Posts made by raphjd

February 15, 2007

Gay couples celebrate intention to form civil unions in Mexico City

More than 100 Mexican gay couples celebrated their registrations for civil unions in Mexico City's central plaza Wednesday, wearing suits and wedding dresses and throwing rice in a scene akin to a mass engagement party. The couples noted their intent with the nongovernment Citizens Civil Union Network ahead of a law allowing gay couples to register their unions and gain many of the rights of married couples.

Mexico City, a semi-independent capital zone that has some of the same powers as state legislatures, approved the law in November. It takes effect March 16.

Eduardo Martinez, 21, exchanged rings with his partner, Alberto Pichardo, 19, to celebrate their commitment. ''Our families support us. We have taken the decision in good conscience and we are very happy,'' said Martinez, dressed in a gray suit and tie.

Mexico's northern state of Coahuila, bordering Texas, has already enacted a similar law. Last month a lesbian couple there registered for what officials called Mexico's first gay civil union in a ceremony broadcast on national television.

The Roman Catholic Church and the conservative National Action Party of President Felipe Calderon have sharply criticized the laws. While homosexuality is still taboo in many rural parts of Latin America, the region's urban areas are becoming more socially liberal. Argentina's capital of Buenos Aires and the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul have also legalized same-sex civil unions.

At the national level, lawmakers in Costa Rica and Colombia have debated, but not passed, similar measures. (Istra Pacheco, AP)

February 15, 2007

LGBT activists protest for marriage rights in Chicago on Valentine's Day

Gay and lesbian couples in cities and towns across the country on Wednesday are using Valentine's Day to protest their lack of marriage rights. Some have organized demonstrations while others went to their local clerks' offices and demanded a marriage license.

In Chicago a Valentine's Day protest organized in part by the Gay Liberation Network began outside the county building at 4:30 p.m. and was followed by a march to Holy Name Cathedral, reports CBS2Chicago.com. Mayor Richard M. Daley and Cook County clerk David Orr are both in favor of same-sex marriage, but Orr has said that he is not allowed to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

Activists argue that if the mayor and county clerk strongly backed the issue, then the fight for marriage equality could go to the courts. In November a referendum for an Illinois state constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage failed because of lack of support. Twenty-five other states have added constitutional amendments banning same-sex marriage. (The Advocate)

NOTE: Only Arizona has so far beaten a ballot to ban same sex marriage, Illinois couldn't get enough signatures to put it on the ballot.

February 15, 2007

Former NBA star Tim Hardaway: "I hate gay people"

Retired Miami Heat guard Tim Hardaway said Wednesday that he hates gay people, though he later said he regretted the remarks. ''You know, I hate gay people, so I let it be known. I don't like gay people, and I don't like to be around gay people,'' he said while a guest on Sports Talk 790 the Ticket. ''I'm homophobic. I don't like it. It shouldn't be in the world or in the United States.''

The discussion was sparked by last week's announcement that retired NBA center John Amaechi is gay. The host asked Hardaway how he would interact with a gay teammate.

''First of all, I wouldn't want him on my team. And second of all, if he was on my team, I would, you know, really distance myself from him because, uh, I don't think that is right. I don't think he should be in the locker room while we are in the locker room.''

If he did find out that a teammate was gay, Hardaway said he would ask for the player to be removed from the team. ''Something has to give,'' Hardaway said. ''If you have 12 other ballplayers in your locker room that's upset and can't concentrate and always worried about him in the locker room or on the court or whatever, it's going to be hard for your teammates to win and accept him as a teammate.''

Amaechi detailed his life in his autobiography Man in the Middle, which was released Wednesday. He hoped his coming-out would be a catalyst for intelligent discourse.

''I'm actually tempted to laugh,'' Amaechi told The Miami Herald. ''Finally, someone who is honest. It is ridiculous, absurd, petty, bigoted, and shows a lack of empathy that is gargantuan and unfathomable. But it is honest. And it illustrates the problem better than any of the fuzzy language other people have used so far.''

Hardaway later apologized for the remarks during a telephone interview with Fox affiliate WSVN in Miami. ''Yes, I regret it. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said I hate gay people or anything like that,'' he said. ''That was my mistake.''

