Okay, now that you have tasted the XBMC Kool-Aid you need to be introduced to something REALLY cool! You see XBMC has been ported to Linux! In turn it has been ported from Linux to Windows and OSX and there's even a fork of OSX XBMC that's doing other neat things.
So, what does this mean? Well for me it means that HD-DVD and BD high def video can be viewed as easily as SD stuff could be on the old XBOX. Want high def TV shows? Download them - Linux XBMC plays them flawlessly!
Yes, it's still under development and yeah it needs a GOOD CPU but WOW does it look GREAT! Same interface you've grown to love already but now it's got the CPU power to play higher rez video. Yeah, you lose the ability to play XBOX games and the box costs more than $50 but IMO it's worth it! There's a bootable Ubuntu USB stick in the works for the AppleTV too BTW, that will rock. So check it out -> http://xbmc.org/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=52
P.S. Look at unRAID for your storage. I would bet you could set this up on the SAME hardware, lower your power bills, and have much more storage from the disks you're using now. I'm pushing up close to 7TB on one of my two servers with room to grow!
I can pretty much echo this myself. I have a TIVO S3 with dual cablecards and despite noises about how "hard" this is to setup mine worked fine - and was the first one the tech had ever done! Prior to that I had several hacked DTIVO that I really enjoyed using until I wanted to move to HD.
I did try Myth with an HDHomerun but never quite got it working. I'd still like to in order to have a few more tuners available to record but it's not a huge deal for me right now since the TIVO is working out so well.
What I DO use the hell out of though is XBMC on Linux. I have ALL of my DVD ripped both HD and SD to the tune of 600++ movies. I have all of my music available too and one day I'll hook my pics into it too. This is capable of controlling a Myth backend so there's hoep yet for a Myth box but not anytime soon I fear. This is something I'd love to do but it's got to be made easier to install I think.
Meanwhile CableCard and encrypted channels are pushing Myth into a corner here in the States I think. I do not know how this will end up but it sure looks better for Myth overseas:(
You've apparently missed my first point completely - bad guys ARE looking and YOU ignore this. Buy a cloned cell phone on a street corner in NYC and you will realize that there's money to be made at this kind of thing and that people ARE trying to break token security systems. Oddly you do not dispute this sort of activity occurs but instead simply call bullshit. Do you REALLY think that MBTA cards wouldn't be diddled without these guys? That they haven't already? Did you think their research ONLY effects MBTA? Did you not realize that what they did can be applied elsewhere? Wow...
The MBTA stuff could have been built secure from the start. I'm quite sure that the folks in Boston bought it having been told it WAS "secure" - except that no one had been allowed to look at the actual "proprietary" hardware\software involved. It was all secret squirrel wink wink nudge nudge. MBTA took them at their word of course. Now MBTA has discovered that their word wasn't worth shit and is scrambling to put the genie back in the bottle. These guys did this work with a minimum of hardware and the results applied to more than MBTA - plenty of incentive for criminals to do the same in dark back rooms.
That you blame the guys at DEFCON for MBTA stupidly accepting promises of a company trying to sell them something is pretty sad. Perhaps they shouldn't have gone public and instead setup shop selling a service to bump up fares on MBTA cards instead - would that have made you happier? If they didn't someone else would have. I seem to recall reading that some of this same hardware is used to protect facilities too, would you also prefer that those places remain vulnerable? You focus too much on MBTA, look beyond your immediate needs maybe?
The talk wasn't going to reveal how to increase balances on cards although anyone attending could probably have figured it out. No PDAs near readers would have been required either as it's the cards that get modified as I recall. Should they arrest someone for innocently playing with a PDA near such machines I think they will find it a pretty big mistake. That you are upset this might happen and not that they would be so stupid to do this is telling. BTW - the talk still went on but was instead given by a reporter who had been following the story I'm told. I'll have the video in a few weeks as will many others and I already have the slides - didn't get to see him present but it went WAY over due to high interest. Whoops!
A real shame that you so feel the need to bury head in sand and focus blame where it doesn't belong. You're not the manager that stupidly signed off on this for MBTA are you? You seem to have the proper mentality for it...
