Anime Downloading - Partie Deux

Read my senior's copy of the New Paper today, and came across a one-page update on the latest Odex vs Anime Downloaders saga. Apparently now Odex has roped in the Japanese companies. These companies are going to give Odex the authority to take actions against the illegal downloaders. Odex just ain't going to give up.

What I read next was like deja vu. Basically it was a plan on how to reduce illegal downloading which sounded eerily like what I posted under the title Anime Downloading -Partie Une. Instead of calling it pay-per-view, it was called video-on-demand. It mentioned working with the Japanese anime companies such that viewers outside of Japan can get to download anime episodes 1 week after they are aired in Japan. Odex also mentioned working with TV station such that some animes can be broadcasted the same time as those in Japan.

This certainly makes things more interesting. I wonder how much they would charge for the downloads keeping in mind anime is not like mp3. People would most probably download the whole series unlike mp3s whereby you can select to download only certain tracks from the album. If the cost of downloading is going to be as expensive as buying the VCDs, then it will defeat the whole purpose. After all, a large percentage of the downloaders are school students who chose to download because they cannot afford to pay for the VCDs/DVDs. Besides why force us to download? Give us a choice to pay to watch online or to download. Either way sincere viewers would definitely pay if the price is right.

Anime Downloading - Partie Une

Quite the hot topic these days especially for those who enjoyed watching japanese anime. ODEX is truly a pain in the arse. It claimed that its VCDs and DVDs are of good quality, but that is just crap. I have the evidence because my bro and I do own some of the VCDs by ODEX, but unfortunately I cannot post any video here else I be sued by ODEX for illegal distribution of licensed material. It also claimed that avid fans of anime cannot tell the difference in quality between its DVD and the original jap version of the anime. Well, for starters, I just want to point out that I have not seen that many, sometimes it's zero, DVDs by ODEX on sale in Laserflair nor Poh Kim. The list of animes available on VCDs are pitiable and out-dated.

My take on this? After this fiasco blows over people will just continue downloading. Do you think imposing a $3-5K fine is going to stop people from downloading? Fact is the internet makes it far too easy to illegally procure such material. MP3 downloading is a very good example. Music companies have been trying to curb illegal ripping of their CDs and conversion of the music to mp3 for sharing. It was a losing battle trying to sue the people downloading/ sharing the music. You catch one, but there are more illegal downloaders in the making.

The grouse with music lovers is purchasing CDs can sometimes be a waste of money. You pay $20+ for 1 disc but end up truly liking only a couple of songs in the CD. Singles are worse. It cost $10+ just to get one song plus a few remixes of the song. So thank the bright spark who came up with the idea of legal downloading; you just need to pay about USD$1 for each track you want. You still pay, but less because you are not paying for the extras which you do not want.

When it comes to anime, my grouse is I am not willing to pay for low quality VCDs. Neither am I willing to pay for good quality VCDs or DVDs if I know I am just going to watch them only once. It will do stupid companies like ODEX some good to ponder on how to make money through other sources than merely through sales of VCDs and DVDs. Has anybody thought of pay-per-view? I do not think this will completely solve the problem of illegal downloading, but I am sure affordable pay-per-view will definitely bring down the numbers of illegal downloading.

With pay-per-view viewers can tryout a couple of episodes from the series, before making a commitment to purchase the VCDs/DVDs. With a good translation team, viewers can even view the latest anime airing in Japan albeit maybe a few weeks behind Japan's release date; this is still better than waiting a year or so for the anime to be translated and then licensed to be released as VCDs or DVDs.

Anyway, this is the latest news on the ODEX case. It appears ODEX does not the right to take action against those who infringe copyright, as it is only a sub-licensee. Hmm...

Deathly Hallows

Yes, Harry Potter's final book. I finished it in less than 24 hours, I only slept at 6 AM today. The gist of the story I know, but I guess I got to re-read at a slower pace later after I get more sleep so I can analyse the details...

Hairdressers to Me...

Are like dentists to others. Going to the hairdresser is a torture, at least for me. Without fail I would be bombarded with a myriad of treatments, hair straightening, hair colouring options by the attending hairdresser. As such it is with great reluctance that I went to get my haircut at Kimage 2 days back.

I was insulted by the hairdresser throughout the whole session. When she approached to ask me what services I wanted, I told her plainly that I wanted a haircut. While fingering my hair she commented it was very dry, to which I grunted my agreement. What came next was what I hate about going to the hairdresser. She then started telling me a simple treatment is not enough to solve my problem. Guess what would solve my problem? Rebonding. It supposedly would make my hair finer and easier to manage.

Wanted to make a sarcastic comment when I heard that, but kept my mouth shut as I am not the one holding the pair of scissors. With my intelligence I do not know how on earth rebonding is suppose to make my hair finer. After all according to the law of physics, matter and energy cannot be created or destroyed. If my hair has this amount of matter and the strands are thick to begin with, straightening would not make it any finer would it? Not only that, my hair is already dry to begin with, would not rebonding make it drier? Anyways, told her I do not need to rebond. I am perfectly fine with my curly hair.

Not giving up, she continued fingering my hair asking if I would like to have it coloured then. Just exactly what is wrong with hairdressers that they cannot shut their trap and just cut the hair as I have asked? Why are they so mesmerised with virgin hair that they must try ways and means of getting me to agree to let them rape it? When I turned down that option and told her to just cut the hair, she gave a dissatisfied look on her face.

As if to serve revenge, she made me wait for more than 15mins before asking an apprentice to wash my hair. Why do I say it was revenge? The salon was less than 20% full, so why on earth do I have wait 15 mins just to get my hair washed? Nevertheless, this was not the worst.

