Webbersite's Blog

Quick Video Nerdout

2025-07-10T00:00:00Z

I just read SomeOtherStranger's blog post 2025/07/09 - Why the Web Still Needs Flash and I just wanted to chime in with my nerd knowledge on video codecs and containers.

NOTE, take this with a grain of salt, I'm mostly making educated guesses here!

Grain of salt taken.

By contrast, most video formats store the data for each frame individually. I'm guessing that compression may allow it to save on data cost if thre [sic] isn't much change between one frame and another...

Regarding the first sentence, this is only partially true. A codec designed for and used primarily by video editors, such as DNxHR, does save each and every frame individually. The reason for this is to make scrubbing through video faster (it's more technical than this, but the tl;dr is that it's easier for the CPU to render frames). However, videos using these types of codecs aren't seen/used online due to their massive file sizes. What is used is the H.264 codec (huh?) in a MP4 container (oh!), which uses interframe compression to only save changes between frames, and not each frame individually, therefore saving a lot of space. The VP9 codec (developed by Google), typically used in a WEBM container, performs similarly.

...but that doesn't really help much if there's a lot of change each frame.

You'd be surprised. H.264 also makes use of motion estimation, which saves even more space by simply saying "Move these specific pixels to the left” instead of needing to save a whole new frame or even just the changes between frames. A good explanation can be found on the /r/VideoEditing wiki.

The MP4 video is 1388 x 1080 (about HD) at 30 FPS, 2 minutes 49 seconds, and has a bitrate of 4.65 Mbits per second. It's [sic] filesize is 94.3 MB. The video is largely black lineart on a white background, with music and sound effects, and various action shots. It's hand-drawn frame-by-frame animation.

Not saying that it's impossible for an MP4 to get to that size, but you can get a video file significantly smaller than ~94MB by adjusting some settings using Handbrake or something. For example, using H.265 instead of H.264, saving fewer i-frames, etc. But I agree with what is said next...

Contrast that with the SWF, which is only 6 MB. 6 MB for the same animation, music and sound effects, while being able to be scaled to any size without losing quality... Which is that vector graphics obviously outperforms raster graphics. Hell, my logo and branding are SVGs I made in Inkscape! But vector bears the significant disadvantage of only being useable in very specific applications. Most people like to draw digitally, or take pictures of things, or shoot videos of the real world, which simply cannot be vectorized. I think it is part of the reason why Flash fell out of favor: people wanted to make and share things that were inappropriate for use with Flash.

Point is, there's still a valid use for Flash on the web and because of that it's a shame that there wasn't a proper replacement for it. But hey, at least we can still use Flash.

Agreed. Although Flash served a niche purpose, dropping it without a suitable replacement is unfair. Shout out Flashpoint Archive!

Book Review: 'Destroyermen: Into the Storm'

2024-12-14T00:00:00Z

The following abridged/introductory book summary and subsequent review are as spoiler-free and non-specific as I could reasonably make it. The review covers the first quarter or so of the story, so if you'd rather read the book totally blind, please do NOT read the summary.

I don't like fantasy.

Never did care for elves or dwarfs or magic or stuff like that. Even after playing Skyrim and a bit of Dungeons and Dragons when I was in high school (and enjoying them both!), the genre of fantasy has never really resonated with me.

So when I saw that Destoyermen: Into the Storm by Taylor Anderson was tagged as “alternate history” and “fantasy” on Goodreads, I was hesitant to give the novel a shot. But I had the Wikipedia page of the series in my Chrome bookmarks for who knows how long, so I thought that if my past self had thought the story was worth reading and consciously saved it, I might as well give it a go. I downloaded an EPUB from Libgen and started reading it on my phone. Little did I know that over the next several days I would be ravenously reading that little file until I had gone from its digital front to back.

A Quick-ish Summary

Click for spoilers...

Into the Storm is the first book in the Destroyermen series by Taylor Anderson. From the very first page, we are introduced to U.S. Navy Lieutenant Captain Matthew Reddy, commander of the antiquated, WWI destroyer USS Walker, in the middle of an intense naval battle. Accompanying Walker are a few other allied ships who are all trying to escape a Japanese fleet in the Java Sea, who have them outmanned, outgunned, and are slowly but surely catching up. Lucky hits from the Japanese guns slowly whittle down the scrappy American ships as they retreat until all that are left are the half-dead USS Mahan and the severely damaged Walker. Acutely aware that it would only be a matter of time before the two crews would succumb to a fiery demise at the hands of their wartime enemy, Captain Reddy desperately tries to think of any way out of their situation when something grabs his attention: some distance away, a powerful squall is brewing over the sea. Realizing that the rain would provide visual cover, he directs Walker and Mahan to go full speed ahead... into the storm.

