Particularly, I read a comment that said, "therefore another location could be chosen for the mega-mosque. The aim should be to unite people and not to divide them."  Another one providing the idea  that those of differing opinions should "build it some miles away."  Reading that, I thought of the words of the Lord, who taught us to love our neighbors.

I think it's worth sharing a small parable from the Master, found in Luke 10.

And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?

He said unto him, What is written in the law? how readest thou?

And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself.

And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live.

But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbour?

And Jesus answering said, a certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead.  And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.  And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side.

But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him, and went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee.

Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves?

And he said, He that shewed mercy on him.

Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise.

There are some great things to learn from this scripture, but one that I wanted to point out was the racial division among the people.  If the traveler originated from Jerusalem, then it may be safe to assume that he was a Jew -- a native to the country.  Those that passed him by would have been kinsmen -- a priest, and a Levite.

It was a Samaritan that helped him, though.  That the Lord mentioned him by origin is telling.  The Samaritans were a mixed breed of race.  In recent history, the kingdom of Israel had been conquered, and a few Israelites left.  The land was later colonized by the Assyrians and the Babylonians, and the people were mixed in religion as well -- both heathen and believer.

They were most hated by the Jews, for their perceived impure backgrounds and practices, yet, geographically speaking, they were neighbors.  And it was those, among whom the world expects the least, that comes salvation.

In the parable, Christ was speaking of Himself.  He was also of mixed breed, born of a mortal mother and an immortal Father, and He was despised of all men, for not conforming to their beliefs and culture.  And yet, He is the one who will bring salvation and life to the wounded.

Who, then, today are our neighbors?  Can we pick them any more than we can pick our own family?  If we disagree culturally or politically, should we demand that they go elsewhere?

I believe that the Lord intended the principle of loving our neighbors to be both figurative and literal.  There are differences between races and cultures, for sure, but as a species we are far more alike than different.

Who are our neighbors?  Those who take residence next to us.  In the sense of loving them, the parable illustrated the commandment by showing service, to lift them up and carry them upon our own beasts and to give of our own resources when none other -- even those who were called to that work -- would be so willing.  May we do the same.

So, if you are sincerely interested in running it, shoot me an email at beandog at gentoo dot org and I'll let you know everything that's involved (hint: not much).

Edit: I should add, this doesn't require being a Gentoo developer.  The Planet was never an officially sanctioned Gentoo project, and it was never intended to be.  Anyone with the ganas can run it.

Edit: Thanks to all the people who have offered to help.  I'll say the same thing I said to all of them: I'm going to wait a few more days to see who else steps up and has ideas for the site.  Also, no, I haven't decided what to do with Znurt for now.  I don't have any plans of giving up ownership yet.

The short version of the story is that I never wanted to get into IT as a job market, it just kinda happened, and I stayed here longer than I should have.  My real passion in life is doing service, working with people, helping them out, actually making a change in the world.  I don't really feel like I'm getting that right now.

I'm going back to school this fall semester, to my old college now turned univeristy, Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah.  Wootsie.   I love their mascot, too. I  just think it looks cool.

I'm going to be studying psychology, and maybe sociology as well.  I haven't decided yet.  For now, I'm only certain about a few things: I am tired of working in IT, I love psychology, and I want to do something else.

What's been happening over a number of years, though, is I have been pretty much indifferent to the fact that I am unhappy in my career.  I enjoy working with computers, to a degree .. I find them interesting all the things you can do with them, and I get excited about some projects (mostly mine).  But the stamina is just not there all the time, and it's frequently hard for me to get through a day's work.  I'm just not that into it.

For years I've been telling myself I want to do something different, and as a result, I've jumped from job to job which allows me to pick up another different skill set, and make things interesting ... kind of rekindle the passion again.  What I was really excited about though, was the chance to learn new technologies and ways of doing stuff in a different job.  And I've been really lucky in that regard.  Each one of my jobs has been very different from the past one, and so I've gotten a good mix of exposure to lots of different stuff.  I am definitely a jack of all trades.

What got me started thinking about school again, though, was that I finally realized the other week that I spend all my free time learning about two things: theology and psychology.  And I spend almost all my free time doing community service as well.  I believe that the field you should follow is probably indicated by the areas of study your mind drifts to when you have nothing else to focus on.  So, that's pretty much exactly what I'm doing.

Career-wise, I have no idea what I want to do ... and I'm not bothered by that in the least, nor am I interested in finding out.  Again, there's a few things I'm certain about, and one is that I want to get back into school.  I've always been fascinated by psychology, and every class I've taken in it so far, I've aced with very little effort.  For me, in college, that actually means something.  Comparatively, I think I've flunked Math 090 five times.

I am really excited to start school.  I'm going to go slowly, so I can adapt to the transition.  If I create too heavy a load, it will tax my enthusiasm and make me wanna quit (there's a lot more to that, suffice it to say, I know myself pretty well).  Next semester, I dunno what I'm gonna do.  What I would love to do is work part-time and go to school and take more credits, but with my financial situation, that probably ain't gonna happen.  That's okay though, I'm happy to make any progress at the moment.

The other thing I'm excited about is that I've signed up for an LDS Institute class as well, at the University of Utah.  I live in Salt Lake, so that's about a ten-minute drive from where I live, if that.  I signed up for an early morning class that covers just the Book of Isaiah.  I'm stoked.

As far as my computer-related hobbies go, I've decided I'm going to start cutting a lot of them out of my life, very quickly.  I've already decided to not pursue any new projects, and I'm going to cut off some I'm already maintaining and hand them over to other people ... I'll be writing more about some of that soon.  If I'm gonna be studying and putting myself back on the right path, I don't want too much stuff holding me back anymore.  A lot of the stuff has been projects that I've been wanting to get to for a long time anyway, but lost interest in, so they won't really come as a big loss for me.

Anyway, that's it.  I actually registered for school weeks ago, but I didn't wanna say anything about it until I new it was a sure thing.  That is the case now.   I can't wait.  I've gone down to campus a few times already, and everytime I go there, I get so recharged about life in general .. at the possibility of turning things around and heading in a new direction, one that I've wanted to pursue for years.  Good times, I tell ya.

Just the other day, I think it was Monday, I was itching for some reason to sit down again and just read a little bit, and see if I could pick something up. It was a long day full of work and other crazy stuff, and by the time I had a second to do anything, it was midnight and I was ready to go to bed. But I flipped open my Bible casually, and just started at Isaiah 1. I won't go into much detail of what I found, but while I was reading it, the Spirit of the Lord fell upon me for a bit, and something just clicked in my brain. I recognized Isaiah's writing style a little bit.

