In a previous post, I talked a bit about piracy and copyright violations in Sri Lanka and I mentioned it’s a widespread problem here. But here’s the thing. I can’t say that I entirely blame Sri Lankans for the problems if you understand it in context.

According to the CIA Word Factbook, Sri Lanka’s GDP per capita (2007 estimate) is $4,100 US. Well, that’s significantly higher than it was when I moved here - then, it was listed as $850. But if you compare that $4,100 to the US GDP per capita, you get $45,800 US, or 11 times the GDP per capita of Sri Lanka. Back when I moved here, it was something like 35 times, but inflation has been hitting hard here.

Keeping that in mind, consider the following…

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Speaking about yesterday’s post and that news site, there’s a lot more content on that site that, I believe, is most likely stolen content. A lot. But since I’m not the copyright owner, I don’t know that for a fact and I certainly can’t file DMCA complaints for other people, only myself. But this gets a bit into a different attitude here.

English-language newspapers here tend to have a fair bit of foreign content, some more than others. The foreign content tends to be obvious when the article talks about weather that few here are familiar with like snow, icy roads, and blizzards; pale skin that burns quickly and red heads with blue or green eyes; miniskirts (which I’ve only seen on foreigners here) and tank tops (also not generally worn here), fur coats, and winter coats; corporate America with business loans, takeovers, and the like; and then there was Brangelina. I think you get the idea, yes?

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In yesterday’s post, I alluded to the fact that I’ve experienced more than just one copyright violation. I have, although the majority of the copyright violations I’ve experienced have been with sploggers (spam bloggers).

However, there was another copyright violation that’s a little more interesting, to me at any rate, than the scummy sploggers. It was a local news site. As in, a Sri Lankan news site. This site has blogs for some members, and one of those members had posted an article I’d written for Travel Sri Lanka magazine on the Colombo Museum in his blog.

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Again. *sigh*

This all started with the Book In a Week (BIW) group on Yahoo! Groups. One person posted a question asking about writing software. I replied with a fairly long list of the various pieces of writing software (20 Feb 2007) that I’m familiar with, some which Fahim wrote, others written by others, and my brief assessment of each. Not a brilliant post and one that certainly won’t stand the sands of time, but still, mine.

Then I get an email from a member of the group (23 Feb 2008), R, asking me if she can post the list to her blog and give it out to her friends.

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A Glimpse of the Milky Way.

Click on it and look. This is a seriously cool way to view the inner part of the Milky Way. You can wander around, zoom in or out, and just stare in awe.

The telescope was pointed to 111,000 different positions in the sky and snapshots were taken in four different infrared wavelengths, creating a total of 444,000 images. The MIPSGAL survey followed up using the MIPS instrument with another 400,000 images at three longer infrared wavelengths. These surveys have 100 times the sensitivity and over 10 times the resolution of previous surveys, allowing us to see stars and dusty objects throughout most of the Galaxy for the first time.

Way cool, dude.

Fake or Foto?

Take their test to determine which of those images are computer graphics and which are photos.

And then there was the Uncyclopedia…

The content-free encyclopedia…

With an article talking about a study that shows people who read are better at reading. Uh…

And all sorts of other stuff…

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I came across some interesting websites…

A new way to multiply - it’s bizarre to me, but it looks like it actually works. Who knows, maybe this method is easier for a lot of people?

The Elegant Universe - a series of videos explaining various aspects of physics. Looks like a lot of fun!

HassleMe - a site that’ll nag you about whatever you tell it to, as often as you tell it to. Like spontaneously bringing your wife flowers or jewellery. (Hint! Hint!)

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Monsoon season. Rain.
Falls constantly, never ends.
Oh, where is the sun?

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Hal Spacejock by Simon Haynes is now available as a free ebook. Download it and read it and have a blast!

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It ain’t all it’s cracked up to be.

First, there’s the increased RAM footprint, close to double from AVG 7.5. Translation? Before, when AVG 7.5 ran system scans, I could still use my computer to do other tasks, albeit slowly and with much patience on my part. Now, my system is at a virtual standstill and is completely useless while the system scan runs, which also takes more than twice as long to run as before.

I really wish that computer software companies didn’t continue to up the ante on resource usage. I know, I know - they think they can because everyone’s getting newer and newer computers with more RAM than ever before. But it’s not necessary. Software with smaller footprints can be made and even made well. So why not start doing that for a change?

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LMD, a Sri Lankan business magazine, mentioned C3 in their News Journal section. Here’s what they said:

Snap, And You’re On the Net!

Digital photography is all the craze in the Web world, it seems.

"Back in the non-digital photography days, taking photos was expensive. the cost of the camera was just the beginning. Then there were tripods, filters, more lenses, more powerful flashes and so on … Photography was an expensive hobby. Now, thanks to digital photography, it’s gotten a lot cheaper." C3, a new Sri Lankan IT magazine, observes. Digital photography also makes it a lot easier to share photos with family and friends, or sell them online - and image-hosting sites are apparently the craze. ImageShack (imageshack.us) is a popular site, but C3 says it was turned off by "obnoxious advertising" on its front page. Nevertheless, the site claims two-plus million uploads each day, 30-odd million unique visitors every month and in excess of 2.5 billion images served everyday.

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