Does anyone know what exactly Weldon and Lin are hoping to accomplish with the master tapes? It's cool that they've found them, but at first blush, they don't seem to be all that valuable.

All 4 seasons of ReBoot received good-enough DVD transfers back in the early 2000s. The show was mastered to D-1 tape to begin with (as noted in TFA), so the DVDs are full-resolution releases with standard 4:2:0 chroma subsampling. The D-1 masters are uncompressed at 4:2:2 chroma, which is technically better, but by human visual standards not immensely so. That kind of detail is normally only needed for intermediates, since anything going out for release today (download or broadcast) will still get compressed and reduced to 4:2:0.

Are they doing something that actually requires the masters? Or are they just geeking out (as we all love to do)? A simple documentary wouldn't require D-1 masters; the DVDs would be fine for that.

This was a great series full of era-appropriate computer and IT in-jokes and adult humor, definitely not a kids show.

This is more true for the last two seasons than the first two. ABC's Broadcast Standards and Practices division was notoriously hard-assed for the two seasons they ran. This is a show where they mandated a uniboob, after all.

Between the wiki and TV Tropes there's a sizable list of things BS&P did, or things the writers did to get crap past them.

Oh balderdash.

He's being held because he's criminally insane. He's not only expressed an intent to continue with crime, but he's not firing on all cylinders mentally and he's been physically violent on multiple occasions.

He's not being punished at this point. He's being held because he's going to hurt people again when he gets out. So comparing it to punishments for other crimes is absurd.

And now they're all consolidating and merging and raising prices, so now streaming will be like cable again.

Unfortunately, it's the only revenue model that's actually been shown to work over the long-term.

Personally, I find myself conflicted on this one.

In principle, I'm all for open cross-platform messaging. If it were up to me, I'd love to go back to the days of Trillian where you could interface with all of the major chat networks using a single client. As much of a pain as multiple networks is, it stops mattering when everything is accessible in the same client. Beeper Mini doesn't go that far, of course, but it would be one step closer. And as an added bonus, this is easy E2EE, which is always great to have in a network.

On the other hand, apparently the program was relying on an Apple code module ripped from an older version of macOS, which is how it was able to register with Apple's servers to begin with. So this wasn't a clean room reverse engineered implementation of the complete iMessage stack. Redistributing OS components in end-user software just kind of scummy - you didn't earn the knowledge for yourself - and goes against the traditional hacker ethos of making a product based on someone else's spec (e.g. BIOS).

On the third hand, I'm not sure I want any random yahoo having access to the iMessage network. iMessage spam basically doesn't exist; it's quite nice. I'm not sure Apple is prepared for, or ever could fully handle, the spam that would come with an open network.

Well there is the optional trim package with FTL capabilities. But at only a 2,000ly distance, it's enough to give anyone range anxiety.

Why bother hiring a room full of actors when you can just re-use some digital ones?

You say this like it's a bad thing.

Even though extras get paid breadcrumbs, the costs of using them is incredibly high due to all of the work required to prep and manage them. Replacing them with CGI, when tastefully done, would greatly improve efficiency on the set. It would be the film equivalent of getting rid of the secretarial pool and giving executives computers.

Word of advice: grab Bypass Paywalls Clean and never have to worry about Bloomberg (or most other) paywalls again: https://gitlab.com/magnolia123...

It's right up there with uBlock Origin in terms of essential extensions for keeping the Web usable.

4. The hold on re-opening Tesla was in the hands of a single county-level official (Alameda country) who refused to state when and how the county permit would be re-issued. The attitude was she would get to it when she felt like it and you are no better than anybody else.

Now this has me curious. Given some of the other government corruption issues involving tech companies in the bay area (e.g. Apple and concealed carry licenses), was this a case of misplaced safety ideals? Or was the official looking for a bribe?

It's already in the works, at least for Comcast and Charter. They already offer TV boxes that don't even have QAM tuners; just Wi-Fi/Ethernet as a backhaul to the combined modem/router. No further QAM box designs are planned. And in Comcast's case, they stopped distributing boxes with local storage in favor of cloud DVR service years ago (which allows up to 6 simultaneous recordings).

QAM TV isn't going away overnight. But all of the groundwork has been laid to start reclaiming the spectrum as cord cutting continues.

https://www.lightreading.com/v...

https://www.xfinity.com/suppor...

Imagine someone being able to wirelessly "update" your phone to a hacked version.

This seems to hinge on the assumption that attackers have a way to pass the phone's firmware validation, never mind any further layers of validation that may be involved with Apple's update pads.

Apple's private firmware signing key is the holy grail of iPhone hacking. If you have that (or an exploit to bypass it) then there are far more insidious things you could be doing to the billion iPhones that are already deployed in the world.

And that's essentially the angle Comcast is working.

DOCSIS 4.0 will be able to attain download speeds of over 10Gbps (the precise value depends on a few things, such as the spectral width), with upload speeds upwards of 5Gbps. However, that's basically using most of the spectrum within the cable. Coincidentally, you're going to see a lot of cable operators switching to pure IP networks, getting rid of dedicated cable TV QAMs in favor of using the entire pipe for passing IP data, and then making CATV an IP service on top of that.

It's a short article, so I'd encourage you to read it. But, in short, the concern is that their entire semiconductor unit is hemmoraging money.

Analysts see its semiconductor business â" typically Samsung's cash cow â" reporting a more than 3 trillion won ($2.2 billion) loss for the third quarter./blockquote

DRAM and NAND manufacturing is a black hole for money right now. Everyone has cut back production and is still having to sell it for less than it's worth. That's not just bad for business, but it's unsustainable.

It's the other elements of Samsung Electronics, such as the displays business, which is keeping them afloat right now. But that's a concerning thing, as that's like the life boats being used to hold up a ship.

Did Newsome suddenly sign or veto something like several dozen bills?

Yes. He had a stack of bills from the most recent legislative session on his desk that he finally signed/vetoed. This was done in quick succession, so there are a bunch of new laws that are suddenly passing or failing.

Where you can only claim copyright if its possible to purchase said content.

In this case, it is possible to purchase said content. Bewitched has been released on DVD a few times now, most recently in 2015.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B012...

It's technically out of print at the moment, I believe. But there are more than enough copies in circulation right now that they're cheap and easy to find.

And if streaming is your thing, all of the usual transactional VOD operators are offering all 8 seasons.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/vide...

There's plenty of stuff that is not currently available, and whether it should have copyright protection at all is a valid question. But Bewitched is very much available in multiple formats.