AARRR, me matey!

The other evening, the geeks at the dinner table started talking about the "faux pas" of admitting to work colleagues, "I download". They were getting dirty looks, and treated like low-life convicts who should be shipped off to an island infested with poisonous snakes and spiders which feast on birds *grin* Well, not quite, but the gist of the story was, don't admit it because the activity is frowned upon by the public and by artists. You dirty downloader, you.

Eh? Really? I talk about downloading all the time. I explain to anyone who wants to know what torrents are. I give recommendations on what to watch. I tell people immediately when I've seen a great movie. I don't get the dirty looks.

Here's why I think downloading has been "good for everyone":
* I would never see the film otherwise. Torrents make obscure, cult classics, foreign, arthouse films easily available.
* Downloading doesn't stop people from buying. I remember reading about the outcome of a study done in Japan. Regardless of the high rate of downloads, music sales still went UP. People are still BUYING music.
* I still buy DVDs, CDs and MP3s. Freaking hell, it all adds to the mess underneath my bed. I hate buying shit because it takes up space I don't have, but I still do it. MP3s less so because of all the DRM it comes wrapped in. Saying that, I just bought The Whitlams' album on iTunes last week cause I couldn't find "Thank you (for loving me at my worse)" easily. (Yeah, I know, I can't believe I'm listening to The Whitlams either)
* I still buy good software. My copy of OS X is an original. It's underneath my bed with the rest of my crap.
* I still buy movie tickets. In fact, I chuckled when I read this TechDirt article. Dark Knight, despite being the "most pirated film of 2008", is also likely to be the "biggest grossing film of the year". The bit that got me chuckling though, was this line in TechDirt:
"...in such a scenario, you could even make the argument that the more people saw the movie in download format, the more willing they would be to go pay to see the IMAX version, to get the full experience".

Because that is *exactly* what happened with me. I was about 5 mins into the movie on my MBP, when I hit pause, and thought, "Fck it, I gotta go see this at IMAX!". Cost me £12.50, the only session I could get was 11:30pm, and I got home around 2am - still, I'm glad I watched Dark Knight at IMAX.

That evening at dinner, I was hit with the comment, "That's just you". Implying, I am one of the rare who downloads and still buys. This proves it - It's not just me. Granted, not everyone splashes the cash after downloading, but enough people do it to still make a huge positive impact on the industry.

Downloading is a distribution model that's frowned upon because people don't see the potential of the technology behind it, and don't know how to make money off it. Because that's what it comes down to. Do you think record or movie companies would be so pissy if they were getting a cut? If artists were willing to go out on a limb and ask their fans to "pay what you think it's worth" for an album download, do you think they're going to go broke, or make more money?

Ask Radiohead, because that's exactly what they did with their last album. Ask Underworld who have been broadcasting their gigs live for awhile now. Ask NIN who offered fans a free download of their latest album (as soon as I found this out, I alerted a NIN-fan friend of mine), and different price packages for the limited edition release. Ask Lily Allen who started out by posting demos on MySpace.

I'm not saying that downloading isn't stealing. I'm saying downloading opens up a brand new world, to a brand new audience. So don't be such a hater about it *grin* For all the noise you hear about downloading media being bad, to my knowledge no kittens have been punished yet :P You just never hear about the good.

To be honest, these days when I download music, it comes free anyway. Courtesy of DJs who have caught on to podcasting :) Those podcasts are responsible for making me leave the country to attend their gigs. Tell me how this isn't helping the artist?

Btw, here's Monty Python's take on things :)

Vinton Cerf

This guy. Co-creator of ARPANET. Was speaking at my workplace last month. Alas, I wasn't employed there at the time, and apparently only execs were invited. Wasted. All I got was a webcast of the event. If I was there, I would've hugged him and asked him to sign my USB key. How many people do you know of who could say light-heartedly:

"There's a problem with the internet, and it's my fault."

