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At work, we’ve been developing a custom camera recording solution for the past 4 months. Essentially, it’s a system to provide a web-based interface to record a number of IP cameras, transcode the videos, and output the videos to a variety of the web applications we use (Moodle, Drupal, etc.) The cameras in question are Axis Q1755 cameras, which are really intended for use as HD security cameras and not in the studio-type environment we have here. (Neither I nor my department was involved in camera selection, and those who were have serious second thoughts.) In any case, these cameras are a continuous source of frustration for us.

H.264 Support

The h.264/RTP support in these camera doesn’t seem to fit to any real standard.  Multiple clients have complained about the malformed h.264 stream coming from these cameras.  (The I-frame numbering seems inconsistent, among other things.)

Hardware Capabilities

The manual claims the camera supports a maximum of 10 clients.  In our testing on a GigE network, video quality began to degrade at 3 Unicast clients (720p capture mode, h.264 streaming, GOV length of 32).  Looking at the CPU load on the cameras, load averages exceeded 5.0 with 3 clients.  This is completely unacceptable for our needs.  So we thought we would turn to multicasting.  We even called networking, confirmed that the network was setup for multicasting, and got a multicast IP allocation.  Seems that would fix things up, right?

Multicasting

Multicast support is an adventure.  Several readings of the manual found the only documented multicast capability was on Windows with IE and an Axis ActiveX control called Axis Media Control (AMC).  AMC, of course, requires administrator privileges to install.  Even that would leave Linux, Mac, and Firefox users in the cold.  I figured we were just missing something and we should contact AXIS Support.  Big mistake.  Big waste of time.  The response to the initial inquiry was, essentially, a nice RTFM:

Thank you for contacting Axis Communications. My name is <cut> and I will be happy to assist you today. The Axis Q1755 has multicast enabled by default, where as some of our older units required you to enable multicasting.

The manual is a good place to start
http://www.axis.com/files/manuals/um_q1755_35572_0905.pdf

On page 11 and 12 explains ways to pull the multicast stream from the camera.

Best regards,
Axis Customer Services

Ok, I figured that maybe they get a lot of people who haven’t read the manual.  Or maybe I missed something.  I reread the relevant section of the manual, but found nothing regarding standard RTP/multicasting support.  I typed up a longer description of the steps we had taken and asked about the location of a multicast-ready SDP file from the camera.  Their response, in its entirety, reads:

The Axis Q1755 has a configuration page for Multicasting.
http://<IP>/admin/config.shtml?group=Network
Under the section Network RTP R0:

Best regards,
Axis Customer Services

Clearly, this was what I asked, since I had included the current value of our multicast settings in a previous message.  Once more, I attempt to elicit useful information from Axis support.  Imagine my surprise when I received an informative, if disappointing response:

I have found another case which has this to say about multicasting.

Unfortunately RTP multicast using VLC doesn’t work on the new generation of products running firmware version 5.xx (like the Axis Q1755). Although multicast is only supported using AMC and Windows Media Player.
AMC is only available with Internet Explorer.

Best regards,
Axis Customer Services

In other words: we took out an industry standard and substituted our own homebrew multicast “solution” that only works with IE.  Thanks, Axis.  Removing functionality is always a market winner.

Conclusion: Don’t use Axis products unless you’re happy doing things the “Axis way.”  Forget industry standards.  With a little luck, this will be the last time I work on a project involving Axis cameras.  Fortunately, I think those who are making the buying decisions have seen the problems and will start looking at alternative suppliers.

Axis, and others: vendor lock-in = bad.  You might think it helps.  Think again.

The Ubuntu Women group is in the process of selecting a new leader.  Currently, testimonials are being accepted for the 3 candidates (Amber Graner, Melissa Draper, and Penelope Stowe).  Check out these talented women who seek to break some of the gender barriers in the Ubuntu community: http://wiki.ubuntu-women.org/UbuntuWomen/LeadershipNominations/January2010/

Generally speaking, I try not to push my ego on here too much. It’s big enough on its own. However, I feel like this is a pretty major accomplishment for myself, and I haven’t posted in a while, so I thought I’d throw it up there. As of this past Friday, I am now a Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE)™! This is without a doubt the hardest test I’ve taken, as a “practical” (hands-on) exam. No multiple-choice guessing here.

