High Definition DVD Emulator for XBOX 360 released by Microsoft

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Microsoft Corporation, one of the many backers of the HD DVD format, has unveiled its Xbox 360 HD DVD Emulator. The tool enables film studios and disc authoring companies to model the behaviour of HD DVD disc content, including encoded video and HDi interactivity, in a virtual environment, before burning the HD DVD disc. The emulator uses a combination of available hardware (the Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system and the Xbox 360 HD DVD Player) and specialized emulation software to ultimately enable playback of near-final assets from a network storage share, portable hard drive or optical disc. This eliminates the need for expensive hardware or time-consuming and costly trial-and-error processes for testing HD DVD titles, helping to ensure that titles ship error-free.

Detailed log reports from the Xbox 360 HD DVD Emulator deliver valuable tracing information to help quickly and easily pinpoint problems with advanced interactivity code that otherwise could take hours of manual debugging. Setting up the Xbox 360 HD DVD Emulator simply requires establishing a connection to Xbox LIVE, navigating to the Download Games menu, and adding the Emulator software to the hard drive of the Xbox 360 console. The one-time licensing fee is $2999.

“We are committed to supporting and advancing the HD DVD ecosystem, and the new Xbox 360 HD DVD Emulator reflects these efforts by providing developers with the software-based tools they need to efficiently deliver the highest-quality content. Microsoft developed the Emulator to help save studios and postproduction houses time, resources and costs involved with the creation of HD DVD content, and let them focus on what really matters — pushing the envelope with the format,” said Jordi Ribas, general manager of HD DVD at Microsoft.
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Google's bid on Wireless Spectrum

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Google confirmed Friday that it will bid on wireless spectrum, the first step toward the establishment of the company's long-rumored wireless network.
Google will file a bid with the FCC on Monday for a portion of the 700-MHz band, which the FCC is auctioning off. The bid does not include any partners, Google said.
According to the bidding rules – assisted by Google and public interest groups earlier this year – the winner of the auction must allow any consumer to download any software they wish onto the mobile phone, and to use and device they can on the wireless network. The rules go into effect if the reserve price of $4.6 billion is met.
Analysts have said previously that actually building the network could cost an additional $17 billion.
"We believe it's important to put our money where our principles are," said Eric Schmidt, chairman and chief executive of Google, in a statement. "Consumers deserve more competition and innovation than they have in today's wireless world. No matter which bidder ultimately prevails, the real winners of this auction are American consumers who likely will see more choices than ever before in how they access the Internet."

FireFox 3 is more Vulnerable than IE7 : A report

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Microsoft today published a report that evaluates the security performance of Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox through a detailed comparative look at vulnerabilities. The “Web Browser Vulnerability Analysis” report finds that over a period of three years, Internet Explorer proved to have fewer vulnerabilities than Mozilla Firefox. The report research, conducted by Jeff Jones, Security Strategy Director in Microsoft’s Trustworthy Computing group, examines in detail the volume and severity of vulnerabilities in the two browsers and includes these key findings:

• Microsoft has fixed 87 total vulnerabilities (across all supported versions of Internet Explorer) while Mozilla has fixed 199 vulnerabilities in supported Firefox products
• Internet Explorer experienced a lower volume of reported vulnerabilities across all categories of severity (high, medium, low)

For most people, their web browser is central to their interaction with the Internet, connecting to global web sites and helping them consume online services providing everything from booking flights to banking services to online shopping. This reality makes browsers a key tool when evaluating the security experience of users as the browser interprets Web content and programs delivered from around the world.

Over the past few years, there has been much discussion of the need for improvements in browser security, but few hard data studies performed to support assertions concerning the security of available browsers.

I've just finished up and posted for download a vulnerability analysis of Internet Explorer and Firefox, including fixed and unfixed vulnerabilities, that covers roughly the past three years since Firefox first released.

As usual for these, I want to post one chart as a teaser to get you to go look at the full report. In this case, I'm choosing one that looks at alternative upgrade paths. Let's say you deployed Firefox 1.0 and then Firefox 1.5 came out - did you upgrade immediately or did you wait until support for Firefox 1.0 was ending? (... or maybe you're still using 1.0... tsk tsk) Same question for 2.0.