The chapter is written using a lot of groups of similar sayings. Nearly the entire chapter can be broken down using them. It's really cool, and quite poetic, as I'm guessing that was the prophet's intent. For a quick example, see verse 4, how he describes the people in four parts, then lists their actions in three parts following that:

1. Ah sinful nation
2. a people laden with iniquity
3. a seed of evildoers
4. children that are corrupters /
5. they have forsaken the Lord
6. they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger
7. they are gone away backward

There's examples like that all over.  Really cool.  For a quick recap of some of the important parts of the gospel, see v16-17, grouped in similar pairs:

• cease to do evil / learn to do well
• seek judgment / relieve the oppressed
• judge the fatherless / plead for the widow

Anyway ... none of that is what I wanted to write about right now, but it does give the background a bit to his writing style that I recognized while reading this morning, in Isaiah 2.

Again, the experience was nearly similar ... I was just reading along, mostly for just interest and comfort, and I noticed all of a sudden that he uses pairs a lot, or repetition to say the same thing, but with different words.  It's actually really helpful, because his writings can be really confusing sometimes, but if you notice that he's saying the same thing twice, then you have a greater pool of comparison to draw from.

It starts in verse 3, and goes from there.  I only copied a few examples, because once you understand the principle, its really easy to see.

• the mountain of the Lord / the house of the God of Jacob (v3)
• he will teach us of his ways / we will walk in his paths (v3)
• he shall judge among the nations / shall rebuke many people (v4)
• they shall beat their swords into plowshares / their spears into pruninghooks (v4)

Another thing I picked up on is, often times after prophecies, he will give either his own testimony or an admonition or invitation to follow the Lord.  In that example, verse 5 does that: "O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of the Lord."

I know it's easy to read the Bible and it can sound like the Lord is just itching to blow us all to smithereens because we are wicked and going to hell.  The way I see it is that God is trying to tell us the natural consequences of our lives if we do not refrain from sin.

For example, if you are trying to teach your children not to run out in front of cars in the middle of the street, what kind of language do you use to stress the importance of the lesson to them?  You might do something like raise your voice, or use colorful descriptions to get the point across -- if you get hit by a car, your brains will be splattered all over their dashboard, and your spleen will be on the curb ... for example .

Just the same way, the Lord is trying to warn us of the bad things, in a stressed tone, that will happen.  It's not meant to scare or frighten us, just to communicate the seriousness of the consequences.

That was the spiritual lesson I was getting from reading Isaiah, chapter two.  I still think there's something I'm mising from it overall, as I can feel it just out of reach, so I came here to write in my blog in an attempt to see if I maybe I could find it.  We'll see, I suppose.

I did want to recount what I summarized the chapter's lesson as, though.  Rather than try to describe it all over again, I'll just copy verbatim what I put in my notes this morning:

Reading Isaiah 2, he warns against the proud quite a lot (v6-22), warning them what will happen at the time of the Second Coming.  I think Alma 12:14 summarizes it nicely: "we would fain be glad if we could command the rocks and the mountains to fall upon us to hide us from his presence." [Note: read the whole chapter for clarity, I imagine my snippet probably doesn't make much sense out of context to a visitor.  It's part of a bigger sermon ... he is discussing the wicked there, not all people everywhere.]

The message seems to be that, while they are rich in their worldly accounts (v7) and they have sought after a life of worldliness (v8), that when the the Lord comes, they will not be forgiven (v9), and they will in agony seek to separate them (the works of their hands) from themselves (v20-21).  The Lord will bring them all low, and He alone will be exalted, and destroy their riches, and their wicked works (the idols [represent] the results of their hands) (v17-18).

When we stand before the Lord, everything that we have sought [for] with worldly desires will mean nothing.

See also 2 Nephi 9:28-30.  Isaiah 2 is also the first chapter quoted by Nephi [in the Book of Mormon] (2 Nephi 12).

Okay, so a quick explanation about that last part -- when Nephi, the first prophet-author of the Book of Mormon (an entire civilization is named after him, the Nephites) was writing, he included a lot of writings of Isaiah, since they had taken a contemporary copy of their scriptures with them when they left Jerusalem (600 B.C.).  So, they are a more ancient source of Isaiahs writings that we have, compared to the Bible.  The chapters are nearly exact, except that you can see very small snippets that were removed from the Bible text.  In every instance, the phrases shed a little light on the verses.  I'll include some here, with the additions -- or mormon sauce as my friend Josh calls it -- in bold so you can see the differences.  They are small, but helpful.

• 5. O house of Jacob, come ye and let us walk in the light of the Lord; yea, come, for ye have all gone astray, every one to his wicked ways.
• 6. Therefore, O Lord, thou hast forsaken thy people, the house of Jacob, because they be replenished from the east, and hearken unto soothsayers like the Philistines, and they please themselves in the children of strangers.
• 10. O ye wicked ones, enter into the rock, and hide thee in the dust, for the fear of the Lord and the glory of his majesty shall smite thee.
• 12. For the day of the Lord of Hosts soon cometh upon all nations, yea, upon every one; yea, upon the proud and lofty, and upon every one who is lifted up, and he shall be brought low.
• 13. Yea, and the day of the Lord shall come upon all the cedars of Lebanon, for they are high and lifted up; and upon all the oaks of Bashan;
• 14. And upon all the high mountains, and upon all the hills, and upon all the nations which are lifted up, and upon every people;
• 16. And upon all the ships of the sea, and upon all the ships of Tarshish, and upon all pleasant pictures.
• 19. And they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for the fear of the Lord shall come upon them and the glory of his majesty shall smite them, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth.
• 21. To go into the clefts of the rocks, and into the tops of the ragged rocks, for the fear of the Lord shall come upon them and the majesty of his glory shall smite them, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth.

Well, it looks like the stuff there unintentionally, for my part, focused on how the Lord is going to smite everyone.  Whoops.   More accurately, though, those that are really wicked and evil.

I think it's interesting that the scriptures that were trimmed are ones that absolve the wicked of the fruits of their works, and downplay the coming of the Lord.  I hate saying something like that, because it sounds snotty, when really I'm just trying to document an intellectual curiosity.  But I also know from experience, that when I do something wrong, usually one of my first inclinations is to rationalize it away, so that my guilt will not be intense.  I don't like holier-than-thou attitudes any more than the next person.  I need the help of Christ as much as the next man, if not more, because I know more, and am therefore more responsible.

Ah, anyway, good stuff.  I'm loving my good ole scripture study time.  It's one of the few luxuries I have these days, with the little time I have available to me.  I know the Lord is trying to teach us important stuff in the scriptures, not just doomday prophecies.  You have to really dig to find the lessons, sometimes, but when you do, you appreciate them all the more.  It's fascinating stuff, methinks.   Good times.

