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Lack of Manpower May Kill VLC For Mac 398

plasmacutter writes "The Video Lan dev team has recently come forward with a notice that the number of active developers for the project's MacOS X releases has dropped to zero, prompting a halt in the release schedule. There is now a disturbing possibility that support for Mac will be dropped as of 1.1.0. As the most versatile and user-friendly solution for bridging the video compatibility gap between OS X and windows, this will be a terrible loss for the Mac community. There is still hope, however, if the right volunteers come forward."

Comment Re:Or... (Score 1) 8

Vuze is a horribly resource intensive program, and while I used it until very recently, I was compelled to discontinue when it began registering every torrent added to it as corrupted.

I've repeatedly come back to try mplayer after finding new tips on the AV desync issues with no success.

Quicktime has degenerated from a stable, efficient player in 6.x to a buggy, choppy mess.. and is now bipartite, featureless, and incomplete in 10.x

It pains me that I myself am completely powerless to help the project where it is needed. The best I can do is spread the news.

Comment Re:Or... (Score 1) 8

You could get your hands dirty yourself. Never too late to code.

with my level of skill, it would take far too long to gain a full understanding of the project. I don't even have a passing familiarity with xcode.

Comment Re:I especially like.. (Score 4, Informative) 230

I like the complaint about the compiler. After all, Intel should be required to optimize their compiler for their competitor. To each according to his need...

The allegation is their compiler can, but deliberately does NOT, apply optimization to code if it detects the processor is AMD.

This is analogous to video game consoles refusing to use generic memory sticks or hard drives. Of course, intel will try to claim it's more like trying to attach a sata drive to an IDE port, but we all know the instruction sets for X86 are standard across both chips.

Comment Stop mischaracterizing net neutrality. (Score 2, Interesting) 187

Just think, there are people who want to hand over regulation of internet traffic to the government under the name of "net neutrality," yet here we have a government proving that it would happily censor content. Imagine what would happen once lobbyists convinced bribed politicians to regulate things like torrent traffic in order to prevent "economic terrorism."

the concept of net neutrality is to legislate specifically to PREVENT abuses like the one this politician is trying to perpetrate.

Note: he still has to go through the legislature, but ISP's already do this unilaterally whenever they think they can get away with it, and in the US Comcast is suing agains the FCC to keep them from preventing Comcast from butchering traffic.

Hard-right libertarians don't seem to understand: This is not the pre-industrial era anymore! Royalty no longer controls the economy. Corporations are now SEPARATE from but EQUAL in power to the government, and the only way to keep the little guy from being crushed is to use each to put the other in check. (part of this is intelligent regulation)

Comment So What are they REALLY after? ACTA? (Score 2, Insightful) 187

We all know this kind of outrageous proposal won't fly, so what's the next "iteration" this will be compared to to make it look "reasonable"? The question is what are these people actually after?

  It seems like this is yet another maneuver to "Frame" the debate around the upcoming ACTA clauses.

If enough of these outrageous ideas are being proposed, a simple removal of service for "egregious offenders" will look tame.

Remember, you have to boil the frog SLOWLY, and part of that involves acclimating the frog to heat before it goes in the pot!

Comment Huh? (Score 1) 187

Your statement is contradictory..

The list probably won't include porn, so that's a good thing. However, it will probably include hate sites. This makes it a serious crackdown on the freedom of speech. It's exactly this kind of thoughtcrime persecution that our American founders fled from those 250 years ago.

if americans had to flee from (and then rebel against) this persecution, how were they "cool" before? Are we going back to the days of stone henge?

Desktops (Apple)

Submission + - Lack of Manpower May Kill VLC for Mac (videolan.org) 1

plasmacutter writes: The Video Lan dev team has recently come forward with a notice that the number of active developers for the project's MacOS X releases has dropped to zero, prompting a halt in the release schedule. There is now a disturbing possibility that support for mac will be dropped as of 1.1.0.

As the most versatile and user friendly solution for bridging the video compatibility gap between OS X and windows, this will be a terrible loss for the mac community. There is still hope, however, if the right volunteers come forward.

Comment Re:IQ != Intelligence (Score 1) 928

IQ is more a measure of your 'working' memory and capacity to quickly understand new topics

even that is in question. here is a really cool documenatry on stupidity on cbc.

they place some random artist, a rocket scientist, and a member of mensa before a novel problem, and the random artist is the first to solve it.

Comment Re:Spoken Like a True Narrow-Minded Consumer (Score 2, Interesting) 258

We dont need them. Their budgets are way too high, they pay their actors more per film than most people make in a lifetime, and for what...for them to stand around and woodenly repeat lines made by writers who are worse than your average third grader?

trek '09? terminator salvation? harry potter?
give me a BREAK!

We don't need them! The faster they die the better!

Comment Re:how about the closest thing we have to accounta (Score 1) 249

No, I believe in the government stepping on corporate toes, and the the people stepping up to the ballot box to make sure the government doesn't go too far.

Then you are a fool. The government is already controlled by the corporations (which are in turn controlled by the elite) because they control the money and it is extremely difficult to be elected to high office without their assistance and approval. You are permitted the illusion by those with power that your vote maters, but for all practical purposes it rarely does.

Oh I agree corporations still have way too much leverage. If they had as much as you assert, however, the healthcare bill would have been long dead already.

It's up to YOU, and all your friends to participate to get things done. I'm as cynical as you but I keep writing and sometimes calling, otherwise I become PART of the problem, a coward on the front lines.

Comment Re:not a bargain (Score 1) 970

I miss the days of the informed buyer. :( What changed that people don't research their purchases anymore that requires government oversight?

The world has beocome increasingly complex, and people increasingly strapped for time as they slave for wages which have remained frozen for over a decade.

Either a radical shift in labor standards must be put into place to give people the spare time to do this research, or more "nanny state" is needed.

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