Live Free Or Die Hard

So yesterday night, I saw the new Die Hard movie. Fist off, it could easily be the best of all of 'em. The movie was definitely a geek movie.

***Spoiler Alert***

It had it all, action, comedy, and for the first time in Hollywood, the portrayal computers was relatively accurate. I mean there were a few rolling of the eyes; like how the co-star hacker could automatically interface with every electronic device out of a small satchel he conveniently carried with him. I say conveniently because he remembered to grab it on the way out of his apartment which happened to be under attack by multiple well armed terrorists. Also the main hacker group seemed to also be able to interface with every electronic device, which either means that they had an exploit for everything at once, or it was a movie. So, no biggie. On a non technology note, I liked that the Die Hard series seemed to make a turn from their classic action formula. I liked that Detective McClain (he got promoted) is now with a partner. And now law enforcement is actually working with him to foil the terrorists nefarious ways instead of rebuffing him. I felt that was a welcome change.

***End Spoilers***

But wow, the special effects were great. The humor seemed to fit the moments and wasn't an forced addition at all. One thing I found particularly funny was John McClain's reaction to certain thing that happen. It was almost making fun of himself, which was awesome. My buddies also loved the movie which in my group is a rarity. You know there is always a guy who sits back during comment time after the movie, doesn't have much to say, then when asked what he thought, all he gives is a "ehh." But for once, the reviewers at large were absolutely correct. This was a great movie. If you a nerd or if your not, go see this movie.

The Third Dimention

Almost everyone online knows, or at least has heard of, the popular photo sharing site Flickr. And even if you didn't, you do now. But now we have the Flickr for the third dimension. Yes, there is a new, and free, 3D model sharing website and it goes by the name of 3DVIA. It is by a relatively unknown company, Dassault Systems. I have never heard of them before, but it seems that they are pretty big in the 3D merchandising world. Right now all they really have that is any good is a motorcycle and an iPhone model. God, I'm so sick of the iPhone... Anyways, as more users jump on board I'm sure that the amount of quality content will rise. The site seems to supports almost all major model brands such as 3DS and 3DXML. There is also a really cool interface to preview the model, in 3D, in you browser before you download. The only thing I'm worried about is, is what their bandwidth bill will be. The website is www.3dvia.com.

Google Plays Politics

So far Google has been smart and tried to focus on making their services the best possible, and staying out of the political arena. As we all know, world politics are a dirty matter and with a relatively clean company like Google, it just doesn't seem smart to get involved.

But it seems that Google's profits are on the line now. With the rise of governmental internet censorship, mainly in Asia and the Middle East, Google advertisements have taken a back seat to the sophisticated internet filters of China, India, Vietnam, and others. Google's Ad-Sense program bring targeted advertisement to website vendors through the program. A company can buy ad space from the Ad-Sense program, and Google will post that advertisement to a certain targeted audience. This is Google's primary income source and what allows the company to create such amazing services for free.

Now with governments filtering out certain "questionable" content, some of Google's advertisements have gotten caught and blocked. But the search giant is taking a unique approach to the whole situation. "It's fair to say that censorship is the No. 1 barrier to trade that we face," said Andrew McLaughlin, Google's director of public policy and government affairs. A Google spokesman told reporters said that McLaughlin has met with U.S. Trade representatives on this issue.

Google contests that these firewalls are interfering with international business and trade. They want the filters to be considered an indirect illegal trade embargo on the U.S. Google wants the USTR to get involved, but they want to send the case to the State Department because it deals with foreign policy. Weather Google will get the government involved is still yet to be seen.

I personally think that Google is doing the right thing in trying to get our government involved. The last thing they want is to get their whole site blocked by foreign government for speaking out against their domestic policies. And if our government takes the lead on this issue it will not only help Google, but will benefit other international e-commerce sites as well. So it seems that what is good for Google, is good for America.

Full story here.

OMG WOW GOLD!!!!!1!one!!

So I was gonna write about the changing of the guard at Yahoo, but then I realized, I didn't care. Yeah yeah, new CEO gonna make big changes; I've heard it all. Those promises are a dime a dozen these days anyways. But this recent article from The New York Times shows an almost slave like profession of selling virtual gold on a popular online game, World of Warcraft.

"At the end of each shift, Li reports the night’s haul to his supervisor, and at the end of the week, he, like his nine co-workers, will be paid in full. For every 100 gold coins he gathers, Li makes 10 yuan, or about $1.25, earning an effective wage of 30 cents an hour, more or less. The boss, in turn, receives $3 or more when he sells those same coins to an online retailer, who will sell them to the final customer (an American or European player) for as much as $20. The small commercial space Li and his colleagues work in — two rooms, one for the workers and another for the supervisor — along with a rudimentary workers’ dorm, a half-hour’s bus ride away, are the entire physical plant of this modest $80,000-a-year business."

