"Also, I didn't see the video, why the police was after him or if he knew the police was pullingh him." As to "why" - At one point he popped a wheelie and was doing 129 MPH. He deserved to get pulled over.
HOWEVER, the method of pulling him over was "Car (VW?) with darkly tinted windows cuts you off and driver comes out brandishing a gun." - Effectively indistinguishable from a road rager.
I did not see any signs of the police attempting to do a standard pull-over manuever (e.g. turning their lights on) - I did not see ONE sign of any active police vehicle lights.
Oh yeah, I don't know about Maryland tint laws, but in New York State that cop's vehicle's tinted windows would have been illegal. (In NYS, standard passenger vehicles and station wagons are not permitted to have tint on any side windows. Some vehicles can get around this by classifying as "light truck" - my Subaru Outback carries a SUBN classification due to fold-down rear seats and a rear cargo area, allowing Subaru to put factory tint on the rear side windows, but I don't think that little VW hatch could be classified as such.) Many of the NYS tint laws are actually intended to protect cops from situations just like this motorcyclist was in ("surprises" from heavily armed vehicle passengers or driver).
I remember one particular set of instructional videos (how to download Ibycus Topo) consisted of 3 10-minute videos.
If you were moderately computer-savvy and had familiarity with BitTorrent, you only needed 30 seconds that started 8:30 in the first video (where to find the.torrent file, which the person who released Ibycus Topo didn't bother to link directly to.)
What was funny was the only source for the.torrent file was ThePirateBay, despite the fact that this particular dataset was 100% free/legit as it was derived from government data sources that had VERY permissive licenses. (It was distributed by BT to save the author's bandwidth, and I guess TPB was the first torrent hosting site/tracker he thought of.)
Because AC3 (Dolby Digital) can definately not be put into an MP4 container. This is probably the #1 reason the "scene" uses MKV. (Typical MKV "scene" releases are 720p MPEG-4 AVC aka H.264 with the original source AC3 audio, since unless the source is DTS, the original AC3 is basically the only way to provide surround sound to 90% of home theater setups out there.)
With modern CPUs, 10 times faster isn't much of a difference, especially if your source content is high resolution (decoding takes the bulk of the time, since for transcoding you usually can't have hardware acceleration).
Also, in general, my experience is that most MPEG-4 ASP encoders were developed and perfected back in the days of single-core CPUs, and people haven't done much work into multithreading them. H.264 encoders, on the other hand, have been the focus of a LOT of multithreading optimization. The end result is that in my experience, the difference in speed between H.264 and MPEG-4 ASP (DivX/XviD) is really only 2-3x once you take into account the improved multithreading of current H.264 codecs and the fixed amount of CPU needed for decoding the source format.
Since you can kick off a bunch of queued jobs and then go to bed, such a difference in speed basically becomes irrelevant compared to the time you'll save in terms of dealing with target platform incompatibilities. If you're targeting ANY mobile phone, H.264+AAC in an MP4 container is the way to go.
The above SHOULD work if it is an MKV with H.264 video and AAC video. It works for me.
However, a lot of "scene" MKVs are H.264 video and AC-3 (Dolby Digital) audio. AC-3 audio can't be put into an MP4 container (which is one reason MKV is used). AC-3 or DTS is the required format for 90%+ of surround sound systems out there, which is why that format is used for the audio instead of AAC.
To play such MKVs on a PS3, you need tsMuxer to remultiplex the H.264 video and the AC-3 audio into an MPEG transport stream (.m2ts)
Also, MKV supports chapters and subtitles, I'm fairly certain the MP4 container doesn't. The MP4 container is VERY limited in capability.
However, if targeting mobile devices (no need for surround sound), the MP4 container is the way to go, especially since many phones have some degree of AVC hardware acceleration these days.
There are exceptions to the line of sight rule for VHF/UHF, such as knife edge diffraction, reflections (e.g. your signal might bounce off of a valley wall and reach a repeater just out of LOS) and tropospheric ducting (likely not to see that in mountains, it's more of an over-water thing usually.)
However you can't rely on these to get you more than a little bit of extra distance unless you get lucky.
