Why the hell don’t content providers get it?
I just tried to watch South Park legally at South Park Studios. I wanted to watch Episode 8 (Dead Celebrities) of Season 13. I was then informed that “Due to contractual obligations, we won’t be able to air this episode until November 7th, 2009″. This episode originally aired a month ago. Seriously… what the hell don’t you get you dumbass idiots? I don’t want to watch your show when you want me to. I want to watch your show when I want to. Furthermore, I don’t want to watch it on cable or satellite where I have to put up with 3-5 minutes of cheesy and obnoxious commercials during every commercial break. However, I will gladly watch it legally with 10-15 second commercials online, so I’m glad that you do provide me that option. But what the hell is the deal with making the episode available to watch online one month after it has aired? Are you guys that greedy and retarded? Why can’t you put it up immediately? Go to hell. You just lost a customer, and the customers that you lose will find other ways to watch your episodes, without having to put up with your petty bullshit. Get a clue, people. You don’t control the channels anymore. We do. We decide when we want to watch your content. Either adapt or fail. Idiots.
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Communism vs. Fascism vs. Socialism
Extreme right-wingers seem to be bandying about these terms interchangeably these days. I really don’t get it. Why does the media focus on the idiots at the fringe? Why do they get so much airtime? They annoy me just as much as the extreme left-wingers who claim that 9/11 was the work of the Bush government. Then there’s the comparison with Hitler (for both presidents). But that’s another matter. Seriously. Why don’t we hear more about people like this guy?
Anyway, so I keep hearing about how the Obama government is turning America into a Socialist nation… or maybe it’s a Communist nation… no wait… it’s Fascist. Either way it’s apparently undermining the foundations of our republic and turning us into Russia… or maybe it’s China… no wait… maybe it’s Nazi Germany. Oh yes, before I get accused of being a crazy liberal let me say (as a disclaimer) that yes, I do lean a little bit left-of-center, but I don’t agree with everything the left says. I’m also not a fan of big government. That being said, let’s analyze three different political ideologies and see what they actually mean.
Read more »
Popularity: 100% [?]
Jones Day are a bunch of litigious bastards
A tiny startup called BlockShopper was bullied by a large law-firm (also known as a bunch of litigious bastards) into amending their hyperlink policy. Yes, you read that right. They were threatened and sued for linking to the law-firm’s website in a manner that apparently didn’t please them. See, the dumbasses didn’t like the fact that BlockShopper linked to them because they believed that their potential customers would somehow “confuse” the links and assume that the information on BlockShopper’s pages was officially related to Jones Day. According to the terms of the settlement, BlockShopper can’t link to Jones Day using, for example, “idiots who don’t know the internet works“. Instead, they have to explicitly use “http://jonesday.com“. Faced with potentially high legal fees that fall somewhere between “absolutely insane” and “eleventybillion”, and also faced by a judge who seemingly doesn’t understand how the internet works (he must have crawled out from under a rock somewhere), BlockShopper was forced to settle their case and accede to Jones Day’s demands. The Ars Technica article I linked to earlier has the full details. I suspect Jones Day (also known as clueless morons, imbeciles, dumbasses, bullies and all-round idiots) are going to get a crash course on the Streisand Effect.
Popularity: 1% [?]
A lot of stuff
I didn’t update this site for a while because I had a lot of stuff going on. A lot happened towards the end of last year. My house was destroyed, and then it was rebuilt. While that was going on, I also lost my job when Intel decided to “redeploy” my entire group. I was offered an option to look for positions within the company, but I declined. I honestly wasn’t doing as much programming as I would have liked, so I decided to look for jobs outside Intel. I interviewed with Google and didn’t get in despite doing really well (their words) on the phone and in-person interviews. I got a call back from the recruiter who said that “although the interviewers really liked you and thought that you were incredibly smart and knowledgeable, they didn’t feel that your skills are a good match for the position”. I thought it was a standard “Thanks, but no thanks” response and I was a little disheartened. To be honest, my faith in my own skills and knowledge was a little shaken. I talk to my friend Iliyan (he works and google and he’s the one who actually referred me) and he said that they were actually telling the truth. Apparently, at Google they try to match you up pretty well with your job. If they feel that you don’t match up with the position, they don’t offer it. He said that if I had applied to Google and Mountain View, instead of Phoenix, I would have received an offer for sure. He also let them know that they made a mistake in not hiring me. Either way, I wasn’t all that depressed.
