Yeraze's Domain 3.0

And so ends 2006.. And a busy year it was.  But as I sit here with no running water (Seems the City is doing work on this rainy New Years Eve), I can’t help but look back on the year and think…. I hope I get a big Tax Return.

Happy New Years everyone.

I just found an excellent essay by Peter Gutmann entitled “A Cost Analysis of Windows Vista Content Protection“.  While I’m not very interested in a cost breakdown, it’s an excellent description of how Vista’s Content Protection works and how you can expect it to affect your user experience, your hardware, and your computer in general whether you upgrade or not.

He covers some very interesting points:

• Everything about “Premium Content” is AES-128 Encrypted.  AES-128 by itself is too expensive to compute on-the-fly for high-def uncompressed video, so everyone is using Intel’s AES-128-like encryption called “Cascading Cipher”, which means royalties to Intel for every piece of hardware that has to touch Premium Content..
• The new “Tilt Bits” turn previously ignored or self-correcting glitches into new Denial-Of-Service Opportunities
• Even communication between software components (User-Apps & Kernel for example) uses OMAC Message Authentication, adding more overhead & delay
• All devices are required to poll every 30ms (~30 times per second) for tilt bits and system status, adding more overhead
• Video/Audio Decompression can’t be done in software anymore, meaning all video codes will have to be implemented in Hardware.. Bye-bye Ogg Vorbis.
• Performing all of this in hardware (On Video Cards mostly) means we’ll have to sacrifice pixel pipelines to add in encryption/decryption units
• One thing I really found surprising was Vista’s requirement that all hardware & drivers be uniquely matched.  This means that classic hardware design rules no longer apply.  Commonly, high-end PCB’s are designed and components are simply left off for low-end systems (Pixel Pipelines disabled, tuners not installed, etc).  This cuts manufacturing costs by only requiring a single tooling step for the PCB’s but allowing multiple versions (and price ranges) of the final product.  No more, as now there can be no more loose traces.  Same holds true for Drivers now, no more unified drivers.
• And, of course, he talks alot about Microsoft’s new method to “disable” noncompliant hardware by revoking the encryption certificates.  The knee-jerk reaction is “Well, the vendor will come out with new drivers with new certificates to fix the problems, and it’ll all be good.”  But he brings up the quite common case of older hardware, typically already antiquated (He uses the TNT2 as a very good example), will vendors be willing to revive old dead drivers or simply force people to buy new hardware?  Given that hardware seems to “phase out” in 6-9 months nowadays, that’s gonna make Vista expensive to maintain.

And there’s lots more.  Granted, all of this is based on the specs that Microsoft and the content industry (read: MPAA, RIAA) have published and admittedly, they’re pretty ridiculous.  They’re full of statements like:

“It is recommended that a graphics manufacturer go beyond the strict letter of the specification and provide additional content-protection features, because this demonstrates their strong intent to protect premium content”.

In other words, what they specified is a bare minimum and they reserve the right to “raise” the requirements at any time.  So be sure to cover your ass and add more stuff we didn’t think of.

It’s a good read, and not entirely Microsoft Bashing.  If you’re not sure exactly what all the DRM in Vista means to you, then read it.  It’s about a 20-minute read and contains alot of great information about not only the kinds of DRM they’re imposing, but how it will affect you (whether you’re viewing Premium Content or not).  Shame I didn’t get one of those free Microsoft Laptops to test it out on.  I’ld love to see how Vista really does this stuff in practice, especially when you start loading up Development Tools like Visual Studio or GCC.  It’s one thing to read the specs and see how they claim it will work, but it’s another to really sit down at one and try to do work on it.[tag:microsoft][tag:vista][tag:drm]

Well this weekend was Christmas 2006.  We decided Santa would visit our house early (Saturday) so that we could go visit the folks for the long weekend.  All seemed to be going well until we were struck with the same curse as my parents: All the kids were sick for Christmas Day.

Ethan had been coughing for a few days but on Thursday startied some major spewage: Entire bottles spewed back with such ferocity that it was coming out his nose.  We took him to see the doc, but evidently it was just a cold so there was nothing he could do.  I’m happy to report that after a few days of Benadryl (and many, many loads of laundry) he seems to be back to 100% again.

On Sunday Morning Rhianna woke up with a good fever brewing.  She pretty much hadn’t slept in 48 hours and hadn’t eaten much either.  We managed to finally get her to sleep and start eating and the fever went away, but then she started complaining of her ear.  A Quick trip to the doctor Tuesday came up with the bane of all parents: Bilateral Ear Infections.  She’s on medication and seemingly doing better now.

My parents kept telling me about when I was younger and me and my sisters would be sick pretty much constantly between Labor Day & New Years.  Almost like we used our allotment of “well days” up so we had to get sick all at once and continuously.  Seems like Rhianna & Ethan will be following in that tradition.

