Barracuda continues their poker game with Sourcefire today raising their $7.50 all cash bid to $8.25.  Are Dean and company just bluffing for publicity or are they willing to keep playing and stay in this game until all the cards are on the table?  I don't know for sure, but find it interesting that Barracuda did say to Sourcefire that they would be willing to explore ways that would show Sourcefire's increased value to Barracuda and based upon that increase their offer.  Of course $8.25 is still to low, but it is getting closer.  If the offer gets near 10 bucks, Sourcefire has some serious decisions to make.  In the meantime, Barracuda will again reap the PR bounty from having a seat at the hottest poker game in security.

Barracuda continues their poker game with Sourcefire today raising their $7.50 all cash bid to $8.25.  Are Dean and company just bluffing for publicity or are they willing to keep playing and stay in this game until all the cards are on the table?  I don't know for sure, but find it interesting that Barracuda did say to Sourcefire that they would be willing to explore ways that would show Sourcefire's increased value to Barracuda and based upon that increase their offer.  Of course $8.25 is still to low, but it is getting closer.  If the offer gets near 10 bucks, Sourcefire has some serious decisions to make.  In the meantime, Barracuda will again reap the PR bounty from having a seat at the hottest poker game in security.

1. To permanently remove the ability to engage in unfair play;
2. To complete its investigation and come to a full understanding of what occurred;
3. To refund the affected customers; and
4. To implement measures that prevents future incidents.
   

• January 2008: UltimateBet is alerted to suspicions of unfair play on the part of the account "NioNio". Within 24 hours, UltimateBet contacts the KGC to provide formal notice that UltimateBet has initiated an investigation of the incident. UltimateBet subsequently forwarded a copy of all related data to the KGC.
• January 2008: The "NioNio" account and related accounts are suspended pending further investigation.
• February 2008: Preliminary findings indicate abnormally high winning statistics for the suspect accounts. After discussions with the KGC, UltimateBet engages third-party gaming experts to assist with the analysis.
• February 2008: Investigators confirm that the suspect accounts are associated with individuals who had worked for UltimateBet under the previous ownership.
• February 2008: UltimateBet discovers the unauthorized code that allowed the perpetrators to obtain hole card information during live play. The code was part of a legacy auditing system that was manipulated by the perpetrators of the fraud.
• February 2008: UltimateBet immediately removes the unauthorized code and works with the KGC and with third-party auditors to verify that the security hole has been eliminated.
• March 2008: Six player accounts are confirmed to have participated in this scheme. No accounts were deleted at any point, although some account names were changed multiple times. The following account names are known to have been used in the fraudulent activity: NioNio, Sleepless, NoPaddles, nvtease, flatbroke33, ilike2win, UtakeIt2, FlipFlop2, erick456, WhackMe44, RockStarLA, stoned2nite, monizzle, FireNTexas, HeadKase01, LetsPatttty, NYMobser, and WhoWhereWhen.
• May 2008: The investigation confirms that the fraudulent activity took place from March 7, 2006 to December 3, 2007.
• May 2008: Gaming Associates certifies that the software code that enabled unfair play was removed from UltimateBet servers in February of 2008.
• May 2008: Customers affected by this incident are identified, and plans for corrective action are reviewed with the KGC.
  

• The security hole identified in UltimateBet's investigation has been permanently eliminated.
• UltimateBet is establishing a state-of-the-art software Security Center that consolidates and greatly enhances existing security capabilities. The first release of the new Security Center focuses solely on the immediate detection of abnormal winnings. Gaming mathematicians, poker professionals, and security software developers have all contributed to the specifications for the new Security Center.
• UltimateBet customers are no longer permitted to change account names unless they have suffered abuse in chat rooms. Requests for changes must be supported by proof of abuse and must be approved by the Chief Compliance Officer.
• In addition to its existing security department, UltimateBet has established a new specialized Poker Security team of professionals dedicated to fraud prevention.
• The refund process will begin immediately. The accounts associated with fraudulent activity did not use an unfair advantage in all play sessions. Regardless, UltimateBet is refunding all losses to these accounts.
• Accounts related to the fraudulent activity have been disabled, and the individuals associated with those accounts permanently banned from the site.
• UltimateBet has worked closely and transparently with its governing body, the KGC and its designated expert auditors, to determine exactly what happened, how it happened, and who was involved, and has taken action to prevent any possibility of this situation recurring.
• Tokwiro is pursuing its legal options in regard to this incident.
  

However, as some of you may realize from my previous postings (Vista Media Center Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3), I have been a fan of Media Center as a potential alternative to the recently-downgraded (don't get me started, even my wife lost what she considered *basic* features with the "standard" Comcast DVR downgrade) Comcast DVR.

