Unlike cable programming, online video provider Netflix is still more than a year away from full 1080 high definition, according to this report from NewTeeVee. CNET reported that the company had streaming 1080p content on a 2010 roadmap, but then retracted that report when Netflix indicated that 1080 was not a 2010 goal. Right now, there are approximately 1,000 titles in the Netflix library that stream at the lower HD resolution 720.

But, even if Netflix upgraded its content to 1080, it might not make much difference for subscribers due to the fact that those using the Roku set-top to stream Netflix content have a maximum resolution of 720 - regardless of the quality of the streaming source. Roku remains one of the few ways to stream Netflix content directly to an HD television without a computer.

If viewers are looking for a full-HD experience, they won't be getting it anytime soon from Netflix's streaming library.

Are you thinking about becoming an early adopter of 3D television? Engadget is reporting that Panasonic is preparing to announce four different models of BluRay players that provide playback from 3D BluRay discs. This news comes on the heels of word last week that the company announced its first facility for creation of 3D BluRay discs.

As I've mentioned before, consumer electronics manufacturers want 2010 to be the year that 3D in the home begins moving into the mainstream. Programmers and cable operators are also working to bring 3D channels to viewers with ESPN announcing that select games in this summer's World Cup will be broadcast in three dimensions and Discovery Networks planning the introduction of a channel with 3D content.

Of the three models of 3D BluRay players that Panasonic plans to unveil, one provides playback options while the other three can record to BluRay disc. If you believe that 3D television is an exciting prospect, it appears you won't have to wait long to experience it's first generation in your own living room.

Net neutrality advocates are raising questions about Verizon's decision to block portions of the 4chan image board network from its wireless customers. 4chan's reputation as a gathering place for malcontents that use the message board to organize activities ranging from Internet pranks to denial of service attacks appears to have caught up with it. Based on a statement from Verizon, their network security team "detected attacks" originating from an IP address associated with 4chan and took steps to block that address.

For its part, 4chan posted a message on its status blog indicating that Verizon had blocked the entire site. Verizon claims that the block was only applied to the IP address in question and was removed after it was no longer deemed a threat.

With the FCC in the process of considering adoption of regulations that would dictate how Internet providers manage their network, it's important that they take incidents like this into account, providing network operators the freedom to protect their users from organized, malicious attacks that would affect their ability to reliably use network resources.

Did you enjoy last night's game? It had all the action that a matchup of the top teams from both conferences of the NFL promised. Of course, while most of the action happens on the field during the Super Bowl, there's also must-see television during the commercial breaks, with TV's most creative ads. I noticed that many of this year's Super Bowl ads included a call to action that invited viewers to log on to the web for additional information or video. According to a study from Nielsen, 12 percent of Super Bowl viewers last year spent time on the web while watching the game.

Those keeping an eye on the game while surfing spent an average of 24 minutes online, with Facebook being the top site visited. Surprisingly, only 18 percent of those users visited sports sites where there would be information associated with the game. With all the commercials exhorting viewers to log on during the game, it will be interesting to see whether the percentage of Super Bowl viewers surfing will be higher this year.

And, if you're looking for a recap of the game's ads, YouTube has a channel dedicated to recapping the ads and allowing viewers to rate their favorite Super Bowl ads.

Betty White rocks!

Has the Internet become so dangerous that users should receive some type of certification of their ability to use it safely? That's the idea that Microsoft's chief research and strategy officer, Craig Mundie, has suggested, calling it a "driver's license" for Internet users. 

Here's what Mundie told Agence France-Presse:

"People don't understand the scale of criminal activity on the internet. Whether criminal, individual or nation states, the community is growing more sophisticated," the Microsoft executive said.

"We need a kind of World Health Organization for the Internet," he said.

"When there is a pandemic, it organizes the quarantine of cases. We are not allowed to organize the systematic quarantine of machines that are compromised."

He also called for a "driver's license" for internet users.

"If you want to drive a car you have to have a license to say that you are capable of driving a car, the car has to pass a test to say it is fit to drive and you have to have insurance."

