Category: Life

United States Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT), former chairman of the Judiciary Committee, has been appointed chairman of the new Intellectual Property Subcommittee.

This is the man that has been bribed by the RIAA and MPAA:

The music and movie industries, who contributed $179,928 to Hatch in 2004, are most likely very enthused about his new position.

So in other words, a man in charge of a judicial committee has been payed approx. $180,000USD from the organizations representing a specific side to the issue he is overseeing. To me, that’s like the individual in charge of reforms in gun laws being payed $180,000 by a gun maker. Can anyone say “biased”?

Moral: Justice is only as strong as one’s wallet.

Maybe its because it was a spur of the moment, but some developers (including Warren Spector) gave a very good speech on the state of gaming at the GDC. What I enjoyed most was their view on piracy, as follows:

Q: I am one of the bad guys: I’m working on a big budget next generation console game. I want to ask about totally legalised piracy? Not Russia and grey market – I’m talking Blockbuster. 20 dollars a year you can borrow whatever you like then give it back. People are going to rent my game for 4 dollars. I won’t see any of that. They’re robbing me!

Chris: I’m pro-piracy. I want people to play the games I make. I do it because it’s art. I think DRM is a total fucking stupid mess. If the game industry collapses and can be reborn, I’m all for it. Pirate on!

Greg: they’re not pirating the game! Someone bought a legal copy! The world is not designed in such a way that money inherently funnels its way into your wallet!?

Warren: I never minded piracy. Anyone who minds about piracy is full of shit. Anyone who pirates your game wasn’t going to buy it anyway!

As you know I’m fundamentally divided when it comes to piracy. However, I despise the corporate view on the issue, which is to say that pirates cost the game industry $4 Billion a year (which would represent half of the total revenues in the gaming industry btw). It’s a black-and-white view that is completely innacurate. So its refreshing to see when those inside the network adopt a different perspective.

I realise that some of you may be here concerning information about the IE6 Vulnerability that was exposed a few months ago. Unfortunately, with my transition of blogging platforms, I’ve lost the original article + example. My apologies if this inconveniences you in any way. Anywho, you will be able to see a demo of the code in action in the EYNTO Show (as an example of why one should drop IE and switch to FireFox or Opera.)

Well I decided with the upcomming release of the EYNTO Show that it was time to update this site as well. I do plan on getting the show Slashdotted, as others have done, as an ultra-cheap technique to get some extra audience, so I figured I better make this place look better too. :p That and of course rid myself of the many bugs that plagued the previous blogging PHP tool that I was using.

Anywho, hope you enjoy the new look!

A few updates today:

RESUME: Updated my CV.

EYNTO: Went out today to film the rest of the away-from-home footage for the show. However, as it was extremely cold at at least -20C, opted to film the rest another day. Tomorrow is the first Friday of the month, which means a 2600 Hacker Meeting (or script-kiddie… we’ll see how the crowd is). I’ll go and see if I can get a few people to tip our viewers on general safety practices.