"due to FCC regulation of wattage allowed for handheld transcievers, antenna size, and even vehicle groundplane"
There is no such thing for amateur radio transcievers.
However, there's a practical limit of around 5 watts for handhelds dictated primarily by thermal management and battery power available in that form factor. Mobile rigs have a nice big car battery backed by an alternator to run off of. (Running directly off of a car battery for extended periods is not advised - starter batteries do not like being deep cycled.)
A useful thing when traveling is to build a J-pole antenna from twinlead. J-poles have pretty good gain, and are normally NOT a compact antenna, however if constructed from twinlead, you can roll it up and just hang the end off of something when you want to use it. Plenty of variants on this available from Google, including http://www.qsl.net/wb3gck/jpole.htm and http://larc.hamgate.net/pocketJpole.htm
Most small/compact (handheld) amateur radios are UHF/VHF units. (Usually called HTs, for Handheld Transceivers) The two most popular ham bands are the 2 meter (144-148 MHz) and 70 cm (approx. 440 MHz, I'm a bit rusty and haven't touched my radio in a few years.)
VHF/UHF communications is line of sight based, so unless you're within LOS of a repeater, you probably won't be able to do much, unless you have friends nearby with similar units. You can operate VHF/UHF HTs in a unit-to-unit (Simplex) mode, but most people use them to talk via repeaters. Repeaters listen on one frequency and transmit on another, usually with an offset of 600 kHz in the 2 meter band. Even if you are in coverage of a repeater, it's not always guaranteed someone will be listening.
APRS (Automatic Packet Reporting System) can report your position with periodic position broadcasts. This could let friends track your movements whenever you're in coverage of an APRS gateway or digipeater, for example at http://aprs.fi/
There are also portable solutions for HF (global) communications (frequency 30 MHz), but the most portable solutions (suitable for a backpacker) will only do Morse code and not voice.
Getting a license is pretty easy and cheap (no Morse code required for the Technician license that allows VHF/UHF operation, and the FCC may even be allowing operation on the HF bands without a Morse test now - I'm not sure if they've updated their rules based on the ITU rule changes a few years ago), so I would recommend starting the process of studying and finding an exam session now.
Starbucks doesn't use encryption last time I checked. The AP is open, access control is handled at the router. (You're "blackholed" in an isolated network until you pay or, since I think they have limited free service, click through a Terms of Use.)
From most of what I've read, the subcontractors in question (Halliburton and Transocean) were doing the work, but BP had full control over the operations.
The flow was something like this: Halliburton or Transocean: That's a bad idea, we don't recommend that. BP: Do it anyway. H/T: OK...
Although the question is at what point H/T should have said, "Hell no!"
The only thing I don't like about this is the Amazon exclusivity. (Unless Amazon offers DRMed eBooks in formats other than the Kindle's - I haven't looked into that too much, but I understand that eBook DRM is at least semi-standardized.)
I agree, the design could have been, in theory, a blast. But their security methodology can only be described as "EPIC FAIL".
In a properly designed game, the "worst case" scenario for cheating is aimbots. In Crysis, the problem went WAY beyond aimbots.
I'm not sure whether or not Punkbuster even had the ability to catch the problems or not - the second major security problem Crysis had was that their Punkbuster implementation apparently caused massive memory leaks on dedicated servers. As a result, no dedicated servers enabled it.
Similarly, AT&T has 3G coverage in a lot of areas where T-Mobile phones won't even work at all. (Their cross-roaming agreement seems to not be particularly effective.)
Also, in nearly all areas, when not in an AT&T 3G area, you drop to EDGE and not bare GPRS.
As to bloatware - this isn't a new problem. Windows Mobile does it too. RIM seems to be able to keep stricter control over the Blackberry, probably partly because they develop both the hardware and the OS and due to their tendency to be more "business oriented".
I'm surprised you didn't catch on to the instakill cheaters faster. It was next to impossible not to notice them.
Probably only 1% of INI tweaks made any attempt at hiding like my experiments (reduction in assault rifle spread and a 20% damage boost never got noticed, for example, usually because at least one person was pistol instakilling or VTOL godmoding on the same server), nearly everyone just went "all out".
Another nasty tactic was modifying the AA tank to get unlimited ammo and the ability to depress the gun to downward angles... No one ever noticed that tweak either, as long as the AA tank didn't have "godmode armor" too.
