From fox43.trb.com:
Scuse Me While I Kiss The Sky
March 30 03 SI-1409
British filmmaker Declan Desmond (guest star Eric Idle) heads to Springfield in order to film a documentary on the lives of American elementary students. Springfield Elementary is chosen as the school to be filmed and Bart and Lisa quickly find themselves at the heart of the film. Bart plans on showing how cool he is by hitting kids with dirt clods, but Nelson hits him first and Bart loses his status as a cool kid. Things get worse for Bart when Nelson steals a hood ornament and becomes king of the schoolyard, prompting even Milhouse to tell Bart how big of a loser he is. Principal Skinner wants to show Desmond the more enlightened side of the school and introduces him to Lisa. However, Desmond isn't impressed and belittles her into thinking that her life has no direction and she'll never succeed. Lisa becomes depressed and heads to the Springfield Museum to find inspiration. After deciding Paleontology and Geology aren't for her, she's captivated by the planetarium and decides to devote herself to astronomy. Lisa convinces Homer to buy her a telescope and she sets off to discover the wonders of the heavens. But, much to her dismay she finds that Springfield's light pollution is impeding her ability to view the stars. Lisa starts a petition to rid the city of it's nighttime lights, but after Mayor Quimby shuts down the lights, crime soars and the residents demand more light. Quimby turns on so much light that night becomes day and no one can get any sleep. Bart and Lisa, with Homer's help, overload the power plant and bring night back to Springfield. An angry mob is about to tear the kids apart until a meteor shower shows them just how beautiful the night sky is.
Anyone who's seen this episode can agree, those animals (and humans) were doing some weird stuff from all of that light! And we all know, if its on Simpsons, it must be true!
You can use the exact same compression matrices and quants from Mpeg-2 with Mpeg-4. Both support interlaced and progressive video (although you may have a harder time finding a reliable field-based format for Mpeg-4) and both support HD resolutions. The main difference between the two, is that Mpeg-4 video is part of a much larger specification designed to deal with not only video, but content delivery mechanisms (i.e. interactive things). If the specs could have been finalized quicker, it would have been a Flash killer.
In any event, the differences in quality you see are more than likely related to implementation (i.e. differences in spec implementation between XviD, DivX 5, MS Mpeg-4, etc.), user error, and the fact that you're taking a compressed video source and compressing it again. Although many people do insist that Mpeg-4 over-quantanizes black and other 'dark' colors, resulting in no true 'black', that could just be perception.
For a better view of how something like this works, open a PNG, save it as a JPG with a high compression level. Open the JPG, save it as a another JPG with a high compression level. Repeat 10 times and tell us the result.
The practical applications for this device...
on
T-Shirt Cannon
·
· Score: 4, Funny
are endless!
"This unit includes everything you need to launch soft items further and faster. The 2? X 23? PVC holds big surprises for your audience and creates lots of attention. Other soft items besides your rolled up T-Shirts are Nerf Balls, Puff Balls, confetti, streamers, advertising leaflets, hot dogs, feathers, SnoBiz® or other snow flake products, rose pedals, balloons (uninflated), etc."
I was just thinking to myself the other day... wouldn't it be nice if I could pull these hot dogs and brats off of the grill and launch them onto a plate in the house?
The original story description was entirely non-coherent. So for anyone who actually cares, according to the article, bananas are being sequenced because the varieties favored by Western civilization are a nautral hybrid, and also happen to be sterile. This makes it impossible to crossbreed with Asian varieties that are more resistant to pests and diseases, hence, gene sequencing... all so that CostaRicans can use less pesticides, make more money from all of us banana loving Westerners.
I can understand why cable companies are openly against PVRs with commercial skip and commercial removal capabilities, but why wasn't there this much of an outcry over VHS devices with the same commercial avoidance features?
The bottom line here is FairUse and the unfortunate news for them is once that signal enters your home (provided you haven't used any illegal methods for decoding it) its yours to do whatever you personally want to do with it (i.e. not rebroadcasting).
The recording rate of the TV capture card appears to max out at 15 frames per second. If I were intending to archive these programs forever, I'd probably invest in a better card. But for timeshifting shows like the evening news from France (for my wife) and The Red Green Show (for me), 15 fps is adequate.
