Right, but the whole point is that we *know* all about how to optimize Theora; the rules that apply to MPEG codecs mostly apply to Theora, too. VP3 was reasonably speedy itself before most of the optimizations were ripped out to make Theora cleaner.
I'm not saying that making Dirac fast will be impossible, just that it will take a lot of work, and I'm not sure that the time it takes to make Dirac usably fast wouldn't be better spent making Theora more efficient.
I have done data compression research and there are very few mathematical ideas as patent encumbered as wavelets.
True, my statement "wavlets are completely patent free" is errant. (And not just because I spelled wavelets incorrectly. Ouch.)
Wavelets are, however less patent encumbered in the context in which they are used in Tarkin and Dirac, which is...why they're being used in Tarkin and Dirac.
Dirac is a wavelet codec. The technology is far more advanced than Theora's. In fact, until On2 came along, Ogg were working on a video wavelet codec called Ogg Tarkin. They want with open sourcing VP3 because it would be quicker and easier, nothing more.
This isn't really true. Wavelet codecs are not necessarily better than non-wavelet codecs. This is especially true in the case of video, because, as of yet, no one has figured out a way to efficiently peform motion estimation in the context of a wavelet codec. While wavelets in the context of still images have done very well (see JPEG2000), most attempts in video have not been so successful (see Indeo 5 or...Tarkin).
I think it should say a lot that after briefly experimenting with wavelets in MPEG-4 "texture" compression, the smart people behind AVC (aka H.26L/H.264) decided to completely forget about wavelets in their next codec. In fact, AVC doesn't even use a classic DCT, it uses an "integer transform," which is generally considered of even worse quality than the DCT used in MPEG-1/2/4SP.
The most likely reason Xiph started video work on Tarkin with wavelets first is that wavlets are completely patent free. When On2 granted them rights to use their DCT-related patents from VP3, that no longer became an issue.
Put simply, Ogg Theora is already outdated. The source material (On2's VP3 codec) does not match any decent MPEG-4 codec.
This is a real oversimplification of matters. The Theora guys can tune their codec (a lot), and there is a lot of stuff a VP3/Theora encoder could do that an MPEG-4 encoder couldn't. There was a time when Vorbis was not even up to the level of MP3. A few years of tuning later, and now it's beating everyone.
If and when Dirac is ready, it will blow everything else away. It will be worth the wait.
I've heard this one before. Video compression is around 15 years old now. For maybe the last 10, "wavelets" has been a hot keyword that gets people thinking "Ooo, that'll change everything!" The confusion got even worse with JPEG-2000, since now everyone seems to think that the gains in efficiency from JPEG to JPEG-2000 will be directly applicable to video (ignoring the facts that a lot of that comes from JP2's arithmetic coder and improved predictor, both of which are already being used in video codecs). Point is, I'd look at Dirac with a lot of skepticism. The fact that it is currently unable to decode video in a meaning manner at normal speed concerns me greatly. This suggests that it's already 10-100x times slower than current generation video codecs. Frankly, I think making something 100x faster (needed for Dirac) is probably going to be harder than making it perform 50% better (needed for Theora),
I have to say the tone here is a bit concerning...
Aren't human races supposed to be a construction of human societies? Isn't there no real biological/genetic basis in them? Aren't there just "people with darker skin who happen to be from Africa" and "people with lighter skin who happen to be from Europe?"
Essentially all those arguments could be applied to Kerry supporters if/when some silly story breaks.
Conservative Attacks: "It was from a news source that is, in fact a corporation, thus they had a monetary incentive to make this story. And those who love money love Bush."
Patterns of Birth: "I've heard my mom and dad ridicule Bush when they watch the news all the time. I love my parents, they must be right."
One-Issue Paramount: "Sure, Kerry couldn't choose between soup and salad at an all-you-can-eat buffet, but at least he'll (keep abortion legal / get rid of some of those rich-centric tax cuts / not be Bush)."
Shared Beliefs: "I haven't been saved by Jesus, my president shouldn't have been either."*
Shared Geography: "He's not from the south. Southerners are all racists. Duh."
Rambo Syndrome: Alright, I'll give you that one. There is nothing Rambo-like about Kerry.
* This is, BTW, the most compelling argument I've seen against Bush thus far. As an Atheist, that much God-stuff in the White House is scary shit. But then...Kerry has done nothing to suggest he's any different.
