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User: Draek

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Comments · 2,549

  1. Re:H.264 is dirt cheap. H.264 is everywhere. on Google To Drop Support For H.264 In Chrome · · Score: 1

    The GPL does not stop people from optionally charging for software, but it does prevent making the fee mandatory for redistribution to third parties. Put it simply, you can't prevent me from giving GPL'd software away.

  2. Re:What grounds? on Assange Could Face Execution Or Guantanamo Bay · · Score: 1

    The grand parent seems to imply that you can go to Guantanamo on the whim of some politician.

    No, it didn't, that's just your own strawman. His use of the word "we" clearly meant the US government as a whole, and "wasn't liked by the US government" is the simplest possible explanation for all the cases that had no business being there in the first place so his post is factual.

  3. Re:What grounds? on Assange Could Face Execution Or Guantanamo Bay · · Score: 1

    I doubt he knew about the corruption within before he joined, otherwise he would've, you know, leaked it while still a civilian to avoid said misfortune.

  4. Re:attorneys on Assange Could Face Execution Or Guantanamo Bay · · Score: 1

    And if those business didn't like having the mafia protecting them, they wouldn't be giving them money.

    Most of the world does not want you there, but the stuff your government threatens them with is a bit more real than the Communist boogeyman they use in front of their media, and it doesn't come from the alleged "enemy".

  5. Re:YES!!! on Google To Drop Support For H.264 In Chrome · · Score: 1

    And how do you maintain in your mind a cogent theory that is so completely contradicted by a simple observation of the outside world?

    Perhaps because they look further than their own high-income, hipster-filled LA suburb and their own tecnophile sensitivities.

    Don't delude yourself, the WebM vs h.264 is at best a remake of the BluRay vs HD-DVD wars of a few years ago, and at worst a remake of JPEG2000 vs Microsoft's whatever-its-name. They're only fighting to see who will take over Flash if it ever dies, and that's a pretty big if to start with.

  6. Re:Pretty soon... on Google To Drop Support For H.264 In Chrome · · Score: 1

    Look at it this way: Flash is DVDs and Google is trying to set WebM up to be the BluRay to h.264's HD-DVD. It doesn't matter which one is more popular right *now*, only which one ends up succeeding it in case Flash ever bites the dust.

    And has anybody seen whether or not WebM violates any of MPEG-LA's patents?

    You can't prove a given software *doesn't* infringe on a given patent pool, not one as large as MPEG LA's, but given their silence lawsuit-wise so far it'll probably come down to the same end as Microsoft's Linux allegations of a while back: absolutely fucking nothing.

  7. Re:H.264 is dirt cheap. H.264 is everywhere. on Google To Drop Support For H.264 In Chrome · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Thanks for proving the GP's point but, just so you know, "cheap" isn't "free" and it most certainly isn't "Free".

    But hey, if you like paying through your nose for watching and uploading videos just so you can feel "popular" go right ahead, I'm sure MPEG LA will be happy to sell you a license. Or prosecute you for breaking the law.

  8. Re:Taken apart by a scientist on Why Published Research Findings Are Often False · · Score: 1

    "(With reference to a correspondent) The young specialist in English Lit ... lectured me severely on the fact that in every century people have thought they understood the Universe at last, and in every century they were proved to be wrong. It follows that the one thing we can say about our modern 'knowledge' is that it is wrong. ... My answer to him was, '... when people thought the Earth was flat, they were wrong. When people thought the Earth was spherical they were wrong. But if you think that thinking the Earth is spherical is just as wrong as thinking the Earth is flat, then your view is wronger than both of them put together.'"

    -- Isaac Asimov

  9. Re:as long as people still buy the games on Ubisoft's Draconian DRM Patched? · · Score: 1

    They did an experiment years ago, and released their games without any DRM whatsoever for a while, Prince of Persia 2008 being the flagship of it, which is where they likely got their numbers from. Problem? I always got the feeling the experiment was heavily boycotted internally, when the CEO announced the experiment he basically said "go ahead, you dirty pirates, go and pirate it, we know you will", the game itself received almost no publicity to the point even finding it in stores was difficult, and then to top it off they made a sort-of epilogue DLC, but only released it for consoles leaving PC players in the dust.

    Really, even leaving "piracy" aside, the game had plenty of reasons not to sell well, but go tell that to the dickish CEO.

