EC2 Outage

A lot of companies rely on EC2 to do video trans-coding and other video effects. It's a quick way to scale without having to purchase and maintain hardware.  The down side, there is no fail over, no way to recover your services other then wait till Amazon gets back and running.

From Slashdot:   EC2 Outage Shows How Much the Net Relies On Amazon
"Much has been written about the recent EC2/EBS outage, but Keir Thomas at PC World has a different take: it's shown how much cutting-edge Internet infrastructure relies on Amazon, and we should be grateful. Quoting: 'Amazon is a personification of the spirit of the Internet, which is one of true democracy, access to the means of distribution, and rapid evolution.'"An article at O'Reilly comes to a similarly positive conclusion from a different angle.

Why People Should Stop Being Duped By the 3D Scam

From Slashdot:

"The entertainment and electronics industries keep trying to push 3D on consumers, even though a lot of smart people have caught on to the fact that it is a scam and not innovation as the industry would like you to believe. From the article: 'This is a bad experiment that the industry is forcing consumers to subsidize. And since they can’t create a better product, they’ve simply latched on to 3D as a marketing ploy that the entertainment and electronics industries can use to trick people into thinking that they are getting a superior experience. It’s only working because just enough people are falling for the scam to keep it alive.'"

I totally disagree with this.

I think after seeing some of these movies and the New 3D cameras and Nintendo 3DS my kids will be demanding 3D on all of there screens.  So even if this wave of 3D doesn't take off right away I am confident in 10 years 3D will me commonplace.

Comcast Hounded By Collections Agency

From Slashdot:

"According to the St. Paul Pioneer Press, Comcast is being taken to court for non-payment by a bill collection agency it used to collect past-due payments from customers. The suit alleges that Comcast agreed to pay $5 for each account it closed and that for each account the collection agency handled Comcast would pay 33% of the collected funds. The suit is seeking $314,210 for account cancellations and estimates Comcast owes them $50,000 for delinquent funds collected."

A Clash Over the Airwaves

Overcrowded cellphone spectrum and wireless broadband networks have put the United States on the verge of a “spectrum crisis“ that, unaddressed, will threaten the nation’s technological leadership and economic growth. The 120 megahertz of spectrum being sought from the broadcasters would increase the amount available for cellphones and other wireless devices by about 22 percent, to 667 megahertz.

Good article on New York Times:  A Clash Over the Airwaves

The Federal Communications Commission has a solution: reclaim airwaves from “inefficient“ users — specifically, television broadcasters — and auction them off to the highest bidder, sharing some of the proceeds with television stations that volunteer to give up airwaves, known in the trade as spectrum. 

Broadcasters, however, are furious with the plan, setting the stage for an old media vs. new media lobbying battle with cellphone companies and the government.

“We’re in full battle mode to protect broadcasters from being forced to give up spectrum,“ said Gordon H. Smith, president of the National Association of Broadcasters and a former United States senator, addressing his members at their meeting here last week. The CTIA, the lobbying group for the wireless industry, quickly fired back, accusing broadcasters of “desperate and inaccurate stall tactics,” said Steve Largent, the group’s president, who is a former Oklahoma congressman and member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Broadcasters have long been under siege, their audiences slipping away to cable television, their advertisers defecting to the Internet. Although giving up spectrum would go unnoticed by most viewers, the fight to hold onto a chunk of the airwaves could be the industry’s biggest battle in years.

“We are not going to volunteer,“ said Leslie Moonves, the CBS chief executive. “Spectrum is our lifeblood.“ CBS owns and operates 14 stations in the large markets that the F.C.C. is considering for spectrum sell-offs.

Some lawmakers on Capitol Hill, in whose hallways the battle is likely to be fought over the next year, have already challenged the assertion that the auctions would be completely voluntary.

“Sounds kind of like a bank holdup to me,“ Representative John D. Dingell, a prominent Michigan Democrat, told Julius Genachowski, the F.C.C. chairman, at a hearing in February. “You hold a gun at the teller’s head and say, ‘We know that you are going to voluntarily give me this money. If you don’t, I’m going to shoot you.’ “

To the government, the overcrowded cellphone spectrum and wireless broadband networks have put the United States on the verge of a “spectrum crisis“ that, unaddressed, will threaten the nation’s technological leadership and economic growth. The 120 megahertz of spectrum being sought from the broadcasters would increase the amount available for cellphones and other wireless devices by about 22 percent, to 667 megahertz. On top of that, the Obama administration has said it wants to free an additional 380 megahertz for wireless Internet use.

