The Illusionary Illusionbreaker

And Christmas day is over.

Fri, 25 Dec 2009 13:20:49 GMT

Just need the rest of the period to move itself over.

It's a traditional thing for me to want Christmas to be over - It's the season to be interrupted, usually. Does it make me particularly unsociable? Probably.

I'll probably be writing something, if anyone wants me for anything.

Puncturing dreams and dishing out advice...

Thu, 24 Dec 2009 12:07:22 GMT

Although it only leaves one question - Am I REALLY the only person I know who has a basic understanding of how lending money to people actually WORKS?

I mean, I know that for the sake of sanity (and for fast calculation's sake) that a bank will not reasonably lend you more than about 4x your total income pre tax to service the debt on the assumption that interest rates will get somewhere close to 8.5% average sometime in the next 20 years (damn good bet I'd say, and Australia's a country that DOESN'T offer a loan that's fixed for the entire duration of the loan), and assuming they'll lend the full value, and you had a deposit to cover the rest.

If a bank lends you anything more than 5.5 times your total income, the bank is fully aware they're lending you something that you can't pay for, and MUST SELL THE HOUSE to eventually service. In short, the house value must keep rising for the duration of the loan and must rise faster than the interest rates.

For those who want to know what the specifics are, the safe recognised limit in the US is total 36% Debt to Income Ratio - In short, no more than about a third of your income is used to pay for something you owe, period. You can coaster up to 40% for a while, but statistically you're screwed if you stay there for more than a while.

But of course calculating that on any given interest rate's a lot harder, so the multiplier's actually not a bad estimate, assuming a good 15-20% deposit, as a backstop if things go south (so you have equity before being forced to foreclose, and to avoid paying lender's insurance for the duration of the loan.)

The reason for this is fairly simple - You've got to actually stay alive too.

I mean seriously, you'd think this would be one of the must teach topics at school (along with how to communicate with other people, and how to write various forms of communication) but it's one of those things which I scratch my head and wonder why schooling doesn't cover even just the basics of 'Oh hey, the world you'll be walking into will look something like this'.

It bugs me that a lot of people who are a HELL of a lot smarter than I am don't know anything about this, and don't realise just what is involved in borrowing that sort of money from the bank.

It bugs me even more that I learnt this on the fly while studying to understand international politics. The fact people who took out loans DIDN'T understand this, and the people who offered them didn't give a damn cause they wanted to pawn off the risk to other people and keep their profits (And they did). It gave us the ground work for the great subprime mortgage debacle, which (you guessed it) in part caused the Global Financial Crisis, when these fine folks had the math catch up with them.

And people called me stupid for not wanting to move out of home. Am I really so stupid to give money to a stranger when I could be saving up for myself? Independence may be one thing, but the promise of independence at such a high price? You pay a LOT of money to stay out there, and it's harder to move up, since your expenses rise.

I'll save up now, and get true independence sooner thanks.

One step at a time...

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 12:11:55 GMT

Some progress (for once):

Air conditioner unit is installed and working correctly. Taking it for the calibration testing, but it seems it can heep up with the generated heat in the room.

As well, I think I have a partial solution to the recording issue in regards with re-encoding - Namely:

a) encoding in H.264 (or anything else) and not having to figure out what the blackmagic mjpeg codec will cause it to do.

b) benchmark grades to determine h.264 quality

I managed to FINALLY get virtualdub to work correctly, and with it, the ability to alter the field swapping at capture phase.

Unfortunately, due to the nature of the workarounds, it means that it renders EVERYTHING I recorded before today only useful for historical and or playback. Any attempt to edit then reencode will just make it throw a hissy fit.

Thing is, I've not done extensive testing to confirm if this fix will work for everything - As you can guess, since this is massively encoder based, I can't tell if the mass switching happens for everyone or not...

What's next in order:

- Getting the HQV scaler, for basically the 'Screw you, I'm recording anything I like' capablity
- Getting the SAS card with two hard drives to render the above issue obsolete - In short, no encoding, then I encode in anything the damn hell I feel like.
- Add two more hard drives and a capture card of choice to record in 1080p 50/60, in whatever the hell I feel like.

I'm starting to think that the theme of this entire project is to develop a set of tools for maximium flexiblity while working in high definition captures. I'm telling you, this will be the howto guide, I'd bet...

Oh, and before you ask, no, Australia isn't quite the only country with blacklisting problems...

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 18:20:58 GMT

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200910/ldbills/001/10001.13-19.html#j158

Have a read of something that's currently in the UK parliment at the moment.

For most part, it's hard to say the timing of BOTH ends being filled at the same time is anything other than deliberate, if you read it over right.

The Secretary of State may at any time by order impose a technical obligation on internet service providers if the Secretary of State considers it appropriate in view of—

(a) an assessment carried out or steps taken by OFCOM under section 124G; or

(b) any other consideration.

Wait, b) sounds suspiciously like... Oh, internet filtering. Otherwise known as "I don't like it, so I'll make it illegal for anyone else to access it."

Take that as you will. I'll see if there's a corrisponding US law or other European law. For most part, I'm beginning to suspect it's partly a push towards copyright control...

