link and pics

[astridv]

A clear and concise article about piracy and the future of media distrubition:
You Will Never Kill Piracy, and Piracy Will Never Kill You
All of that is really just common sense - but of course that's exactly what the studios so far have demonstrated a sad lack of. This piece was written for Forbes.com so it stands to hope that some of the people who should read it actually will?
(I notice he didn't touch on one big problem, which is the clear need for a global distribution system so viewers overseas will actually have that legal alternative to pirating, other than waiting for a year or longer which, seriously, isn't gonna happen.)

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Speaking of media, I finally got to watch The King's Speech just now. Brilliant acting. A really good movie, not overhyped for once.

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Something I can't say for Thor, which we watched two weeks ago. I'd expected at least an entertaining popcorn flick with a charismatic villain but I couldn't find a single remotely interesting character in the entire movie. Well, scientist woman and her friend had a few good moments, but man, that wasn't enough. [eta: And this also ties neatly into the piracy issue because the DVD was a Marvel release and Marvel was swallowed by Disney, ergo the bloody rental DVD refused to run on my computer. Same as every other Disney DVD and CD I've tried over the last few years. Which is why I will no longer buy or rent Disney DVDs/CDs. I won't support a company that has so little regard for customer service.]

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Winter has finally arrived for real (-15 last night) and here are a few photos I took when I was iceskating on lake Aa downtown on Sunday. It wasn't too crowded; I suppose many people didn't expect the ice to be stable already. By Monday word got around and the first people were having a barbecue on the ice.


It isn't a proper Münster-photo without a bicycle somewhere

Comments

[ratcreature]

The Alster is now apparently frozen enough to step on too, at least in so far that they stopped warning against stepping on the ice. Though it's still thinner in the middle, because until last Wednesday some of the ferries across were running and keeping a lane ice free.

[astridv]

That's impressive. There's a current, right? Here the city is still warning to step on the lake even though the ice is 20cm in most places. Seems overcautious to me but I assume they want to be on the safe side and avoid potential lawsuits.

[ratcreature]

Well, here they never outright give the okay to step on it, they just stop saying that it endangers your life, while still pointing out it's thin under some bridges etc. Also they don't allow anymore to have booths and such on the ice outright (the last time that happened was ages ago, fifteen years?), but only give permission for food stands and such on the streets near the water. (eta: that hasn't happened yet, but is under discussion for the coming weekend)

My father's neighborhood -- he lives in a nice area, obviously not directly near the Alster, because that is truly expensive, but you can see it from his windows so some really upper class areas are between his street and the lake -- is always completely aggravated when that happens because masses of people trash the parks, block all parking that is already bad usually, and generally are loud and obnoxious in front of other people's villas. Heh.

[sqbr]

Wow. Coming from one of the warmer parts of Australia, the idea of completely frozen over lakes and rivers kind of blows my mind!

[astridv]

Our winters aren't long but they can get kind of intense. I heard they had -30° at the coast the other night. But usually we only get a few weeks of ice or snow, and then, springtime. Last year was very unusual because we got a foot of snow that wouldn't melt for two months. Made bicycling a real challenge.

[schneefink]

Grillen am Eis? Ernsthaft? Das Fahrrad muss ich dir ja glauben, weil du ein Foto hast *g* Schön zugefroren!

[astridv]

Das Foto ist eher ungewöhnlich, weil nur ein Fahrrad drauf ist. ;)

Ja, da haben tatsächlich welche Würstchen gegrillt, war ein Foto von in der Zeitung. Aber insgesamt ist erstaunlich wenig los, immer nur ein Dutzend Eisläufer auf einmal. Wir fragen uns schon, ob Studenten heutzutage zu sehr in ihr Studium eingespannt sind um noch draussen Spaß zu haben. Vor zehn Jahren war immer der Bär los, wenn der See zufror.