“This growing demand is not going away,“ Mr. Genachowski told broadcasters last week. “The only thing that can address the growing overall demand for mobile is increasing the overall supply of spectrum and the efficiency of its use.“

From the days of analog signals, television bands leave broad spaces between stations to prevent interference — hence, their inefficiency. For cable TV or satellite viewers, airwave changes make no difference in reception. But for the 11 million households that still use an antenna to receive over-the-air signals (and thus do not subscribe to cable or satellite) there could be some interference between stations as the F.C.C. tries to press TV signals into a tighter spectrum bands.

Government officials deny this, but as the conversion to digital broadcasting showed, there can be unexpected consequences when you mess with the physics of broadcasting.

Mr. Genachowski has garnered support for the idea of reclaiming spectrum from some broadcasters. Also, a group of 112 economists who specialize in telecommunications, competition policy and auction design sent a letter to President Obama urging him to push Congress to approve incentive auctions. Three bills have been introduced in Congress supporting the idea.

But some members of Congress have opposed the plan, and the broadcasters’ group is a formidable foe. The group spent nearly $14 million on lobbying last year and made another $886,000 in campaign contributions toward the 2010 elections, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, in Washington. 

In Mr. Genachowski’s favor are estimates that incentive auctions will generate $24 billion or more for the Treasury. He argues that the reallocation of spectrum to wireless broadband “will generate benefits to our economy and society an order of magnitude 10 times that amount.“

But there has been little public discussion about how much of the proceeds broadcasters would receive, an omission that has left station owners wary.

There is plenty of evidence of growing demand for wireless broadband. Just one year ago, the commission projected that mobile data traffic would increase 35-fold over the next five years — an estimate that was quickly rendered obsolete with the introduction of the iPad.

That a new technology could become so popular so quickly demonstrates the need for additional spectrum, Mr. Genachowski says, because those technologies can spur new ways to address “major national challenges like education, health care, energy, transportation and public safety.“ The F.C.C. could, of course, simply move to take spectrum back from broadcasters when their licenses expire, but that would probably result in lengthy court battles. The F.C.C. wants broadcasting spectrum because those wavelengths are particularly hearty — they travel well through buildings, an advantage for mobile smartphones.

But Mr. Genachowski says the F.C.C. feels that it cannot simply grab spectrum and believes that buyers would pay more for uninterrupted airwaves. So it is asking broadcasters to either turn over their spectrum for cash and go out of business, or voluntarily move to another frequency, freeing chunks of space. For technical reasons, the move would not necessarily force stations to change their familiar channel number.

“No broadcaster will be forced to offer up spectrum for auction,“ Mr. Genachowski said. But “voluntary can’t mean undermining the potential effectiveness of an auction by giving every broadcaster a new and unprecedented right to keep their exact channel location.“

Translation: The F.C.C. might forcibly move some stations if it does not get enough volunteers. It also has proposed assessing “spectrum fees” on broadcasters, which in most cases now receive their licenses for free.

Broadcasters say they are being shortchanged, because broadcasting’s model of transmitting from one station to millions of viewers is more efficient than one-to-one wireless communication. “We understand broadband is important, but we think broadcasting is important, too,“ said Alan Frank, president of Post-Newsweek Stations, a division of the Washington Post Company that owns six stations.

Other owners are more blunt. “I’ve never heard so much nonsense in my life,“ said Charles Glover, chairman and chief executive of Telos Digital Television Networks, which owns the Fox station in Portland, Me.

“This is an actual cash grab from all of these people who have dedicated our lives to build these systems.” By taking spectrum, Mr. Glover said, “you are about to start a train wreck that we will not be able to come back from.”

Live Video on YouTube

Well last September YouTube did a brief test of live video streaming. I guess it went well because they are rolling it out today.

It's amazing really since Recorded VOD (video on demand) is a much more difficult problem then live broadcast video.  This is the reason I focused on live video, because the bar was in some ways lower. In other ways higher because you need to maintain good signal paths across the network.  But that's what I used my ECIP protocol for.

Here are some articles on YouTube's live streaming.
YouTube is going LIVE


Coming At You: Live Video on YouTube.

YouTube is going live.
Google Inc.’s video arm is rolling out a special platform for live streaming shows. Called YouTube Live, the site lets viewers browse through live shows that are playing now, as well as ones that are coming up or already have been recorded.


YouTube tests live video streaming   From September 2010

Object tracking algorithm learns on the fly

Zdenek Kalal's object tracking algorithm learns on the fly,

IP Cam Viewer

Came across a great Android App.

