The Interwebs Strike Back!

The epic tale of The Pirate Bay, the infamous torrent hosting site, is indeed epic. I won't go into the full story here, but you can catch up here if you need to.

So, the Pirate Bay is in cloudy water right now as the website's new home has been prone to DNS errors, slowdowns, and various other annoyances. Lawsuits are flying left and right, and things generally don't look so great for our Swedish protagonists. The many and varied copyright enforcement agencies that succeeding in effectively pushing the The Pirate Bay around are sitting all high and mighty over their victorious conquest of the dastardly breakers of copyright law.

Rule 1 of Interwebism: Never underestimate the Interwebs (Yep, made that up. I'm the Ruler, that's why).

Long before the legal mess happened upon The Pirate Bay, they uploaded a backup of their entire index of torrents for anybody to download. One anonymous user who managed to grab that torrent has uploaded it to BTarena.net, effectively rendering the shutdown of The Pirate bay completely pointless. Not only is this index basically a copy of the original site, it is being distrubuted freely, meaning that instead of copyright cops dealing with one Pirate Bay, anyone can now have the ability to host the entire catalog of The Pirate Bay. By attempting to shut down the biggest purveyor of illicit media on the net, the copyright cops have effectively increased the amount of torrents downloaded on the Interwebs exponentially.

Thus, the T-shirt that sums it all up:

So, what can we learn from all this?

- Copyright law cannot be enforced on the Interwebs. It is simply a war of numbers. The only to stop it is a ban on all ISPs for .torrent file formats. Imagine trying to ban the distrubution of the .mp3 format and you'll see how futile an effort this would be.

- Let's say .torrent file were banned. Another format would simply pop up after it, and here we go again. Don't forget Usenet either. Another under-popularized distribution point of copyrighted material. It will never end. It is far easier to create a digital supply chain than it is to destroy one, so places like The Pirate Bay will always be one step ahead.

- Legal response is not the answer. Smart marketing is the answer. If you want people to pay for something that they can otherwise get for free, make it worth their while. Give them a reason to give you money. Offering something for a price that they can get for free elsewhere isn't much of an incentive.

- Revolutionize the Entertainment business model. Don't have your revenue dependent on sales. The Interwebs have already declared sales to be so 1990's so give up. Make like Google and provide free services while profiting from alternative sources. There is always a way to succeed in a capitalist environment. It's all about gauging supply and demand. In terms of digital media, supply is practically infinite, so there really isn't any good way to capitalize on that anymore. The only way would be to squelch supply, which was covered in a previous point.

The world of digital media distribution is constantly changing. The Interwebs have embraced that change wholeheartedly, and with gusto. Now the entertainment corporations need to drop the old and broken business model and join the kingdom of the Interwebs, or else all they risk losing everything to their own unwillingness to adapt.

Responding to a Nigerian Scam Artist

This little treasure happened upon my mailbox last night and I can't help but share. This guy obviously put some real effort into this email, and he deserves some recognition.

I greet you to seek help.
The bank advise for a reliable bank account from your country so that my funds could be transferred without stress of the ecb and your contact came to me after an intensive search. my name is Khalil Mohammed Maher, i live in Karachi Pakistan as a business man who deals on currency trading. My wife Shahira and our only kid?s a boy and a girl named Mohammed and Afiyah lost their lives in a fatal car accident September 29th last year when traveling to visit her relatives in a nearby town. after that great lost to my entire life, i decided to relocate by having a dwelling in UK, been impatient to leave and making plans on how to buy a house in UK, i unluckily met with one crook named Robert Stephens who based in UK and claimed on the web to be estate agent on built-up buildings. We made arrangement for a flat of 3 bed rooms in Cheshire Greater Manchester UK that he requested
£480,000 pounds and instructed me to make a wire transfer of that sum to his account with Abbey National bank UK, which i obeyed. luckily for me after the transfer, the bank confirmed his account to be fraudulent and had been receiving fraudulent payments from numerous people, which made them seized all the money in his account then closed it. I made known to the bank i paid the £480,000 pounds that drew their attention to his account and even sent the payment facts for their confirmation to refund my money, which they confirmed and are willing to make a refund of the paid sum to me. please help me receive my money and transfer to me since the bank have said they cannot make a transfer of that sum to me in Pakistan based on the high security level of the European central bank. write to me via the below given email id if i can get help from you and you shall be rewarded with 5% after the refund. thanks and may God the almighty guide and bless you.
K. M. Maher.
khalilmohammedmaher @gmail.com