A silly, SILLY thought for all of you...

Fri, 18 Dec 2009 18:04:09 GMT

Not sure if you could be nailed for defamation for this one, but it's unlikely if you do it right...

Why not introduce Conroy and Atkinson as offensive terms, essentially making hearing their name as incredibly offensive?

I'm sure with a couple of well executed videos with a decently executed skit would at least help. And what are they going to do if people take this up? I'm sorry, if they want to claim defamation, they could stop being so offensive themselves.

Only on Nico Nico Douga...

Thu, 17 Dec 2009 04:20:54 GMT

This was in my mailbox today, the nico schedule for christmas. I thought I'd snip in/out a bit that might be relevant.

開催期日
2009年12月18日(金)

24：30～「GACKT Xmas LIVE」
出演者：GACKT

You can probably figure out what the deal is, as long as you can register on nico, and know where to look.

Oh and know that Nico is essentially Youtube for Japan, with live streaming abilities.

Have fun.

A bit of cross promotion - Submissions open - Re: R18+ rating for computer games in Australia

Tue, 15 Dec 2009 16:28:05 GMT

http://madmangohan.livejournal.com/84617.html

He beat me to it, but that was cause I was busy writing my submission up.

Anyway, if you're in Australia, and you have an opinion, now's a good time.

Remember, focus on the reasoning why/why not. Tangents are going to make you look stupid, unless you have a very good reason for them.

(Left 4 Dead 2 is my tangental, because Valve, like it or not subverted the system, and with the implementation of an R18+, that sort of blind eye monkeying around needs to stop.)

In any case, let's see how many people actually respond to the request for submission...

So... When do I get to launch my court case?

Tue, 15 Dec 2009 06:22:12 GMT

http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/internet-censorship-plan-gets-the-green-light-20091215-ktzc.html

Come on, I'm actually looking forward to it. So pray tell, Senator Conroy, how am I going to do freelance work now?

An open letter to Michael Atkinson

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 06:38:18 GMT

The below is an open letter to Michael Akinson, who should have recieved his mail today or tomorrow (actually a variation, there's a couple of minor typos in this copy, but I can't find that copy at the moment.)

For most part, we all need to start somewhere, so why don't we start by talking to our esteemed minister in language he understands. Namely the language of money, and the fact he's actually shooting his own cause in the foot?

If you wish to copy the letter go for it, just remember to give it a once over. For most part, I would rather explain it to him that even if his own premise is correct, he's actually screwing up his OWN CAUSE beyond belief if you think more than about a day forward.

But hey, that's just me. Let me know if you use it, although this is a quiet corner of the web, so I'd be a little surprised.

My advice is if you want to post it, use a stamp, and print out the letter and send it here (with a confirmation of reciept, and keep posting it every couple of weeks until they acknowledge reciept. It's a government rule if a request to acknowledge reciept is in a letter they ARE BY LAW required to confirm.):

The Hon. Michael Atkinson
Croydon Electorate Office:
488 Port Rd, Welland SA 5077

You could also e-mail him too, but it's easier to ignore an e-mail than to ignore a letter.

----

To Michael Atkinson, Attorney General for South Australia and the Honourable member for Croydon.

In regards to the interview that appeared on ABC News on ABC 1 on the 10th December 2009, I am thoroughly disappointed by your views expressed in your interview, clearly stating that it isn't right for what you referred to as 'a small loud group of gamers' to impose their views on the rest of society. Is this not a hypocritical statement because you are in fact doing that very same thing by imposing your own views on the classification of games in Australia?

From various reports and surveys, I understand that the majority of the Australian population believes that a proper system of regulation, as opposed to prohibition, is more suitable in this case and I am worried that you may be attempting to distort the data. I also understand you are currently one of small minority opposing some changes to the Games Classification System. The Classifications Board should be focused on providing a more comprehensive level of allocating gaming material an appropriate rating on the same level as it does for other mediums.

I must express deep concern that you are deliberately attempting to prevent the Classifications Board in informing the general public what a classified game contains by encouraging the board to find ways of 'accommodating' a game which they believe should be released but may not effectively be categorised in the MA15+ category.

It also causes me great unease that the stance you are taking is in fact identical to the claim you are making - the claim that a small fringe is trying to sabotage the process of democracy by imposition. I wonder why you have chosen the path that you are so against, and why we should believe in someone who does not practice, even nominally, what they believe in.
Are you not imposing your views on the rest of Australian society, some of us whom happen to be gamers, professionals in need of a bit of restful leisure to blow off steam, stable of mentality and over 18 in exactly the same manner?

I am alarmed at the sacrifices you are pushing in order to freeze your view, which I believe is causing so much harm to the point where you are actively promoting what you are claiming to protect us against.

These include:

- Deliberately distorting the Classifications Board's function as a body to inform the Australian people via placing the Board in a position to 'accommodate' games in lower ratings than they should reasonably be classified in for the sake of commercial sale. This leads to even further credibility lost to the board as they make rulings, meaning that you are effectively sabotaging the board that serves under your own office indirectly via the Federal Attorney General’s office.

