So Summer is Pretty Much Here, which means its time to overhaul my desktop.
Not that I need an excuse.
Desktop June 10, 2009 by ~squigglethecow on deviantART
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Thursday, May 21, 2009
File Sharing News
Recently alot has been going on in the realm of file sharing. Its always a hot topic but lately it seems to have stolen the spotlight.
On April 17, 2009 four leaders of thepiratebay.org (currently one of the largest torrent sites out there) were sentenced to one year in prison and a $3,620,000 fine each (original news article here)
This verdict has been met with a great deal of hostility by most Internet consumers (even those who do not pirate material) and has even been slammed by content providers. Torrent Freak reports that "Gary Lightbody from Snow Patrol...criticized the sentences received by the crew of The Pirate Bay, branding them as “way over the top”. The band’s frontman also says if you’re a file-sharer and you know how to get music for free, “f**king go for it.”
Since then, Charles Nesson, a Harvard Law Professor, has announced that he will be representing Joel Tenenbaum, an accused file sharer, in court and plans to prove that file sharing is "fair use". This defense is far more simplistic than what usually ends up in the courtroom, but in many ways it represents the opinions of people online. I remember a digg article once about a man being caught for selling software he had pirated, and nearly all of the comments expressed happiness that he was being brought to justice. Many commenter's said that even though they themselves used P2P networks to download material, they would never use it for profit. Rather than claim that Mr. Tenenbaum did not steal the material, Mr. Nesson is claiming that he did not necessarily steal it since he did not seek to profit from the material.
On top of that, PC Magazine writer John C. Dvorak brought my attention to another Ars Technica article regarding a study done by the Norwegian School of Management. The study claims to have proven that "illegal music connoisseurs are significantly more likely to purchase music than the average, non-P2P-loving user". So, if true file sharing does not rob the record industry of profits but stimulates profits. Of course, the RIAA are not convinced and it will be interesting to see if this study will inspire others like it.
So its been a very interesting time. On one hand, the legal side of things has gone very badly with the pirate bay (and through them, for file sharing in general) and on the other hand the defense for file sharing seems to have gotten much stronger than it has been in the past.
I'm not sure which side I would like to be victorious. I am not sure how "legalizing" file sharing would affect the entire media industry. Certainly such an extreme ruling would change the entire landscape of things. At the same time, the equally extreme extermination of file sharing does not seem to be the answer. Perhaps the balance is perfect right where it is, perhaps perfection is in the struggle.
Then again, I do not know for sure and I am exited to see how all of this turns out.
On April 17, 2009 four leaders of thepiratebay.org (currently one of the largest torrent sites out there) were sentenced to one year in prison and a $3,620,000 fine each (original news article here)
This verdict has been met with a great deal of hostility by most Internet consumers (even those who do not pirate material) and has even been slammed by content providers. Torrent Freak reports that "Gary Lightbody from Snow Patrol...criticized the sentences received by the crew of The Pirate Bay, branding them as “way over the top”. The band’s frontman also says if you’re a file-sharer and you know how to get music for free, “f**king go for it.”
Since then, Charles Nesson, a Harvard Law Professor, has announced that he will be representing Joel Tenenbaum, an accused file sharer, in court and plans to prove that file sharing is "fair use". This defense is far more simplistic than what usually ends up in the courtroom, but in many ways it represents the opinions of people online. I remember a digg article once about a man being caught for selling software he had pirated, and nearly all of the comments expressed happiness that he was being brought to justice. Many commenter's said that even though they themselves used P2P networks to download material, they would never use it for profit. Rather than claim that Mr. Tenenbaum did not steal the material, Mr. Nesson is claiming that he did not necessarily steal it since he did not seek to profit from the material.
On top of that, PC Magazine writer John C. Dvorak brought my attention to another Ars Technica article regarding a study done by the Norwegian School of Management. The study claims to have proven that "illegal music connoisseurs are significantly more likely to purchase music than the average, non-P2P-loving user". So, if true file sharing does not rob the record industry of profits but stimulates profits. Of course, the RIAA are not convinced and it will be interesting to see if this study will inspire others like it.
So its been a very interesting time. On one hand, the legal side of things has gone very badly with the pirate bay (and through them, for file sharing in general) and on the other hand the defense for file sharing seems to have gotten much stronger than it has been in the past.
I'm not sure which side I would like to be victorious. I am not sure how "legalizing" file sharing would affect the entire media industry. Certainly such an extreme ruling would change the entire landscape of things. At the same time, the equally extreme extermination of file sharing does not seem to be the answer. Perhaps the balance is perfect right where it is, perhaps perfection is in the struggle.
