Home of DJ and technophile Jonathan Puddle (aka J Puddy)
Archive for September, 2007
Reading for end of September, 07
04 years ago
by Jonathan Puddle
in Tech
“Government” of Myanmar turns off internet to the country. What horrors are taking place now?
AT&T amends Terms of Usage to silence criticism by plan holders. – Update: AT&T update their terms… to stop the backlash.
Recent iPhone update ruins phones that have been unlocked, and maybe damages others too? Said update from Apple might also be breaking the law.
Amazon MP3 store – best I’ve seen yet – Amazomg?
04 years ago
by Jonathan Puddle
in Tech
Amazon has just launched their MP3 store into public BETA, and after spending a few minutes looking around, and then downloading some music, I’m convinced it’s the best store I’ve seen yet.
Highlights
-DRM free
-256KB MP3s (variable and constant rate)
-Browser based… I don’t care for an application needed to buy music, especially when iTunes is using 84MB of RAM, just to sit there and do nothing. I use Winamp to play music.
-Cheap! Their prices are cheaper right off the bat. Furthermore pricing is based on song length, with “regular” length songs dropping in at around 89c. Albums feature a discount over single tracks.
-Flexibility. Apple like doing things the Apple way, that’s why there’s no Radiohead on iTunes Music Store because Apple refuses to sell full albums without individual tracks being available. You want Radiohead? Go to Amazon.
-Simple. Amazon owns ecommerce, there’s no step that’s not necessary.
-Fast! Amazon is building some wild storage clouds (that are available for you if you’d like)… I downloaded an album in at least the same time as I’d get from iTunes, if not faster. And I’m downloading slightly larger files.
Drawback
-Only one I’ve come across is that the service is currently meant for US citizens only. Workaround on the link below.
Daring Fireball has a great write-up.
The Pirate Bay sues Big Media
04 years ago
by Jonathan Puddle
in Tech
The Pirate Bay are a large bittorrent tracker. That means they provide tracking data so you can download bittorrent files, which are streamed from other people’s computers. They made a documentary recently about their experience with the Swedish police and the US government.
In a nutshell, by Swedish law they are providing nothing more than metadata for people. Any files downloaded are pulled from participants computers, not The Pirate Bay. Think of Pirate Bay as a phone book, maybe. So the MPAA (evil) calls up the Whitehouse and says “These Swedish kids are hurting our profits. Help.” So Uncle Sam threatens Sweden with TRADE SANCTIONS! unless they shut down The Pirate Bay. The story goes on.
I posted the other day about MediaDefender files being leaked. The Pirate Bay have found evidence in the leaked e-mails that they’re now using to sue some little companies:
* Twentieth Century Fox, Sweden AB
* Emi Music Sweden AB
* Universal Music Group Sweden AB
* Universal Pictures Nordic AB
* Paramount Home Entertainment (Sweden) AB
* Atari Nordic AB
* Activision Nordic Filial Till Activision (Uk) Ltd
* Ubisoft Sweden AB
* Sony Bmg Music Entertainment (Sweden) AB
* Sony Pictures Home Entertainment Nordic AB
Don’t paint me broadly as anti-copyright. I’m anti-extortion, and pro fair-use. How many bands, artists, movie makers, authors have you heard of that feel like their children have been ripped away from them? (If you don’t understand what I’m talking about, start reading.) If movie and record companies have used illegal practices to attack others, I see no reason why they shouldn’t be prosecuted under full extent of the law. A law that’s pretty flawed… I might add.
Influenced by Trent Reznor, I feel that I should release all my music (once I create some) for public re-mixing and re-use. I think that’s great. Someone hold me to it.
Dear Jonathan and Maija,
34 years ago
by Jonathan Puddle
in Personal
Your flights have been confirmed.
