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  1. Re:Starsiege: Tribes and Possibly Achron on The Unsung Heroes of PC Gaming History · · Score: 1

    Pretty sure the size was 64. And my favorite trivia about tribes was that skiing was entirely unintended by the devs; it's made possible by a bug in the physics engine. But people had so much fun with it, and it became such a core part of gameplay, that when the (disastrous) sequels were written (Tribes 2 and Tribes: Vengeance) it was preserved intentionally.

  2. Re:Human deterrent on Ubisoft's New DRM Cracked In One Day · · Score: 0, Troll

    Don't have mod points atm, or I'd do it myself, but mod parent up for interesting. I like the idea; I wish there were any way it would ever happen, but (whether you're joking or not) it's a cool thing to think.

  3. Re:Freedom of speech .. on A Second Lessig Fair-Use Video Is Suppressed By WMG · · Score: 2, Interesting

    It's ContentID. They do have humans who go through and review (they absolutely refuse to say how many), but ContentID does 90% of it these days. I spoke with one of the developers working on the system last fall, and they essentially consider it to be the Holy Grail of not having to waste time on DMCA notices. What's most likely is that in your case, the owner of the content hasn't asked YouTube to do anything about it, so they're merely flagging it, informing you, and not taking anything down. Compare to the big labels, which have YouTube take down flagged videos or, in some cases, give the labels a cut of the advertising revenue alongside them.

  4. Re:Monopoly on Yale Switching To Gmail, Not Without Opposition · · Score: 1

    Whoever was quoted on the 12GB storage savings per student was making up information. I would like an explanation of how 2GB email quota per student -- not measured usage -- becomes 12GB of storage; even including tape backups. If this statistic is true, the storage architecture for Yale email has been designed by an incompetent idiot. Explains why Yale has to outsource email.

    I can provide you that explanation without compromising my contract; disclaimer, I'm a senior working for Yale ITS. Yale provides 2GB email inboxes, but keeps 7 days worth of daily (I believe midnight) backups. That way when someone goes over their 2GB quota and corrupts their inbox, and loses their mail, they've got 7 days to let us know and we can still restore 95% of their email. Better if our webmail service could simply bounce the excess email rather than corrupting the inbox, but c'est la vie. The 12GB of storage, I'm assuming, is the average; 7 times the average inbox size per student. Uncertain if the number is made up, or was discussed in the one meeting I wasn't present for, but it's a reasonable number either way. I suspect it came from the other meeting, because the people who originally spoke to the news aren't creative or intelligent enough to make it up.

  5. Re:Amazing really on Yale Switching To Gmail, Not Without Opposition · · Score: 1

    (We didn't, incidentally. Google edu is free.)

  6. Re:I could have told you that. on Studies Reveal Why Kids Get Bullied and Rejected · · Score: 1

    Just a word of warning, ability-based tracking isn't a good idea without damn good aptitude tests (which don't exist). My girlfriend teaches in a piss-poor, underperforming elementary school, where the students are aggressively tracked (her 3rd-6th graders are all segregated into low- and high-performing classes). The high-aptitude kids benefit, there's no question; but all of the school's measurements for high-performing children heap poorly-behaved kids in with poorly-achieving ones. The result is that all of the unmotivated, bad-behavior students reinforce each other, so all the low-performing classes are behavioral train wrecks, and in a given day, the teacher's liable to waste anywhere between one- and three-quarters of the day on simple classroom management, every day. My girlfriend is one of the few teachers that moves around and sees all the kids, and half the time she gets so frustrated with the low-aptitude classes that she doesn't have the patience to do well with the good ones.

    Ability-based education, like most education, only works when the students want to learn. And separating out a child's desire to learn from his ability to learn is damn near impossible, and something that aptitude tests just can't do.

