Author: Peter Skarpetis

Legally defeating Copy Control

I recommended that everyone should boycott them until record companies stop releasing copy protected CDs.One of the CDs I always wanted to purchase was Get Born by Jet but unfortunately it had copy control on it…. On closer inspection it turns out that the CD was published by Warner Music in Argentina and somehow lacked copy protection.So my advice to you, hit your local “el cheapo” CD store and look for cheap imports of the album.

Recently, I posted about my views on Copy Control on music CDs (link). I recommended that everyone should boycott them until record companies stop releasing copy protected CDs.

One of the CDs I always wanted to buy was Get Born by Jet but unfortunately it had Copy Control. Today I was down at “Cheap CDs” on Pitt Street in Sydney and accidentally stumbled across a $10.00 copy of “Get Born” which had no Copy Control on it. On closer inspection it turns out that the CD was published by Warner Music in Argentina and as such had no Copy Control like the one manufactured in Australia does.

So my advice to you: Hit your local “el cheapo” CD store and look for imports of the album. You are bound to find an unprotected version of it and best of all it is all legal.

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Smallest and cheapest Linux computer

Yesterday my friend Adrian mentioned this cute little NAS device, the NSLU2 from Linksys.

Yesterday my friend Adrian mentioned this cute little NAS device, the NSLU2 from Linksys. He seemed really excited about the fact that it used Linux as its operating system and there was an open source project called Unslung which provides replacement firmware for it. The replacement firmware allows using the unit as you would any regular computer running Linux.

Needless to say, Adrian’s excitement rubbed off on me so I ordered 2 of them, one for work and one for home. At $AUD 159.00 each they are simply a steal. Two hours later, the NSLU2 at work was on the network serving files from a 200 GB disk. Samba and nfs were used serve files out to Linux, Mac OS X, Irix , Solaris and Windows computers. Apart from that I am also able to ssh into it and use it as any regular Linux computer.

NSLU2
The picture above shows the NSLU2 in the rack sandwiched between a Maxtor drive (which is plugged into it) on he left and a Sony DDS4 tape drive + SCSI disk on the right. The 2 green things in front of it are USB dongles and 2 DDS4 tapes are visible in front of the black SCSI disk. The unit is unbelievably tiny.

A big thank you goes out to the guys at the Unslung project. This is definitely the coolest Linux computer I have owned. Can’t wait to get home and set one up as an iTunes server for my 2 macs.

Update, 28 June 2005: The home NSLU2 is all configured. It is a dns, nfs, syslog, ntp and itunes server for my home network as well as an ssh server providing access to my network while I am on the road. Since its gone live on the internet, a few people have tried to break in but the NSLU2 valiantly repelled all attacks.

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Tour De France is Hell on Wheels

Hell on Wheels is a documentary about the Tour de France from the riders perspective.To quote director Paul Danquart:With Hell on Wheels I did not have a pure sports fi lm in mind…. I want to track down what it means to fall prey to the promise of global fame and tons of money, to suffer all the years to the verge of exhaustion but without the certainty to receive any reward.

Just got back from watching “Hell on Wheels” at the Valhalla cinema in Glebe. Hell on Wheels is a documentary about the Tour de France from the riders perspective.

To quote director Paul Danquart:

With Hell on Wheels I did not have a pure sports fi lm in mind. My interest lies in the suffering and losing during the Tour. I want to track down what it means to fall prey to the promise of global fame and tons of money, to suffer all the years to the verge of exhaustion but without the certainty to receive any reward. I want to know what it takes to win the Tour. In the team. In the body. In the mind. Shooting the fi lm meant becoming part of a team and showing what others cannot show.

Excellent movie, if you are into cycling I highly recommend it, but be quick as it is under limited release and will probably disappear quickly.

It was good to see Mike Tomalaris , the SBS cycling presenter there. A big thank you goes out to him for the upcoming Tour de France coverage on SBS.

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