Audio File Convert exports to twenty audio file codecs and a mess of codecs, all of that are proven with the -hf possibility.
Uncompressed Audio
File codecs: AIFCAIFFNeXTSd2fWAVERF64
The unique codecs for storing audio information have been all uncompressed as a result of these are straightforward to work with, and will be performed by even very early CPUs. Nonetheless, uncompressed audio information are very massive, simply going as much as 10 MB/minute. These codecs all share related codec choices like I8BEI16BEI24BEI32BEF32BEF64. Smaller numbers give smaller information, however bigger numbers give larger high quality. If you happen to’re undecided what to decide on, go along with BEI32 or LEI32.
BE large endian
LE little endian
I integer
UI unsigned integer
F floating level
8/16/24/32/64 bits per pattern
It’s best to solely must specify these choices for these older uncompressed codecs.
Not each codec is supported by each file format, however you need to use this as a information to get began selecting your codec. As soon as you’ve got chosen a codec, you’ll be able to have a look at the output of afconvert -hf to select an acceptable container file format.
(Word: I’ve excluded the MPG codecs similar to MPG3/MP3 from this record as a result of they only don’t work.)
Additionally see this reply for more information on the assorted codecs and the place they’re outlined.
Syntax
As soon as you’ve got chosen a file format and codec, you run afconvert like this:
afconvert -f FORMAT -d CODEC SOURCEFILE [-o DESTINATIONFILE]
It’s essential to specify each the file format and the codec, in any other case an error is proven. If you happen to omit the -o possibility, afconvert will choose a reputation and extension primarily based on the opposite inputs.
Examples
If in case you have an audio file referred to as MyAudio.m4a you could possibly attempt these instructions.
Ransomware victims have paid $459,800,000 to cybercriminals within the first half of 2024, setting the stage for a brand new file this yr if ransom funds proceed at this degree.
Final yr, ransomware funds reached a file $1.1 billion, which Chainalysis beforehand predicted from stats gathered within the first half of the yr when ransomware exercise grossed $449,100,000.
We now stand at roughly 2% larger than 2023’s record-breaking trajectory from the identical interval regardless of vital legislation enforcement operations that disrupted massive ransomware-as-a-service operations, comparable to LockBit.
In response to the newest Chainalysis report, this enhance is because of ransomware gangs specializing in getting bigger funds by concentrating on massive organizations to create expensive disruptions and the theft of shoppers’ private knowledge.
“2024 is about to be the highest-grossing yr but for ransomware funds, due in no small half to strains finishing up fewer high-profile assaults, however gathering massive funds,” reads the Chainalysis report.
“2024 has seen the biggest ransomware fee ever recorded at roughly $75 million to the Darkish Angels ransomware group.”
It’s unclear who paid the huge $75 million ransom fee, however Zscaler, who found it, says it was made by an organization within the Fortune 50 for an assault in early 2024.
A transparent indicator that ransomware actors goal larger organizations is a big enhance within the median ransom fee, which moved from beneath $199,000 in early 2023 to $1,500,000 in June 2024.
Chainalysis says the variety of confirmed ransomware assaults, based on eCrime.ch intelligence, has grown by 10% YoY in 2024, whereas an analogous enhance may be seen within the variety of victims revealed on extortion portals on the darkish internet.
When it comes to what number of victims yield to the risk actors’ blackmail and select to pay the ransom in change for a decryptor and a promise to not leak stolen knowledge, Chainalysis says the optimistic pattern continues, with fewer organizations succumbing to the extortion.
The agency’s on-chain knowledge reveals that whole ransomware fee occasions have declined 27.27% YoY, so fee charges are nonetheless taking place.
This corroborates earlier studies by Coveware, based on which ransom funds hit a file low of simply 28% within the first quarter of the yr.
Ransomware exercise overview Supply: Chainalysis
Crypto crime overview
Chainalysis additionally studies that the influx of stolen cryptocurrency has doubled YoY, growing from $857 million to $1.58 billion by the tip of July 2024.
Quantities of funds misplaced to cybercrime Supply: Chainalysis
The typical worth of cryptocurrency stolen per heist elevated by roughly 80%, with cybercriminals concentrating on primarily centralized exchanges as a substitute of decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols that suffered nearly all of assaults in earlier years.
