In the News

Fibre-optic networks vulnerable to hacking

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Once a successful tap has been achieved, … sniffers, can capture the data.

Read the entire article: Fibre-optic networks vulnerable to hacking | IT PRO – By Asavin Wattanajantra, 3 Aug 2009 at 15:33

“Organisations in the financial, insurance, healthcare, and government sectors deliver sensitive information across fibre-optic cables…

“Hence, capturing or eavesdropping on this data serves not only military purposes. …

The report also includes some past incidents of optical fibre networks being hacked, …

Fouchereau said that as it was impossible to monitor the entire optical fibre network, …

In the News

SSL-BlackHat Hacked-‘Urgent’

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From an article in IT PRO: Black Hat: It wasn’t just the iPhone that got hacked… | IT PRO – By Asavin Wattanajantra, 3 Aug 2009 at 13:16

This was courtesy of vulnerabilities in SSL, allowing somebody to intercept traffic with what Marlinspike called a null-termination certificate.

Matt Hampton, chief technological officer at Imerja, said: “It’s not just something that can happen with a web browser. Something else needs to have been done beforehand.

He added: “Either a virus or malware has been downloaded on a [targeted user’s] machine that has changed the configuration, so the named servers have been changed.”

This could mean that a targeted user is pointed to a server where the attacker has created fake web pages, which could come from a location as far away as China or Russia.

“Currently if a user clicked on that link they would get a warning, because the browser doesn’t trust the certificate,” he added.

“If [the attacker] has managed to install a null-termination certificate, they won’t get the warning. It’s going to hide the fact that things have been changed.”

This could allow attackers to steal passwords or create fake online banking sites where they could steal credit card details.

Firefox 3.5 is currently protected against the attack, but not earlier versions. Chrome and IE8 are not.

The conference also revealed a hacking attack by researcher Dino Dai Zovi that could allow criminals to take control of Apple computers and steal scrambled data.

There was also a detailed report on Russian cybercrime, with a claim that Eastern European mobsters are justifying their crimes by hiding it behind extreme nationalism and anti-western sentiment.

There was even a presentation on lockpicking forensics, as interest in physical security has become an extension of the growing number of people interested in computer security.

The hacker community is thriving, and another hacker convention in the Defcon conference is currently taking place in Las Vegas.

Reports revealed that somebody tried to hit Defcon attendees this week with a fake ATM placed in the Rivera hotel, which is playing host to the annual event.

It was apparently recording the card details and PIN on anybody trying to use it, but the criminals involved probably didn’t bank on it ending up centre stage of a hacker-focused security event.

The entire article is at: Black Hat: It wasn’t just the iPhone that got hacked… | IT PRO

Tangential Art and Science

Eating High Levels Of Fructose Impairs Memory In Rats

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Fructose, unlike another sugar, glucose, is processed almost solely by the liver, and produces an excessive amount of triglycerides — fat which get into the bloodstream. Triglycerides can interfere with insulin signaling in the brain, which plays a major role in brain cell survival and plasticity, or the ability for the brain to change based on new experiences.

Results were similar in adolescent rats, …

Parent’s lab works … to examine how diet influences brain function.

…has been increasing steadily. High intake of fructose is associated with numerous health problems, including insulin insensitivity, type II diabetes, obesity and cardiovascular disease.

“The bottom line is that we were meant to have an apple a day as our source of fructose,” …

Exercise is a next step in ongoing research, …

Read the entire story at: Eating High Levels Of Fructose Impairs Memory In Rats

Connectivity

It’s an Analog World by Design – Adrian Nastase

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  For example, we can only hear signals within a very small portion of frequencies from about 12 Hz to 20000 Hz, out of a very large number of frequencies in the Universe.  We call this band of frequencies sound.  We can only see signals with wavelengths from 380 nm to 740 nm and this spectrum spread we call light.  We are limited in our perception, but these sensors are good enough for us.  For the rest of the signals, we build electronic equipment to enhance our sensors.