Hardaway has reportedly been removed from further league-related appearances. ''It is inappropriate for him to be representing us given the disparity between his views and ours,'' NBA commissioner David Stern said in a statement to the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel. (AP)

NOTE: The Anglican Church is the same as the Church of England.

February 15, 2007

Episcopal leader's pro-gay views won't waver, aide says

The head of the U.S. wing of the Anglican Church, who supports ordaining gays and allowing blessing ceremonies for same-sex couples, will not soften her views even as the issues threaten to break apart the Christian denomination, her aide said Thursday. The leaders of the world's 77 million Anglicans, who are holding a closed meeting this week in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, said they would discuss the U.S. response to a 2004 report by an Anglican panel that called for a moratorium on consecrating gay bishops and blessing same-sex unions.

Splits between Anglicans have been growing for years, but became a crisis in 2003 when the Episcopal Church, the U.S. wing of the Anglican Communion, consecrated its first openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire. The problems mounted last year with the election of Katharine Jefferts Schori as head of the U.S. church.

"The spirit of Anglicanism will prevail here, and there will be a middle way forward,'' said Jefferts Schori's aide, Robert Williams. But he said she ''will not waver in her stand for justice and inclusion of all people in the body of Christ.''

Conservative Anglicans have formed a rival network in the U.S. under the leadership of Anglican archbishop Peter Akinola of Nigeria, who has called the acceptance of gay relationships a ''satanic attack'' on the church. Other conservatives have called for a parallel church within the United States.

The conference was sure to be highly charged over the rift. ''The basic issue here is what to do about those who decided they don't want to stay in the main Anglican body,'' said Canon Jim Rosenthal, a spokesman for the Anglican Communion.

Akinola gave a letter this week to the spiritual leader of the communion, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, which is believed to demand some concessions to head off a schism. Africa is home to half the world's Anglicans and is dominated by conservative leaders. Rosenthal confirmed the letter but said it was private.

Supporters of ordaining gays believe the Bible's social justice teachings take precedence over its view of sexuality. However, most Anglicans outside the U.S. believe gay relationships are sinful, and they are distancing themselves from the U.S. church.

Williams has struggled to hold off one of the biggest meltdowns in Christianity in centuries, but he lacks any direct authority to force a compromise. The Anglican Communion is the world's third-largest family of Christian churches behind Roman Catholic and Orthodox.

Bishop Martyn Minns of Fairfax, Va., one of the most prominent U.S. clerics to leave the American church for Akinola's group, said Wednesday that it would be best for the U.S. church to ''back off and reconsider'' its stance on gays. But, he said, that was highly unlikely. ''It's been tragic, the amount of time and energy that has been spent on this issue that was initiated by the American church,'' he said.

The creation of Akinola's group, called the Convocation of Anglicans in North America, has been the most dramatic step by conservatives to encourage a breakaway Episcopal group that would be outside Jefferts Schori's oversight. An eventual breakup of the communion would be the most stunning fallout from struggles over gay relationships that also have gripped Roman Catholics, Lutherans, and others. The Anglican fellowship was founded in the 16th century by King Henry VIII and spread worldwide by the British Empire.

Several delegates at the six-day conference, which brings together the archbishops who head the 38 provinces in the Anglican Communion, have threatened to refuse to sit with Jefferts Schori over the issue of gays. But Rosenthal said Wednesday she is welcome and was invited by the archbishop of Canterbury. (Elizabeth A. Kennedy, AP)

February 15, 2007

China?s gays hold Valentine?s Day protest for same-sex marriage

Gays and lesbians in Beijing used Valentine?s Day to make the country?s first public appeal for the legalization of same-sex marriage. Around half a dozen protesters handed out flyers wrapped around red carnations during a busy lunch hour in the capital?s central business district calling for the public support of same-sex unions.

?Love has no boundaries; it is nothing to do with gender,? the flyers read. ?We are homosexuals. We also want a life together with our loved one…please support all kinds of partnerships and all kinds of love. Please support same-sex marriage.?

