I am posting this in case someone else is doing the same searches I am.
I am trying to find details on the Insta360 ONE X2 file formats for photos (.insp) and videos (.insv). They contain meta-data I’d like to be able and parse to determine what kind of files they are. Going by filename is not enough.Th
This came up again today when someone contacted me with a ONE X2 video that was recorded in Bullet Time mode. It was not meant to be, but because the file is saved that way, the Insta360 Studio program will not allow reframing/editing the video.
Insta360 support (via app chat) has an auto responder if you ask about changing Bullet Time files to normal videos, so they have a way to do it — if you send them the files.
In the case of Bullet Time, is is recorded at 100 fps in 3K mode. It stores both lens videos in the same file. This is the same format used when recording normal 360 video at 3K / 100 fps. It appears only the meta-data is making the file appear one way or the other.
When you slow down video by increasing the time between each frame, you get chunky video. To get smooth slow motion, the video is recorded at a high frame rate. For example, instead of a normal 30 frames per second like US TV, the video might be recorded at 120 frames per second. Now you can slow it down to 1/4 speed and still be displaying 30 frames per second.
But what if you have footage that was not shot at a high frame rate and you still want smooth slow motion?
AI video processing can take care of this. Below is a short clip I recorded.
On the left is the original video slowed down in a video editor. Notice the pauses between each frame.
On the right is the same video, processed by Topaz Labs Video Enhance AI, where it CREATES frames in between the ones in the original video! Check it out then I’ll add some more details…
What did you notice? Did it look good?
Watch it again, and this time, focus on the wheels of the car that passes on the left side. Also pay attention to the lettering on the side of the white van on the right.
Notice the defects? The AI does pretty amazing things, but still has artifacts that let us know it’s being processed.
2025-04-23 – adding sections for the X5 and GPS remote, and some placeholder sections in case anyone contributes.
If you have found any bugs, please leave a comment with the version and details and I will add them to this list. As workarounds are discovered, I will update this list.
As a new version of firmware is released, these bugs will be re-tested. When they work for some, and not for others, a note will be added to that effect.
GPS Action Remote
1.0.2.10 (unknown release date, checked on 4/23/2025)
TBA – if anyone contributes.
X5
2025-04-22 – v1.0.0
TBA
2025-04-24 – v1.0.2
TBA
Legacy Devices
X4
TBA – if anyone contributes.
X3
TBA – if anyone contributes.
ONE X2
2022-04-26 – v1.0.51
Open WiFi – a poorly implemented WiFi system has the camera broadcast itself as a WiFi hotspot to anyone within range, and allows users that know the default WiFi password all X2 cameras have to access and download any files on the memory card from a web browser… or worse. (Suggested by commenter, yt)
Screen Auto Sleep – 5s timeout regardless of settings. Sometimes “1min” and “Never” appear to work, but screen keeps reverting back to around 5s before going black. (Originally reported in 1.0.41_build1)
USB-c connection to iPad Pro unstable. Currently is not allowing files to be downloaded. Tested with an iPad Pro (11-inch) (3rd generation). (Reported in 1.0.51)
GPS Smart Remote
1.0.8.2
“Camera’s remaining battery” always shows empty, regardless of charge level of camera. Battery indicator for GPS Smart Remote seems to be working.
5-20-2022: IMDB, blogs and other sites with comments all seem to have folks reporting that this was called “Project Blue Book” when they saw it. I have also found one reference to it being called that for the United Kingdom release. If anyone can find proof it was ever called that in the U.K. or anywhere else, please leave a comment. Until then, I guess this is just a mass false memory/Mandela Effect…
I have memories of watching a late-1970s TV series called Project Blue Book. This would have been how I first learned about the government’s actual investigation in to U.F.O.s. Here is the wikipedia entry about the real government project:
Not too long ago I saw something about a new TV series called Project Blue Book and I had wondered if it was a remake/reboot of the 1970s one. I have yet to see any of the episodes, but here is the wikipedia entry about this TV series:
I have certainly heard much more about the real Project Blue Book over the years, thanks to seeing the occasional show about U.F.O.s. When it was brought up, I always through about that 1970s TV series.
