Archive for July, 2008
With all the iPhone 3G hype that's been going around lately, it's quite a refreshment to be able to glaze at such a marvelous device! The HTC Touch Pro really packs a punch on the non-iPhone side of the smartphone market... Removable memory, huge 2.8 inch screen, FM tuner, GPS, 3G (with video calling, *cough*) with HSDPA, WiFi, 3.2MPx camera + flash, and a hidden QWERTY keyboard - it's loaded! The Qualcomm 528 MHz processor poweres this beast, and Windows Mobile 6.1 is just the right OS to run it on. While most of the world would consider a Windows Mobile based phone to be a productive, but ugly gadget, the Touch Pro, in combination with HTC's Touch Flo 3D, the UI looks absolotely fantastic!
It will be out somewhere in August with a price tag ranging from 600$ to 800$ (depending on the needed features that mobile operators will consider (un)necessary). Oh, and I will probably never even touch the "Touch", given that it's cost is a hefty one. Boo hoo, dammit...
July 27th, 2008
"What you're doing is illegal, and what we're doing is not - because we will make it legal." - That's the official hymn, slogan or whatever of the RIAA, or at least that's what I think it is. I just came accross a YouTube video and actually listened to it in the background instead of watching it... That was a first. In a nutshell, it was horrifying. When watching a plain ol' spokesperson in the form of a president of a huge "sueing you for money is our business" organization such as the RIAA, it's kind of encouraging not seeing any vampire fangs on him... But listening to him actually brings shivers down my back, really.
I came down to a conclusion that Mr. Sherman is obviously a bad man (I'll just use that attribute, since people all around the world have already used "bastard", "ballsucker", "disgusting freak" and so on...). All his thesis on anti-piracy activity rely on "internet filters", or as I would like to put it - the Internet in chains (bye bye internet neutrality). And if those don't work due to widely present simple encryption methods, we'll just spew out some specialized software that the user HAS TO INSTALL or WON'T KNOW IF IT IS INSTALLED to monitor the decrypted data and see if any downloads are illegal to use. NEWSFLASH: Spyware is illegal! People don't like being spied on! Being able to play "big brother" with any PC in the world is very, VERY dangerous. Sony tried to do that once ( click me ), but miserably failed. No lessons learned from this? Why so?
The best thing to do when fighting music piracy is to just shut the hell up. The more people listen to it, the more it is likely they will buy the artists CD, concert ticket or any other form of merchandise.
Music piracy is not stealing. (that's why it's called piracy, not "music theft") Stealing a car is stealing, because the other side does not own the car anymore, right? Stealing an audio CD is stealing, because the other side does not own the audio CD anymore, right? But what about downloading music? Both sides have their Mp3 files on their media, and both of them are pretty much satisfied. There's no theft here, only copyright infringement, and that's not theft. Period.
Here's the video, try not to barf:
July 26th, 2008
I've just put this neat little app to the test, and it look sweet so far! Although the background "dotty" image formation could be a bit more realistic (more color and dots should be involved), the tech preview proves a valuable point - photo albums can become much more interactive than they currently are! Try out some default image albums already uploaded by the Microsoft team, you will be pleasantly surprised. All images are molded together into a 3D fusion that add that final missing dimension to your photos. Too bad that it requires IE6 or IE7 at the time (ActiveX sucks for applications like this... what happened to exe files?).
July 6th, 2008
Using DeepZoom and Silverlight, Barrack Obama just got his own version of a "Bush mosaic", but without the dead soldiers of course. Many Obama fans and supporters sent their pictures so that a full 1Gigapixel mosaic could be formed (yeah, it's huge - that's 10000x10000 pixels). See it on deepzoomobama.com, but remember that the page requires you to have Microsoft Silverlight installed.
July 5th, 2008
I'm just so freakin' glad to live in a free and prosperous country such as this one... In fact, Serbia is so great and righteous, that it has to remain the last on the list for all things good, and at the very top for all things bad, just for the sake of feeling important while pouring sacks of 10 day old manure on the head of every normal person that resides within.
If you haven't noticed yet, I'm pissed. Very much so.
What I tried to do today looked too good to be true (needless to say, it was) - I tried using Microsoft DreamSpark to download some free software for students (for educational purposes). The process includes a verification procedure that confirms that you are truly a valid student of any listed university. Allot of countries in Europe are supported, but not mine, nor does it look like it will be any time soon. It sucks not having an unified student filing system, like that's so hard to accomplish. Although loads more laws, decrees, important people, general democracy realizations in Serbia are on my "I will slice your spine in two" list, this made my stomack do a 360 degree spin. Thank you, oh so great country of mine...
July 4th, 2008