Such unauthorized protests are rare in China. In 2005 a gay and lesbian culture festival was broken up by the police on the grounds the organizers had not sought permission to hold the event.

?We were concerned about security...our action can be considered kind of political,? said Xian, one of the lesbian protesters. Their protest, which lasted about 20 minutes, went ahead undisturbed.

Of those who took flowers, many said they were behind the protesters. ?I think it's only fair; it's everybody's right to get married,? said Liu Peng, a 21-year-old student of banking. ?I support them. I think it's great."

"I don?t know when China will have gay marriage,? he added. ?Not now, but in the future I think China will have gay marriage, but I can't say when, maybe far in the future." Liu said he was not gay.

But not everyone supported the protesters. Christina Wang, a 31-year-old headhunter, who accepted a flower, said she opposed same-sex marriage because of her religion. ?I am a Christian and I don't think it's right,? Wang, who is married, said. ?I don't think it's healthy to be gay."

The protest comes a few weeks before the annual meeting of China?s parliament. Gays and lesbians had hoped that renowned sexologist, Li Yinhe, who has submitted three proposals?all rejected?to legalize same-sex marriage to parliament would so again.

But in a recent blog entry, Li wrote she was retiring from campaigning for sexual rights. ?Gay marriage is not something that our country can accept at this stage of its cultural development,? wrote Li. (Dinah Gardner, The Advocate)

uTorrent 1.6.1 installation version has been released for automatic update and direct download.

For those of you using uTorrent 1.6 installation version and have automatic updates enabled, you should be getting this very soon.

You will receive an update screen asking if you would like to update now. Click YES and let it do it's thing. Once the update is finished, your computer will be very slow. Turn off everything and do a reboot. Now you are ready to enjoy the newest version of uTorrent.

DO NOT FORGET TO CHANGE YOUR FIREWALL TO ALLOW THE NEW VERSION TO ACCESS THE INTERNET.

NOTE: The standalone and web versions are still messed up. So only use the installation version.

February 14, 2007

Florida governor says GOP should back off marriage ban

The Republican Party should stop spending money to advance a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage in Florida, says newly elected Republican governor Charlie Crist. ?I just think that their money can be better spent on other things that may be more pressing, like elections,? Crist told the St. Petersburgh Times. "The people care about issues like insurance premiums. They care about property taxes. They care about public safety.?

According to the paper, Crist is known for pragmatism over ideology and a lack of enthusiasm for wedge issues. But he did express support for a measure banning same-sex marriage before being elected.

?He?s certainly allowed to express his opinion,? John Stemberger, an Orlando lawyer and chairman of the effort to amend Florida's constitution to ban same-sex marriage, told the Times. ?I cannot imagine that he would reverse his position as a strong supporter of this effort. It?s good policy for him, it?s good politics, and it?s a historical thing that?s going to happen. It needs to happen.?

As for Crist?s opposition to party support for the amendment, Stemberger said, ?I think he should reevaluate his position.?

The Florida Coalition to Protect Marriage, a political committee, received $300,000 last year from the Republican Party of Florida, more than half of the marriage group?s reported total. Jim Greer, Crist?s handpicked choice to be chairman of the state Republican Party, said he has not yet decided whether to contribute any more party money to the effort. (The Advocate)

S.F. police officers accused of abusing gay man won't face discipline

Three San Francisco police officers accused of verbally abusing and assaulting a gay man they caught urinating in the street will not face possible discipline because the department missed the deadline to take action. At a meeting Wednesday, police commissioners expressed frustration at the department's delay while approving an $83,000 tentative settlement of the man's civil rights lawsuit over the 2004 incident.

"You are talking about a hate crime. It's just a tragedy that the department is unable to do anything about it because it dropped the ball so early on," Commissioner Joe Veronese said, referring to the expired one-year statute of limitations for disciplinary action.

Andrew Marconi, of Sacramento, said in the lawsuit that three officers confronted him at 2:15 a.m. on March 7, 2004, as he urinated outside a San Francisco nightclub. Two of them began using antigay slurs against him, he said.