- Encouraging the circumvention of the classification rules via the use of online shopping which in turn remove the power of the board and of the Government to even remotely police and regulate what should be allowed and what should not be, or even via legal or illegal content sharing via the internet, which is even worse.

- Enforcing the law by maintaining extra Customs officers in order to police the illegal import of games that do not meet the Australia rating at the expense of Australian taxpayers. But if the cost is too high and Customs cannot police this effectively, who will protect parents and their children then, if children are enabled by a young adult to purchase material which is clearly unsuitable for them?
- Encouraging children to criminal activity in order to obtain new games online their friends overseas can freely play. Without fairer ratings we cannot safely regulate the purchase of video games by those whom should be given the protection of a full and proper classification system.

- The inability to realise that this industry is booming and still on the rise you risk damage to the economy through persecution of a sector that could help improve the futures of Australians today. Australian jobs in the retail business cannot be created or maintained, GST and other sales taxes cannot be collected if we encourage the off-shoring of the sale and distribution of electronic entertainment.

Furthermore, I am concerned that foreign countries will not have to even consider Australian Law as greater numbers of people who enjoy games realise that they do not have to consider the Australian Classifications System at all. How can the Australian Government act against a company which has no links to Australia to discourage them or otherwise punish them making titles available to groups which they should not be? Are we to invade countries that produce games we can’t regulate?

The option to avoid the system altogether is being brought up with each new report on the Australian Games Classification System, and it is in part due to your actions. The ABC1 report even mentioned importing games or even committing crime via illegal download as a method to avoid the classifications system altogether. How is your stance on tightening control being effective at all if people resort to illegal means?

I must therefore ask if you are actually acting in the interests of the Australian people. Even though on the surface, your proposals seem reasonable, seeing the effects has led me to ask the following question. Why are you endangering the Australian Government's ability to effectively police and regulate the industry, as well as doing substantial damage to the Australian Government's portion of the gaming industry and slow, but growing damage to the economy as a whole, and sabotaging our own Classification Board's ability to do its mandated job?

I am left to wonder if having an unpoliced, unregulated and completely uninformed gaming industry is really your goal, and that you really do not intend to protect parents or their children from gaming as you claim, as evidenced by the results so far.

I urge you to please respond as soon as possible, as I would like to know that as an elected representative, that you know how to represent all Australians and their interests, as per your charter as the honourable member of Croydon.

Repeat after me...

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 08:09:59 GMT

HDCP is Hollywood's way of saying "Screw you too." If it wasn't for this, I wouldn't have to spend over a month and a half playing 'dodgeball' with it.

Anyway...

When I thought I was home high and dry, I get a curveball thrown in my face.

Apparently the Blackmagic HD Extreme 3 does NOT support 1080p50/60 input via its component, and it won't even take it via its HDMI ports. It will only OUTPUT via its HDMI ports.

... leaving me mostly back at square one. I need to find something that'll convert from HDMI or Component YUV to HDSDI.

Well, almost. While I was scrambling to find my way around things, I found this little treasure...

http://www.converters.tv/products/pal_to_hdtv/712.html

It's a Component and HDMI upscaler that uses the Realta HQV chip.

What's so good about it? It's pretty damned expensive, although on the upper end of tolerance for me.

It's like the ONLY LOUSY UPSCALER in existence that will send a signal back OUT in Component.
In short, for upscaling, it gives HDCP the finger by simply NEVER, EVER going through the boobytrapped HDMI setup. This means in English that there's no physical way for the PSP or Wii to become unrecordable, EVER, even if by some chance in hell, they managed to force the encryption conversion flag on.

Granted, for HDMI 1080p60 SDI work, I'll probably have to go back through it.

However, if I start with a component, I run very little risk of the HDCP kicking in. I then apply something like a HDMI -> HDSDI converter on like the one here http://www.gefen.com/kvm/dproduct.jsp?prod_id=8553 and have it talk to either the AJA Xena LHe or the Blackmagic HD Extreme 3 after playing a little trickery to confuse the HDCP just enough to play nice.

For those interested:

Minimum for 720p compressed upscaling work: (Immediate goal)

http://www.converters.tv/products/pal_to_hdtv/712.html - High Definition Scaler with Instant HQV $953.15 + postage -> Upscale out 480p to whatever the hell I feel like and Component to HDMI conversion.

Ideally, I would like to move towards 720p uncompressed work, which will mean parts of the below (SAS card +2 HDs) which amounts to about $2000 all up.

