Isolationism

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Bram Cohen, creator of the BitTorrent protocol and owner of BitTorrent, Inc., has purchased what is almost unarguably the best Windows-based torrent client, μTorrent.

The move was almost certainly in support of Hollywood’s attempt to stem movie piracy and encourage legitimate uses of the protocol (no doubt through the use of heavy-handed tactics like DRM etc.).

I’m fine with encouraging fair use, but the MPAA and I disagree on what that means (on just about every point on the subject). It probably goes without saying that just about all of μTorrent’s users are understandably more than a little pissed off.

The clowns in Hollywood won this round; they’ve discovered that like themselves, some people out there will do anything if you throw some money their way.

I am a great fan of Frank Herbert’s Dune novels; anyone who is familiar with the series probably knows that Herbert’s story is a thinly veiled analogue for the plight of the citizens of the Middle-East (Fremen) and their oil supply (spice).

I wonder if Herbert was aware that the most valuable commodity on Arrakis—water, of course—is rapidly on its way to becoming a valuable commodity here on Earth, too?

I enjoy the novels but that doesn’t mean I want to live through them. Let’s all be mindful of how we use our natural resources.

Anyone watching the news has no doubt long-since encountered the news of Novell entering a “protective covenant” with Microsoft to essentially line Novell’s pockets in exchange for “protection” against patent infringement suits from Microsoft, because according to them, Linux infringes on many of their patents, and Ballmer has made a lot of noise (read: FUD) about how Microsoft is going to start to pursue legal action to protect them. It smacks more of posturing tactics to me; kind of like how they got caught red-handed lining SCO’s pockets through investment intermediary BayStar Capital, except this time they’re operating overtly instead of covertly.

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My amigo MCM over at Push the Third Button Twice posted a reaction to an article on The Mu Life titled, Did You Read The Article? MCM raises an interesting point about how we shouldn’t judge books by their covers, or blogs by their fame (or lack thereof).

I think I’ve already stated my position on Digg users making worthless contributions to story discussion threads, so no argument there. I also agree with MCM’s conclusion: Blogs shouldn’t just be discounted because they’re “petite frites” compared to commercial news sites.

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I confess I was surprised when I read that Microsoft had a change of heart on the subject of allowing Windows Vista to be reinstalled. Apparently someone at Microsoft got the message from the online community that their previous position—which was to allow the software to be reinstalled once only, ever—was pretty stupid, and that its discovery and wide publication was doing them more harm than good for a product that is already receiving a hefty share of criticism from the community on other issues.

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A good friend of mine (with apparently better eyesight than my own) over at Push the Third Button Twice made a recent editorial post about a new trend against, in the Blog Herald’s own words, “blogging for money,” which I think should be rewritten to “knowingly blogging biased content for financial gain” (but then I should talk because the Blog Herald is obviously a way more successful blog than mine. I wasn’t even thinking of the word “sensationalism,” why do you mention it?).

MCM (A.K.A. Mr Andrews) suggests that the blogger’s mores already encapsulate this so-called “Honour Pledge” (with or without the ‘u’, as you please), and that the internet will act as a unified force against any foul play on the part of the blogger and disgrace their name (and, presumably, the blgo). My gut reaction is to want to agree with him.

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Not that Digg is exactly my favourite news site—I think its’ “unedited” approach allows far too much chaff through the nearly non-existant filters: Myriad duplicate stories, bad (or non-existant) writing, too many exclamation marks, rampant use of superlatives, all caps, etc. (e.g.: “OMG WORST SITE ON THE INTERNET!!!” being an accurate summary)—but it would be a shame all the same to see it tumble under the likes of News Corporation, that entity which is ‘famous’ for Fox News, and their moderately recent online acquisition, MySpace.

Rupert Murdoch is evidently catching on that the Web is a potent medium and is buying up assets quickly (although Digg has some respite for now as nobody was willing to lay down the 150 million they were hoping for)—but I find myself wishing he would leave it alone.

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Well, that didn’t take long, did it? You just know someone had this one waiting in the wings to announce as soon as the final release made it out to piss on Microsoft’s parade.

The only flaw I see in their logic is that the Wednesday morning after Patch Tuesday would have been an even better day to announce this little flaw, as MSIE 7 will be rolled out automatically to a large number of users automatically as mentioned in an earlier post.