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Saturday, May 9, 2009
This isn't Bear related... however... has anyone been following the news concerning the Swedish website The Pirate Bay...? The Pirate Bay is a site that indexes and tracks torrent files - so - get yourself a program like BitTorrent, then start your quest to find and download music from your favourite bands while at the same time grab the latest blockbusting movies. Once you find these files, you now become part of the group that is 'sharing' that particular file. It's as simple as that, and because it's so simple, there's a whole bunch of people online who seed and leech torrent files. Getting back to The Pirate Bay, they've been having legal issues since 2006 specifically because certain people are saying that torrents are not about sharing but rather it's about stealing, and with a name like 'The Pirate Bay'... well... I'm sure the site has angered a ton of people who feel they are watching their dollars disappear with every 'shared' byte flying by.
There's 4 main guys who run the site and they are all up for a year in jail including having to pay a fine for $3.2 USD (news articles here). However, there's been a ton of backlash ever since this court case. First they stated that the judge is biased since he is a member of various copyright protection trade groups. And rather than scare and deter people from downloading torrents by putting these guys up on trial, this court case has increased the number of torrent users, by double if not more.
It will be interesting to see just which way this case is going to go. However I do know that you just cannot stop people from passing stuff back and forth online. Ever since I have been online, since 1994, I have heard about people passing games and files and what have you, first through the newsgroups then the BBS and IRC. Now you can movies, music, games, and files from other sites such as RapidShare, MegaUpload and from bloggers on BlogSpot. And for those who like movies, you don't even need to download them anymore, not with sites like Vidics. I just don't see how anyone is going to police what people want to share over the net.
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Tuesday, November 25, 2008
You'd think I'd know by now. I downloaded a virus... I executed it... it blew up in my face. What a mess it made. Actually, this story is kind of ironic.
I have been using Norton's antivirus programs for what seems like forever now. Back in the early 90s when I first bought a computer for university, the AV to get was Norton and I stuck with them all this time.
2nd part to this story ~ I bought Roger a new computer for Xmas (early Xmas gift). It came with Vista, which of course I knew it would and I felt it was hi-time to learn Vista. Yes I have heard of every negative comment about Vista, but whatever, new computers today come with it and at worst, if we don't like it, we still have a couple of weeks to return it. So far I like Vista.
3rd part to this story ~ With Roger's new computer comes Norton 360, but it's only the 'trial' version and it's good for 60 days at which point you have to activate it (which means - buy it). Now the Norton software I have is good for my XP but it's an older version which isn't suitable for Vista, so there was no point in loading it up. So I searched the net, read here and there and found that BitDefender is the best AV out there, so I decided to torrent a copy.
4th part to this story ~ yes torrent it. I thought ok, I'll just download a copy of BitDefender and I'll be fine. Now I've downloaded several programs with torrents and never had a problem but this time I simply fucked up.
When you change antiviruses - you need to remove the first AV before adding the new AV... and that leaves you vulnerable. For some reason that night when I downloaded the BitDefender torrent, I wasn't paying attention, and I downloaded one which had no comments attached to it (comments which state whether it's safe or not to download). I just downloaded 'a' copy... so when I went to execute it... and since I removed Norton... well it turned out to be a virus.
01234.exe
45353.exe
79432.exe
Everywhere... all over my system... so yes, I'm an idiot.
Anyhow, I've been spending the past couple of days moving over all my files, reformatting this beast and I'm now in the process of reconfigurating my system. That's where I've been the past few days so I'm catching up and will get back to answering my emails and messages.
ps - I decided to buy BitDefender. I looked around and it seems that torrent copies of antiviruses are just huge pains in the asses, so instead of worrying, I just bought a copy which is good for 3 computers. Therefore Roger's new Vista box and my old XP box are protected... fuck you virus makers.
pss - that chest in the image belongs to GilBear (galleries). No it wasn't a virus that attacked him, nor is it blood for that matter. It's wax. Click here to see the pic.
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Tuesday, March 4, 2008
This is not Bear related but it's what I would consider interesting internet news. Trent Reznor of NIN has been trying to change how music is spread - 1st with his release of Saul William's CD Niggy Stardust (which Trent produced - article here) and now with his very own compilation entitled Ghost I-IV. He has made Ghost I available to download - either pay him $5 or grab it for free (from his site or via torrent).
Now it might be easy for him to give away his music because he's a mega superstar musician, and starving artists cannot afford to make music and just hand it out for free, so I don't know what to say about that ~ however whether or not you're a fan of making music free, a lot of people already know about torrents and how to share music (Wiki #1 - Wiki #2), so what Trent is doing is simply following a trend, but it's a good trend. Also, a buddy of mine said that musicians make more of their moneys from concerts and not CD sales, so what Trent is doing is a truly ingenious way to market himself.
As for the Ghost I-IV - it is going to be 36 songs and he's made the 1st 9 available. I'm listening to it now and it's nothing like NIN. This new music does not compare to Trent's previous stuff however most of it is easy to listen to and it will sure to appeal to those who were never a NIN fan to begin with... oh and it's only $5... or it's free... you decide.