The truth is, I never wanted to go into computers as a job. It just kind of happened, because at the time I needed a job, it was one of the skills I had. I've actually done a lot of other jobs growing up, most of them low-paying "dead-end" jobs which I actually enjoyed a lot. If I could afford the lifestyle, I'd go back to them in a heartbeat. But getting into computer programming as a full-time career was definitely never the plan of mine. However, at the same time, I never really knew what I wanted to do either.

Well, I'm sure about one thing now ... after doing this for almost ten years, I don't wanna do this.

That doesn't come as any real surprise ... I knew that all along. What I find interesting though, is how, when I was thinking about it recently I came to some interesting realizations. It helps to describe for me in terms of contrast to what I really wanna study, which is psychology (and / or sociology).

Computer technology for me, is interesting, but it never really gets past the stage of curiosity or novelty. I really enjoy reading stuff on a huge variety of subjects -- from high level stuff like device sales to low level stuff like assembly programming. It's all interesting, but in the end, not really life-changing or fascinating enough to get me to do something about it. It's just a distraction. Psychology, though, I can't get enough of it when I read about it. Everything about it -- covering lots of subjects, my favorites being personality and development psychology -- not only fascinates me, but gets me thinking about it all the time. I love turning over the ideas in my head and considering it more and more.

The other major thing I noticed is that when I have free time, it's rarely spent doing stuff with computers, in the sense of learning more. However, I do a lot of light reading, and it's almost always about theological stuff, but even then, my interests drift towards the practical applications (the sciences, if you will) of how religious influences can affect someone's life. The causes and effects of moral living on attributes, habits, personality, traits, lifestyle, etc. Those totally fascinate me.

So, I'm gonna try and go back to school again this fall. I'm hoping to get on track a bit, and shake things up. I'd love to get out of computers, and do something I feel much more passionate about.

I'm adding an ebuild for libbluray to the gentoo multimedia overlay if someone wants to access it.  It's something I plan on pushing into the mainline tree soon enough, once it's properly finished.

If you are building MPlayer from SVN, it will automatically detect the new library, and build against it.  You can use the -9999 ebuild in the portage tree.

To playback some of your Blu-Ray content, you will first need to extract it to your harddrive.  I use MakeMKV, also in the multimedia overlay, to accomplish that.

Here's a simple way using the CLI to dump the contents:

$ makemkvcon backup --decrypt disc:/mnt/bluray/ <location to dump content>

The syntax for playback is:

$ mplayer br:// -bluray-device <path to dumped content>

By default, it will play the longest playlist (I think).  If you can get the list of playlists available, you can pass that as an optional parameter to br:// (fex: list_titles /home/steve/bluray/src; mplayer br://5 -bluray-device /home/steve/bluray/src).

libbluray also ships with a few example programs that do basic stuff like listing the titles (list_titles), dumping information about the playlists (mpls_dump), and a few more (sound_dump, index_dump, mobj_dump, libbluray_test, bdsplice, clpi_dump).

Have fun with it.

I was watching an IMAX documentary tonight, I have a few of them on DVD, and I've always loved watching them.  Tonight, it was Cosmic Voyage, a really great one that explores how massive our universe is, and how much life there is in it.  It's a really cool movie to watch.

As a Christian, I have a unique perspective on the origin of the universe that doesn't agree with the secular conclusions.  However, unlike mainstream religions, I do not believe that science and faith are mutually exclusive.  I believe in evolution as much as anyone else, since, for one, it's not only scientifically plausible, but proven.  I draw the line that evolution was the cause of the origin of life though, instead taking the doctrine on faith that man was placed here by God, with a purpose to life that He has since revealed to His children through prophets, which have been recorded as scripture.

I never know quite how to explain my perspective, since it's so different from everything else, and probably pretty unexpected to start with.  It'd be easy to gloss over my take on things and just sum me up as another crazy creationist that thinks some invisible force created everything then dumped us here to let us figure things out.

And so, in an effort to meet critics on their own grounds, I'll ask the hard questions myself, but provide the answers the best I can.  I'm not trying to convince anyone of the truth -- and it's not my belief that it should be forced on others involuntarily, in school or any other setting.  But I would like the fair chance to present my side.

How was the earth created?

First of all, going to the creation of the earth.  There is a misconception that God created the universe ex nihilo, or, out of nothing.  This belief springs from a poor translation of the original text.  In Hebrew, the book of Genesis says that the earth was organized, not created -- meaning from existing matter.  In modern revelation, the Lord has said that "the elements are eternal."  Science would agree that matter can be neither destroyed nor created.  My religion concurs.

How long did it take to create the earth?

The truth is, we don't really know.  There are a few accounts given of the creation (Genesis, the Book of Moses, and the Book of Abraham), and they all offer a few more details.  In Abraham's account, each of the creationary periods are called a "time".  For example, "And it came to pass that it was from evening until morning that they called night; and it came to pass that it was from morning until evening that they called day; and it was the fifth time." (emphasis mine).

You can read the whole account of Abraham's record of the creation, starting with chapter 4, although the entire book covers some amazing doctrine.

The next question is more interesting, though, I think.

Why doesn't the Lord reveal to us the details of the creation?

The answer to that is pretty simple, and I imagine probably going to be a little frustrating to some, and maybe some reason to scoff to others.

The answer is it's not necessary to our salvation.

The reason we are here on earth, living our mortal lives, is to see if, once we have left the presence of our Father in Heaven, we will choose to obey him.  A knowledge of the creation of the earth is not a prerequisite to living the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  However, the Lord does at times reveal knowledge of the mysteries of creation and of life as a testimony of His work, and to strengthen our faith.

In a more simple analogy, say you were taking a test on mathematics ... it wouldn't do you much good to study lots of history before going into the exam, because it is superfluous and not necessary for our passing grade in that area of study.  Likewise, we don't need to understand all things to be able to successfully pass the mortal test, to follow God, choose the right, and achieve happiness.  He requires of us a willing mind and an obedient spirit, something that everyone can give individually.

That is not to say that God does *not* want us to know these things, though.  It would be an incorrect conclusion to assume that since God does not reveal His word to us, that He has no interest in us finding these things out.  The Lord gave us many tools, both personally and collectively, to study these things out for ourselves.

