Category: Life Beyond Tech

Posts that shouldn’t have much to do with tech.

September 24, 2021

The unbelievable difficulty in watching Bluray on a computer

For a very long time I didn’t care much about the quality of my movies. DVD has generally been fine. This all went downhill –albeit slowly at first– when I got a really nice TV. The TV was the free one my friends gave me from the loading dock at their apartment. It was broken, but a DC capacitor switch out fixed that. It was HD, and I liked it.

Skip a few chapters and we arrive at my current state.

I have attempted several paths to watch my brand new Ultimate Matrix on Bluray collection. Yes… the Matrix. Matrix Resurrection is coming soon and I felt that was worth watching everything again, afterall the Matrix series was a very significant part of my youth. As nice of an idea as this was, I sincerely regret my decision to not just buy more bits from Amazon.

I have tried to watch this on:

2016 macbook pro
Win10 VM in VMware Fusion
Linux Mint
Win10 bootcamp on the macbook

Please note I have not actually tried this on a true Windows PC, because oddly enough I don’t really have one. Time changes everything.

In short I have learned the following:

How AACS DRM is really very interesting (Blu-ray – ArchWiki (archlinux.org)). I can see similar elements to this being used for machine-to-machine authentication in the future.
I learned about the limitations that VLC has when it comes to bluray. libbluray – VideoLAN
- And the limitations of VLC with AACS libaacs – VideoLAN
I gave up and found out that PowerDVD can play bluray, and it’s a free download. As long as you’re OK with yet another vendor getting an email address, so they can harass you about their version of the cloud.
I found out that PowerDVD wont’ work in a VM. There may be some workarounds, but this problem seems pretty old. (powerdvd virtual machine themida – Google Search)
I found out that PowerDVD didn’t like my graphics card under Bootcamp.
Customer Support – PowerDVD displays an error message “Incompatible graphics driver. Please use default driver for playback.” | CyberLink
Or maybe my displayport monitors from my dock. HDCP and Targus Docking Stations | TechTalk
At this point I don’t really care.

Essentially I get the frustration tractor owners feel when they can’t fix their own equipment. I have more appreciation now for the FTC Ruling for Right-to-Repair. The FTC Votes Unanimously to Enforce Right to Repair | WIRED

I burned $40 on eBay to buy these disks. I burned 4 hours of time trying to get this to work. I have too many hobbies, and can’t pick this one up. I’m going to buy the trilogy on Amazon and try to not think about making Jeff Bezos any richer.

November 15, 2019

Commercialization of Facial Recognition will eliminate privacy for the future generations

Individual privacy in the face of artificial intelligence, biometric facial recognition, and big data is increasingly under threat of disappearance from our government, technology companies, and society’s own best intentions. Unnecessary government intrusion into the private lives of citizens in the United States is a right protected by law. Due to extra-governmental advancements in biometrics and facial recognition technology, circumvention of the law is being made possible. Often the desire for additional surveillance technology comes from society’s perceived need for additional security through detection and observation. Long-term implications on individual privacy and the negative consequences of privacy loss from forming a surveillance society will be most damaging to the children and grandchildren of today.

October 21, 2017

I think blogging is probably done now.

I have just too many hobbies and as Sir Ken Robinson puts it:

“I’m frying an egg in here!”

If I take just a few minutes to think about what I would rather do with my free time:

Read a book with my kid
Spend time with my wife
Fix my house
Study hacks
Tweet
Read the news
Exploit #KRACK on the neighbors Wifi to get a better connection speed
Borrow Mr. Robot Season 3 from the Internet
Watch Mr. Robot Season 3
Delete Mr. Robot Season 3

It’s pretty clear that maintaining a blog is not my strong suit. It’s not my go to. It’s a thing I thought I should do to build a better more robust online presence. Not worth the time commitment.

This is specifically true in light of a narrative essay II had to write now that I’m back attending classes at a university. My desire to not be anonymous on the Internet and my desire to share what I actually think are often contradictory. This either makes me a phony or a sellout. Not sure which, but I can’t let this site just linger.

I setup that Certbot instance and got LetsEncrypt certificates started issuing over 4 months ago. What I have done since then? Certainly not put one on this site…sure I have considered moving it to Azure since I have a sweet deal on space. I could spin up a *nix VM and just make my life easier…. but would it really? I would learn a lot and it would be great…. but…. eh? Why bother.

I can’t use the Internet as a way to promote my technical skills *AND* as a platform for openly sharing my beliefs in equality, social justice, decriminalization of drugs, spirituality, and other topics that have nothing to do with my professional career. I’m locked out of deep sharing online because I too need to pay bills and have to maintain a very distinct professional edge.

TheWayBackMachine still has a lot of wonderful things I shared. I think I may commit this in that direction soon as well. Perhaps a few years from now when I’ve a few more zeros at the end of the account I’ll feel more comfortable sharing openly with the universe once again.