"You peeing on my streets? Do you think we want your AIDS-infected pee on our streets?" Sgt. Jason Fox asked Marconi, according to the lawsuit.

The man was forced to kneel down into his urine, and Fox slammed his head into a wall and used his hair to clean the urine off the wall, the suit said. Fox and Officer Simon Chan then stripped off Marconi's shirt, used it to mop up the remaining waste, and threatened him with more violence if he was ever caught urinating in public again, it said.

The alleged abuse only stopped when Marconi's friend, an off-duty Stockton police officer, walked up and showed his badge, prompting the officers to leave.

Fox and Chan both denied any abuse in court documents, and Fox claimed Marconi was drunk that night. The third officer at the scene, who did not engage in the alleged abuse, said in the documents that he saw no wrongdoing.

The city attorney has said there was no evidence to support Marconi's claims.

The case never was investigated for possible disciplinary action because Marconi failed to notify the Office of Citizen Complaints, the civilian police watchdog agency. Following its own investigation, the office would have forwarded its findings to the police chief and commission for further action, but none of that ever happened.

The settlement still must go before the city's Board of Supervisors for approval. (AP)

hxxp://advocate.com/news_detail_ektid41933.asp

Huckabee defends traditional marriage

Republican Mike Huckabee said Friday that marriage shouldn't be treated as an experiment, in response to questions about whether Vice President Dick Cheney's lesbian daughter should have the right to wed.

The former Arkansas governor, who is seeking the GOP presidential nomination, said heterosexual marriages face enough challenges without adding new configurations to the mix.

''Taking on a new definition doesn't make sense right now,'' Huckabee said in an interview with the Associated Press after speaking to business leaders in New Hampshire.

Mary Cheney, 37, announced in December that she and her partner of 15 years, Heather Poe, were starting a family. She has not said how the child was conceived. The baby is due in the spring and will be the vice president's sixth grandchild.

Huckabee declined to comment on Mary Cheney's decision.

''I wouldn't get near specific cases,'' he said.

But when pressed, he said the historic definition of marriage has worked for so long for a reason.

''People have a right to decide how they live their lives. But they have to respect not changing the definition of marriage,'' said Huckabee, who served as a pastor in Baptist churches before becoming governor in 1996.

In 2004, the year Arkansas approved a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage, Huckabee said the ban was needed to quiet activists looking to rewrite the nation's social code. But Huckabee also said it was OK to say a person's sexual preference was nobody's business, ''even though it's not consistent with the biblical norm of male and female.''

In 2006, when the Arkansas supreme court rejected a ban on gay foster parents that had been put in by a state board, Huckabee said through a spokeswoman: ''I'm very disappointed that the court seems more interested in what's good for gay couples than what's good for children needing foster care.'' (Philip Elliot, AP)

hxxp://advocate.com/news_detail_ektid41949.asp

Anyone interested in posting a guide, please submit them to me via the PM system.

Don't worry, you will get the credit for it.

Ive had a few people ask me what I use to convert dvd to xvid & I always recommend this little beauty. However thats usually followed by "How do I use it?".. , so I thought Id have a stab at a guide. Its not as complicated as some apps, but has a good deal of control and gives excellent results..

Get Fairuse Wizard Here;

FairUse Wizard v2.8
http://tracker.gaytorrent.ru/details.php?id=22023

PRINT THIS GUIDE OUT BEFORE YOU START.

Before we get started, turn off as many programs as your computer will safely allow.  This will help in the quality of the finished product.

Fairuse will convert to Xvid from either disc or .iso. If you are doing it from disc, it will rip to your HDD so there is no need to do this first.

Assuming this is from a disc, first put it in your drive and open Fairuse.

At the first screen in the project title box put the name of the movie. In the second box choose the destination on your Hard Drive that you want Fairuse to output to (I usually create a folder and name it the title of the movie), then click next.

You will now be prompted to choose the drive the disc is in, do this and click next.

The next screen will display the contents of the disc, and it should be obvious from the run times what the main movie is. It will also display info on Aspect Ratio & languages. Highlight this and click next. This is when Fairuse will rip that part of the disc to a temp location on your pc.

