Movie piracy in Spain: The reason why it seems unstoppable

Two weeks ago I went into a DVD shop in London and saw an amazing offer: all 23 James Bond movies on Blu-ray for only 79 pounds (about 120 US dollars). I was going to buy them, but I saw that the movies had only English subtitles. I usually don't care, but part of our family is in Argentina and another part is in Germany. When they come to visit us they need subtitles either in Spanish or German.

This weekend I came  to Barcelona for another reason. I went into a DVD shop looking for the same offer, since here I will get Spanish subtitles. I found the same box with all the movies, but the cost was 194 euros! This is about 250 US dollars. It doubles the price in London!

Why on earth is the price so different if both countries belong to the EU? Why is it so expensive in Spain to buy a movie? It's absolutely crazy! No wonder Spain is one of the countries with the highest piracy rates in Europe.

I am not justifying piracy by any means. It's illegal and it's wrong. But maybe, only maybe, if the studios don't want people stealing from them, they should start trying not to steal from the people in the first place.

I very much wanted those movies, but I won't accept this pricing policy from the studios, and nobody should.

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How to identify malicious links in your Facebook timeline?

Many times you click on a link shared by a friend and you find out that this link has shared itself in your own timeline. How can we avoid that?

The first thing you need to avoid is to authorise any type of useless application to post in your wall or timeline. Many people just authorise anything. If you click on a link and suddenly an app ask you permissions to post in your timeline, don't do it!

Many applications disguise themselves as innocent apps that will allow you to watch videos, links or pictures. Many others would even tell you that they do something innocent like birthday reminders or something like that, but they are malicious apps waiting to start spamming your friends in your name.

After you finish reading this post, please go to your Facebook account, click on Settings (hidden in the menu at the top-right of the page), then click on Apps as you see in the screenshot at the left. Now deauthorise any application that you don't currently use by clicking on the X symbol to the right of the app. They are an open door to your private information, so don't authorise apps unless you are really using it and you are fairly sure that the developers of the app don't have a hidden agenda.

Install WOT browser extension

WOT (short for web of trust) is available for all browsers and it shows you clearly if a link is bad or good. WOT knows how trustable a link is because other users around the world vote the sites up and down to indicate of the level of security.

In the screenshots below you can see two links shared by friends of mine in their timelines. One is good and the other is bad. Whenever you see the red circles at the right of the links, don't try to click on them. They could be a dangerous place.

Even if you are very curious about it, please don't click on a link with a Red circle. This has been added by the WOT browser extension to tell you that other people have found that the site is malicious or at least is not what it seems to be. It also does it for google or bing searches.

The green circle tells you that the site has been voted by the users as good. In this case the site in the screenshot is a very prestigious marketing blog in UK.

Any other tips you know to stay safe on the web?

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A new Space for 3D Printing

I have some news, which I know many of you will find interesting. I have launched a new blog, dedicated to 3D printing and YOU are warmly invited to check it out!

Why have I launched the new blog?

I have been following the development of the 3D Printing market for a while. However, it wasn’t until the end of last year when everything started to come together.

In December, I received an invitation from a group of 3D Printing advocates here in London. The group was organised by an investor and in the first meet up he started saying: “I invest in teams with good ideas in the 3D Printing industry, if you have one, come and talk to me first”. Then he gave a presentation about the 3D Printing market. He described all the areas that need improvements and how much money was being invested in 3D printing. Later, he showed several types of 3D Printers working live.

I was amazed.

I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.

I was like a curious little boy again, asking a thousand questions a minute. I went back home and started buying books on the subject. I was hooked! Today, I am passionate about the potential of 3D printing and I believe I have something to contribute to the development of this industry.

That’s why I decided to start blogging about 3D Printing. I first started writing a post here in this blog, but then I realised that this is an entire world by itself and it deserves to have its own space. That’s why I started The 3D Printing Space. A place where I will write everything I learn about 3D Printing and also a place where I will write about ideas, concepts and creations.

Take a look at the new blog and let me know what you think. Moreover, with 3D printing looking set to disrupt so many industries over the coming years, I hope you find the new blog useful.

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How do you select Undo in iOS?

If you delete accidentally a long piece of text that you were typing in your computer, you can quickly click Undo and restore your deleted text. How do you do it in your iPad, iPhone or iPod touch? Just shake the device.

In the case of the iPad, you can also touch the numbers at the bottom left of your virtual keyboard and the Undo key will appear more and less in the same place after the keyboard changes to the numeric mode.