Oscar fever: All Oscar-nominated films are available on The Pirate Bay, ExtraTorrent, RARBG, Demonoid, LimeTorrents and KickassTorrents
It’s that time of the year when Oscar fever grips the world and we tune to our TV sets to know about the Oscar winners for 2017. The Oscar awards ceremony will start in a few hours from now but you will be surprised to know that almost all of the Oscar nominated films are available on torrent websites like The Pirate Bay, ExtraTorrent, RarBG, KickassTorrents, Demonoid, LimeTorrents, Torrent Downloads, TorrentProject, YTS.ag and EZTV etc.for download.
Most of the films are screener versions which guarantee top quality save a few which are DVD rips. Only one film, George Lucas ‘Star Wars: The Rogue One’ is still not available in hi-res version. Produced by Walt Disney Pictures, ‘Star Wars: The Rogue One’ was released on 10th December 2016 and yet the torrents available for this film are just cam rips. Ironically, ‘Star Wars: The Rogue One’ has been the top hit for 2017, collection over $1 billion at box office and yet it seems to have been given a miss by top movie rippers on the torrent circuit, perhaps due to pressure from movie production houses and authorities.
Just like an Oscar nomination or award does marvels for any film in theaters, they also tend to do very well on torrent websites. Torrent Freak has compiled data from Oscar piracy watcher Andy Baio to take look at the Oscar nominated/awarded films available on torrent websites.
Baio’s data states that normally the pirated screeners of Oscar-nominated movies start to appear on torrent websites around December. As we had exposed in 2015, many of these titles leaked from DVD screener copies which were sent out to reviewers, including Academy members who vote for the Oscars.
Oscar movies torrents in 2017
2017 has been starkly different to earlier years for torrents. While new movies still make it to the torrent websites, the screener versions came only in early January 2017. The biggest reason for this is the multi-pronged crackdown on torrent websites and rippers. ISPs in UK are already sending notices to torrent users in the United Kingdom to abstain from downloading torrents while nearly all Australian ISPs have been ordered by a court to block major torrent websites like The Pirate Bay, ExtraTorrents, RARBG etc.
First of the screener versions to appear on torrent websites was Denzel Washington starrer Fences and soon after more and more screeners appeared online. With just a few hours to go before Oscars 2017 begun, a total of 14 screeners of nominated films are available on most big torrent websites like The Pirate Bay, ExtraTorrents, RARBG, YTS, KickassTorrents etc., which is comparable to previous years.
ExtraTorrent, RarBG, Demonoid, LimeTorrents, Torrent Downloads, TorrentProject, YTS and EZTV targeted by Australian authorities in a fresh crackdown after The Pirate Bay ban
Roadshow Films, Foxtel, Disney, Paramount, Columbia, and 20th Century Fox – these names are becoming larger than life for torrent lovers. Roadshow Films in particular. After getting a favorable Australian court verdict, these movie production houses are moving in for a kill to completely get rid of torrent websites from Australia.
Readers will remember that in December, at the Federal Court, Justice John Nicholas ruled that The Pirate Bay, Torrentz, TorrentHound, IsoHunt and streaming service SolarMovie would all have to be rendered inaccessible to consumers in Australia. The judge also included a dozen of proxy and mirror torrent websites.
Immediately after the court order, the movie producers pressurized the Australian ISPs to block the big daddy of torrent websites, The Pirate Bay. More than fifty Australian Internet service providers started blocking The Pirate Bay at the ISP level.
However blocking TPB didn’t suffice for the movie studios. They moved this week for the kill by pressurizing the ISPs to further block dozen more torrent websites. The new Australian blockade includes many popular torrent websites like ExtraTorrent, RarBG, Demonoid, LimeTorrents, Torrent Downloads, TorrentProject, YTS and EZTV. Movie streaming websites such as 123Movies, CouchTuner, Icefilms, Movie4K, PrimeWire, Viooz, Putlocker, WatchFree and WatchSeries are also targeted in this new round of blockage. The movie producers have been thorough to include direct download sites RlsBB and TehParadox and several proxy and mirror torrent website.Computer World reports that Roadshow Films is pressuring for a complete block of 41 torrent websites.
In the letter to the Australian ISPs like Telstra, Optus, Vocus, TPG, and their subsidiaries Roadshow Films is urging them to block the following websites.
If the Australian ISP follow the new order to the spirit, Australian citizens can no longer download torrents even for educational purposes. Many legitimate big files are transferred using torrents because they are.,..well big. This torrent block is going to hurt Austrialian torrent lovers and at the same time drive the use of VPN in Australia.