I got a few more offers and did a few more interviews before finally accepting a position at Infusion Software. They basically write CRM (Content and Resource Management) Software for small businesses. They are a relatively new company. I have been here for a month and I’ve been loving it since my first day. The first day I walked in, they basically said “Here’s your system. Pick an OS and install it and set up your development environment”. I was like “Awesome!”. Of course, I set up PC-BSD (which is basically a FreeBSD distro). The environment at Infusion Software is very energetic and fast-paced. The demographic is also rather young. During my interview they showed me around and when I got to the developer room, they showed me a projector and said “This is where we play Halo or Guitar Hero 3 when we need to take a break”. ‘Nuff said. I’m glad everything eventually worked out. I was rather stressed after my house got wrecked, and to add to it, I got laid-off. The way my friend Suhrid puts it. “You have the weirdest luck in the world. Really bad stuff happens to you, but then something really cool happens after that to make it better than before… you got to remodel your home for a great price, and you got a better job!”
My parents came down for a month at the beginning of January. My mom’s staying behind to help me set up the house. Of course, because of that I had to tell my girlfriend that she couldn’t come over anymore (this is all true, yes it is). Oh yeah, so I’m renting out my house. My parents had bought a house here that they don’t live in. So I’ve basically moved over there. It’s a bit of a drive to places, but nothing too bad.
Oh yes, I finally got to put my citizenship to use. Yes, I voted in the primaries. I registered as Republican so I could vote for Ron Paul. Let’s just say that I believe in a lot of what he says because I identify myself as Libertarian. I know a lot of people said that he wasn’t going to win, but that wasn’t the point. This country needs to change. It’s constitutionally a multi-party system, but the only parties that matter are the Republicans and Democrats and they haven’t been doing anything for this country. The current administration has done a great job of ignoring that piece of paper this country was founded up. The subtle erosion of Civil Rights alarms me. We need to remember what this country was founded upon. Honest, law-abiding citizens should have no fear of their government. That is why I support Ron Paul. It is besides the point that he didn’t win. We need to challenge the current situation. We need to change the current situation. Of course, the idiotic media ignored Ron Paul and didn’t even talk about him. Despite that, the man was able to garner a large and loyal following through the internet. What that says is that there are people who are willing to listen and who want to listen and who want change. The sad truth is that the people with big pockets, and big media exposure get all the attention, and not the people with the good ideas. I hope that in time his ideas will prevail. I hope in time Americans will realize that this country needs to get back to its roots.
That’s about it. I’m going to try and update this blog a little more frequently, but no promises.
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AACS-LA to take action against bloggers
BBC News is reporting that the AACS copy protection body is going to go after bloggers who posted the HD-DVD processing key.
“Some people clearly think it’s a First Amendment issue. There is no intent from us to interfere with people’s right to discuss copy protection. We respect free speech.
“They can discuss the pros and cons. We know some people are critical of the technology.
“But a line is crossed when we start seeing keys being distributed and tools for circumvention. You step outside of the realm of protected free speech then.”
Michael Ayers, AACS
This is so much bullshit. I can’t believe that they are going to use the DMCA to stop people from publishing a number. Some people think it’s a First Amendment issue? You’re damn right it is! The DMCA is the most bullshit, unconstitutional law there is. I seriously can’t believe that it has come to this; where a body can tell you what not to say. I have every right; a right given to me by the constitution; to say what I please. The First Amendment says that Congress shall make no law restricting my freedom of speech. I know it’s not up to me to interpret the law. We have the Supreme Court Justices for that. However, I feel that prosecuting people for publishing this key sets a dangerous precedent.
This is not about piracy. This is about control. DRM is not going to stop large-scale piracy. What it does is annoy proper customers. If I buy a disc, I can do whatever I want. I can make how many ever copies I want, and play it on whatever hardware I want. I can do anything short of making copies to sell. It’s mine and I paid for it.