  7. Re:First Question that Comes to Mind on Microsoft Says Google Chrome Frame Makes IE Less Secure · · Score: 1

    Those folks trapped behind

    asinine security policies

    are almost certainly the ones the Chrome frame is targeted at, though. Only tech-savvy users will actually seek out this plugin, and tech-savvy users who still use IE almost always use it because they're ordered to.

    This article is straight-up Microsoft FUD, the same bull they've been feeding us for twenty years now.

  8. Yes in the Ivies on Does Your College Or University Support Linux? · · Score: 1

    I am a student and tech support coordinator at an Ivy League university, and my school, for one, is very Linux friendly. Campus services are mostly platform-agnostic (currently, there's some talk of using Silverlight for some class video supplements, but I had a conversation with the administrator running that and he's promised that if they go with it, they'll also have quicktime and flash options available). The campus network is based on EHA/MAC address whitelisting, and is thus platform-neutral. Getting some site-licensed software is a pain on Linux (MATLAB requires several more hoops to download on Linux than Windows, but it's doable), but any and all required class programs are available in computer clusters (which have Windows and Mac machines, and a couple of specialized clusters have Linux). Our tech support group (the largest in the nation, at ~130 student employees and 3 full-time staff) doesn't totally support Linux machines, but we support it as we can; we keep a group of designated Linux specialists who offer limited tech support to Linux users with computer problems (we don't fully support just because of the difficulty of doing so, especially with a staff that's only 5-15% Linux users).

    We have some non-savvy professors who will occasionally require closed solutions, but the average Linux user is smart enough to work around those restrictions, rather than suffer under them. Overall, we're very FOSS-friendly. It's a great place to use Linux.

  9. Actual crime on 3 of 4 Charges Against Terry Childs Dropped · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Shocking! The charge that sticks is the only one related to what he actually did wrong! I know the "City of San Francisco" is royally pissed, but even if they're throwing the book at him they have an obligation to stay within the bounds of fact.

    I hope he's let off the hook, personally. The damage he's done to his career (who'll hire a DBA who would hijack the whole network?) is probably enough punishment even by itself. And the details of the offense (hostage-taking to avoid a pink slip) are sufficient to keep him from being hired in any field, technical or not.

  10. Re:25 to 40 USD is the Netbook OEM Price on Amazon US Refunds Windows License Fee, Too · · Score: 1

    The usual OEM Vista price is currently $53.50. So Microsoft probably didn't take nearly as much of a hit as the Sitepoint article suggests. I'm sure it hurt, but not nearly as badly as the author thinks.

    His other conclusions are interesting, though.

  11. Re:But Sir on RIAA Loses Bid To Keep Revenues Secret · · Score: 1

    Wasn't there a "sampling" case where it was ruled that using a certain percentage of a song (a few seconds IIRC) were not considered to be copyright infringement?

    No, but there was a famous sampling case in which the judge ruled explicitly "Get a license or do not sample." The issue of sampling hasn't seen any Supreme Court action, but at the moment this is the highest ruling on the matter, and it explicitly outlaws any and all digital sampling.

    Here's the actual opinion, it's actually pretty readable.

  12. Re:Then explain this on LoTR Lawsuit Threatens Hobbit Production · · Score: 1

    Copyright doesn't even show up in this equation.

    Except insofar as the contract is for use of copyrighted material. So yes, if the copyright had expired at any point since the signing of the contract, the contract would promptly become void. Nothing to sell.

  13. Re:Now I know who to blame on The Woman Who Established Fair Use · · Score: 5, Informative

    You do know that life + 70 (the current term in the US, as of the 1998 Sonny Bono Act) only applies to the life of the original creator, right? It has no relevance to the lifetime of a corporation; even if the rights are transferred to a corporation, copyright still expires 70 years after the death of the original author.

    For works that are created by corporations (i.e. works-for-hire), copyright lasts for 95 years after publication.

    Not that I don't agree with you; copyright extension is awful, and I personally wish it were possible to revert copyright to 28+28 or even the original (1790 Copyright Act) term of 14 years + a 14 year renewal. But you should check your facts.

