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User: Johann+Lau

Johann+Lau's activity in the archive.

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Comments · 1,756

  1. Re:If not WebGL then what else instead? on How the Brain Organizes Everything We See · · Score: 1

    There is WebGL and there is WebGL... The full-assed way is to do it all in the pixel shader, drawing just two triangles. Whenever I come across that and don't get any of it, I'm thinking "now that's just being an ass" :(

  2. Re:Please ask google and apple to support webgl on How the Brain Organizes Everything We See · · Score: 1

    What is shortsighted about using the best tech available if it's available to you, for stuff *you* need to do; and then *also* making that usable for people who also have the tech available?

    And do you have the faintest idea how extreme the speed differences and WebGL and canvas can be? There is just no contest. I'd rather have something usable that runs even on my mother's laptop, than something completely useless that runs "everywhere".

  3. Re:Hrmpf. on Iran Claims New Cyberattacks On Industrial Sites · · Score: 2

    Well, that doesn't excuse being sloppy: I heard they withdrew their knee-jerk accusing US and Israel for it, *not* that an attack took place. And this isn't even contrary to the Slashdot summary, so ignore all of this.

  4. Hrmpf. on Iran Claims New Cyberattacks On Industrial Sites · · Score: 1

    I *just* heard on German radio they now withdrew that claim, but I didn't pay closer attention sorry ^_^

  5. Re:Well on China Set To Surpass US In R&D Spending In 10 Years · · Score: 1

    The truth is that everybody will be a poor fuck if the whole economy is based on outfoxing somebody else. On the other hand, if the economy is based on useful cooperation, everybody can grow reasonably wealthy.

    My beef exactly. Thanks for putting it so succinctly.

    I'm not an expert in economics; but here's a simple thing that's hard to argue away: there is more debt in the world than there is money, and thanks to interest that won't change, rather it gets worse. Technology and slavery help obfuscate it: we're "better off than ever", yet a few hundred years most people were independent, now it's the other way around.

    That's a hole in the boat right fucking there. Just saying "Row harder!" is well-meant by some, from others it's just evil fucking charlatenery. No, fix the boat. Then you have the CHOICE wether to grow or "stagnate". Our system is based on infinite growth, but we have limited time, space and resources; people get trampled as a result.

  6. Re:links to NIST on BLAKE2 Claims Faster Hashing Than SHA-3, SHA-2 and MD5 · · Score: 1

    I'm not trying to be dense, I just really don't get it.

    For me, at least when just considering CPU, 1000 iterations of Algorithm A take as long as 1 iteration of an Algorithm B which is 1000 times slower, and a slower hash makes it slower for both sides in equal measure, likewise for a faster hash. That's why I claimed "it's a wash".

    If there is a way to use memory/IO in a way that increases the cost for attacking it more than than the cost of defense, someone has to actually spell it out for me, or I'll remain ignorant :(

  7. Re:links to NIST on BLAKE2 Claims Faster Hashing Than SHA-3, SHA-2 and MD5 · · Score: 2

    All but the biggest web services will be dealing with roughly one login at a time (ie. you're usually finished with the previous login before the next user tries to login) whereas people attacking will be trying to run as many hashes as possible as quickly as possible to find any matches.

    So how does a slower hash help here? It changes nothing about this fundamental principle.

    An algorithm that's too memory hungry or esoteric to run on something like a GPU core is all to the good right now.

    Botnets.

  8. Re:links to NIST on BLAKE2 Claims Faster Hashing Than SHA-3, SHA-2 and MD5 · · Score: 1

    That also means you can hash more often in the same time, it cancels out. I'm not a crypto expert or even non-doofus, but basically you keep inreasing the number of iterations as processing power increases, e.g. calibrate it to take at least N seconds once a year. Which has nothing to do with the algorithm used really; I just like to throw dangerous half-knowledge out there to see what happens haha.

  9. Re:So Proud of Gun Ownership on New York Paper Uses Public Records To Publish Gun-Owner Map · · Score: 1

    That's bullshit. If you put up a map of HIV positive people, the people protesting wouldn't necessarily be ashamed to be HIV positive. They might simply object to idiotic witch hunts.

    Why would some gimmick for "prospective home owners" be more important than that? Why not make a map of physically and handicapped people, so those who would like to live among pretty people?

  10. Re:Grasshopper vs Ant on China Set To Surpass US In R&D Spending In 10 Years · · Score: 1

    That's because grasshoppers eat grass, which grows without them doing anything, and ants don't. A grasshopper acting like a ant doesn't have a great attitude, it's a confused grasshopper.

