WTF? They wanna make the Internet into a subscription-based channel service.

The water wars begin.

So bear with the MIA behaviour. I miss my blog and blogging more than you know.

Usage : iat input_file.ext output_file.iso

Just hop onto the console and type

Command
“”mencoder in.rmvb -oac mp3lame -lameopts preset=128 -ovc lavc -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg4:vbitrate=1200 -ofps 25 -of avi -o out.avi“”

w/o the vampire fangs or whatever you call them.
Explanation
-oac: output audio codec
mp3lame: library used for audio encoding
-lameopts: options used along with lame
preset: values for audio bitrate, you can set 64, 128, 224, etc
-ovc: ouput video codec
lavc: library used for video encoding
-lavcopts: options used along with lavc
vcodec: video codec, you can use mpeg1video, mpeg4, etc
vbitrate: video bitrate, you can set 600, 1000, 1200, etc
-ofps: outpt frame per second ( fps)
-of: output file container type
-o: output filename

Sourced from http://www.fedoraforum.org/forum/showthread.php?t=104161

It plays out like a alternate beginning for Scott Adams’ God’s Debris: what if God decided to stick around and enjoy the show? What if God became a crackhead, except he was addicted to people and well, to quote Bjork, human behaviour?

Pretty original show. If you get the chance, check it out.

And then the first Spider-Man? Pretty good, but Tobey Maguire? And then there was Spider-Man 2. Still ok. Spider-Man 3 did more to erode expectations from comic to screen adaptations than anything else. Given the source materials, what a downer.

And so when Iron man was announced, I wasn’t exactly jumping for joy. Robert Downey Jr is a great actor, but still, it’s Iron Man. I haven’t read the comic, but from what I remember, the Iron Man cartoons of the 90s were pretty pathetic, with some really stupid villains like some Oriental dude with a magic ring? Bah.

I wouldn’t even have caught it except there was really nothing to do and I had money to squander and time to kill.
And it was really good. Go watch Iron Man without any expectations; even if you didn’t know it was based on a comic [which would negate the whole hype factor, arguably the biggest selling point for any self-respecting superhero movie; if it's good on top of that, then it's a truly awesome superhero movie, like batman Begins], Iron Man is a good movie.

The casting was spot-on especially Terrence Howard as [future] War-machine. You see, I just know there’s going to be a sequel and I can’t wait. The script is tight, believable and not-too-campy, snarky at some bits. Enjoyable all round.

And not forgetting the main star of the show. The anchor, and a darn good one at that, Robert Downey Jr took a generic character profile [black-and-white split-second decisions between good and evil] and made it his. Likable, enviable and most importantly believable. This was good acting in a superhero movie. I thought only method actors like Christian Bale would try that.

Kudos. Y’all should definitely catch it.

I’m decidedly not a pacifist. Not even an anarchopacifist. As I’ve explained in a previous post, righteous fury is justified. Nature is raw and uncut, why should we, products of nature be any different? In fact, a dedicated pacifist population [at least among cultures, if not within] is exploited in a myriad ways until the weakest link is found, most of the time. See also: imperialism and Conquistador invasion of the Incan Empire.

Of course, I also don’t subscribe to a strictly primordialist theory, broadly asserting that every race/ethnicity fights [and should] for its own racial dominance and benefits. Universal brotherhood is an idyllic ideal to look forward to. Is that contradictory? It’s like the UN and world peace. Ideals; won’t ever happen but it looks good in writing.

War is glorious, or was. To die for something, used to be the single defining moment in a man’s life. even now, ideological struggles are romanticized. However with the advent of long range firearms, most of the “honour” in battle was gone. What “honour” is there in being able to shoot a man from afar? It was a strategic weapon in battle, but at the cost of honour. To this day, I believe melee weapons are the true test of warrior mettle. It’s a very unique combination of agility and deft footwork, and skill and grace, and well…honour. When you take a human life, you lose a part of yourself as well. When you take a human life, hand to hand, then you will truly appreciate what you lost. My two cents worth.

Anyway, that’s not what the discussion is about. If dying for something is good, sorry Bertrand Russell, what are good things to fight for? What you believe in? What you own? What you value? What you feel you must defend, with your life if need be?