There are numerous threats online that take advantage of unassuming users. And there are new threats emerging every day that even experienced Internet users can fall victim to. Private companies and the federal government are working to fundamental questions about Internet security. Incidents like the hacker intrusion into Google and other American companies in December of last year has only added to the urgency of answering those questions with an overall strategy for cyber-security.

Should that strategy include a requirement that Internet users receive a certification before they can go online? What do you think?

If you're a user concerned about password security on web sites that require login credentials, Sherman has posted a suggestion that will make your passwords less vulnerable to hackers. Many users choose their password from words that appear in the dictionary. The problem with dictionary-based passwords is that using a "brute-force" attack - simply attempting to guess a password with multiple attempts - hackers can use a database of dictionary words to crack a password.

So, what's an easy way to make an easy to remember password that doesn't use dictionary words? Think of a relatively long sentence, then use the first letters of each word in that sentence to create a password. For example, if your sentence is, "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog," then your password would be "Tqbfjotld." Sherman suggests adding numeric characters to add to the complexity of the password. Just think of a sentence that contains a number or numbers. 

Ars Technica makes note of the decline of the RealVideo streaming standard, with C-SPAN announcing plans to drop the format from its web site starting next month. RealVideo was first released in 1997, and quickly grew to become a dominant source for streaming video on the nascent world wide web. But, over the years it has been eclipsed by Windows Media and Flash video. 

C-SPAN, brought to viewers by the nation's cable companies, has been the go-to network for coverage of Congress for over 30 years. For several years, much of that coverage has been streamed and archived on C-SPAN's web site in RealVideo.

Now, C-SPAN is eliminating the RealVideo formatted video from its site due to the decreased demand by online viewers, replacing it with Windows Media and Flash options. Nearly all web users have the browser plug-ins necessary to view video using one or both.

 Good news for cable customers looking for more HD channels and faster broadband from their cable provider. The FCC has given the green light to five additional digital transport adapters (DTAs) for cable companies that are upgrading customers to digital cable. Because digital cable channels require less bandwidth on a cable system, bandwidth that is reclaimed during a digital conversion can be used to increase the number of HD channels or improve broadband speeds using the DOCSIS 3.0 specification. DTAs provide a low cost option to connect a television to digital cable short of a full featured digital set-top.

Many cable providers, including Insight, are in the process moving to an expanded digital delivery system.  Part of that process will include providing DTAs to customers to enable them to connect their older televisions with analog tuners to the new digital network. The digital set-top waivers provided for these five DTA models by the FCC as well the other models the Commission has already approved will allow cable providers to complete digital conversions to free up bandwidth for more advanced services.

If you needed another reason to avoid BitTorrent P2P sites, Twitter has given users one. According to a blog post from Twitter's director of trust and safety, several Twitter users have had their Twitter passwords reset due to an exploit that may have compromised their account. That exploit originated on several torrent sites that required users to register and provide login information. Unknown to the users on these sites, the sites contained backdoors that allowed the operators to gain access to the users' login credentials for other sites, including Twitter.

Ostensibly these users were frequenting the torrent sites in question to get links for files to download via P2P applications. Unfortunately, they got more than they bargained for. Twitter discovered the issue when many of the hacked accounts started abnormally following a small number of other Twitter users. As a result of the investigation into this suspicious activity, Twitter discovered the fraudulent torrent sites and reset the impacted users' Twitter passwords.

As this story illustrates, many of these torrent tracking web sites are run by unscrupulous individuals that could care less about those who frequent their sites. It's just not worth becoming a victim of one of these sites to get the latest bootleg television show or movie.

Did the Internet Explorer 6 flaw that was exploited by a hacking attack at Google in December of last year result in large numbers of users abandoning the older version of the Microsoft product? Data from Net Applications regarding web browser usage shows IE 6 dropping in its share of usage in the past month. As a whole, all versions of Internet Explorer remained the most popular web browser among users, with over 60 percent of users surfing the web with Internet Explorer in January. 

However, IE 6's individual share dropped from December 2009 to January 2010. In December IE 6 was the most popular version of the browser, but it was surpassed for the first time in January by Internet Explorer 8. It may be no coincidence that during the month of January, a serious flaw in IE 6 was publicized as the result of a hacker intrusion at Google.

Mozilla's Firefox browser maintained its share of around one quarter of all web surfers in January. Google's Chrome Browser has just over 5 percent of browser market share and Apple's Safari maintains 4.5 percent.