    That's why the Chinese are narrowing the gap, and will pull ahead.

    That's exactly the problem. With such a financial system (always more debt than money; how are you going to outrun *that*, teacher guru guy?), and such mental models of the world prevailing, it's not going anywhere anyway.

    Why the fuck do you care if someone else is richer? Without the brokenness of the system, it would mean zero threat, would just be something to be happy about. I mean, how else are we intending to have a world without poverty, as long as we're talking about "gaps"? What kind of Nazi shit is this?

    What matters is how fucked up your country is without comparing it. You know, highest prison population in the world, hugely in debt, presidents pulling one after the other on you, while the military industrial complex flourishes. If you cannot even figure THAT out, why even show up to the whole "let's show China!" thing? Likewise, as long as the Chinese have their party of old dumb men ruling them, what is their money and success worth? Wake me up when they produce another Confucius. Or even just a good song or something, ANYTHING mentally stimulating. Yeah, they can work allright. So can robots. Or ants. Slavery does that to people. Being brainwashed peasants makes slavery seem like generosity. You aspire to that? Good luck, and enjoy the rationalizations of people who don't join you as being slackers.

    I don't recall who said it, but, "the trouble with the rat race is, even if you win it, you're still a rat." Same goes for ant hills. Sure, you can have the highest ant hill. But who would want to be an ant? You, apparently. They, obviously. Any other takers?

    This isn't an excuse to "not do anything". This is pointing out that just doing something stupid for the sake of doing something is worse than doing nothing. You could call it an excuse to do "anything but that" haha. "We" didn't come this far to throw it all away because someone else has shinier gadgets. Food, shelter, education. If you can't do that in-country, don't think what you can export, get to work. If you have food, shelter and education, fuck what anybody else is doing.

    Of course, this is mighty hard for a country which used its superiority to conquer and destroy. Of course you are afraid China will do the same to you once you're no longer the superpower. Well, I can't help you with that; figure it out yourself or live in fear.

  11. This isn't the beginning of the end... on US Congress May Not Have Stomach For Another SOPA · · Score: 1

    ... and it may not even be the end of the beginning, but here's hoping.

  12. Re:been done in cyberspace for over a century on Microsoft Patents Virtual Handshakes, Hugs · · Score: -1

    If you see anything wrong with this, post anonymously from a proxy, so you can keep your pwecious moderation and prove you're not just sore because I told it like it is, and there isn't shit you can do about it.

    I mean, what's next? Don't piss off cops? Don't be unfriendly to a doctor? Fuck that. Any and all people in positions of authority or power with that mindset deserve are weak ass scum. That's the part that really matters. And if that attitude doesn't piss you off, you're part of the problem.

    Then there is the part that is hilarious, the troll bit and the reaction to it. Let me explain why you're an idiot: If someone's girlfriend runs off with someone else, and does THIS to their ex, then beating up the new guy is really just a macho reaction, designed to distract oneself from what a tool one is. It's not this guy's fault you're with a heartless slut, is it? It wasn't his idea, it was yours, and your "buddies" even support that decision. What a gang of useless assholes those imaginary buddies are indeed....they weren't there for you when you got together with the skank, they're not there for you when it's time to reflect on your mistake, either. They can't do that, that's not the relationship you have with them.

    Friends are predetermined; friendship takes place between men and women who possess an intellectual and emotional affinity for each other. But comradeship â" that ecstatic bliss that comes with belonging to the crowd in wartime â" is within our reach. We can all have comrades. The danger of the external threat that comes when we have an enemy does not create friendship; it creates comradeship. And those in wartime are deceived about what they are undergoing. And this is why once the threat is over, once war ends, comrades again become strangers to us. This is why after war we fall into despair.

    In friendship there is a deepening of our sense of self. We become, through the friend, more aware of who we are and what we are about; we find ourselves in the eyes of the friend. Friends probe and question and challenge each other to make each of us more complete; with comradeship, the kind that comes to us in patriotic fervor, there is a suppression of self-awareness, self-knowledge, and self-possession. Comrades lose their identities in wartime for the collective rush of a common cause â" a common purpose.

    In comradeship there are no demands on the self. This is part of its appeal and one of the reasons we miss it and seek to recreate it. Comradeship allows us to escape the demands on the self that is part of friendship. In wartime when we feel threatened, we no longer face death alone but as a group, and this makes death easier to bear. We ennoble self-sacrifice for the other, for the comrade; in short we begin to worship death. And this is what the god of war demands of us.