If people kick the shrub out, the US will stand a better chance at ratifying the Kyoto accord and remove the wasteful SUVs from the roads.
Bzzzzt. Wrong. (unless you're not referring to John Kerry being Bush's replacement)
As reported in the IHT and other news sources, John Kerry has made a point that he will not be getting the US back into Kyoto. This should come as no surprise. As a senator, he voted against allowing the department of the interior to fund implementation of the Kyoto protocols. On the campaign trail, he has made a point that he will fix the current rising gas prices. As the Kyoto protocols are widely estimated to cause a huge increase (as high as 30%) in national gas prices, implementing the protocol would while lowering gas prices, or even keeping them where they are, would be impossible.
There is a popular feeling that goes something like "Bush single handedly killed Kyoto." This is absurd. Clinton couldn't get it ratified in 1997 because everyone in congress, including people from his own party (yes, even John Kerry), refused to even consider voting for it. In fact, it was only signed because Al Gore disregarded the resolution of the senate he was supposed to be in charge of. Bush's decision to not re-submit the treaty to congress for ratification was, frankly, a formality; there is no way he could have gotten congress to ratify it, even if he supported it (and he clearly doesn't).
Though I would love to see green house gas emissions get lower, the fact remains that the Kyoto protocol, as it stands, would be economic suicide for the United States, and odds are essentially zero we'll ever see it ratified
You're really testing the compiler here, not the runtime. It's highly possible 1.5's compiler is slower because it is spending time to produce better bytecode.
It's good to hear about a 527 that's not bent on demolishing Kerry.
When Kerry wins and we have to put up with 4 years of complaining when everyone realizes his election was purchased by $150M+ in 527 campaigning, 10x that of Bush...
Well, anyway, I'm going to keep a link to this comment on hand. Thanks for that.
And Tim Berners-Lee created HTML, not the WWW (HTML is just one of the many languages used in the WWW, and it can be used outside the WWW, too)
TBL invented both HTML and HTTP, in addition to the modern URL syntax, not to mention to the phrase "World Wide Web." Actually, what part of the WWW did he not invent?
Both viewpoints seem to adhere to the idea of separation of church and state.
Well, opposition to banning federal money going towards abortions certainly seems to be a church and state separation issue, I'll give you that. Anti-abortion religious followers should not be allowed to tell others how their healthcare money is spent.
However, opposition to school vouchers is quite a bit different. By not allowing parents to get funding to send their children to private schools, local government is, in effect, requiring that children are taught the same beliefs. As an atheist, I lament that some parents would use vouchers to send their children to (for instance) creationist schools, but what right does the state have to regulate what children are allowed to learn?
To make this a bit more on-topic, let's say that in a few years (or even now, who knows), a school district teaches that the PATRIOT Act was a universally positive thing, and that the wrongful detaining of many people of Middle-Eastern descent was justified. Well now, a Pakistani family might not be so happy about this being taught to their children, and very likely might want to go to a different school. Is not enforcing an atheist educational policy just as bad as enforcing a classical religious one? The ACLU's position on this matter seems to suggest that they don't support a separation of church and state, but rather the establishment of a national belief system to be taught in public schools.
Unless you're a Russian citizen, living in Russia, listening to the music in Russia, allofmp3.com is also not legal. If you're going to violate local copyright laws, at least use a P2P service where they don't take down your name and credit card number.
Ernesto Miranda was not freed. He was re-tried (after being read his rights), convicted, and sentenced to 11 years in prison.
In one of the lesser-known ironies of the century, Miranda was also stabbed to death while on parole. His likely killer was released because he invoked his right to remain silent.
I remember what it was -- the flu -- but it was great than 5 years ago and basically, I just waited it out -- fever and headaches and agony and all.
It's called placebo, man. Just keep sitting there in pain, telling yourself, "my body is healing itself, my body is healing itself," and eventually you start to believe it.
You still would have been better off getting a damn flu shot, and you probably would have had less chance of passing it on to other people, too.
Either he gets it on TV and everyone gets to see more of his crap, or he doesn't get it on TV, and he gets to say it's a conspiracy to keep it "censored."
