DNS server is failing.

Adding
64.131.72.156 www.quartertothree.com

to
C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts

fixes the problem.

In December “DCS: Black Shark” simulator was released in English. I planned to buy it, then realized it had Starforce.

The reason why I won’t buy ANYTHING with Starforce is not because I’m worried it will give problems with my system. The reason is that I won’t fund in any way those who work at Starforce. I don’t want that my money is WASTED on retarded and counterproductive copy protection. I don’t want to give even one penny to Starforce. I won’t give money to companies whose whole purpose is to fight customers and deliver a worse product.

My opinion is that the way lobbies decided to fight piracy was (and still is) more damaging for the industry than piracy itself.

Money wasted. Tons of money wasted that could be invested to deliver better products and embrace innovation, instead of defending obsolete privileges while suing customers all over the planet.

The very least I can do is STOP supporting this industry and this way of suicidal thinking. Stop them using my money to pay incompetent lawyers and armies of programmers who invent new ways to cripple products.

In the last year my own purchase of games, music, DVDs etc… decreased 90%. In the meantime I bought a lot of BOOKS. I buy more games through Steam, I bought Sins of the Solar Empire even if I haven’t played it more than two hours just because I wanted to support a so good game. I’ll buy the expansion for it that is out these days. I pay for those online games that deserve my money. I’ve donated money to the Dwarf Fortress guy. The rest can go to hell.

Better you start to think how to deliver better SERVICES, than fight this useless fight against piracy and all customers.

He was also asked how much of this $18bn turnover is used to fight piracy, Kennedy said there are three main areas of expenditure. Funding the RIAA in US, IFPI globally and more local groups such as IFPI (Sweden). They all have budgets and a large proportion of this is used to fight piracy.

The global amount used by IFPI on lobbying and fighting piracy is £75 million.

It’s increasingly obvious that this is becoming a matter of politics. Those at the top are now completely disconnected from those at the bottom (the customers).

There’s only one way to answer all this. STOP buying. Stop giving them money and see it wasted to pay lawyers and copy protection methods and other restrictions. Stop funding people who make profit for going against you.

Stop feeding the dinosaurs.

This Friday debuted on FOX the new TV series created by Joss Whedon, Dollhouse, and I watched it.

The episode was good and entertaining, good screenplay. I think the concept is a little weak and there’s only so much you can do with it. With the elements they have I think they have done a good job.

In general I don’t like much this kind of series that are based around one “cool idea” and then examine it from different perspective and in various contexts. I like a lot more series that have a point. An overall plot, continuity, growth, development. Something that moves as it goes and links all the threads together. Dollhouse is instead a concept that works well with standalone episodes. I think that with every episode they’ll tell a different story with a different lead. For a TV series this is risky because usually the good authors only write directly a few key episodes and then let other writers fill the rest. If the personality and flow of a series is strong, then the quality is smooth across all episodes, but if the quality is more dependent on the whims of the single episode and its plot, then the outcome is more uneven and risky. Today all TV series have to juggle with these two aspects: from one side the cool idea that the defines the single episode, and from the other the continuity that builds the characters and overall plot. You need the perfect balance because if you rely too much on the continuity you risk that spectators forget details and the show is hard to follow, from the other if the episodes are too standalone they finish to “carry over” less audience, have more high and lows, lose fidelity and end being all the same.

Dollhouse falls in this second category, with execution being superior to its premise. Its ongoing quality is going to depend more on the quality of the writing of the single episode and less on the overall work with production, cast and so on. As I said I thought the first episode was good, but the idea at the base isn’t new nor interpreted in an original way. Mostly used as an escamotage so that they can explore completely different “flavors” with every episode. So it can be thriller one time, love story another, action, spy games etc… Mixing different themes as they like and see fit. So while getting freedom, this also keeps things a bit “loose” and not too compelling on their own. It risks to run dry and without inspiration.

For now it works. Fairly well done series but that lacks something that “grips” or makes it unmissable. A good execution that could have been used for something more poignant.

Sometimes you have to recognize some merit in being exceptionally crap (and without ANY redeeming feature).

From a review with which I absolutely agree:

I like watching snakes eat mice just as much as the next fella, maybe even more, but “The Strangers” turns the gobble-’em-up into an ordeal. It’s a fraud from start to finish.

In the film, three strangers in campy Halloween masks stalk and torment two handsome 30-somethings in a well-appointed summer home. The two victims are all but defenseless in the face of the assault, so they never acquire much respect from the audience; though if the movie’s a hit, you can bet Smith & Wesson’s profits go through the roof. The unfortunate couple, played by Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman, are initially presented as somehow dysfunctional; they mumble morosely and act like they’ve wandered in from a Bergman movie about anomie in suburban Stockholm. Like everything else in the movie, this is never explained.