From an article on the Mastering Electronics Design
Read the entire article: It’s an Analog World by Design by Adrian S. Nastase
Edited beyond Fair Use…so click on the link to read the full article

The signals we receive from Mother Nature are continuous.  We don’t hear any discontinuity or choppiness in the sounds of ocean waves or bird songs and this is what makes the world analog.  From our point of view, with the sensors we have, we interact with our world continuously.  The signals have amplitude that can vary in time and are composed of a complex of frequencies.

So how is Analog defined?  Merriam-Webster dictionary reads that analog is “of, relating to, or being a mechanism in which data is represented by continuously variable physical quantities.”  The word comes from the ancient Latin, analogus, or Greek, analogos, meaning proportional.  The term was adopted most likely due to the fact that the continuous signal we perceive is proportional to another continuous signal;  or …

No matter the reason for which the word analog was associated with continuous electrical signals, the analog domain and the analog design are here to stay because we live in a continuous world as we perceive it.  The interface between our world and our instruments and electrical equipment has to be analog. …

We need to amplify and filter the signals we capture … in analog domain and the circuits we achieve these operands and tasks with, are called Analog Signal Processing.

Analog signals and analog processing have their own limitations and that is why we digitize the signals, …

The design of the electronic circuits that manage the analog processing is very subjective.  There are many ways to handle different tasks in the analog domain, …

The design cannot be automated as with the digital circuits.  Sure, there are computer tools like SPICE based programs, which can verify and calculate the analog design, but the schematics have to be created by a human being in the first place.  Maybe that is why we have so many computer tools to automatically create digital circuits, while the analog tools are still to be invented.  Human creativity is difficult to be automated.  Maybe a distant future, when artificial intelligence will approach creativity, might be able to automatically create analog circuits.  But, will it? 

Read the entire article: It’s an Analog World by Design by Adrian S. Nastase 

Cameras

Holly Shorts Winner Gets Red; Hayden Fun

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The festival kicks off with an Aug. 6 opening night celebration at Hollywood’s Directors Guild of America Theatre with a special award showcase of three shorts shot by acclaimed cinematographer Darren Lee and directed by Demi Moore, Kirsten Dunst and Carter Smith.

Opening night also will mark the special presentation of the HollyShorts and Haydenfilms Indie Film Visionary Award to Eli Roth.

Other high-profile shorts screening during opening night event include “Kidnapping Caitlynn,” a short film starring Jason Biggs (“American Pie”), Julie Benz (“Dexter”) and David Prior’s thriller “AM1200.” Royalty Rope Events, Inc presents the evening.

The Haydenfilms online ceremony on Aug. 7 will feature for the first U.S. screening of Roth’s special director’s cut of “Cabin Fever.”

HollyShorts co-founders Theo Dumont and Daniel Sol said they are both very excited about this year’s event and the expanded role being played by Haydenfilms. “Initially we had no idea the festival would get so much attention,” explained Sol. “However, now it annually brings attention and awareness to some really incredible talent.”

“The goal of Hollyshorts is to create a community,” added Sol. “We’re bringing together a variety of people involved in the film industry in a way where they can benefit each other.”

Said, Dumont, “One of the most endearing qualities of the festival is its strong attempt to draw in not only professional and more experienced filmmakers, but students as well. It is amazing what artists participating in HollyShorts can create on such small budgets and for no other reason than love of the craft.”

Haydenfilms President Hayden Craddolph said, “Being able to move our annual awards ceremony to HollyShorts and Hollywood is a bold step for us and will give us even more exposure to our finalists, our online festival and our mission to support young and independent filmmakers.”

At the Haydenfilms Awards Ceremony, one of four final films chosen by the public will win the coveted $10,000 grand prize award. The finalists include “Babbage,” “The Brass Teapot,” “Displaced,” and “My Turtle’s Name Is Dudley” representing the United Kingdom and America. Sixteen countries are represented among the 53 semi-finalists and several hundred entries total.

