Bitlet – download a torrent without a program

Bitlet looks to be a very interesting site that lets you download bit-torrent file with the need of a program like uTorrent or Azureus. All you need to do is copy and paste the torrent link into the Bitlet input box and click the Download Torrent button.

What is really good, though, is publishers can provide a direct link to download a torrent file using BitLet. Just put your link to the torrent metafile and press the generate code button and Bitlet will give you a direct download link for your readers. I haven’t tried it but it looks to be good stuff if it works as said.

Addition (31-10-2007) – What to use instead of Oink? Oink was a music site/tracker although I never tried it , it was meant to be the best for illegal downloads – http://oink.cd/

Windows Media DRM cracked again

I have posted many times about fairuse4wm and how it enables you to copy protected windows media files.

Well over at Doom forums , where they discussed the previous versions, there is talk about a new tool for uncovering the individual keys from Microsoft’s DRM blackbox components (“IBX”), up to version 11.0.6000.6324 , that will work with Vista and newer versions of the media player (v11?) and Zune software. It has also been convirmed to work with Vista 64 as well.

The person writing about this has the name Divine Tao and says they have nothing to do with the original hacker Viodentia (which recently Microsoft dropped charges as they could not find the person), strangely if you mix the letters in Divine Tao, you get Viodentia!

fairuse4wm is at v1.3fix2 and all details are at Doom.

Microsoft is cool? on the Surface.

You have probably seen demos of this before. It was on the news a couple of days ago but I only saw the last few seconds so didn’t quite catch it properly. I came across a good site that talked about Surface when I was reading something else, glad I did.

If Apple talked about this and showed the demo, their fans would be talking up a storm and knocking on an Apple shop demanding to buy one. But Microsoft? Nah it can’t be good, well why not, have a look at the video if you haven’t seen it – wow is the word you will say.

More info at Microsoft

Plasma vs LCD

What do you folks think? Which is better, not technically because that really doesn’t matter and whether I can see a pimple on a face in a crowd at football doesn’t mean it is better. What I want to know is what/why do you think one looks best in your lounge room at home.

I have both and I have to say for the best picture I think plasma is the go. LCDs for me seem a bit ‘computery (??)’ the picture contrast just isn’t right, where the Plasma (mine’s a fairly expensive Fujitsu model) has great colour and resolution (pic quality not just pixels) and is perfectly fine day or night. People say LCD is better for daytime viewing but I have absolutely no problems with the plasma, and it’s facing a window.

I have just read this , I guess, advertising spiel from Panasonic and pretty much have to agree about the pic quality facts. They say that an independant survey has about 70% of viewers prefering plasma in Australia. I do admit I only have HD free to air signals (that’s up to 1080i) and DVD, no HDdvd or Blueray (and not interested in them either) but I really only watch free to air and not much else.

new HD-DVD protection hacked prior to release.

It seems that the new super duper HD-DVD protection has been hacked prior to its release. I wonder how much money went down the drain on this investment? Probably the HD-DVD’s would be way cheaper if the consumer would stop paying money for such intrusive protected media.

On May 22nd, new HD movies will be released featuring AACS version 3 and using a new volume key, however, unfortunately for the AACS LA, the new version has been beaten already! SlySoft’s AnyDVD HD software has been reported to be able to rip early release previews of the Matrix trilogy that use this new AACS version.

It was not long ago that the AACS LA revoked the old key and even tried issuing cease & desist letters to websites, including Google & Digg, to remove the published key. However, that simply resulted in a major backfire. Interestingly, they still plan on clamping down on key distribution, even though this is likely only going to help encourage the spreading of keys all over again!

Amazon acquires dpreview.com

DPreview.com has been my favourite site for all things camera wise. Their reviews are excellent, very detailed and helped me sort through the millions of cameras available and get down to the one I like.

It seems the they have been bought out by Amazon, I hope this doesn’t effect their reveiwing ability and stay a bit independent from Amazon trying to push certain brands and models. I hope they have made a mint with the sale.

We’re proud and excited to announce that Dpreview has been acquired by the worlds leading online retailer, Amazon.com. Started as hobby site in 1998, dpreview.com has grown to be the number one destination for anyone interested in digital cameras and digital photography. Each month dpreview.com has seven million unique visitors (over 22 million sessions) who read over 120 million pages. “We’ve worked very hard over the last eight years to deliver consistently high quality content to our readers”, founder Phil Askey said. “It will be fantastic to be able to expand and build on that without compromising our quality or independence. With the support and resources of Amazon we can achieve this.”

Digging around for the HD-DVD key

I have just read this story over at the Australian (newspaper). Very interesting, it seems that the Digg members are up in arms about censorship and the deleting of posts because of an advertisers say so. Remember the so-called hacking is also use so Linux users can ply these disks on their systems – As far as I know, even playing DVD movies on linux is illegal because you need to have the key for that as well.

I don’t understand why anyDVD software is available, doesn’t it do the same? (great software BTW)

One of the world’s most popular technology news websites collapsed today after a revolt by its users.

Digg.com was unavailable this afternoon after users began attacking the site after it censored stories reporting how to hack high-definition DVD discs. Digg is a so-called “social news” site that publishes stories and ranks them according to votes by its users.

When the DVD hacking story was taken down, users rebelled and began re-submitting the stories by the thousands. The site soon collapsed under the weight of the attack.

But Digg founder Kevin Rose, who made the decision to pull the reports off the site, later joined users in agreeing to not allow censorship in the future.

“After seeing hundreds of stories and reading thousands of comments, you’ve made it clear,” Mr Rose said on his blog. “You’d rather see Digg go down fighting than bow down to a bigger company.

“We hear you, and effective immediately we won’t delete stories or comments containing the code and will deal with whatever the consequences might be.”

A blog on TEXYT linked to from the website claimed the founders of Digg had previously accepted sponsorship from a company called HD-DVD Promotion Group. According to the blog, an online video program run by the site’s founders Mr Rose and Jay Adelson was sponsored by the group and the HD-DVD logo was displayed at the start of one episode as a “pre-roll” advertisement.

The key that is needed is available just about anywhere – a quick search (via Digg of all things) even came up with the key on a T-shirt!

Edit – TechChee has some more pics and info at his site. Check out the church one.

Amazing animated GIF

Just a little post.

Go over to joepixel and see one of the best animated Gifs I have ever seen.

Any one else got some good ones to show me?

Fairuse4WM 1.4

I have posted previously about Fairuse a couple of times and how it is good for removing DRM from files you own – so you can then play the files on a player that doesn’t support Windows Media DRM.

It seems that there is a bit of talk about Fairuse4WM v1.4. Read the info over at Stream Recorder also some great info and links at All Streaming Media including v1.3 fix.

I am doubting there will be a v1.5

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UntwistedVortex’s fantastic eight for one deal

Joost Invite

I have finally been given the opportunity to test Joost.

What is Joost? Joost is a new way of watching TV on the internet. Supposedly with Joost, you get all the things you love about TV, including a high-quality full-screen picture, hundreds of full-length shows and easy channel-flipping.

I’ll see if it’s true or not. Is this the next big thing, probably not but I’ll give it a go?

Since we received your application to join the Joost Beta test program, we’ve been very busy fine-tuning it for you. So here’s some good news: we’re now ready to expand our beta test program, and we’re delighted to invite you to join us.

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