Heavens no. I typically run Firefox with 12 or fewer tabs. Mostly I get "use bookmarks instead of tabs" from those who recommend that I work around broken suspend by instead shutting down the computer completely, and I get "discard inactive tabs" from those who recommend that I work around unavailability of small laptops that run GNU/Linux by using Android/Linux instead. But the "use bookmarks instead of tabs" and "discard inactive tabs" arguments are again popping up in this context.
For one thing, Chromium is free software and includes everything ut Flash Player and Hollywood movie DRM. For another, what laptops that don't come with non-free software are shown in U.S. showrooms?
the "consumer" grade Firefoxen don't allow unsigned extensions
That should not affect you if you apply to have your extensions signed as unlisted extensions. But I imagine there's a good reason why you haven't. What might that be?
And why? All the data is available elsewhere, either in the disk cache
The changes made to a document's DOM by scripts aren't in the disk cache. One example of a document is any Slashdot discussion page. Scripts collapse or expand comments, add a "Reply to This" box, and add newly posted comments when the user activates "Check for New Comments" link at the bottom.
or the remote server itself.
Once a battery-powered computer leaves the range of Wi-Fi hotspots whose WPA2 password you know, "the remote server itself" is no longer accessible. Browsers for tablets aggressively discard inactive tabs under memory pressure, and it frustrates me because by the time I get around to reading a document, it's been discarded, and I can't retrieve it again because I've already boarded the bus. Browsers for laptops don't have quite as much of a problem because operating systems for laptops instead use a page file when under memory pressure.
It's like bittorrent, or SNES emulators...sure people can use it for Linux distributions or their self-transferred SNES game files, but realistically they are both 99.9% used for piracy
I notice you mentioned the Super NES as opposed to the original NES. Is this because of the healthy amateur game development scene on the NES compared to the lack of one on the Super NES?
Microsoft does essentially nothing to prevent its operating system being used for piracy.
Of course it does. Windows Store in theory doesn't accept applications whose primary purpose is copyright infringement. Windows 10 S doesn't run applications obtained outside Windows Store. All that's left is to retire Windows 10 Home in favor of Windows 10 S.
M$ is a valid name for a string in older versions of the BASIC programming language. It's sometimes used as a nickname for Microsoft, which got its start as a publisher of BASIC interpreters for 8-bit home computers.
Handheld dedicated video game devices do not allow installation of game mods because they are not personal computers. Handheld personal computers do not come with joysticks because they are not dedicated video game devices. I have never seen a handheld personal computer with a separately purchased joystick in use in public.
If someone prefers to play games with mods instead of vanilla games, which handheld platform should he choose?
Is Apple the only laptop maker whose products 1. run "a newer OS" that isn't designed as one huge tracking device for the advertisement industry and 2. are in U.S. electronics showroom chains? Because for years, I haven't seen any GNU/Linux laptops in showrooms near me; it's just Windows 10 and macOS.
Until then, Windows 7 receives "extended support" (security updates) until 2020.
3. Conversely, if you want fastest performance try running without add-ons.
I don't see how running without add-ons would help performance, as disabling add-ons causes sites to load excessive tracking devices, real-time bidding scripts, animated advertisements, and video advertisements.
If the browser is running short on memory, then why not just discard a few tabs until they're selected again? There's absolutely nothing stopping the browser from doing that.
Say a user navigates to an HTML document on his laptop, closes the lid, boards a city bus in a city whose buses do not provide Wi-Fi, opens the lid, and switches to the document's tab. If the browser has discarded the document for later reloading, the browser will attempt to reload the document, fail because there is no Internet connection, and show "You are offline" instead of the document. This defeats the purpose of having loaded the document in a tab in the first place. And browsers on tablets have an annoying habit of doing this often.
I agree with you that a device marketed as a Personal Computer ought to allow the Person who owns it to control what Computing is done, and the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita are explicitly not Personal Computers by that measure. Someone who owns one of those but desires features available only in a Personal Computer needs to replace it with a Personal Computer.
Now say someone realizes the implication of this and seeks to replace a PlayStation Vita with a comparable handheld Personal Computer: one with a screen, directional pad/stick, and action buttons. Any recommendations?
If you like couch gaming [...] a console is clearly your best value, and the PS4 is where it has been at this current generation. But if you like mods [...] then a PC is your best value.
Where does that leave people who like to mod their couch games?
The liability limitation part of the Communications Decency Act, codified as 47 USC 230, states in part: "Nothing in this section shall be construed to limit or expand any law pertaining to intellectual property." Interestingly enough, it defines "Internet" but not "intellectual property", which I assume it leaves up to the federal court system to define.
There are copyright, patents and trademark laws. Which is it?
All of the above. From the featured article: "Now, Rearden is now bringing patent, copyright and trademark claims against Disney."
You didn't buy a computing device, you bought a game console.