As a "WoW" player myself, I have heard of these services widely advertised in-game; almost the the point of spam. But I feel that to buy online currency with real money defeats the sense of accomplishment that draws those 8 million world wide players in the first place. And then to see how these workers are on 12 hour shifts for 30 cents an hour is almost slavery. I, for one, will never be using these services and I encourage other Wow'ers to do the same.

Full article here.

IP's Not to Scan!

For those Uber hackers on their Linux boxes, or maybe your a Microsoft script kiddy there are a few ranges of IP addresses that should absolutely never be scanned in any way. That means Don't ping them, and definitely Don't port scan them. Mostly the address list is of government IP addresses, many of them military. If you really are a genuine hacker, the last thing you want is to bring yourself the attention of the US Government. I mean cmon, If the United States military wants you, they will find you. Proxies are not match for their tracking techniques. If they can find a few dusty old farts in Afghanistan's caves, they can find a well connected internet guru like yourself. But the list seems to cover thousands of addresses and the list can be found here.

BlueRay Wants You!

The proverbial nuke has been dropped!
Well, not really. Yesterday the video rental giant Blockbuster announced that it will exclusively support the high definition format Blue-ray over its competitor HD-DVD. This means that the 1,450 stores will not be carrying any HD-DVD titles. In a report from the Associated Press, Blockbuster has been conducting trials in 250 stores to see which format sells better. Well, Blue-ray won out in about 80% sales over HD-DVD's paltry 20%.

"The consumers are sending us a message. I can't ignore what I'm seeing," Matthew Smith, Blockbuster's senior vice president of merchandising, tells AP.

The format war may not be over, but this is a huge blow to HD-DVD and its main supporter, Toshiba. As a consumer, I just want it to end. I'm tired of waiting to see who will win. Whichever format win will receive my money because I just want to bask in all the HD glory that is 1080p. We will see if this can tip the scale in one way to end this battle.

Free at Last!

The Democracy Player is a favorite program of mine that, until recently, has been a little buggy. For those of you who don't know what the Democracy Player is, then I'll let you in on this little software gem. The name, Democracy Player, may make some shy away at first. When I first heard of it, I conjured up memories of being forced to watch public television for "educational purposes." Rest assured, you will want to watch some of this content. Basically, it is a hybrid of Windows Media player 11, an RSS video reader, and a basic BitTorrent Client. It also comes in 3 flavors for Windows, Mac, or Linux. Most people don't know, but there are hundreds of video podcasts and subscribable shows covering a wide ranges of topics. Technology, Home and Garden, Comedy, News, and more. All of them have shows widely avaliable for free, all online. Oh and don't forget the YouTube and Google Video support. The Democracy Player makes it easy to subscribe to those shows. It is almost like an internet TiVo. The only drawback is that you won't be able to get regular broadcast shows. That means no House, or Desprate Housewifes, (sorry ladies). But there is a way to get that content into Democracy player, but I will save that for a later post. But in the mean time, check out the Democracy Player.

It's not the size that counts...

Ya know, I saw this a few months ago, but it never ceases to impress. If you haven't heard of .theprodukkt then either you are living under a proverbial internet rock, or you have a life. But for those who don't know .theprodukkt is a German tech group that specializes in extreme compression of video, audio, and 3D graphics. It all started with .kkrieger a short, but surprisingly detailed first person shooter that fit into, yes this number is correct, 96 KiloBytes. That right, thats less than 1/10 of a single megabyte. This screen shot of the game is almost 4 times the size of the actual game. Its truly outstanding the size you can compress things.

The way the technology works is as if you have a symphony playing a song. Now to compress that size of a production, how about just having the sheet music? The musicians are like your computer. Instead of storing many textures, 3D models, or sounds in the game, (Which almost all conventional games today do), how about handing your computer the "sheet music" to make all of those previously pre-stored files before you enter the game. So all you need is a small file telling your computer how to render all those aspects and put it together. Basically it is making your computer do all the work beforehand.

So, download the FPS .kkrieger, check out some of their tech demos in 64KB here and here, and be amazed at what some creative thinking can do.

Meh... a good beginning

Meh...

A great term for the internet age. I can describe all ones feelings in three simple letters. It can be use in anger, sorrow, or boredom. But it perfectly describes how I feel about technology these days. I feel as if the tech market has been taken over by uninformed rubberneckers instead of the founders of tech, the geek. People are so easily swayed by some great marketing tool, like shiny objects, instead of seeing what a tech product really is (see iphone). Don't get me wrong, the iphone is a slick device what will surely awe some, but not I. Right now we have devices that have similar features and capabilities. Look at the new Nokia E62. Or how about the P1 by Sony Ericsson. Don't even get me started on the HTC Toutch. Meh... I blame all this on good marketing and a little bit of ADD on our part.