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Comment Re:Free Single Player? (Score 1) 259

Multiplayer Sim City does sound interesting, I agree, but they've gone about doing it in entirely the wrong way.

A much smarter way would have been to implement save-games in a Git-like fashion, where you can pick and choose which people to play with.

This obviously won't work for a real time game, but for games like Sim City and the like, it'd work just fine. Hell, a Civilization style game could work fine as well.

Government

Obama Administration Supports Journalist Arrested For Recording Cops 238

New submitter SplatMan_DK writes "Ars Technica reports that the Obama Administration has filed a brief in support of a Maryland photojournalist who says he was arrested and beaten after he took photographs of the police arresting two other men. The brief by the Justice Department argues that the U.S. Constitution protects the right to photograph the actions of police officers in public places and prohibits police officers from arresting journalists for exercising those rights. Context: 'Garcia says that when Officer Christopher Malouf approached him, Garcia identified himself as a member of the press and held up his hands to show he was only holding a camera. But Malouf "placed Mr. Garcia in a choke hold and dragged him across the street to his police cruiser," where he "subjected him to verbal and physical abuse." According to Garcia's complaint, Malouf "forcibly dragged Mr. Garcia across the street, throwing him to the ground along the way, inflicting significant injuries." Garcia says Malouf "kicked his right foot out from under him, causing Mr. Garcia to hit his head on the police cruiser while falling to the ground." Garcia claims that Malouf took the video card from Garcia's camera and put it in his pocket. The card was never returned. Garcia was charged with disorderly conduct. In December 2011, a judge found Garcia not guilty.'"

Comment Re:I'm not even a fan, but (Score 1) 1174

Stephen Fry made a good point about polygamy.

Why is it that it is perfectly legal to be deceitful to your spouse and have a mistress and children with her, but it is completely illegal for more than two people to have the state recognize their love for one another?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_tk6Wxkaj8

Comment Re:He is no hero, no Aaron Schwartz, no EFF. (Score 2) 127

The problem is - who should be punished for gathering the illegally obtained evidence?

The policemen who physically gathered the evidence?
The lawyers who signed off on the gathering?
The officers who signed off on the gathering?
The politicians who pushed for a case to be made?
All the policemen who were involved with the case?

It's a tricky situation, because what is to prevent A from getting B to take the possible fall, by telling B to go pick that thing up?

What I'd like to see is somewhat similar, but with clear lines of responsibility.

The prosecutor in charge of the case is held in contempt of court for 10% of the maximum penalty possible for the crimes, but no less than 7 days (no pay etc), plus a fine equalling twice the salary that would have been earned in the time. Same for the lead officer/detective on the case.

The prosecutor's boss (DA/AG etc) gets 5%, but no less than 7 days (no pay etc), similar fine. Same for the similar position in the police's ranks.

Any public officials who have provably pushed for the case, gets 3%, but no less than 7 days (no pay etc), similar fine.

Not sure what kind of punishment would be fitting for the policemen, CSI techs etc. who gathered the illegal evidence though. If they planted evidence or gathered it in knowingly illegal ways, they should obviously go to jail, but the problem comes when they gather evidence in good faith, that later turns out to be illegal. I don't want to punish them for simply doing their job in good faith.

Comment Re:Moving to Linux or a Mac is not an option (Score 1) 418

Yeah but an IT support dweeb isn't a nerd. Nerds have better sense than that

And since you are, quite appropriately, named "short sighted", this fits perfectly with what we all know about nerds - they do not exist.

I can easily think of at least a hundred different things that nerds "doesn't do", many of them mutually exclusive.

Some of us nerds and geeks find that in order to pay our bills, we have to do things we do not necessarily find particularly glorifying - like helping your friends and family with their software problems, because YOU are a complete ass.

And believe it or not, some of us actually like the idea of helping people out with their computer problems, whether it's figuring out what the cup holder is for, how to turn on the computer, or how to replace hardware on their own.

Unlike what short sighted people like yourself seem to revel in, we don't have a problem with people trying to learn new skills by asking others for help.

You know - it's a bit like sex, in that it is more fun, when you aren't on your own. And it's a LOT more fun when you've learned how to do it properly, guided by someone who doesn't tell you, that you're a incompetent moron, imbecile, fuckwad who needs to read the fucking manual, and stop asking questions that have already been asked before, and shouldn't ever dare to try it again until they're experts.

Well ... given your attitude, you might actually not know. Just trust me on this one.

Comment Buy them something with support. (Score 2) 418

Buy them something that comes with phone support. Seriously.

Sure, the support contract may be somewhat expensive, but it's a lot easier when you don't have to worry about support yourself.

Buy them an iMac and get them AppleCare support for 3 years for 169 USD
Buy them a Dell Inspiron One and get 3 Year Enhanced Support for 149 (I can't find a direct link to a description)
Buy them an HP Envy and get an HP 3 year Care Pack149 USD

Or some other company - it doesn't matter. What matters is that they can bother someone other than you about these things.

It boils down to something like 50 dollars a year for ease of mind - both for you and them. Sure, it's easy to call you, but they also worry that they're disturbing you. Much easier to pay someone else to do it.

It sounds callous and harsh, but honestly, having worked in phone support for two of the companies, I can tell you, that once you explain to these people that instead of having to worry about bothering their friends or family, they can simply call us and not have to worry about bothering anybody, you can almost always hear a a load being removed from their shoulders.

Yes, we like being able to draw on help from friends and family, but we also don't want to come off as needy and helpless.

Comment Re:ROK does not equal DPRK (Score 1) 309

Well, considering that the Pirate Bay's own blog talks about Pyongyang and that "We believe that being offered our virtual asylum in Korea is a first step of this country's changing view of access to information. It's a country opening up".

Now, while I'm not an expert in Asian politics, I don't think that Pyongyang is in South Korea, nor do i believe that the quote is an apt description of it.

Comment Re:Pretty clever (Score 2, Interesting) 206

I'm normally not keen on the government telling us how to live our lives, but having mandatory liability coverage is a no-brainer for the vast majority of poor and middle-class citizens who simply can't be assumed to be responsible enough to have a personal insurance savings plan, and can't afford a huge payout if they do cause an accident

Emphasis added.

First of all - fuck you.
Secondly - fuck you some more.

If you're poor, how the fuck are you supposed to put money aside for a personal insurance savings plan? Especially in the US, where people are likely to get sued for anything and the cost of any kind of medical assistance is likely to be ruinous if not for insurance.

Seriously - you even pointed it out yourself, right after you made your quite frankly extremely insulting comment!can't be assumed to be responsible

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