Every once in a while, someone comes along and absolutely wows me with their God-given ability. Nick Pitera was one such individual. He is best known for his solo rendition of Aladdin's A Whole New World. This past week I learned of Lin Yu Chun, a Taiwanese singer who like Nick Pitera, has the incredible "ability" to sing well in a girl's voice. In this clip, he sings "I Will Always Love You" and his performance amazingly and eerily resembles Whitney Houston's cover version. People are already calling him "Taiwan's Susan Boyle".
I have great admiration for people with amazing talents. That's why I love following shows like "Dancing With The Stars", "So You Think You Can Dance", and "American Idol". I can't dance to save my life so I really enjoy watching those who can. I think I am an okay singer (especially in the shower) but when I hear great singing, the kind that raises the hairs on the back of my neck, there's nothing else I'd rather listen to.
My interest in music and singing started while growing up in church. Our church was blessed to have some very gifted singers through the years. I loved sitting near the late Shirley Rathbun. Her singing voice was not only beautiful but also incredibly strong. The congregation often would lean on her voice to carry the tune, especially on the more unfamiliar hymns.
I also enjoyed listening to Mrs. Robinson sing. I think her family moved or something but when I was a kid, I remember that she also had a powerhouse of a voice. I think a part of her enjoyed showcasing it a little bit and I'm glad for it. To this day, some of my favorite hymns (e.g., And Can It Be That I Should Gain?, Gloria in Excelsis Deo) were the ones where she would effortlessly reach those high notes.
Our own Pastor Rathbun is also a great singer. He doesn't sing as many solos as he used to (perhaps to save his voice), but when he does, it still is a treat to listen to. I like it when he changes up the melody a little bit to harmonize with the congregation.
Anyways, back to Lin Yu Chun. He may have a slightly goofy haircut (which brings back some repressed memories) and a slightly chubby build, but he is an incredibly gifted singer. I hope he continues to be recognized for his talents and I'm looking forward to more videos of him.
Friday, April 23, 2010
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
420 = Lame
I woke up this morning and thought today was just another day in April. Apparently April 20th (or more specifically the number 420) carries a little bit more meaning than I originally thought. The term "420" refers to the consumption of cannabis (i.e., weed, pot). I saw at least half a dozen references to "420" on Facebook from various people. Sigh...
I don't understand the fascination with smoking weed. For starters, it's a drug so it's illegal to possess it or to use it. To all of those people who want to try to legalize pot (especially under the guise of closing the budget gap), don't waste your breath with me. I just don't condone the use of drugs, period.
On top of the fact that smoking weed is illegal, the stuff stinks. I remember playing softball a few years ago in a park and some people were smoking the stuff in the woods nearby. Wow, that stuff gave me an instant headache! I don't know how people can stand using it on any kind of regular basis.
Some people claim that pot isn't really a drug. "When was the last time you saw an angry pothead?". "It only gives you the munchies." "It helps me relax." I can't really comment on the validity of any of those claims. Praise God that I've never touched the stuff. I suppose what people do in their own homes and how they choose to waste their money is none of my business. But when I see all of these pot references on an otherwise normal April day, at least I know who all of the potheads are.
Now that I'm gonna be a parent (really) soon, I can't help but feel even less tolerant of this kind of stuff. I want to protect our little guy from as much of this nonsense as I can. I know that I can't raise him in a bubble. I just pray that I teach him well enough where I won't have to.
You know on days like today, I really wish Facebook had a Dislike button...
I don't understand the fascination with smoking weed. For starters, it's a drug so it's illegal to possess it or to use it. To all of those people who want to try to legalize pot (especially under the guise of closing the budget gap), don't waste your breath with me. I just don't condone the use of drugs, period.
On top of the fact that smoking weed is illegal, the stuff stinks. I remember playing softball a few years ago in a park and some people were smoking the stuff in the woods nearby. Wow, that stuff gave me an instant headache! I don't know how people can stand using it on any kind of regular basis.
Some people claim that pot isn't really a drug. "When was the last time you saw an angry pothead?". "It only gives you the munchies." "It helps me relax." I can't really comment on the validity of any of those claims. Praise God that I've never touched the stuff. I suppose what people do in their own homes and how they choose to waste their money is none of my business. But when I see all of these pot references on an otherwise normal April day, at least I know who all of the potheads are.
Now that I'm gonna be a parent (really) soon, I can't help but feel even less tolerant of this kind of stuff. I want to protect our little guy from as much of this nonsense as I can. I know that I can't raise him in a bubble. I just pray that I teach him well enough where I won't have to.
You know on days like today, I really wish Facebook had a Dislike button...
Saturday, April 10, 2010
What's in a Name?
I started this post about 3 months ago and I think today is the perfect day to actually complete it. Tary and I just got back from a full-day child-birthing class. It started at 8:30 AM this morning and it taught us what to expect during the whole child-birthing process. Baby Trinh will be here soon! 5 weeks, 3 days if Baby listens to what my iPhone app is telling me. We still don't have a name finalized for Baby yet. We better get crack-a-lacking!
There a gazillion names to choose from. But how do we narrow down the choices? Well, there are a few things we must keep in mind. Pick a bad name (e.g., rhymes with male anatomy, sounds like an old person's name, has a weird spelling, initials form a bad word, is a fruit, etc) and kids will tease him while he's growing up (until our height genes can kick in). One thing that stinks is a "foreign" or "ethnic" name might limit his opportunities as an adult. We are living in America after all.
Let's start with what we do have. Baby's last name will be "Trinh". That part's a given. Tary and I are traditionalists and Tary took my last name when we got married. I'm actually very proud of that fact. The practice isn't as common as it used to be where you would just assume the wife took her husband's name. It's definitely not common in Asian cultures. It's just a name. Why is it such a big deal? By taking my name, she gave up something of her own. In a me-first society, Tary did the opposite of what the world would have her do. Instead, she wanted us to be united with one mind, one body, one soul, one family, with one name.
So we have a last name. It's a Vietnamese name. But Baby isn't just Vietnamese. He's also Cambodian. Beyond all that, he's also American. His name should represents us, our multiple cultures, and how we plan on raising him.
My given name at birth was Phúc Thanh Do. Say it phonetically in English and you can imagine the kind of childhood I had. Thankfully, someone recommended that I be given an Americanized first name, Paul. Now that sounds more like it. My brother Nguyễn was given the name James.
Paul and James. Two awesome names from the Bible. I can't believe I never realized this until much later in life. My closest cousin is Joseph. My other cousins' names: Steven, Andrew, David, and Daniel. They are all great names found in the Bible. When we started thinking about first names for Baby, we definitely wanted a Biblical name.
The core of our family's values are clearly defined by the truth of God's Word. I am thankful that most of my immediate family are Christians. I think it's starting to be a family tradition to give our boys biblical names. Maybe we will be the first to make it official. Whichever biblical name we choose for Baby, just like how we're putting God first in his name, we're hoping he grows up to put God first in his life.
