http://buttons.blogger.com/bloggerbutton1.gif INFOSEC / Trail-Running / Military / Whatever Else I Choose: 05/01/2005 - 06/01/2005

This is a personal blog for my own satisfaction and for the reference of close friends and family. If you are not one of the three (me/friend/family), there's not much to see here (go away).

31 May 2005

"That's where I saw the Leprechaun. He tells me to burn things!" -Ralph Wiggum

It’s been a couple of weeks since I’ve been able to update things around here, so first comes the bad news. I managed to injure my right Iliotibial Band (what’s commonly called Iliotibial Band Syndrome). It’s extremely painful and debilitating, and takes some time to get over. I’m not going to focus on it because, frankly, it’s depressing to go from averaging around 60 miles per week…to none. I am starting to run again...though very slowly and only on flats. Bagh!

The good news is that I’ve had plenty of down-time to get things done and take on some little projects I’ve wanted to tackle. What I want to talk about today should be valuable to anyone with kids and DVDs (a strange mix, but stay with me).

Anyone with both of the aforementioned will sympathize with the short life expectancy of DVDs when there are small children around. The scratches seem to appear shortly after breaking the seven or eight security seals on the case when arriving home from the store. It didn’t take long before I started looking for a way to convert my DVDs (“my” being mine AND the kids) to a digital format that I can store on hard-disk for playback on any computer in the house. I don’t have much interest in simply copying DVDs to blank, writable DVDs to have backup copies, as I really want them on hard-drive for archival and playback anywhere in the house. I can always burn them back to DVD at some later date if need be. There are several steps involved in “ripping” a DVD.

  1. First is the actual process known as ripping (in its purest sense) which decrypts the DVD contents and copies the raw video, audio, menu and subtitle files to hard-drive. While DVD’s are encrypted to prevent copying, the encryption was broken a LONG time ago and is easily circumvented. While I certainly don’t advocate the illegal copying/duplication of DVDs, I certainly advocate the DVD owners right to create backups…which is the exact and sole reason that I do rip my DVDs.
  2. Once a DVD is ripped, you have to do something with the un-encrypted content. You could burn it to a blank DVD if you want a copy. Since most DVDs are much larger than a typical 4.7GB blank DVD-R, a direct copy isn’t possible. If you’re running a Windows machine and wish to make a copy (and make it on a regular writable DVD), then all you need is DVD Shrink which will handle the entire ripping, rebuilding (shrinking) and writing process. For me, I need to convert the DVD contents to a digital video file format, a process called transcoding. For that, the only real choice is MPEG4 which is an MPEG standard for compressed, high-quality digital video files. DO NOT go with Windows Media Video (WMV) or other proprietary file formats. In the MPEG4 world, there are several sub-standards available, but more about that later.

The two steps outlined above are best done using a “1-Step” solution. While there are numerous high-quality utilities to handle each step of the process involved, it is just that…involved. Once can spend an eternity tweaking, fiddling and cursing trying to get everything “just so” only to come out with mangled video or audio that is out of sync with video, etc. Until very recently, I have used “Super DVD Ripper” to rip/transcode my DVDs. Not only will Super DVD Ripper turn your DVDs into MPEGs, it can also copy DVDs, convert them to VideoCD, etc. It’s commercial software, but at only $35.95, it’s a bargain. It’s fast, very simple to use and I’ve never had it crash. You should know that no matter what software you use, this is a very resource-intensive process. The more processor power and RAM you have, the less “painfully long” it takes to convert.

Besides the WinTel boxes that I have, I also have a PowerMac G5 that I am quite fond of. For some time I have been looking for a similar “1-Step” tool that runs on OS X, commercial or Open Source wasn’t an issue. The G5 has a very powerful processor for the type of calculations involved in converting digital media, and it pained me to not be able to put it to work. After numerous failed attempts at Google’ing a solution, I finally struck gold the other night. There is an Open Source (i.e. free) tool named HandBrake that does everything I want, and so much more. HandBrake handles both the ripping and transcoding process with amazing speed. Most interesting is the fact that HandBrake will transcode my DVDs to H.264 format. In the past, I’ve always ripped to DIVX/XVID MPEG4 video which provides excellent (though not quite DVD quality) video with CD quality audio. This specifically is known at MPEG4-2. H.264 (or MPEG4-10) is a newer format that was developed around the HD-DVD/BlueRay high-definition DVD standards. H.264 can encode essentially any resolution up to full HD (1080p) at a quarter the bandwidth of MPEG4-2. What that means to me is that when I ripped “The Passion of the Christ” at the highest reasonable quality (imperceptible from the original DVD) the outcome was a file only 900MB in size. That’s PEANUTS! Getting a DVD quality video packed into the small a space is astounding. And remember that the movie I’ve given as an example is quite long (126 minutes) compared to the average 90 minute glurge coming out of Hollywood.