As far as the series goes, I don’t remember much about the actual episodes, except it seemed they were always debunked by the end of the show. I remember one that shared the story of how a U.F.O. blasted the hood of a car. By the end of the series, it was declared a hoax, and they showed that the burn marks on the hood had been made with a road flare or something like that.
So why this post now?
The other day, I saw a reference on Mastadon to “project bluebeam” — whatever that was. I wanted to respond with a link to the TV series for Project Blue Book, and make a reference to “liking the original project better.”
There is indeed a wikipedia entry for the TV series I was remembering, except it was listed as Project U.F.O. — which I had never heard of. It did include a note:
Also known as
Project Blue Book (in some countries)
-wikipedia entry for Project U.F.O.
…and the wikipedia page for “Project Blue Book (TV Series)” goes to a page about the new series.
Apparently Project U.F.O. must have been used outside of the U.S.A. Or not.
A quick YouTube search led me to a copy of the show, recorded over the air from a Chicago, Illinois TV station:
As soon as the video began, I remembered that opening sentence about Ezekial and the wheel. (You know, that passage in the bible about him seeing a U.F.O. We can discuss the passage in the bible that discusses the unicorn sometime, as well…)
This informed me that at least in Chicago, the show aired as Project U.F.O. (and I noticed the intro did not make any reference to Project Blue Book).
Asking around (online), I found folks who grew up on other parts of the U.S.A. that also saw it as Project Blue Book.
I am posting this here to see if any of my U.S.A. readers were old enough to have seen this show, and could tell me what it was called where you saw it (and please let me know where you saw it).
It’s interesting thinking about a show airing in different regions using different titles.
UPDATE: Looks like others saw it air at Project Blue Book. Look at he IMDB reviews…
The top article on this site for the past 5 or so years has been a simple C tidbit about splitting 16-bit values in to 8-bit values. Because of this, I continue to drop small C things here in case they might help when someone stumbles upon them.
Today, I’ll mention some redundant, useless code I always try to add.,,
I seem to recall that older specifications for the C programming language did not guarantee variables would be initialized to 0. I am not even sure if the current specification defines this, since one of the compilers I use at work has a specific proprietary override to enable this behavior.
You might find that this code prints non-zero on certain systems:
int i;
printf ("i = %d\n", i);
Likewise, trying to print a buffer that has not been initialized might produce non-empty data:
Because of this, it’s a good habit to always initialize variables with at least something:
int i=0;
char message[42];
...
memset (message, 0x0, sizeof(message));
Likewise, when setting variables in code, it is also a good idea to always set an expected result and NOT rely on any previous initialization. For example:
int result = -1;
if (something == 1)
{
result = 10;
}
else if (something == 2)
{
result = 42;
}
else
{
result = -1;
}
Above, you can clearly see that in the case none of the something values are met, it defaults to setting “result” to the same value it was just initialized to.
This is just redundant, wasteful code.
And you should always do it, unless you absolutely positively need those extra bytes of code space.
It is quite possible that at some point this code could be copy/pasted elsewhere, without the initialization. On first compile, the coder sees the undeclared “result” and just adds “int result;” at the top of the function. If the final else with “result = -1;” wasn’t there, the results could be unexpected.
The reverse of this is also true. If you know you are coding so you ALWAYS return a value and never rely on initialized defaults, it would be safe to just do “int result;” at the top of this code. But, many modern compilers will warn you of “possibly initialized variables.”
Because of this, I always try to initialize any variable (sometimes to a value I know it won’t ever use, to aid in debugging — “why did I suddenly get 42 back from this function? Oh, my code must not be running…”).
And I always try to have a redundant default “else” or whatever to set it, instead of relying on “always try.”
4/26/2022 – Added note about IF/ENDIF via comments. Added link to YouTube video of the segment.
4/27/2022 – Updated screen shots with images taken from the YouTube video (linked in this posting).
With the season four of Stranger Things coming to Netflix soon, I have been re-watching the first three seasons.
