You don't even need a tracker or .torrent, a mere magnet link would do, and dht can take care of the rest.

Of course for a project like Gimp, it would be prettier for them to host their own tracker.

Use Adblock Edge.

Never forget, Plus allows "some ads" by default...

A web worth saving is a web without ads or DRM, just like it used to be. In the meantime the excellent addons to block trackers, scripts, cookies, referrer and ads will do.

Those games were moddable and were the best. I couldn't care about the main game, its the mods where the fun was.

Stuff like Desert Combat, Eve of Destruction, IS1982, Pirates, Galactic Conquest, most of which had sequels for BF2 and 2142.

I couldn't care less for "yet another CoD" clone, but removing mods and forcing the origin drm made me skip the later ones entirely. And of course, this was a game about 64 players battling each other with vehicles and stuff, just for fun.

I'm sure the only reason there were BF:V and later BF2 was because of the massive popularity of Eve of Destruction and Desert Combat back in the days of BF1942. Even Codename Eagle was more fun than the recent crap they now make.

The mono needle would play the stereo record, but the disc gets permanently damaged, the mono needle usually being too dull for the delicate stereo groove.

So if you got old stuff, don't try it. A mono record is usually no problem for a stereo pickup though.

Try pm-suspend-hybrid, this will initiate a normal hibernate: copy ram to disk as usual, but at the end it won't shutdown, but go into suspend. Result: If you come back, its instant on; but if the power ran out or was unplugged, your state is still saved and you return from hibernation.

People still unplug their stuff or let the batteries run out so don't expect that scenario until a memory technology that keeps its state without power (such as mram) becomes the norm.

Both sc1 and sc2 were lots of fun to play with another person. At least the PC/DOS game.

Unfortunately sc2 for 3do had "smooth zoom", which ruined the Ilrwrath ship. Thankfully, they added a "pc" switch to ur-quan masters (the open sourced edition).

If its like 3, screw that.

A brand means nothing if the authors are not there. You know, the guys who open sourced the game as "Ur-Quan Masters" because only the brand did not belong to them...

And yes, i played the three Star Control games. 2 was the best, period. Since the second game was open sourced, its probably in the repository of your favorite distro.

If you stick to open, non DRM formats, there is no reason you can't read your books again, no matter the device you choose.

People have already done it with music in digital format, text is even easier. The epub format for example.

There are many ereaders without any sort of connectivity, no wifi or any other nonsense, just an usb cable and its recognized as a simple USB mass device (like a thumb drive), and some even take flash cards or such. Most of these can read the open formats perfectly.

The ereader is not an electronic book. It is an electronic LIBRARY. There is just no comparison. People often imagine themselves carrying a book, or the device... But the device is not a single book, it is tons of them, BUILDINGS of them. I mean, come on, a typical book is about 5mb, and the "pocket" ereader with 5" pearl white eink screen i use comes with 2gb of storage...

Backup? The same as with any other 2gb thumb drive.

Carrying more than 3 physical books is problematic, let alone thousands of them. You can now have the complete works ever written by somebody or from a subject. Also the device often allows you to search, just type the word or phrase and there it is!

Physical books can last a lot but they can also deteriorate, especially with public use and abuse; and, often works are never published again. With digital, nothing needs to be lost ever.

Remember, one of the oldest libraries was burnt down by American troops in Baghdad, the oldest known remaining human writings were lost forever and only digital pictures remain... You can go back in history to find again and again how libraries and writings of all forms were burnt down and lost.

Books are nice but fragile, and heavy, and impractical and time consuming to reproduce, and prone to idiots burning them. And in the rare situation you needed one, you can always print it back to deadtree format. So, various loads of trucks when you move, or a small and compact ereader?

The ereader might not be the answer for bookshops (unless they learn to sell books without DRM, like some did with mp3); but the age of libraries in the hands of everyone is already here.

Of course obsolete business models and copyright law might not stand it, but the fact won't change, the genie is out.

As for libraries, they have a limited number of copies, and limited working hours. IMO they should dedicate themselves to preserve physical books in controlled conditions and make sure there is a digital copy of everything, correct mistakes etc. People would no longer need a library card, just give everyone a reader with the whole thing, or at least a thumb drive or let people bring their own so they copy all they want to read at home.

Sooner than later all libraries should sync with each other, and people with them. There is no reason some have books others don't, at least not in digital form, yes, all languages, all subjects.

