore thumb" to be more likely to be remembered than other items.
• Zero-risk bias - preference for reducing a small risk to zero over a greater reduction in a larger risk.

Penny Pinchers

• Sony Loosing Money on PS3

• 	Manufacturer	20 GB	60 GB
  	Reality Synthesizer	Nvidia (Sony)	$129.00	$129.00
  	IBM Cell Broadband Engine	IBM (Sony)	$89.00	$89.00
  	I/O Bridge Controller	Toshiba (Sony)	$59.00	$59.00
  	Emotion Engine and Graphics Sythnesizer	Toshiba (Sony)	$27.00	$27.00
  	Noteworthy Memory - XDR DRAM (4 x 512Mbit)	Samsung	$48.00	$48.00
  	Other Components and Manufacturing	N/A	$148.00	$148.00
  	Bluetooth Module	Sony, Featuring CSR BlueCore 4 Chip	$4.10	$4.10
  	Optional 802.11 b/g Module	Marvell Chipset	N/A	$15.50
  	Other Components and Manufacturing	N/A	$2.50	$2.50
  	Memory Card Board	N/A	N/A	$5.00
  	Blu-Ray Optical Drive	Sony	$125.00	$125.00
  	SATA Hard Drive	Seagate	$43.00	$54.00
  	Power Supply	Sony (Private-Label)	$37.50	$37.50
  	Cooling / Mounting Cage for Motherboard	N/A	$22.00	$22.00
  	Enclosure / Hardware	N/A	$31.00	$33.00
  	Miscellaneous Other Assemblies	N/A	$1.75	$1.75
  	Manufacturing Costs	N/A	$39.00	$40.00
  	Preliminary Total Console Cost Estimate			$805.85	$840.35
  	Suggested Retail Pricing (US)			$499.00	$599.00
  	Difference		$306.85	$241.35

Gamer's Corner

• Firefly MMORPG
• Little is Known at this point
• Multiverse got the rights
• XBox 360 Dev Kit for XBox Live Now Available
• Microsoft has made good on its promise to deliver to enthusiasts a basic development platform for aspiring game makers to produce their own games for the Xbox 360 system.