He has said, "Teach ye diligently and my grace shall attend you, that you may be instructed more perfectly in theory, in principle, in doctrine, in the law of the gospel, in all things that pertain unto the kingdom of God, that are expedient for you to understand;  Of things both in heaven and in the earth, and under the earth; things which have been, things which are, things which must shortly come to pass; things which are at home, things which are abroad; the wars and the perplexities of the nations, and the judgments which are on the land; and a knowledge also of countries and of kingdoms." (emphasis mine)

Also, just because the knowledge is withheld, does not mean it will always be that way.  Just as parents teach their children principles line upon line, precept upon precept, our Heavenly Father does not burden us with things that would be too hard to grasp at this point in our existence -- partly, because they would prove unto us a stumbling block (even the limited knowledge we have now is a struggle of faith for many, and keeps them from believing).

He has promised to eventually reveal to us "things which have passed, and hidden things which no man knew, things of the earth, by which it was made, and the purpose and the end thereof--Things most precious, things that are above, and things that are beneath, things that are in the earth, and upon the earth, and in heaven." (emphasis mine)

So, while it may be frustrating, now, to not know the reason and purpose behind all things, they will eventually be revealed to us -- either in this life or the next.  In the meantime, we can rest safely in the knowledge that it is not required of us to understand.  That in no way excuses us from either trying or should prevent us from wanting to understand though.

How can we take things on faith?

I think a simpler way to ask the question might be, "how can you really believe all that stuff?"

Well, to be honest, for me it comes pretty easily, so I have a really hard time understanding how it would be hard sometimes *not* to believe it.  So I apologize in advance if my explanation of things seems a bit simple ... a bit of a loop, saying "I believe it's true because I believe it's true."  There's actually a base to that -- and that is a witness from God, that comes by asking sincerely if these things are true.

One last quote, this time from the book of Alma in the Book of Mormon.  Alma (an ancient prophet of God) says, "all things denote there is a God; yea, even the earth, and all things that are upon the face of it, yea, and its motion, yea, and also all the planets which move in their regular form do witness that there is a Supreme Creator."

It's a curious pasttime of mine to try and find parts of those "all things" that denote the existence of God.  The complexity of life goes deeper than just a testimony of the existence of God, they are actually living parables -- analogies that to the simple and humble are opened up, and show similarities to the Gospel itself.

For example, the seasons of the earth are just as the stages of mortality are.  Spring represents the birth and renewal of life, summer the prime of our lives, fall is the stages of death, decay and our twilight years, and then winter, in all its glorious white, represents the resurrection of life.

There's lots more examples, and I was trying to think of one that I had come up with when writing this, but nothing is coming to me right now.  I went looking for one in my notes on scripture study, and I couldn't find one quickly either.

That's generally how my presentation feels though -- a little lacking on the solid examples, and I feel like I'm not really getting my point across too well, but I can rely on the fact that I believe and even know that these things are true, and I can't deny that ... even if I can't explain it eloquently.

There was also this great quote from Brigham Young about how all truth was circumscribed into one whole (or maybe it was Joseph Smith).  Anyway.  I remember President Young would talk about it a lot at length.  I'll have to go find my book of his quotes somewhere.

But yah, the simple point I wanted to make is that science and religion actually are the same pursuit of truth, and application of that knowledge.  There is no conflict between the two for true religion, for God operates by eternal laws, many of which we don't understand yet.

Alright, I'll stop preaching now.   I just wanted to point out that for some Christians, there is no conflict .. no crisis of faith when presented with science.  It's a common tactic that those who actively try to undermine the faith of others will use the fact that "you can't explain it" as a reason to disbelieve.  Instead of letting this despair me, I actually consider it a requisite of my faith.  The Lord wants me to grow spiritually, physically, mentally and emotionally, and each of those require risks ... stepping out into the dark, having faith that if I follow the best path, that I will grow and be redeemed and rewarded after my labor is done.  I don't know everything, that is true, but I do know the basics and have a testimony of their truth.  I know enough.

I haven't found a way to embed this in my browser yet, but I haven't really looked either, so this is for all the CLI geeks.

$ mplayer $(youtube-dl -b -g http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IfEInQ7aic)

And thar ya go.

Oh, and did you know that Flash Gordon is on Blu-Ray now?  Flash!  Aaaaaa-ah!

Decrypting Blu-Ray discs is a really confusing process ... I'm still not even sure of all the steps that are involved.  Everything I understand has been cobbled together from posts on the doom9 forums.  While the forums are a great resource, it's not a comprehensive one at times.

I was playing around with aacskeys (from doom9 forums, available in portage), and it managed to decrypt / find the keys / whatever it's doing / work successfully on most of my movies.  I'm not sure how to get them off after that, though, or why that's important yet, but I do know it's a good sign.

For now I'm taking the simple route of using shareware to access my movies.  There's two programs I've used so far to rip my Blu-Rays, AnyDVDHD and MakeMKV.  They are both nice programs with some good features, but MakeMKV is the only one that has a Linux port.

The last time I tried MakeMKV, it couldn't decrypt all my discs, so I had to use my PS3 to rip the ISOs, and then use AnyDVDHD.  This time, though, using the most recent version (1.5.6), it managed to decrypt all of my discs.  I was going through my Blu-Rays to see if it could handle all of them, but I gave up after the 15th one, since it was working on every single one.

While AnyDVDHD will extract the original, unencrypted files to your harddrive, MakeMKV will additionally mux them at the same time into Matroska.  I kinda wish I could still have the originals, but I'm not going to be picky. (Edit: you can, see comments)

So, no real plans after this except to play around and post my results.  I really don't have that much interest in playing with Blu-Rays on Linux other than curiosity.  I don't wanna rip them and stream them to my HTPC just yet since I don't have the storage space, and because my frontend isn't quite as HD-ready as I'd like it to be (I still need to update some software and tweak settings ... lots of testing, meh).

I am going to be looking at some other tools and see if I can get them in portage or our multimedia overlay, which reminds me, I just added MakeMKV to there this morning if someone else wants to try it out.

I'll put it up here as a small reference, but I imagine I'll probably be the one using it the most.

local: git init

remote: mkdir project.git
cd project.git
git init --bare

local: git remote add origin ssh://server/~steve/project.git

Specifically, and I'm not picking on Ars in general, I notice in popular journalism a technique to claim that many people are supporting a view, but then to provide only *one* source that supports that view.  That doesn't mean that many people support it ... it means that at least one person does.

For example:

"Some critics of VP8 contend that its design is sufficiently similar to H.264 to warrant concern. One such critic is Jason Garrett-Glaser, a software developer who works on x264, a well-known open source implementation of H.264. In a lengthy analysis of VP8, he attacks On2's claim that the format is superior to H.264 and says that the format's legal status is too dubious for companies to trust."

There are no other references to "some critics" anywhere else in the article.

Again, here's a second example:

"MPEG LA's threats at this stage appear to be little more than self-serving saber rattling, but others who have analyzed the technology seem to believe that there could be serious patent risks on the horizon."

