The Blogger blog is being retired

In this social age of new media and having to catch up with trends, having Blogger is like having a walking cane.

I'm now here to announce this Blog is now retiring to be replaced by this:

The New and Improved Jack Zhang's Posterous

Hopefully people will follow me there as I dump my thoughts and work on there.

PS3 loses Linux

http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/03/sony-steals-feature-from-your-playstation-3

You hear me right, if you update your PS3 once the new firmware for it comes out, you will LOSE your Linux capability and never get it back.

This is the same thing as the ongoing "Homebrew" battle between Sony and the PSP modders. The cause for the Linux revoking is a hack that effectively bypasses the hypervisor and allows full access to the Cell and possibly the RSX.

Quote from the article:

Sony is effectively downgrading PS3s already sold and in the hands of consumers — when you bought it, it could play games, play Blu-ray discs, and run GNU/Linux. After April 1, it's an inferior product.

Could Sony be turning into the new Apple? Locking down so much that it's just like a iPhone/iPod Touch in terms of DRM? It looks like both aren't open source supportive after all.

Remember the days when Consoles didn't need firmware updates? (The PS2, Gamecube days?) This might want to keep some FLOSS (Free Libre Open Source Software) supporters on the PS2.

Edit: A less descript article on CNET on Sony's position on this. Way to brainwash people to say it's making the PS3 more "secure". Well, it is... primarily to lock people out of the hypervisor.

And may I quote a commenter on that article that is pretty much what everyone thinks of this:

This is total crap, seriously. An update to solely remove features is not an update.

Alert! The Computer is being Captured!

This is a BIG heads up for people who installed WATU or are going to install Windows 7 Service Pack 1... There's Spyware.

It has been confirmed by TechARP.

And page 2 talking about Windows 7 Service Pack 1 makes it only get worse.

The Windows 7 SP1 spying algorithm is similar to the way YouTube attempts to curb "shady" uses of content with their Video ID system. If a "qualified authority" abused this power, (Like Warner Music Group abused their power with Video ID) we'd see court cases spring up all over the entire world... (Yes, these updates apply worldwide.)

In short metaphoric terms, Microsoft is trying to close Pandora's Box, which is nearly impossible.

EFF or ACLU, this is clearly not acceptable. Another legitimate reason why you should avoid this update.

First Vimeo, now Viddler?

Ok, the reason I moved from my original file uploads from Vimeo to Viddler is because Vimeo abandoned it for basic accounts and Viddler didn't.

Well, guess what just came in my Inbox...

The Terms of Use are changing to state that personal level accounts’ original source file will be stored for 30 days from the date it was uploaded. Of course, the converted video file will be available as long as your account is active. And you will still be able to download the converted file.

This is Deja Vu all over again... Do video sites really want you to PAY to use it as a original file backup service? Some of us use it to both showcase and do an off-site backup. Now, there are NO MORE free off-site video backup/serving services...

I'm outraged by this. I'm guessing I won't upload to any of these sites since they're so untrustworthy to their basic account users until I get enough $$$ for Vimeo Plus... (Oh wait, I don't have a stinking credit card.)

I shall remain with only 2 out of the 3 golden places for backup. I have my Personal Internal and External HDDs, but I'll never get that off-site backup.

This will be cross-posted to my Buzz.

Fixing codec woes on Windows 7 64bit

So here was my problem, I couldn't run the AC3 ACM or XviD on Windows 7 64bit. There are steps you can do to get everything working again:

For XviD:

1. Get celtic_druid's x64 build of XviD here

2. Go into your Registry Editor, under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows NT\Drivers32

3. Delete the "vidc.xvid" (in lowercase letters) string and recreate the string as "vidc.XVID" (in all caps) with a value of "xvidvfw.dll". I've confirmed that renaming will not work as it will say "The key already exists".

For the AC3 ACM:

1. Get version 1.5 of the ACM here, it has both x64 and x32 versions.

2. Install the x64 version as you normally would. It will install correctly.

3. Take the x32 ACM and put it in Windows\SysWOW64

4. Go into the Registry Editor, under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows NT\Drivers32

5. Create a new string called "msacm.ac3acm" with a value of "AC3ACM.acm"

This should get the AC3 ACM and XviD working on Windows 7 64bit.

Unblock ads to give up Privacy and Security? No way!

(from one of my Google Buzz posts)

I'm replying to the Ars Technica article about blocking ads: http://arst.ch/g8o

Listen, we ad blockers have a reason to ad-block: Privacy and Security. Remember when The New York Times bought ads from a super cheap Internet ad agency that actually put malware in the ads?

Not only that, tracking pixels are everywhere and some people don't trust them, blocking them gives that next level of privacy and security that they aren't being monitored the whole time.

It's obviously not that we want to hurt your revenue (though you make it seem like so with this article) It's our privacy and security that we want to protect. I have not gotten a single major virus ever since I started ad blocking.

If this is a round about marketing tactic, shame on you Ars Technica for trying to brainwash the smart to give up their ad blockers.

Edit (March 22): See? Nowhere is safe when it comes to banner ads... Especially if the server gets hacked into.

