Video games are increasing in size. A lot of computer and console games nowadays are well over a hundred gigabytes which can create significant delays between starting the download and being able to play the game. The game might also take up a great percentage of the user’s storage drive. This paper creates a subsystem for content for the Unreal Engine that allows packages of game content to be downloaded and mounted into the game at runtime. It also provides a method of building Unreal Engine games in such a way that they can be split into packages. Finally, the subsystem manages all the packages and their relations to each other, downloading dependent ones and removing ones that will not be used again. The solution is evaluated on how much it decreases the time it takes to download and start a game, how much disk space it saves and how it affects the environment in comparison to a conventionally downloaded game. Result show that such a system reduces a significant amount of start-up time and disk usage, as well as reduce the amount of greenhouse gases depending on how interconnected the game packages are. / Datorspel har blivit större och större och det är inte längre ovanligt att se spel som är över ett hundra gigabyte. Det kan därför ta väldigt långt tid mellan att starta en nedladdning och att kunna spela spelet. Spelet kan också ta upp en signifikant del av användarens lagringsutrymme. Den här uppsatsen skapar ett subsystem till Unreal Engine som gör att paket av spelinnehåll kan laddas ner och monteras in i spelet medan det kör. Den beskriver också hur Unreal Engine-spel kan byggas för att kunna delas upp i paket. Systemet hanterar paketen och deras relationer till varandra och laddar ner beroenden samt tar bort de som inte kommer användas igen. Lösningen utvärderas efter hur väl den minskar tiden det tar att ladda ner och starta ett spel, hur mycket lagringsutrymme som krävs och hur den minskar miljöpåverkan jämfört med vanlig spelnedladdning. Resultatet visar att systemet minskar starttiden och diskanvändningen men också att den minskar växthusgasutsläppen beroende på hur beroende paketen är av varandra.

Scalable on-demand content delivery systems, designed to effectively handle increasing request rates, typically use service aggregation or content replication techniques. Service aggregation relies on one-to-many communication techniques, such as multicast, to efficiently deliver content from a single sender to multiple receivers. With replication, multiple geographically distributed replicas of the service or content share the load of processing client requests and enable delivery from a nearby server.<p>Previous scalable protocols for downloading large, popular files from a single server include batching and cyclic multicast. Analytic lower bounds developed in this thesis show that neither of these protocols consistently yields performance close to optimal. New hybrid protocols are proposed that achieve within 20% of the optimal delay in homogeneous systems, as well as within 25% of the optimal maximum client delay in all heterogeneous scenarios considered.<p>In systems utilizing both service aggregation and replication, well-designed policies determining which replica serves each request must balance the objectives of achieving high locality of service, and high efficiency of service aggregation. By comparing classes of policies, using both analysis and simulations, this thesis shows that there are significant performance advantages in using current system state information (rather than only proximities and average loads) and in deferring selection decisions when possible. Most of these performance gains can be achieved using only local (rather than global) request information.<p>Finally, this thesis proposes adaptations of already proposed peer-assisted download techniques to support a streaming (rather than download) service, enabling playback to begin well before the entire media file is received. These protocols split each file into pieces, which can be downloaded from multiple sources, including other clients downloading the same file. Using simulations, a candidate protocol is presented and evaluated. The protocol includes both a piece selection technique that effectively mediates the conflict between achieving high piece diversity and the in-order requirements of media file playback, as well as a simple on-line rule for deciding when playback can safely commence.

Scalable on-demand content delivery systems, designed to effectively handle increasing request rates, typically use service aggregation or content replication techniques. Service aggregation relies on one-to-many communication techniques, such as multicast, to efficiently deliver content from a single sender to multiple receivers. With replication, multiple geographically distributed replicas of the service or content share the load of processing client requests and enable delivery from a nearby server.<p>Previous scalable protocols for downloading large, popular files from a single server include batching and cyclic multicast. Analytic lower bounds developed in this thesis show that neither of these protocols consistently yields performance close to optimal. New hybrid protocols are proposed that achieve within 20% of the optimal delay in homogeneous systems, as well as within 25% of the optimal maximum client delay in all heterogeneous scenarios considered.<p>In systems utilizing both service aggregation and replication, well-designed policies determining which replica serves each request must balance the objectives of achieving high locality of service, and high efficiency of service aggregation. By comparing classes of policies, using both analysis and simulations, this thesis shows that there are significant performance advantages in using current system state information (rather than only proximities and average loads) and in deferring selection decisions when possible. Most of these performance gains can be achieved using only local (rather than global) request information.<p>Finally, this thesis proposes adaptations of already proposed peer-assisted download techniques to support a streaming (rather than download) service, enabling playback to begin well before the entire media file is received. These protocols split each file into pieces, which can be downloaded from multiple sources, including other clients downloading the same file. Using simulations, a candidate protocol is presented and evaluated. The protocol includes both a piece selection technique that effectively mediates the conflict between achieving high piece diversity and the in-order requirements of media file playback, as well as a simple on-line rule for deciding when playback can safely commence.