Ok, this is the plan. I am going to create a Gmail account, respond to this guy, and see where things go from there. I'm not kidding. I really want to know how these things actually go down.

I'll be giving you a play by play as things really do "go down."

Now You Know

Brought to you by my good friends over at XKCD, the cruel unmasking of the neighborhood computer geek.

And now you know.

The Two Reasons We Play Video Games

I've recently become slightly addicted to a game called Geometry Wars. To all who unfamiliar with the franchise, it is an agonizingly simple game. You have a "ship" that you control that flies around and can shoot enemies (represented by various neon floating objects). The goal is to shoot enemies without physically touching them. The graphics are made up of simple 2-d shapes, all brightly colored and animated, moving frantically around the playing field. It took only a few people to program, and on an obviously minimal budget. I have probably spent more time on this game than I spend on many games that employ armies of programmers, cost millions upon millions to produce, and tell epic 30 hour long stories in lush, photorealistic, 3-d enviroments. So why bother? Why aren't publishers focusing on small yet superbly designed, highly addictive games on a much lower budget?

The answer is because each "genre" of game is targeting a different level of enjoyment in the gamer. Games like the Halo series, which focus on plot, action, and graphical prowess are trying to give a player the experience of an interactive movie. They know that the action on screen will be more personal and meaningful to the player if the context of the action is somewhat plausible. So, wrapping the action and interactive elements of a game into a cinematic package helps with what developers call Immersion. The draw for games like this is escapism. Much like reading a book or watching a movie, we enjoy the departure from reality because it makes us forget about our problems and issues, if but for a short time. Immersion is all about keeping up withe Jones'. Typically, it the modern gaming industry, Immersion is basically judged by how perfectly detailed the gaming world is relative to other games in the market. There are other factors, but a realistic looking world will always be the biggest plus. Since immersion sells product, publishers will spend inordinate amounts of money making sure everything in the game world is a real and top-notch as possible. That includes professional voice acting, virtual motion capture (think Gollum in Lord of the Rings, a digital character modeled after a real person's movements), and expensive graphics engines. The technology behind such games is only going to get better as developers try harder to get us to believe we are the video game, not playing it.

Games like Geometry Wars are aiming for a completely different pleasure center in the Brain. Human Beings like progression. We respond to success positively. It's what drives us as a species. When success is easy and clear, it's hard to control the desire to latch on to it. Games like geometry are paced very carefully. It uses mathematical formulas to pace the level at which your score goes up to convince you that you can always do a little better. It's hard enough to be a challenge, but possible enough that you'll dare to try and reach that success. That, along with the short length of games and the almost instantaneous restart time, provides a highly addictive quest for scores. Every time you lose, the simplicity of the game tempts you to come back and try and beat that high score. And a funny thing happens. The game rewards patience and practice. The more you play, the better you will get. So every time that Game Over screen beckons you to restart, you know you can do better. And it's only a few minutes right? I've got time for one more, right? Hours later, and you're still crunching the numbers, inching closer and closer to a goal that never really materializes. There is no ending. There is only the leader board. And the goal is to be on top. That addiction to success is what drives us as a species. Put in video game form in short 5 minute segments, it's almost impossible to resist.

