This year will be my first time attending aKademy conference, a meeting of KDE users, developers and contributors. Akademy 2007 will take place in Glasgow, Scotland from 30th June to 7th July 2007.

Air plane tickets for me and my sister have just been booked, thanks to Jure Koren, who helped with his credit card (I don’t have any of my own yet). We’ve already arranged for accommodation in Glasgow Euro Hostel about two weeks ago. So everything is ready for the departure. Well almost, I still need to buy a power socket adapter.

Big thanks also go to LUGOS who will be paying for my plane ticket and the room. Without them this trip wouldn’t be possible, or it would be very hard. Can’t wait to meet you at aKademy 2007!

P.S. If you’re coming don’t forget to add yourself to the list of aKademy 2007 attendees.

Tags: kde, akademy, akademy 2007, conference, meeting, desktop, free software, open source, glasgow, scotland

That’s the number the entire internet is talking about today. A number with letters in it? Yes, it is in hexadecimal notation, which is often used in computers to represent numbers. Converted into decimal system we use every day it would be: 13256278887989457651018865901401704640.

So what is so special about it? Well it’s more or less this way. The greedy movie and music industry (represented by MPAA and RIAA) is using various forms of digital restrictions management (DRM) on the content they write on media. In effect they scramble it in such a way that you can’t view it if you don’t know the secret recipe to unscramble it. I think it is quite obvious to everyone that this DRM crap doesn’t work at all and only hurts people who legally buy movies and music. It only makes it all more complicated, more expensive. And to think that this DRM stupidity s even integrated into Windows Vista. Just one more good reason to avoid it.

Well back to our number. This once secret number is used in DRM system which infects HD-DVD discs. It is needed by any player (software or hardware) that wants to decode video from HD-DVD. But now it’s not so secret any more. How could it happen? Well in all their greedy stupidity the industry has sent it within a DMCA complaint notice to some poor guy from which it wasn’t so hard to get this number. And sure enough today it is al over the internet.

To read more about this DRM stupidity and take some action in order to stop the greedy industry hurting consumers and buyers be sure to check out DefectiveByDesign.org. We must not tolerate this any more! Eliminate DRM!

Tags: drm, digital restrictions management, consumer rights, mpaa, riaa, movies, music, hd-dvd, technology