As clear as the rigged elections keeping the Mennonites out of representation in Congress, this Google/Government link is one very deep rabbit hole. In the 80s and 90s, a series of books and movies gave the Twinkie empire a bad wrap. Hostess, Lil' Debbie and a number of other producers put together a syndicate that now only has meetings behind closed doors once a year in a hotel in Germany. The top people all attend.
Sure, some less powerful people like Barack Obama and various world leaders attend but they're really just an audience for what is decided. Back when "Google" was getting its start, Larry and Sergey were actually installed by the Twinkie Syndicate to archive and modify all movies and books online to reflect Twinkies as a healthy, natural alternative to apples and other competing products. In doing so they restored order and the Twinkies once again began to flow.
This action, of course, was backed by the Corn Growers Association and the European based "Society for a Stupider, Fatter America" -- the same people responsible for the advent of Christianity in the Americas as well as cream.
Sure there were some unexpected side effects like GMail and Android... but these were just a means to an end. Nothing bad can be said of Twinkies in e-mail nor could you text something bad about Twinkies.
Don't be surprised if you hear news reports of my body found floating in the Potomac... with a Twinkie obstructing my throat.
yeah zuckerberg. suck it up. you rode on the web culture getting to where you are. you cannot just go protectionist on us and become a control freak. share data, as others share data with you.
Google told me to complain to Facebook so I did. Then all my friends asked me why I was posting images of child porn on my Facebook wall. So I went back to Google and complained about that and now a Google van slowly circles my house twenty four hours everyday. I went on Google maps to look at my house but there's just an image of a smoldering crater and a Jolly Roger. I logged back on to Facebook and Zuckerberg had killed my farmer and was raping my livestock as the fields burned.
I'm scared. I don't think I'll get in the middle of this kinda stuff next time. You can have all my data locked up, I just want my Farmville to be okay! Why, piggy, why!? I loveded you, I loveded you piggy!
I thought I would find this in the NetworkWorld article. Boy was I mistaken. As I switch between the two pages of the article, I am presented with "Whitepaper" links to reports that then navigate me to a 'page1234' at accelacomm.com where it asks for all my personal information. In the middle of the article (with no indication this has nothing to do with the article) is a link to another NetworkWorld article titled 'Royal pain: British Royal Navy site hacked.' Shouldn't that go in the 'Related Content' section that is also in the article with links to how I can 'bail out my budget'? Oh look, they've hyperlinked phrases in the article that just direct me to another NetworkWorld article and at the end I get directed to their security section. Might they take a chance and link to the source of the information that they are considering an authority on SEO poisoning? So you know, I can judge for myself and further inspect the report? I mean, I'm not asking them to drive across town to get a quote from the mayor... this is the smallest gesture of investigative reporting one could possibly do.
Sorry to rant for so long but it amuses me how a news article about SEO poisoning is obviously taking some questionable routes to up their own stats -- maybe even manipulate Google page ranks? Oh but that's just good old wholesome Search Engine Optimization -- it's those pesky cybercrooks that phish for my home address, not the "esteemed" online news sources we should criticize that ask me to enter it into accelacomm.com when I'm trying to read the news (and I'm not accusing accelacomm of being a scam, just annoyed at the principle).
A Google van was dispatched to get street view data of the Moon.
*ominous voice* Phase II has started ahead of schedule... but it's still in Beta.
Oh, Yeah in America, We Get Everyone's TV Shows
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LimeWire Lives Again
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· Score: 1
Us europeans will stop pretending Spotify is available everywhere when all the americans realize that those of us over here can't download TV shows through the iTunes store and that Hulu blocks access as well (well, there are always US iTunes accounts and proxies but it's a serious PITA).
This gets modded informative? Some guy bitching offtopic that he can't get his American TV shows when he lives in Europe? On a thread about LimeWire?
What, do I have access to all of Great Britain's television shows? Do I have access to all the programming in Spain or Sweden? Do you think, for some reason, that because we're Americans we have everything over here? Heads up, we're supposed to be the idiots!
Why is it when distribution contracts prevent you from enjoying something over Hulu, you only think about it in one direction? You think I enjoy that I can't find subtitled Anime on Hulu? Or the latest offerings of British comedy? A bit self centered for you to only consider that you're not being subjected to American Television, wouldn't you say?
And then, when I point out that Spotify is only in parts of Europe, somehow you're justified in accusing all Americans as unable to 'realize that those of us over here can't download TV shows through the iTunes store.' Oh well, let me assure you that I know your situation all too well. And I'm pretty much at the mercy of Adult Swim to bring me The Mighty Boosh and FLCL -- and I'm lucky enough to know of their existence!
You want to switch? You know what's popular over here is twice as shitty as anything that Europe could possibly produce. You want The Jersey Shore over there? Hmmm? You want to trade some television shows? I'd really really like to do that.
I'm not stupid enough to say "us Americans will" like you seemed to be able to do with all of Europe but trust me, I suffer too from these distribution deals and lack thereof. Normally I just play the part of the ignorant drunk pompous American prick but it's hard to do when posts like yours are labeled "informative."
On behalf of America, on behalf of our lawyers, on behalf of your inability to access our TV shows, I apologize. Do you really think that every American is scheming to keep our precious reality TV from your eyes? Or that none of us realize what specifically is going on? I significant portion of the population understands distribution of copyrighted material with the advent of the internet. We're not all morons over here.
Why would anyone use that virus-ridden "piece of eight" when you can listen to almost any piece of music you like, legally, on Spotify? (Legal film equivalents are being worked on too).
But yes, I avoid LimeWire like the plague after several spyware debacles and am kind of curious why, if LimeWire's servers are down, you would use it over Gnutella when the networks it is connecting to are (I assume) all of Gnutella's servers?
