ACM's latest journal had an interesting article about RAID which suggested it might be time for triple parity raid. "How much longer will current RAID techniques persevere? The RAID levels were codified in the late 1980s; double-parity RAID, known as RAID-6, is the current standard for high-availability, space-efficient storage. The incredible growth of hard-drive capacities, however, could impose serious limitations on the reliability even of RAID-6 systems. Recent trends in hard drives show that triple-parity RAID must soon become pervasive."

"DisplayPort v1.2 is now all official and it comes with an impressive tally of numbers to get your attention. Doubling the data throughput of v1.1a (from 10.8Gbps to 21.6Gbps), the latest version will be able to support multiple monitors via only a single output cable, allowing you to daisy-chain up to four 1920x1200 monitors, for example. It can also perform bi-directional data transfer, which will permit USB hubs, webcams, and touchscreen panels integrated into displays to communicate over the same cable as the video signal. Backwards compatibility with older peripherals is assured, but you'll naturally need a v1.2-capable computer to exploit all this newfound goodness."

A special meta show with just Kroc discussing the feedback from last week's show and going on to detail design concerns with the new site under production. Included is a transcription to hopefully help participation.

The German government has warned web users to find an alternative browser to Internet Explorer to protect security. The warning from the Federal Office for Information Security comes after Microsoft admitted IE was the weak link in recent attacks on Google's systems. Microsoft rejected the warning, saying that the risk to users was low and that the browsers' increased security setting would prevent any serious risk.

The Mac Observer has found out that Psystar has indeed decided to appeal the case it lost against Apple. "Psystar has officially filed its Notice of Appeal in the copyright suit it lost against Apple Inc., according to a court document obtained by The Mac Observer. The step was a formality in the appeals process, but until it was filed, it was unclear if the company would actually mount an appeal."

A few days ago, Google opened up a YouTube area on its product ideas website, so that people could submit their ideas about how to improve the ubiquitous video website. It turned out it was a bit of a can of worms Google opened there: everything focussed on HTML5 video support.

The United States will issue a formal diplomatic note to China expressing concern about cyber attacks that hit Google and dozens of other companies, and that researchers say originated in that country. "We will be issuing a formal demarche to the Chinese government in Beijing on this issue in the coming days, probably early next week," US State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters Friday. "It will express our concern for this incident and request information from China as to an explanation of how it happened and what they plan to do about it."

Intel has responded to the Federal Trade Commission's antitrust investigation, unsurprisingly challenging the FTC's allegations as well as criticizing the agency for what the company calls an attempt "to turn Intel into a public utility".

In an article about the supposed upcoming Apple tablet, Paul Thorrot made a jab at the hype that has developed, arguing that Microsoft was first with its tablet PC initiative in the early 2000s. Daring Fireball's John Gruber disagrees with Thurrot, and claims that Apple's Newton was the first tablet. In rushing to defend their pet companies, I say both are wrong. Apple nor Microsoft have anything to do with the conceptualisation or realisation of the tablet computer.

Microsoft has no plans to pull out of China, its chief executive said on Thursday, playing down concerns about recent cyber-attacks and censorship raised by rival Google Inc. "There are attacks every day. I don't think there was anything unusual, so I don't understand," Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer told Reuters after a meeting on modernizing government services at the White House.

"Microsoft has named the date for the (delayed) next installment of Visual Studio and its .NET Framework. Developer division marketing and communications manager Rob Caron blogged Thursday that the new date for Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4.0 is April 12 - three weeks later than the company originally planned."

Fatal Exception's Neil McAllister questions how open is too open when it comes to mobile app markets, especially in light of the recent discovery of suspected malware in the Android Market. "Open platforms are attractive to developers, but as we have now seen, developers come in all flavors," McAllister writes, "If smartphone vendors aren't careful, they risk repeating the mistakes of the PC software industry, with mobile platforms becoming the new Wild West of computing." As McAllister sees it, strong governance is the only solution, and this includes the ability to act swiftly when exploits arise - "something only centralized oversight can provide." Sure, Apple's App Store approval policies are somewhat 'draconian', "but by ensuring that each and every app in the App Store has met its rigorous standards, Apple has forged a bond of trust with iPhone users that no other smartphone vendor can match."

"Eastman Kodak has issued lawsuits against both Apple and Blackberry maker Research in Motion, claiming neither of them has licensed its patents despite using the technology described therein and having been warned about it by Kodak. The photography pioneer said the alleged infringement centred on intellectual property protecting a method for previewing colour images and the processing of images of different resolutions. It filed complaints against both Apple and RIM with the US District Court for Western New York."

Two days ago, Google dropped a bomb by announcing its intentions to cease censoring its search engine results in China, partly because the search giant claimed that attempts were made to crack the GMial accounts of Chinese human rights activists. The Chinese government has officially replied to these allegations. Update: More on the infrastructure of the attack.