WTF?:)

I really think resting sometimes is the most productive way of spending time. I've been developing one DirectShow application today...and it was late-late night. Check out what happend: ;)




No effects here. I've just recorded my laptop's screen. :)

4 words: Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers

As I am now an employee of SoftServe Ltd. here is video I would like to post here that is sort of relevant to my new job. ;)

Vista Media Center vs TheVeniceProject

Well obviously these too are direct compatitores. Seeing some examples from CES I'm starting to think that TheVeniceProject is not really that great. If doesn't have the Sport chanels thing for example, that's when you can view info on other games, players bio etc. Obviously DirectX9 GUI won't beat the oh so cool Aero GUI..
Well yes TVP is extandable and it's not finished yet, but hey..it won't be bundled on millions of PCs all over the world and I really don't think that it can reach the Flash effect when everybody goes and download it.

So now that I think about it, I don't really see how TheVeniceProject is going to grow. The only way I see is a couple of good deals with good content owners and a good pricing policy maybe. But fighting with MS is tough, I think. Well, there were others VoIP solutions when SKYPE was starter, so maybe this time these guys can do a miracle again!

In the end, it looks like it all we come down to content. So I guess the time when the content owners will play the game and not the tech guys is pretty near...

The VeniceProject beta testing

Right after the GlooTV the "The Venice Project" team also sent me an invitation for a beta testing.

TVP looked REALLY cool. DirectX GUI, p2p streaming, intuitive interface. It looks like they currently support only Windows XP SP2, and there still are a lot of bugs, but in general it looks pretty cool. Even though I wasn't able to view any channel as it was intended to be (my ADSL is sooo slow) but seeing all the features they had in mind makes me think I will never have to buy TV again. :) Well only if I become HDTV fan, but not in the nearest feature. Also I am wondering if it will be free to watch the chanels or not (p2p anyway...could be free).

Cool thing is that TVP looked expandable (I've seen that there can be different plugins) and the GUI is a very fine looking.

I might post more info on my beta test later
Stay tuned!

GlooTV - ooops :)

GlooTV beta is almost out. They will be sending the invitation soon, but also they've release some more info on what GlooTV actually is.

This is their product review:

GlooTV is a search site for finding the products and services the consumer wants to buy. GlooTV is all about desire and fulfilling those desires. GlooTV, a set of interactive services that allows users to find products and services seen in their favorite television programs, movies, etc. Ever wonder where to purchase that stunning dress worn in Desperate Housewives? What about learning more about medical conditions mentioned in E.R? Now users find what they have seen and heard, or what is implied in a show, by searching for products in a specific episode, across all episodes, across multiple shows, and many other ways.


Sounds cool, but who knows how it actually works. We'll see in a couple of weeks!

And definatly that's not the p2p-centered thingy..:), like a wrote before. Wouldn't it be funny if the VeniceProject is also something like that?:)

CDNs vs Multicasting

It is pretty well known fact nowadays that in order to organize streaming to the wide array of clients you will need to use services of the Content Delivery Network. Well, at least that's what I thought up to few days ago. :). But fortunatly that isn't always the case.

When you're using CDN's services you're paying for Gig's they've streamed. So if you have 1000 of viewers and they are viewing 1 Gb each you will have to pay for 1000 * 1 Gb * $1.60 (approx. price of Gig) = $1600. Pretty impressive, isn't it?

Now, when you're streaming live event (sports event, music concert, or even you on your webcam) in each specific time all the users should have the same picture on their screen. And that's where multicasting fits perfectly in. Using multicasting you are streaming to the group address, and users who want to view your stream connect to that group address. So you only stream your audio/video to the group once and that's it. So for the same sittuation if you have 1000 clients viewing 1 Gb you would have to pay only for 1 Gb traffic to your ISP....or you would pay nothing extra if you have unlimited plan;)

The drawback of multicasting is that your ISP has to support it. The stats says only 5% of ISPs support multicasting. Another drawback - you're broadcasting a steam, and user does not choose when he wants it to start. So ondemand scenario is hardly possible.

More info on multicasting:
http://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsServer/en/Library/9feb45d5-bf5a-4e55-8c71-a37b7e7c3b311033.mspx

The good example of how it all works with multicasting is here:
http://www.americafree.tv ..well they are broadcasting movies that are sooooo old, but still...makes my point :).

Google vs Microsoft

I've just expirienced one thing that I think says pretty much about the software market in general. There have been a lot of complains over Micosoft that they deliver bad product and that if they weren't monipolist we would have something so much better..

Well, I don't think I have to say here that ALL software application have bugs. But let's look at the closest (as some say) compatitor of Microsoft - Google.


I've installed few applications from them. Which is Picassa, Google Internet Accelerator, Google Talk. While they all have great ideas and features, I wouldn't say they are in any way better then Microsoft's products (well, maybe they are better in maketting part though;)). For example Google Internet Axcelerator freaked me out because when I've installed it I've noticed that Windows is using more then 1 Gb of virtual memory. As I was programming different stuff I thought that this might be a bug in some of my projects, or Visual Studio. So I've been trying to catch some memory leaks in my code. And then I excidentaly unloaded the Google Internet Accelerator's process from the memory and it freed the memory for 400 Mbs (!!). And that's a simple apllication with almost no GUI.


Basicly what I'm trying to say with this post is that probably it really is impossible to develop the perfect application, but in a word were perfect is impossible the one who's closer to the perfect wins. And that seems to be MS...well for now for sure..