HBO Fights Torrents

Holy crap was it cold today. I thought my nipples my freeze, but that's probably because it was almost 100 degrees just about a week ago. It was 55 degrees when I woke up and rather than being sunny and going to 67 like it was supposed to, it rained and dropped to 51! I only wore a thin, long-sleeved shirt and jeans so I felt pretty cold and didn't warm up until after I went to the gym and put my normal clothes over my workout clothes! It's supposed to go back to the 80s tomorrow unfortunately. To make matters worse, I had one of my worst cooking experiences today when I spilled puttered seeds all over my countertop! That took forever to clean up. Anyway, I wanted to comment on the fact that HBO is reacting to torrents much like the RIAA initially reacted to P2P: putting out bogus files. Don't get me wrong, I truly believe in their right to make money off of their programming. However, wouldn't it make more sense for them to say, "Wait a minute, there's a market here!" If people only want Rome why should they subscribe to premium networks to get it? I'm impressed by how they're counteracting the torrents by fooling the trackers with garbage chunks though, although this won't cure the much larger problem television will face if they don't start selling shows.

On the other side of media, Microsoft has started exchanging blows with Sony over the Blu-ray disc. It's only verbal right now, but Gates is pretty ticked off that, supposedly, the disc won't work well with Windows PCs and its copy protection would prevent content to be streamed to the Xbox 360. To add to the mix, Warner Brothers is tiptoeing over to Blu-ray, but it sounds more that they're trying to remain open-minded. Anyway, it looks like I've missed another Google update: they have an RSS Reader now. Much like the rise of Google Local they've quietly rolled out this feature, which seems like a common strategy for them. Lastly, Mozilla Firefox 1.5 is now out and the improvements include an auto-update feature and some security fixes.

After a long drought we finally have another picture from the set of X3. The only really notable thing is the fact that Storm (Ms. Berry) cut her hair, and I think it's a good look for her. If you're curious about Serenity then you should check out the first nine minutes of the film legally from Universal. It's a pretty good setup and makes me direly wish I had more time to go out and see it right now. We finally have a trailer for Curious George and it's quite kid-centric, but I love how true they're staying to the original art style. Kevin Smith updated the Clerks 2 video journal with some hair styling for himself and Jason Mewes, and I just like seeing them being candid. Quint put up a pretty good review for the Project Greenlight flick, Feast, and it adds to the momentum of it actually being a good movie. Who knows, maybe this is the horror film to see this year. Lastly, Harry Potter fans may like to see a few new character posters for the upcoming movie, but they're all in a similar vein to what we've seen before.

Now for Friday's Feast:

Appetizer
Name 3 qualities that are important to you in friendship.
Loyalty, honesty, and companionship. What else is there?

Soup
If you could dream about anything tonight, what would the subject matter be?
Chicks. Just kidding, or am I? Seriously though, I'd like to dream of being at peace. I feel so stressed all the time and tired. Every weekend I have off I have to sacrifice to work (domestic, school, and club-related). I'd like to dream of being on vacation back with my family.

Salad
Do you usually make an effort to personally thank people who do favors for you?
I try to, and I also try to make sure to not forget their kindness in the future should they even be in need themselves. Retribution is very important to me.

Main Course
If you had to go out of town for an extended period of time, who would you trust to take care of your home and belongings?
In Austin I'd have to say my room mate! In Houston though our family would trust our neighbor down the street who we've known for several years.

Dessert
How do you react to practical jokes when they're played on you?
It depends on how harsh and/or frequent they are. If it's out of the blue I'll go along with it. If it takes it too far or is repeated I'd probably flip out.