Piracy is Good

Hi everybody,

yesterday I was out of stuff to watch while eating, both Battlestar galactica and Ally Mc beal were busy downloading (ahi ahi ahi, bad person, me, I'm a pirate yes...). So I went for another smallish file (200MB) which i got from the torrent, titled Piracy-isGood-small.mov. I was expecting a short documentary about how BSG had been downloaded from the UK to the US, and how this ensured the success up there... But I got much more... A two-hours lesson on how television work today, and how will likely work in the near future. the first slide was titled something like:
October 18th, 2004 : the day TV died. the date in question was the first airing of BSG's miniseries on sky one UK.
It turned out to be quite interesting. The guy, talking during this australian TV conference, draws some interesting parallels... and since he's a very good speaker, the two hours literally fly away.


He envisages a future where, thanks to software like bittorrent getting rid of the middlemen (distributors, and broadcasters), advertisers will be able to directly produce and distribute branded shows, saving a shedload of money and at the same time keeping a high level of quality, or at least, of customer satisfaction, since only good shows will be 'popular' then easy to download thanks to the peculiar way BT and the new p2p sharing softwares work. Moreover, the more successful a show will be, the less 'expensive' every appearance will be for the advertiser/producer, since he's not paying for the distribution itself. This is a complete reversal of TV advertising's current business mode, where if you want to be seen by more people you have to pay proportionately more. All this, and much more, in the in-depth analysis that the speaker does...

But the link in the title is a web page tackling the same argument, and, for what I can see, it's the summary of the guy's speech. I can't link directly to the .mov file, since I can't check dodgy websites from work - but you can easily get it, just go to http://www.tvtorrents.com/ and select Battlestar galactica as series. it will be there. sit down, relax, and enjoy the future...

history of PC TV Ads

That is, history of TV advertisement for PC. nice blog post found by chance... lots of links (slow) to googlevideo and youtube for watching the stuff yourself...

I may have not liked Judas...

but what Peter Hamilton is brewing for us smeels like an interesting tea pot...

click up there to read the Confederation Timeline starting from Judas Unchained and encompassing (I believe) the Dreaming Void... I'll earmark some pounds to buy his next book then...

and congratulation for the new son!

The Mile High club

This refers to people who have sex on the plane... usually, in the toilet, I would educately guess.

but what if you had your B787? with bed, kitchen, cinema room and bubble bath? all for your enjoyment? Well, if you want and can afford it you can have it.

I mean, there seems to be quite a market for this kind of things. 39 747 are currently privately owned. and many more of other kind. I guess it's above Rockstars level, I'm thinking more Oil-sultans and such...

from the paper: In addition to its size, which will allow for even more luxury, the A380 has a feature that may appeal to the most status-conscious of owners, who may travel with underlings. That feature harks back to the days of ocean liners, where social classes were physically segregated.

“The A380 will offer a chance to separate the senior V.I.P.’s from the junior V.I.P.’s because you have two decks, and they can be kept apart,”

Google's sun shines high

Google is looking for solar power... not all the energy will come out of it, agreed, but it's a reasonable step in the good direction. the mor epeople buys this cells, the lower the costs, the more people will be able to afford them. and it's not like we're going to run out of silicon anytime soon... may some rare earth but this may be fixed I hope...

from the article: “Big companies targeting the kind of demographics Google targets are falling all over each other to be greener than each other”

let's just hope it's not a fad...

Reversing Outsourcing...

from the NY Times: Where once the brains of India left for more lucrative pastures in the United States, today a handful of fresh American college graduates are sampling the fruits of the Indian economic boom.

What's more to say? It is to be expected. growing companies will look for talents everywhere they can find them, and with increasing life standards in the developing countries, people are not against moving over there at least for a limited time. What's more, with the pay they'd usually perceive in the US they can live three to four times as luxuriously in India. And even when they are not supposed to move over there, and they become the faces those companies offer to foreign markets, it's important to see the playing field being leveled from both sides...

