Rob Brooks-Bilson

Matt Riley, one of our Sr. Engineers at Amkor has just released his first open source project, dubbed the Deployment Server. It's a ColdFusion application (Mach-II 1.5, ColdSpring, EXT 2.0, Java SE 6, Ant 1.7.0, SVN, SQL Server) that's designed to make deploying applications to various server environments simple, auditable, and secure.

We have a very rigorous SDLC at Amkor, and an even more rigorous internal and external audit. As part of that, it's important that we have a clear segregation of duties between developers, QA, approvers, and those that can promote code. In order to make our lives easier, Matt's created an application that provides a security layer around SVN and ANT that allows our operations group (or anyone else defined in the security policies) to specify which builds/tags are to be deployed, and to which server(s).

The application is highly configurable, but because of that, it's not just something you can download and run out of the box - it has to be customized/configured to meet the needs of your particular environment and process. For more information, or to download, check it out on the RIAForge website.

Any and all feedback is welcome.

I've seen a lot of discussion around pricing for the upcoming Tuning Adapter being developed for Tivo Series 3 and Tivo HD boxes to allow for access to channels delivered via SDV, but nothing official has been announced - until now.

I just received a letter from Cox Communications in Phoenix stating that the tuning adapter is expected later this year (no official date), and that it will be provided by Cox at NO ADDITIONAL CHARGE. This is excellent news for Tivo owners concerned about access to programming.

PDF scan of the front of the letter is linked below (enclosures).

In all, Cox is moving/adding a total of 51 channels to SDV, all of them standard definition for now. Included in the list are DIY, Fuse, Fit TV, G4, and several sports, Spanish language, and public safety channels.