Reading Mark Cuban’s latest blog entry reminded me of this quote.

We must believe in luck. For how else can we explain the success of those we don’t like?

Jean Cocteau

Filed under: Business
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The FBI and Homeland Security just shut down the website EliteTorrents.org (click the link for a very scary government warning!). For those of you that do not know, “Torrents” are a way of distributing large files over the internet. Instead of the file being hosted on a web or file server, the torrent uploads and downloads pieces of the file among all users that are trying to receive it. This of it this way — say you need to get $25. A traditional download would be akin to one person giving you a quarter every minute until you reached $25. With torrents you can have 20, 50, or 100 people each giving you a quarter at the same time – while you are giving quarters to a few other people. Thus, torrents can result in large file downloads being much faster than a regular download.

What is interesting is that the site that they shut down didn’t host anything – other than information about how to get the “seed” of a torrent. Basically, instructions on where to find the torrents. But the site didn’t actually host any of the content.

The MPAA is in trouble because programmers are currently working on “seedless” torrents. Which basically means that there will be a decentralized place to download movies, MP3s, etc. Whether people chose to use this for legal or illegal means is up to them – but the technology is coming!

Personally, I haven’t downloaded any movies, but I’ve used torrents before when I missed a show that I regularly watch (because of weather interference or Presidential news conference, etc.). The only reason that I downloaded the show “illegally” is that there was no alternative – no way to purchase the show for a few bucks of off a TV networks website, or download in any legal fashion.

The MPAA and other content providers need to wake up and realize that people want this technology. Certainly they can figure out a profitable way to distribute their content to the customers that want it.

Homeland security has better things to do.

Filed under: Technology, Internet
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The cleaning people (if that’s what you choose to call them) were supposed to come yesterday, but due to some miscommunication between me and Carrie, no one left a key for them and neither of us was home. Oops! So, they came this morning instead. No big problem, but I really don’t like being there when they are because they are quite noisy! Well, also because it means that I have to get up, shower, and get dressed! What a pain!

So, this morning, I decided that I wanted to venture out into the outside world instead of sitting at home with the cleaning people. I needed coffee and was hungry too, so I made my way over to Panera Bread by the Woodlands mall.

Having never visited before, the main reason that I came to Panera was that I knew that they had free (as in beer) Wi-Fi. Nice! Came in, got me a cup o’ joe and a banana nut muffin and away we go! Got on their network in just a few seconds and was reading my email and chatting with Carrie in no time.

Interestingly enough, I ran across an article just this morning about a coffee shop that started shutting down their wi-fi on weekends because people were abusing it. Come on folks – if we want free internet access you can’t be rude about it!

Of course, it gets a little noisy in here occasionally, but it’s good noisy – like the three year-old little girl pointing out the “big truck” and “motorcycle” and everything else that she could see to her big brother – that I can handle.

I can’t see myself doing this everyday or even a few times a week, but I could definitely see this quickly becoming a Friday tradition!

Filed under: Personal
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Went to the eye doctor this morning. No real surprises – mostly everything the same as it has always been. He actually reduced the prescription in one of my eyes. Of course, there were the typical jokes about officiating, since I listed it under “sports” on the information sheet that I filled out. I told him that I would give his name to any coaches who complained about calls next year.

I found a new doctor up here in the Woodlands as I was tired of driving halfway across Houston just to sit there and listen to, “One… or Two? Which one is better?” This doctor mixed it up a bit using “Three… or Four?” all the way up to “Nine… or Ten?” — I was starting to lose track a little!

They dilated my eyes too, which is cool because if you get pulled over on the drive home the cop will think that you are all doped up! HA! So, I did what any geek with spare time would do – took a picture! Turned out pretty cool I think — I put my hand over the flash to redirect it back to my face… After a few tries I got the picture I wanted (oh yeah – with the CF card in the camera this time!)

There is no point to this post other than that my monitors are a little blurry due to my dilated eyes and I’m just not ready to get down to any heavy duty programming yet…

Filed under: Personal
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After the photo debacle this past Saturday of taking tons of great photos without a CF card I figured that we would never again forget to put the memory card in the camera! The problem is that our camera still releases the shutter when taking pictures, even without the CF card in the camera! So, it feels like you are taking the photos – you don’t notice anything difference. Then I read Danielle’s comment that there was a way to disable taking photos without the CF card, so I decided to figure out how to do it.

I googled a few pages and confirmed that there was a “custom function” that would stop the shutter from releasing unless there was a CF card in that camera. What a concept!

However, although I could confirm the feature, it took me a few minutes before I found a page that described how to do it. Then, I couldn’t find the “custom function” choice on the menu! Ugh! So, I finally figured out all the steps to do this and thought that I would share for all of those out there with the 10D who don’t want to take imaginary photos:

• Put your camera in “P” mode – this is important because otherwise the “Custom Functions” menu will not show up (this took me a good ten minutes to figure out!)
• Go the the menu
• Scroll down and select Custom Functions(C. Fn)
• Scroll to #2 – Shutter release w/o CF card
• Press the set key, then scroll to change to 1:Not possible
• Press the set key again, then menu button twice to exit completely

That’s it! Now when you try to take a photo, the camera does nothing. Indeed, it flashes “no CF” in the viewfinder window where you would normally see the camera settings!

Now, someone explain to me why this feature isn’t enabled by default?!?

Filed under: Technology, Personal
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