15 FPS, I'd hardly call that adequate for 30 FPS NTSC television, but to each his own I suppose.
If a younger person about halfway through college wanted to shift focus and become a CG effects programmer or artist even, where would you recommend he/she begins? Should they just stick with a CS degree and do master's work in CG? What if your school offers no particular CG degree?
I'm really surprised China isn't trying to get in on this, considering that, aside from its enormous nuclear arsenal, Russia isn't a competing super power any longer.
Its too bad the Chinese space program can't seem to get off the ground (bad pun I know).
Is that when the vulnerability was first submitted they also submitted some interesting finds about the ftp server on BitchX.com serving trojaned and clean versions, depending on the originating IP, demonstrating that the server had been 0wned (more than likely).
Sad that the developers didn't notice sooner, and it makes you wonder how many boxes have now additionally been 0wned because of this.
A 5 channel AC3 file has an equivalent bitrate of 384kbps. That's about 75kbps per channel. Its already quite low in terms of data usage. AC3 only consumes alot of space because it is almost 3 times the amount of channels. Its still going to consume the same amount of space as OGG.
The only reason AC3 via SPDIF works into a reciever is the fact that recievers decode AC3, there aren't any recievers that decode OGG.
5 channel audio already works, but as I said, its very impractical, and the space savings are practically nothing. So basically you transcode (each time doing so losing quality) for nothing.
Much of this is beyond the scope of Slashdot, I would recommend you read up at http://doom9.org and at his forums at http://forum.doom9.org
"It's the kind of stuff," Blackley adds, "that we talked about at GDC [Game Developers Conference], when I'd hang out with Phil Harrison [of Sony] or those Nintendo guys. We all have the same problem. We'd launch a new console but we can't get people to make new content for it. It's a big investment for the publishers and it's a risk for developers. Based on our experience we realized there's an opportunity to make a company that could really encourage a lot of products to be made and to be made really well."
So what will this company be doing? A development company for developers by developers instead of by MBA monkeys?
Yea, I agree. MAD is easily the BEST software mpeg audio decoder currently available. Its quality is simply amazing, so I can't see why the OGG people wouldn't do what they could to help him implement the same for their format.
Multichannel DivX with OGG is not all that its cracked up to be. Good multichannel surround sound will take a bitrate similar to the original AC3 bitrate, so you're transcoding for virtually no space savings, secondly, what exactly will you play this multichannel OGG on? I suppose you can use the Multichannel DirectShow filter and map it to your computer speakers manually, but its going to be a while before you can output it via SPDIF and play it on something 'real'. Hence the advantage of AC3. For 2 channel tracks, I suppose if you like the sound of OGG better, or wanted to use a lower bitrate, that would work, except for all of the lame bugs in OGM files.
After reading tons and tons of articles and hype about the PS2, and spending the last weekend monopolizing the PS2 down the hall. I am really disappointed. The graphics, compared to Dreamcast, or even just Playstation are pretty bland. One can only hope the GameCube and Xbox are better. For now I will stick with my N64 and Zelda 2:-)
At least my friend down the hall can justify his expensive purchase with the nifty yabasic programs he can write. WOOHOO! Maybe someone can write some sort of utility to load up CD-R games on the PS2.:P
I think that when we all consider SDMI's impact on MP3 technology, we need to take another such encryption effort into consideration. CSS. MPAA has tried just as RIAA is now trying to encrypt their so called "artist's rights". And we all know what happened to CSS. SDMI will be the same. No matter how complicated of a system it uses or how it cyphers the data, there will always be one of us that figures out how to uncypher it in a way that we can still use it. (i.e. computer software) When one looks at the hardware aspect of SDMI (Mp3 players), it seems like when faced with the potential of convenience plunging and cost escalating, I, for one, wouldn't even consider a portable stand alone Mp3 player a viable solution if I had to comply to SDMI. I'd just as soon burn my Mp3's to Compact Disc. On the bright side, there will probably be at least one Mp3 player that will circumvent some aspect of SDMI. (i.e. Region circumvension with older DVD players)
Slashdot Mirror
How about an entry in \windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts for microsoft.com?