  10. Re:Internet connection shouldn't be required on Ubisoft's Draconian DRM Patched? · · Score: 1

    Try Impulse then. It still has DRM, but whatever its limitations I've yet to see them: I can easily login to the same account on two different computers at the same time, start up the same game on both then set up a match between them with *or* without internet connection throughout the whole ordeal. You do, however, need to be logged in to download updates, and I haven't tried downloading the same one simultaneously on both computers yet.

    Only problem is they're a lot less picky than Steam when it comes to 3rd party DRM, so you can get some nasty surprises sometimes if you only look at the screenshots and price before buying, but most of the stuff in there is clean.

  11. Re:Don't give Ubisoft your money. on Ubisoft's Draconian DRM Patched? · · Score: 1

    My favorite is, "if they're going to treat me like a criminal then I'll act like one."

    Here's hoping you apply the same policy towards the TSA ;)

  12. Re:Ubisofts DRM on Ubisoft's Draconian DRM Patched? · · Score: 1

    Ahh, yes, GoG. Over a year ago, there was this issue with Codemasters and their brand licensing for their TOCA series, that ended up in the game being made unavailable at all DD stores. If you had bought it from Steam absolutely nothing changed, you'd still be able to download and play your copy even today. If you bought it from GoG however, all you got was a nice email informing you they'd be removing it from the store at a certain date, and that after that you'd be on your own.

    Suffice to say, I haven't been too eager to shop there since.

  13. Re:Copyright Rocks on Pirate Party Founder Steps Down After 5 Years · · Score: 1, Interesting

    As far as copyrighted works are concerned, history shows people are quite content with working for free on their own already.

    Well, not *everyone*, but losing Lady GaGa and Justin Bieber ain't no big loss anyways, all the good music is indie in any case.

  14. Re:Skillz. on PC Gamers Crush Console Brethren · · Score: 2

    Actually, it's the other way around. Consoles are expensive systems, you only buy one if you're certain you'll spend a significant amount of time with it as otherwise it'd be an useless waste; meanwhile, many PC gamers are simply professionals who already own computers as part of their jobs, and decide to spend $60-80 on a relatively modern-ish GPU in order to play BluRay movies more smoothly on their PCs as well as play the odd game or two.

    That's why nearly all driving and flight sims, the most realistic FPS and strategy games are all PC exclusives and why none of them require the high-end GPUs commonly owned by console-gamers-turned-PC, because their core market is composed of grown adults and they, by and large, aren't ready to spend $400 on a device built solely to play videogames.

    Though that probably doesn't apply to TFA though, given that Bad Company isn't *quite* to the level of Operation: Flashpoint in terms of realism.

  15. Re:Full spectrum? In my PC? on PC Gamers Crush Console Brethren · · Score: 1

    Rayman Rabbids and the rest of the Rayman series cover, respectively, the Mario Party and Mario Galaxy niches. I've never played Tetris Party, but if it's a simple multiplayer version of Tetris there's hundreds of freeware titles doing it, even some Free Software ones. SSB however, I've never heard of such a thing, I'd be interested in it too, in case somebody is aware of one.

  16. Re:Python vs. BASIC on Why Teach Programming With BASIC? · · Score: 1

    Sorry, if I need a special editor to write code in a language, that's the fault of the language.

    Sorry, if I can't code in my favorite language on a given editor, that's the fault of the editor.

    I hear this all the time from people defending meaningful whitespace in Python like it's some kind of revolutionary idea.

    It isn't, it's merely a stylistic choice of the language, like using curly brackets or 'begin ... end' keywords.

    In reality, it causes many more problems than the one it unnecessarily solves. This has been very well established, though you seem to be having trouble seeing this through your zealotry.

    Wrong, any perceived "problem" with the language occurs only when using poorly-designed editors, most of the world has no such problems which is why it's still such a popular language.

    Pretending that the problems don't exist or that the problems are caused by something external is irrational.

    That's what I've been telling you about your choice of editor.

    My opinion is based on reason and evidence. The fact that you refuse to acknowledge that the problems I've listed exist despite the overwhelming evidence suggests that you've based your opinions on nothing but your subjective impression of the language.

    It'd seem to me it's you who holds an irrational zeal against Python, apparently for bringing to light the shortcomings of your own tools.

