Tweet a Twit.

After holding out for the past few months, I finally succumbed (something I seem to be doing a lot of these days) and registered for Twitter today. The main motivation being the ability to say anything, anywhere, in hopefully intelligibly bite-sized portions without the need to compose one's thoughts and write in prose. Mental Diarrhoea if you will.

Registration was fast and painless, an extension of the twittering culture of instantaneous public communication and within 2 mins, Aelgtoer was officially on twitter. Browsing through some twits tweets, it soon became apparent how potentially facile and superficial twitter could be.

Here we have an essentially public SMS service that allows you to broadcast anything, anytime with the knowledge that your friends would be updated on whatever you posted and that anyone else on the net might potentially stumble on your tweet. And let's face it, how often would one have something witty or noteworthy to share? I'd bet it doesn't happen on an hourly basis, let alone every 5 mins unless you're in the Artic being chased by a rabid polar bear in a leopaaard preen outfit that says BOOMZ. In which case maybe you should tweet Riz Low to join you on your Artic amazing race.

So most of the time, people end up posting banal crap like ' Oh had dinner already. Not bad. Going to watch TV now.' or 'Watching the world go by in my underwear.' knowing fully that friends and followers would be kept fully abreast of their every move should they choose so. Not one tweety shriek about bloodsuckers and a horde of mozzies goes unnoticed in the great world wide web.

Given some people's propensity to spew copious amounts of barely intelligible dross on their facebook pages and 'like' comments by the millions just to mark their virtual presence, the transition to twitter, a more viral and public version of the 'phenomenon' that is facebooking, would be like water on a duck's back. The joy at this new found freedom of cyber voyeurism where individuals ironically sacrifice privacy in exchange for the empowerment derived from disclosing knowledge of dubious usefulness at any given time while knowing that people would be forced to read the same, would inevitably lead to an explosion of tweets and frivolous comments.

Like I mentioned to CS, what's to stop anyone from intimately describing their toiletry habits or recounting banal daily events that are an abysmal bore? There isn't. Which is why you find tweets like "Pang sai-ing in toilet.. it's going to be a long day.." It's going to be a longer day for whatever unfortunate soul who has to be updated on your shitting habits at an inconvenient time (say lunch).

So while I do understand the allure of tweeting over blogging, in that it's short, sweet, convenient and something you'd be forcibly updating your followers on (though I can imagine if all you do is to tweet about eating and shitting, you won't have many followers left, I'd be the first to leave for sure); there are times when blogging just cannot be replaced. After all there is a limit to how much you can elucidate in 140 characters and such a spartan mode of expression can be inadequate for conveying certain ideas / rants. Not to mention the fact that you can't really bitch as much as you'd like in a tweet and 1000 tweets do not make a single blog post.

Though you know what they say la, when in Rome do what the Romans do. Now wouldn't you like to know what porn clip I'm wanking off to? *Sweet Smile*

OpenOffice & Weddings

Tired of spending a bomb on all that expensive original software? Open source software, which is becoming increasingly sophisticated, is hassle free and surprisingly stable due in no small part to the fact that anyone can edit the source code, which contributes to its stability. And the best thing, naturally, is that it's free.

I'm a believer after having tried OpenOffice which is the free open source counterpart to the ubiquitous Microsoft Office, its pricy brother which is unfortunately neither free nor perfect. Plus, it's supported by a number of heavyweights in the IT industry like Sun Microsystems and IBM.

So rather then spending a sizeable $200+ on an authentic Microsoft Office or risking one's freedom on a bootleg version, the free, stable OpenOffice with all the similar programs was a very attractive alternative indeed. It comes with a t9 like text input which is still a little surreal but it remains a helpful little bugger.

And on an unrelated note, this delightful piece from Non Sequitur shows just why no one attends a lawyer's wedding. Well except maybe other lawyers.

Geek Speak

It took just 40 mins to settle on the components, one trip to the atm and seven hours later, I bundled a bunch of boxes into the cab (with some help from the store assistant naturally) amidst the torrential rain.