Hell, I would assume FrostWire is still a viable and better choice...
Lamebook has a funny catchy name that they feel has yet to go viral. Since they just host ads, all they need you to do is visit their site. Or, better yet, Google and then visit their site (like icing on the cake). Any money they spend on this frivolous lawsuit will be more than made up by the resultant ad views and revenue from thousands visiting their site from this news.
Don't do it. Don't reinforce this behavior. Let them gamble and let them lose. They're making a mockery of our justice system by using it as an advertising mechanism. The system already is a mockery enough of itself, don't perpetuate this behavior.
Hell, it might even be in Facebook's interest to work with parasites in this respect. Anything that needs Facebook is interested in augmenting Facebook and keeping the beast alive and healthy.
In before Americans spinning this as somehow a bad thing, bla bla communism, bla bla Obama health plan.
I'm the submitter. I'm American. The submission wasn't edited at all and I don't think I put a negative spin on it.
I even omitted some things like China Mobile being a state-controlled and state-owned company. But you can find that int he linked Wikipedia article. The company has been terrible with it's move to 3G. And, as a telecommunications company with 570 million customers, it's probably done a lot of harm as well as a lot of good. The most xenophobic statement you'll get from me is that it's a Chinese company so there's probably a lot of corruption at all levels. And that's not to say that there isn't corruption in the lobbyists of the American equivalent but I'm guessing the customers have even less rights when it comes to dealing with a state-controlled massive corporation.
So there's that but, you know, regardless of whether or not they're a member of the Linux Foundation, that's going to persist. If the Linux Foundation refused their entry (and, come on, Google and HP are in there so ethics like privacy aren't huge concern) I doubt China Mobile would break down and clean up just so they could get in. But now that they're in, maybe they can offer better service to customers? They're definitely paying dues to the Linux Foundation so unless you see that as 'blood money' it's a really good thing. It's good for us, it's good for the Linux community, it's good for people who want cheaper mobile phones and it's good for the people of China.
Getting the evilest of the evil to use Linux is a net positive for everyone involved. The only people who lose are the companies that make money off of everyone by selling a cash cow operating system like Windows hammered down into some sort of Frankenstein mobile operating system.
bla bla communism
Ha. I wish. If China were truly Communist without social classes, the bulk of the people would be treated a whole lot better and the system would either collapse or work properly for the first time Communism has been put into practice. Instead you've got some sort of hybrid closer to socialism than the United States is that keeps itself working by slowly implementing more and more capitalism. I still can't understand how people can call China "Communist" when the income, living conditions and rights of a rice farmer in BFE greater China is not even comparable to a banker in downtown Beijing.
I think this is just another sign that the year of Linux on the desktop is a dead dream but the year of Linux in the server farm and the year of Linux on the mobile device are already here.
Source Code Here & a Few Examples
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Land of Lisp
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· Score: 2, Informative
Can anyone post links to any Lisp web application?
It can be something different then the HTML & SVG web game, though I would be extra keen to see that run...
High School Principle: Hello, Mr. Timmerman? Mr. Timmerman: Yes, speaking. High School Principle: This is the principle at Luther High School and I am calling about your son Frederick. Mr. Timmerman: Why what has Fred done? High School Principle: Are you aware your son owns and operates an iPhone on school grounds? Mr. Timmerman: Yes but he is not to use it during class hours, it's just for security. I'll have a talk with him when I get home... High School Principle: Are you aware that sometime today an app called 'Skyfire' allowed iPhone users to access Flash video. Mr. Timmerman: Oh. My. God. Where is Fred, is he okay? You confiscated the iPhone, right? Please just hold him in a locked room and I will leave work right now and come pick him up. High School Principle: I'm afraid we don't know where he is, Mr. Timmerman. It was not discovered he had access to Flash materials until he sat down during first period, continually grinning at his phone. The instructor noticed and asked him to put it away and at that point your son snarled and knocked the teacher out of the way exhibiting some super human strength -- possibly hepped up on caffeine pills. Mr. Timmerman: No you don't understand, we're good Christians, my son hasn't been taught any sex education yet, if he's exposed to porn he... High School Principle: Again, I'm so very sorry Mr. Timmerman, according to our counselor's estimates it's now noon and your son escaped at the beginning of the day so he is probably in Tijuana right now so strung out on heroin that he has to mainline it under his eye. If you don't get to him soon, he will certainly be dead before the weekend. Mr. Timmerman: *gasps* High School Principle: Also, there's one more thing. A few of the other kids heard your son extolling Skyfire... some of them own iPhones that are now being confiscated but should another incident occur the parents may have a negligence suit brought against you. Mr. Timmerman: My God. All this... all this because of... FLASH VIDEO! Damn you, Adobe, damn you all to hell! High School Principle: I'm sorry Mr. Timmerman, our thoughts and prayers are with you and your family but especially your son. The poor poor victim of FLASH VIDEO.
It may be that only adults who are extremely engaged by politics (who are more likely to be Republican, especially this year) bother to respond to robocalls.
