Warping it up! » Media

The Demo Scene – An introduction

Fini Alring — Fri, 12 Aug 2005 12:29:58 +0000

As an old demo group (GiGA Prod.) founder, organizer, main coder and 3D animator, I wouldn’t miss this opportunity to introduce ya’ll to the wonderful Demo Scene, a sub-culture of the Warez Scene, where people strived to outperform each other in the fields of programming (coding), graphics (2D+3D) and music (sounds and tunes).

Scene Rep – About The Demo Scene

Scene Zine Monthly

Finding warez using Google

Fini Alring — Thu, 11 Aug 2005 12:38:52 +0000

A short controversial article that focus on using Google or other search engines to harvest chinese, russian and similar countries pirate sites. Since it’s pretty obvious that the software companies will have a harder time fighting those websites compared to those in EU or US and the like.

Learn a few token-strings from the language (download, cracked, english version, pro etc..) and you’re basically ready to go warez hunting across the borders.

(Of course this should not be attempted, ever – since it’s illegal, but it’s pretty interesting to surf on foreign sites and attempt to make sense of it all..)

Finding warez using Google

Google China

Google Russia

Talkr – Podcast any blog

Fini Alring — Thu, 28 Jul 2005 12:20:04 +0000

Talkr.com is a pretty neat webservice that converts blogs into mp3 audio blogs (aka Podcasts), the sound and voice quality is pretty good, at first I actually thought it was read by a human, but the strange pauses between words doesn’t sound too human afterall. It costs money to get your own blog converted on a daily basis, but as far as I read you can download three files pr. day for free (bandwidth costs money).

* Talkr – Letting blogs speak for themselves

P2P TV

Fini Alring — Tue, 14 Jun 2005 21:35:06 +0000

Lanaki writes “A non-profit based in Austin, TX is merging the free software and Copyleft communities through a new internet TV station: ACTLab TV. They are streaming Creative Commons, Copyleft, public domain content, and original videos using Alluvium software and their own media player. It’s all open source, encouraging others to make their own audio and video streams. Their website was released this week and the player and demo stream will go public next week.”

* Slashdot | Peer-to-Peer Internet Television

wOOt!

Fini Alring — Sun, 29 May 2005 13:29:43 +0000

Top Ten Favorite Words (Not in the Dictionary)

1. ginormous (adj): bigger than gigantic and bigger than enormous

2. confuzzled (adj): confused and puzzled at the same time

3. woot (interj): an exclamation of joy or excitement

4. chillax (v): chill out/relax, hang out with friends

5. cognitive displaysia (n): the feeling you have before you even leave the house that you are going to forget something and not remember it until you’re on the highway

6. gription (n): the purchase gained by friction: “My car needs new tires because the old ones have lost their gription.”

7. phonecrastinate (v): to put off answering the phone until caller ID displays the incoming name and number

8. slickery (adj): having a surface that is wet and icy

9. snirt (n): snow that is dirty, often seen by the side of roads and parking lots that have been plowed

10. lingweenie (n): a person incapable of producing neologisms

Read the story at:
* Merriam-Webster Online

Secure Video Conferencing via Quantum Crypto

Fini Alring — Tue, 03 May 2005 15:06:59 +0000

Roland Piquepaille writes “If you use a webcam to talk with your mom, this tool is not for you. But if you’re working for a company and that you have to routinely discuss about sensitive future projects or the possible acquisition of another company, you need more security, and this new video conferencing system based on quantum cryptography is a tool you need. According to this article from Nature, researchers from Toshiba have developed a system which can generate 100 quantum ‘keys’ every second, fast enough to protect every frame in a video exchange. This technology, which today is working over a distance of about 120 kilometers, could become commercially available within two years at an initial cost of $20,000. This overview contains more details and references.”

Slashdot | Secure Video Conferencing via Quantum Cryptography

Google Experiments with Video Blogging

Fini Alring — Tue, 05 Apr 2005 09:36:21 +0000

[/.] PunkOfLinux writes “TechWeb has an article about Google’s plans to start a video service that sounds similar to Picasa. Excerpt: ‘While there’s no formal announcement yet, Google co-founder Larry Page said Monday that the well-known search engine concern would soon let the general public upload self-produced videos to Google’s servers, partly in an effort to learn more about how to more efficiently search and display information about video-based data.’”

Slashdot | Google Experiments with Video Blogging

Jon Johansen Breaks iTunes DRM Yet Again

Fini Alring — Wed, 23 Mar 2005 14:18:40 +0000

[/.] ikewillis writes “Remember earlier today when Apple released an update supposedly blocking the hole in iTMS recently discovered by Jon Johansen? News.com reports that he has already worked around the update, and iTMS can now be accessed from non-Windows/MacOS X systems using the new version of his PyMusique software. You can view his blog entry on the issue (ironically titled So Sue Me). More power to you, Jon!”

Slashdot | Jon Johansen Breaks iTunes DRM Yet Again

Open Source Journalism

Fini Alring — Sat, 12 Feb 2005 01:22:04 +0000

[/.] jvm writes “Markos of Daily Kos wrote today of what he describes as the legacy of blogging: open source.
Not software, but the philosophy. From the article: “When I’m asked about blogging’s legacy, I talk about open source. Open source politics, open source activism, open source journalism — the aggregation of thousands on behalf of a common cause.” Relatedly, egoff writes “You might have seen some coverage of Jeff Gannon, a conservative reporter who lobbed softball questions during White House press briefings. It was discovered that he was using an alias to get past White House security. The language of open source development is used throughout their description of the reporting process. At Poynter Online, journalists discussing this story have compared the random blog readers who did the bulk of this research to “what Woodstein did back in the day.”"

Slashdot | Open Source Journalism

Asteroid Named After Douglas Adams

Fini Alring — Wed, 26 Jan 2005 10:29:20 +0000

According to slashdot; tc writes “MSNBC is reporting that an asteroid has been named after Douglas Adams of Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy fame. Fittingly, the asteroid carried the provisional designation 2001 DA42, thus commemorating the year of his untimely death, containing his initials, and incorporating the famous answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything. This seems like a fitting tribute to me.”

Slashdot | Asteroid Named After Douglas Adams