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Submission + - Ex Cardinal's scouting director sentenced to 46 months for hacking Astro's (go.com)

Submitted by yzf750
yzf750 writes: From ESPN "A federal judge sentenced the former scouting director of the St. Louis Cardinals to nearly four years in prison Monday for hacking the Houston Astros' player personnel database and email system in an unusual case of high-tech cheating involving two Major League Baseball clubs."

Submission + - Lost In Television Broadcasts: A Case for Digital Archiving

Submitted by esolutionplanet
esolutionplanet writes: Why is that television broadcasting, a product of the 20th century, has many of its shows/broadcasts and productions gone missing, lost or destroyed?

Early television broadcasts were often live and were not recorded. Top that with the fact that many broadcasts, including shows, news, dramas, plays, talk shows, dailies and soaps, even when recorded were dumped to free storage space! Many of the tapes and videos were often reused to record new shows and broadcasts. And not to forget the innumerable broadcasts destroyed over the years, subjected to technical degradation and obsolescence.

Early television was frequently programmed live because there was limited access to recording technology and content was not always deemed to hold cultural or historical value. Even when Kinescope made recording more viable, shows were recorded far and between. Many were partially recorded. With the coming of the magnetic tape in 1956, recording and reruns became more accessible. But television tapes were still being largely subjected to disposal, wiping and reusing. The venture of home video in 1970-80s made it economically viable for studios to record television broadcasts for resell and reruns.

Digital Archiving values content. It values and retains content, ensuring accessibility, reuse and continued monetization. Digitally retrieving and restoring broadcasts, preserves them for future consumptions and monetization, besides retaining the cultural and historical value of the content. Here’s a look at some of the famous lost/missing television broadcasts, reaffirming the indispensability of digital archiving and preservation, back then and now.

The Eddy-Go-Round Show

A Dutch broadcast, survives only in few odd episodes. The Dutch series was largely erased and wiped from the master tapes. A clip featuring the Swedish pop band, ABBA and another hosting the Scottish rock band, Marmalade, are the short sections still surviving. Eddy Becker himself held copies of a few episodes, which were retrieved, restored and broadcasted in 2012.

Countdown an Australian music television show created by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, ran in 1974-87. The show received nationwide broadcast and is still considered to be the best musical programs on Australian television. Wiping and reusing of tapes was an established practice at ABC, and a significant number of episodes from the Countdown,
were destroyed.

Madhouse on Castle Street

A 1963 British show, by BBC was junked despite featuring popular names including Bob Dylan and David Warner. It was Dylan’s acting debut and featured his song blowing in the wind during credit roll. Though an extensive search was made to retrieve the tapes, no substantial recoveries were made. Snippets of the audio recordings of Dylan’s songs, images, still shots, scripts, of the play have been salvaged over the years.

Starlight

One of the earliest BBC shows, was broadcasted in the 1930s. One of the first variety shows in the world, it hosted a number of entertainment acts, including comedy, plays and dance. The show was transmitted live, with only a few still shots and images surviving. The show was the television debut of the famous actor/singer Gracie Fields.

Upstairs Downstairs

The predecessor of the iconic Downton Abbey, remains as popular as the contemporary show. Though the 1970 show survives, the original episodes shot in black and white, do not. Just as the color transition hit the industry, the unions demanded a hike in pay for the use of color cameras. In that interval, the initial episodes of the first series were made in black and white. With production in color resuming, the monochrome episodes were wiped by the studio.

Mary Kay and Johnny

The first television sitcom in the US, was a comedy situated around the life of a married couple. The first few series of the Dumont production, were aired live and were not recorded, while the post 1948 episodes were recorded on Kinescopes. The tapes were subsequently disposed, and only few later portions of the show survive.

Doctor Who

A popular science fiction show, had many of its episodes between 1960s and 1970s wiped. The reasons varied. From the broadcasting rights on reruns expiring to the lack of archiving capacity at BBC Film Restoration library, a number of copies ended up being junked by BBC. Subsequent efforts at retrieval and restoration, have led to the recovery of a couple of the missing episodes, yet there are glaring gaps in the series.

A for Andromeda

A 1961 science-fiction that starred Julie Christie in her debut role, also became victim to junking. The story was developed by noted astronomer Sir Fred Hoyle. Except for one copy of the sixth episode, retrieved from private collection, a few tele-snaps and some clips, the series is more or less extinct.

