So over the past month now I’ve been devoting a lot off effort to learning a programming language called Erlang. Erlang is a functional programming language that is designed for large-scale communication applications with specific focus on high concurrency and error handling. The reason why I’ve been learning this language is because how well it scales and since I love working on the types of applications that require servers to scale fast if needed. I figured it was about time to learn something that worked a little better.
So I hope over the coming months I’ll be able to describe better my experience learning erlang coming from a Flash / Flex / AS3 / JS / HTML / PHP / Python type of background.
First I plan on converting my current wordpress blog over to zotonic and then try to develop a cool video streaming application that will allow you to watch movies from your Plex DB / XBMC DB over the web using erlyvideo.
So it’s with regret that I have to inform everyone that for the time being there will be no more updates to the MakeMKV / Plex plug-in. That is how it’ll be for at least now. There are just too many bugs trying to get Plex to even stream a MakeMKV stream and other possible bugs with MakeMKV since it is in beta still. I’ll keep investigating this in the future to see if I can get it working. But for now, This plug-in is now on hold.
I’ve always been a fan of the game Team Fortress 2. It’s a really fun game to play. There is a lot of strategy involved and a good bit of humor too. Ever since I saw this model of the pyro I’ve been wanting to get a hold of one ever since. We’ll that wait will soon be over. Gaming Heads has announced they will be creating 12 inch tall replicas of all the Team Fortress 2 characters. If you are one of those obsessed individuals you can run over to their site and get your grubby hands on a brand new 12 inch tall Heavy. Check out the crazy cool pictures of this guy.
And all this time I thought my thermostat was cool. Little did I know. Today when I was googling for a touchscreen thermostat that was also zigbee enabled I came across this little beauty.
It’s called a it’s called the SilverSTAT 7. From what I can gather it’ll be released around June for about $600. So for those who are home home automation enthusiasts and have a few bucks to throw or for those who just like to drool over the possibility of maybe one day touching such an item, like myself. Here is what you get.
- 7″ Touch Screen
- Built in WiFi
- Z-Wave
- Zigbee protocol
- streaming photos, music and other content
- A full week’s worth of programmable temperature
- weather conditions
- home’s energy consumption
- power usage on a per-appliance
- time management with a calendar and scheduled alarm notices
- stocks
Here are a few more pictures to keep you drooling.
This really made my jaw drop. When I first read the article I thought they were talking about Quake 1. I thought, wow thats cool. But iIve already seen the same quake 1 engine ported to flash so not too amazing. That was all before i actually went to the site and found out this engine is actually a port of Quake 2.
All i can say is JS / HTML5 is going to be fun. Don’t get me wrong. I’m a flash guy and do almost all my work in flash / flex. Still with that said. I’m excited for what opportunities this will end up bringing.
< Quake 2 GWT Port />
The latest version of MakeMKV (1.5.0) has been released with a bunch of new updates that seem really cool my favorites are UPnP support, decrypting a backup and better messaging support. While rummaging around with the new release I found these new flags that I thought might help others.
makemkvcon [options] Command Parameters
General options:
–messages=file
Output all messages to file. Following special file names are recognized:
-stdout – stdout
-stderr – stderr
-null – disable output
Default is stdout
–progress=file
Output all progress messages to file. The same special file names as in –messages are recognized with additional value “-same” to output to the same file as messages. Naturally –progress should follow –messages in this case. Default is no output.
–debug[=file]
Enables debug messages and optionally changes the location of debug file. Default: program preferences.
–directio=true/false
Enables or disables direct disc access. Default: program preferences.
–noscan
Don’t access any media during disc scan and do not check for media insertion and removal. Helpful when other applications already accessing discs in other drives.
–cache=size
Specifies size of read cache in megabytes used by MakeMKV. By default program uses huge amount of memory. About 128 MB is recommended for streaming and backup, 512MB for DVD conversion and 1024MB for Blu-ray conversion.
Streaming options:
–upnp=true/false
Enable or disable UPNP streaming. Default: program preferences.
–bindip=address string
Specify IP address to bind. Default: None, UPNP server binds to the first available address and web server listens on all available addresses.
–bindport=port
Specify web server port to bind. Default: 51000.
Backup options:
–decrypt
Decrypt stream files during backup. Default: no decryption.
Conversion options:
–minlength=seconds
Specify minimum title length. Default: program preferences.
Automation options.
-r , –robot
Enables automation mode. Program will output more information in a format that is easier to parse. All output is line-based and output is flushed on line end. All strings are quoted, all control characters and quotes are backlash-escaped. If you automate this program it is highly recommended to use this option. Some options make reference to apdefs.h file that can be found in MakeMKV open-source package, included with version for Linux. These values will not change in future versions.
Message formats:
Message output
MSG:code,flags,count,message,format,param0,param1,…
code – unique message code, should be used to identify particular string in language-neutral way.
flags – message flags, see AP_UIMSG_xxx flags in apdefs.h
count – number of parameters
message – raw message string suitable for output
format – format string used for message. This string is localized and subject to change, unlike message code.
paramX – parameter for message
Current and total progress title
PRGC:code,id,name
PRGT:code,id,name
code – unique message code
id – operation sub-id
name – name string
Progress bar values for current and total progress
PRGV:current,total,max
current – current progress value
total – total progress value
max – maximum possible value for a progress bar, constant
Drive scan messages
DRV:index,visible,enabled,flags,drive name,disc name
index – drive index
visible – set to 1 if drive is present
enabled – set to 1 if drive is accessible
flags – media flags, see AP_DskFsFlagXXX in apdefs.h
drive name – drive name string
disc name – disc name string
Disc information output messages
TCOUT:count
count – titles count
Disc, title and stream information
CINFO:id,code,value
TINFO:id,code,value
SINFO:id,code,value
id – attribute id, see AP_ItemAttributeId in apdefs.h
code – message code if attribute value is a constant string
value – attribute value
Examples:
Copy all titles from first disc and save as MKV files:
makemkvcon mkv disc:0 all c:folder
List all available drives
makemkvcon -r –cache=1 info disc:9999
Backup first disc decrypting all video files in automation mode with progress output
makemkvcon backup –decrypt –cache=16 –noscan -r –progress=-same disc:0 c:folder
Start streaming server with all output suppressed on a specific address and port
makemvcon stream –upnp=1 –cache=128 –bindip=192.168.1.102 –bindport=51000 –messages=-none
I’ve always been a fan of stop motion movies. When i saw this one all i could say is WoW. Great job!
I wonder how long it’ll be until our lives are constantly connected in a digital way such as presented in this video.
I would love to be able to help develop parts of this system in the future. But i have to say, even with all this connectivity. Their is something nice about being disconnected from it all at the same time.
Just saw this great new project demo over at the unity blog.
[WP_UnityObject width="100%" height="349" src="http://download.unity3d.com/gallery/live-demos/players/3rdpersonshooter.unity3d" /]
Besides particle effects, physics, ragdolls, and more, this demo shows animation techniques such as realistic foot placement, procedural aiming and head turning, and how to smoothly turn procedural adjustments on and off while reloading.
< Read More />
< Download The Demo />
< Watch The Video />
This came as a nice surprise today.
Google is planning to launch an experiment that we hope will make Internet access better and faster for everyone. We plan to test ultra-high speed broadband networks in one or more trial locations across the country. Our networks will deliver Internet speeds more than 100 times faster than what most Americans have access to today over 1 gigabit per second, fiber-to-the-home connections. We’ll offer service at a competitive price to at least 50,000 and potentially up to 500,000 people.
