Maëlys McArdle

Blog

  • Piracy Movie.

    Piracy Movie – Status:
    Working on it.

    The expected release date has shifted. I don’t know if I can make it in time for October. We shall see. Mind you the editing process ought to be easier this time round: I will principally rely on Interviews for the brunt of this documentary, a la BBS Documentary. Interviews are significantly faster to edit together than making countless custom animations as I did with EYNTO.

    That said, I’m still working through the Research Materials. Not yet into the script-building (though I have a rough outline) or shooting portion of the development. I’ll add another update with what I plan to include in the film soon.

    Update: I’m also changing the title of the film. It will now be known as “The Corrupt War on Piracy”. Throughout all of this, it has been my focus to target not on the ethics of piracy itself; but the consequences of the war in terms of mass media misinformation and consumer impacts (DMCA, etc.) By avoiding the moral question of whether piracy is right or wrong and focusing on the hard issues surrounding intellectual properties, I will prevent the alienation certain key audiences.

    After all, the goal of the movie remains the same: inform people as to make solid decisions reguarding the future of Intellectual Property; and not let governments be lead by the few [and naturally overly bias] media content industries.

  • Blearh.

    Well, things are good. I’m healthy. I have a good job. Physics, for better or worse, is over. I have no sorrows; no ennemies; no quarrels with friends.

    But I can’t bring myself to smile. Here, I am, living – but I feel so empty. It is as if I have nothing to look forward to. Just a repetition of days past. Life feels like a never ending cycle.

    Sure, that’s how its meant to be. But its also meant to be with spice – a love… a travel… something that changes… a life that’s not the same day #1 than it is day #245.

    Else one doesn’t see the point of life.

    I’ve resolved to travel. I haven’t had a week off in at least 4 years. But university is so expensive; taking a week off of work… or even an extra few days off – is irresponsible. Fine then – no travel. Being in love would be dandy – but… well that can’t be something one decides. There was a girl. We went out. For 2 years. We kissed. We played around. We did more. Buut she didn’t love me (something which she never expressed while proactively kissing me).

    At one point I thought I had my days off to look forward to. But that ended up being a source of mental torture – for reasons I can’t explain here. Let’s just say that a few people were intent on removing any joy I had of my days off. That reinforced with the fact that physics took all my free time up.

    So that sucks. I’m in a deadlock. I want out. Its my fault though – I’m hindering it somehow. I just don’t know how.

    There is light at the end of the tunnel. My days off should be mine soon. I’ll be able to get projects underway – there’s a few websites I told myself I would do for people. There’s this special thing I’m doing for my mom. But despite that, the days still feel shallow.

  • OPM

    There’s a new feature included with Microsoft’s new OS, codenamed Longhorn. It’s OPM, short for Output Protection Management. It works with a chip fitted inside new monitors.

    So what does that mean? Well, if the industries feeding you [legal] television and movies do not like the monitor you’re watching their content with, they can opt to reduce the quality of their feeds. Supposedly, its to minimize piracy.

    Of course, as all piracy protections go, this too will be easily defeated. Leaving consumers to suffer for the stupid decisisions of corporate heads who understand nothing about what it means to shell out $30 for a DVD; only to find out it won’t play on your computer because the corporate heads are snobby prick bastards. *gasps for air*

    This would all be fine if I payed $30 for a low-quality DVD. But to pay $30 for a high-quality DVD and have the quality purposefully reduced because I chose to buy a certain very suitable monitor? Pshh.

    (more…)

  • Silly Expense of the Month

    Well, I’ve wanted to have one of these HMDs for about 4 years now.
    Finally found one off of eBay for $70. So I went for it.

    My main use for it was to view movies while I was too physically exhausted to keep my head up to watch them on my monitor. The resolution is about 320×240. The same as a standard TV. Right now, it behaves as my 2nd monitor.

    The resolution is low, and it makes font 10 text extremely difficult to read. But for anything bigger: its awesome. Also came with battery pack.

    My new project is to pair it up with the house’s digital camera (which has RCA out), and have it play movies stored on the camera’s review mode (working out .mov formatting – see if I can get a movie on there).

  • More Updates…

    Proxy Back Up:
    After an appropriate sabbatical, the proxy is now back up. Edited content to prevent it from being easily google-mined.

    Hosting Hacknip Radio:
    I am now the host of the front-end (ie. not hosting episodes…) of HackNip Radio. Made the front-end header. Check it out.