What's the likelihood...

Of visiting twice the same blog by hitting twice, in two different days the (next blog>) button up there on the right hand side? I don't know. But it just happened to me. went there on friday, and now again. So I though I'd share with you, since I like what's written on it.

Not The Country Club

and the picture of GW Bush is funny.

'nuff said.

Religion can be a good thing...

I always knew it. Being born in a catholic country (the catholic country for excellence, one could say), I know that people can have a positive attitude towards the environment, not the disastrous one that theo-con evangelical have in the US. But it's nice to see someone over there pulling his weight...

Over the last five years, Father Morris has sharply reduced his small parish’s energy use and emissions of carbon dioxide, the compound most scientists believe has led to global warming, and he has organized other congregations across Michigan to do the same.

that's good...

by the way, it's not like evangelical are all EVIL:

Over the last year, religious activism on global warming has won much attention. Last February, 86 evangelical Christian leaders backed an initiative to combat global warming, a move that broke the evangelical movement’s broad silence on the issue but exposed stark divisions.

that's what the priest teaches: “If we are made in his image, we should mirror his image in our dominion over the Earth,” Mr. Wickersham said. “He is creative and sustaining, not destructive.”

it's a neat and convincing message I'd say, one that certainly can appeal to people who have a good hearth and care about their own children. The other? well, quite frankly, I'd give them one last opportunity to redeem themself, then would have them shot. with bio-degradable bullets, of course :-)

And another blog to add...

to your favorites: Galactic interactions. very nice posts about cosmology and astronomy... haven't read much. unofrtunately, like all people trying to enlighten the masses, Rob Knop's blog is plagued by nuts convinced they've got it figured all, and science establishment is covering all up. But he and his blogs' habitues put up a good fight against the dark side...

First steps in acknowledging Virtual Spaces

Reuters is opening his first news agency in a virtual space: namely, the MMORPG Second Life. Being there almost one million inhabitants, it was almost time, you could say. The articles Mr. Pasick files will be strictly about — and addressed to — Second World players. Reuters CEO downplays this all to a playful touch of PR, but I see it differently. With the growing importance of Virtual Arenas, more and more will be happening there, especially when information exchange is concerned... One days, things will be decided up there that will exert an effect in the real space. Think of it has the Internet Special Interest Groups that Bruce Sterling protrayed in "Island in the net". Behold the future in making!

EDIT: next steps, is a daily news on what's been happening on World Of Warcraft...

eBooks: will it work this time?

I have an e-book reader. it's a java thingy in my cell phone. never used it. the screen is tiny, and even if it weren't, in which occasions I'd enjoy a book, without having the opportunity to have the book physically there?

moreover, screens are awful for reading. Sony is trying to shake this up with its next big thing (well, they hope so)


It’s a handsome half-inch-thick nine-ounce slab, a bit smaller than 5 inches by 7 inches, “bound” in a protective leatherette cover. You can turn pages individually, or jump ahead 10 percent of the book at a time. A “mark” button produces a visual dog-ear on the page corner.

What distinguishes Sony’s effort from all the failed e-book readers of years gone by, however, is the screen.

The Reader employs a remarkable new display technology from a company called E Ink. Sandwiched between layers of plastic film are millions of transparent, nearly microscopic liquid-filled spheres. White and black particles float inside them, as though inside the world’s tiniest snow globes. Depending on how the electrical charge is applied to the plastic film, either the black or white particles rise to the top of the little spheres, forming crisp patterns of black and white.

let's hope it will work this time. and let's also hope that prices for downloads will not be exceedingly high. I laugh at people buying iTunes songs. I want part of the money saved in not having to print the stuff to be shifted onto me. not only in more money for the freaking shareholders. pah! Until then, I'll happily do without e-contents.

Welcome, alessandro...

I know you've visited... :-)

Early posting today...