As far as presents go, Rhianna, of course, was loaded by the time it was all over.  Full up with Books (The Big Dr Seuss Trilogy: Cat in the Hat, Green Eggs & Ham, and Fox In Socks), Princesses, Games (Candyland, woo!) and dolls, I felt like a pirate after looting the local village on my way home.  Laura & I came home light, the big gift being a Canon Elura-100 Mini-DV Camcorder that I’m anxious to play with.  Once I get some time with it under my belt I’ll be sure to post a review.
[tag:christmas][tag:sick][tag:games]

Yesterday I came across a transcript of a speech Richard Stallman gave at NYU in 2001 in which he defined the meaning of Free Software, and defined “Freedom Zero”.

That’s probably one of the best descriptions of “Free As In Speech” Software that I’ve ever read. Also, I found the following paragraph especially poignant given what I’ve been dealing with at work:

It’s a good read, listing not only the problems with proprietary systems but the problems with trying to keep them that way. The dangers of Non-Disclosure Agreements, the importance of enforcing the GPL, copyleft, and alot more.
[tag:gpl][tag:stallman][tag:freedomzero]

Today I spent some time rewriting a lengthy Tcl script of mine in Python.  Why, you may ask?  Well, the script is a bit unwieldy in Tcl and I could see where the additional structure of Python may help to clean it up.  The script is a simple log parser to analyze log file and generate pretty HTML documents with the results.  Performance was starting to become a problem as the Tcl version was using alot of memory by loading the entire contents of the files into memory before analyzing them.  I really needed to rework the script to analyze them line-by-line, which would be a major refactoring of the code so I figured I’ld try Python (It’s not really a rewrite, I’ld just need to interlace the Read & Parse portions instead of having them in 2 separate loops).

It took me about 2 hours to do it.  The starting TCL script is 566 lines and the resulting Python script is 456 lines, a net saving of about 100 lines of code.  But that’s not particularly important.  I verified that the Tcl & Python versions generated identical HTML, and then set out doing some basic benchmarks.  For starters, here’s some simple benchmarks of processing all the logfiles I have right now:

As I’ve covered once before, Bad Things Come in Threes.  This time is no exception.

It started last week.  Laura’s 4Runner has been having starter problems for months, maybe even a year.  It would take two or three attempts then finally engage & turn over.  I thought it was nothing too serious until Last Saturday when, after 40 or 50 attempts, it still wouldn’t turn over.  I called my dad and made arrangements to go ahead and replace the Starter Contacts (on most Toyota’s, replacing the entire Starter is unnecessary).  It would be a $10 repair that we would do this weekend.  In the meantime, I would hitch a ride into work with a coworker and Laura would drive my Camry.

Well, Thursday I get one of those ominous phone calls from Laura that starts with “Are you sitting down?”.  (Hint: Ladies, there’s no quicker way to evacuate a man’s bowels than start a conversation with those 4 little words).  She said she pulled into Target and heard a loud “Pop” following by steam pouring out from under the hood.  I prayed it was just the radiator cap came loose, I hoped it was something as simple as a cracked hose.  I drove out there (In the 4Runner, which worked this time thank god) to find that the top of the radiator (Which is plastic) had cracked in two, about 8 inches long.  I called a local shop and they towed it away to work on it the next day.

That night my Dad came over and we worked on the 4Runner Starter.. We started around 5, and finished around 8, putting it at a three-hour $10 repair.  It wasn’t too terribly difficult, just cramped space.  The 4-runner worked beautifully afterwards and has been working beautifully since. 

The next morning, the 3rd hit: Rhianna woke up vomiting.  We took her to the pediatrician to find out she has a 12-hour Stomach Virus.  So I took the day off work waiting to hear from the Mechanic about the Camry, while holding Rhianna’s hair away from her face.  It was a miserable morning, punctuated by the $525 estimate for a new Radiator.  It would be $100 less to repair the current radiator, but as it’s almost 10 years old there’s no guarantee that the other side wouldn’t pop in just a few weeks, so I opted for the brand new one.

Later that Afternoon I got the Camry back.  That concluded my 3 bad things:

1. 4Runner Starter Problems
2. Camry Radiator Problems
3. Rhianna with a Stomach Virus

At least one good thing did come of all this.  I’ve been hitting Jackson Craigslist alot over the last few weeks looking for a Wii (won’t be getting one anytime soon, that money just bought me a new radiator).  I managed to find a nice big Entertainment Center Cabinet for sale for $25 up in Starkville which I went to pick up Saturday and got home last night.  I spent an hour migrating everything over to it, and you can see the results inside.

So for the last few weeks I’ve found myself doing alot of web design.  First with VizWorld (had to build that entire layout from scratch), then with the ezViz Script Generator, and now with a redesign of the ItsOnSirius Website.  In all my previous webwork I generally stayed away from JavaScript, partly because of it’s non-cross-platform nature and partly because I just didn’t want to learn it.  This time, tho, I decided it’s time to learn and dive in to learn how all the new fancy “Web 2.0″ Ajax stuff works.