That's why we really love the name Daniel. The name Daniel means "God is my judge". The prophet Daniel was best known for his fidelity to God. Despite facing persecution for his faith, he remained in God's service. We want to raise Baby to be a light in this world. We want him to be able to stand up and still do what's right. We want him to love and respect others and more importantly, to love and fear God.
So that leaves us with the middle name. There are a bunch of Cambodian names to consider. We want a name that has a good meaning. We also want the name to be relatively easy to pronounce so it's easy for both of our parents to say. I also don't want a name that has "harsh" sounds in it. Names (and words in the English language) with the letter "k" often have a very hard "cuh" sound that I'm not real fond of.
Here are some names that I like. Heng means lucky. I like the way it sounds. It also resembles my father's name, Hung. My father-in-law really likes it too. Another name I have been considering is Arun which means sun. I guess it's pronounced similarly to Aaron. Another name I kind of like is Odom (or Oudom). It is pronounced like Adam and it means supreme, magnificent, or excellent. I also like Dara which means stars.
Ahhh...I can't decide. So many names to choose from. I guess sometimes when you are indecisive, people say to trust your first instinct. Hmm...Daniel Heng Trinh. It does have a nice ring to it. What do you guys think? /discuss.
There a gazillion names to choose from. But how do we narrow down the choices? Well, there are a few things we must keep in mind. Pick a bad name (e.g., rhymes with male anatomy, sounds like an old person's name, has a weird spelling, initials form a bad word, is a fruit, etc) and kids will tease him while he's growing up (until our height genes can kick in). One thing that stinks is a "foreign" or "ethnic" name might limit his opportunities as an adult. We are living in America after all.
Let's start with what we do have. Baby's last name will be "Trinh". That part's a given. Tary and I are traditionalists and Tary took my last name when we got married. I'm actually very proud of that fact. The practice isn't as common as it used to be where you would just assume the wife took her husband's name. It's definitely not common in Asian cultures. It's just a name. Why is it such a big deal? By taking my name, she gave up something of her own. In a me-first society, Tary did the opposite of what the world would have her do. Instead, she wanted us to be united with one mind, one body, one soul, one family, with one name.
So we have a last name. It's a Vietnamese name. But Baby isn't just Vietnamese. He's also Cambodian. Beyond all that, he's also American. His name should represents us, our multiple cultures, and how we plan on raising him.
My given name at birth was Phúc Thanh Do. Say it phonetically in English and you can imagine the kind of childhood I had. Thankfully, someone recommended that I be given an Americanized first name, Paul. Now that sounds more like it. My brother Nguyễn was given the name James.
Paul and James. Two awesome names from the Bible. I can't believe I never realized this until much later in life. My closest cousin is Joseph. My other cousins' names: Steven, Andrew, David, and Daniel. They are all great names found in the Bible. When we started thinking about first names for Baby, we definitely wanted a Biblical name.
The core of our family's values are clearly defined by the truth of God's Word. I am thankful that most of my immediate family are Christians. I think it's starting to be a family tradition to give our boys biblical names. Maybe we will be the first to make it official. Whichever biblical name we choose for Baby, just like how we're putting God first in his name, we're hoping he grows up to put God first in his life.
That's why we really love the name Daniel. The name Daniel means "God is my judge". The prophet Daniel was best known for his fidelity to God. Despite facing persecution for his faith, he remained in God's service. We want to raise Baby to be a light in this world. We want him to be able to stand up and still do what's right. We want him to love and respect others and more importantly, to love and fear God.
So that leaves us with the middle name. There are a bunch of Cambodian names to consider. We want a name that has a good meaning. We also want the name to be relatively easy to pronounce so it's easy for both of our parents to say. I also don't want a name that has "harsh" sounds in it. Names (and words in the English language) with the letter "k" often have a very hard "cuh" sound that I'm not real fond of.
Here are some names that I like. Heng means lucky. I like the way it sounds. It also resembles my father's name, Hung. My father-in-law really likes it too. Another name I have been considering is Arun which means sun. I guess it's pronounced similarly to Aaron. Another name I kind of like is Odom (or Oudom). It is pronounced like Adam and it means supreme, magnificent, or excellent. I also like Dara which means stars.
Ahhh...I can't decide. So many names to choose from. I guess sometimes when you are indecisive, people say to trust your first instinct. Hmm...Daniel Heng Trinh. It does have a nice ring to it. What do you guys think? /discuss.
Thursday, April 1, 2010
Weekend Recap - Part 3 (PAX East 2010 - Day 2 Continued and Engagement)
After the tournament, my friends and I were really bummed at what could have been. We walked across the hallway to the Main Theater again just in time to catch the beginning of the Video Game Orchestra (VGO). These musicians are known for playing music from classic video games with a full orchestra. After hearing their awesome renditions of Super Mario Brothers, Chrono Trigger, and Final Fantasy, I felt a lot better. How can you be down after hearing the Chocobo theme song? We stayed as long as we could but we had to duck out about halfway through to catch our friend’s birthday party. It ended up being so much more.
On the drive back home, my friend S.I. whose birthday we were going to, texted me to find out when we were arriving. I replied, “About 45 minutes”. He followed up with another message reminding us to also pick up Tary. I then realized that something big was going down that night. My buddy was going to propose to his longtime girlfriend!
On the ride home, we swung by to pick up Tary. By the time we got to S.I.’s house, it was almost 11:30 PM. There were a ton of people already there which included his parents. I guess he was waiting for us so I feel a little guilty staying as long as we did at PAX. It only felt like a few minutes after we arrived before the festivities got underway.
A cake was brought out and we all sang Happy Birthday. S.I. paused briefly before blowing up the candles. The crowd lobbied for a speech and S.I obliged. He started by thanking everyone for coming. He then shared that the lines between friendship and family are often blurred and he considered many of us as his brothers and sisters. He rhetorically asked that without friends, what would we be celebrating?
Then S.I. pulled out a beautiful diamond encrusted ring from his pocket. After some coaching from the crowd to get on one knee, he then asked for J.W.’s hand in marriage. To his relief she said, “Yes!” I love seeing my friends in their happiest moments. I admit it; I got a little teary-eyed. I can’t believe that it was almost 2 years ago that I was proposing to Tary in front of the same group of friends. Congratulations you two lovebirds!
On the drive back home, my friend S.I. whose birthday we were going to, texted me to find out when we were arriving. I replied, “About 45 minutes”. He followed up with another message reminding us to also pick up Tary. I then realized that something big was going down that night. My buddy was going to propose to his longtime girlfriend!
On the ride home, we swung by to pick up Tary. By the time we got to S.I.’s house, it was almost 11:30 PM. There were a ton of people already there which included his parents. I guess he was waiting for us so I feel a little guilty staying as long as we did at PAX. It only felt like a few minutes after we arrived before the festivities got underway.
A cake was brought out and we all sang Happy Birthday. S.I. paused briefly before blowing up the candles. The crowd lobbied for a speech and S.I obliged. He started by thanking everyone for coming. He then shared that the lines between friendship and family are often blurred and he considered many of us as his brothers and sisters. He rhetorically asked that without friends, what would we be celebrating?
