Yeah, and this has worked SO well for DDO. Turbine wants to follow the Zynga model, but hopefully their users are smart enough not to willingly trade their private info to advertising networks for "virtual points"...
Based on the tests that we have performed, it is very clear that there is a very big difference between the best and worst browsers. Therefore we can only conclude that the results are valid and true.
Now if that isn't a rigorous application of the scientific method I don't know what is!
I'm not really sure that is the question, though. If you look at most of the words in a national level spelling bee, many are so obscure that the judges, let alone the audience, seem to have never heard of them before (go look up the winning words of the Scripps Spelling Bee - it's amazing how in the last decade or two the words have become so much more obscure, as the contestants have evolved from "generally smart, well educated kids" to "single minded specialists"...)
Sure, practicing spelling complicated words to a reasonable degree is a useful skill for elementary school children - especially when they start to learn about root words, origins, etc, that will help them guess the spelling or *meanings* of words they have never heard. But forcing your kids to memorize a thousand words a day from the dictionary seems more like punishment than useful education!
That isn't to say instilling a good work ethic to study and education isn't going to help the kids in other areas, as well. I just have a hard time agreeing that this obsessive focus on spelling obscure words is really the best way to maximize a child's educational potential...
Wow. That is pretty bad... Though I have to say it's as much bait and switch on *Apple's* part as AT&T, since Jobs was the one hyping this "great deal" more than AT&T ever did.
Definitely glad I got the Wifi model now;) Honestly, I could only think of a couple cases where I'd ever want Internet access with it away from Wifi reception, and I'm already getting screwed by AT&T for iPhone 3G coverage for that purpose...
They grandfathered the existing accounts. That means anyone who ALREADY has one gets to keep the original terms. The change only applies to new accounts.
I agree that it's really lame on AT&T's part, but it is clearly NOT bait and switch. Get your terms right before making accusations of shady/illegal business practices vs just plain stupid ones...
True - and really, ANY protocol can support redirecting as long as it's part of the protocol, by definition;)
Just curious, though, does anyone actually *use* RTSP any more? I think most of the big players (Apple, Microsoft/Silverlight, Netflix, Vudu, CinemaNow, etc) have all switched to some form of HTTP adaptive streaming. And others are swiching away from Flash (Netflix, Youtube) where possible, partly because it doesn't support seamless adaptive bitrate changes with RTMP...
It's not as much a matter of "using DNS" to determine your location, it's using the IP of the DNS server asking for the CDN's IP to determine your location - with the possibly faulty assumption that your DNS server is near you geographically.
The problem is the CDN's DNS only sees your DNS IP, not your computer's IP.
There are actually a couple solutions to this, though. The most efficient one is Google's proposed extension to DNS that basically forwards the IP of the host originally making the request.
Another solution is for the application server to notice that your IP is not the best for the CDN, and do an HTTP 302 redirect to the correct one. That adds a bit more latency for the orignal request, so is best for larger files (like streaming video, etc). Plus, it only works for HTTP.
Yeah, and the "restriction" is basically "if you try to sue someone for patent infringement on the code covered by this license, then your license to use it is terminated".
If you are scared to use software because you may be restricted from suing other people using it, then by all means DON'T USE IT.
I was born premature and needed a blood transfusion due to *insufficient* RBC. I also apparently had a decent case of jaundice. Funny how low RBC seems to have "caused" same jaundice as high RBC you are talking about? Or maybe there is another reasons?
It's definitely possible form both cases.
Jaundice is caused by high bilirubin levels, usually caused by more dead RBC than the liver can process. Two of the ways that this can happen are too many RBC in general (where a normal percentage die), or too many RBC dying (from a normal number of RBC). The latter could cause jaundice *and* anemia, which might require a transfusion.
Anyway, the GP had a good point - too many can be as bad as too few. You almost had a good point, but your snide attitude and half-assed "research" kind of deflated it.
1) duh. He was awesome. My point was that after Airplane! (and partly due to it) he mostly only got roles that parodied himself. None were nearly as funny as Airplane! but they still had their moments, often due to him...
...is the additional 100 million hours of productivity lost from all of the imagination-less people posting, blogging, tweeting, and re-tweeting the same inane comment, "wow, Google's Pac-Man logo just ruined millions of dollars of productivity today."
You should probably ask your government why they *issued* at least 30 patents that are now part of the MPEG-LA licence pool, then...
Besides, if anyone actually READ my original comment, I pointed out that a lot of codec patents are on generic algorithms that can be implemented in hardware or software. I am pretty sure that if someone tries to use software to implement an algorithm that was originally described in hardware. they are not going to easily be able to defend themselves...
