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Comment: GPL means "no libraries" in modern languages (Score 1) 808

by GeekDork (#38415518) Attached to: GPL, Copyleft Use Declining Fast

The GPL traditionally can't deal with any language "above" assembly and maybe C. As soon as a language allows "modern" features like generics or even crazy stuff like open classes, it becomes impossible to draw a clear line between projects. This effectively means that GPLed code really becomes a fast-spreading plague.

Stuff like the Asshole GPL don't really help acceptance, creating infection vectors across service boundaries.

All in all, it was fun while it lasted. Some highly encapsulated projects like the Linux kernel may stick with an old, benign version of the license, but it doesn't have a future in today's environment.

Comment: Re:Congratulations (Score 1) 990

by GeekDork (#37835858) Attached to: The Real Job Threat

Ever-increasing productivity could be something people looked forward to, instead of being something that was a real threat to putting food on their table, as the Luddites who smashed mechanized looms realized. That better productivity winds up harming the majority of people is a contradiction within the current system of production we live under. At some point, these contradictions become too great and the system breaks down, then it needs some major reconfiguring.

TL;DR: Never before in history could we have slacked off in hedonism as much as we could now, and here we are whining that we aren't able to work our asses off!

Comment: Re:/etc/hosts? (Score 1) 206

by GeekDork (#37295116) Attached to: Heise's 'Two Clicks For More Privacy' vs. Facebook

127.0.1.1 www.facebook.com

I'm blacklisting *.facebook.com, their CDN (fbcdn.net), and connect.facebook.net in ABP (the connect rule is older since it used to break a bunch of sites when the service started and was even more unreliable than it is today). The other solution would be to just make my home DNS auth for those zones, which I've done for a bunch of other crap like doubleclick, making that stuff NXDOMAIN.

Comment: Re:Listen Up.. (Score 2) 147

by GeekDork (#37234320) Attached to: I am preparing for Hurricane Irene ...

BEFORE YOU EVACUATE, CLEAN OUT YOUR REFRIGERATOR.

Additionally, unplug it and make make sure to stick the doors open!

That way you'll have a nice, defrosted, functional fridge and freezer when you come back, and not a furry mold incubator that was taken out by a surge then the mains came back on at 40V over specs. Take the chance to rub it out with some good household cleaner, and refill.

Also holds for student apartment fridges over longer breaks. Been there.

Comment: Get the basics right first! (Score 1) 591

by GeekDork (#37050628) Attached to: Old Arguments May Cost Linux the Desktop

Right now, the whole "Linux on the desktop" brouhaha is failing at the point where I have the choice of either

  • using a pre-3.0 kernel and having my desktop "experience" freeze for up to 30 seconds every time an application does something graphically challenging like, say, drawing a 32x32 icon, or
  • using a current kernel and at some point have X corrupt random drawing surfaces until the whole thing is entirely unusable.

And that's not even starting with the overly half-assed state most "desktop" applications are in. Most of KDE is a pile of ugly hacks that manages to get worse with each iteration, only to be beaten by whatever cruft Mozilla is shoving out the door, actually losing features with every "release". Gnome is quickly going towards a point where they will be a sad imitation of an Apple UI without any usability or skillful design. The office suites are trying to rip off their commercial counterparts, but mostly fail because they suffer from an extreme amount of legacy ballast.

This is not about "arguments", this is about failing to get the basics right. Linux doesn't belong on a productive desktop by a long shot, unless your idea of a desktop still is a bunch of terminal windows running vim/emacs/ed (or if that meets your requirements).

Comment: Eliminate Players (Score 3, Interesting) 71

by GeekDork (#36459730) Attached to: New Technique To Help Develop MMORPG Content?

Really, the most annoying part of a mumorpuger is the "community" that forms like an accretion disk around the game itself, usually a bunch of pushy whining kids who won't ever be satisfied, will always feel underpowered with their favourite in-game character, and threaten to leave to other games for years instead of packing up and leaving.

If there was a technology to eliminate actual players from those games, it would improve the communities a lot. We are finally getting closer to a point where it becomes possible. Exciting times.

"People should have access to the data which you have about them. There should be a process for them to challenge any inaccuracies." -- Arthur Miller

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