They had approval from conference support staff, the management above them squashed this after dumbasses freaked over the attention being given to a "warballoon" that was going to be lofted. Visions of C4 floating around or something apparently occurred. Rick admitted the name was a poor one and commended the support he got from the conference organizers at the hotel. The issue came when citizens spotted articles about this and stupidly called the police - shit rolled down from there.
No they did not check, finding secure or insecure networks wasn't the point. They were simply showing an interesting way of surveying a 7.5 mile swath for networks. They were able to see these networks from a pretty good standoff distance and without moving from a stationary position. Sadly whoever wrote the summary missed the point, the secure\insecure info wasn't even IN the presentation!
Only a complete moron would think that not pointing out security flaws would make them go away or keep them from the bad guys. Many companies will not fix their shit without a spotlight being pointed at them! Do you REALLY think the bad guys aren't looking as hard or harder than those who present at DEFCON? Wow....
Surprise, exposing security holes does get them fixed. Sadly the lesson doesn't appear to sink in and morons keep building insecure shit. When it hits their wallet they listen. How stupid do you have to be not to notice this?
Worth noting is that the presentation didn't mention open vs closed networks. It was brought up when *I* asked the question fron the back afterwards - it was a softpitch question as I knew the answer. Rick did this to show an alternative way to survey LARGE swaths of territory not to highlight levels of security. He got a 7.5 mile radius surveyed in something like 15mins.
That said, my APs are lightly encrypted with WEP. They are not open as I do not trust that someone won't bring the *AAs or worse to my door. They can break the WEP and I will then hunt them down - the WEP is simply a no tresspassing sign...
Pretty sure that the crypto will not hide your MAC. I belive, but am not sure, that it's primarily the data portion that is encrypted. I will see your SSID and I believe MAC just fine even with encryption turned on...
Really? All I have to do is wait for your MAC to get transmitted and I have it. I then send a deauth packet to your card, bumping it off the network, and then authenticate myself. Ooops, you are now wondering WTF:-) There's nothing random about the MAC I'd choose....
welll the project WAS named "warballooning" which apparently freaked someone. The police were supposedly "looking out for them" - for what infraction I dunno'. But to be really fair - they were lofting an igloo cooler like 7 miles from the local airport on one BIG ass balloon. So yeah, if I was a cop I'd have asked WTF just to make sure they weren't going to drift some C4 and nails towards the strip. Afterwards note their info and move on.
Honestly the cops probably didn't need a 911 call to want to go check this out. Dealerships loft balloons JUST like this to draw attention so duh I guess it worked for Rick too! Really, this was no big deal but it did make their hearts go faster after having been "warned". They had FAA approval and were outside the 5mile limit anyway with a balloon of spec dimensions - they weren't stupid about this. People really spining this all out of shape.
Really? So if I'm say 3 miles away with a directional cantenna you don't mind me hopping on your network and hacking say a bank? Downloading music and movies? Kiddie porn? Is it REALLY no big deal to you? If you want a pain in the ass leave that sucker open.....
He surveyed something like a 7.5mile radius - the strip was a small part of his survey. BTW, here at Caesers the sign in page that asks for room and last name isn't even SSL unless YOU manually switch it. Insecure? Oh hell yes!
They used Kismet, they see you broadcast or not by looking at the existing traffic. The summary is crap BTW. Rick and crew weren't happy about the cops because they had been told that the police would be "looking for them". Seems that naming the project "warballooning" might not have been a good idea! This was primarily to demonstrate the ability to scan\see networks from a long standoff distance.
The secure\unsecure figures weren't even mentioned in the talk and were brought up only after *I* shouted a question from the back of the crowd to highlight it. I know Rick and knew the answer before I asked.
Secure vs insecure wasn't the point of this - Rick didn't even save off packets. He specifically used a commandline on the drone to avoid saving data.
Tony on the other hand with his BGP redirect - now THAT was wild and he had gigs of packets! (lol)
FWIW - Rick has also surveyed with a rocket (in farm country) and done automated triangulation of APs using his boat on a lake. He likes to tinker with wireless and this was interesting like the others. Folks get way too stupid and serious about these articles.
