Archive for the 'Offtopic' Category

Vertor - verified torrents with samples

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There are many different public torrent sites, but most of them have to face a very serious issue: fake torrents. If you download stuff from public sites, you might have already experienced it: you download a release just to realize it’s something completely different. Or in a case of movie, the quality is almost unwatchable. Or it infects your computer with nasty virus. This is really common in these days and it’s hard to fight with people who spread these fake, low quality or malware infected torrents.

Vertor.com is a new torrent website made to fight this problem. And it does its work really well. The whole website, a short name for “Verified Torrents” is completely ad free, fast to load and with a nice light design. According to Vertor stats, the site now contains well over 110,000 verified torrents. All passworded, infected or other “bad” torrents were removed and you are always safe to download a working version.

Apart from classic torrent listing and search, there’s a feature which is nowhere to be seen: real samples of each and every video uploaded at Vertor. That is something simply amazing and hard to believe. You don’t need to look for quality samples anymore, because you can check them directly on the site just one click before you download the torrent. According to insider info I obtained from owners, there are 5 dual Xeon servers running 24/7 just downloading torrents to make these image samples. That’s a hell of a service for the community!

And this sampling goes even further: all audio files are downloaded as well and you can listen to 20 second samples of selected songs from the album. There’s also possibility to directly download NFOs included in the torrents. What alse do you want? Vertor is simply one of the best torrent sites right now, just few weeks after it has been launched. Go check it.

paid review

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Despite Rumours, Sony Has No Plans for PSP2

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WRecently, rumours have surfaced of a PSP2, or PSP-4000. However, Sony has announced that they have no plans to develop a new portable console. This may be due to lack of support by consumers and developers.

Although the PSP offers MP3 support, has PS2-like graphics, can browse the internet, and can do even more with hacked firmware, the UMD format has never caught on. At the release of the original PSP, there were plenty of UMD format movies available. However, due to lack of demand, the number of UMD movies available has diminished.

Even with the release of the PSP-2000 last year, the PSP’s sales were still behind those of the DS, and the release of the PSP-3000 was quite a failure, with its new LCD screen causing scan lines to become even more visible. But, even with these flaws, the PSP-3000 is selling, and so Sony feels no need for an upgrade.

David Reeves, President and Chief Executive Officer of SCEE, even admits that the problem really isn’t with the hardware, but more with the software. He states that this is due to the fact that developers would rather develop games for the PS3 and 360, then Wii, then DS, then maybe even the PS2, before the PSP. This may be, again, due to the fact that the PSP uses the UMD format.

Although the PSP is a great console with great capabilities, it is unlikely that the PSP will overtake the DSL and Sony appears to be just fine with that; atleast for now, anyway.

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Get Your GTA IV Working

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I know this is not any scene or p2p release but it will be helpful for many peoples who are having trouble running GTA 4 ..

You might have noticed that GTA IV, in its current state, has a lot of issues.
Please feel free to suggest your own fixes for known issues.

Prb

The “GET YOUR GTA IV WORKING” Checklist!

1. Update your drivers to the latest stable version:
- nVidia Users
- ATi Users

2. Update DirectX with the automated web installer.
- Official Microsoft Link
- Secondary Link (skip annoying genuine checks)

3. Update Games for Windows Live.
Click here.

4. Update Adobe Flash. (Install both of these)
- First uninstall Adobe Flash with this program

- Adobe Flash Download #1
- Adobe Flash Download #2

5. Update Visual C++.
- 32bit Version
- 64bit Version

6. Update .NET Framework to v3.5 + SP1.
- .NET Framework v3.5
- .NET Framework v3.5 SP1

7. Registry clean. (Optional — Very safe — Recommended For Everyone)
Click here.

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Nvidia Grand Theft Auto IV—Downloads

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Hey Guys Check out this!!
I know its not a scene release thats why i am posting this in offtopics section
Grand Theft Auto IV—Downloads

NVIDIA recommends that you update your system with the following GeForce v180.84 driver for the best experience on Grand Theft Auto IV:
N

