Archive for November, 2006
November 28, 2006 at 12:25 pm · Filed under Techy
When my roommate gets utterly bored, he goes to Blockbuster and rents a movie. He rented Capote sometime ago and never got around to watching it. Most movies, he gets 15 minutes in and falls asleep. Eventually, the DVD had to be returned and he never watched it. I told him I’d copy it to my computer so he or I could watch it later. I tried my coping software, but it wouldn’t copy over. Oh well, c’est la vie, n’est pas.
Well, recently I rented Howl’s Moving castle. I tried to make a back-up of it too and it didn’t work. Therefore, something must be up. I did a quick search and found out that some movie companies are employing a new copy protection, ARccOS, to prevent people from making back-ups.
ARccOS is a copy-protection system developed by Sony used on some DVDs. Designed as an additional form of copy protection, it is used in conjunction with Content-scrambling system (CSS). The system deliberately creates a number of sectors on the DVD with corrupted data that causes DVD copying software to produce errors. Normal DVD players do not ever read these sectors since they follow a set of instructions encoded on the disc telling them to skip it. Less sophisticated DVD ripping programs do not follow these instructions but try to read every sector on the disk sequentially, including the bad ones.
Many major titles are using this protection, so I had to update my DVD ripper to DVDFab Decrypter. Normally, DVDShrink does all the work of ripping and compressing the dvds, but it hasn’t been updated since 2004. I’ll have to mess around with DVDFab a little more, but it handled the ARccOS protection and I can back-up DVDs once more.
November 26, 2006 at 5:02 pm · Filed under Lifestyle
I woke up really early on Thanksgiving. (Like 4:30 early) Maybe it was because I went to bed early or I had T-giving confused with X-mas morning. Luckily, I turned on the TV and Voltron: Defender of the Universe was on Cartoon Network. After that, I couldn’t fall back to sleep and my attention turned to Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends and the continental breakfast. At 6:45, I got up and went for some mini muffins, OJ and cheese danishes. I was 45 minutes late for breakfast and still the first person to dig in. After I had some food in my belly, I went back to bed and took another nap-a-roo.
About 10:30, Grandma, Mom, and I headed to Bruce and Candy’s lair. MoMo gave me a rude greeting, but I quickly showed him who’s the mut. Candace, Mom, Kellbug, and Grandma had Thanksgiving brunner going. I made sparkling cider. So, we chewed the fat and watched the parade for a few hours.
By 12:15, it was time for the feeding. We all ate at one table. Jess had 2 lady friends with him, and he ate at table2. Brunner was buffet style. We each took a plate and helped ourselves to the goods. I took a little bit of everything, but it was hard to choose between 2 mashed potatoes. That’s right dos potatoes. I took the cheesy potatoes over the regular ones. Overall, I put forth a poor performance and only had one helping. I really wanted more green been casserole, but I had no more room left.
Once the brunner conversations turned south, I slipped downstairs. I couldn’t find any good sports on, so it was a toss up between the Foster’s marathon and the Miami Ink marathon. I watched 2 hours of Miami Ink and I thought “Damn, this episode was just like the last episode.” The third episode looked just like the previous episode, so I turned to Foster’s. Then, I think Candy’s parents came over. I dont know. I fell asleep.
I woke back up around 5-ish. Jess’ guests had left and so did Candy’s parents. I was ready for desserts and resurfaced from the depths of the ‘downstairs’. Dessert was the usual: pumpkin pie, pumpkin bread, nutty goopy pie, and Mom’s goopy salad dip. There was also this sugary gingerbread bread. It was surprisingly good and I had a slice of pumpkin pie. We hung around a little longer, Grandma got tired, and we went back to the hotel. I was able to catch most of Survivor and went on to read Harry Potter. That was ’bout it.
November 21, 2006 at 5:17 pm · Filed under Lifestyle, Music, News Events, Techy
Day of Turkey is fast approaching, and I wont be posting for another week. I’ll be taking the train to Iowa, and spending time with the family. Now, I know you’re all eager to read ‘Part 3′ and then the dramatic climax of ‘Part 4′, but you’ll just have to wait. Until then, I’ll try to hold you over with some blogs, music, and news snippets.
- iamfacingforeclosure.com/ -A 24-year-old aspiring real estate investor from Sacramento CA. After going to few seminars he bought 8 houses in 8 months. However, he’s ran out of cash, an is now facing foreclosure.
- johnchow.com/ - He’s an internet mogul, who talks about making money on the web, how he made his career, fancy restaurants, and general techy stuff.
- tradertim.blogspot.com/ - Tim Knight, founder of a technical analysis site, gives his daily perspective on the market, his portfolio, and option positions.
- I’m on the Flying Spaghetti Monster Halloween page.
- Family Guy Clip - How’s that novel you’ve been working on?
- I think an Akita Inu would also be a fun dog to have. The Shiba Inu is a pocket size version.
- I found the website for Brainstorm: Movies, Comics, and Games.This is the rental place I’ve been going to. Though, I haven’t been there in awhile.
- Patriot act makes it harder to get real Sudafed
Music:
- Blue Cheer - a San Francisco-based rock group of the late 1960s and early 1970s, who helped to pioneer heavy metal music.
- Jefferson Airplane -an American rock band from San Francisco, a pioneer of the LSD-influenced psychedelic rock movement.