...are going to run into the problem that we only have 2 ears. All "surround sound" effects should be able to be emulated with a pair of headphones and a good set of filters, like in Dolby Headphone technology. So any audio hardware is really just going to be doing this kind of thing, and modern CPUs are really getting fast enough that it's not an issue. These days, the primary thing a computer needs to have is a little jack into which headphones can be plugged.
Apple has been a great demonstration for the added security of OSS. Of the few exploits that have arisen, they've mostly been related to the parts of the OS that are still closed, like AppleScript and Internet Connect.app. Maybe they should expand their OSS efforts into these areas...
You know what happens if you don't defend a trademark, right?
And if the company still did anything, that might be a case. What exactly would be the harm in them losing the MST3K trademark at this point? Someone else could sell DVDs, filled with something else, called "Mystery Science Theater 3000?" Yeah, right.
Again, if they were still making shows, that would be one thing, but all BBI is today is a holding company for IP that is years old.
Having seen two Mr. Sinus shows, I gotta say this seems bogus to me. What business are they losing here, exactly? People are going to spend money to go to a Mr. Sinus show instead of paying for and old episode of MST3K on DVD? Yeah, right.
If they used robots, or filmed it, or if the show were still being made (or even aired on TV), BBI may have a leg to stand on, but it seems to me they're just trying to cash in on some good fans here.
Yeah, Dubya actually came to my house once, took the books off the shelf and lit them up. It was crazy.
Give me a break. Read the page. No books were burned. Many books were not even removed, let alone banned. Complaints were filed against them.
We got our lessons when the Germans had their book-burnings here during the war.
Yeah, we didn't need an army to take over our country to figure out, "Hey, maybe burning books is a bad thing." Our military resistance lasted more than a week. I'm sure Anne Frank was really happy you "got your lesson."
Slashdot Mirror
Right, but the whole point is that we *know* all about how to optimize Theora; the rules that apply to MPEG codecs mostly apply to Theora, too. VP3 was reasonably speedy itself before most of the optimizations were ripped out to make Theora cleaner.
I'm not saying that making Dirac fast will be impossible, just that it will take a lot of work, and I'm not sure that the time it takes to make Dirac usably fast wouldn't be better spent making Theora more efficient.
I have done data compression research and there are very few mathematical ideas as patent encumbered as wavelets.
True, my statement "wavlets are completely patent free" is errant. (And not just because I spelled wavelets incorrectly. Ouch.)
Wavelets are, however less patent encumbered in the context in which they are used in Tarkin and Dirac, which is...why they're being used in Tarkin and Dirac.
Dirac is a wavelet codec. The technology is far more advanced than Theora's. In fact, until On2 came along, Ogg were working on a video wavelet codec called Ogg Tarkin. They want with open sourcing VP3 because it would be quicker and easier, nothing more.
This isn't really true. Wavelet codecs are not necessarily better than non-wavelet codecs. This is especially true in the case of video, because, as of yet, no one has figured out a way to efficiently peform motion estimation in the context of a wavelet codec. While wavelets in the context of still images have done very well (see JPEG2000), most attempts in video have not been so successful (see Indeo 5 or...Tarkin).
I think it should say a lot that after briefly experimenting with wavelets in MPEG-4 "texture" compression, the smart people behind AVC (aka H.26L/H.264) decided to completely forget about wavelets in their next codec. In fact, AVC doesn't even use a classic DCT, it uses an "integer transform," which is generally considered of even worse quality than the DCT used in MPEG-1/2/4SP.
The most likely reason Xiph started video work on Tarkin with wavelets first is that wavlets are completely patent free. When On2 granted them rights to use their DCT-related patents from VP3, that no longer became an issue.
Put simply, Ogg Theora is already outdated. The source material (On2's VP3 codec) does not match any decent MPEG-4 codec.
This is a real oversimplification of matters. The Theora guys can tune their codec (a lot), and there is a lot of stuff a VP3/Theora encoder could do that an MPEG-4 encoder couldn't. There was a time when Vorbis was not even up to the level of MP3. A few years of tuning later, and now it's beating everyone.
If and when Dirac is ready, it will blow everything else away. It will be worth the wait.
I've heard this one before.
