Broadcast Industry Links
Broadcast Standards
Digital Video Broadcasting Project
dvb.orgFounded in 1994, the Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) Project is an industry-led consortium of the world’s leading media and technology companies working together to design open technical specifications for digital media delivery. DVB specifications are leading digital TV standards in the world (by far).
Advanced Television Systems Committee
atsc.orgThe Advanced Television Systems Committee, Inc. (ATSC) is an international, non-profit organization developing voluntary standards and recommended practices for digital television in the USA. International adopters of the ATSC standards include Canada, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, and South Korea.
Association of Radio Industries and Businesses
arib.or.jpThe Association of Radio Industries and Businesses (ARIB) develops and promotes new radio systems for use in Japan. It is also responsible for the digital TV standards for Japan.
National Engineering Research Center of Digital Television
nercdtv.orgThe National Engineering Research Center of Digital Television (NERC-DTV) is the national intstitution in China, which develops all digital TV standards for China.
Future of Broadcast Television Initiative
fobtv.orgThe Future of Broadcast Television Initiative (FOBTV) is an unincorporated, not-for-profit association aimed at harmonising digital TV globally. Founding and current members include ATSC, DVB, NERC-DTV, ARIB, EBU, ETSI, ABU, ETRI, and the IEEE.
European Telecommunications Standards Institute
etsi.orgETSI developments, ratifies, and tests globally applicable standards for ICT-enabled systems, applications and services. ETSI is a European Standards Organization (ESO), and have a special role in Europe. This includes supporting European regulations and legislation through the creation of Harmonised European Standards. Only standards developed by the three ESOs (CEN, CENELEC and ETSI) are recognized as European Standards (ENs).
European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardisation
cenelec.euCENELEC is the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization and is responsible for standardization in the electrotechnical engineering field. "It it's got a plug, CENELEC is in charge." CENELEC is designated as a European Standards Organization by the European Commission.
DIGITALEUROPE
digitaleurope.orgDIGITALEUROPE was formed in 1999 as the European Information and Communications Technology Industry Association (EICTA) by consolidating two former European organizations, ECTEL and EUROBIT, which represented the information and telecommunications industries. Today, it is the leading trade association representing digitally transforming industries in Europe (including broadcast and TV). The infamous IEC 62216 (also dubbed "E-Book" or "eBook") is developed & maintained here.
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has several activities around media delivery and consumption on the Web going. These two are good entry points to find out what's going on. If you're a broadcaster, now is a good time to join W3C and make your voice heard.
Motion Pictures Expert Group
mpeg.chiariglione.orgThe home of MP3, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, JPEG, DASH, and CMAF.
TV-Anytime
tech.ebu.ch/tvanytimeTV-Anytime is a "hidden champion" of TV technology. This is the website of the TV-Anytime User Group, which also maintains the specifications. Where is TV-Anytime used? Check this out.
German TV Platform
tv-plattform.deThe trade association where players in the German TV and broadcast markets meet to agree technology profiles, and coordinate engineering changes.
Broadcast Regulation
German Federal Network Agency
bundesnetzagentur.deThe regulatory authority of Germany.
European Union Transparency Register
europa.eu/transparency-registerThis is a public website where organisations representing particular interests at EU level register and up-to-date information about those interests. Also features an alerts and complaints mechanism to enable anyone to trigger an administrative inquiry into information contained in the Register or suspected breaches of the Code of Conduct by registered organisations or individuals.
EPRA European Platform of Regulatory Authorities
epra.org"Regulation? Boring!" Make no mistake. Regulators are here to protect consumers (i.e. you and me). EPRA is where the regulatory authorities of the European Union meet and coordinate. As always in the EU, all information is public, so you can be in the know.
Broadcast Markets and Statistics
Audiovisual Portal of the European Commission
ec.europa.eu/avservicesNews and video materials published by the European Commission.
European Audiovisual Observatory
obs.coe.intThe European Audiovisual Observatory is an organisation of the European Union. It provides essential market and legal information on the audiovisual industry.
MAVISE database of TV companies and TV channels in the European Union
mavise.obs.coe.intMAVISE is a free access database on television channels and on-demand services and licences in 41 European countries and Morocco. Find the licensing country of audiovisual services available in Europe and their owners. Create lists of services active in Europe by running searches based on criteria of your choice. Explore the registries of licences issued by the European audiovisual regulatory authorities and download your search results as an Excel table.
