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computers in Russia

summary

    This web page discusses computers in Russia.

• Olympics (Sochi XXII Olympic Winter Games)
• watching the Olympics online
• education (top colleges and universities)
• cracking
• technology used at the Olympics

computers at the Sochi XXII Olympic Winter Games

watching on the internet

    Who is watching? SOASTA is the official web and mobile testing partner for the Sochi WInter Olympics (and held the same role for the 2012 London Summer Olympics, as well as for the next 10 years of Olympics) reports that as of 12 February 2014:

1. United States 33%
2. Canada 23%
3. Russia 18%
4. Ukraine 2%
5. Australia 2%
6. France (less than 2%)
7. Germany (less than 2%)
8. United Kingdom (less than 2%)
9. Latvia (less than 2%)

    More data: Chrome/32 is the most popular browser, with more than 30% of traffic
    Internet Explorer (all versions) was the second most popular browser, with 19% of the traffic
    Mobile traffic accounted for 13% of all traffic, with Safari (iOS) at 9% and Android at 4%.

how to watch

    Streaming (U.S.): To watch the official NBC video highlights, go to nbcolympics.com. You must have a cable subscription to watch (Xfinity, Time Warner Cable, Direct TV, Dish, Verizon FIOS, COX, Charter, AT&T U-verse, Optimum, Suddenlink, mediacom, Cable One, WoW!, Brighthouse, RCN, and others).
    NBC Live Extra will actually give you your first 30 minutes of live streaming for free without logging in, followed by an additional five (5) minutes per day afterwards. You can use multiple devices to obtain a new free 30 minutes. Also, there will be a few free Olympic events each day, but not any of the popular events.

    Apps (U.S.): NBC Sports Live Extra app will stream more than 1,000 hours of content to smartphones and tablets. Download for iPhone, Android, and Windows Phone.
    NBC Olympic Highlights app delivers scores, highlights, and breaking news. Download for Android only.
    You must have a cable subscription to use either app.

    BBC (Great Britain): The BBC will stream 650 hours of free Olympics content from its website. You must have an British IP address, but you can fake that with a VPN (see below).

    CBC (Canada): The CBC will stream 12 feeds of free live event Olympics content from its website. You must have a Canadian IP address, but you can fake that with a VPN (see below).

    Avoiding national restrictions: You can avoid national restrictions (imposed by the International Olympic Committee) by using a virtual private network (VPN). An easy method is to use Tunnelbear, which will alter your IP address for $5 a month. Available for iPhone, Android, and Mac OS X or Windows. Note that if the Chinese, British, or Canadian governments detect you violating their terms of service, you may be blocked.
    Hola is a free VPN service originally intended to get around some nations being blocked from Hulu. It is available for Google Chrome, Firefox, iPhone and iPad, Android, and Windows.

    Broadcast streaming: There are services that will allow you to stream the live broadcast from NBC.
    U.S. citizens can sign up for Aereo for $8 a month.
    Another method for streaming live broadcast TV (more than 500 channels in multiple different languages) is FilmOn.

    Slingbox offers hardware to stream video from your TV or DVR to smartphones and tablets. The SlingBox 350 costs $180 and the SlingBox 500 costs $299. There is also a $14.99 charge for the smartphone app and another $14.99 fee for the tablet app.

    “This Olympics has been on forever. If I see one more figure skater twirling like she’s been flushed down a giant toilet, I swear I’m going to go to my local ice rink and push some kid over”, threatened Tabitha Owens of Spokane, Washington, according to Chicago Now.

computers in Russia

    This web page discusses computers in Russia.

    Internet country code: (ccTLD) .ru
    67,982,547 (20 June 2012) Internet World Stats

    The Apple Store offers Macintosh computers for Russia.

education

    Petrozavodsk State University, Karelia: http://petrsu.ru/Chairs/imo_e.html Faculty of Mathematics, Department of Computer Science

cracking in Russia

    Russia is employing high tech tools that can prevent terrorist violence, according to Anil Jain, a Computer Science and Engineering Professor at Michigan State University. Professor Jain’s specialty is Biometrics Security and he claims that the Russians are using computers with recognition software so sophisticted that it can match faces and fingerprints and even the pupils of the eyes to a computer database.

    “You have some people on the watch list adn the surveillance cameras are capturing the image and you would like to raise a flag if one of the persons on the watch list is caught in one of the videos,” Professor Jain commented. “I think in some ways they are correct in not revealing everything they are doing. We don’t want to tip off people.”

    Many people don’t realize that the Russians are watching everybody’s every move. “Using surveillance cameras, is somebody running, is somebody leaving a package, and then walking away, things like that,” Professor Jain explained.

    Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak, the official responsible for Olympics preparations, ranting that criticisms of Olympic preparations may have been from Western visitors deliberately sabotaging their hotel rooms to make Russia look bad, told journalists on Thursday, 6 February 2014, that their were cameras everywhere, saying, “We have surveillance video from the hotels that shows people turn on the shower, direct the nozzle at the wall and then leave the room for the whole day.” An aid pulled Kozak awat from Wall Street Journal reporters Paul Sonne, Gregory L. White, and Joshua Robinson, saying “We’re doing a tour of the media center.”

    Later that day Ilya Dzhus, Kozak’s spokesman, said “No such thing was ever said.” Dzhus attributed the report to fantasy, a joke, or possible mistranslation. “Hotels have video surveillance of entrances for security purposes and some rooms had video surveillance during construction. But never the bathrooms. You can check for yourself.”

    Jeff Miller of the Orange County Register opined, “I understand why this news was troubling, particularly to women, and I agree it’s grossly unfair. I mean, just think of the poor guy ordered to monitor my bathing routine while someone else was assigned the room of Lolo Jones.
    “But I’ve been here long enough now to conclude that, under the circumstances — the Olympics, with so much of the world watching — there’s no reason to fear the Russians. Just stay between the lines, do your job and you’ll be fine.”

    John Aravosis of America Blog speculated, “It’s difficult to accept the ‘terrorism’ argument for installing spy cams in the showers of Olympic guests. It sounds more like the Russians are fishing for opportunities to black mail athletes, media, and officials visiting the Olympics, and use that leverage some time in the future.”

    The Soviet Union was famous for video taping visiting dignitaries in bed with beautiful prostitutes and then using the video to blackmail the dignitaries. This practice famously backfired when Idi Amin Dada, former President for Life and dictator of Uganda, visited Moscow seeking a new sponsor as the British government cooled in their support of his regime. Amin was videotaped in a Moscow hotel with several very beautiful Russian prostitutes and then the next day warned that if Amin didn’t take the Soviet deal that the Soviets would release the videotapes to the public. Amin instead offered to purchase the tapes because he wanted to release them himself to show his population back home what kind of a stud he was.

4. Russia

    Russia accounted for 4.3 percent of the world’s attack traffic during the fourth quarter of last year, putting the country in 4th place. Russia’s share decreased from 4.7 percent in the previous quarter and 6.8 percent in the year-ago period.
    At least 40 companies including Apple, Facebook and Twitter were targeted in malware attacks linked to a cyber criminal group based in Russia or Eastern Europe, according to a recent Bloomberg News report.

—Top Ten Hacking Countries by Mark Milian of Bloomberg Technology, 22 April 2013, based on a report prepared by Akamai Technologies

    #4 Top Hacking Country. Russia. Falling from 6.8 percent in 2011 to 4.7 percent in 2012, Russia’s digital attack traffic is falling, but it’s still enough to slot this massive country into fourth place. according to ABC News for the last quarter of 2012.

overblown hacking news report

    The NBC news report about hacking in Russia has been roundly disproved. The expert who appears in the news report has released a statement that NBC’s turned it into a false misinformation piece and his company (Trend Micro) has released a detailed PDF outlining what really occurred.

    Fake hacking story: NBC attempted to scare people away from web sources for watching the Sochi Winter Olympics with the false claim that hackers will break into computers and smartphones. NBC News reporter Richard Engel eported from a Moscow coffee shop, claiming that his new laptop and smartphone were hacked in les than 24 hours. This test case does not generalize to the world. The reporter and expert had to actually go out and engage in unsafe methods and actively seek hackers to get their computers and smartphone hacked. You will not be hacked just by signing on to Olympics coverage websites. More info at Errata Security, CBS News, and iMore.

    Watch the original report for yourself above.

Nadya and Masha of Pussy Riot speak at Amnesty International

    Nadeshda Tolokonnokova and Maria Alyokhina dedicate their speech to the Russian prisoners of 6th May 2012 anti-Putin march. They were introduced by Madonna at the Amnesty International concert “Bringing Human Rights Home” at the Barclays Center, Brooklyn, New York, USA, 5 February 2014

    An alternative to the official Olympics world where Russian authorities’ biggest concern is taping over the Apple logo on laptops, tablets, and smart phones. Spend 20 minutes to listen to Madonna’s speech, followed by Pussy Riot’s speech.

computers at the Sochi XXII Olympic Winter Games

    NBC built entirely new studios to handle the broadcast and streaming media technologies for the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic Games. The studios were designed by New York-based ClickSpring.

    NBC used the example of new graphics that can show the speed and force of gravity on a bob sled run as an example of how to get viewers more engaged in the action.

    NBC will supply 1,539 hours of total coverage (more than the 2006 and 2010 Winter Olympics combined), with 536 hours for broadcast television and more than 1,000 hours of digital coverage, streaming 98 events live. At the Vancouver Olympics, NBC only streamed hockey and curling. At the Sochi Olmpics, NBC will stream all sports live.

