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Silent audio won't necessarily work, as browsers are already detecting whether a video's audio is silent. In Firefox 51, this video that has intermittent audio causes the speaker icon in the tab to blink on and off whenever the game plays a sound effect.

This is the system that Barak Hussain Obama defended and did not fix for the last 8 years. We will have to see what the next administration brings.

Likewise President Bush for eight years. Neither of them did anything about it because neither of them could. U.S. copyright policy is in the hands of the legislative branch. The US Patent and Trademark Office is part of the Department of Commerce, but the Copyright Office is part of the Library of Congress. Blame the Republican senators and the Democratic senators. Better yet, blame the incumbent publishers that provide campaign contributions, super PAC contributions, and in-kind donations of coverage on their affiliated TV news outlets.

And wait because we're due for another 20 years extension

Unlikely. In the past century, there has been only one major change in the underlying rationale of how the U.S. copyright term is set. The Copyright Act of 1978 and the interim extensions that preceded it represented a switch from the 1909 standard to the "life of grandchildren" standard used in the rest of the industrialized world, and the Copyright Term Extension of 1998 (sometimes called the Sonny Bono Act) only reflected that the fact that improved healthcare has caused grandchildren to live longer than when the Berne Convention was first adopted. When the Supreme Court upheld the life expectancy-driven Bono Act in Eldred v. Ashcroft, it warned the people that it was watching for "legislative misbehavior". So if the next seven years bring neither a new rationale nor drastic healthcare improvements, which means the works establishing Mickey and Pooh will enter the public domain in the United States at the end of 2023.

Here's one way to turn off Facebook ads on any machine where you have root. If you've been around Slashdot for a while, you probably already know which file these entries go in.

0.0.0.0 www.facebook.com
0.0.0.0 apps.facebook.com
0.0.0.0 connect.facebook.net
0.0.0.0 fbcdn.net

then the user must use Linux to play the blue ray, like described over the net.

Which licensed BDMV player does the net recommend? Google linux bdmv player found this six-year-old post which is a reverse engineered player that's "a far shot from proper native support for blu-ray playback" and likely illegal in my country. It also turned up a page last updated in 2016 stating that "no official Blu-ray player software is available on their system". In particular, free software is on MKB v28 while new movies are on MKB v57.

You are aware that lots (and I mean lots as in every single one) site provides a shopping cart, aren't you?

I'm not referring to the buyer's user interface. I'm referring to the seller's user interface to validate a list of products that the seller is uploading to the online sales platform.

It's 2016. We got Chromecast and Bluetooth keyboards & mouses.

How many people have you seen actually carrying around a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse to use with a smartphone in situations where a laptop has traditionally excelled, such as writing and editing long-form text with markup? And for the use case of taking notes about a web page or other document you're reading, how easy is it under stock versions of the popular smartphone operating systems to make both the document and your notes visible on the screen? Android has had tiling window management since Android 7.0 "Nougat", and Samsung has long had the manufacturer-specific tiling window manager that it introduced with Galaxy Note, but Nougat has yet to become widespread on existing devices or even on devices still sold new to the public.

People code applications for Linux

Or they don't because they see more money in making an application for Windows and not Linux than for Linux and not Windows, or even than for both Windows and Linux due to "support cost issues".

and if they're good the distributions include them (what's one more in 50,000+?).

The distributions tend to include only software under a free software license. The economics of games with professional production values, licensed players for major studio movies, and income tax return preparation software sort of rule out a timely release as free software for reasons I've described in this article.

Good luck running a binary for GTK for Windows or Qt for Windows on anything but Windows.

You realize those platforms came from Linux, rigtht?

Even if an application developer uses a platform that came from Linux, the fact that the platform came from Linux is no help to an end user if the developer chooses to publish only a Windows binary because of "support cost issues".

The rationale behind the present copyright term is that those heirs who had had direct contact with an author are in the best position to know how the author wanted the work exploited. Hence a copyright term that approximates the life of the author's grandchildren. The 1990s extension from life plus 50 to life plus 70 didn't change the rationale as much as reflect increased life expectancy.

But why would anyone do that when you could buy a PC and adjust game settings?