Then S.I. pulled out a beautiful diamond encrusted ring from his pocket. After some coaching from the crowd to get on one knee, he then asked for J.W.’s hand in marriage. To his relief she said, “Yes!” I love seeing my friends in their happiest moments. I admit it; I got a little teary-eyed. I can’t believe that it was almost 2 years ago that I was proposing to Tary in front of the same group of friends. Congratulations you two lovebirds!
Weekend Recap - Part 2 (PAX East 2010 - Day 2)
I was determined to have a better second day at PAX. My friends and I all got up relatively early considering how late we stayed up the night before. We took our respective turns in the shower. I went 2nd so I could sleep in an additional 15 minutes. After I got out of the shower, I *purposely*left the shower lever on. A.D. went in after me and a few minutes later, we heard a scream through the bathroom walls as the cold water hit his skin. Haha, owned.
We went to “wagamama”, a Japanese restaurant inside the Prudential Center known for their fresh ramen noodles just as they opened their doors at 11 AM. Okay, maybe we didn’t get up that early. We ordered some duck dumplings, wagama glazed ribs, and chili squid for starters. The ribs were fall-off-the-bone delicious. For the meal, I got the “miso beef ramen”. It was pretty good (though it pales in comparison to Pho).
After lunch, we went back to PAX and walked around some of the exhibition booths where various hardware and software companies were showcasing their various products. We didn’t really spend too much time at each booth because the guys had already seen everything the day before and even though it was all really cool stuff, I get bored easily.
One notable booth was the NVIDIA booth where you could see their new 3D cards. I put on the 3D glasses and stepped up to a keyboard and mouse. The other guys put on their glasses as well and watched as I played part of the Battlefield: Bad Company 2 single player campaign. The technology is really cool but the only thing that really looked “3D” was the gun that your character is holding. Everything else looked pretty much the same so I was a little disappointed in that. My friends also complained that the 3D was causing motion sickness.
It was almost 1 PM so we went to the main theater for the “Penny Arcade Make-a-Strip Panel”. It was my first panel at PAX so I was excited though I had no idea what was going to happen. The panel featured Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik, the two guys responsible for PAX, as they showed what goes into making a Penny Arcade comic. We sat way back of the balcony section. Several large screens displayed closer views of Jerry and Mike on stage.
The panel started with Jerry typing some dialogue between the characters of the comic. The audience cracked up but I had no clue what was going on since I don’t follow the comic. Mike then pulled up Photoshop and started sketching out the comic while Jerry answered questions from the audience. I was incredibly impressed with Mike’s drawing ability. I’ve always loved art and drawing. Maybe I should start my own webcomic one day. ;)
There were multiple microphones spread throughout the theatre and people got in line to say whatever was on their minds. One guy came up and thanked the two guys for hosting PAX where nerds can get together and be comfortable. Several people later, another person offered similar sentiments. At that moment, it finally hit me. PAX was so much more than just another “nerd” conference. People who may be a little socially awkward, a little obsessed with geeky things, are somewhat allergic tosunlight razor blades bath water, and are often ridiculed in other circles of life actually felt welcome and “normal” here. To quote the keynote speaker, Wil Wheaton, they were at “home”. At that moment, I felt proud to be alongside 60,000 of my fellow nerd brethren. I don’t really remember anything else that either Jerry or Mike said. It didn’t matter. I was just happy to be there.
After the panel, it was about 3 PM so we headed to the PC free play area where the tournament was being held. The organizers told us that our bracket wouldn’t start until 5:30 PM so we had some time to kill. Since we were already there, we stayed there to play some random games on their computers. We stopped playing a little early to check-in but they still weren’t ready for us.
We walked around and checked out a few other areas but nothing really interested us. We eventually settled down in a room with some random people playing music. It’s kind of cool that people who have never met before could still make music together.
We went back to the PC free play area and continued waiting for our bracket to start. The previous brackets were still going on and we noticed that no one had 3D glasses on. It turned out that the 3D cards were having problems so the tournament organizers decided to just hold it in regular 2D. That was such welcome news to our ears…and our stomachs.
It finally was time for our turn in the tourney. The format was “Squad Deathmatch” with single elimination. That just means that each match was between four squads with four players in each squad fighting to reach 50 kills. Our squad was comprised of S.Y., his brother G.Y., L.D. who had never played the game before for the PC, and me. We were the last team to be seated and they sat us down together on a row of computers. We had to quickly configure our buttons and join the designated server. I tried out my settings and I hurried to fix a few buttons that were still messed up.
This was my first gaming tournament so I wasn’t sure how the competition would be. I consider myself to be one of the best players in my circle of friends so I was hoping that we would at least advance past one round. Our strategy was relatively simple; since L.D. had never played this game on the PC before, we had him play a support role and try to stick together with our squad. Since it was a race to 50 kills, we decided to ignore any tanks that the other teams would use and just focus on killing enemy infantry. It ended up being a very sound strategy.
The first round finally got started. I accidentally picked the Recon class to begin the round so I was pretty worried that it might cost us the match. I had trouble getting used to the mouse sensitivity and I missed the first few enemies I saw. Fortunately, the rest of my teammates finished them off. It was a jungle map and there was a tank somewhere on the map. One of the other squads hopped inside of it and started causing havoc. Knowing that tanks are slow and that we could use the foliage for cover, I sprinted up to the tank and dropped a pair of C4 on its side. I pulled the trigger and BOOM! I blew up the tank and everyone inside. I didn’t care that I blew myself up in the process because I knew that my teammates would be safer with that thing gone.
At that moment, I finally settled down and realized that, “Hey, we can win this!” I changed back to my normal Medic class with the M60 (aka “The Gun of Rambo”) and I was back in my comfort zone. G.Y. helped direct the squad from one area to the next and we mowed down everyone along the way. Before I knew it, the round was over. We were amazed at the final score. We had 50 and the 2nd place team had only about 18! Ownage! I finished with about 18 kills and 6 deaths. That felt so good! The adrenaline was freely flowing now. I am so glad we entered this tourney!
The organizers had us stay at our computers and the second round started shortly after. This time, we were playing on a desert map. The competition was much harder this time around. We got off to a bit of a slow start. The score was really close between all four squads. One squad hopped into a tank and started to kill everyone. They started to pull away from us score-wise! They had about 38 points and we were just over 30.
Then all of a sudden, someone blew me up with a Carlos Gustav, an anti-infantry rocket launcher. I have to point out that that the Gustav is the cheapest weapon in the entire game. You don’t need any skill to use it; it has incredible damage, a large blast radius, and results in instant death. I knew it was only a matter of time before some no-skill n00b jerk face would try to use that cheapness on us. Well, getting blown up by the Gustav set off some kind of switch with me. I went into a blinding uber berserker nerd rage and promptly killed the first guy I saw. I then took out his teammate who spawned on him. I ran toward a building and killed everyone along the way and knifed the last guy for good measure. I saw my teammates had died so I killed the guys nearby and res’d my squadmates with the defibrillator. I lost count of how many guys I killed but the game awards you a virtual pin when you get a kill streak of at least 8. I finally died after completely running out of bullets on my primary gun. I glanced at the scoreboard and we took over the lead and were pulling away. We got to 49 kills and it felt like forever to get that last kill. When we finally took out that last guy, we all let out a collective yell. I ended up finishing with another score similar to the first round.