When it has finished ripping you will get a page where the movie is displayed and can be scrolled through. This is where some of the tweaking is done, and the disc can now be removed.

Under the video preview you will see a "Include Subpictures" check box, untick this. Around the video display you will see crop lines. These can be adjusted using the Top/Bottom/Left/Right buttons on the left of the screen. Adjust these so that they fit around the movie in preview. You can also cut the end credits if you wish, by moving the slider along and noting the frame number in the box below. Enter this number in the "Set Credits End" box top left of the screen. Careful here tho as some movies run bloopers thru the credits or have something connected with the movie at the end of them. Click next.

The next page will ask you for what mode, theres 3 of them but just click Auto-Detect and go with what it says, then click next.

The next page is where you set the output size, audio type, and codec (in this case Xvid, which is normally checked by default). This the bit where you have to decide how much quality to go for. If you choose a 1 disc 700 MB file, I would recommend you choose MP3 from the audio drop down option. If you want to keep the 5.1 Audio in, you must choose AC3 and choose a 2 disc (part) output, which you should set to 1398 MB to make full use of the disc space. Bear in mind that AC3 5.1 audio will take up about 350 MB of the file, so choosing this option on a 1 disc file doesnt leave a lot of room for the video.

One last thing is too move the quality slider from the default centre towards the maximum setting but not all the way, about 75% is ok, and ensure "two pass" is checked, click next to begin the process.

As with all video conversions, this will be time consuming and resource hungry so it's best to leave it running overnight or when you are not planning to use your computer for several hours.

Happy converting..

Some over seeding isn't a problem. It's when people over seed by huge numbers that causes the problems.

There will always be people who refuse to seed back, so the rest of us have to take up the slack. This will cause the good users to over seed on many torrents.

If your client is set up correctly you can leave it to run 24/7 {if your ISP allows it} and it will seed as needed and tend not to over seed unless there are no other seeders.

Hi

As for the other person or is that moderator…well I have no further comment to mkae !!

I'm not sure if I should be offended or not. :-l

I'm not the "new owner" or even part owner, I'm just a moderator.

Tom, the site owner, is fiddling in the background making changes to the site in hopes of improving it. Plus he's been on the phone screaming at the server host to improve the service we've been getting lately.

I just looked at the site stats. Here's the currently active stats;

Torrents 1,306
Seeders 4,696
Leechers 1,844

There are almost 4 times the number of seeders as there are leechers on at the moment. Of course the numbers increase a lot at night and on the weekends.

This shows that overall the site isn't doing too bad.

The UK is facing a major retreat from truly "unlimited" broadband. There are a few companies that do still have it but the cost is outrageous, one company that has it is charging £100 per month with a £250 set up charge. Most UK companies are price gouging us to death. £25 a month for a 2 to 30gb cap is pretty common nowadays. The trend is expected to get worse.

I just switched from a horrible ISP to a "good" one. My new ISP is £30 a month for 45gb peak time {Monday thru Friday 8am to 10pm} and 300gb off peak. That's up to 8mb down with 1mb up. However, even though I live in the UK's oil/gas capital, we only get 4mb lines. That's almost 12x more transfer a month and 4x the upload speed for £10 more a month.

The complete opposite trend is happening in the oriental countries. While we talk about MB lines and caps, they are talking GB lines with totally unlimited usage.

As a fellow BTer and moderator, I too feel the frustration that many are feeling.

We {the staff} are trying to find ways of turning this site into a community, instead of just a porn site in the minds of the users. This would help with the hit n runners and make people feel more responsible for their actions. Of course there will always be scum, but at least it's a step in the right direction.

NOTE: The following only applies to files that come in a folder, not to actual movie files.

This is a very common problem.

This is caused most often by THUMBS.DB file being in the folder that the person is uploading, though a couple of other types of files can also cause this.

Older clients tend to read this file as being there, but being a systems file that is specific to the seeders computer you can't download it.

This in no way affects the actual file{s} you are trying to get.

Solution, update your client. uTorrent and Az {as well as a few others} have fixed this issue.

Do you think we download and monitor each and every file? Well, no we don't. I could if you would like to pay for me to get truly unlimited ADSL.

