PS - once traffic shaping has been turned on, look for Time Warner to start soliciting companies like Google/youtube to 'sponsor' speed zones on TW's network.
If that happens hopefully Google will be smart enough to turn around and sue Time Warner for effectively charging a ransom for a service which is not artificially degraded. In fact, even if Time Warner does not do this, I hope that their traffic shaping is sufficiently targeted against certain well-funded sites or services who could sue for damages due to degraded customer experience.
It would be perfect if TW actually restricted bandwidth to any online video/media service because IMO (IANAL) this would be directly anti-competitive behavior from Time Warner.
If this is the reason that TW want to lose these customers then they should not be promoting a high-speed service and hoping that the majority of users will only use low bandwidth applications. I don't use a lot of always on high-bandwidth apps, but on the occasions I do I expect the experience I'm paying $50/month for.
If there is some kind of monthly "bandwidth cap" after which point your service will be degraded that is one thing. To simply degrade the service for anyone using certain types of applications and services is completely unacceptable, and I hope that someone files a class action over it. To make matters worse, assuming TFA shows the pertinent information, it is not even clear to current subscribers or prospective customers which exact services and/or sites may have degraded performance.
On June 7th I experienced a drop in bandwidth to certain online video sites down to only 300Kbps, where usually I can get a full 5Mbps downstream. I can't say for sure that this was 'traffic shaping', but it's quite a co-incidence that TWC made this announcement one day earlier.
Does anybody have a link to a list of ISPs or non-business plans that are not traffic shaping? If a 16x drop in performance is going to become a frequent occurrence I aim to leave RoadRunner quickly. I'll look to the/. crowd for some respectable recommendations.
It's always very difficult to run a comprehensive codec comparison because each of the competing codecs offers a wide range of settings, and to test comprehensively over many different clips and bitrate is extraordinarily time consuming - so kudos to the author of TFA. However, I'd like to offer some brief feedback:
It would be my expectation (based on a lot of experience!) that Xvid and DivX should always be grouped tightly together. If this is not the case it suggests some degree of error in the testing. Certainly at medium bitrate DivX should be side by side with Xvid - both codecs are based around similar technologies.
DivX and Xvid ought to be much more competitive with H.264 at higher bitrates and higher resolutions, but it looks like these results show the inverse
I recommend taking a look at the swatches on page 4 of TFA to check some of the results yourself
Finally, I think it's very worthwhile mentioning that while comparing codecs can be interesting, comparing platforms is more so. For example, one benefit of the DivX codec is that it is supported by many CE devices, across most desktop platforms, and new Internet services such as DivX Stage6.
I too despise useless lights on computers and other gadgets. I live in a studio apartment, and unless I actually go to the effort of switching everything off at the extension cord at night my room is lit up with the standby LED on the TV and DVD player, the modem and router blinking away, and various other things. It's incredibly annoying, and there is no need for it.
Even at my desk at work, I have a router sitting on top of my table, blinking away incessantly. Why does it need to do that? The only times I want to see it blinking are if there is actually a problem with a connection, at which point I should be able to press a button to enable the LEDs, or during startup and shutdown sequences, after which the lights could automatically turn off.
I don't want to go around with a marker ruining my hardware, or making the place look ugly with tape, although I'm frequently tempted. Please, manufacturers, stop this madness!
Recently I tried to purchase some clothes from Hanes.com, a company most Americans will be very familiar with.
As it turns out, all of the forms they send to your computer are encrypted. None of the data you send them back by filling out such forms are encrypted. Account logins, billing address, shipping address, card details - they all go plain text according to Firefox. I contacted Hanes customer support twice about this, only to be told that they use "industry standard encryption". "Yes", I said, "but only on the pages you send to my browser, not on all the data my browser sends to you". Months later they still have not fixed it. I even contacted the FTC, but they obviously have done nothing.