"That said if pot gets legalized I'd want it to be subjected to all the rules we have for alcohol till we can prove otherwise. Also the only reason I responded was because Cannabis is not a pure depressant, it's mix of stimulant, depressant, and psychoactive."
I don't agree with the "until we can prove otherwise". Simply treat it by the same rules we treat alcohol in terms of DUI and such, period.
Although this leads to one of the few truly legitimate reasons I can think of for it to be illegal while tobacco and alcohol (far worse drugs in general, for differing reasons) are legal. I'm not sure if there is an easy scientific method to determine "under the influence" or "not under the influence" without behavioral tests that are a lot easier to challenge in court than a breathalyzer. Pot is known to stay in your system for quite a while after its effects are gone.
I loved playing through most of the game using the stealth mode... It's a bit slower but takes more finesse.
However, the multiplayer design of Crysis was absolute shit. Anyone should've picked up from the DX9-clients-can't-mix-with-DX10-clients that Crytek violated one of the first rules of multiplayer game architecture - DO NOT TRUST THE CLIENT. In Crysis' case, apparently they offloaded world physics calculations to the client, and also trusted the client WAY too much.
For example, if a client said, "my 9mm pistol does 9999 damage", the server would say, "OK, 9999 damage to your target. Oh look, it's instadead."
Similarly, if a game client said, "My vehicle is immune to all forms of fire.", the server would happily say, "You got hit with a missile. Oh, you're immune to explosive damage - no damage at all!"
I played multiplayer for two weeks, the second of which was playing with the INI files figuring out what degree of cheating would not get noticed. (Thanks to the blatant instakillpistol cheaters, there was a LOT of potential for nonobvious cheating, such as the 400HP Toyota truck with a tweaked suspension.) After that I uninstalled the game and haven't played since. Cheating was, of course, unexciting other than the technical challenges of modding the game. Playing legit was pointless because of the ease of cheating.
It didn't support AT&T 3G until pretty late in its life.
T-Mo is the only carrier that offers discounts for unsubsidized phones, which really doesn't matter if your phone is a paperweight due to total network nonfunctionality. T-Mobile phones in my area aren't able to even dial 911 (or at least weren't for most of 2008/2009, the one T-Mobile user I knew in the area switched to AT&T and hasn't looked back.), meanwhile AT&T and Verizon not only provide reliable coverage, they provide 3G coverage.
Actually, MS has had quite a few successes with hardware. I still think that until the Xbox division came along, the only decent products Microsoft made were their input devices.
I strongly dislike MS software, but their mice, keyboards, and joysticks are all top-notch.
It isn't their only failing. The other failing is that their network coverage/reliability is craptacular.
I mean, I can understand going into an expensive roaming mode when off-network, but for most of 2008/2009 at the very least, T-Mobile phones became 100% inoperable (not even capable of 911 service) anywhere within 20 miles of where I work/live.
Same in my area. I'm right along a major non-interstate highway (NYS Route 17, actually in the process of becoming I-86), and at least 1-2 years ago, no T-Mobile phone worked within 20 miles of my apartment/workplace. In fact, at one point I tried an experiment with my unlocked AT&T phone and my then-girlfriend's T-Mo SIM - No service even when I had four bars from AT&T. When I put my AT&T SIM back into the phone, my IMEI was apparently blacklisted with the towers for at least 15 minutes - my phone took that long to show signal again.
Meanwhile, AT&T and Verizon not only both offer reliable service in my area, they both offer 3G service.
Even more, like what? No service whatsoever in many areas? T-Mo phones typically get no service at all within 20 miles of where I work/live (AT&T and VZW both provide 3G service, T-Mobile SIMs sometimes work but usually just report "no signal". Putting a T-Mo SIM into an unlocked phone causes that phone's IMEI to be blacklisted by the local towers for about 15 minutes, even if you put an AT&T SIM back in.)
Slashdot Mirror
I haven't seen a single device or muxer that supports that combo.
My guess is that 75%+ of the City's email traffic is internal.
For these government organizations, along with probably the majority of corporate users, 90%+.
