23 June, 2008

This is Why piracy is rampant :

I have heard the DMC (Digital Millennium Copyright) act didn't get on well with the pirates of cyberspace. Piracy is rampant through out the world right now, and worse, people don't even know they are involved. People think that there are no "legitimate" softwares and that every copy of windows comes for free. Maybe in western countries such as the United States, there is an awareness and a prosecution to take care of extreme cases, but in eastern countries such as India, Malaysiya, and pakistan, there are absolutely No anti piracy laws in place. This ensures that cybercrime is limited to duping people as in siphoning off funds from others' bank accounts. Its only such activities that are considered a crime. Piracy?? hell, even government employees use pirated software/operating systems, because the government outsources the work to private companies, and they being private companies would want to save a few bucks here and there, and would install the same copy of the OS on multiple systems with the same product key. Unless its an open source OS, ( A rare case these days, cause everyone is addicted to WINDOWS) its a crime. Even crime cells use the same method.

Adding to that is the notion that being bad is actually good! Yes, its like going up to ones' girlfriend and telling her you robbed a bank, in which case she would try to get away from you as soon as possible, and report to the police and later testify against you in court or whatever. But this is different. When you tell somebody you are into software piracy, the listener actually starts looking upto you, as if you are some uber geek persona. So, there are a lot of posers out there, and some really talented programmers who are on the wrong side. Some of them that are noticeable are :

> CORE : Challenge of reverse engineering

These guys are living legends. These guys came to the scene at a time when reverse engineering was the field of uber geeks, thats not to say these guys aren't!

> Deviance

Another group which is very good at releasing cracked unreleased games! Yes, sometimes you will find a game on the pirate bay that you haven't ever heard of. You try to get a proper review of the game before downloading it, but Google doesn't seem to have a clue! You download the game, and the next month when youre watching TV, this games' trailer is being shown! WTF?!

> Dopeman

Does this guy need an introduction? If you are a regular to the bay, you'll know him!

> AxxO

An article on piracy is never complete without a mention of this guys' name. Another living legend in the movie piracy circuit.
I personally dont blame people for downloading crap off the internet, but I really do encourage them to pay for the software they use, maybe its a small amount, but developers need it to continue their work... Atleast thats MY perspective!!

This is Why piracy is rampant :

I have heard the DMC (Digital Millenium Copyright) act didnt get on well with the pirates of cyberspace. Piracy is rampant throught the world right now, and worse, people dont even know they are involved. People think that there are no "legitimate" softwares and that every copy of windows comes for free. Maybe in western countries such as the United States, there is an awareness and a prosecution to take care of extreme cases, but in eastern countries such as India, Malaysiya, and pakistan, there are absolutely No anti piracy laws in place. This ensures that cybercrime is limited to duping people as in siphoning off funds from others' bank accounts. Its only such activities that are considered a crime. Piracy?? hell, even government employees use pirated software/operating systems, because the government outsources the work to private companies, and they being private companies would want to save a few bucks here and there, and would install the same copy of the OS on multiple systems with the same product key. Unless its an open source OS, ( A rare case these days, cause everyone is addicted to WINDOWS) its a crime. Even crime cells use the same method.

Adding to that is the notion that being bad is actually good! Yes, its like going up to ones' girlfriend and telling her you robbed a bank, in which case she would try to get away from you as soon as possible, and report to the police and later testify against you in court or whatever. But this is different. When you tell somebody you are into software piracy, the listener actually starts looking upto you, as if you are some uber geek persona. So, there are a lot of posers out there, and some really talented programmers who are on the wrong side. Some of them that are noticable are :

> CORE : Challenge of reverse engineering

These guys are living legends. These guys came to the scene at a time when reverse engineering was the field of uber geeks, thats not to say these guys arent!

> Deviance

Another group which is very good at releasing cracked unreleased games! Yes, sometimes you will find a game on the pirate bay that you havent ever heard of. You try to get a proper review of the game before downloading it, but Google doesnt seem to have a clue! You download the game, and the next month when youre watching TV, this games' trailer is being shown! WTF?!

> Dopeman

Does this guy need an introduction? If you are a regular to the bay, you'll know him!

> AxxO

An article on piracy is never complete without a mention of this guys' name. Another living legend in the movie piracy circuit.
I personally dont blame people for downloading crap off the internet, but I really do encourage them to pay for the software they use, maybe its a small amount, but developers need it to continue their work... Atleast thats MY perspective!!

Got a dial-up? Listen to internet radio

Ive got a dialup and am experiencing speeds that are right next to pathetic. Now , what do I do for entertainment? I listen to internet radio!

I had a broadband all these days, and I used to download movies, and songs during happy hours. I had a download limit of 2.5 gb per month. I recently shifted to a place where the telephone company didn't have land line connections.

I went in for a wireless telephone with a built in modem. And believe me, it was well worth the effort. For about 5.29 dollars /250 Indian rupees, I get unlimited download, and now what do I do with it? Its too slow for downloading movies, and itll probably take ages.

I hit upon this software called "boombox". Its a handy piece of software that has a listing of all major internet radio stations. There are various genres to choose from including comedy and 80's. I found the software to be very versatile. Although the software doesnt have a built in player, it can utilize your default player such as windows media player or winamp. Whats more, you can even select the bit rate to be sure you can play it with relatively fast buffering.

24 - 32 kbps radio has ought to serve the purpose.

As I do not have a download limit, this just manages to keep me entertained all day long.

One of my favorite radio stations is "Social Crime"

Im going freelance!

Finally, I found myself a means of income, that doesnt involve working for somebody, who is always breathing down your neck. Yes, Im talking about freelancing. Its the newest buzz on the internet. Maybe you should try it to supplement your income, or better yet, make it your sole means of income!

How it works :

> Firstly, you need to get yourself an account on any of the freelancing sites such as

Elance [ Pretty good, has been in the field for a while ]

workbuggy [ Extensive ! ]

freelanceswitch [ Good... ]

There are many others, that are better, but these are my favorites.

>Secondly, start trolling for projects on these sites. Generally, they offer a limited amount of "credits", or "connects" to get you started. These are the tokens that you can use to "bid" on projects. Bidding is a process wherein you, the "provider" are going to "quote" a price for a project that interests you. Make sure you quote the lowest price, so that you get the project. Once you get a hold of things, you can quote higher prices.

>Thirdly, start building projects after deciding the means of payment. And remember, the more money you spend on memberships, the better your earnings will be. The site will start listing your name in premium categories, so that customers will be able to easily get in touch with you.

It amazes me that people/companies are willing to spend upto $500 - $1000 for a simple web page project. NO dynamic pages, NO complicated flash, for just pure HTML and a couple of images, that they will provide you.

Well, Im off to freelancing, until I can find myself a suitable job. Im considering it an important career option.