CEO of video sharing portal Guba quits Thomas McInerney has stepped down from the video-sharing site and more executives are likely to follow. McInerney who’s also the co-founder of the nine year old portal feels that the time has come for a new pursuit and to let go. The turbulence came despite of the fact that video sharing is one of the hottest segments in digital entertainment following the success of YouTube, which is currently the dominant player in the segment. Eric Lambrecht, who co-founded Guba with McInerney and is currently chief technology officer, is taking over as CEO on an interim basis. However, some analysts are skeptical about whether video-sharing companies can make money as it’s uncertain whether advertisers will want their brands associated with content that is sometimes vulgar, violent or boring.

AMD wins small victory in anti-trust case Advanced Micro Devices won a small victory in its antitrust case, prevailing on a dispute whether Intel would share information from operations outside the United States. Following AMD’s request, a judicially appointed special master overseeing elements of the case had recommended that Intel should share information from foreign operations in the evidence gathering process called discovery. Intel said that it wouldn’t fight this recommendation. The case is scheduled to go on trial in April 2009. AMD filed its anti-trust case against Intel in 2005 alleging that Intel has monopoly power and used it to keep AMD out of the market. AMD might get to see documents and depose witnesses. However, getting the information accepted as eveidence in the court of law is not certain. Intel indicated that it will challenge AMD attempts to enter the foreign information as evidence.

Virtual reality to get its own network International Association of Virtual Reality Technologies plans to build a network called Neuronet that will solely support virtual reality games and business applications. Neronet is planned to be separate from the Internet and it would evolve as a public network capable of meeting the data transmission requirements of emerging cinematic and immersive virtual reality technologies. Though the consumer applications are expected only by 2009, the first generation Neronet is scheduled to go live this year itself. It would be an R&D network at first and will function as a sort of sandbox for virtual reality and gaming innovators around the world to develop new applications for a second generation network. The group claims that the network will support high-speed communication, which is a requirement for virtual reality. Virtual reality will require the transmission of large quantities of graphics and other data, as well as fast responses to give users a better illusion of realism. IAVRT is overseeing the registration of Neuronet domain names, the group said. Trademark holders can get an early start from February 5 to June 1. The general public is set to get access after June 4. The group’s membership is open to companies, educational groups and individuals, but it doesn’t identify its current backers by name.

Software that prevents crashes and hacker attacks DieHard is a piece of software which helps programs to run correctly and protects them from a range of security vulnerabilities. It has been developed by computer scientists from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst — and Microsoft. DieHard prevents crashes and hacker attacks like a Buffer Overflow attack by focusing on memory. There are versions for the program that runs on Windows or Linux. DieHard is free for non-commercial use. Computer scientist Emery Berger from the University of Massachusetts Amherst developed DieHard together with Microsoft researcher Ben Zorn. Berger has received a $30,000 grant from Microsoft, a $30,000 grant from Intel, and a $300,000 grant from the National Science Foundation for his work on DieHard. First, the software takes a compact row of memory buildings and spreads them around in the landscape. It also randomly assigns addresses—a password that has a downtown address in one session may be in the suburbs next time around. And in some versions of the program, DieHard will secretly launch two additional versions of the program the user is running—if a program starts to crash, that buggy version gets shut down and one of the other two is selected to remain open. DieHard can also tell a user the likelihood that they’ll be affected by a particular bug.

Ford gets in Sync with in-car technology Ford cars may soon be seen bundled with Microsoft’s technlogy. The system will include a hands-free Bluetooth wireless system and an in-vehicle operating system that would eventually be an option for the entire Ford brand lineup. The system which would be called Sync is designed to enable hands-free mobile-phone communication and other wireless information transfers in the car, including e-mail and music downloads. The technology would make its debut next year on at least two Ford models, the Focus and Five Hundred sedans. This system would eventually be an option in the entire line-up including trucks. The company plans to announce Sync at the Detroit auto show and the Consumer Electronics show in Las Vegas. Microsoft will showcase the technologies it’s working on with Ford at the shows.

Companies probe possible high-def DVD hack The companies associated with the encryption system for high-definition DVDs are probing a hacker’s claim that he has cracked the code protecting the discs from piracy. The hacker known as Muslix64 posted the details of how he unlocked the encryption known as the Advanced Access Content System also know as AACS on the Internet. The software protects against illegal copying by restricting the devices on which they can be played. The AACS system was developed by companies including Walt Disney, Intel, Microsoft, Toshiba and Sony to protect high-definition formats, including Toshiba’s HD DVD and Sony’s Blu-ray. The hacker posted a video and decryption codes showing how to copy several films on a popular hacker Internet blog and a video-sharing Web site. Muslix64 also promises to post more source code that will allow users to copy a wider range of titles.

Apple takes $84 million charge and defends Jobs Following speculation that a key document had been forged in the allocation of its stock options, Apple Computer released new information defending its chief executive officer, Steve Jobs. Apple mentioned in its reports that it would restate its financial results for the last three years and also take a charge of $84 million. According to the reports, even though Jobs was aware of the selection of some favorable grants, he did not receive or financially benefit from these grants or appreciate the accounting implications. Some reports claimed that chief executive Jobs had received a grant of 7.5 million share options in 2001 without the required approval from the full Apple board and that documents were subsequently drawn up to suggest that the board had approved them. The allegations had sparked speculations that Jobs could be forced to resign. Earlier this year, one of Apple’s former chief financial officers quit the company’s board of directors after an internal probe found evidence of some irregularities in stock option allocation.

The ‘D’ of Computers Walter Bright would soon release version 1.0 of the D Programming Language. D is a systems programming language, focused on combining the power and high performance of C and C++ with the programmer productivity of modern languages like Ruby and Python. The language gives special attention to the needs of quality assurance, documentation, management, portability and reliability. D is statically typed, and compiles direct to native code. Its key points are—supporting imperative, object oriented, and template metaprogramming styles. It follows the C language syntax, and its look and feel is very close to that of C++. There are currently two implementations, the Digital Mars DMD package for Win32 and x86 Linux, and the GCC D Compiler package for several platforms, including Windows and Mac OS X. A collection of D source code, libraries, tools and projects are available for download.