Understand your desire to keep the company name, unfair of me to ask I suppose. If you've seen the video I've posted in other posts here you can see why I and others aren't too comfortable. The system you're working with may be having some issues but no way will I bet that they all will or that they won't just keep on trying until "they" get it "right".
We're talking about the District here. There have been NUMEROUS articles written in the Washington Post over the years about just how bad it is to try and fight a ticket down there. I am quite sure that it will not be much better for this kind of thing and it wouldn't surprise me if even innocent motorists were asked to pay a processing fee for having used some of their time while fighting this. That is a city that is BADLY strapped for cash and they are doing everything they can think of, to include trying to figure out how to tax out of city motorists for going into the city, to get revenue. They do NOT see the big picture and are as corrupt as they can get - I avoid the city at ALL costs as a result, it's a cesspool. This technology bodes no good for the citizens or the visitors...
Which system? ALPR? They are apparently claiming to gather tags but supposedly not keep them in articles I've seen. Getting GPS data at the same time as they do an OCR would be child's play - ask anyone who wardrives! That they don't have a good supporting database is something that time and money WILL fix so I'm not betting on something like that preserving my privacy for long. The OCR capabilities of these things will only get better and they will begin modifying tags to increase accuracy too - just as they have ALREADY passed laws in Texas to allow easier recognition by banning vanity plate covers. It's nice to know these aren't working out too well for your guys but I would NOT bet on that remaining the case once they begin to figure out just how powerful this technology could be. Police want to track everyone and everything unless it's themselves (thin blue line anyone?) so no I wouldn't trust this technology in their hands.
If this isn't scary you aren't using your imagination. Picture this, some dumbass blowhard gets it in their head that storing ALL of this data is a good idea. Why? Well because when some little kid gets snatched and everyone goes crazy looking for the guy who supposedly did it they can lookup where in the world this vehicle has been seen before in addition to having all of these devices look for the tag. Hey then one day someone with access decides they want to know where their wife goes while they are at work.... Keep going, maybe a politician wants to know where someone who opposes him goes. the list is ENDLESS. do not forget that while these devices are being advertised as being used on police cars there's NO REASON why they cannot also be used in fixed emplacements. Ponder that the next time you drive under an overpass, overhead street sign, or in my area red lights that have little cams pointed down next to them. Many cities now employ red light cameras, traffic cameras, and surveillance cameras - how hard to employ these too exactly?
In Virginia the emissions results are transmitted to DMV as soon as the testing is done, yes they know if you failed. Parking in the District is so bad that after a certain time only residents are allowed to be parked in certain areas - if they look up the tag and it's NOT for a resident then they know that the person is parked illegally.
So yeah, they really are using them in this manner and in the District it's got to be a wet dream for them. They look for ANY way they can to make money including rigging red light cams! Yes, they have been caught at this. Frankly, this is prety frightening to me....
I researched this about a year ago. In the article I read the database of plates that was gathered by the officer was being deleted at the end of each shift. However I got the DISTINCT impression that the police were considered keeping the database for far longer periods of time but hadn't figured out the data transfer issues and storage. The video I saw of this was pretty enlightening, officers would cruise up and down the aisles of large shopping centers looking for flagged cars. Stolen cars, expired stickers, warrants for arrest, all sorts of things. Even scarier was a picture of a bridge in Canada that had FIVE of these devices - one covering EACH lane of traffic recording ALL cars going by.
Youtube has some vids on this, the one i saw is this one I think -> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3ibjQjQQOQ Check out the bridge in the 3:45 min mark or so. Their final statement at the end is pretty telling "ALPR is going to revolutionize the way we police in North America" Yeah, THAT'S what I'm afraid of!
I've not bought a NEW CD in literally 7-10 years. My SO has bought a few but she doesn't have the issues with the RIAA that I do. Anyway, recently I got an iPhone and I've wanted some of the newer music that's around on my phone.
Having discovered Amazon's service while looking for a comedy track I'd heward on MySpace (Show Them To Me - it's a hoot!) I started looking further in the Amazon catalog. I've now found about 8 different tracks I like and even a full album that I know I'll never find in a store! All of them are nice unprotected MP3 files, probably watermarked, but play quite nicely on ALL of my hardware.
