Freyburg

Maclean’s has an article about how TV shows are the latest targets of miscreants and pirates on the Interweb. About time they caught up.

I only use my cable for news. I can’t be bothered to keep track of when stuff is on, and I’m almost always at my computer, so with a combo of Bittorrent and RSS, I pull the four shows I regularly watch off the net, and then check them out when I damn well feel like it. If I ever go freelance overseas, I’ll still be able to use the same process to keep up with TV back home.

And if the networks are so concerned, charge me a buck or two to download the shows. I’ll gladly pay that to get the few shows I do want when I want them.

I dig the traveling, though unfortunately things like earning a living and attempting to build something approximating a career sometimes get in the way. So when that happens, I live vicariously through travel websites. I heard about Young Pioneers (don’t let the Maoist hooha scare you, it’s actually just about travel) on the Radio Outpost show on CJSR, and the website looks pretty cool. I also found Gadling, which is from the guys who put out Engadget, a really good gadget weblog with an even better podcast.

When I think of Mongolian heavy metal (and I do, often), I don’t normally associate the New York Times with the thrashing guitar gods of Ulan Bator. That is, until now.

Oliver Stone has wanted to make a movie about Alexander the Great for years. He’s finally put his vision on the screen, but apparently his vision sucks eggs.

That’s too bad. Much as Stone can go completely off the rails sometimes (NBK and the Doors spring to mind,) JFK and Nixon are editing masterpieces, taking a huge pile of material and distilling it into compelling (if not entirely accurate) films.

But his later stuff hasn’t been all that great; Any Given Sunday and U-Turn are entertaining enough, but they don’t really have the oomph of his earlier films.

Cam wrote up a little feature on Freyburg.com on Reactionlab, the site for his design business. He describes me as “fairly tech-savvy guy,” which I think is code for “ham-fisted jerk who barely understands the blink tag.” 🙂

The BBC has a story about how some Europeans are ending up in India and taking jobs that have been offshored there.

I’m almost constantly debating whether I should be trying for a better gig here in Canada or just saying “sod it” and freelancing somewhere cheap. Each option has both advantages and drawbacks.

Downhill Battle is a pro-p2p site with a bunch of fairly intelligent commentary, as opposed to “Kazaa is teh SUX00R” that you sometimes find on other p2p sites.

Bourdain hosts “A Cook’s Tour” on the Food Network, along with having written “Kitchen Confidential,” which is a damn funny (and supposedly true) telling of his days as a chef, and a peek into the sordid culinary underbelly. Here’s an interview with him.

Film Threat used to be a great, sarcastic magazine dedicated to lampooning Hollywood stupidity and promoting independent movies. It’s no longer a magazine , but much like Shift, it lives on in website form. They’ve put up a list of 50 Hollywood types on their way down the ladder of fame that’s good and mean.

For the second time, I was compared to Moby while walking down the street. This time it was four teenage girls who decided I looked like everyone’s favorite musical vegan, and one even sang out “Moby’s a gangster…,” whatever that means. I’m sure it’s hilarious if you happen to be 15 years old.

I shouldn’t complain; I guess looking like Moby means I’ve lost a bunch of weight. They aren’t comparing me to the Kingpin, after all.