Submitted by THAISSA FIGLIA (thf@marizsiqueira.com.br) on 2016-09-30T13:55:25Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação-Mestrado-Hélio-Barthem-Neto.pdf: 1459490 bytes, checksum: e4f0d4ccba2b95671520f696de7c6265 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Joana Martorini (joana.martorini@fgv.br) on 2016-09-30T13:58:55Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação-Mestrado-Hélio-Barthem-Neto.pdf: 1459490 bytes, checksum: e4f0d4ccba2b95671520f696de7c6265 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-09-30T14:56:46Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação-Mestrado-Hélio-Barthem-Neto.pdf: 1459490 bytes, checksum: e4f0d4ccba2b95671520f696de7c6265 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-08-09 / Abstract: The goal of the present study consists of examining the taxation of software focusing on the municipal service tax (ISS) and the tax on the circulation of goods and on services of interstate and Intermunicipal transportation and communication (ICMS). It is not properly a new theme and it was for sure deeply discussed along the last three decades. Nevertheless, the taxation of software is a topic of constant evolution, due to the fact that the software itself is a good that composes the information technology segment, which suffers changes in every minute, bringing more modernity to our day-by-day. The technological innovation introduces effective changes in the computing elements from the past and, as a consequence, the criteria used by the courts to define the tax treatment of software are also modified. Therefore, new challenges about the topic are set, especially in how to adapt the fundamentals before defined by the jurisprudence to guide the taxation of this important economic segment. Thus, reviewing relevant topics discussed in the past, such as the definition of the levy of these taxes based on technical and commercial concepts of computing program (standard software and personalized software), becomes extremely important. This study intends to demonstrate that, in spite of the fast and endless technological evolution, the taxation of software by ISS and ICMS must consider in the first place the characteristics of the legal transaction that supports the supply of the computer program, using its technical aspects as auxiliary elements to define the more adequate tax treatment. / O objeto do presente estudo consiste em examinar a tributação dos softwares sob as perspectivas do ISS e do ICMS. Não se trata propriamente de um tema novo, sendo certo que muito já se discutiu a seu respeito ao longo das últimas três décadas. No entanto, a tributação do software é assunto em constante evolução, eis que o software em si é bem que integra o segmento de informática e este se modifica a cada momento, trazendo cada vez mais modernidade ao nosso dia-a-dia. A inovação tecnológica introduz alterações efetivas nos elementos informáticos de outrora e os critérios utilizados pelos tribunais para se definir o tratamento tributário do software, por decorrência, também são alterados. Surgem, assim, novos desafios relacionados ao assunto, em especial como adaptar os fundamentos anteriormente consagrados pela jurisprudência para direcionar a tributação deste importante segmento econômico. Assim, revisitar temas relevantes, discutidos no passado, como a definição da incidência desses tributos a partir de conceitos técnico-comerciais dos programas de computador (softwares de prateleira e softwares por encomenda), torna-se extremamente importante. O presente estudo visa, portanto, examinar os novos desafios da tributação do software, sob as perspectivas do ISS e do ICMS, a partir dos novos negócios existentes no segmento da informática, viabilizados pelos 'downloads' e pelo acesso remoto ao ambiente de nuvem ('cloud computing'). O presente estudo visa, por essência, demonstrar que, a despeito da evolução tecnológica veloz e infindável, a tributação do software pelo ISS e pelo ICMS deve colocar em primeiro plano as características do negócio jurídico que alicerçam o fornecimento do programa de computador, utilizando seus aspectos técnicos como elementos meramente auxiliares da definição do tratamento tributário mais adequado à hipótese.

