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  • Another study gets it right. It’s not the laws, stupid.

    written by

    james

    I’ve beaten the whole piracy issue to death on this and many other blogs over and over and over again. And when I got bored, I did it a little more. I’ve written on here about other people and/or corporate entities dealing directly with the record labels up here and coming away bloody. If there’s anything more I can say that I haven’t already repeated in at least two of those entries, I can’t find it. And y’know, the harder I look, the more I see of the exact same reasons for/against the whole issue of piracy. And the more I see of national governments taking their queues from the US entertainment industry instead of looking at the actual expectations held by consumers of this overly locked down content. Still, it’s nice to see studies like this one, coming out of a partnership between the US Social Science research council and the Canadian International Development Research Center, investigating the effect the various forms of legislation actually have on piracy in developing countries as an example–none, if you’re curious.

    “The failure of legal markets to provide access to goods at prices that are affordable in terms of local incomes fuels a situation in which high piracy becomes the primary form of media access,” said study editor Joe Karaganis.

    According to the study, a copy of Microsoft Office is five to 10 times more expensive in an emerging economy like Brazil or South Africa, compared to prices in the U.S. or Europe.

    Translate this to music, TV shows, video games that may not necessarily be available/accessible in countries outside the US, or indeed within the US if folks want to access, for instance, UK content, and it applies just as well. I don’t expect this to have much of an effect on the next attempt at Canadian copyright legislation post-election, but this is still nice to see. Not everyone’s accepting the entertainment industry’s notion that the sky is falling. Now if we could just convince the entertainment industry to stop pushing it.

  • This is a public service announcement, brought to you by Comments R Busted.

    written by

    james

    I used to have a validation thing for email addresses in place, in order to prevent folks from deciding to use your@mamma.com or some other nonsensical and equally nonexistent email address to comment on the blog. Problem was, it interfered with users with actual, valid email addresses. Oops. My fail. Comments, at least on this blog, now do what they’re supposed to. back to the drawing board with this idea. If anyone’s still having issues commenting over here, let me know–something else probably went smash.

  • Desperate for a kiss, now she’s practicing bondage.

    written by

    james

    Helen Staudinger clearly thought she wasn’t too old to have a little fun at the age of 92. The only problem? The intended object of her desire to have a little fun didn’t share that notion. After 53-year-old Dwight bettner refused to kiss her, which she’d apparently wanted him to do for a while, she left his house, went back home, and loaded her gun. A few bullets later, and poor, rejected Helen gets to spend time in jail. she only wanted a kiss. Now, she gets to play with handcuffs. Hell of a step forward.

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  • This is how Earth Hour should be done, kids.

    written by

    james

    Last year, I largely ignored the existence of Earth Hour. By largely, I mean entirely. this year, I didn’t even know Earth Hour was even coming up. Can we call that ignorance on account of obliviousness? Sure, why not? In Edmonton, they did it one better–whereas it’s the politically correct thing to do to shut off anything and everything electric for a whole hour in the name of environmental friendlyness, for the purposes of allowing the Pc greenies among us to justify trippling our electricity bills, Edmontonians did exactly the opposite.

    Alberta residents turned off Earth Hour by leaving their power switched on.

    Edmonton saw a spike in power usage during this year’s Earth Hour when Canadians are asked to shut off all non-essential power, officials reported Sunday.

    According to Epcor, the city used 1058.15 megawatts of power between 8:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. Saturday. This represented a 1.01 per cent rise over the same day and time last week. Cold temperatures may be to blame, Epcor officials said.

    They may be, but they’re probably not. Now, then. Back to cancelling Earth Hour in this apartment. Go global warming–I mean cooling–I mean climate change!

  • Bell tries screw the consumer 2.0, Netflix points it out–again.

    written by

    james

    It’s no secret the CRTC has spent most of this year failing at this whole keeping the big 3 ISP’s in Canada at something vaguely resembling in line. They decided nearly two months ago that unlimitted internet didn’t actually exist, and kind of stuck to that until escentially told not to be–Shane’s take on how that ended up playing out is over here. Then, they decided it might be in their best interest to put the idea up for a review and get back to it in 60 days. I thought they might take advantage of the election to change their mind again, but before they could, Bell Canada–one of the big 3 who’re sitting comfortable behind usage-based billing (UBB) decided to get crafty.

    Bell, in a submission to the CRTC yesterday, dropped its usage-based billing demands of the third-party ISP’s, one of which I’m currently a customer. Well, they sort of did. They replaced it with agrigated volume pricing (AVP), also known as UBB 2.0. Rather than charging ISP’s for what they’ve used after they’ve already used it, Bell is now looking at the possibility of having them purchase a certain amount of bandwidth from them, and god help them if they underestimate how much they’ll need. Yep, download cap 2.0, kids. Officially screwed? You betcha. And Netflix knows it. In direct response to the fact their Canadian branch is among those being targetted by these measures, Netflix Canada has officially lowered the quality of its video streaming service. Oh, yeah, and they kind of pointed out what I’ve been saying for at least the last month–the only ones benefitting from it are the big 3. Oh and, guess what? Here’s the kicker–Bell’s customers still get the pleasure of dealing with UBB while they slap us in the face with AVP. Forget officially screwed. We’re heading straight down the road to officially ripped the hell off.

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  • Sexual assault is a crime, unless you’re with the TSA.

    written by

    james

    That’s the message being broadcast by the Transport Security Administration, at least, in the very latest, erm, episode. A woman at Laguardia Airport had been cleared through the scanners, and was well on her way to catch her flight. She was stopped by a TSA agent, and informed she was to be given an on the spot pat-down. she was ordered to assume a spread-eagle position and proceeded to have her breasts, thighs and, well, other places grabbed by the agent. So, according to information, did two other women in that area. Suddenly, it’s not just about finding reasons to feel you up at the checkpoints or seeing how much of passengers’ money you or the folks you work with can walk away with anymore. Yeah, that makes me feel real safe in flight. Where’d I put my bus ticket?