Then again, this points out how the whole system is really broken, because the very definition of "hardware" vs "software" is completely blurred these days. A lot of "hardware" implements codecs using DSPs with embedded microcode anyway. But honestly if someone comes up with a novel technical idea that is implemented in this way, shouldn't it be patentable? If no, then I don't see how the whole concept of patents in general make any sense...
Re:The life span of a cell phone platform=24 month
on
H.264 and VP8 Compared
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· Score: 1
Look how many audio formats are available for you portable music player.
I, like the many (a vast plurality, and almost majority), have an iPod (or iPhone, in my case). How many open audio formats does it support? Ogg/Vorbis? Nope. FLAC? Nope. It supports AAC, MP3, WAV, and Apple Lossless. Wow, what a variety...
But it's not even really up to the phone manufacturers. It has to be implemented by the chip manufacturers (though of course the phone manufacturers do have input into the chip features, and a few of them like Samsung even make their own).
That said, Broadcom (more STBs than phones, but they dominate the STB and Blu-Ray market)was one of the companies stating they would support it. If it weren't for that, I'd say VP8 was stillborn. With their hardware support, it may just get in enough devices to have a chance in the embedded market...
Re:The life span of a cell phone platform=24 month
on
H.264 and VP8 Compared
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· Score: 1
All of the major video providers on the Web - even the porn ones - are now migrating to HTML5 and seem ready to offer their content on whatever Codec you have handy. They're not choosy. They don't have a dog in this fight.
If only that were true... but the reality is that of those four I mentioned only YouTube is considering HTML5 right now, because there is currently no DRM solution for it. I could add in other large players like Hulu as well (who has stated "they are looking at it but it doesn't serve their needs right now"). Premium content will only be available via solutions that provide DRM (right now mostly Flash, Silverlight, Fairplay, or some other proprietary custom streaming solution).
People may not like it, but it doesn't matter. The content owners - ie, the studios - just are not going to allow their content to be streamed without DRM right now...
Re:The life span of a cell phone platform=24 month
on
H.264 and VP8 Compared
·
· Score: 1
Given their track record on other types of content I agree that having Apple drive the future of video distribution would be very unfortunate...
As far as H.264 vs VP8 support in the future, you do have a point that the cellular market will adapt more quickly than most. Though you have ot take into account that Apple now controls an impressively large percent of that in a few short years, and as of yet they have pretty much laughed at VP8...
By "desktops" I really meant "PCs" - in the loose sense of full featured computers, whether they are workstations or laptops, Windows, Mac or Linux. Cell phones and TVs aren't going to replace those just yet. Tablets may start to cut in to them, but Apple is already sitting pretty there, so see above as to that resistance to VP8...
For the other big non-desktop market, TVs/STBs - that's going to be the biggest resistance to anything non-H.264 (and I say this working in that industry...) The cable and satellite industry just spent a huge amount of money converting all of their broadcast systems and set-tops to H.264, and they don't like doing that very often. Additionally, the chips that go into all TVs and Blu-Ray players all support H.264 (and MPEG2, etc) but not much else - which means the current VOD services that run on them like Netflix, Vudu, CinemaNow, YouTube, etc are all H.264 based.
Anyway, it will be interesting to see the politics play out... after reading a whitepaper on VP8 they are doing a lot of cool things with it, and if anyone can make it succeed, it's Google.
And now MPEG LA is trying to form a patent pool for VP8 [allthingsd.com]. Will wonders never cease? Patents are broken. Let us hope that Monday SCOTUS rules that software patents are void in RE Bilski
Eh, just so as not to sound completely pessimistic about software patents, I hope so, too:)
Re:For the patent FUDsters sure to follow....
on
H.264 and VP8 Compared
·
· Score: 5, Informative
In most of the civilized world there's no such thing as software patents
Yeah, most of the civilized world except the US, EU, UK, Japan, South Korea, and others...
And there is no point in pretending software is not patentable in the EU - precedent has LONG been established that software solving a "technical" problem as opposed to a "business process" is patentable. Video and audio codecs are already among those issued. (a big part of that is that codecs are not necessarily "software" patents, in that they are fairly straightforward algorithms that can be implemented in "hardware"/firmware/etc as well as software).
Slashdot Mirror
They did, but I think it was more like a couple of days.
And as they say with the Internet and privacy, "you can't take the pee out of the pool..."
Yeah, and this has worked SO well for DDO. Turbine wants to follow the Zynga model, but hopefully their users are smart enough not to willingly trade their private info to advertising networks for "virtual points"...
No, if you read the summary these people make up less than 4% of the gaming population. Sounds more like a small minority than a "ton of people".
