Bye Pirate Bay?

A shocking news -I'm exaggerating- came from the official blog of The Pirate Bay. One of the most visited sites on the Internet changed owner. Although the blog said "it might", the fact has been confirmed through numerous external sites. GGF (Global Gaming Factory X) was the one responsible behind the acquisition.

I read about it from Devils Workshop: GGF hopes to make Pirate Bay “Legal” for Free Music and Movies. The title implies that GGF had planned to make Pirate Bay legal. How? I don't really know.

My best bet was that GGF will have something like Mininova's Content Distribution service where people could distribute legal -as in No Copyright Infringement- files. Another alternative would be something like BitTorrent's DNA which enables users to stream videos (or any other content) using peer-to-peer protocol.

Back to the Pirate Bay. What will it offers in the future? What will happen to its modus operandi? Will it stay a Pirate in the hands GGF? Let's just wait and see. The fact is there are many similar sites to the Pirate Bay. If you can't rely on the Pirate Bay anymore then you can easily move on to another reliable torrent sites.

There's a good chance that GGF might add some valuable improvements to the Pirate Bay. Looking at their thoughts on the site then we might be able to see a more legal file sharing. I think t would be great to be able to share files without having to argue that its not stealing. Let's just wait and see what the future holds for the Pirate Bay.

AAA Indie: Another Open Source Paradigm?

Out of curiosity, I took my time to read about AAA Indie. AAA Indie is actually a game development paradigm initiated by Interstellar Marines developer, Zero Point Software. Although it sounds like a new development paradigm, I can't help comparing it with typical open source development paradigm.

Here's a quick and obviously dirty (also subjective) comparison between the two paradigm.

Based on what Zero Point Software team define on their website, AAA Indie is:

1. AAA Indie is AAA games done independently from publishers.
2. AAA Indie is the gamer and the developer, no one else.
3. AAA Indie is development with open doors, so gamers can track games in development.
4. AAA Indie lets the gamers 'vote' for the games they want to play - simply by expressing their interest.
5. AAA Indie is open for anyone with a dream a the will to deliver on that dream.

Why I think that it is basically not too different from typical opensource paradigm?

1. Opensource is anything but dependent.
2. Opensource is the user and the developer.
3. Opensource is open (otherwise it would be called Closedsource), so users should be able to keep up with the development progress.
4. Opensource lets users express their interest.
5. Opensource is -quoting from above- open for anyone with a dream a the will to deliver on that dream.

Both are similar, right?

Furthermore, AAA Indie was somewhat relying on user contributions, i.e. donations. With more users supporting the development, they will eventually form a community. All of these are also traits in typical opensource development. The only difference was that AAA Indie did not explicitly open an opportunity to let other developers join the development team.

Nevertheless, opensource or not, this new trend might be a good thing in the game development. Hopefully new AAA games would be available to many gamers without the need of game publishers meddling in and boost the pricing during the process.

Supposedly a Gmail Ninja Master

Official Gmail Blog: So, you want to be a Gmail ninja?

Silent please. I'm currently practicing a jutsu. :p

I finally had the time to take a quick peek at the Gmail Ninja tips. Since I'm curious as to what I would miss from the tips, I decided to take a good look at every single tips they had to offer. How far have I go? Here's a checklist of what I've achieved in the Gmail Ninja ways.

1. Kagebunshin no jutsu.
Like hell ... :p

OK. I'll be serious now. :)

WHITE BELT
1. Use stars to indicate a note is special.
Piece of cake!
2. Reply by chat.
Never bother to use this.
3. Organize your email with labels.
This is basic email management.
4. Clean up your inbox using "Move to" -- it works just like folders.
This is basically removing the "Inbox" label from a message. I don't need it.
5. Search your mail instead of sorting.
It's Google -of course I searched.
6. Archive messages to tidy up your inbox without deleting anything.
I prefer to let them all piled up in my inbox. :)
7. Import your email and contacts from your old address.
Unfortunately I'm still using my old Yahoo!Mail address.
8. Spice up your inbox with a theme.
The default theme should be enough.
9. Join forces to rid the world of spam.
Sure.

GREEN BELT
1. Talk face-to-face with video chat.
Not with a slow Internet connection like mine. :p
2. Use Tasks as a handy to-do list.
Ah ... Tasks IS a life savior.
3. Use filters to control the flow of incoming mail.
4. Highlight important emails using filters and colored labels.
Weren't these two supposed to be basic?
5. Send email from your phone.
My phone does not support Gmail. I wonder why.
6. Preview attachments without downloading them.
Another life savior.
7. Avoid email gaffes with Undo Send.
Let's just leave it to fate. :)
8. Tell your friends what you're up to with a status message.
Or in my case, a way to promote my blog.
9. Never forget an attachment again.
I've turned this feature on and never since then have I forgot any attachment. How fortunate. :)
10. Tell everyone when you'll be back with vacation responder.
I never need this.
11. Nothing says "I'm excited" like a bouncing happy face emoticon.
I guess I'll have a look at these new emoticons.

BLACK BELT
1. Get through your mail faster with keyboard shortcuts.
Only when using mouse is not faster.
2. Use search operators to find the exact message you're looking for.
I'm having a hard time memorizing the operators.
3. Filter your email with personalized email addresses.
This is new for me.
4. See which messages were sent right to you.
Totally forgot about this.
5. Make Gmail go where the internet doesn't.
Never thought about using an Offline Gmail before.
6. Quickly add multiple attachments to an email.
Ctrl+click to select. Done that. Forgot that.
7. Add "(EOM)" to the subject of one-liner messages.
I see.
8. Set up canned responses instead of typing the same reply over and over again.
But then it won't be personal. :p
9. Click less and watch more using YouTube, Flickr, Picasa, and Yelp previews.
Yelp?
10. Use quick links to get anywhere in Gmail with one click.
I've used this in conjunction to the "is:unread" search operators to create an "All Unread" link. I even made a small tutorial about it in Bahasa Indonesia. Yes, I'm promoting. :)
11. Send and archive in one step.
Never felt like archiving any conversation.

GMAIL MASTER
1. Bring Google Calendar and Docs to Gmail.
I want to, but I don't need it.
2. Forget to sign out of a public computer? Sign out remotely.
I know about it, but fortunately I never forgot to sign out. This is mostly because I've always clear cookies, authenticated session, and other personal data whenever I close my browser ... I mean my Firefox.
3. Personalize your RSS feeds in web clips.
Yes, I've used this. Now I don't have any web clips showing in my inbox. Hurray!
4. Access your mail via https.
There's an option to turn it off. I'm surprised.
5. Search for superstars by name.
Don't wanna use it.
6. Use Gmail on your own domain.
Although I've used this before, but I'm sure this feature is mainly targeted to groups or organizations.

That's all there is to the Gmail Ninja ways. That is if no new tips are added. So to sum it up, being a Gmail Master would be easy as long as we need it. Never force your way in the Gmail Ninja ways if you don't think it's worth the effort.

However, I think some tips should be up there. Things like Right-side chat or Right-side labels. I think this is quite important for those people who have a long list of contacts or labels -I'm one of them. Then there's the Inbox preview. This is quite helpful for people with slow Internet connection -again I'm one of them.