 Millions of fans of the ABC drama Lost have been looking forward to its last season which begins this week. This final season of Lost promises to tie up many of the unanswered questions that have lingered over the previous five seasons. But  when a bootleg copy of the premiere episode of Lost's sixth season ended up on YouTube, the question of how many fans would bend to the temptation of an early peek was answered. According to Reuters, it wasn't very many.

The first episode of the final season was aired for fans at a special fan preview in Hawaii prior to its airing nationally on ABC. One fan managed to sneak in a handheld camera, recorded the episode and posted it on YouTube. However, rather than attracting millions of anxious fans, viewers mostly avoided the online video. This Reuters report indicates that fans reported on Twitter their preference of watching an HD version of the show on television rather than a shaky online bootleg copy. Other fans, observing the general desire of Lost fans on Twitter to "bury" the bootleg also avoided the YouTube copy.

A grainy 320x240 online video versus 720p HD? I think the fans made the right decision.

The big game is less than a week away, pitting this season's best teams in the NFL in Miami. EngadgetHD has put together a great guide for those hosting events next Sunday, including everything from advice about HD televisions and DVRs to audio systems and smartphones to keep up with the game's score. 

On televisions, Engadget recommends a number of large screen options and even several projection options if you're getting a large group of friends together for the game. CBS is televising the game with 50 HD cameras, and Engadget's post has several recommendations to make sure viewers are receiving the highest quality HD source - including checking your HDMI cables on your HD set top to ensure optimal performance.

And the game wouldn't be complete without an audio system that projects the tackles like you're standing on the sidelines in full Dolby 5.1 surround. This post includes several options for optimal game audio.

It's the biggest television night of the year. Here's to a great experience watching the game while spending time with friends and family.  Pass the chili! 

Peer-to-peer networks have historically had the reputation of facilitating the trading of large amounts of pirated content. But is that reputation deserved? P2P advocates have touted the usefulness of P2P protocols and downplayed the seedier side of its uses. Princeton University senior Sauhard Sahi recently set out to survey exactly how much of the content traded via the BitTorrent peer-to-peer protocol is copyright infringing material and how much is legitimate.

Sahi took a random sample of over 1,000 files being traded via a particular BitTorrent network, and analyzed the content to determine whether it was pirated or not. Sahi found that only around one percent of the files could be classified as "likely non infringing." That means that 99 percent of all the files Sahi looked at were likely pirated versions of copyrighted works. Of the movies and television shows Sahi looked at on BitTorrent, every single one was found to be a pirated copy.

While Sahi's work only reviewed a single BitTorrent network, his findings confirm the longstanding reputation of P2P protocols that file sharing advocates would like to overlook. Most of the files shared via P2P are simply illegally copied content. 

The FBI has arrested another cable modem hacker that was selling modified cable modems to users that enabled them to steal broadband service from their cable provider. Mathew Delorey, who operated a web site called Massmodz, was arrested this week on charges of wire fraud and conspiracy. Delorey's site sold modified cable modems which were marketed in posts on Craigslist. Delorey was caught when he sold two hacked modems to an FBI agent that posed as a customer. 

The hacked modems sold by Delorey and others allow users to either steal broadband service by spoofing another legitimate user's cable modem MAC address or provide the user of the hacked modem access to uncapped broadband speeds. In October of last year, the author of a book on cable modem hacking was arrested on charges of conspiracy and aiding and abetting computer intrusion and wire fraud.

Rather than facing the prospect of decades in federal prison like Delorey and other hackers, it's it's a lot easier and cheaper to simply upgrade and pay for your broadband speed legitimately. Network management tools can quickly identify and track hacked modems. The chances of getting caught are high and just not worth the risk. 

The addressing protocol currently used by most systems on the Internet - IPv4 - has the possibility of assigning unique IP addresses to 4,294,967,296 connected systems. Unfortunately due to a large number of those addresses being reserved for private networks and multicast systems and the rapidly growing number of systems connected to the public Internet, the number of IPv4 addresses will run out in the near future. The only way additional systems can continue to connect to the Internet is the adoption of a new IP addressing system - IPv6.