There is a reference earlier to MPEG LA's own remarks, the original piece of which makes its own conclusions as well.

Looking at that piece, the whole article is based around *one* question that he shared:

He writes:

"Here’s an excerpt from my email exchange with him:

JP: Let me ask you this: Are you creating a patent pool license for VP8 and WebM? Have you been approached about creating one?

Larry Horn: Yes, in view of the marketplace uncertainties regarding patent licensing needs for such technologies, there have been expressions of interest from the market urging us to facilitate formation of licenses that would address the market’s need for a convenient one-stop marketplace alternative to negotiating separate licenses with individual patent holders in accessing essential patent rights for VP8 as well as other codecs, and we are looking into the prospects of doing so."

That's the other thing I don't like about journalism ... I would call it a pet peeve, but really it's just a matter of not being able to trust the reporting when all we get is excerpts.  His entire article is written around one excerpt of an email exhange.  Why don't journalists ever post the entire exchange?  Lack of transparency, to me, just gives the impression that they are trying to present a biased view.

I realize, of course, that in only including excerpts here that I'm doing the same thing in a sense, but at least I'm providing references to the full sources I have available so that anyone else can do their own analysis and come to their own conclusion.

If you wanted to see his own conclusions, just read the article.  First of all, the headline is: "Google's "Royalty-Free" WebM Video May Not Be Royalty-Free for Long".  There's no way to draw that conclusion from the article.

I wonder if the editors come up with the titles of the articles themselves.  It  could easily have said "MPEG LA may create a patent pool for VP8", and that would be more accurate.  Compare that possible title to the other one when reading the author's assumption after the excerpt:

"It would seem, then, that VP8 may end up subject to the same licensing issues as H.264. If MPEG LA does create a patent pool license for the standard, the free lunch Google promised yesterday may not be free after all."

That's an obvious conclusion, and I could come to the same one as well -- If this, then that.

We can see again, even in this article, that he uses the same tactic of using one source and pretending it's many:

"As a number of observers have already noted VP8 isn’t free from patent liability."

Again, it's not a number of observers ... it's one blog post ... the same one that Ars referenced as well!  Jason is a great multimedia dev, but he's not a patent lawyer last I checked.  I'd be equally bothered if someone took my opinion, on any piece of my blog, and quoted me as the expert who knows which way the industry in Linux is going to go, or what legal battles it has to deal with in the future.

My take on the whole thing is this -- first of all, I thought Jason's original piece was very well written, and it was exactly what he set it out to be: a technical write-up of the codec.  He made some comments in passing about patents, but the focus of his post was how VP8 is better than Theora, not as good as x264 (and I would agree).  I would imagine that the poor guy didn't expect his blog post to get as much attention as it did, and that it will probably affect future blog posts, if any.

My opinion on the MPEG LA stance, reading just the excerpt above -- and not the author's own conclusion -- is that their business stance is completely normal and reasonable.  The way I read it is not that MPEG LA is claiming anything, but that some other companies might be wanting their own assurances of patent protection, and looking to their company to make sure they have their licensing ducks in a row.  That could be it, maybe not.  Either way, we don't have any information from them to really speculate.

Personally, I'm not too worried about the whole thing.  I think VP8 will emerge just fine, there may be *some* licensing involved somewhere, but in the end, open source tools will go on just like it has for years and support the standards, and consumers will still win out with more options.

As far as journalism goes, I think we're going to see more FUD pieces about the whole thing.  It's a common tactic used by big bullies (anyone remember SCO?).  I'm not saying the concerns are illegitimate, but I sure wish people would use critical thinking and analysis when writing their articles, instead of trying to spin up hype and paranoia for .. whatever reasons they may have.

It's obvious that my attitude is that modern journalism has completely lost its credibility, and that's the reason I don't like writing about it -- is because I get into rant mode. And I apologize for that.  Also, sorry that the post kinda bounces back and forth between my points ... it's the nature of a rant, I suppose.

One last comment (this is one of those posts that has the misfortune of never ending), that I wanna make sure I clarify is that it's not my intention to disprove, stir controversy or anything like that ... my only goal is to encourage critical thinking which seems to be a missing element in reporting these days.  I'm personally tired of how research becomes whittled down to conclusions.  It's like statistics -- you can often make the numbers say anything you want.  But, yah, not trying to hand out pitchforks or anything, I just think it's a good idea to be honest in reporting, present the facts, and let people come to their own conclusions.  That's all.   Have a donut.

For one, LIRC should actually build again, both on 2.6.32 and 2.6.33 kernels (both gentoo- and zen- tested, for the record).  Use either lirc-0.8.6-r3 or the new 0.8.7_pre1 if you like, and open or comment on existing bugs if you hit any.

I also fixed ivtv-utils so it'd build, and split v4l2-ctl into a separate ebuild so it's simpler to access for those who need just that handy little tool.

Finally, amid all the VP8 excitement, which I'll write up my own thoughts sometime later, there is already an ebuild for libvpx in bugzilla.  I tested it on my own overlay, and it looks good, so it should just be a matter of time before it gets included.

Just to clarify, I don't deserve any credit here other than actually doing some small amount of legwork and putting the stuff in the tree.  In each of the above cases, there were both ebuilds and patches provided by users, without which it probably never would have either gotten done or as quickly.  Thanks, guys.

Basically, a recent occurrence in my life for the past couple of months has been a renewed effort to find out what purpose the Lord has in store for me in this life.  I really have no idea, to be honest, but I'm trying to find out a lot of answers.  Not just my purpose generally, but what I'm supposed to do with all this free time and resources that I have.

Well, one habit I used to hold dearly was that I would study the scriptures a lot.  That hasn't really been a focus in my life as much as it was before, for probably eight years or so.  I mean, I have been reading them on a regular basis, but generally not more than anything other than a sense of obligation at times.  Never anything I'd really call "studying".

Not too long ago, though, I got a new idea for an approach I could develop towards studying.  It mostly came because I was getting exasperated a bit by following the letter of the commandment (read your scriptures daily) rather than the spirit (feast upon my word).  I like to mix things up now and then, and this time was no different, and I don't doubt that this current idea will eventually fade away and I'll be trying something new later on.

For now, though, what I do in the morning is I read the scriptures (the Book of Mormon) until I find a passage that I find interesting.  It doesn't matter how much I read, but as long as I find something that stands out -- that either makes me ask a question, or consider the passage, or something I just find kinda cool.  Then I write it down in my little notebook.  There's nothing cooler than going back to old notebooks, where I've recorded previous thoughts and questions, and seeing what I wrote years ago.  It's a lot of fun.  So far though, my new method has been very effective, if not the most effective I've had yet.  The reason I say that is because I find myself thinking about that scripture during the day or week.

