PDAs aren’t dead yet. Nor is Intel’s XScale chip technology. Hewlett-Packard’s new, attractive big-screen handheld packs an application processor that still includes plenty of Intel’s XScale DNA.

Marvell also makes a PXA320 that can achieve a clock speed of 800 MHz. (See graphic below.)

The iPaq 210 features both compact flash and a SDIO (Secure Digital Input/Output) slots. SDIO cards, more advanced than typical SD memory cards, can house a Bluetooth adapter, Wi-Fi adapter, Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver, television tuner, and a number of other devices.

HP iPAQ 210

(Credit:
Marvell Technology)

Marvell PXA320

(Credit:
HP)

Though Intel sold the business that made XScale processors to Marvell more than a year and a half ago (June 2006), Marvell is still making processors based on Intel technologies. Marvell states that the PXA3xx processor family “is the third generation of applications processors based on Intel’s XScale technology.” The PXA310, made on a 90-nanometer process, includes Intel SpeedStep technology, Intel Wireless Trusted Module encryption technology, and an Intel Wireless MMX 2 co-processor.

In the past, there were questions about the ability of MySQL to maintain its code base with critical bugs not getting fixed for long periods. You mentioned this morning that there have been a number of bug fixes so far this year. Were you trying to send a message?

Mickos: Absolutely. When we launched 5.0 (in October 2005), it was a major release for us. We pronounced it as GA, but I got an earful from my engineers who didn’t want me to call it ready for general availability just yet. I still went ahead, but then we turned up bugs and had to fix more and more things. I think we were still recovering from that, so today I wanted to give credit to the people working on (the bug fixes) because it takes such complete commitment on their part.

What’s your own professional timeline? When will you consider your job accomplished and that it’s time to move on?
Mickos: No idea. I’m not waiting for such a moment. For the moment, I’m enjoying the job and will continue to do it for as long as it’s enjoyable. I don’t really plan my career or my future. In fact, I’ve never done that.

OK, let’s stay with the metaphor. Oracle probably would like to eat yours as well.
Mickos: Of course they do. They’re a big powerful well-run company.

Q: What’s next for Sun as far as its open-source quest?
Mickos: I think Sun has embarked on many things with (the) open-sourcing of Java and Solaris. Now is the time to fine-tune those models and settle down. When you embark on something new, you have to experiment and find the right path. You’re seeing it take effect now. The Open Solaris and GlassFish download numbers are growing, and that’s a positive.

You announced that MySQL 5.1 would become available this quarter. Should users expect the time between product introductions to change now that you’re part of Sun?
Mickos: I’m hoping that it will shrink. We’ve made good improvements to our engineering organization and we’ve worked diligently on speeding up our cycles. Some customers take our software when it’s in alpha stage, others when it goes to GA, while there are still others who don’t touch it for a year after it becomes available. It’s not as if everyone’s cut from the same mode.

Looking ahead, do you think MySQL or the OS will be more likely to occupy the middle of the open-source universe? I’m asking because Red Hat’s moving beyond Linux to offer middleware.
Mickos: I think data management is such a specific chunk that we’ll always be there.

Marten Mickos joined MySQL as CEO in 2001. In January, he presided over the sale of the company to Sun Microsystems. Since the acquisition, he has served as the senior vice president of its database group. I caught up with Mickos after his keynote speech at the MySQL User Conference & Expo taking place this week in Santa Clara, Calif.

But it probably feels a lot different having a corporate parent with deep pockets than when you faced an Oracle alone?
Mickos: Well, that’s interesting you say that because we were able to use our underdog status to our advantage. There are lots of people out there who would come to us and say we don’t mind that we’re a smaller company. They would say that they just hate all big database vendors.

Are you hoping to try to sell more into what’s been Oracle’s turf?
Mickos: We always say that we’re not trying to eat Oracle’s lunch. We’re trying to eat their dessert.

Marten Mickos

One theme that we heard today was the similarity in work cultures between Sun and the folks who came over with the MySQL deal. As the teams further integrate, is there any change in how the community adds feedback to the product roadmap now that you’re a part of Sun?
Mickos: Not really. The agreement when we started talking about acquisition was that they were buying us for who we are. We have things going on with the community and are trying to improve our community all the time. In internal meetings, we actually say we don’t understand community well enough and how to improve it. It hasn’t changed other than that we have a new sounding board.

commentary

For those coming out to ski this weekend (you know who you are!), I just had to get even more snow for us. You’re welcome.