Go to their website, and try to log into an account using any user name and password, and Firefox will instantly warn of the problem. It's ridiculous that in this day a) major companies have this problem and b) they ignore the problem when people bring it up. They deserve a class action from anyone who has ever ordered through their insecure website.
Of course people should be entitled to their opinion.
Two people can open conflicting lines of thought to debate without resorting to censoring each others words. Unfortunately for Digg it's all too easy to hide unpopular speech, no matter how truthful, with just a handful of 'digg downs'. It's rule by consensus in spite of the facts. You could imagine that in the worst case Digg is what Wikipedia might degenerate into if there were nobody overseeing it.
What is breaking down Digg? User revolt against what they deem to be 'censorship'.
However, every day on Digg submitters making factual but unpopular statements are censored by swarms of Digg users digging comments down into oblivion and burying stories that do make it to the front page. Every Digg user is aware that this is 'normal' activity on the site, yet they expect the owners to have better standards?
You reap what you sow, Diggers.
Another "feature" made redundant in Vista
on
Censoring a Number
·
· Score: 1
What's the value of the protected media path in Vista now?
I think when you only manage to sell 244 copies in China you have to admit one of three things:
a) Nobody really cares to buy your product b) Your products are far over priced c) Most everyone is successfully pirating your product, therefor please justify the burden of product activation (including such features as limited hardware changes) you place on your legitimate, paying customers?
Changing to Windows is of course no option; I never understood why that OS is used so much.
Perhaps for all the reasons you just mentioned: You don't have to spend hours getting the window manager to work right. It doesn't want to run in only 1024x768@60hz. You don't need to manually edit an xorg.conf, or have the experience required to do so. You can watch movies on it very easily. Configuring the shell isn't a pain. There is plenty of choice in hardware.
Remind me again why Windows is no option?
Side note: No, fan boys, this is not an open invitation for you to critique every little problem with Windows. Or every big one;) We all know it's not perfect.
ID3v1 tags won't pose a problem for this, they occur at the end of the file, i.e. the last chunk.
But ID3v2 files occur at the start of the file and have variable size. AVI files might have similar video streams but different language audio tracks, or be interleaved slightly differently, and so forth.
So although similar information might exist in these files, the chances of that information laying exactly on the same chunk boundaries, and thus the chunks having matching MD5s, is pretty low I bet. Even a 1ms delay in a CD rip could throw off all the MD5s _and_ encoded data.
It could be effective _if_ the server had parsers for the various file types and could separate meta data and streams withing a file, and the client could correctly re-assemble the media. Chances of a buggy parser or muxor destroying your file: high.
M2 PRESSWIRE-24 February 2004-ip.access: ip.access and RigNet deliver GSM Abis over IP via satellite; ip.access and RigNet partner for implementation of GSM-over-IP-over-satellite solution; Successful trial paves way for delivery of GSM services to remote locations(C)1994-2004 M2 COMMUNICATIONS LTD
How do those cheap international calling cards work? The ones where you can dial other countries at rates far lower than the phone company will give you? They have existed for years, and I don't know the implementation behind it, but I had always made the assumption that they were a VOIP link between nodes in the two countries with the service provider paying for bandwidth and local rates at each end only. I don't really know enough about it though...
"Widespread exploitation of an unpatched Windows vulnerability involving cursor animation files over the weekend have prompted Microsoft to announce plans to release an out-of-sequence patch on Tuesday MS plans emergency update to fix blinking cursor bug."
The Reg clearly structured this sentence knowing it would make front page on/.
Slashdot Mirror
PS - once traffic shaping has been turned on, look for Time Warner to start soliciting companies like Google/youtube to 'sponsor' speed zones on TW's network.
If that happens hopefully Google will be smart enough to turn around and sue Time Warner for effectively charging a ransom for a service which is not artificially degraded. In fact, even if Time Warner does not do this, I hope that their traffic shaping is sufficiently targeted against certain well-funded sites or services who could sue for damages due to degraded customer experience.