Thus for a "hosted" solution, traffic that used to be 90% internal to your network becomes 100% external.
"Also, I didn't see the video, why the police was after him or if he knew the police was pullingh him."
As to "why" - At one point he popped a wheelie and was doing 129 MPH. He deserved to get pulled over.
HOWEVER, the method of pulling him over was "Car (VW?) with darkly tinted windows cuts you off and driver comes out brandishing a gun." - Effectively indistinguishable from a road rager.
I did not see any signs of the police attempting to do a standard pull-over manuever (e.g. turning their lights on) - I did not see ONE sign of any active police vehicle lights.
Oh yeah, I don't know about Maryland tint laws, but in New York State that cop's vehicle's tinted windows would have been illegal. (In NYS, standard passenger vehicles and station wagons are not permitted to have tint on any side windows. Some vehicles can get around this by classifying as "light truck" - my Subaru Outback carries a SUBN classification due to fold-down rear seats and a rear cargo area, allowing Subaru to put factory tint on the rear side windows, but I don't think that little VW hatch could be classified as such.) Many of the NYS tint laws are actually intended to protect cops from situations just like this motorcyclist was in ("surprises" from heavily armed vehicle passengers or driver).
I remember one particular set of instructional videos (how to download Ibycus Topo) consisted of 3 10-minute videos.
If you were moderately computer-savvy and had familiarity with BitTorrent, you only needed 30 seconds that started 8:30 in the first video (where to find the .torrent file, which the person who released Ibycus Topo didn't bother to link directly to.)
What was funny was the only source for the .torrent file was ThePirateBay, despite the fact that this particular dataset was 100% free/legit as it was derived from government data sources that had VERY permissive licenses. (It was distributed by BT to save the author's bandwidth, and I guess TPB was the first torrent hosting site/tracker he thought of.)
You mean AAC?
Because AC3 (Dolby Digital) can definately not be put into an MP4 container. This is probably the #1 reason the "scene" uses MKV. (Typical MKV "scene" releases are 720p MPEG-4 AVC aka H.264 with the original source AC3 audio, since unless the source is DTS, the original AC3 is basically the only way to provide surround sound to 90% of home theater setups out there.)
With modern CPUs, 10 times faster isn't much of a difference, especially if your source content is high resolution (decoding takes the bulk of the time, since for transcoding you usually can't have hardware acceleration).
Also, in general, my experience is that most MPEG-4 ASP encoders were developed and perfected back in the days of single-core CPUs, and people haven't done much work into multithreading them. H.264 encoders, on the other hand, have been the focus of a LOT of multithreading optimization. The end result is that in my experience, the difference in speed between H.264 and MPEG-4 ASP (DivX/XviD) is really only 2-3x once you take into account the improved multithreading of current H.264 codecs and the fixed amount of CPU needed for decoding the source format.
Since you can kick off a bunch of queued jobs and then go to bed, such a difference in speed basically becomes irrelevant compared to the time you'll save in terms of dealing with target platform incompatibilities. If you're targeting ANY mobile phone, H.264+AAC in an MP4 container is the way to go.
The above SHOULD work if it is an MKV with H.264 video and AAC video. It works for me.
However, a lot of "scene" MKVs are H.264 video and AC-3 (Dolby Digital) audio. AC-3 audio can't be put into an MP4 container (which is one reason MKV is used). AC-3 or DTS is the required format for 90%+ of surround sound systems out there, which is why that format is used for the audio instead of AAC.
To play such MKVs on a PS3, you need tsMuxer to remultiplex the H.264 video and the AC-3 audio into an MPEG transport stream (.m2ts)
Also, MKV supports chapters and subtitles, I'm fairly certain the MP4 container doesn't. The MP4 container is VERY limited in capability.
However, if targeting mobile devices (no need for surround sound), the MP4 container is the way to go, especially since many phones have some degree of AVC hardware acceleration these days.
There are exceptions to the line of sight rule for VHF/UHF, such as knife edge diffraction, reflections (e.g. your signal might bounce off of a valley wall and reach a repeater just out of LOS) and tropospheric ducting (likely not to see that in mountains, it's more of an over-water thing usually.)
However you can't rely on these to get you more than a little bit of extra distance unless you get lucky.
