Chinese and IQ

Sometimes, explanations of Chinese characters remind me an IQ test. Lets look at ? for example. Here is it again, larger:

?

According to one book, you should be able to see a human profile here, according to another, it is a body with stomach and leg walking. Do you see them yet?

No?

How about the same character, but the way it has been written 3000 years ago (click on the image for more samples):

Better?

This Week in Twitter

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This Week in Twitter

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H.264 or VC-1?

Alex Zambelli has provided a simple rule of thumb in his Media Processing Workflow slidedeck:

–H.264 decoding is typically more CPU intensive than VC-1 decoding for the same resolution and frame rate
–In Silverlight 3: H.264 decoding requires about 15-25% more CPU time than VC-1 decoding with similar content properties

Good rule of thumb (for now):
–For HD video, use VC-1 to reach largest audience
–For SD video and smaller, use H.264 if quality gains are noticeable

This “(for now)” part is supposedly a hint that SL5 will/should/could feature GPU video acceleration. Now that would be really cool. With cross-platform video playback being one of the biggest (if not the biggest) forces to win Silverlight installation base, I wonder why this feature hasn’t got it into SL4 scope…