If you are in Australia and want to download torrents for educational purpose, you can use top three alternatives to The Pirate Bay or top KickassTorrents alternatives. You can also use VPN services to bypass the censorship but do remember that this would be in violation of the court order. You can get yourself the best VPN service from the list of 100 VPN services rated on their services and price from here.
A 360-degree camera isn't a must-have device for everyone. But if you've had an itch to create some VR-friendly video, or simply want to add a new gadget to your camera bag, it can be an enticing proposition. Although we're very much in the early days of VR, there is now an entire range of options from entry-level to professional
With services like Facebook and YouTube adding 360-degree photo and video support, maybe it's time you became the envy of your social media circle.
Ricoh's Theta S is one of the most well-reviewed cameras on the market, and comes equipped with a pair of 12-megapixel image sensors and f/2.0 fisheye lenses to capture full 360-degree video at 1080p. It's The Wirecutter's top choice as best overall 360-degree camera, and has high-marks from CNET, TrustedReviews and Imaging Resource, among others. At $300, it's also a relatively affordable option.
But it's nice price comes with some not-so-nice downsides, like a non-upgradeable 8GB of storage and no 4K video support.
If you're looking for something a little more high-end and versatile than the Theta S, the $500 360fly 4K could be a better fit. Its rugged and waterproof ball-shaped design means it can be withstand some punishment, and as the name suggests, it captures full 4K video, which you're going to want if you're planning to do more with your footage than just share it on social media.
Unlike the Theta S, however, the 360fly relies on a single lens that doesn't quite capture true 360-degree video; you'll get a full 360-degrees horizontally, but only 240-degrees vertically. Tom's Guide was especially pleased with its easy of use and video quality, but notes that both the battery and storage are non-replaceable.
You won't find a really cheap 360-degree camera without some significant trade-offs, but the LG 360 Cam at just $120 manages to stack up pretty well against pricier cams in terms of specs. It packs a pair of 14-megapixel sensors and a microSD slot for storage, though you'll have to supply your own card.
While it is mostly marketed as an accessory for LG phones, it's compatible with both iOS and other Android phones. Android Central and CNET each had some issues with the software (a common complaint with 360-degree cameras), among other caveats, but those may be worth swallowing considering the low price.
Unlike the LG's camera, Samsung's Gear 360 is designed to only work with newer Samsung phones, but it's an option worth seriously considering if you happen to have one. You'll get 4K video and full 360 images from the pair of 15-megapixel cameras, which can also be used individually to simply capture wide-angle images. The Wirecutter found it delivered some of the best image quality among the sub-$600 cameras it tested.
The Gear 360 can be controlled on the device itself or through your Samsung phone as a remote, and the Gear 360 not only has removable storage but a replaceable battery as well.
For iPhone users (6 or newer), the Insta360 Nano is one of the more compact and truly mobile options out there. At $200, it's also one of the more affordable. One clear advantage of going this route is that you'll have a nice big viewfinder when the camera is connected to your phone (it can also be used on its own). But you'll likely want to temper your expectations for video quality, according to PC Magazine's review.
Notably, the Insta360 has its own battery, so it won't drain your phone, and if you don't already have a cardboard VR headset, you're in luck—the camera's packaging turns into one.
GOING PROFESSIONAL
Intent on going all out and creating professional-grade VR content? You'll need to forego all the previously mentioned consumer 360-degree cameras, and be prepared to pay some brand new car prices, like the $45,000 Nokia OZO. That eye-popping amount of money buys you eight synchronized 2Kx2K cameras that can capture stereoscopic video, plus an array of eight microphones to record spatial audio for a truly immersive experience. If you're still feeling pro-grade but not that pro, you might give the GoPro Omni or Panono a chance.
It's a dizzying amount of money to drop on some gear, so it's worth checking to see if some camera shops offer rentals for these pro-level pieces of equipment so you can give it a test run to know if its works for you. Hey, worst comes to worst, you can always wait a couple of years for the same specs to trickle down to something a little more affordable.
Popularity may not be a single vector answer, but students and professionals still want to know if they're guiding their careers and companies in the right direction.
My UC Berkeley programming students often ask me which programming language is the most popular. It's a simple question with a far-from-simple answer.
