May 2013 - luv-talk - example.com

Demuxing an MPEG TS from a USB PVR where the TS is prefixed with invalid data
by Anthony Hogan 16 Jun '13

16 Jun '13

Hi all, I have a TV which has a built in USB record feature (which basically dumps DVB-T MPEG TS in 2GB chunks). I'd like to pull the audio track out of something I recorded. VLC happily plays the file and identifies the video, audio and EPG info in the transport stream, but if, for example, I run: avconv -i ... -acodec copy audio.mp3 ... I end up with about 2 seconds of silence. It seems there's a couple of dummy streams and also that the overall file is prefixed with what looks like null garbage. I know that if vlc can play it, there's gotta be a way of extracting it, but must admit that I haven't had any luck thus far. Any ideas on recommended tools for stubborn MPEG TS demuxing? Anthony

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Victorian Liberals want to privatise ABC and SBS
by Petros 12 Jun '13

12 Jun '13

Hi all, This morning I thought it was a joke (I listened to PBS FM and they have the radio festival to attract subscribers - so they want to make up how important they are). Well, the Victorian Liberals really wants to discuss it this weekend: http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/political-news/state-liberals-propose-priv… The Victorian Liberal Party's state conference this weekend will vote on a motion urging the federal Coalition to make a full-scale ''operational review'' of the ABC and SBS to ''look at the feasibility of partial or full privatisation of both''. I sent my comment to the State Liberals: Well, okay, who needs movies from the rest of the world, news of a world beyond Broadmeadows, programs that are not fit-in between ads, programs that can inspire thinking, intelligent programs about science or history, something kids can watch without getting bombed with ten ads per minutes? Keep your hands off ABC and SBS - the only TV stations worth watching here! Maybe you would like to do the same? I think they get crazier here by the day! http://vic.liberal.org.au/#Contact Regards Peter

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Re: [luv-talk] Fwd: Victorian Liberals want to privatise ABC and SBS
by Petros 08 Jun '13

08 Jun '13

Quoting "Peter Ross" <petros(a)fdrive.com.au>: > In spite of > this Cuba is competing well with the US and I think we should look carefully > at their example for ideas that are worth copying. Well, compare it with Haiti which had similar starting points in the late 50ies. I lived with a "Cuba-style" health care system in Communist East Germany, and it worked quite well. I never had to deal with any "where to go/how to spend money/where to claim/what can I afford" problems I am having now. When I was ill I went to a hospital which had all needed facilities under one roof. I saw a specialist in less than hour. My first "Western" experience after unification was an Odyssey of errors. It took three days until I saw an orthopedian to see what was wrong with my knee. I worked in West Berlin and had my flat in the East - the accident happened at work so I was treated (and not even properly diagnosed) in the West. The proper treatment happened after I was released there and still had problems and went to the doctor in the former Communist East - two hours later I had an operation in the hospital in the East. The teeth of the Big Issue seller in Clifton Hill are absolutely rotten, he has frequent toothaches and cannot afford to go to the dentist. He saves for a trip to Malaysia to get it fixed.. BTW: I read once that in old China the doctor was paid money when the patient was healthy (not when he was sick).. Sounds like a good idea in principle but I don't know whether it would be feasible to implement in modern society. Regards Peter

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Re: [luv-talk] Victorian Liberals want to privatise ABC and SBS
by Petros 08 Jun '13