Kind of entities focused Supply: Chainalysis
Regardless of these will increase in absolute numbers, it is famous that illicit on-chain exercise dropped by 20% in comparison with 2023, indicating that official cryptocurrency use is rising at a sooner charge.
One thing to stay up for: Sq. Enix has been hinting at a PC launch for Remaining Fantasy XVI since earlier than its preliminary launch on PlayStation 5 final yr. Now, the corporate has confirmed that the port will arrive in lower than a month. Customers can check how nicely their PCs will deal with the sport by downloading the free demo and checking the system necessities.
Pre-orders at the moment are open for the PC model of Remaining Fantasy XVI, which can be accessible on Steam and the Epic Video games Retailer beginning September 17. A free demo is at the moment accessible on each platforms.
The demo permits customers to benchmark the sport’s efficiency and discover PC settings. Sq. Enix has additionally supplied fundamental system necessities, noting that the total launch would require a considerable 170 GB of space for storing – significantly greater than the more and more frequent 100 GB titles.
Different system necessities are on par with these of latest high-end video games. Remaining Fantasy XVI requires a minimal of 16 GB of reminiscence and eight GB of video reminiscence to realize 30fps at 720p decision.
For that efficiency degree, Sq. Enix recommends GPUs just like the AMD Radeon RX 5700, Intel Arc A580, or Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070. To succeed in 60fps at 1080p, you may want at the very least an RX 6700 XT or GeForce RTX 2080. The beneficial CPUs are an AMD Ryzen 7 5700X or an Intel Core i7-10700.
Whereas system specs for 1440p or 4K gameplay aren’t supplied, Remaining Fantasy XVI helps DLSS 3, FSR body era, and XeSS, which can assist obtain these larger resolutions. The RPG additionally helps DLAA and a most framerate of 240fps. Sq. Enix is providing the bottom sport for $50 and a whole version with two enlargement packs for $70.
The unique PlayStation 5 version of Remaining Fantasy XVI bought under the writer’s expectations, however director Hiroshi Takai just lately assured Rock Paper Shotgun that the way forward for the long-running franchise is safe. Regardless of Sq. Enix’s market cap falling by 30 p.c final yr, steady income from its profitable MMO, Remaining Fantasy XIV, helped offset a number of the losses.
There may be hypothesis that Remaining Fantasy XVI might have upset some followers resulting from its concentrate on action-based fight, which is a departure from the franchise’s conventional RPG roots. Moreover, the PS5’s comparatively restricted set up base in comparison with earlier platforms that hosted Remaining Fantasy video games might need contributed to its preliminary gross sales efficiency.
Takai defined {that a} simultaneous PC launch was by no means possible, even when Sq. Enix had not signed a six-month exclusivity take care of Sony. The studio chargeable for growing the sport started work on the PC port solely after the PS5 launch.
Organizations can not afford to select sides within the international market if they need synthetic intelligence (AI) instruments to ship the capabilities they search.
Geographical range is vital as organizations look to develop AI instruments that may be adopted worldwide, based on Andrea Phua, senior director of the nationwide AI group and director of the digital financial system workplace at Singapore’s Ministry of Digital Growth and Info (MDDI).
In response to a query on whether or not it was “practical” for Singapore to stay impartial amid the US-China commerce strife over AI chip exports, Phua stated it could be extra highly effective and useful to have merchandise constructed by groups primarily based in numerous international markets that may assist fulfill key elements in AI.
“We use these platforms to debate the way to govern AI nicely, what [infrastructure] capability is required, and the way to study from one another,” Phua stated. She famous that these multilateral discussions assist establish security and safety dangers which will happen in another way in numerous elements of the world and supply native and regional context to translate information higher.
“It is very important spend money on worldwide collaborations as a result of the extra we perceive what’s at stake, and know we have now buddies and companions to information us by the journey, we’ll be higher off for it,” Phua stated.
This may show notably priceless as generative AI (gen AI) is used more and more in cyber assaults.
In Singapore, for instance, 13% of phishing emails analyzed final 12 months have been discovered to include AI-generated content material, based on the newest Singapore Cyber Panorama 2023 report launched this week by the Cyber Safety Company (CSA).