To do 1080p50/60 uncompressed (Proof of concept/future work)

http://www.gefen.com/kvm/dproduct.jsp?prod_id=8553 - Gefen 1.3 HDMI to 3GSDI - $899 US + Postage (If you're wondering, it's going to be a smidgen under the custom 1000 AU duty rule... depending what the currency feels like on any given day.) -> HDMI to HDSDI (for the capture card to be able to accept the signal)

http://www.digistor.com.au/products.php?item=AJA00034&q=Xena%20LHe&page=1 <- $1683 AU and walking time to Artarmon (Capture card in question)

http://www.mwave.com.au/newAU/mwaveAU/productdetail.asp?CartID=mAU@X5TSKK39I1FZHT2TRNZXE3BECKVVBC8OCV6TXBH9VRSRUK&sku=22080296 (Don't know if that link will work, if you want to know, search Adaptec 5805 Serial RAID Adapter, 8Port, 512MB DDR2 Cache, RAID 0/1/1E/5/5EE/6/10/50/60, PCIe (2244100-R)) - $688.70 + walking time to Lidcombe

http://www.mwave.com.au/newAU/mwaveAU/productdetail.asp?CartID=mAU@X5TSKK39I1FZHT2TRNZXE3BECKVVBC8OCV6TXBH9VRSRUK&sku=22050095Hitachi Ultrastar 15K450 450GB HDD, 3.5", SAS, 15000rpm, 16MB Cache (HUS154545VLS300) - $643.60 per drive. x2 minimum for 720p uncompressed, and x4 for 1080p60 uncompressed.

And that should settle that for that proof of concept. Anyone got 5k burning a hole in their pocket to fast track the project? I'll be paying for the scaler regardless, but right now, the rest of it will wait until after I get my tax return in August. Prices will alter, but hopefully they'll go down due to advancements.

Well, one could hope anyway...

Working on one thing at a time...

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 15:25:59 GMT

Hammering out specifics, and I'm one step closer after finding someone who knows more about server side stuff than I do, and getting my plans get given the important once over.

It means that I've figured out at least something, and given a couple of other developments, I've got a very good idea exactly what I need to do next.

Unfortunately, it'll also involve upgrading the computer because I need more PCI-e 16x slots than I currently have. Oops?

Well, this is interesting, although the source isn't that reliable...

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 01:32:55 GMT

http://www.boingboing.net/2009/11/03/secret-copyright-tre.html

The last note could get me in trouble. I'm going to all the trouble to doing this, for legal purposes. You know, my 1080p recording project, and the streaming I do from time to time? In theory, I've created a way to stream a Blu-ray from a 360 and split the signal.

Yeah, if Australia get strongarmed into it, (You know the AFACT trial?) this could prove really interesting.

I really, REALLY should get around to launching a court case. Probably against myself, just to see if that cabal take the bait.

Oh hey, that's one way to fight deflation...

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 06:57:05 GMT

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/north-koreans-dare-to-protest-as-devaluation-wipes-out-savings-1833156.html

Not saying that it's a smart way to do it, but in North Korea, just what are you going to do about it? I mean, REALLY?

I'm sorry, you want to go up against a nuclear totting regime with no moral qualms and having a population that's driven to the ground with few options to fight back? I mean really? There's always the question of what happens to the military if the soliders get screwed over too, but for some reason I have this feeling they won't be.

If nothing else, it promises to be really interesting. I'd be expecting riots to say the least. Thing is though, if he gets away with it, that might give a few other people similar ideas...

For those who wonder what the big deal's about.

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 00:17:39 GMT

http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/dec/02/pseudoscience-cesspool/

Or more accurately, the consequences of it.

Long story short - When you cook the books in the name of a good cause (and let's face it, we're not in a position to say that we can do absolutely anything we want including expending every resource whatsoever without consequences, that's really a simple fact) you damage the cause, and this is why I've been so sceptical about the whole deal. I've KNOWN for a while that the science didn't add up.

I'm somewhere down the middle - Sure, we can't expect to abuse the environment wholesale and not expect something to happen, but we've only got so much power and let's face it, there's also things out there far more powerful than we ever will be. You know, like the sun. At the same time, you should go visit China at some point, if you want to see how much environmental damage we can do in short order. Screw the global warming, there's more obvious reasons why we need to cut down, like I dunno, mass destruction of the environment?

It means that we need to prove the damage we're doing, and lying through your teeth to get a reaction, any reaction is going to eventually backfire in your face if you keep at it long enough.

Why? Because people don't appreciate being lied to, at least not if there's huge stakes involved, and yes, there's a huge amount of money involved which is why it's such a concern.

And unfortunately, people who actually care about the environment are stuck in the middle, being played by both sides.

And in a bit of good news...

Thu, 26 Nov 2009 07:02:37 GMT

They're paying me out assuming I worked until the 9th of December, my original date. I wasn't going to make it otherwise...

... And to be honest, I don't think I have time for anything else.

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 07:29:23 GMT

Right now...

Wrapping up work at Australia Council.
Planning to lodge a complaint against it soon enough due to how they're handling the wrapup process. This will involve HERIOC.
Dealing with medical issues which require me to rest 10-12 hours a day, while still working.
Visiting uncle who apparently DIDN'T go through with corrective surgery after a stroke. The wheeling and dealing game with the will begins again. I hate leaving at odd hours.

Stuff I'm going to have to abandon:

ANN.au work barring a couple of quick ins and outs.
Writing
Everything else barring this blog because it's the only thing keeping me sane right now. Considering I don't generally get very many people to talk to, you get the idea.

And right now? Leaving to the hospital. Uncle.

Well, I would say this is the worst of it but...

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 10:58:18 GMT

http://www.kotaku.com.au/2009/11/atkinson-to-appeal-modern-warfare-2-ma15-classification/#more-367946

Um, I don't suppose anyone wants to mention the other elephant in the room?