From the article: “The leak of the key meant that some HD-DVD titles could have their copy protection removed and then could be watched on two different software players. The leak of the key did not affect hardware players, he said.”
That’s what they don’t want. They don’t want you playing it on whatever you choose.
In some ways, this might be a good thing. Perhaps it will make the public more aware about the travesties perpetrated by these DRM groups in the name of “protecting intellectual property”. Perhaps it will make them more aware of the unconstitutionality of the DMCA. I seriously wonder how they are going to go after 700,000 people. Good luck. The more they try to silence us, the more we are going to revolt.
I remember when the DeCSS issue first surfaced. People were being sued for publishing the decryption algorithm. There were different forms of displaying the algorithm. Like, could you be sued for wearing a T-Shirt with the DeCSS code? In a similar vein, people are already finding different ways to represent the HD-DVD Processing Key (shirts, mugs, songs, videos). One of these is the Free Speech Flag (displayed below). It uses the hexadecimal codes from the processing key as hexadecimal color codes. Can we be sued for displaying that? I don’t know. I hope all of this results in a serious re-evaluation of DRM and the DMCA.
Free Speech Flag
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Spread this number
09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
What do those numbers mean, and why are they so important? That number is the HD-DVD processing key for most movies released so far.
This means that using this key, you can decrypt and watch movies on Linux (if you have software available). But that’s not the most important part. The Movie Industry is threatening a blog for publishing this number. They claim “copyright infringement” (no doubt, under some ridiculous abuse of the DMCA). I had no idea that a number could be copyrighted.
This information is out on the web and it is spreading fast. The Movie Industry doesn’t like this and is trying to threaten people into silence. Digg deleted the original story, and then censored a second submission on the same topic. But there is a very interesting story in the Health section of Digg that deals with training your memory by memorizing a string of 32 alphanumeric characters…
SPREAD THIS NUMBER.
Let the Movie Industry know that they cannot silence us. If one person or website goes down, ten others will spring up in its place. We cracked the copyright protection system on DVD’s and it’s only a matter of time before we do the same to HD-DVD’s and BlueRay discs. The fact that the encryption system was cracked on DVD’s is the only reason we can play DVD’s on Linux now. The Movie Industry will have you believe that we are a bunch of evil pirates. Nothing is further from the truth. In fact, DRM does nothing to thwart piracy. The existence of a large supply of pirated DVD’s is ample proof of that. Anything that can be seen or heard can be copied. Once I buy my DVD, or HD-DVD or BlueRay, I can do whatever the hell I want to do with it. It’s my property. I paid for it. I can make as many copies as I want for personal use. They can’t tell me what to do. And that’s what this is all about.
Once again. Spread this number.
Here are links with more information. I initially found out about this story from Slashdot.
- Slashdot Article: Censoring a Number
- Rudd-O.com: Spread this number (The original “Spread this number” – where the campaign started!)
- wired.com: The New HD-DVD/Blu-Ray Hack: What It Might Mean For Us
- Proof of concept code at doom9
- BackupHDDVD
Update
Ok, so check this out. They sent a cease and desist letter to Google for providing search results that show the key. I seriously wonder how much more retarded these people can get.
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You have 48 hours to stop the Broadcast Flag
Ladies and Gentlemen, you have 48 hours to stop the broadcast flag. If you remember, they tried this sometime ago, but it was struck down. What is the Broadcast Flag? Basically it is a way for the money-hungry bastards at Hollywood and the MPAA to control what you can view, and when. Today, you can easily download HDTV content to view at a time that’s convenient for you. If the broadcast flag is in effect, there are a few things that you will not be able to do. Restrictions can take the form of the following:
- Flagged content cannot be saved. Even if you are able to save them, there will most probably be reduction in quality.
- You will be unable to skip commercials. This is the same deal with the bullshit they show you in DVD’s these days. You have to sit through the previews and commercials before you can get to the actual movie.
- You will not be able to burn downloaded content from the hard-disk into a DVD, if you wanted to save space.
- Want to send the content to another node on the home network, or another TV? Nope. The broadcast flag won’t let you do that either.
