Digital Tipping Point: Dolby Linux wizard John Gilbert gives us a look inside the movie industry 13
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Digital Tipping Point: Dolby Linux wizard John Gilbert gives us a look inside the movie industry 13
- Publication date
- 2004
- Topics
- John Gilbert, Gilbert, John, Embedded Linux, Real Time Linux, Obstacles To Free Open Source Software, Supercomputers
- Publisher
- DTP Crew
This is one of many short video segments which will be added to the Digital Tipping Point (DTP) archive. Thanks to Thomas King, a writer for Linux.com and LXer, for doing the rough editing for this series of interview segments!
In this series of 21 interview segments, Dolby computer wiz John Gilbert talks about where Linux has penetrated the movie industry. And if anyone should know, it is this guy. John makes his living by using Unix and Linux to help make the magic of Dolby movie sounds and deliver those sounds to audiences. John makes a convincing case that Linux has found a home in the movie industry, and plans to continue living there for the foreseeable future. And this interview, shot in 2004, has certainly been born out in many respects by the passage of time as seen now in 2008.
In segment 12 (Tape 154~003), John says that your TV is a great example of a real-time device. Sound and video must converge right on time. There are soft real-time systems and hard real-time systems. An example of a soft real-time system is a video game console. If one frame is missed occasionally, it's not a big deal. An example of a hard real-time system is a robotic arm that is doing drilling. If the arm does not stop drilling, it will destroy the piece. eCos is a hard real time open source system. Linux is not yet a hard real-time operating system, John says. Bill Huey, who sat for a DTP interview right after this interview, does do hard real-time Linux work. He is putting parts into Linux that will allow for this really demanding work, such as flying United States F-22 jets. Up to this point, SGI has had its real-time systems in those planes, and SGI has something of a monopoly on those projects. He thinks that the US military probably uses Linux for small servers here and there; and also for supercomputers, as with Beowulf clusters.
In segment 13 (Tape 154~004), John says that a supercomputer is one that is 100x or 1000x faster than the average computer that you could buy on the street today. You can do that buy getting 100 or 1000 ordinary computers and hooking them up. Or, you can get specialized hardware. It's getting cheaper to just get old hardware. Linux is good for supercomputers. Switching topics, he talks about some of the problems with Linux. One of them is the lack of standards among Linux distributions. [Much of that has been resolved since this 2004 interview, but it is still an issue somewhat in 2008]. Another problem with Linux is dealing with vendors, who don't like the openness of Linux, such as ATI, which has closed source drivers that run on Linux. They are worried that if they opened that source code, they would lose their edge. Plus, they use some code that has been supplied by other vendors, so they don't own all of their code. Another problem with Linux is that you can't necessarily go to Fry's and buy lots of software for Linux that will just work. He thinks that it is a problem that the Linux community is not familiar with paying for software, and so there is little paid proprietary software written for Linux. He continues his thought on this topic in the next segment.
In segment 14 (Tape 154~005), John says that he thinks that the attitude of the Linux community will come around to paying for software. He switches topic to talk about uses for super computers. He gives as an example the work on the human genome and the mouse genome, particularly comparing chromosomes. Super computers are used for drilling for oil, weather prediction, genome work, looking for patterns of web traffic, earthquake prediction, military flight simulators, weapons design, nuclear weapons predictions and testing. Supercomputers are also used for understanding the behavior of stars, such as the earth's sun.
This footage is our raw rough-cut footage. It lacks transitions, music, special effectsor Finnish rendering. It is our "source code". Please feel free to rip, mix and burn this footage consistent with our Creative Commons license as disclosed on this page.