Poll Phone Operator: Excuse me, sir or ma'am, do you have a free minute to answer a few simple questions anonymously about who you plan to vote for? Phone Respondent One: Well, let's see, what would Jesus do? *Poll Phone Operator hangs up the phone and puts a check mark next to the Republican candidate*
Poll Phone Operator: Excuse me, sir or ma'am, do you have a free minute to answer a few simple questions anonymously about who you plan to vote for? Phone Respondent Two: Sorry, what did you say? It's cloudy and my solar powered phone is cutting in and out. *Poll Phone Operator hangs up the phone and puts a check mark next to the Democratic candidate*
Poll Phone Operator: Excuse me, sir or ma'am, do you have a free minute to answer a few simple questions anonymously about who you plan to vote for? Phone Respondent Three: Yes I do, just let me put NASCAR on mute, I can talk and watch at the same time. *Poll Phone Operator hangs up the phone and puts a check mark next to the Republican candidate*
Poll Phone Operator: Excuse me, sir or ma'am, do you have a free minute to answer a few simple questions anonymously about who you plan to vote for? Phone Respondent Four: I'm so sorry but I just put on a 180 gram vinyl Arcade Fire album and I fear that if I remove the needle prematurely I would... *Poll Phone Operator hangs up the phone and puts a check mark next to the Democratic candidate*
Poll Phone Operator: Excuse me, sir or ma'am, do you have a free minute to answer a few simple questions anonymously about who you plan to vote for? Phone Respondent Five: Fuck you and fuck the establishment you rode in on. *Poll Phone Operator hangs up the phone and puts a check mark next to the Independent candidate*
But studies at the Medical Research Council's laboratory have found that the antibodies produced by the immune system, which recognise and attack invading viruses, actually ride piggyback into the inside of a cell with the invading virus.
Yes but these 'Slim Pickens' antibodies are often regarded as clinically insane by the others that watch in confusion as the suicidal antibody hoots and hollers, waiving its antibody cowboy hat around as the virus blasts them both into the cell.
...though we called it a "printer". Also, are there any pictures of the thing from the front? Not everyone has the ability to view videos. All I can see are some internals pictures on the project page.
Printers don't generally accept feedback. I know you can't view the video but what you see is a typewriter (with the keys moving) typing out the opening to Zork and then the user issuing it a few commands on the same typewriter keys that then come back to life and respond. This level of interaction is unique and I've never seen a "printer" with that sort of functionality. If you're interested in how it displays the output:
computer to Arduino (via USB); Arduino to shift registers; shift registers to MOSFETs; MOSFETs to solenoids; solenoids to keys.
And to acquire input flattened resistors are placed beneath each key and are converted into a serialized device signal to the computer via USB. Not exactly earth shattering work but for the hobbyist that likes to see clever hacks and remembers Zork, it's a grin achieving piece of work.
... for example. "Climate change/science" will restrict your results to hits from scientific Web sites.
Massive failure on that example unless you consider the top three results (newscientist.com, livescience.com and physorg.com) to be more than just news sites. And (of course you new this was coming) the gold standard does a better job with the same search.
Of the first page of Blekko results, I'd argue that only half of them have any business being on there. The other problem is that a lot of things like date ranges or news that this slashtag hopes to fill is already covered by Google's advanced notation. People who need these have probably already learned to use them (for instance the site:slashdot.org term helps me see if a story has already been up on a topic). If you want a bias other than range restrictions, just add it as a search term.
I spent a lot of time playing around with this and nothing I tried really jumped out at me as "useful." Of course I was just fiddling around and not really looking for anything in particular.
And uh, what network was this cell phone connecting to? Because you know there's a series of cell towers and satellites that need to be in place for cell phones to work and I don't recall anyone having the foresight to erect such towers in 1928.
This is such utter drivel. The person in the picture could be scratching his/her head or shielding their ear from a breeze with something (my grandmother does similar things when the wind is strong and she wears a shawl). I don't see a black object, I see two of the fingers around what would be the 'top' of the phone which is uncharacteristically how people hold cell phones. I don't see any shock or expression on the face as they turn it just seems like Clarke is projecting what he wants on the viewer. It could just be a schizophrenic wandering around who is used to shielding their face and mouth when they can't control what they are saying.
It's ridiculous that time traveling is even suggested, let alone continually reinforced by George Clarke.
Every time there is a new Diablo 3 announcement, I scan through to see if they mention the item dropping/picking up system.
Racing strangers to click the item the fastest was probably the worst thing about Diablo 2, and brought in lots of 3rd-party programs/cheats.
Yeah, drops for everything, bosses, normal enemies, chests, etc. all drop items per player. If you see an item drop, it's for you. If you pick up an item and don't want it, when you drop it then everyone else can see it.
Basically what you see is for you and you alone. No one else may see or touch it until you drop it. As World of Warcraft illustrated, they learned from that. They learned a lot from that.
... the company's worth has passed that of EA (Electronic Arts).
Sort of nitpicking but if you click through to the businessweek source article, you'll notice that Zynga Game Network's value is an estimated worth while EA's value is a stock-market value. You should note that the former is estimated by SharesPost Inc. while the latter is determined by the Nasdaq Stock Exchange (in the past year EA has slumped almost 20%).
That's not to say Zynga isn't worth this much, I had a very shocking realization one day as I went to 7 Eleven to pick up some milk. Zynga has partnered with 7 Eleven in selling and marketing FarmVille, Mafia Wars and YoVille items and 'currency.' That's right, like a phone card you can get a prepaid Farmville card at any 7 Eleven (at least in my area) and they were putting free items on Slurpees, Big Gulps, coffee, candy and fast food they sold in the store. So you'd get this little peel off thing giving you a bulletproof vest in Mafia Wars and then it'd tell you how to log in to use it. I bet that alone got a lot more people hooked on Facebook -- just to get to their free item in Zynga's game (and this is why I feel borderline justified to call it a stratagem instead of strategy)!