- Content can only be viewed by “authorized” devices. So suddenly you’ll have to replace all your hardware with ones that have been “blessed” by the assholes at the MPAA
End result? A big “fuck you” to consumer rights. Of course, the MPAA and Hollywood will tell you that this is all done to fight piracy. In addition to that, they will even tell you that you might be helping terrorists because of piracy, so of course, this is also helping “The War Against Terror”. It never surprises me how low these bastards can go. The broadcast flag is complete abomination. There is no way it will make a dent in piracy, especially large-scale. Current use of consumer electronics by American citizens to download and view shows at a later time, fall entirely within fair-use rights. If the flag is authorized, everyone will need Hollywood’s permission before they can create anything, or risk being sued. I can only see this stifling innovation.
This underhanded and cowardly tactic is not new for them. If you remember, they tried to sue VCR makers and MP3 player makers. If we had these kinds of laws 20 to 25 years ago, we wouldn’t have many of the things we take for granted today. Things like MP3′s and iPods. Hollywood and the MPAA have a right to distribute their content. But when that right encroaches upon my right to decide WHAT to do with that content, and how I decide to view it and when and where I decide to view it, I have a problem.
So what can you do about this? Go ahead and sign a petition, or call your senators. Make a stand now.
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Laloo Prasad Yadav is a retard
India is the world’s largest democracy, and Indian politics is interesting. It’s amazing that anything actually gets done. The government is a bureaucracy-choked mass and moves like drunk tortoise wading through tar, whereas at other times it surprises everyone by flashing by like a hyperactive cheetah on speed. But anyway, that is another issue.
India has some amazing politicians, but it also has some real rotten ones – ones that abuse the system. I’d like you to take a look at the picture at the right. Look at that face. Personally, I think it would look much better with a baseball (or cricket) bat being smashed against it, or even better, with a spear through it. That man right there is Laloo Prasad Yadav. This stinking pile of crap has an entry in Wikipedia – so go ahead and read it to get the backstory on him. He is one of India’s most infamous and reviled politicians. Anyway, you might be wondering what instigated this rant on my part. Well, this morning, I read this article from ExpressIndia. Here are some snippets from it:
Laloo a pain in the neck for UPA
Posted online: Friday, May 13, 2005 at 0920 hours IST
Updated: Friday, May 13, 2005 at 1234 hours ISTNew Delhi, May 13: Railway Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav has turned out to be an all around grief for the Congress-led UPA government and for India as a whole with his shenanigans making institutions of democracy crash to a virtual standstill.
… institution to come under assault was the Election Commission whose two commissioners B.B. Tandon and N. Gopalaswami were deliberately targeted by Laloo…
After Laloo’s accusations Prime Minister officially backed the Election Commission saying it was an institution to be respected. But, this in turn made Laloo see red and the entity that he attacked next was that of the Prime Minister.
Laloo went to the extent of defying the PM when he met Manmohan Singh and still asked for the heads of both the commissioners, thereby taking the fight straight to the top. HE did the unthinkable in a Parliamentary democracy by defying the PM.
His presence has overshadowed the state of Bihar too. His ability to retain power here, whether as Chief Minister, married to CM or even merely as head of RJD, has ensured that Bihar remains a troubled state.
…
Also, as Railway Minister, when the Sabarmati Express crashed in Gujarat, Laloo at once turned all the attention away from the accident by targeting Modi. His car was stoned and he blamed Gujarat CM Narendra Modi for instigating it.
…
In short, what is clear from Laloo’s actions is that he will take any and all steps to save his skin.
…
Laloo Prasad Yadav, for India, is like ozone layer [sic], he has caused a huge hole that is making the UPA government to burn out. Is the same happening to India? What we are looking at, on a national scale, is the gradual Biharisation of India.
That, ladies and gentlemen, is what this man is doing to India. He is a retard. Retarded dumb-shits like these make me really, really angry. Personally, I would like to see him in front of a firing squad. Perhaps that’s too extreme. How about solitary confinement for the rest of his life? That would be good too. It is beyond me how such an obviously corrupt and pathetic man (who is barely literate) can become the Railway Minister. But as they say… “It happens only in India”. I hope he suffers an accident or something soon. Like slip on a banana peel and hit his head and go into a coma… for a long, long time. Am I going to hell for wishing all this on him? Nah… I will be doing the world a favour.
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