Video compression is around 15 years old now. For maybe the last 10, "wavelets" has been a hot keyword that gets people thinking "Ooo, that'll change everything!" The confusion got even worse with JPEG-2000, since now everyone seems to think that the gains in efficiency from JPEG to JPEG-2000 will be directly applicable to video (ignoring the facts that a lot of that comes from JP2's arithmetic coder and improved predictor, both of which are already being used in video codecs). Point is, I'd look at Dirac with a lot of skepticism. The fact that it is currently unable to decode video in a meaning manner at normal speed concerns me greatly. This suggests that it's already 10-100x times slower than current generation video codecs. Frankly, I think making something 100x faster (needed for Dirac) is probably going to be harder than making it perform 50% better (needed for Theora),
I have to say the tone here is a bit concerning...
Aren't human races supposed to be a construction of human societies? Isn't there no real biological/genetic basis in them? Aren't there just "people with darker skin who happen to be from Africa" and "people with lighter skin who happen to be from Europe?"
#2: Dick Cheney's roll throughout all this
Woah, woah, I know the man is heavy, but is this suggestion really necessary?
Essentially all those arguments could be applied to Kerry supporters if/when some silly story breaks.
Conservative Attacks: "It was from a news source that is, in fact a corporation, thus they had a monetary incentive to make this story. And those who love money love Bush."
Patterns of Birth: "I've heard my mom and dad ridicule Bush when they watch the news all the time. I love my parents, they must be right."
One-Issue Paramount: "Sure, Kerry couldn't choose between soup and salad at an all-you-can-eat buffet, but at least he'll (keep abortion legal / get rid of some of those rich-centric tax cuts / not be Bush)."
Shared Beliefs: "I haven't been saved by Jesus, my president shouldn't have been either."*
Shared Geography: "He's not from the south. Southerners are all racists. Duh."
Rambo Syndrome: Alright, I'll give you that one. There is nothing Rambo-like about Kerry.
* This is, BTW, the most compelling argument I've seen against Bush thus far. As an Atheist, that much God-stuff in the White House is scary shit. But then...Kerry has done nothing to suggest he's any different.
If people kick the shrub out, the US will stand a better chance at ratifying the Kyoto accord and remove the wasteful SUVs from the roads.
Bzzzzt. Wrong. (unless you're not referring to John Kerry being Bush's replacement)
As reported in the IHT and other news sources, John Kerry has made a point that he will not be getting the US back into Kyoto. This should come as no surprise. As a senator, he voted against allowing the department of the interior to fund implementation of the Kyoto protocols. On the campaign trail, he has made a point that he will fix the current rising gas prices. As the Kyoto protocols are widely estimated to cause a huge increase (as high as 30%) in national gas prices, implementing the protocol would while lowering gas prices, or even keeping them where they are, would be impossible.
(On a side note, though I hate to use the f-word here (flip-flop), in his 2003 document John Kerry's Comprehensive Vision for a Clean Environment, A Stronger Economy, Healthier Communities, his campaign claims "Dropping out of international implementation of the Kyoto Protocol was foolhardy then, and it is even more obviously foolhardy today.")
There is a popular feeling that goes something like "Bush single handedly killed Kyoto." This is absurd. Clinton couldn't get it ratified in 1997 because everyone in congress, including people from his own party (yes, even John Kerry), refused to even consider voting for it. In fact, it was only signed because Al Gore disregarded the resolution of the senate he was supposed to be in charge of. Bush's decision to not re-submit the treaty to congress for ratification was, frankly, a formality; there is no way he could have gotten congress to ratify it, even if he supported it (and he clearly doesn't).
Though I would love to see green house gas emissions get lower, the fact remains that the Kyoto protocol, as it stands, would be economic suicide for the United States, and odds are essentially zero we'll ever see it ratified
You're really testing the compiler here, not the runtime. It's highly possible 1.5's compiler is slower because it is spending time to produce better bytecode.
It's good to hear about a 527 that's not bent on demolishing Kerry.
When Kerry wins and we have to put up with 4 years of complaining when everyone realizes his election was purchased by $150M+ in 527 campaigning, 10x that of Bush...
Well, anyway, I'm going to keep a link to this comment on hand. Thanks for that.
And Tim Berners-Lee created HTML, not the WWW (HTML is just one of the many languages used in the WWW, and it can be used outside the WWW, too)
TBL invented both HTML and HTTP, in addition to the modern URL syntax, not to mention to the phrase "World Wide Web." Actually, what part of the WWW did he not invent?
Both viewpoints seem to adhere to the idea of separation of church and state.
