January 26, 2013
by sjvn01
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Last year, many people dismissed Google’s Google+ social network as a “virtual ghost town.” That was then. This is now. According to GlobalWebIndex, Google+, with 343-million active users, has become the second largest social network globally. As Vic Gundotra, Google’s senior VP of engineering, observed, “That is a lot of ghosts”
January 25, 2013
by sjvn01
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4K TV sounds great, but it has this one big problem: 4K video content is honking huge. An answer may be at hand. The ITU has just given first-stage approval to a new, much more efficient video codec: High Efficiency Video Coding’ (HEVC).
How much better is HEVC? According to the ITU, HEVC video “need only half the bit rate of its predecessor: ITU-T H.264/MPEG-4 Part 10 ‘Advanced Video Coding’ (AVC). That, in turn, means that 4K TV broadcasting becomes possible over bandwidth as slow as 20 to 30Mbps. It also means that HDTV over the Internet may be watchable at DSL speeds of 4 to 6 MBPS.
High Efficiency Video Coding will help bring 4K video to Internet TV. More>
January 24, 2013
by sjvn01
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Web-browser developers like to talk the talk about being more secure. But it’s at the CanSecWest security conference that they have to walk the walk as hackers compete for over half-a-million dollars in cash and prizes during the HP Zero Day Initiative’s (ZDI) annual Pwn2Own competition.
In previous years, Pwn2Own competitors fought to break into Web browsers. For the first time, hackers will also be tackling browser plug-in vulnerabilities as well.
According to Brian Gorenc, the manager of the Zero Day Initiative (ZDI) at HP DVLabs, “Over the last several years, we have seen browser plug-in vulnerabilities become increasingly popular in exploit kits and malware. These vulnerabilities affect a large percentage of the Internet community and are quickly weaponized by attackers. That being said, we are not forgetting about the browser, as we will again be focusing on finding, demonstrating, and responsibly disclosing vulnerabilities in all the popular web browsers.”
Big bugs, big bucks: Pwn2Own awards reach half a million. More >
January 24, 2013
by sjvn01
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MySQL may still be the “most popular open-source database” for now, but its day may be ending. Just like Fedora, which is considering switching out MySQL for the MySQL fork MariaDB, openSUSE is also considering making MariaDB its default database management system (DBMS).
Fedora’s change to MariaDB looks to be more certain than openSUSE‘s (SUSE‘s community Linux) potential move. In Fedora’s case, the shift is being suggested by Jaroslav Reznik, Red Hat’s Fedora project manager, and there seems to be no opposition.
At openSUSE, though, the move is being proposed by Michal Hrušecký, an openSUSE developer, rather than a SUSE official. His arguments for MariaDB are similar to Reznik’s. Hrušecký wrote, “Originally I was sticking to Oracle’s MySQL as a default to keep it conservative and stable, but over the years MariaDB proved to be stable and lately they were even faster in fixing some security issues.”
OpenSUSE also considers switching from MySQL to MariaDB. More >
January 22, 2013
by sjvn01
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MariaDB, the open-source database management system (DBMS) and MySQL fork, may soon be replacing MySQL in the Fedora Linux distribution. Since Fedora is also the testbed for Red Hat‘s market-leading Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), this move may lead to major changes in the Linux DBMS world.
Jaroslav Reznik, who is Red Hat’s Fedora project manager, proposed the change. Reznik explained that he was suggesting this move because, “The original company behind MySQL, MySQL AB, were bought out by Sun which was then bought by Oracle. Recent changes made by Oracle indicate they are moving the MySQL project to be more closed. They are no longer publishing any useful information about security issues (CVEs), and they are not providing complete regression tests any more, and a very large fraction of the mysql bug database is now not public.”
Red Hat and Oracle have also long been squabbling on other grounds. Oracle’s house-brand of Linux, Oracle Linux, is little more than a RHEL clone.
Fedora Linux considering switching out MySQL for MariaDB. More >
January 22, 2013
by sjvn01
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Today, anyone can set up a cloud. Managing it, though, that’s another story. So, it came as no surprise last year when Linux-giant Red Hat announced updates to its open hybrid cloud solutions portfolio following the acquisition of ManageIQ, a leading provider of enterprise cloud management and automation solutions.