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  • The year of the earthquake?

    written by

    james

    Ever since about October 2010, there’s been one major earthquake after another with the occasional minor one thrown in to spice things up. Japan itself was the not so proud recipient of two of them. I’m officially dubbing this the year of the earthquake.

    And, in very slightly related news, we’re approaching the 1-year anniversary of this mildly entertaining event. Almost as a cellebration of that episode–the one I felt while doing groceries, of all things, some of us got to experience this 3.5 quake. I didn’t feel this one, but apparently it was semi-nifty. Hopefully the locals I ran into last year didn’t forget the education they were provided…

    Edit: And hey look, another one–this one a week or two ago, and hitting the same area roughly as last year’s quake but significantly weaker at about 4.3. Not bad for having gone a couple years quake free in this area.

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  • We should not be allowed anywhere near anything technological. No, seriously.

    written by

    james

    The following things should, in fact, be restricted from both myself and Shane for the safety of the general public.

    • Any kind of network access whatsoever
    • Most forms of access to the internet, or at least the less legal portions of the internet
    • Any and all versions, local or otherwise, of dropbox–this includes, but is not limited to, the Dropbox website

    The reasoning behind it? Uh. We’ve just managed to find a very interesting and quite creative way of putting any and all of the above to our advantage–in quite possibly the most dangerously lethal way possible. Also known as the absolute quickest way of getting material sent to multiple directions without causing mass amounts of headaches. Clearly, we absolutely must be stopped. For our own good.

    PS: Sorry, Jessica. We’ve made your computer a casualty tonight. See? Told you it was dangerous.

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  • Hey look, it’s another election! yippy!

    written by

    james

    I have a thing for politics. Call it a hidden streak of sadism. Whichever. I’ve kept a relatively close eye on it since highschool. which, quite surprisingly, meant I got to play witness to nearly an average of one election every two years since shortly after I got out of college. In 2004, our majority liberal government under former crook–er I mean Prime Minister–Jean Chretien shrunk to a minority liberal government under former partner in crime–er I mean Prime Minister–Paul Martin. In 2006, we kept the minority but switched parties, and ended up with the conservatives and Stephen “accountability” Harper. In 2008, we landed the exact same government in the exact same position–huge thanks to Stephane “green shift” Dion. And in 2011, we get treated to another one with the help of Michael “No coalition, maybe” Ignatieff. I’m not even bothering to comment on the role Jack “your money for everyone” Layton or that member of provincial parliament from Quebec played in any or all of them, simply because, well, nobody but they really care about it.

    I voted in the 2004 election. I even voted in the 2006 election. When 2008 rolled around and we went for a third straight vote in 4 years, I didn’t bother. The platforms were the same. Most of the major players were the same. My local representative remained the same–mostly because the alternatives to him remained pretty much the same. And truth be told, I’d much rathered be at work than standing in line for an hour and not getting paid for it. I will not be voting in 2011. Why? See my reasoning for 2008, minus the whole being at work thing. It’s been 3 years since the last election, and for the better part of 2 of them, they’ve been talking about the next one. Hi, really really old Michael Ignatieff quote. Nice to see you. And of course, surprise of surprises–here we are again. I can has stability plz? No, somehow, I didn’t think so.

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  • Anyone wanna guess what this is?

    written by

    james

    No? Okay fine. This would be, for the first time in a little bit over a month, my attempted reemergence into the realm of this whole blogging thing. This may or may not include yet more mockery, and that thinggy I’m supposed to do about what you guys were reading last month–conveniently, 4 or 5 days before I should be doing that thing about what you were reading while I was being all unavailable and things. There’s an abso-freaking-lute metric ton of crap I probably could, and should, be writing about. Sadly, most of it kind of stopped applying about 2 weeks ago–sorry, life does that to ya. Things that do get a mention here and may or may not be elaborated on when I have slightly more brain power. In list format, because hey, first post in a month, here. Lazy.

    • Moving: Jessica got herself all moved in, relatively in one piece and with most of what sanity she has left after dating and being engaged to me intact. Her stuff, thankfully, also made it to the other end in one pice. Find her take on that and several million other things over on her blog. Go now. I’ll wait.
    • Technology: I’d started the process before I left, and finished it while down there–in and around the above mentioned move. Shortly before my return to Canada–where I’m currently flaed out now, the new laptop I’d been aiming for met me here. It’s nifty cool, in the wicked sense. Still getting used to using Windows 7 on a more than occasional basis, but hey, so far I’m not complaining much.
    • The stupid: there’s acrap ton of it. It starts with local cab companies, and it’ll all warrant separate entries. Again, see the need for more brain power.
    • Hockey: the playoffs are closing rappidly in on us. There will be playoff mockery involved. There will not be Leafs recaps involved–again. Ah well. You saw it coming.
    • Leafs: I quit. At least for this season. I haven’t done a recap since mid-February. To recap this many games would be both exceedingly spammy and a very good reason to develop a migraine. Naturally it would also double as an excellent exercise in frustration–like all mid to late season attempts at playing the comeback kid do. You’re just not that team, Toronto. Sorry.
    • Mockery: Oh, dear lord, the mockery. Not in this post, but the mockery. I’m buried in it. It’ll get posted over the next couple days. Trust me–it’ll be more than worth the wayt.

    So that’s kind of where I’ve been. Now, where’d I put my caffeine?

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