For one thing, a PC that can run the game on the same settings is likely to cost more, even if only for the living-room-friendly case and the Windows license. For another, consoles tend to get games that are either exclusive to one console or made for everything-but-PC. Finally, cheating in competitive online pickup multiplayer games is a lot harder on a console.

I've written more about the console gamer's mindset.

Buy a computer that only some people (those who pay extra) are allowed to program? That's totally absurd.

The standard answer is that developer qualifications improve the median quality of games. The last time everybody was allowed to program a console was the Atari 2600. The flood of crap during 1983, led by rushed licenses such as E.T. and Pac-Man as well as blatant cash-ins such as Chase the Chuck Wagon, almost brought down the North American video game industry. (Distributors going bankrupt to avoid honoring their return policies didn't help either.) It took the NES's lockout chip to revive retailers' and users' interest in video games.

But both Microsoft and Nintendo have opened their developer programs dramatically during this console generation. Xbox One runs UWP apps with an developer mode enabler app available at no additional charge to Dev Center members, and Nintendo recently allowed individuals to become developers regardless of "industry experience". I'm guessing it's a response to the comparative openness of Apple's App Store and Google Play Store, along with the realization that reviews by third parties can filter out the crap.

Webpages that don't work without JS ARE broken in the first place. The least I'd expect is some kind of minimal functionality, if you can't provide that, ok, it's fine.

I'm interested in implementing "some kind of minimal functionality" for a page on my website. Currently JSNES Arcade requires JavaScript for its core function of interpreting a video game and displaying its graphics. What "kind of minimal functionality" would be appropriate here?

I think the Zapper only had a light filter

The photodiode's output runs through a resonator circuit, similar to that used by remote controls to demodulate pulses, to distinguish 15.7 kHz CRT scanning from other light sources.

and the games then had to make the interesting object bright and everything else on the screen dark during a frame to be able to detect the hit.

Or if the game makes the whole screen bright, it can time from the start of the frame to determine how far up or down it is pointed. A game can use this information in one of two ways: to narrow down how many "interesting objects" it needs to test, or to directly move an object up or down. The Zap Ruder tech demo shows this, and its Pong-like air hockey simulator called "ZapPing" feels just as responsive as "Laser Hockey" in Wii Play.

Because of that it was possible to cheat by pointing the Zapper at a lamp to get a guaranteed hit.

Hardly. If the photodiode sees light just before the start of the frame, the game sees it as a disconnected Zapper. (From the CPU's point of view, the resonator produces a 1 for dark and a 0 for light, and a disconnected input is pulled to 0.)

As usual, NESdev Wiki explains it in detail.

Confusion with Commodore 64 is why.

The NES picture is 256x240 pixels in size. (The video signal also includes 12 pixels of border on each side, for a total of 280x240 pixels that are stretched to a 4:3 frame. This makes each pixel slightly wider than it is tall, for an 8:7 pixel aspect ratio.)

OTOH living room PCs haven't been popular since the bad old days of family-shared home computers, and they certainly aren't popular now.

I know Slashdot is unrepresentative, but I've found over the past few years that a lot of Slashdot users appear to have a PC in the living room. Other ways include a gaming laptop, which one can easily carry into the living room and plug its HDMI out into a TV, or a Steam Link thin client.

So what is expected of a developer in a field where free software is by far the exception? Commercial video games are non-free far more often than not, as are player software for rented movies and (U.S.) income tax return preparation software.

Can I finance it by making game makers pay me to be allowed to make games for the system?

Yes, and gamers might even get better games that way because only serious studios will consider the overhead of a console developer program worth it to reach the market. Compared to PC gamers, users of the console maker's download store theoretically have to skip past less "amateur hour" to get to a worthwhile game. This sort of uncertainty as to whether you'll end up with "amateur hour" is what killed the Atari 2600 back in 1983 and almost brought down the North American video game market with it. The licensing scheme is how Nintendo managed to restore North America's trust in video games, despite the NES not being that much more powerful than the ColecoVision and Commodore 64.

Probably because the present user interface for managing client certificates stored on a machine is horrible. See BrowserAuth.net's writeup and my writeup, which suggests a couple fixes.