You know, how Valve is going to be found guilty of the same thing Rockstar got found guilty of when the hot coffee mod surfaced? For those who don't know, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is actually a banned game in Australia - Its classification was actually revoked after the hot coffee mod showed up.

Why is this? The data was ON the disc, and even though it's 'inaccessible' it's not enough of an excuse.

... And the fact that I know that the Classifcations board got sounded over that one too.

I promise, it'll be a FUN six months, because we know the version of Left for Dead 2 is the uncensored version - It's just got a set of console presets which remove a lot of the blood and gore among other things.

I take it Valve didn't learn from Take Two... And I really doubt Akinson is going to go 'Well, a digital import can't be prevented' considering he IS a politican...

And hammering out the problems, one step at a time...

Sat, 21 Nov 2009 15:24:44 GMT

It's days like this where I wonder what I actually do, apart from everything. One day I put on a writing hat, another day I end up putting on my technical hat...

For those who don't know, I sometimes stream games that I'm playing just cause I can. http://www.justin.tv/illusionbreaker/ although I really should be more strict about announcing when I play.

Now, no one in Australia will be able to watch this, short of iinet deciding to enable peering and someone else who wants to steal FME server and somehow manage to be able to stream out the 100kb/s required PER connection to watch. You'd be clocking up GBs in an hour, and given Australia's almost overreaching metering policy (There might be ONE ISP that still allows any sort of real 'unlimited' downloading out there, who knows), most people would have to cease watching in the space of at most, 6 hours of play. (I'm fairly sure 24GB would dent your cap quite quickly.)

Oh, and before I forget, does anyone have any sort of recommendation for a program that can monitor total in/out data via network? I'm vaguely curious about the sorts of bandwidth I output, just on the grounds that what I push up is what someone has to pull back down.

Anyway, one of the problems I've been having revolves around the fact that the sound will go out of sync from the video after a short amount of time of HD play when working with Adobe Flash Media Encoder. This is compounded by the fact that the card I have (A Blackmagic Intensity Pro) can't seem to take BOTH the audio and visual through the card - The sound isn't recognised by the codecs. Essentially, I'm forced to loop the sound through the sound card via a line in, then have it mux in the video. This in turn (I've noticed) sends the processes through the roof at 100% all the time on all 4 cores.

After a day of research and hunting around forums, I've discovered the reasons behind it... and better yet, I've fixed it to the point where I can get the card to be read - Apparently the card works at 48khz, which is outside the mp3 and Nosy codecs. I have to find a codec that works with media encoder which will see the setting, then compress accordingly. This also has the nice side effect of bringing it down to 70%, which means the 30 frames per second it's actually outputting will stay that way. It's not perfect, but I've yet to see a computer that could compress in h.264 in real time 60 fps and not die a horrible death or at the very least, give up.

Now, this is half my problem solved. Believe me, I'm happier than God knows what at the moment.

The other half is the question of trying to deal with the sticky issue that's known as the 480p quandry. This is mostly addressed to the Wii (although, you can play games in 480i so for streaming this isn't such a great deal) and the PSP (Where the sony executive that recently decided (PSP firmware 5.5 to be precise) that blocking games to be output in anything but 480p should be punted out of their office via the nearest window.)

For those who don't know, the 480p format is a special format. Even though it's been long since techically obsoleted, 480p is protected by US law. Namely the DMCA. Why's this? Blame the MPAA for this one, because this is considered the 'premium' SD that DVDs used. Well, technically it's high definition, if you consider progressive to be high definition.

What does this mean for someone like me? Well, it's actually nearly impossible to capture a 480p signal in one go (The best solution I've seen requires THREE passes, and that's not happening in a live environment.) because no company will make anything that can capture the signal, even though from a technical standpoint, there's no protection on it.

My best solution? Escape the 480p by upscaling,and moving to the next format - 720p. I found a couple of nice items which may be able to do it. http://www.gefen.com/kvm/dproduct.jsp?prod_id=5283 is one, and at about 600 AU, it's looking REALLY tempting. Thing is though, my recording and streaming so far has all been through component, not the Blackmagic's HDMI port. (Edit - I was half asleep. Mixing up composite and component is not a good thing...)

In theory, I could sit this device between the splicer and the capture card, and have all games run at whatever resolution it damn pleases, while I tell the scaler to upscale or to downscale to 720p for recording and screen capture. (Useful for the PS2 due to the fact interlacing kills about 50% of the screenshots we do, and streaming for anything in 480p. It also means that the PS3 which doesn't upscale or downscale games can't play havoc if it decides that the only formats it'll play in are SD NTSC/PAL, 480/576p and 1080p.)

Which leaves me one more test to do for this weekend - I need to test if I can stream through HDMI. This will require me to do some voodoo to 'trick' the HDCP from the Xbox's side to send a signal to the Blackmagic Intensity's HDMI HDCP compliant slot.

It's actually fairly simple, but it's also 2am, and I'll save that when I can get the 360 in the right spot among other things. If it works...

It promises to be a little scary, because if I can get it all working, I can stream any game I want and record anything any way I want to, and no one, not even AFACT, can stop me from doing so.