So, after YEARS of buying no new CDs and sticking to used media in bookstores I've begun to tenatively buy music again. Sorry Apple, but I'm not interested in DRM'd files....
x264 via meGUI from Doom9 is what I use to compress HD-DVD and BD movies - also on a quad core. I have some tutorials posted out and about on how I'm doing it. Near as I can tell you cannot dupe the process on Linux due to the crypto - Slysoft's AnyDVD-HD is needed.
Playback - I use XBMC for Linux. It is also SMP enabled using the ffmpeg cabac patch. the developers of this project have been VERY aggressive at taking cutting edge improvements to the likes of ffmpeg and incorporating them into the code. Since Linux has no video acceleration of H.264 SMP really helps on high bitrate video!
Spec says no more than 100ma, 3g, touch, and possibly some others use MORE than that. The touch was found to be drawing 500ma according to one post - does that meet your definition of "far more"? In fact some charge attempts ended up draining the device instead of charging it!
2nd page of comments details some of the attempts to trigger charging mode by doing things like tying data lines together, adding pullup resistors, and throwing in some capacitors. Does that meet your definition of "funky"? It's obviously not some simple USB cable and has some lines wired up in odd ways to signal a charge cord.
Charging these things with DIY circuits has certainly been causing some consternation. Not sure what I will do for mine, picked up 10mins ago, but something portable to charge it like the MintyBoost would be nice for trips...
Does that clear it up for you? I don't think I was nearly as confused as you surmised..
The folks building MintyBoost boxes are also looking to figure out how to do this easily. The biggest issue seems to be that the phones draw FAR more than the USB spec would normally allow which is what they have designed for in the past and that it may require some funky wiring of signals to get it to accept a charge. In any case a DIY charge booster thingy seems to be on it's way for cheap!
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Okay, now that you have tasted the XBMC Kool-Aid you need to be introduced to something REALLY cool! You see XBMC has been ported to Linux! In turn it has been ported from Linux to Windows and OSX and there's even a fork of OSX XBMC that's doing other neat things.
So, what does this mean? Well for me it means that HD-DVD and BD high def video can be viewed as easily as SD stuff could be on the old XBOX. Want high def TV shows? Download them - Linux XBMC plays them flawlessly!
Yes, it's still under development and yeah it needs a GOOD CPU but WOW does it look GREAT! Same interface you've grown to love already but now it's got the CPU power to play higher rez video. Yeah, you lose the ability to play XBOX games and the box costs more than $50 but IMO it's worth it! There's a bootable Ubuntu USB stick in the works for the AppleTV too BTW, that will rock. So check it out -> http://xbmc.org/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=52
P.S. Look at unRAID for your storage. I would bet you could set this up on the SAME hardware, lower your power bills, and have much more storage from the disks you're using now. I'm pushing up close to 7TB on one of my two servers with room to grow!
I can pretty much echo this myself. I have a TIVO S3 with dual cablecards and despite noises about how "hard" this is to setup mine worked fine - and was the first one the tech had ever done! Prior to that I had several hacked DTIVO that I really enjoyed using until I wanted to move to HD.
I did try Myth with an HDHomerun but never quite got it working. I'd still like to in order to have a few more tuners available to record but it's not a huge deal for me right now since the TIVO is working out so well.
What I DO use the hell out of though is XBMC on Linux. I have ALL of my DVD ripped both HD and SD to the tune of 600++ movies. I have all of my music available too and one day I'll hook my pics into it too. This is capable of controlling a Myth backend so there's hoep yet for a Myth box but not anytime soon I fear. This is something I'd love to do but it's got to be made easier to install I think.
Meanwhile CableCard and encrypted channels are pushing Myth into a corner here in the States I think. I do not know how this will end up but it sure looks better for Myth overseas :(
Police, there in minutes when you only have seconds.