Now, some caveats. First, H.264 takes significantly longer to transcode. On my Mac (a single 1.8GHz with 512MB of RAM), HandBrake can rip to an MPEG4-2 in about 75% of the run-time of the movie. In other words, a two hour movie takes HandBrake about 90 minutes to convert. The same movie going to H.264 will take about twice that long or 150% of the movie’s run-time. This is a small price to pay, in my opinion, for lossless reproductions of my DVDs. Second, playback can be problematic. Why? Let’s use another bullet list:

  1. When you compress a video to that extent, there’s a lot of math involved in decompressing it and playing it back. Don’t plan to watch H.264 encoded videos (high-resolution ones anyway) on a slow computer. Any newer computer should be fine, including laptops, but if you’ve got an old PC laying around that you’re hoping to turn into a video kiosk, you may want to think about purchasing a cheap Dell Dimension or something.
  2. Because H.264 is relatively new, a lot of video players cannot handle it yet. For instance, Windows Media Player can’t play them. No fear, the excellent (and Open Source/free) VideoLan Client plays them quite happily, and is available for just about every platform in existence. On the Mac, QuickTime 7 plays H.264 natively and has the best reproduction quality that I’ve seen anywhere. One note, I’ve seen a lot of haranguing from anti-Mac bigots that H.264 is an Apple standard. This simply isn’t true, as H.264 is an MPEG (Motion Picture Engineering Group) standard and apple has standardized on it for the HD editing and production software and hardware (thus the inclusion in the new version of QuickTime player). Apple will also be releasing QuickTime 7 for Windows in the near future, but for the time being the VideoLAN Client media player is the only free player that I know of (though I’m sure there are others) that can handle H.264 on a Windows machine. I know of no plug-ins for Windows Media Player that allow it to play H.264 other than those that you have to purchase (which I might add is and insane prospect).

Finally and in closing, a couple of notes about HandBrake. First, you can tune your output file to be playback-platform appropriate. If you know you are going to need to playback your files on a slow-poke computer, tune the bit-rate down. I personally use 1000kbps (or 1Mb) which is quite high. I do this because I want top notch quality, and drive space is dirt cheap. I have read that 850kpbs is sufficient for DVD quality and that 250kbps will yield MPEG4-2 quality! Next, if you don’t have a Mac…get one. HandBrake is just that good and Macs are a bargain if you consider not only the hardware you're getting, but also the bundled software (iLife, etc.).

ER

posted by Egon Rinderer at 12:06

09 May 2005

"Ouch, my leg hurts. No, seriously...it really hurts." -Me

It was inevitable that I would eventually incur some sort of minor injury. Saturday morning Carla, the kids and I were supposed to have taken part in the "Heart Walk" to help raise money for the American Heart Associated with my good friend Kim who has a daughter (HI EMILY!!!) with "double inlet single left ventricle with transposition of the great arteries". Unfortunately Kim came down with "strep" and had to cancel, so I changed my plans for Saturday morning to a casual run on the Chubb Trail. I awoke a little before my alarm (0620) Saturday morning and headed out. The day was perfect for a trail run, and the place was packed when I arrived. Judging by the number of cars (and the percentage of those cars with bike racks) there were going to be a lot of cyclists on the trail. As I headed out, a group of 4 took off just after me and passed me on the initial down-hill (1/2 mile steep grade). I've run this trail many a time before and as such I knew that wouldn't be the last I'd see of them. As I ran I enjoyed a brisk but comfortable pace and it wasn't long until I got into some of the rougher sections of trail in the river bottom. I started my "attack". One by one I was picking off the mountain-bikers (all in good fun mind you), making a mental game of it. I chatted with them as I passed, and as they again passed me when we got to flatter areas. At the end of my "out" loop (7 miles of course) I arrived at the far trail-head about 5 minutes prior to the first finisher of the 8 cyclists (two groups of four) that I had passed. In the end, only 3 completed the full out loop. As they arrived, we chatted for a good 15 minutes, leading me to plop down, eat a trail-mix bar and drink some water. The big mistake there was the "plopping down" part as I let my legs get way to cold without stretching them to keep them loose. When we finished talking and headed back into the trail, my legs were very tight. The return trip begins with a long slow couple of miles up-hill. While I wasn't incurring any pain, I was noticing my pace was quite slow, even for an easy day. As I crested the hill I came to the picnic table, or as I've come to think of it, "the alter of salvation". Why such a dramatic term? Simple. In the Old Testament, the believers would build an alter when they had made it through a time of great tribulation or suffering. I am confident that whoever put that table there did so with just such intent. As I passed the table, a few cyclists who had just climbed the back side of the hill were "worshiping" at the alter but I ran on (I've never stopped at it actually as I'm too scared my legs will lock up). As I began my descent (about a 1.5 mile very steep descent on loose limestone shards) I noticed that I wasn't able to control my speed as well as usual. I was coming down hard and much too flat on my feet causing my knees to absorb a great deal of shock. As I ran I started getting a nagging pain on the right side of my left knee. By the time I reached bottom where I'm usually fresh and ready to run the 2 miles or so of flats, I found myself in need of a walk. The longer I walked, the stiffer my knee became.