Let's start with why people want to know. Usually, at least when it comes to students, they ask which language is the most popular because they want to learn subjects where there are jobs. For most people, it makes very little sense to enter a field with knowledge about something that's not in demand
Other times, programmers who are already skilled want to get a feel for whether their current skills are relevant, or whether it's time to look at other languages because shifts in popularity might mean it's time to bone up on a new language.
Developers who are building products also want to know about popular languages, because if they're building APIs or other compatibility options, they want to make sure they're producing solutions customers will use. It's very important to support the most popular environments.
Finally, if you're starting a project, you need to choose what language to build in. Your first criterion should always be to use a language that can get the job done. If one language is hugely popular but would take two years to code, and another is less popular but would take two months for your application, you clearly should choose the less popular language. But, all things being equal, choosing a more popular language generally means access to more programmers and resources, so that's an important consideration as well.
WHAT DEFINES POPULAR?
So which language is most popular? That, my young Padawan, is not as easy to answer as you might think. The key is to determine what defines popular.
This is such an open question that there's a Wikipedia article devoted to measuring programming language popularity. The article shows a number of possible factors for measuring popularity, including:
The number of times the language name is mentioned in web searches, such as indicated by Google Trends
The number of job advertisements that mention the language
The number of books sold that teach or describe the language
Estimates of the number of existing lines of code written in the language, which may underestimate languages not often found in public searches
The number of projects in that language on SourceForge, Freecode, and GitHub
The number of postings in forums and newsgroups about the language
Even that's not complete. You could add some of these metrics to that list:
The number of courses sold by programming bootcamps
The number of students enrolled in programming classes around the world
The number of videos on each language on YouTube
The number of postings on Reddit or Stack Exchange about a language
You get the idea. This can get even more complicated if you factor in popularity across nations. Are certain languages more popular in India? In the United States? In Russia?
The bottom line is that popularity is not a single vector answer.
DIFFERENT MEASUREMENT SOURCES
Therein lies the rub. Even with an understanding that popularity can be measured based on so many different factors, students and professionals still want to know if they're guiding their careers and companies in the right direction.
There are a number of online sites that publish language popularity metrics, each according to different criteria. IEEE Spectrum takes an interesting approach, because it has an interactive chart that allows you to weight different factors, like job site listings or open source hub projects.
Source: IEEE SpectrumCoding Dojo has a chart where it aggregates stats from job search engine Indeed.com. Tiobe has long used search engine aggregates to calculate popularity. PyPl looks at the popularity of language tutorials on Google.
Unfortunately, that doesn't really help. If you're looking at what languages to learn, or what languages you need to support, it's hard to decide which chart is the one to bet on.
OKAY, I GET IT. SO WHAT'S THE MOST POPULAR LANGUAGE?
To help give you some guidance, I combined the various sources mentioned above. For the three IEEE categories, trending means the languages that seem to be growing, jobs reflect job offerings at Dice.com and CareerBuilder, and open reflects the number of open source projects.
The result was the rankings in the following chart:
Combined chart of language popularity metrics.But the problem is, that really doesn't tell you where to focus. To get to the heart of the matter, I did some data analysis. I aggregated the data from five of the six sources (I left out Coding Dojo because it only showed ten languages). Then I weighted each language based on where it appeared on each chart and how many times it appeared. I took the top ten results and generated the chart the following language cluster aggregation chart.
Weighted aggregate analysis by David Gewirtz based on IEEE, Coding Dojo, PyPl, and Tiobe.As you can see, there are three clusters of languages. The top cluster contains Java, C, Python, and C++. Without a doubt, you should attain familiarity with these four languages. The next cluster contains JavaScript, C#, PHP, and Swift. The two remaining languages are Objective-C and R.
SO WHAT DOES THIS REALLY TELL US?
The languages in the first cluster, Java, C, Python, and C++, are pretty much universal languages. They're not tied to a specific programming platform or focus.
The most interesting clue is the second cluster, containing JavaScript, C#, PHP, and Swift. JavaScript and PHP are mainly web development languages. C# is a Microsoft-centric language. Swift is Apple's new main coding language. Fundamentally, the second cluster is platform-specific.
Again, what does this tell us? If you know about modern coding, you realize you're not just using a language. You're always developing for something, whether that's an embedded system, an iPhone, a web application, or a Microsoft server application.
Language familiarity is only a piece of the puzzle. For example, no matter how much you like Python or the very-ancient-but-still-ticking C, if you're programming WordPress plugins or themes, you're writing in JavaScript and PHP. It doesn't matter how popular the other languages are. If your employer is a Microsoft developer, you better know C#.