We had to get up from our computers while the other brackets played out their rounds. We all stood around reflecting how awesome this whole experience has been. Whew, the second round was so intense. All of that adrenaline had me flying sky high. I can’t believe we won another round. Boo yeah! We pwned so much face! I can’t believe we made it to the finals of a 64-team tourney that we only joined on a whim with a bunch of weeknight warriors featuring someone who has never played it before. I started to feel like we could actually win it all.
For the finals, there were two other pro teams who won their respective brackets. The last squad was another amateur team like our own. The round started off as badly as it could possibly go. Boom, I died. Boom, my squadmates died. One of the pro teams got on the roof of some building (which I didn’t know you could even do) and everyone was using Gustavs! Every time we died, the game kept causing us to respawn near the other teams where they could keep raining death upon us. We tried to run for the hills (literally) to get away from the cheapness but to no avail. They had no honor. Even if we played as cheaply as they did, I knew we weren’t going to come back and win.
At this point, it felt like we were now only fighting for 3rd place. Someone n00b tubed me and the round was over. We took a moment to congratulate the other teams. We finished last of the four teams. To add insult to injury, we found out that they only handed out prizes for the top three teams. Fail.
I am so proud of our squad for getting as far as we did. We finished 4th out of 64 teams! What an experience. I am so happy that we did so well but I am incredibly disappointed in the way the other teams won in the finals. I know that cheap tactics are part of the game and you can’t fault another team for using what’s available. But in the final round, I don’t think any of us died from even a single bullet. All they used were those cheap Gustavs. @#$%!!! Had the round taken place on a different map with different terrain, I can’t help but think that we would have placed higher. I can’t wait for next year! Team Rambo will rise again!
We went to “wagamama”, a Japanese restaurant inside the Prudential Center known for their fresh ramen noodles just as they opened their doors at 11 AM. Okay, maybe we didn’t get up that early. We ordered some duck dumplings, wagama glazed ribs, and chili squid for starters. The ribs were fall-off-the-bone delicious. For the meal, I got the “miso beef ramen”. It was pretty good (though it pales in comparison to Pho).
After lunch, we went back to PAX and walked around some of the exhibition booths where various hardware and software companies were showcasing their various products. We didn’t really spend too much time at each booth because the guys had already seen everything the day before and even though it was all really cool stuff, I get bored easily.
One notable booth was the NVIDIA booth where you could see their new 3D cards. I put on the 3D glasses and stepped up to a keyboard and mouse. The other guys put on their glasses as well and watched as I played part of the Battlefield: Bad Company 2 single player campaign. The technology is really cool but the only thing that really looked “3D” was the gun that your character is holding. Everything else looked pretty much the same so I was a little disappointed in that. My friends also complained that the 3D was causing motion sickness.
It was almost 1 PM so we went to the main theater for the “Penny Arcade Make-a-Strip Panel”. It was my first panel at PAX so I was excited though I had no idea what was going to happen. The panel featured Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik, the two guys responsible for PAX, as they showed what goes into making a Penny Arcade comic. We sat way back of the balcony section. Several large screens displayed closer views of Jerry and Mike on stage.
The panel started with Jerry typing some dialogue between the characters of the comic. The audience cracked up but I had no clue what was going on since I don’t follow the comic. Mike then pulled up Photoshop and started sketching out the comic while Jerry answered questions from the audience. I was incredibly impressed with Mike’s drawing ability. I’ve always loved art and drawing. Maybe I should start my own webcomic one day. ;)
There were multiple microphones spread throughout the theatre and people got in line to say whatever was on their minds. One guy came up and thanked the two guys for hosting PAX where nerds can get together and be comfortable. Several people later, another person offered similar sentiments. At that moment, it finally hit me. PAX was so much more than just another “nerd” conference. People who may be a little socially awkward, a little obsessed with geeky things, are somewhat allergic to
After the panel, it was about 3 PM so we headed to the PC free play area where the tournament was being held. The organizers told us that our bracket wouldn’t start until 5:30 PM so we had some time to kill. Since we were already there, we stayed there to play some random games on their computers. We stopped playing a little early to check-in but they still weren’t ready for us.
We walked around and checked out a few other areas but nothing really interested us. We eventually settled down in a room with some random people playing music. It’s kind of cool that people who have never met before could still make music together.
We went back to the PC free play area and continued waiting for our bracket to start. The previous brackets were still going on and we noticed that no one had 3D glasses on. It turned out that the 3D cards were having problems so the tournament organizers decided to just hold it in regular 2D. That was such welcome news to our ears…and our stomachs.
It finally was time for our turn in the tourney. The format was “Squad Deathmatch” with single elimination. That just means that each match was between four squads with four players in each squad fighting to reach 50 kills. Our squad was comprised of S.Y., his brother G.Y., L.D. who had never played the game before for the PC, and me. We were the last team to be seated and they sat us down together on a row of computers. We had to quickly configure our buttons and join the designated server. I tried out my settings and I hurried to fix a few buttons that were still messed up.
This was my first gaming tournament so I wasn’t sure how the competition would be. I consider myself to be one of the best players in my circle of friends so I was hoping that we would at least advance past one round. Our strategy was relatively simple; since L.D. had never played this game on the PC before, we had him play a support role and try to stick together with our squad. Since it was a race to 50 kills, we decided to ignore any tanks that the other teams would use and just focus on killing enemy infantry. It ended up being a very sound strategy.
The first round finally got started. I accidentally picked the Recon class to begin the round so I was pretty worried that it might cost us the match. I had trouble getting used to the mouse sensitivity and I missed the first few enemies I saw. Fortunately, the rest of my teammates finished them off. It was a jungle map and there was a tank somewhere on the map. One of the other squads hopped inside of it and started causing havoc. Knowing that tanks are slow and that we could use the foliage for cover, I sprinted up to the tank and dropped a pair of C4 on its side. I pulled the trigger and BOOM! I blew up the tank and everyone inside. I didn’t care that I blew myself up in the process because I knew that my teammates would be safer with that thing gone.
At that moment, I finally settled down and realized that, “Hey, we can win this!” I changed back to my normal Medic class with the M60 (aka “The Gun of Rambo”) and I was back in my comfort zone. G.Y. helped direct the squad from one area to the next and we mowed down everyone along the way. Before I knew it, the round was over. We were amazed at the final score. We had 50 and the 2nd place team had only about 18! Ownage! I finished with about 18 kills and 6 deaths. That felt so good! The adrenaline was freely flowing now. I am so glad we entered this tourney!