Links: Download GeForce Driver 180.84 (Win XP)
Download GeForce Driver 180.84 (Win XP 64-bit)

Download GeForce Driver 180.84 (Vista)
Download GeForce Driver 180.84 (Vista 64-bit)

Homepage: Here

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ReviewMe: Ribbon Customizer for Office 2007

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Here’s a new paid review, this time about a pretty useful piece of software which can make your work much easier. Ribbon Customizer for Microsoft Office 2007 does exactly what the name says: it allows you to customize the control panel (called Ribbon) in all Office 2007 applications. There have been many complaints about the way the new Office looks and it takes a fair amount of time to get used to the new interface, but you can easily make it much friendlier with Ribbon Customizer. If you prefer the old look from Office 2003, you can easily switch to it with few clicks.

You can enable classic tools, the good ol’ menus and toolbars, but you can also reorder tabs, groups (including build-in tabs and contextual tabs). The application is compatible with the three most used applications: Excel, Word and Powerpoint. There’s also a support for Classic menus in Outlook and Access. Ribbon Customizer supports all languages that are supported by Microsoft Office 2007 so it doesn’t matter if you have Korean or Dutch copy of Office. If you want to give it a try, there’s a free 15-day trial after which you can decide to buy the program for $38.

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JetPunk quizzes: how many countries

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If you like travelling, you might considering visiting site called JetPunk Quizzes where you can compete in various polls and quizzes focused mainly on travelling and geography. The one particular quiz I will mention in this post is called “How many countries can you name in 5 minutes?”. It’s really simple - there are 195 countries in the world and your task is to write down as many of them as possible in 5 minutes.

The other quizzes are focused mostly on the United States, but there are quesions related to sport or politics as well. If you are finished with the quiz, you can subscribe for a free newsletter which will let you know about new questions or head to the main website JetPunk, which offers comparison and search for flights and hotels all over the world. JetPunk searches through the most famous services as Orbitz, Kayak or Expedia so you might use it for planning your trips as well.

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Obama wins US election

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Democrat Barack Obama made history Tuesday night with a decisive election victory over Republican John McCain, becoming the nation’s first African-American president-elect after an epic campaign that saw him rise from relative political obscurity to claim the world’s most powerful political office.

The 47-year-old Illinois senator, who will become the 44th president, was propelled to victory after capturing the battleground states of Ohio and Pennsylvania, wins that dealt McCain’s hopes of becoming president a back-breaking blow.

No Republican has ever won the White House without winning the Buckeye State and its 20 electoral votes.

Read more - The Vancouver Sun

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Dragonball Trailer/Teaser

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No this isn’t the movie but just in case none of you guys seen the trailer, or teaser here it is! This might be one of the most anticipated movies ever, and it’s set to releases in 2009! But i my opinion it’s going to be nothing like the show.

[Based on] The King Piccolo Saga [Dragonball], also known as the Piccolo Daimaoh Saga (Demon Lord Piccolo Saga) is the penultimate saga from the anime Dragonball. It occurs after the Tien Shinhan Saga and precedes the Piccolo Junior Saga. It includes the battles between Goku and King Piccolo’s sons, Goku’s first encounter with the Samurai warrior, Yajirobe, Goku’s quest to find the Holy Water, his final battle with young King Piccolo, and the birth of Piccolo Junior. Appearances also made by Yamcha and Bulma but regretably not Pu’ar or Oolong, nor even Krillin. Ox King and his Daughter Chi Chi are speculated.

