JPEG Comments

A while back, floppy disk enthusiast/archivist, @foone posted about a floppy find, the Alice JPEG Image Compression Software. I suggest reading the relevant posts about the floppy, but the gist is that @foone archived and examined the disk and was left with a bunch of mysterious .CMP files which appeared to have JPEG streams but did not actually function as JPEGs. Rather, they would load but only displayed an odd little placeholder1, identical for each file. I know a bit about JPEGs, and decided to have a hand at cracking this nut. The images that resulted were not particularly interesting – this was JPEG compression software from the early ‘90s, clearly targeted at industries that would be storing a lot of images2 and not home users. The trick to the files, however, was a fun discovery.


Amplitude Modulation

I recently purchased a Sangean HDR-141 compact HD Radio receiver after the local station that broadcasts baseball decided to move their AM/MW2 station (and most of their FM stations) exclusively to digital HD Radio broadcasts. In their announcement, they established that the time was right now that 20% of their audience was equipped to listen. That’s… an astonishingly low percentage, especially given that the technology was approved as the U.S. digital radio broadcast format over fifteen years ago. I, myself, was able to find one acquaintance capable of receiving HD Radio (in their car), and this receiver only handled FM.

Adoption has seemingly been low in the other direction as well. Though the airwaves near me seem flooded with broadcasts, the only HD Radio content is coming from the aforementioned station. Part of this is almost certainly because the standard itself is patent-encumbered bullshit from iBiquity3 instead of an open standard. Transmitting requires not only the encoder, but licensing fees directly to iBiquity. The public-facing language is very vague on the HD Radio website, but receivers also need to license the tech and I imagine if this was free they’d make a point of it (and there’d be more than three portable HD Radio receivers on the market).


Boing Boing is being sued over a hyperlink (external)

2018-02: The initial suit has been dismissed. Let’s see if Playboy keeps hitting, or if this is the win.

Well, this is bad. Playboy is suing Happy Mutants, LLC (parent company of Boing Boing) because Boing Boing linked to an article containing (Playboy’s unlicensed) copyrighted content. I know about this because I generally like the writing at Boing Boing, and I follow a handful of current and former staff. But this has nothing to do with liking Boing Boing or not – the linked article rightfully states that this ‘would end the web as we know it’. The web is built on guiding people from point A to point B, the hyperlink is a defining feature of the web. If content creators are afraid to use the power of the hyperlink to guide their viewers elsewhere… the web dies.

As a socialist content creator, my feelings on intellectual property are rather complex, but I know one thing to be true – if I violate intellectual property laws, that is my responsibility. Nobody who shows others my misdoings should be culpable. Happy Mutants, LLC has filed a motion to dismiss; lets hope the courts have some sense.