Eurostat
eurostat.ec.europa.euStatistical office of the European Union. All data is freely available to the general public. Includes search, and visualisation tools.
Broadcast Technology Links
TV Without Borders
tvwithoutborders.comIf you don't have access to all the expensive standards documents, this is your source for MHP, OCAP, ACAP, and JavaTV information. Compiled, written, and maintained by Steve Morris.
Television with Linux
linuxtv.orgIf you have ever dealt with receiving TV signals in an embedded device, you will all but certainly have dealt with LinuxTV, which is a Linux kernel framework and user-space API for managing TV receiver hardware, and the resulting data streams.
History of Television Links
History of Television
wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_televisionA good starter for getting an overview of the history of television.
The Dawn of TV
tvdawn.comWatch the videos from John Logie Baird's Phonovision discs from 1927-8, skillfully restored by the ingeniously skilful Peter Smith.
Early Television Foundation
earlytelevision.orgFeaturing an (inevitably USA-centric) collection of their own, and pictures and information about early TV tech from around the world. I found their list of mechanical TVs to be exceptionally extensive.
IT Security Links
An Illustrated Guide to IPsec
unixwiz.netIPsec explained in detail.
Creating the Perfect GPG Keypair
alexcabal.comGetting rolling with GPG may seem as
easy as gpg
--gen-key
at first. While this is not untrue in
itself, there are a few more considerations when it
comes to making your keys and their management
long-lived.
OWASP Report Generator
owasp.org (OWASP Report Generator)The ORG (OWASP Report Generator) is a tool for Security Consultants that supports the documentation and reporting of security vulnerabilities discovered during security audits.
Tools List by the OWASP Phoenix Chapter
owasp.orgAn extensive list of tools for testing web apps, compiled by the folks of the Phoenix chapter at OWASP.
Guide to securing and improving privacy on macOS
github.com/drduhAm actively maintained, and in-depth guide to all aspects of security for installing and using macOS.
Cryptographic Algorithms Poster
internet-sicherheit.deA poster (PDF) showing an overview of which cipher-suites (cipher/key-size combinations) are still considered "safe". From 2014, but not that much has changed since them, so still useful.
How to zero a buffer
daemonology.net/blogSound trivial? It sure ain't if you want to do it securely, e.g. to remove all copies of a key from memory. Be sure to scroll all the way down, and also read part 2.
Computer & Software Technology Links
Git and Related Musings
Visual Git Cheat-Sheet
ndpsoftware.comClick on the entities to see what operations are available, and hover the mouse pointer over the operations to see a brief explanation. Remains useful even for the "git pro".
How to Write a Git Commit Message
chris.beams.ioA project’s long-term success rests (among other things) on its maintainability, and a maintainer has few tools more powerful than his project’s log. It’s worth taking the time to learn how to care for one properly. What may be a hassle at first soon becomes habit, and eventually a source of pride and productivity for all involved.
Git in Zsh
git-scm.com/book/Apple have moved away
from bash
because of
licence
"compatibility issues". If you have surrendered
(like me), and switched
to zsh
, too, you will want
some comfort features to make life with git (even)
easier.
Changing Author Info
help.github.comAfter the git forges introduced their "private"/"no-reply" email ID feature a while ago, you may be faced with the task of updating the author info on commits you pushed before the change. This how-to works for all git forges.
Oh Shit, Git!?!
ohshitgit.comGit gives you many freedoms. But with freedom comes responsibility, and ways to screw up. Katie Sylor-Miller has collected issues often faced by beginners, solutions for them, and has put everything in a brilliant write up.
Emacs, the Thermonuclear Text Processor
Emacs For Mac OS X
emacsformacosx.comThere's big debate about which flavour of pre-compiled Emacs binaries to get on macOS. EmacsWiki features some discussion, and there's lots of passionate debate out there on the Interwebs. This one touts itself as “Pure Emacs! No Extras! No Nonsense!”, and it's true. All other binaries contain patches and "improvements" of sorts, which will bite you eventually as your configuration evolves. Take this one, look no further.
ws-butler
github.com/lewang"An unobtrusive way to trim spaces from end of line." To the point and dwarfs all other options of trimming white-space by far.
Org mode for Emacs - Your Life in Plain Text
orgmode.orgOrg mode is for keeping notes, maintaining TODO lists, planning projects, and authoring documents with a fast and effective plain-text system. May seem a bit dire at first, but once you've experienced the productivity boost, you'll never want anything else again.
