A Fine Example of a “Copyright Troll”

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Over lunch today I happened upon the following article by Rafael Rivera (and here’s Rafael Rivera’s profile on on Google+).

The Rise & Fall of a Windows Phone Marketplace Scammer

Here are my takeaways:

  1. Mr. Rivera for some reason felt compelled to defend Nintendo’s intellectual property when they apparently weren’t even interested in such a minor case.
  2. The fact that Mr. Rivera was able to obtain the copyright to Mr. Hartger’s works so easily (and presumably for free) indicates that if Mr. Dudley had the same idea, he would have been immune to Mr. Rivera’s approach. (And how much “stealing” is really going on when the author gives away copyright to any old person who asks?)
  3. Does Mr. Rivera’s collusion with Mr. Hartger represent an “unholy alliance”? I mean, Hartger facilitates the “theft”* of ROM’s by distributing the emulator that Mr. Dudley allegedly stole – so how does this measurably protect Nintendo’s copyrights?

You are my hero Rafael Rivera. You defended the powerless Nintendo corporation against some hack. Now Nintendo will make millions as Windows Phone users, noting the lack of Nintendo emulator software for the device in the Windows Phone Marketplace, go out and buy Nintendo products.

Personally, I think this story only illustrates how easy it is for a sociopath on a mission to abuse DMCA takedown notices.

I’d only really heard good things about Mr. Rivera before this. Seems at the very least that he’s a statist with some serious issues determining priorities in life.

*Note: I have a hard time accepting that creating a copy of an idea or object at your own expense constitutes theft. The ROMs were not “taken” since neither Nintendo or their customers were deprived of their use.

Windows Phone Apps I Recommend

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Microsoft did a really great job of integrating the features I use most right into the core phone OS, so honestly, I spend most of my time using built-in Windows Phone functionality – but sometimes I have a need to get off the reservation. Here are some Windows Phone apps I recommend checking out (and you can download them to your phone from the links provided)…

4th & Mayor (Foursquare Client)
Amazon Kindle (I read free classics with expired copyright)
Avego Driver (neat idea, needs more users locally for it to work though)
BandWidth (checks your bandwidth)
Constitution (don’t leave home without it)
FlightAware (See that plane in the sky? Wonder where it’s from and where it’s going?)
GasBuddy (allows you to check and log real-time gas price data so you know a good deal when you see it)
Glympse (shares your real-time location with friends for a set amount of time)
GoPayment (allows you to accept credit cards for a 4% fee)
HealthVault (mobile app that ties into MS HealthVault services)
Love Clean Streets (See a problem? Take a photo and describe it, they’ll find out what authorities are responsible for correcting it)
Netflix
Planning Poker (A tool for Scrum estimation meetings)
SkyDrive (25 GB of cloud storage)
SkyMap Free (To figure out what that star is…)
TouchDevelop (An experiment in scripting by touch UI)
Visual Studio Achievements (Get achievements for working in Visual Studio)
The Weather Channel
WPCentral (Great source for Windows Phone news)
Your Shape (Tracks your progress in Your Shape, Fitness Evolved for Xbox Kinect)
YouTube Pro (Allows viewing of HD YouTube videos with a Metro UI)

First Attempt at Driving Video

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For a few months I’ve been brainstorming with my brother to find some kind of dashboard camera mount for my mobile phone so I could shoot 720p video while driving – without having to fuss with holding a camera – just set-it and forget it. Winking smile

After looking at a variety of solutions that weren’t very good, I told him maybe I’d just get a Flip cam. The quality isn’t incredible, but it’d do the trick.  That’s when he told me about GoPro cameras – I’d seen them before in reality shows on cable but it never dawned on me that they’d be affordable. Turns out the GoPro HD Hero2 retails for $299.99 (seems to be some price fixing going on because I never saw it for even a penny less online).  Compare that to my MiniDV Sony DTR-TRV30 camcorder I bought a few years ago for $1,500 or so at the time and this seems affordable by comparison.

Amazingly, in addition to being able to shoot 1080p HD video, it also has some nice features for artsy photos, like the ability to take ten 11 Megapixel photos in one second via “Burst” mode, shoot high frame-rate video for slow-motion, and even shoot time-lapse videos. Something odd about the GoPro is that it doesn’t have a screen to show you what you’re recording – which is interesting because you just kind of turn it on and forget about it rather than experiencing life through the viewfinder as can happen with other cameras.

