Breaking HDCP

Heard this mentioned on This Week in Tech, and finally got around to reading it. Ed Felten is discussing how easy it's going to be to break HDCP, which is how high-def digital signals are supposed to be copy protected on its way to your monitor in HD-DVD and Blu-Ray. Apparently, the HDCP designers (due to some design restrictions) used too-simple math to combine the keys, which in turn will make it easy to brute-force solve the private key identities. Or something like that. Anyhow, maybe I'll buy a HD-DVD or Blu-Ray player once an offshore hack deals with the copy protection... it looks very likely to happen given this article.

Freedom to Tinker Blog Archive Making and Breaking HDCP Handshakes

Why Blu-ray and HD-DVD could easily fail

Found this linked to by Penny Arcade of all places. It's a CNET discussion of HD-DVD vs Blu-Ray, and the linked article discusses the infamous ability to downsample your disc if it's not connected to a HDCP-compliant TV set.

In some of the discussion as to why this isn't such a bad thing (according to the studios, of course), they have this bullet point: "Proponents of downconversion argue that people have a hard time telling the difference between downconverted and true HD resolutions in the first place."

If that is true, and I actually don't doubt that it is true, this does not bode well for HD content on disc. If people can't tell the difference between 540p and 720p or 1080i, then I'll bet they can't tell the difference between the DVDs they have right now. And if they can't tell the difference, why would they want to go out and replace their DVD library with HD-DVD or Blu-Ray discs?

Blu-ray and HD-DVD: crippled HD analog output option - Alpha Blog - alpha.cnet.com

Doughnut burger

I saw this on a Boondocks episode and thought they'd made it up. No, apparently there is a real food item that is created by making a standard bacon cheeseburger but then using a Krispy Kreme doughnut for a bun. And there's even a Snopes.com page concerning the burger, as it's apparently called a "Luther Burger" after the late Luther Vandross. This is all fascinating, and no, I don't plan on eating one.

ESPN.com - MLB - We're lovin' it: Minor league team's doughnut burger

One hour, seventeen minutes, thirty seconds

Ran the Cherry Blossom Ten Miler today and decided to try to run it in less than 8-minute miles. Managed to do so. Yay. I averaged about a 7:45, slowest mile was an 8:05, last mile was 7:20. I'm not sure I could have run it any faster. By the way, my 1:17:30 would have gotten me a first place finish... in the 70-74 men's category. Yipes.