We can't physically force people to seed. We can only do a few things such as limit their ability to download. This in many cases gets people to seed because they want more porn.

It's a no win situation. If we remove the ratio caps, then the problem gets worse because no one will feel the need to seed. If we increase it then the problem gets worse because many people will get banned even though they are trying to do the right thing. Either way we constantly get complaints from 1 side or the other, but usually both at the same time.

To be honest, I would love to bitch slap some of the people around here. Some think this is a free porn site. Well it's not, it's a porn sharing community.

Personally, I would rather teach people how to be good BT citizens than ban them, but some people are just greedy and won't care no matter what we do.

Btw, the holidays are over so people can't use that excuse.

NOTE: Print this out and read it completely before starting this project.

Dust and especially particles of cigarette smoke can build up and corrode circuitry causing various problems such as computer lockups.

Computer fans pull a lot of dust inside the chassis. If undisturbed, the dust can interfere with ventilation, eventually causing parts to fail.

1. Make sure you do this in a safe environment, and have everything at hand and you are confident taking your pc apart.

2. Get any supplies you might need: a can of compressed air is essential. I got a mini cleaning kit from maplins and it had a mini battery powered vacuum cleaner, cd+floppy disc cleaners, cleaning fluids, and an anti-static rag. Also get a dust mask if you're allergic to dust (i am, and didnt buy one and this half killed me lol)

3. Turn off the computer and let sit for 1 hour for the parts to cool down.

4. Leave the computer plugged into the surge suppressor (if you have one)

5. Disconnect all peripherals {printer, speakers, mouse, Keyboard, etc} from the computer (except power lead as in step 3).

6. Remove the computer cover (see your owner's manual for instructions).

7. Ground yourself to the computer with the anti-static wrist strap by putting the crocodile clip on the chassis.

8. Spray compressed air on the fan blades, from a distance of 8-12 inches, power supply chassis, drive chassis and circuit boards, generally anywhere that has dust, it will go everywhere!! but aim the can upwards!

9. Gently brush off dust that the forced air didn't dislodge and spray it again when its loose.

NOTE: A big makeup brush works extremely well for this, just make sure it's natural bristles to reduce static. Also, synthetic bristles tend to not give if they get caught on something.

10. Brush any remaining dust out from the bottom of the chassis.

11. Spray the computer cleaning fluid onto an anti-static rag.

12. Wipe the inside and outside of the cover thoroughly.

13. Replace the cover and reconnect the peripherals.

14. Power up pc and check everything is ok, then if you have them, run the cd and floppy cleaning disks.

NOTES: Whatever you do, do not use a household vacuum (its safe on the outside, i did it on my vents, but never inside as there could be a risk of an ESD (electro-static discharge) and this is death to computer components. I used the mini battery operated vacuum to clean the inside of the case and used the brush to dislodge stuff but i still dont recommend going over and circuit boards with it.

Purchase high flow foam filters for your fans. These will help prevent dust from entering into the computer or from clogging your fans. Be sure to clean the filters once per month to ensure an ample supply of air.

The compressed air is fantastic for cleaning under your keyboards keys as well, turn it upside down and spray air in between the keys and see how much stuff comes out!!

Here are some pics to help:

Clogged Vents:
http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f313/computerclean/ventsbefore.jpg

Dirt Inside:
http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f313/computerclean/insidebefore.jpg

Other Dirt
http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f313/computerclean/before.jpg

Air Duster Spray
http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f313/computerclean/airduster.jpg

Clean Inside:
http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f313/computerclean/cleaninside2.jpg

http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f313/computerclean/after.jpg

All back in place:
http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f313/computerclean/backinplace.jpg

Sort of makes you realise how much dust gets in there doesnt it?? And that cant be good for it! The fans on this computer are noisy as hell when running on high, and they come on a lot earlier than they used to these days, but after cleaning, wow, not come on once! Even i didnt expect such a massive difference. This will be especially useful for people overclocking there CPU's and/or graphics cards, you really need to keep them cool!!!

Note I take no responsibility if you arse it up, but come on, it's not difficult