+60 HP if any of you nerds out there can tell me what that problem is :)

I hate to admit it

I love my iPhone. It's an unhealthy sort of love. I never thought I could love a phone so much before. I never use to care much about what phone I had. This one's different. It took me a month to hack it, and half a bottle of plum wine to build up the courage to do it! Not to mention, I had online support back in Aus :) "The default password isn't working... It won't let me run the command... It keeps closing the connection *aaargh*..." My nerves were wrecked when I had to cut the SIM cards. Incidentally, the pimply punk at the stationery store asked me if I was 18 before selling me a stanley knife!!

This was me, back on NYE, before I passed out, loving my iPhone :P

It was worth it. The iPhone (nicknamed "touchy feely" :) ) sleeps beside me and my MBP. I looooove sliding my fingers across the screen. I looooove the two finger ZOOM on my pictures. I especially love scrolling! I've never had so much fun setting the alarm on my phone before, it's almost like playing the pokies *grin* Well sorta, you just spin the wheel until you get to the right number. An exuberant "WHEEE" burst out of me when I was demoing the alarm clock feature to someone. Apple has made the lamest, most mundane task fun :)

I really didn't expect the iPhone to be this cool. It's soo nice to look at, and it's soo nice to play with.

Cons that I can think of:
* Camera has been a little glitchy, however, I don't use it all that much and it's really not that big a deal.
* The headset that comes with the iPhone sux0rz to the max0rz. So much so that I rushed to the Apple store to see what other alternatives were available. Unfortunately, the only pair Apple were selling that was compatible with the iPhone were the V-Moda Vibe Duo. For 70 squiddies. I forked it out. What choice did I have? They're heaps better than the Apple pair, but I can't say I like them better than my old Sennies. For the first time in months, I can hear the tube softly rattling away behind my music.
* My fingers _are_ a little too fat for tapping away on the screen :( I find I'm better at typing when I rotate the iPhone to get a horizontal keyboard. Unfortunately, I can't do that when SMSing. The predictive spellchecker on the iPhone makes up a little for it. However, bit annoying when it corrects words I don't want corrected and I realise it too late.
* I haven't figured out how to sync Notes I tap out on the iPhone to my laptop yet. Or figured out if it's possible to view PDFs. I also tried to load up a tube map in gif format, that didn't work, it looked pretty crap. That's the one thing that would be really useful for me to have on my iPhone.

My biggest worry? That it's a first gen Apple product and it might burst into flames on me one day. It's going to be a stab to my heart if that day ever comes. Even still... Go buy one! Now, nOW, NOW!!! :)

iPod Touch

I got to play with one of these babies today:

It's slim, it's sleek, it's sexy... But my fingers are too fat to use it :P Well, for typing things anyway. T'was surprisingly difficult for me to type out a URL. Mm, overall impression? Nice, but... it's 200 squids for a puny 8GB and not that many extra features. How often am I going to get a free wifi signal? If I'm at home, I'm going to be using my Mbp. The 160GB iPod Classic is much better value at 229 squids. Yet it irks me to get the Classic since it's going to be obsolete... I'm currently lugging my Mbp to work, however, since the wifi got denied on my level, the Mbp has become an oversized mp3 player and calendar. It's pointless working on documents on my Mbp since USB sticks are blocked, and I can no longer transfer files to my desktop via email. I'm a little tired of taking my Mbp to work just for music :P Hrmph, must think about it.

The new Nano is, as I thought, pointless. Definitely not as sexy as the original version either.

Size queen

I don't get it. Pretty it may be, but do I really want to watch "two movies back-to-back" on a 2-inch screen? :/ I'm squinty enough as an oriental...

