Pirate Bay dies, techies everywhere weep

Even though the founders of Pirate Bay lost their trial, I never would have guessed they would sell it. But they did, and of all things they sold it to a company that promises to "compensate copyright owners" for whatever is downloaded on the site.

There's some other stuff that's going to change about Pirate Bay too, but they're all unimportant. Pirate Bay as we know it is dead, since they're going legit. They have already started moving torrent trackers off of the central servers. It's the end of an era now.

The Hollywood and music industry fat cats have won. This isn't about the people who make the music and movies that are pirated, since they get paid relatively squat compared to how much money is made by the companies that own the distribution rights. And let's not mention the fact that the entertainment industry will once again see no reason to change it's outdated physical media distribution methods and its stupid DRM-protected online media.

Long story short, the rich will get richer, and we'll have one less place to grab our media. Farewell Pirate Bay, you guys were awesome when you were around.

Sources: Gizmodo Joystiq

For ages 6 and up, even if you're 20

It's been a childhood dream to go to Legoland, and I finally went yesterday. I went with my brother's family (with all 2 nephews and the niece), and I realized how old I am, since I was easily 3 times older than the average kid there. Nothing can make you more depressed when you realize you've outgrown your favorite theme park.

That, and being kicked off the go-karts because I was too old didn't make it any better.

So I was of course, I was pleasantly bored of the place for the first couple hours. But then we hit Miniland USA, where the scale model cities (made out of Lego of course) were. Looking around at all of the little Lego people, their cars, and the massive scale model replicas of famous buildings in the US, a little something began to grow within me.

And it wasn't the burrito I had for lunch.

Fast forward a couple hours, and I was browsing the gift shop when I saw the Lego bulldozer set above. What caught my eye was not the set itself, but the tank treads that it had. All of a sudden I went into full-blown Lego constructor mode, building in my mind that battle tank I've always wanted to build. So I laid down the $43.50 for the set, and never looked back. When I got back home, I broke out my old Lego suitcase (yea, I have quite a lot from my childhood), and started constructing.

I stayed up well past 5 in the morning finishing that battle tank up. Now I'm tired as hell, my back hurts like no other, and I have stud-shaped indentations in my feet, but my 1:10 scale model Lego battle tank is AWESOME. Once I'm able to, I'll get pics of it up.

So the moral of the story? You're never too old for Legos. The other moral of the story? Don't throw me into a Lego shop and expect me to get out without draining my bank account.

Pandas + Rockets = Awesomeness

Really, don't think about the name. You're not supposed to think when you're on TEH INTERTUBES anyways, so I guess I shouldn't be worried. Soon I'll change this layout (because the graphic designer in me is screaming to do something), and I'll start posting exciting and thrilling things.

Ok, I exaggerate about the posting. Or was I exaggerating about the 'exciting' and 'thrilling' part? Who knows. Like a cheap soap opera, tune in next episode to find out!