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User: JabberWokky

JabberWokky's activity in the archive.

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Comments · 2,626

  1. Re:Sick of the complaining. on Safari And KHTML May Never Meet · · Score: 1
    This is not an issue of legal obligations, there are only two issues: that of code and that of ethics.

    As for the code, if it can't be integrated, it won't be. End of story. You can talk about "legal obligations" and banter about points of the LGPL all you want; the code isn't in KHTML.

    The second is an issue of ethics. It is perfectly legal to stand up at a wedding and call the bride a slut on one of the most important days of her life. There are no criminal statutes, and you'll get away with it. After that, however, your community of friends and peers will call you an asshole and dislike you for your perfectly legal action.

    The question is, is Apple doing the minimum due to being inept, being ignorant of what is needed to participate in the open source community, or are they being assholes?

    Inept, ignorant or asshole - most social gaffes are due to one of these. Most social gaffes are perfectly legal. But the people who commit these acts are still shunned and disliked by polite society.

    --
    Evan

  2. Re:Sure its a great RPG.... on Review: Jade Empire · · Score: 1
    No, but people routinely pay $20 for two tickets for two hours of entertainment. That would be $200 for the same amount (by time) of entertainment. Or $100 if you only count one person. Using Shrek 2 as an example, that's $20 for a DVD with a runtime of 92 minutes. Multiply by 14 for (roughly) 21 hours worth of entertainment, and you have a cost of $280 worth of DVDs for the same amount of time.

    Games seem to be quite a deal - even when you factor in the player.

    --
    Evan

  3. Re:Sure its a great RPG.... on Review: Jade Empire · · Score: 4, Funny
    I dunno, but there seems to be a whole industry devoted to doing character development in 90 minutes to two hours.

    --
    Evan

  4. Re:Killer Phones on Nokia Announces Hard-Drive Phone · · Score: 1
    I believe he was referencing "most deadliest".

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    Evan

  5. Re:Are you serious?! on The Planet's Most Moronic Hacker · · Score: 1
    The reason this version of the story is making the rounds is for the exact same reason that movies and books about vampires are still being made. Sure, the shelves are overflowing with stories... it's been done. But now and then one is better written or has a nifty twist and is a good read. Same fanged undead guy, new way of telling the story.

    In this one, it has a nifty sarcastic "I'm sweating here" narriation, and the twist is the slow deletion of all of his own files, drive by drive. Like the sixth trip on the rollercoaster, you know exactly what's coming, but it's a fun ride.

    --
    Evan

  6. Re:what about this tablet pc on FCC Pics of the IBM ThinkPad X41 Tablet PC · · Score: 1
    Thinkpads are likely the best non-Apple laptops out there, and correspond to the Powerbooks in terms of quality. It's an uber-quality and super highly respected line, and they are coming out with a new format (tablet).

    --
    Evan

  7. Re:Sailing Puzzle? on Bastard Tetris Hates You · · Score: 2, Informative
    Even if you uninstall it and never get into the MMORPG part the puzzles are just breathtakingly fun to play.

    Sounds nifty, but I run Linux. (Googles) Oh, *sweet*!. There's a Linux client!

    I spent hours going through archives of Games Magazine and I love Cheapass Games (it's a company if you're not familiar with them, that sells 50 to $5 really inexpensive, well designed games, usually a bunch of printed sheets in an envelope). Good game and puzzle design is an art. I'll give this a shot... later... when my paid work is finished. :)

    ( BTW - Kingdom of Loathing is a quirky fun site as well)

    --
    Evan

  8. Handwritten here. on Map-Making Software for RPG Campaigns? · · Score: 2, Interesting
    I still have yet to find one that I really like... I'm still forced to sit down and hand draw all my maps. While it does have the nice side of forcing you as a GM to figure out the specifics of everything on the map, it is annoying because it would be really nice to edit and zoom in and out on maps to give to players.

    I've played with most of the mapping software out there[1] and it all has problems that limit how useful it is, especially for a GM that does not work off a laptop when gaming. I've seriously thought about writing my own; I have many pages of notes on how to implement the system and a few directories full of testbed code and graphics. My biggest problem with mapping programs is how they force you to think within their structure rather than being a more freeform tool.