Unless you literally meant 2000 lbs of people, which in the case of those playing more than 47 hours a week doesn't add up to very many.
Discussion of test results
Based on the tests that we have performed, it is very clear that there is a very big difference between the best and worst browsers. Therefore we can only conclude that the results are valid and true.
Now if that isn't a rigorous application of the scientific method I don't know what is!
I'm not really sure that is the question, though. If you look at most of the words in a national level spelling bee, many are so obscure that the judges, let alone the audience, seem to have never heard of them before (go look up the winning words of the Scripps Spelling Bee - it's amazing how in the last decade or two the words have become so much more obscure, as the contestants have evolved from "generally smart, well educated kids" to "single minded specialists"...)
Sure, practicing spelling complicated words to a reasonable degree is a useful skill for elementary school children - especially when they start to learn about root words, origins, etc, that will help them guess the spelling or *meanings* of words they have never heard. But forcing your kids to memorize a thousand words a day from the dictionary seems more like punishment than useful education!
That isn't to say instilling a good work ethic to study and education isn't going to help the kids in other areas, as well. I just have a hard time agreeing that this obsessive focus on spelling obscure words is really the best way to maximize a child's educational potential...
Wow. That is pretty bad... Though I have to say it's as much bait and switch on *Apple's* part as AT&T, since Jobs was the one hyping this "great deal" more than AT&T ever did.
Definitely glad I got the Wifi model now ;) Honestly, I could only think of a couple cases where I'd ever want Internet access with it away from Wifi reception, and I'm already getting screwed by AT&T for iPhone 3G coverage for that purpose...
"We have done five home searches in five cities in Finland," he said.
Unfortunately, the virtual furniture was nowhere to be seen.
They grandfathered the existing accounts. That means anyone who ALREADY has one gets to keep the original terms. The change only applies to new accounts.
I agree that it's really lame on AT&T's part, but it is clearly NOT bait and switch. Get your terms right before making accusations of shady/illegal business practices vs just plain stupid ones...
I'm not sure that is the best solution for long-running TCP connections like streaming a movie over a couple hours, though...
True - and really, ANY protocol can support redirecting as long as it's part of the protocol, by definition ;)
Just curious, though, does anyone actually *use* RTSP any more? I think most of the big players (Apple, Microsoft/Silverlight, Netflix, Vudu, CinemaNow, etc) have all switched to some form of HTTP adaptive streaming. And others are swiching away from Flash (Netflix, Youtube) where possible, partly because it doesn't support seamless adaptive bitrate changes with RTMP...
It's not as much a matter of "using DNS" to determine your location, it's using the IP of the DNS server asking for the CDN's IP to determine your location - with the possibly faulty assumption that your DNS server is near you geographically.
The problem is the CDN's DNS only sees your DNS IP, not your computer's IP.
There are actually a couple solutions to this, though. The most efficient one is Google's proposed extension to DNS that basically forwards the IP of the host originally making the request.
Another solution is for the application server to notice that your IP is not the best for the CDN, and do an HTTP 302 redirect to the correct one. That adds a bit more latency for the orignal request, so is best for larger files (like streaming video, etc). Plus, it only works for HTTP.
Yeah, and the "restriction" is basically "if you try to sue someone for patent infringement on the code covered by this license, then your license to use it is terminated".
If you are scared to use software because you may be restricted from suing other people using it, then by all means DON'T USE IT.
I was born premature and needed a blood transfusion due to *insufficient* RBC. I also apparently had a decent case of jaundice. Funny how low RBC seems to have "caused" same jaundice as high RBC you are talking about? Or maybe there is another reasons?
It's definitely possible form both cases.
Jaundice is caused by high bilirubin levels, usually caused by more dead RBC than the liver can process. Two of the ways that this can happen are too many RBC in general (where a normal percentage die), or too many RBC dying (from a normal number of RBC). The latter could cause jaundice *and* anemia, which might require a transfusion.
Anyway, the GP had a good point - too many can be as bad as too few. You almost had a good point, but your snide attitude and half-assed "research" kind of deflated it.
Did you just do that to taunt Google? Or slashdot turning into Gizmodo? ;)
I vote for "Grand Theft Pony".
I was thinking of getting this game this week - and after seeing that donkey bug, now I KNOW I want to get it. That's one of the best. bugs. ever.
1) duh. He was awesome. My point was that after Airplane! (and partly due to it) he mostly only got roles that parodied himself. None were nearly as funny as Airplane! but they still had their moments, often due to him...
2) it was a JOKE. Lighten up, Francis.
Oh crap. Now I am probably screwed for life for making a drug joke....