“It is amazing that our festival is attracting independent and student filmmakers from around the world. The quality of our entries continues to grow and cover an even more diverse array of subjects, many that are very topical. Based on the opinion of thousands of voters, our Final Four truly represent filmmaking at its finest and we expect a very close competition to determine our final,” said Craddolph

Here are details about each of the final films:

• “Babbage,” directed by Claire Barker and produced by Trevor Hughes, is a 2008 film from the United Kingdom and a pilot for a feature project. The 15-minute film was inspired by the Victorian inventor Charles Babbage, a man equally famous for inventing the computer and failing to build it. Part historical drama, part fantasy, the film introduces us to those Babbage loved and lost. Babbage’s story is one of inventive genius and failure. ( http://www.frameonframe.co.uk )

• “The Brass Teapot” is directed and produced by Ramaa Mosley. This 23-minute American entry is a tale of Alice and John who buy a teapot and get much more than they bargained for.

• “Displaced” is another U.S. film directed by Klaus Pas and produced by Klaus Pas and Guy Pas. In it, Arnaud runs a famous jazz club in Paris where the displaced gravitate, victims of the global trends that model our society. To the beat of pianist Smokey Sam, they will gather together to witness a cry for hope from Mady, an illegal immigrant from Mali, hiding with his son. It is 30 minutes long.

• “My Turtle’s Name is Dudley” is a narrative short about a young woman named Jade who relives the memory of being molested by her father. It was written, directed, and produced by Johnny Gill. Other producers included: Lajonel Brown, Greg Heller, and Paul Moore. It runs 17 min.

The top prize for this year’s HollyShorts Film Festival grand winner is the revolutionary Red One digital camera and Post/VFX package presented by Clifton Production Services. ( http://www.cliftonpost.com )

The winner will be awarded a RED ONE camera package, a digital cinema camera unrivaled in performance and cost, that includes camera body, camera support, follow focus, matte-box as well as PL mount lenses with a value of up to $5,000. The winner will also receive a POST/VFX prize package with a value of $2,500. Overall equipment value of the prize package is more than $100,000

For tickets, a complete schedule and other information, go to http://www.hollyshorts.com or http://www.haydenfilms.com Tickets and special passes also available at http://www.brownpapertickets.com.

Haydenfilms, founded in 2001, is an independent film production and distribution company. Its mission is to create and foster an online network of independent and student film producers, and to provide the support and resources necessary for filmmakers to succeed. In addition to the Haydenfilms Online Film Festival, the Haydenfilms web site provides industry news, a crew database, production boards and shopping for filmmaking software and equipment.

Haydenfilms Film Festival :: NewsFriday, July 17, 2009

Video Processing

Apple ships new Final Cut Studio with advanced codec support – Ars Technica

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For the full ArsTechnica article (10 more fact filled paragraphs~!): Apple ships new Final Cut Studio with advanced codec support – Ars Technica

Including:

As predicted in rumors earlier this year, the new Final Cut Studio is Intel only. With an introduction just a few months before Snow Leopard is set to ship, though, it seems likely that interim upgrades to take advantage of 64-bit compatibility and advanced performance possible with Snow Leopard will be coming after its introduction. Final Cut Studio is available now for $999, a $300 savings over the previous version. Final Cut Server 1.5 is also available now for $999, which supports unlimited clients. Both applications can be upgraded from previous versions for $299.

Tangential Art and Science

Transparent Aluminum/‘New State Of Matter’

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The physical properties of the matter we are creating are relevant to the conditions inside large planets, and we also hope that by studying it we can gain a greater understanding of what is going on during the creation of ‘miniature stars’ created by high-power laser implosions, which may one day allow the power of nuclear fusion to be harnessed here on Earth.’ [Other than that, it is a great day in toyland.]

Taken from an article in ScienceDaily: Transparent Aluminum Is ‘New State Of Matter’

The discovery was made possible with the development of a new source of radiation that is ten billion times brighter than any synchrotron in the world … [One wonders how bright that is in the SI standard of football fields.]