I used to think patriotism was a valid concept. Forgive the cliche, I loved my India. Blindly. Because I was born there. Because I’m a purebred Dravidian. Because that land was my birthright, the land of my father and grandfather and all those before them. I feel this rush of xenophobic [very mild but it's there] thoughts every time the word Pakistan or UK is uttered.To this day I despise Victorian accents especially by people who are not British. Disgusting wannabes.
And then I moved here and I did *coughwasmadetocough* NS, and yet I didn’t take up citizenship when it was offered. Because I held to that ideal of patriotism. I haven’t “lived” there for a long time now, and I was seven when I left; I hardly remember what it was like, but blindly, patriotism appealed to me.
And then came the proposition that I’d pay roughly four times the same amount a citizen pays if I didnt become a citizen myself OR get a three year bond immediately upon graduation. Well since the option was open, very practically, the offer was taken.
And just like that, my citizenship changed. Was it really that easy? Some paperwork? The Indian High Commission just wrote me off, excess baggage-like. Daym.

Now, patriotism means something totally different. It means shit. I can’t be like the bureaucracy. My loyalty can’t just change hands and go to the highest bidder. It’s not governed by paperwork.

An altogether new realisation hit me. I suddenly recall having read this somewhere before. Let’s talk about holy cities. Say, Jerusalem. What is about Jerusalem that is holy land? Is it the sand there? Or the bedrock? Or that entire sector in the earth’s volume? Can I get a bottle of road-side sand from Jerusalem and be blessed for it? If, hypothetically, a holy city can be transplanted somewhere else, down to the last brick, and rock in the crust, would it still be holy? Or would the holy spot be the gaping hole left behind?
If I can’t answer that, but what business have I being patriotic? What exactly am I defending? What do I hope to save? Of course, if you have an answer, then that’ll be the cornerstone of your conviction.

And I do have an answer. My own personal answer. But it leads me away from patriotism. It leads me to a different kind of extremism. I still feel that it is only right that I feel compelled to defend my birthright, and that of generations to come. It is only right to right as many wrongs as possible, and to stand for justice. It is only right to help those of your clan, your brothers, and your people. The ones to your left and right, and the one in front, and the ones behind you. And if you’re in a crowded city like mine, those above and below as well.
But this time, it’s not one particular tract of land, or a state or a continent. I am not a/an [enter nationality here]. I’m a human being, first and foremost, and my loyalty is not to the state, it’s to the planet; not to the government but to the people of the world. Just as they are inextricably bound to me by that same reasoning, even if they don’t know it yet and perhaps never will. This of course is independent of any political inclinations.
May I go a step further then? Why be species-centric? I’m not just a human being, I’m an earthling, stuck on this rock with the rest of these strange, magnificent creatures of the air, land and sea, and I’m equally indebted to each and every one of them as they are reliant on us to leave them be, among other things.

Maybe this is a form of patriotism too, but as character by the legendary Paul Auster put it, our words have started to not mean what they are used to represent. The sharing of meaning has taken a turn of the worse. This passion, is not unlike patriotism, but cannot be called patriotism because patriotism refers to extreme passions towards a fatherland, a nation or state.

Watch Planet Earth. It helps with the feelings of fragility, interdependence and the hypothetical, what if we just left them alone? What if we stopped breeding like rabbits in heat only all year round? Stuff like that.

Point being, I sense homecoming. A long term philosophy that actually makes sense on a personal level. An extended take on transhumanism. With sprinkled Saint-Simonism. The marriage of science and biology. With a bit of fatalism. And anarchism. Because all these ideologies are not always mutually exclusive. Ultimately, if we can at least reach the mantle of the noble savage, that would be good start. Comparatively speaking.

*Decided to make this a running thread

I hope you’ll use the site regularly. It’s good for personal and professional research, answering questions, and for enriching your Web site with knowledge and information that provides context to and rounds out the topics you write about.

On that last note, let me point out that you can make any Britannica article available to your readers simply by linking to it from your site. That’s right. Even though portions of the site normally require a subscription to access them, there’s an exception: when a Web site links to a Britannica article, Web surfers who click on that link get that article in its entirety. You can link to as many articles as you like, as often as you like.

Whatever you do, DON’T upgrade to the Hardy beta yet, unless you have a lot of time to fix some issues. of course, if it’s a fresh install, go right ahead…but still it’s unfamiliar territory for me. I’ll wait for 8.10.

Me: and I realise I have yet to start on my elective!

YZH: parametrise time into its components and find its limits.

