.mrt memo

Seems like Canada has the first reasonable big TV network, at least in North America, that is beginning to offer TV shows via BitTorrent. DRM free, simple torrents! “The show will be completely free (and legal) for you to download, share & burn to your heart’s desire.” Funny I don’t see Creative Common Licence attached anywhere near. I guess that would have been too much to ask. One step at a time.

The show’s “Canada’s Next Great Prime Minister“. Downloads via MiniNova.org. The show has it’s own channel on Youtube. For example watch the last year’s finale. But some videos are not available outside the Canada. Like this.

Now of course, if you’re not canadian, as me, then you’d go “Canada’s Next whadda wha?”, but is seems the show within Canadian borders is a hit, with as many viewers tuning in as an episode of House. (.oO how badass would it be to get legal episodes of House like that .. I love House MD.)

Info via various sources, among them Michael Geist, an Ottawa-based advocate of open sharing over the internet. There seems to be somekind of problem with Canadian ISP’s who are restricting torrent traffic in their networks, so basically the irony might very well be true.

“It would be ironic if ISP network management practices ensured that viewers outside the country enjoyed better access to the program than the Canadian taxpayers who helped fund its creation,” Michael Geist wrote in his blog.

More articles:

Guinevere Orvis at last100.com - Inside story: the making of a legal TV ‘torrent’.
Daniel Langendorf at last100.com - They’re not lying: CBC to release TV show for download, free, legal, and via BitTorrent
Cory Doctorow at BoingBoing.net - How CBC torrented a TV show

The people who make Onion happen are ingenious. The dripping sarcasm always refreshes me when I see those clips.

Anonymous Hero Donates Hospital 200 Human Kidneys - They left a note in the bag that indicated that they might be making
more additional donations in the future (the same time a bloody letter
is shown “This is only the beginning!!!”).
Multiple Stab Wounds May Be Harmful To Monkeys - test group of 300 monkeys was stabbed with sharp edged objects.
Diebold Accidentally Leaks Results Of 08 Election - From now on we at Diebold will properly see to it that our illusion of democracy is properly guarded.
Concentric Circles Emanating From Glowing Red Dot - a series of concentric red circles have begun emanating from this glowing red dot in the big blue area over my left shoulder.
Kim Jong-Il’s Approval Rating Plummets to 120% - from 150%.
Ninja Parade Slips Through Town Unnoticed Once Again - A record crowd 3,000 people came out to not see the ninjas

Found a fun post about estonians from Kaur’s web (he found it from another site which he also links, but the link isn’t working anymore):

1. You use the word ‘normal’ if something is ok.
2. When visiting friends abroad you bring along a box of Kalev chocolate.
3. You attended a song festival at least once either as a performer or as a spectator.
4. You know that going to the sauna is 80% about networking and 20% about washing

5. You are nationalistic about Skype (it is actually an Estonian company)

6. ‘Kohuke’ belongs to your menu

7. You declare your taxes on the internet like all modern people
8. You actually believed for a while that Latvians had 6 toes per foot when you heard that as a child

9. You are convinced that Estonia is very strategically located
10. You spent at least one midsummer in Saaremaa, Hiiumaa or one of the smaller islands

11. You can quote films like “Viimne reliikvia” and “Siin me oleme”
12. You spit three times around your left shoulder for good luck
13. Words like “veoauto”, “täieõiguslik” or “jää-äär” sound perfectly pronouncable to you
14. You like bold statements, such as this one…

15. There can never be too much sarcasm
16. You can at times drink hot tea to hot food
17. You are disappointed that Jaan Kross never got the Nobel prize in literature
18. It would not be suprising for English-speakers to find your name
naughty (Peep, Tiit, Andres [sounds like undress]) or hippy (Rein, Rain)
19. You have been to Finland
20. You say ‘Noh’ (sounds like NO) even when you speak English, just to confuse people
21. You know the lyrics to “Mutionu” and “Rongisõit”
22. You would never mistaken Kreisiraadio for a radio station
23. You would agree that wife-carrying is a real sport (at least as long as Estonians are winning)
24. Your best friend’s girlfriend is your English teacher’s daughter
and they live next door to your grandparents, who were colleagues with
your advisor, who is friends with your…

25. You think that any beverage below 20% is non-alcoholic
26. You check the thermometer before going out

27. You look in both directions before crossing the road, even if it’s a one-way street
28. You grin very mysteriously when people ask about your national food

29. You teach a non-Estonian speaker the word “Tänan” before “Aitäh”
30. You put ketchup inside your pasta (french-cooked gourmet faire la
fine manger pasta) in order to not to get the ketchup-bowl dirty
31. You cheated on your wife/husband at least ten times but you still think you’re in a good marriage.

32. When someone asks you “where is Estonia?” you quickly reply that it’s located in Northern Europe close to Finland…
33. Your grandmother’s “purse” is an old plastic bag that has been reused several times
34. Sour cream tastes good with everything

35. A foreigner speaks to you in broken horrible Estonian and you go on
and on about how wonderful their Estonian is compared to “the Russians’”
36. You have ever worn or seen anyone wear “karupüksid”
37. You have heard the phrase “Estonians are slow” at least once
38. Kui sa saad aru, mis siia kirjutatud on

39. You find yourself continually ignoring the gender in other languages
40. You say ‘kurat’ as at least every second word
41. You consider running to the shop at 19.50 on Friday evening to buy some booze, a sport
42. You are a true Estonian when you come from Tallinn, because if you
are from Tallinn you think Tallinn IS Estonia and that’s true of course
that Tallinn is Estonia
43. When someone says “Estonians are so beautiful” you answer almost without emotions “I know”
44. You have tried to explain people that “kauboi” is actually a word in Estonian