The Oxford team, along with their international colleagues, focused all this power down into a spot with a diameter less than a twentieth of the width of a human hair. [Ah~! Asked and answered – a football field to a human hair is recognizable at 10-18]

Whilst the invisible effect lasted for only an extremely brief period – an estimated 40 femtoseconds – …

Professor Wark added: ‘What is particularly remarkable about our experiment is that we have turned ordinary aluminium into this exotic new material…

The researchers believe that the new approach is an ideal way to create and study such exotic states of matter…fusion. [Gotta include fusion.]

A report of the research, ‘Turning solid aluminium transparent by intense soft X-ray photoionization’, is published in Nature Physics. The research was carried out by an international team led by Oxford University scientists Professor Justin Wark, Dr Bob Nagler, Dr Gianluca Gregori, William Murphy, Sam Vinko and Thomas Whitcher. Adapted from materials provided by University of Oxford.

Read the entire article at: Transparent Aluminum Is ‘New State Of Matter’

Workflow

Hollywood places biggest 3-D bet yet on ‘Avatar’

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From an

SAN DIEGO — When James Cameron directed his first 3-D film, “Terminator 2: 3-D,” for Universal Studios theme parks more than a decade ago, the bulky camera equipment made some shots awkward or impossible.

The 450-pound contraption — which had two film cameras mounted on a metal frame — was so heavy that producers had to jury-rig construction equipment to lift it off the ground for shots from above. The cameras, slightly set apart, had to be mechanically pointed together at the subject, then locked into place like an unwieldy set of eyes to help create the 3-D effect.

At $60 million, the 12-minute film was the most expensive frame-for-frame production ever.

Now, five months from its release, Cameron’s “Avatar,” the first feature film he has directed since “Titanic” (1997), promises to take 3-D cinematography to an unrivaled level, using a more nimble 3-D camera system that he helped invent.

Cameron’s heavily hyped return also marks Hollywood’s biggest bet yet that 3-D can bolster box office returns. … budgeted $237 million for the production alone of “Avatar.”

The movie uses digital 3-D technology, which requires audience members to wear polarized glasses. …

“Avatar” also raises the bar on “performance capture” technology, …

“I’m speechless,” said Nahum Villalobos, a 19-year-old Navy recruit from Vista, Calif., …

The $237 million production is not as expensive as some 2-D fare such as “Spider-Man 3″ (2007)…

Then again, Cameron’s last film grossed $1.84 …

“If you know Jim Cameron, it’s all about pushing the envelope,” said Vince Pace, …

Cameron tweaked his cameras through two 3-D documentaries he made for IMAX theaters,…

His camera rig is now lighter — up to only 50 pounds — …

…

Cameron said he wanted to have the filmmaking techniques fade into the background as the story took over.

There is a lot more to this excellent AP/Christian Science Monitor article: Hollywood places biggest 3-D bet yet on ‘Avatar’ | csmonitor.com

In the News

Civolution Acquires Watermarking Business from Thomson

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Civolution announced on Tuesday that it is acquiring the digital watermarking business from Thomson.  Terms were undisclosed.

This move represents further consolidation in the watermarking market, following Dolby’s shutdown of its Cinea video watermarking division last year.  Civolution itself spun out of Philips Electronics and acquired Teletrax, the video broadcast monitoring business that uses Civolution’s technology, late last year.

With this action, the only major players left in watermarking are Civolution and the Korean vendor MarkAny.  Apart from those two, there are a few players in niche markets, such as Verimatrix (IPTV/digital pay TV), Verance (Blu-ray audio), and USA Video Interactive (Internet video delivery).

This development does not necessarily point to decline in the adoption of watermarking.   First of all, Thomson’s watermarking business was known to be in disarray amid management changes.  Thomson has had some recent success with its NexGuard technology for pre-release content protection (which combines encryption and watermarking), but it has been hard to get management’s attention alongside other Thomson product and service properties such as Grass Valley and Technicolor.  Watermarking is more of an enabling technology, which should fit much better at Civolution.

