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User: pipatron

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  1. Re:Is localization really necessary? on Localized (Visual) Programming Language For Kids? · · Score: 1

    Lies.

    The balloon program is just 16 lines, and expanding it to the full version as presented in the book it's just 25 lines. :(

  2. Piet on Localized (Visual) Programming Language For Kids? · · Score: 1

    How about Piet?

  3. Re:Fiat Currency on Steve Forbes: Bitcoin Not Money · · Score: 1

    You're not "wasting" electricity. Those calculations are what makes bitcoins secure. In order to cheat and double spend an amount that was spend three days ago, you would have to redo all the calculations that has been done in the bitcoin "universe" since you spent it the first time. This is also why it's a good habit to wait a while until you can trust a transaction. You can pay people for mining your transaction in particular, to make this trust happen faster.

  4. Re:A terrible idea... on Repo Man Director Alex Cox Plans To Edit Next Film With OpenShot · · Score: 2

    So... you managed to read far enough to find that it's going to be shot on film, but not far enough to read that it's going to get edited digitally.

  5. Re:These parents were doing it wring on UK Gov To Investigate 'Aggressive' In-app Purchases · · Score: 1

    I have a feeling that the world would be a nicer place if only those who could stay awake for 24 hours a day, seven days a week would have children.

    Maybe it's just me being a misanthrope again...

  6. Re:All I could tell from the link on Researcher Evan Booth: How To Weaponize Tax-Free Airport Goods · · Score: 1

    Not sure if they have lived in isolation long enough to have diverged and formed their own race yet..

  7. Re:How do they make profit ? on Google Fiber Expands To Olathe, Kansas · · Score: 1

    And that is sort of ok. You should always assume that your ISP can and will listen in on the traffic, and take measures to make sure this is not a problem. If not your ISP directly, someone can easily make them or on of their employees do it.

    Browse on sites with HTTPS, make sure your other protocols are using SSL or some other published, open and scrutinized encryption. If you really need to hide your destination, use Tor.

    I don't think Google is any worse than the other ISPs in this respect, and I think Google has other reasons to become an ISP.

    • 1) The other ISPs in the US seem to fucking suck with regards to bandwidth and arbitrary data caps, hurting Google's drive to make everything happen online on their own servers. More players are needed, players who like the internet, not players who actually hates it because it cuts in to their own profits.
    • 2) They are afraid that in a not-so-distant future, the ISP who for example is also a telco will start demanding that Google pays for all google voice chats over the telco's data lines. The ISP who's also a cable company will demand that Google pays for all youtube streaming, etc. This won't be a problem if Google is their own ISP.
  8. Re:Define "everybody" on ITU Aims At 20Mbps Broadband For All By 2020 · · Score: 1

    The difference between internet access and clean potable water is that one can be had wireless with a handset that's not much more expensive than a large bucket. The other requires expensive infrastructure.

  9. Re:Finally! on Electronics Arts CEO Ousted In Wake of SimCity Launch Disaster · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I think this is much more a PR move than it is a financial move.

    They want to show that they have "solved" the problem and that it will not happen again, by letting a manager walk. I'm pretty sure the full board of directors knew perfectly well what was going on with Sim City, and it is not likely that the CEO was the only one driving this through.

  10. Re:It's "of" not "to"... on Russian FSB Can Reportedly Tap Skype Calls · · Score: 1

    In Soviet Russia, American grammar... does not apply. Or something like that.

  11. Re:Ah, the consequences of closed-source on Russian FSB Can Reportedly Tap Skype Calls · · Score: 1

    I think this would just move them over to more secure means of communication, not less. A stupid move. It won't be fun for them when the crooks all route their communication through a couple of global Tor nodes.

  12. Pretty but why? on Modeling Color Spaces With Blender · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Why massage and hack a program like blender when you can use the venerable POV-Ray, open source raytracer since 25 years back, first raytracer in space, etc.

    You can already do all of this directly in its scene description language, and you will get exact results instead of interpolated meshes.

  13. Re:Uptime fetish on Solaris Machine Shut Down After 3737 Days of Uptime · · Score: 1

    Actually, the video shows him rooting the box with a custom compiled program as a normal user without entering any password, so it's likely not updated.

  14. Re:So... on Users Flock To Firewall-Busting Thesis Project · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Yeah, this is pretty insane. Tor already does this FAR MORE SAFE. Not only does it give governments a nice list of server IPs, it gives governments a nice way to catch offenders.