I'll stick to my 15.4 inch MBP display :P

Torrents

I don't have commercial TV. I don't have Sky. I thank Buddha (yup, getting there) for fcking torrents *grin* OMG, new season of Dexter (not my flatmate), didn't disappoint. Without torrents, I'd be screwed. And about 12 episodes behind :P

Time to follow it up with one episode of Futurama (thanks Wazzz!) before bed :)

Shufflicious

I couldn't resist. I finally bought a Shuffle about three weeks ago. When Apple first introduced the new Shuffle, I was reluctant to buy it due to its small 1GB capacity and no screen display. But it's been perfect for me and the battery life is amazing! My old Archos Gmini has a 20GB capacity but use to cark on me after 3-4 hours. Not even a full work day. I haven't managed to drain my Shuffle on a day out yet.

The problem I have with the Shuffle though, isn't the lack of a screen or its small capacity. It's the lack of a Hold button! Having fat fingers, made even more uncoordinated by gloves, I have a bad habit of accidentally skipping to the next track. Which isn't such a big deal, but the tracks I listen to are DJ sets ranging from an hour to two hours in length. The Shuffle's fast tracking functionality is pretty crappy and it'd take too long to get back to where I was. Apart from that, I'm a happy consumer with the Shuffle. Have to admit though, I spent a lot of time in the Apple store steeling my nerves and convincing myself to buy it. Just the thought of having to deal with Apple support again if anything goes wrong put me off.

No laptop, no blogging

On hiatus till I get my laptop back. It's just not the same when I have to hijack B's Vaio to blog :P My lappy's in the Apple Store, with the "geniuses", getting a new battery, logic board and power pack. Considering I've only had the MBP for about 6 months, that's a lot of repairs. Did I mention that I've been trying to get an appointment with the "geniuses" at tech support for THREE WEEKS? Everyday, I've been logging on to their website to try and book an appointment, always failing. I finally had to pay 79 quid to become a Procare Member which allows me to rock up without an appointment. Good un Apple. I could rant all day about Apple's crappy support. "Come back tomorrow at 10am and we'll try and book you an appointment," Apple support tells me. What, I don't have a job? How do they think I afforded their expensive laptop? Baaah... Not to mention my battery was on the recall list. I swear I checked it and it wasn't on the list (Apple guy, "Well the numbers haven't changed!").

My advice, don't buy first gen Apple products. The amount of effort you have to go through to get support from Apple is ridiculous. First they make it impossible to get an appointment without coughing up hard earnt squiddies. Then they'll make it seem like it's _your_ fault that things break down on a 6 month old laptop. Uh huh... Apple, you can be such a goat fcker.

I wanty!

Behold! Aluminium beauty!

I know I don't need it... I know it's going to annoy me without a screen and only having 1GB capacity... But... It's beautiful... I -must- have... However, be warned, Apple's great at aesthetics, but few people realise the hell Apple can put you through. If you're ever in Rondon, check out the long queue of disgruntled customers with broken Apple goods at the "Genius" bar, who get even more disgruntled when they're told appointments for technical support are all full up and they have to make an online appointment. My own experience, I had to try for two weeks solid to get an online appointment with the "Geniuses", just to get a key replaced.

Don't you wish...

... your DS was HAWT like mine?

Dontcha! ;) It's very stealthy. Turn of the lights, and you won't see much besides the awesome glowing screen... Black baby, only available in Europe!

"Ma-ri-o!"

It's my first real treat to myself since I've been here *happy sigh*

Guess who I sleep with at night?

Now tell me this ain't cool...
Headfones plugged in, Tiesto on... Noite everyone!

My little hottie...

Now normally I don't like to show my meat off on the internet (well, not for free anyway), but look what my MacBook Pro has done to my precious yellow meat!
I couldn't help but yelp when my lap made contact with the battery pack at the bottom. My CoreDuo widget tells me the laptop is running at a respectable 25-27 degrees.
My ass it is, felt more like 60+ to me. No more surfin in a towel for me. Traitorous laptop... Looks can be soo deceiving.

Well, at least mine didn't burst into flames like this lady's. And there are instructions in the manual along the lines of, "Do not leave the bottom of the computer in contact with your lap or any surface of your body for extended periods. Prolonged contact with your body could cause discomfort and potentially a burn." But who RTFM these days? :P