I'm floored by how incredibly bad that is! This is the wonder of the NBN?? I almost get those speeds for that price for unlimited data, right fucking now, on my adsl2+ connection in Brisbane. Even if this plan is only for the most isolated of outback towns, that's dreadful. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that we'll get utterly shafted yet again, but I had hoped with it being a public project... ugh.

The Beatles sold 30 million albums in the US alone in the last decade (2000-10), making them the number 2 musical act overall in sales. The figures would be similar for the EU. Everyone knows this extension is wrong, but there's no way they'll ever leave that kind of money on the table. If there's one thing that drives politics, it's money and greed. In 20 years, it will be extended again, unless everyone has stopped buying.

This happened to me with the first blu-ray I ever bought, at the worst possible time, and in a remote location with no internet. Never bought or rented another one, and I'll only ever buy things with zero online authentication now (including games).

The reason buying games from GOG is a no-brainer for me is because they don't have any DRM, and are vehemently against it on principle. Just to be clear, as suggesting it has less DRM is like saying your drink has less urine in it than this one over here... no urine for me, please!

A good April Fool's stitches itself into plausible reality, and yet when revealed is clearly foolish. It's difficult to think of a more important lesson a participant in media/news could learn, than to understand it is never a perfect reflection of reality and critical thinking is called for. It's like a worldwide Gullibility Awareness/Critical Thinking day

Beside, there's a pretty strong implicit rule that's generally followed that the joke is never anything serious and no-one ever falsely claims it isn't an April Fool's joke when called on it.

I've been reading about this on the Bioware forums, and another bombshell hit me: apparently SecuROM has been put on DA2, even though it was declared to be free of it by EA.

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2011/03/dragon-age-ii-features-hated-securom-despite-previous-ea-claims.ars

Personally, I'd say I'm boycotting EA over this, but really I'm merely continuing to boycott them over how I was punished by them in multiple ways for daring to buy the first Dragon Age, and this.

One of the interesting developments is the return of the true Pirate radio stations. The concept of a DJ actually loving music, being in control and playing what they think is the best stuff has been so neglected, for decades, that it is actually revolutionary now. It exists out there in what are true Pirate radio stations, because anyone can now make a internet radio stream. Sometimes my friends do this when we're chatting online, but out there on the high seas of the web, there are Pirate internet radio stations that have become popular with people in the know. Places where music comes first; seemingly the only places out there where that's true. They may be difficult to find, sometimes in closed communities, but if you love music, you'll find them.

Funnily enough, they tend to never play RIAA or BPI music. There's so much amazing music out there, it's never been a better time for it, you just won't find it very often within those two rotted corpses.

Yep, this happened to me with the first Blue ray (and last!) I ever bought, at the worst time. We'd been working our asses off packing for a move, took a break on the last night to watch a movie we'd been waiting for before packing the TV—one that I'd bought that morning (on Blue ray since the DVD wasn't in stock, I'd even made sure it was region free)—and the ps3 said we had to update the key to watch it at all. The internet had just been disconnected which meant the disc was as good as a coaster for our purposes. Seriously, this shit only hurts customers; if I'd snatched it from the internet, which I could have easily, we'd have had no hassle. The only way not to feel like a sucker is to pirate, a much better experience.

This is one of those half-truths that sound well. Government isn't the enemy the free citizens are fighting; it's the very forum for the fight, the battlefield itself. They who define the role of Government and shape it will be the victors. So yes, a lackey but—whose lackey? (And no, I don't think it's going well for us, particularly...)

So many annoyances on DVDs....

Just one is when they show clips from the movie whenever you do something in the menu. I remember sitting down to watch '30 Days of Night' with my brother on DVD. He knew nothing about it but I'd seen it at the theatre, I thought it was a good film. They spend almost half the movie building up the tension to a big reveal as to what the monsters are. There's this dramatic scene where they are finally revealed, it's really good. So I press play and and before it starts the feature it plays that exact scene in its full glory. Thanks, assholes.

I heard Grigori Perelman is EM sensitive...

*runs*

I can't see that attitude existing at all in Australia, most of us are glad for the support against our own government. Sad, but there it is.

However, you may have a point in a way. Make enough stink about other country's filtering and perhaps your own citizens won't think you're messing with, or spying, on their connections.