The Android operating system, originally intended for smartphone devices, is now finding its way into cars and other vehicles. While the Android system already implements support for system updates, it is not suitable for use in the automotive domain. It is not compatible with modern automotive standards for diagnostic communication such as ISO 14229: Unified Diagnostic Services (UDS). This means that new tools, procedures and software would be needed to allow an Android device to be updated by a service technician in a repair shop or on the field. A better approach would be to add support for automotive diagnostic communication in Android. This way, the tools and supporting infrastructure that already exist can still be used. We have developed a solution for diagnostic communication on Android that is both modular and compatible with existing automotive standards. By using the standard ISO 13400: Diagnostic communication over Internet Protocol (DoIP), this solution enables both updating the system software on the Android device itself, as well as diagnostic communication with the ECUs on the vehicle’s internal CAN network. Thus, an existing diagnostic port based on a slower communication protocol such as CAN or J1587 could theoretically be replaced completely by the Android device’s Ethernet port. Finally, we have evaluated the performance of our implementation under various settings and conditions. These include varying the maximum size of a diagnostic message, different network settings, downloading software over a Wi-Fi link, and downloading data to multiple devices simultaneously. / Operativsystemet Android, ursprungligen avsett för smartphone-enheter, återfinns numera även i bilar och andra typer av fordon. Även om Android-systemet redan implementerar stöd för system-uppdateringar, är det inte lämpligt att använda i fordonsindustrin. Den är inte kompatibel med moderna fordons-standarder för diagnoskommunikation som t.ex. ISO:14229: Enhetliga diagnostiktjänster (UDS). Detta innebär att det skulle krävas nya verktyg, procedurer och mjukvara för att möjliggöra att en Android-enhet uppdaterades av en service-tekniker i verkstad eller i fält. Ett bättre tillvägagångssätt skulle vara att lägga till support för diagnoskommunikation i Android. På detta sätt skulle redan existerande verktyg och stödjande infrastruktur kunna fortsätta användas. Vi har utvecklat en lösning för diagnoskommunikation i Android som är både modulär och kompatibel med existerande fordonsstandarder. Genom att använda ISO 13400: Diagnostikkommunikation över Internet-protokoll (DoIP) möjliggör denna lösning både uppdatering av systemmjukvaran i själva Android-enheten, samt diagnoskommunikation med övriga styrenheter på fordonets interna CAN-nätverk. Därmed skulle en befintlig diagnosport baserad på ett långsammare kommunikationsprotokoll såsom CAN eller J1587 teoretiskt kunna ersättas helt och hållet med Android-enhetens Ethernet-port. Slutligen har vi testat vår implementations prestanda under varierande inställningar och förhållanden. Dessa inkluderar bland annat att variera den maximala storleken av ett diagnos-meddelande, olika nätverks-inställningar, att uppdatera mjukvaran över en Wi-Fi-länk, samt att uppdatera mjukvaran på flera enheter samtidigt.

New digital distribution and value capture models have emerged on the global music industry scene in the last ten years. These models are highly dependent on a strong underlying communications and broadband internet infrastructure which is largely present in most developed markets. South Africa, however, is a developing country whose broadband infrastructure is still nascent and not as widely available or accessible. Due to the permeation of mobile technology, most broadband internet access is likely to occur through the mobile networks in most developing markets. This stands in stark contrast to developed markets where broadband internet access occurs primarily via fixed line infrastructure with mobile as a secondary option.This research set out to investigate whether digital value distribution and value capture models which succeeded in developed countries would be suitable for the South African music industry given the broadband infrastructure constraints and the different internet access methodologies prevalent in this developing market. This research employed an exploratory research methodology in order to investigate this question and found that a mixture of value distribution and value capture models would address the entire market requirement, with mobile-centric digital distribution models being most suitable for mass market deployment. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

No description available.

