Flash 10.1 beta 2, Mac and Linux now available

Adobe has released an update to their beta Flash (GPU accelerated Flash).  They're up to Flash 10.1 beta 2.  Binaries are available for Windows, Mac, and Linux:
http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/flashplayer10/

With the latest nvidia drivers (on Windows 7) I saw quite a performance improvement with Flash 10.1 beta 1.  http://orsontyrell.blogspot.com/2009/11/flash-101-gpu-acceleration-non.html
Now that binaries are available for the Mac (Flash 10.1 beta 2) I'm able to do some similar tests.  I ran these tests on a MBPro that has an integrated GeForce 8600M GT.

Flash 10.0.42.34

Flash 10.1 beta 2, 10.1.51.66

 
Unfortunately I'm not seeing any gains in performance.  Playback of the 2012 HD trailer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hz86TsGx3fc) runs the CPU to around 45% with both Flash 10 and Flash 10.1 beta 2.

So what's the problem?  I suspect it's the nvidia drivers that are released by Apple.  I can't remember the last time I've seen a graphics driver update for OSX.  On the Windows side it seems there's an update every other month.  In my previous test of Windows Flash 10.1 beta, the drivers are what made the difference.  Upgrading from Flash 10 to Flash 10.1 didn't show any improvements, but after I upgraded the graphics drivers to the latest WHQL, I saw a huge improvement.  I'm hoping for an update to the OSX graphic drivers, but I'm not holding my breath.  In the meantime, this just gives us another reason to use bootcamp. 

Microsoft Surface + Dungeons and Dragons

This is probably years away, and something we'd only see at a convention or a game shop, but wow.... geek worlds are about to collide.


SurfaceScapes Gameplay Session from Surfacescapes on Vimeo.

The demo shows some really cool mechanics:

• fog of war
• combat calculations
• character selection
• spell lists
• inventory
• movement calculations

More info here:
part 1:
http://blogs.msdn.com/surface/archive/2009/12/08/bringing-d-d-to-microsoft-surface.aspx
part 2:
http://blogs.msdn.com/surface/archive/2009/12/16/new-gameplay-video-with-d-d-on-surface.aspx

TWiT video is available on the web, h264 HQ and LQ

On Demand TWiT has been around for a while with ODTV.me, but it's a low quality flash capture from fans.  Today we can get HQ and LQ video from several shows, produced from the TWiT crew.  Once an RSS feed is available I'm sure BoxeeHQ's TWiT plugin will get an update.  It looks like the video is h264 854x480 and 640x368.  I'm seeing video on Windows Weekly, TWiT, and Mac Break Weekly.

Windows Weekly:
http://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp4/twit.cachefly.net/video/ww/ww0134/ww0134_h264b_864x480_500.mp4

TWiT
http://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp4/twit.cachefly.net/video/twit/twit0224/twit0224_h264b_864x480_500.mp4

Mac Break Weekly
http://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp4/twit.cachefly.net/video/mbw/mbw0170/mbw0170_h264b_864x480_500.mp4

Google's search results show twitter feeds

Perhaps I'm late to the game but I just noticed this....
If you do a Google search for a twitter user and the word "twitter" you'll see a new display section of the user's recent tweets.  As time goes by the section will be populated with new posts and you'll get a scroll bar to move up and down the posts.  If you click the "Latest results" link you'll see a list of the last dozen or posts.  As new posts comes in the list is updated in real time.  After the twitter section you'll see the normal Google results.

Boxee Beta details, now with DXVA (DirectX Video Acceleration)

A recent blog post from Boxee gives details about the new public beta release due Jan 7th (they're still in alpha).  The most important detail in the announcement... support for DXVA.  What's so cool about that?  If your processor has problems displaying High Def video (720p, 1080p) then you may see some performance improvements with the CPU offloading video decoding to the GPU (your graphics card).  For example, if you have a blu-ray rip that's encoded 1080p your CPU alone may not be able to handle decoding, especially since Boxee's decoder doesn't take advanage of dual/quad CPUs, neither does VideoLan's VLC media player.  Instead of using Boxee/VLC you'd need to use something like ffmpeg's multi-core codec with Media Player Classic.  And for those of you with an ION based computer (netbook, HTPC, etc) you should see some benefits as well.  

Video from their announcement is here:
http://livestream.com/boxee

Sign up for the beta here:
http://bit.ly/boxeebetaea
 

DNS benchmark showdown: Google DNS, Open DNS, Comcast, and more. Using Google's new DNS tool

Google is providing a new DNS benchmarking tool for free.  Available in .dmg, .exe, .tgz.
http://code.google.com/p/namebench/

I ran the test a few times against my default ISP settings for DNS (Comcast).  Some example results are below.  I was hoping for better performance from Google's DNS, but perhaps I'll try again at a later time.  In my tests so far, my ISP's DNS usually comes in first or second (second to UU Cache-4).  At times Sprint and OnRamp will make it to the top.

Then again speed is not be everything.  OpenDNS has tons of cool features.  And as a side note, I'm using dd-wrt on a linksys router (default DNS settings) running the tests from a MBpro.

Adding video feed to Boxee, such as YouTube video

Be on the lookout for a new release of Boxee.  It should be any day now. 
In the current version, they make it easy for us to add content.  The steps are amazingly simple:

• Start Boxee
• Click 'App Box'
• Navigate to the 'My Feeds' tab
• Click 'Add New Feed'
• Type in the video feed's url.  For example if you'd like to add the YouTube video feed for The Computer Action Show, you'd use 'http://feeds.feedburner.com/computeractionshowvideo' without the quotes
  
• Check the Feed Type box for video
• Click OK

After that you can navigate to Applications -> Video and you should see the show's icon.  Adding audio is almost exactly the same, just select the appropriate Feed Type.

Requirements for a HTPC

My replacement powersupply, a Shuttle PC55 450W, sounds like a helicopter taking off.  It's a least 20db higher than the stock 350W.

It's getting long in the tooth so now I'm thinking about a new HTPC.  My must-have features:

• quiet, I don't mind a small amount of noise.
• 1080p playback of h264.
• small, shuttle size would be acceptable.
  
• good video graphics, either with ION or a PCI Express slot.  I'd like to use the GPU for flash acceleration.
  

I'm considering something extremely small, something like ASUS's EEE Box 1501, http://www.pcper.com/comments.php?nid=8027

[UPDATE] The pc55 isn't as noisy as I thought.  I had a cable rubbing against the fan, ugh.