I received a tip regarding the VQF format. This page contains binary decoding modules capable of handling VQF data. Binary decoding support has already been added to the MPlayer and MPlayerXP projects. This might be a good jumping-off point for anyone interested in RE’ing this format.
Author Archives: Multimedia Mike
Google Taking Sides In License Wars
There are few things that annoy me quicker than a licensing war erupting on a free software project mailing list. Self-righteous geeks with dubious grasp on legal matters tediously dissecting the minutiae of different licensing terms. But I could not believe what I found when I asked Google to bring up the text of the GNU LGPL:
Sure, there are those who claim that ‘GPL’ is more commonly searched for than ‘LGPL’. But I see so few good conspiracies to latch onto, can’t you just give me this one?
PC-Less Internet Movies
The IMDb Studio Briefing constantly posts articles about how this or that media company is going to offer movies over the internet. Now, you are supposed to be able to get these movies without the bother of going through a PC:
TV Viewers To Receive Movies Over the Internet Without a P.C.:
Microsoft is partnering with movie download service CinemaNow to pipe movies to the TV sets of consumers over the Internet without a computer…
Automated Java De-obfuscation
If they value their intellectual property, responsible Java-developing software companies use some kind of code obfuscator as part of their build process. This way, there is very little chance that a Java class file will be unleashed that retains the original identifiers. One such Java source code obfuscator is called Retroguard. But can the tool be used for its opposite purpose?
As an aside, I need to point out some irony: I once took a Java course where the instructor claimed that Java is desirable to proprietary software outfits because it can be compiled, and IP implicitly guarded, whereas programs written in interpreted languages, notably Perl, need their source code redistributed. In fact, Java code is very trivial to decompile, whereas languages like Perl can be compiled for redistribution.