Season one is set in 1983, and one of the characters (Joyce Byers, played by Winona Ryder) is shown working at a local general store. We see that there is a Radio Shack next door to it. We also see Radio Shack walkie talkies featured in the episodes.
In Season two we meet Joyce’s boyfriend, Bob Newby (played by Sean Astin). He works at that next-door Radio Shack. There is even one scene that shows him at work, though the environment is unlike any Radio Shack I ever saw.
In season two episode eight (“The Mind Flayer”), there is a need for them to restart a computer system. Radio Shack Bob says someone needs to know BASIC to do this. (Oh, really, writers?) This leads to a scene where Bob gets the system going by … typing in a BASIC program.
Here is the clip that someone posted to YouTube. (It starts around the 15:57 mark of the full episode.)
https://youtu.be/2bRAvxSSzEU
Here is a screen shot of the code:
Stranger Things S2E8 – Around 15:57 timecode.
It is some form of BASIC I am unfamiliar with. It allows defining variables as types (INTEGER in this case) and also appears to support functions with parameters similar to C. I am unsure if this is just Hollywood hookum or if there was actually a BASIC like this that existed in 1984 when Season 2 is set.
Here is a close-up of the code taken from the YouTube video (and apologies for the camera photo of a TV screen — Netflix blocks taking screen shots in their apps).
Stranger Things S2E8 – Around 15:57 timecode. (enhanced)
Update: Did you notice the end of line 70? You can see the lettering of the last word on TOP of the frame of the monitor. I never noticed that when watching it in full speed. The screen was probably added later as a special overlay effect and they didn’t take time to crop it in fully. But I digress…
Either the programmer used a bunch of memory typing in all the spaces to make it look nice, or this version of BASIC has pretty-output like Microware BASIC09 does.
I typed it in, trying to replicate the spacing…
10 DIM FourDigitPassword:INTEGER
20 FOR i = 0 TO 9
30 FOR j = 0 TO 9
40 FOR k = 0 to 9
50 FOR l = 0 TO 9
60 FourDigitPassword = getFourDigits (i,j,k,l)
70 IF checkPasswordMatch(FourDigitPassword) = TRUE THEN
80 GOTO 140
90 END
100 NEXT l
110 NEXT k
120 NEXT j
130 NEXT i
140 PRINT FourDigitPassword
150 END
Looking at this, I can now say it was a programmer adding the spaces. They do not follow a consistent tab value. Line 30-40 tabs in 5 spaces, then line 40-50 tabs in 6. My OCD is unhappy.
Line 10 creates a variable called FourDigitPassword. This tells us that this BASIC allows mixed case variable names. It also either support long variable names, or is like Microsoft Color BASIC where you can type them in, but the interpreter only honors the first two characters (or however many this version of BASIC supports).
This variable is declared as an INTEGER, whatever data type that is. Since an integer is a number, this four digit password must be like a PIN, consisting of numbers only. Since 0000 to 9999 is to big to fit in a byte (0-255), we’ll say INTEGER is a 16-bit value (0-65535).
Update: The Microsoft BASIC I am used to treat every numeric variable as a floating point value. I now recall that Commodore 64 had a way to declare a variable as an integer (non floating point). Perhaps that is what this is? (Though, they should have also declared I, J, K and L as INTEGERs too since none of this uses floating point values…)
Lines 30-50 are four FOR/NEXT loops using variables i, j, k and l. that cycle through 0-9 for each variable, representing each of the four digits of the password. Note that these variables are not declared in a DIM statement. Perhaps the default variable data type is a BYTE unless you otherwise specify?
In line 60, a function “getFourDigits” is called with each of the four variable values, returning something to variable “FourDigitPassword.” This looks like it would take four values like 1, 2, 3 and 4 and return them as an integer of 1234. So far, so good.
Line 70 is where things get strange. It calls a function “checkPasswordMatch” passing it this newly created integer value. If the function returns TRUE, it is intended to GOTO line 140 and print out the valid password, then end. However, since the GOTO is on a line starting with a new line number, I expect it would at the end of line 70 since nothing is after the THEN.
Let’s assume this weird BASIC will just continue parsing for more tokens on the next line, treating it as the “THEN” clause. If the compare was not valid, though, what would it do? Skip the next line? This is problematic.
