Recent content by bhobba

The thread is shut. Here's a comparison that might help. Remember geometry from school? Points have position but no size and a line length but no width. Such do not exist. They are abstractions. It talks about points and lines that exist in theory but not in the physical world. They're...

In Australia, we are in the transition stage of moving to the recommendations of the Bolognia process. GRE is not particularly relevant. You do a two-year Master of Research if you have a bachelor's or a master's with a credit average. If you get a credit average on that - preferably better -...

Hi All I just finished the following course on Einstein and Relativity: https://www.edx.org/learn/humanities/harvard-university-the-einstein-revolution It is especially interesting as it goes into the details of how he differed from Poincare. I was fascinated by some of Poincare's...

High school graduation will mean nothing in the future - it is like that in Australia, without going into the details. Apprentasips will be merged with degrees, e.g. an electrical apprenticeship and an electrical engineering degree (the professional bodies are already looking at how it would...

A good thesis to read IMHO; relates to mathematical issues of Quantum Mechanics. I sometimes link to it when Rigged Hilbert Spaces are relevant to a discussion; Quantum Mechanics in Rigged Hilbert Space Language by Rafael de la Madrid Modino: http://galaxy.cs.lamar.edu/~rafaelm/webdis.pdf The...

A must-tourist destination if you visit Australia: https://www.savannahway.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Katherine-7-day.pdf Travel by the Gahn for an unforgettable experience: https://www.journeybeyondrail.com.au/journeys/the-ghan/ Believe it or not, it has two university campuses, part...

By choosing the right degree, anyone can easily get a Commonwealth Supported Place (CSP), which means they are subsidised. It is even easier if you are part of a disadvantaged group like Aboriginals. It is degrees like optometry, pharmacy, and physiotherapy that don't have enough CSP places...

Yes, the government charges and subsidises its citizens. However, overseas students pay more than the actual cost. In a sense, ripped off is the wrong word - the institutions can charge what they like. They charge international students more because the government does not pay them enough...

No. They use it as a cash cow. Far from everyone in countries like India goes to Australia; those that do get a good education, but are ripped off. Still if you think the quality of education is worth the cost is a personal decision. The 35th rated university in the world just up the road...

You put Melbourne University in there, so you must be considering Australia. Australia, known for its love for international students, offers many opportunities. Our universities have a high-quality education ranked third in the world after the UK and the US. However, we love to milk...

For those interested, here is a paper on an actual AI Codec (not just one I dreamed up): https://arxiv.org/abs/2202.04365 Also, here is another take on preprocessing by ISIZE, this time including how it can be used to implement encoding ladders that most streaming services use...

OK, an actual codec has been detailed using AI. It performs well, although the modern Codec VVC is superior in some circumstances. Can we do better with an entirely AI codec? We will assume our source is in a standard format used for mastering: Apple Pros-res 10-bit 4:4:4 at 50 frames per...

I read an interesting article on progress in making transmission lines more efficient: https://reneweconomy.com.au/super-cheap-transmission-upgrades-could-double-capacity-and-open-floodgates-for-renewables/ While, of course, we do not discuss politics here, this new technology has many...

In the insights article, I did on how 8k video can be distributed at internet speeds we have usually access to these days, I mentioned LCEVC: For more details see: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9795094 It is a very effective technique with older codecs, but with newer codecs like VVC...

The easiest way to understand modern codecs is to look at the most common one in use today and the one most other codecs are based on, H264: Since then, several codecs have been developed and are in use (HEVC, VVC, AV1, EVC, etc). A big problem arose with licensing. As codecs became more...