08 Jun '13

Quoting "Craig Sanders" <cas(a)taz.net.au> > profit is an inherent inefficiency, one that is acceptable for many > things (especially where there is significant *real* competition to > offset that ineffeciency or for luxuries and frivolous things), but is > completely unacceptable for either natural monopolies (like water, gas, > electricity, and wired telecommmunications supply) or essential services > like public transport (also a natural monopoly) and hospitals. Everybody who worked for a consultancy knows that you are having two masters to please, the customer and the employer. Similar things happen in every privatised business serving public interests. E.g. Metro: They get money if they are punctual. So they run late trains as express now - and I have to wait for another train that serves my station (so instead of late I'm later). That is not in the customer's, the public interest but in Metro's. There are many examples, e.g. toll ways that get tweaked during the planning process to increase profit (improving traffic flows comes second) and others. BTW: I lived in Hanover. They built innercity freeways in the 60/70ies - and knocked them down 30 years later. They realised that innercity freeways don't improve traffic. Berlin, after unification, did not build many free-ways - they renovated, expanded and unified the railways. As a result you do not hurry to a railway station fearing to miss a train - you know that the next train comes in three or four minutes. If I miss my train here, I have to wait 20 minutes. and the train from Macauley station to Southern Cross (two stops, less than 5 km) takes usually more than 10, most times up to 20 minutes, parking before reaching North Melbourne and then at Southern Cross again, giving me 5 or 10 minutes to marvel at the Etihad Stadium (Not that I would be faster by car, there are already two level-crossings in Kensington less than a km apart..) Nope, we do not need any better ways to get the trains from North and West into town. We don't need the railway tunnel. Just dig up the Royal Park instead, for another congested freeway to get stuck in. And the world is flat. So far my "lefties' bias". Wondering why it is actually anything is "left" about thinking about solving infrastructure problems. Or learning from other places. This ostrich-like head in the sand attitude of the Liberals cannot be in their genes. AFAIK Liberal governments were around before, and Australia is a well developed place. I think this "left" vs. "right" is just intellectual laziness. Regards Peter

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Re: [luv-talk] Victorian Liberals want to privatise ABC and SBS
by Tim Josling 08 Jun '13

08 Jun '13

This discussion would be good fodder for a case study in logically invalid arguments. E.g. Labelling: that argument is "extreme" Meaningless assertions with no evidence: the ABC is "right wing". Ad hominem: "Is there no woman at all who you care about?" http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/Lookup/by+Subject/4125.0~Jan+2012~M… Market failures exist. The market does not capture all the relevant costs and benefits. Externalities, imperfect information, information asymmetries, short termism, agency problems, oligopolies. Government failures also exist: Capture by powerful interest groups, capture by the staff of the agencies, weakening of incentives to be efficient, the rule of power hungry liars. Both are subject to the problems of fending off parastitism. The worst is what we often end up with: crony capitalism which seems to combine the worst of both worlds. The ABC is a hard problem. I personally listen almost exclusively to the ABC (Radio National in the car, Classic FM at home). I prefer intelligent "lefties" (eg Phillp Adams) and diluted classical music to full-on populism, but the ABC is going down market at a terrific pace. At present trends it will not be worth preserving within a generation. Tim

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conspiracy theories
by Russell Coker 31 May '13

31 May '13

http://www.verifiedfacts.org/ Interesting site about conspiracy theories. I wonder how many people believe the theories it publishes. -- My Main Blog http://etbe.coker.com.au/ My Documents Blog http://doc.coker.com.au/

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Phone cables wanted
by Russell Coker 31 May '13

31 May '13

If you have any spare phone cables (usb for Android phones, iPhone 4 or 5) then please donate them to the hardware library. Lots of chargers come bundled with both iPhone and Android cables so there should be a lot of unused cables gathering dust. I know someone who needs a few iPhone cables and I'm sure that we have luv members who need android cables. -- My blog http://etbe.coker.com.au Sent from a Galaxy S3 Android phone with K-9 Mail.

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ADSL modem for long line?
by Tony Langdon 30 May '13

30 May '13

Been having a bit of fun and games with ADSL since moving house. Have had the issue checked out, and other than some extra unused wiring in the house, which the Telstra tech disconnected, there are no known issues on the line. The Telstra tech's test unit can sync at nearly 4Mbps, and a Bigpond router (not sure what brand these are) will sync at 4.2 Mbps. However, I haven't had so much luck. A loan Netcomm router from Internode was able to hold just under 3 Mbps, which was acceptable, however, that has since been returned. According to Internode, the line is 4.6km long, and I can expect 3-4 Mbps. What I'm looking for is a router that is known to work well on long lines. Doesn't need to be anything fancy, I will most likely put it into bridge mode and put the existing router behind it (which will give me VoIP, IPv6, etc). Just need something that can hold sync at a reasonable throughput on a long line. -- 73 de Tony VK3JED http://vkradio.com