Line 90 has an END, which would be problematic in BASIC. At this point, after the first unsuccessful check, this code would stop running.
Update: As noted in comments to this article by William A. and Lee, there were BASIC variants that used IF and ENDIF. If we treat that END to be intended as ENDIF, this code makes sense (but would still be a typo that would stop the code from running as presented
Conclusion: This program cannot work.
Line 100-130 are the NEXTs for the FOR loops.
Assuming functions work the way they appear and do what I assume they are meant to do, this appears to be a brute for password cracker, trying every combination of 0000 to 9999.
Make BASIC less strange…
Let’s make a real version! Here is my edit for Microsoft Color BASIC:
0 REM STRANGE.BAS
10 DIM PW
15 TP=1234
20 FOR I = 0 TO 9
30 FOR J = 0 TO 9
40 FOR K = 0 TO 9
50 FOR L = 0 TO 9
60 PW=I*1000+J*100+K*10+L
70 IF PW=TP THEN GOTO 140
100 NEXT L
110 NEXT K
120 NEXT J
130 NEXT I
140 PRINT PW
150 END
I had to change all the variables to UPPERCASE, and then shortened “FourDigitPassword” to just PW. I could have called it FOURDIGITPASSWORD since BASIC would still honor the first two letters (FO), but I find that a bad practice since it can lead to hard to track down errors latter (say, if you later used a variable called FOREVER or anything else that started with FO, thinking it was a unique variable while BASIC thought it was the same as FOURDIGITPASSWORD).
Since I do not have functions, I decided to just make a target password variable (TP) that will be the password to try to guess. I added this in LINE 15.
Line 20-50 are the same as the original program, just without the tabs (since my CoCo’s screen is only 32 characters wide and it would look messy).
In line 60, instead of calling a function that creates FourDigitPassword (PW) from four separate variables, I just build it myself. I multiply each digit out to turn 1,2,3,4 in to 1*1000 + 2*100 + 3*10 +4 (which is 1234).
Line 70 just compares the generated PW variable to the target TP variable. Again, no functions, so I just do it manually. I moved the “GOTO 140” to the end of that line (but it didn’t actually need the GOTO keyword after THEN).
I removed line 80 and 90 (since 80 is now at the end of 70).
Lines 100-150 are the same as the original program, except using uppercase and shorter variable names. Here is what it looks like, perfectly fitting a 32×16 CoCo screen. (I’ll even use the INVERSE VIDEO mode in tribute to Stranger Thing’s “upside down”):
Stranger Things Color BASIC
If I run this, it will grind away for quite some time before finally cracking the password and printing “1234”…
It would take far longer if the target password had been 9999, but hey, it works!
Make BASIC less slow…
There are some simple ways this could be sped up, such as combining lines, and removing the variables after each NEXT (so BASIC doesn’t have to look them up each time). And, the use of a variable for each of the four digits and creating an integer seems a bit pointless, since the function that checks for a match just does so with a single integer value. This whole thing could be turned in to…
0 REM STRANGE.BAS
10 DIM PW
15 TP=1234
20 FOR I = 0 TO 9999
70 IF PW=TP THEN GOTO 140
130 NEXT I
140 PRINT PW
150 END
Since I cannot resist a BASIC benchmark opportunity, I set the target password to 9999 and ran the first version. I cleared the timer (TIMER=0) at the start and printed it out just after it prints the result. The first version shows 12609.
Then I did the same with the second version, and it shows 277. (And that could be made a bit faster by removing spaces and combining lines — down to 263 in a quick test I did.
Poor Bob could have saved alot of time with that trick. It might have even saved his life ;-) (Do I need to give a spoiler warning for a show that aired in 2017? If so, spoiler warning!)
When I loaded YouTube recently, one of the suggested videos was entitled “How To Solve Google’s 25-Horses Interview Question” by MindYourDecisions. The video cover image contained the text:
“What is the best way to find the 3 fastest horses? You can race 5 horses at a time, but you do not have a watch.”
