DRM or Die. How Anti-Consumer Practices Became the New Norm and the Consumers Are to Blame
How many of your devices have you activated over the internet today?
Most people don't like it when things change. But, by following the proverbial "slowly boiling frog" principle (which is factually incorrect, by the way), if you change your business practices slowly enough and promote them in Media as something positive, these changes will eventually get accepted as the new widespread standard. And the waterfall of complaints and negative press will gradually subside, leaving you with an amorphous mass of consumers willingly giving up their freedoms and personal data in return for electronic services and even physical goods.
Because… What is the "norm"? It's an ever-changing concept on its own. For all intents and purposes, I think it's enough to consider something "normal" when it's practiced by or believed in by a large enough portion of the population.
Some of us may not consider anti-consumer practices mentioned in this post a "norm", but give it enough time, and they will become. Some may even suggest that maybe, just maybe, you don't have to blindly obey and do what the companies and the corporations ask of you, and instead protect your privacy and ensure the security of your future by favoring consumer-friendly businesses over ones which keep getting away with pushing more and more egregious ways to take those freedoms away from you, and turn your personal life into a profitable business asset. Except such opinions are becoming more and more unpopular with each passing day.
Now what the hell am I rambling about?
Simple:
DRM Has Won
No, seriously. And I can prove it.
Play Ghost of Tsushima
There are bad games...
There are... mediocre games.
There are good games.
There are great games.
And then there's Ghost of Tsushima. In a class of it's own, a pure masterpiece of visual and open-world game design.
Sucker Punch, you beautiful bastards you.
Backup and Restore. Don't Delay! Secure Your Files With Freeware Backup Software Today
I have a lot of files...
And I bet you do too.
You probably also use your computers on a daily basis. Those are cool. But sometimes they crash or glitch. Get stolen or hacked. Or install Windows 10 updates. Or die in a fire.
Together with all your files and memories.
Consequently, today I'd like to direct your attention to the topic of data backup.
"Wait. Isn't this a Computer Graphics blog?"
It sure is.
Still, part of getting any work done on a computer is making sure your files don't accidentally get lost. Whether you like it or not, unless you have someone else responsible for keeping your data safe, you should adhere to a certain form of a backup strategy on your own.
Unfortunately, lots of people overlook this topic, and end up losing sizable amounts of their labor.
If any of this sounds familiar, this post will present a couple of suggestions and tools. And most of those won't cost you a dime.
Otherwise, if you are already using some form of a backup solution to manage redundant copies of the files you're working on, you probably won't discover anything particularly new here.
This article is not meant as an all-encompassing guide, but rather a brief introduction. One without product placements, affiliate links or hidden ads. Just honest opinions based on personal knowledge and experience.
Genshin Impact, GACHA and The Case of an Inferior Electronic Sticker Album
Last week saw the release of a new free-to-play Chinese electronic gambling game disguised as a 3rd person action RPG named Genshin Impact. And it turned out to be one of the largest launches for a Chinese game ever.
I wonder why...
Don't get me wrong: I love games with sexy girls and tons of fan-service! Not so much though, when I'm painfully aware that the actual entertainment product is a trap, designed to slowly condition players to regularly spend money for premium currency. Such currency can then be spent to take part in a game of chance-like ordeal where you pay to get a shot at unlocking a bunch of random heroes and items of different "rank", "tier" or "value" upon "rolling a banner", opening a loot-box, a chest, a magical item or whatever the hell they decide to call those in a particular game of this category.
Remember these?
Yes, the Panini Sticker Albums...
Blender Cycles + NVIDIA RTX = An Artist's Dream
Watch this:
Wow.
Now imagine yourself in the shoes of Autodesk management. You have hundreds of thousands of people who want to enter the 3DCG industry. You tell your shareholders: "Hey, let's take away professional and entry-level perpetual Software licenses and give our customers subscription as the only option. Yeah, subscriptions. The worst possible thing for a freelancer. What a great idea! It will sure stand the test of time!"
Now tell me: after a myriad of amazing Blender updates, more and more companies becoming sponsors of the Blender foundation, and now NVIDIA with their RTX + AI denoiser integrated into the Software this well...
Tell me how many more potential Autodesk clients will turn to Blender to never look back?
Don't ask me why my mind immediately went to Autodesk of all things... Probably because I will never forgive them for killing off Softimage and afterwards going subscription-only route.
Ahem, excuse me. Anyway...
Well done, Blender and NVIDIA!
Run and Rock-it Kristie... Kristie! Re-imagined in 3D
Evgeniy Kozlov, the guy who did an amazing job creating most of the environment art assets for "Run and Rock-it Kristie", surprised me yesterday by sharing progress on his own sculpting studies. Imagine my delight when the first character he fully sculpted, textured and rigged ended up being Kristie, re-imagined in 3D!
Check her out!
Modeling, sculpting, texturing, rigging and rendering were all done in Blender.
Cute. CUTE!
You Don't Know What You're Giving up When You Choose Debt Over Savings
In the following video Louis Rossmann, a skilled repair technician and the owner of Rossmann Repair Group in New York, talks about how one should never willingly put self in debt just to have something "force" him or her to try and become successful. Instead you should save or invest, because, long story short: "You don't know what you're giving up".
So when an amazing opportunity presents itself, it's better to have the funds or resources to be able to take it, than to miss it and regret ever willingly falling back so far that you're in serious debt you need to take care of first.
Louis went from having literally nothing except for an idea for a business and a couple hundred dollars to running a well-known independent repair company and a parts supplier in one of the largest cities in the US as well as on the internet.
So, please, do find 15 minutes to hear what Louis has to say. You won't regret it, I promise.