Entries from February 2007 ↓

The popular torrent sharing site, BitTorrent recently launched an online entertainment store where in users can pay and download their favorite content.

Here are my views:

Flawed Concept
Just imagine this. I download a movie for which I payed. Now why should I pay for sharing? The true spirit of BitTorrent is to share. Why would I pay for the upload bandwidth? With the money that we spend on the movie, and the Bandwidth it’s expensive. It’s a flawed concept which wont survive for long. I’ll be paying for the media, downloading what I’ve paid for, I really don’t want to have to stick around and contribute to something I’ve finished paying for paying again for my bandwidth.

Don’t stuff us with DRM shit
Pay or DRM or get better things for free. Does it need rocket science for anyone to identify which is better? None of the pay services will ever again be able to compete with piracy until they offer high-quality, DRM-free files. Why would anyone pay for DRM’ed trial movies when they could get it for free off a torrent site.

It’s expensive
Who will want to pay $4 ($3 for old movies) for a movie on rent? I get better deal for free. I get 1024p HD Movies, 5.1/7.1 AC3 sound rips, high quality stuffs and choice of scene groups!

TV shows are even expensive. $2 for a single episode? Considering that we have 23 episodes in a season, it must cost you $46 for a season and the DVD (Prison Break Season one) at Amazon costs around $24!!

Less Peers - Maybe slow speeds
Superman Returns has 6 seeders and one leechers! That movie is in the home page and it’s a pretty recent movie and added to that it was a hit as well. If that is the state for Superman, then imagine about the state of other movies! BitTorrent is all about sharing. It would be interesting to see how they can pull this thing off when the files have less than 10 peers!

Many ISPs bottleneck bit torrent traffic. Then it’s slow and useless for sure.

Too much restrictions
The terms and conditions are so heavy that it’s almost makes you not use their service. Check this out: “You may watch this on one computer. You have 30 days from the transaction to download the file and 24 hours to watch it after you first click play“. Files are all Windows Media format, (with DRM). Mac, iPod and Linux users are left in lurch. Will it make you use it?

Even if you want to pay, you have the option of Credit Card paying only! An Online service without PayPal!

Whom are they trying to fool?
This thing would be ideal for crowd who fall in the following category:

- who pay for movies (either rentals, pay channels, DTH, buy DVDs) other than go to the Cinemas.
- who don’t know that we get stuufs that’re so fast that it’s 5-6 weeks before the retail.
- spend thousands on a laptop for the sake of an apple or “Vaio” embossed on it.
- contribute fuck loads of money to the MPAA, RIAA and any anti-piracy site who spouts rhetoric about creating a piracy-utopia that’ll never exist.
- who think iTunes online store is ‘cool’.

Too sum up: Why would I want to pay and suffer? For $10 or less, I can rent half a dozen movies and I can watch it in my girlfriend’s place. Pay and use Bittorrent is for noobies who don’t know how to get better things for free.

Life is lot more cooler after I’ve started to use RSS feeds. I think I spend more time browsing in Google Reader than any other site these days!

I’ve subscribed to 46 feeds and it’s down by 10-15%. I was spending too much reading the feeds rather than doing something worthwhile. I don’t mind reading quality contents, but now this net has become crowded and there’s more and more clutter.

This post will guide you as to how you can be productive with your feeds, save time and get productive with your RSS Feeds.

Continue reading →

I have changed and edited the look and the feel of my sidebar. All this changes, I thought I will incorporate when I change over to the new theme, but looks that it will take time. So without looking for any excuses, I sat over and did some changes this evening.

These are the highlights:

Continue reading →

Eklavya is a movie which I wanted to see eagerly. I liked the Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s Munnabhai Sequel movie. The star cast was impressive. I had high expectation.

I didn’t know that the movie was releasing at this point of time, as I didn’t see any posters, ads or any kind of promotion. When my friend suggested we go to this movie on yesterday, it came as a sweet surprise. The seats weren’t available for the evening show, so we settled for the night show at 10:15 PM.

This time we wanted to go to Cine City at the Al Ghurair City. Earlier we had already been to Cinemas atAl Ghurair City and at Ajman Citi Centre.

My Impressions
Let me get into my impression on the movie.. I didn’t like it. The movie was slow and had a sombre (but the ending which was uplifting). Don’t get me wrong. There’s hardly any flaws, no unwanted naach-ganna, no unwanted hero-bashing-villains scenes, not lengthy, great acting by the actors, good cinematography, great direction and all that jazz.

But somehow I didn’t like it! The movie didn’t have substance. No great story nor screenplay. It was all about vengeance.