  14. Re:English Language Article. on Judge In Pirate Bay Trial Biased · · Score: 5, Funny

    Because there's just not enough ammunition to get rid of 'em all.

  15. Woo! on EA Won't Use DRM For The Sims 3 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Could it be that EA's actually listening to their customers? This isn't a cheap publicity stunt like Ubisoft pulled with Prince of Persia; this is (arguably) EA's flagship product.

  16. Re:Who promised? on Researchers Can ID Anonymous Twitterers · · Score: 1

    No, to be anonymous, you just need to not have any friends.

  17. Re:Not too hard to ditch... on Wisconsin Passes Digital Download Tax · · Score: 2, Funny

    You forgot to mention that gas is about 25 cents per gallon in Oregon because self-service gas stations are illegal.?

    Can we ban self-service stations here in the Northeast, too? I'd love 25 cents a gallon...

  18. Re:Film at 11... on High Tech Misery In China · · Score: 5, Funny

    I bought 4 IBM model M keyboards on Ebay 10 years ago, and fully intend to keep using them until I can get a neural implant.

    Buy quality, and buy it once.

    Buy crap, buy it new every year.

    Now, now, let's be fair. You bought quality, and you bought it four times.

  19. Re:Oh Noes! on Microsoft Knew About Xbox 360 Damaging Discs · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I gotta side with Microsoft on this one.

    That was my first instinct as well, then I RTFA. This is not just scratched discs, and it is not blatantly shaking your hardware. It sounds like even fairly small shifts of the console can cause the discs to be "deeply gouged". That's not just normal scratching, that's an issue with the hardware.

    And Microsoft's actions are a little questionable here. They were aware that it was a problem, so they considered several technical solutions; they decided that all the technical solutions were too costly, so they just put in a disclaimer. That's fine.

    Then they added in a "disc replacement program" at $20 a pop. Additional revenue stream?

  20. Re:The Greatest Online System In Gaming on PlayStation Home Beta Opens to the Public · · Score: 2, Informative

    Why would you bother calling someone else a fanboy?

    Probably because it's the easiest way to defend yourself when you're a paid sockpuppet.

  21. Re:Frankenstein on Resurrecting the Mighty Mammoth, Cheaply · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It really just sounds like you're saying we need more than one.

  22. What chills me is that they brag about finding him, but downplay the security hole. From the second Gazette article:

    "We have many levels of security, including internal and external protection. This information was not accessible outside of the school district,"

    Like it's acceptable that the information was accessible within the district? They're pretending that they didn't expose the information of hundreds (thousands?) of employees. I'm willing to entertain the notion that the kid did get up to blackmail (in which case he should rightly be punished), but this situation stinks of CYA. The sysadmin should be the one on trial.

  23. Get the roadblock out of the way on Bringing OSS Into a Closed Source Organization? · · Score: 4, Funny

    with a hooker and a camera!

  24. Re:Does not void warranty on Why the Kill Switch Makes Sense For Android · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Jailbreaking is voids the warranty.

    No it doesn't, you simply restore the phone before bringing it in for service.

    Voiding the warranty, and then lying and covering your tracks to claim you didn't, qualifies as fraud. Or were you unaware?

  25. Re:Let the idiots be idiots on Review of Discovery Institute's Evolution Textbook · · Score: 0

    That's not a bad idea. I favor a parental opt-out for science and biology classes because both sides MUST like the outcome.

    The Christian Taliban can avoid polluting their young with evil ideas, and we can avoid polluting scientific fields with Superstitionists. Christians must like this choice because it cannot have a bad outcome for them.

    But there's an essential problem when education breaks down. When parents opt out of science education, their children grow up without understanding science; it's unfair to the kids because they're denied the opportunity to reap all the benefits of modern knowledge. (And I do mean that; understanding the way the world works is desirable in and of itself.) It's punishing the children for the sins of the fathers. And it's punishing the rest of us too: those children will still vote.