The event that kicks this story of begins with a Poker game.  Just after Microsoft announced the new Zune line-up in October, I won a charity poker event where the prize was a custom Zune 30.  It was basically a "pearl" Zune with a special logo on the back and pre-loaded with some poker theme music that we heard during the event.  I played with it a few days, loading it with some songs and even buying a couple of recent ones from the Zune marketplace.

Then ... I discovered the killer feature ... integration with my Windows Vista Media Center.   Now, technically, this feature was not actually enabled when I discovered it.  However, it took me all of 5 minutes to find the registry mod on the Internet and enable it.  That became moot a week or so ago when the recent Zune upgrade rectified that issue, so now everyone can enjoy this feature by default.  Here is the very simple set-up instructions:

1. Install the Zune software on your media center
2. Make sure you add your "Recorded TV" folder, if it is in an odd place (mine is on an external half-TByte drive).
3. Plug in your Zune device as a guest
4. Sync recorded TV shows to your heart's content

Now, let's see why this rocks...

iPod vs Zune TV Comparison

The Apple Way...

There was much ado when the Daily Show became available on iTunes for $1 per show or $9.99 for 16 episodes (roughly 3 weeks of shows).  I browsed over to http://www.apple.com/itunes/store/tvshows.html just now and found this blurb:

Be a watercooler hero.  For as little as $1.99, you can own the latest episode of your favorite show as early as one day after it airs, or purchase past episodes that you missed (or want to watch over and over). Choose a Season Pass and get a whole season of a TV show, past or present, at a discount. Or buy Multi-Passes for shows that air every day, like The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, and enjoy a month’s worth of episodes downloaded automatically to your computer.

Well, yahoo, yipee!  Only $2 per show on your iPod, iPhone or Apple TV.

The Zune + Media Center Way ...

I record all of my favorite TV shows on my Windows Media Center.  In the evening, I plug in my Zune and choose which shows to sync for mobile watching.  For example, last night I chose the two latest episodes of Heroes which I had not gotten around to watching because of my recent Jury Duty and the holiday activities.  The Zune software automagically converts the show to 320x240 and syncs it to my Zune.

This morning on the Connector Bus to work, I watched Heroes Season 2, Episode 7, "Out of Time" and found out the surprising identity of "Adam Monroe."  I'll watch Episode 8 on the way home...

And My TV Movies Too...

And, it doesn't stop there.  As I described previously, I've been building up quite a library of TV Movies, cutting out commercials, compressing them and creating my own on-demand TV Movies library.  Since I got my Zune, I've switched to using MP4 compression with H.264 video and AAC3 audio, which gets added automatically to my Zune library and can be synced to the device... better together indeed!

With my Zune 30, this means I can load up about 50 kids movies and TV shows that I've previously recorded for those long road trips and vacations.  In fact, I can plug my Zune into the aux-video inputs in our mini-van and play directly on the integrated DVD video screen.

And it is all so easy...

My wife and I are always discussing key things we want in our next home purchase (like more garage space, for example) - though we have no plans to change houses anytime soon.  That has been the iPhone for me.  I knew immediately I didn't want one and knew that it wasn't going to change.

Why?  The dealbreaker for me is the lack of an actual phone number pad, where you have to use softkeys to dial your number.  I have that now.  I hate it and will never get a phone again that doesn't have a physical number pad for dialing (except maybe a really small one that is totally voice controlled - but that seems unlikely in the near-term.)

So, in case any phone vendors are out there, or if you are influential with a phone vendor, here are my asks:

• Stylish, small, form-factor.  Lots of good examples of this.  I like the "Chocolate" and the Sony Ericsson W600i, for example.
• Physical number pad.  The Nokia N series and the W600i are both good examples of having a good number pad, without a full keyboard.
• NO full keyboard.  I've got one and don't use it.  I don't want to type email messages or IMs on my phone, but if I have to, a soft keyboard or the numberpad is good enough.
• NO camera.  Get rid of it, reduce my price.  I have a camera and don't need a crappy one on my phone.
• Outlook Mobile.  I want to emphasize this by itself.  The *main* reason I want to any sort of smart phone is to keep my schedule sync'd up and easy to access.
• Good size screen with touch screen.  I do have to say I love the screen size on the iPhone - however, I do want the phone to be compact.  So, taking keyboard and screen together, I think the Nokia N73 is a good example of the right balance.
• Bluetooth.

Now, in the cheapy version, that would be it.  Wouldn't it be great to have that option?  Of course, I do want a few other features which I think are implied.  I think if the phone uses Windows Mobile, I probably get these automatically:

• I want to be able to play my mobile games (e.g. bejeweled 2, poker)
• I want to be able to load up and run a VOIP client and connect to my home network to accept or make calls.
• I would like to be able to access the Internet to check movie times.
• I would like to play my music

So, in summary, I just want a small, stylish phone, with Outlook scheduling and good Internet usability.  It'd be nice if I could replace my music player with it, but I have no interest in replacing my camera or having a touch screen only.