If it wasn't so difficult, I don't think I would have tried nearly as hard to get it all working though. And people thought that gaming was such a brain numbing exercise...

Oh, and since I've been working on this side of things, I did a revisit on our 1080p60 recording demon just to see the costs involved...

The cost of the card has gone down from $5000 to just $1500. But that's not all. Due to the 6G/s SATA slots now being introduced, the costs of the requisite HDs and the SAS has HALVED. (Which made up about 60% of the cost of the rest of the system)

... In short, that $10000 computer is actually now in the vicinity of about $5000. And that's assuming the rest of the hardware kept pace (i7s etc, etc).

Too bad I can't afford that, due to the fact I'm moving to classes next year, and will finish working at Australia Council in December. Would have been nice too. I have the feeling part of the costs were due to the rising Australian Dollar, and I don't know how long that's going to last. I may buy the card outright just in case, if I see further US issues.

Now where's a winning lottery ticket when you need one...?

Put your hands up if you didn't see THIS one coming...

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 08:09:28 GMT

"This state or a political subdivision of this state may not create or recognize any legal status identical or similar to marriage."

2005 constitutional amendment to ban gay marriages, in Texan, US law.

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/251/story/79112.html

I'm sure you can see the little itsy bitsy problem here.

It means the state can't recognise any marriages if you take it at face value.

Now how's that for unintended consequences?

Atelier Annie...

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 12:59:01 GMT

Well, let's put it this way, they got it right. It's a lot of fun and it's basically a refined version of Atelier Marie/Elie based around a resort. It's just that wide open 'Oh hey, I wonder what I should do next?' fun. The fact it's handheld means I play it anywhere with the addictive underlying current that the main line Ateliers carry.

There's nothing quite like watching a town conspire nicely on your lazy protaganist. Once again, the fact the town's so lively proves that they CAN make mainstream Ateliers. The sad part is I don't see the likelyhood of the game flying off the shelves - I mean, who's HEARD of the series outside Japan anyway?

In short, I can't put the damn thing down. Even though I've got a review to write. Okay, two reviews and a research report. But I'm working on one of them at least.

For those curious...

Wed, 18 Nov 2009 09:36:40 GMT

Most of my awake time is spent at work at the moment. Most of my non work time is spent in recovery.

In short, I've got work and sleep, because my recovery needs it.

Too bad that it's marginal due to the fact I get 12 hours of rest, but maybe 2 hours of sleep.

... everything hits you all at once, while being unable to sleep.

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 15:36:19 GMT

It's not quite a Eureka moment, since I'm mostly working off nothing but intuition. I've been lying down, as you can guess, but the ringing in my ears means I can only lie down there flat. The pain's subsided, so I'm going to make the most of it, I guess.

Given that my latest problems have been ear related, it's safe to say that sound may be a possible reason for it right?

There's a particular room in my workplace that's pretty bad. As in so bad, we've been trying to locate some way to test it to determine if it's bad enough to force the owner of the building to fix the problem. If you're wondering, the baseline decibel reading set to slow A (If you've used a meter before, you'd know that these are the settings to measure baseline) is 56.

This is due to a design issue when the building was being set up 10 years ago. An air conditioning plant is next to (as in seperated by a single concrete wall) the room in question.

It might be coincidence, but my tinnis/dizzyness happened today an hour and a half after I left that room. I distinctly recall this, because I brought two sound specialists TO the said room, to discuss the sound issues in the said room. Namely if we could get a report to prove that the room is a OH&S hazard.

We would have gotten the report generated sooner except:

a) I was in the process of arranging for that about five weeks ago... when I went down so hard that it took me until now to get back up.
b) Due to government diligence, we're supposed to get value for money, and I was in the process of getting a second and third quote. (I had one, these guys were quote number two.)

Thing is, before I found myself falling around due to a lack of balance, I was IN the same meeting room fixing something up. I then went back to my desk, found myself unable to concentrate an hour later, then went to the doctor for pain issues. Fast forward about a day, and I find myself with huge issues walking.

... In hindsight, I wish I realised that BEFORE I walked into the room. Ironically, the reason why I ended up walking in the room is the reason I suspect that I've got the problem now - I inflicted the problem I was trying to get fixed on myself.

Now, I don't believe my supervisor takes me very seriously, because I believe she has the handle she wants on me, and that handle is 'incompetitant'.

I lie, I don't think that tag is correct - I think she doesn't like how I work my way through things. Namely, I actually listen in, try to figure out what someone is actually needing, as opposed to what they WANT by asking further questions. It means my response times are slower and I can sometimes wander around due to this, but I like having a higher quality work rate because when I complete something, I don't generally have to revisit it because I generally account for things that might happen.

It also means because I ask a lot of questions I naturally break what they had in mind initially - A lot of the time, particularly if they're unsure about WHAT they want to achieve, what they're asking for and what they actually need don't actually match, and the solution I suggest doesn't (from an outsider's point of view listening in) seem to address their request.

All I have is a lot of antidotal evidence to back that one up. It's days like this where I wish I recorded every conversation I had though. I'd be happy to sign a court affidit to testify that though.