    Think finally of what it means to die for a friend. It is deliberate and painful; there is no ecstasy. For friends, dying is hard and bitter. The dialogue they have and cherish will perhaps never be recreated. Friends do not, the way comrades do, love death and sacrifice. To friends, the prospect of death is frightening. And this is why friendship or, let me say love, is the most potent enemy of war.

    -- Chris Hedges

    TLDR: Don't fucking flatter yourself.

  13. Re:been done in cyberspace for over a century on Microsoft Patents Virtual Handshakes, Hugs · · Score: -1, Troll

    That's exactly right. You get trolled, and then you murder because of it. You hit the nail on the fucking head! Now shut the fuck up, and "put on a helmet, go wait in that fox hole. We'll tell you when we need you to kill somebody." (Bill Hicks) You don't kill for a living, you're hired killers for the living of somebody else.

    God you're stupid. And the best thing is, even if you kill everybody, you'll still be dumb as a brick. How does that feel? You idiot make me wish the troll you fell for was real, and that it hit some assturd like you. Because hey, what use do you have with a woman? Either she's a cunt as well, then who gives a shit about any of you besides other morons; or she isn't, and her running away from you saves her precious time in which she can be with a human, instead of having to hope you get killed in action.

  14. Re:been done in cyberspace for over a century on Microsoft Patents Virtual Handshakes, Hugs · · Score: 1

    I'm pretty sure I heard a permutation of this before, but without Anime or Afghanistan, and a cereal bowl instead of cookies. It's either from a movie or a rehashed troll... I started googling for it, but "spitting semen into cereal bowl video tape troll" didn't turn it up and I didn't care to look further. Anyway, lame.

  15. Re:Inner Depravity on Jury Decides Artist's Gory Images On Website Are Art · · Score: 2, Interesting

    When I see a site called "bigbrother.[whatevs]" I don't expect that to be the homepage of IngSoc, but rather a critical website. Likewise with "Inner Depravity" -- why would anyone glorify it? Only I know we are knee-deep in that sickness and "art", which is basically just a combination of issues and obsession, see H. R. Giger for example. But still, there are more naive, better people than me, and they wouldn't automatically assume this is actually FOR inner depravity. So fuck the average, fuck the low end; use those angels as "norm".

    I think you could make a pretty good argument that the "norms" that should be used to judge such a site should include only those people who would go to a site after seeing that name.

    I am cool with that, see above. I am against censoring it, but I am also against respecting people who make it, and those who would put up with such shit or not give a second thought to it. If I even consider most pop music evil, then how much more so what can be found in the darker recesses.

    Actually, kill yourselves (here's where me not being an angel comes into play). I know you're on thin ice so maybe a little prod will help? Do it. Don't dream about darkness, be it. I'm tired of all this cowardly pseudo-darkness by weak ass middle class farts that doesn't go anywhere. I'm tired of games with demons and soldiers, I'm tired of the movies, I'm tired of this dumb fucking elephant on that dumb fucking couch. Either renounce it, or jump into it, but don't think dithering around the bush is art. I have ZERO idea of any of this applies to the website in question, I know it applies to millions of people and the mediocre unreflected bullshit they create and consume. You fucking suck. Merry Christmas.

  16. Re:Yeah! on Google Chrome 25 Will Disable Silent Extension Installation · · Score: 1

    Yeah, why not. I'm all for making it easier to make responsible, conscious decisions, and to automate tasks based on those conscious decisions... it's the "let's make it so easy nobody even has to think" bits I have issues with, or the "let's measure people and give them more about they already have (or: let's put people into bins and then normalize those bins)". It's degrading, it has no good motivations and no good results.

  17. Re:Yeah! on Google Chrome 25 Will Disable Silent Extension Installation · · Score: 4, Interesting

    How many extensions do you think the average user wants/needs? I really don't see fatigue being much of an issue with browser extensions.

    Same here, so don't ask me :P

    I think saying "user fatigue!" is really just the last FUD straw of someone who doesn't like that Google made an innocent good move for a change. There is nothing wrong with this change, which is why the "arguments" against it are so desperate and funny. I can sympathize with that, I'm all for being unfair to Google haha, but this is too much of a stretch.

    Fuck "user fatigue" - unless you mean being tired of users, then more power to you, of course. Look out for the disabled, for those who need help, and of course streamline stuff where it makes sense. But fuck catering to lazyness and mindlessness. If most people are lazy then most people are obsolete. I don't think they are, but that's what I respond to that argument. Ignore them now before they feel even more entitled. Personally, I'd be all for hunting them down (not being lazy and all that), but I am willing to compromise.