Me: [playing along] Answer is a vector line t*{monday}, where t is an arbitrary descriptor. For boundary conditions, “I’m in deep shit”, and ” Entropy in Universe is always increasing” and initial condition, Murphy’s Law, specific solution reduces t = this.coming

YZH: One other non-trivial solution is “repeat module next sem.”

Me: Oh I already considered that case. That solution is not bounded for certain x, where x is individual personality type. When x –> t; honor-based, for k=grade, solution –> hara kiri.

YZH: Syntax error.

Me: Argh wrong lib file! Need miracle.h !! Shite. Can’t compile.

(long radio silence during which time I type this out.)

Me: Lol, I’m gg to blog this.

YZH: You can’t. You’re bounded by time.

-_-” I lost! Daym. Btw, it’s ok if you don’t get it. We were like bringing in stuff we learnt this sem, like vector parametrisiation, PDE solving methods [semi-infinite 1-d bars anyone?], Thermodyn, computing and what not.
And if you do get it, sorry for being lame and irreverent! Lol.

I really am screwed though. Muse! Do your thang!

So he gives you two strips, and at the end of the second one, gives a coupla choices for the protagonist to do next, so that readers can email the codewords that correspond to the choice they think the protagonist should consider, as a subject to author’s email address. Tim Bradley, the author in question, will then collate the number of responses in each filter, and see which one has the most entires and fashion the next lap of the storyline accordingly.

And I actually emailed the first two times. And you know what occurred to me after that? I was thinking, what if I observe what the others choose without direct participation? Verily, this is my preferred modus operandi in most day-to-day social relations, but never before have I observed myself doing such for a leisure activity, something potentially enjoyable.

And what’s even cooler, is that the thought occurred to me to step out and observe, and I also consciously realised I was observing actively, and I am essentially observing myself observe. Recursive meta-behaviour anyone?

You don’t want the long story…yet. But after numerous formats, a stroke of genius, a rearranged mobo connection, yet a few more formats, 4hours of proper 64bit OS usage, and then a coupla formats and one fresh Gutsy install later, I can truly say I’ve come home to stay. OS-wise.

And all this buildup begs the question: Why oh why am I in Knoppix, evacuating valuable data instead of GTD on XP as usual? Considering my over-emphasis on clean crapware-free drives, and above-average skillz at preventing and obliterating any residual traces of aforementioned crapware on my drives, what caused the downer? I DON’T KNOW!! Oh man, whatever this is, it’s scaring the crap outta me. I checked EVERYTHING. Registry keys, Program Files, deleted suspicious programs..correction:program. I even quick scanned system32 folder against a backup copy, and Application Data and profile preferences. Everything I knew could be possibly done, was done, and I don’t know what happened. It was ok last night. I switched it on this morning, and it wouldn’t even log in. Grrr.

Anyway, it was time for a clean swipe. So… I kinda sorta appreciate the literal kickstart, though I wish it hadn’t happened now. Exams!
damn man.
Way too much data.
Daym. Hope the transfer goes well.

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Daniel Tsou
Date: Fri, Apr 11, 2008 at 12:40 PM
Subject: Naveen is now an editor on Tech65
To: Farinelli , “Jerrick Lim (MSN)” , Kai Yi , NTT

Hey guys
I just made an editor account for Naveen. [Acct details here] Jerrick please let him know. Please let him know that the only category he should post in is blog. the rest is our podcast feeds, so try not to touch them. Oh, but do ask him to tag away! Yep.

Dan

–
Catch Daniel every week on 65 Bits, the Tech podcast for the everyman! Visit Tech65.org today, or search for 65 Bits on the iTunes Podcast directory!

–
Take Care and JOIN US SOON!
Jerrick

Yay! Guest editor at Tech65.org. Man, I can’t stop grinning

You know, bimbos and technology DO NOT mix. It’s not even funny.
Nobody insults Apple stuff. Grr.

So I go to the lab right, and I look at the question and it looks easy enough, but I’d forgotten where to start :S
As in I mean basic stuff like #include [stdio.h]. I guess I’m a bootstrapper that way. I work best with manipulating code, not creating it afresh. All the fine details bore me. A bad habit for a programmer, but surprisingly empowering when in pursuit of creativity.