(Credit:
Creative)

Find more deals, coupon codes, and bargains on CNET’s Shopper.com.

Creative's 4GB Zen media player is a ridiculously good deal at $64.99 shipped.

In case you’re unfamiliar with it, the Zen is Creative’s answer to the 3rd-gen
iPod nano. It offers a 2.5-inch screen, an FM tuner, an SDHC slot (for adding up to 16GB of extra storage via cheapo memory cards), a voice recorder, and support for music-subscription services. You can also stock it with TV shows and movies from Amazon Unbox. In short, it’s way more versatile than the nano, which is why CNET and users alike gave it such a high rating.

If this sounds like a winning deal to you, don’t wait: I’m certain these will sell out in a hurry. If they do, or you’ve got an extra $19 to spare, you can get the 8GB model for $83.99.

Another excerpt from the presentation distributed to thousands of Defcon attendees on CDs.

CNET News.com’s Elinor Mills contributed to this report.

(Credit:
Declan McCullagh/CNET News)

One portion of the MBTA’s legal complaint that drew jeers from the Defcon crowd came in its odd claim that “A CharlieTicket standing alone constitutes a ‘computer’” under federal antihacking law.

EFF staff attorney Kurt Opsahl said that the temporary restraining order is “violating their First Amendment rights”; another EFF attorney said a court order pre-emptively gagging security researchers was “unprecedented.”

U.S. District Judge Douglas Woodlock on Saturday ordered the students not to provide “program, information, software code, or command that would assist another in any material way to circumvent or otherwise attack the security of the Fare Media System.” Woodlock granted the MBTA’s request after a hastily convened hearing in Massachusetts that took place at 8 a.m. PDT on Saturday.

The students told reporters that they had, on their own, asked their professor to initiate contact with the MBTA a week before the government agency contacted them on July 30 or July 31. But the process was delayed because professor Ron Rivest was at a security conference near San Francisco, and no contact with MBTA was made at the time.

Karsten Nohl, a University of Virginia graduate student who worked with others to break the Mifare Classic crypto algorithm last year, said MBTA should not have sued researchers who voluntarily discussed their findings with them.

But then the conversations took a hostile turn when MBTA mentioned an FBI criminal investigation of the MIT students. In the “initial contact, they said the FBI was investigating and that was not–we didn’t find that to be a very pleasing way to start a nice dialogue with them. And we got a little concerned about what was happening,” said Anderson, one of the students.

A representative of the Defcon convention, who asked that her name not be used, said that the students submitted their Powerpoint presentation at least a month ago. The presentation says–not-so-presciently–”what this talk is not: evidence in court (hopefully).” It also says: “THIS IS VERY ILLEGAL! So the following material is for educational use only.”

EFF attorneys appeared with the three students–Zack Anderson, R.J. Ryan, and Alessandro Chiesa–in front of a crowd of hundreds at an afternoon session at Defcon, but largely prevented them from answering questions, citing the lawsuit. Although Sunday’s talk is canceled, Defcon organizers hinted that there may be a related presentation on a similar topic.

Click here for more coverage from Defcon.

“It has been known for years that magnetic stripe cards can easily be tampered with and MBTA should not have relied on the obscurity of their data-format as a security measure,” Nohl said. “MBTA made it clear that they are not interested in cooperating with researchers on identifying and fixing vulnerabilities, but their lawsuit will motivate more research into the security of Boston’s public transport system.”

LAS VEGAS–A federal judge on Saturday granted the Massachusetts transit authority’s request for an injunction preventing three MIT students from giving a presentation about hacking smartcards used in the Boston subway system.

The MBTA, which is a state government agency, alleges in its lawsuit that “disclosure of this information will significantly compromise the CharlieCard and CharlieTicket systems” and “constitutes a threat to public health or safety.”

That could be difficult to enforce. Every one of the thousands of people here who registered for Defcon received a CD with the students’ 87-page presentation titled “Anatomy of a Subway Hack.” It recounts, in detail, how they wrote code to generate fake magcards. Also, it describes how they were able to use software they developed and $990 worth of hardware to read and clone the RFID-based CharlieCards.

MIT students Alessandro Chiesa, R.J. Ryan, Zack Anderson, and Electronic Frontier Foundation staff attorney Kurt Opsahl speak at a panel turned press conference at Defcon.