After experiencing some strange phenomenon while passing through the center of the squall, the two destroyers come out of the other side to find that the deadly Japanese battleships who were just at their heels have seemingly disappeared. What's more, one of the enemy cruisers they had hit just before entering the storm had sunk… and her crew were being eaten alive by some kind of super-piranhas and a massive whale shark. The only survivor of the wreck is what appears to be an unconscious officer, who is taken aboard and locked up in the brig.

The seamen quickly learn that not only is the sea filled with endless amounts of man-eating fish, but the island is home to massive brontosauruses, technologically advanced velociraptor-like creatures, and absolutely no trace of human activity. Matt decides to split up Walker and Mahan so that hopefully one of them could find a port to repair their battle damage and replenish concerningly low fuel reserves.

Soon after separating from Mahan, Walker's lookouts are shocked to spot a massive wooden boat on fire, (as large as an aircraft carrier) while it is being attacked by several smaller ships that look straight out of the 18th century. Moving closer, the crew see that there is a heated battle going on between the lizards they had encountered earlier and furred creatures with long tails. Matt tries to keep his ship uninvolved in the fight, but when one of the boats peels away from the fight and starts to attack Walker, Matt chooses to destroy it, inadvertently choosing a side in the fight. With the destructive capability of Walker's (relatively) modern main guns and a hail of bullets, they obliterate all the lizard attackers on the wooden ship's massive deck. Stunned, the furred sailors come closer to Walker as she pulls closer to their ship, close enough that the crew can see the strange faces of the creatures they just saved:

"Any word from Mahan?" he asked over his shoulder.

"Nothing, sir."

"Very well. Mr. Scott, right full rudder. All ahead two-thirds. Let's see if we can pick up her trail." Even over the rising whine of the blowers, Matt heard the chattering exclamations of the creatures when Walker surged ahead. On impulse, he raised his hand palm outward and waved at the inscrutable faces.

"Upon my word!" Bradford exclaimed when the gesture was hesitantly returned by a few of the creatures as Walker peeled away.

What I liked :)

First, I'd like to start with what I really enjoyed most about Into the Storm. Mr. Anderson's strongest skill in his literary arsenal is his ability to write these intensely detailed, visceral naval battles that make me truly feel like I'm there, smelling the smoke of the guns and being soaked by the salty sea spray. I know that might sound really cliché and corny, but I am one hundred percent serious. Anderson includes the most minute of details in these fights, but not enough to slow things down by being too nitty-gritty. He keeps such scenes feeling punchy. I've only really felt that frenzied “page turner” urge from a handful of books, and Into the Storm is now one of them. Happily for me, there was more than one massive battle detailed in the novel!

Something that I wasn't expecting from this book, which has a large cast of protagonists, is that a good deal of time is spent with the secondary characters and having them interact with each other. Not in a comedy relief sort of way, but in ways that are significant to the plot. For example, if the captain said something like “we need to do this essential setup or repair ASAP”, the story would let whatever scene the captain was in come to a natural end, and within another scene or two, the personnel responsible for the task would get some “screen time” to figure out how the hell they'd do what they were ordered. This gives us a way to have their personalities be fleshed out. Since Walker and Co had a lot of stuff to do, this happened a lot, and you can watch the side characters develop over the course of the book.

What I didn't like :(

However, this does tie into one of the gripes I had. I realize now after finishing the novel that I should have expected it, but at around the two-thirds mark, the story takes on a somewhat “administrative” feel, with extended scenes of the head honchos just reporting in, planning, and concurring on what they should do for the last third of the book. I understand that it makes sense in terms of the story for them to have such a meeting, but it definitely felt dry reading through it. Not boring, just drab.

Also, I was a little let down by the lack of (in my humble opinion) enough scenes from the other species' perspective. There were several extended segments focusing on one of the more important creatures, but what about everyone else? What about their culture? The people demand more lore building! But I suppose there is only so much Taylor Anderson would want to include in the first novel of his fifteen (!) book series.

Final Thoughts

Overall, I would recommend you (yes, you!) crack open the digital pages of this book. Or actual pages, if your local library or bookstore has a copy. If you like WWII novels, alternate history novels, or the ever popular Japanese isekai genre, you should enjoy Into The Storm like I did!

How to Change the Owner's Name on a Canon EOS 20D

2024-05-18T00:00:00Z

Introduction

About a year ago, I had been struck by the idea of trying my hand at photography. I had always been surprised by the level of detail that came from pricey DLSRs, something that simply cannot be matched by my smartphone's camera. So, after about a week's worth of research and shopping around later, I took the plunge and ordered the camera that I currently use: a secondhand Canon EOS 20D. When it eventually came in the mail and I got my hands on it, its outward appearance looked just like all the cutting-edge cameras I had seen professional photographers use.

