Why don't you provide at list a fucking link to back up your claim?
Because you didn't RTFA. Follow the "Swedish tabloid Expressen" link and search for the text "The girls know each other and they both know that they have experienced the same thing."
That's a "triviality" which doesn't prevent the developers from having the "patch after release" mentality. They'll take care of it on the second production run of cartridges FPGA boards.
In this case, testing for bugs is meant to get a list of bugs before the game gets on shelves. That way, the developers have a bit extra time to figure out the problems, and release a "timely" patch for the players.
I heard that AvP2 had a patch before the game was released. They must have been following this concept, but mis-timed the patch release.
As long as you use your hatred of "schooling" to fix it,
Fixing it will require either making it essential for jobs (and no, chasing a piece of paper doesn't count), or by making it optional.
If you don't want such a radical change, then increase the awareness and usage of private schools, correspondance courses, prior learning assessments (that don't require attending courses that you probably already mastered), trade schools, or some other form of alternate education. Doing so will cause the regular schools to shape up to remain relevant.
None of this is Mozilla's responsibility, nor should it be.
If it's not supposed to be Mozilla' responsibility, then there should be an option to make it that way.
One of the options in the various extensions prevents it from being used if it is newer than a specific version (i.e. an extension originally written for 3.5.8 won't work for 3.5.8.1). It's the same form of version checking found in some old DOS programs that needed SetVer to run properly, and making that form of check in Mozilla is obstructive to experienced users.
It's no different from preventing Netscape 4 from running on sites designed for Netscape 3, and forcing them to redownload Netscape 4.
Can you name five security updates in the last two years that actually broke functionality for you? Not that my installation base is that huge, but I can think of maybe two updates out of hundreds where some level of functionality was actually lost to the average user.
While not necessarily in the past two years, there was a Javascript update sometime around 2.0.~13-14 which fixed a security hole. This introduced a race condition on some webpages, which caused the browser to crash when exiting the page.
For issues I know are within the past two years, practically any update from Firefox tends to disable the extensions that I use. It took until I discovered the nightly build tools extension to get them working again, and even so, Mozilla seemed to want to disable them at every update (including when I switch from a build from source to an earlier stable version) - which basically causes every update to be disruptive. The situation may have changed by now, but I haven't updated Firefox recently enough to tell.
He was fired and refused to release property that belonged to his former employer. Period, end of story.
If you're saying that he refused to release a password for a database, then either hire a consultant to forcefully reset the password, or contact the vendor of the software for a solution.
The same is already done for OSs like Windows or Linux - there's special Boot CDs that bypass the issue. There's no reason why you can't do the same with more complex databases. If you need to take the system down for this, then do it at night time when the impact is minimized.
It is inherently better. If you're spending half the lecture writing something on the board that could very well be flashed up there in an instant using PowerPoint or similar, you're wasting the students time.
Tech is not better if it isn't used properly. In particular, Powerpoint slides basically anchor the focus on exactly one frame; students are forced to do a synchronized note taking and basically have to treat the entire slide as important, and might not have enough time to pay attention to what the teacher is saying. If using a whiteboard, students can copy down major information first, and worry on whether or not they can copy down individual examples.
Some courses require tech, and there's no way around that. Some students may prefer using tech for their learning, and that's their opinion. However, plopping tech unnecessarily is more of a subversion to education.
I've had experience with some tech-assisted education. I don't remember the name of it, but it had an automated system for generating answers to a multiple-choice math question. You could tell the right answer without doing the math required for it, defeating the purpose of the question(s).
(I didn't look at the article before thinking about that. Of course, I was thinking about using a common theme among all three.)
Given that some of those questions are dynamic (e.g. what is your favourite color), it's sometimes hard to remember what should be the correct answer. I've seen people having trouble authenticating through that system, even when they're the ones typing in the answers - not only do they have to remember the answer, but they also have to remember the spelling as well.
If they want real security, send out keyfobs that have a randomly changing password. The only way to compromise them is within a 1-minute window.
yet I was not allowed to bypass Intro to Web Design 1.