So anyway I slowly figure out all the procedural workings myself, and in 5 minutes I’d written the loop and completed the program. Of course it didn’t compile correctly the first time, there were too many unnecessary variables in my loop haha. But the point being my code was good enough to be used. And guess what? The 5 minute exercise practically unlocked some hidden memories of the whole C course I did. Including the stuff about arrays and pointers and obscure lib files like strrev.h [haha I practically cheated on my C exam back then with that h file ] All my skillz are back. [Yeah skillz with a z; as in skillzorz]
Isn’t that cool? I now have functional knowledge of something I studied, I daresay grudgingly, back in sec 1. W00t.

Anyway, this will not be an achievement in vain. Somehow lately I’ve been itching to get my feet wet in the OpenSource arena, if only for personal satisfaction. So come holidays, I’m going to write at least one functional program…I know it’s a big step, but someone’s gotta do it. In typical scratch an itch fashion, my first aim then, will be to build a fork of the already fabulous MP3Tag with a small resident player so that users can preview the files to see if they even want it before renaming it. Nothing too ambitious actually, I’ll just have to mash two sets of codes [Billy's code for music playing?] together and see how to fit the player into the GUI. And of course I’ll email the original authors for permission and support. GPL rawks.

If I do make it successfully right, and I beta test it [since I'm impatient, with maybe 5-10 files], I’ll put it up here, and you guys can use/beta-test with me,. I love MP3Tag and I can’t understate it’s importance in my OCD life, so I’m sure other people will have similar needs.

AND to push it up a notch, IF I’m successful, I’ll try porting the code to Objective C so it can run on a Mac
AND then I’ll try to input some Core Image/Audio transitions so it’s more Mac-like. Oosh, w00t. Affirmation made.
So it shall be written, so it shall be done.

But first, Organic Chemistry Quiz :S

I played Demon Stone a few years back when it just came out on Ben’s PS2. Damn fun. We finished the game and all but I guess I never quite lived down the hasty departure of never ever seeing it again. So when I saw Demon Stone at a bargain price of $0, I just HAD to get it. As I mentioned, it should be considered an old game now, and if my aged and senile Geforce 7300 can handle it, it should probably run on any computer that’s coal and steam powered.
Have you heard of the Forgotten Realms? [You probably haven't. They're called "forgotten for a reason!] It’s an awesome way to waste time. A loosely bound set of stories and mythologies that connect different planes of existence canonically, initially in a series of board and die games, and more recently, in PC/console games. There’re also a LOT of books, typically more entertaining than the others in the Tolkien-infested/influenced high-fantasy genre. I generally don’t like high fantasy, but Forgotten Realms is da bomb, trust me. It’s a bit on the kiddie side: a lot of noble ideas, no shades of grey and all, but overall the story arcs tie in very well. In fact, most of the fun is in the cameos. When characters, especially legendary characters, weave in and out and every other story. One of the kickass guys is Drizzt Do’urden. Man, this guy is the stuff of legends. [right Boo?] He’s the kind of hero even the good guys only speak of in hushed whispers. I digress though; Drizzt is an awesome charater, but that’s not whom the post is about.

Demon Stone is a departure from the party/inventory management, isometric top-down view of the traditional Baldur’s Gate series. It’s have been great if it was, but it’s not too shabby the way it is; an action-RPG hybrid using the same engine as the LOTR non-strategy games.
I really love game engines that do what they’re supposed to do and well, never mind the quality of the graphics. And Demon Stone’s engine, the LOTR engine, is really good at that. Even in LOTR, there would be hundreds of orcs onscreen and you’re hacking away, button mashing with the occasional skilled combos, and the framerate never lets up. That, to me, is singularly impressive. Demon Stone is no exception. Tons of enemies pretty awesome framerate; and unlike in the LOTR games, the characters also look good in closeup cutscenes.

As befits a Forgotten Realms game, there’s an epic plot to…wait for it…save the world. But this time round, the story is written by none other than the legendary RA Salvatore, creator of the above-mentioned Drizzt character. Whenever you hear Salvatore is manning the plot, step back and consider your project a success even if it hasn’t begun. That’s how good he is. Which is why Demon Stone is disappointing. Don’t get me wrong. The story is good, the character development is gradual and convincing, the quest is epic, the locales visited are exotic [made into a visual feast by a wonderful engine]…in fact it’s so good that the ending maybe 5-6hours into the game will make you go mad. It’s too good for that length to be enough man. It’s so good it got an award! You almost wonder if he wrote the story while taking a coffee break from other Drizzt adventures.

