It was an accident, I swear.

OR: How I inadvertantly started the whole MediaDefender versus Rev3 fiasco.

It was an accident, really. I was poor, had no money, I was bored, and felt kind of sick. I didn’t like it, but I accepted I was going to download a movie without paying for it. I looked through the list of recently released-to-DVD/BD films @ Rotten Tomatoes, but couldn’t find anything. I then looked to the soon-to-be-released list, and saw Rambo/John Rambo. Now, I love Rambo. I was going to go see it in the theatre when it came out, but once again, I was doshless. Anyway, after finding a torrent for it, I was on my way…when I noticed that one of the trackers was on Revision3′s server.

That seemed wrong. They’re a legitimate company that publishes shows like The Totally Rad Show and my personal favourite, Diggnation. So I quickly hopped onto the Rev3 forums, and wrote a post about it to let whoever was in charge of their BitTorrent tracker know what was going on. You can see the post on their <a href=”http://revision3.com/forum/showthread.php?p=369753″ title=”Rev3′s BitTorrent tracker being used for piracy? – Revision3 Forums”>forums</a> from the 24th.

Shortly after that, someone who worked there pulled the plug on it, and said:

“while it means revision3′s tracker will be more complex and less robust, i have implemented whitelisting. let the server crashes begin again”

And that’s exactly what happened.

Since then, Revision3 has started to file a lawsuit against MediaDefender, and even has the FBI involved. (So you can see why I didn’t really want to post this.)

Anyway, I’m at least hoping that this will result in MediaDefender’s demise, because they clearly aren’t only targeting illegal P2P, but all P2P, which is just silly. I occasionally use Rev3′s tracker to get Diggnation (most often I just directly download it… it seems faster) but they don’t deserve to be DDoS’d for any reason. It looks like Rev3 wasn’t even helping spread the piracy of “John Rambo”, but were having their servers misused by MediaDefender to try and stop it. It still could’ve resulted in Revision3 coming under lawsuit for helping with piracy though, so I’m glad they’re no longer announcing illegal files.

(P.S. Since then, I’ve rented “John Rambo” on DVD, just to make up for downloading it early.)

May 29, 2008 · Filed Under Announcements, Freya, Journal, Mjolnir

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Update – May 19th 2008

As you can see, I couldn’t think of what to call this post.  It’s just an everyday update that will sum up what I’ve been doing over the last few days/weeks/or however long it has been since my last post.  You could probably do the same thing by checking out my Twitter statuses for the last week or so, but whatever.  That would defeat ze purpose of having a blog.

–

Over the last couple of days, a lot of good and bad things have happened.  Of note on the bad side is my laptop has been really glitchy lately–random crashes, optical drive not reading discs half the time, losing my wireless connection at random for several hours when I can access it on my PSP, Wii, or mom’s laptop.  Really weird.

Of note on the good side is I got my Class 7L learner’s driver’s license.  Well the yellow-paper one, as the actual plastic card is coming in ze mail.  I passed the test first try and only got around 3 – 5 questions wrong out of 50.  I also got a job at a local Costco reseller called Warehouse Shopper’s Express.  I often go shopping there for bulk foods anyway, so I know my way around, etc.  I don’t even know what exactly the job entails yet since I haven’t yet started training, but I’ve been told it will have a lot to do with the ordering/database portion of the store.

I’m 70.33% of the way through Grand Theft Auto IV, but I still haven’t beaten it.  I’m on the final mission, and while I haven’t had any trouble with it what-so-ever, part of it seems quite glitchy.  I’d go into more details, but Quin said he might be picking the game up after seeing me play it, so I wouldn’t want to ruin it for him.

I can’t seem to unlock much in Mario Kart Wii.  I’ve been trying to come in first in the 100cc Special Cup, to unlock the ability to race as a Mii, but I can’t seem to do very well on Bowser’s Castle or Rainbow Road (two very turn-centric courses).

In other Nintendo-related news, I’ve been considering getting Wii Fit and some Wii Points to get some WiiWare (so much Wii) but I’m not sure I’d use Wii Fit enough, and Wii Points have never been at the top of my shopping list.  Other than the Wii front, I still want a DS Lite, but I just can’t afford the $150+tax local stores charge, when I could get it for $150 after tax in the city.  If I do get a DS, however, it’d be nice to try out some Wii/DS connectivity.

I saw National Treasure: Book of Secrets early.  It was on Pay-Per-View on TV, but only on one channel, and only once.  That’s so awesome that it was on before the DVD comes out tomorrow.  It was a damn good movie, too.

Anyway, I have to finish this post early now since my laptop’s wireless connection has dropped twice since my dad turned on the Microwave.  Coincidence?  I think not!

May 19, 2008 · Filed Under Announcements, Gleipnir, Iðunn, Journal, Nasir, Projects, School, Ullr

9 Comments 

Blog layout change (May 2008)

Alrighty, so I’ve changed ze layout of my blog a li’l.  I still use the same colour scheme and theme, and general outline, but I added something new — Ads by Google!  Not that’s a positive thing, but I figure since I only use this blog for personal updates, I have no integrity to lose by “selling out.”