That's the problem right there. Any educational institution that does not contain prior learning assessments is a money making machine with zero interest in its students. (Either that, or its an American High School.)
Its basically the whole reason behind Wikibooks/Wikiversity - you aren't railroaded into courses you already took.
Secondly browsers could very easily solve this by disallowing mixed local (192.*, 10.*, 0.*, 127.*) and remote IP addresses from a single site.
There's sometimes a valid reason to have mixed local and remote content, even if such uses are niche. In particular, Greasemonkey-style scripts are local and act on remote pages. You may also have a local framing system that allows you to more quickly navigate through a system, and some links through the frames may eventually lead to a remote site. And also, NetVampire (now obsolete) can easily be configured to run from the local hard drive.
Also, most exploits (beside the DoS link to "c:\con\con") were created as soon as HTML started to allow executable content, even in e-mail messages. You can perhaps stop most exploits simply by disallowing executable content from untrusted sites, or by only allowing a limited sandbox until the user states they can trust this site.
so 1000 students * $1000 = $1,000,000 We Take $1,000,000 / $50,000 We get 20
Not quite, and you'll notice why if you keep units.
The $1 million is a one-shot investment, while the $50,000/teacher is an ongoing investment.
I think the money is better suited from moving away from computers in the classroom because 1. They don't help much with education. 2. Schools are idiots in computer literacy. 3. Are means from distracting a group of people who are already easily distracted.
Two of those points aren't that good. The first point is countered, since I learned more from a computer than from school, specifically from Wikipedia, TVTropes, and gcc. The second is a stereotype, and doesn't apply to intelligent one - plus schools that are still idiots in the modern age are probably idiots in other computers.
Third point is valid, but not the best one. A better one would state that comptuers aren't necessary for all courses to require a "one-laptop-per-child", nor are computers at a stage where it is feasable to use them as a primary training tool (except in some courses). Specifically, math and a few other courses require a strong computer interface.
I am from Canada, and while I have my fair share of beefs with the education system (currently in University to be a teacher myself), I have seen (through practicums within high-schools) that if you live in a city you can enter into enriched programs. I myself was extremely bored throughout high-school since I grew up in the country and attended a school with no enrichment.
You didn't miss much. Enrichment programs were usually taking out 40 minutes every week and while nice in showing possibilities on what to study... it still didn't give any direction. Even regular courses were like that - while the art course did try showing students many ways they can be artistic, they never taught basics (e.g. what amounts to perfecting drawing ability.)
The regular courses were either tried to teach respiration to those that already mastered it, or skipped past essential basics. In addition, there wasn't enough material to fill the necessary 110 hours of instruction, so they assigned homework instead and used class time to play games such as "7-up".
In hindsight, I'd have preferred a correspondence course. No enrichment there, but at least progress within said course isn't blocked by unnecessary delays, and there isn't any need to participate in distracting items that provide no direct benefit to education.
What idiot doesn't check user input with at least a regex replace to look for offending tags in fields *YOU KNOW* will be rendered by an HTML interpreter (browser)?
Reactive regexing offending tags such as "script", "object" or "embed" don't work if you don't know they exist. As such, it's easier to simply include functions in the programming language API that escape/unescape strings sent in through user input so that junk like that doesn't get echoed into something hazardous.
As a casual gamer I know this because once in a while when I try to play some "advanced" game I find that just learning the rules and controls takes more time than I meant to spend playing the game, so I give up and go back to a simpler game I already know.
That's a more "complex" game, not a more advanced one. It's sort of like trying to play Dwarf Fortress without a form of guided tutorial (or at least a scripted one.)
I consider myself a experienced gamer, and if there's a gap, I'm right in the middle of it:
Old games, such as Battletoads, or Rick Dangerous, are an order of magnitude more difficult than what I can handle due to fake difficulty. These types of games require a marathon session to complete, and perhaps memorizing the map layout in order to avoid damage or failure. While they may give "continues", they're generally limited - only in unlimited continue type games are less skilled players capable of "nearly finishing".