For sometime now you've been able to buy WoW prepaid cards at 7 Eleven and there's been a handful of Xbox/PS/Wii games behind the counter but when I saw the shelf space and signs devoted to this stuff I knew it was going to dwarf all other forms of gaming very quickly. I know there are plenty of other reasons but when you see something completely outside the realm of where you think you should see a social game (I was going to 7 Eleven to pick up some skim milk), it really hits you right in the face how big this is going to get. Put yourself even spread out across the entire United States with ~10,000 locations of advertising and insertion and you're going to beat anything EA can put out with its billion of dollars. In order to compete with this, EA would have to put a demo disc of four different games targeting different ages for free on the counter of 7 Elevens (like a separate AOL disc for three different consoles and CPU). Despite how relatively inexpensive that would be for them, they aren't going to do that. And that's how Zynga wins out, the illusion that it's 'free' paired with efficient mass distribution of the free concept.
So all I have to do is have this gene ripped out of my DNA and I can think clearly like a proper conservative?
Gene's don't get "ripped out" you would have to hope they are able to develop a gene therapy treatment. Also, I'm no biologist but I think that's only good for gene insertion not deletion and on top of that I believe they have to develop a specific way to do each gene if they can.
But, come on, this discovery could be used for bad by either crazy extreme. What if extremely liberal parents got samples during the first trimester from the embryo/fetus to check if it has the gene and abort it if it doesn't? What if they use gene therapy to have the gene added to their children via a virus vector? What if super crazy liberals created a virus that did this and tried to create a cold or flu epidemic that also left you a little less conservative?
I'm a moderate liberal in my views but I'm not ignorant to just how crazy either side can get. I think this gene research is interesting and I hope that ethical guidelines and standards are established so that in the future when genes related to Alzheimer's and schizophrenia are found, they can be classified as "okay" to treat while genes related to things like political affiliation or personality are protected and left intact.
... Halo, Modern Warfare 2 are the worst of the lot. The whole reason for this article is Medal of Honor...
I can't speak for Halo but I'm pretty sure MW2 had difficulty settings and I know Medal of Honor has difficulty settings because I played that piece of shit game last night. Easy and Normal maybe but I think that Difficult would take more than a couple tries on most levels.
You're just mad because it doesn't mean anything to beat a game anymore. Sure, on XBox you can get gamer points or achievements for beating it on the hardest setting but it bothers you that others can experience the same rewarding progress dopamine that you get. Well, that's never going to change. By the very nature of how that is rewarding to you is the fact that you're a select few of maybe ~10% of the population that can beat the game.
So Craptivision can either shutout some of their content to the vast majority of players or introduce difficulty settings so the toddler across the street can mash the controller in order to beat the game in easy mode. That drives profits and the only thing they see as a sacrifice is the rare super gamer that feels a bit miffed he or she just forked over $60 in order to autopilot through a game.
You know I still played through all the levels of difficulty in Goldeneye on the N64 and didn't feel cheated. When I ran that train level on 00-Agent difficulty night after night after night I can still think back to those rare times when I would laser the engineer room hatch open with my watch and then drop down with Natalya only to have to run down the length of the train with people shooting at our backs. One bullet in either of our backs and we were basically dead. That goddamn bitch always died. Always. I swear to Christ when I eventually passed that level it was by sheer bug alone that she did not die. So after that cruel Sisyphean task that my friend and I worked together strategizing and getting through it, I was rewarded and will never forget some of those levels.
Games are getting easier but I ask you what does it matter? You will have your difficulty settings (usually) so play only on the hardest setting and enjoy your Contra III style impossibilities. The era of earning progress through a game has largely come to pass unless you look at the end game material of WoW at any one moment. Final Fantasy XIII was a travesty in this respect. And profit dictates it will stay that way.
I didn't think the videos were that terrible but maybe it's because I've had to sit through corporate sexual harassment videos that made my sides split.
Anyway, what do you expect? Our elected officials cut NASA's budget and then you expect them to come out with award winning promotional materials? I'm glad marketing and publicity are the first things to get cut and not, you know, the actual James Webb Space Telescope.
Personally, if I was NASA, I would have just commissioned Apple Daily to make the videos for me. I actually started preferring their news style to Fox News and CNN despite my inability to understand Chinese. I don't know if Adult Swim commissions them or if they're just rebranding Next Media's productions but they sure are hilarious. I'm probably not your average consumer but seeing the first of those videos on Adult Swim just made me want to see more. NASA should have just invited their reporters out with no translators and let them make the promotional videos as a poignant stunt to remind the public how little taxpayer funding they're getting these days. Here's to hoping private industry picks up the slack otherwise we're never getting off this rock.
With Android, Java skills are everything and... um... we got more people capable of doing Websphere/JBoss stuff? What a victory would that be.
So because there haven't been totally unrelated very large and sometimes hated Objective-C projects, iOS is better than Android? I find it humorous how quickly this has been sidetracked to a religious language flamewar instead of looking at the platforms and developer support. Yeah, it's in Java. Yeah, Java can be used badly. Just like every other language. Where's your evidence that Android uses it poorly? Or do you have to say "Hitler drank Java and Java is run on Android. Do you want to use Hitler's mobile operating system?"
Java skills aren't everything with Android. They're important and you will need to know a touch of Java. You also need to know XML and sometimes have a choice of how you store resources like Strings between Java and XML. Also, there is another way to construct your apps in Android.
Slashdot Mirror
As clear as the rigged elections keeping the Mennonites out of representation in Congress, this Google/Government link is one very deep rabbit hole. In the 80s and 90s, a series of books and movies gave the Twinkie empire a bad wrap. Hostess, Lil' Debbie and a number of other producers put together a syndicate that now only has meetings behind closed doors once a year in a hotel in Germany. The top people all attend.
... but these were just a means to an end. Nothing bad can be said of Twinkies in e-mail nor could you text something bad about Twinkies.
... with a Twinkie obstructing my throat.