All of John Gilbert's interview segments can be found here:
http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv153_sf_01_john_gilbert_dolby_labs_nix_admin_001.ogg (segment 01)
http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv153_sf_01_john_gilbert_dolby_labs_nix_admin_002.ogg (segment 02)
http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv153_sf_01_john_gilbert_dolby_labs_nix_admin_003.ogg (segment 03)
http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv153_sf_01_john_gilbert_dolby_labs_nix_admin_004.ogg (segment 04)
http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv153_sf_01_john_gilbert_dolby_labs_nix_admin_005.ogg (segment 05)
http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv153_sf_01_john_gilbert_dolby_labs_nix_admin_006.ogg (segment 06)
http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv153_sf_01_john_gilbert_dolby_labs_nix_admin_007.ogg (segment 07)
http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv153_sf_01_john_gilbert_dolby_labs_nix_admin_008.ogg (segment 08)
http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv153_sf_01_john_gilbert_dolby_labs_nix_admin_009.ogg (segment 09)
http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv154_sf_02_john_gilbert_dolby_labs_nix_admin_001.ogg (segment 10)
http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv154_sf_02_john_gilbert_dolby_labs_nix_admin_002.ogg (segment 11)
http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv154_sf_02_john_gilbert_dolby_labs_nix_admin_003.ogg (segment 12)
http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv154_sf_02_john_gilbert_dolby_labs_nix_admin_004.ogg (segment 13)
http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv154_sf_02_john_gilbert_dolby_labs_nix_admin_005.ogg (segment 14)
http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv154_sf_02_john_gilbert_dolby_labs_nix_admin_006.ogg (segment 15)
http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv154_sf_02_john_gilbert_dolby_labs_nix_admin_007.ogg (segment 16)
http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv154_sf_02_john_gilbert_dolby_labs_nix_admin_008.ogg (segment 17)
http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv154_sf_02_john_gilbert_dolby_labs_nix_admin_009.ogg (segment 18)
http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv155_sf_03_john_gilbert_dolby_labs_nix_admin_001.ogg (segment 19)
http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv155_sf_03_john_gilbert_dolby_labs_nix_admin_002.ogg (segment 20)
http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv155_sf_03_john_gilbert_dolby_labs_nix_admin_003.ogg (segment 21)
If you like this segment, please consider typing up a summary for it and emailing that summary to Christian Einfeldt at einfeldt@gmail.com. Your work will be credited and posted on this page.
The DTP will be many, many films created by the global open source video community about how open source is changing their lives. We, the DTP crew, are submitting this footage for anyone to rip, mix, and burn under the Creative Commons Attribute - ShareAlike license. We welcome edits, transcriptions, graphics, music, and animation contributions to the film. Please send a link for any contributions to Christian Einfeldt at einfeldt@gmail.com.
Or, if you would like to contribute by directly transcribing this particular video segment, you can do so by going here:
http://digitaltippingpoint.com/wiki/index.php/Tape_154
and typing the audio as you hear it into the wiki. Please be sure to add the transcription for this segment under: Segment 004, John Gilbert
You can find other ways to contribute by going to our wiki front page here:
http://digitaltippingpoint.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
Thanks for viewing our video!
In this series of 21 interview segments, Dolby computer wiz John Gilbert talks about where Linux has penetrated the movie industry. And if anyone should know, it is this guy. John makes his living by using Unix and Linux to help make the magic of Dolby movie sounds and deliver those sounds to audiences. John makes a convincing case that Linux has found a home in the movie industry, and plans to continue living there for the foreseeable future. And this interview, shot in 2004, has certainly been born out in many respects by the passage of time as seen now in 2008.
In segment 12 (Tape 154~003), John says that your TV is a great example of a real-time device. Sound and video must converge right on time. There are soft real-time systems and hard real-time systems. An example of a soft real-time system is a video game console. If one frame is missed occasionally, it's not a big deal. An example of a hard real-time system is a robotic arm that is doing drilling. If the arm does not stop drilling, it will destroy the piece. eCos is a hard real time open source system. Linux is not yet a hard real-time operating system, John says. Bill Huey, who sat for a DTP interview right after this interview, does do hard real-time Linux work. He is putting parts into Linux that will allow for this really demanding work, such as flying United States F-22 jets. Up to this point, SGI has had its real-time systems in those planes, and SGI has something of a monopoly on those projects. He thinks that the US military probably uses Linux for small servers here and there; and also for supercomputers, as with Beowulf clusters.
In segment 13 (Tape 154~004), John says that a supercomputer is one that is 100x or 1000x faster than the average computer that you could buy on the street today. You can do that buy getting 100 or 1000 ordinary computers and hooking them up. Or, you can get specialized hardware. It's getting cheaper to just get old hardware. Linux is good for supercomputers. Switching topics, he talks about some of the problems with Linux. One of them is the lack of standards among Linux distributions. [Much of that has been resolved since this 2004 interview, but it is still an issue somewhat in 2008]. Another problem with Linux is dealing with vendors, who don't like the openness of Linux, such as ATI, which has closed source drivers that run on Linux. They are worried that if they opened that source code, they would lose their edge. Plus, they use some code that has been supplied by other vendors, so they don't own all of their code. Another problem with Linux is that you can't necessarily go to Fry's and buy lots of software for Linux that will just work. He thinks that it is a problem that the Linux community is not familiar with paying for software, and so there is little paid proprietary software written for Linux. He continues his thought on this topic in the next segment.