I’ll probably lean towards working on an LPIC-1 certification next.

I had the privilege of receiving an early copy of The Art of Community by Jono Bacon for review.  It’s taken a little longer than I had hoped to get through it, but that’s by no means a reflection of the book.

“The Art of Community” tackles a very difficult question in the Open Source world: how do you build a strong community around your project?  Jono addresses this by using anecdotal evidence of good community organization, and discussing the facets that apply to community development.  Jono’s varied experiences are shown through anecdotes about the Ubuntu community and other communities he has participated in.  The stories he shares are concise and clear, but demonstrate their points effectively and thoughtfully.  Jono’s writing skills are first-rate, with strong points made clearly.  He builds the community idea from grassroots to the enterprise and shows how community participation can help — and harm — at each step along the way.  It’s obvious that Jono knows what he’s talking about, and he communicates it well.  I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in the dynamics of a community or any project leader looking to build from the ground up.

I’m very much inspired by the work that’s been done out in Athens by Free IT Athens.  They provide free/low-cost IT services to low-income families and community organizations in the city of Athens, GA.  In their words:

Free IT Athens is a group of like-minded citizens who realize that computers are a necessary component of everyday life. We believe that everyone deserves access to low-cost computer equipment and computer-related services. Our goal is to provide access to information technology resources to Athens-Clarke County residents and organizations. We also aim to create well informed advocates in free software and open information technology.

I’m interested in helping/starting a similar organization here in the Atlanta area.  I know there are a lot of deserving individuals and community organizations, and it provides a great opportunity to showcase the strengths of open source software.  Unfortunately, there is no way I can get this off the ground myself.  I’m looking for some more individuals who might be interested in a meeting (either in-person or via IRC/dim dim/etc.) to discuss the feasibility and planning for such a group.  This (hopefully) serves as my “feeler” for others who might be interested in participating in/organizing such a group.

[NB: Obviously I am a man, but if anyone believes I can't comment on sexism because I am not female, well, look up the definition of sexism.]

Mackenzie over at Ubuntu Linux Tips & Tricks has called attention to the greatest dark spot on the face of the FLOSS Community: a man who calls himself MikeeUSA.

This “man” has been posting sexist, misogynist, and violent comments on blogs in the FLOSS Community advocating rape and violence towards women.  His behavior is, to say the least, nauseating and despicable.  Worse, the “man” is a coward who hides behind pseudonyms and tor in protecting his identity.  Whether he really feels the way he does or he gets his jollies on trolling in this dirty manner, he is no better than the likes of Hitler and Stalin.  Needless to say, comments by him on my blog or any site I work with (e.g., LinuxQuestions.org) will not be tolerated.

That being said, I thought today would be a good day to address my take on the numerous issues of sexism in open source that have been going around lately.  I’ll first discuss a few points brought up via Mackenzie’s link to the Geek Feminism Wiki, which I wasn’t even familiar with until today.

• Hoss Gifford’s Flashbelt Presentation: Hoss’s presentation clearly presented a sexist message which was inappropriate for the venue.  It was unprofessional and disappointing.  That being said, it didn’t seem (to me) to be anything worse than immature attention-getting, and I doubt it reflects his personal views towards women.  (Or at least, I hope it doesn’t.)
• Richard Stallman’s emacs virgin joke: It was a joke, and a bad one at that, but it was delivered by RMS.  Who has ever expected anything politically correct from him?
• Mark Shuttleworth’s Keynote: While his comment was probably politically incorrect, it was hardly sexist to me.  In fact, I doubt anyone would have noticed were it not for all the other gaffes made at conferences this year.  Are we now asking every statement open source leaders make to be run by legal?  Maybe his comments were misinterpreted, or I just interpret them differently than others do.  What I do at work, and what I do in the open source community, can be VERY hard to explain to my fiancee.  From his perspective, this is “hard to explain to girls.”  This is not to say that women are not both valued and welcomed in the open source community, but it is more about the technical nature of the work and that being a doctor or a lawyer or a banker is easy to explain, and being a contributor to an open source project is not.  (I am in no way suggesting that Mark Shuttleworth’s comments were appropriate, only that they stem from common usage, and I don’t believe they reflect a sexist attitude.)

