- I recently ran out of storage space. I found out that the easiest way to deal with it (without deleting files) is to transcode video to audio only format. I built a script to deal with this problem since it's not as easy as it sounds. If you're interested I saved about 200GB in about 2-3 hours of processing. Download the script here:
- description as follows:
# Due to jittery network connections I often prefer to download rather
# then stream multimedia live from the Internet.
#
# Recently, I discovered that I ran out of storage space though.
# Obviously, I thought about deleting material but thought that an easier
# way to deal with it was to retranscode video to pure audio files.
#
# Obviously, you can save gigabytes in several minutes using this technique.
# In fact, I saved about 1GB per minute but it can be slow going if you have
# a large number of files. Run it overnight, regularly via a cron job (or
# something similar), or in the background if that's the case.
#
# If you're wondering it's not as easy as it sounds. You need to change
# parameters from time to time. Hence, the size of this script.
#
# One bonus side effect of switching to m4a format is that it's supported
# by a lot of music players and smartphones out there.
#
# As this is the very first version of the program it may be VERY buggy.
# Please test prior to deployment in a production environment.
#
- the above script has better context if you factor in the following:
http://dtbnguyen.blogspot.com/2018/01/net-neutrality-or-googleyoutube.html
http://dtbnguyen.blogspot.com/2017/04/youtube-news-downloader-script-music.html
http://dtbnguyen.blogspot.com/2018/01/net-neutrality-or-googleyoutube.html
http://dtbnguyen.blogspot.com/2017/04/youtube-news-downloader-script-music.html
Random Stuff:
- as usual thanks to all of the individuals and groups who purchase and use my goods and services
- latest in science and technology
https://www.itwire.com/security/84704-facebook-flaws-may-have-let-information-of-50m-users-leak.html
- latest in finance and politics
- latest in defense and intelligence
Random Quotes:
- MOSCOW, September 21. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin has sent a telegram to General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam Nguyen Phu Tr·ng, offering condolences over the death of Vietnam’s President Tran Dai Quang, the Kremlin press service reported.
"Putin stressed that by his service as head of state, as well at other positions of trust, Tran Dai Quang earned due respect among his countrymen and prominent global stature, and did a lot to consolidate the country’s national security to protect Vietnam’s interests on the global stage," the report says. The head of state also lauded Tran Dai Quang’s personal contribution to cultivating the comprehensive strategic partnership between Russia and Vietnam and bilateral cooperation in various spheres.
"The Russian president noted that he repeatedly met with Tran Dai Quang," the telegram says. "His political wisdom and shrewdness and the ability to understand the core of the most complicated things which drew the most sincere respect."
- So, what exactly is the U.S. grand strategy with regard to Russia?
What might be called the McCain wing of the Republican Party has sought to bring Ukraine and Georgia into NATO, which would make the containment of Russia America’s policy in perpetuity.
Are the American people aware of the costs and risks inherent in such a policy? What are the prospects of Russia yielding always to U.S. demands? And are we not today stretched awfully thin?
Our share of the global economy is much shrunken from Reagan’s time.
Our deficit is approaching $1 trillion.
Our debt is surging toward 100 percent of GDP.
Entitlements are consuming our national wealth.
We are committed to containing the two other greatest powers, Russia and China.
We are tied down militarily in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Yemen, with the War Party beating the drums for another and larger war — with Iran.
And we are sanctioning adversaries and allies for not following our leadership of the West and the world.
In looking at America’s global commitments, greatly expanded since our Cold War victory, one word come to mind: unsustainable.
- (CNN) -- Google made headlines when it went public with the fact that Chinese hackers had penetrated some of its services, such as Gmail, in a politically motivated attempt at intelligence gathering. The news here isn't that Chinese hackers engage in these activities or that their attempts are technically sophisticated -- we knew that already -- it's that the U.S. government inadvertently aided the hackers.
In order to comply with government search warrants on user data, Google created a backdoor access system into Gmail accounts. This feature is what the Chinese hackers exploited to gain access.
Google's system isn't unique. Democratic governments around the world -- in Sweden, Canada and the UK, for example -- are rushing to pass laws giving their police new powers of Internet surveillance, in many cases requiring communications system providers to redesign products and services they sell.
Many are also passing data retention laws, forcing companies to retain information on their customers. In the U.S., the 1994 Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act required phone companies to facilitate FBI eavesdropping, and since 2001, the National Security Agency has built substantial eavesdropping systems with the help of those phone companies.
Systems like these invite misuse: criminal appropriation, government abuse and stretching by everyone possible to apply to situations that are applicable only by the most tortuous logic. The FBI illegally wiretapped the phones of Americans, often falsely invoking terrorism emergencies, 3,500 times between 2002 and 2006 without a warrant. Internet surveillance and control will be no different.
Official misuses are bad enough, but it's the unofficial uses that worry me more. Any surveillance and control system must itself be secured. An infrastructure conducive to surveillance and control invites surveillance and control, both by the people you expect and by the people you don't.
