YouTube – Interview with Phil Foglio

Benjamin SchollnickNo Comments

Here\’s a interview with Phil Foglio,  2007 Wonder Con in San Francisco. Phil Foglio is a cartoonist and comic artist, who won 2 Hugo Awards. He done art work for the Magic: The Gathering CCG for Wizards of The Coast, XXXenophile, Buck Godot: Zapgun for Hire, Angel and Ape, and MythAdventures. Phil\’s has a monthly comic strips in Dragon Magazine and is currently working on Girl Genius (a on-line comic book series and Trade paperback line) with his wife, Kaja.

Steam On the Mac – May 12

Benjamin SchollnickNo Comments

Valve today announced the public release of Steam for the Mac is May 12. Please stay tuned for more information.

Finally we have a finalized date…  In case you happen to be wondering, yes, that was the press release in its entirety. What more needs to be said? Steam\’s presence on Mac may revitalize the platform in terms of gaming, or it might not. Only time will tell.
Steam is a great platform…  Yes it contains DRM, but it\’s like iTunes, usually non-invasive.  And the benefits (load on multiple systems, reload the software directly via steam, etc) far outweigh the cons…

Doctor Who Season 5 Episode Titles Update & Rumours

Benjamin SchollnickNo Comments

Its time for an update of Doctor Who Series 5 episode titles:
01 The Eleventh Hour.
02 The Beast Below.
03 Victory Of The Daleks.
04 Time Of The Angels.
05 Flesh And Stone.
06 Vampires of Venice.
07 Amys Choice.
08 The Hungry Earth.
09 Cold Blood.
10 Vincent And The Doctor.
11 Unknown.
12 The Pandorica Opens (unconfirmed title).
13 Title Unknown.
14 Christmas Special, title unknown.
Christopher Ryan is listed as playing Commander Strak on an agency website, Ryan also played the similarly named General Staal in Series 4, however there is no official confirmation the Sontarans will reappear, yet.
Alex Kingston is in episodes 12 and 13 at Stonehenge, as River Song.
There is a Cybus Cyberman in the museum story, but it looks like they may be returning, as may our universes also, all is unconfirmed atm.
I had originally thought that the new TARDIS console was due to the Blue Peter contest, but I was wrong. The Blue Peter console has not yet been seen.

The Mac OS isn\’t really virus proof…?

Benjamin Schollnick2 Comments

The argument goes something like this:
Fan Boy: \”Mac OS X is immune to viruses\”
Windows: \”No it isn\’t.  Windows is just more dominant, so of course people are making viruses for it\”
Fan Boy: \”No it\’s Windows poor security\”
Windows FB: \”Honestly, if OS X was really virus proof, don\’t you think Microsoft would have reverse engineered it by now\”
Here\’s part of the answer, but first, we need some history…
Windows Security
Microsoft Windows, even from it\’s earliest days, has had poor security practices.  Windows 1 – 3.1 were all designed to support a single \”administrator\” user, and while Windows 95 and 98 added support for other users, that was virtually cosmetic.  Hitting ESC at the login prompt would bypass the login, and give complete access to the computer.
Windows NT introduced the first true multiple user support for Windows, and introduced \”non-administrator\” accounts.  But, alas, a significant number of applications \”broke\” due to multiple user support, and can\’t be run without Administrative access.
Even today with Windows XP, and Vista, some applications will not run correctly unless run from an administrative account.  This encourages people to use an Administrative account, since they don\’t want to logout, and log back in to access a particular application.  Windows Vista and Windows 7 make this even more annoying, since now you have to authorize opening any application that wants administrator access.  If you want to change your screen saver you have to authenticate via Windows UCA…  And disabling UCA just allows applications to run wild, making the system significantly less secure.
Mac OS X Security
Mac OS X is a Unix-based graphical operating system, built on technologies developed at NeXT between the second half of the 1980s and Apple\’s purchase of the company in late 1996. From its sixth release Mac OS X v10.5 \”Leopard\” and onwards, every release of Mac OS X gained UNIX 03 certification while running on Intel processors.
The first version released was Mac OS X Server 1.0 in 1999, and a desktop-oriented version, Mac OS X v10.0 \”Cheetah\” followed on March 24, 2001.  The server edition, Mac OS X Server, is architecturally identical to its desktop counterpart, and includes tools to facilitate management of workgroups of Mac OS X machines, and to provide access to network services. These tools include a mail transfer agent, a Samba server, an LDAP server, a domain name server, and others. It is pre-loaded on Apple\’s Xserve server hardware, but can be run on almost all of Apple\’s current selling computer models.
So first, the Server edition of Mac OS X and the desktop version of Mac OS X, are nigh identical with the exception of the add-on server software.  In otherwords, the inherit security of the OS is the same, the additions add additional features, not security.
Second, being Unix based, there are severe limitations to what the User & User processes can do.  For example, if I open an terminal windows typed in \”rm -rf /\”, the system would still boot up after it attempted to erase the entire hard drive.  Why?  Because it would only wipe out content owned by my user.  The OS files are owned by ROOT or SYSTEM user/groups.  Yes, if I SUDO\’d (Super User Do) that same command would of been significantly more hazardous.  But wait…  I am an Administrator, why didn\’t that damage the OS?
Because of Unix Security & Design.  An user can be an administrator, but that just allows the user to authenticate and authorize the command.  By default the Administrators are the same as an ordinary user, until they \”request\” that a command be elevated to a higher level.  Thus, I would have had to use the SUDO command at the terminal, or if I tried to trash the OS via the GUI, the Finder would have asked me to authenticate through a dialog window.
General
With Windows, it seems that there are significantly more UAC authentication dialog windows then on Macintosh.  Part of this seems to be that the UAC authentication must occur before the control panel is visible, whereas on the Macintosh you can open the System Preferences and examine all the settings, but until you attempt to change the setting, you do not need to authenticate.  In addition, you remain authenticated until you re-lock the authentication, or the authentication \”timer\” times out.
\”No it isn\’t.  Windows is just more dominant, so of course people are making viruses for it\”
That argument doesn\’t stick.  Take a glance at these figures from netcraft.