One thing that I do to get myself to ask questions while reading, is I'll look at a passage and say, "Now, why did they put *this* in there?  Who cares?  What does it matter?  Is that important?"  And that kinda stirs the mind and gets me thinking about why it would be included, what importance it could have had to the author (think of all the stuff we write in our journals that seem important to *us*, but to anyone else it would be a bunch of fluff).

As an example, I'll use the one I found this morning.  It's in the book of Mosiah, chapter 10, verses 4 and 5.  They read:

4. And I did cause that the men should till the ground, and raise all manner of grain and all manner of fruit of every kind.

5. And I did cause that the women should spin, and toil, and work, and work all manner of fine linen, yea, and cloth of every kind, that we might clothe our nakedness; and thus we did prosper in the land--thus we did have continual peace in the land for the space of twenty and two years.

Now, aside from the comment about continual peace, there's not really anything of substance there on first glance, it would normally seem like to me.

However, this time when reading it, verse four caught my mind, and I thought it was interesting how he said "all manner of fruit."  When I was thinking about it later during the day, I realized that it may stand as a bit of a description of how their culture was advanced and organized that they could have not only the technology to raise all different kinds of fruit, but the agronomy and sciences to do so.  Like, for instance, grapes grow differently from bananas, and they are not the same as pineapples, apples, oranges and peaches.  It would take some skill and organization to be able to handle *all* manner of fruit.  I dunno.  I just find it interesting.  The same thing with the cloths as well ... the different types have to indicate that there were artisans trained in different skills.  Anyway.  Interesting.

So, that approach of study is working for me well so far.  I'm having fun with it.

Going back to my earlier point, though, and with my recent discoveries, I'm remembering how much I enjoy studying the scriptures.

When I served my mission in Argentina, I studied them voraciously during all my free time.  Early on, I had the goal to finish reading the entire standard works.  Every free moment I had, I would read, and I got through it rather quickly.  Once I was done with that, I colored all my verses with a coloring scheme I had developed, and marked up my scriptures quite a bit.  I still have that set today, and it's great to reference them, because I can flip open my books to almost any chapter in any book and find something I've highlighted.

I'm a bit of a perfectionist though, or more accurately, fixated on progression and refining my processes.  My original approach to highlighting verses was to do it on a dialogue basis, which works well for the Book of Mormon or the Gospels where there are a *lot* of conversations, but that doesn't apply to every other book.  So, I'm taking it much slower this time around and I'm trying to categorize each book and see how I can distinguish it as to what a good markup scheme would be.  Doing that entails reading through the book first and getting a feel for what the common themes and topics are ... something that gets pretty frustrating at times, because I'm so eager to start marking things up.  In fact, I'm already planning on doing a third refinement of my approach that I've done with Isaiah (the first book I've looked at, yet), because I couldn't wait started using colors before thinking it all through.

It's fun, though.  But really, I'm glad to have found something I can do with some of my time.  Some of the happiest moments in my life so far have been me hunched over a little desk in 25 de Mayo or Neuquen or Esquel, trying to understand the scriptures.  I'm not nearly at the same level as I was before, but I'm having a fun time trying to get there.  Good times.  I tell you what.

It's difficult to do a secular study sometimes, because it's so easy to look beyond the mark.  I was reading a favorite commentary on the Old Testament the other day called The Fourth Thousand Years (by Cleon Skousen), and while I was reading, it occurred to me that I was studying the secular history of the people, the promises and the events that were to happen.  It kind of bothered me a little bit -- not the text, but the discovery of what I was doing.  This is a difficult point to make, so I'm going to try and carefully explain it.  I believe there is great worth in studying the history, background, and relationships of the history in general surrounding the scriptures, but I do not believe that studying the gospel should be an academic exercise only.

One scripture that can help illustrate my point is Isaiah 6:8.  In this chapter, the prophet accounts his calling from the Lord.  It reads:

Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.

I'm finding it hard to think of any real commentary that I can add to that.  One thing I like, that Skousen pointed out in his book, is that Isaiah didn't know or ask what it was the Lord wanted him to go and do ... and it didn't matter to him.  He volunteered, and asked the Lord to put him to use.  I can testify that when we ask the Lord to use us in His service, He will.

Okay, well, I can't think of a good ending to write up to that, and I have a *really* hard time writing up these posts.  I feel okay about the first part, but can't come up with anything else, and in my experience it's better in those cases to say nothing.

Edit: It occurs to me after walking away for a few moments that my sense of high expectations of self will only serve to keep me from writing any more similar posts in the future, so I think I'm going to go back to my usual mix of stream of consciousness mixed with an overall sense of not trying to offend anyone.

I've been studying it all week, and I've been having a lot of fun with it.  My initial markup of the entire book went fast -- I got it all done in two days (Sunday and Monday).  Since then, I've been going back over it, and finding more stuff.

The prophets writing style is pretty amazing.  He will switch from theme to theme all the time, sometimes mid-sentence.  The topics he seems to cover the most are: the restoration, the last days, the final judgement, the second coming of the Lord and the millennial reign.  On top of that, there are constant promises, reminders, and prophecies to and concerning the house of Israel (the saints who have accepted the covenant).  There's just so much.

I'll quickly share a few verses that have really stood out to me lately, though I can't go into much detail because of time right now.

Isaiah 5:1-7 is a cool parable of sorts.  I like it because it paints a cool picture of what the Lord has done.  Here's the actual text from the King James version:

1. Now will I sing to my wellbeloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My wellbeloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill:

2. And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes.

3. And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard.

4. What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes?

5. And now go to; I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down:

6. And I will lay it waste: it shall not be pruned, nor digged; but there shall come up briers and thorns: I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.

7. For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant: and he looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry.

This one touches upon the apostasy of Israel, an event that has happened on numerous occasions.  One thing that stands out to me is in verse 2, documenting all the things the Lord did for His vineyard, he "planted a tower in the midst of it."  That phrase, "in the midst of it" has been popping up in my brain lately, and it's interesting to see where it occurs.

When the risen Lord visisted the Nephites in America after his ascension ... well, I'll just quote the verses from 3rd Nephi 11 and point it out there:

And now it came to pass that there were a great multitude gathered together, of the people of Nephi, round about the temple which was in the land Bountiful; and they were marveling and wondering one with another, and were showing one to another the great and marvelous change which had taken place.