    Here's a map I'm using in my current Firefly GURPS game.

    [1] I have not played with Dundjinni. It looks very "pretty", but I prefer Tolkien-esque lineart maps for the simple fact that they don't use four gallons of ink to print out.

    --
    Evan

  9. Sailing Puzzle? on Bastard Tetris Hates You · · Score: 1
    What is this "sailing puzzle"?

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    Evan

  10. Re:It has little to do with CUPS itself. on One Year Later - CUPS Admin Still Lacking? · · Score: 1
    Yup. Click "Control Center" in the menu (or "settings:/" in Konqueror), click "Yast2", "Hardware" and "Printers". If you have it on USB, etc., it autodetects. Otherwise, pcik your printer from the list.

    Same as setting up any hardware.

    --
    Evan

  11. Re:wouldnt a 'half life' be a better definition on Biological Activity on Mars · · Score: 1
    I agree totally - when the parameters are such that the curve follows that of a half-life (i.e., 50% decrease over a fixed, repeating interval). There are plenty of other curves that various chemical reactions can follow.

    Not all chemical decomposition follows this curve and I'd almost make the outrageous claim that no curve of any planetary wide phenomenon follows it exactly when all seasonal and geological[1] fluctuations are taken into account. Overly pretty data[2] tends to only originate from nice closed system thought experiments. Methane is decomposing due to a wide variety of fluctuating reasons including shifting amounts solar energy (which rips right through that thin atmosphere).

    [1] Yes, Mars has few geological changes. I'm generalizing. Besides, we don't know just how stable it is; vulcanism is cited as a potential source for this methane and there have been signs that there may have been recent marsquakes.

    [2] My SO is a research chemist. There's something that is delightful about a grown woman squealing in delight over her Powerbook when she gets, in her words, "pretty data".

    --
    Evan

  12. Re:wouldnt a 'half life' be a better definition on Biological Activity on Mars · · Score: 2, Informative
    Not when you know the sensitivity of your measuring instruments. Plus a half life assumes a particular slope which why it generally refers to radioactive decay of unstable isotopes.

    --
    Evan "This is a simple explaination - no need to pick nits"

  13. Re:Skycar on Flying Cars Ready To Take Off · · Score: 1
    The California Fuel Cell Partnership. It was started in 1999 by Ford, DaimlerChrysler, Ballard and now has 31 partners. It's heavily supported by Gov. Schwarzenegger who has the hydrogen highway plan to make sure there are hydrogen fueling stations strung out along the major freeways in California. The stations are starting to appear in decent numbers in the LA area and across from the Bay to Sacramento, thus the sight of the hydrogen cars on the freeways.

    Pretty nifty and not just talk, as anybody who lives in the area sees these cars in actual use.

    --
    Evan

  14. Re:Skycar on Flying Cars Ready To Take Off · · Score: 2, Insightful
    Several years ago I flipped over to the opinion that he is a scam artist. He has a rotating pool of investors and lives off of them. I've been reading about his stuff for enough years (decades) now and watching his development and it reeks of tease.

    As a side note, he's down the street from me. At the same time, a few exits up there is the fuel cell initiative, which is only a few years old. They have regular show and tells and let people drive the cars. They are also trickling prototypes into circulation, letting people drive them[1]... and in the meantime Moller has an airstrip right across town and has never actually flown anything in the decades he's had "working machines only months away from production". How many years do you have to have "advance deposits" before it's clear that they aren't going to be delivered? Recently he's started touting organic almond butter as a way to extend life expectancy. He's a viagra spam away from being a blatant con.

    [1] Walk off the street, drop your DL on the desk and take one for a spin. Specific days only, plus events like the recent Davis Picnic Day. They are nifty - I've seen a few different models in functional use on the freeway in the past year with the yellow "Hydrogen Vehicle" banner.

    --
    Evan

  15. Re:We are on Start-up Granted Injunction Against Microsoft · · Score: 2, Insightful
    Ah. It seems that they must have at least some time in the past... not against Linux that I recall. A Google gives... many many patent lawsuits against Microsoft, but no obvious ones where Microsoft sued someone else.