The most successful games being made today are the one's that skillfully blend the two styles together. Enter World of Warcraft. Touted as being the most addictive game ever, there is truth behind the tout. It's an immersive world, a world where entire cultures are formed, wars are fought, and truces are signed, all by real people. The graphics are lush, the world is alive, and it's hard not to get to get caught up in your own personal story. However, there is always the grind. The grind is when you go out and perform highly repetitive, typically menial tasks for small rewards. In small increments, your character becomes slightly more powerful. In every small increment you can see the growth, and all you want is more. The grind may be repetitive, but it always concludes in some form of success or growth. The draw is even stronger when you take into account the chance that menial tasks have the small possibility of something rare and strong being dropped or added to your character. It's that same addiction to success and growth that drives the character to play for hours and hours to get that one more level, or one more item drop. What makes WoW great is that it combines the two game styles more effectively than anyone else has done in the past.

Now, let me go beat my score yet again. If I'm not back in 3 hours, send someone in to save me.

Bear With Me While I Write About Sports For a Moment

My good friend over at The Daily Harangue has threatened to thwart my posting of this story with a conniving DoS (Denial of Service) attack on Google's servers, bringing this site to its digital knees until I surrender to his sinister terms.

Bring it on. Because you know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna tell on you. That's right. Be Scared.

Anyways, this will most likely be one of the only times I will write about sports, or any activity requiring more than a little athletic exertion, but it's a story that needs telling. The University of Memphis Men's Basketball Team suffered a huge loss yesterday as the NCAA ruled that all wins (38) from the 07-08 season will be officially wiped from the record due to allegations that star player Derrick Rose (now playing for the NBA after one year of college play) let someone take his SAT for him. This means that their Final Four Championship run never happened, that they are no longer hold the record for most wins in a season, and that coach John Calipari no longer claims the most wins of any Memphis coach. In a city that worships the Tigers, this is not only a huge blow to the team, but a huge blow to University and the renowned fan base across the city. Needless to say, there will be an appeal. President Shirley Raines has unequivocally stated in a press conference that the University of Memphis followed all rules of eligibility, and while they are disputing the charges, the penalties are overly harsh. This is far from over.

But it got me thinking. Who really is suffering from the punishment? As a fan, I can tell you with 100% certainty that we had an unbelievable season leading up to the Final Four and ultimately a tragic loss to Kansas in the championship game. This happened. We all enjoyed it, the entire city had a huge boost in morale, and nobody will forget that. Official or not, we won 38 games. Derrick Rose certainly isn't suffering. After his fantastic first year at Memphis, he was drafted by the Bulls as their No. 1 pick and proceeded to win rookie of the year. That leaves two groups of people who actually are feeling the hurt. The players, especially outgoing seniors Antonio Anderson and Robert Dozier, who both have records for most wins in a college career, are definitely hurting. The University is giving back the banner, the Final Four trophy, and the roughly $615,000 won in the Final Four.

If Rose cheated, he should be punished. He isn't going to be. If Cal played a known cheat, he should be punished. He isn't. If R.C Johnson (Head of the athletic department) knew about the cheating, he should be punished. He isn't. instead, the players and the school as a whole are being punished for the act of one or two people.

This is all assuming there was foul play. Keep in mind that the NCAA cleared Rose twice before Memphis decided to play him. Also keep in mind that Memphis didn't play two players because they hadn't been cleared yet. After telling Memphis they could play Rose, the NCAA is now saying he was in fact ineligible, And that retroactively the wins are now forfeits. Take the heat, NCAA! If you screwed up, own up to it! Don't let innocent people suffer because of your oversight.

To all the people who are calling Cal a cheat and the U of M tigers cheaters, remember that we're dealing with one player who may have cheated on his SAT. Even if he did, the university was acting on the clearance of the NCAA. Coach Cal made this team an unstoppable winning force, and to take that legacy away over a disputed case of cheating before Rose even started college is just ludicrous. Y'all are just jealous.

Go Tigers!!!

Encephalic Flatulence

That's nerd-speak for brain fart. In case you were wondering.

I really don't have anything smarmy or even remotely intellectual to talk about to today, so I'll share with you an interesting list.

Behold, a list that details the worst design mistakes in the Star Wars Universe. Once you read this, you will never watch those movies the same way ever again.

Design Mistakes in Star Wars