Sure, some less powerful people like Barack Obama and various world leaders attend but they're really just an audience for what is decided. Back when "Google" was getting its start, Larry and Sergey were actually installed by the Twinkie Syndicate to archive and modify all movies and books online to reflect Twinkies as a healthy, natural alternative to apples and other competing products. In doing so they restored order and the Twinkies once again began to flow.
This action, of course, was backed by the Corn Growers Association and the European based "Society for a Stupider, Fatter America" -- the same people responsible for the advent of Christianity in the Americas as well as cream.
Sure there were some unexpected side effects like GMail and Android
Don't be surprised if you hear news reports of my body found floating in the Potomac
yeah zuckerberg. suck it up. you rode on the web culture getting to where you are. you cannot just go protectionist on us and become a control freak. share data, as others share data with you.
Google told me to complain to Facebook so I did. Then all my friends asked me why I was posting images of child porn on my Facebook wall. So I went back to Google and complained about that and now a Google van slowly circles my house twenty four hours everyday. I went on Google maps to look at my house but there's just an image of a smoldering crater and a Jolly Roger. I logged back on to Facebook and Zuckerberg had killed my farmer and was raping my livestock as the fields burned.
I'm scared. I don't think I'll get in the middle of this kinda stuff next time. You can have all my data locked up, I just want my Farmville to be okay! Why, piggy, why!? I loveded you, I loveded you piggy!
You can find the actual Websense Threat Report in ASP-driven HTML here. I mention ASP because the video doesn't seem to be functioning correctly in my non-IE browser.
... this is the smallest gesture of investigative reporting one could possibly do.
I thought I would find this in the NetworkWorld article. Boy was I mistaken. As I switch between the two pages of the article, I am presented with "Whitepaper" links to reports that then navigate me to a 'page1234' at accelacomm.com where it asks for all my personal information. In the middle of the article (with no indication this has nothing to do with the article) is a link to another NetworkWorld article titled 'Royal pain: British Royal Navy site hacked.' Shouldn't that go in the 'Related Content' section that is also in the article with links to how I can 'bail out my budget'? Oh look, they've hyperlinked phrases in the article that just direct me to another NetworkWorld article and at the end I get directed to their security section. Might they take a chance and link to the source of the information that they are considering an authority on SEO poisoning? So you know, I can judge for myself and further inspect the report? I mean, I'm not asking them to drive across town to get a quote from the mayor
Sorry to rant for so long but it amuses me how a news article about SEO poisoning is obviously taking some questionable routes to up their own stats -- maybe even manipulate Google page ranks? Oh but that's just good old wholesome Search Engine Optimization -- it's those pesky cybercrooks that phish for my home address, not the "esteemed" online news sources we should criticize that ask me to enter it into accelacomm.com when I'm trying to read the news (and I'm not accusing accelacomm of being a scam, just annoyed at the principle).
A Google van was dispatched to get street view data of the Moon.
... but it's still in Beta.
*ominous voice* Phase II has started ahead of schedule
Us europeans will stop pretending Spotify is available everywhere when all the americans realize that those of us over here can't download TV shows through the iTunes store and that Hulu blocks access as well (well, there are always US iTunes accounts and proxies but it's a serious PITA).
This gets modded informative? Some guy bitching offtopic that he can't get his American TV shows when he lives in Europe? On a thread about LimeWire?
What, do I have access to all of Great Britain's television shows? Do I have access to all the programming in Spain or Sweden? Do you think, for some reason, that because we're Americans we have everything over here? Heads up, we're supposed to be the idiots!
Why is it when distribution contracts prevent you from enjoying something over Hulu, you only think about it in one direction? You think I enjoy that I can't find subtitled Anime on Hulu? Or the latest offerings of British comedy? A bit self centered for you to only consider that you're not being subjected to American Television, wouldn't you say?
And then, when I point out that Spotify is only in parts of Europe, somehow you're justified in accusing all Americans as unable to 'realize that those of us over here can't download TV shows through the iTunes store.' Oh well, let me assure you that I know your situation all too well. And I'm pretty much at the mercy of Adult Swim to bring me The Mighty Boosh and FLCL -- and I'm lucky enough to know of their existence!
You want to switch? You know what's popular over here is twice as shitty as anything that Europe could possibly produce. You want The Jersey Shore over there? Hmmm? You want to trade some television shows? I'd really really like to do that.
I'm not stupid enough to say "us Americans will" like you seemed to be able to do with all of Europe but trust me, I suffer too from these distribution deals and lack thereof. Normally I just play the part of the ignorant drunk pompous American prick but it's hard to do when posts like yours are labeled "informative."
On behalf of America, on behalf of our lawyers, on behalf of your inability to access our TV shows, I apologize. Do you really think that every American is scheming to keep our precious reality TV from your eyes? Or that none of us realize what specifically is going on? I significant portion of the population understands distribution of copyrighted material with the advent of the internet. We're not all morons over here.
Why would anyone use that virus-ridden "piece of eight" when you can listen to almost any piece of music you like, legally, on Spotify? (Legal film equivalents are being worked on too).
Because you don't live in the very small section of the world where Spotify is allowed? Also, LimeWire is GPL where as Spotify is proprietary (what are they storing about you?).
...
But yes, I avoid LimeWire like the plague after several spyware debacles and am kind of curious why, if LimeWire's servers are down, you would use it over Gnutella when the networks it is connecting to are (I assume) all of Gnutella's servers?
Hell, I would assume FrostWire is still a viable and better choice
Lamebook has a funny catchy name that they feel has yet to go viral. Since they just host ads, all they need you to do is visit their site. Or, better yet, Google and then visit their site (like icing on the cake). Any money they spend on this frivolous lawsuit will be more than made up by the resultant ad views and revenue from thousands visiting their site from this news.