IPv6 addresses use a 128-bit addressing system, unlike the 32-bit system of IPv4. The total addresses available using IPv6 is a really large number - on the order of a number the size of 34 followed by 37 zeros. That's enough IP addresses to last a long time into the future. In order to enable IPv6 addressing, ISPs must go through a conversion process from IPv4 to IPv6. Comcast, the largest cable broadband provider in the U.S. has announced its plans for an IPv6 conversion for its customers.

In the past week, Comcast announced four planned IPv6 trials for 2010, including the conversion of its business customers to IPv6 beginning in the third quarter of this year. 

It's expected that many other ISPs will be following suit with their own IPv6 conversions. Several estimates place the exhaustion of IPv4 addresses during 2010 or 2011.

The Federal Communications Commission is in the process of considering whether to adopt a set of rules that would impose regulations on how Internet providers manage the traffic on their networks. Because network bandwidth is a finite resource, ISPs employ various management techniques to ensure that all users are receiving the quality Internet experience that they expect. Should the FCC choose to adopt so-called network neutrality rules, the federal government might find themselves in the position of having to decide how providers manage their networks. 

With a draft of the proposed rules released to the public - network neutrality advocates are calling foul, according to this post from Ars Technica. Apparently even the ability for ISPs to reasonably manage their network - based on a clause in the draft rules - doesn't go far enough in the view of the Electronic Freedom Foundation (EFF).

Unfortunately if groups like the Electronic Freedom Foundation got their way with network neutrality regulations, freedom would be the last thing that many ISP users would experience.

Reasonable network management serves the purpose of allowing all users to have fair access to the network resources. Without it, a small minority of users would dominate the use of shared resources, degrading the Internet experience of nearly all network users. 

As the FCC considers these rules, it's important that they remain focused on the facts about reasonable network management and the critical result it provides to Internet users rather than the overblown rhetoric of net neutrality groups like the EFF.

Mark Cuban makes a good point about the lack of Adobe Flash integration on Apple's iPad. Flash, which drives nearly all online video sites, hasn't been included on any of the first three models of the iPhone and is also notably absent from the iPad. In the past, Apple has cited difficulties with the integration of Flash with its iPhone operating system. Without Flash integration, users surfing the web from their iPhone, and now the iPad, lose much of the rich Flash content on the web - including many streaming video web sites.

Cuban believes that the lack of Flash isn't a software problem related to the iPhone OS, but a hardware issue related to the fragility of AT&T's wireless network - the exclusive wireless provider for the iPhone and iPad users that choose to pay extra for a model that includes mobile connectivity. Apple has had three years to figure out how to put Flash support into the iPhone, but hasn't. Maybe it's related to the fact that if iPhone and iPad users had Flash they could begin streaming videos via AT&T's network, consuming much more bandwidth than they do now - additional bandwidth that AT&T's wireless network just isn't able to deliver. Cuban likens Apple's gatekeeper status on Flash to a pre-emptive network management on behalf of Apple.

And even though Apple listened to their customers and will provide an AT&T-free model of the iPad, those users will be subject to the same absence of Flash from the device, even though they're able to use broadband connections via wi-fi that will be more than capable of supporting the demand for streaming video.

Apple's impressive announcement of their new tablet computer earlier today was the focus of attention for technology enthusiasts worldwide. Indeed, several of our top-tier tech geeks at Insight are already on the wait list, unabashedly joyful about Apple's newest product. 

Apple CEO Steve Jobs described the first generation of the iPad at a major product announcement event yesterday and it appears that Apple has developed a remarkable device. The iPad looks to be a larger and more powerful version of the iPod Touch, with the capability to be a mobile media center - for reading e-books magazines and newspapers, listening to music, watching movies or using applications developed for the device's 9.7 inch screen.

Interestingly, it appears that Apple took a careful look at the complaints many users had about the iPhone's operation on AT&T's wireless network. One survey conducted by online retailer Retrevo prior to the iPad's announcement indicated that fully one-third of potential iPad buyers would pass on the device if it required a connection to AT&T's network. Apple's response to these complaints was clear in yesterday's announcement - the company is making the base model of the iPad completely AT&T-free -- offering no cellular connection at all.