The other extreme, unlimited saving, makes games too easy.
Some games jsut aren't hard. Red Alert 2 is one example, where you can easily defeat the AI using american paratroopers alone. (Or 3 prism tanks, or whatever can quickly wipe out a base.)
Some games, while having a difficulty setting, only have three and there's a large difference between them. There usually isn't a way to fine-tune the difficulty as needed.
The achievement fad found in Steam/PS3/XBox is perhaps a good thing for my level. While achievements typically include things like "game completed", there's nothing stopping the achievements from including difficult ones such as "game completed in 5 hours or less", "game complted without using saves", or "game completed on hard".
They ban smoking in office buildings that might be visited by the public
If something might be visited by the public, chances are that there's other workers. Second hand smoke can be just as bad to people, as well as computers. Most non-smokers chose not to smoke because they prefer not having a nicotine addiction, having an awful smell, or eventually getting cancer because they can't find a smoke-free environment (and no, living off welfare doesn't count because that's stigmatized.) In case of children, I'm sure they prefer not being actively screwed over by their own parents.
They ban smoking on beaches and other open air venues
While there are smokers who know how to properly dispose cigarettes, there's a large chunk that don't. Besides, people prefer getting their feet dirty with sand rather than getting their feet dirty with various junk.
They slap high taxes on purchase - so high that governments are dependent on people to continue smoking [...] Imagen how many more cities, counties and states would have to declare bankruptcy if everybody stopped smoking tomorrow.
If everyone stopped smoking tomorrow, then countries that have basic healthcare for citizens won't have to spend as many resources to ensure people remain healthy. In particlar, each pack of cigarettes costs $11 - more than twice the costs of the cigarettes themselves. At worst, there's a short term shock, which will level out later.
Plus, people can more easily switch to other potentially taxable drugs, such as alcohol, caffeine, or glucose. The damage from those three drugs is more contained, and has less collateral damage.
Tell a kid to hand-write a story that's minimum 3 pages long
Why stop at 3 pages? Why not go the full 100 pages or 10000 words? Or even better, why not ask them to write the 14-line sonnets? From my experience, schools that constantly ask for short bits of writing haven't trained students on how to actually write them. Something short and simple can be done easily on Slashdot, while something long (or requires adhering to arbitrary guidelines) requires much more ability to complete.
But still, the comparison is between something from 1999 and 2010. While significant, it's not a huge generational shift, with the only difference being exposer to miniature high-tech stuff rather than computers in general. It has less weight than something between 1989 and 2010, and even less than 1910 and 2010. If I recall, there was an exam that alleged to be posted from the era of 1910 that showed quite advanced questions for a Grade 9 exam - and that was discredited on snopes.com. It's also moot, since knowledge required to survive in 1910 is different than knowledge required today; even something like farms operate differently to keep up with the demand.
Also, it's not the tech that causes stupidity - it's the substandard means to educate children. This includes teaching incorrect information and not accepting evidence to the contrary.
That effect is based on faith, and religion has been exploring the mechanisms of faith for a long time
Some religions have explored placebos, but religions that use the Book of job as a canonical religious text shouldn't promote them. I haven't looked too much into religions that have a legitimate use of placebos, but they are usually based around something rather than the pure raw faith that most people don't have.
The Kara Neumann case is an example of a false-faith healing attempt.
I'm talking about things like Tetris DS and Tetris Party with their infinite spin mechanic
Shocking.
a bag randomizer that allows for a play pattern that can provably continue forever.
Actually, the generic randomizer could do that as well, and in some cases can be abused. It also prevents complaints about games having a rigged random number generator if the pieces aren't distributed evenly.
Besides, I haven't seen an attempt at a malicious RNG under the bag system.
And other people think the changes that The Tetris Company has required over the past decade have destroyed the challenge of the game.
Tetris: The Grandmaster 3: Terror Instinct still seems difficult to me, especially with invisible blocks. And that's probably a properly licenced version as well.
like buying a car, and the manufacturer tells you, that you are not allowed to use to car to race,
Technically, you're not legally allowed to race, and some governments enforce it by impounding the car. You can get around that by using a private track.