Then again, I do not know for sure and I am exited to see how all of this turns out.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
My Photography
I have decided this blog should serve as more of a blog than a constant flow of badly written how to guides; so below a re a few samples of my photography.
I must admit, I am also curious as to weather posting the pictures on here will get them listed in google under my alias.
Please note, these pictures were taken by me and I have the right to post them. If you wish to link to this blog, or to the original submission on my deviantart, please credit me.
For some reason, blogger makes the pictures HUGE even though I set it to 'small image size' when importing. Odd.
I must admit, I am also curious as to weather posting the pictures on here will get them listed in google under my alias.
Please note, these pictures were taken by me and I have the right to post them. If you wish to link to this blog, or to the original submission on my deviantart, please credit me.
For some reason, blogger makes the pictures HUGE even though I set it to 'small image size' when importing. Odd.
Friday, March 20, 2009
Windows 7 Beta: First Impressions
After the fiasco with my windows MBR earlier I have finally installed Wndows 7 on a clean partition.
I must say....I'm impressed.
Overall the system seems far more responsive, the font and other setup feels a bit blocky whereas OS X and Vista go for a more natural curve sort of look, you can see an example below. I have no preference between the two, both look good in their respective environments.
Microsoft seems to really be open to suggestions (weather or not they adapt them it yet to be seen). At the top of every explorer window there is a little like saying 'Send Feedback' which loads a small program installed with the system. A small window loads with a drop down menu for you to ch
oose what your critiquing, basic ratings (from love to hate) and a comment box.
Right clicking the desktop reviels 3 new options for quickly playing with your resolution, gadgets and wallpaper/color scheme. Out of everything in Win7 the inverted options under the resolution menus have impressed me the most. They do literally what they say they will, they invert the screen. In reality, this is useless to most (probably all) users....but its potential use for April Fools day tricks and such makes up for its lack of usefulness.
The personalization menu comes equipt with ready to go themes with a basic array of backgrounds and a matching window color. Below these selections you can also adjust each setting individually according to your taste.
As you see in the third picture over, you can also choose multiple backgrounds (ctrl + click) and set a timer for them to change. This feature is overdue and a rip off of mac OS X (kinda like the search feature introduced in Vista) but its nice to have around.
Well as much as I could talk about Windows 7 I should stop writing this. Any critiques of my writing would be appreciated, it seems that since I dont write often my skill has diminished. Below are a few pictures of my Windows 7 desktop.
I must say....I'm impressed.
Overall the system seems far more responsive, the font and other setup feels a bit blocky whereas OS X and Vista go for a more natural curve sort of look, you can see an example below. I have no preference between the two, both look good in their respective environments.
Microsoft seems to really be open to suggestions (weather or not they adapt them it yet to be seen). At the top of every explorer window there is a little like saying 'Send Feedback' which loads a small program installed with the system. A small window loads with a drop down menu for you to ch
oose what your critiquing, basic ratings (from love to hate) and a comment box.
Right clicking the desktop reviels 3 new options for quickly playing with your resolution, gadgets and wallpaper/color scheme. Out of everything in Win7 the inverted options under the resolution menus have impressed me the most. They do literally what they say they will, they invert the screen. In reality, this is useless to most (probably all) users....but its potential use for April Fools day tricks and such makes up for its lack of usefulness.
The personalization menu comes equipt with ready to go themes with a basic array of backgrounds and a matching window color. Below these selections you can also adjust each setting individually according to your taste.
As you see in the third picture over, you can also choose multiple backgrounds (ctrl + click) and set a timer for them to change. This feature is overdue and a rip off of mac OS X (kinda like the search feature introduced in Vista) but its nice to have around.
Well as much as I could talk about Windows 7 I should stop writing this. Any critiques of my writing would be appreciated, it seems that since I dont write often my skill has diminished. Below are a few pictures of my Windows 7 desktop.
Vista Sucks.....more
I hate to hate things. Anything. Really I do.
Yet microsofts abomination of an operating system can never let me be happy with it. The other week, upon installing a few updates my MBR went bad.
How? I haven't a clue. So I popped in my recovery CD (not on the actual Vista disk, it is on a separate disk just for alien wear computers) to try to recover the startup options. Once or twice I have had to do this since my ever changing combination of OS's can skrew up my boot record (ie: Grub takes over and doesn't want to leave).
To my unhappiness, Vista gave me an error reading: "Windows cannot repair this computer automatically. If you have recently attached a device to this computer, such as a camera or a portable music player, remove it and restart your computer. If you continue to see this message, contact your system administrator or computer manufacturer for assistance."
