I came across a bulletin board in Chinese just now. Maybe this is something only I do, but I always try to find out what php software the forum is using. In this case, it was Invision Power Board v2.1.0. I immediately remembered that this version of IPB requires a commercial license. But ah-ha, this was in Chinese, which does not come close to the US (or wherever IPB is based) federal laws.
The idea of distributing software without licenses seems to be legal in China and some other countries that still haven’t fully developed a law for intellectual rights. In China, no body (government, company, or individual) could care less about these pirated properties – simply because there is just too much to manage and there is no official law yet. But if I set up a website (in Chinese) using pirated software on a server in China from my home (in Canada), am I violating the Canadian laws against pirated software?
Now if this was not against any current written law, then I could see a whole new world of legally distributed illegal software…
As of now, my site is linked from Macromedia! I have won the People’s Choice Award for Macromedia’s Student Innovation Award!
Congrats to the other winners. Now I’m just waiting for my lovely iPod!
Now arises the problem of switching this 3rd generation 15GB iPod, which is the one I won, to the newest one. Speaking of which, I hear the 5th generation iPod is coming out this winter, probably with video support. I’ll wait for that. But where would be the best place for selling a brand-new 3rd generation iPod still in the plastic seal? Ebay totally devalues everything being auctioned off there. Would any store be willing to buy it back?
Opera browser is now free with the release of version 8.5 (not much change from 8.02 actually). Anybody can now download the free-of-ads program.
Give it a try! If you’ve always thought ads were the stupidest thing – now Opera is the right browser for you! I converted two people over to Opera today, and I’m willing to do more of that!
If you are a Firefox/IE user and think Opera is dumb, please feel free to comment why, and I’ll glady rebut it with a logical and very reasonable statement. I’ll also update this post as the features of each browser and the advantages of Opera are brought out. And yes this would be for Windows only.
Reasons to use Opera over any other browser
- It does not hog memory at all, unlike Firefox and IE.
- No lag when 20 tabs are open.
- Many settings and configurations. While it may take a bit of time figuring out the browser’s look, Opera can be customized to any way you want it to be. Eg: dragging links to toolbars and panels, creating your own buttons and panels, etc.
- Renders CSS quickly.
Eat loads and loads of moon cakes and you’ll be rich within the next 48 hours.
That’s why I bought 2 backpacks full of these when I was in China this summer. Actually the reason is because they were cheap – cheaper than they are in Canada. The average moon cake in China costs 4 YMB, which converts to about $0.50 CDN. Now if you went to any of the stores here now, each moon cake costs at least $5.00. Why must you overcharge? Cause it’s monopoly in Canada and it works.
There are 2 (legal) moon cake factories in Vancouver. They make their own moon cakes instead of importing because it gives them an excuse to rip people off. I haven’t even finished one tenth of the moon cakes I have. I should start selling these. Care for one?
Flash 8 was released today and its trial has been made available.
What’s not obvious to most people is that along with this release came 6 hidden flash games within the application.
If you proceed to click Help -> About, you will see this pop up.
If you click on the dot on top of the i of Macromedia (might need a few clicks to get exactly on the pixel)…
…you will be greeted with this hidden screen.
Have fun with these games!
This is still a mystery to me. Does anyone have a cure for this?
I have a set of Sony in-ear earbuds that go behind the neck. Everytime I curl it up into a little ball and put it in my pocket, it wraps around itself over and over magically just to annoy me. The next time I pull them out, I have to spend five minutes trying to split the messed up wire. How can this be prevented? Any (small) tool or trick?
As if three wasn’t too many already.
- Windows Vista Starter Edition
- Windows Vista Home Basic Edition
- Windows Vista Home Premium Edition
- Windows Vista Professional Edition
- Windows Vista Small Business Edition
- Windows Vista Enterprise Edition
- Windows Vista Ultimate Edition
Via WindowsITPro
I find this absolutely hilarious and fascinating.
Mint, a php-based web-stats application released recently, received a lot of encouraging comments. If you know about this new hype around it, you might have noticed that all the “elite” accessibility designers (Shaun Inman, Mike Davidson, etc) have been using Mint for quite a while now, creating a private group that outsiders want to get in badly. After this little program was released, many people congraduated Shaun Inman (the maker of Mint) on the greatest creation on the web.
Now this kid pops up and throws out some undeniably true statements about Mint. Read the comments – see how so many members of that elite group put out come-backs as if that blog entry was directed towards them? Jacob, owner of BloggingPro, steps in and takes the stand of the innocent kid who is being bombarded with all the ugly crap.
It’s like in 1998, when the few oddities who discovered the brilliance of Macs and became the center of the blaming and insults.
Today I went to get a book for a programming language class. For some obscure reason, all the books and course materials (custom paper binding booklets made by professors) cost about twice as much as the other books.
I picked out one of the books that had a “USED” sticker on the back of it. I thought this might be cheaper. It was cheaper – $5 off a $80 book. And if you sell this book back to the bookstore, you get $20-30 for it. If the bookstore keeps on doing this scandalous business, it gets $60 for each book – pure profit. Where oh where is the justice.