gt : Mele Kalikimaka

user : Hauoli Makahiki Hou

I find many people’s views regarding race to be generally very narrow.  Among the developed countries, Americans tend to have the highest levels of ignorance of foreign cultures coupled with a lack of curiosity and disinterest in learning about other cultures.   I read somewhere that most American high school seniors have difficulty finding Iraq on the world map.

David J. Keeling wrote in Global Ignorance – Geographic Illiteracy, Western Kentucky University 2/2003 : “Although most Americans are more aware today of distant lands such as Afghanistan, Iraq, North Korea and Venezuela due to recent media reports on political and economic crises in these countries, few have the ability to find these places on a world map or to discuss critically their cultural characteristics. This lack of geographic awareness permeates all segments of our society, from students to presidents, and from ordinary citizens to senators and businesspeople.”

This is the same kind, depth and scope of ignorance which led to America’s catastrophic involvement in the middle east.  I believe that George Bush did not even know the difference between shiite and sunni, much less cared about it, before invading Iraq.

Rather than accepting responsibility to learn about foreign cultures, most gay Americans appear to be quite bigoted about other gays of different nationalities, quite a poor mark for a subclass of people who themselves demand to be treated more equally by the straights in society.

Obama’s choice of Rick Warren of Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, California, to deliver the  invocation at Obama’s inauguration is a poor one.  And made so early in his term.  This does not bode well for LGBT rights issues, at least as regards support from this Administration.

Add :

Shelter
Trick
Mysterious Skin

@raphjd:

[Obama] has repeatedly said that his religious beliefs won't allow him to support gay marriage.

My belief is that Obama would like to support gay marriage (he is far too intelligent - editor of Harvard Law Review and note his roster of cabinet members and staff - to be too beholden to conservative religious beliefs, and he is from Hawaii, where its State Supreme Court was the first to strike down anti-gay state legislation on constitutional grounds), but he had to get elected with the support of middle America.  And after inauguration, if he is to promote any real change (even if it is on non-gay issues), then he has to govern through the middle.

Bill Clinton tried to make that kind of change in the US military soon after his election, but was shot down and had to settle for Don't Ask, Don't Tell.  He had difficulty getting things done after that, having alienated the middle.

Obama will not make that same mistake.

Regarding the DX50 codec (DivX 5/6) and the Xvid 1.1.2/3 codec used in converting the vob file to an avi container, there is a difference.  In videos shot using high definition cameras, such as the recent ones from Falcon, Bel Ami and RSS, there is sufficient video information within the standard definition format to confirm a visible difference.

In brightly lit, high contrast scenes, the better codec to use is the DX50.  DX50 maintains the sharp, snappy look, keeping the bright white details and minimal staircase edge artifacts.  Xvid 1.1.2/3 on the other hand, shows glare in the high whites and a greater decrease in the contrast range.  The Xvid codec makes what should be a bright outdoor shot look as if we are seeing it through dark sunglasses.  Surprisingly, the same advantage goes for dark scenes.  I find that DX50 maintains the black level details better than the Xvid 1.1.2/3.

Where Xvid 1.1.2/3 excels are in the mid-tone, indoor scenes with evenly lit, studio lighting.  In those scenes Xvid 1.1.2/3 brings out the creamy, high color-saturated look to skin tones.

Hence, you will see that I used the Xvid codec in Cross Country Part 1; whereas in Cross Country Part 2, where there are high-contrast scenes, particularly in the final bright-sun, on-the-boat scene, I used the Divx codec.

Using speedtest.net, stopping all programs and pausing all torrents :

DL : 281.3 kBps
UL : 60.7 kBps

My actual average speeds are

DL : 200-280 kBps approx, varying throughout the day
UL : 75-80 kBps approx steady throughout the day

I have not seen a thread in which Uploaders can voice their opinions about video quality vs file size.  The new rationator rules force me to discover some information as to the kinds of software available for efficient file conversions.

(And for the Leechers who download full-length videos, what are your preferences as to the optimal file size(s) for each video hour.  Do you watch on 15" screens or larger?  What are your preferences for sound quality, MP3 over AC3? Do you care?)

For the Uploaders, what program(s) do you use to convert full-length videos?  What are the advantages and disadvantages?

If you do care to post, let’s have some information:

Program          Min System Req              Supported Input Files                         Supported Output Files

Codec(s) used          Conversion time(s) per original video hour             Freeware or Payware

Output video quality : Resolution (sharpness)
        Color saturation
        Color balance (accuracy)
        Contrast range
        Black level
        Pixelation
        Blocking
        Staircase (edge) artifacts
        Judder artifacts (stutter)
        Panning artifacts

Output Audio quality Frequency range
        Dynamic range

I know, most of you don’t care, and will say “I know video quality when I see it,” just like (male) porn.  Most of you will also say, “What are you cra*y?  I actually have a life.”

But since so much effort is being put into this stuff, let's do some analytical survey.  And you can alert us of any new developments, too - like high definition conversions.

@geekguy:

I will leave it to others more knowledgeable about torrents to confirm the stuff in your post.

So reducing download speed becomes factor only once a full copy of the original file has been seeded.  correct?

No, reducing the download speed is important, if the downloading does not take place linearly - for example, I download parts of the beginning of the file from one seeder and the last parts of the file from someone else, both taking place simultaneously.

When I started this thread, I thought it would be simple, but the more I thought about it and wrote, the more I realized how complicated it is, because we need to know how the system of leeching and seeding works.

This is where Administration steps in, to tell us how the seeding and leeching processes actually work, or point us in the right direction where we can find out.

Thanks for the welcome.

B.  Let’s now break the caveat and assume that UL seeds the beginning of the file to PS and the ending of the file to AJ.  Both PS and AJ have the same download rate.

PS now has the choice of downloading from either UL or AJ or both.
AJ now has the choice of downloading from either UL or PS or both.

If PS has a seeding rate of 1MB/s over AJ’s rate of 25 kb/s, then potentially AJ will have downloaded from PS for a 1MB/s / 100 kb/s = a 10:1 ratio from PS:UL, all other things being equal, by the end of the download.
PS will have downloaded from AJ for a 25 kb/s / 100 kb/s = a 1:4 ratio from AJ:UL.

In this scenario, the bottom line very much depends on the download rate of PS, the ability of PS to acquire as much file data as possible in the quickest time possible, in order to realize the potential of his seeding rate.

In the GT real world, so long as there are leechers and enough of them, PS will eventually reach his seeding potential.

The conclusion would be that PS can add fairness to the AJs by reducing his downloading speed as well as by reducing his seeding speed.