Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Hiatus

Yes, thats what it is!

Hiatus. No computer, no blog. Will in some time. Till then!

Monday, October 22, 2007

The Iceman is champion

Woohoo!!! What an awesome race. No team orders, no bull!. Just pure racing and some misfortune for Lewis Hamilton saw the Iceman - Kimi Raikkonen win his maiden World Championship. Some really level-headed racing by Felipe Massa and Kimi ensured that no one else overtook them and got Kimi the championship by just 1 point!.

Picture courtesy ABC Corp.



Its so fun/satisfying/interesting/awesome/cool/beautiful/gratifying to see that people do not like a taste of their own medicine when stuffed down their throat and get all hot under the collar and lose their cool. Nice one!! (Don't know why this keeps coming in small letters - unable to change, hence leaving as is!).

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Update on own domain

Thanks to Anwin, I have validated my new domain name using Google WebMaster Tools and also seen to it that Google crawls my new domain. Have also added a sitemap using the feed. So Google should be updating itself with this info and hope to be getting Smorty back up.

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Oh! God Google

Man, seems like I made a mistake getting my own domain. Now, Google doesn't know me. Smorty has shut down my account and Payperpost doesn't bother to know that I have been blogging for years now and is not giving me any more paid opps. Have tried entering keywords on my blog, Meta-tags are in place and have even done some URL submissions. No go!!.

Damned Google-god, open your eyes and count this mortal in!!

Its not http://naveenroy.blogspot.com anymore. Its http://www.naveenroy.com

Thursday, October 11, 2007

Black Sabbath poster up!

The poster is finally up where it belongs. This poster was given me on my b'day some time back by the guys!. Thanks a lot dudes!!


Black Sabbath poster

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Steal Our Album, Help Bury the Label

My opinion on organisations like the RIAA and CRIA is that they are killing music. They are simply hack-sawing (slowly) the goose that in the end, lays the golden egg!. They seem to be lost in the golden age of music and are following an old and unsustainable business model. A lot has been written about this and we don't seem to be seeing the end of it. DRM and other useless restrictions are destroying the freedom on music we listen to. I don't see why I can't rip onto my computer a music CD that I bought!. I paid for it. I own it. Or if there is a problem, the band that created this music in the first place owns the recording!. All these needless antics of law-suits by the recording industry on people who share music online or recently, even ripped the CD onto a computer is crazy. Recording industry - your business is flawed!. You better come up with some ideas - fast!. The point I am trying to put across here is that all these law-suits and what-not finally do not end up helping the artist!. Your online sales of DRM-crippled music does not help the artist in any way. I'm happy to see that more newer artists seem to be realising this slowly but surely. They realise that the recording industry is somewhat skewed against them in the first place.

So into the picture comes this frontman of a band called Throwdown. He simply said this - "I play in a metal band. We have sold around 200K records across 3 releases. We’re not ‘huge’ by any stretch but do alright and live off (and ON subsequently) the road. Fans and friends ask me all the time how I feel about “stealing music.” I just told someone yesterday “I have a hard time seeing it as stealing…when I don’t see any money from cd sales to begin with." (emphasis mine). He goes on to give a message to the file-sharers out there: “I encourage our fans to acquire our album however they please. The philosophy I’ve adopted is that if you’re supporting disc sales, you’re keeping the old model around longer…the one that forces dudes like me to tour 9 mos/year if they want to make ends meet with a career in music". Ending with a final insult for the record business, Peters hits a sweet note that will likely resonate with many as they reflect on the record labels future usefulness: “If you wanna really support a band, “steal” their album….help bury the label….and buy a tshirt when you show up at their show and sing every word”.

More on this article on TorrentFreak.

Another very interesting article that I came across on TorrentFreak was an "Open Letter to the CRIA". The writer most of the times reflects my sentiments exactly!. On a recent visit to a music store, I was really pissed off at seeing so many "Greatest Hits" and "World's Biggest Metal Hits" collections. Like the author says - "The record labels cry about downloading cutting into the profits of the sales of albums. They put out “greatest hits” albums by 20-year olds with 2 or 3 albums under their belts, released with one new track to try and sucker the fans that already have both albums into spending another $20 for one new song, or re-releasing a 3-month old album with a “previously unreleased bonus track”. Then they can’t understand why people aren’t buying them, and cry foul that people are downloading the one new song instead". Simple logic I must say.

Another interesting point is that NO ONE in the "popular" media seems to be "promoting" metal. "So tell me, what does the CRIA do to promote metal? Oh, right, you’ve got a link to the top 50 “metal” albums in Canada, which after a quick glance at the top ten this week includes punk acts like Dropkick Murphys, Finger Eleven, and Billy Talent, and rock acts like Nickelback and Queen, but very little that resembles heavy metal. (Perhaps you should ask the Celtic punk band, Dropkick Murphys, what they think of being labeled as “metal”.)"

Damn, its a very interesting read - please check out the whole article here.

The recording industry's business model seems to be dying - "No prayer for the dying"! Bury the label!!.

Monday, October 08, 2007

Iceman triumphs

Good race. Nice to see a fight till the last race for the Driver's Championship. Bad luck for Hamilton, good luck for Kimi.

Thursday, October 04, 2007

Cash Advance

I've been stuck at times with no money at all and a financial emergency at hand. These are times when I wish there was someone around to help me out with some moolah!. Just browsing around, I came across this site where they have cash advance and payday loans. Reading through the site and I saw that consumers can apply for cash advance payday loans through the Internet and/or in thousands of Cash Advance stores nationwide, with loans ranging from $100-$1500. The advantages on an Internet loan is that the process can be done securely and anonymously from ones home and the loan process is often completed faster. If approved, the loan amount is then sent overnight via wire into the applicant’s checking or savings account. Payday loans are a good alternative to bouncing checks, selling personal property for less than it is worth, or uncomfortable situations like borrowing money from family and friends.

Wow, this makes it a lot more easier for people facing a financial crunch!.

Wednesday, October 03, 2007

Compulsory draft for India?

Well, me thinks this is a very good idea. India is one of the few developing/developed countries in the world which does not have its citizens to compulsorily serve in the army at one point in their lives. I really believe that this will teach a lot of values to our people and make them learn discipline both mental and physical!. Also think that it will teach them to stop cribbing and crying for all the governments faults and help out more to make this country a better place. Your thoughts?

For more information on conscription, check out Wikipedia.