Are We There Yet?

My CNET news RSS feed informed me a little while ago that the offices of Sharman Networks, owners of the Kazaa peer-to-peer file sharing software, were raided in Australia. The article says the following about the offices that were raided:

In addition to the offices of Sharman Networks and Brilliant Digital Entertainment (BDE), MIPI raided the residences of Sharman Networks’ CEO Nikki Hemming, Brilliant Digital Entertainment Chief Executive Officer and President Kevin Burmeister and Phil Morle, Director of Technology at Sharman Networks. Monash University, the University of Queensland and the University of New South Wales were also raided, as well as four ISPs including Telstra.

The reason I find this so note worthy is WHO did the raiding. I'm not familiar with Australian law in any way, shape, or form, but according to the article, the Music Industry Piracy Investigations (MIPI) obtained what's called an "Anton Pillar" order (misspelled in the article with one 'l'). According to a posting on FreedomFight.ca, the order allows "an applicant" to enter and search the respondent's premises with intent of locating and SEIZING property and material that the applicant charges violates their legal rights to distribution or usage of said property. In other words, in this case, the MIPI was able to raid these offices themselves after creating a list of materials and documents they were in search of. They could then collect these items for the purpose of preserving evidence. Of course, all of this takes place after a judge approves the whole thing.

The thing that disturbs me is that it is the organization ITSELF that does that raiding! In my opinion, that just opens up a large can of worms that is completely unneccessary. You're letting what is basically the accuser perform the search and seizure, which introduces a level of bias and probably vindictiveness that shouldn't be present during these types of actions. While many people already don't trust their governments or organzations tasked with carrying out these types of (in the USA) governmental duties (such as the FBI), one would think there's a level of neutrality and sense of duty present in how they conduct themselves. The animosity on display by the RIAA and the music industry at large towards groups such as Sharman Networks would lead me to believe that the entire process has a decided favor towards those conducting the raid.

To put it in to context a bit better, the offices of CryTek in Germany (makers of the upcoming game Far Cry) were recently raided by the German police. The story goes that a disgruntled ex-intern tipped them off that CryTek was using pirated software during development of the game; more specifically that they were using more copies of software than they had purchased licenses for. Now, for the sake of comparison here, imagine if the software in question was Microsoft's Visual Studio software, an IDE, which was used for coding the game. What if MICROSOFT had the ability to conduct this search themselves?

Chew on that one for a while while you ponder the fate of Sharman Networks after being personally raided by the recording industry goons...

I spent this past weekend in Las Vegas for a "team building exercise" held by my work. Thankfully, we don't take ourselves seriously enough to actually believe that was the intent of the trip (sssshh, don't tell the IRS). We left for Vegas midday on Friday and headed back Sunday evening. Honestly, I'm not sure I would want to stay there any longer for a variety of reasons ranging from sensory overload to the fact that staying in Vegas and being entertained requires truck loads of money.

I should probably clarify a bit in saying that like most other people's trips to Las Vegas, it was more of a trip to "The Strip" than to the city itself. I'm sure there are residents of the city of Las Vegas that would take offense to any generalizations about their city that don't come with that disclaimer. Although I did not see it myself, there's got to be a section of the city that isn't represented by the obscene gaudiness of everything on display on Las Vegas Boulevard. After all, the city did look quite large from the plane. So keep that in mind - in this post, Vegas == The Strip.

Visiting Las Vegas is like being in the middle of a 4th of July fireworks display. Everyday. We stayed at the Luxor hotel (the pyramid shaped one), which is next door to the very large Mandalay Bay. As I slept at night (yes, I slept while in Vegas), it was necessary to ensure that there wasn't the slightest crack in the curtains or the Mandalay Bay's video screen advertising the line up in their theater would have been like a movie usher's flashlight in my face. There were several times while we walked from place to place that I had to squint my eyes at the brightness of the signs and video screens as we passed underneath them.

Having said that, it's an incredible place to visit. There's nothing else that I can think of which is like it. It's almost impossible to describe everything you see from the half-scale Eiffel Tower restaurant to the kingdom of the Excalibur hotel & casino or the Colosseum at Caesar's Palace. It's overwhelming. You just stare at all of it wondering how the city ever became what it is today. Who built the first of these monumental hotel/casinos starting the game of one-upmanship that continues to this day? Incredible.

Despite the brief stay, we did manage to pack a lot in to our trip. Friday night, we had an excellent dinner from Emeril's restaurant in the MGM Grand. I had the best bowl of gumbo you can imagine and a fantastic salmon fillet. I also took special notice that the MGM Grand has a group of slot machines where you could win a brand-new Dodge Viper. Needless to say, I did not win nor did I spend enough to justify it anyway (although a co-worker did win $120 from one pull of a single slot machine in their casino). We wandered the Strip for a while that night and I lost my first $20 playing roulette at the Luxor.