More importantly, the success of watermarking requires standardization.  As I noted last week, standardization in the “secret sauce” of watermarking algorithms is unlikely, and there have been several vendors, each with their own secret sauce.  Consolidation is a market force that will promote de facto standardization.  For example, Thomson and Philips/Civolution were the two suppliers of watermarking technology for digital cinema; with this deal, there is now only one supplier and thus a de facto standard.

Of course it remains to be seen whether Civolution will integrate its two watermarking technologies or leave them be.  Integration is better for the market insofar as it is feasible.

 

Integrator News

Mobile 3-D, Part II: Music to One’s Eyes? – mobilizedtv

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This is part 2 of a two-part series by Mark Schubin, a multiple Emmy Award-winning SMPTE Fellow who has worked professionally in TV since 1967. You can find it unexerpted at: [Mobile 3-D, Part II: Music to One’s Eyes?]

Read Part 1 here.

The Society of Motion-Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) devoted an entire webcast of its Professional Development Academy (PDA) in June of 2009 to the subject, “Producing Stereoscopic Content: What Makes Great 3-D Great and What Can Go Wrong.” How, for example, can distant scenes be made to look like they’re in 3-D (long distances dilute the effect) without …

As the existence of the SMPTE PDA webcast shows, effort is being devoted to production issues. And, as the appearance of a glasses-free 3-D mobile-phone display at the exhibit of Korea’s Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI) at …

The third category, however, is psychophysical issues–how viewers respond psychologically to the physical stimuli of 3-D imagery. …

The infinity-interpupillary problem is different. When looking at something infinitely distant, eyes point straight ahead, creating parallel views separated…

In 3-D, “infinity” can actually be pretty close. When looking at something at a distance of 120 feet, our eyes each “toe-in” from looking straight …

That’s not too much of an issue for 3-D in a movie theater. The left- and right-eye images of a distant object can be placed 2.5 inches apart. Unfortunately, if that’s done for a 30-foot-wide screen, …

On a 15-foot screen, everything would appear to be too close. On a home TV, the same object would seem really too close. That’s why 3-D TV might not be able to “repurpose” 3-D movies directly…

Perhaps that’s one reason why 3-D TV has yet to take off. The first 3-D TV broadcast was in 1928, and by 1953 Business Week ran the headline …

No one would argue that music adds to the reality of dramatic or comedic programming. We don’t go through life with a band of personal musicians providing a background to our emotional states….

What changed his mind was Bernard Hermann’s music score. It converted what might have been a mere TV episode into a movie classic, …

Could 3-D be similar to movie music? The stereoscopic scene shown on the mobile phone at the ETRI exhibit at NAB 2009 …

Tags: , , , , , ,

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 25th, 2009 at 9:00AM and is filed under Guest Column, Home Feature.

See Part One: Muscles Matter

 

Cameras

ASC: New Officers – Goi President

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“When I became a member of ASC, I was surprised by how open and friendly everyone was. My heroes became my friends who openly shared their knowledge and feelings about filmmaking. There is an unbreakable camaraderie which I treasure.”
Goi says that the current generation of ASC members remains dedicated to the vision of the founders who were devoted to advancing the art and craft of filmmaking.

“We are partnering with the Producers Guild of America (PGA) on a groundbreaking assessment of film and digital cameras that are currently used during the production of theatrical motion pictures,” he says. “We are also collaborating with other organizations, including a previsualization subcommittee with the Art Directors Guild (ADG) and Visual Effects Society (VES), designed to help drive the industry toward a higher quality bar for the art and craft of moving images.”

Goi is a Chicago native who grew up making “little 8 mm movies” with the help of neighborhood kids. He upgraded to using a 16mm Bolex camera by working odd jobs. After graduating from high school, Goi studied filmmaking at Columbia College in Chicago. He began shooting PBS documentaries while he was still in college.

After graduation in 1980, Goi shot local commercials and documentaries and opened a still photography studio, where he concentrated on fashion and product photography. Goi earned his first narrative film credit for Moonstalker in 1987. He received ASC Outstanding Achievement Awards nominations for the telefilms The Fixer (1999) and Judas (2005). Last year, Goi also garnered an Emmy® nomination for an episode of My Name is Earl.