Thank goodness for Adblock. Again, shame on you Ars Technica.

No more direct links to this blog

I admit, the thrill of blogging has been snuffed by Twitter and even Buzz. Therefore all my public profiles will no longer have direct links to this blog, they'll be a couple of layers down. (For example, my Google Profile only has my Blogger Profile page, not the direct link to the blog)

I might post occasional editorials if something happens to get me to write a lot more than 140 characters and that wouldn't fit on Buzz. Vimeo videos from me will also appear here as they get posted.

My Ustream channels are still up and running, scroll down a couple of posts to find the embed players for the streams I do.

This is not the end of my blog, it's just it'll be way less active now.

Anyways, see you all on Buzz and Twitter. (and Steam too, if you game)

So what happened to my Computer...

If you've been following my Twitter for the past 2 weeks, you witnessed the quest for Genuine Windows take a nosedive then come right back up.

Here's how it all started...

Paul Thurrott repeated a blog post on the Genuine Windows Blog about the "Windows Activation Technologies Update" or "WATU" on his podcast on the TWiT Network called "Windows Weekly". When I got my 32bit version of Windows 7 Ultimate, I never found out how it got installed. It was a "courtesy" repair job from a major retailer here in Canada and it was half the price of getting Win 7 OEM just to get 1 hard drive with it pre-loaded.

Not knowing how the operating system got installed is a real pain because you never really know if the repair was done with non-genuine techniques or genuine from a disc.

Well, Tuesday the 16th came and I installed WATU. Went into the Task Scheduler and let it run once. Rebooted, and it was indeed non-genuine. I have been ripped off.

Looking back, I noticed 2 things that might have tipped off the OS was not genuine:

1. The "Change Product Key" link was not present on the "View basic system info" page (the one where you have to right-click "Computer" in the Start Menu and go to Properties)

2. The Recovery Disc I burnt had the "Press any key to boot from CD or DVD" text in German, not English.

What did I have to do? Buy Windows... offline. But first, I wiped the drive using my Recovery Disc and the DISKPART command. (I should have done an HDDErase, but didn't and I think my SSD speeds are a little slower than normal due to that.)

I decided I finally needed 64bit Windows, so on Wednesday I got an OEM Genuine DVD (with Holograms and a Certificate of Authenticity (COA)) from one of Canada's big DIY Builder retailers, NCIX. Installed it and restored all programs and backups and only around yesterday did I get everything back to normal.

It only cost me $220CAD to get this copy, compared to the kit online that costs $30-$40 more.

No worries now... And I'm not installing WATU on this new clean install since I know I installed it.

X25-V Review, once again in PC Perspective style

Intel X25-V Review - (unofficially) PC Perspective from Jack Zhang on Vimeo.

I'm hoping for your job, Ken Addison (PC Per Intern Video Editor)... If Jeremy can work from Canada, with Dropbox, I could edit from Canada too...

My ISP peers with BitGravity

So, I did a tracert on BitGravity and discovered that my ISP is now peering with BitGravity. This is pretty good as TWiT Live is now no longer hiccuping due to this peering, which is amazing!

However, this does NOT solve persistent problems with streaming for (not even long) periods of time. Re-visiting my NASA TV feeds, it still disconnects after 5, 10, 20, 90 minutes. It used to be that I could stream 23 hours non-stop NASA TV, that's no longer true even with peering.

And this just takes the cake and slams it on the ground: Watching the STS-130 launch, the stream cut out in the middle of everything TWICE. Listen, NASA, move to BitGravity live streaming and I'll be much happier since my ISP peers with them. Having the stream drop out in THE MIDDLE OF A FREAKING LAUNCH is completely unacceptable. My internet's never done that till today...

I'd really like peering to sites like Ustream, Justin.tv, and many more live streaming sites. Even peering with Steam would dramatically increase speeds due to lower latency.

Off-topic: I found it so uneasy that NONE of the major news networks other than BBC world news covered the shuttle launch live, since most (if not, all) were running videotapes for the night.

Finally... 1080p for Vimeo. But...

Another Hiatus lift...

So Vimeo rolls out 1080p trials right now, but at the moment, it's for Plus members only...

This leaves people like me, with a free account, in the cold once again.

First, they scrapped original file download for non-Plus users and now 1080p is ONLY for Plus users...

Here's what I think: Roll out 1080p site-wide for all users but have a compromise...

Plus users would get the best possible encoding settings: 1080p at 6mbps with 2-pass encoding and maybe even VBR.

Basic users would get a toned down 1080p encode: 3mbps with only 1-pass CBR.

Not only that, they should get rid of the VP6 encoding for talking head videos and stick to H.264 for all videos that Basic members upload.

Listen up, not everyone has a credit card... Leaving people out like this is obviously not beneficial. The free service is now so crippled, it's 720p HD is actually worse than YT. (and even worse for talking head 720p videos)

The HTML5 video rollout is a total mess

It's a temporary lift of my Blog's hiatus to express my opinion on today's HTML5 video rollout. It's an utmost near failure.