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Re: [luv-talk] Victorian Liberals want to privatise ABC and SBS
by Pidgorny, Slav (GEUS) 27 May '13

27 May '13

Not really. Heavy drinking is a big problem in Ukraine (especially the East) and Russia. Was your trip after August 1998? That's when financial crisis hit, was quite depressive time even by our quite low standards. -----Original Message----- From: luv-talk-bounces(a)lists.luv.asn.au [mailto:luv-talk-bounces@lists.luv.asn.au] On Behalf Of Petros Sent: Monday, 27 May 2013 3:42 PM To: luv-talk(a)luv.asn.au Subject: Re: [luv-talk] Victorian Liberals want to privatise ABC and SBS P.S. I could not help but feel I have written something stereotyping and sounding bad. Sorry Peter (The German insensitive one) "If they were going to be like that, then I just wished they hadn't actually been German. It was too easy. Too obvious. It was like coming across an Irishman who actually was stupid, a mother-in-law who actually was fat, or an American businessman who actually did have a middle initial and smoked a cigar. You feel as if you are unwillingly performing in a music-hall sketch and wishing you could rewrite the script. If Helmut and Kurt had been Brazilian or Chinese or Latvian or anything else at all, they could then have behaved in exactly the same way and it would have been surprising and intriguing and, more to the point from my perspective, much easier to write about. Writers should not be in the business of propping up stereotypes. I wondered what to do about it, decided that they could simply be Latvians if I wanted, and then at last drifted off peacefully to worrying about my boots." ― Douglas Adams, Last Chance to See _______________________________________________ luv-talk mailing list luv-talk(a)lists.luv.asn.au http://lists.luv.asn.au/listinfo/luv-talk "This e-mail and any attachments to it (the "Communication") is, unless otherwise stated, confidential, may contain copyright material and is for the use only of the intended recipient. If you receive the Communication in error, please notify the sender immediately by return e-mail, delete the Communication and the return e-mail, and do not read, copy, retransmit or otherwise deal with it. Any views expressed in the Communication are those of the individual sender only, unless expressly stated to be those of Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited ABN 11 005 357 522, or any of its related entities including ANZ Bank New Zealand Limited (together "ANZ"). ANZ does not accept liability in connection with the integrity of or errors in the Communication, computer virus, data corruption, interference or delay arising from or in respect of the Communication."

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Re: [luv-talk] Victorian Liberals want to privatise ABC and SBS
by Petros 27 May '13

27 May '13

From: "Slav Pidgorny (GEUS)" <slav.pidgorny(a)anz.com> > It's a bit too simplistic to equate Soviet Union to Russia. Georgia was > also a part of USSR and now is #65 in the world. And they have been > through wars and occupation. Yep, that's true. It is also fair to say that there is a gap between the Russian empire and Germany even before communism came (you shared your experience in the Soviet Union after I mentioned mine in East Germany). Russia had an urbanisation of 14.8% in 1915 http://www.iisg.nl/publications/respap44.pdf in Germany it was more than 60% in 1910. http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hochindustrialisierung_in_Deutschland (sorry, it is German but believe my translation of "Im Jahr 1910 lebten nur noch 40% in Gemeinden mit weniger als 2000 Einwohnern" - in 1910 less than 40% lived outside towns with 2000 people or more) 1998, last time when I travelled through the former Soviet Union, mostly by train (Russia, Ukraine, Kazakstan, Uzbekistan), I saw countries very poor compared to East Germany before 1989. Your sad experience do not surprise me but I am not sure how much they have to do with communism. What I noticed was a difference in attitude in the former Soviet Union. Russia and Ukraine was very sad to see, with people drunk already in the morning (even hotel porters in "good" hotels) and a lot of "there is no hope" ("Why are you here? I leave as quickly as I can", I heard many times) while in Central Asia people seemed to be more upbeat (even if not really better off in materialistic values - and Uzbek democracy isn't invented yet..) I wouldn't be surprised if Alcoholism plays a major part in bringing down Russian life expectancy. Regards Peter

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