- Foo Fighters new Skin and Bones album. I might have to get the UK DVD. It comes with 2 DVDs, whereas the US version may have only 1.
That’s it. Have a Happy Thanksgiving.
November 18, 2006 at 11:19 pm · Filed under News Events
Wow, this is pretty harsh.
A video apparently showing a UCLA student being tasered by University of California Police Department (UCPD) officers has found its way onto YouTube.
According to a report on the university’s Daily Bruin, the incident occured at around 11.30 pm on Tuesday when security officers at the Powell Library CLICC computer lab “asked a male student using a computer in the back of the room to leave when he was unable to produce a BruinCard during a random check”.
When he didn’t immediately vacate the building, the security operatives returned with police officers to escort him from the premises. The Daily Bruin continues: “By this time the student had begun to walk toward the door with his backpack when an officer approached him and grabbed his arm, at which point the student told the officer to let him go. A second officer then approached the student as well.
News Article
Youtube Video
November 18, 2006 at 10:24 pm · Filed under Books
I finished reading The Order of the Phoenix for the second time, and I couldn’t help feeling frustrated after the end of it. It seems like (and we know) there are a lot questions to be answered here. JKR doesn’t approach the questions at all or good enough for me. I think Clear:) was right, in that her writing style has been lacking.
For instance, Harry comes back from the Ministry of Magic, he’s told that Sirius is dead. He’s super pissed at Dumbledore for keeping him in the dark for so long. Dumbledore reacts very nonchalant. He admits that he was wrong and chalks it up to “an old man’s mistakes.” Well, that’s how I’m feeling towards JKR right now. I’m Harry, and I want some answers! I just read nearly 900 pages and I’m still in the dark here. He learns a prophesy and Sirius dies. That’s it.
Sirius was in the “Death Chamber,” He falls behind the veil, and everyone says “Let him go Harry. He’s dead.” Ughhh….what? Ok, you’re telling me he’s dead, but would you mind giving me some back story here. Harry should be asking what is the “Death Chamber” and this veil? All we know is that he can hear murmurs coming from the other side of it. Yet, it’s in a large auditorium. What’s the room for, because it’s different from all of the others. The “Time Chamber” has clocks and time turners in it. The “Thought Chamber” has brains floating in it. One of them unravels and wraps around Ron. Why it did that, I have no clue? I think Harry should have been asking these questions along with many others to fill us, the readers, in. It would be common sense for him to ask these questions and he doesn’t. Wouldn’t you like to know how Sirius died, instead of accepting “Oh he fell into the mysterious curtain? He’s gone.”
Harry, then, finds this two-way mirror that Sirius gave him. It would have allowed him to contact Sirius in secret. Well, Goddammit! Are you kidding me? Harry, how could you be so incompetent that you forgot to open this gift that your beloved Uncle gave you. This could have prevented the entire cat and mouse game you played in the Ministry of Magic. You wouldn’t have overreacted and had to use the floo network. You could have had direct contact with him every night. So, what does he do next? He breaks the mirror. Way to go.
Then, he runs into Nearly Headless Nick, the ghost. He expects Sirius to return as a ghost, too. But Nearly Headless Nick has no explanation for the afterlife. He says, “Well, I was too scared to keep going. That’s why I returned as a ghost.” OK, that’s kind of an answer. Sirius must have passed directly into the afterlife instead of the ghostly limbo. Next, we randomly meet Luna Lovegood, who has also lost her belongings. She says people always steal her things, but they always turn up. And she leaves. Wha…? Are these two related? Is Sirius going to just “turn up” without any explanation when he’s considered dead.
The next problem I have is with Harry’s parents. WHO WERE THEY?! I can understand him not knowing anything about them in his first year. He didn’t know he was a wizard and the Dursleys had lied to him until he was 10. Five years have passed, and he still doesn’t know anything about them. What were their jobs after school and what were they like? It’s not until his 5th year, that he finds out that his dad was a cocky jerk and his mom hated him at the time. Up until now, he’s just seen pictures and knew that they stood up against Voldemort. Why isn’t he asking or anyone told him anything about them until now. Again, what job did they do? Harry has to decide on a career field in this book, and wouldn’t it have been nice to have said, “I want to be a *blank* just like my Mom or Dad?”
Secondary characters. From the beginning, we know that Albus Dumbledore is this all powerful wizard. He holds some of the highest ranks of wizards. He practically started the Order of the Phoenix, and he’s the only one who Voldemort has feared. It’s pretty substancial, right? Do you know who else was in the Order of the Phoenix? … His brother, Aberforth! Exscuse me! Why doesn’t he receive a greater mention than this. Supposedly, he’s illiterate and an oddball, but still why isn’t he currently contributing to the Order. Why aren’t Harry and the gang asking questions about the brother of one of the greatest wizards who ever lived? Instead, we learn about Hagrid’s retarded giant brother.
Come on JKR! Stop throwing us scraps here and give us a bone. In a 900 page book, I would expect answers not questions. I’m going to re-read the Half-Blood Prince, and this book only opens up more questions. And my rage here will probably get worse. It seems like the first three books were good stand alone books. They asked questions and answered them by the end of the story. However, these last few all revolve around the return of Voldemort, and they just aren’t cohesive enough. We keep getting fed bit by bit. I’m just afraid that Book 7 isn’t going to live up to my expectations and leave us with many unanswered questions or consist after surprise after surprise - le fin.
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