READING BETWEEN THE LINES
There are a few more interesting things I'd like to make sure you note. First, Coding Dojo's top language was SQL. That makes sense, except it doesn't. You very rarely only code in SQL. You use SQL to access data, but you manage those data queries in another language. So it's good (necessary, even) to know SQL. However, just taking a SQL course won't guarantee you a job, good money, or a life on Easy Street.
Second, the Apple-specific languages are lower on the charts than you might initially expect, given the popularity of iOS apps. But it makes sense. If you want to go off and build your own app, you want to learn those languages. But there aren't a huge number of companies hiring Apple app developers, at least primarily. That's why Swift is relatively far down the chart. Objective-C is being replaced by Swift, and we can see it dropping right before our eyes.
The C-family of languages still dominates. Java, C++, C, C#, and even Objective-C are all C-based languages. If you're only going to learn one language, you should pick one of those. I'd recommend Java or C++, since those will open you to the rest of the C-family.
At this point in my career, I can program, off the top of my head, in something like 20 languages. I can generally pick up a new language in a matter of days. That's because my engineering school thesis was in language design, and I've been teaching programming on and off for 20 years. Being multilingual has helped me, because I almost always choose a language for the job I'm doing, not because I only took one course and that's all I know. This may sound intimidating, but you can do it, too.
My advice to you, especially if you want to move into programming, is to learn multiple languages and multiple frameworks. Build things in the languages. Programming is not just an intellectual exercise. You have to actually make stuff.
Being comfortable in multiple languages and frameworks is important, because the computer industry is changing so much. Sure, C has been around longer than digital watches and Pong, but Swift is only a few years old and is already in the top ten. What you learn today is probably not going to be enough for your entire career. So learning how to learn languages is as important as learning a language -- and the best way to do that is to learn more than one.
My recommendation is pretty simple. Pick either C++ or Java and learn it. Then learn JavaScript. More and more web-based applications require good JavaScript skills. Then pick either PHP, Swift, or Python, depending on the kind of work you want to do. Once you know one of each of those three sets well, you'll be able to pick up whatever additional language or framework you'll need with relative ease.
Facebook-owned WhatsApp might be planning to soon add a new feature that might be very similar to Snapchar’s Stories feature.
However, the feature will come to iOS (for iPhones) first and then later might be rolled out to Android. This means that iPhone users will be able to put forth photos and videos in their Status with their contacts if the latest leaked image is believed to be true. The feature is similar to Snapchat Stories, which will disappear after 24 hours.
WABetaInfo tweeted an alleged image of the upcoming feature on iOS along with the text that read, “Status introduction text updated in WhatsApp beta for iOS 2.17.4+.” The feature has been on the cards since November 2016.
The image that was leaked also shows that the new feature will come with privacy settings as well and there is a high possibility that the update will be soon rolled out.
Facebook has been emulating Snapchat features and the new speculative feature comes as no surprise. Earlier reports also indicate that WhatsApp will soon allow users to track friends and follow them. Another new feature is also on cards which will notify users once their contacts change their status. Users will also be able to comment on the new status.
I’m sure you would love these funny computer-related quotes that I have put together. Although some of which are pretty old already, they can still tickle a geek’s funny bone.
Now get ready and enjoy this compilation of my top 50 funny computer quotes:
50. “Some things Man was never meant to know. For everything else, there’s Google.”
49. “Failure is not an option — it comes bundled with Windows.”
48. “Computer games don’t affect kids; I mean if Pac-Man affected us as kids, we’d all be running around in darkened rooms, munching magic pills and listening to repetitive electronic music.”
47. “COBOL programmers understand why women hate periods.”
46. “Artificial Intelligence usually beats natural stupidity.”
45. “To err is human… to really foul up requires the root password.”
44. “Like car accidents, most hardware problems are due to driver error.”
43. “If at first you don’t succeed; call it version 1.0”
42. “If Python is executable pseudocode, then perl is executable line noise.”
41. “Programmers are tools for converting caffeine into code.”
40. “Why do we want intelligent terminals when there are so many stupid users?”
39. “I can’t uninstall it, there seems to be some kind of ‘Uninstall Shield’.”
38. “See daddy ? All the keys are in alphabetical order now.”
37. “Hey! It compiles! Ship it!”
36. “SUPERCOMPUTER: what it sounded like before you bought it.”
35. “Yo moma is like HTML: Tiny head, huge body.”