  15. Re:Better off enforcing an EA boycott on Is It Time To Enforce a Gamers' Bill of Rights? · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Ahhh... the piracy argument. Which has hit the game industry hard since the early 80ies. I have magazines here from 1981 where the publishers whine about piracy and how it will make sure that there will be no computer games in the future.

    And it's the same, every year. The business just grows and grows, people spend more and more money on computer games. But no, the piracy will kill the industry, look at the evil pirates, forcing us to make half-finished games with mandatory DLC.

  16. Re:Better off enforcing an EA boycott on Is It Time To Enforce a Gamers' Bill of Rights? · · Score: 4, Informative

    The Free Software Foundation campaign about this all the time, and have for some time now. They do have the organisational structure to do this.

    But nobody listens, because they also care about linux and free software in general, and that's eww hairy nerds, don't take my capitalism! Maybe if angry gamers would join up, they would get the manpower to actually get heard.

  17. Re:Better off enforcing an EA boycott on Is It Time To Enforce a Gamers' Bill of Rights? · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Harsch but true. I guess there are a few questions to be answered:

    • 1. Is the actions of EA hurting enlightened gamers, who chose to give their money to better companies?
    • 2. Is it likely that EA will release a game that "pro gamers" want to play? A game that is not a glorified FarmVille.
    • 3. Is the industry in large damaged by the actions of EA?

    If the answer to these questions are all "no", then it does not matter much what EA does, except the usual moral issues about parting a fool from his money.

  18. Re:Uh oh... Bitcoin is having growing pains on Bitcoin Blockchain Forked By Backward-Compatibility Issue · · Score: 1

    Actually it doesn't have a problem, since it's already solved.

    Now, please tell me how some users switching to a completely different cryptocurrency would solve your perceived problem with forked bitcoins?

  19. Re:So much for being based on crypto on Bitcoin Blockchain Forked By Backward-Compatibility Issue · · Score: 1

    What the hell does this rambling even mean? Do you even know what "crypto" means? How is that in any way related to the database chosen in the implementation? Did you know that it's possible to base a program on both "crypto" and a database?

  20. Re:For those, like me, reading this and saying wtf on Bitcoin Blockchain Forked By Backward-Compatibility Issue · · Score: 1

    The point with bitcoins is that in 30-40 years when anonymous payments are outlawed due to terrorists (read: control), there will be a reliable way to still do this on a global scale. These types of news are great, because it means that, as bitcoin grows, the bugs are ironed out before bitcoin is actually needed.

  21. Re:HTML5 with DRM, or Silverlight... on Netflix Using HTML5 Video For ARM Chromebook · · Score: 1, Insightful

    How about [x] None of the above, and keep downloading movies until they start using a closed, non-intrusive system?

  22. Re:The "know" absolutely nothing. on Facebook Knows If You're Gay, Use Drugs, Or Are a Republican · · Score: 1

    They don't care what you love or not. They care what you "Like" on Facebook. Big difference there.

  23. Re:Good idea on City Councilman: Email Tax Could Discourage Spam, Fund Post Office Functions · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Like the ISP with google, you fail to remember that everyone with a network connection already pays for this access to their ISP.

    Also, no one ever sends spam from their own computer, what do you think all the hacked windows botnets are used for? This would just make innocent people get smallish extra charges added to their normal ISP bill, and won't cost anything to the senders of spam.

    Best case scenario if they managed to make this stupid idea into reality is that ordinary folks at home will pay more attention to computer security to make sure they won't get charged those extra dollars each month.

  24. Re:What word is translated "Pornography"? on EU To Vote On Proposal That Could Ban All Online Pornography · · Score: 1

    Most people accept that children should't see pornography.

    Still, every child has seen it, and no one is worse off because of that. Maybe we need to think about this a bit more rationally.

    If you're old enough to understand what the fuck is going on at the screen, and old enough to care about it other than "yucky girls, where are the robot dinosaurs?", you're probably old enough to handle it and even enjoy something that can't hurt you.

    The things that can actually hurt children are, surprise, already illegal.

  25. Re:if it's all about women's protection... on EU To Vote On Proposal That Could Ban All Online Pornography · · Score: 1

    As a white male in Sweden without a substantial black population, what's this "the talk" about?