AirPlay Reverse Engineered to Send Video From iOS Devices to Macs

Benjamin SchollnickNo Comments

TUAW\’s Erica Sadun has put together an alpha version of a Mac OS X application known as \”AirPlayer\” that does exactly that.
What AirPlayer does is create and advertise a custom Bonjour AirPlay service that pretends to be an Apple TV. Bonjour is Apple\’s zero configuration networking solution for allowing devices and applications to communicate with each other over local area networks. When Apple created AirPlay, it basically set up a new way for Apple TV to interact with iOS using Bonjour communications.
The functionality could in theory also be supported on Windows PCs as Apple offers Bonjour for Windows, although Sadun notes that she is not likely to attempt to build a Windows version anytime soon.
Interested users can download the ad-supported alpha version for Mac OS X from Sadun\’s website to test out the functionality. Users\’ iOS devices do not need to be jailbroken for the functionality to work, although some tools such as AirVideoEnabler that can extend AirPlay functionality to more iOS apps do require jailbreaking.
via AirPlay Reverse Engineered to Send Video From iOS Devices to Macs – Mac Rumors.

Digital distribution is confusing? That\’s what Sony says…

Benjamin SchollnickNo Comments

SCEE president Andrew House has confirmed the thing we all knew by now, that physical media will still be an important part of the games industry for at least a few more years. House has also added that digital distribution has a set of issues that need to be overcome before it becomes the norm.
\”The reason retail has been around for thousands of years is because it works really well at showing you a range of content,\” he says, \”having experienced store staff that can find the game you are looking for, tailor choices to your needs and up-sell you something you hadn\’t thought of.
\”Digital, for me, still has a challenge in that it doesn\’t have the equivalent of that. Browsing is a little overwhelming and too confusing, and that\’s the challenge that makes me think there\’s a strong role for physical media for years to come.\”

No, the reason Store based Retail sales have existed for thousands of years is because there has not been an alternative.  There are hugh drawbacks to retails stores:

  • Unless you own the store space directly, the owner of the mall/complex usually has to be paid a flat monthly fee, plus a percentage of your sales.  In some cases that can be 25-40% of your sales.
  • You have to be able to stock the merchandise you want to sell.  Take a look at Gamestop, you will see a small 3-5 foot rack that has Windows / Macintosh games.  Compare that the 16+ foot racks of  Playstation 3, WII, etc games.  Wonder why Macintosh & Windows games are not selling at Gamestop, that\’s because they are not in stock.  Yes it\’s possible to order from the distributor and have it shipped to the customer, but they came in to walk out with the box. The customer will be disappointed.
  • To be successful, your employees need to know about the subject.  For example, retail computer sales.  Most employees learn the real basics, and are forced to spout BS when a challenging customer comes in.  No wonder most people don\’t trust sales people…  In addition, you can only handle a finite number of people at the same time, your limited by your staff count.
  • If you lose your physical media, chances are you won\’t be able to re-download the package, you will need to buy an completely new product.

In comparison, with Digital distribution:

  • You have a flat monthly rent for your storage space, and you could even \”build\” a small store as part of your warehouse…
  • The customer is not expecting to be instantly gratified, so a cross-shipment or the product being shipped from your stock is expected.  Your total on call stock can be smaller, due to cross-shipping from the distributor.
  • Your web site needs to be up to date, and have the information the customer needs to evaluate the products.  And your web site can interact with an huge number of people at the same time.
  • The customer can download the packages as needed (Steam, and other digital distribution providers).
  • In theory, the price is cheaper, since there is no physical media, manuals, etc…

So, what\’s positives with physical distribution, verseus digital distribution in your opinion?  Feel free to let me know your opinion in the comments.

Automatic Sprinkler System Scheduling Part 1

Benjamin SchollnickNo Comments

What is the best practices in Water Sprinkler\’s, and scheduling their watering patterns?