Seemed to have ended Lloyd Bridge's career as well. Then again, I actually *liked* [Jane Austen's] Mafia!
...is the additional 100 million hours of productivity lost from all of the imagination-less people posting, blogging, tweeting, and re-tweeting the same inane comment, "wow, Google's Pac-Man logo just ruined millions of dollars of productivity today."
You should probably ask your government why they *issued* at least 30 patents that are now part of the MPEG-LA licence pool, then...
Besides, if anyone actually READ my original comment, I pointed out that a lot of codec patents are on generic algorithms that can be implemented in hardware or software. I am pretty sure that if someone tries to use software to implement an algorithm that was originally described in hardware. they are not going to easily be able to defend themselves...
Then again, this points out how the whole system is really broken, because the very definition of "hardware" vs "software" is completely blurred these days. A lot of "hardware" implements codecs using DSPs with embedded microcode anyway. But honestly if someone comes up with a novel technical idea that is implemented in this way, shouldn't it be patentable? If no, then I don't see how the whole concept of patents in general make any sense...
Look how many audio formats are available for you portable music player.
I, like the many (a vast plurality, and almost majority), have an iPod (or iPhone, in my case). How many open audio formats does it support? Ogg/Vorbis? Nope. FLAC? Nope. It supports AAC, MP3, WAV, and Apple Lossless. Wow, what a variety...
But it's not even really up to the phone manufacturers. It has to be implemented by the chip manufacturers (though of course the phone manufacturers do have input into the chip features, and a few of them like Samsung even make their own).
That said, Broadcom (more STBs than phones, but they dominate the STB and Blu-Ray market)was one of the companies stating they would support it. If it weren't for that, I'd say VP8 was stillborn. With their hardware support, it may just get in enough devices to have a chance in the embedded market...
All of the major video providers on the Web - even the porn ones - are now migrating to HTML5 and seem ready to offer their content on whatever Codec you have handy. They're not choosy. They don't have a dog in this fight.
If only that were true... but the reality is that of those four I mentioned only YouTube is considering HTML5 right now, because there is currently no DRM solution for it. I could add in other large players like Hulu as well (who has stated "they are looking at it but it doesn't serve their needs right now"). Premium content will only be available via solutions that provide DRM (right now mostly Flash, Silverlight, Fairplay, or some other proprietary custom streaming solution).
People may not like it, but it doesn't matter. The content owners - ie, the studios - just are not going to allow their content to be streamed without DRM right now...
Given their track record on other types of content I agree that having Apple drive the future of video distribution would be very unfortunate...
As far as H.264 vs VP8 support in the future, you do have a point that the cellular market will adapt more quickly than most. Though you have ot take into account that Apple now controls an impressively large percent of that in a few short years, and as of yet they have pretty much laughed at VP8...
By "desktops" I really meant "PCs" - in the loose sense of full featured computers, whether they are workstations or laptops, Windows, Mac or Linux. Cell phones and TVs aren't going to replace those just yet. Tablets may start to cut in to them, but Apple is already sitting pretty there, so see above as to that resistance to VP8...
For the other big non-desktop market, TVs/STBs - that's going to be the biggest resistance to anything non-H.264 (and I say this working in that industry...) The cable and satellite industry just spent a huge amount of money converting all of their broadcast systems and set-tops to H.264, and they don't like doing that very often. Additionally, the chips that go into all TVs and Blu-Ray players all support H.264 (and MPEG2, etc) but not much else - which means the current VOD services that run on them like Netflix, Vudu, CinemaNow, YouTube, etc are all H.264 based.
Anyway, it will be interesting to see the politics play out... after reading a whitepaper on VP8 they are doing a lot of cool things with it, and if anyone can make it succeed, it's Google.
And now MPEG LA is trying to form a patent pool for VP8 [allthingsd.com]. Will wonders never cease? Patents are broken. Let us hope that Monday SCOTUS rules that software patents are void in RE Bilski
Eh, just so as not to sound completely pessimistic about software patents, I hope so, too :)
In most of the civilized world there's no such thing as software patents
Yeah, most of the civilized world except the US, EU, UK, Japan, South Korea, and others...
And there is no point in pretending software is not patentable in the EU - precedent has LONG been established that software solving a "technical" problem as opposed to a "business process" is patentable. Video and audio codecs are already among those issued. (a big part of that is that codecs are not necessarily "software" patents, in that they are fairly straightforward algorithms that can be implemented in "hardware"/firmware/etc as well as software).
Feel free to count the number of countries in this list, but I think it's over 25... http://www.mpegla.com/main/programs/avc/Documents/avc-att1.pdf