From what I understad from the article and other comments, the license fees for h.264 apply even though you converted to an open codec. This is more like saying that you can't use your other cars on highways when you add a pickup-truck to your collection.
I have not seen a decent printed manual for a game in about 10 years now.
Technically, you only need a sheet of paper that contains a list of controls, and other stuff as needed. It may need to span multiple pages depending on how complex the controls become, and any smart designer would place a copy in-game as well.
However, the manual should at least describe basic game mechanics (e.g. should allow players to successfully min-max something on the first try.)
Having the instructions only printed in the manual is an anachronism in this day and age.
I've seen an RTS that listed a whole ton of units in the game manual. For each unit, it only described the actions it could take (e.g. move, attack, etc.) rather than mentioning the purpose of the unit (e.g. anti-catapult, anti-cavelry). The manual didn't even mention that you needed to right-click to move units around - a sudden change for someone who is used to C&C.
If that IP is blocked, you won't get through even if you use this method.
True, but if you block by IP, you risk blocking other sites on the same host. For example, a medium-sized business may think they're blocking access to http://ebay.com/, but suddenly discover they're also blocking the revenue source http://paypal.com/.
Technically, multiple sites shouldn't be on the same page, but...
The simple solution is to just make your kids go to bed earlier.
Let's say a kid needs to wake up at 6:00am, and catches the bus at 7:00 am. School starts at 8:00am, and finishes at 3:00pm. Returns home at 4:00pm. So far, so good.
However, most schools assign homework. We'll assume a 1 instruction hour:1 homework hour ratio, and that there are 6 instructional hours in a school day. Homework from 4-7pm, dinner from 7-7:30, and second homework from 7:30-10:30pm. This basically consumes the entire day alone. Homework may sometimes be displaced to a weekend or another day, but I remember most homework being due next-day. If you expect your kid to socialize, get out more, do housrwork, or take up sports, those take up time as well. As such, 10:30pm tends to stick as the earliest time.
A minimal amount of rest is 8 hours. From 10:30, this results in a wakeup time at 6:30am, which compresses the "get ready" phase in the morning. I heard that some the "recommended" ratio is higher, where the recommended is 2 hours homework to 1 hour instruction.
If anything, teenagers are being pushed to staying up late just to complete school.
Slashdot Mirror
Why don't you provide at list a fucking link to back up your claim?
Because you didn't RTFA. Follow the "Swedish tabloid Expressen" link and search for the text "The girls know each other and they both know that they have experienced the same thing."
That's a "triviality" which doesn't prevent the developers from having the "patch after release" mentality. They'll take care of it on the second production run of cartridges FPGA boards.
In this case, testing for bugs is meant to get a list of bugs before the game gets on shelves. That way, the developers have a bit extra time to figure out the problems, and release a "timely" patch for the players.
I heard that AvP2 had a patch before the game was released. They must have been following this concept, but mis-timed the patch release.
As long as you use your hatred of "schooling" to fix it,
Fixing it will require either making it essential for jobs (and no, chasing a piece of paper doesn't count), or by making it optional.
If you don't want such a radical change, then increase the awareness and usage of private schools, correspondance courses, prior learning assessments (that don't require attending courses that you probably already mastered), trade schools, or some other form of alternate education. Doing so will cause the regular schools to shape up to remain relevant.
None of this is Mozilla's responsibility, nor should it be.
If it's not supposed to be Mozilla' responsibility, then there should be an option to make it that way.
One of the options in the various extensions prevents it from being used if it is newer than a specific version (i.e. an extension originally written for 3.5.8 won't work for 3.5.8.1). It's the same form of version checking found in some old DOS programs that needed SetVer to run properly, and making that form of check in Mozilla is obstructive to experienced users.
It's no different from preventing Netscape 4 from running on sites designed for Netscape 3, and forcing them to redownload Netscape 4.
Can you name five security updates in the last two years that actually broke functionality for you? Not that my installation base is that huge, but I can think of maybe two updates out of hundreds where some level of functionality was actually lost to the average user.