Well, opposition to banning federal money going towards abortions certainly seems to be a church and state separation issue, I'll give you that. Anti-abortion religious followers should not be allowed to tell others how their healthcare money is spent.
However, opposition to school vouchers is quite a bit different. By not allowing parents to get funding to send their children to private schools, local government is, in effect, requiring that children are taught the same beliefs. As an atheist, I lament that some parents would use vouchers to send their children to (for instance) creationist schools, but what right does the state have to regulate what children are allowed to learn?
To make this a bit more on-topic, let's say that in a few years (or even now, who knows), a school district teaches that the PATRIOT Act was a universally positive thing, and that the wrongful detaining of many people of Middle-Eastern descent was justified. Well now, a Pakistani family might not be so happy about this being taught to their children, and very likely might want to go to a different school. Is not enforcing an atheist educational policy just as bad as enforcing a classical religious one? The ACLU's position on this matter seems to suggest that they don't support a separation of church and state, but rather the establishment of a national belief system to be taught in public schools.
Unless you're a Russian citizen, living in Russia, listening to the music in Russia, allofmp3.com is also not legal. If you're going to violate local copyright laws, at least use a P2P service where they don't take down your name and credit card number.
...a federal judge declaring a 10-year-old anti-bootlegging law unconstitutional
Well, this is certainly great for all those 10-year-old bootleggers out there.
Just for completeness....
Ernesto Miranda was not freed. He was re-tried (after being read his rights), convicted, and sentenced to 11 years in prison.
In one of the lesser-known ironies of the century, Miranda was also stabbed to death while on parole. His likely killer was released because he invoked his right to remain silent.
I remember what it was -- the flu -- but it was great than 5 years ago and basically, I just waited it out -- fever and headaches and agony and all.
It's called placebo, man. Just keep sitting there in pain, telling yourself, "my body is healing itself, my body is healing itself," and eventually you start to believe it.
You still would have been better off getting a damn flu shot, and you probably would have had less chance of passing it on to other people, too.
If they were attempting to kill non-US citizens on non-US territory, the US would have no right to hold them.
Funny how few people seem to complain about Belgium when they do this.
Either he gets it on TV and everyone gets to see more of his crap, or he doesn't get it on TV, and he gets to say it's a conspiracy to keep it "censored."
That's a British million. A million is only 10^3 over there.
...are going to run into the problem that we only have 2 ears. All "surround sound" effects should be able to be emulated with a pair of headphones and a good set of filters, like in Dolby Headphone technology. So any audio hardware is really just going to be doing this kind of thing, and modern CPUs are really getting fast enough that it's not an issue. These days, the primary thing a computer needs to have is a little jack into which headphones can be plugged.
Apple has been a great demonstration for the added security of OSS. Of the few exploits that have arisen, they've mostly been related to the parts of the OS that are still closed, like AppleScript and Internet Connect.app. Maybe they should expand their OSS efforts into these areas...
(exceptions in recent libpng and libz exploits)
You know what happens if you don't defend a trademark, right?
And if the company still did anything, that might be a case. What exactly would be the harm in them losing the MST3K trademark at this point? Someone else could sell DVDs, filled with something else, called "Mystery Science Theater 3000?" Yeah, right.
Again, if they were still making shows, that would be one thing, but all BBI is today is a holding company for IP that is years old.
Having seen two Mr. Sinus shows, I gotta say this seems bogus to me. What business are they losing here, exactly? People are going to spend money to go to a Mr. Sinus show instead of paying for and old episode of MST3K on DVD? Yeah, right.
If they used robots, or filmed it, or if the show were still being made (or even aired on TV), BBI may have a leg to stand on, but it seems to me they're just trying to cash in on some good fans here.
...he'll want a shark.
Yeah, Dubya actually came to my house once, took the books off the shelf and lit them up. It was crazy.
Give me a break. Read the page. No books were burned. Many books were not even removed, let alone banned. Complaints were filed against them.
We got our lessons when the Germans had their book-burnings here during the war.
Yeah, we didn't need an army to take over our country to figure out, "Hey, maybe burning books is a bad thing." Our military resistance lasted more than a week. I'm sure Anne Frank was really happy you "got your lesson."
It's all done with indexes
Not indices, but indexes.
What's up with that? Why is everyone using "indexes" now?