I must admit, I had left my iPod Touch plugged in during this process by accident. Upon detaching the iPod and restarting the computer I got the same error. I then unplugged the computer for a few minutes....
same error.
Then I turned to what used to be the recovery console only to find that in Vista, all the commands that worked in XP do not work for Vista. At that point I decided that Microsoft put the FU back in Fun.
I continued browsing google on my iPod Touch trying to learn the new Vista commands. Apparently they are the same (for example fixboot and fixmbr) but you need to type the directory of them, you cant just type them. Kinda a step backwards I'd say.
After trying multiple commands several times, I gave up and attempted to install a new version of Linux Mint onto some empty partition space in the hopes Grub (the linux bootloader) would somehow allow me onto Vista.
The plan would have worked but when I went down to the Vista entry I received an error about the MBR being corrupt. My best guess is my fiddling with the recovery console commands was the cause of that one.
At around 3 in the morning I finally went to bed an unplugged my computer. When I woke up in the morning I tried the Automatic Recovery again and it repaired the MBR just like it should, and everything worked again.
Today I got the same error and had the same problem (though this time I had not left ANYTHING plugged in, nor did I attempt the recovery commands). I installed Linux Mint on some empty space and the grub bootloader was able to detect Vista and let me boot into it just fine.
While in Vista I installed a program called Easy BCD that allowed me to edit my MBR from within windows.
Yet microsofts abomination of an operating system can never let me be happy with it. The other week, upon installing a few updates my MBR went bad.
How? I haven't a clue. So I popped in my recovery CD (not on the actual Vista disk, it is on a separate disk just for alien wear computers) to try to recover the startup options. Once or twice I have had to do this since my ever changing combination of OS's can skrew up my boot record (ie: Grub takes over and doesn't want to leave).
To my unhappiness, Vista gave me an error reading: "Windows cannot repair this computer automatically. If you have recently attached a device to this computer, such as a camera or a portable music player, remove it and restart your computer. If you continue to see this message, contact your system administrator or computer manufacturer for assistance."
I must admit, I had left my iPod Touch plugged in during this process by accident. Upon detaching the iPod and restarting the computer I got the same error. I then unplugged the computer for a few minutes....
same error.
Then I turned to what used to be the recovery console only to find that in Vista, all the commands that worked in XP do not work for Vista. At that point I decided that Microsoft put the FU back in Fun.
I continued browsing google on my iPod Touch trying to learn the new Vista commands. Apparently they are the same (for example fixboot and fixmbr) but you need to type the directory of them, you cant just type them. Kinda a step backwards I'd say.
After trying multiple commands several times, I gave up and attempted to install a new version of Linux Mint onto some empty partition space in the hopes Grub (the linux bootloader) would somehow allow me onto Vista.
The plan would have worked but when I went down to the Vista entry I received an error about the MBR being corrupt. My best guess is my fiddling with the recovery console commands was the cause of that one.
At around 3 in the morning I finally went to bed an unplugged my computer. When I woke up in the morning I tried the Automatic Recovery again and it repaired the MBR just like it should, and everything worked again.
Today I got the same error and had the same problem (though this time I had not left ANYTHING plugged in, nor did I attempt the recovery commands). I installed Linux Mint on some empty space and the grub bootloader was able to detect Vista and let me boot into it just fine.
While in Vista I installed a program called Easy BCD that allowed me to edit my MBR from within windows.
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Finally! Songbird works!
After trying songbird and being disappointed time after time, they finally make a version that works on my Vista.
Previously, the install would go well and then I was unable to load the program. Ever.
I am yet to try out the add ons (for adding lyrics, recommendations and album art) but thus far I'm just happy the window is up.
I should mention that the program hung for a LONG time before coming up, but once it did it runs fine. Screenshots below.
Previously, the install would go well and then I was unable to load the program. Ever.
I am yet to try out the add ons (for adding lyrics, recommendations and album art) but thus far I'm just happy the window is up.
I should mention that the program hung for a LONG time before coming up, but once it did it runs fine. Screenshots below.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Operating Systems: In Order of Awesome
For a school project the other day, I had to type something in word pad.
To add a speck of interesting to the obvious monotony, I typed up a list of Operating Systems ,in the order of awesomeness.
1) OS X Leopard
2) Linux Mint
3) Windows XP
4) Ubuntu
5) OS X Tiger
6) DOS
7) Windows 7
8) Windows Vista
To add a speck of interesting to the obvious monotony, I typed up a list of Operating Systems ,in the order of awesomeness.
1) OS X Leopard
2) Linux Mint
3) Windows XP
4) Ubuntu
5) OS X Tiger
6) DOS
7) Windows 7
8) Windows Vista
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
