It's sad. Google, Microsoft and Netflix has recently published its draft proposal of the Encrypted Media Extensions policy that aims to push DRM (Digital Rights Management) to web browsers. Although the proposal does not intend to forcibly implement the DRM platform, it's still a huge blow to parties that will be involved in the process. As expected, among those who responded to the draft posted on the W3C website is our good and faithful friend Mozilla. Mozilla was quick to question the proposed framework's capability to provide the much needed security demanded by content providers once it is implemented. Chris Pearce of Mozilla asked, "Can you highlight how robust content protection can be implemented in an open source web browser? How do you guard against an open source web browser simply being patched to write the frames/samples to disk to enable (presumably illegal) redistribution of the protected content?"

According to the authors David Dorwin (Google), Adrian Bateman (Microsoft) and Mark Watson (Netflix), their only aim is to provide essential components for a generic key-based content decryption system that is designed primarily to work with pluggable modules that will implement the decryption mechanisms. Furthermore, the Encrypted Media Extensions draft proposal emphasized the introduction of new API extensions for HTMLMediaElement, the interface that defines the specialized properties and JavaScript methods found in HTML audio/ video elements.

Most people would prefer PDF, DOC or TXT, as their primary formats for document types. Ingeniously, Microsoft has developed a file format-XPS (XML Paper Specification) similar to that of the PDF file format. But instead of the post-script language, this format makes use of XML (Extended Mark-up Language). XPS also comes handy when you don't have an printer installed and the XPS virtual printer allows you to save the document in "ready-to-print" original format for later printing.

If a document is in an uncanny format like XPS (Open XML Paper specification), attempting to view it in some older versions of Windows OS using a conventional approach may not work out so well (XPS Viewer comes pre-installed in Windows 7 and Vista). So, if you have an XPS document with you and would like to convert it to a more generic format that is legible, recognized and more convenient, then you can start using the following tools:

A. Online Tools

In our relentless pursuit of bringing to you the latest updates of the Windows 8 development, today we've uncovered a very interesting update about the next-generation Windows OS. One of the updates that we got is the Metro app which, according to Microsoft, will be made available to any Metro application via the file picker of the OS. Microsoft hopes to turn the tables around by synchronizing the Metro app and its web versions. Since the Metro app is developed by using JavaScript, HTML and CSS web technologies on WinRT, making it OS-wide is very possible.

Another splendid feature that we find very interesting is Skydrive, Microsoft's own version of Dropbox which is expected to rise above its underdog status this year. Microsoft plans to offer a Skydrive cloud space automatically to any application that is capable of running documents, images and photos. The Skydrive cloud space will also be made available as a Sharing contract for its users via the new Charms bar. Pretty cool huh? But perhaps the biggest and the most exciting thing about Skydrive in Windows 8 is its capability to individually synchronize files straight from your desktop. Yes, you heard that right.

Good news to all VLC users out there. VideoLAN, the developers of the open source media player has just released VLC 2.0 a.k.a. Twoflower. VLC 2.0 promises faster decoding on multi-core, GPU, and mobile hardware with greater flexibility in handling a wider range of formats. Another major update is HD and 10bits codecs, Twoflower also brings a new rendering pipeline that delivers new video filters for superior quality and better improved subtitles. What's more is that it's been revamped with a new interface as well as several hundred bug fixes, thanks to VideoLan's more than 160 dedicated volunteers.

New video features include a rewritten video ouput core and modules for subpicture blending in GPU, shader support in OpenGL for 10bits colorspace conversion, improved video output for Windows, Mac, Android and iOS, and anti-flickering and deinterlacing filters. Twoflower's audio system has been improved with a new set of resamplers for excellent audio quality and a new range of compressor and karaoke filters. VLC's audio core is now simplified for faster processing with new audio outputs for OS/2, Android and iOS.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation, in a desperate pursuit to finally put an end to the countless DNS attacks of the infamous worm named DNSCharger Trojan on millions of computers in the U.S. and other parts of the globe, has considered the plan to take down a huge number of DNS servers and along with it millions of Internet users. It's estimated that half of all Fortune 500 companies and 27 out of 55 government sectors are infected by the DNSCharger Trojan.

The FBI was able to temporarily stop the widespread of the virus by replacing the infected servers with newer ones, thus giving companies and individuals affluent time to clean up the mess. Unfortunately, the solution was not enough to stop the DNSCharger from spreading its wrath. Although the FBI, with the help of local authorities, was able to capture the Estonian programmers responsible for the attacks, by the time they knew about it, the Trojan has already been distributed to more than 100 countries.