But a whitelist requires more diligence to maintain if you don't want to turn a PC into a game console

A whitelist is a gateway to an app store only system with censorship and lack of choice.

That's sort of what I was getting at. It really depends on by whom it's managed. Some PC owners can be trusted to maintain their own whitelist; others can't.

[1] Thomas U. P. Charlton. The Life of Major General James Jackson. Augusta: Randolph & Co., 1809.

An iPhone may be right for those people who are not interested and will not become interested in any of the following types of applications, which Apple expressly prohibits in the App Store:

• Video games with realistic violence
• Military simulations depicting the U.S. Civil War (Confederate insignia falls subject to the hate symbol rule and real entity rule)
• Satire of an identifiable person or organization (real entity rule)
• Video games published by companies now out of business (execute code rule)
• Apps for learning to program that allow sharing your work with other users (execute code rule)
• Launcher replacements for persons with disabilities
• WLAN utilities, such as utilities for troubleshooting your wireless network or for contributing to a collaborative map of wireless networks (Apple deems AP enumeration in iOS to be private)
• Web browsers that implement HTML features that Apple has left out of Safari (WebKit rule)
• Professional-grade applications that the user needs to evaluate first (trial rule)

(Reasoning)

There are IP protections for artistic works where everyone involved in their creation are long dead. Now how does that help culture?

The rationale behind the present "life of grandchildren" copyright term is that those descendants who knew the composer personally would be in the best position to carry out the composer's will in commercially exploiting them.

The copyright term approximates the life of the author's grandchildren on grounds that those descendants who had personal contact with the author are in the best position to exploit the work as the author intended. The "life of grandchildren" rationale dates back to the nineteenth century. Starting in the 1990s, it was extended in many countries from 50 years after the death of the author to 70 on grounds of drastic improvement in health care over the twentieth century, which allows authors and their children to reproduce later. But until medicine breaks the menopause barrier, a subsequent extension is not justified without abandoning life of grandchildren as the rationale.

Who elects the people who decide what they enforce?

The major news media decide which candidates for public office get name recognition.

I've seen the first MBFGW. A lot of words are related to Greek, but Michael Constantine's character in that movie was also very good at finding false cognates to Greek. The same is true of Isaac Mozeson with Hebrew, or Joseph Greenberg and Merritt Ruhlen with everything else.

I've been cataloging such examples. But as far as I can tell, the difference is that songwriters and performers in the mainstream music industry can avoid expensive lawsuits because they have the connections needed to negotiate cross-licenses. Someone writing background music for a hobbyist short film or an indie video game trailer may not have that option.

As another AC pointed out, he isn't just making things up out of thin air. But let's suppose he is. So? Why can't he make up his own definitions?

You can make all the definitions you want so long as you first ensure that others understand them. In Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass, Humpty Dumpty claims that his words mean whatever he chooses them to mean, which causes Alice some confusion. Sometimes the reader can guess the definition you're using because it makes sense; sometimes it doesn't. For example, if you look at an egg-shaped character and call his arms "legs", so long as they behave like legs, the reader can infer the sense via duck typing. But because most of us don't walk that way (with some exceptions), calling arms "legs" might need some explanation.

Let's look at another example inspired by Edward Josiah Stears' Notes on Uncle Tom's Cabin:

The difference is that unlike a cow's tail, a roo's tail fulfills a role that speakers associate with the ideal of a "leg". In particular, a roo's tail is weight-bearing during pentapedal walking and during kicks when boxing. A cow's tail isn't weight-bearing. So if you want to "call a tail a leg" without confusion, you have to make clear to readers what the definition is and how it is useful.

As another AC pointed out, he isn't just making things up out of thin air. But let's suppose he is. So? Why can't he make up his own definitions?

You can make all the definitions you want so long as you first ensure that others understand them. In Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass, Humpty Dumpty claims that his words mean whatever he chooses them to mean, which causes Alice some confusion. Sometimes the reader can guess the definition you're using because it makes sense; sometimes it doesn't. For example, if you look at an egg-shaped character and call his arms "legs", so long as they behave like legs, the reader can infer the sense via duck typing. But because most of us don't walk that way (with some exceptions), calling arms "legs" might need some explanation.