45. You don’t think that terviSEKS is a funny word
46. You don’t find the Estonian equivalent to the expressions “twelve months”, “1002″ and “12 buses” remotely funny
47. Even though you never met Toots, Teele and Kiir you know exact what they are like

48. You grin when someone you know says that they bought a BMW
49. You know how to end the sentence “Kui Arno isaga koolimajja jõudis…”

Kirjatsura on tänuväärselt kinni püüdnud ühe uudisvärdsõna - “lomm”. Tegu olla uue “härrasmeeste ajakirja” nimega, mis tuleb prantsuse keelest “l’homme” ehk siis maakeeli “mees”. Mingid ajukääbused on selle muutnud “eestipärasemaks”.
Arvan, et võtan kuulda Kirjatsura soovitust ning lähen putkasse oma Lommi nõudma.
Loe täpsemalt.

$ lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description:    Ubuntu 7.10
Release:        7.10
Codename:       gutsy

As you can see, it also mentions that annoying codename that I keep forgetting. Now I’ll hope I’ll remember that command.

Aegmaha.com kirjutab viiest pullist asjast, mida inimene ei suutvat teha. Proovigu igaüks ise järele. Panen artikli ka täies mahus memmo.

Novaator toob ära viis asja, millega tavalised inimesed oma kehaga teha
ei suuda, kuigi loogiliselt mõeldes peaks see võimalik olema.

1. Oma küünarnuki keelega puudutamine on võimatu. Siiski leidub
maailmas küllalt hakkajaid inimesi, kelle keel ulatub imekombel
küünarnukini.

2. Avatud silmadega aevastamine on võimatu. Kuna
aevastamise ajal saadab ajus asuv „aevastamiskeskus” koordineeritud
motoorseid impulsse kõhtu, rinda, diafragmat, kaela ja silmalauge
kontrollivatesse lihastesse ning ka erinevatesse sulgurlihastesse,
süljenäärmetesse ning nina veresoontesse. See kõik toimub automaatselt
ega allu inimese kontrollile.

3. Iseenda kõditamine ei mõju. Londoni ülikooli
kognitiivse neuroteaduse teadlane Sarah-Jayne Blakemore selgitas, et
põhjus seisneb meie väikeajus, mis on kaasatud liigutuste jälgimisse.
Väikeaju suudab ette ennustada meie enda käte liikumist, kuid mitte
teiste inimeste käte liikumist. Kui inimene püüab iseennast kõditada,
ennustab väikeaju tekkivat tunnet ette ning sellega katkestatakse
teiste aju osade reageerimine kõditamisele.

4. Halvatud sõrme trikk-keera peopesa
alla ja aseta kõik oma ühe käe sõrmed lauale. Nüüd tõsta oma peopesa
üles, nii et käsi toetub näpuotstele. Keskmine sõrm aga painuta peopesa
poole. Proovi nüüd tõsta oma pöialt, nimetissõrme ja väikest sõrme.
Lihtne? Nüüd tõsta oma sõrmusesõrme. Kahjuks see pole võimalik.Miks?
Kõikide sõrmede kõõlused on üksteisest sõltumatud, välja arvatud
keskmise sõrme ja sõrmusesõrme kõõlused. Seega, kui su keskmine sõrm on
painutatud, ei saa sa oma sõrmusesõrme liigutada.

5.Number kuute joonistada ja samal ajal jalaga päripäeva ringe teha on võimatu.Proovi
ise: tõsta toolil istudes oma parem jalg üles ning tee sellega
päripäeva ringe. Samal ajal joonista oma parema käega number kuut. Sa
ei saa midagi parata, kuid su jalg muudab suunda. Sama kehtib ka siis,
kui teed jalaga vastupäeva ringe ning püüad joonistada number kaheksat.

Ironic Sans presents an idea - The Bulbdial Clock.
It’s not the hands that move on the clock, but the lamps. The minus is it’s size and the weakness with bright light.
But I think that it could be very cool in the ceiling of ones apartment. Lightning, cool design and witty clock in one.

I read some tech news and found some great ones.

“Seagate may sue if SSD gets popular” - typical corporate legal BS. So Intel and Samsung have reached to 64GB with their SSD-drives and now they begin to resemble HDDs. They may kill Seagate’s business and what you do about that. You try to get some money from that newcomer as the new technology may kill your old one. Great job, Seagate!

Smaller and faster supercomputers by replacing wires with lasers. That’s the new project Sun is working and DARPA is financing. Fancy idea.

So nowdays probably the most significant gadget new wave seems to be “ultra mobile” little laptops which run Linux. Asus Eee PC and OLPC are just some of the examples. Now another one enters the battle for the consumers wallet. I hope Acer, Asus and all the others do well, because then we can perhaps get super-duper small laptops really cheap. It’s another “cheaper, better, faster..” news.

Oh and while I’m at it, Fujitsu contributes a 7200rpm 320GB 2,5 inch HDD. Thats great, but SSD is only 3 iterations away from there (64GB -> 128GB -> 256 GB -> 512GB). Well, unless Seagate sues their ass and they will have to pay humongous amounts of money and SSD will never get off the ground.

Those news almost make me feel that there is some hope yet and we can have cheap ubiquitous tech somewhere in the near future. Or they are very good at conjuring the illusion of advancement.

Via XKCD.com #399

OpenOffice.org Ninja has a little overview of the upcoming OOo 3.0.

Perhaps the most important new feature would be Office Open XML file support (.docx, .pptx, .xlsx) and the possibility to IMPORT standard PDF files. I think the latter will be a nice addition to OOo’s killer-features.