In segment 14 (Tape 154~005), John says that he thinks that the attitude of the Linux community will come around to paying for software. He switches topic to talk about uses for super computers. He gives as an example the work on the human genome and the mouse genome, particularly comparing chromosomes. Super computers are used for drilling for oil, weather prediction, genome work, looking for patterns of web traffic, earthquake prediction, military flight simulators, weapons design, nuclear weapons predictions and testing. Supercomputers are also used for understanding the behavior of stars, such as the earth's sun.
This footage is our raw rough-cut footage. It lacks transitions, music, special effectsor Finnish rendering. It is our "source code". Please feel free to rip, mix and burn this footage consistent with our Creative Commons license as disclosed on this page.
All of John Gilbert's interview segments can be found here:
http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv153_sf_01_john_gilbert_dolby_labs_nix_admin_001.ogg (segment 01)
http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv153_sf_01_john_gilbert_dolby_labs_nix_admin_002.ogg (segment 02)
http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv153_sf_01_john_gilbert_dolby_labs_nix_admin_003.ogg (segment 03)
http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv153_sf_01_john_gilbert_dolby_labs_nix_admin_004.ogg (segment 04)
http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv153_sf_01_john_gilbert_dolby_labs_nix_admin_005.ogg (segment 05)
http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv153_sf_01_john_gilbert_dolby_labs_nix_admin_006.ogg (segment 06)
http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv153_sf_01_john_gilbert_dolby_labs_nix_admin_007.ogg (segment 07)
http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv153_sf_01_john_gilbert_dolby_labs_nix_admin_008.ogg (segment 08)
http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv153_sf_01_john_gilbert_dolby_labs_nix_admin_009.ogg (segment 09)
http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv154_sf_02_john_gilbert_dolby_labs_nix_admin_001.ogg (segment 10)
http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv154_sf_02_john_gilbert_dolby_labs_nix_admin_002.ogg (segment 11)
http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv154_sf_02_john_gilbert_dolby_labs_nix_admin_003.ogg (segment 12)
http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv154_sf_02_john_gilbert_dolby_labs_nix_admin_004.ogg (segment 13)
http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv154_sf_02_john_gilbert_dolby_labs_nix_admin_005.ogg (segment 14)
http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv154_sf_02_john_gilbert_dolby_labs_nix_admin_006.ogg (segment 15)
http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv154_sf_02_john_gilbert_dolby_labs_nix_admin_007.ogg (segment 16)
http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv154_sf_02_john_gilbert_dolby_labs_nix_admin_008.ogg (segment 17)
http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv154_sf_02_john_gilbert_dolby_labs_nix_admin_009.ogg (segment 18)
http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv155_sf_03_john_gilbert_dolby_labs_nix_admin_001.ogg (segment 19)
http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv155_sf_03_john_gilbert_dolby_labs_nix_admin_002.ogg (segment 20)
http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv155_sf_03_john_gilbert_dolby_labs_nix_admin_003.ogg (segment 21)
If you like this segment, please consider typing up a summary for it and emailing that summary to Christian Einfeldt at einfeldt@gmail.com. Your work will be credited and posted on this page.
The DTP will be many, many films created by the global open source video community about how open source is changing their lives. We, the DTP crew, are submitting this footage for anyone to rip, mix, and burn under the Creative Commons Attribute - ShareAlike license. We welcome edits, transcriptions, graphics, music, and animation contributions to the film. Please send a link for any contributions to Christian Einfeldt at einfeldt@gmail.com.
Or, if you would like to contribute by directly transcribing this particular video segment, you can do so by going here:
http://digitaltippingpoint.com/wiki/index.php/Tape_154
and typing the audio as you hear it into the wiki. Please be sure to add the transcription for this segment under: Segment 004, John Gilbert
You can find other ways to contribute by going to our wiki front page here:
http://digitaltippingpoint.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
Thanks for viewing our video!
Credits
Please give attribution for this snip to DigitalTippingPoint.com
For credits for this segment and all segments for the DTP main film, please go to this website:
http://digitaltippingpoint.com/?q=node/12
- Contact Information
- Christian Einfeldt, einfeldt at g mail dot com
- Addeddate
- 2008-11-16 08:25:22
- Closed captioning
- no
- Color
- color
- Identifier
- e-dv154_sf_02_john_gilbert_dolby_labs_nix_admin_004.ogg
- Sound
- sound
- Year
- 2004
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