smack the penguin

The wierd thing here is that the penguin seems to be a willing participant in this game.

321 tells MPAA to get bent

Jack Valenti, head of the Motion Picture Association of America, has suggested that consumers have no legitimate need for such software, telling The Associated Press in November, "If you buy a DVD you have a copy. If you want a backup copy you buy another one."

Grrrr!

I don't really care what happens to 321, but the implications of this ruling are impacting me today. Not because i can't copy DVDs easily, but because i can't buy the Tivo Movie Vault which is something i REALLY want. I shouldn't have to ever watch movies played off the DVD. Instead i should simply transfer my new DVD's contents to central storage (that is integrated with my Tivo storage) for play back on demand from anywhere in the house. And by play back i mean of the movie, not the FBI warning, not the commercials, just the movie. I'm willing to pay big bucks for this but the MPAA is hell bent on making this impossible and i dont like that.

The RIAA has come to terms with the fact that MP3s are better than CDs. The TV industry is wrestling with the fact that watching TV that has been recorded on a hard drive is better than not. Guess what? Having all your movies (and your recorded TV) on central storage is better than having all your movies on a couple of hundred little disks.

I traditionally buy a lot of movies, but i think for now I think i'm going to hold onto my money until the MPAA gets this whole new fangled "digital entertainment" thing figured out.

Movie Industry Wins DVD Copying Suit

More bad news on the DMCA front.

321 Studios had argued its software protected DVD owners because it gave them the ability to make copies in case their original DVDs were destroyed and the company claimed the DMCA allowed the copying DVDs if copies were designed for the sole use of the owners.

The studios had countered that 321's software circumvented special software encryption codes that protected the DVDs from being copied and therefore violated the DMCA.

So remember kids just because you paid for that DVD, doesn't mean you own it. I mean sure, you own the plastic, but the movie that’s on it, that you are merely licensing. Nice, huh?

22" Widescreen LCD Television $899

22" 16X9 lcd TV for $899? Nice! It has VGA, DVI, and Component video. Looks like a great candidate for a Media Center PC.

'Superhero' takes on clampers

Angle-grinder Man - a self-proclaimed superhero - patrols by night looking for unhappy drivers who have been clamped and then sets their cars free.

Man evicted after living on golf course for 40 years

Wild.

illy a casa espresso membership program

Okay, so this is sort of a good deal. Sort of.
Here is how it works. You agree to buy $600 worth of coffee from Illy and they will sell you a very cool $500 espresso machine for $200 ($175 + shipping).
It doesn't sound like such a good deal, but here is why i am tempted. This espresso machine can use either traditionally ground espresso, or these handy dandy little ESS pods. These are evidently some kind of semi-standard because you can get several brands of coffee in in these pods (although of all the brands Illy is the only one i have every heard of). The point here is that if you want an espresso machine for you office this is a very good option because you can very quickly make coffee with almost zero mess. No coffee grounds everywhere, just neat little pods.

Also the machine comes in lots of neat colors.

Bolt City strait up rules.

I am excited about Flight...

Small Stories - The Maiden and The River Spirit

Moral: Aesop is great on paper.

6.75 Biiiiiiillion Dollars!

No, the Exxon Valdez incident did not just go away... although it is still in court, and it looks like it will remain in court for a long time to come.

And Some People Thought It Would Be Boring (the superbowl that is)

This is just stupid. I have a really hard time believing that there weren't a LOT of people that knew this was going down. Oh well, while we were all a little bored by the first quarter, it turned out to be a pretty good game.

Amazon.com

Bill Clinton's Amazon wish list.

Nice.