However, after using it for a few weeks, I started to see how the age on this twenty-year-old camera shows. After uploading my first dozen shots to my laptop, I noticed in the metadata something odd. Under “Owner's Name”, every picture I had taken was attributed to the late Nicholas Brezonik, who I assume was the previous owner of the camera. For the good part of two days, I tried searching online to figure out how to change the name, downloading (relatively) ancient software and combing through forum posts as old as the camera itself. Despite my best efforts, I could not find the solution.

Fast-forward to last week. I was bored one day after studying for my final exams, and my thoughts spontaneously wandered over to this issue with my camera. I thought to myself, "What if the problem is not due to the software being too old, but my laptop being too new?" Hours of experimentation later, I had successfully change the Owner's Name, something I thought was impossible! Nicholas Brezonik, whoever you are, if you're somehow reading this, thank you for such a well-maintained camera, and I wish you well.

Alright, enough about me, here's how I did it:

Prerequisites

A copy of a Windows XP 32-bit ISO. I used this file from the Internet Archive. You'll need torrenting software to download the file (protip: use qBittorrent!)
An installed copy of Oracle VM VirtualBox.
A copy of the EOS Digital Solution Disk Software from Canon India.
A copy of the Canon WIA Driver from Canon Europe.

Steps (with pictures!)

Setup the virtual machine (VM)

Once Installed, open Oracle VM VirtualBox. Click the green plus button, labelled Add. In the Create Virtual Machine window, under ISO Image, browse to where you downloaded the ISO image. The dialog box should recognize the software as Windows XP 32-bit. Then press Next.

Under Product Key, enter the product key. If you're using the version I linked, I have reproduced it here: MRX3F-47B9T-2487J-KWKMF-RPWBY. Then press Next.

Press Next through the next two screens.

Once setup is complete, the VM should start, and Windows XP should begin to install. The time it takes to install depends on your system's speed. My laptop has an SSD, so it took me about five minutes.

Install Canon Software Inside the VM

Once you arrive at the desktop in Windows XP, hover your mouse over to the VM toolbar on the top, and go to Devices > Insert Guest Additions CD image.... Back inside XP, go to Start > My Computer. Under the heading Devices with Removable Storage, the VirtualBox Guest Additions drive should be there. Double click to run and follow the installation instructions. Reboot when prompted.

Once rebooted, go to Start > Control Panel > Appearance and Themes > Change the Screen Resolution. Set to any value higher than 1024x768.

Hover your mouse over to the VM toolbar on the top again and go to Devices > Shared Folders > Shared Folders Settings.... In the Shared Folders window, click the Create Folder button on the right. In the dialog box, under Folder Path, navigate to where you downloaded the two files from Canon's website. For this example, I downloaded them into a folder on my Desktop called temp. Check the Auto-Mount tickbox. Press OK to close the dialogue, then OK when back in the main dialog.

Go to Start > My Computer. Under the heading Network Drives, you should see the folder that you selected. Open it, then drag and drop both downloaded files onto the Desktop.

Open Canon EOS Digital Solution Disk Software 29.0A.zip. Inside there should be a file called ksd290a_installer.exe. Run the file and follow the installation instructions (choose "Easy Install"). The installation process should take a few minutes. When the installer tries to install ImageBrowser EX, it might fail to download Microsoft Silverlight. For our use case, this isn't an issue.

Once complete, run k510ben.exe. Press Unzip. In the CANON folder that was created, navigate to 20DW540 > ENGLISH and run setup.exe. Follow the installation instructions.

Get your camera to talk to the VM

Turn on your 20D. On the camera, press the Menu button and set Auto power off to Off (so it doesn't power itself down while you use it) and Communication to Normal.

Now, turn off your 20D. Connect the 20D to the computer via a USB cable. It doesn't have to be a “genuine Canon cable” or anything, any will do.

Finally, Turn your 20D back on. On the bottom right of the VM toolbar, right click the icon that looks like a USB cable and check the box next to Canon Inc. Canon Digital Camera. Hopefully Windows XP will recognize it (it will play a sound and a "Found New Hardware" bubble will pop up). If it doesn't, turn off your 20D, unplug, and try again.

Once recognized, a Scanner and Camera Wizard might appear. Close it.

Configure with EOS Utility

Navigate to Start > My Computer > Local Disk (C:) > Program Files > Canon > EOS Utility > EU2 > EOS Utility and run EOS Utility.exe.

Click on Camera settings/Remote shooting. In the window that opens, click on the tools icon on the bottom right. Double click on Owner's Name to change it. Ta-da, you're done!