Digital Content Wherever You Want It

An interesting article… the basic premise is that the more technology is standardized, the more appealing it will be for consumers to purchase online content. Not only that, but this presupposes that purchasing a CD or a DVD allows you a license that you can own in perpetuity and can continue to download for free if your copy is broken or wiped out.

How do you make digital entertainment more entertaining? A sprawling consortium of Hollywood content providers, consumer electronics companies, and Internet players said on Sept. 12 that its members are planning to develop a standard that will let consumers buy movies and other digital content once and play them almost anywhere, on any type of device, without the onerous restrictions that have hobbled the growth of digital downloads.

The consortium is called the Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem (DECE). Its members have been working since May to create rules that will let consumers share their purchased content on a number of devices in the home, or stream them over the Internet to laptops, cell phones, or other electronic gear. “No matter where you are in the world, if you previously purchased Spider-Man 3, you should be able to access Spider-Man and stream it,” Mitch Singer, the group’s president, said in an interview.

The group, which counts Philips Electronics (PHG), Sony (SNE), Toshiba (6502.T), Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), and Cisco Systems (CSCO) among its founding members, is working with all the major Hollywood studios. They want to create a “rights locker,” or virtual library where consumers’ digital video purchases would be stored, though company executives said they were uncertain how quickly it would be able to create standards and begin offering devices.

Phishing Scams, Trojans on the Rise in MMOs

I’ve never played any of the traditional massively multiplayer online (MMO) games, but it appears that hackers are now trying to infect computers via these games.

If you’ve ever played an MMO or virtual world, you’re probably familiar with the ubiquitous, nefarious gold-seller. Usually lurking in general or trade chat channels, they offer items, game currency, or power-leveling services, in exchange for real money.

In a paper entitled “Securing Virtual Worlds Against Real Attacks,” Dr. Igor Muttik, a researcher at McAfee’s Avert Labs, outlines the ever-growing trend of money laundering and asset-filching, propagated by social engineering and malicious Trojans. Gullibility is a common thread, as the promise of “free games” lures many unsuspecting users into compromising their computers.

Keyloggers that were once relegated to swiping marks’ real-life bank account details have been shifting focus, and are targeting games specifically, leaving perplexed gamers’ virtual gold purses empty. Their accumulated game-wealth is then sold off for virtual cash, which is promptly converted into real currency. Vulnerabilities in poorly-coded games extend security risks even further.

There’s no question that robust virtual economies, coupled with the average individual’s penchant for cutting corners, provide a lucrative breeding ground for criminal activity. So long as someone is willing to pay real-world cash for virtual goods, there will be an infrastructure in the works to deliver it to them.

Virus Infects Space Station Laptops (Again)

If you ever happen to infect your computer with a virus, don’t feel bad… even the pros do it from time to time (to time).

Viruses intended to steal passwords and send them to a remote server infected laptops in the International Space Station in July, NASA confirmed Tuesday. And according to NASA, this wasn’t the first infection. “This is not the first time we have had a worm or a virus,” NASA spokesman Kelly Humphries said. “It’s not a frequent occurrence, but this isn’t the first time.”

NASA downplayed the news, calling the virus mainly a “nuisance” that was on non-critical space station laptops used for things like e-mail and nutritional experiments. The virus did make it onto more than one laptop — suggesting that it spread via some sort of intranet on the space station or via a thumb drive.

Humphries did not know when the laptops entered the space station or what country bought them, though he did indicate that the hardened equipment on the space station was typically purchased by Russia or the United States. The International Space Station has no direct internet access, but astronauts can send and receive mail though a KU band data link also used for data and video transfer, according to Humphries.

That means the space station laptops are not connected to the net, according to Humphries. “Everything is scanned before it goes up, so it’s an indirect connection,” Humphries said.

As for whether mission critical systems are connected to the same network as these kinds of laptops? “I don’t know and even if I did, I wouldn’t be able to tell you for IT security reasons,” Humphries said

Life Lab

I thought that this was appropriate, given the recent storms:

Hurricane Andrew struck the US mainland in August 1992. As residents tried to cope with the destruction, scientists turned Florida into a huge laboratory. Teams of researchers descended on the state to measure the storm’s impact on everything from building materials to tropical fish. Psychologists analyzed the hurricane’s influence on children. Geographers mapped sunken boats. Marine scientists cataloged the damage done to reefs, sea grass, and mangroves. Criminologists studied price-gouging and the breakdown of social order.

The prophets of the Bible did a similar evaluation after spiritual disasters. They documented the personal, social, and environmental effects of turning away from the one true God (Isa. 1:1-9; Hag. 1:2-7). In behalf of a loving God, Haggai urged his neighbors to give careful attention to what had happened. He noted the priority they were giving to their own comforts and wanted them to observe how dissatisfied and empty they still were.

If God didn’t care, He wouldn’t ask us to consider the time and effort we are spending on diminishing returns. If He didn’t love us, He couldn’t remind us of all that He has given us. God sees what has happened to us and knows how much we need to focus on Him today.