I've always liked fixing up computers, connecting the cables and getting the system booted up and running with the necessary updates. And like any idiot can tell you, the pleasure is immeasurably increased, when it's your computer you're fixing up. And the end result:

$1971 poorer but it's money well spent, considering the specs are much better than what one would get at that price for your average pre-packaged computer. I'm still getting used to the monstrous LCD screen after being so used to a 14.1" laptop screen and the crummy 17" crt monitor for ages. Which is good for porngaming i guess.

I'm glad I went to Fuwell at Funan instead of Sim Lim where I'm told the queues are horrendous and the service leaves much to be desired. Broke but happy, that pretty much sums up my position now. ^^

Computer Specifications:

Intel Quad Core E6600 2.4 Ghz 1066Mhz/8MB L2
Asus P5K P35 LGA775 Motherboard
Kingston 2GB x 2 5300/667mhz DDR2 RAM.
Microsoft Windows Home Vista Premium
Seagate 500GB 7200RPM 32mb SATA II Hard disk
MSI NX8600GT 256MB DDR3 PcI-E video card (Overclock edition)
Samsung 20x DVD +/- writer
Cooler Master elite 332 casing with 12cm fan and side window.
Altec Lansing VS 2321 2.1 Speakers
Samsung 2253LW 21.6" Widescreen LCD
Logitech G1 gaming desktop
Linksys Wireless G compact USB adapter
Cooler Master 460W Extreme Power Plus power supply unit.

Nudité de la vérité

No, I'm not dead...yet. Just a little something called PLC and the slew of assignments and other miscellaneous stuff with tight deadlines. That and the regular breaks taken in between to catch Naruto which I started re-watching again on a whim since I'd stopped at around episode 30 previously, halfway through the Chuunin exams bit. It's certainly been quite gripping, one of the more addictive series since Inuyasha and Bleach. Nothing like some high-octane fuelled action between insanely strong rivals.

Norton Internet Security on the other hand has been a real bitch with the bloody Appsvc32.exe process consuming up to 99% of CPU resources which translates into horrible long loading time for programs and the propensity to get stuck at regular intervals for a minute or two. A quick search on the net showed that this problem is prevalent and I tried a tip or two. Now to see whether it works, if not, it's good riddance to NIS, can't have a single program hogging up 90% of the CPU.

Anyhow, it's back to the grind(for now), and I leave you with this artful piece of prose by Paul Eluard, one of a few poems I think are truly beautiful, even though it may seem strange to describe it as thus. French is such a sensual language.

Nudité de la vérité
«Je le sais bien»
Le désespoir n'a pas d'ailes,
L'amour non plus,
Pas de visage,
Ne parlent pas,
Je ne bouge pas,
Je ne les regarde pas,
Je ne leur parle pas
Mais je suis bien aussi vivant que mon amour
[et que mon désespoir.]

The Nakedness of Truth
(I know it well)
Despair has no wings,
Nor has love,
No countenance:
They do not speak.
I do not stir,
I do not behold them,
I do not speak to them,
But I am as real as my love and my despair.

Paul Eluard
(1895-1952)

Odex Update: The Empire Strikes Back.

The crackdown on illegal anime downloaders continues and shows no sign of abating. If anything, the recent events and today's revelations by Odex's Mr Peter Go are an indication that the Crackdown is in full swing. People breathed a sigh of relief after the initial spate of letters in late May and early June, being under the impression that they were safe from the chopping board, the unlucky few who got 'Odexed', hardcore downloaders that were more 'deserving' of being caught. But it was not to be.

After a brief lull, the dreaded registered mails were back in full force in July, diminishing to nothing towards the middle and end of July then returning like the Plague in the early part of August. And people have still been receiving the letter up till this very day. All the speculation, angst and impotent rage by the anime community, most notably on certain forums like Hardwarezone, with regards to issues like How Odex received the IP addresses from Singnet, Which company Odex hired to track the illegal downloaders, etc; did not go unnoticed.

Theories abounded as to whether Odex's actions were ethical and why it appeared that only Singnet subscribers have been receiving the Letter when there are a considerable number of Downloaders on Starhub and to a much smaller extent, Pacnet. Today's report in The New Paper (08 August 2007, Page 2-3 )about the Crackdown by Odex and the official version of the entire process by the Odex people did shed some light on certain murky issues. The situation however does not look promising for the illegal anime downloaders.