Let's look at another example inspired by Edward Josiah Stears' Notes on Uncle Tom's Cabin:

The difference is that unlike a cow's tail, a roo's tail fulfills a role that speakers associate with the ideal of a "leg". In particular, a roo's tail is weight-bearing during pentapedal walking and during kicks when boxing. A cow's tail isn't weight-bearing. So if you want to "call a tail a leg" without confusion, you have to make clear to readers what the definition is and how it is useful.

As another AC pointed out, he isn't just making things up out of thin air. But let's suppose he is. So? Why can't he make up his own definitions?

You can make all the definitions you want so long as you first ensure that others understand them. In Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass, Humpty Dumpty claims that his words mean whatever he chooses them to mean, which causes Alice some confusion. Sometimes the reader can guess the definition you're using because it makes sense; sometimes it doesn't. For example, if you look at an egg-shaped character and call his arms "legs", so long as they behave like legs, the reader can infer the sense via duck typing. But because most of us don't walk that way (with some exceptions), calling arms "legs" might need some explanation.

Let's look at another example inspired by Edward Josiah Stears' Notes on Uncle Tom's Cabin:

The difference is that unlike a cow's tail, a roo's tail fulfills a role that speakers associate with the ideal of a "leg". In particular, a roo's tail is weight-bearing during pentapedal walking and during kicks when boxing. A cow's tail isn't weight-bearing. So if you want to "call a tail a leg" without confusion, you have to make clear to readers what the definition is and how it is useful.

Amazon's disadvantage for physical goods is that it lacks its own showroom. When buying apparel online, you don't get to feel the fabric or try on the fit. When buying a laptop online, you don't get to try the keyboard or screen, and you can't feel its size and weight without constructing your own similarly sized and weighing model out of (say) cardboard. Or what am I missing?

And finally, they certainly DO force me to interact with them. Their fucking scripts and like-buttons are everywhere.

Facebook's scripts won't load if you keep its hostnames from resolving. There are several ways to do that, such as a Windows application written by APK that creates a list of hosts to resolve to 0.0.0.0.

PHP7 is a huge improvement over old versions. If you haven't looked at it, do so. PHP sucks in 2016 is mostly FUD now.

To see how much of an improvement PHP 7 is, let's check the 7 things wrong with PHP 5 that I mentioned in this article (and previously in a Slashdot comment):

You just need to pick the right combination of frameworks and programming language. Everything can be converted to everything else nowadays.

Unless the web application is a workaround for a platform owner's policy that specifically forbids a set of native apps. For example, applications doing any of these things cannot be converted to a native iOS application intended for distribution to the public.

We want freedom to enjoy our apps as per the freedoms of open source software.
Sure, we COULD have MOARE apps. If they're closed-source or blobs we don't
want them.

Free software is distinguished by the end user having the right and ability to make and share improvement to the software. It works well for libraries and for applications used by businesses, which can afford to hire someone to improve the software and contribute improvements back upstream. But there still exist several categories of software for which a viable free software business model has not yet been demonstrated. How would high-production-value video games, software for playing rented (as opposed to purchased) movies, and annual updates to tax return preparation software to reflect amended tax codes be developed under a free software model?

With all the fervor over Windows 10, there's still Windows options to reduce or turn off telemetry off (in some versions).

Only Windows 10 Enterprise, which most users are unlikely to have, includes anything resembling an "off" setting. The minimum setting on Home and Pro is "basic", which lets Microsoft see all installed applications, all installed device drivers, and the IMEI of your laptop's aircard if any. It may sound innocuous, but in some cases, the presence of a particular application or driver on a computer may incriminate a user if some big company decides to go on a fishing expedition and subpoena Microsoft for this data. An example of such an application is a video game console emulator. An example of such a driver is the driver for a video game cartridge reader (such as Kazzo) or for a capture card that happens not to enforce all of HDCP. These have noninfringing and infringing uses, but good luck affording to prove your noninfringement in a court of law.

Google's been doing this forever, making billions for it, and there's no escaping it.

One can block all Google-owned domains in a DNS resolver on localhost. (A hosts file alone can't do it because the hosts file format doesn't support wildcards.) Windows 10, on the other hand, includes a separate DNS resolver used just for updates and telemetry.