How to write a book in Emacs
masteringemacs.orgCan't have sexy looking docs for clients from plain-text notes? Eat this! Be sure to also check out the other great articles this site offers. Good stuff to speed up your learning curve.
Writing Specs with Org-mode
katherine.cox-buday.comSimilar solution as in "How to write a book in Emacs", but for system design specifications.
Howard Abrams's Blog
howardism.orgLots of useful Emacs stuff, and otherwise enlightening thoughts. Peek around!
Sacha Chua's Blog
sachachua.comLots of useful Emacs stuff, and otherwise enlightening thoughts. Peek around!
XML Stuff
XML Schema 1.1 – What you need to know
blogs.oracle.comSubject says it all. Concise, to the point, with examples.
MathML and WordML Quick Refs
data2type.deThe best MathML and WordprocessingML quick reference out there. Full stop.
Model-Based Systems Engineering
MBSE4U- Model Based Systems Engineering - Knowledge, Practice, and more.
mbse4u.comThe website of Tim Weilkiens, one of the masterminds behind MBSE, and SysML.
Modeling System Interfaces with SysML v1.3
pslm.gatech.eduSubject says it all: modelling system interfaces with SysML, and with a focus on ports and interface compatibility.
A Common Misunderstanding in Using Connectors
thaisysml.blogspot.deConnectors are the single most confusing topic for SysML beginners. This post is a short but good introduction.
How to Fail at MBSE
incose.orgLearn this presentation by heart if you plan to introduce MBSE in your organisation. If you already have introduced it, study it well to see where you could have failed, and where others have failed the same way you have.
A Model-based approach for the synthesis of software to firmware adapters for use with autogenerated components
berkeley.eduA paper describing an example SysML-based project with code generation for Simulink, C++, and FPGAs. A prequel to Berkeley's RISC-V BOOM and Chisel tools? May well be; I haven't checked whether there are any links.
A Representative Application of a Layered Interface Modeling Pattern
omgsysml.orgA paper on how to model protocol stacks in SysML.
Can SysML and UML model elements be combined in the same model?
sysmlforum.comYes, but with care (which described in this article).
Software Engineering
9 Anti-Patterns Every Programmer Should Be Aware Of
sahandsaba.comSubject says it all. You'll be nodding on every single one of them.
You Can’t Sacrifice Partition Tolerance
codahale.comWhy you can't break out of the CAP Theorem (Consistency, Availability, and tolerance to network Partitions), and why partition tolerance is not optional in dustributed computing.
Wiki Wiki Web
wiki.c2.comWard Cunningham still runs one of the first wikis ever. Many insightful articles on software engineering, programming, and working in the hi-tech industry. Be sure to also check out the insightful stuff on Ward's Cunningham & Cunningham, Inc. company website.
Quantity, Unit, Dimension and Type
linkedmodel.orgModeling physical quantities, units of measure, and their dimensions in various measurement systems is a much neglected area of system design, and software development. It is also a frequent source of major project disasters. But it needn't be. These vocabularies help you communicate physical quantities cleanly and safely.
History of Computers
Guidebook Graphical User Interface Gallery
guidebookgallery.orgRemember GEM 1.1? Or CDE 1.5? Marvel at screen-shots of yesteryear's graphical UIs (and wonder why so little has changed).
DigiBarn Computer Museum
digibarn.comIt's a barn, what do you expect?
General Interest Links
Rands in Repose management blog
randsinrepose.comMichael Lopp blogs about being an executive or manager in the hi-tech industry; from a practitioner's perspective. If this sounds anywhere near you, this is a must-read.
Fabian Helmich Photography
fabian-helmich.deIf you're in Munich, need some portraits of yourself, don't want any cheesy, standard, death-by-photoshop stuff, Fabian is your man.
Analysis of telephone numbers
numberingplans.comThis is not a reverse lookup. It is rather a lookup of numbering plans, i.e. it will tell you the country, service operator, type (mobile or fixed), and - for fixed lines - the location. No bells, no whistles, no ads.
Frank’s compulsive guide to postal addresses
www.columbia.edu/~fdc/postalEven in the digital age you will be confronted with postal addresses. Can't send a parcel by email, eh? The issue is that there are at least as many notations for postal addresses. What's the district in a Korean address? Where to put (if at all) the prefecture in a Japanese one? This page will explain all you need to know (and often a little more) about deciphering and creating postal addresses in almost any country's notation.
World Airport Codes
world-airport-codes.comFlying to Santa Cruz? But which one? Using the 3-letter airport code will put you in the right spot.