It would be perfect if TW actually restricted bandwidth to any online video/media service because IMO (IANAL) this would be directly anti-competitive behavior from Time Warner.
Oh come on now,
If this is the reason that TW want to lose these customers then they should not be promoting a high-speed service and hoping that the majority of users will only use low bandwidth applications. I don't use a lot of always on high-bandwidth apps, but on the occasions I do I expect the experience I'm paying $50/month for.
If there is some kind of monthly "bandwidth cap" after which point your service will be degraded that is one thing. To simply degrade the service for anyone using certain types of applications and services is completely unacceptable, and I hope that someone files a class action over it. To make matters worse, assuming TFA shows the pertinent information, it is not even clear to current subscribers or prospective customers which exact services and/or sites may have degraded performance.
On June 7th I experienced a drop in bandwidth to certain online video sites down to only 300Kbps, where usually I can get a full 5Mbps downstream. I can't say for sure that this was 'traffic shaping', but it's quite a co-incidence that TWC made this announcement one day earlier.
/. crowd for some respectable recommendations.
Does anybody have a link to a list of ISPs or non-business plans that are not traffic shaping? If a 16x drop in performance is going to become a frequent occurrence I aim to leave RoadRunner quickly. I'll look to the
Product manager for the DivX codec here
It's always very difficult to run a comprehensive codec comparison because each of the competing codecs offers a wide range of settings, and to test comprehensively over many different clips and bitrate is extraordinarily time consuming - so kudos to the author of TFA. However, I'd like to offer some brief feedback:
Finally, I think it's very worthwhile mentioning that while comparing codecs can be interesting, comparing platforms is more so. For example, one benefit of the DivX codec is that it is supported by many CE devices, across most desktop platforms, and new Internet services such as DivX Stage6.
One company with all of this information ripe for data mining? Wouldn't that be handy for aiding the Government in the "war on terror"! ;)
I too despise useless lights on computers and other gadgets. I live in a studio apartment, and unless I actually go to the effort of switching everything off at the extension cord at night my room is lit up with the standby LED on the TV and DVD player, the modem and router blinking away, and various other things. It's incredibly annoying, and there is no need for it.
Even at my desk at work, I have a router sitting on top of my table, blinking away incessantly. Why does it need to do that? The only times I want to see it blinking are if there is actually a problem with a connection, at which point I should be able to press a button to enable the LEDs, or during startup and shutdown sequences, after which the lights could automatically turn off.
I don't want to go around with a marker ruining my hardware, or making the place look ugly with tape, although I'm frequently tempted. Please, manufacturers, stop this madness!
Recently I tried to purchase some clothes from Hanes.com, a company most Americans will be very familiar with.
As it turns out, all of the forms they send to your computer are encrypted. None of the data you send them back by filling out such forms are encrypted. Account logins, billing address, shipping address, card details - they all go plain text according to Firefox. I contacted Hanes customer support twice about this, only to be told that they use "industry standard encryption". "Yes", I said, "but only on the pages you send to my browser, not on all the data my browser sends to you". Months later they still have not fixed it. I even contacted the FTC, but they obviously have done nothing.
Go to their website, and try to log into an account using any user name and password, and Firefox will instantly warn of the problem. It's ridiculous that in this day a) major companies have this problem and b) they ignore the problem when people bring it up. They deserve a class action from anyone who has ever ordered through their insecure website.
I'll sell you some high-end printing paper you can touch with included pen for $100!
Next time could you please choose a more loaded headline?
Thanks!
Of course people should be entitled to their opinion.
Two people can open conflicting lines of thought to debate without resorting to censoring each others words. Unfortunately for Digg it's all too easy to hide unpopular speech, no matter how truthful, with just a handful of 'digg downs'. It's rule by consensus in spite of the facts. You could imagine that in the worst case Digg is what Wikipedia might degenerate into if there were nobody overseeing it.
What is breaking down Digg? User revolt against what they deem to be 'censorship'.