Good morning everybody... I'm here at work at 6.40, as usual during my mondays. most people find it hard to wake up on mondays. me too, but when you've to throttle 100 busy Km of motorways to get here you better start early. and when as today it's not me the one who has to travel, I still hve to bring her to the rail station. so, my wake up time doesn't change...

so, here I am... at least this way I'll be able (hope) to leave work early, and go off to the swimming pool to test my new swimsuite. Like children, I believe that new sport gear makes you perform better... I remember when I used to get new (albeit unbranded) trainer socks, and after trying them for like ten metres sprints, I would proudly declare to my mum that thanks to them I felt I was running faster, jumping higher, and longer... ah, childhood... when every dream comes true... may be I'll post some more about my childhood, in the following posts... who knows? for now, back to gritty day-to-day work.

49 Up

7 Up isn't just the brand of a fizzy lemonade, but also an interesting documentary created by some british lads, In 1964, they started following some people's lives at seven years intervals. They're now at the seventh instalment, and since 7x7=49, you can guess what the title refers to. I stumbled onto this documentary while looking for an underdog sport movie, but i think I'll keep a tab on it, and see if I can get my hands on it. It looks quite interesting...

I wonder, though, how much these people's life has been influenced by the documentaries... did people recognise them on the road? I don't think so. but may be having something like this in your CV can give you an edge. After all, the employer would be happy to keep you seven years, so that his firm would be featured in the movie too... mah?

anyway, click on the title to get the trailer (thanks Apple)

saturday morning fever...

Plenty of things to do today... wake up, shake up, abs, a bit of thesis writing, to the post-office to retrieve a fine (sigh), then lunch, down to bxl to meet the lady, and may be swimming. If I can get a swimsuit there. Also, I'm afraisd I'll have to help her to put up a computer-desktop... God of B&Q, bless me...

and, the fatter you are the more stupid too...

I always suspected it...

Neurology has published a paper where a correlation is shown between BMI and cognitive distress.

Now, the scatterplot which i see is dreadfull, and the line they draw through it not really significative. let's face it, the variability of the data is enormous. So, not having read the paper, I do have my doubts...

Also: as a sportsman, I do have a high BMI, but very low fat %age. how does this figure, then? Could this be cause of the variability? I would then expect to see some variability change along the years, may be?

thanks to Shelley for this.

Suing for being abducted by aliens?

No, really, I can't believe this...

BERLIN (Reuters) - A German lawyer hopes to drum up more business by pursuing state compensation claims for people who believe they were abducted by aliens.

"There's quite obviously demand for legal advice here," Jens Lorek told Reuters by telephone on Thursday. "The trouble is, people are afraid of making fools of themselves in court."

Lorek, a lawyer based in the eastern city of Dresden who specializes in social and labor law, said he hoped to expand his client base by taking on the unusual work.

He has yet to win any abduction claims, but says there are plenty of potential clients, noting that extra-terrestrial watchdogs report scores of alien assaults every year.

"These people could appeal for therapies or cures," he said.

Lorek, 41, is pinning his hopes for success on a German law which grants kidnap victims the right to state compensation.

I don't understand who they want to sue. The Local Air Force for not adequately protecting the country's air space? this is bonkers!!!

repeat with me. Bonkers!!!

Thanks to Orac

It's a slow friday...

And I spent it almost all in meeting, presentation and some work here and there. not much. now what? I'd like to go out, but my GF is 100Km apart. not much, pity is 100Km of queues, so I better try to reach her tomorrow morning... Freinds here have their families, is not like in the UK where everybody was single or unmarried anyway, with no ties and happy to go out... not that I got many occasions, entrenched as I was in my routine... pity that when you want, you can't, and the other way around...

well, that's life, I guess... :-|

let's see if I can put in some scrolling text

yes I can... that's cool...

Ghost Rider

Here's the new Marvel movie on the ghist Rider. Personally, I've never read the comic but I know of a few people who were fan of it. So I may give it a try. Although I'm a bit bored with the whole superhero concept right now.

ps: click the link for some hi-res trailers...