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Comment Re:No surprise (Score 1) 195

Problem is that games without DRM get pirated just as bad.

How is that an argument for DRM? You basically said

The guys who aren't wasting money pissing off their customers in the name of preventing piracy also have problems with piracy!

Well duh, but they have happier customers, which can't be a bad thing.

Submission + - Nokia shareholders fight back (nokiaplanb.com) 1

MohammedSameer writes: A group of 9 young Nokia shareholders are fighting back. They posted an open letter for Nokia shareholders and investors asking to be elected in order to bring sanity back. They are also planning to challenge the company's strategy and partnership with Microsoft

Comment Re:maybe (Score 2, Informative) 336

Did you get your N900 with PR1.2 already installed, did you install the PR1.2 update via SSU or did you install it via the firmware flasher?

When I installed PR1.2 via SSU (how most users install updates; it's essentially a nice GUI on top of APT), after the reboot up popped a modal dialog asking me to accept the MyNokia T&Cs. The *only* way to dismiss this dialog is to accept the T&Cs, at which point it sends an SMS to Nokia. Sure, you can opt-out later, but by that point Nokia already has the data...

Comment Re:3 people in 2 don't know math. (Score 2, Insightful) 1042

Here in Australia, they label most electric appliances with a sticker in the shops that shows you just how much energy it consumed compared to other similar alliances. It's not perfect, but it's a start in the right direction, and it has been running for a long time.

One of the really crazy aspects of this system is the units used. You couldn't expect a normal person to understand "Watts" or "kW", so I've seen air conditioners labelled in "kWh per hour". As in "kiloWatt-hours per hour". I wish I took a photo.

One of the things we get right is how we label fuel consumption: litres per 100 km. Half the number means you use half as much fuel to drive the same distance. Twice the number means twice as much fuel to drive the same distance.

Comment Re:surely not; Pascal was meant for this (Score 5, Informative) 407

Oh come on, Python was designed as a teaching language and in my experience students find it much easier to learn than Pascal (and it's much less limiting once you get past the basics).

As far as speed is concerned, according to the Programming Language Game Pascal is at best 60x faster than Python, and these sorts of competitions usually give you a few orders of magnitude in margin - the idea is to make sure your solution is in the right complexity class, not to try and enforce the most efficient possible solution.

Comment Re:Python+pygame (Score 3, Insightful) 799

This is the answer. In starting off with pretty much any programming language, you screw around with strings, do some match, maybe make a GUI with some buttons and stuff... With PyGame, you can make games! Or at least, you can put graphics on the screen, move things around, make noises and it's easy... but not restrictive.

Logo (and programs like GameMaker and its ilk) get the first bit right, but once you want to do something that isn't moving a turtle around you're somewhat stuck. But with Python, you can do pretty much anything. And it's portable too! You can write a script in Python on your computer and run it on your phone (if you've got a Nokia, at least).

Comment Re:Don't click the last link then scroll to the en (Score 1) 208

But this story is about Australia, and we don't have a PG-13 rating.

Our ratings are (for those too lazy to click the link): G, PG, M, MA15+, R18+, and X18+. G, PG and M have no restrictions. People under 15 are not permitted to purchase or rent films or video games classified MA15+ unless they are accompanied by a parent or adult guardian. People under 18 may not buy, rent or exhibit films rated R18+. X18+ is the same as R18+ but is used for porn and illegal is some states. Anything that is "Refused Classification" is banned.

Comment Re:Gentoo?? (Score 1) 347

Almost. It's the setup for a bad joke; the punchline being "I'll let you know when it's finished compiling!" (But you knew that, didn't you?)

Haw haw haw. Those silly Gentoo users, always compiling stuff! Why don't they like the Ubuntu developers compile it for them like everyone else?

What I don't get is why Gentoo gets singled out for "compiling" jokes. Why doesn't anyone makes these jokes about BSD or macports?

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