Plus, this blog gets an enormous amount of spam.  All ma’ spam-fightin’ WordPress plugins mostly do their job, but that doesn’t mean I don’t get spambots crawling ze blog all day.  You never know–maybe one of ‘em will click through to an ad. ;)

People who’ve known me for a while will know that I’ve mostly been against the idea of putting Google Ads on my blog for the longest time, but that was mostly because I wasn’t old enough.  Once I turned 18 I was going to, but I put it off for another year.  Dunno why.

Thus far the ads only seem to be selling people pizza and/or Canada-related things.  But seeing as that’s all I talk about, that makes sense. (I also have a “Get Firefox” link at ze bottom of the sidebar, but I’m not sure if I’m going to keep it or not.  If I could replace it with one that matched my blog’s colours, there’d be no problem, but…)

May 19, 2008 · Filed Under Announcements, Journal, Projects

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Campsites are Delicious

(Don’t ask about the title.)

Today was a pretty good day.  I ended up taking the day off of school after sleeping in until it was too late to get ready for school on time.  I was only going to study my “RoadSense for Drivers” book anyway, as I was planning on taking the written test to get my Learner’s Class 7L driver’s license today.

After waking up, reading half of that driving guide book, grabbing some breakfast, and having a shower, I got a phone call from Shopper’s Express, letting me know that they wanted me to come in for an interview on either Friday or Saturday.  Currently said interview is set for 10:30 AM on Saturday, so I guess that’s when I’ll be going.

After telling my mom about ze interview, we went out to run errands/go shopping.  We went to the mall, I took the driver’s test, passed it, got my photo taken so they can mail me a learner’s license, picked up a copy of Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock for the Xbox 360 (disc only), and headed out to Shopper’s Express to do some shopping for bulk items.

We got pop, water, juice, granola bars, etc, etc.  Basically anything we would’ve gotten while shopping later… but in excess bulk.  After we were done at Shopper’s Express, we went to IGA in Wilson Creek to do some more grocery shopping.  After that, we went to Extra Foods in Sechelt for even more grocery shopping.  Finally we stopped by Mark’s Work Wearhouse [sic] to get me another pair of pants, and then headed home.

We unloaded all the groceries, put stuff away, ordered some pizza, and relaxed for about an hour and a half before said pizza came.  I then ate a lot of pizza, and went down to my room to give my mom some space, and play GH3.

I bought some downloadable content for the game, and then tried No Doubt’s “Don’t Speak” on Easy, and on my first try, I scored 100%.  Hit every note.  That’s my first time doing that, I think.  I believe I got 99% on a song on the PC version once, but the problem with the PC version is that even on a high-end system, it still lags here and there, because console ports suck.

After some gaming and chillaxing downstairs, I headed up around 7:45 to watch Ugly Betty with my mom @ 8, and then after that we just kind of sat around talking ’til 10.  We also did a scratch-and-win Crossword puzzle thing.  It was fun.

Anyway, I just thought I’d detail what I did on my day off from school.  This is either the second or third payday of my parents’ that I’ve taken the day off of school on.  I hope it doesn’t become a regular thing though.  My education is important, after all.

May 15, 2008 · Filed Under Announcements, Journal, Projects, School, Ullr

3 Comments 

As Per Usual…

Yeah, so my mom had led me to believe that in a week, I could get a BlackBerry Curve 8330, and an unlimited data plan with TELUS Mobility, and be happy, etc. She strung me on for a week and a half, and before that I had been thinking I was going to get a BlackBerry Pearl… etc, etc.

Basically, she led me on for months that in June we’d be getting money, she could get the phones either now, or then, but now it seems that none of that is happening at all. And it’s not because of things beyond her control. It’s not because she was uninformed. It’s simply because she lied.

I could write a long post about how I’m upset, and/or how the world doesn’t understand me, but this isn’t angst… just disappointment. I would feel betrayal if this didn’t happen so often with so many other different things.

I just should’ve known.

Anyway, I can’t even get a new phone that I want, and yet again, just like 3 gorram years ago, I can get whatever phone is free wth a minimal 3 year contract, because whenever we get new cellular phones… extreme bills and/or mishaps come up, and we all just get sad.

So I’ll probably end up getting another crappy Samsung or LG phone. One that really doesn’t do anything, and that I loathe. For 3 more years…. unless I want to buy myself a brand new Curve or something when I get cash, for $600 gorram dollars, as well as pay for a data plan out of my own pocket per month, when I don’t even have a job.

This is damn upsetting, and if you’ll excuse me, I need to get back to writing my resume, since I’m applying for a job at a few different places tomorrow, but I’ll probably get turned down or snubbed again.


(Seriously, it’s like there isn’t a single place I can work in this town. No one ever calls me, or interviews me… etc. I just get no response what-so-ever.)

May 7, 2008 · Filed Under Journal

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