So, are you paranoid yet?

Hopefully many of the people who read this blog are wise enough to run anti-virus software on their computers at least once a week. Particularly active net-users tend to pick up a trojan virus or two when they go web surfing, while others may make the mistake of downloading an unknown attachment in a seemingly innocuous email. However smart PC/Mac users should always know to scan new files for viruses, especially if the source of the files is not well-known.

According to an article over at TopTechNews.com, you may want to run your anti-virus software after installing a name-brand product. The article, called "Some Viruses Come Pre-Installed," talks in length about how big-name products such as iPods or GPS devices can occasionally come prepackaged with viruses. It's real scary stuff, but a great read.

Computer chips and you.

Most people are not familiar with the process by which computer chips are made. I found this video on YouTube that explains the manufacturing process. Here, take a look:

Feature: A Look at Piracy in 2007

In an October 2007 report by the Institute for Policy Innovation called “The True Cost of Copyright Industry Piracy to the U.S. Economy,” it was reported that every year the United States losses over $58 billion due to the piracy of movies, games, and music. It also claims that the amount of money lost has grown dramatically every year and shows little sign of slowing down.

This alarming piracy rate doesn’t stem just from professional bootleggers, but also from college students. In an article from Ars Technica, twenty-five schools from across the nation are scored according to piracy rates among students. While Rowan University doesn’t make this not-so-prestigious list, Columbia University does top the charts with a whopping 1,198 students recorded downloading illegally last year.

However one could easily argue that the current piracy rate does not hold that much of an impact. According to an article by Yahoo! News, the Motion Picture Association of America has reported that U.S. box office receipts have raised 5.4% from 2006 to 2007, marking an all-time record high box office gross of $9.63 billion.

While an article at Torrentfreak.com claims there have been over half a million downloads of the popular blockbuster film “Transformers” in 2007, this seems like a very minor loss seeing how much money the movie made. In theaters alone, “Transformers” grossed over $320 million in the U.S; on DVD it has made over $315 million. To many bootleggers, the movie’s massive success carries with it a defense. Excuses such as “it already made so much money” or “I could rent it anyway and lose five bucks” let pirates carry on with their activities with nary a hint of guilt. However, when the pirated property isn’t an international smash hit, then the damage is far more noticeable.

In November of 2007, the highly-hyped computer game Crysis was released in the US amid high scores from critics. The visually intense action game was projected to sell millions and garner tons of fans. Corporate executives at the game’s publisher, Electronic Arts, were both surprised and horrified when in the first few months of its release, Crysis only sold around 80,000 units internationally. Some speculated that the low sales figures were a result of high system requirements by the game, but the real reason turned out to be piracy.

At the time of the game’s release, it was recorded that on one torrent site alone, over 5,000 copies of Crysis were downloaded every day. Considering that the product retails for $50, that’s over $250,000 lost on a daily basis.

The damage that piracy does to the entertainment business every year is increasing and while for the most part the damage isn’t significant, the fact is that piracy is growing at an incredible rate. While blockbuster titles such as the upcoming “Dr. Seuss's Horton Hears a Who” will no doubt make big money at the box office, small indie films and local bands stand to loss the most in the face of this ever-growing illegal pastime.

Yet I doubt it'll stop Vista from crashing.

I don't think there's been a single day in the last two years that I haven't used a computer either at home or at school that did not freeze or crash at some point. For many people, having a computer crash on them is a frequent and exasperating annoyance. Now it would appear that there is a program in the works that hopes to help rectify these crashes.

According to an article in the Tech section of the New York Time's online site, two software engineers are working on a program called "ReplayDirector." The program works off the same premise held by DVRs and TiVo: your computer is recorded while you are using it and up to when the crash occurs. After the crash, the user can then rewind the "ReplayDirector" device and watch what led up to the system freeze.

According to the article, Steven Giles, director of Electronic Art's online operations, has been testing the device and swears that it is incredibly useful in spotting random and inconsistent bugs which can lead to crashes.

An FAQ about ReplayDirector can be found here. The product itself is meant primarily for major corporations. The current selling price is $50,000 with discounts for multiple machines.

And so the pirating begins.

It would appear that the enterprising piracy advocates over at SlySoft Products have come up with a new piece of software which can allegedly break the copyrights on Blu-ray discs. An article on Top Tech News reports that SlySoft has come up with a new program which supposedly allows would-be bootleggers to make copies of high definition movies such as I Am Legend and 300.

Seeing that Blu-ray has only recently beaten out HD-DVD in the format war, this could be the start of rocky sales charts for Sony's high-definition format. It was only in January of last year that HD-DVD began to be thoroughly pirated and distributed all over the web (an article of the event can be read here) and many critics felt that the piracy rate of the format led to its death. It's still too early to start crying that it's the end of the world for Blu-ray, but it certainly doesn't bode well for it.

On a personal note I cannot stand piracy. While the price of Blu-ray is rather high (the average blockbuster flick goes for $30), bootlegging only serves to further damage the film industry.