You've apparently missed my first point completely - bad guys ARE looking and YOU ignore this. Buy a cloned cell phone on a street corner in NYC and you will realize that there's money to be made at this kind of thing and that people ARE trying to break token security systems. Oddly you do not dispute this sort of activity occurs but instead simply call bullshit. Do you REALLY think that MBTA cards wouldn't be diddled without these guys? That they haven't already? Did you think their research ONLY effects MBTA? Did you not realize that what they did can be applied elsewhere? Wow...
The MBTA stuff could have been built secure from the start. I'm quite sure that the folks in Boston bought it having been told it WAS "secure" - except that no one had been allowed to look at the actual "proprietary" hardware\software involved. It was all secret squirrel wink wink nudge nudge. MBTA took them at their word of course. Now MBTA has discovered that their word wasn't worth shit and is scrambling to put the genie back in the bottle. These guys did this work with a minimum of hardware and the results applied to more than MBTA - plenty of incentive for criminals to do the same in dark back rooms.
That you blame the guys at DEFCON for MBTA stupidly accepting promises of a company trying to sell them something is pretty sad. Perhaps they shouldn't have gone public and instead setup shop selling a service to bump up fares on MBTA cards instead - would that have made you happier? If they didn't someone else would have. I seem to recall reading that some of this same hardware is used to protect facilities too, would you also prefer that those places remain vulnerable? You focus too much on MBTA, look beyond your immediate needs maybe?
The talk wasn't going to reveal how to increase balances on cards although anyone attending could probably have figured it out. No PDAs near readers would have been required either as it's the cards that get modified as I recall. Should they arrest someone for innocently playing with a PDA near such machines I think they will find it a pretty big mistake. That you are upset this might happen and not that they would be so stupid to do this is telling. BTW - the talk still went on but was instead given by a reporter who had been following the story I'm told. I'll have the video in a few weeks as will many others and I already have the slides - didn't get to see him present but it went WAY over due to high interest. Whoops!
A real shame that you so feel the need to bury head in sand and focus blame where it doesn't belong. You're not the manager that stupidly signed off on this for MBTA are you? You seem to have the proper mentality for it...
They had approval from conference support staff, the management above them squashed this after dumbasses freaked over the attention being given to a "warballoon" that was going to be lofted. Visions of C4 floating around or something apparently occurred. Rick admitted the name was a poor one and commended the support he got from the conference organizers at the hotel. The issue came when citizens spotted articles about this and stupidly called the police - shit rolled down from there.
No they did not check, finding secure or insecure networks wasn't the point. They were simply showing an interesting way of surveying a 7.5 mile swath for networks. They were able to see these networks from a pretty good standoff distance and without moving from a stationary position. Sadly whoever wrote the summary missed the point, the secure\insecure info wasn't even IN the presentation!
Only a complete moron would think that not pointing out security flaws would make them go away or keep them from the bad guys. Many companies will not fix their shit without a spotlight being pointed at them! Do you REALLY think the bad guys aren't looking as hard or harder than those who present at DEFCON? Wow....
Surprise, exposing security holes does get them fixed. Sadly the lesson doesn't appear to sink in and morons keep building insecure shit. When it hits their wallet they listen. How stupid do you have to be not to notice this?
Worth noting is that the presentation didn't mention open vs closed networks. It was brought up when *I* asked the question fron the back afterwards - it was a softpitch question as I knew the answer. Rick did this to show an alternative way to survey LARGE swaths of territory not to highlight levels of security. He got a 7.5 mile radius surveyed in something like 15mins.
That said, my APs are lightly encrypted with WEP. They are not open as I do not trust that someone won't bring the *AAs or worse to my door. They can break the WEP and I will then hunt them down - the WEP is simply a no tresspassing sign...
Pretty sure that the crypto will not hide your MAC. I belive, but am not sure, that it's primarily the data portion that is encrypted. I will see your SSID and I believe MAC just fine even with encryption turned on...
Really? All I have to do is wait for your MAC to get transmitted and I have it. I then send a deauth packet to your card, bumping it off the network, and then authenticate myself. Ooops, you are now wondering WTF :-) There's nothing random about the MAC I'd choose....
welll the project WAS named "warballooning" which apparently freaked someone. The police were supposedly "looking out for them" - for what infraction I dunno'. But to be really fair - they were lofting an igloo cooler like 7 miles from the local airport on one BIG ass balloon. So yeah, if I was a cop I'd have asked WTF just to make sure they weren't going to drift some C4 and nails towards the strip. Afterwards note their info and move on.