The ultimate insult came when she was cutting my hair. Towards the end, I believed she accidentally nicked herself with the scissors. She caught me observing her through the mirror while she examined her wound. People, she blamed my hair for giving her the wound. Her exact words were, "Your hair is so thick and stiff that it poked under my skin." I was devastated! This was the first time I was told that I had wood fibres on my head instead of keratin. (T_T)

Although I was satisfied with the outcome of the haircut, I would not be back to let that woman cut my hair again. In fact I don't think I want to go back to that salon. If you're reading this, and you know any good no-nonsense hairdresser who will just cut the hair without pushing customers to rebond or colour their hair, please let me know. I would really appreciate it.

All That Glitters Is Not Gold...

And all who has a university degree is not intelligent. Yes, I can hear snickerings in the background, "You mean it took you this long to realise?" Not that I did not realise this sooner, just that the feeling is more acute these past couple of weeks.

Tis the season to train pharmacists who just graduated from university again. Somehow every year you see some really ridiculous people who managed to graduate from pharmacy school. Just the week before last, I had one pre-reg pharmacist who interrupted me while I was half-way dispensing. She humbly asked me if there was any technique to pouring syrups from the stock bottle into the amber bottles for patients because she was spilling almost half the syrup from the stock bottle instead of getting them into the amber bottle. I'll be frank, I was stunned. I did not know of any special techniques when it comes to pouring syrups; you just pour. I mean, come on, when we were pharmacy students there were plenty of lab lessons for you to pour things into small test tubes, and into cylinders. Please do not tell me those were not enough training. Either she is a total klutz, or she had been lazy and asked her lab partner to run all the experiments while all she did was to take the results.

Then there was another pre-reg pharmacist who did something which did not make much sense to us. We were suppose to dispense 315ml of SV syrup to a patient. Commonsense says since a full bottle is 300ml, I will just dispense 1 full bottle and pour out another 15ml from the stock bottle for the patient. Not pour 1 full bottle + 15 ml all into another big bottle.

Then there was the incident when she processed the order "to take half tablet in the morning and 1 tablet at night" into 2 separate instructions then packed 2 packets of medicine, one for each instruction. End result, when I was dispensing the medicine, I was shocked to find one packet that said, "Take half a tablet in the morning," and another that said, "Take 1 tablet at night." When I questioned her rationale for processing in this manner, her answer was that was how the computer translated the electronic order from the doctor. The computer program runs on a translation algorithm that is sometimes not very smart, but we can override the faulty translation by manually keying in the order. I do expect that much of a person who graduated with a university degree, and had already been briefed on how to manually key in prescription orders.

Next is somebody I know who is doing a part-time degree in some engineering course. When the doctor ordered a "nice" dose which either happens to be half or a quarter tablet, you just process as that. Why add additional stupid instructions such as crush half a tablet in 10ml water and take 10ml? Why ask if we should give the syrup formulation when we do not have the stocks because the drug company is having problems with their production? Just ask the parents to crush and dissolve the tablets and give the required quantity... When such things happen, I wonder how on earth you get entry to do a part-time degree.

In fact I wonder if all these so-called part-time degrees should be recognised as degrees. There are many part-time degrees out there that allow people to spend the same number of years as those doing full-time degrees to get that coveted piece of paper, yet the hours they actually spend on the course work is much less that those doing a full-time degree. So either the part-time degrees are sub-standard, or full-time degrees are asking the students to do a lot redundant stuffs. You think about it.

Post National Day Thoughts

The following conversation occurred at dinner today...

Mom: Eh did you watch the NDP that day?
Bro: No lah, whatever for? It's the same thing every year.
Mom: Where got same? It's held at a different location.
Bro: Aiyah, does it matter? It's still the same. Same march in, same program.
(Mom shook her head and walked off)
Me: (mumbling with my mouth full) Yah, and same fireworks.
Bro: Hehe...

After that my bro and I started listing how the program would have gone. Usually it starts off with the choir singing to entertain the audience who came early, or the politically correct way of saying this is to build up the atmosphere, while waiting for the program to start. Next, not in order, would be the fly past, the march in, the seating of the ministers of parliament, and the arrival of the president. Usually after the president arrived, there would be the inspection of the ground units, as well as the singing of the national anthem and reciting of the pledge. Oh, and did I forget to mention the gun salute?

After all these rites, there would be the usual song and dance sessions performed by the various community groups, or schools. Recent years we also see the SAF flaunting their latest toys on NDP, so I guess it would be the same this year. Last but not least (cliche), there would be the fireworks.

Sure, you tweak things a little here and there to make it slightly different every year, but the NDP is in essence the same every year. Maybe I am older, and it no longer excites me to hear songs declaring love for the country. Although I still remember the lyrics for all the songs I'd learned in school, I no longer felt the urge to sing them even on national day. My bro even commented the pledge sounds more like propaganda now that he is older. I guess it takes more than just an NDP to make us feel patriotic. :p

We Are Angry

I've come to the conclusion that healthcare professionals are a bunch of angry people. Out of serious boredom, I googled "angry doctor" and "angry nurse". Guess pharmacists aren't the only people feeling angry. There are plenty of "angry doctor" blogs around, and one angry nurse blog.

It just occurred to me that maybe we are feeling angry because we have no where to run; no escape from the stupid patients we face everyday. Due to professional and ethical reasons we cannot turn patients away. No matter how much we wanted to chase them away, we cannot do that, so we bore with their stupidity day in day out, and the result is a bunch of angry people...