    A rundown through the first page of returns ("Microsoft sued patent") shows that people who have sued Microsoft include Eolas, American Video Graphics, AT&T, University of California, Burst.com, the State of Florida, Kodak, InterTrust, Priceline.com, Forgent and others.

    In the same return page, Microsoft sued Lindows (not for patent abuse), eight identity thieves (not patent), several spammers (not patent), a Brazilian magazine (for defamation), 117 phishers (not patent), and more spammers (not patent).

    Of the returns on Google's first page, almost all are people suing Microsoft over patents, or Microsoft suing over non-patent related issues. The closest thing is a breach of contract suit against Timeline, Inc over SQL Server that involved a patent filed on their joint project by Timeline while they were partners.

    It occurs to me that I've seen far more "Foo sues Microsoft over Patent X" than "Microsoft sues Bar over Patent Y" articles.

    Of course, Microsoft does plenty of other dubious competitive practices... I haven't touched a product of theirs in almost eight years now. But I've not seen them wielding patents the way Sun and Apple do (or that IBM used to).

    --
    Evan

  16. Re:We are on Start-up Granted Injunction Against Microsoft · · Score: 1
    So, when did they sue?

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    Evan

  17. Re:We are on Start-up Granted Injunction Against Microsoft · · Score: 1
    I'm sorry - I missed when Linux entered the conversation. What is the relevance?

    --
    Evan

  18. Re:Dupe and a lie on Linus Defends Proprietary File Formats [Updated] · · Score: 1
    Uhhh... Grey. It is referred to as the "Grey Lady of Journalism".

    --
    Evan

  19. Re:Obligatory on Water Spectacular in Episode III? · · Score: 1

    *sigh*. -- Evan "Has panicked many a waitress by announcing how much he loves this deep fried pasta stuff when it arrives at the table ('Do I tell him?')"

  20. Re:Obligatory on Water Spectacular in Episode III? · · Score: 2, Funny
    Calamari is that deep fried italian pasta, right?

    --
    Evan "convinced my SO I thought they were pasta for about a month"

  21. Re:Law Enforcement Ahoy.... on Best Buy Has Man Arrested for Using $2 Bills · · Score: 1
    I once had a new waitress loudly complaining in the background as I paid my bill that I left her a dollar for tip (which actually would have been $1.25, since there were five coins). As I left, I quietly informed the manager who was checking me out that the coins were dollar coins (I was a regular and not only did he know me, but he also knew I left dollar coins for tip sometimes). He looked at me, blinked, realized the waitress was theatrically complaining aloud to chastise me, and said, "well, we'll just have a little talk with her about how tips work". I saw her once more and she either quit or was fired after that. She didn't seem to popular among the other waitresses either.

    Some people are just stupid. Not bothering to check what kind of coin they are holding is par for the course in their lives.

    --
    Evan

  22. LUA? on Longhorn to use UNIX-like User Permissions · · Score: 4, Informative
    I realize it's hard to come up with simple names, but it's going to be annoying trying to Google for stuff about Lua soon.

    --
    Evan (Really nifty language)

  23. Re:Well on Mandrakesoft Changes Name to Mandriva · · Score: 1
    There's a large portion of us here who are certainly old enough to remember the skits... or even older. I know many 50+ year old Slashdot users. Every time an "old fart" topic comes up, even ones before my time like 1950s engineering using slide rules, the thread fills up with people making posts based on personal experience.

    --
    Evan

  24. Re:I misread the title... on The Rocky TiVo-DirecTV Relationship · · Score: 1
    Heh. I though the Rocky Horror Picture Show, which gave the term "DirecTV" a whole new meaning.

    --
    Evan "I'm just a sweet season pass"

  25. No comments? on Apollo Bacteria Destroying the Moon · · Score: 1
    I thought this was a pretty amusing satire on the global warming scare (which is distinct from global warming as a scientific issue). I'm surprised there have been no comments about that aspect.

    --
    Evan