On the other side, I find my supervisor to be the sort of person who's quite... shallow when fielding requests. Methodical? Sure. Jumps the gun often enough without actually diagnosing the problem? Yeah, I can prove that one too. It's usually me who has to go "Well, that didn't quite work, so what are you actually after?" when I get asked after I turn around and get told a certain fix didn't actually work. It's ironic, but I suspect staff find ME more reliable, even though I believe she doesn't believe it.

As well, I have trouble explaining to her that free access to materials means lower accountablity. In short, she's trying to get it both ways. She doesn't trust staff, but she wants staff to not bother us and help themselves as much as possible. Or let's be accurate, I've explained to her that you either restrict access and get higher control rates, or you leave it as user friendly as possible, but you pay the higher loss rates, and she's outright said that's not acceptable.

For those who don't understand why this is an impossiblity, it's a security concept, and it's a very much baseline one. Anyone who doesn't understand this baseline security concept has NO business in working in any sort of security environment. (I don't suppose it's a bad time to mention Property Services deals with security as well? Oh, sorry.)

The more restricted you make something, the more inherently secure it is from unexpected circumstances, but it means more maintainence. For example, if you force all staff members to sign equipment out, it means we have to do more work - She doesn't want our two person section to be bogged down, and I respect that.

It also means we can track stuff down, because (Surprise, surprise) we know where it went. You know, signing stuff off and all?

If we make as much of it as self service as possible, it means that people will have to use their OWN judgement - In short, you MUST trust the user. Problem is, the difference between knowing what you're doing, thinking you know what you're doing, and knowing that you need help is if you're willing to admit certain things to yourself or someone else. You're also trusting people you only somewhat know, who might believe it's fine to borrow a knife and not put it back, or leave a piece of equipment around by accident because they didn't pack up properly down all the way to five finger discounts.

Thing is, she's established that we don't, because our loss rates are unacceptably high, or otherwise she'd not be attempting to get it both ways. She wants me to get out of the way and be able to track the equipment as much as possible. I'm guessing short of a GPS tracking system, it's more or less impossible without comprimising one of the two arms of the scale. You can cheapen the items which reduces the quality of the service to reduce losses, or you can lock everything up tight which makes it inaccessible (and not one of her stated aims).

Now, the only way to fix that would be to introduce further parameters to our little problem, which we don't mind losing (Easiest one is expense, by making said items unbreakable/unstealable like I suggested, but government agency remember). Of course, that one's not going to happen.

I don't expect to win that fight (or a few others), but because of this, I don't actually expect her to take me seriously when I explain by process of elimination that the room may be the cause of all my problems to this point. As much as I'm loathe to admit it, incompetitence and protecting your backside prevail, and it's unreasonable to expect her to do anything else as quoted by a few people I know.

Of course, this doesn't address the actual problem (Bet you didn't see that one coming) but she's my manager. I don't find myself trusting the management structure far enough to throw, let alone address the actual issue right now, although I'm unsure if I should go to a third party so early on.

I'm deliberately not going to friend only this entry, before you ask. I'll say what I need to say, and I don't fear of what I actually think is being said is told to her. It's up to her (and to the management) to understand my opinions on the matter if they find it. I'll stick with the story if asked as well, because if nothing else, I rather be consistent. Fortunately, confidentiality wise, I don't declare who the person is, where the organisation is, or anything about it apart from the fact the said room exists.

If it gets me fired because I tell the truth, then so be it, although given what I've concluded, I personally think that it would be quite a... dangerous tactical point to take up, since you'd be risking further damages.

... And being taken off again.

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 08:15:37 GMT

It's not one thing, it's another.

I've been instructed after ONE day, to stay off for two more days, see him tomorrow, and to get referred to the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital's vertigo unit.

I was mostly fine until about 1pm, and was good on the weekend and Friday, which left the doctor and I to persume that the worst of it's gone, and I should be okay for Monday, with a visit after work just to monitor and just follow up.

If you're wondering, after about 1pm, with a resurface at 3pm, random muscle cramps, typing to feel like my fingers are chasms over the keyboard even at rest, and just dizzyness, fever and an all round ickyness.

I'm almost convinced my body is deciding to develop an allergic reaction to work.

Nothing new, but I think it's worth mentioning...

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 20:34:06 GMT

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/common-sense-has-no-place-in-our-burgeoning-bureaucracy-20091108-i3fk.html

All I have to add to this is the fact we're a place where we rely more and more on 'hard' laws, because we seem to think that they work better than having someone actually judge.

Australians have this outdated idea of themselves as easy-going pragmatists, but we are becoming a nation of petty laws and fearful citizens, too gutless to confront this creeping, productivity-killing, initiative-destroying, community-sapping tide of compulsion and constriction, much of it driven by a corrosive ideology of the need for government control and intervention.

And even though I understand both sides of the argument, I think that describes better than anything why we are where we are - We're too involved in trying to make sure we don't get into trouble to pay attention to what's up ahead.

I'm all for making sure things are done properly. I'm worried like all hell that that the only way to do this isn't by people thinking things through, but having some body do it for them.