Links: Trailer, Movieweb

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Interview with InsaneTTM - Razor 1911 Founder

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I was just browsing through some old files when I found out a very old issue of Inquisition. I guess most of you have no clue what that is - and those of you connected with the scene won’t probably remember either. Inquisition was a warez bulletin released by sceners for sceners back in 1995 and it featured various scene-related charts, interviews, statistics and analyses. Yes, that’s the time when only few people knew about the scene and it was much harder to get involved. In those times, it was also very common to disclose much more details about group’s sites, leaders, members and BBSs. I thought some of you might find this 15-year-old interview interesting, so here it is for you:

 

—=[ 5. Interview - InsaneTTM - Razor 1911 Founder ]————————–

INQ: Okay, I’d like to welcome you to this Inquisition interview and would
like to thank you for taking the time. Very first question, what is your
full handle and where are you from?
TTM: Sure, no probs. As long as there are no emergency calls I hopefully can
answer all the questions. My handle is InsaneTTM, I come from Trondheim
Norway. TTM stands for The Tractor Maniac.
INQ: Could you briefly describe the founding of Razor 1911 and how the first
few years developed?

TTM: We were just kids. In 1985 the three founding members where at the
incredible age of 13, 14 and 14, so you can imagine that alot of games
were played. But, after a while we soon started to get interested in
demos. The specific date is not remebered but, during October 1985 three
guys, Myself, Secotr9 and Dr NO, decided to get a kewl name.
INQ: Who is “we,” that is, who helped you found razor and what did each of you
do?
TTM: After going through piles of bad ones we ended up with Razor 1911.
INQ: Where did the name come from? Why 1911?
TTM: Well in the beginning nobody had dedicated stuff to do; it was just
like - Hey guys lets start a group.
INQ: So Razor started as a demo group on what platform?
TTM: Well, a friend of ours called Hellmates came up with Razor and we
instantly felt that this one was great. The number was actually 2992 in
the very beginning but was later changed to 1911. The reason why we
wanna have a number is that every kewl group at the time being used
numbers - like Flash Cracking Group 1941, Section 8, Electronic Cracking
Association 1998, ABC 1999, Jedi 2001, 1103 and so on. The platform
Razor started to work on was Commodore 64. The number 1911 is $777 in
hexadecimal. Because at the time, a lot of kids used 666 and such
childish stuff; we just went the opposite way as 7 is the number of the
good.
INQ: How did razor grow and when do you think were the best times for Razor?
TTM: Hmm.. We grew up from the Commodore 64, to the Amiga. On the amiga, our
very first releases came. It wasn’t actually until 1989 our first
releases came. We had problems getting our hands on the originals, as
every new group with no structure had. But, then everything started to
roll. We got our first overseas member, Zodact, that had a board. So,
we went into the modem scene at the same time.
INQ: What was the competition like with INC? What about Fairlight or THG?
Who was the most competitive, and what was the competition for in the
early days? I mean, with the modem scene, and the distribution of
releases.
TTM: Now we did games on a regular basis for a while, and on the amiga until
91, we had some 50 releases. Then, the next step was to get into the PC
world. At the time we got into the PC, as you said INC and THg were the
leading forces, but after all the years in the business, we had a lot of
contacts everywhere and were able to get some real action together. We
were so fortunate that in our close neighborhood we had a young cracker
named Darwin. A lot of amusing stories about those days. He once had to
crack the game over the phone to some guy in the US before leaving for
school in the morning, didn’t have the time to upload it!! And then went
home during his lurch to check that it finally was released. And from
there on everything grew and grew.
TTM: The best days for Razor must have been on PC during the spring of 93. We
had enough cards to have the rule the entire scene. We’re talking about
the 1993 edition of Razor’s European courier team consisting of
RazorBlade, Devil, Hoppermania, GrimLock, Insane TTM, Slain and Digital
Justice which made the every other courier teams in the world look like
plain amateurs.
INQ: Was this around the time Darwin was busted?
TTM: Nope, Darwin wans’t busted. He actually was outta the scene in 93.
In fact as he was and still is a close friend of Razorblade. My most
memorable moment probably was the easter of 93. We had 5 huge releases
in 4 days. Trading round the clock; it was the most thrilling