I'm aware that the article is about the PlayStation 4, not the PlayStation Vita. But answer me this: Based on how you define "computing device", what computing device in a form factor similar to that of Sony's PlayStation Vita, including physical inputs for applications with the tactile response that a touch screen lacks, is widely available in Slashdot's home country?
Having a publicly available SDK doesn't mean the 'platform is hacked'. If that was true, Linux, Windows and MacOS (and iOS) would all be 'hacked' completely. (All these operating systems even have their SDKs available for free, if not downright included in the base OS install!
The Windows 10 S SDK does not run on Windows 10 S. It requires Windows 10 Home or Windows 10 Pro.
(And there are rumors that Microsoft may discontinue Home in favor of S.)
I concede that both Steam and PlayStation Store are digital restrictions management. But unlike PlayStation Store, Steam doesn't lock you out of modding games that are built for modding. Nor does it lock you out of running games from other DRM providers (such as Origin) or from DRM-free sources (such as Itch and GOG).
PCs with integrated graphics processors have met or exceeded the previous generation (PlayStation 3) consoles since roughly Ivy Bridge, and that was four Core i5 generations ago. And only a PC can (legitimately) run fan-made mods.
You can "get work done on" a $200 compact laptop or even a $60 Raspberry Pi 3 bundle with keyboard, mouse, storage, and case. And you can use it at the same time that someone else in the household is using the PS4.
So as not to spend $150 to download a single 30 GB game over a satellite Internet connection whose provider charges an estimated $5 per GB. I'll concede that discs aren't quite as much of a compelling feature in an area served by high-volume wired ISP.
The only thing that makes it non-controversial is the fact that a) most people don't understand the stakes yet, b) corporations would rather people not know just how much power they've got over this until it's too late for the citizens to do anything about it, and c) the fact that both parties are thoroughly bought and paid for on this topic.
And related to b) is d) the tendency of citizens of Slashdot's home country to get their news from channels that share a parent company with a member of the Motion Picture Association of America. 21CF owns 20th Century Fox and Fox News. National Amusements owns Paramount and CBS News. Disney owns Walt Disney Pictures and ABC News. Time Warner owns Warner Bros. Pictures and CNN. I shouldn't have to explain NBCUniversal.
It turns out Sony is the only MPAA studio parent not to own a U.S. TV news outlet.
Slashdot Mirror
Heavens no. I typically run Firefox with 12 or fewer tabs. Mostly I get "use bookmarks instead of tabs" from those who recommend that I work around broken suspend by instead shutting down the computer completely, and I get "discard inactive tabs" from those who recommend that I work around unavailability of small laptops that run GNU/Linux by using Android/Linux instead. But the "use bookmarks instead of tabs" and "discard inactive tabs" arguments are again popping up in this context.
Enjoy being violated by your non-free software.
For one thing, Chromium is free software and includes everything ut Flash Player and Hollywood movie DRM. For another, what laptops that don't come with non-free software are shown in U.S. showrooms?
the "consumer" grade Firefoxen don't allow unsigned extensions
That should not affect you if you apply to have your extensions signed as unlisted extensions. But I imagine there's a good reason why you haven't. What might that be?
And why? All the data is available elsewhere, either in the disk cache
The changes made to a document's DOM by scripts aren't in the disk cache. One example of a document is any Slashdot discussion page. Scripts collapse or expand comments, add a "Reply to This" box, and add newly posted comments when the user activates "Check for New Comments" link at the bottom.
or the remote server itself.
Once a battery-powered computer leaves the range of Wi-Fi hotspots whose WPA2 password you know, "the remote server itself" is no longer accessible. Browsers for tablets aggressively discard inactive tabs under memory pressure, and it frustrates me because by the time I get around to reading a document, it's been discarded, and I can't retrieve it again because I've already boarded the bus. Browsers for laptops don't have quite as much of a problem because operating systems for laptops instead use a page file when under memory pressure.
It's like bittorrent, or SNES emulators...sure people can use it for Linux distributions or their self-transferred SNES game files, but realistically they are both 99.9% used for piracy
I notice you mentioned the Super NES as opposed to the original NES. Is this because of the healthy amateur game development scene on the NES compared to the lack of one on the Super NES?
Microsoft does essentially nothing to prevent its operating system being used for piracy.
Of course it does. Windows Store in theory doesn't accept applications whose primary purpose is copyright infringement. Windows 10 S doesn't run applications obtained outside Windows Store. All that's left is to retire Windows 10 Home in favor of Windows 10 S.
M$ is a valid name for a string in older versions of the BASIC programming language. It's sometimes used as a nickname for Microsoft, which got its start as a publisher of BASIC interpreters for 8-bit home computers.
Handheld dedicated video game devices do not allow installation of game mods because they are not personal computers.
Handheld personal computers do not come with joysticks because they are not dedicated video game devices.
I have never seen a handheld personal computer with a separately purchased joystick in use in public.
If someone prefers to play games with mods instead of vanilla games, which handheld platform should he choose?
Opening a bookmark on the bus produces a DNS lookup failure instead of the intended document.