While not necessarily in the past two years, there was a Javascript update sometime around 2.0.~13-14 which fixed a security hole. This introduced a race condition on some webpages, which caused the browser to crash when exiting the page.
For issues I know are within the past two years, practically any update from Firefox tends to disable the extensions that I use. It took until I discovered the nightly build tools extension to get them working again, and even so, Mozilla seemed to want to disable them at every update (including when I switch from a build from source to an earlier stable version) - which basically causes every update to be disruptive. The situation may have changed by now, but I haven't updated Firefox recently enough to tell.
He was fired and refused to release property that belonged to his former employer. Period, end of story.
If you're saying that he refused to release a password for a database, then either hire a consultant to forcefully reset the password, or contact the vendor of the software for a solution.
The same is already done for OSs like Windows or Linux - there's special Boot CDs that bypass the issue. There's no reason why you can't do the same with more complex databases. If you need to take the system down for this, then do it at night time when the impact is minimized.
It is inherently better. If you're spending half the lecture writing something on the board that could very well be flashed up there in an instant using PowerPoint or similar, you're wasting the students time.
Tech is not better if it isn't used properly. In particular, Powerpoint slides basically anchor the focus on exactly one frame; students are forced to do a synchronized note taking and basically have to treat the entire slide as important, and might not have enough time to pay attention to what the teacher is saying. If using a whiteboard, students can copy down major information first, and worry on whether or not they can copy down individual examples.
Some courses require tech, and there's no way around that. Some students may prefer using tech for their learning, and that's their opinion. However, plopping tech unnecessarily is more of a subversion to education.
I've had experience with some tech-assisted education. I don't remember the name of it, but it had an automated system for generating answers to a multiple-choice math question. You could tell the right answer without doing the math required for it, defeating the purpose of the question(s).
What was the name of your first pet?
FnLmBwfT
What is your nickname?
(U8L.T/1
What is the first foreign country you visited?
x)pENC^j
(I didn't look at the article before thinking about that. Of course, I was thinking about using a common theme among all three.)
Given that some of those questions are dynamic (e.g. what is your favourite color), it's sometimes hard to remember what should be the correct answer. I've seen people having trouble authenticating through that system, even when they're the ones typing in the answers - not only do they have to remember the answer, but they also have to remember the spelling as well.
If they want real security, send out keyfobs that have a randomly changing password. The only way to compromise them is within a 1-minute window.
yet I was not allowed to bypass Intro to Web Design 1.
That's the problem right there. Any educational institution that does not contain prior learning assessments is a money making machine with zero interest in its students. (Either that, or its an American High School.)
Its basically the whole reason behind Wikibooks/Wikiversity - you aren't railroaded into courses you already took.
Secondly browsers could very easily solve this by disallowing mixed local (192.*, 10.*, 0.*, 127.*) and remote IP addresses from a single site.
There's sometimes a valid reason to have mixed local and remote content, even if such uses are niche. In particular, Greasemonkey-style scripts are local and act on remote pages. You may also have a local framing system that allows you to more quickly navigate through a system, and some links through the frames may eventually lead to a remote site. And also, NetVampire (now obsolete) can easily be configured to run from the local hard drive.
Also, most exploits (beside the DoS link to "c:\con\con") were created as soon as HTML started to allow executable content, even in e-mail messages. You can perhaps stop most exploits simply by disallowing executable content from untrusted sites, or by only allowing a limited sandbox until the user states they can trust this site.
so 1000 students * $1000 = $1,000,000
We Take $1,000,000 / $50,000
We get 20
Not quite, and you'll notice why if you keep units.
The $1 million is a one-shot investment, while the $50,000/teacher is an ongoing investment.
I think the money is better suited from moving away from computers in the classroom because
1. They don't help much with education.
2. Schools are idiots in computer literacy.
3. Are means from distracting a group of people who are already easily distracted.
Two of those points aren't that good. The first point is countered, since I learned more from a computer than from school, specifically from Wikipedia, TVTropes, and gcc. The second is a stereotype, and doesn't apply to intelligent one - plus schools that are still idiots in the modern age are probably idiots in other computers.