The organizers had us stay at our computers and the second round started shortly after. This time, we were playing on a desert map. The competition was much harder this time around. We got off to a bit of a slow start. The score was really close between all four squads. One squad hopped into a tank and started to kill everyone. They started to pull away from us score-wise! They had about 38 points and we were just over 30.
Then all of a sudden, someone blew me up with a Carlos Gustav, an anti-infantry rocket launcher. I have to point out that that the Gustav is the cheapest weapon in the entire game. You don’t need any skill to use it; it has incredible damage, a large blast radius, and results in instant death. I knew it was only a matter of time before some no-skill n00b jerk face would try to use that cheapness on us. Well, getting blown up by the Gustav set off some kind of switch with me. I went into a blinding uber berserker nerd rage and promptly killed the first guy I saw. I then took out his teammate who spawned on him. I ran toward a building and killed everyone along the way and knifed the last guy for good measure. I saw my teammates had died so I killed the guys nearby and res’d my squadmates with the defibrillator. I lost count of how many guys I killed but the game awards you a virtual pin when you get a kill streak of at least 8. I finally died after completely running out of bullets on my primary gun. I glanced at the scoreboard and we took over the lead and were pulling away. We got to 49 kills and it felt like forever to get that last kill. When we finally took out that last guy, we all let out a collective yell. I ended up finishing with another score similar to the first round.
We had to get up from our computers while the other brackets played out their rounds. We all stood around reflecting how awesome this whole experience has been. Whew, the second round was so intense. All of that adrenaline had me flying sky high. I can’t believe we won another round. Boo yeah! We pwned so much face! I can’t believe we made it to the finals of a 64-team tourney that we only joined on a whim with a bunch of weeknight warriors featuring someone who has never played it before. I started to feel like we could actually win it all.
For the finals, there were two other pro teams who won their respective brackets. The last squad was another amateur team like our own. The round started off as badly as it could possibly go. Boom, I died. Boom, my squadmates died. One of the pro teams got on the roof of some building (which I didn’t know you could even do) and everyone was using Gustavs! Every time we died, the game kept causing us to respawn near the other teams where they could keep raining death upon us. We tried to run for the hills (literally) to get away from the cheapness but to no avail. They had no honor. Even if we played as cheaply as they did, I knew we weren’t going to come back and win.
At this point, it felt like we were now only fighting for 3rd place. Someone n00b tubed me and the round was over. We took a moment to congratulate the other teams. We finished last of the four teams. To add insult to injury, we found out that they only handed out prizes for the top three teams. Fail.
I am so proud of our squad for getting as far as we did. We finished 4th out of 64 teams! What an experience. I am so happy that we did so well but I am incredibly disappointed in the way the other teams won in the finals. I know that cheap tactics are part of the game and you can’t fault another team for using what’s available. But in the final round, I don’t think any of us died from even a single bullet. All they used were those cheap Gustavs. @#$%!!! Had the round taken place on a different map with different terrain, I can’t help but think that we would have placed higher. I can’t wait for next year! Team Rambo will rise again!
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Weekend Recap - Part 1 (PAX East 2010 - Day 1)
Time had finally come for the Penny Arcade Expo (PAX), a semi-annual gaming festival. PAX started in 2004 and was previously held in the state of Washington. It was the first time being held in Boston, MA. The show catered toward gamers and tried to give equal attention to console gamers, computer gamers, and tabletop gamers. In other words, it was like nerd heaven.
I had pre-registered several months ago for the 3-day event. It was the first time attending any kind of conference so I wasn’t sure what to expect. I knew there would be a ton of nerds there. I know I’m a nerd but these people are NERDS! And where there are nerds, there was bound to be nerd “sweat”. Gross.
I talked a few friends into entering a 3D tournament for the new PC game, Battlefield: Bad Company 2. I was a little excited for that but I wasn’t sure how we would do against the competition. One of our guys had never even played the game before. Not the ideal situation but it was the best squad we could roll out.
I was excited to see some new technology and to try out some new video games. I wasn’t exactly thrilled though with all of the noise and the long lines for various panels. And then there was the tourney to look forward to. And then there was the nerd sweat. I felt so conflicted. To be honest, I wasn’t really looking forward to PAX because it also was the first time spending a night away from my wife since getting married.
After work on Friday, I drove home to drop off my car. It was long overdue for its routine maintenance. I had an appointment at the dealership the next morning and Tary volunteered to take care of that while I was away. After some hugs and kisses, Tary dropped me off at the commuter rail train station in Lowell. The train departed for Boston at around 6:50 PM. I missed Tary already.
Upon arriving in Boston, I took a quick peek at the subway maps to get my bearings and I hopped on the Green Line. I got off at the Hynes Convention Center stop and made my way up to the street level. I had no clue where I was going so I started walking (in the wrong direction). I asked a valet where the Hynes Convention Center was and he pointed me back to where I needed to go. In the distance, I could see my hotel so I was getting a little excited.
I checked into the hotel and dropped off my stuff. A few friends shared the room with me and since they came much earlier in the day, they already had dropped off their stuff. I headed toward the convention and gave my friends a call to see where to meet them. Unfortunately, everyone was at a Kotaku party at the Rattlesnake Bar. I really hate bars and the whole bar scene so I just walked around the hall by myself.
There were tons of people everywhere. I briskly walked through the 3 floors and took mental notes of where everything was. On the 3rd floor, there was the PC free play area where you could walk in and play on any of the 400+ computers. There was a sign-up area at one of the desks to get into the tourney. The other guys had already signed up so I waited in line to sign up. When I got to the computer, I started entering in my information when it prompted me for a team name and password. WHAT?! No one told me about this. I tried searching for “Team Rambo” and its derivative forms. Nothing…
I had to step out of line. I sent a text message to get the team name and password. I got an ambiguous reply so I waited in line again. When I got the computer again, I tried entering what I could make out from the text message. Fail. ARGH! The guy behind the desk suggested that I just manually search for the team name. That did the trick and I was able to finally find our team listed under the letter “T”.
It was almost 9 PM now and I feeling very grumpy…which always happens when I go this long without eating. I was tired. I was hungry. I was annoyed at the lack of communication which resulted in wasting more of my time. My friends were nowhere in sight. I refused to hop in a cab and join them at the bar. I didn’t care how much free food was there. At this point I just wanted food. Good thing the Hynes Convention Center is connected to the Prudential Mall. I left the hall and got some Chinese food at the food court. It’s kind of depressing that at a “nerd” conference, I’m the one who was eating alone. So far, the first hour and a half of PAX has been pretty crappy.
Thankfully, my friend A.D. called me to let me know he left the bar and was coming to meet up with me at the food court. He arrived with another friend Luis who was feeling pretty tipsy. We walked Luis back to his hotel room while A.D. and I returned to the expo. We spent some time in both the console and PC free play areas. I watched on as A.D. played some fighting games. We played a few shooting games together but I was a little disappointed that they didn’t have Battlefield: Bad Company 2 installed on the machines that we were on. I guess I was feeling a little bored because this is all the same kind of stuff that I can easily do at home.