    Cameras were provided by Sony, which has worked with NBC for eight Olympics. This includes more than 70 Sony HD studio and portable field cameras, as well as its F55 4K camera to capture footage at various benues.

    Lenses are provided by Canon.

    NBC’s International Broadcast Center will feature the Song MVS-6530 and MVS-7000 production switchers to originate the HD coverage. The NBC Olympics International Broadcast Center will have more than 500 Sony professional monitors, various professional audio products, and the NXL-IP55 IP live production unit. Sony’s Professional Services Group and Sony’s System Solutions team will provide support to keep the entire operation running smoothly.

    The broadcast coverage will use more than 60 EVS XT2 and XT3 HD Video Servers and 40 IP Directors for replay and other features.

    Avid will provide the software and hardware for content creation, media management, and storage, the seventh straight Olympics that NBC has used Avid products. The Avid Interplay Media Asset Management (MAM) system will manage the process of creating and distributing the content. The NBC Olympics International Broadcast Center in Sochi will use Avid Media Composer and Symphony editing systems connected to an Avid ISIS 7000 with 384TB of shared storage.

    Olympic venues will be equipped with a 64TB ISIS 5000, AirSpeed 5000, and Interplay Production systems, all connected to the NBC Olympics International Broadcast Center.

    AT the NBC facility in Stamford, Connecticut, the Harmonic MediaGrid shared storage and Spectrum MediaDeck integrated media playout server will be used for highlights. The technology will allow crews to quickly store and access event footage captured in Socchi, Russia, create highlights clips, and make them available for mobile devices and computers. The MediaGrid is integarted into NBC’s EVS workflows so that the EVS IPDirector systems can have immediate access to footage from any venue and any day of competition. NBC served up more than two billion page views at the previous London Summer Olympics.

    PESA provided the NBC International Broadcast Center in Sochi with a Cheetah 864XR coax and fiber HD video routing switcher for live and pre-recorded video feeds for local distribution and satellite feeds back to the United States for re-broadcast.

    ChryonHego provided 12 Lyric PRO-powered Mosaic XL for on-air graphics.

    IDS provided the results and timing interfaces, allowing NBC commentators to analyze the action with real time data and graphic interfaces.

    Russian telecommunications company Rostelecom delivered feeds from Sochi to AT&T, which in turn supplies the 55 HD feeds to the U.S> and 14 HD feeds back to Sochi from the U.S.

    Snell provided 25 Alchemist Ph.C-HD standards converters, which converted the 50Hz European standard to the 59.94Hz standard for U.S. television, while maintaining the quality and clarity of the HD images.

    Calrec provided audio consoles. Linear Acoustics provided UpMax Surround Sound Processors. And NEP (a long-time NBC mobile facilities provider) deployed five mobile broadcast units and two flybacks from its NEP Visions facility in the United Kingdom. NEP also provided staff for audio operational and technical managament services.

    ScheduALL provided the transmission and resource management for the seventh straight Olympics, orchestrating the logistics of people, equipment, locations, and transmission feeds.

    Cisco provided the routing and networking technologies, including its Videoscape Cloud based IPTV and DVR system.

    Eicsson provided MPEG 4 encoders and decoders.

    Brevity provided the technology for simultaneous transport and transcoding that allows NBC to render graphics on the fly while transferring those graphic files into the Avid DNxHD format for editing.

    Miranda provided infrastructure, KX, Densite, and iControl products.

    Cryadis provided real time event controllers.

    Bosch/Telex Adam provided intercom systems.

    More than 50 LiveU mobile playback units are used to transmit video over cellular networks at Sochi for NBC, CNN, the Wall Street Journal, and other news organizations.

    ClearCom provided communication systems at three of the venues, the Bolshoy Ice Dome, the Russian Gorki Jumping Center, and the Sanki Sliding Center.

    The Sochi XXII Winter Olympic Games are the first ever live-streaming coverage entirely in the cloud.

    The entire live and on-demand streaming process is managed by Windows Azure, working with Adobe and iStreamPlanet, all in the cloud. iStreamPlanet prvided the encoding for the streams.

    Akamai prvided a variety of products, including CDN, streaming, and security technologies. It has deployed more than 140,000 servers aroudn the world to handle the heavy traffic on the internet watching the Olympics.

    Adobe provided Adobe Pass to authenticate viewers for access to live streams and Adobe Primetime to deliver content to multiple digital platforms, including iOS, Android, Mac OS, and Windows through the completely redesigned NBC Sports Live Extra app and the new NBC Olympics Highlights and Results app..

    Adobe Primetime was used for dynamic ad insertion.

    Facebook and Instagram partnered with NBC to provide multiplatform coverage. In addition to integrating Facebook and Instagram content into the NBC Olympics primetime broadcast coverage, NBC Olympics will provide a variety of content and features, including video, to its Facebook page.