Tue, Dec 11 08:25 PM to
10:05 PM
Helsinki, Finland (HEL) to
Frankfurt, Germany (FRA)
Stop – Change planes in Frankfurt, Germany (FRA)
Tue, Dec 11 11:30 PM to
06:25 AM
Arrive on Thu, Dec 13
Frankfurt, Germany (FRA) to
Sydney, Australia (SYD)
Thu, Dec 13 07:35 AM to
12:35 PM
Sydney, Australia (SYD) to
Auckland, New Zealand (AKL)
Sweet goodness. My mother dearest and some other kin have sprung to fly Maija and I to New Zealand for my uncle’s wedding and then Christmas! And then an excellent holiday. We shan’t return to these fair but frigid shores till January 25th! Wagga wagga. So we’re really thrilled, and kind of in awe right now. Usually a holiday of this magnitude requires a lot of planning and saving, and you’re thinking about it for years before it happens. Not so this time my friends, not so. So a big thank you and love to Mummy and Damien and Papa and anyone else who contributed.
Swoon.
Steal NIN’s music
34 years ago
Trent Reznor says:
“…Has anyone seen the price [of music] come down? Okay, well, you know what that means — STEAL IT. Steal away. Steal and steal and steal some more and give it to all your friends and keep on stealin’. Because one way or another these mother****ers will get it through their head that they’re ripping people off and that’s not right.’
Most polluted places in the world
04 years ago
Before you think, Toronto! or New York city! try this article on for size.
Norilsk, Russia — This city above the Arctic Circle contains the world’s largest metal smelting complex and, therefore, some of the world’s worst smog. “There is so much pollution going into the air from this place that there is no living piece of grass or shrub within 30 kilometers of the city,” Fuller says. “Contamination [with heavy metals] has been found as much as 60 kilometers away.”
It disturbs me how (reportedly) easy some of these problems are to solve, or lessen. Maija points out that China have the resources to rebuild most of their factories and could run them pollution free, but they just don’t care. I can’t wait till I’m a wealthy philanthropist…
The Blacksmith Institute (who did the research) have a Google-map fed view of the “dirty 30″.
MediaDefender illegal video warriors, hacked
04 years ago
by Jonathan Puddle
in Tech
MediaDefender offer their services to studios and record labels. Their services are methods of disrupting illegal video sharing, such as uploading bogus torrents and torrents filled with advertising (to attempt to regain lost revenue). Not surprisingly some of their practices have been shouted down by the bittorrent community, but it seems there’s traction to some of what the community has complained about.
Some interesting reading can be found here, and here… regarding 700mb of internal staff e-mail being leaked to bittorrent. Seems like they’re not totally above board. Reminds me a lot of the Sony DRM malware scandal. Especially the part that sounds like they were developing software to turns torrent users computers into autonomous robots that would seek other torrent users. Botnet anyone?
Writing process used by Bioware
04 years ago
I found this article quite interesting. It’s about Bioware, the company who makes Knights of the Old Republic, among other games. Knights is an RPG game, with a load of conversation. How a game with this much conversation and changeable morality based plot lines is actually planned out and written, is something that has intrigued me.
Halo 3 madness
14 years ago
by Jonathan Puddle
in Uncategorized
Before those not interested in video games write this off… hear this! Things are happening in this video game industry that have not happened before… wierd and wonderful things. It’s not going to be long, my friends, until Peter Molyneux’s vision of games being as accepted an artform as movies and books becomes reality.
Take a look at this. And this. And this. Microsoft have just stepped up their final phase of marketing for Halo 3, which drops in a few days. Most of all, take a look at this. If nothing else, it’s one of the most impressive uses of Flash I’ve ever seen. Beyond that… it’s bizarrely moving. I’m trying not to get drawn in and fall for the hype it’s supposed to instill in me… but wow.
Going to scream
24 years ago
by Jonathan Puddle
in Uncategorized
I was half way through a long and amusing tale about living in Finland when my browser ate all the pies, and I lost it. I’m so fed up with my current web platform… this Joomla and WordPress union. It’s not doing it for me anymore. I need something easier and smarter. That’s part of the reason I don’t blog very much, it’s become such a chore from the perspective of the hoops I need to jump through to make it happen.
Damncakes.
Recent Comments