Don't do it. Don't reinforce this behavior. Let them gamble and let them lose. They're making a mockery of our justice system by using it as an advertising mechanism. The system already is a mockery enough of itself, don't perpetuate this behavior.
Hell, it might even be in Facebook's interest to work with parasites in this respect. Anything that needs Facebook is interested in augmenting Facebook and keeping the beast alive and healthy.
In before Americans spinning this as somehow a bad thing, bla bla communism, bla bla Obama health plan.
I'm the submitter. I'm American. The submission wasn't edited at all and I don't think I put a negative spin on it.
I even omitted some things like China Mobile being a state-controlled and state-owned company. But you can find that int he linked Wikipedia article. The company has been terrible with it's move to 3G. And, as a telecommunications company with 570 million customers, it's probably done a lot of harm as well as a lot of good. The most xenophobic statement you'll get from me is that it's a Chinese company so there's probably a lot of corruption at all levels. And that's not to say that there isn't corruption in the lobbyists of the American equivalent but I'm guessing the customers have even less rights when it comes to dealing with a state-controlled massive corporation.
So there's that but, you know, regardless of whether or not they're a member of the Linux Foundation, that's going to persist. If the Linux Foundation refused their entry (and, come on, Google and HP are in there so ethics like privacy aren't huge concern) I doubt China Mobile would break down and clean up just so they could get in. But now that they're in, maybe they can offer better service to customers? They're definitely paying dues to the Linux Foundation so unless you see that as 'blood money' it's a really good thing. It's good for us, it's good for the Linux community, it's good for people who want cheaper mobile phones and it's good for the people of China.
Getting the evilest of the evil to use Linux is a net positive for everyone involved. The only people who lose are the companies that make money off of everyone by selling a cash cow operating system like Windows hammered down into some sort of Frankenstein mobile operating system.
bla bla communism
Ha. I wish. If China were truly Communist without social classes, the bulk of the people would be treated a whole lot better and the system would either collapse or work properly for the first time Communism has been put into practice. Instead you've got some sort of hybrid closer to socialism than the United States is that keeps itself working by slowly implementing more and more capitalism. I still can't understand how people can call China "Communist" when the income, living conditions and rights of a rice farmer in BFE greater China is not even comparable to a banker in downtown Beijing.
I think this is just another sign that the year of Linux on the desktop is a dead dream but the year of Linux in the server farm and the year of Linux on the mobile device are already here.
Can anyone post links to any Lisp web application? It can be something different then the HTML & SVG web game, though I would be extra keen to see that run...
Can't find it hosted but found the code to the book at the homepage that includes both the svg.lisp and webserver.lisp (also check out CL-HTTP). As to your more generic question, I think this year's lisp game expo competition had a few good Lisp web games.
Can I buy it as an elecrtonic copy, e.g. Kindle?
I saw electronic copies available on O'Reilly's site. Not exactly a huge cost benefit but that seems to be the norm.
If you're a C programmer, you might be surprised to know that you're a Cro-Magnon fighting the COBOL dinosaur.
From the "random" quote of the day at the bottom right of the page:
COBOL is for morons. -- E.W. Dijkstra
(incidentally, around the same time as why's (poignant) guide to ruby, probably the most famous and epic programming language comic book)
Hey, take it easy there, this is a book review meant for humans (not some code for an interpreter)!
Oh great, now you've got me doing it too. Do you have any idea how long it took for this to go away the last time I coded Lisp?
*obsessively tallies and double checks to make sure he closed all his parentheses before hitting submit*
High School Principle: Hello, Mr. Timmerman? ... ... ... some of them own iPhones that are now being confiscated but should another incident occur the parents may have a negligence suit brought against you. ... all this because of ... FLASH VIDEO! Damn you, Adobe, damn you all to hell!
Mr. Timmerman: Yes, speaking.
High School Principle: This is the principle at Luther High School and I am calling about your son Frederick.
Mr. Timmerman: Why what has Fred done?
High School Principle: Are you aware your son owns and operates an iPhone on school grounds?
Mr. Timmerman: Yes but he is not to use it during class hours, it's just for security. I'll have a talk with him when I get home
High School Principle: Are you aware that sometime today an app called 'Skyfire' allowed iPhone users to access Flash video.
Mr. Timmerman: Oh. My. God. Where is Fred, is he okay? You confiscated the iPhone, right? Please just hold him in a locked room and I will leave work right now and come pick him up.
High School Principle: I'm afraid we don't know where he is, Mr. Timmerman. It was not discovered he had access to Flash materials until he sat down during first period, continually grinning at his phone. The instructor noticed and asked him to put it away and at that point your son snarled and knocked the teacher out of the way exhibiting some super human strength -- possibly hepped up on caffeine pills.
Mr. Timmerman: No you don't understand, we're good Christians, my son hasn't been taught any sex education yet, if he's exposed to porn he
High School Principle: Again, I'm so very sorry Mr. Timmerman, according to our counselor's estimates it's now noon and your son escaped at the beginning of the day so he is probably in Tijuana right now so strung out on heroin that he has to mainline it under his eye. If you don't get to him soon, he will certainly be dead before the weekend.
Mr. Timmerman: *gasps*
High School Principle: Also, there's one more thing. A few of the other kids heard your son extolling Skyfire
Mr. Timmerman: My God. All this
High School Principle: I'm sorry Mr. Timmerman, our thoughts and prayers are with you and your family but especially your son. The poor poor victim of FLASH VIDEO.
Remember the days when being a Linux user was like being part of a select priesthood ...
Oh, it still is like that in some respects.
It may be that only adults who are extremely engaged by politics (who are more likely to be Republican, especially this year) bother to respond to robocalls.
