I am a consultant for a small IT firm in Manhattan. We do a lot of small businesses, home businesses, and even home clients. Spyware turns out to be the culprit in probably 90% of our "my computer is slow/not working" calls we get these days. We make it mandatory for all of our techs to install and run Spybot and Ad-Aware on any machine we work on, and I have NEVER seen (or even heard of) a machine with no spyware on it. The third of machines that are uninfected must not have internet connections. Even with Spybot's protective measures activated, an Ad-Aware scan a day later will find something.
We have finally found a use for that nano-Yngwie- Malmsteen we created back in 88... now if only we could find a left handed nano-guitar, nano-Jimi would be able to rock a few nano-bars of nano-purple-haze.
The bootlegging of movies while still in theaters is not at all a new practice. They have been selling such movies here on the streets of NYC for years. A a matter of fact, there was a Curtis comic strip about it nearly 8 years ago, if i remember properly.
The VCD (Video CD) trade has been around for nearly as long, since the format's introduction (I believe it was by Philips.) Only since the recent proliferation of high bandwidth connections hs the trade moved from hardcopies of VCD bootlegs to transferring the files (always over 1gig) over the net. Just hop onto EFNet and search for rooms with VCD in the title, there must be at least 20 at any given time.
The VCD culture is actually quite diverse, as are the qualities of the films. Though many are poor quality recordings of theater releases, there are also:
telesyncs - supposedly a special rig set up by which one can transfer directly from 35mm to video
workprints - prints used by production companies to preview movies among prosucers, etc.
screeners - similar to workprints, but usually the finished film
They are recorded in mpeg format, and they usually have a.mpg or.dat ending. They can be viewed in some laserdisc players and some dvd players on regular tvs, or as mpeg files on a computer. I believe that they are done in 320x240, which is the standard for NTCS in the states. They aren't that bad wither;) Just look around online for a bit, and you can find out tons of info on VCDs...
Slashdot Mirror
I remembered them going after a coffee shop dba Federal Espresso in my home town a while back... found this:
_ 98-9430.shtml
. html
http://www.lexnotes.com/sources/subs/cases/2ndCir
I believe they had to change their name, but funnily enough someone in San Fran is running a Federal Espresso now:
http://www.usrg.com/drg3/san_francisco/r/39/r3913
Maybe someone should warn them...
I am a consultant for a small IT firm in Manhattan. We do a lot of small businesses, home businesses, and even home clients. Spyware turns out to be the culprit in probably 90% of our "my computer is slow/not working" calls we get these days. We make it mandatory for all of our techs to install and run Spybot and Ad-Aware on any machine we work on, and I have NEVER seen (or even heard of) a machine with no spyware on it. The third of machines that are uninfected must not have internet connections. Even with Spybot's protective measures activated, an Ad-Aware scan a day later will find something.
We have finally found a use for that nano-Yngwie- Malmsteen we created back in 88... now if only we could find a left handed nano-guitar, nano-Jimi would be able to rock a few nano-bars of nano-purple-haze.
The bootlegging of movies while still in theaters is not at all a new practice. They have been selling such movies here on the streets of NYC for years. A a matter of fact, there was a Curtis comic strip about it nearly 8 years ago, if i remember properly.
.mpg or .dat ending. They can be viewed in some laserdisc players and some dvd players on regular tvs, or as mpeg files on a computer. I believe that they are done in 320x240, which is the standard for NTCS in the states. They aren't that bad wither ;) Just look around online for a bit, and you can find out tons of info on VCDs...
The VCD (Video CD) trade has been around for nearly as long, since the format's introduction (I believe it was by Philips.) Only since the recent proliferation of high bandwidth connections hs the trade moved from hardcopies of VCD bootlegs to transferring the files (always over 1gig) over the net. Just hop onto EFNet and search for rooms with VCD in the title, there must be at least 20 at any given time.
The VCD culture is actually quite diverse, as are the qualities of the films. Though many are poor quality recordings of theater releases, there are also:
telesyncs - supposedly a special rig set up by which one can transfer directly from 35mm to video
workprints - prints used by production companies to preview movies among prosucers, etc.
screeners - similar to workprints, but usually the finished film
They are recorded in mpeg format, and they usually have a