2. And they were also conversing about this Jesus Christ, of whom the sign had been given concerning his death.

3. And it came to pass that while they were thus conversing one with another, they heard a voice as if it came out of heaven; and they cast their eyes round about, for they understood not the voice which they heard; and it was not a harsh voice, neither was it a loud voice; nevertheless, and notwithstanding it being a small voice it did pierce them that did hear to the center, insomuch that there was no part of their frame that it did not cause to quake; yea, it did pierce them to the very soul, and did cause their hearts to burn.

4. And it came to pass that again they heard the voice, and they understood it not.

5. And again the third time they did hear the voice, and did open their ears to hear it; and their eyes were towards the sound thereof; and they did look steadfastly towards heaven, from whence the sound came.

6. And behold, the third time they did understand the voice which they heard; and it said unto them:

7. Behold my Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, in whom I have glorified my name--hear ye him.

8. And it came to pass, as they understood they cast their eyes up again towards heaven; and behold, they saw a Man descending out of heaven; and he was clothed in a white robe; and he came down and stood in the midst of them; and the eyes of the whole multitude were turned upon him, and they durst not open their mouths, even one to another, and wist not what it meant, for they thought it was an angel that had appeared unto them.

9. And it came to pass that he stretched forth his hand and spake unto the people, saying:

10. Behold, I am Jesus Christ, whom the prophets testified shall come into the world.

11. And behold, I am the light and the life of the world; and I have drunk out of that bitter cup which the Father hath given me, and have glorified the Father in taking upon me the sins of the world, in the which I have suffered the will of the Father in all things from the beginning.

12. And it came to pass that when Jesus had spoken these words the whole multitude fell to the earth; for they remembered that it had been prophesied among them that Christ should show himself unto them after his ascension into heaven.

Okay, I didn't intend to quote that much, but I didn't want to take it out of context, and it's easier to follow this way.

Verse 8 though, what fascinates me is that when the Lord descended, "he came down and stood in the midst of them".  When I read the verse in Isaiah, it jogged my memory about this event, and I find it interesting because I had always envisioned Him, for some reason, as appearing on the edge of the crowd and having them come to Him.  That's not the case, though -- He was right there among them.  I think that's pretty cool.

Anyway, lots of little realizations like that ... I could probably write a whole series of posts on the stuff I'm finding in here.  Good times, though.  It's really fascinating to study, I would recommend and encourage it yourself.

I've been thinking a lot lately about what I wanna do with my life, and invariably the answer always quickest to come first to my mind is, "not this!"  I never wanted to go into computers, and I did so, really, as a matter of indifference ... I did it because I could.  I'm finding that attitude to be somewhat negative now.

But, I don't wanna sound like I'm whining.  I got myself into the situation I'm in, and I'm willing to take responsibility for that, and I want to gracefully exit out, but at the same time, find something I would rather do instead.  Interestingly enough, I've had two ideas bouncing around my head lately of something I could do.  It seems incredibly risky, but I have so many ideas and I get so excited about it that I'm starting to wonder if I shouldn't at least start to look into it.  I've been thinking about either running my own local movie theater or video rental store.

I've always wanted to run my own movie theater, ever since I was a little kid.  Growing up, going to the movies was a rare treat, and I really enjoyed it every time.  Well, except that one time my mom took me to see Bambi, and I thought the movie was pretty boring.  I must have been five at the time or something.  A critic at such a young age.  I still love going to the movies, for just the thrill of the experience.  One of the reasons that working at a movie theater was so much fun for me too, was that I've never found myself so culturally engrossed around people of my own kind as I was there.  First of all, those of us who were long-term workers were really into movies.  There seems to be more than a few shared qualities from that fascination, since I made a lot of good friends working there.

Anyway, the point I'm trying to make is that I have some really cool ideas for what would make a movie theater fun to visit.  I especially have lots of ideas on some cool promotions to do (which I might go into later ... right now, they're just floating around in my head).

The same is true for a video rental store.  I know it's in the news this week that Hollywood Video is going out of business, and it really comes as no surprise to me.  I've written before how I think the whole business concept is outdated, and some ideas they can use to brighten things up.  I have lots more ideas on top of those I mentioned there, too.  There's so many things you could do more than just making it a trip to pick up a movie or game to rent.  I gotta write em down.

There's only one small problem -- I'm not really the entrepreneurial type.  Personally speaking, I dislike the ideas of capitalism in general, and I completely glaze over anytime the topic of business comes up, so I'm not sure I'd be well suited to take on such an endeavor as I might run it financially into the ground, quickly.  If I was serious about doing it, I'd have to do my due research, that's for sure.  I'd like to think I've worked with the movie theaters for long enough to know what would be the basics (I've filled every role there -- usher, concessionist, box office, projectionist and management), but it seems like running a theater would be a lot riskier than a video store.  Who knows.  If it was small enough, I guess.

Anyhooms, I'm just thinking out loud for now.  I dunno what I think of the idea, but one thing I'm absolutely certain about -- it's one idea that gets me really excited, and just keeps generating more and more energy as I think about it.  Add on top of that it's something I've thought would be cool  to do for years, so ... who knows?

I guess at this point I'm just wondering if I should pursue the idea or not.  I mean, not commit myself to it, and run out and get a loan from the bank or anything, but rather just ask myself if there's really some sustained interest there or if it's just something to consider.  I dunno.

I can really think of some cool ideas, though.   Maybe I should share them.

I was really skeptical about the movie after seeing the trailers, so I went in with some doubts, but man, they absolutely *nailed* this movie.

First off, you're not gonna see a story so original ever again.  There's just nothing to compare it to.  The main character's name is Hiccup, who is a young teenage viking who is an absolute geek through and through.

And that's where the movie really shines, is in its authenticity as far as how the character in that situation would act.  I kept thinking the movie is really human, for lack of a better term.  It certainly tells the story accurately from that persona's point of view, including the awesome young hawt teenage chick he's chasing, as well as the idiot bullies that get in his way.  It's just great all around.

The animation was pretty incredible, too.  But what I thought was really unique was the cinematography.  When Hiccup is flying around on his dragon, some of the scenes are pretty intense ... I actually got quite the rush from watching it, which was *totally* unexpected, and pretty rare!  I was really surprised.  For that reason alone, I wanna go back and see it in 3D.

Another thing I kept noticing was the attention to detail.  The dragons themselves acted a lot like how animals would really act -- with their motions and reactions and things like that.  Again, it just made the entire thing seem really authentic.  I kept thinking how Hiccup's dragon was acting just like a playful cat, since that's what it seemed to be mimicking.  Really cool.

I won't give away the ending, but it really took me by surprise how true-to-life it was.  I'm glad to see cartoons and kids films in general going back to their roots where actions have consequences and things aren't watered down anymore.  It really adds to the story, and it certainly was *another* thing I wasn't expecting.