telnet://mud.arctic.org:2700
From fox43.trb.com: Scuse Me While I Kiss The Sky March 30 03 SI-1409 British filmmaker Declan Desmond (guest star Eric Idle) heads to Springfield in order to film a documentary on the lives of American elementary students. Springfield Elementary is chosen as the school to be filmed and Bart and Lisa quickly find themselves at the heart of the film. Bart plans on showing how cool he is by hitting kids with dirt clods, but Nelson hits him first and Bart loses his status as a cool kid. Things get worse for Bart when Nelson steals a hood ornament and becomes king of the schoolyard, prompting even Milhouse to tell Bart how big of a loser he is. Principal Skinner wants to show Desmond the more enlightened side of the school and introduces him to Lisa. However, Desmond isn't impressed and belittles her into thinking that her life has no direction and she'll never succeed. Lisa becomes depressed and heads to the Springfield Museum to find inspiration. After deciding Paleontology and Geology aren't for her, she's captivated by the planetarium and decides to devote herself to astronomy. Lisa convinces Homer to buy her a telescope and she sets off to discover the wonders of the heavens. But, much to her dismay she finds that Springfield's light pollution is impeding her ability to view the stars. Lisa starts a petition to rid the city of it's nighttime lights, but after Mayor Quimby shuts down the lights, crime soars and the residents demand more light. Quimby turns on so much light that night becomes day and no one can get any sleep. Bart and Lisa, with Homer's help, overload the power plant and bring night back to Springfield. An angry mob is about to tear the kids apart until a meteor shower shows them just how beautiful the night sky is. Anyone who's seen this episode can agree, those animals (and humans) were doing some weird stuff from all of that light! And we all know, if its on Simpsons, it must be true!
You can use the exact same compression matrices and quants from Mpeg-2 with Mpeg-4. Both support interlaced and progressive video (although you may have a harder time finding a reliable field-based format for Mpeg-4) and both support HD resolutions. The main difference between the two, is that Mpeg-4 video is part of a much larger specification designed to deal with not only video, but content delivery mechanisms (i.e. interactive things). If the specs could have been finalized quicker, it would have been a Flash killer.
In any event, the differences in quality you see are more than likely related to implementation (i.e. differences in spec implementation between XviD, DivX 5, MS Mpeg-4, etc.), user error, and the fact that you're taking a compressed video source and compressing it again. Although many people do insist that Mpeg-4 over-quantanizes black and other 'dark' colors, resulting in no true 'black', that could just be perception.
For a better view of how something like this works, open a PNG, save it as a JPG with a high compression level. Open the JPG, save it as a another JPG with a high compression level. Repeat 10 times and tell us the result.
are endless!
"This unit includes everything you need to launch soft items further and faster. The 2? X 23? PVC holds big surprises for your audience and creates lots of attention. Other soft items besides your rolled up T-Shirts are Nerf Balls, Puff Balls, confetti, streamers, advertising leaflets, hot dogs, feathers, SnoBiz® or other snow flake products, rose pedals, balloons (uninflated), etc."
I was just thinking to myself the other day... wouldn't it be nice if I could pull these hot dogs and brats off of the grill and launch them onto a plate in the house?
Here: http://www.neowin.net/comments.php?id=9815&categor y=main
The original story description was entirely non-coherent. So for anyone who actually cares, according to the article, bananas are being sequenced because the varieties favored by Western civilization are a nautral hybrid, and also happen to be sterile. This makes it impossible to crossbreed with Asian varieties that are more resistant to pests and diseases, hence, gene sequencing... all so that CostaRicans can use less pesticides, make more money from all of us banana loving Westerners.
I can understand why cable companies are openly against PVRs with commercial skip and commercial removal capabilities, but why wasn't there this much of an outcry over VHS devices with the same commercial avoidance features?
The bottom line here is FairUse and the unfortunate news for them is once that signal enters your home (provided you haven't used any illegal methods for decoding it) its yours to do whatever you personally want to do with it (i.e. not rebroadcasting).
The recording rate of the TV capture card appears to max out at 15 frames per second. If I were intending to archive these programs forever, I'd probably invest in a better card. But for timeshifting shows like the evening news from France (for my wife) and The Red Green Show (for me), 15 fps is adequate.