Third point is valid, but not the best one. A better one would state that comptuers aren't necessary for all courses to require a "one-laptop-per-child", nor are computers at a stage where it is feasable to use them as a primary training tool (except in some courses). Specifically, math and a few other courses require a strong computer interface.
I am from Canada, and while I have my fair share of beefs with the education system (currently in University to be a teacher myself), I have seen (through practicums within high-schools) that if you live in a city you can enter into enriched programs. I myself was extremely bored throughout high-school since I grew up in the country and attended a school with no enrichment.
You didn't miss much. Enrichment programs were usually taking out 40 minutes every week and while nice in showing possibilities on what to study... it still didn't give any direction. Even regular courses were like that - while the art course did try showing students many ways they can be artistic, they never taught basics (e.g. what amounts to perfecting drawing ability.)
The regular courses were either tried to teach respiration to those that already mastered it, or skipped past essential basics. In addition, there wasn't enough material to fill the necessary 110 hours of instruction, so they assigned homework instead and used class time to play games such as "7-up".
In hindsight, I'd have preferred a correspondence course. No enrichment there, but at least progress within said course isn't blocked by unnecessary delays, and there isn't any need to participate in distracting items that provide no direct benefit to education.
What idiot doesn't check user input with at least a regex replace to look for offending tags in fields *YOU KNOW* will be rendered by an HTML interpreter (browser)?
http://thedailywtf.com/articles/injection-proofd.aspx
Reactive regexing offending tags such as "script", "object" or "embed" don't work if you don't know they exist. As such, it's easier to simply include functions in the programming language API that escape/unescape strings sent in through user input so that junk like that doesn't get echoed into something hazardous.
As a casual gamer I know this because once in a while when I try to play some "advanced" game I find that just learning the rules and controls takes more time than I meant to spend playing the game, so I give up and go back to a simpler game I already know.
That's a more "complex" game, not a more advanced one. It's sort of like trying to play Dwarf Fortress without a form of guided tutorial (or at least a scripted one.)
I consider myself a experienced gamer, and if there's a gap, I'm right in the middle of it:
They ban smoking in office buildings that might be visited by the public
If something might be visited by the public, chances are that there's other workers. Second hand smoke can be just as bad to people, as well as computers. Most non-smokers chose not to smoke because they prefer not having a nicotine addiction, having an awful smell, or eventually getting cancer because they can't find a smoke-free environment (and no, living off welfare doesn't count because that's stigmatized.) In case of children, I'm sure they prefer not being actively screwed over by their own parents.
They ban smoking on beaches and other open air venues
While there are smokers who know how to properly dispose cigarettes, there's a large chunk that don't. Besides, people prefer getting their feet dirty with sand rather than getting their feet dirty with various junk.
They slap high taxes on purchase - so high that governments are dependent on people to continue smoking
[...]
Imagen how many more cities, counties and states would have to declare bankruptcy if everybody stopped smoking tomorrow.
If everyone stopped smoking tomorrow, then countries that have basic healthcare for citizens won't have to spend as many resources to ensure people remain healthy. In particlar, each pack of cigarettes costs $11 - more than twice the costs of the cigarettes themselves. At worst, there's a short term shock, which will level out later.
Plus, people can more easily switch to other potentially taxable drugs, such as alcohol, caffeine, or glucose. The damage from those three drugs is more contained, and has less collateral damage.
Why stop at 3 pages? Why not go the full 100 pages or 10000 words? Or even better, why not ask them to write the 14-line sonnets? From my experience, schools that constantly ask for short bits of writing haven't trained students on how to actually write them. Something short and simple can be done easily on Slashdot, while something long (or requires adhering to arbitrary guidelines) requires much more ability to complete.