What is a Can test? or a Stick test?
\’Can test\’ is kind of an industry standard way of measuring the amount of water being applied to an area of lawn for a given amount of time [hourly water rate]. It involves placing several tuna cans on the lawn, manually turning on the zone, then calculating run time = inches of water in can.
So if your hypothetical goal was to supply the lawn with 3\” of water per week for a Mon, Wed, Fri schedule, that\’s 1\” day. Now use your cans to determine how long it takes to get 1\” in the can, say 13min. Your schedule would be Mon 13, Wed 13, Fri 13.
I find that the \’can test\’ is very valuable for finding dead areas or over watered areas of your lawn. If can1 = .75\”, can2 = .75\”, and can3 = .25\” it is obvious where the problem is.
The \’stick test\’ is where you push a stick into the ground, pull it out, and based on the wet marks of the stick you conclude how moist/dry the soil is at depth. I use moisture meters because for me it is critical to know what is happening below the surface [where the roots are]. It\’s common that people who water too little/too often have moist soil at the surface, and bone dry soil at 6\”.
If you have sandy soil and hot climate [like me] it\’s common to see the surface soil bone dry [dried from the sun exposure] yet 12\” down moist, so if you used the dry surface as your judgment, then your action would be \”it\’s really dry – needs more water\”.
Next time you remove a dead plant look at the roots. If they appear black or moldy, then you watered too often and the plant died from root rot. The soil never had the time to naturally dry out before getting more water.
These tests are far from being scientific, but they are a good starting point.

Is there an USB 2 data transfer size limit?

Benjamin SchollnickNo Comments

Well, I\’m not a USB protocol engineer but this document from the Intel EHCI USB Specification seems to suggest that the largest USB packet size that is allowable is 1024 bytes and the largest block of data that can be transferred in one go is 24576 bytes, as on page 35:

Seven page pointers are provided to support the expression of 8 isochronous transfers. The seven pointers allow for 3 (transactions) * 1024 (maximum packet size) * 8 (transaction records) (24576 bytes) to be moved with this data structure

So, it appears that any one USB transfer can consist of up to 24*1024 bytes of data at any one time.  That does not mean that you can\’t store larger amounts of data, but that they are \”chopped\” up into segments of up to 24*1024 bytes.

Registry Repair Toolkit (Bestregistrycare.com)…Hmrph.

Benjamin SchollnickNo Comments

Funny how Windows Registry errors can be caused by a Macintosh software package….  I was doing a google search for information on a macintosh product, and funny how their site reports:

What is Mac2TiVo (Mac).exe error?
Mac2TiVo (Mac).exe error is one of the most common system errors that many PC users will come across when while using the computer. Mac2TiVo (Mac).exe error always happens when the related Mac2TiVo (Mac).exe file in the operating system is deleted, corrupted or infected by virus. When you try to open files or applications which are related to Mac2TiVo (Mac).exe file, you will be likely to receive the pop-up Mac2TiVo (Mac).exe error. Mac2TiVo (Mac).exeerror will stop some certain programs in your comouter from correctly running as well as slow down the entire system performance. So to it is necessary for you to thoroughly scan your computer and get rid of the annoying Mac2TiVo (Mac).exe error as soon as possible.

Funny how a Macintosh product can cause Windows registry problems…
I tried a simple substitute in the URL, and I was not able to force a substitution, but it certainly looks like a fake report to me.

Uninstalling & Clean Installing Mac2Tivo

Benjamin SchollnickNo Comments

To completely uninstall Mac2Tivo, trash the Mac2Tivo folder, and then remove the following files:

  • ~/Library/Application Suport/Mac2Tivo/MediaData
  • ~/Library/Preferences/com.roxio.Mac2TiVo.plist

As of 2009, Mac2Tivo re-encodes all the sound to PCM Stereo.  Since PCM Stereo is an uncompressed Audio format, you will notice a significant file size increase…  And as a side effect, surround sound will be converted to standard Stereo audio.
Once the application is removed, and the preference files are removed, a simple re-install will be equivalent to a clean install.