Here's some of the important points to be summarised:

1. Singnet did not release its Subscriber's information voluntarily to Odex. Odex's solicitors, Rajah & Tann, applied for a court order to make Singnet release the information. As per Singnet's spokesman: "...In this particular case, Odex had obtained a court order that required us to release the information to them..." This court order has been confirmed by a couple of Odex-ed individuals who were shown a copy of the court order.

2. Singnet subscribers who illegally downloaded anime on BT are not and will not be the only ones to be Odex-ed. As many members of the community have long suspected, Odex is processing and sending out the letters to the illegal downloaders- one ISP at a time. As Mr Go himself said, "We just haven't finished matching the data from the other ISPs yet. We are not targeting any ISP in particular." So yes, Starhub downloaders won't be exempt for long.

3. Apparently, Odex is contemplating taking legal action if the situation does not improve. Though eliminating illegal downloads is not quite the same as boosting sales of Odex's products but that is another story. And taking legal action would mean "...getting to the point where we will have to raid the homes of those who download illegally..." Which is not funny. At all.

4. This point's not in the TNP report but it's been something that's been observed by the netizens on the forums. The number of episodes for which downloaders have been caught for is shrinking significantly. From the three page appendix of downloaded files back in June, the unlucky recepient of the most recent letter had only downloaded FOUR episodes of Code Geass. How this number constitutes significant as per the Copyright Act is beyond me. Relevant portion of letter attached below.

Everything else that was mentioned like the where the settled sums were going to and the reasons behind Odex's dismal sales should be taken with a pinch of salt. A very very large pinch at that. Other things to take note of which have not been officially verified and I doubt it'd ever be. Still, no harm knowing:

• It has been suggested and appears to be widely agreed upon that the American company tracking the IP addresses of the BT downloaders is BayTSP.


• The illegal downloaders who were Odex-ed so far all appear to be those who have downloaded in batch, be it a batch file (example Episodes 1-4 in a single file) or multiple episodes in one day. The key words here are so far.


• Again all those who have been caught are Bit torrent users or those who downloaded the torrent files. Once again, this is as of now. No guarantees as to the future or form, though it does seem unlikely for now. The ISP issue is a now moot point cause as you heard from the Odex guys, they're processing one ISP at a time. Your ISP will not protect you.

All in all a very dismal situation for whoever downloaded anything (anime) via Bit Torrent or other torrent clients from February 2007 till now. It's that gloom and doom feeling, where the postman is the LAST person you want to see. And if you're still downloading via torrent up till today, good luck and I hope you have your $3,500 (at LEAST) ready.

Cause Odex is in town.

Update: Odex obtains Court order forcing Starhub to reveal subscribers' identities, what's next?

Odex: Anime without a Choice.

I know this might seem a little old but the issues (and problem) remain pertinent and very much alive. I'm referring to the recent shockwaves sent through the Singaporean anime community when Odex, a local company that releases licensed anime, started sending out letters to people who download fansubs of the licensed anime that they produce. Letters that threaten legal action unless the person to whom the letter was addressed chooses to settle the matter for a sum of money. This matter was also reported in the local newspapers.

The impact of course was immediate and intense. From the unilateral outrage expressed by the anime fan community, which incidentally comprises a far larger strata than the hardcore otakus, to the horror, shock and dismay of the unlucky few who were the targets of the aforementioned letters. The shock and trauma of receiving a letter that threatens legal action and explicitly highlights the applicable penalty for the offence (either a hefty fine or imprisonment) cannot be understated, especially for the layman.

So much so that some like Shi Hao, a former otaku, have been so shaken by the experience that they've given up on anime altogether. The current general mood of the community can basically be described as ranging from trepidation, the more casual, kiasee ones preferring to lie low for now to indifferent defiance by the more hardcore and tech-saavy members of the community. And of course the unanimous hostility towards Odex and all its products.

Before I continue, let me make this clear. The legal position is very clear. Fansubbing despite the reasons given remains illegal: copyright infringements of the original Japanese anime. Downloading copyright infringing material is an extension of copyright infringement. By purchasing the licensing rights from the Japanese companies, Odex is legally entitled to enforce its copyrights on behalf of the Jap companies with regards to the licensed anime.