Instead, the iPad comes standard with wi-fi connectivity, allowing users to take advantage of their existing broadband provider's reliable and speedy service with a wireless connection. However, if you want a cellular alternative where wi-fi isn't available, an option for wi-fi plus an AT&T connection will be available shortly after the base model comes to market in March.  Apple is also working on a myriad of accessories for the iPad ranging from a physical keyboard to a number of adapters that will allow users to connect other devices to the iPad.

I marvel at how Apple has come back from the brink of extinction, little more than a decade ago, to become one of the world's most successful and innovative companies of the 21st century. 

 It's an interesting question that is posed by Motorola's Media Experiences to Go blog. Will the development of 3D television be a game changer for digital television compression technology? MPEG-2 is a compression technology developed in the mid-90's that is currently widely used for digital television transmissions, including digital cable. MPEG-2 is good enough for 3D television at 1080p at 24 frames per second, but when it comes to true-resolution 3D, MPEG-4, a newer compression standard, is better.

Changing to MPEG-4 compression technology would require equipment changes on both the distribution end and the consumer end of the 3D television experience. Any consideration of changes would be based on 3D technology becoming a hit among consumers to the degree that there is significant interest in higher resolution 3D. Based on the Engadget podcast linked in their post, Motorola VP Bob Wilson believes that 3D will become the catalyst for an industry change to MPEG-4.

With the first 3D televisions hitting store shelves this year and programmers like ESPN and Discovery Networks planning their first 3D channels, there will soon be an opportunity to see whether 3D becomes the hit that high definition has been among consumers.  It remains to be seen if 3D will become perfected enough to generate huge consumer demand though and ditching the need wear glasses to watch it is, in my view, critical to mainstreaming 3D.  We'll be watching the developments closely.

As computer forensics experts continue to dissect the December hacking attack against Google and other U.S. companies, additional levels of the hackers' sophistication are being revealed. The attack was perpetrated against a flaw in the Internet Explorer browser that allowed hackers to take control of a user's computer. In order to take advantage of the browser vulnerability, the hackers relied upon phishing emails and web sites that encouraged a user to click on a malicious link.

Britain's Financial Times is now reporting that the hackers chose their victims' systems after careful research about them on social networking web sites. The hackers conducted reconnaissance on the victims' friends, using their research to create phishing attempts that the victims were likely to respond to by clicking on the malicious link. Using simple psychology that a person would be more likely to trust an email from someone that appeared to be an acquaintance, hackers were able to exploit that trust.

Computer scientists call this type of attack spear-phishing - using online research to create a front that tricks an otherwise careful user into giving a hacker access to their system. It success against a tech giant like Google shouts for the need for users to increase their vigilance - even if it means asking questions about emails and web sites from sources that appear to be trusted. 

YouTube Users Pass on Paying for Movies [NewTeeVee]

Who said selling television programming is easy? 

A few days ago, I posted on YouTube’s plans to bring several independent movies from the Sundance Film Festival to online viewers for a $4 rental fee. NewTeeVee reports that viewers haven’t shown much interest in paying to watch the five films now available.

As of Monday, all five films had been rented a total of less than 1,500 times. Keeping in mind that YouTube has a monthly U.S. audience in excess of 100 million viewers, that’s a very small conversion rate for YouTube’s first experiment with paid content. Running the numbers, NewTeeVee estimates that YouTube has generated less than $6,000 with movie rentals.

Considering the amount of promotion YouTube put into this test, including a featured banner at the top of the site’s home page, it would be hard to characterize it as anything but back to the drawing board time for YouTube’s paid content efforts.

Henry Blodget of the Silicon Alley Insider becomes the latest journalist to declare that traditional television's death is imminent in the wake of a new online video content deal. In a post, Blodget indicates that the last reason anyone would want cable television - access to live sporting events - is now on its way out thanks to the fact that YouTube has inked a deal with the Indian Premier League to carry every cricket match from that country live streaming to the Internet.

Forget Monday Night Football on ESPN, it's free online cricket matches that will cause millions of Americans to decide that their sports viewing preferences have radically changed in light of the value proposition that this new agreement holds for them. I've seen many journalists and bloggers who have cheered the possibility of free video content online replacing traditional television, but Blodget's post is one of the more absurd.