IP Cam Viewer by Robert Chou

Remotely view and control your IP Camera, DVR, and Network Video Recorder, CCTV and WebCam using this Android mobile client.
Includes a database of public web cams around the world like Traffic Cameras.

Supports SSL, H.264, mjpeg, 2-way audio on some cameras, pan/tilt, optical zoom, presets, relay control and digital pinch to zoom functionality.

Add your cameras to your home screen with widgets (controllable refresh rate),
Have dozens of cameras? Group them for quick recall.

Has Matrix view, gallery view and digital zoom mode.
Setup once, export settings to sdcard, option to share cameras, and browser integration.

Apple iOS version available (IP Camera Viewer)
Blackberry 6.0 version available (Live Cams)
Windows Phone 7 version under development

Over 450+ different makes/models supported. For specific camera models and features, see website:
http://hit-mob.com/ip-cam-viewer-android/

=== coming soon...
In the next release or 2, I plan on adding a "recording mode" where by the app will:

- record as fast as possible, for all enabled cameras, to your sdcard
- you'll be able to specify max space usage but app will automatically recycle space up to that limit

The idea is that you can use a spare android device that is plugged in as a cheap solid state recorder.
Probably don't want to use this mode on your normal phone because it'll drain your battery.
Also probably not useful for users with dvrs already but can be useful for people with just standalone ip cameras.

=== make/models supported:
http://hit-mob.com/ip-cam-viewer-android/device-support-list/
Generic URL
3xLogic
4UCAM
4XEM
A-Link
AbelCam
ABS
ABUS
ACTi
Active Vision
ADT
Airlink
Airship
Alien
Alinking
Allnet
APC
Apex
Aposonic
Appro
ArcVision
Arecont
Arm Electronics
Asante
ASIP
Asoni
Astak
Avermedia
AVIOSYS
AVS
AVTECH
Axis
Basler
Bewan
BiQu
Blue Iris
Bluecherry
BlueJay
BluePix
Bosch
Brickcom
BVUSA
BWA
Canon
CCTVHotDeals
Cellinx
Chubb
CIP
Clas Ohlson
Compro
Conceptronic
Convision
COP-USA
CPCAM
Creative
CTRing
CVLM
Dahua
Dedicated Micros
Defender
Digicom
Digital Watchdog
Digitus
Digix
DiVis
DLink
Dtt
DVRUSA
DynaColor
EasyN
EasySE
Edimax
Elmo
Elro
Eminent
Etrovision
Everfocus
EvoCam
ExacqVision
Exelon
EYEMAX
EyeSpy247
Eyseo
Falco
Falcon
Fitivision
FlexWatch
FoodTec Solutions
Foscam
Gadspot
GE
Gembird
Genius
Geovision
GKB
GlobeTeck
go1984
Goscam
GrandSec
Grandstream
Grandtec
Hama
Hawking Tech
HeiTel
Hesavision
Hikvision
HISUNG
HooToo
Hungtek
Hunt Electronics
I-View
ICam
ICAMView
ICanTek
iCatch
ICRealtime
IGuard
iKONiC
Imogen
imotion
Inscape Data
INSTAR
Intellinet
IPUX
IQinVision
JVC
KGuard
Laser
LevelOne
Linksys
Logilink
Lorex
LTS
Lumenera
Mammoth Technologies
Marmitek
MayGion
Merit Lilin
Mesa
Messoa
Microseven
Mobotix
MonoPrice
NetMedia
NetZEye
Neugent
Night Owl
NuSpectra
Nuvico
Okina
Open Source
OpenEye
Opticam
Optivision
Orite
OvisLink
Panasonic
Pelco
Photo Feed
Piczel
Pinetron
Pixord
Planet
Planex
Plustek
Power Telecomm
PY Software
Q-See
QNAP
RaySharp
Rayvision
Remote Eyes
Repotec
Rifatron
Rimax
Robox
Samsung
Sanyo
SCD
Security Labs
SecuritySpy
Seteye
Sharx
Shixin
Sitecom
SmartEye
Solwise
Sony
SparkLan
Speco Tech
StarDot
SuperCircuits
SVAT
Swann
Sweex
Talon
Talos
TechVision
Telefonica
Tenvis
Tibetsystem
TomTech
Toshiba
TP-Link
TRENDnet
True-H DVR
TSM
UTC
Veo/Vidi
Vidi
Vilar/Vipcam
VisorTech
Vitek
Vivotek
Vonnic
Wansview
WebcamXP
Well Vision
WowWee
Y-Cam
y3k
Yawcam
Yoics
Zavio
Zmodo
Zoneminder
Zonet