[Note: This story was updated at 12:05 p.m. PDT to reflect that a temporary restraining order was issued. It was again updated at 1:30 p.m. PDT with more details from documents on how the hacks can be done, and at 4:30 p.m. with a report from the EFF press conference and 6:15 p.m. with video.]

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, which is representing the students, anticipates appealing the ruling, said EFF senior staff attorney Kurt Opsahl.

Also released as part of the public record was a document marked “confidential” and written by the researchers (PDF) that explains exactly how the Charlie cards can be cloned and forged. “Our research shows that one can write software that will generate cards of any value up to $655.36,” the document says.

Research into flaws in the encryption that the Mifare Classic cards, used by the MBTA, landed Dutch researchers in court recently. NXP sued to block a Dutch University from publishing information about vulnerabilities in the encryption used in the RFID cards around the world. Last month, a court ruled that the university could publish the information.

(Credit: Elinor Mills)

Court documents filed by MBTA suggest that representatives of the transit agency tried to pressure the students into halting their talk. During a meeting with the students and MIT professor Ron Rivest on Monday, MBTA Deputy General Manager for Systemwide Modernization Joseph Kelly unsuccessfully tried to obtain a copy of their planned presentation. Kelly spoke with Rivest again on Friday. (There was initial confusion about whether the meeting was Monday or Tuesday.)

Its suit asks a judge to order the students “from publicly stating or indicating that the security or integrity of the CharlieCard pass, the CharlieTicket pass, or the MBTA’s Fare Media systems has been compromised.” The requested order would also prevent them from circulating the summary of their talk, from providing any technical information, and from distributing any software they created.

The undergraduate students had been scheduled to give a presentation Sunday afternoon at the Defcon hacker conference here that they had said would describe “several attacks to completely break the CharlieCard,” an RFID card that the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority uses on the Boston T subway line. They also planned to release card-hacking software they had created, but canceled both the presentation and the release of the software.

In 2005, Cisco Systems filed a lawsuit against security researcher Michael Lynn hours after he gave a talk at Defcon on how attackers could take over Cisco routers. The case was ultimately settled. Four years earlier, the FBI took Russian crypto expert Dmitry Sklyarov into custody at his Las Vegas hotel one day after he gave a presentation at Defcon on insecurities in e-book security software.

This isn’t the first time speakers at security conferences have been hauled into court by companies seeking to muzzle them.

In addition, what looked like a black-and-white faxed copy of the entire presentation was entered as evidence in publicly available court records available on the Web on Saturday, meaning any attempt to limit its distribution further will encounter an additional hurdle.

MIT’s student newspaper has posted a copy of the presentation that was distributed on Defcon CDs and the subject of the court order.

Princeton University computer science professor Ed Felten and his co-authors received legal threats from the recording industry involving a planned talk at a Pittsburgh security conference–but pulled the paper from the event, even though no lawsuit materialized.

Those CDs were distributed to conference attendees starting Thursday evening, meaning the injunction arrived nearly two days late. (On the other hand, the source code to the utilities–not included on the CD–was removed from web.mit.edu/zacka/www/subway/ by Saturday morning.)

The document also discusses the lack of physical security at the MBTA. “Doors were left unlocked allowing free entry in many subways,” the document says. “The turnstile control boxes were unlocked at most stations. Most shocking, however, were the FVM control rooms that were occasionally left open.”

(Credit:
Declan McCullagh/CNET News)

In the video clip below MIT student Zack Anderson tells reporters how he felt when he learned about the lawsuit filed by the MBTA. The lawsuit was filed a few days after he had met with the agency to discuss concerns about his talk at Defcon. He is with fellow MIT students R.J. Ryan, Alessandro Chiesa and EFF attorney Marcia Hofmann, who was advising the students about what they could say in lieu of the temporary restraining order against them.

First page of subway-hacking presentation that was the subject of an injunction to stop its distribution–after it had already been distributed.

EFF’s Opsahl said the students only intended to “provide an interesting and useful talk, but not one that would allow people to defraud the Massachusetts” government.

Xconomy on Friday reported the deal, saying that it was apparently brokered by former CEO Cary Bullock who was replaced by Bob Metcalfe last year in a company shake-up.

Update 12:18 p.m. Pacific.In response to a query, GreenFuel’s interim CEO Bob Metcalfe said that the company can “neither confirm nor deny these rumors.”

