The “Break it Down” Blog

Vista is a Failure - Microsoft’s Actions Agree

Dialog above doesn’t make any sense does it? Welcome to Windows Vista… I’ve been holding off blogging on The Inquirer’s piece on Vista being a failure, but wanted to throw my 2 cents into the hat as it seems to be making the rounds. The premise of what The Inquirer is saying is the two most damning [...]

Checking Product Pricing and Reviews Instantly

How cool is this… The Consumerist pointed me over to Frucall which is a mobile and online comparison service. You essentially text message the number “fru” with the bar code from the item in question, and the response you get back is a summary of the average rating of the product and it’s price online. So [...]

Comcast to Begin Charging for Tech Visits

If you have been a Comcast customer you may have gotten a warm and fuzzy feeling knowing that your $60/mo bill helped pay for the times when you needed a tech to come out and figure out what was going on with your setup. The Consumerist is reporting that this is all coming to an end [...]

How do Patents Protect Innovation?

When I think of the patent system, I think of pretty much one thing: the little guy being protected from the huge corporation wanting to rip him off for free. It’s because of this fear that I am worried the patent system may never be revised to allow free-thought and innovation that it has begun to [...]

A Tip for Writing Better Javadoc

Writing good Javadoc is hard enough as it is; getting the descriptions just right, explaining enough of the API to make it clear without imposing implementation guidelines on implementors, etc. One thing I’ve been doing for the last few years to make my Javadoc actually look better is trying to be better about using <code></code> tags [...]

Netflix Throttling: 1.5 Months

Well it happened, I sent Netflix an apology for my mean email about throttling and 1 week later it looks like Casino Royale Blu-Ray is shipping, WOOT!

Laziest Cat in the World Excercising

Dear lord, this is beyond cute. Ted Regulski sent this along:

Grindhouse Is a Total Flop

Unfortunately /Film is reporting that Grindhouse was a total box-office flop pulling in something ridiculous like $537 per day on average. As someone that really wants to see the movie I have to say the reason it’s a total flop is because it’s 3hrs and 20mins long… that is about 1hr and 20mins too long [...]

Clash of the Titans to Get Remade

FirstShowing has the buzz that it looks like Clash of the Titans is getting remade. Right now Lawrence Kasdan has been contracted to write the script for it (he wrote Return of the Jedi and Raiders of the Lost Arc). This should be hot!

Sony New DVD DRM Making Disks Unplayable… Again

Nice, after root kits, SXRD green-blob issues, class action lawsuits, flopped PS3 launches I thought Sony had learned it’s lesson… looks like while the electronics division might have, the MPAA-ensconced portion of Sony hasn’t. Looks like some new DRM going out on the DVD releases of some newer movies is making the movies unplayable in some [...]

Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles Gameplay Video

P2P Identification Algorithm Revealed

TorrentFreak got their hands on leaked docs recently that explain how the MPAA/RIAA are identifying users on P2P networks and figuring out who to send Cease and Desist letters to. The algorithm reads as follows:  The client connects to the P2P network, searches for sources of the infringing file, and collects the IP addresses that were [...]