The night started to get better when another friend (who also happened to share the hotel room with me), S.Y. came and met up with us. The three of us were pretty tired so we decided to go back to my hotel room. A.D. had his own hotel room but his “friends” abused his kindness and invited more friends to stay in their already crowded hotel room. By our count, there were 13 guys staying in his hotel room! He was obviously upset about that so I let him stay the night with us.
After we got back to the hotel room, our other roommates (G.Y. and L.D.) came back from the bar. We all just hung out and shared a bunch of laughs. The first night of PAX didn’t start off that well but with my friends around, it couldn’t have ended any better (unless of course Tary could magically appear and join us).
I had pre-registered several months ago for the 3-day event. It was the first time attending any kind of conference so I wasn’t sure what to expect. I knew there would be a ton of nerds there. I know I’m a nerd but these people are NERDS! And where there are nerds, there was bound to be nerd “sweat”. Gross.
I talked a few friends into entering a 3D tournament for the new PC game, Battlefield: Bad Company 2. I was a little excited for that but I wasn’t sure how we would do against the competition. One of our guys had never even played the game before. Not the ideal situation but it was the best squad we could roll out.
I was excited to see some new technology and to try out some new video games. I wasn’t exactly thrilled though with all of the noise and the long lines for various panels. And then there was the tourney to look forward to. And then there was the nerd sweat. I felt so conflicted. To be honest, I wasn’t really looking forward to PAX because it also was the first time spending a night away from my wife since getting married.
After work on Friday, I drove home to drop off my car. It was long overdue for its routine maintenance. I had an appointment at the dealership the next morning and Tary volunteered to take care of that while I was away. After some hugs and kisses, Tary dropped me off at the commuter rail train station in Lowell. The train departed for Boston at around 6:50 PM. I missed Tary already.
Upon arriving in Boston, I took a quick peek at the subway maps to get my bearings and I hopped on the Green Line. I got off at the Hynes Convention Center stop and made my way up to the street level. I had no clue where I was going so I started walking (in the wrong direction). I asked a valet where the Hynes Convention Center was and he pointed me back to where I needed to go. In the distance, I could see my hotel so I was getting a little excited.
I checked into the hotel and dropped off my stuff. A few friends shared the room with me and since they came much earlier in the day, they already had dropped off their stuff. I headed toward the convention and gave my friends a call to see where to meet them. Unfortunately, everyone was at a Kotaku party at the Rattlesnake Bar. I really hate bars and the whole bar scene so I just walked around the hall by myself.
There were tons of people everywhere. I briskly walked through the 3 floors and took mental notes of where everything was. On the 3rd floor, there was the PC free play area where you could walk in and play on any of the 400+ computers. There was a sign-up area at one of the desks to get into the tourney. The other guys had already signed up so I waited in line to sign up. When I got to the computer, I started entering in my information when it prompted me for a team name and password. WHAT?! No one told me about this. I tried searching for “Team Rambo” and its derivative forms. Nothing…
I had to step out of line. I sent a text message to get the team name and password. I got an ambiguous reply so I waited in line again. When I got the computer again, I tried entering what I could make out from the text message. Fail. ARGH! The guy behind the desk suggested that I just manually search for the team name. That did the trick and I was able to finally find our team listed under the letter “T”.
It was almost 9 PM now and I feeling very grumpy…which always happens when I go this long without eating. I was tired. I was hungry. I was annoyed at the lack of communication which resulted in wasting more of my time. My friends were nowhere in sight. I refused to hop in a cab and join them at the bar. I didn’t care how much free food was there. At this point I just wanted food. Good thing the Hynes Convention Center is connected to the Prudential Mall. I left the hall and got some Chinese food at the food court. It’s kind of depressing that at a “nerd” conference, I’m the one who was eating alone. So far, the first hour and a half of PAX has been pretty crappy.
Thankfully, my friend A.D. called me to let me know he left the bar and was coming to meet up with me at the food court. He arrived with another friend Luis who was feeling pretty tipsy. We walked Luis back to his hotel room while A.D. and I returned to the expo. We spent some time in both the console and PC free play areas. I watched on as A.D. played some fighting games. We played a few shooting games together but I was a little disappointed that they didn’t have Battlefield: Bad Company 2 installed on the machines that we were on. I guess I was feeling a little bored because this is all the same kind of stuff that I can easily do at home.
The night started to get better when another friend (who also happened to share the hotel room with me), S.Y. came and met up with us. The three of us were pretty tired so we decided to go back to my hotel room. A.D. had his own hotel room but his “friends” abused his kindness and invited more friends to stay in their already crowded hotel room. By our count, there were 13 guys staying in his hotel room! He was obviously upset about that so I let him stay the night with us.
After we got back to the hotel room, our other roommates (G.Y. and L.D.) came back from the bar. We all just hung out and shared a bunch of laughs. The first night of PAX didn’t start off that well but with my friends around, it couldn’t have ended any better (unless of course Tary could magically appear and join us).
Friday, March 26, 2010
Software Piracy
As some of you already know, I both test and develop code at a software security company. As a result, my views on software piracy have drastically matured over time. I used to think it was okay to download and install pirated software. Now I know how truly wrong I was.
Let’s start with a little background. In college, it was considered “normal” to share music, movies, programs, and video games with your peers in the form of various digital files. None of this content was paid for. Let’s just call it for what it really is…stealing. Why did I do it if I knew it was wrong? I guess I was just like everyone else. I felt entitled. It was easy. It was accessible. The networks were fast, especially on the internal LAN. Most of all, it was free.
Fast-forward to today. Software piracy is an even bigger problem than it was 10 years ago. Networks are even faster. High-speed Internet is accessible to most households. There are numerous sites which list and host pirated software. New technology has been developed to help share these files with your peers.
As a result, software companies have implemented various measures to combat software piracy. A disturbing trend that is becoming more and more popular is the use of DRM or Digital Rights Management. Essentially, DRM is embedded into a product but the product will not run in its current form. Sometimes the data is encrypted. Other times, some code will be purposely left out. The only way for the product to work is to connect to some central source such as a server hosted by the software company to check the legitimacy of the product and then undo any protection mechanisms of the DRM.
In theory, DRM sounds like a great idea. You protect your product against the crackers and make your product more difficult to reverse engineer. The product still works for people who purchased it legally. The only problem is that DRM does not work! DRM may make it harder for a cracker to reverse engineer, but given enough time and the proper motivation, a skilled cracker can still undo the protection schemes. If DRM doesn’t effectively stop crackers, then DRM only hurts the paying customer. Here are some of the main complaints about DRM.
Software companies and game companies in particular make most of their money early on. Actually, movie companies are the same way. People spend the most money early on when the interest is highest. If someone could use a product for free on the first day that it is released, why would they spend the money for the product at a future date? DRM was meant to stop crackers from 0-day releases.