34. “Windows Vista: It’s like upgrading from Bill Clinton to George W. Bush.”
33. “The more I C, the less I see.”
32. “Life would be so much easier if we only had the source code.”
31. “My software never has bugs. It just develops random features.”
30. “The only problem with troubleshooting is that sometimes trouble shoots back.”
29. “Crap… Someone knocked over my recycle bin… There’s icons all over my desktop…”
28. “Relax, its only ONES and ZEROS !”
27. “rm -rf /bin/laden”
26. “I don’t care if you ARE getting a PhD in it ! Get away from that damn computer and go find a woman !”
25. “The great thing about Object Oriented code is that it can make small, simple problems look like large, complex ones.”
24. “If brute force doesn’t solve your problems, then you aren’t using enough.”
23. “Programming is like sex, one mistake and you have to support it for the rest of your life.”
22. “Unix is user-friendly. It’s just very selective about who its friends are.”
Our life is now centered around Internet and data connection. Without the Internet connection, we can not use our smartphones or laptops to their optimum potential. This is true when sometimes we need to access very important web pages but can’t due to Internet issues. It is for such kind of situations we are sharing a new and useful trick so that you can access websites even when you don’t have Internet access. The trick involves downloading the full website data and can browse the website at your own sweet time.
This is also true when you are using a slow Internet connection. Loading websites using a slow connection is a pain in the ass. In such a situation, you can use our trick to access websites while being offline. Yes, you can download a website to your computer and the method for this is very simple. And after downloading a complete site, you can easily browse it without any internet connection and with fast page loading speed.
Just read out below to proceed.
How To Download A Complete Website to Browse It Offline
#1 Using HTTrack
HTTrack allows you to download any website for offline use and is very easy to use. Follow the below steps to use HTTrack to download any website and browse it at your own sweet time.
Step 1. Download and install the software HTTrack from here.
Step 2. Launch the software, and it will ask you to enter the project name, project category and the default path to save the websites you download.
Step 3. Enter the relevant details and just click on next, Now in the text box you have to enter the URL of the site which you want to download, just paste the complete URL of the site and click on next. We are using Wikipedia as an example.
Step 4. HTTrack will now download the entire Wikipedia website for your offline browsing. The download process can take time, based on your internet speed and size of the website you are downloading. In our case, Wikipedia is huge so it took some time.
Now after download process is complete, just browse to the saved path, and there you will find your website file that you can now browse at your own time without worrying about Internet connection.
#2 Using GetLeft
Getleft is another tool which allows you to download websites and browse them later. Like HTTrack it downloads complete website according to the options set by the user. Getleft also has a very simple UI which any noob can also use. Follow the process below to use Getleft.
Step 1. Download Getleft and open the software, press CTRL+U which will ask you to enter the URL and directory.
Step 2. Now you will be asked to select the files that you want to download.
Step 3. Now wait for few minutes until the files being pulled to your system.
That’s it now you can browse your saved website in offline mode.
#3 Using Cyotek
Cyotek WebCopy is another free tool that lets you a full or partial website locally for offline browsing. WebCopy will scan the specified website and download it’s content onto your hard disk. Links to resources such as stylesheets, images, and other pages in the website will automatically be remapped to match the local path. Using its extensive configuration, you can define which part of a website will be copied and how.
Download and install the App using the hyperlink above. Open the App and hit the “F5” Key. In the window given below enter the name of the website and the destination folder.
Now you have to wait until the download process finishes.
Once downloaded, you can open the file in your browser and access your saved website.
#4 Offline Downloader
Like above tools, Offline Downloader is also an offline website browsing tool but with a difference. It downloads and shows websites exactly the way you want them, including or excluding any parts you need or don’t need (such as directory, domain and file names, types of files, their size or any other properties).
You just need to download and install the software offline downloader from here. Open the software and enter the URL as shown on the image and then select the file type you need to download and hit the download button. Enjoy the downloaded file at your own time and leisure.
#5 Web2Disk
Web2Disk’s powerful engine allows it to modify websites as they’re downloaded so that all the links work directly from your hard drive. You’ll be able to browse the site as if it were still online. However, the main feature of Web2Disk is its ability to show you downloaded websites in any browser you choose.
You just need to enter the URL in ‘Root URL’ and then browse the location to save the entire website and then hit the ‘Go’ button.
If you have unstable Internet connection or slow data connection, use any of the five tools given above and enjoy your favourite websites even when you dont have Internet access.