The acting was good. All the lead actors are pros and do the best what they’re doing. I dunno, I liked Sanjay Dutt (Munnabhai forever!), Vidya Balan (shes’ fresh and gorgeous) and Saif Ali Khan in this movie. Others also acted well. Sanjay Dutt stood apart. Now this performance made me wait for Munnabhai Chale Amerika! Became a huge fan of him now!

Excellent Cinematography
I just have two words to sum up the cinematography in this movie: Simply Superb! The lightings (the palaces look stunning in nights), the colors (such colors!), costumes were good to watch.

The locales and the area where the movie was shot was stunning. The locales in Rajasthan, the palaces, all are good to see and an treat to watch. The photogrpahy and the cinematography is par excellence. The scene where Amitabh shows off his skills is perfectly shot. I must say that it’s one of the best cinematography that I have seen in a Bollywood.

‘One time watch’ or is it?
I don’t know why I didn’t like this movie as much. I must admit thats it’s one of the ‘finest’ and ‘class’ movie that I have seen from Bollywood. But still we can watch movie for the class only. There must be some substance in it.Anyway it’s not that bad also…definitely not bad than branding it less than a ‘one time watch’.

Having said that, I might watch it for one more time. Maybe this movie requires multiple viewing. I might catch it in DVD and see if I liked it.

Just go and see the movie with an open mind in the cinemas (Cinematography can be enjoyed in Cinemas only), you might just like it.

5.5/10

Official Movie Website

Today a reader of this blog, Ganesh commented in this post: Why CAS may still be good for Chennai.

I think it’s his original writing and so decided to post here. for others to see….

Here it goes:

CAS came into force in Chennai in 1993. And it took nearly 4 Years for other metros to follow suit. TRAI took the best of efforts to see that CAS is implemented and with the best support from the Judiciary, things were in place. 2007 dawned for three metros, viz., Delhi, Mumbai and Calcutta, changing the way the people watched television.

There were people, applied a theory of wait and watch, people immediately swallowed the DTH, people applied for STBs with various MSOs. And the most benefited person was the consumer. The guidelines were clear, the prices reasonable, and the schemes attractive. Consumers in Delhi, Mumbai and Calcutta were lured by DTH service providers, MSOs and THE CUSTOMER WAS THE KING!!

TRAI arranged reviews, spoke to operators and consumers and the result were good and the appreciation was flowing from all corners. Then concessions were announced for bouquets of channels and the price cap of Rs.5/- came down as low as Rs.3/- as schemed out by some MSOs. Then there was rush for STBs and the MSOs were running out of ideas to meet the demand, slowly but surely, the Indian television viewer was experiencing the best of Cable Television.

DTH providers jumped into the ring, and announced various schemes, giving the customers in CAS areas special packages and schemes, now it was the customer, who was put under pressure to select from options available. The market watchers were calculating the effect of CAS in advertisement revenues, and things like that.

But in the southern metro of Chennai, which claims to be the father of CAS in India, was waking up to 2007 with lot of hope on Cable front. The system which was in place was ridiculous to say the least. The Cost of the STB was around 4000 rupees and the monthly outgo was somewhere around 350-400 per month, if you are an unfortunate fan of sports and also an unfortunate non-Tamil person settled in Chennai. The sports channels were off the air so does the entertainment channels of languages other than Tamil.

There is monopoly in Cable TV and the customer was not provided with any choice but to suffer in silence. The majority of Cable viewers were not having any complaint as the family soaps, films and other genre channels in Tamil was FTA, and with ample space of time as sports were not there in the FTA Scheme of things. The only solace for the sports lovers came when the MSO provided signals of pay channels for major tournaments like the World Cup etc. The efforts by the TRAI were seen by the people as a great reliever for the people of Chennai.

The customer, especially the sports buffs and the non-tamil people in Chennai, was feeling light at the end of the tunnel, as the Dec.31st 2006 dead line approached, frantic calls were made to the Local Cable Operators as well as the MSOs for the schemes and new price lists of Channels.

But Chennai is very different from other metros. The consumers were treated as slaves; at least as far as cable TV is concerned. There are only two MSOs in Chennai, viz., Hathway, which has only negligible connections, and the Fort is held by SCV. Hathway gave a lot of information about new schemes and channel prices, but were unable to penetrate their STBs to all locations in Chennai, you know the reason!! Now the poor customers were forced to wait, wait and wait as per the instructions by the LCOs, as they are also not in a position to get any detail from the MSO, who does not have even a dedicated website.

Repeated calls to the other MSO and LCOs were falling in deaf ears. The MSO people were even hearing about TRAI for the first time, it felt. When tried to contact the MSO and asked about the details, there was point blank reply, DO NOT CONTACT US, CONTACT YOUR CABLE OPERATOR!!