– MindYourDecisions on YouTube
I did not watch the video since I thought this might be a fun exercise in BASIC. Instead, I fired up the excellent XRoar emulator and began writing a simple program that raced horses.
I started with an array big enough to hold the speed of 25 horses:
DIM H(24)
In Color BASIC, arrays are base-0, so that represents H(0) to H(24).
Next I initialized the array with a unique speed value by simply going through the loop and assigning each horse a speed of 0 to 24:
FOR I=0 TO 24:H(I)=I:NEXT
My next step was to randomize the entries, so I looked back on an earlier article I posted about Random BASIC shuffling. I implemented the suggested from James Jones to swap values in this array:
FOR I=0 TO 24
IF I/5=INT(I/5) THEN PRINT
J=I+INT(RND(25-I)-1)
T=H(I)
H(I)=H(J)
H(J)=T
PRINT H(I);
NEXT
Now I had an array of 25 horse speeds — H(0) to H(24) — that contains a random selection of values 0 (slowest) to 24 (fastest).
If you wanted to just find the fastest horse, you could simply scan the array and remember the fastest entry you found. At the end of the scan, you know the fastest horse. Something like this:
FH=-1:FS=-1
FOR I=0 TO 24
IF H(I)>FS THEN FH=I:FS=H(I)
NEXT
PRINT "FASTEST HORSE IS";FH
…but since this question requires racing no more than five horses at a time, I had to split that up in to code that would run five races of five horses, then a sixth race that raced the winners of each of the five races.
This is not the solution to the question, but it was a fun exercise. Here is the messy program I came up with. It will first print out the speeds of all 25 horses (five per line, matching how they will be raced) and then run the five races and final race of the winners:
0 ' HORSES1.BAS
1 '
2 ' 25 horses
3 ' Race up to 5 at a time
4 ' Find the fastest horse
5 '
10 ' H(x) - horse speed
15 DIM H(24)
20 '
21 ' Initialize each speed
22 '
25 FOR I=0 TO 24:H(I)=I:NEXT
30 '
31 ' Randomize
32 '
35 FOR I=0 TO 24
40 IF I/5=INT(I/5) THEN PRINT
45 J=I+INT(RND(25-I)-1)
50 T=H(I)
55 H(I)=H(J)
60 H(J)=T
65 PRINT H(I);
70 NEXT
75 PRINT:PRINT "RACE!"
100 '
101 ' Find fastest horse
102 '
105 DIM FH(4)
110 '
111 ' Race five sets of five
112 ' FH(x) - fastest horse
113 ' FS(x) - and its speed
114 '
115 FOR R=0 TO 4
120 FH(R)=-1:FS=-1
125 PRINT R;"-";
130 FOR I=R*5 TO R*5+4
135 PRINT I;
140 IF H(I)>FS THEN FH(R)=I:FS=H(I)
145 NEXT
150 PRINT "=";FH(R)
155 NEXT
160 '
161 ' Race the five winners
162 '
165 FH=-1:FS=-1
170 PRINT " F -";
175 FOR I=0 TO 4
180 PRINT FH(I);
185 IF H(FH(I))>FS THEN FH=FH(I):FS=H(FH)
190 NEXT
195 PRINT "=";FH
200 PRINT "WINNER IS HORSE";FH
500 END
And the result (also messy) looks like this:
Color BASIC program to find the fastest of 25 horses, when racing no more than five at a time.
But this isn’t the solution we are looking for.
The question was what is the fastest way to find the fastest three horses. I found the fastest by running six races. I expect the solution is simple, but I do not know it.
I thought I’d share this here and see if anyone else wants to work on it.
I have Topaz Labs Video Enhance AI and have been converting hundreds of hours of my old Digital8/DV home videos. You can learn about this software here:
If you can’t justify the cost of this software, I’d be glad to convert some videos for you. If the video is already high quality (like a 720p HD clip from a phone), converting it up to 1080p HD can look really good. If it’s older video (SD footage or old analog VHS stuff), it may not be quite as impressive, but still better than if you just scaled up the size in a video editor.
Drop me a note here, or you can check out samples at my Fiverr listing:
