Mail Server - Ouch
I've been running a mail server on my main system, since I have my own domain name and static IP address hosted on Megabit DSL service. Well, looks like some spammers got ahold of it and were bouncing SMTP service off my server. My CPU was running 100% all the time, and I would frequently end up with DNS service errors (not sure if DNS servers were basically just shutting me down because of all the traffic, or what). Anyway, I finally got rid of the IPSwitch IMail server (it was a pain to maintain/setup anyway, and I couldn't get SMTP to work this last time) and got DeskNow email server/client.

So, hopefully, some of the traffic will begin to slow down on my network soon. I'm getting >400 refused SMTP relay requests per minute right now, all for yahoo.com.tw addresses it looks like.
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- posted by Jeff @ 9:31 AM | 0 comments

 
Playing EQ2...
...sigh...I know. It is a nasty trap. I was up 'til 1AM last night playing, and I had to get up with the baby this morning at 5:58AM. Damn addictions...

EQ2 sure does borrow a lot of things that were pioneered in Dark Age of Camelot.

I'm playing a Wood Elf Druid on GUK server, named Jhondra, and belonging to the RNH Guild. Here are some pictures.



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- posted by Jeff @ 10:38 AM | 0 comments

 
Babylon 5 Asian Collectors edition vs USA version
I got a chance to make some comparisons between the US version and the "Asian Collectors" version. For this comparison, I'm looking at Season 4, Disc 1, Episode 3, The Summoning (about 33 seconds in). The Disc size is 7.90GB vs 4.35GB, US vs Asian, respectively. The pictures in still frame don't really do justice to how poor the reduced bit content on the Asian version does on play back and key frame extraction (especially on a progressive display doint 3:2 pull down and bob-weave). I'm really beginning to get irritated watching them on my HTPC and HDTV.

The images below show the US version on the left and the ASIAN version on the right (sorry, if you don't have a wide enough monitor to see them side by side). The first set shows blocky MPEG macro blocks on low-to-medium action moving people. The second one shows how good some of the CGI actually comes through (mostly because the CGI images probably compress better with less subtle color palettization, etc.)






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- posted by Jeff @ 7:39 PM | 0 comments

 
Asian import DVD's
Well, I got my 5 seasons of Babylon 5 DVD (again, Asian collectors editions) that I paid $62 (plus $30 S&H) for. This time, a friend has the full US version discs, and confirmed that the disks he has are dual layer and around 7.38GB per disk. Well, the Asian collectors editions that you buy on Ebay are (once again) only single layer and only about 4.35GB. Looks like they are using some video recompression on the VOB's and then burning them to single layer DVD's and saving money. There are also some very obvious mis-spellings on the boxes (like it says "The Complete Fourtht Season").

Video is pretty grainy, blocky, and you can see a lot of artifacts (especially jaggies on the edges of dramatic color changes, like ships in space). This is all on a computer screen so far, and I'll have to see how it looks on my progressive scan DVD player on my HDTV as well as on my HTPC on the same HDTV. I'll see how it compares to the US Version this weekend, too.

Anyway, I'm going to be VERY upset if I find out these aren't even authorized by Warner Brothers, as they have the WB logo and also show all sorts of Dolby Digital TM stuff.

Still, I'm looking forward to watching this series. I've heard it is great!
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- posted by Jeff @ 8:05 PM | 0 comments