This is mundane compared to the stuff being done already with video and music.

I believe Bose speakers are factory equalized. I have read people say they are simple cheap speakers but equalized, which too many people fail to do, so they are paying to have someone do it for them when buying the Bose brand.

In theory we should all try to aim for a flat eq response, which is what sound engineers do to their monitors in studio. I don't think that's what Bose eq aims but i could be wrong.

People sometimes think flat eq is "boring", but that its actually what the sound engineer wanted it to sound like, so "boring" or "exciting" will depend on the mastering (for studio) or fidelity when recording a live performance.

Of course with the loudness war of the last decade it's rather hard to find good material to listen to in the first place.

You seem to be forgetting any of the countries can simply send a plane there for a direct flight, escorted and all..,.

Are there also direct commercial flights from Moscow to Havana? I believe there are. He could go to Caracas from there too.

Only in the private sector, not in the Cuban-Venezuelan program "Barrio Adentro", simply the best medical attention can be obtained there for free. This mission was made to bypass the unwillingness of Venezuelan medics to aid the poor, but it ended surpassing the most expensive clinics, so much even wealthy people end going there, especially after the private medicine dries them dry and they have sold their last property trying to stay in a private clinic.

The fixed exchange was a direct result of the opposition sabotage to the economy in 2003. While I'm not personally in favor, it is true that if the opposition behaved back then, we wouldn't have it today. So i blame them entirely for it. The only way out now is the Sucre, our future regional coin.

You cannot choose a worse timing to talk about corruption, when right now very high officials are being detained for this. Maduro is clearly showing a no corruption policy, within his limited powers. He is, after all, the executive, not the judiciary branch, which is were most of the corruption still exists.

But yes i know, you are so used to repeat like a parrot the lies you and the opposition invented so many times, it's pointless to show you facts, as you'd rather cover your eyes instead than facing truths.

So what if they visit other countries? President Chavez brought up international relations with the world like no other leader did for Venezuela in history. So what if the US relations went down? Instead, relations with the entire world went up. The way USA behaves towards us made that an obvious outcome, if any country tries to be friends with another, it will lower their relation with USA. The USA doesn't like you trading with others, period.

So President Chavez brought up the nearly non existent relations with neighboring countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, with giant powers such as China and Russia, the Arab bloc, several Asian countries, etc.

The USA brought their relations down on their own. So they decided to ban weapons sales?, what are we supposed to do, let our army equipment go rust? Of course we went to the international market, and the best is from Russia, hence the Russian equipment; and the deals were even better, with technology transfer included.

Aww, the Americans don't like us dealing with Russians?, well that's too bad, so be it. It's not like we didn't try to keep those old F-16s still operating, but there comes a point when you have to replace them as getting parts from a third source becomes prohibiting, what with the US threatening everyone from selling their military technology to us. So yes, Sukhois it is, and MIs and AKs and whatever our Russian and Chinese friends provide that Americans don't want to, to keep our forces operational.

And so what if Iran provide us technology for Milk processing? or tractor technology from Belarus? It was the US gov who blocked the trades, it's not like we didn't try. We barely managed to buy American (floating) power plants thanks to our Citgo company.

Just like Cuba, how many Americans do you think tried to make business deals with us blocked by their own gov.? Cuba is not rich, and still they traded something they had in abundance: Medicine and health care for a bit of oil. That was one heck of deal, compared to prices of private medicine, is like we are ripping them off. But their solidarity prevails, and we provide a very needed resource so we are both happy. That is what international relations are about, not becoming lapdogs of the USA.

Chavez didn't care. You could call him informally just Chavez or Hugo, and not only he wouldn't mind, he would appreciate it.

He was formally the President. And as in many (but not all) countries, that position also entitles "Commander in Chief".

It was the people who used the titles out of admiration or such, and everyone would use a different one as they see fit. They felt addressing Hugo was possible, like a neighbor or friend, unlike the usual politician in the opposition.

Chavez was very close to the people, that is a fact of history.

He could always board one of these.

Russia and Venezuela have excellent relations, and can no doubt mount a joint operation to make him reach the country safely.

He should have done that when he was in HK, but now its too late for that. Russia could be good enough, provided he doesn't mind shutting up which is Putin's condition for him to stay there.

If he gets asylum elsewhere, would he be allowed to speak? I have no idea, i suppose each country defines their own rules to concede asylum. I know some countries do require the person to remain low profile and not speak to the press etc to keep his status.