It’s been a fun trip.  It’s always best with stuff like this to have a project to implement your education as you go.  Just reading is one thing, but actually implementing stuff in code shows all the corner cases and odd behaviour not covered in most texts.  Also, trying to design code that works with IE6, IE7, and FireFox is a serious PITA.

So here’s a few tips for others attempting the same….[tag:html][tag:javascript][tag:development][tag:ajax]

So this week I’ve been watching The Lost Room on the SciFi channel.  Looks like it’s three 2-hour episodes airing Monday, Tuesday, and concluding Tonight.  I’ve got the MythTV setup to tape it, but I’ve (so far) been just watching it live when it airs.

So far I’m enjoying it.  It’s an interesting premise with alot of mystery (What happened in “the room”? Who’s “The Man”? What do these objects do? etc).  It’s had some neat special effects, like “The Polaroid” last night, but they’ve haven’t overshadowed the story.  The characters are interesting, the “Objects” are neat, and the story really keeps your attention with all the twists and turns.

Unfortunately, I can easily see SciFi trying to turn this into a regular Series.  With “over 100″ objects out there, seems they could easily come up with 100 episodes.  Lose a few to a cabal every now and then and have a few more.  Seems like it would get a little ridiculous if they stretched it out, but the 3-part miniseries is so far going pretty well.  Guess we’ll see what I think when they wrap it up tonight.
[tag:tv][tag:scifi][tag:lostroom]

I won’t post the entire review here since I’ve already got a long review of the Sharp Aquos LC-65D90U on VizWorld. But I wanted to post something that was a little off-topic for the review and non-objective for something like VizWorld.

One of the big selling points of that huge 65″ LCD display is its 1080p capability. Check Sharp’s FAQ and you’ll see the 65″ Aquos listed as one of only 2 of their LCD TV’s to support 1080p. Read the specs for the TV and you’ll see it listed as 1920×1080 display resolution and 1080p capable. But the reality is that it only accepts 1080p on broadcast. The HDMI and Component inputs are all limited to 1080i, and the DVI (which you’ld think would be ideal for this, afterall my monitor is on DVI at 1920×1200) won’t go above 1280×1024! So if 1080p is only available via broadcast, what’s broadcasting ?

From Wikipedia’s 1080p page: (emphasis added)

So they specifically advertise a feature that they know people want, knowing full well that there’s no way to use it. Frankly, it pisses me off to know that I can’t use any of the 1080p sources out there (Computers, 1080p upscaling dvd players, PS3’s, Blu-Ray/HDDVD players) with this $10,000+ TV, even though they advertise that it will do it. All of us here in the office are pissed about it, and it really seems like Sharp is just out to con folks with this.

Is it false advertising? Technically it does do 1080p, it’s just that nothing on the market produces the 1080p they want. All the things that do produce 1080p wind up dropping back to 1080i.

Update: I just got off the phone with Sharp Tech Support again and got a clarification on all this.  They’re just flat out lying to us, the TV only does 1080i.  I updated the vizworld article with the new info, but apparently just because the LCD operates at 1920×1080, they think they can say it’ll display a 1080p signal.  I guess their 1080p stands for “pixels” instead of “progressive”.  It’s 1080SHARp, not really 1080p.
[tag:vizworld][tag:sharp][tag:1080p][tag:hdtv][tag:lcd][tag:aquos]

This weekend we got out the tree (We use an artificial pre-lit tree Laura got from QVC) and decorated it up for Christmas. Rhianna loves helping and it was a good couple of hours of fun for the whole family.

When we were done, Rhianna asked (as she often does) “Can I play on the ‘puter?” We spend alot of time on the NickJr & Disney websites playing the little flash games. She also enjoys playing our copy of Zuma, although she doesn’t really understand the rules. For the web games she usually points at the screen and I drive the mouse, and with Zuma she basically just clicks randomly. It’s cute and she loves it.

Well, this time I walked away while she was playing Zuma, and when I came back I found her using the mouse to navigate through the different levels in the Gauntlet Mode, and then she’ld click on “Play” to start the level. When it was over, she’ld click on the OK Button, and find another level and click Play again. I was amazed. Later when we played the flash games I let her drive the mouse, and sure enough she took off just fine. We played the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Silly Slide game and she could pick her difficulty, select the pieces and then let it rip. I was amazed. I didn’t realize she had paid so close attention to it all but she knows more about how to use a computer than alot of people I’ve met in my life. She’s shaping up to be just like her daddy Laura & I have already decided we’re gonna try to get her her own keyboard and mouse, something a little more friendly to her tiny hands. (You’ll see the pretty pink mouse in the picture, that’s Laura’s old Hello Kitty mouse but it’s still far too big for her hand).

As for Ethan, he’s been pretty fussy. This was our first weekend all at home as a family, and Laura and I both are exhausted. I don’t get to spend much time with Ethan since I typically have to take care of Rhianna. My time with Ethan is the 8-midnight block after Rhi & Laura go to bed. I guess that’s just how it goes, tho.
[tag:family][tag:computer][tag:game]