GreenFuel: making green fuels from power plant pollution.

Also last week, ethanol company Coskata, which General Motors has invested in, was said to have landed $19 million to ramp up its operations.

The company is operating a pilot plant with the utility Arizona Public Service Company.

(Credit:
Martin LaMonica/CNET Networks)

The board replaced Bullock as CEO with interim CEO Metcalfe, best known for his contribution to inventing Ethernet and who is now venture capitalist at Polaris Ventures.

GreenFuel has developed a bioreactor that grows algae from the carbon dioxide emissions of power plants. The algae is harvested and turned into different types of fuel–either biodiesel or biomass–that can be burned to make electricity.

The company ran into trouble last year when it found that its process was too expensive because it generated too much algae and required too much manual intervention.

The reported deal comes after a few other biofuels companies have gained funding to expand toward commercial-scale plants.

Correction done on April 4 to the spelling of Bob Metcalfe’s name.

On Friday, Range Fuels said it is has secured $100 million to build a gasification plant that will make ethanol from blue chips.

Don’t overpay for an obsolete Blu-ray player like this $,1000 Pioneer Elite BDP-95FD

With HD DVD looking more and more like it’s on the ropes, it would seem like the ideal time to commit to Blu-ray–right? Not so fast. There are at least five reasons to stick with your good old-fashioned DVD player–at least for the next few months. (And, as always, there are some key caveats and insider secrets for those who can’t resist pullling the trigger as soon as possible.)

So there you have it: there’s absolutely no compelling reason to dive into Blu-ray, at least for the next few months. But as with all of the items above, the conclusion comes with a big caveat of its own: the Sony PlayStation 3. It’s the only player that’s futureproof, it doubles as a top-notch game machine and network digital media streamer, and it’s readily available for $400. Oh–it also happens to be a great Blu-ray player, and it does a fine job of upconverting your standard DVDs to high-definition resolutions. As such, it remains the exception to the rule, and the only Blu-ray player that we can enthusiastically recommend for the time being.

2. Blu-ray is best on a big-screen TV: Can you see the difference between standard DVD and Blu-ray? Yes–but it may not be as noticeable as you would think. Like all high-definition material, Blu-ray discs look their most-impressive at bigger screen sizes, where DVD can sometimes start to look a bit soft. Put another way: if your TV is 37 inches or smaller, you probably won’t be getting a huge advantage from Blu-ray.

(Credit:
Pioneer)

Caveat: Sure, it’s small now, but the number of Blu-ray titles is growing slowly but surely. In fact, Blu-ray and HD DVD adoption (combined) has actually outpaced that of the original DVD format, which took three or four years before it really went mainstream.

5. Prices have nowhere to go but down: Even without competition from HD DVD, Blu-ray prices seem to be on a one-way ticket downward. Older players can be purchases for about $300, so don’t be surprised to see Black Friday 2008 specials at $249 or $199. Caveat: See item number 1: the cheaper players are likely to be older models that are effectively “obsolete.”

Caveat: Eagle-eyed videophiles–or those who sit especially close to their 1080p TVs–may well see a difference. Rule of thumb: if HDTV programming looks noticeably better than DVD playback on your TV, then Blu-ray will be a worthwhile investment.

4. Blu-ray still has growing pains: How many times have you popped a brand new DVD into your player, only to be greeted with a message that you need to update the firmware to view the movie? Probably never, but Blu-ray early adopters have faced this message more than they would like to admit. (To be fair, HD DVD has had its share of disc compatibility issues as well.) To make matters worse, many early Blu-ray players can’t update via Ethernet, so you’ll need to burn a CD to update the player. If you’re reading Crave, burning a disc probably isn’t a problem–but there are many less-tech-savvy people that love DVDs, but have no idea what an ISO file is.

1. Nearly all current Blu-ray players are obsolete: The Blu-ray standard is still evolving. Most models currently available use the original Profile 1.0 standard, while some newer models use Profile 1.1 (which adds the ability to show picture-in-picture commentaries). Later this year, the first Profile 2.0 players–which add the ability to deliver online special features (BD Live)–will become available. Ironically, both of these are designed to bring the Blu-ray standard in line with HD DVD players, which have long been able to deliver these features.

3. There are still very few movies available on Blu-ray: As of February 5, 2008, there are less than 450 current Blu-ray titles available in North America (not counting discontinued and adult titles). That stacks up well to HD DVD (around 400). But it’s a drop in the bucket compared to standard DVD, which has at least 90,000 titles available (including TV shows).