That said and done, there's always the Right thing to do and there's always what a lot of people do. And fan subbing has been something that has been going on for a long time. Plus let's face it, a lot of anime fans only became fans because they started out watching the fan subs of a certain anime series and fell in love with it. You'd be hard-pressed to find a fan who became one because he/she simply walked into your local video store and decided to buy the VCDs/DVDs of a certain anime series on a whim.

They want to see if it's good before they're willing to part with their money. Fan subbing helped to generate exposure and interest in the various anime series and fans responded accordingly, whether by buying the actual series or purchasing the anime-related licensed paraphernalia. Now while Odex has the legal right to do what they did, I seriously doubt their actions would improve sales of their licensed anime.

Firstly, because their actions have evoked a serious backlash in the community. Incensed by their actions, anime fans have sworn never, ever to buy a single Odex product. This also extends to those currently too fearful to download. The rejection is unanimous.

Secondly, the quality of Odex products is deemed by the community to be lamentable. The resolution and subs lagging far behind those of the free fansubs and the price, exorbitant. As Maverick aptly noted:

"Well, let’s see, ODEX basically has almost monopolized the distribution of anime in Singapore, so we kinda have no choice but to go to their goods. But what do they do in return? Lousy resolution/quality, seriously bad dubbings (though they’re in dual-sound), and exorbitant prices. How exorbitant, you say? Let’s see, S$29.90 for a vcd box…which contains only around ~10 episodes. That’s like $3 for an episode. Is it worth the money then? The resolution is so bad, you dun wanna maximise to full-screen when watching them on your computer. The dubbing, the hell, you would RUSH to set the audio to the original Japanese before the characters start to speak."

Put these two together and you will understand why fans are (understandably) incensed. Arm-twisting tactics are unpleasant enough but throw into the equation inferior products that are highly priced and one can see why anime fans aren't thrilled with Odex. Free, High quality Subs vs Expensive, Inferior videos. Not much of a choice there.

Anyhow, just a few points to note on the whole saga:

First, there appears to be a common trend. Those who were caught were using Bittorrent or a torrent client to download. And the ISP provider was Singnet, which means it gave the logs willingly. Like some of the more tech savvy members of the community explained, bit torrent downloads are easily traceable given that your IP address is recorded once you start downloading the torrent and anyone accessing the torrent would be able to record your IP address.
Darkonlore gives a good explanation:

"How are they doing it?We(referring to the anime community) has noticed that the ones caught are all using bittorrent. This is due to the fact that each bittorrent client keeps info of who it is connected to (IPs), and is easily accessible by anyone who use the same .torrent file. There are also trackers that would list the IPs of users who are currently connected to it. So just take down the SG IPs and ask the ISPs for their info. Encryption of data in that aspect is pointless.

I do not think it is feasible for the ISPs to do an exhuastive search of everything downloaded by all their users, and since it would turn into an international affair if AVPAS requests logs from http servers that hosted the tracker/torrent file, using less well known sources might still be possible. "

And like he so astutely pointed out, http servers or other less well known sources are still possible/safe and hence are in all likelihood still used. Bittorrent bad, less well known sources good.

Second, some of the more common series and files targeted based on the letters sent out (See Darkmirage & Shi hao) are Code Geass, Bleach, D Gray Man, Tsubasa Chronicles (Season 1), Inuyasha and One Piece. Again all the files were torrent files. For the full list of licensed titles, check out AVPAS's webpage.

Third, be smart. I think enough has been said on this and indeed expounded on by numerous members in the community. It all comes down to knowing what to do and what not to do. For example using bittorrent and downloading massive amounts of torrent files at one sitting is not something anyone should do.

Lastly, if there's one thing everyone agrees on, it's as Shi Hao said on his blog:

"BUT STILL. I NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER WILL BUY ANY PRODUCTS FROM ODEX."

Yeah, neither will I. Tough luck, Odex.

Update: The crackdown continues, Odex sheds some light on the issues surrounding the saga.

Watch that Code!!! Stats that Spy & other spyware.

Alright, this might be old news to some. But still it's always good to take some precautions. And be sure to junk that stats provider which surreptitiously plants tracking cookies aka spyware into your blog/site via the code. Recently, Stat Counter made news when it announced that it had rejected big bucks from advertisers who wanted to implant a spyware cookie into the Stat Counter tracking code. The shocking news was that another well known stats service provider had agreed and allows spyware cookies to be implanted into its tracking code which affects all its members' websites.