First, Mozilla releases the new version of Firefox today, 3.6. This is also the same day many Video sites start rollouts of HTML5 support.

BUT... Most people would associate this 3.6 update to Firefox to the HTML5 rollout. This is nowhere near the truth.

Firefox failed to obtain a license to use H.264 decoding in it's browser, and every implementation in today's HTML5 rollout ALL use H.264. Therefore, this left Firefox entirely cut out of this technological move to a much more streamlined and less resource intensive video playback experience.

Most people reporting on the new HTML5 video playback who actually could watch the videos in that format, like Chrome and Safari users, reported sluggish playback since it's 100% software driven (Like trying to play a video using OpenGL on VLC). The day HTML5 clients can be accelerated with hardware accelerators, (like the Broadcom Chip coming to Intel Pine Trail netbooks or NVIDIA's ION and ION 2) similar to Flash 10.1, then HTML5 would be a contender to push out Flash as a new form of playback.

And now to a couple of drawbacks/criticisms:

Vimeo

*Not all videos are encoded in MP4. Anything with very low motion (such as talking heads) or any old video encoded a long time ago is encoded in Flash VP6. It is impossible to play this in any HTML5 implementation.

*Censorship of the comments for the official blog post for the rollout is Vimeo's way of protecting their community integrity by preventing talk about codecs and browsers and sparking flame wars. I should know, one of my comments about H.264 was censored within 10 seconds.

YT

*Ad-supported videos will never be played in HTML5, since Flash is the only way to integrate the ads. This still makes them protective a little of closed-source infrastructure of applying Google Adsense and banner ads in full-screen videos.

*It's Google. They're sticking to H.264 and are very reluctant to use codecs such as OGG at the moment.

And sites that will never work with HTML5 Video: Hulu and any other TV broadcaster site.

Plus, here's what I'd also like to see in the future as this evolves: Live Streaming playback via HTML5.

So, Mozilla, MPEG-LA, you've learned your mistakes this time, let's hope there's not too big of a mess later on. Also, for those thinking about putting x264 or FFmpeg H.264 decode in Firefox... Well, that's a little of a legal grey area so it shouldn't be attempted at the moment.

And here's an editorial article from a friend: Is VP8 the Codec that solves HTML5's vender problems?

Blog and Twitter now on Hiatus

My blog and Twitter will now be on Hiatus. Tweets will specifically be replies only.

I've also deleted many posts that might have been deemed "worrisome" from the past 2 weeks.

Edit: Twitter is off hiatus, but this Blog will remain in hiatus for quite some time.

TWiT Live BitGravity, eat your heart out.

Before, I used to be able to watch TWiT Live BitGravity High (1Mbps, which is the above embed) on my 25mbps connection on my Core 2 Quad all the way until the cache refreshed after 1 hour. Now it is in an endless loop of breaking and buffering every 1-5 minutes.

I have no idea if it's my ISP or our DNS server or if it's just the fact that the BitGravity player is barely buffering compared to before, where it buffered 2-3 seconds. I've noticed now that it just instantly starts the video and doesn't really buffer at all. Ustream and Justin.tv both have scratchy sound due to encoding at a 22.05k audio sample rate and crude upsampling, making it not my recommended alternative.

I've tried using manual buffering by pausing, it still quits after 5 minutes. Oh and as I am writing this, I stand corrected, it's both the low and the high connections...

Before all this streaming trouble, I was able to watch NASA TV over the internet for over 12-22 hours. Now after 3 hours that quits. Now this happens? Come on Canada, We need Net Neutrality where our Skype packets aren't limited to the point where reliability is so low, we get disconnections and packet loss all the time... Streaming packet limiting is what will be hit next if no action is taken.

I also remember when we got KylinTV, which was kind of like the Chinese version of the Roku box, it buffered like crazy on our connection, so much so that it became unwatchable.

So, for the rare few that still follow this blog (since I might have scared everyone off with all the recent grim news), How's your TWiT Live BitGravity experience? (Preferably, Canadian people watching the stream.)

Edit: Well, someone listened probably... there's now a starting 2 second buffer on the BitGravity feeds at live.twit.tv, it no longer starts immediately.

It solved one half of the problem to do with the stream breaking, But I still get buffering breaks on my C2Q... There must be issues with my ISP... or it's due to the massive amount of traffic viewing the video all as once.

Edit #2: With a blip which I assume was the restarting of the Streamasaurous, I was able to watch 46 minutes before they went live and the buffering became totally atrocious...

Edit #3 (1/13/2010): Buffering's worse again. It's not breaking but when it buffers in the middle of receiving (not the buffer that starts the stream), it goes on for 2-4 seconds then continues. I freaking hate my ISP...

Edit #4 (1/27/2010): The problem is no longer the struggle to buffer, but dropouts... It drops 2 seconds of video as a buffer pause. Then again, today, there's 10000 people watching the stream at the same time...

My PC Perspective audition tape...

Ok, that's a little overshooting for the title of this post, but here's a video of me rebuilding my computer in PC Perspective style:

(unofficially) PC Perspective System Rebuild from Jack Zhang on Vimeo.

Disclaimer in video and on video page.