Vapymid

If AVI is not an option anymore then I suggest to go for Matroska (MKV). It is the most advanced container and is open source as well. Those who need MP4 can always download MKV and remux it. Regards

Bad for ya~ Well, maybe it's actually good for me... Regards

Well, Ross seems to have decided to use AVC anyway, so this argument is moot now. But yes, AVIs with XviD are OK with me. If something works I usually see no reason to change things. There is also the issue of diminishing returns - you use ever more intensive process, extra software etc. to gain very little in terms of either bandwidth or quality and have to pay more and more in performance to achieve that. Best is the enemy of good. Regards

Frikkin' hell... I've just looked at the samples Ross put up on the home page. 8mbps for h264 and 15mpbps for XviD!!! You can find these bitrates on commercial BDs. If I knew what budgets Ross had in mind I would not have posted about the puny Vimeo comparison above... But seriously, a) I can't find any visible difference between AVC and XviD samples (no more artifacts in XviD than in AVC). b) While nice, these bitrates are overkill. c) If you cut XviD rate to 8mbps you don't appreciably loose quality (tried with both h263 and MPEG matrices. H263 looks a bit softer, which may be a good thing) while halving the file size. d) Two pass XviD encode to 6mbps VBR still looks quite OK. e) As m1el noticed above, XviD is much CPU-easier to decode than AVC. Regards

I generally agree with the points you make, m1el. However, AVI is still the most supported container because it's natively supported by the DirectX and therefore will be handled by any up-to-date DirectShow based editors or players provided you have the necessary codec installed. That does not apply to h264 in AVI though. Therefore, as far as MPEG4 codecs are concerned it is best to continue to use MPEG4 ASP codecs like XviD or DivX - if you want to use AVI container, that is. Comparing h264 and XviD the issue is not that h264 will retain better than XviD quality at the same (low) bitrate value - that goes without question. What matters is will XviD provide acceptable quality at reasonable bitrate (even though it may be higher than for a h264 encoding of the same quality)? In my experience XviD at 3mbps is good enough to encode 720p machinima. To put things in perspective, sites like Vimeo store h264 videos of the same picture size encoded at 2.5 mbps and that is considered good quality. So, where is the balance? I'd say XviD AVI @3mbps will be more practical than h264 MP4 at 2.5 mbps at the cost of 17% extra size. Regards

This is a valid observation but incomplete. Valid in its admission of importance of hydrocarbons as the source of energy, their finite nature and the non-viability of most "renewable" alternatives for energy generation. However, I've found no mention of nuclear (neither fission nor fusion) which is a viable option. Also, the statement that "We only have one world" is not true. We have at the very least the whole of the Solar system to explore (with several huge tanks of hydrocarbons parked in orbit around the Sun). The conclusion must be that, yes, we have a limited window within which we can find and employ alternatives to locally produced and stored hydrocarbon reserves and the best way to do that is to concentrate on viable alternatives (extraterrestrial and/or non-chemical) and to avoid the wild goose chase for "green" options, which are temptingly available but are in fact useless. Regards

Judging by your avatar, signature and the alias I would suggest that you may simply be generally stressed out and/or depressed. Probably as a result of a failed relationship. Perhaps if you bring your state of mind in order you will find out that you are not so asexual after all... Regards

You are slightly mixed up on relativistic time dilation. The rocket traveling @0.1c will reach Alpha Centauri in about 43 years for an observer on Earth. For the crew on the rocket itself the time will run slower and the trip will feel shorter for them (but @0.1c the difference will be negligible, about 0.5%, if I remember correctly). Yes. Whether plasma or not (i.e. a charged particle or an atom) anything that has mass cannot travel faster than c, according to special relativity, and no known "conventional" way can even theoretically change that. If the new discovery means a new physics (i.e. it's not just a mistake in measurement) - then who knows? But not at speeds higher than c (if the special relativity holds). Regards

Difficult to say. In the past people if not approved then at least were indifferent. It is possible that this is now changing. Regards

Do you mean like getting them posed naked or semi-naked as a promotion? Like that ad campaign for a Russian airline recently (goggle for "avianova maxim"): WARNING: NSFW I don't think it worked even for that airline and I don't think that Ross (with all due respect) will be able to match the line up... Regards

I'll wait until this has been properly peer reviewed and independently confirmed before getting overly excited about it... Regards

This is fund-raising propaganda. Raising funds to finance their lobbying. Lobbying to promote their business interests. To make more money... this time for themselves. There is a legitimate debate about anthropogenic changes to the environment and whether they are ultimately good or bad but, please, don't be deceived by cheap scaremongering, people... Regards

Why do you feel the need to be led by a bad-ass? What's in it for you? Regards

Disagree. But I don't think we will convince each other either ways, so might as well stop trying Agree. Though he may also think there is no other choice... Regards

All I'm saying is that self-sacrifice and minor compromises are two different things. The above example about a disabled woman caring about her sister's children despite her own injury is a case of the former, while giving way to another car on a motorway is clearly the latter. It's impossible to live otherwise - just imagine the streets full of "heroes" with huge sense of entitlement because of the sacrifice they've just made by stopping at the red lights. Others thinking they deserve a medal for not spitting on the pavement? More likely he feels like "How the hell did I get myself into this mess?!" and "All this is because of so and so's FUBAR and now I have to pay for this?". Then he dies. I am being a bit cynical here but that's generally the sense I get from reading memoirs of and interviews with people who happened to be in heroic situations and survived to tell the tale. Most common thread is that they never feel like heroes while they are doing the deed. Sense of duty, resentment, fear, sorrow - but not heroism. Only serious brainwashing like bushido or radical doctrinisation would make people feel elation from the prospects of imminent death or serious injury or loss. Regards