experience. We just beat the crap out of everyone else on all 5
releases. I had almost no sleep for the days, should just go to bed.
When the phone rang and said “We got a release in a couple of hours, get
ready.” The sadly in a forthnight, when were at the ultimate top. I was
busted, together with Baal and Gene here in Norway. S9 and DRno luckily
escaped.
INQ: For cards?
TTM: After 10th of May 93, I have been out of the business. Just watching
what’s happening with the group, and I am proud to see that WE still are
a major force. I was busted for CC, yeah.
INQ: How were the releases being distributed? To what boards? What baud rate
were these at?
TTM: At the end, we had 14.4 and 16.8 modems. As mentioned above, the courier
team from hell did the most of it during the golden age. We had one line
at our main board, and one line at every other major board around -
covering everything. Hanging in there downloading all the disks except
the first where the cracks usually are being placed - waiting for the
cracker to upload it and then, BOOM! We get it everywhere in just
minutes. Ahh, what a feeling.
INQ: What major boards were memorable for you?
TTM: Hmm… Major board. Digging in the back parts of my brain - Elusive
Dream and Pitts are our rival board. We have had like zillions of
boards during the time, but getting into the rivals boards is always a
great deal of fun.
INQ: How do you feel about subsequent leaders? What about TRC, Butcher, even
today with TSR and The GEcko?
TTM: On the issue of our leaders. The one I have had most contact with is
probably Butcher. He was a very kewl guy when you got to know him. He
was sadly busted too. Today’s leaders I must say I don’t know at all. I
won’t get into the business again. As I have got a kewl job with full
INET connection.
INQ: What are you doing now? What do you think of the scene today? What
about BBS’s? Are they better or worse than before?
TTM: I ususally hang around on the IRC all day to see when we release
something. Since I was busted 2 1/2 years ago, Internet has taken over
alot of the distribution, plus the trading scene is being shut down in
one country after another. So alot of sites are replacing boards as we
used to know them.
INQ: What do you think of the internet and the effect it has had on the scene?
Do you think the scene will survive?
TTM: As long as there is games/utils being developed there will always be a
scene around.
INQ: Do you think that there needs to be some sort of “elite” for the scene to
function correctly? If so, what makes someone elite? Do you think that
the net has increased the lameness in the scene?
TTM: There will always be “elite” and there will always be wannabees. And for
the scene to function properly there will always be a need for elites to
be there. Elite could stand for somebody that can organize properly.
INQ: The CDRip/NET question.
TTM: Hmm.. CDRips. There are two kinds of CDRips.
1. The good ones by usually quality groups.
2. The lame/bad ones froim new groups trying to break into the scene.
The latter is like ripping everything that was suppose to be released.
Like 60 disk releases! If you are a SysOp and read this, nuke people
that upload such stuff x5 at least.
INQ: Do you think there will ever be a time when games are too big to pirate?
INQ: What would you say the disk limit for a rip should be?
TTM: Hmm.. Well I won’t say anything because the quality of games vary, but
more than 30 disks is like meaningless to me. One of my flatmates came
home with a 29 disk game here one day. I don’t understand why people
care about copying of all of the disks.
INQ: Well, thank you very much for your time, and it was very nice talking.

This interview was conducted on November 28, 1995 by Darwin/DWi.


TorrentPrivacy - hide your torrent downloads

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If you want to feel little more secure on the internet, here’s a service exactly for you: TorrentPrivacy is a service by well know torrent site Torrentreactor.net. They started Torrentprivacy at the end of 2007. The idea was to give torrent users the service from the party they can trust. TorrentPrivacy creates secure encrypted tunnel via SSH protocol and all your Bittorrent traffic going through this tunnel can’t be decrypted by others. This way, nobody is able to localize your real location and see your torrent download (see “how it works” video).

Using TorrentPrivacy you’re seen as the user from Netherlands, Canada or USA this is where our servers are. Nobody will be able to identify your real IP. We do not save logs either. With Torrent Privacy your IP is concealed and ISP can not monitor your traffic. Nobody will ever know what you’re doing. It is impossible to get pre-lawsuit notice. All you need to is download and install a simple application which also includes torrent clients. After that, all your download will become untraceable.

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