One of the things that really struck me about the video I had seen filmed with GoPro cameras was the quality of work shot by novices – which is really the point of this post, to show you the first two videos I recorded with my GoPro – ever.  Both were shot using the suction cup mount I bought with the camera (waterproof and supposedly secure up to 200mph). The commute to work was shot with the camera suction cupped to my car’s moon roof.  The return home it was suction cupped to the windshield under the rear-view mirror.

Anyway, here they are (if you can watch at 1080p full-screen!):

GoPro HD Hero2 1080p externally suction cup mounted to moon roof

GoPro HD Hero2 1080p internally suction cup mounted to windshield

I picked the music by looking for something fitting in my music collection (ZunePass) that matched the length of the video.  Hopefully the music isn’t a distraction – and I think in parts both of the videos sync up nicely with the music. Not bad for video that was simply sped-up 4x and not really edited (I added the music and sped up the video using Windows Live Movie Maker).

Life’s Little Questions

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So many questions…

Libertarians

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Republicans

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Democrats

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Any you’d like to see me answer?

The Age of Collaboration

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People have never before had so many great tools for collaboration available to them at no cost. Here’s a video illustrating what can be accomplished easily with the tools at http://Office.Live.com

The benefits of SkyDrive for group projects

With practice it will greatly improve your ability to coordinate team projects.

You owe it to yourself to get familiar with these tools – especially OneNote, an app for collecting and organizing un-structured information. Probably my most-used app on my Windows Phone and desktops.

OneNote is included with all versions of Office 2010, comes pre-installed on Windows Phone, and is available on iOS devices. They all keep shared content in sync automatically via the cloud.

Practical uses of OneNote to make life easier

The wife and I use OneNote like this routinely. Smile

Replacing Turn Signal Bulb in 2010 Ford Fusion

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Replacing tail/brake/turn signal/backup lamp bulbs
The tail/brake/turn signal and backup lamp bulbs are located in the tail
lamp assembly. Follow the same steps to replace either bulb.

  1. Make sure the headlamp control is in the off position and open the
    trunk.
  2. Lift out trunk floor carpeting panel to access a luggage scuff plate
    (hard molding) and a trunk side panel (dark grey, soft wheelhouse side
    trim panel) at the lamp area.
  3. Carefully pull/push the trunk side panel (dark grey, soft wheelhouse
    side trim panel) outboard to expose the lamp assembly. The most
    effective point to grasp the trunk side panel when pulling it out from the
    luggage scuff plate is at it’s bottom edge where that edge meets the
    exposed sheet metal of the trunk floor.
    Note: Do not allow the trunk side panel to remain bent and untucked
    from the luggage scuff plate (hard molding) for a long period of time.
    Doing so may result in permanent deformation.
  4. Remove the bulb socket byimage
    turning it counterclockwise and
    pulling it straight out.
  5. Pull the bulb from the socket and
    push in the new bulb.
  6. Install the bulb socket into the
    lamp assembly by rotating it
    clockwise.
  7. Carefully push the trunk side
    panel (dark grey, soft wheelhouse
    side trim panel) back in position to the luggage scuff plate (hard
    molding).
  8. Install trunk floor carpeting panel.

SOURCE: 2010 Ford Fusion Owner Guide 4th Printing, Page 70

GoPro HD Hero2 vs. Contour+ (Contour Plus)

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I was talking to my brother a few weeks ago about an idea for mounting my Windows Phone in my car for capturing HD video while driving. Down side is that you lose phone functionality (such as checking traffic) with such set-ups.

I started talking about getting a Flip cam for the purpose and he pointed out that the PoV camera market was really heating up with some nice offerings.  He suggested the GoPro HD Hero2 camera that released in October. I also researched the Contour+ PoV camera.

I ultimately ended up going with the GoPro HD Hero2 for now, but there were quite a few things I liked about it over the GoPro.  One thing that is hard to ignore though is the community behind a device.

Compare the Twitter news feed traffic:

@contour_cam – https://twitter.com/#!/search/contour_cam
gopro – https://twitter.com/#!/search/gopro

In the past 24 hours or so, people have Tweeted about GoPro cameras 2200 times, and Contour only 56.  Sounds like the marketing folks at Contour cam have their work cut out for them.

Ultimately the reason I went with GoPro was the apparent picture quality compared to what I could find for the Contour.  Seems like there’s room enough in the PoV camera marketplace for two high-end competitors so I hope it stays that way for the sake of innovation.