Contemporary television is largely recorded. Most studios have their storage facilities. With proliferation of home media, recording and digital streaming, television Broadcast Archives has longer shelf life. Yet, the master prints and originals are never far from succumbing to format obsolescence and media degradation. As scratches, blurs, black patches and missing frames begin to deteriorate and destroy the archives, it is an absolute imperative to retrieve, restore and preserve. Whatever the reasons, from storage to budget to value, Digital Archiving is the one stop solution. Digital archiving facilitates value retention, accessibility and quality of your content.

Submission + - Terrorist Attack Likely Behind EgyptAir Plane Missing Than The Technical Fault (allnewsinn.com)

Submitted by AllNewsInn
AllNewsInn writes: It said the Airbus A320 had vanished 10 miles after it entered Egyptian airspace, around 280km off the country’s coastline north of the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria.

Egypt’s state news agency cited Prime Minister Sherif Ismail as saying he can’t “rule out” any probability when asked whether a terrorist attack is behind the missing plane. He said there was no “pain call” however there was a “sign” got from the plane........

Comment Re:China does not have our Constitution (Score 1) 238

by yzf750 (#51596325) Attached to: Apple Is Not Such a Freedom Fighter In China
How about being arrested for DUI on a "Non Refusal Weekend" The cop lies to the Judge saying "I smell alcohol" and boom, you are forced to give a blood sample. Because you professed your right to a lawyer? "I do not submit, I want a lawyer." Try it, even if you have not had a single drink, and you get pulled over for "suspicion of DUI" if you say "I do no submit" you will get blood drawn, forcibly if you continue to ask for a lawyer. So much for the 5th... Obviously it's NOT working, see Patriot Act, DMCA, TSA 'Nude' radar searches, NSA metadata, etc, etc, etc...

Comment Re:Ok first... (Score 1) 162

by yzf750 (#50768715) Attached to: Tattling Kettles Help Researchers Crack WiFi Networks In London

Also, it seems that a wifi control app would be ideal for a sous vide cooker. That shouldn't be much more complicated than a crockpot, why are they so damn expensive?

  1. Because it has such a pretentious-sounding name.
  2. Because it has to come with a 250 page book describing what "sous vide" is.
  3. Because Gordon Ramsey doesn't do it, so nobody else wants to, except those who watch pretentious cooking shows with Michelin chefs. (Doesn't Michelin make tires?)
  4. Because rich people wouldn't pay for it if it was called "boil in bag".

Sous Vide means under pressure. Not that pretentious. Michelin makes tires. They also make maps and travel guides, presumably to make people drive more, hence needing tires more often. Providing ratings for restaurants goes along with this. Sous Vide is not about "boiling in a bag" most sous vide cooking is not done at boiling temperatures. Purpose built sous vide cookers are expensive because they are niche products. They also usually have some form of circulation and precise temperature control. Could you rig one up with a PID, element and stirrer? Sure, but to make a UL or other agency listed appliance there is a lot more that goes into it. But hey, don't let that get in the way of your rant...

Comment Re:masdf (Score 2) 297

by yzf750 (#49453973) Attached to: Would-Be Bomber Arrested In Kansas; Planned Suicide Attack on Ft. Riley

Do you have a source for that? Certainly there are narcs, but I've never heard of any of them enrolling in high schools undercover. Cops threatening high school kids who got caught anyway to cough up some names, sure. But when they invest an undercover agent (= lots of money), it's going to be for a big investigation, not to find out which high school kid sold a dimebag to which other high school kid.

http://www.chron.com/neighborh...

There you go. The story quotes one of the sheriffs stating that they have done this in other cities throughout the county as well.

Comment Re:How relevant is the PC, still? (Score 1) 737

by yzf750 (#43503283) Attached to: Windows: Not Doomed Yet

Maybe the POS system company you work, or contract for is 99.9% XP Embedded, but in the past several restaurants I have worked for, it is Linux on most of the touch screen terminals. You can easily tell when the terminal is rebooted and you see Linux loading instead of Windows. Micros and Squirrel are the two most recent vendors, where I have worked and of the 3 restaurants, only one had one XP embedded terminal, all the others were Linux.

Granted, once presented with the actual POS interface, you can't tell if it is Windows or Linux. Just like those bar top systems designed to separate you from your money even faster than a Vegas slot machine.

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