Is Apple the only laptop maker whose products 1. run "a newer OS" that isn't designed as one huge tracking device for the advertisement industry and 2. are in U.S. electronics showroom chains? Because for years, I haven't seen any GNU/Linux laptops in showrooms near me; it's just Windows 10 and macOS.
Until then, Windows 7 receives "extended support" (security updates) until 2020.
Wouldn't it just be better to just search for what you want in a web search engine
Not if the document you are viewing requires authentication to view. Such documents do not appear in web search engines.
3. Conversely, if you want fastest performance try running without add-ons.
I don't see how running without add-ons would help performance, as disabling add-ons causes sites to load excessive tracking devices, real-time bidding scripts, animated advertisements, and video advertisements.
So how would an end user go about convincing a major website to start offering an RSS feed and accept the loss of front-page ad views?
If the browser is running short on memory, then why not just discard a few tabs until they're selected again? There's absolutely nothing stopping the browser from doing that.
Say a user navigates to an HTML document on his laptop, closes the lid, boards a city bus in a city whose buses do not provide Wi-Fi, opens the lid, and switches to the document's tab. If the browser has discarded the document for later reloading, the browser will attempt to reload the document, fail because there is no Internet connection, and show "You are offline" instead of the document. This defeats the purpose of having loaded the document in a tab in the first place. And browsers on tablets have an annoying habit of doing this often.
How many refugees from uncompetitive Internet markets can your country's immigration department absorb?
I agree with you that a device marketed as a Personal Computer ought to allow the Person who owns it to control what Computing is done, and the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita are explicitly not Personal Computers by that measure. Someone who owns one of those but desires features available only in a Personal Computer needs to replace it with a Personal Computer.
Now say someone realizes the implication of this and seeks to replace a PlayStation Vita with a comparable handheld Personal Computer: one with a screen, directional pad/stick, and action buttons. Any recommendations?
If you like couch gaming [...] a console is clearly your best value, and the PS4 is where it has been at this current generation. But if you like mods [...] then a PC is your best value.
Where does that leave people who like to mod their couch games?
There is no such thing as IP law.
The liability limitation part of the Communications Decency Act, codified as 47 USC 230, states in part: "Nothing in this section shall be construed to limit or expand any law pertaining to intellectual property." Interestingly enough, it defines "Internet" but not "intellectual property", which I assume it leaves up to the federal court system to define.
There are copyright, patents and trademark laws. Which is it?
All of the above. From the featured article: "Now, Rearden is now bringing patent, copyright and trademark claims against Disney."
You didn't buy a computing device, you bought a game console.
I'm aware that the article is about the PlayStation 4, not the PlayStation Vita. But answer me this: Based on how you define "computing device", what computing device in a form factor similar to that of Sony's PlayStation Vita, including physical inputs for applications with the tactile response that a touch screen lacks, is widely available in Slashdot's home country?
Having a publicly available SDK doesn't mean the 'platform is hacked'. If that was true, Linux, Windows and MacOS (and iOS) would all be 'hacked' completely. (All these operating systems even have their SDKs available for free, if not downright included in the base OS install!
The Windows 10 S SDK does not run on Windows 10 S. It requires Windows 10 Home or Windows 10 Pro.
(And there are rumors that Microsoft may discontinue Home in favor of S.)
I concede that both Steam and PlayStation Store are digital restrictions management. But unlike PlayStation Store, Steam doesn't lock you out of modding games that are built for modding. Nor does it lock you out of running games from other DRM providers (such as Origin) or from DRM-free sources (such as Itch and GOG).
PCs with integrated graphics processors have met or exceeded the previous generation (PlayStation 3) consoles since roughly Ivy Bridge, and that was four Core i5 generations ago. And only a PC can (legitimately) run fan-made mods.
Plus you can actually get work done on the pc.
You can "get work done on" a $200 compact laptop or even a $60 Raspberry Pi 3 bundle with keyboard, mouse, storage, and case. And you can use it at the same time that someone else in the household is using the PS4.
What would I need a BluRay drive for?
So as not to spend $150 to download a single 30 GB game over a satellite Internet connection whose provider charges an estimated $5 per GB. I'll concede that discs aren't quite as much of a compelling feature in an area served by high-volume wired ISP.
The only thing that makes it non-controversial is the fact that a) most people don't understand the stakes yet, b) corporations would rather people not know just how much power they've got over this until it's too late for the citizens to do anything about it, and c) the fact that both parties are thoroughly bought and paid for on this topic.
And related to b) is d) the tendency of citizens of Slashdot's home country to get their news from channels that share a parent company with a member of the Motion Picture Association of America. 21CF owns 20th Century Fox and Fox News. National Amusements owns Paramount and CBS News. Disney owns Walt Disney Pictures and ABC News. Time Warner owns Warner Bros. Pictures and CNN. I shouldn't have to explain NBCUniversal.
It turns out Sony is the only MPAA studio parent not to own a U.S. TV news outlet.