The Netherlands anti-piracy organization BREIN director, Tim Kuik said, “We applaud the fact that Mininova now uses the BitTorrent technology for legal business. We are not against the technology but only against the use of that technology for illegal purposes.” BREIN is similar to the RIAA of America or the CRIA of Canada, but represents both the music and film industry of the Netherlands.

According to Mininova’s official blog, they attempted to install a filtering system, but found that they were unable to create a reliable filter that would comply with the court ruling. This led to them eventually deciding to remove all copyright-protected material and moving their business into the direction of hosting legal content.

File sharing sites or applications, the process of peer to peer sharing, or file hosting itself is not illegal, as long as the content is not copyright-protected or if you own the rights to the material and wish to share online. In fact, some businesses use secure file sharing applications and certain copyright holders choose to distribute their works online voluntarily.

Mininova becoming a legal safe file sharing site will probably only be a small comfort to a hurting music industry as other large torrent sites continue to operate. For example, the legal battle against Pirate Bay started with raids in 2006 and court verdicts in 2009, which included multi-million dollar fines and prison time. The sites owners remain defiant, appealing the verdicts, and keeping the site operational as of this writing. On a page on The Pirate Bay, they list legal threats against them and state that “0 torrents [have] been removed, and 0 torrents will ever be removed.“

Whether or not Mininova’s fate will be a sign of things to come remains to be seen. Many countries’ laws are years behind the technology, but the corporate trend seems to show that the larger sites are beginning to respect copyrights. YouTube is widely known to comply with copyright claims, yet is still rampant with copyrighted material. Smaller musicians and film makers embrace the online sharing and view it as promotion, while the bigger corporations view it as stealing. Facebook has started to filter some material posted that was linked to The Pirate Bay, but just like YouTube, is still filled with illegally shared content.

Your fantastic tutor will be Mr. Donnie Hoyle. He’s been kind enough to take the time out of his perfect life to teach you the basics of Photoshop. Your obviously non-fictional tutor will teach you real life applications that you can start implementing right away. Best of all, he’s not even charging for this awesomeness he’s about to provide.

Get ready for a 20-part award-winning series, created by Matt Bledsoe and Troy Hitch, that will cure you of Photoshop suckiness.

“You Suck at Photoshop” Tutorial #1 (Distort, Warp, & Layer Effects):

“You Suck at Photoshop” Tutorial #2 (Covering Your Mistakes):

“You Suck at Photoshop” Tutorial #3 (Clone Stamp and Manual Cloning):

“You Suck at Photoshop” Tutorial #4 (Paths and Masks):

“You Suck at Photoshop” Tutorial #5 (Select Color Range):

“You Suck at Photoshop” Tutorial #6 (Liquify):

“You Suck at Photoshop” Tutorial #7 (Patch Tools and Levels):

“You Suck at Photoshop” Tutorial #8 (3D Layers):

“You Suck at Photoshop” Tutorial #9 (Curves):

“You Suck at Photoshop” Tutorial #10 (Vanishing Point):

“You Suck at Photoshop” Tutorial #11 (Smart Objects):

“You Suck at Photoshop” Tutorial #12 (Measurement Log):

“You Suck at Photoshop” Tutorial #13 (Displacement):

“You Suck at Photoshop” Tutorial #14 (Video Stuff Reall Fast):

“You Suck at Photoshop” Tutorial #15 (Define Pattern):

“You Suck at Photoshop” Tutorial #16 (Define Brush Preset):

“You Suck at Photoshop” Tutorial #17 (Photomerge):

“You Suck at Photoshop” Tutorial #18 (Annotations):

“You Suck at Photoshop” Tutorial #19 (Shadows and Light):

“You Suck at Photoshop” Tutorial #20 (Distort, Warp, & Layer Effects):

As of next week, YouTube will start supporting 1080p HD videos in full resolution. The HD mode will feature both 720p and 1080p, depending on the resolution of the original source. Videos that have already been uploaded at 1080p will be re-encoded to be displayed properly.

According to Google, although many people will still upload low quality content, they made the move to have the capability to support the ever increasing quality of consumer cameras, faster Internet connections, and the capabilities of personal computers to handle the data. Some criticize the fact that a lot of people don’t have computers capable of displaying a high enough frame rate for HD videos on YouTube at the moment. Regardless, the company feels it is necessary to keep up with the current technology sooner rather than later.

The move also allows for higher quality, professionally produced content to be featured on YouTube. It’s an important step for Google if it ever wants to see YouTube become profitable, as companies seem to be a little shy to place advertisements beside random amateur videos. Because of that, there’s been a little bit of quality control done in terms of which videos are deemed appropriate for advertisers. Personally, I think they go a little bit overboard. For example, they haven’t yet monetized videos of Susan Boyle on Britian’s Got Talent even though they’ve received well over 100 million views.

Check out these images below to get a sense of the difference in quality:

Standard - 360p

HQ - 480p

HD - 720p

HD - 1080p

Google’s new search engine for music has officially launched and is promising to make finding new music easier than ever. Google claims that 2 of their top 10 searches of all time are music related, so this addition to their search capabilities was a no brainer.

Google Music will be incorporated directly into the regular Google search engine, so all you have to do is search for what you’re looking for, as you normally would. For example, you can look up anything from the names of the artist’s or band’s, the album, songs, or sections of the lyrics, and your top results will be from Google Music.

The service is itself doesn’t host any music, but it brings up results from nine music related companies that match what you searched for. The main companies who Google has partnered with are Lala, Myspace, Imeem, Rhapsody, Pandora, Universal, Sony, Warner, and EMI. Each service might vary slightly, but expect it to work similarly to iTunes. You will be able to listen to 30 second previews of songs and will also have the option to buy them.