At the end of the day, software companies still deserve to get paid. Software piracy is stealing. Millions of dollars are spent on developing, advertising, and distributing their products. Their employees still have to do what they’re paid to do. Teams of people have worked hard to make the products that you use. If no one pays for their software, these companies won’t make any money. If they don’t make money, they can’t pay their employees. If there are no employees, then there is no one to create these new products and games that we all enjoy. If you want a product bad enough, then buy it. If you are an adult with an honest-day’s wage, you have no excuse to not legally pay for software.
However, if you do not agree with a company’s policy, you need to voice your displeasure in a legal way…with your wallet. Do not buy their game. Do not buy future games. Do not even play the pirated version of the game. Do not show any interest in their products until they get their acts together. Even if you have no intention of buying the game, simply playing the pirated version shows interest in the game. That negative buzz for the game still might generate enough interest for someone else to go buy the game.
Well, some people say that they WOULD buy software if these companies weren’t so greedy and actually reduced their prices. Well, to a certain extent I agree that software could be a little cheaper. I often take advantage of those limited-time deals where you can get software at discounted prices. However when prices are really low, people still install and use pirated software. The problem is that nothing is lower than FREE. Why would someone pay for software if you can get it for free?
It’s an endless cycle. Software companies will create products. Crackers will crack and distribute the products without licensing. People will download and use them. Software companies will create more ways to protect their products. Crackers will learn how to reverse those protection measures. Software companies will add more restrictive protection measures. This angers the consumer base which turn to pirated software. And so on…
So how do we stop software piracy? I think this is a complicated problem which requires a multifaceted approach:
Stop the "Supply"
First, measures must be taken to stop the supply of pirated software. If you cut off the source, there will be less pirated software available to download. What I consider the “source” has two parts: the crackers and the distributors. Crackers are the people who reverse engineer whatever licensing scheme is used by each game or software program. Once they figure out how the code works, they often apply some patch to bypass the licensing or write a program which generates licenses that appear valid. Once the software has been cracked, it ends up on various distribution channels such as bit torrent, IRC, or anonymous web-hosted sites. From here, casual users could search for and download the pirated software.
There must be a greater punishment for those who are caught pirating software and distributing it. There needs to be laws that carry mandatory sentences such as 5 years in prison. Whatever the punishments are, they need to be publicized to serve as a strong deterrent.
Stop the "Demand"
Attention needs to be paid in cracking down on downloaders of pirated software. Crackers/distributers serve as the “supply” of software piracy but downloads provide the “demand”. If there are no people downloading pirated software, there were be little reason for the crackers to continue to doing what they are doing.
So how do you stop people from downloading pirated software? Like crackers/distributers, there needs to be laws that punish people who are caught downloading/installing pirated software. Since the majority of people who download pirated software are young adults (e.g., college students), obviously the punishments have to be less severe.
I believe a “3-strike” policy would work. I propose that the punishment for the first offense be a $1,000 fine. That way, it is severe enough but won’t leave a permanent mark on your record if you continue to stay clean.
For the second offense, I would propose a $5,000 fine and a year’s probation. I think most college kids won’t have this kind of money lying around so I think they would need their parents to help them out. I also think that the probation will help scare the downloaders and it also does not remain on a person’s permanent record if they learned from their mistakes.
As for the third offense, I think the punishment should be a $10,000 fine and 2 years in prison. If anyone is stupid enough to continue downloading pirated software at this point, I think they deserve to have this stay on their permanent record. Things like this would serve as a huge red flag for companies who would potentially want to hire this type of individual.
Educate the Public
The next step in stopping software piracy is to educate the public about the dangers of downloading and installing pirated software. You don’t know what you are getting when you download pirated software. How do you know the video game or program that you downloaded doesn’t contain a backdoor in it? How do you know it’s not recording your keystrokes as you browse the web? Did you run it through a debugger and traced through the binary code?
The fact is that pirated software often will look like it works but can do some pretty nasty things in the background. I work at a software security company and I’ve seen firsthand some of the underhanded things that hackers can do if they can get their code to run on your system. By installing the unknown piece of pirated software on your system, you already have done the hard part for them. This is exactly how viruses are often spread. You run some program that a buddy gives you thinking that it’s safe and now you’re infected. Anyone else connected on your network is now potentially affected as well.
People need to learn to never download and install a program from an untrusted source. It is just not worth the risk of losing your files or exposing your financial information just to save $50 here or there. By buying software legally from reputable software companies, you know exactly what you are getting.
Dilute the Supply
Lastly, my final idea for stopping software piracy is for software publishers to use the distribution channels to their advantage. Instead of waiting for pirated versions of their software to appear on these channels, they should instead proactively create dummy versions of their programs which contain unique identifiers in them. When someone downloads and installs these dummy versions, these programs can collect some user info and phone home the data to some central location where it can be analyzed. This data could be used to pursue legal action against these downloaders as well. If every other download was a dummy program, downloaders would then realize that they could no longer reliably trust what they are downloading.
Wow. This has been a long post. I never knew how strongly I felt about the subject. So how can I summarize all this? Well, support the developers of the software that you use by paying for it. Encourage your friends to do the same. Regarding DRM, rage against the “machine”. Vote with your wallets and simply refuse to buy products that contain such restrictive DRM schemes.
Let’s start with a little background. In college, it was considered “normal” to share music, movies, programs, and video games with your peers in the form of various digital files. None of this content was paid for. Let’s just call it for what it really is…stealing. Why did I do it if I knew it was wrong? I guess I was just like everyone else. I felt entitled. It was easy. It was accessible. The networks were fast, especially on the internal LAN. Most of all, it was free.
Fast-forward to today. Software piracy is an even bigger problem than it was 10 years ago. Networks are even faster. High-speed Internet is accessible to most households. There are numerous sites which list and host pirated software. New technology has been developed to help share these files with your peers.
As a result, software companies have implemented various measures to combat software piracy. A disturbing trend that is becoming more and more popular is the use of DRM or Digital Rights Management. Essentially, DRM is embedded into a product but the product will not run in its current form. Sometimes the data is encrypted. Other times, some code will be purposely left out. The only way for the product to work is to connect to some central source such as a server hosted by the software company to check the legitimacy of the product and then undo any protection mechanisms of the DRM.
In theory, DRM sounds like a great idea. You protect your product against the crackers and make your product more difficult to reverse engineer. The product still works for people who purchased it legally. The only problem is that DRM does not work! DRM may make it harder for a cracker to reverse engineer, but given enough time and the proper motivation, a skilled cracker can still undo the protection schemes. If DRM doesn’t effectively stop crackers, then DRM only hurts the paying customer. Here are some of the main complaints about DRM.
- DRM first started in music files (e.g., mp3s) and now has progressed to be included in PC video games. One problem with DRM is that it changes the definition of “ownership”. When you pay $.99 for a song, you do not own the song. You only own the “right” to play that song on an approved device. You cannot play that song on another music device in your household. You cannot play that song on another computer.