When, in the middle of the night, someone knocks on the door, domestic problems are forgotten and survival becomes an issue, though both are completely incompetent. Writer-director Bryan Bertino leaves no stone unturned in his quest for cliche and his unbelievable depictions of behavior. For the latter, try this: A fellow passing by the house has his windshield blown out by a shotgun. Does he step on the gas? Does he call the cops on his cellphone? No, he gets out of the car and walks into the house showing clear signs of violent disturbance without announcing himself. A tragedy soon follows, but not as big as the one that compelled me to sit through the whole thing.

What a wonderfully craptastic movie. If it was like the usual mediocre horror movies I wouldn’t talk about it here, but this is outrageously bad, to the point you develop some spontaneous hatred toward the director.

It starts with a mood full of unmotivated pathos even if the situation presented is conventional. You keep wondering what are the reasons behind all that but the truth is that there are no reasons, it’s just done badly. Since the beginning there’s a constant use of shaky cam even for normal dialogues, after a while you figure out that it is meant to give the impression that the protagonists are “being watched” but the effect continues to be used out of context throughout the whole movie to the point it becomes just annoying. Not only it’s a bad movie, with not even a pretense of story or internal consistence, but it is even enormously pretentious. There are no motivations gives for anything happening, the stalkers have super-powers just to excuse freaky situations (disappearing all at once) or easy ways out (dodging bullets) and everything else is smoothly driven and pre-planned as the characters move around as puppets just because the screenplay wants things happening without any effort to justify it or make it even remotely believable. It’s just for the effect as the director can’t be arsed to explain what’s happening or even make scenes consistent. Why? Just so. Edgy. Manneristic.

I blame who gave the director the money. A talentless narcissist.

P.S.
I want to save some of it. To make things even worse this movie was marketed as a real story when it’s obvious while watching it that there’s nothing of it that may be even remotely true. In fact it’s not. When the director was a child someone came to his house asking for someone unknown. The day after he discovered that some houses in the neighborhood were robbed and he was deeply impressed. This is the whole “real” story.

The movie lacks any motivation and consistence because it’s the product of wild imagination. Just an elaboration of childhood nightmares that obviously don’t need justifications but that are actually more disturbing because of the lack of them. The movie is, simply put, a representation and projection of irrational fears.

There’s a problem potentially affecting the great majority of Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 hard disk, including models based on the same series (Maxtor).

Since these were in the last year the best performing drives on the market and with low prices as well, I also bought two. The problem is a most pleasant one, instead of presenting issues that you can recognize and fix, the drive simply stops working one day and you can’t do anything anymore about it. If at the time of shutdown the internal drive journal has the magic cumber of 320 entries in it, when you power on the computer again the drive will be dead.

This event is clearly rare, but you can also understand that every time you turn off your pc there’s a small probability that it happens. The more time passes, the more the chances.

From this originated the whole clusterfuck. Since the problem was affecting most of the drive models, a huge number of typical anxious computer users started to storm Seagate with mails to get their fixed firmware before it was too late. With this big tide coming to them Seagate decided to break their usual policy of only offer firmwares via dedicated mails and instead made the “fixed” firmware public.

Only that this broke their usual safety processes and lead to the majority of people getting a wrong firmware for their drives. The huge number of people started giddily flashing their drives to prevent the problem and only obtained to have the problem executed. What was before a rare risk, became certainty after flashing the bios. All drives went dead. A huge number of people with suddenly dead drivers thanks to a fix that was supposed to prevent exactly that rare risk. A funny implementation of reciprocation.

The story goes on Slashodot and the tide continues to rise. From a side all the users that got to know about the potential failure, from the other all the early adopters who were rewarded of their zeal with a dead drive. Both asking for a fix. Now.

Today the fix arrives, with model versions clearly spelled. On the forums people are reporting that they seem to work.

I’m here wondering if taking the risk of flashing my drives (no space for backups), or live with the other of one day turning on my PC and see all my stuff gone. Sure this was good advertising for Seagate.

If you point your finger in the direction of a problem, most people will think the problem is with your finger.

Here below you can see some stunning paintings (click for hi-res) with fantastic scenery and some steampunk elements. These aren’t simple images, they are screen captures from an animated movie made by Studio Ghibli: Iblard Jikan.

It’s definitely not the usual anime. 30 minutes, without a real story, without dialogue and with minimal animation. It’s pure mood, beauty and harmony, yet extremely powerful. Poetry made picture. Naohisa Inoue is the visionary artist (and director) who built this kind of word.

It simply deserves to be seen, especially because it fills the heart while being so sparse.

I doubt this can have a commercial distribution on our side of the world, so, maybe, it’s almost acceptable if I link the torrent file and the website from where it comes.

Welcome to the age of high definition (the video may require a powerful CPU to decode, either try VLC player or the CoreAVC codecs).

Enjoy one of the greatest spectacles ever made. A world of epic-ness and beauty.