Honestly the cops probably didn't need a 911 call to want to go check this out. Dealerships loft balloons JUST like this to draw attention so duh I guess it worked for Rick too! Really, this was no big deal but it did make their hearts go faster after having been "warned". They had FAA approval and were outside the 5mile limit anyway with a balloon of spec dimensions - they weren't stupid about this. People really spining this all out of shape.
Really? So if I'm say 3 miles away with a directional cantenna you don't mind me hopping on your network and hacking say a bank? Downloading music and movies? Kiddie porn? Is it REALLY no big deal to you? If you want a pain in the ass leave that sucker open.....
He surveyed something like a 7.5mile radius - the strip was a small part of his survey. BTW, here at Caesers the sign in page that asks for room and last name isn't even SSL unless YOU manually switch it. Insecure? Oh hell yes!
They used Kismet, they see you broadcast or not by looking at the existing traffic. The summary is crap BTW. Rick and crew weren't happy about the cops because they had been told that the police would be "looking for them". Seems that naming the project "warballooning" might not have been a good idea! This was primarily to demonstrate the ability to scan\see networks from a long standoff distance.
The secure\unsecure figures weren't even mentioned in the talk and were brought up only after *I* shouted a question from the back of the crowd to highlight it. I know Rick and knew the answer before I asked.
Secure vs insecure wasn't the point of this - Rick didn't even save off packets. He specifically used a commandline on the drone to avoid saving data.
Tony on the other hand with his BGP redirect - now THAT was wild and he had gigs of packets! (lol)
FWIW - Rick has also surveyed with a rocket (in farm country) and done automated triangulation of APs using his boat on a lake. He likes to tinker with wireless and this was interesting like the others. Folks get way too stupid and serious about these articles.
Understand your desire to keep the company name, unfair of me to ask I suppose. If you've seen the video I've posted in other posts here you can see why I and others aren't too comfortable. The system you're working with may be having some issues but no way will I bet that they all will or that they won't just keep on trying until "they" get it "right".
We're talking about the District here. There have been NUMEROUS articles written in the Washington Post over the years about just how bad it is to try and fight a ticket down there. I am quite sure that it will not be much better for this kind of thing and it wouldn't surprise me if even innocent motorists were asked to pay a processing fee for having used some of their time while fighting this. That is a city that is BADLY strapped for cash and they are doing everything they can think of, to include trying to figure out how to tax out of city motorists for going into the city, to get revenue. They do NOT see the big picture and are as corrupt as they can get - I avoid the city at ALL costs as a result, it's a cesspool. This technology bodes no good for the citizens or the visitors...
Which system? ALPR? They are apparently claiming to gather tags but supposedly not keep them in articles I've seen. Getting GPS data at the same time as they do an OCR would be child's play - ask anyone who wardrives! That they don't have a good supporting database is something that time and money WILL fix so I'm not betting on something like that preserving my privacy for long. The OCR capabilities of these things will only get better and they will begin modifying tags to increase accuracy too - just as they have ALREADY passed laws in Texas to allow easier recognition by banning vanity plate covers. It's nice to know these aren't working out too well for your guys but I would NOT bet on that remaining the case once they begin to figure out just how powerful this technology could be. Police want to track everyone and everything unless it's themselves (thin blue line anyone?) so no I wouldn't trust this technology in their hands.
If this isn't scary you aren't using your imagination. Picture this, some dumbass blowhard gets it in their head that storing ALL of this data is a good idea. Why? Well because when some little kid gets snatched and everyone goes crazy looking for the guy who supposedly did it they can lookup where in the world this vehicle has been seen before in addition to having all of these devices look for the tag. Hey then one day someone with access decides they want to know where their wife goes while they are at work.... Keep going, maybe a politician wants to know where someone who opposes him goes. the list is ENDLESS. do not forget that while these devices are being advertised as being used on police cars there's NO REASON why they cannot also be used in fixed emplacements. Ponder that the next time you drive under an overpass, overhead street sign, or in my area red lights that have little cams pointed down next to them. Many cities now employ red light cameras, traffic cameras, and surveillance cameras - how hard to employ these too exactly?
