The Six Dumbest Ideas in Computer Security

I stumbled upon this site when I was reading the discussion of the following article on Ars Technica.  It's a pretty interesting read.

2007 Screenplays

It's awards season in Hollywood, and that means "For Your Consideration" websites from the studios, with downloadable PDFs of screenplays. Here's what I could find; get 'em while they're up:

• Fox Searchlight — The Darjeeling Limited, Juno, The Namesake, Once, The Savages, Waitress
• Universal — American Gangster, The Bourne Ultimatum, Breach, Elizabeth: The Golden Age, The Kingdom, Knocked Up
• Paramount Vantage (Flash link) — A Mighty Heart, Into The Wild, The Kite Runner, Margot At The Wedding, There Will Be Blood
• Miramax — No Country For Old Men, The Diving Bell And The Butterfly, Gone Baby Gone, Hoax

You might have to click posters and "screenplay" or "script" links at each website.

It's interesting to see how the final film differs from what's on the page. The PDFs are all "shooting scripts" — basically final drafts — so they don't show how the screenplay may have evolved from what the studio or filmmakers originally saw. What you can see, though, is what was changed on-set, ad-libbed, or edited out after filming.

I skimmed through Juno's screenplay, since it was still fresh in my mind from having seen it a couple of weeks ago. What you see on the screen is mostly there on the page. Contrast that with a comedy like Knocked Up where certain scenes are edited together from the actors' ad-libbed riffs. Diablo Cody's script supposedly improved compared to early drafts, and there were a number of lines cut from the shooting script too. It was clear that leaving those lines in would have pointlessly extended some scenes and disrupted the overall flow of the film, just to squeeze in a few more bits of quirky dialogue. The pair of shots from Juno's POV as she walks through the masses of students at her school, which visually depict her transition from unnoticed to "cautionary whale", are also notably present on the page — I thought those might be a contribution of director Jason Reitman, who Cody credited in an AP article with the "tone" of the picture.

Next up for me is probably There Will Be Blood, which alliesglove and I saw last night, and which I will need to delve into to help me process everything that happened in that epic film. I've already noticed some differences in the ending. Apparently there are also some lines in the script that spell out some of Daniel Plainview's motivating issues (Spoilers!). Most likely, I will be happy that those lines were left unsaid in the final picture.

Wheel of Lunch

ECK pointed this out to me today.  If ever we were stuck on deciding for a place to go to lunch, this nifty web applet can help out.

Lair - A Game Review

Bottom line: Don't buy or even rent this crap game. I don't know why I rented this game even though everyone said that the game was crap. The controls are too clunky; it uses the Sixaxis control scheme, which can be very annoying since your arms can get tired. The gameplay is weird, almost as if it is trying to be a free roaming version of Panzer Dragoon. Can't really comment on the story since the gameplay is sucktastic. Production values are high for the cutscenes, but sadly, this doesn't translate into anything worthwhile for the game.

DeskTopTwo

Another crack at a web based Desktop called DeskTopTwo. This one is entirely Flash based. It is blocked from the "corp "network though.

Intriguing literature site

The site Daily Lit helps you read over 500 books, mostly classics. It helps you read in manageable installments whenever you need a break and it will email a small chunk to you each day as well.

Web based MS Office 2007 file reader

I was looking for a way to read MS Office 2007 files, in particular the new XML based .docx and .pptx files. The site Think Free is in beta and is actually free. It reads MS Office 2007 files.

MMO Game Eve Online Billion ISK Heist

An ISK is the unit of value equivalent to a USD in the MMO game Eve Online. The most successfull heist to date in an online game was accomplished by a corporation on another corporation. A corporation in Eve is the equivalent of a clan or guild in other MMOs.

Transcoding MKV/OGM to MP4

After endlessly mucking around with transcoding MKV files to MP4 and going through many false leads from various Google searches, I've finally figured out a decent way to transcode from MKV to MP4 without too much of a problem. Here are the prerequisites in order to do the following task:

• Some Unix variant. In this case, I used Mac OS X Leopard. This should definitely work in Linux, though.
• x264/XviD codec libraries. For this example, I will be using x264, so be sure that the required libraries and binaries are available.
• faac/faad audio codec libraries. We want to be able to create a video file that is playable in both QuickTime and on the PSP/PS3, so using the AAC audio codec is a must.
  
• mplayer/mencoder binaries. The newer, the better. SSA/ASS support needs to be compiled for embedded font support for subtitles.
• (Optional) Multiple processors. This will definitely speed things up, so it is a must if you have a bunch of stuff to transcode.

After the prerequisites are met, you can do the following in order to transcode between formats:

1. Open two terminal windows.
   
2. In one terminal, create a work directory. I created a folder in my home directory called encoding.
3. In that directory, create a fifo pipe: mkfifo stream.yuv.
4. Dump the audio from the video file to a .wav file:
   # mplayer FILENAME -vo null -vc null -ao pcm:file=audiodump.wav
   
5. Start playback of the video file that needs to be transcoded within your work directory:
   # mplayer FILENAME -vo yuv4mpeg -ao null -nosound -noframedrop
6. In the other terminal, cd into your work directory and start the transcoding with the following:
   # cat stream.yuv | mencoder - -o OUTFILENAME.mp4 -mc 0 \
   -ovc x264 -x264encopts global_header:bitrate=400:\
   vbv_maxrate=768:vbv_bufsize=2000:partitions=all:\
   trellis=1:level_idc=30:threads=auto \
   -vf harddup,scale=480:-10,expand=480:272 \
   -sws 9 -audiofile audiodump.wav -oac faac \
   -faacopts br=128:mpeg=4:object=2:raw \
   -channels 2 -srate 48000 -ofps 24000/1001 \
   -of lavf -lavfopts format=psp
7. Wait for completion.

