...you know, the whiny artists that complain when their images get reposted. I'm not talking about artwork that you take from someone and call your own, that is art theft. I'm talking about image boards and the arrogant attitude of a few of the artists that try to spoil it for everyone else. The problem is infact comparable to the RIAA (some of the ideas to limit this so-called image piracy directly parallel what RIAA has attempted with music). All RIAA has accomplished is alienating and persecuting the innocent consumer, and taking even more money from the actual musicians.

People see an image they like. They save it. Somehow, in the twisted logic of a select few artists this is a despicable crime. What's worse, when they want to show their friends what a great artist someone is, posting this images or sharing them is an even worse offense. Actually, this is really quite tragic because such artists are fighting against free advertising. Also, I'm a heck of a lot more likely to commission an artist that doesn't whine about their art constantly. My favorite artists are the ones that do art for the sake of art and the community, not to just hoard up.

The fans may want to keep in mind that it is more polite to ask first, and the artists should remember who they're doing the art for, the fans. Otherwise, aren't you simply whoring out your skills?

(PS, taking money for commissions is ok, but be reasonable, it's economics. Set the price too high, and it encourages people to find other ways to get it.)

That's my opinion. I enjoy a good debate. Go go go!

I haven't posted a journal entry for such a long time.

So, 'sup with me?
More of the usual boring stuff, but a few things of note:
I did a some work on my site. There's still alot to do, but it's alot better then it was. It is currently up at http://nikura.ath.cx:5353 . I may end up changing it's location some time, but that should work for now. PM me or find me on an instant messenger if you find any problems with it.
The other interesting thing is that I got a laptop. My first laptop, ever. I'm currently introducing her to the rest of my network. She is very tiny and cute, the 12 inch ibook. Not the most powerful laptop out there by far, but she is exactly what I needed. OSX is pretty neat too, based on freeBSD (my favourite OS by far).

EOF

zomg back online!

Haven't slept for like 3 days.

Thank you to those of you who have watched me, and commented on my submissions.

Also, an extra special thanks goes out to Hunter, who drew my character Kitara:
http://www.furaffinity.net/full/40971/
http://www.furaffinity.net/full/18474/
Thanks Hunter!
(this is part of his EFFL project, check it out: http://www.satanasrey.com/effl/ )

I suppose I might as well update my journal.
I am absolutly useless, I've accomplished nothing since my last update.

All that aside, happy valentines day! *hugs*

Random and useless information: My sleep cycle is really out of sync.

So I thought I had completly eliminated the memory errors from one system, but there is a lot of tweaking I need to do. It used to be a really decent system, but errors are creeping in. One possibility is the gradual degradation of components. I've already performed a clean install, so all I can really do is try to tune it so it becomes stable (this system needs stability over raw power in its current use anyway). Also, in my future computer designs, I think I'm going to be a bit more careful of power consumption and heat (as I am so limited by these factors at the moment... it is snowing outside and I've got my window open, managed to get my room down to around 18 degrees celsius (in hopes of taking some strain off my failing chipset fan - which isn't a simple thing to fix, because oh shit it is snowing in my room! ahem... because there isn't much space, and the chip gets rather hot... I want to put a combination active/passive cooling system on it))

IRC... (I'm just typing whatever comes to mind, so this entry probably is a little random.)
Now, about IRC. It is a thing I love. I idle in it constantly. Some servers/channels I idle on are: irc.darkmyst.org/#yiff and #sheezy, irc.zirc.org/#iichan, irc.wtfux.org/#wtfux, irc.furnet.org/#furaffinity, and many other servers. Feel free to visit and /msg me.

I suppose I've rambled on long enough, and I should go do something useful. Like coding or something...

err... I'm not very active at the moment.
I have been job hunting though...

Anyway, I'll get back to you guys in a while. (commenting and stuff)

so I'm sitting here, bored, backing up my data. As much as I dislike windows, and strongly believe in the principals of GNU, I like to keep at least one windows machine around, just in case (also for testing applications on windows). I recommend reinstalling windows every 6 months or so, or as needed. I've fixed some hardware problems and this should make the machine much more productive. Also, directory structure was becoming too disorganized and the registry was too full of crap.

When I can afford it, I'm going to build a proper file server with raid. One of the problems I have is I need files accessable to my many computers in a way that they aren't currently.

And for some other stuff, all my buddies went to FC, I miss them so, *sniff*.
Game development is proceeding.
A friend wants a very complex website made, and I'm going to make it (I hope I can learn the stuff well enough).

Oh, also!!!
Hackers is the greatest movie in the entire universe!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ugg... hangover...


Anyway, I've been kicked out of engineering, so I'm going to focus alot more on coding. Other than that, I have no clue what I'm going to be doing now.

This weekend was interesting. On my birthday, I found that the majority of admins I talked to recommended PHP and MySQL (though, I had one guy recommend Perl and Javascript). Thus, I decided to focus the majority of my efforts on PHP and MySQL. I got a development server up and I've been playing around with some coding. It is such a good feeling when you write something and it works.