    To move this discussion back on topic, we're talking about teaching programming to children. The whitespace issue will likely lead to mistakes difficult to find as students enter examples and problems from print sources (textbooks, handouts, etc.) where correct indentation may be non-obvious especially if they're struggling with the concept of blocks. They are also likely to inadvertently mix tabs and spaces -- for programmers, the distinction is obvious, not so for beginners. Consequently, it becomes an easy rule for students to accidentally ignore, leading to unnecessary problems.

    Learning how to properly indentate your code is as vital as learning how to properly comment it, as such it's a lesson best taught early.

    Aside from that, having end of blocks clearly marked can make instruction easier as children can think of an end of block mark as a kind of instruction. (e.g. "When the interpreter sees 'next i' it jumps back to the top of the loop")

    Python does have the end of blocks clearly marked, by one level less of indentation. That, in turn, helps easily differentiate where each instruction belongs. Though that's an advantage not inherent to Python but rather to proper indentation which, as I said before, should be mandatory regardless of language.

    But you don't care about that. It seems your devotion to python has blinded you to it's drawbacks. I suppose you think it's perfect for all applications, including as a pedagogical aid, with no deficiencies at all.

    No, it's just that fortunately, I'm not blinded by hatred against it and believe it to be harmful in any and all circumstances, and certainly not for a reason as petty as whitespace awareness.

    As far as learning goes, the language I'd recommend varies depending on the context, with Software Engineers starting with Pascal then moving on to Ada, Computer Scientists learning Python followed by Haskell, and school-age children with either Python or Lua and then, if they're willing, C. Python is certainly not the "be all, end all" of programming languages, but neither is it the anti-christ as you treat it.

  17. Re:Python vs. BASIC on Why Teach Programming With BASIC? · · Score: 1

    You have quite the imagination.

    Thanks, though the statement you quoted is hardly an example of it.

    What? If it's Pythons "whitespace-aware design" that "may cause problem" I'd say that the blame lies squarely with Python.

    No, the problem lies squarely within poorly-designed editors, that much ought to be obvious. Are you, by any chance, the developer behind one such project? if so, I'd say fixing your own software would be far more productive than trying to hinder the adoption of a language as good and popular as Python.

  18. Re:Python vs. BASIC on Why Teach Programming With BASIC? · · Score: 1

    I thought we had established that editors shouldn't fuck up with tabs and spaces in the '70s. Guess we didn't.

    I do acknowledge that its whitespace-aware design may cause problem with some editors. What I don't acknowledge, however, is the idea that the blame for that problem lies on Python.

  19. Re:One example of WikiLeaks damage on Why WikiLeaks Is Unlike the Pentagon Papers · · Score: 1

    Thanks to Wikileaks I've come to learn that hypocrisy is to diplomacy what bribery is to lobbying: the exact same thing but done by Our Dear Leaders and as such, totally OK.

  20. Re:Hypocrites on Why WikiLeaks Is Unlike the Pentagon Papers · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Telling its citizens what they may or may not read if they want to keep their jobs is one of the sure signs of a totalitarian state. Just saying.

  21. Re:Computer Science = Algorithm Development on Do High Schools Know What 'Computer Science' Is? · · Score: 1

    Learning algorithms is a good thing but very incomplete in itself when you're actually trying to build software that actually accomplishes something useful in the real world.

    Exactly. Which is why they invented this nifty little career called "Software Engineering" that teaches just that. Sadly, many US universities teach it under the name of Computer Science, and others even try to mix the two, managing to teach neither all too well.

    In fact, it's the funny thing about your situation: chances are, those "exceptionally good" CS graduates you met came from universities that *didn't* understand the difference between both fields, as expecting a pure CS graduate to write you an app using system libraries is akin to hiring a physicist to build you a new bookshelf.

  22. Re:who cares about their locked down ecosystem? on iBook Store Features Leave Indie Publishers Behind · · Score: 1

    If it were so, they'd be just as "trendy" around the world rather than merely where they spend the most in marketing. That is not the case.

  23. Re:iBooks vs. Standard EPUB on iBook Store Features Leave Indie Publishers Behind · · Score: 1

    Or, as it's commonly known, "Embrace, Extend, Extinguish".

    From IBM to Microsoft, and now to Apple. Isn't it cute?

  24. Re:Wait a minute... on North Korea Says War With South Would Go Nuclear · · Score: 1

    If the Western World had the balls to face evil, the first country to go up in flames would be the US.

  25. Re:I'm sure they're on North Korea Says War With South Would Go Nuclear · · Score: 1

    If you think the BBC is an example of state-controlled media, it's you who doesn't know what you're talking about.