This popular stats provider, SiteMeter, has an implanted spyware cookie in its code called specificclick that 'tracks browsing activity.' Which as Laura Scott's very informative post on the same subject matter puts aptly: Such activity seems harmless enough until you realise that 'it's tracking all browsing activity, not just clicks on that site where the cookie is set. Meaning they know where you bank, what discussion forums you visit, what, ahem, other websites you might be viewing on the sly.'

Not to mention the fact that such irritating spyware cookies bog down the loading time of affected pages (with the code) and are responsible for all those irritating pop up ads that sometimes even supplant the main tabbed web page you happen to be viewing at the moment.

As Laura's testing showed, the SiteMeter code implants the specificclick cookie while thankfully StatCounter remains clean and true to its claim: one single cookie, which they use to track behaviour on your site and nowhere else. And naturally, I just had to confirm the findings for myself. It's easy, just clear your browser of all cookies and go to a site first with StatCounter, (ie this Blog) and check the cookie left behind. Sure enough, there was only one cookie left by statcounter.

A soujourn to another site with SiteMeter as the stat counter tracker (ie: jon's blog) left both the SiteMeter cookie as well as the specificclick spyware cookie behind; real life confirmation of the insidiuous nature of hidden spyware implanted into innocuous looking stat tracking code. ClustrMaps, that popular tracker that provides free code which reflects hits on a thumbnail sized global map has also publicly announced that it is free of all spyware and cookies which it guarantees. A quick self-check with the above mentioned method proved good their claim.

Which means for now, SiteMeter needs to fix its shit or it'll continue losing its members. No one likes having spyware supplied in code which they upload onto their site without knowing. Spyware cookies that are an invasion of privacy (collecting info on all your surfing habits, annoying pop up ads and slowing down page loads afflicted by such cookies,etc). Like Laura, I'm just glad I stuck with StatCounter and ClustrMaps, good clean stats without hidden shit.

SiteMeter though isn't the only site one should worry about (though as a stats service 'provider', anyone not interested in spyware would do well to stay clear of them), download/file sharing websites that allow you to download and upload files to share with friends can be just as nasty and virulent. Some like Gigasize add other spyware cookies like adbrite in addition to their own cookie which results in EXTREMELY annoying pop up ads- the kind Norton Internet Security will NOT protect you against. Trust me.

Others like TurboUpload don't implant the spyware cookies directly, it's when you click on the download link (and you're not fast enough- it's about a 3 second time frame), the resultant pop-up pages are the ones that implant the spyware cookies. Once in a while you get a particularly nasty pop-up that even tries to implant a trojan virus, usually Trojan.Anicmoo (Which Norton Internet Security DOES protect against and block/remove). And if you don't have a decent, updated Antivirus program, well you'll never really know what hit you.

Certain free host domains also pose a threat and implant spyware cookies the moment you enter the site. There are a number but a common one and the one I've personally encountered are those with websites ending with the 'cjb.net' domain. Example: WebsiteName.cjb.net. Again the adbrite spyware cookie is implanted by the domain host and we all know what happens from there onwards. Slow page loads, irritating pop up ads and that terrible invasion of privacy.

Unfortunately, short of not using the code (ie: SiteMeter) and not visiting suspect websites, there is not much one can really do to prevent such spyware cookies as once you visit a page with the implanted spyware cookie, you'll be hit. And in SiteMeter's case, it's often hard/impossible to know if a website has the said stat tracker embedded especially if it's invisible. One solution which only works for blogs is to subscribe to the rss feed which is then free from cookies but it also means you lose out on the miscellaneous stuff like tagboards and music playlists.

Cultivating the habit of clearing ones internet cache of cookies and Temporary Internet files is still the best defense. (At least once a week, I'd recommend every other day but that's just me.) For IE users, it's found under Options in your Tools drag down bar. And soon you'll realise how much more enjoyable surfing the net is; minus irritating pop up ads, slow page loads and with that peace of mind that what you're surfing remains private.
Hope this helps, happy surfing!