- We’re learning that people would prefer an authentic dickhead versus someone who is perceived inauthentic and controlled by shadowy vested interests that haven’t worked for the majority.”
- The Opposition’s shadow communications minister Michelle Rowland, together with shadow attorney-general Mark Dreyfus, and shadow human services minister Ed Husic, issued a statement that was basically a rap on the knuckles of the Government, admonishing them for rushing through the legislation.
“We saw what a mess the Liberals made with their half-baked metadata proposal and attempting to rush the encryption Bill in a similar way would be reckless.”
Indeed. What the statement did not say, however, was that the Labor “Opposition” ended up supporting that “half-baked metadata proposal” and thus was equally culpable in enabling that draconian piece of privacy destroying legislation to become law.
When pressed about the current bill before Parliament, the Labor Opposition has refused to rule out supporting it, indicating that it intends to once again act as a rubber stamp and thwart the will of the people.
So what we have now is a Government hell bent on pursuing a wildly unpopular policy at the behest of local and foreign spy and law enforcement agencies within the five-eyes community of the US, UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand. And we have a weak-kneed Opposition equally beholden to those very same forces.
What the Government and Opposition seem to have forgotten is that their charter is to enact the will of the Australian people. They are supposed to work for us. They were not vested with power to do the bidding of local and foreign intelligence agencies.
In the case of the Labor Opposition, this perhaps their last real chance to prove that they are a real opposition force in the Australian Parliament by helping to quash this deeply flawed piece of legislation. However, judging by their past actions, one can forgiven for not holding out much hope.
- The other day I awoke to find that after months of constant nagging my phone had managed to slip under my guard and upgrade my operating system. I noticed that along with the new software I now had Apple Pay and thus would be able to use my phone in lieu of my credit/debit card.
This I realised was yet another peg in the road that leads to the end game – total dependency on our smartphone. We will no longer need, cash, cards, cars, wallets, passports or keys to our home because everything will be accessible from our phone. It sounds wonderful because my benevolent government will never lose track of me, or my personal data – even if I turn my phone off.
There are now very few people in first and second world countries that do not own a smartphone and who do not carry it with them at all times. With the current pace of development – and with 5G around the corner - all of the scenarios described in the preceding paragraphs, as well as a large basket of technologies not even touched upon, will be in force before this decade is out.
Finally, some words of wisdom from long-time anti-smartphones campaigner and American actor Denzel Washington: “If you don’t think you’re addicted, see if you can turn it off for a week.”
- Polling conducted this year by Griffith University and Transparency International Australia found that 85 per cent of respondents believe at least some federal Members of Parliament are corrupt. This is up 9 points just since 2016. It includes 18 per cent who believe most or all federal politicians are corrupt.
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Fully 62 per cent of respondents believe officials or politicians use their positions to benefit themselves or their family, while 56 per cent believe officials or politicians favour businesses and individuals in return for political donations or support.
I can’t prove it, but I doubt it’s nearly that bad. Cases of money in paper bags changing hands would be few and far between. Such personal corruption as exists would usually be more subtle: hospitality in corporate boxes at sporting events and sponsored international travel.
Plus the risk that senior politicians and bureaucrats go easy on interest groups in the hope that, when they retire or leave the parliament, those groups will show their gratitude by giving them a cushy job.
But it’s institutional, not personal, corruption that’s the bigger problem. Businesses, unions and others give money to political parties in the hope of gaining access to decision makers and influence over their decisions.
- Former United Nations secretary general Ban Ki-moon has denounced the United States’ healthcare system as being “unethical”, “unfair” and outright “wrong."
The South Korean politician said, “Nobody would imagine that there should be so many people – 30 million people – who would be left behind” in America.
In an exclusive interview with the Guardian newspaper published on Tuesday, he insisted that not providing healthcare, especially in a rich countries like the US, was “unethical” and “politically wrong, morally wrong”.
Ban, who said as secretary general he had pledged to make the world a better place for all, highlighted the importance of universal health coverage.
He said it was still his duty and part of his work with The Elders -- a group founded by Nelson Mandela -- to tackle world problems, to address the issue of inadequate universal health coverage.
“Nobody would understand why almost 30 million [American] people are not covered by insurance,” he noted.
The US lags behind almost a dozen other countries on measures of affordability, access, health outcomes, and equality between the rich and poor, according to a recent study.
Since US President Donald Trump came to power, an additional 4 million people have lost health coverage, according to the Commonwealth Fund.
“This is for the people. Leaders are elected because they vowed that they would work for the people,” said Ban. “They are abandoning people because they are poor, then these poor people cannot find a proper medical support.”
“It’s not easy to understand why such a country like the United States, the most resourceful and richest country in the world, does not introduce universal health coverage,” he said.
Ban accused the “powerful” corporations of having prevented the US from moving towards universal healthcare.
Despite huge spending on health, millions in the US live entirely outside the health system.
Many poor Americans are uninsured and unable to go to pursue medical treatment for ailments, according to reports.