Developer March 2010 Percent April 2010 Percent Change
Apache 112,747,166 54.55% 110,752,854 53.93% -0.62
Microsoft 50,572,540 24.47% 51,284,570 24.97% 0.50
Google 14,592,133 7.06% 13,749,829 6.70% -0.37

According to these figures, the Apache web server has a 54.55% (112 million servers) market share, verseus Microsoft\’s IIS that has a 24.47% market share (~51 Million servers).  Is Microsoft more dominant?  Not at all, they have just under half as many web servers as Apache does…
So, using this logic…  Wouldn\’t that mean that Apache would be the most heavily attacked and cracked web server on the planet?  It isn\’t.  IIS, the Microsoft Web server, is the most heavily attacked web server…
Here\’s some roughly figures of the number of Virus definitions that I have been able to gather from the virus companies…
iAntivirus (Mac)             116
ClamAV (Win)         759149
NortonAV (Win)    7077413
Pandasoft (Win)       168671
The follow graphs are from http://www.sans.org/top-cyber-security-risks/
First up, a graph showing the 2009 number of attacks against the Microsoft Windows platform.
\"\"
The break down of the Microsoft OS Attacks.\"\"
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Overall, it makes much more sense, that the Microsoft vulernability to attack, is due to legacy support of the earlier OSes & the applications that they run.  Mac OS X doesn\’t have the same degree of baggage to be concerned with, and a more sensible security model based off an already established Unix security model.  Microsoft can\’t afford to fix some of the security issues, due to the fact that it would prevent certain software from being able to be used.

Google: Fake antivirus is 15 percent of all malwareKn

Benjamin SchollnickNo Comments

According to a Google study, 15% of all malware consists of fake anti-virus (or Rogue Antivirus) software.  What does that mean to the average user, probably nothing, but are you sure that Antivirus warning you just received is really from your antivirus software?
Practically, this means that you need to be more aware of your antivirus software:

  • Know the name of your antivirus software
  • Make sure that your subscription is up to date, and that updates are occuring for both the Antivirus \”engine\” and the \”definitions\” file.  The Engine is the software itself, the definitions are what identify a virus to the engine.  So if your subscription expires you may still see engine updates, but your \”play book\” will be out of date and your software won\’t recognize newer viruses.
  • If you receive a virus warning, make sure that pop up window refers to your antivirus software.  For example, if you run Sophos\’s antivirus product, and you see a warning from \”Windows 2010 Antivirus Defense\”, chances are it\’s a fake warning.  (Please note, you may also have \”Windows Defender\” running, that\’s a anti-malware package from Windows).
  • If you see a valid warning, close all your applications, especially web browsers.  Don\’t download anything, and run your antivirus software with a full scan…  If it detects anything attempt to clean it.
  • If you become infected, try running the Security Tango.
  • Why all this work?