But still, the comparison is between something from 1999 and 2010. While significant, it's not a huge generational shift, with the only difference being exposer to miniature high-tech stuff rather than computers in general. It has less weight than something between 1989 and 2010, and even less than 1910 and 2010. If I recall, there was an exam that alleged to be posted from the era of 1910 that showed quite advanced questions for a Grade 9 exam - and that was discredited on snopes.com. It's also moot, since knowledge required to survive in 1910 is different than knowledge required today; even something like farms operate differently to keep up with the demand.
Also, it's not the tech that causes stupidity - it's the substandard means to educate children. This includes teaching incorrect information and not accepting evidence to the contrary.
That effect is based on faith, and religion has been exploring the mechanisms of faith for a long time
Some religions have explored placebos, but religions that use the Book of job as a canonical religious text shouldn't promote them. I haven't looked too much into religions that have a legitimate use of placebos, but they are usually based around something rather than the pure raw faith that most people don't have.
The Kara Neumann case is an example of a false-faith healing attempt.
I'm talking about things like Tetris DS and Tetris Party with their infinite spin mechanic
Shocking.
a bag randomizer that allows for a play pattern that can provably continue forever.
Actually, the generic randomizer could do that as well, and in some cases can be abused. It also prevents complaints about games having a rigged random number generator if the pieces aren't distributed evenly.
Besides, I haven't seen an attempt at a malicious RNG under the bag system.
And other people think the changes that The Tetris Company has required over the past decade have destroyed the challenge of the game.
Tetris: The Grandmaster 3: Terror Instinct still seems difficult to me, especially with invisible blocks. And that's probably a properly licenced version as well.
like buying a car, and the manufacturer tells you, that you are not allowed to use to car to race,
Technically, you're not legally allowed to race, and some governments enforce it by impounding the car. You can get around that by using a private track.
From what I understad from the article and other comments, the license fees for h.264 apply even though you converted to an open codec. This is more like saying that you can't use your other cars on highways when you add a pickup-truck to your collection.
I have not seen a decent printed manual for a game in about 10 years now.
Technically, you only need a sheet of paper that contains a list of controls, and other stuff as needed. It may need to span multiple pages depending on how complex the controls become, and any smart designer would place a copy in-game as well.
However, the manual should at least describe basic game mechanics (e.g. should allow players to successfully min-max something on the first try.)
Having the instructions only printed in the manual is an anachronism in this day and age.
I've seen an RTS that listed a whole ton of units in the game manual. For each unit, it only described the actions it could take (e.g. move, attack, etc.) rather than mentioning the purpose of the unit (e.g. anti-catapult, anti-cavelry). The manual didn't even mention that you needed to right-click to move units around - a sudden change for someone who is used to C&C.
Flushing my "DNA" cache fixed it ;-))
Not for everyone, since some ISPs cache DNS lookup results.
If that IP is blocked, you won't get through even if you use this method.
True, but if you block by IP, you risk blocking other sites on the same host. For example, a medium-sized business may think they're blocking access to http://ebay.com/, but suddenly discover they're also blocking the revenue source http://paypal.com/.
Technically, multiple sites shouldn't be on the same page, but...
The simple solution is to just make your kids go to bed earlier.
Let's say a kid needs to wake up at 6:00am, and catches the bus at 7:00 am. School starts at 8:00am, and finishes at 3:00pm. Returns home at 4:00pm. So far, so good.
However, most schools assign homework. We'll assume a 1 instruction hour:1 homework hour ratio, and that there are 6 instructional hours in a school day. Homework from 4-7pm, dinner from 7-7:30, and second homework from 7:30-10:30pm. This basically consumes the entire day alone. Homework may sometimes be displaced to a weekend or another day, but I remember most homework being due next-day. If you expect your kid to socialize, get out more, do housrwork, or take up sports, those take up time as well. As such, 10:30pm tends to stick as the earliest time.
A minimal amount of rest is 8 hours. From 10:30, this results in a wakeup time at 6:30am, which compresses the "get ready" phase in the morning. I heard that some the "recommended" ratio is higher, where the recommended is 2 hours homework to 1 hour instruction.
If anything, teenagers are being pushed to staying up late just to complete school.