Sony Trying To Play Whac-A-Mole Over PS3 Hack

You would think that Sony, of all companies, would know better than to overreact to a DRM issue -- given its experience with the infamous CD rootkit a few years back. However, the company can't seem to resist making itself look foolish. Beyond seeking to gag the guy who figured out how to get around Sony's digital locks on the PS3 to re-enable the "Other OS" functionality that Sony remotely disabled, it's now sending DMCA takedowns to GitHub (and possibly others) ordering them to remove repositories of code around such cracks (found via Slashdot). I'm really curious how Sony and its lawyers could possibly think all of this is a good idea. It's not like any of these efforts will actually slow down or stop these cracks getting out there and used. In fact, all it does is call that much more attention to these hacks, and convince more people to either get involved or just to use them.

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Netflix, Egypt, and the Case for Net Neutrality

Netflix weighs in to support the cause of net neutrality, while Egypt's attempts to shut off the Internet demonstrates its importance.

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Ask Ars: are "green" hard drives really all that green?

Ask Ars was one of the first features of the newly born Ars Technica back in 1998. It's all about your questions and our community's answers. Each week, we'll dig into our bag of questions, answer a few based on our own know-how, and then we'll turn to the community for your take. To submit your own question, see our helpful tips page.

Question: How much of a difference do "green" drives actually make in a system build? Do you save enough power for it to be worthwhile, or is it just a marketing gimmick?

When a drive is "green," the designation usually just means that it runs on the slower side—5400 rotations per minute, as opposed to the more ubiquitous 7200 RPM. But in some cases, this slowdown can translate to drives that are quieter, cooler, and less power-hungry. We're not talking the same power savings as, say, switching to fluorescent light-bulbs from full-spectrum ones. But there are a few watts to be saved here, which makes green drives a decent choice for a platform that will see a lot of use, but doesn't necessarily need to be high-performance. (If you're really looking for power savings above all else, though, the absolute best option is a solid-state drive.)

The three features that are touted the most often by manufacturers of green drives, as we said, are their relatively quiet and cool operation and their lower power consumption. These specs are measured in decibels, degrees Celsius, and watts, respectively, and can usually be found on fact sheets for various drive models on the manufacturer's website (here's a Western Digital sampling) or from third-party benchmarks, if you don't trust Big Data Storage.

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Profit From Rising Oil Prices Through Options on the XOP

Dr.Kris submits:

The Oil & Gas Exploration ETF (XOP) broke resistance today, advancing 2.6% to a new two year high on heavier than normal volume. Today, North Sea Brent topped $100/barrel signaling a further advance in the price of oil, according to some industry analysts. Also, during periods of rising oil prices, it’s the exploration companies that fare the best.

Should this be the case, one way to play this

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Mindjack Review

When I first saw Mindjack last August, I commented that it had a lot in common with my favorite game of 2009 -- Demon's Souls. The comparison was a natural one, as both make it possible to invade another player's game as either a friend or foe.

Alas, I was being far too generous. In every way that Demon's Souls is engaging and innovative, Mindjack is careless and colorless.

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M&A Case Studies: Feedburner

This MBA Mondays M&A case study is about the effect that stock option acceleration provisions have on M&A transactions. I am reblogging a blog post that Feedburner founder/CEO Dick Costolo (now Twitter CEO) wrote in the wake of the acquisition...

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UBS Cuts Its Gold Recommendation

Market Blog submits:

By David Berman

UBS economist Larry Hatheway is cutting his recommendation on precious metals from “overweight” to “neutral,” thanks to receding economic risks and a recovering global economy.

“The recovery in the advanced economies is showing more signs of strength and sustainability,” he said in a note. “Inflation fears are overdone, in our view, in emerging and developed economies alike. And worries that Fed easing (‘QE2’) would lead to a dollar collapse and ‘currency wars’ have proven unfounded (as we always thought they would be).”

In other words, he’s not overly keen on gold right now because the financial demand for precious metals is declining. At the same time, bond yields and stock prices are climbing higher with an improving economic backdrop, which raises the opportunity cost of holding gold.

“Gold is unlikely to out-perform if cyclical risk premiums fall,” Mr. Hatheway said. “As a result, we believe it is correct to pare back overweight positions to neutral.”

As for a hedge against the U.S. dollar, he noted that its negative relationship to the dollar (rising when the dollar falls) hasn’t actually been playing out since 2009. While the trade-weighted dollar index has been mostly flat since 2009, gold prices have risen, most likely because of sovereign risk emanating from the euro zone.

“To be sure, we’re not yet ready to consign European sovereign risk to the history books,” he said. “But other ‘fear factors’ hitherto supporting gold prices are receding. Expectations regarding the durability of the US economic recovery

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Ars at Macworld: "Ihnatko Almanac" books to explore Apple tech

Que Publishing, an imprint of Pearson, is launching a new series of books covering Mac and iOS technology in collaboration with veteran tech journalist Andy Ihnatko. Dubbed the "Ihnatko Almanac" series, the books aim to help beginners move beyond basic skills while still engaging more experienced users with an "entertaining, conversational tone."

Ars spoke with Ihnatko at Macworld Expo 2011 to learn more about the new series, which kicks off this spring with The Ihnatko iPad Almanac and followed by The Ihnatko iPhone Almanac and The Ihnatko Mac OS X Lion Almanac.

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Paradox CEO insists Magicka will be fixed

By all the reports we've heard from friends and colleagues, Paradox's satirical fantasy game Magicka is long on charm, but short on polish. Online modes are apparently the roughest, with some completely unable to access co-op, though the kinks in single player seem to be relatively few.

Speaking with Ars Technica (which experienced a bevy of issues with the game), Paradox boss Fredrik Wesker pledged that developer Arrowhead Studios would exterminate the bugs as quickly as possible, saying "The development team is working around the clock and we will get this fixed. We will make this right." Wesker also explained how something like this happens in the first place, which is an interesting glimpse into the realities of being a small publisher.

Here's hoping that soon, the only freezes in Magicka will be delivered by friends with poor aim.

Paradox CEO insists Magicka will be fixed originally appeared on Joystiq on Fri, 28 Jan 2011 20:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Blog Post: BidNow : Windows Azure ???????????? ??1

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• Windows Azure
• Windows Azure storage (e.g. blobs and queues)
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• Windows Azure AppFabric Caching
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• OData
• Windows Phone 7

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Microsoft Considers Embracing Mac App Store

With the launch of the Mac App Store, Microsoft is exploring the possibility of delivering Microsoft Office 2011 through the app environment.

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PirateBox: an "artistic provocation" in lunchbox form

When NYU art professor David Darts shows people his lunchbox, "a smile just starts creeping up on their face." 

Painted black with a white skull-and-crossbones, the metal box doesn't hold a pastrami on rye; instead, it's stuffed with networking equipment and batteries, and it hosts a Debian Linux install running a barebones Python-powered Web server. The goal of this "PirateBox": to create an open file-sharing network in any public space, and to do with total privacy.

Inside the PirateBox sits a Free Agent Dockstar, an Asus WL330GE wireless router, and a SanDisk 16GB flash drive. The software, including Debian Linux and the DD-WRT open-source router firmware, is all free. The total build cost is under $100, not counting the lunchbox enclosure and the optional battery pack (the PirateBox can alternately run on AC power).

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