"due to FCC regulation of wattage allowed for handheld transcievers, antenna size, and even vehicle groundplane"
There is no such thing for amateur radio transcievers.
However, there's a practical limit of around 5 watts for handhelds dictated primarily by thermal management and battery power available in that form factor. Mobile rigs have a nice big car battery backed by an alternator to run off of. (Running directly off of a car battery for extended periods is not advised - starter batteries do not like being deep cycled.)
A useful thing when traveling is to build a J-pole antenna from twinlead. J-poles have pretty good gain, and are normally NOT a compact antenna, however if constructed from twinlead, you can roll it up and just hang the end off of something when you want to use it. Plenty of variants on this available from Google, including http://www.qsl.net/wb3gck/jpole.htm and http://larc.hamgate.net/pocketJpole.htm
A little more technical detail:
Most small/compact (handheld) amateur radios are UHF/VHF units. (Usually called HTs, for Handheld Transceivers) The two most popular ham bands are the 2 meter (144-148 MHz) and 70 cm (approx. 440 MHz, I'm a bit rusty and haven't touched my radio in a few years.)
VHF/UHF communications is line of sight based, so unless you're within LOS of a repeater, you probably won't be able to do much, unless you have friends nearby with similar units. You can operate VHF/UHF HTs in a unit-to-unit (Simplex) mode, but most people use them to talk via repeaters. Repeaters listen on one frequency and transmit on another, usually with an offset of 600 kHz in the 2 meter band. Even if you are in coverage of a repeater, it's not always guaranteed someone will be listening.
APRS (Automatic Packet Reporting System) can report your position with periodic position broadcasts. This could let friends track your movements whenever you're in coverage of an APRS gateway or digipeater, for example at http://aprs.fi/
There are also portable solutions for HF (global) communications (frequency 30 MHz), but the most portable solutions (suitable for a backpacker) will only do Morse code and not voice.
Getting a license is pretty easy and cheap (no Morse code required for the Technician license that allows VHF/UHF operation, and the FCC may even be allowing operation on the HF bands without a Morse test now - I'm not sure if they've updated their rules based on the ITU rule changes a few years ago), so I would recommend starting the process of studying and finding an exam session now.
Andy Dodd
N2YPH
I'm thinking around the 705 mark myself...
Starbucks doesn't use encryption last time I checked. The AP is open, access control is handled at the router. (You're "blackholed" in an isolated network until you pay or, since I think they have limited free service, click through a Terms of Use.)
From most of what I've read, the subcontractors in question (Halliburton and Transocean) were doing the work, but BP had full control over the operations.
The flow was something like this:
Halliburton or Transocean: That's a bad idea, we don't recommend that.
BP: Do it anyway.
H/T: OK...
Although the question is at what point H/T should have said, "Hell no!"
The only thing I don't like about this is the Amazon exclusivity. (Unless Amazon offers DRMed eBooks in formats other than the Kindle's - I haven't looked into that too much, but I understand that eBook DRM is at least semi-standardized.)
Matlab is rarely ever graphically intensive...
I agree, the design could have been, in theory, a blast. But their security methodology can only be described as "EPIC FAIL".
In a properly designed game, the "worst case" scenario for cheating is aimbots. In Crysis, the problem went WAY beyond aimbots.
I'm not sure whether or not Punkbuster even had the ability to catch the problems or not - the second major security problem Crysis had was that their Punkbuster implementation apparently caused massive memory leaks on dedicated servers. As a result, no dedicated servers enabled it.
Similarly, AT&T has 3G coverage in a lot of areas where T-Mobile phones won't even work at all. (Their cross-roaming agreement seems to not be particularly effective.)
Also, in nearly all areas, when not in an AT&T 3G area, you drop to EDGE and not bare GPRS.
As to bloatware - this isn't a new problem. Windows Mobile does it too. RIM seems to be able to keep stricter control over the Blackberry, probably partly because they develop both the hardware and the OS and due to their tendency to be more "business oriented".
I'm surprised you didn't catch on to the instakill cheaters faster. It was next to impossible not to notice them.
