blaughw

The top cable lobby group says Google is blowing smoke when it comes to Title II and pole attachment rights.

Google told the Federal Communications Commission that reclassifying broadband providers as common carriers under Title II of the Communications Act would help Google and other companies gain access to infrastructure controlled by utilities. Section 224 of Title II covers pole attachments, and Google urged the FCC to enforce this section if it does move broadband under Title II.

But that isn't even necessary, the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (NCTA) argued in a filing today, saying that "Google already can avail itself of pole attachment rights under Section 224, notwithstanding its assertions to the contrary. Google’s letter states that Google Fiber 'lacks federal access rights pursuant to Section 224' because it offers an 'Internet Protocol video service that is not traditional cable TV.' But as NCTA has explained on numerous occasions... the law is clear that facilities-based providers of Internet Protocol television ('IPTV') services do qualify as cable operators under the Communications Act of 1934, as amended ('the Act'). The Act defines 'cable operator' as one who 'provides cable service over a cable system,' without any reference to the technology (IP-based, QAM-based, or otherwise) used to provide such service."

The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Obama administration for its views on an appeals court's conclusion that Oracle's Java application programming interfaces are protected by copyright.

The move (PDF) by the justices indicates that the high court is interested in the hotly contested intellectual property dispute. But whether the Supreme Court will enter the legal thicket won't be announced until after the administration responds in the coming months.

The legal fracas started when Google copied certain elements—names, declaration, and header lines—of the Java APIs in Android, and Oracle sued. A San Francisco federal judge largely sided with Google in 2012, saying that the code in question could not be copyrighted.

Calling it "the tablet that can replace your laptop," Microsoft announced today the Surface Pro 3. At 9.1mm thick, the company claims that it's the thinnest Intel Core-powered system ever made. It now sports a range of Core i3, i5, and i7 processors, instead of the i5 in the Surface Pro 2. It retains the Surface hinge, but it's been re-designed to be a friction hinge that looks able to hold in almost any position, up to 150 degrees.

In spite of the thinness, it's faster than the current Surface Pro 2. The screen is a 3:2 ratio 2160×1440 12-inch part, with the highest contrast ratios in the industry.

It's still not fanless, but with a newly designed fan that's apparently 30 percent more efficient than any other fan, owners should neither hear the fan nor feel the breeze from the vents around the edge. Battery life is said to be some 15 to 20 percent better than any other Surface. It's nonetheless light, at about 800 grams.

A test rack in Facebook's hardware electrical test lab filled with Facebook DIY hardware.

Sean Gallagher

MENLO PARK, CA—Building 17 of Facebook's headquarters sits on what was once a Sun Microsystems campus known fondly as "Sun Quentin." It now houses a team of Facebook engineers in the company's electrical lab. Everyday, they push forward the company vision of how data center hardware should be built. These engineers constantly bench-test designs for their built-in-house server hardware—essentially putting an end to server hardware as we know it.

Ars recently visited Facebook's campus to get a tour of the server lab from Senior Manager of Hardware Engineering Matt Corddry, leader of Facebook's server hardware design team. What's happening at Facebook's lab isn't just affecting the company's data centers, it's part of Facebook's contribution to the Open Compute Project (OCP), an effort that hopes to bring open-source design to data center server and storage hardware, infrastructure, and management interfaces across the world.

Facebook, Amazon, and Google are all very picky about their server hardware, and these tech giants mostly build it themselves from commodity components. Frank Frankovsky, VP of hardware design and supply chain operations at Facebook, was instrumental in launching the Open Compute Project because he saw the waste in big cloud players reinventing things they could share. Frankovsky felt that bringing the open-source approach Facebook has followed for software to the hardware side could save the company and others millions—both in direct hardware costs and in maintenance and power costs.