"I've lived in darkness a long time. Over the years my eyes adjusted until the dark became my world and I could see ..."
August 17th will see the latest adventures of everyone’s favorite serial killer/loving father/blood spatter expert Dexter released on DVD and Blu-ray.
The fourth season of the Showtime series, starring Michael C. Hall as the titular character Dexter and featuring John Lithgow as the mysterious Trinity Killer, pits two prolific serial killers against each other in a battle of wits and fortitude. When these two play murder and malice are always on the menu.
No special features have been announced as of yet, but it has been announced that there will be a packaged collection of seasons 1-4 released on the same day for those of you that have put off adding Dexter to your collection until now.
Let me start by saying that I have always been that guy. The one who legitimately buys all of his music and movies, but that isn't to say that there hasn't been a time where I have been tempted to just download some of my entertainment for the always welcomed price of free, and for as long as I can remember Pirate Bay has been there tempting me.
But that is one mans private battle, the news today may affect a few more of you.
PirateBay, the torrent host site that has been repeatedly attacked by Hollywood for years, is currently offline. The site that put countless files at your fingertips for free has been on the forefront of a long and ugly battle about media piracy and copyright infringement for years.
Last year the operators of PirateBay were found guilty of copyright infringement by a Swedish court and were sentenced to jail time and responsible for paying $3.6 million in damages. The money was meant to assuage copyright holders, such as movie studios, and put a dent on what was ruled as illegal activity on the PirateBay site.
The fact that PirateBay is technically a Swedish website has allowed it to continue operating for so long, through something of a loophole, with little legal ramifications up until recently. The latest attempt to end what Hollywood feels is clearly copyright infringement has effectively shut down The Pirate Bay's operation. This was done by filing a successful injunction against The Pirate Bays bandwidth provider Hollywood, and other copyright holders who have felt their rights infringed, have a victory ... if only temporarily.
Man, this is kind of an ugly article and for that I apologize. So to lighten up the mood here is a classic scene from Amazon Women on the Moon:
The topic of piracy is pretty volatile, and I expect that there are a large range of opinions from you guys, so feel free to make you opinion known below!
UPDATE: The Pirate Bay is back up and running again, figured as much, proving how hard it is for even powerful interests such as Hollywood to shot down copyright infringers. It really comes down to an issue of support, a lot of people dish out a lot of money for their entertainment while many people at the same time look for their fix for free. As long as there are users sites like this will exist, for better or worse.
Mixed martial arts is badass, don't let the picture to the right fool (or offend, because I don't want the ever living snot beat outta me) you.
Good news today for all of you fans of UFC, you now have another option for viewing mixed martial arts madness: Roku.
In a multi-year deal between Roku and the Ultimate Fighting Championship honchos every major pay-per-view event will be available for streaming. The first event to take advantage of this deal is UFC 114 and it will occur May 29th in something of a grudge match between Quinton "Rampage" Jackson and "Suga" Rashad Evans.
If you have a Roku box and want to see a preview of what the new B.A. Baracus (Jackson) will look like in the new A-Team movie you can check it out details about the UFC 114 and further information on this new partnership here.
One of my favorite fight scenes from Iron Man 2 involved Tony Stark versus a novel desk decoration. The decoration won.
Now the fine people over at ThinkGeek have made it possible for you to relive the action with their release of "Swinging Stick Kinetic Energy Sculpture". This desk ornament will surely make you the envy of your coworkers, if not slowly driving you insane with its constant spinning and spinning and spinning and -
Where was I?
Oh yeah; Swinging Stick Kinetic Energy Sculpture. If you think you got what it takes to beat Iron Man in a battle of wits head on over to ThinkGeek and start ogling. With a price tag worthy of Tony Stark ($239.99!) this fine piece of art is to rich for my blood, but man does it look cool or what!
Today, May 14th, is the 50th anniversary of the creation of the Light Amplified by Stimulated Emission of Radiation (or laser, to the cool kids). And for the past half century it has been one of the most versatile tools of the modern world.
Think about it, without the laser what would we be doing?
Answer: Living in a Dark Age; watching VHS and listening to your cassette tapes while still having to constantly shave unwanted hair from certain parts of your anatomy. Worst or all; never being able to experience the joy and wonderment of a Laser Floyd show!
From medical advancements to being an integral part of the entertainment industry I would imagine that it would be hard to go one day without encountering some form of laser technology. And while we may not have a Death Star grade laser beam quite yet just imagine how far this simple beam of concentrated light has come in 50 years, then look 50 years into the future ...
Hulu has just announced some new features that should make streaming your TV shows and flicks a little more convenient and enjoyable. These new tools allow more customization by the viewer and an in general more streamlined viewing experience.
There are several new features; here are some of the highlights:
Adaptive Bit-rate Streaming: This optional feature will allow for the video quality to be adjusted based on the individual users available bandwidth. This should significantly cut down on buffering times, and compensate for any connection problems by smoothing out the video playback.
Ad Volume Normalization: We've all been there, watching our show at the appropriate volume and then -BAM!- extra loud commercial comes out of no where! This welcomed new feature will automatically balance out the volume on the commercials, so you can ignore them in peace.
Seek Preview: Now when you hold your cursor over any point in the timeline of the video a thumbnail will appear allowing you to see exactly what is happening at that point in the video. This will make it a lot easier to find certain scenes or pick up from where you left off.
A Bigger, Sleeker Player: The video dimensions are now 25% larger and all of the buttons only appear now when you mouse scrolls across them. This change is both larger and less distracting then the previous format and looks pretty slick too.
For details on the rest of the features check out the official Hulu blog and be sure to try out the new features when you get a chance. I plan on catching up on my 24 as soon as I am done here.
Source: Blu-ray.com