On friday night and saturday, I had to do network maintanence (mainly wrt wireless) I'm so glad I put all my systems on a different network (never once lost signal as I worked on the other net.)

Last night, I stayed up till 2:30 to help my younger brother beat Halo 2 and right now, I'm torn between coding or playing F.E.A.R or katamari or something.

Oh, and I have no clue if I'm even in university anymore (might be on dean's vacation :( ) so I don't know what I'm doing tomorrow.

So, as some of you may know, I've been betatesting the latest version of MSN messenger. Microsoft has given me quite a few invites, so if anyone wants to be a part of the 'Windows Live Messenger' ( msn messenger 8 ) testing, let me know.

WLM developer blog

So I was chatting in IRC and suddenly it hit me (like a gold brick) :

It was my birthday!
I had almost forgotten! (I was too busy rolling katamaris to care)

And so, now I am 20. Don't really feel different (come to think of it, when I got my blackbelt, I didn't feel different either - I guess its just a belt, when I went to the test, I suppose I already was a blackbelt, just not officially).

18 was great, legal age to drink. Legal age to drive. Now birthdays mean one year closer to the enevitable end, nothing really to look forward to. What I mean to say is that I'm bored.

So the question is, "now what?"






So many holidays, so close together... my liver is not going to be happy about this. :(

Decided to do computer maintainance at 4 in the morning.
I removed some old cards from my older computer and upped its ram to two gigs. Also fixed a few other problems with it, including fixing the PS2 port. Chipset fan is seized (again) but I don't have a spare so whatever, it can wait. I plan on upgrading the cpu sometime anyway, so I can replace the chipset fan then.
My newer system was just really dusty (and it's not long since the last time I cleaned it.) It has such a beautiful case, but it's thermal design is a little weak.
Got the apollos reassembled the other day. I plan on getting rid of them, as they are more useful as spaceheaters. They look cool, but offer me no advantages over todays technology. Hopefully, I can use the space for newer equipment.
I've been tinkering with an older, microATX duron, but it is a little unstable. It isn't critical right now, though, but I'll keep it around as a redundant backup.
Networking wise, things are working well. Still haven't got around to setting up a DNS yet, but for 9 computers, it doesn't make much sense (I wanna do it anyway). More importantly, my friend is going to host one of my servers off of his (better) connection, so getting that set up and comming up with content takes precedence.

Merry Christmas everyone!


Also, check this out:
http://shoutingloudly.blogspot.com/.....ead-horse.html

Well... I totally had to steal it from that thief Furball <3

1. What is your character's name?
- Nikuramon (Nik/Nikura/Niku are all fine too)

2. What kind of character is it (furry, anime, etc) and any particular race?
- Well, originally, I'd say Gatomon/Renamon crossbreed, but these days, I say copper fox, because that is the outward appearence.

3. What is the first thing your character would think of when he/she first wakes up?
- probably something about the mission

4. Your character's favorite outfit would be?
- Black ninja garb type stuff

5. When your character looks into a mirror, what's the first thing they would notice?
- my beautiful copper fur... maybe my greenish blue eyes? I have no idea

6. Does your character have the same tastes in food as you?
- ofcourse

7. How is your character similar to you?
- basically my character is me

8. How is he/she different?
- well... I'm not exactly a ninja... just a humble martial artist.

9. If your character could speak, would they have the same voice as you?
- yeah, probably

10. If you were to suddenly become your character, what do you think would be the first thing you would do as them?
- I dunno... but I'm pretty sure it would involve a lot of lube...

11. Is there something about your character that you don't like how others think of them?
- I don't know other's opinion.

12. What advantages does your character have over you?
- 1337 ninja skillz omg! Also, getting sex TwT

13. What disadvantages?
- I dunno

14. Do you have any secrets relating to your character that only you know?
- Not that I know of.

15. Do you have any secret drawings only you know about?
- well... there are those sketches... but they're crap!

16. Do you have any plans for your character or are you working on something big relating to him/her?
- not right now

17. What misconception(s), if any, do people have about your character?
- none that I know of

18. If you could have just ONE characteristic from your character, what would it be?
- the incredible awesomeness! (jk) The tail. The fluffy copper tail <3 (second choice would have been the ears ;))

19. Have you made any characters that go along with yours, based on real-life people, that have the same relationship with your character as you with the real-life person?
- no

20. Have you written any stories about your character?
- Yes. One is mostly done, but has remained in that same semi-finished state for a year. Another one is planned, but I don't know if I'll ever write it.

21. How has your character changed since his/her first creation?
- well... he was created so I could post on a messageboard. Later, I started roleplaying him, and he just sorta... became me.

22. Give us a one-liner from him/her.
- can't think of one.

ummm.... yeah.
Finished finals on the morning of the 20th. Got pretty drunk. Reorganized my room on the 21st. Rolled Katamaris most of yesterday.
So... Merry Christmas! Later I hope to get caught up on art and journals and stuff.