Sweeping Patent Reform Bill Drafted for House, Senate
A very early draft of patent reform legislation that will be proposed on the floors of both the US House of Representatives and Senate later this afternoon would change the very fabric of patent law. Among other changes, the proposed Patent Reform Act of 2007 would limit plaintiffs' damages in patent reform suits to only the amount to which they may have been entitled had they been allowed to profit from their work under normal economic conditions.
Such a change would eliminate not only massive patent damages judgments in US courts, but also the likelihood of huge settlement fees in attempting to avoid those damages. That change could irrevocably alter the patent portfolio business, which has recently blossomed into a legitimate industry unto itself.
Intel Hints of Possible Premium Prices for Penryn Processors
At this time last year, Intel was on the threshold of a major restructuring, the full extent of which had yet to be ascertained, and the impact of which was keeping many investors and customers on edge. The earliest we would expect to see the results of the turnaround, we were told, would be the first quarter of 2007. That quarter has now passed, and by the looks of things, Intel is healthy, breathing, but maybe not out of the woods.
Revenue is down over the last quarter, by 9% to $8.9 billion – down 1% on an annual basis. Operating income is also down a tick over Q1 2006, though up 13% over the previous quarter, during which the costs of restructuring were keenly being felt. But here’s the good news: With CEO Paul Otellini’s cost-cutting program now in full swing, net income is up 19% over the previous year, to $1.6 billion.
First Intel HK+MG Speed Tests Promise 15-40% Gains Over Core 2 Duo
In a speech this morning at Intel Developer Forum in Beijing, senior vice president and long-time conference favorite Pat Gelsinger presented initial performance estimates for the latest prototypes of Penryn, the company's first high-k-plus-metal-gate technology processor at the 45nm lithography level. There, Gelsinger presented figures pointing to as much as 25% faster performance in 3D rendering operations for Penryn prototypes over today's Core 2 Duo, introduced last July.
Intel's tests tend to focus on processor performance rather than that of systems in which those processors are installed. So conceivably, with GPU speeds due to increase even between now and later in the year when the first Penryn CPUs are shipped, desktop system perceived speeds could actually be faster still.
Microsoft DNS Server Attacks Continue
In an advisory this morning borrowing language used during previous statements about completely different exploits, Microsoft's Security Response Center team confirmed that it has seen at least one new wave of attacks based on proof-of-concept code impacting its DNS server software in Windows Server-based systems.
The concept enables malicious users to run code remotely under the system privileges generally granted to the DNS service itself. Although technically, the exploit does not directly threaten Internet routing the same way as the crafted IPv6 header problem in Cisco routers that also periodically rears its ugly head (or heads its ugly rear), this exploit can impact the routing of e-mail and other IP traffic within an enterprise or limited domain.
Windows Media Player Plug-in for Firefox Now a Reality
If it seems cooler to you today in places where it's normally fairly warm, or even burning hot, there may be deeper forces at work than mere global warming changes in the atmosphere. The department of Microsoft's development team delegated to interoperability and open standards have released what might have seemed the least likely product ever to emerge from Redmond: an officially sanctioned Windows Media Player plug-in for Mozilla Firefox.
"When the [Open Source Software Lab] was created at Microsoft people thought it to be another Microsoft marketing ploy," writes OSSL developer Hank Janssen on his team's blog today, in a post entitled, "We're Writing Firefox Plug-ins?." "Well I can tell you that that is certainly not the case here at OSSL."
Copyright Board Upholds Decision; Internet Royalty Rates Proceed
Stating that Internet streaming broadcasters' objections had neither put forth new evidence nor presented any clear sign that they had made some egregious error, the three-judge US Copyright Royalty Board this afternoon ruled it would not stay its own decision last month imposing a massive, per-performance rate increase on Internet streaming broadcasters, beginning in 2008.
"We find...that none of the moving parties [that requested a rehearing] have made a sufficient showing of new evidence or a clear error or manifest injustice that would warrant a rehearing," the judges wrote. "To the contrary...most of the parties' arguments in support of a rehearing or reconsideration merely restate arguments that were made or evidence that was presented during the proceeding." While those who objected to the rates, which included National Public Radio, argued that they were putting forth new evidence, the judges wrote that such evidence was either already in the record or "could have been discovered during the proceeding, with reasonable diligence."
Samsung, Nokia Partnership on DVB-H Signals Battleground Shift
Much of the focus of this year's National Association of Broadcasters convention in Las Vegas this week will be on differing standards for digital broadcasting. Although US terrestrial broadcasters are gearing up for a permanent transition to the new digital spectrum in just under two years' time, considerable scrutiny is being given to the entry into the North American market of digital, portable TV services that have already taken root in Europe and Asia - especially Korea - not just for their portability but as potential alternate channels for TV content distribution.
So this morning's announcement by Samsung and Nokia - considered rivals in the portable phone manufacturing market - of cooperation toward the development of a key standard arising from Europe's DVB-H specification, is a bit of a wake-up call. Samsung is perceived as one of the driving forces behind the popularity of DMB, the most prevalent digital portable broadcast standard in Korea, while Nokia has been the champion of DVB-H in Europe.
Intel Splits from UMPC with Linux-based MID Portable
After over a year of having promoted what was widely perceived as an underpowered, limited, less-than-connective mobile computer platform, Intel this morning at its developer forum in Beijing took a route few expected: Rather than update the UMPC platform it had developed along with Microsoft, the technology company appears to be going it alone, producing a second, parallel mobile platform that just happens to include all the features UMPC missed - which include built-in WiFi, functional software, and embedded Linux.