There was only *one* minor complaint I had about the film -- the audio track didn't seem that great.  I went and saw it during a weekday, which was a mistake, since there was a small crowd and the sound wasn't turned up very loud.  In fact, I was surprised to find myself  thinking it would sound better at my house.  But more than that, a lot of times the dialogue's audio mix didn't fit with the environment.  For instance, they'd be flying around, and their intonation or volume wouldn't change with the circumstance -- it sounded the same whether they were close up or skimming the water.  I think it's interesting I even *noticed* something like that, but it really did seem to stand out like that a few times.

Final comments, though, go see it, and take your kids.  It's got a lot of action sequences, but I wouldn't classify it as really scary / frightening until the end, and even then, it's still pretty simple fight sequences that wouldn't be nightmarish I think.  I myself am pretty squeamish, and I know there weren't any "ew, gross" moments, if that stands for anything.

Good times.  I'd give it a 4.5 out of 5, I think.

I found a few bugs in my ripper this weekend, one of them was that I was only storing one possible subtitle type in my Matroska rips.  If a DVD had both VobSub and Closed Captioning, it'd only mux the first one I added.  Fixing it was fun, since it was one of those moments where you open up the code trying to find the reason for it, and you find a big comment labeled "FIXME: Add this feature here."  Heh.  So, now it muxes both, if available.  Woots.

There is still one DVD subtitle format that I am having absolutely zero luck in finding anything about -- English SDH (Subtitled for the Deaf and Hard of hearing).  According to Wikipedia, it's basically closed captioning with color.  I can play / watch / rip closed captioning just fine (watching: mplayer -subcc dvd://, ripping: ccextractor), but not SDH.  And I haven't seen anything that can even play them yet, although in fairness I've only been playing with Linux applications.  And everytime I try to explain to someone what I'm trying to do, they think I'm talking about VobSub subtitles.  Usually I get tired of trying to explain the difference and give up searching.  I could try finding some Windows apps to rip / play them, but if I can't get something in Linux that's scriptable to access them, then it doesn't matter anyway.  So, if someone knows of something ... plz to drop me a line, kthx.

Speaking of subtitles and MPlayer, I've come to the conclusion that MPlayer's support for them is just plain sub-par.  The options to play them back (or force them off) are buggy and inconsistent across the bar.  For example, here's a small roundup:

- Flagging a subtitle track as "default" when muxing a Matroska stream means that, if you turn on subtitles in the viewer, that should be the first one to show up.  It does not mean "these are forced subtitles, so display them automatically."  That's why Matroska has a "forced" tag.  default != forced.  If you're still lost, look at the original audio and video tracks, and you'll see they are also muxed with the "default" flag fipped on.  It's purpose makes more sense with video with multiple audio tracks -- if there's more than one, which one do you play by default?  The one with the "default" flag!  Same principle should apply with subtitles when you turn them on.

- MPlayer can't load Matroska subtitles externally.  You can, if you wish, mux just subtitle streams into a Matroska wrapper (ex: mkvmerge subtitles.{idx,srt} -o subtitles.mks).  But using "mplayer -sub subtitles.mks" won't work.  Bummer.   I understand that in this case, the Matroska stream could contain more than one subtitle stream (VobSubs and CC in my example), and it generally expects just one (-sub subtitles.idx, fex), but still, it'd be a fancy feature.

- MPlayer can't dump CC to SRT, even though it can play them (mplayer -subcc).  Bummer.

- Random rant about -noforcedsub and -nosub and -sub are conflicting / confusing, but too lazy to put together data about it, and it's mostly related to the Matroska one above.

I just had to get that stuff off my chest.   I have faith in MPlayer eventually improving in said areas, and filing bugs would probably be good on my part.  I generally don't deal with subtitles much anyway, so for me it's kind of a "would be nice to have" set of features.  Meaning, I've already worked around the bugs and they don't bother me as much anymore.  I would be curious to get SDH read support though.

I'm starting to notice a general trend here -- I complain a lot about certain issues and bugs in detail, but never go out of my way to report them.  I'm becoming the kind of user that as a developer I totally hate!  Oh noes!

In reality, I like being able to be on both sides of the coin, and I'd have to agree with the assessment of most user complaints I see, that are: the barrier to entry to reporting bugs is too hard.  I could go into detail about that, but I don't really want to, as I don't wanna focus on the negative.  But generally speaking, sometimes it's too much of a hassle to easily report a bug.  If it means me creating yet another user account on a bug tracker or subscribing to a mailing list, I weigh that against the strain of just ignoring or working around the bug.

I am, of course, to blame for my laziness, and I completely understand that developers (such as myself) need a detailed report with contact information along with the ability to quickly index reports.  I wonder if there's some magical middle ground, though, where users who aren't regular bug reporters can just easily report their issues and be on their way.  I know in Gentoo, we tend to use the forums as a poor-man's bugzilla sometimes, and maybe that's one way to do it.  Interesting stuff to think about.  Drive-by bug reporters, kinda thing.  They'll come by once or twice, but not regularly.

Anyway, I can't think of any other interesting DVD stuff I ran into this weekend.  Other than I bought season three of Taxi and it wasn't as entertaining as I remembered it to be.  Oh well.  You win some, you lose some.

My dream job, though, is to go back to working at the movie theater.  Of all the jobs I've ever had, none of them have happier memories.

Growing up, though, I remember in high school one thing I had settled my mind on was that I wanted to be a marine biologist.  I sucked at sciences in school, but I really liked biology, and with some real study on my part, I actually understood it.  On top of that, I took classes and was a registered scuba diver at the age or 14.  That was really intense, getting certified.  Diving is fun, too.

I still don't know what I wanna do, though.  My main area of scientific interest now is psychology and sociology.  It's the one subject that I never get tired of.  I don't have any kind of schooling in that area (though I never got a degree in computer science, either), so I can't really make a career change right now.

Ideally, though, my dream job is still just having one where it's low stress, low key, and I enjoy working with people I like.  I'd have to sort out a few things in my life before I can manage to do that again, though.

I'm not gonna post any entries this year.  In fact, I didn't even remember about April Fool's til about 2 weeks before this year, and I was like "oh yah ... oh well."  So, no ideas this year.  I'm just outta steam, yo.

However, here's some links to my favorites from last year.

• media-video cleanup
• new audio player (yay, TRON!  I really do own both of those things)
• introducing ubeantoo
• living with cats

Just for the record, I don't recommend having ferrets as pets.  Woodland creatures do not transform well into household environments.  And I'll gladly share stories with you about stepping into puddles of ferret pee.  Seriously.