Thesis(Ph.D. (Communication Studies)) -- University of Limpopo, 2022 / Digital technologies are increasingly revolutionising music consumption patterns globally. Consequently, there is an emerging culture in which online tools have become primary platforms for music consumption. In this postmodern era, digital technologies make music easily accessed, consumed and shared, thereby providing a seemingly global recognition to artistes beyond their immediate geographical market. As a result, artistes sometimes distribute their music for free with the intention to reach potential consumers. Equally, these technologies also allow consumers to illegally access and share music freely without financial compensation to the artistes. At the same time artistes also sell their music through different online stores to generate revenue. Alongside these developments, there are challenges with access to the Internet in South Africa with older adults and those in rural areas being disadvantaged, and the cost of Internet curtailing what youths can afford to do online. This then prompts critical questions: How do older adults and youth listen to music? Where and how do they access music? How does the new digitalised music affect their music consumption? What are the implications of all these to the social capital and social lifestyles of youth and older South African adults? Also, how has the digitalisation of music impacted on the political economy of the music industry in South Africa? In what ways do the illegal and legal downloads of music benefit or disadvantage local artistes? From a critical theorisation of an emerging ‘download culture’ and a discussion of the postmodern technological turn, this study examined a case study of South African youth and older adults’ music consumption pattern. Through a survey of 202 university students in a rural South African university and 100 older adults from semi rural areas of Limpopo Province in South Africa, the study examined the ways youth and older adults access and consume music. It explored music sharing habits and opinions about piracy in a culture where music has become instantaneously shareable. Apart from findings from this study, new knowledge and a contribution to communication scholarship is presented here with a proposal of new theory of ‘download culture’. Fundamental to this study is the implications of download culture for the creative industry, predominantly, its impact on the South African music industry. The data show that this cohort of South African youth are not different from youths globally, where music is accessed through mobile cell phones. This study also reflects that many older adults do not access digitalised music due to socio economic conditions and challenges of technology access. Nevertheless, the social cultural impact of this has repercussions on the cultural well-being of this vital group in society. Although internet access challenges persist, a critical concern is the blurring distinctions about the legal and illegal download of music. / National Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences (NIHSS), in collaboration with the South African Humanities Deans Association (SAHUDA)

Nutzungsdaten von elektronischen wissenschaftlichen Publikationen und insbesondere die Anzahl ihrer Downloads rücken mit der Verbreitung des Internets zunehmend in den Blickpunkt des Interesses der Autoren, der Herausgeber, der technischen Anbieter und der Nutzer solcher Publikationen. Downloadzahlen von Publikationen, welche durch Auswertung der Protokolle der IT-Systeme der Anbieter ermittelt werden, sind solche Nutzungsdaten. Die Erhebung erfolgt durch Filterung aller stattgefundenen Zugriffe und Summierung über eine definierte Zeiteinheit. Downloadzahlen sind Gegenstand wissenschaftlicher Untersuchungen, in welchen das Konzept des Citation Impact auf die Nutzungshäufigkeit einer Publikation übertragen und der sogenannte Download Impact gebil-det wird. Besonderes Augenmerk wird dem Zusammenhang von Citation Impact und Download Impact gewidmet. Handelt es sich um Open-Access-Publikationen, muss davon ausgegangen werden, dass in den Downloadzahlen nicht nur menschliche, sondern auch maschinelle Zugriffe erfasst wurden, da eine sichere Unterscheidung unmöglich ist. Das hat zur Folge, dass die gewonnenen Daten für die einzelnen Publikationen unzuverlässig sind und starken Schwankungen unterliegen. Trotzdem enthalten sie wertvolle Informationen, welche mit Hilfe der Mathematischen Statistik nutzbar gemacht werden können. Mit nichtparametrischen Methoden ausgewertet, geben Downloadzahlen Auskunft über die Sichtbarkeit von elektronischen Publikationen im Internet. Diese Methoden bilden den Kern von NoRA (Non-parametric Repository Analysis), mit deren Hilfe die Betreiber von Open Access Repositories die Downloadzahlen ihrer elektronischen Publikationen auswerten können, um Sichtbarkeitsdefizite zu ermitteln und zu beheben und so die Qualität ihres Online-Angebotes zu erhöhen. Die Analysemethode NoRA wurde auf die Daten von vier universitären Institutional Repositories erfolgreich angewendet. Es konnten jeweils Gruppen von Publikationen identifiziert werden, die sich hinsichtlich ihrer Nutzung signifikant unterscheiden. Die Parallelen in den Ergebnissen weisen auf Einflussfaktoren für die Nutzungsdaten hin, welche in der gegenwärtigen Diskussion bisher keine Berücksichtigung finden. Hier erschließen sich weitere Anwendungsfelder für NoRA. Gleichzeitig geben die Ergebnisse Anlass, den Informationsgehalt von Downloadzahlen für die einzelne Publikation kritisch zu hinterfragen. / With the spread of internet usage over the past decades, access characteristics of electronic scientific publica-tions, especially the number of document downloads, are of increasing interest to the authors, publishers, technical providers and users of such publications. These download data of publications are usually obtained from the protocols of the IT systems of the provider. A data set is then created by filtering all accesses and subsequent summarizing over a certain time unit. Download data are the subject of scientific investigations, in which the concept of the Citation Impact is applied to the rate of use of a publication and the so-called Download Impact is formed. Special attention is paid to the relation between Citation Impact and Download Impact. In the case of Open Access publications, two types of access need to be distinguished. Human access and machine access are both captured and a reliable distinction is not possible yet. As a result, the data obtained for single publications are unreliable and subject to strong fluctuations. Nevertheless, they contain valuable information that can be made useful with the help of mathematical statistics. Analyzed with nonparametric methods, download data give information about the visibility of electronic publications on the Internet. These methods form the core of NoRA (Non-parametric Repository Analysis). With the help of NoRA, the operators of Open Access Repositories are able to analyze the download data of their electronic publications, to identify and correct deficiencies of visibility and to increase the quality of their online platform. The analytical method NoRA was successfully applied to data from Institutional Repositories of four universities. In each case, groups of publications were identified that differed significantly in their usage. Similarities in the results reveal factors that influence the usage data, which have not been taken into account previously. The presented results imply further applications of NoRA but also raise doubts about the value of download data of single publications.