However, every day on Digg submitters making factual but unpopular statements are censored by swarms of Digg users digging comments down into oblivion and burying stories that do make it to the front page. Every Digg user is aware that this is 'normal' activity on the site, yet they expect the owners to have better standards?
You reap what you sow, Diggers.
What's the value of the protected media path in Vista now?
Moscow couple protests atop Lada (NSFW)
At least they look like they're happy...
.. AU audio files, MOV video files, and AVI files using a legacy video compressor Microsoft doesn't even ship any more?
I'm sure the research is great. I'll pass until you make it presentable.
Try http://www.drdivx.com/ and http://www.mp3dev.org/ .
I think when you only manage to sell 244 copies in China you have to admit one of three things:
a) Nobody really cares to buy your product
b) Your products are far over priced
c) Most everyone is successfully pirating your product, therefor please justify the burden of product activation (including such features as limited hardware changes) you place on your legitimate, paying customers?
Changing to Windows is of course no option; I never understood why that OS is used so much.
;) We all know it's not perfect.
Perhaps for all the reasons you just mentioned: You don't have to spend hours getting the window manager to work right. It doesn't want to run in only 1024x768@60hz. You don't need to manually edit an xorg.conf, or have the experience required to do so. You can watch movies on it very easily. Configuring the shell isn't a pain. There is plenty of choice in hardware.
Remind me again why Windows is no option?
Side note: No, fan boys, this is not an open invitation for you to critique every little problem with Windows. Or every big one
If a client recreates a file from "similar" pieces, is it a derivative work?
ID3v1 tags won't pose a problem for this, they occur at the end of the file, i.e. the last chunk.
But ID3v2 files occur at the start of the file and have variable size. AVI files might have similar video streams but different language audio tracks, or be interleaved slightly differently, and so forth.
So although similar information might exist in these files, the chances of that information laying exactly on the same chunk boundaries, and thus the chunks having matching MD5s, is pretty low I bet. Even a 1ms delay in a CD rip could throw off all the MD5s _and_ encoded data.
It could be effective _if_ the server had parsers for the various file types and could separate meta data and streams withing a file, and the client could correctly re-assemble the media. Chances of a buggy parser or muxor destroying your file: high.
Please google "1994 gsm over ip"
- access-and-RigNet-deliver.html
t ml
http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/gi_0199-721578/ip
M2 PRESSWIRE-24 February 2004-ip.access: ip.access and RigNet deliver GSM Abis over IP via satellite; ip.access and RigNet partner for implementation of GSM-over-IP-over-satellite solution; Successful trial paves way for delivery of GSM services to remote locations(C)1994-2004 M2 COMMUNICATIONS LTD
Also looks interesting:
http://kbs.cs.tu-berlin.de/~jutta/toast.html
http://kbs.cs.tu-berlin.de/~jutta/gsm/toast-igp.h
How do those cheap international calling cards work? The ones where you can dial other countries at rates far lower than the phone company will give you? They have existed for years, and I don't know the implementation behind it, but I had always made the assumption that they were a VOIP link between nodes in the two countries with the service provider paying for bandwidth and local rates at each end only. I don't really know enough about it though...
No, it couldn't be. Gates was talking about bringing talented people into the country, not outsourcing.
"Widespread exploitation of an unpatched Windows vulnerability involving cursor animation files over the weekend have prompted Microsoft to announce plans to release an out-of-sequence patch on Tuesday MS plans emergency update to fix blinking cursor bug."
/.
The Reg clearly structured this sentence knowing it would make front page on
Meanwhile, are there any other common college apps that Vista fails to work with?
;)
Yes, there are some problems with uTorrent
How does one persons random opinion with no surrounding discussion get modded insightful?
Here, I'll give you my opinion too:
I have installed it and I have used it, and I hated it.
Well, I guess you're going to have to toss a coin on who to believe...
Nearly every distribution of DOSBOX is for x86 hosts. The point is that a Java emulator will have more widespread application.