Probably only 1% of INI tweaks made any attempt at hiding like my experiments (reduction in assault rifle spread and a 20% damage boost never got noticed, for example, usually because at least one person was pistol instakilling or VTOL godmoding on the same server), nearly everyone just went "all out".
Another nasty tactic was modifying the AA tank to get unlimited ammo and the ability to depress the gun to downward angles... No one ever noticed that tweak either, as long as the AA tank didn't have "godmode armor" too.
"That said if pot gets legalized I'd want it to be subjected to all the rules we have for alcohol till we can prove otherwise. Also the only reason I responded was because Cannabis is not a pure depressant, it's mix of stimulant, depressant, and psychoactive."
I don't agree with the "until we can prove otherwise". Simply treat it by the same rules we treat alcohol in terms of DUI and such, period.
Although this leads to one of the few truly legitimate reasons I can think of for it to be illegal while tobacco and alcohol (far worse drugs in general, for differing reasons) are legal. I'm not sure if there is an easy scientific method to determine "under the influence" or "not under the influence" without behavioral tests that are a lot easier to challenge in court than a breathalyzer. Pot is known to stay in your system for quite a while after its effects are gone.
I loved playing through most of the game using the stealth mode... It's a bit slower but takes more finesse.
However, the multiplayer design of Crysis was absolute shit. Anyone should've picked up from the DX9-clients-can't-mix-with-DX10-clients that Crytek violated one of the first rules of multiplayer game architecture - DO NOT TRUST THE CLIENT. In Crysis' case, apparently they offloaded world physics calculations to the client, and also trusted the client WAY too much.
For example, if a client said, "my 9mm pistol does 9999 damage", the server would say, "OK, 9999 damage to your target. Oh look, it's instadead."
Similarly, if a game client said, "My vehicle is immune to all forms of fire.", the server would happily say, "You got hit with a missile. Oh, you're immune to explosive damage - no damage at all!"
I played multiplayer for two weeks, the second of which was playing with the INI files figuring out what degree of cheating would not get noticed. (Thanks to the blatant instakillpistol cheaters, there was a LOT of potential for nonobvious cheating, such as the 400HP Toyota truck with a tweaked suspension.) After that I uninstalled the game and haven't played since. Cheating was, of course, unexciting other than the technical challenges of modding the game. Playing legit was pointless because of the ease of cheating.
It didn't support AT&T 3G until pretty late in its life.
T-Mo is the only carrier that offers discounts for unsubsidized phones, which really doesn't matter if your phone is a paperweight due to total network nonfunctionality. T-Mobile phones in my area aren't able to even dial 911 (or at least weren't for most of 2008/2009, the one T-Mobile user I knew in the area switched to AT&T and hasn't looked back.), meanwhile AT&T and Verizon not only provide reliable coverage, they provide 3G coverage.
Actually, MS has had quite a few successes with hardware. I still think that until the Xbox division came along, the only decent products Microsoft made were their input devices.
I strongly dislike MS software, but their mice, keyboards, and joysticks are all top-notch.
It isn't their only failing. The other failing is that their network coverage/reliability is craptacular.
I mean, I can understand going into an expensive roaming mode when off-network, but for most of 2008/2009 at the very least, T-Mobile phones became 100% inoperable (not even capable of 911 service) anywhere within 20 miles of where I work/live.
Same in my area. I'm right along a major non-interstate highway (NYS Route 17, actually in the process of becoming I-86), and at least 1-2 years ago, no T-Mobile phone worked within 20 miles of my apartment/workplace. In fact, at one point I tried an experiment with my unlocked AT&T phone and my then-girlfriend's T-Mo SIM - No service even when I had four bars from AT&T. When I put my AT&T SIM back into the phone, my IMEI was apparently blacklisted with the towers for at least 15 minutes - my phone took that long to show signal again.
Meanwhile, AT&T and Verizon not only both offer reliable service in my area, they both offer 3G service.
Even more, like what? No service whatsoever in many areas? T-Mo phones typically get no service at all within 20 miles of where I work/live (AT&T and VZW both provide 3G service, T-Mobile SIMs sometimes work but usually just report "no signal". Putting a T-Mo SIM into an unlocked phone causes that phone's IMEI to be blacklisted by the local towers for about 15 minutes, even if you put an AT&T SIM back in.)