Watch this vid and be VERY afraid -> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3ibjQjQQOQ
In Virginia the emissions results are transmitted to DMV as soon as the testing is done, yes they know if you failed. Parking in the District is so bad that after a certain time only residents are allowed to be parked in certain areas - if they look up the tag and it's NOT for a resident then they know that the person is parked illegally.
So yeah, they really are using them in this manner and in the District it's got to be a wet dream for them. They look for ANY way they can to make money including rigging red light cams! Yes, they have been caught at this. Frankly, this is prety frightening to me....
I researched this about a year ago. In the article I read the database of plates that was gathered by the officer was being deleted at the end of each shift. However I got the DISTINCT impression that the police were considered keeping the database for far longer periods of time but hadn't figured out the data transfer issues and storage. The video I saw of this was pretty enlightening, officers would cruise up and down the aisles of large shopping centers looking for flagged cars. Stolen cars, expired stickers, warrants for arrest, all sorts of things. Even scarier was a picture of a bridge in Canada that had FIVE of these devices - one covering EACH lane of traffic recording ALL cars going by.
Youtube has some vids on this, the one i saw is this one I think -> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3ibjQjQQOQ Check out the bridge in the 3:45 min mark or so. Their final statement at the end is pretty telling "ALPR is going to revolutionize the way we police in North America" Yeah, THAT'S what I'm afraid of!
I've not bought a NEW CD in literally 7-10 years. My SO has bought a few but she doesn't have the issues with the RIAA that I do. Anyway, recently I got an iPhone and I've wanted some of the newer music that's around on my phone.
Having discovered Amazon's service while looking for a comedy track I'd heward on MySpace (Show Them To Me - it's a hoot!) I started looking further in the Amazon catalog. I've now found about 8 different tracks I like and even a full album that I know I'll never find in a store! All of them are nice unprotected MP3 files, probably watermarked, but play quite nicely on ALL of my hardware.
So, after YEARS of buying no new CDs and sticking to used media in bookstores I've begun to tenatively buy music again. Sorry Apple, but I'm not interested in DRM'd files....
SMP enabled H.264 decoder, works for me! @3GHZ I can play most anything no problem. I do tend to transcode my BD and HD-DVD rips though to save space.
x264 via meGUI from Doom9 is what I use to compress HD-DVD and BD movies - also on a quad core. I have some tutorials posted out and about on how I'm doing it. Near as I can tell you cannot dupe the process on Linux due to the crypto - Slysoft's AnyDVD-HD is needed.
Playback - I use XBMC for Linux. It is also SMP enabled using the ffmpeg cabac patch. the developers of this project have been VERY aggressive at taking cutting edge improvements to the likes of ffmpeg and incorporating them into the code. Since Linux has no video acceleration of H.264 SMP really helps on high bitrate video!
Google... MintyBoost, Forums, iPhone thread....
http://forums.ladyada.net/viewtopic.php?t=4663
Spec says no more than 100ma, 3g, touch, and possibly some others use MORE than that. The touch was found to be drawing 500ma according to one post - does that meet your definition of "far more"? In fact some charge attempts ended up draining the device instead of charging it!
2nd page of comments details some of the attempts to trigger charging mode by doing things like tying data lines together, adding pullup resistors, and throwing in some capacitors. Does that meet your definition of "funky"? It's obviously not some simple USB cable and has some lines wired up in odd ways to signal a charge cord.
Charging these things with DIY circuits has certainly been causing some consternation. Not sure what I will do for mine, picked up 10mins ago, but something portable to charge it like the MintyBoost would be nice for trips...
Does that clear it up for you? I don't think I was nearly as confused as you surmised..
The folks building MintyBoost boxes are also looking to figure out how to do this easily. The biggest issue seems to be that the phones draw FAR more than the USB spec would normally allow which is what they have designed for in the past and that it may require some funky wiring of signals to get it to accept a charge. In any case a DIY charge booster thingy seems to be on it's way for cheap!