Contrary to reports this morning which appeared to confirm early speculation that has since been contradicted, Intel is going ahead with plans for its new Mobile Internet Device (MID) specification, which will attempt to co-exist with UMPC on account of its being smaller.
WPF/E Becomes 'Silverlight:' Microsoft Takes on Flash Directly
For the first time in many years, Microsoft this morning launched a head-on assault in a commercial software market where it is not the established leader. With Adobe's Flash becoming entrenched as the Web's principal delivery platform for scalable vector graphics, freeform animations, and flexible layouts, Microsoft is betting on there being room for two to play in that market.
Today at the NAB convention in Las Vegas, Microsoft will be unveiling Silverlight, the platform and marketing campaign whose aim is to deploy an Internet graphics delivery system not just on Windows, but on Macs and Linux as well.
Google Beats Microsoft in Race for DoubleClick
Just when analysts and journalists were believing that interest in acquiring Internet advertising firm DoubleClick had perhaps dwindled, it’s Google that made the big play late this afternoon, beating Microsoft to the line in a deal Google says late this afternoon is worth $3.1 billion in cash.
The deal comes as a boon to the equity investment firm which had purchased the once-colossus, later-troubled online ad broker for $1.1 billion two years ago. Microsoft was reportedly the first bidder, in a deal that analysts believed would only have been worth $2 billion – but just a few weeks ago, that seemed like a lot, perhaps even too much.
Serious RPC Flaw Could Expose Microsoft DNS Servers to Remote Exploits
This morning, the US-CERT team of the Department of Homeland Security acknowledged Microsoft's advisory this morning, stating that it's investigating instances where Windows servers running the DNS service can be tricked into running any code remotely in a local system context, with the same privileges as the DNS service itself.
As an indication of how seriously Microsoft takes this threat, in a special advisory issued this morning, it instructs customers to use their Registry Editors to set a bit in their DNS parameters for servers running the DNS service, effectively disabling DNS bindings to remote procedure calls (RPC) in favor of local procedure calls only (LPC). From there, the company further suggests that admins use their firewalls to block all RPC traffic, which could extend from ports 1024 to 5000.
Sony Stakes Its Bet on 60 GB PlayStation 3 in North America
In a statement to the gaming press yesterday, Sony Computer Entertainment spokesperson Dave Karraker acknowledged reports - apparently based on statements from resellers in the field - that his company will discontinue manufacturing the 20 GB version of PlayStation 3 for North America, concentrating instead on the 60 GB edition.
"Due to the overwhelming demand for the 60 GB model from both retailers and consumers," Karraker told reporters, "we have ceased offering the 20 GB model here in North America...Based on retailer and consumer feedback, we have decided to focus our current efforts on the more popular 60 GB model."
Microsoft Delays Virtualization Tools Rollouts
In a blog posting this morning, Microsoft general manager for virtualization strategy Mike Neil revealed his company will be pushing back some milestone dates for some of its key virtualization products. The first Windows Server virtualization product, code-named "Viridian" - specifically, the software that would enable a virtual Windows Server to run across up to 64 processors - will see its first public beta slip back to the second half of 2007; and service pack 1 of Virtual Server 2005 R2 (designed to run a virtual Windows Server on any Windows machine) will see its release date slip as much as three months, to Q2 2007.
Neil gave some hints that the reasons for the delay had to do with developing more new options for cross-processor scalability. "In an IT environment of ever-growing multi-core processor systems, Windows Server virtualization is being designed to scale across a much broader range of systems than the competition," Neil wrote. "We're designing Windows Server virtualization to scale up to 64 processors, which I'm proud to say is something no other vendor's product supports. We are also providing a much more dynamic VM environment with hot-add of processors, memory, disk and networking as well a greater scalability with more [symmetric multi-processor] support and memory."
Dueling Musicians' Petitions Take the Internet Royalty Fight to Congress
The performance rights organization that the US Copyright Royalty Board designated as the collector of royalties from streaming Internet music services such as AOL Radio and Pandora, is urging independent music artists to write their congressperson, urging that she or he support a significant increase in royalty rates over the next three years.
SoundExchange, which collects royalties on behalf of performers whose music is distributed digitally (as opposed to over the airwaves), is the beneficiary of a CRB decision last month that would officially increase its per-performance streaming royalty rates by 238% by 2010. Last month, BetaNews projections - circulated throughout the industry by streaming audio industry representatives and executives - forecast that in 2010, the Web's top four streaming providers alone could find themselves owing $363 million in royalties, at the same time that the collective performance royalties charged to all 14,000 US radio stations combined would be capped at $550 million.
AMD Curious About Reported $10M Intel 'Discovery Management Program'
Yesterday, attorneys for AMD suggested a timetable under which Intel could turn over information to the court in their ongoing antitrust trial, explaining who was delegated to preserve which documents, and perhaps shedding light on how several were - even if temporarily - lost.
In a suggested ruling for Judge Joseph A. Farnan, AMD suggested that Intel have until April 27 - just over two weeks from now - to provide the court with 46 specifically listed items falling under 31 categories. Included in this list is a request for an explanation of a citation in a Bloomberg News report last month, where Intel general counsel D. Bruce Sewell told a gathering of attorneys at the Argyle Executive Forum in New York that one Intel IT manager may have been solely responsible for the misplacement of e-mails from 151 Intel employees, including its most senior executives.
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