TechEye |  |
- Intel oven ready mode released
- Microsoft tightens up rules after corporate spying case
- Twitter gets the works
- Symantec fires Steve Bennett
| Intel oven ready mode released Posted: 21 Mar 2014 01:57 AM PDT Chipzilla has been telling the San Francisco Game Developers Conference about its latest cunning plans from low-power technologies to ultra-high-end desktop chips. Several processors iwere on display and a new technology dubbed Ready Mode. We thought Ready Mode was something which was used for turkey to tell you if it was properly cooked, but Chipzilla said it is a power saving trick. Ready Mode "takes advantage of new power-saving states in Intel's 4th gen Core desktop processor, combined with software and board level optimizations, which enable OEM desktop computers that are instantly ready and always connected while sipping power". Whatever that means. Basically it allows a "Fourth Generation Core" processor to enter a low C7 power state, while the OS and other system components remain connected. The headlines had to go to the Core i7 Extreme Edition 8-Core Processor Haswell- E. Like Ivy Bridge-E and Sandy Bridge-E, Haswell-E is an "extreme" variant of Haswell. Haswell-E Core i7-based processors will be pimped up with up to eight processor cores. Haswell-E, however, will connect up to high-speed DDR4 memory and be paired to the upcoming Intel X99 chipset. It will be Intel's fastest chip and will be in the shops in the second half of 2014. Also there was a little bit of news on the the 14nm shrink of Haswell, Broadwell. Word on the street is that Broadwell will be the first desktop processor to feature Iris Pro graphics. Intel VP Lisa Graff confirmed the chips will be called 5th Gen Core processors and that they will be supported by the company's 9-series chipsets. No surprise there, then. Intel also announced that some newer desktop processors based on the existing Haswell micro-architecture were being tarted up for release. Codenamed "Devil's Canyon" they resolve some overclocking problems - read bugs - that appeared with Ivy Bridge. Intel started using a lower-performing thermal interface material between Ivy Bridge chips and their integrated heat spreaders, which resulted in higher temperatures under load that could hinder overclocking. Devil's Canyon processors use an improved thermal interface material and updated packaging materials, to fix the problem. The processors will arrive mid-year according to Intel and will work with upcoming motherboards based on the Intel 9 Series chipsets. |
| Microsoft tightens up rules after corporate spying case Posted: 21 Mar 2014 01:40 AM PDT Software giant Microsoft has changed some of its privacy rules after a storm of trouble after it hacked into a customer's email to dig up some dirt on a corporate spying case. The customer in this case was an ex-Microsoft employee who was later arrested for leaking trade secrets and internal Windows related software builds to a blogger. According to court documents, Microsoft snooped into Outlook/Hotmail accounts of the blog to crack the case. Vole said that during an investigation of an employee it discovered evidence that the employee was providing stolen IP, including code relating to our activation process, to a third party. It claims that in "order to protect its customers" and the security and integrity of our products, it conducted an investigation over many months with law enforcement agencies in multiple countries. It obtained a court order for the search of a home relating to evidence of the criminal acts involved. The investigation repeatedly identified clear evidence that the third party involved intended to sell Microsoft IP and had done so in the past. As part of the investigation, Vole carried out a "limited review" of this third party's Microsoft operated accounts. But don't worry, this snooping was given a thorough review by Microsoft legal team separate from the investigating team. It said that there was "strong evidence of a criminal act" that "met a standard comparable to that required to obtain a legal order to search other sites." However there are signs that Microsoft might not be so confident about how it handled the case. John Frank, Vice President and Deputy General Counsel has announced changes about the way such investigations are handled in the future. In a statement, he admitted that Outlook and Hotmail email are and should be private. "While we took extraordinary actions in this case based on the specific circumstances and our concerns about product integrity that would impact our customers, we want to provide additional context regarding how we approach these issues generally and how we are evolving our policies," Frank said, The way the law stands, courts do not issue orders authorizing someone to search themselves, he pointed out. Microsoft promises that it will comply with the standards applicable to obtaining a court order and will add another step in the process. "Microsoft will submit the evidence to an outside attorney who is a former federal judge. We will conduct such a search only if this former judge similarly concludes that there is evidence sufficient for a court order," Frank said. Microsoft promised to publish as part of its bi-annual transparency report the data on the number of these searches that have been conducted and the number of customer accounts that have been affected. This will not apply to internal investigations of Microsoft employees who we find in the course of a company investigation are using their personal accounts for Microsoft business. |
| Posted: 21 Mar 2014 01:38 AM PDT Desperate to prevent discussion of a corruption case the Turkish government has decided to ban Twitter. Anyone in Turkey who tries to go to the website is redirected to a statement from the country's telecommunications regulator instead. Demonstrating their knowledge of the social notworking site, they did not block the microblogging site's SMS service which is apparently flat out now. Twitter users got the government's goat when some users posted voice recordings and documents, which allegedly reveal corruption within the Turkish prime minister's inner circle. Hours before the blackout, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan threatened to shut Twitter down while speaking at a political rally to campaign for the March 30th local elections. He claimed the accusations are merely a smear campaign by his opponents and even dismissed other countries' criticisms. At the rally he told his cheering supporters that "sod the international community we will show them how powerful Turkey is". Apparently, it is so powerful that it cannot handle its citizens pointing out how corrupt its government is. |
| Posted: 21 Mar 2014 01:36 AM PDT Symantec CEO Steve Bennett has been fired and has been replaced by board member Michael Brown. Bennett has also resigned from Symantec's board of directors, the company said. Bennett has been in charge since July 2012, after former president and CEO Enrique Salem was pushed out at the decision of the Board of Directors. But it was clear that things were not going well. In April 2013, Bennett, told attendees at its own Vision Conference that the company was changing, and acknowledged that Symantec “lacked strategy” when it came to dealing with acquisitions. He wanted to "move the company forward slowly", but consistently and make Symantec easier to work with. His board has not been impressed with the results and demanded his head on a plate served with a white wine sauce. A special committee of the board will immediately begin the search for a permanent CEO with the assistance of an executive search firm, Symantec said. The decision to terminate Bennett was the result of an “ongoing deliberative process" and not precipitated by any event or impropriety, Symantec said in words that are barely English. It is hard to find what the board found so offensive. Reading between the lines, the board said a new person would have to “leverage our company's assets” and “manage a leadership team to drive the next stage of the company’s product innovation and growth”. In short, it does not know what it wants and is papering up the cracks with management bullshit and doublespeak. Of course, there could be someone who needs their assets leveraged, but we doubt this would assist their bottom line. Bennett’s skills are appreciated by some. President Barack Obama appointed Bennett to the National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee (NSTAC) in June 2013. Brown joined Symantec's board of directors following the company's merger with Veritas Software in July 2005, and previously served as chairman and chief executive officer of Quantum Corporation. Bring back Peter Norton. |
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