Iron Man 2 DVD Copy Protection

     So today, on a whim, I bought the "Iron Man 2" DVD - I hadn't seen the film but thought I'd like it & it was on sale  *shrug*.  As I do with any DVD I purchase, I popped it into my computer to convert it to a format I can easily watch on my iPhone, or stream from a computer to my TV.  The computer buzzed a bit, and spat out a heap of garbage but no video files.  Ughhh.  I flipped the case over and saw the tiny but dreaded "This DVD is copy protected!" symbol.
     It's completely immoral that they're allowed to sell crippled non-standard discs like this as DVD's.  If they want to try and force their waste-my-time copy protection crud down consumers throats then it needs to be clearly labelled.  I don't mean subtle either - I'm talking an industry agreed on standard strip at least 1cm high running across the front cover of the DVD.  Something which states clearly that it's a non-standard DVD and may not provide the functionality expected of a DVD.
     I'm _very_ against pirating.  I think people deserve to paid for their creative efforts.  However it's insane that I need to jump through a bunch of hoops to watch a movie that I've bought, when I could pirate it and have a copy of the movie that just works.  Copy protection (DRM) doesn't stop movies being pirated, it just annoys those that have legitimate copies.  Idiots.
     Paramount (the studio for this particular DVD) seriously needs to rethink their consumer strategy as their current one is "irritating" people that would otherwise support them.  Yeah, they suck.

World's Longest Tunnel Nearly Complete

     So after 15 years the swiss are nearing completion of a 57km railway tunnel, burrowing up to 2km deep underneath the alps.  The cost for the tunnel is close to $10 billion AUD.  What's it for?  High speed rail.
     Australia is comparatively pretty flat, and certainly wouldn't require any tunnels of this magnitude but apparently it's still not viable to run a high speed rail up the east coast.  I know our population is a lot more dispersed, but it's still disappointing that we can't get programs like this off the ground.

Original Article: The Age

Sintel Released

     The Sintel movie has been released!  Go and watch it!  It's an impressive piece of work, and a fairly good showcase for the capabilities of Blender, but I get the feeling it was rushed out to meet a deadline.  There's quite a few little animation/texturing/rendering glitches that really don't help show Blender off to its best advantage.  That's a real shame, because it's an amazing tool.
     Still, what's been produced is far beyond anything I've ever done (worlds beyond) and it's an enjoyable little short.  I'm wondering what the next project will be.