Saturday was packed with highlights. The day started with me taking a $25 chip donation from my boss and turning it in to $80 at Blackjack; a $55 profit for 30 minutes "work" putting me up $35 for the trip. We spent a few hours at the Hoover Dam, also beyond words for description, where we learned that there are NOT people buried in the dam, contrary to urban legend, although the dam is 100% concrete without any rebar or steel reinforcements of any kind. That evening, we saw a performance by the Blue Man Group. Thankfully, I visited their website ahead of time to discover that our front row seats were considered the "Poncho section" and dressed accordingly. I'm still trying to figure what that concoction of liquified Twinkie mass that they shot at us is really made of. The performance was incredible and has made my decision on how to spend my last $25 at Best Buy. The post-BMG show time was spent at a Blackjack table in the Luxor with a bunch of Chicago Bears fans where we all promptly lost more money than any of us cared to admit. Thankfully, it wasn't my money anyway and I still had a lot of fun.

Sunday was our final day in Vegas. We went to Caesar's Palace to eat breakfast at Cafe Lago (although the line to get in coupled with the buffet line made it more of a brunch). Still, any breakfast buffet that includes sushi is okay in my book. After watching people in my party with more money (and less sense) than me gamble at the blackjack tables of Caesar's Palace, we headed to the Hilton to check out The Star Trek Experience. An hour and one mini-Warp Core Breach later (5 shots of rum and "fruit juices" served in a small bucket with dry ice), we were laughing at my incredibly buzzed co-worker and his futile attempts to stop his head from spinning by eating a cheeseburger 10 minutes and 5 shots of liquor too late.

I didn't take many pictures (most were of the Hoover Dam), but when I check them out, if there are any note worthy, I might put them up here.

Please welcome back Mr Inconsistency.

Yeah, yeah. Two posts a week, I said. It's a good thing I stopped making promises I can't keep. When spur of the moment free time (aka - discovering you can't sleep) arises, there are other things on my agenda that take precedence at 2am. Either that, or I'm just lazy.

So, despite my lack of posts, I have kept my sidebar updated with things that may or may not be more interesting than what you're reading right now. Certainly, the ramblings and rantings of a 23 year-old computer programmer can't compare to the writings of Timothy Zahn or the exquisite production values found in a game from Blizzard, but we all have delusions of grandeur that we entertain from time to time and I am no different.

A quick scan of the sidebar will show that I'm still re-reading the Timothy Zahn Star Wars trilogy of books - this time with my wife as I introduce her to the expanded Star Wars universe. She seems to be really enjoying them. Grand Admiral Thrawn is certainly a worthy adversary to be writing about, Mara Jade's character comes alive at the hands of Zahn, and Talon Karrde gives readers a glimpse in to what a younger Han Solo may have found himself doing before the Rebellion. A fantastic set of books that any fan of the Star Wars trilogy would enjoy reading. I've recently purchased 2 more books that Zahn wrote in the Star Wars universe (along with another Neal Stephenson book, Snow Crash) that I am eargerly anticipating the arrival of from the Post Office.

Late night forays on the computer have been filled with time on WarCraft III. I pre-ordered the Collector's Edition of it from GameStop back before it was released, but 8 months later when I actually received it, I found myself as a new father and full-time employee with no free time as opposed to a full-time college student that *cough* MADE time to game when he needed to decompress. As such, I never got further in to the game than 3/4 through the Undead campaign. A stellar waste of $80, no doubt, although the CD soundtrack has gotten its share of usage. I'd like to actually FINISH the game this time so I can look in to picking up the expansion pack, The Frozen Throne. Blizzard redefined what an expansion pack was with it's release of StarCraft: Brood Wars. The addition of new units, more story and cinematics makes it a continuation of the original worthy of a reinvestment in time and money. Besides, like a good boy, I never watched the cinematic DVD that game with my Collector's Edition and I'm dying to see their gorgeous cinematics in full television screen glory.

Prince of Persia remains on my "currently playing" list but has been stagnant for several weeks. My last save game showed me to be 54% complete with it after about 9 hours of play time (I think). As much as I've enjoyed playing it, my last save point puts me in a very difficult situation that I haven't been able to overcome just yet due to the first sighting of shoddy level design that I've seen in an otherwise excellently designed game. I know that Ian is no longer enamored with the title having already tired of what is essentially glorified jumping puzzles. I enjoy the acrobatics in the game and feel they did an excellent job disguising the (unavoidable) repetitiveness of it. However, to get past my current spot, I'll probably have to load an earlier save game and play better to get back to my current point so I have more "rewinds" to fix my screw ups. Not a pleasant thought. Not only that, but with the Xbox residing in our family room, it's difficult to schedule playing time on it.

My CD is currently filled with Blue Man Group CDs that I picked up using my last $25 from Best Buy. After seeing them perform in Las Vegas, I am positively hooked.

In addition, I continue to wait, with bated breath, for the start of the MLB season. I've watched anxiously as Jim Hendry and Co. have improved the Chicago Cubs this offseason and I can't wait to get rolling. The signing of Mad Dog for at least 2 years with the Cubs has made me absolutely giddy. Seeing him dressed in Cub blue again puts a smile on my face that I can't, nor do I want to, get rid of. And now I hear we've just signed Kerry Wood to a 3-year contract through 2006 with a mutual option for 2007. Yes, it's good to be a Cubs fan.