Yeah, but you really set the plank for sacrifice too low. You cannot consider resisting the smallest impulse or desire or accepting minor inconveniences a sacrifice. Call it compromise, balance, whatever but sacrifice? Are you really, really sure about that? Regards

.AVI is the most supported container still. Lack of native support for B-frames is a non-issue as there are ways around it, which are transparent for users. I am not trying to say that .MKV is technically bad or worse than .AVI - just another complication I could live without. This I don't understand. Youtube DOES use h.264 (if you D/L in MP4 format) and High profile for 720p and larger pictures. But compare it to h.264 D/Ls from Vimeo - it's the encoding settings that matter most, not codec implementation (h.264, XviD, DivX are all varieties of MPEG4). Regards

I disagree. In fact, his post evidences the opposite. He didn't give way to others for a reason which in his mind is of questionable importance and he suffered the psychological distress as the result. So, he overrode his social instinct and he paid for it. If he'd gave way to others he would have been rewarded by feeling good about it. Hence, it's not a self-sacrifice. Regards

What does it have to do with self-sacrifice??? You are talking about somple politeness. Humans are social animals and politeness to others is one of the key requirement for cohesive society. We cannot achieve 99.9% of what is necessary for survival and progress without cooperation and adjusting of our individual behaviour so as not to, unreasonably, inconvenience others is a basic part of our psychology. As for self-scrifice, well, if you'd blocked a machine gun pillbox ambrasure with your body to allow the rest of your squad to advance and take it out - that's self sacrifice. Discuss that if you like... Regards

The first time is invariably cr*p, be prepared. I would say you should not ignore your feelings, quite the opposite - follow them. First romances and crushes rarely ever last. If you try and fail with a girl you like - you will get over it. There will be another one worthy of attention. Even if you succeed - the chances are you will grow apart as your circumstances change, you both mature, understand yourself more, move to different towns etc. Nothing's wrong with that but do enjoy yourselves while it lasts. However, if you don't ever try your luck with a person you like for fear of rejection you will be doomed to ever-repeating failures. You like her? Ask her out and tell her (before somebody else does). Regards

If this thread is still active in its original purpose and if anyone cares then I found FM through the following route: Mighty Crane (later LitFuse Film) -> Machinima.com -> Civil Protection -> FM Few years ago I have made a recording of HL2 first few chapters of gameplay as I don't trust a) Steam to exist forever or not to disable the game one day for whatever stupid reason they may have and b) Windows/emulators to exist/be available forever to play the game. So, I've made a couple of DVDs showing (heavily edited) gameplay upto Nova Prospect and just wanted to see on the 'net if anyone has already done something like that for other chapters (they haven't). So I've found HL2 machinima instead... I briefly thought of adding some demosmoother shots to intersperse with the main first-person aspect footage and then release it publicly but after playing with the Demosmoother I realised I will never be able to do what I want without doing what Ross is doing and I just don't have time for this... Regards

Same here. Moreover, I usually accumulate a number of FM episodes and other machinimas, then recode them to MPEG and put them on a nice DVD so that my kids and I could watch them on a proper screen. That will be a sad day... In fact, I believe, the best container still is .AVI (especially for short clips where you don't need to worry about 2 or 4GB limitations and types) and XviD or DivX are powerful enough codecs to provide good quality at reasonable bitrates. Regards

Just recently, it was confirmed that there is a substantial layer of antimatter (antiprotons) within the Van Allen Belts. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/08/08/pamela_spots_antimatter/ There are even suggestions that there is so much of it that a possibility of "harvesting" the Belts may exist... Regards

As far as I remember, of those astronauts and cosmonauts who have died the causes of death were usually one of the following: - training accident - launchpad accident - launch accident - reentry accident - plane crash - car crash - bike crash Some indeed died from cancer but so did many people... I believe the problem is the lack of political will (which = money). Once the desire kicks in, the moneys will pour and technical snags will be sorted out pretty quickly (shielding, propulsion, life support). Most of the solutions already exist (in theory or prototypes). The Western world needs to find where to expand to resume the economic growth. New empire building on Earth does not look realistic or promising. It's only a matter of time until someone will seriously think of political dividends from a massive spaceship building program, asteroid mines, Martian resorts and the jobs and votes it will generate... Regards

Apart from the ones already mentioned, here are some machinimas I would recommend to watch: The LAST - HL2 http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2938746503376760858 Clear Skies trilogy - Eve+HL2 http://www.clearskiesthemovie.com/ Daydream - HL2 http://lambdageneration.com/posts/incomplete-daydream-music-video-in-source/ Vae Victis - HL2 http://lambdageneration.com/posts/vae-victis-machinima-series/ Ultrahouse - HL2 Double Kill (ep1 and 2) - UT3 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkct4-ct3KQ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXGiHz7yN8w This Device Has Been Modified - WoW The Island - Mercy Of The Sea - WoW Payload series - TF2 There is also a guy calling himself MaxofS2D, he has done the Outland Absconders HL2 machinima series (hasn't finished the very last one, the bugger ). He is working on something that he calls EarthBound Fortress 2 - it seems promissing, full of motion capture and custom models for TF2.*If* he finishes it... http://blog.maxofs2d.net/?page_id=163 Regards