Caveat: Does anybody really watch those PiP-enabled commentaries? Or want updated trailers downloaded from the Web? Beyond the hardcore cinephiles, I think the answer is a big “no.” In other words, if you’re among the vast majority who only wants to watch the movie, you’re not really gaining anything with a 1.1. or 2.0 player. Those older Blu-ray players should play everything else on the disc (the non-playable features are just grayed out on the menu). With the older players hitting the discount racks to make way for newer models, getting a Profile 1.0 player is a nice way to score a Blu-ray player on the cheap ($300 or less).

If there was an option when I bought a single to subscribe to an RSS feed that would send me a sample of that artists song when they released a single, I would add that RSS feed to my browser. Add a 1 click to buy, and chances are I’m going to buy a lot more music.

So here we are in 2008 and the only given in the music industry is that CD sales have and will fall. And fall. And fall.

So the question arises, why don’t artists serialize the release of songs ? Why not create a “season” of release of songs, much like the fall TV season and promise fans that Flo Rida is going to release a new single every week or 2 weeks for the next 10 weeks ?

Serializing the release of music also allows for the marketing arms to be in constant touch with sales and radio outlets. Rather than having to initiate marketing plans and hope to reinvigorate the interest in an artist, it becomes a digital tour that never ends.

If an artist commits to release music on a weekly or bi weekly basis, then consumers can make a commitment knowing they are going to get something new and hopefully exciting for their 99c. If the commitment is strong enough its feasible that artists could sell subscriptions to their serialized releases. My guess is that consumers will feel better about subscribing to an artist and getting a song a week or every 2 than dropping 10 dollars at a time for an album.

Then aggregating almost unlimited free music on a PC and then an IPOD became easy.

Sure, its not easy to come up with a great song every 2 weeks. But isn’t that exactly the same problem you have with an album ? Maybe thats not the “creative process” for certain artists. That’s a problem for them.

Labels need to make the effort to get artists to deliver in a manner that realizes these perspectives.

Consumser are buying music 1 track at a time. I think people will pay 99c to get a single rather than steal it. I think people would rather steal a full album rather than pay 10 dollars or more for it.

There once was a time when the release date of an album was exciting. For our favorite artists we knew when the last album came out and when the next album was due. If you loved the artist you bought it. If you didn’t you either bought the single or you listened to the album with your friends and then decided.

The album is dead.

Reading last weeks billboard, something interesting popped out at me. The song Low Rider by Flo Rida sold 467,000 units in a single week. There were 27 digital singles that sold more than 100k units in that week. The obvious trend continues that people are ready, willing and able to buy singles of songs they like.

Then free became an option.

What we do know is that music fans will spend 99c and that its easier to ask them for 99c a week than it is to get 9.99 at one time from them for 10 songs.

As the price of records and then CDs increased year by year, spending 20 bucks for a CD became a purchase you needed to be sure of rather than a no brainer or impulse buy.

In reality thats exactly how I buy my music right now. I dont do it by artist. I go to iTunes and I go through the top 10 lists and listen to samples and thats how I determine what music I’m going to buy.

  smc Pentax DA* 300mm f/4 ED (IF) SDM; May; $1,299.95

  smc Pentax DA 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 AL II; ships with K200D in March; $199.95

No dSLR launch is complete without a gaggle o’ glass to accompany it. Here are the lenses Pentax announced in conjunction with its 2 dSLRs. (All photos courtesy of Pentax Corp.)

  smc Pentax DA 35mm f/2.8 Macro Limited; April; $599.95

AL = Aspherical Lens
DA = designed for digital (not full frame) cameras
DA* = DA with dust- and weather-sealing
ED = Extra low Dispersion
IF = Internal Focus
SDM = Supersonic Drive Motor

Name decoder:

 smc Pentax DA* 200mm f/2.8 ED (IF) SDM; March; $1,099.95

And as my colleague John Falcone has put it: now, where’s my Hulu box?

It’s not terribly revolutionary. The Apple TV box has given owners access to YouTube for over a year now. TiVo already lets viewers watch select online videos and podcasts–but in downloadable form, not streaming form.

TiVo owners will need a Series 3 or TiVo HD box to be eligible for the software upgrade, which will be further extended in the near future to allow them to log into their own YouTube accounts to access playlists and the like.