In this case, the mencoder command specifically creates a file that is playable on the PSP/PS3. As a consequence of the settings though, it is also playable in QuickTime. These settings are completely tunable, depending on what is needed. An entirely different codec, e.g. XviD/DivX, can be used instead in order to fit whatever requirements you may have.

From my limited experience, two-pass encoding with x264 is almost always better than only doing one-pass, even if it is more time consuming. I am not sure whether or not the resultant video stream that is piped into the fifo will be the same for both passes, but it should be a good estimation regardless. You probably do a two-pass encoding as follows, given that you have performed steps 1-4 beforehand:

# mplayer FILENAME -ass -embedded-fonts -sid 0 -correct-pts -vo yuv4mpeg -ao null -noframedrop -benchmark -nosound -really-quiet &; cat stream.yuv | mencoder - -o /dev/null -mc 0 -ovc x264 \
-x264encopts pass=1:turbo:global_header:\
bitrate=400:vbv_maxrate=768:vbv_bufsize=2000:\
partitions=all:trellis=1:level_idc=30:threads=auto \
-vf harddup,scale=480:-10,expand=480:272 \
-sws 9 -audiofile audiodump.wav -oac faac \
-faacopts br=128:mpeg=4:object=2:raw \
-channels 2 -srate 48000 -ofps 24000/1001 \
-of lavf -lavfopts format=psp
# mplayer FILENAME -ass -embedded-fonts -sid 0 -correct-pts -vo yuv4mpeg -ao null -noframedrop -benchmark -nosound -really-quiet &; cat stream.yuv | mencoder - -o OUTFILENAME.mp4 -mc 0 -ovc x264 \
-x264encopts pass=2:subq=7:me=umh:global_header:\
bitrate=400:vbv_maxrate=768:vbv_bufsize=2000:\
partitions=all:trellis=1:level_idc=30:threads=auto \
-vf harddup,scale=480:-10,expand=480:272 \
-sws 9 -audiofile audiodump.wav -oac faac \
-faacopts br=128:mpeg=4:object=2:raw \
-channels 2 -srate 48000 -ofps 24000/1001 \
-of lavf -lavfopts format=psp

Two new options for the x264 encoder: subq and me. These options will make the encoding significantly longer, so be forewarned. I prefer that the video to be of good quality, so I usually use them for the second pass. Which is why the recommendation for a multicore/multiprocessor system. Also, the quiet flag will completely squelch the output from mplayer, so take this out if you don't want this. For more information about any of the mplayer/mencoder options, please refer to the Mplayer documentation or man page.

Hopefully, this has been somewhat informative. So, get on with some transcoding now, eh?

Vince Carter

For any of the non-meebo users out there:
http://blog.meebo.com/?p=374

The post is an interesting take on the whether or not to get help from Venture Capitalists when starting a new company. I'm sure there is definitely one hydran that can relate to this:

The idea of starting a company’s pretty exciting. You have a vision, you begin to talk to people about it and form a solid team of folks to execute on the idea, and you begin work on the actual product. Of course, without money in the bank funding people’s salaries, an office, a copier and fax machine, etc, it seems pretty tough to actually get going. The result’s that more often than not, people wonder how to attract the attention of VCs when they’re just starting to build their product. My simple answer:

Don’t.

I would definitely agree in trying to avoid getting the help of VCs if at all possible. Not that I've ever started a company, but after speaking with numerous people and seeing what happens places it might best to pursue other means if possible.

Computer game for your viewing pleasure

Recent computer games, I realize, have quite extensive film making feature implemented. (e.g. Halo3, Tf2.. etc) So I search around on youtube for a bit and here are a couple of interesting ones that i came across.

Team Fortress2:





Halo3:



But none of them can top this:

One sided conversation + Link

Yesterday's picture came in the form of an e-mail forward and this one came in as an IM (xxx replacing sender of IM):

xxx: http://movies.aol.com/movie-photo/matt-damon-best-worst-roles
xxx: check this
xxx: your mancrush

I know there might by some readers that would disagree with the Legend of Bagger Vance call. I myself thought Brothers Grimm and Stuck on You weren't that bad. Then again Matt Damon is my "mancrush"

Whistler Blackcomb Pictures

Finally posted some pictures onto Picasa Web for my Whistler Blackcomb trip. As for a sample of pictures, here's a shot of the Little Peak on Whistler Mountain.

Always check your kid's homework

Here is a funny picture I got as an e-mail forward. I don't get e-mail forwards as often as when AOL2.5 was THE internet. The title of the e-mail was "Always check your kid's homework". I guess it gives a new meaning to career day.

Why I miss Tennessee

Warning, this video is not safe for work due to language. The video contains a daring stunt, slow-mo replay of the stunt, and color commentary. Video link in the first comment.

Anti-Drug public announcement

Website : TED - ideas worth spreading

An interesting web site offering short video talks, tutorials and short courses with outlines and such.

Talks Vilayanur Ramachandran: A journey to the center of your mind.

knol? thoughts?

Google announces Knol project

Another interesting link

I personally am a fan of Wikipedia but am beginning to get unhappy with things like lame (in my opinion) policies.

I'm still formulating thoughts on Googles initiative to have a wiki-esque product. What do you guys think of their approach/idea.

killing pablo the penguin

With Christian Bale's recent run of good movies and Javier Bardem's outstanding performance in No Country For Old Men, it is time they converge. Killing Pablo (Escobar, not the penguin from Backyardigans) looks to be a movie that I'll be eagerly anticipating. I'm always down to watch a movie about the Michael Jordan of drug dealing.

Space Shuttle vs. Giant Spider!!

I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords.


[via ... the whole internet]