Here's the rub.  If live sports finds its way into people's homes by streaming it over the Internet, one should not assume it's going to be free.  In fact, based on all of my experiences with the owners of sports rights, I'd bet the ranch that it won't be.  So then, it simply becomes what is the best way to deliver those events so the rights owners can maximize the revenue potential.  So far, I haven't found one who is seeking to move to an a-la-carte strategy.  Just ask ESPN, Fox Sports, the NFL, MLB, and everyone else who owns sports rights and only allows distributors to carry their programming if it is packaged in a big tier of service with lots of other channels. 

And then there is this specific example.  I take nothing away from the game of cricket, as I'm sure it has many devoted followers, but I doubt cricket is the type of sporting event that Blodget claims he maintains a cable subscription to watch. And he's in good company with the vast majority of Americans who won't be cutting the cord anytime soon in favor of online cricket viewing.

Unfortunately for Blodget, Google and YouTube's deal with the Indian Premier League doesn't include viewing rights in the U.S. And, while there are paid subscription models for online sports video - like Major League Baseball's streaming service, the idea that the online platform could support a revenue model for free viewing of sporting events like NBA, NFL, NHL and NCAA games is a pipe dream at this time.

I love streaming video.  It adds so many possibilities to the viewing options of consumers and it makes our highly efficient high-speed broadband networks even more attractive to consumers.  But the existence of streaming video doesn't mean the imminent death of conventional television.  When television appeared in people's homes, pundits declared it would be the death of radio.  Sixty years later ... you know the story.

 With a budget the size of NASA's you might think that getting the Internet in space would be easy. Right?

Apparently not. Just last week the space agency announced that astronauts on board the International Space Station finally have access to the Internet for personal use. With the connection, astronaut TJ Creamer is now tweeting from space.

But the new connection is not without its faults. Connected via a satellite relay to an Earth-located broadband connected computer, Creamer tells Twitter followers that he has lots of requests for pictures from space, but "due 2 limited bandwidth" he can't send photos across his Internet connection and users can check Earth-located servers for pictures that have already been taken on NASA missions. 

Nonetheless, the ability to have a conversation with an astronaut orbiting the Earth via Twitter has proved to be quite popular. Creamer has amassed over 25,000 followers since his Twitter account went live last week.

 Americans spend, on average, over 23 minutes each day using Facebook. That's the latest data point from web statistics tracking firm comScore, in a report that shows Facebook has doubled over the past year in overall U.S. web traffic. In December 2008, the site recorded over 54 million unique visitors over the month. In December 2009, that number surpassed 111 million uniques, representing over 27 billion minutes spent updating and viewing the social networking site.

Overall, Facebook is the fourth most visited web site in the U.S. - up from the eleventh most visited in 2008. Of all time spent online by Americans, 7 percent is spent on Facebook. This article points out that Facebook's founder, Mark Zuckerberg, has predicted that Facebook users will double the amount of information they share each year, increasing the site's traffic, year over year. For 2009, that trend appeared to hold true.

Much has been made in political circles about this week's ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court that invalidated portions of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform act, but overlooked by most of the mainstream press was the historical nature of the ruling with respect to technology. This article from CNET observes that this Supreme Court opinion was the very first to include the words "blog" and the video sharing site "YouTube."

Technology was referenced in the majority opinion by Justice Anthony Kennedy to describe the changing media environment with respect to political campaigns. In the past, if someone wanted to put their political views in front of voters, they might buy television advertising or purchase an ad in a newspaper. While both of these activities are still one way of reaching out to voters, others, such as posting on a blog or uploading a video to YouTube, have quickly become more mainstream. 

In his opinion, Justice Kennedy said:

"Rapid changes in technology--and the creative dynamic inherent in the concept of free expression--counsel against upholding a law that restricts political speech in certain media or by certain speakers. Today, 30-second television ads may be the most effective way to convey a political message. Soon, however, it may be that Internet sources, such as blogs and social-networking Web sites, will provide citizens with significant information about political candidates and issues."

While I'm sure that opinions on this ruling run the entire gamut, it is noteworthy that the highest court in the land is considering the implications of technology and how it is used in making important decisions about the law.