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Comment this (Score 1) 38

That worked so well for Loki (do you remember them?). What Valve is doing is bringing Windows APIs to Linux

This is entirely the thing. Loki games can or at least could be coaxed to work on Linux with Loki_Compat libraries, but last time I tried to run Alpha Centauri for Linux even that wouldn't work — and I'm even still using X. But add to that, the Linux versions of games are frequently inferior. The Loki games are included in that, for example in AlphaC for Linux you cannot ctrl-shift-a automate formers only near their supporting base. Fast forward to a more modern game like Civ VI, and there's a huge slew of features and even leaders you can't get access to with the Linux version. Meanwhile, the Windows version runs better on Linux than it does on Windows.

I haven't heard the OS/2 thing, what's that about? I figure it failed because Microsoft was already doing "good enough" with Windows, plus NT had relatively meaningful security and OS/2 didn't.

Comment Re: Has Climate Doom Modeling Turned Into Clickbai (Score 1) 113

I'm in the UK, and I clearly remember a school textbook with drawn pictures of Trafalgar Square fully iced up. This would be early 80s.

I'm in the US, and I remember news articles about this idea. They passed quickly. If you wound up with a textbook with such ideas in it presented as anything other than a possibility which had been or could be researched, that is unfortunate, but it is not indicative of anything widespread.

Let's not deny that bad information has been given in the past.

Nobody is denying that at all. Nobody is even denying that there was a global cooling article fad. What was different about the global cooling scare from AGW's broad scientific consensus is that it didn't have broad scientific consensus.

Submission + - Microsoft faces new complaint for allegedly aiding Israeli war crimes in Gaza (aljazeera.com)

Alain Williams writes: The Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) has announced it filed a complaint against Microsoft, accusing the global tech giant of unlawfully processing data on behalf of the Israeli military and facilitating the killings of Palestinian civilians in Gaza.

In the complaint, the council asked the Data Protection Commission – the European Union’s lead data regulator for the company – to “urgently investigate” Microsoft Ireland’s processing.

“Microsoft’s technology has put millions of Palestinians in danger. These are not abstract data-protection failures — they are violations that have enabled real-world violence,” Joe O’Brien, ICCL’s executive director, said in a statement.

“When EU infrastructure is used to enable surveillance and targeting, the Irish Data Protection Commission must step in — and it must use its full powers to hold Microsoft to account.”

After months of complaints from rights groups and Microsoft whistleblowers, the company said in September it cancelled some services to the Israeli military over concerns that it was violating Microsoft’s terms of service by using cloud computing software to spy on millions of Palestinians.

Comment Re:Has Climate Doom Modeling Turned Into Clickbait (Score 1) 113

As far as I can tell, the "current serious effects" are always handwavy

Your lack of perception is irrelevant.

'look at all the people that die from heat!' (invariably after a hot week in summer; again routinely and repeatedly debunked by statistics that show 6-10x more people die from cold than heat

And now we see what it stems from, a total lack of logic. Run along now.

Comment Re:Those failing engines and transmissions. (Score 1) 247

The direct fuel injection does seem to cause more trouble than it's worth.

Low tension rings cause more trouble than their worth Low viscosity oil causes more trouble than it's worth Stop-start causes more trouble than it's worth Variable displacement causes more trouble than it's worth Integral dual volute turbocharging causes more trouble than it's worth And yes, direct injection causes more trouble than it's worth.

The extreme CAFE mileage requirements have driven manufacturers to make a large number of terrible engineering choices in ICE drive trains. Extreme CAFE mileage requirements have greatly contributed to the excessive cost of vehicles and the excessive cost of repairs.

Yep. CAFE-style regulation is the wrong way to attempt to reduce carbon emissions. The right way is to impose a carbon tax, then let consumers vote with their wallets and engineers work to make the right tradeoffs to meet customer demand. My guess is that consumers would choose to buy the more fuel-efficient vehicles and engineers might make the same tradeoffs... but now it would be clear that those tradeoffs are worthwhile.

Comment Re:This will cost you money (Score 1) 247

Gas is not cheap.

Gas is pretty much exactly at its long-term, inflation-adjusted average price, and right where it was in the 1950s. Since then, it was a little higher in the 70s, a little lower in the 90s, a little higher in the early 2000s, but we're now back at the long-term normal price.

See https://afdc.energy.gov/data/1...

Whether the normal price of gas is "cheap" or "expensive" depends on your income and lifestyle, I'd think.

Comment Re:a much needed move? (Score 1) 247

A "much-needed move" would be to allow BYD cars to be sold here and let the free market economics (that conservatives ostensibly claim to love) sort everything out.

I'm not going to argue about the merit of allowing BYD or not. This is only about free market economics. BYD is heavily subsidized, and their entry in the market would skew any possible free market economics.

This is an appropriate place for tariffs. Not ridiculous, exclusionary tariffs like we have, but tariffs carefully calibrated to offset the subsidies as precisely as possible, putting BYD's cars on a level playing field against US EVs. I have great faith in free market capitalism and dislike anything that distorts the market, but sometimes you need to use regulation to correct for external market distortions.

Comment Re: a much needed move? (Score 1) 247

What you said was dumb because what we need is to reduce emissions further than our weak targets. Also automakers do NOT have any trouble meeting the targets. They could have met those targets years ago, but they would have had to make less exciting vehicles. You're putting your excitement over sustainability. This explains why you support a child molester's tampering with the future.

Comment Latest iteration (Score 1) 20

This pattern keeps re-emerging.

Online payment systems want your bank login details.

Facebook was infamous for scraping your IMAP account for contact information.

etc.

The implications for security are so severe I wouldn't mind if this were illegal, but certainly it should be legal for banks or cell providers to terminate online accounts of people who share their credentials, no matter if - or especially if - they are with other large corporations. How many times has T-Mobile been hacked in the past two years?

If an account holder wanted to download a data export and upload that to another provider I don't really care so much. It's the near mandatory sharing of credentials that is just such a terrible habit to normalize.

And yes, greybeards, we know you've never heard of apartment rental agencies only accepting Venmo for rent.

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