Im Rahmen der vorliegenden Diplomarbeit werden browserbasierte Videoüber-tragungslösungen bezüglich ihrer Verwendbarkeit zur Übertragung des Fernsehprogramms regionaler Fernsehsender auf das Medium Internet untersucht, mit dem Ziel eine Prototypanwendung auf Basis der gemäß den Anforderungen der Regionalsender am besten geeigneten Technik zu implementieren. Grundlage der Untersuchung bildet eine Gegenüberstellung der am Markt be-findlichen Videosysteme mit Webbrowserunterstützung QuickTime, RealVideo, Windows Media, Adobe Flash und Java. Die Systeme werden bezüglich ihres Leistungsumfangs, der Flexibilität ihrer Einsatzmöglichkeiten, der Qualität der zugrundeliegenden Videocodecs und ihrer Verbreitung im Internet verglichen. Anhand der gemeinsam mit den Regionalsendern KabelJournal und Sachsenfernsehen ermittelten Anforderungen an ein Videosystem zur Übertragung ihres Programms im Internet, erweist sich Adobe Flash Video durch seine hohe Verbreitung, seine flexiblen Einsatzmöglichkeiten und seiner Unterstützung von Bewegtbild-, Standbild- und interaktiven Animationsmedien als am besten geeignet. Die im Rahmen dieser Arbeit erstellte Implementierung einer Web-TV Anwen-dung auf Basis von Adobe Flash zeigt bei der Ermittlung von konkreten Einsatzszenarien bei den Sendern KabelJournal und Sachsenfernsehen, dass durch die multimediale Auslegung, die flexiblen Medienkombinationsmöglichkeiten und die offene XML-Schnittstelle mehr als eine bloße Portierung des TV-Programms ins Internet mit gleichzeitig geringem Aufwand möglich ist. Die Web-TV Anwendung ist eine einfach einsetzbare aber höchst vielseitige Möglichkeit für Regionalsender neue Märkte zu erschließen. / Within the present diploma thesis, established web browser based video solu-tions are examined for their use as internet broadcasting system for local TV stations, with the intention of implementing a broadcasting solution based on the technique matching the requirements of local TV stations best. Basis of this examination is the comparison of the web video solutions Quick-Time, RealVideo, Windows Media, Adobe Flash and Java. These systems are compared by their multimedia support, flexibility of use, quality of the video co-decs they use and their market penetration. On the basis of the requirements of local TV stations, determined together with KabelJournal and Sachsenfernsehen, adobe flash is the most satisfying solution to build a Web TV application upon. Its market penetration, flexibility of use and its support for still images, videos and interactive animations match those requirements best. The implementation of the Web TV application based on adobe flash proofs its great flexibility, ease of use and its diverse variations in combining different me-dia, at the determination of concrete use cases together with KabelJournal and Sachsenfernsehen. It shows that this is an easy but high potential way to enter new markets for local TV stations.