15 FPS, I'd hardly call that adequate for 30 FPS NTSC television, but to each his own I suppose.
http://doom9.org
If a younger person about halfway through college wanted to shift focus and become a CG effects programmer or artist even, where would you recommend he/she begins? Should they just stick with a CS degree and do master's work in CG? What if your school offers no particular CG degree?
I'm really surprised China isn't trying to get in on this, considering that, aside from its enormous nuclear arsenal, Russia isn't a competing super power any longer.
Its too bad the Chinese space program can't seem to get off the ground (bad pun I know).
Is that when the vulnerability was first submitted they also submitted some interesting finds about the ftp server on BitchX.com serving trojaned and clean versions, depending on the originating IP, demonstrating that the server had been 0wned (more than likely).
Sad that the developers didn't notice sooner, and it makes you wonder how many boxes have now additionally been 0wned because of this.
A 5 channel AC3 file has an equivalent bitrate of 384kbps. That's about 75kbps per channel. Its already quite low in terms of data usage. AC3 only consumes alot of space because it is almost 3 times the amount of channels. Its still going to consume the same amount of space as OGG.
The only reason AC3 via SPDIF works into a reciever is the fact that recievers decode AC3, there aren't any recievers that decode OGG.
5 channel audio already works, but as I said, its very impractical, and the space savings are practically nothing. So basically you transcode (each time doing so losing quality) for nothing.
Much of this is beyond the scope of Slashdot, I would recommend you read up at http://doom9.org and at his forums at http://forum.doom9.org
In the article, Blackley is quoted as saying
"It's the kind of stuff," Blackley adds, "that we talked about at GDC [Game Developers Conference], when I'd hang out with Phil Harrison [of Sony] or those Nintendo guys. We all have the same problem. We'd launch a new console but we can't get people to make new content for it. It's a big investment for the publishers and it's a risk for developers. Based on our experience we realized there's an opportunity to make a company that could really encourage a lot of products to be made and to be made really well."
So what will this company be doing? A development company for developers by developers instead of by MBA monkeys?
Yea, I agree. MAD is easily the BEST software mpeg audio decoder currently available. Its quality is simply amazing, so I can't see why the OGG people wouldn't do what they could to help him implement the same for their format.
Multichannel DivX with OGG is not all that its cracked up to be. Good multichannel surround sound will take a bitrate similar to the original AC3 bitrate, so you're transcoding for virtually no space savings, secondly, what exactly will you play this multichannel OGG on? I suppose you can use the Multichannel DirectShow filter and map it to your computer speakers manually, but its going to be a while before you can output it via SPDIF and play it on something 'real'. Hence the advantage of AC3. For 2 channel tracks, I suppose if you like the sound of OGG better, or wanted to use a lower bitrate, that would work, except for all of the lame bugs in OGM files.
After reading tons and tons of articles and hype about the PS2, and spending the last weekend monopolizing the PS2 down the hall. I am really disappointed. The graphics, compared to Dreamcast, or even just Playstation are pretty bland. One can only hope the GameCube and Xbox are better. For now I will stick with my N64 and Zelda 2 :-)
:P
At least my friend down the hall can justify his expensive purchase with the nifty yabasic programs he can write. WOOHOO! Maybe someone can write some sort of utility to load up CD-R games on the PS2.
I think that when we all consider SDMI's impact on MP3 technology, we need to take another such encryption effort into consideration. CSS. MPAA has tried just as RIAA is now trying to encrypt their so called "artist's rights". And we all know what happened to CSS. SDMI will be the same. No matter how complicated of a system it uses or how it cyphers the data, there will always be one of us that figures out how to uncypher it in a way that we can still use it. (i.e. computer software) When one looks at the hardware aspect of SDMI (Mp3 players), it seems like when faced with the potential of convenience plunging and cost escalating, I, for one, wouldn't even consider a portable stand alone Mp3 player a viable solution if I had to comply to SDMI. I'd just as soon burn my Mp3's to Compact Disc. On the bright side, there will probably be at least one Mp3 player that will circumvent some aspect of SDMI. (i.e. Region circumvension with older DVD players)
Just my take on the whole thing