The federal government company chargeable for the nation’s cybersecurity operations stated 4,100 phishing makes an attempt have been reported to the Singapore Cyber Emergency Response Crew (SingCERT) final 12 months — down 52% from the 8,500 instances in 2022. The 2023 determine, nonetheless, continues to be 30% increased than 2021, CSA famous.
“This decline bucked a world development of sharp will increase, which have been possible fueled by the utilization of gen AI chatbots like ChatGPT to facilitate the manufacturing of phishing content material at scale,” it detailed.
It additionally warned that cybersecurity researchers have predicted an increase within the scale and class of phishing assaults, together with AI-assisted or -generated phishing e-mail messages which can be tailor-made to the sufferer and include extra content material, corresponding to deep faux voice messages.
“The usage of Gen AI has introduced a brand new dimension to cyber threats. As AI turns into extra accessible and complicated, risk actors may also turn out to be higher at exploiting it,” stated CSA’s chief government and Commissioner of Cybersecurity David Koh.
“As it’s, AI already poses a formidable problem for governments world wide [and] cybersecurity professionals would know that we’re merely scratching the floor of gen AI’s potential, each for official functions and malicious makes use of,” Koh stated. He pointed to stories of AI-generated content material, together with deepfakes in video clips and memes, which have been used to sow discord and affect the end result of nationwide elections.
On the identical time, there are new alternatives for AI to be tapped to reinforce cyber resilience and protection, he stated. Extra particularly, the expertise has proven potential in detecting irregular behavioral patterns and ingesting giant volumes of knowledge logs and risk intel, he famous.
“[This] can improve incident response and allow us to thwart cyber threats extra swiftly and precisely whereas assuaging the load on our analysts,” Koh stated.
Object Oriented Programming (OOP) is a programming paradigm that’s the cornerstone of recent software program improvement. Whereas OOP isn’t the one programming paradigm that exists, I might argue it’s an important to have a agency basis of, and when used appropriately, can result in stronger and extra strong software program. However what’s OOP and how are you going to be certain to grasp it properly? Let’s discover.
At a excessive degree, in OOP there are 3 fundamental pillars to grasp for getting OOP down:
Encapsulation with courses
Inheritance
Polymorphism (an important by far)
Encapsulation is the flexibility to surround knowledge that describes the item and the features used to control that knowledge into one module container.
In OOP these are sometimes known as courses and are on the middle of the paradigm. The ensuing variable when the variable is asserted is known as an object. An necessary half is abstraction in order that solely vital options are uncovered.
Non-public/Inner: Strategies and properties are accessible from different strategies of the identical class. Something outdoors of the category shouldn’t be capable to entry these members/strategies. That is sometimes denoted by Non-public or Protected.
Public/Exterior: Strategies and properties are accessible from outdoors the category.
An instance could be for those who have been programming a card recreation. In your card dec class, would you need another person to change the variety of playing cards within the deck? In all probability not.
Inheritance is the flexibility to take an present class and prolong its performance to kind one other class.
Why is that this necessary? As a result of it helps reusability with code reuse. It is because the brand new class has entry to all the father or mother performance. The kid class simply wants so as to add new attributes and strategies which can be particular to its wants.
Generalization is the relation such that the subclass is a variation of the father or mother. I.e. a pickup truck “is-a” vehicle.
Specialization is the connection such that the category “has-a” subclass. I.e. an vehicle “has-a” engine.
Polymorphism is the flexibility of comparable objects to reply otherwise to the identical message.
The ultimate pillar of OOP is intently associated to inheritance and but is arguably way more necessary. The prefix poly means many; morph means kind. Polymorphism then refers back to the capacity of a single kind or class to take many kinds.
How is that this completed? With technique overriding:
Within the instance above, you’ll be able to see that each the electrical automotive and the pickup truck inherit from Vehicle and each override the Begin conduct since each have vastly totally different wants. An electrical automotive doesn’t want to start out an engine whereas a pickup truck would (assuming it’s of the gasoline selection).
Key Takeaways
Nicely designed objects manipulate the information or state of an object by passing messages by means of the item’s interface.
Controlling an object by means of its interface ensures it behaves in a secure method and that the inner state stays legitimate.
The flexibility to mannequin the true world is a vital benefit of OOP.
Objects have to be self-contained in order that they’ll stand on their very own.