  18. Re:Impossible on Google Chrome 25 Will Disable Silent Extension Installation · · Score: 1

    That still doesn't make them malware in the stricter sense (all malware is evilware, but not all evilware is malware) Certainly when talking about bypassing the browser via having the OS infected.. if you have *that*, you can do anything; sure it'd be *nicer* to have an extension that makes grabbing web passwords super simple, but you don't really *need* it; you can already monitor all traffic, take screencaps, log keys, do whatever.. so what's the point of using root to install a chrome extension?

    I honestly wonder if I have missed something, or caught a completely bullshit argument at +5... what could Chrome do about any of that, anyway? How is this move worse than any other they could have done instead? One might as well say this doesn't help in the cases where the user is forced to click "yes" at gunpoint: that would be correct, but more importantly an idiotic argument. And I kinda hate Google, fuck their browser and the fucked up "web middleman" ads for it; this is still a good move with no real downsides, so wtf.

  19. Re:Impossible on Google Chrome 25 Will Disable Silent Extension Installation · · Score: 1

    Why would malware in the system itself bother with a Chrome extension? What does that give you that you don't already have? Honest curiosity.

    can stop only "nice" extensions which would play by the rules in the first place

    Nah. There are plenty of "hey, it's just some ads/game/whatever, we from value add corp LOVE our customers!" extensions. Of course they're not "nice", but they otherwise use the standard process for extensions, and aren't malware by any stretch of the imagination.

  20. Re:Yeah! on Google Chrome 25 Will Disable Silent Extension Installation · · Score: 4, Insightful

    SOME users experience fatigue and click themselves into deep shit, others pay attention and click themselves out of it.

    If you keep harping at the user about every little thing they will just accept without reading and move on.

    And what is lost compared to not even having the choice? That's like initializing user_fatigue with the maximum value.

    So in what way have you empowered the broad user base by adding this?

    As I just said, you give each user the choice how much of an idiot they want to be, instead of forcing ALL users to be idiots.

  21. Re:So ? on NSA Targeting Domestic Computer Systems · · Score: 1

    heck, national security agency, do people fail at english comprehension test ?

    I don't even... can you tie your shoes? Are, in fact, allowed to vote, and old enough to reproduce? Somebody hold me, please.

  22. Re:man, that is stupid. cyber think crime, no than on NYPD To Identify 'Deranged' Gunmen Through Internet Chatter · · Score: 1

    Thanks a lot for elaborating, that helped a big deal. Though of course I can't explain it to you either... but it just occured to me that there used to be a huge "problem" with getting soldiers to shoot at enemy soldiers. I guess that "problem" got solved too well, now we even have civilians getting a kick out of it.

    Personally, I learned to glorify (movie) violence long before I learned it sucks, which is pretty much western standard. Strikes me as a doublethink problem, we clearly want people to be sociopath slaves, but then when they are shooting random people and the world drowns in its own feces and lack of imagination, we kinda don't want that bit of it. Thing is, it's all in one piece.

  23. Re:What's off limits for a game? definitn. of "gam on Game On War In Syria Explores Ongoing Conflict · · Score: 1

    I don't wanna leech karma off Ian Bogost and Jonathan Blow, who for me are the Noam Chomskies of gaming haha, so if you found this post interesting, you will LOVE these two lectures, and maybe more you can find under related videos, exploring indie games, and what games are or could be:

    Ian Bogost on Serious Games

    "[,,] there's some line that divides games that are beneficial from games that are harmful. It's not really my business to draw that line today, I don't wanna try and convince you exactly what's beneficial and what's harmful, because again, that is up to the opinion of every designer and in fact the opinion of every player. But what I would like is for people to have an opinion about it. When people design a game to think about what that game is doing, and when people play a game to think about what that game is doing. And people don't, right now. They think about how it has cool graphics and a lot of levels and, like, they love the story about killing the bad guy. Which is not a very self-aware place to be standing when you're consuming something that affects your life for so many hours and therefore affects your mind for so many hours. And that bothers me. That makes me feel bad about being a game designer." (Jonathan Blow: Video Games and the Human Condition (the bit I transcribed is here

  24. Re:man, that is stupid. cyber think crime, no than on NYPD To Identify 'Deranged' Gunmen Through Internet Chatter · · Score: 1

    So you're saying there were mass shootings regularly, and that abruptly stopped when they banned those firearms? Or that there was one, and none since then; which may or may not have anything to do with that ban?

  25. Re:I am a terrorist. on NYPD To Identify 'Deranged' Gunmen Through Internet Chatter · · Score: 1

    Fuck you! I'm a super psychopath and I love cooperating when playing online, and usually value fun more than winning. It is a relaxing change from hating people and cleaning guns, you insensitive clod.