Poll Phone Operator: Excuse me, sir or ma'am, do you have a free minute to answer a few simple questions anonymously about who you plan to vote for?
...
Phone Respondent One: Well, let's see, what would Jesus do?
*Poll Phone Operator hangs up the phone and puts a check mark next to the Republican candidate*
Poll Phone Operator: Excuse me, sir or ma'am, do you have a free minute to answer a few simple questions anonymously about who you plan to vote for?
Phone Respondent Two: Sorry, what did you say? It's cloudy and my solar powered phone is cutting in and out.
*Poll Phone Operator hangs up the phone and puts a check mark next to the Democratic candidate*
Poll Phone Operator: Excuse me, sir or ma'am, do you have a free minute to answer a few simple questions anonymously about who you plan to vote for?
Phone Respondent Three: Yes I do, just let me put NASCAR on mute, I can talk and watch at the same time.
*Poll Phone Operator hangs up the phone and puts a check mark next to the Republican candidate*
Poll Phone Operator: Excuse me, sir or ma'am, do you have a free minute to answer a few simple questions anonymously about who you plan to vote for?
Phone Respondent Four: I'm so sorry but I just put on a 180 gram vinyl Arcade Fire album and I fear that if I remove the needle prematurely I would
*Poll Phone Operator hangs up the phone and puts a check mark next to the Democratic candidate*
Poll Phone Operator: Excuse me, sir or ma'am, do you have a free minute to answer a few simple questions anonymously about who you plan to vote for?
Phone Respondent Five: Fuck you and fuck the establishment you rode in on.
*Poll Phone Operator hangs up the phone and puts a check mark next to the Independent candidate*
But studies at the Medical Research Council's laboratory have found that the antibodies produced by the immune system, which recognise and attack invading viruses, actually ride piggyback into the inside of a cell with the invading virus.
Yes but these 'Slim Pickens' antibodies are often regarded as clinically insane by the others that watch in confusion as the suicidal antibody hoots and hollers, waiving its antibody cowboy hat around as the virus blasts them both into the cell.
...though we called it a "printer". Also, are there any pictures of the thing from the front? Not everyone has the ability to view videos. All I can see are some internals pictures on the project page.
Printers don't generally accept feedback. I know you can't view the video but what you see is a typewriter (with the keys moving) typing out the opening to Zork and then the user issuing it a few commands on the same typewriter keys that then come back to life and respond. This level of interaction is unique and I've never seen a "printer" with that sort of functionality. If you're interested in how it displays the output:
computer to Arduino (via USB); Arduino to shift registers; shift registers to MOSFETs; MOSFETs to solenoids; solenoids to keys.
And to acquire input flattened resistors are placed beneath each key and are converted into a serialized device signal to the computer via USB. Not exactly earth shattering work but for the hobbyist that likes to see clever hacks and remembers Zork, it's a grin achieving piece of work.
Massive failure on that example unless you consider the top three results (newscientist.com, livescience.com and physorg.com) to be more than just news sites. And (of course you new this was coming) the gold standard does a better job with the same search.
Of the first page of Blekko results, I'd argue that only half of them have any business being on there. The other problem is that a lot of things like date ranges or news that this slashtag hopes to fill is already covered by Google's advanced notation. People who need these have probably already learned to use them (for instance the site:slashdot.org term helps me see if a story has already been up on a topic). If you want a bias other than range restrictions, just add it as a search term.
I spent a lot of time playing around with this and nothing I tried really jumped out at me as "useful." Of course I was just fiddling around and not really looking for anything in particular.
And uh, what network was this cell phone connecting to? Because you know there's a series of cell towers and satellites that need to be in place for cell phones to work and I don't recall anyone having the foresight to erect such towers in 1928.
This is such utter drivel. The person in the picture could be scratching his/her head or shielding their ear from a breeze with something (my grandmother does similar things when the wind is strong and she wears a shawl). I don't see a black object, I see two of the fingers around what would be the 'top' of the phone which is uncharacteristically how people hold cell phones. I don't see any shock or expression on the face as they turn it just seems like Clarke is projecting what he wants on the viewer. It could just be a schizophrenic wandering around who is used to shielding their face and mouth when they can't control what they are saying.
It's ridiculous that time traveling is even suggested, let alone continually reinforced by George Clarke.
Every time there is a new Diablo 3 announcement, I scan through to see if they mention the item dropping/picking up system. Racing strangers to click the item the fastest was probably the worst thing about Diablo 2, and brought in lots of 3rd-party programs/cheats.
Then perhaps you would find this article "Blizzard Explains Diablo III's New Loot System" enlightening:
Yeah, drops for everything, bosses, normal enemies, chests, etc. all drop items per player. If you see an item drop, it's for you. If you pick up an item and don't want it, when you drop it then everyone else can see it.
Basically what you see is for you and you alone. No one else may see or touch it until you drop it. As World of Warcraft illustrated, they learned from that. They learned a lot from that.
Sort of nitpicking but if you click through to the businessweek source article, you'll notice that Zynga Game Network's value is an estimated worth while EA's value is a stock-market value. You should note that the former is estimated by SharesPost Inc. while the latter is determined by the Nasdaq Stock Exchange (in the past year EA has slumped almost 20%).
That's not to say Zynga isn't worth this much, I had a very shocking realization one day as I went to 7 Eleven to pick up some milk. Zynga has partnered with 7 Eleven in selling and marketing FarmVille, Mafia Wars and YoVille items and 'currency.' That's right, like a phone card you can get a prepaid Farmville card at any 7 Eleven (at least in my area) and they were putting free items on Slurpees, Big Gulps, coffee, candy and fast food they sold in the store. So you'd get this little peel off thing giving you a bulletproof vest in Mafia Wars and then it'd tell you how to log in to use it. I bet that alone got a lot more people hooked on Facebook -- just to get to their free item in Zynga's game (and this is why I feel borderline justified to call it a stratagem instead of strategy)!