As I mentioned, the action RPG gameplay does away with the meticulous inventory and party management of the Infinity Engine games. Now your party is decided for you. Rannek, Ilius and Zhai. A typical well-rounded party for any situation. The unique gameplay feature is that you can switch around to different characters anytime during the gameplay. Once you switch the other two are automagically controlled by a pretty strong AI that’s more defensive than you’ll ever be. I frequently switched out when the character I was using was low on health, and within a minute, this character has stayed alive and gotten health back up to boot.
You can play favourites in the game, choosing to use one character most of the time, except when specifically required to use the other characters, but the beauty of the game mechanics can only be truly appreciated if you switch around strategically, even when you don’t need to. Each charcter has different abilities.

Similar to the LOTR games, the developers have thought it unnecessary to give you camera contol or at least a follow-cam. Instead, each region of a map has a specific camera angle associated with it and your directions will change accordingly. Normally this would be very confusing and irritating, and it is sometimes, but for the most part, it’s excusable if only because they have given you awesome vistas and background foreground action that you can make out peripherally. it’s really nice sometimes to get the feeling that tehre’s fighting not just where you’re fighting but in the whole area in general.

Rannek is an all-out brawler. His gaudy sword swing in 250-degree arcs each time and his hits get very powerful as you level up. In general, you can go wrong with Rannek at the helm. He’s a living tank. He also picks up an item from the first boss that gives him the ability to smash through obstacles. This ability is necessary for certain quests. The dumb part about the “powerful” smash is that, it can breack through boulders but can’t kill a low-level mob even if you connect. Pretty dumb, that.
Ilius, a human sorceror, is the magic user of the group. In the Forgotten Realms, there is a stark difference between sorceror and mage in that mages are students of magic but sorcerors are magical beings innately. Sorcerors don’t require a mana pool, so very conveniently Ilius has the power of magic with no limitations! You’ll never run out of spells, per se. He’s quite weak physically anyway so if not for the spells, he’s a siting duck. Ilius only has a a few spells at his disposal but you can level them up. This dearth of spells should be a turn-off for most fantasy gamers, but you must realise there is no way to implement a deep realtime magic casting system with only limited buttons [game was meant for consoles too!]. From the looks of it though, you only need a couple of the spells to hold your own. Since the party will almost never be split up, Ilius is perfectly fine fulfilling a ranged caster role, with little or no melee activity. Ilius’ special ability is the ability to blow things up remotely…but gameplay wise this ability is similar to Rannek’s, just that Ilius doesn’t have to stand in one place and charge up the strike. Still, it’s too crowded when 2 of your 3 characters’ special abilities do pretty much the same thing.
And finally Zhai. I have fallen in love with this little half-drow. She’s a rogue-thief kinda character, so expect lots of slinking and dirty kills. [Only] When you control Zhai, shadowed areas of the map twinkle mysteriously and when you enter them you become invisible. You stay invisible for a short time even when you leave the twinkly area and you can upgrade abilities and equipment that allows you to stay hidden longer. If you’re hidden you obviously get to sneak past enemies, but the combat counterpart of this ability to perform a hidden strike from behind. Traditionally, in D&D rules, such an attack gives you an insane mulitplier on how much damage you do, but here, it an outright kill if you attack from behind when hidden. It takes skill, but once you master it, the weakest character in your party becomes a master assassin. Fun. Zhai’s special ability is to jump. it’s dumb, I know! But only she can reach elevated obstacles and pedestals.

Forgotten Realms has an amazing bestiary and Demon Stone features a few of the more exotic ones. Yuan Ti, Githyanki, Slaad, and even a dragon. Yeap you get to fight a dragon! You know? Red in colour, 3 stories tall, flying, firebreathing, bona fide dragon. Woohoo, I think the rest of the review is largely unnecessary at this point, don’t you?

I don’t like to post spoilers, so no story-mode comments. There’s no choices to be made so there’s no replay value, except to see how powerful your endgame weapons and abilities are, even in the beginning. Pwnage. There’s also unlockables, in hidden areas, so look out for those. But that’s it. Unless you really love fighting dragons, 8 hours tops and you have nothing left to do. And that’s a crying shame.
All in all, this is a rent-title. It’s a really good game, but for its length, it’s not worth buying it.

Here’s a link to the screenshots from the game. Enjoy!