- Because you only play the purchased song on an approved device (e.g., iPod), DRM has been used to force a monopoly on certain devices. If you purchased your music files from iTunes, you are forced to use an Apple product to play to be able to play that file. You cannot play that same music file onto a competitor’s music playing device.
- Since DRM requires access to some central server to make the product or file work, if the server goes down, then the product or file becomes unusable. This has happened several times already (e.g., think Ubisoft with Splinter Cell and Assassin’s Creed 2). As consumer backlash rises, hackers will continue to target these DRM servers with denial of service (DoS) attacks to bring down these servers in protest. They may be voicing their displeasure with DRM, but the consumer is the one who is left with an unusable product.
- Some DRM implementations require constant Internet connections. Whenever the connection goes down, the game is unplayable. Often times, the progress through a game is not saved and the consumer has to start over at a previous save point. Not everyone has high speed Internet. Wireless networks used at homes sometimes have interference from other devices which could disrupt a connection. If you are away from home on your laptop, you may not be able to find a place with Internet access. The current infrastructure is not good enough to provide this level of service.
- If one day, the software company decided to stop supporting a certain product and takes down their DRM servers, the files that rely on those servers will stop working. It may take several years but it could be shorter. It stinks if a game that you bought today would suddenly stop working a few years from now because the company decided it was no longer profitable to maintain the servers.
- DRM usually requires some sort of extra overhead to decode or decrypt some block of code or data. This usually means that CPU cycles are wasted on repeatedly performing these tasks. Though the effect of this is often not negligible, programs and games would still perform marginally faster if they did not have to perform these tasks.
Software companies and game companies in particular make most of their money early on. Actually, movie companies are the same way. People spend the most money early on when the interest is highest. If someone could use a product for free on the first day that it is released, why would they spend the money for the product at a future date? DRM was meant to stop crackers from 0-day releases.
At the end of the day, software companies still deserve to get paid. Software piracy is stealing. Millions of dollars are spent on developing, advertising, and distributing their products. Their employees still have to do what they’re paid to do. Teams of people have worked hard to make the products that you use. If no one pays for their software, these companies won’t make any money. If they don’t make money, they can’t pay their employees. If there are no employees, then there is no one to create these new products and games that we all enjoy. If you want a product bad enough, then buy it. If you are an adult with an honest-day’s wage, you have no excuse to not legally pay for software.
However, if you do not agree with a company’s policy, you need to voice your displeasure in a legal way…with your wallet. Do not buy their game. Do not buy future games. Do not even play the pirated version of the game. Do not show any interest in their products until they get their acts together. Even if you have no intention of buying the game, simply playing the pirated version shows interest in the game. That negative buzz for the game still might generate enough interest for someone else to go buy the game.
Well, some people say that they WOULD buy software if these companies weren’t so greedy and actually reduced their prices. Well, to a certain extent I agree that software could be a little cheaper. I often take advantage of those limited-time deals where you can get software at discounted prices. However when prices are really low, people still install and use pirated software. The problem is that nothing is lower than FREE. Why would someone pay for software if you can get it for free?
It’s an endless cycle. Software companies will create products. Crackers will crack and distribute the products without licensing. People will download and use them. Software companies will create more ways to protect their products. Crackers will learn how to reverse those protection measures. Software companies will add more restrictive protection measures. This angers the consumer base which turn to pirated software. And so on…
So how do we stop software piracy? I think this is a complicated problem which requires a multifaceted approach:
Stop the "Supply"
First, measures must be taken to stop the supply of pirated software. If you cut off the source, there will be less pirated software available to download. What I consider the “source” has two parts: the crackers and the distributors. Crackers are the people who reverse engineer whatever licensing scheme is used by each game or software program. Once they figure out how the code works, they often apply some patch to bypass the licensing or write a program which generates licenses that appear valid. Once the software has been cracked, it ends up on various distribution channels such as bit torrent, IRC, or anonymous web-hosted sites. From here, casual users could search for and download the pirated software.
There must be a greater punishment for those who are caught pirating software and distributing it. There needs to be laws that carry mandatory sentences such as 5 years in prison. Whatever the punishments are, they need to be publicized to serve as a strong deterrent.
Stop the "Demand"
Attention needs to be paid in cracking down on downloaders of pirated software. Crackers/distributers serve as the “supply” of software piracy but downloads provide the “demand”. If there are no people downloading pirated software, there were be little reason for the crackers to continue to doing what they are doing.
So how do you stop people from downloading pirated software? Like crackers/distributers, there needs to be laws that punish people who are caught downloading/installing pirated software. Since the majority of people who download pirated software are young adults (e.g., college students), obviously the punishments have to be less severe.
I believe a “3-strike” policy would work. I propose that the punishment for the first offense be a $1,000 fine. That way, it is severe enough but won’t leave a permanent mark on your record if you continue to stay clean.
For the second offense, I would propose a $5,000 fine and a year’s probation. I think most college kids won’t have this kind of money lying around so I think they would need their parents to help them out. I also think that the probation will help scare the downloaders and it also does not remain on a person’s permanent record if they learned from their mistakes.
As for the third offense, I think the punishment should be a $10,000 fine and 2 years in prison. If anyone is stupid enough to continue downloading pirated software at this point, I think they deserve to have this stay on their permanent record. Things like this would serve as a huge red flag for companies who would potentially want to hire this type of individual.
Educate the Public
The next step in stopping software piracy is to educate the public about the dangers of downloading and installing pirated software. You don’t know what you are getting when you download pirated software. How do you know the video game or program that you downloaded doesn’t contain a backdoor in it? How do you know it’s not recording your keystrokes as you browse the web? Did you run it through a debugger and traced through the binary code?
The fact is that pirated software often will look like it works but can do some pretty nasty things in the background. I work at a software security company and I’ve seen firsthand some of the underhanded things that hackers can do if they can get their code to run on your system. By installing the unknown piece of pirated software on your system, you already have done the hard part for them. This is exactly how viruses are often spread. You run some program that a buddy gives you thinking that it’s safe and now you’re infected. Anyone else connected on your network is now potentially affected as well.
People need to learn to never download and install a program from an untrusted source. It is just not worth the risk of losing your files or exposing your financial information just to save $50 here or there. By buying software legally from reputable software companies, you know exactly what you are getting.
Dilute the Supply
Lastly, my final idea for stopping software piracy is for software publishers to use the distribution channels to their advantage. Instead of waiting for pirated versions of their software to appear on these channels, they should instead proactively create dummy versions of their programs which contain unique identifiers in them. When someone downloads and installs these dummy versions, these programs can collect some user info and phone home the data to some central location where it can be analyzed. This data could be used to pursue legal action against these downloaders as well. If every other download was a dummy program, downloaders would then realize that they could no longer reliably trust what they are downloading.
Wow. This has been a long post. I never knew how strongly I felt about the subject. So how can I summarize all this? Well, support the developers of the software that you use by paying for it. Encourage your friends to do the same. Regarding DRM, rage against the “machine”. Vote with your wallets and simply refuse to buy products that contain such restrictive DRM schemes.
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