    More recent fake AV sites have evolved to use complex JavaScript to mimic the look and feel of the Windows user interface,\” the report continues. \”In some cases, the fake AV detects even the operating system version running on the target machine and adjusts its interface to match.\”

Fake antivirus is easy money for scammers, Provos said.

\”Once it is installed on the user system, it\’s difficult to uninstall, you can\’t run Windows updates anymore or install other antivirus products, and you must install the [operating] system,\” rending it unusable until it is cleaned up, he said.

Provos said when encountering a fake antivirus message, Web surfers should close the browser and restart the program. People who are duped by the scam may have to get professional help in cleaning up the computer, he said. They should also monitor their credit card accounts because scammers can use the credit card information for identity fraud.

  • Check the reputation of the antivirus packages that you are running, there are smaller companies that make antivirus packages that are not dependable.  Consider using AVG, Avast!, eTrust, and Panda Software\’s Antivirus 201x for Antivirus.  For Antimalware, SuperAntispyware, Malwarebytes, and Windows Defender.  If your software is not on this list, please check reviews on cnet.com, or another trusted source.

Check out Google: Fake antivirus is 15 percent of all malware

Switching Time Machine Destinations « Hearn’s Blog

Benjamin SchollnickNo Comments

Normally Time Machine is not location sensitive, for example, if you wish to use a specific backup drive at work, and a different one at home, you need to use the Time Machine Control Panel to switch between drives.

I back up my Macbook Pro using Time Machine to OS X server at both work and home.  Two different backups.  The more the better, right?  The only thing I didn’t like was having to switch the TM destination manually by going into System Preferences, Time Machine, etc.  Lots of clicks.  ”I need automagic”, I thought.  After a lot of Googling, I came up with a way that works.  Here’s how.

This blog entry explains how to switch between drives automatically using shell scripts, and Marco Polo