His other credits include Witless Protection, Fingerprints, Red Water, What Matters Most, Who Killed Atlanta’s Children?, Christmas Rush, Funky Monkey, Welcome to Death Row, The Dukes, the Emmy® Award-winning documentary Fired-Up: The Story of Public Housing in Chicago, and the TV series The Wedding Bells and My Name is Earl. He also recently wrote, produced, and directed the narrative film Megan is Missing. Goi is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, as well as the Academy of Television Arts And Sciences.

ASC was founded in 1919 by 15 charter members. In 1934, the organization created an associate membership category for individuals in other sectors of the industry who have made notable contributions to advancing the art and craft of cinematography. There are 310 active members today who have national roots in some 20 countries. There are also 160 associate members.

Taken from the ASC Website at: Michael Goi Named ASC President

CGI

Hubble Commander Altman with Dykstra, Deschanel

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Deschanel, Dykstra at Academy – June 29, 2009

Director of photography Caleb Deschanel, ASC (The Right Stuff), and visual-effects supervisor John Dykstra, ASC (Star Wars), will host “Astronaut as Filmmaker,” a discussion about the close relationship between NASA and motion pictures, on July 14 at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences’ Samuel Goldwyn Theater, 8949 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills, at 8 p.m.

Panelists will include Commander Scott Altman, who recently returned from a mission to the Hubble Space Telescope that he and other astronauts documented with digital and Imax 3-D cameras.

Tickets are $5 and can be purchased online at www.oscars.org or in person at the box office. For more information, call (310) 247-3600

Taken from the ASC Website at: Deschanel, Dykstra at Academy

Cameras

Wexler Medium Cool and Coming Home July 2

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Wexler at Aero Theatre – July 2, 2009       
    
Haskell Wexler, ASC, will be the guest of honor at the American Cinematheque’s Aero Theatre for a double-feature presentation of Medium Cool (1969) and Coming Home (1978) on July 16 at 7:30 p.m.

Wexler wrote, directed and photographed Medium Cool, and he shot Coming Home for director Hal Ashby.

Ticket prices are $10 general admission, $8 for senior citizens and students (with current school ID), and $7 for American Cinematheque members. Tickets are on sale now at www.fandango.com and at the Aero Theatre, 1328 Montana Ave., Santa Monica.

Taken from the notice on the ASC website at: Wexler at Aero Theatre

CGI

3-Strip Technicolor before Black Narcissus

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Designing for 3-Strip Technicolor – July 7, 2009

Director of photography John Hora, ASC, will join visual-effects artist Harrison Ellenshaw and production designer Tom Walsh to discuss “Designing for 3-Strip Technicolor” prior to a screening of Black Narcissus (1947) at the Egyptian Theatre, 6712 Hollywood Blvd., Los Angeles, on July 26 at 5:30 p.m.

The program is a special presentation by the Art Directors Guild. Alfred Junge won an Academy Award for art direction for Black Narcissus, which was his final collaboration with Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. Jack Cardiff, BSC, also won an Academy Award for his work on the picture, which is considered a landmark in color cinematography.

Tickets are $10 for general admission, $8 for senior citizens and students (with current school ID), and $7 for American Cinematheque members. Tickets can be purchased online at www.fandango.com or in person at the box office.

For more information, visit www.americancinematheque.com

To see the original news release, Clik Here: ASC: The American Society of Cinematographers

The Future Holds...

No Badges Sent from IBC

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Great~! The IBC is following the trend of the age. Who picks up big packages of brochures these days?

The common practice is to get something that reminds one of the website of the interesting company, equipment or booth, and look it up when one is back in the office.

Congratulations IBC on implementing another good idea. Just make certain that you don’t do what we have seen so many times recently…the badge prints on a full sized sheet of paper, gets peeled off, and the entire rest of the sheet is thrown away!

…Like Tangents In Rain