For sometime now you've been able to buy WoW prepaid cards at 7 Eleven and there's been a handful of Xbox/PS/Wii games behind the counter but when I saw the shelf space and signs devoted to this stuff I knew it was going to dwarf all other forms of gaming very quickly. I know there are plenty of other reasons but when you see something completely outside the realm of where you think you should see a social game (I was going to 7 Eleven to pick up some skim milk), it really hits you right in the face how big this is going to get. Put yourself even spread out across the entire United States with ~10,000 locations of advertising and insertion and you're going to beat anything EA can put out with its billion of dollars. In order to compete with this, EA would have to put a demo disc of four different games targeting different ages for free on the counter of 7 Elevens (like a separate AOL disc for three different consoles and CPU). Despite how relatively inexpensive that would be for them, they aren't going to do that. And that's how Zynga wins out, the illusion that it's 'free' paired with efficient mass distribution of the free concept.
So all I have to do is have this gene ripped out of my DNA and I can think clearly like a proper conservative?
Gene's don't get "ripped out" you would have to hope they are able to develop a gene therapy treatment. Also, I'm no biologist but I think that's only good for gene insertion not deletion and on top of that I believe they have to develop a specific way to do each gene if they can.
But, come on, this discovery could be used for bad by either crazy extreme. What if extremely liberal parents got samples during the first trimester from the embryo/fetus to check if it has the gene and abort it if it doesn't? What if they use gene therapy to have the gene added to their children via a virus vector? What if super crazy liberals created a virus that did this and tried to create a cold or flu epidemic that also left you a little less conservative?
I'm a moderate liberal in my views but I'm not ignorant to just how crazy either side can get. I think this gene research is interesting and I hope that ethical guidelines and standards are established so that in the future when genes related to Alzheimer's and schizophrenia are found, they can be classified as "okay" to treat while genes related to things like political affiliation or personality are protected and left intact.
... Halo, Modern Warfare 2 are the worst of the lot. The whole reason for this article is Medal of Honor ...
I can't speak for Halo but I'm pretty sure MW2 had difficulty settings and I know Medal of Honor has difficulty settings because I played that piece of shit game last night. Easy and Normal maybe but I think that Difficult would take more than a couple tries on most levels.
You're just mad because it doesn't mean anything to beat a game anymore. Sure, on XBox you can get gamer points or achievements for beating it on the hardest setting but it bothers you that others can experience the same rewarding progress dopamine that you get. Well, that's never going to change. By the very nature of how that is rewarding to you is the fact that you're a select few of maybe ~10% of the population that can beat the game.
So Craptivision can either shutout some of their content to the vast majority of players or introduce difficulty settings so the toddler across the street can mash the controller in order to beat the game in easy mode. That drives profits and the only thing they see as a sacrifice is the rare super gamer that feels a bit miffed he or she just forked over $60 in order to autopilot through a game.
You know I still played through all the levels of difficulty in Goldeneye on the N64 and didn't feel cheated. When I ran that train level on 00-Agent difficulty night after night after night I can still think back to those rare times when I would laser the engineer room hatch open with my watch and then drop down with Natalya only to have to run down the length of the train with people shooting at our backs. One bullet in either of our backs and we were basically dead. That goddamn bitch always died. Always. I swear to Christ when I eventually passed that level it was by sheer bug alone that she did not die. So after that cruel Sisyphean task that my friend and I worked together strategizing and getting through it, I was rewarded and will never forget some of those levels.
Games are getting easier but I ask you what does it matter? You will have your difficulty settings (usually) so play only on the hardest setting and enjoy your Contra III style impossibilities. The era of earning progress through a game has largely come to pass unless you look at the end game material of WoW at any one moment. Final Fantasy XIII was a travesty in this respect. And profit dictates it will stay that way.
I didn't think the videos were that terrible but maybe it's because I've had to sit through corporate sexual harassment videos that made my sides split.
Anyway, what do you expect? Our elected officials cut NASA's budget and then you expect them to come out with award winning promotional materials? I'm glad marketing and publicity are the first things to get cut and not, you know, the actual James Webb Space Telescope.
Personally, if I was NASA, I would have just commissioned Apple Daily to make the videos for me. I actually started preferring their news style to Fox News and CNN despite my inability to understand Chinese. I don't know if Adult Swim commissions them or if they're just rebranding Next Media's productions but they sure are hilarious. I'm probably not your average consumer but seeing the first of those videos on Adult Swim just made me want to see more. NASA should have just invited their reporters out with no translators and let them make the promotional videos as a poignant stunt to remind the public how little taxpayer funding they're getting these days. Here's to hoping private industry picks up the slack otherwise we're never getting off this rock.
With Android, Java skills are everything and... um... we got more people capable of doing Websphere/JBoss stuff? What a victory would that be.
So because there haven't been totally unrelated very large and sometimes hated Objective-C projects, iOS is better than Android? I find it humorous how quickly this has been sidetracked to a religious language flamewar instead of looking at the platforms and developer support. Yeah, it's in Java. Yeah, Java can be used badly. Just like every other language. Where's your evidence that Android uses it poorly? Or do you have to say "Hitler drank Java and Java is run on Android. Do you want to use Hitler's mobile operating system?"
Java skills aren't everything with Android. They're important and you will need to know a touch of Java. You also need to know XML and sometimes have a choice of how you store resources like Strings between Java and XML. Also, there is another way to construct your apps in Android.