Regardless, this wasn't Fox News

Still co-owned. Except in the most egregious cases, such as the SOPA blackout of January 2012, FOX News is unlikely to cover opposition to the expansion of copyright because it shares a parent company with a movie studio that benefits from said expansion and thus benefits from voters being uninformed of the ramifications of copyright maximalism. This is where CNN, MSNBC, and FOX News are all expected to slant the same way because of Warner Bros. Pictures, Universal Studios, and 20th Century Fox respectively.

About copyright, a term of 70 years after the death of the creator is far too long

The rationale for this copyright term is that those family members who knew an author personally ought to know best how the author wanted the work exploited. That's why the Berne Convention defines life plus 50, as an approximation of the life of the author's grandchildren. The subsequent extension to life plus 70 was intended to correct the approximation for increased life expectancy, not to act as corporate welfare. If you disagree with a life of grandchildren copyright term, that ship unfortunately sailed about a century ago, as you'd have to tear apart the WTO to dismantle it.

I doubt seriously that half my country even remembers who Snowden is.

Even in my country, most don't remember that Snowden is a fictional snowman from 1997.

Btw, if the speed is not ok, why aren't you writing in assembler?

I am. And I use Python to calculate lookup tables and convert data formats for projects written in 6502 assembly.

i can play console games on the couch on a big screen tv with a well-made controller.

PCs have VGA and usually DVI or HDMI out; HDTVs have HDMI and usually VGA in. (HDMI is DVI-D with audio in the blanking period and a different connector.) Set the PC next to the TV, connect a well-made Xbox 360 or Xbox One controller to its front USB port, and play.

i'm not spending 1500 dollars on a gaming pc every few years.

The beauty of desktop PCs is that there are so many builds to choose from that you're more likely to find one to fit your needs. There are $500 builds that'll match any current console, and even the integrated HD Graphics in Intel Core i series CPUs is running games at lower settings nowadays.

you can't play nintendo games on a pc.

Or on a PS4 or Xbox One. Nor can you play Halo on PS4 or any Nintendo console. (On PS1 through PS3 you can make a joke involving the numbering system of Nine Inch Nails albums; PS4 dropped this capability.) But there aren't a lot of critical games that are on both PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 or both PlayStation 4 and Xbox One but not on Windows. In addition, a lot of especially indie games are PC-first or PC-only.

And what does limiting of scope of copyright have to do with your assertion that you're some how magically protected from government copyright laws?

I never intended to assert "magic". It's just that courts recognize that "government copyright laws" are a limit on speech, and in order to temper that limit, they recognized fair use in case law. The doctrine was later codified in the Copyright Act of 1976.

Sub question: when is the mouse going to be in public domain?

Under current law, elements of Mickey Mouse that appeared in the original Mickey trilogy (Plane Crazy, The Gallopin' Gaucho, and Steamboat Willie) enter the public domain in the United States on January 1, 2024. Claims against third-party derivative works under U.S. trademark law would likely be precluded by the precedent set in Dastar v. Fox that a trademark cannot be used as an ersatz copyright.

If you're referring to "perpetual copyright on the installment plan", as some critics of copyright call it, the Supreme Court implied in its opinion in Eldred v. Ashcroft that a third successive extension would likely constitute "legislative misbehavior". The 1976 extension was for harmonization to the life of grandchildren term recognized by parties to the Berne Convention, making up the majority of the developed world. The 1998 extension was for harmonization to Europe, which had updated this standard for longer life expectancies. To which major developed market would a third successive extension before 2024 harmonize?

He's probably thinking of the surprising number of PC games that have default mappings specifically for the XBox controller.

That and the fact that only Xbox 360 and Xbox One controllers support XInput. If a game uses only XInput, not the classic joystick API, it won't work at all with non-Xbox controllers. Perhaps developers decide to support XInput exclusively even in Windows desktop games because it's quicker and cheaper than trying to include default mappings for all brands of generic HID.