Fast-forward to today. Interestingly, it's not the front or side of my knee that bothers me; it's the back. From what I've observed and a bit that I've read on it, I believe that the problem has been caused by several factors:
  • This is the same leg in which I got the hamstring "freeze" during the Nashville Marathon.
  • Running the number, grade and frequency of hills that I do, the muscle development in my legs is somewhat "uneven". Looking at my calves for instance, one will observe that my "lower" calf muscles are much more pronounced that the "upper" (or the one most runners normally build to a very large size).
  • I should never have stopped as long as I did at the far trail-head without at least stretching while I was stationary.
  • Finally I must say that Heidi was absolutely correct (not that I didn't believe her). My legs were less stable on the rough terrain of the trails than usual due to the residual fatigue from the marathon the previous Saturday.
So, a hearty hello to my left hamstring...we've never really been formally introduced until now. I'm sure we'll have time to spend to together in the future, but right now I'm quite busy and I'm afraid I cannot allow you to visit your un-holy wrath for too long. In all seriousness, a great deal of information is available that helps in knowing how your leg muscles work (which are responsible for what motion and how to improve their function), how to treat when over-worked (types of exercises, stretching, do's and don'ts), and what we continue to learn (like the revelation that running down-hill is harder on you than running up-hill...DUH!). Anyway, that's it for this weekend. I may post some trail pictures later if I get time.

posted by Egon Rinderer at 04:33

06 May 2005

INFOSEC - Voice over IP concerns.

NIST recently released an 800 series document on voice over IP security that proves and interesting read (all 100 pages). Aside from the normal ration of gobbledygook, there are some important examples of hacks and descriptions of various vulnerabilities. Will I be turning in my VoIP router and going back to my local phone service when I return home today? Nope. But it is interesting to think what could happen. Suppose someone wants to burglarize you, or has set their sites on doing you harm in some way. In the old days they might cut your phone line outside your house so that you couldn't call for help, or so that your alarm system couldn't alert authorities. Shoot, even Vonage (my VoIP provider) is now offering home alarm systems/monitoring over VoIP. Now, rather than take such a low-tech approach as a pair of side-cutters to disable your security and telephone, the potential evil-doer need only launch a DoS attack against your DSL (or cable) modem before leaving their house to head to yours. Oh well, so long as guns are still legal, I'm not losing much sleep.

posted by Egon Rinderer at 07:13

04 May 2005

"My life is a gift to me from my Creator. What I do with my life is my gift back to the Creator." -Billy Mills

My sister Heidi (a runner, marathon finisher and the best doctor I know) advised me to take the week following my first marathon off from running. I followed her advice to a tee, until today when I was going out of my mind. My conclusion? A short trail run was in order. Let me lay out a few facts before garnering the wrath of my physician and running friends out there.
  • I felt very good physically after the marathon.
  • I have had basically no residual soreness post marathon (no more than after any of my long runs). No joint pain. No serious muscle pain. No foot pain (save for one black toe-nail). Blisters are healed. You get the idea.
  • I find that running helps me tremendously when it comes to sleep, stress, mood, etc. Not to overstate it, but I find it therapeutic. When I don't run I don't sleep well, I feel sluggish, etc.
  • My legs felt fantastic, and had that "pent up" quality to them.
  • I had taken a disciplined approach to upping my protein intake, tapering my carbs gradually, so as to allow my body to rebuild post-race.
I began my run easy and slow on the road. It's 1.3 miles from my driveway to the main trail head near my house. While I started my stop-watch when I departed, I paid it no attention during my run. As I ran, my legs really surprised me. They felt inexhaustible (though I certainly didn't test this theory). As I headed into the trails, I made a long (1.2 mile) and steep descent to the base of the first loop and headed on to the bottom (flat) .75 mile loop. Aside from being bored by the flat...I was still feeling quite good. Back to the big loop and up the opposite side I came down I headed into the killer hills with relative comfort. I noticed that while my legs remained strong throughout, my CV performance seemed weaker than usual so I power-walked the steepest part so as not to push things too hard too soon. I don't know if this is a residual effect from the marathon or if it has to do with poor sleep the last couple of nights. At the close of my run (5 1/2 miles in 46 minutes on some wicked hills) I felt fresh; better than when I had left in fact as the cobwebs were gone. Fresh air and the beauty of God's creation does a body good. I love feeling healthy, it is in some strange way reassuring. And while I doubt anyone other than me will bother to read this post, as I told a good friend of mine the other day, I find that I learn a great deal more when I write about even the most trivial experiences of my life. It forces introspection and gives one pause to consider direction.

posted by Egon Rinderer at 20:41