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Archive 20. January 2006
HD? Not in Hollywood
HD Output must be downsampled by the player - if the studio demands this feature. The result: great HD-DVD, but the result on the monitor is far closer to standard DVD quality than to the possible HD quality.
Sorry, but why should I get HD hardware if it doesn't make much difference? Is this whole thing a kamikaze strategy for the HD hardware manufacturers?
Hurring.com: Code: Python: PHP Serialize implemented in Python - Deserialize PHP data in Python. Could be interesting if I want to migrate further sites from PHP to Django and, for example, access Wordpress settings.
Ok, Sandvox doesn't just suck up hamsters
Found at Bill Bumgarner:
As it turns out, Sandvox silently installs Smart Crash Report in ~/Library/Input Managers/ when it is launched. As an input manager, SCR is thusly loaded into every Cocoa app launched and subsequently uses various non-supported mechanisms to modify the behavior of said application.
Sandvox installs a hack in the Input Manager - these are libraries that plug into the interface to modify application behavior. They usually overload system functions with their own code. Not a rootkit - they don't hide. But they may destabilize the system. And above all: they affect not just this one program, but all programs that use this mechanism.
Sandvox is off my disk, sorry, but I don't want something like this installed without a big warning sign and without asking. We're not under Windows ...
Ross Barkman's Home Page - Modem scripts for Mac OS and Mac OS X and various mobile phones.
ScriptAculoUs - MochiKit - Trac - a port of the script.aculo.us effects to MochiKit. Finally, drag and drop and other effects with the significantly better technical MochiKit base.
Sinar m
What happens when Sinar develops a flexible camera system. Okay, they really know what flexible means at Sinar - but one could almost think that they overdid it a bit with the Sinar M.
I'd like to play with something like that, but I think I don't want to know the price for a complete system with AF mirror adapter, a lens, and digital back.
The Scanner Photography Project
The idea itself is not that new - I've already heard people in d.r.f. pondering over flatbed scanners behind GF cameras. But unlike some of them, this person not only carried out the project but also brought it almost to perfection (as far as the image result is concerned). Very interesting effects through the mixing of the scanner movement and object movement. And the digital camera also has a gigantic resolution.
US Justice Department wants Google data
The US Department of Justice wants to access user search queries from Google (and other search engines). Of course, initially only to combat child pornography (how often will this be used as an excuse to dismantle privacy?). Those who think they have to agree with this: afterwards, research on child pornography (and, for example, the search for source material for the research - I mean reports about child pornography, not images or films) will also be suspicious. Because with search engine queries, you have the same problem as with email connections and IP connection data: there are gigantic amounts of data, and the search can only take place automatically, making the probability of hits more than questionable.
Those who have ever watched their spam filter struggle to distinguish spam from ham can roughly imagine how promising any search and qualification algorithms can be that only have these mutilated data from the search queries at their disposal ...
Cover up, deny and ignore
Here's how the Bundeswehr, the BND, and the Foreign Office are handling the secret Bundeswehr report on the abduction of six people to Guantanamo:
Despite the facts and a transcript of the report, which has now been handed over to the Ministry of Defense, the official conclusion is that there is no conclusive evidence of the incident and the hints contained in the secret document in question.
The report itself is gone. Allegedly deleted because no long-term archiving was planned (yes, of course, I believe that immediately - it certainly wasn't like that during my time in the Bundeswehr, when every document was filed and archived, that's just my imagination). And of course, no one knows anything about it. And the embarrassing evidence - such as the confession of the author of the report and photos on the computer that belong to the report - are simply ignored.
What is absolutely not funny about this: six people are sitting in Guantanamo - without conclusive evidence. But no one cares, no one is advocating for them. These people were abducted with the knowledge of the Bundeswehr. No one cares about that either. All that matters is keeping one's own record clean.