If people are starting to outsource their guidance for behaviour, I think we've got more problems as a society than having terrorists attack, or even a foreign country invading. We'll destroy ourselves well before either of those come up.

AFACT vs iinet - Confusion between compliance in civil and criminal cases.

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 10:33:05 GMT

For those who aren't aware, iinet and AFACT are having it out in court over the fact that they allege that iinet haven't been doing enough to protect against piracy.

Among other things, there's something which concerns me much more than anything else...

How do they deal with places like youtube and the like?

Now, it's one thing to say 'Sure, we want copyright notices to be issued automatically and that all people breaking the code are to be disconnected via their ISPs automatically without us doing anything.' and apply that to say torrents. It's technically difficult, sure but it's actually in the realm of possible.

Well, for various definitons of possible. If I pirate say Japanese or Korean content, the chances of me being caught are next to none, only on the simple grounds that you'd need to hire a small team of people to understand what I'm doing, WHILE trying to figure out exactly what all the transmitted data was.

Unless Japan (or wherever I'm swiping the material from) is giving an extensive and up to date list, an 'on the fly' idenfitication on a technical level is nearly impossible without someone actively deciding to listen in and tap my connection to see what's going on and having to make a guess. And considering that realistically, I'm one of a few million connections to the internet, the odds go from 'significantly small' to 'near impossible'.

If I DO get caught, they'd then have to prove that what I'm doing is actually illegal. How do they know that I don't own the item in question, or that I don't already have permission to do it? That's a due diligence note, and it's an important one - you can only act when someone's guilty, not because you think they are, at least if AFACT's claim that it is considered a criminal matter is correct - If it is REALLY a crime, you're subject to the rules of the criminal justice process - prove guilty beyond REASONABLE DOUBT. Granted, if this is the case, the police are obliged to bring the case forward and request compliance, which is the crux of iinet's argument.

If AFACT want the easier proof, namely the proof on balance, which is from a court perspective a hell lot easier, but it also means that it's up to the grevienced party to bring the party to court. It's awfully expensive, (and it's partly compensated because burden of proof is easier) and court cases are risky, which is why AFACT is gunning the line it is - Otherwise they'd have to do it the hard expensive way.

But that's just one aspect, and that's actually not the thought that came to mind.

For those who don't know, I carry a 720p/1080i capable broadcasting system. Nothing too fancy, although it's a definite hop and step above what's out there on consumer level, and I also have a very high end consumer grade/low business end internet connection. I'm sure it's a bit dated but it still serves its purpose. I hope to upgrade this to a 1080p capable system in a couple of years, or when my projects get justification to be funded externally.

So if I was to stream something live, for people to watch, where people can connect an ip bank and watch a high quality stream (A good example of this would be Gom.TV which streams starcraft games live), how would you be able to determine if something was legal to transmit?

This is a big, big thing. My setup can transmit legal stuff (Gameplay of Starcraft is an example, or say a stream of Atelier Rorona) but if I grabbed a DVD player and changed three settings and hopped to the local store, I could easily, in real time no less, broadcast a perfect version of titanic via streaming. Just to make things even muddier, I could also grab a high end or even low end digital camera and tramsit pictures live via my hookup, which means I can transmit HD quality video live.

Now, from the ISP's perspective if AFACT gets their request, my ISP (iinet, no less) would HAVE to be able to idenitify in REAL TIME what I'm sending up to the server, and determine the image I'm sending to the server, to be replayed via flash, media player classic, VLC or any OTHER medium you like is a permissible image to transmit. Remember, although I CAN do illegal forms of transmittion under Australian Law with my equipment, it doesn't mean I WILL. And ironically, I don't need to. I have enough fun recording gaming for my own purposes.

Doing this via any sort of automation? Sure, if you believe you can code up a program that can think it's human. If you believe that's possible, please refer me onto them.

Otherwise, in all realism, you're stuck with people as being the first point of detection. You can't actually prevent me (without the passing of new laws) from using my equipment, remember?

The question becomes, whose responsiblity is it to ensure I comply?

As I've proven, the ISP is a carrier, but they can only do so much to check on me, due to the fact they have me, and a few hundred thousand OTHER subscribers to monitor at any given time.

If it's a criminal case, the police would request iinet to co-operate, and persumably, I would have a data tap applied to my line to view what I do with the connection most of the time.

If it's a civil case, the aggreviated party would have to prove that the civil act being breeched took place. They'd have to gain the technical data to prove I broke civil law, then arrange to sue the hell out of me. This would require them to contact the ISP to determine who the person is. The ISP then would (most likely) refer them on to the person in question, or if they believe its in their best interest, assist with the party in any questions in regards with the breech.

Neither or allows AFACT to just disconnect people on basis of an accusation. You either have to get the police involved to make ISPs forcibly act since it's a criminal matter, or you have to get your hands dirty since it's a civil. AFACT sound like they want to get the best of both worlds, which is... well, kinda cheating, isn't it? Us normal civilians don't get that sort of choice.

... It makes you wonder what would happen if I decided to make myself known to iinet, and ask to speak as a supplementry expert at the court room. My notes above are VERY relevant, given that it's part of AFACT's core arguments, and to make things even more fun, I can even provide a technical demonstration.