Wither Goeth Windows?

As our last post here for 2008, it seems fitting to discuss the fate of Windows and, indeed, the operating system in general. Vista as discussed here in Ode To Windows for example, has been pretty much a flop. I love the phrase incompressible failure in the article.

The decision to avoid Vista in DynaView systems was a good one.  On the other hand, Windows 2008 server (ironically sharing much of Vista’s core but little of its flashy facade) is poised to become the de facto standard server O/S.  Some even advocate its use on workstation desktops.

Another chirping chick is Google’s Chrome browser which intends nothing less than making the Operating System irrelevant. And, even Apple has gained some corporate share.

Whenever you start to think everything is cast in stone and the “big dogs” have a lock on the market, think again!

Interesting times for those involved in mainstream computer technology. Happy new year!

Basics of WLAN Antenna Selection

During the recent engineering and completion of several wireless LAN (WLAN) system, I realized that a common thread existed concerning the selection of antenna types in order to best meet stated design goals.

I have summarized the basics of antenna theory as it applies to this problem in a short illustrated white paper.

Although some familiarity with terms such as dB (decibels) will be helpful, the above paper should provide understanding for anyone with a basic techincal background. Anyone wanting a deeper understanding of decibels and RF power can review this Cisco discussion.

Megapixel Evidence

Most are familiar with the process of exporting captured video archive as an AVI file using the facilities built into DynaView. This process becomes a bit more challanging when dealing with megapixel archives. Often the area on interest is only a small part of the entire image. Converting a large number of complete megapixel or multi–megapixel images can result in unmanageably large AVI files.

A better process can often be used as follows:

1. Export the desired time interval from DynaView vPlay as a series of JPGs
2. Perform a batch crop operation using a program like XnView to select the desired area
3. Convert this cropped sequence to an AVI file using DynaView vMovie

Some further notes:

Try to use a standard crop size like 320 x 240 (CIF) or 640 x 480 (4CIF) to capture the area of interest.

It is possible to “follow the action” by cropping various sections of the exported JPG sequence with the same crop window size postioned differently.  This will appear as a jump cut in the final movie.

When converting a small crop area to AVI, try using vMovie to up-sample by 2X (for example, using 640 x 480 as the output size for 320 x 240 cropped JPG’s) during the conversion as this will often produce better results than expanding on playback.

Use the (free) DIVX codec from within vMovie to create smaller high-quality AVI files. DIVX is also an extremely fast compressor in comparison with any standard Windows codecs.

Always keep the original  video archive aside as part of the chain of evidence and bear in mind that the basic validation will be human affidavits confirming the continuity of that chain of evidence. Complete the entire process in one session and do not leave a window of time where someone else could make changes. Burn the results including the original archive on a DVD and keep it in a safe, with a lawyer, or on your person.

XP Service Pack 3 blocks .NET security patches

Many IP network solutions run on Windows XP and some of those use Dot Net. This article is worth review

http://windowssecrets.com/2008/12/04/03-XP-Service-Pack-3-blocks-.NET-security-patches

DynaView does not use Dot Net and DynaView SOC does not use XP Pro, so we neatly avoid this problematic issue.

Great System Demonstration

Some testing today has confirmed that it is possible to run a basic version of DynaView direct from an installation on a USB Key. The complete installation is well under 100 Megabytes so just about any key will work. Once this installation is made to the key (or copied to the key from any other running machine’s /nvr folder) it can be used by inserting it into any windows XP or better machine. Then, navigate to vMaster.exe and double click to start. Any module configurations and cameras licensing that were present will be lost but the system will work in 4-camera demo mode.

You will need to “re-configure” including resetting all module IP addresses which takes a minute or so. But, if your source for the install was a running machine on the same network, even the cameras data will be intact and valid except for the machine names and configurations of vCapture and other modules.

It is also possible to set up file-based demo cameras on such a USB key or even run VGen for live images.

Do bear in mind that some of the special facilites like CamPatrol and Scheduler depend on installation of windows services and may not run.

This is by far the quickest and easiest way to do a live demo short of bringing in a working machine.