At last on 1st of Jan 2007, there was some clarity about the channel prices and new schemes were announced by the MSO. But only the existing customers with STB were the relieved ones. There was no information on new rental schemes of STB, two schemes which were mandatory for any MSO in CAS Area. The rental schemes were not at all there, as per the MSO. When mentioned about the TRAI guidelines, the reply was precise. WAIT FOR SOME TIME!! Up to what time, no one really knew. Subsequently, after Pongal Festival, the application for STB on rental scheme were available with the LCO. I applied for the scheme on 18th Jan, 2007, but till date, ie., 15th February, 2007 there is no reply from the MSO. The LCO says that the application itself was not accepted by the MSO and they want us to wait for some more time!!!

Fed up with the treatment meted out to the customers, there was calls made to the DTH operators, but the worst thing was in store for the people of Chennai! The schemes announced by the DTH operators were applicable only for other metros, and not for Chennai. We, the people of Chennai, are really hurt being treated as the CHILDREN OF LESSER GOD!! When CAS was forced on the people of Chennai, there was only a whisper of protest, while the political parties in other metros, stood up and opposed CAS. The result, the costly CAS was forcefully implemented in Chennai.

As years passed, and TRAI guidelines and court orders put CAS in other metros as well. But the Chennai Cable TV viewers are still to get the benefit of new guidelines and rules. Who cares, repeated requests were falling in deaf ears, getting repeated and irritating answers from the LCO. Still things are moving on in Chennai!! Soaps continue to take the prime time of family members, the maamis and akkas glued to television sets, not knowing anything about the exploitation they are being subjected to. TRAI or HC, we are different, away from the sight of the Centre, the judiciary, the TRAI and the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting!! The so-called consumer activists, when contacted, say they do not take up the case of Cable TV consumers! In Chennai, the people running around for STB are the so correctly said IDIOT box lovers!!

Till this day, the 5th of February, 2007, no STB were given on rental schemes, and the bitter fact is consumers are asked to go for the outright purchases of STB at a whopping Rupees 3800/-, which includes the security deposit for SMART CARD, which was not permitted by the TRAI.

The news channels, which are showing even celebrities honeymoon packages as news item, this serious violation of consumer rights and guidelines by a statutory authority are not being given proper attention. It seems the news channels are FTA in nature; they do not care for people running behind pay channels and STBs.

Now, this situation raises some basic questions. Does the TRAI guidelines are not applicable for Chennai? Is the Chennai people are managed by some separate laws as far as Cable TV is concerned? Does the consumer organizations really bothered about the people in this part of the country? Does the monopolistic attitude of the MSO is being protected by some central power? The answer is Yes and No!!

You guys know that I got a lappy and got Wi-Fi connection in a park. Things have started to look up and now we get Wi Fi connection in our apartment as well!

When I didn’t get net connection or if the PC didn’t work, I used to get desperate. My parents knew about the tantrums that I used to make. Now after coming to Dubai, I slowly got off the addiction to net and PC. Now that I have both now.. it feels like paradise!

As usual I checked the speed downloading some torrents. Here’s the result:

The speeds as you can see is around 512 kbps. Sometimes the signals go off and we have to wait for a moment and we have to sit near the balcony to get the signals..but all that is a small issue when looking at the bigger picture: Free and fast Internet Connection!

My Friends and myself (you can see my lappy screen) frantically browsing in our apartment! (They didn’t try this before! Pays to marry a geek!! Chicks take notice!!!)

Time to start downloading things..TV Shows, Movies, Music (which I already started), blogging, browsing and things that I missed after coming to Dubai!

P.S. : You can imagine how happy I must be taking note of the amount of “!” I used in this post!!!

There are over 170 Wi-Fi hotspots in Dubai! Some 15% of them is free! All you need is a Wi-Fi enabled laptop.

Last Friday after visiting the IBN Battuta Mall, my friend dropped me in Muteena park, near Emirates Co-op market. Eventually I happened to carry my lappy. I have seen many people using their lappy in the park and I know that there was free wi-fi network in that area.

So decided to test mine as well.

After checking in for some 15 minutes and changing the location 2-3 times finally we got the network access! It was a whole hour of free and fast net connection. Next time, I’ll try to take a photo of that place.

I just test this thing with a torrent file. This is the result: 100+ KBps speeds!

Not bad!

I love this Wifi thing because :
- I get to access net whenever I want to!
- It’s fast (I got around 1 mpbs)
- Net connection without any wires, account, hardware and other headaches
- It’s free!

Here’s the list of Wi-Fi Hotspots in Dubai: Total Hotspots

Now I’m planning to hit Muteena park every week to enjoy free, fast net access in natural environment.