The "PCMR" crowd may need to address what consoles do above and beyond PCs (source):

• Come with a gamepad by default, which all games support
• Come with a living-room-friendly case by default, making couch co-op more inviting
• Come with a non-Intel GPU by default
• Fixed set of specs means no worrying whether your system is compatible
• Curated game store means less chance of ending up playing 1983-1984 level crap
• No surreptitiously installed malware
• No mods means no cheating in online multiplayer against strangers
• Resale of used disc games, some of which become collector's items after console is obsolete

Likewise, the mobile industry may need to address what handheld consoles do above and beyond iPhone and Android phones:

• Come with a gamepad by default, which all games support
• Folding case of Nintendo 3DS increases screen durability
• Curated game store means less chance of ending up playing 1983-1984 level crap
• No surreptitiously installed malware
• No mods means no cheating in online multiplayer against strangers
• Resale of used cartridge games, some of which become collector's items after console is obsolete
• Priced for up-front sale, not needing to be financed over the course of a voice and data plan

See subject: On any device, any OS platform - On Google's stuff, Android Debugging Bridge & it's PUSH/PULL commands can insert a hosts file onto a rooted ANDROID phone though...

* :)

(... & it works - "Neville - it's working!")

APK

P.S.=> They just CAN'T stop "The LORD of HOSTS" tepples - & you and I BOTH know it -> https://pineight.com/mw/index.... (left you a little note @ the bottom there to "overcome the last objections" (that I don't REALLY have to either due to sinkholing, but... it's MY work, ALL MY WORK, not anybody else's so - has to be PERFECT & done absolutely 100% right better for ALL conditions & I'm just the guy to do it)... apk

In the version of FF I am on right now 41.0.1 on Linux Mint 17 I don't see http or https in the address bar. I see a green padlock for https

I haven't seen this behavior. I've seen shown for HTTPS and hidden for HTTP. To help me confirm the behavior you are seeing, please visit some HTTPS site, take a screenshot, post it to Imgur or wherever, and link it here.

The major Free browsers show https: but hide http:. I tried them on a site with a domain-validated certificate from StartSSL:

The major Free browsers show https: but hide http:. I tried them on a site with a domain-validated certificate from StartSSL:

The major Free browsers show https: but hide http:. I tried them on a site with a domain-validated certificate from StartSSL:

The major Free browsers show https: but hide http:. I tried them on a site with a domain-validated certificate from StartSSL:

Hosts are far better and do a lot more for less and aren't easily detected and blocked by clarityray https://pineight.com/mw/index.... and editing hosts files for allowing content blocked in them is far easier and they're not crippled by default which advertisers know aren't going to be changed by users. You point out yourself how and why people block ads for malware infection as well as intrusive operations of ads and sucking out users bandwidth and speed they paid for. Hosts not only give you more speed than browser addon adblockers (which don't give you faster locally resolved access to favorite sites where you spend most of your time online) but they block far more in malware, botnets, and dns redirect security poisoning issues.

Neither of those does as much as apk proved hosts do for less more efficiently and addons are useless vs clarityray https://pineight.com/mw/index....

Apk post from the start on tepples site shows hosts do more for less (addons are all beaten by clarityray https://pineight.com/mw/index.... ) Hosts itself is multiplatform so his program's outputs would do the job there on that account. Earlier on that site's pages apk admits what hosts can't stop in bgp which nothing can (I looked it up to find out) and ads served on the same site (which isn't practical for advertisers verifying view counts since a webmaster could lie about it and they couldn't prove it. Makes sense because you don't see much of that at all being done). Nothing does it all but it convinced me hosts do much more for much less.

Apk proved hosts do more for less repeatedly on slashdot and on tepples page for it. Right at start is best reasons https://pineight.com/mw/index....

Also, why are you wearing a dress

Why do the Chipmunks wear "dresses"? Why does John from Peter Pan wear a "dress"? Why do many men in the Middle East wear "dresses"? Why did Jesus wear a "dress"? (source)

and gloves

To prevent blisters.

It's silly not to [make a work available to all markets] but it is your right.

In what way does this right to act like the dog in the manger "promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts"?

you're now not only taking away the rights of the rights holder in two ways instead of one

If I don't pirate, the publisher is leaving money on the table. If I do pirate, the publisher is leaving exactly the same amount of money on the table. It shows that the publisher doesn't believe in a "potential market for or value of the copyrighted work."