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Comment Where has the last 20 years gone!? (Score 1) 225

It seems like it was just yesterday I was playing this game when it came out. Had a null modem cable to connect 2 PCs in adjacent rooms. Was too short to reach thru the hallway so we had to swing the cable window-to-window to connect. Endless battles between my brother and I. Creating custom levels using the free tools (DCK, I think?).

Comment Ah, the memories (BBS, AOL, Trumpet Winsock) (Score 1) 410

Started with AOL. Still remember the tune of my local dial-in number (820-0480). At some point we switched to an ISP (good ole Trumpet Winsock) and used this thing called Netscape and all those other winsock apps (Usenet, IRC, FTP, etc). Also was lucky enough to live near enough to the Software Creations BBS (sysop Dan Linton) so that it was a local call. I remember experimenting with the download protocols (xmodem, ymodem, etc.) and determining Y-modem-g was the fastest.

Comment Then DON'T USE IT (Score 1) 469

If you don't like Google or Facebook, don't use them. I don't use Facebook. They can do whatever they want, zero privacy, share all data, etc. Doesn't affect me.

These companies only survive if they satisfy their customers. If they annoy people they will go out of business. No regulation required.

Comment End Goverment Schools (Score 1) 729

We are only asking "Do We Need A Longer School Year" because schools are run by the government. If schooling were free market based, that question would be like asking "Do we need a bigger container size for milk?", and the answer would be that parents could choose whatever kind of school they want.

Comment Ad Skipping Details (Score 1) 578

The commercial skip is available the next day, and only on the small, well-defined set that is primetime network shows, so I assume Dish simply analyzes the show and sends the commercial start/end frame #'s down to the STBs. So we have yet another case of "illegal numbers" like the DeCSS episode.

What would be interesting is if the STBs were flexible enough to allow peer-to-peer download of commercial frame #'s. Then bored IT nerds could be posting commercial times 30 seconds after a show ended. What would the networks do about that?

Personally I use Windows Media Center and comskip, so all my commercials are skipped automatically, but this is not a regular-Joe type of solution.

In a truly free market, commercial marking would be allowed, but then the networks would simply:
A. switch the advertising to be "in show" with crawls, pop-in graphics in the corners, etc.
or
B. pay per episode with only short ads like Hulu does ("This episode of CSI is brought to you by Acme Metal Detectors")

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UNIX was not designed to stop you from doing stupid things, because that would also stop you from doing clever things. -- Doug Gwyn

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