Songwriters and music publishers have been assured that they will be paid royalties for the use of their music. Independent artists will welcome that with open arms, but for major label artists, they will most likely still be shafted. The major labels consider online music sales to be a part of something they call “New Medium” or “New Media.” Most major label recording contracts are very vague when it comes to this and basically allow the labels and aggregators to keep the majority of the profits.

From a user’s perspective tho, this will allow a quick, easy, and legal way to find and download music. Ironically, it’s very similar to how torrents work, except in a legal corporate way.

Here’s a video from Google explaining “Google Music:”

You can check it yourself by going to Google’s landing page:
http://www.google.com/landing/music/

The service now works in the United States, but as usual, Canada will have to wait a little longer before the service is implemented. Bing has taken approximately 9% of the search engine market from Google since Microsoft launched it earlier this year. Google is hoping the launch of their music search engine will help regain some of the business they have lost. The wildly popular social network, Facebook, is not a part of the Google Music deal, but they also have plans to incorporate a music store. It looks like companies and record labels are finally embracing the Internet. They’re only about a decade late, but it’s a step in the right direction.

At the 2009 Tokyo Motor Show, Nissan showcased the eye catching, all electric, zero-emission concept car, the Land Glider. As you can probably tell by looking at the photos, this is not your typical concept car. Introduced alongside the Nissan Leaf, also a zero-emission vehicle, set to be introduced to select markets in Fall of 2010, the Nissan Land Glider is a light electric vehicle that resembles a car mixed with a motorcycle mixed with an airplane. Unlike the Nissan Leaf however, no word yet on whether or not the Land Glider will be put into production.

The overall look of the Nissan Land Glider is something that immediately catches people’s attention. The four wheeler may technically be a car, but it’s narrow frame resembles that of a motorcycle. On corners, the car allows for a tilt of up to 17 degrees, which may give the driver a feeling of riding a bike or flying a plane. In fact, the steering “wheel” is actually similar to a flight yoke. The 2 seater also has a tandem bike design with a rear passenger seat, rather than directly beside the driver. The rear view mirrors are gone, instead replaced with cameras and monitors. The interior includes premium leather upholstery and an impressive dashboard with a dual information display that really adds to the modern jet look and feel.

The Nissan Land Glider is powered by two lithium-ion batteries mounted directly underneath the floor of the vehicle. The batteries can be recharged at any wireless charging station due to the non-contact charging system of the Land Glider. With the U.S. Department of Energy’s recent $99.8 million commitment to building 2,500 EV charging stations and the production of the Nissan Leaf, electric cars, such as the Nissan Land Glider concept, will become a more reasonable solution for those looking to move away from traditional gas guzzlers.

Althought the Nissan Land Glider is a concept, the Nissan Leaf will become a reality. If you’re interested, in the USA, they will be released in five major markets: Tennessee, Oregon, San Diego, Seattle, and the Pheonix/Tucson region. They will also be available in Europe and Japan. Those select markets will have the Leaf released in 2010, and then in 2012, there will be a global launch. The cost of the Nissan Leaf is expected to be in the $25,000 – $33,000 range. For more information, you can check the official page of the Nissan Leaf.

Pics for the Nissan Land Glider are above. Here’s a brief look at the Nissan Leaf below:

Check out the video of Nissan Land Glider below:

]]> http://www.monkeylog.com/2009/10/25/nissans-zero-emission-land-glider/feed/ 0 http://www.monkeylog.com/2009/10/22/china-building-worlds-greenest-tower/ http://www.monkeylog.com/2009/10/22/china-building-worlds-greenest-tower/#comments Thu, 22 Oct 2009 11:49:05 +0000 Mr. Monkey http://www.monkeylog.com/?p=240 China has been criticized a lot in the media for not doing enough to help fight pollution. Although some points raise valid concerns, the criticism isn’t black and white and one such example of China’s green efforts is a 71 storey tower being constructed in the city of Guangzhou. The designers believe it will be the most energy efficient building in the entire world.

On October 15th 2009, at 5:14am in Moscow (3:14 EST), the Progress M-03M cargo spacecraft was launched, via a Russian Soyuz-U rocket, and is headed to the International Space Station. The rocket blasted off from the Baikonur cosmodrome’s launch pad 1 in Kazakhstan.

The 2,417 kg of cargo it’s delivering to the ISS includes oxygen, food, water, fuel, system equipment, scientific material, hygiene and sanitary products, and packages from the families of the 6 astronauts currently in orbit. The spacecraft is expected to dock with the ISS in 3 days.

The videos below are in reverse chronological order, showing the launch first.

Launch on October 15, 2009:

Positioning the nose:

Preparation for launch:

]]> http://www.monkeylog.com/2009/10/15/cargo-rocket-blasts-off-video/feed/ 0 http://www.monkeylog.com/2009/10/13/machine-makes-water-out-of-thin-air/ http://www.monkeylog.com/2009/10/13/machine-makes-water-out-of-thin-air/#comments Tue, 13 Oct 2009 05:56:01 +0000 Mr. Monkey http://www.monkeylog.com/?p=19

The inside of Element Four's Watermill device.

A Canadian company, Element Four, has invented a machine called the Watermill that converts moisture in the atmosphere into safe, clean, and cheap drinking water.

This device is intended for use in areas of high humidity and low water resources and can produce up to 11 or 12 litres of water a day. At just around 5 cents per litre, it is extremely cheap. The device itself is costly however, costing around $1600. The company is also working on a cheaper version of the Watermill, intended for use in Third World countries.