I fully support the movement to reduce sexism in the FLOSS Community, and I welcome and encourage the participation of women in the open source community.  I hope the proportions continue to normalize, and I don’t intend to offend by posting these views.

All that being said, I think that it’s inappropriate to expect someone to use “he slash she” every time they want to refer to a person in a speech.  The political correctness involved will quickly overwhelm and swamp the efforts that are being made elsewhere.  If we are to spend all of our time thinking about being politically correct, there would be no time for any forward movement, both technically and socially.  The idea that terms like “guys” are sexist is one I cannot wrap my mind around.  Show me a list of suitable replacement words that doesn’t make a presentation sound stilted and detract from the central idea, and only then can we expect ideas to change.

As for those who are refusing to use Ubuntu over Shuttleworth’s “remark”: overreact much?  It’s not like the Ubuntu wallpaper has nudes of women on it.  Perhaps when an attitude of discrimination is demonstrated, then it will be time for a boycott.  Until then, words are words and actions are actions, never confuse the two.

Edit: I have earned myself a comment from MikeeUSA, which is interesting in that he seems to be seeking out a fight.  Big surprise.

In a lot of circumstances, it can be useful to have a wide breadth of knowledge: that is, to know a little about a lot of things.  It’s useful in my job, where I am the System Administrator/DBA/developer/etc.

That being said, I feel like I need to increase my depth of knowledge in one or more areas in order to be more useful to the Open Source and Ubuntu communities.  I feel as though my contributions are not as significant as I’d like them to be, but I’m also not sure in which direction to take them.

So how can someone who knows a little about a lot learn a lot about a little to be more useful in the community?

OfficeMax had listed a mediocre 19″ widescreen LCD from AOC for a “Clearance” price of $53.74.  A friend of mine ordered one yesterday, but has since received a notice that his order was being canceled as that price was an “obvious typographical error.”  For one, that price is not THAT exciting for a generic 19″ monitor, and secondly, they did list it as clearance.  I do not believe that a company should be able to arbitrarily cancel orders because they decide that a price THEY set is no longer the price they wish to sell them for.  Essentially, they saw a number of customers rush to buy these and decided “hey, we could have made the price point higher — let’s cancel the orders and jack up the price!”

OfficeMax: congratulations.  I will never again shop at your store, regardless of price or convenience.  Staples and Office Depot will be the only suppliers of office supplies for me.  Hopefully, someone will file a class-action suit against you for this.  This is a classic bait-and-switch routine.  Cheap, unethical, business practices.

Details at SlickDeals: http://forums.slickdeals.net/showthread.php?t=1579105

As you may have noticed, my site (Tuxteam.com) has moved back to Wordpress.  While I still support Drupal (and use it at work), it did not meet my needs for my site.  Specifically, the ability to create per-tag feeds was lacking, and it used a LOT of RAM for such a simple site.  (This site runs on a Linode-360.)  The theme is a stock community theme, but I hope to be switching that around some in the near future.  I’m also going to be starting a couple of new things on here, but we’ll see how those work out.

Today, Google sent a C&D to Cyanogen, the maker of one of the most popular replacement firmwares for the Android platform. His firmware is based on the official Android firmware, but provides a few new features, like direct-dial shortcuts on the home screen, more home screens (5 by default) and root access.

The root access allows tethering from a notebook computer, so I can get 3G internet on something where I can actually read most of the sites. Looks like I might have to consider another platform.

Google: nice way to show how you can use FOSS to choke off an active development community. You should update your site where it says “Do no evil” to be “Do no evil, unless it makes even more money.”