A New Version of Handbrake (0.94) is now available…

Benjamin SchollnickNo Comments

Grab it now, or be slower on your Video ripping!
http://handbrake.fr/

HandBrake 0.9.4: Released! or: Not Dead, Just Pining for the Fjords.
\”Creation comes out of imperfection.\”
There\’s an old proverb in the video encoding world: \”Speed, size, quality: pick two.\” It means that you always have to make a trade-off between the time it takes to encode a video, the amount of compression used, and the picture quality. Well, this release of HandBrake refuses to compromise. It picks all three.
Download it now.
x264A large portion of these speed, size, and quality improvements come to us for free, from the x264 project. The past year, like every year, has seen some massive improvements for that video encoding engine. As always, it has been further hand-optimized for better performance. But it has also gained new features like macroblock tree rate control and weighted P-Frame prediction. The end result? Better picture quality, at a smaller size, faster.
So, if x264 alone gives us smaller, better, faster encodes…what have HandBrake\’s developers been doing over the past year?
Oh, all sorts of things 🙂
New build systemHandBrake has a new, much improved compilation system, which allows easy 64-bit and parallel builds, as well as providing easy extendability for future improvements to the application. 64-bit builds tend to perform approximately 10% better than their 32-bit brethren. There is no Snow Leopard magic here: the performance gains can also be realized on Intel Macs running 10.5, as well as Linux systems.
Soft subtitlesHandBrake can now include subtitle tracks that can be turned on and off, instead of rendering them onto the video track permanently (which also reduces video compression). This means you can include Closed Captioning data from DVDs and TV broadcasts, or find SRT text subtitle files on the \’net and include them. When using the Matroska container, you can also store the graphical subtitle images (VobSubs) from a DVD as a separate track. An added benefit is that multiple subtitle tracks can be included in the same output video.
Live previewEver wished you could test HandBrake settings before spending hours on a full encode? Now, you can.
The picture settings and preview sheet has been broken out into a filters and picture settings inspector, and a preview window. The preview window can show you still frames from your source, like always. But it also lets you start to encode a short clip from the current preview with the currently selected settings, and view the results right there inside of HandBrake.
Better input support, for DVD and non-DVD sources alikeHandBrake now uses a better DVD reading library called libdvdnav. This means it can now read some DVDs it had trouble with before, and it can also select different angles on a DVD. As well, some bugs in underlying libraries have been patched.
For non-DVD sources, HandBrake now offers improved transport stream support, especially for high definition sources. A number of decoding bugs have been resolved as well, so Windows users will no longer need fear AAC audio, nor Mac users fear VC-1 video.
Constant quality encodingNo more looking for the perfect bitrate for a source–HandBrake is migrating to quality-based encoding. This means that instead of telling encoders to use a specific size and vary quality to meet it, we tell the encoder to vary size to meet a given quality level. Overall quality improves, since bits are spent only when they are needed, and are saved when they are not. While this means output size is somewhat unpredictable, the results in picture quality speak for themselves.
As part of this change, the quality slider has been made more prominent, and now works off the quality values used by the video encoders, instead of a confusing, custom, percentage scale.
Another result is that 2-pass encoding is not needed. A single pass at a constant quality provides just as much compression efficiency as two passes at an average bitrate.
PresetsThere are no more presets for the PSP, PS3, or Xbox 360. Quite frankly, they didn\’t work well. None of the development team members own the devices, so testing was minimal and support was nonexistent. Keeping up with the firmware vagaries and ambiguous specifications of these devices was not fun–we get enough of that from Apple\’s kit, and those we all have around to test on. The new \”Normal\” preset should work perfectly fine on any device that supports standard Main Profile H.264 with AAC-LC audio in an MP4 file, which the PS3 and 360 ostensibly do.
There are no more Film, Animation, or Television presets. Instead of a confusing series of content-targeted presets, there is now a single, constant quality, High Profile preset with automated filtering and all the H.264 bells and whistles. This preset should work on the PS3 and 360 too, although we make no promises.
It is now possible to import individual presets in all the graphical interfaces, and to export them as well, in the Mac and Linux GUIs.
Focus on what we do bestAs we\’ve had on our roadmap for quite awhile now, one of our goals for version 0.9.4 was to refocus on HandBrake\’s key strengths and to remove dead weight. As part of this process, several containers and a codec have been removed from HandBrake.
AVI: AVI is a rough beast. It is obsolete. It does not support modern container features like chapters, muxed-in subtitles, variable framerate video, or out of order frame display. Furthermore, HandBrake\’s AVI muxer is vanilla AVI 1.0 that doesn\’t even support large files. The code has not been actively maintained since 2005. Keeping it in the library while implementing new features means a very convoluted data pipeline, full of conditionals that make the code more difficult to read and maintain, and make output harder to predict. As such, it is now gone. It is not coming back, and good riddance.
OGG/OGM: HandBrake\’s OGM muxer is just as out of date. It hasn\’t been actively maintained in years either, and it too lacks support for HandBrake\’s best features. It requires conditionals to work around missing functionality too…only this one gets tested so infrequently the conditionals were never even put in the code, so it just fails when you try to do anything advanced. This one is not coming back either. And yes, we\’re aware of HTML 5. For patent-free muxing, HandBrake still has Matroska, which is a much better container anyway.
XviD: HandBrake, these days, is almost entirely about H.264 video, aka MPEG-4 Part 10. This makes it rather…superfluous to include two different encoders for an older codec, MPEG-4 Part 2. When choosing between FFmpeg\’s and XviD\’s, it came down to a matter of necessity. We need to include libavcodec (FFmpeg) for a bunch of other parts of its API, like decoding. Meanwhile, XviD\’s build system causes grief (it\’s the most common support query we get about compiling, after x264\’s requirement of yasm). Since we mainly use MPEG-4 Part 2 for testing/debugging, and recommend only H.264 for high quality encodes, Xvid\’s undisputed quality edge over FFmpeg\’s encoder is inconsequential, while FFmpeg\’s speed edge over XviD is important to us.
But wait, there\’s more!Audio-video synchronization has been further improved.
HandBrake can now pass-through DTS audio from a source when encoding to the Matroska container, just like it has previously for AC3 audio.
Mac users can now encode AAC audio using OS X\’s Core Audio, rather than using the open source libfaac. Core Audio offers far superior audio quality.
A new custom anamorphic mode allows precise control of all parameters, for power users.
Decomb now offers an optional, slower, better quality deinterlacing method called EEDI2.
Library updates for (besides x264) FFmpeg, libtheora (1.1), libmp4v2, libfaac/faad, libvorbis, and libmkv.
Of course, there have also been countless improvements to the user interfaces, and many technical changes under the hood to improve things like sample interleaving and framerate shaping.
For a more technical summary of the changes since 0.9.3, please see the NEWS file in the SVN repository. A complete list of the more than one thousand changes since 0.9.3 is also available.