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Comment Flamebait/Redundant article (Score 1) 459

This is one of the worst flamebaiting articles I've seen in awhile. The title is

Estimating Game Piracy More Accurately

But then they go on to prove something completely unrelated:

This means that even though games see that 80% of their copies are pirated, only 10% of their potential customers are pirates, which means they are losing at most 10% of their sales.

How exactly does this make the piracy number any easier for developers to swallow? They put their hard work into a game and 80% of people using their work have not paid for it. The only thing we really learn from this article is that people will do anything to spin piracy into a positive action.

Comment Re:That's brilliant (Score 1) 95

I suspect that Google has this so sandboxed to hell they don't give a fuck what you do to it. VM inside a VM inside a VM inside a VM rebooting and losing state every 5 minutes sounds about right. Also alternate between linux and windows in the VMs, and make sure to run Norton antivirus on all hte Windows ones.

For optimal security, randomly vary the VM recursion depth so attackers can't figure it out.

Comment The Deal Is Done (Score 4, Insightful) 237

It's unlikely to do any good lobbying Harper. Harper's unfulfilled dream is to be President of the U.S.A. He's as much big business, especially big oil business, as any American President could be. Further Harper's modus operandi demands he serve the wishes of the copyright lobby. His use of the media to cast his opponents in the worst possible light is his guiding star as a politician. He's a consummate sophist, seemingly utterly without any philosophy, other than to win and hold onto power. He has done cameos in various popular TV shows in slick, self deprecating clips. A politician who relies as heavily on superficial, mass media self promotion as does Harper will cut a wink 'n nod, tacit deal with big media companies. I think it's critically important to note the heavy use politicians in all countries make of mass media to further their political agendas. In the U.S.A. a loop is closing around the American citizenry. Big government, the military industrial complex and big, mass media corporations comprise an unholy trinity. In Canada the military industrial complex is missing but the possible crippling of the rights of individual citizens remains as much of a threat as corporations are given greater entitlements while being able to shield themselves from just punishments for their wrong doings. Two main problems come from the need to create jobs and compete internationally. Politicians need job creation programmes to bring home the bacon to their constituents and big business can deliver massive job creation programmes as well as threaten massive job losses. Further the majority of advanced, industrialized countries seemed to have opted for promoting mega corporations as a new, privileged class akin to medieval knights whose resources better ensure successful international competition.

Comment Re:Simple answer (Score 1) 372

They would most likely content that total sexual abandon is physically and emotionally damaging, but that sex is an important part of life. Note: I am not a Buddhist.

I'm not a Buddhist either, just an interested of under-informed outsider, so I ask with all sincerity:

Wouldn't they likely contend that "total X abandon is physically and emotionally damaging"
for all values of X?

Comment Facebook Privacy (Score 1) 256

The users on Facebook who have the most to lose when their private information is displayed for all to see are exactly the people who have no idea how to manipulate the privacy settings. On the other hand, tweens and teens who have nothing to lose by sharing their info have the know how to keep their profiles sealed shut. Different generations learn differently. Facebook needs to accomodate its policies to what "The Everyman" can understand. The Everyman is the average person on the street, and he certainly doesn't understand that one day Facebook is going to "change it's policy" to release all of his personal information unless he goes to his privacy settings and carefully manipulates them. This is all a ploy by Facebook to share our personal information with the world. Privacy Schmivacy.

Comment Re:Moron Greens (Score 2, Insightful) 432

Except electric cars, even if 100% powered by electricity from gasoline plants, would still be a massive improvement. Internal combustion engines have a maximum theoretical efficiency of 30%, but large stationary plants can afford to be much more efficient. Collecting the energy from a gasoline plant, piping it through wires to a person's home, putting it into a battery, taking it out of the battery, and operating an electric motor adds up (or, rather, multiplies down) to a total efficiency of... 48%. That's right, 60% more bang for your buck, even if nothing else changes.

Comment Re:Good move... (Score 1) 432

so there are usually a few interesting questions that somehow never come up

where will the turbines be manufactured? I doubt we have the capability anymore, so i would guess china

are we dealing with generation or batteries? the usual thing for alt energy is it takes more energy to create the installation then it will ever produce. (nukes produce twice as much energy as they take to build.)

suppose you were serious about wind power. I hear a long time ago that the energy content of the wind, world-wide, is about world energy demand, which would be interesting. I recently tried to research this and came up with a paper based on a climate model that did not look very physical to me. this was a try based on a drag coefficient prediction. somehow, I think a back of the envelope energy thing would give you a straightforward order of magnitude number that would be pretty convincing and actually meaniful. pooh, thinking about it, this is the sort of thing you could have a bright high school student do. a couple input numbers and a trivial equation. is it too trivial or too embarassing? If you push me, I suppose i would try to come up with the numbers, but it is not like I think this will ever be built.

Comment Re:Copyright laws. (Score 1) 436

Here's a thought experiment:

If I invent a replicator and make an exact, atom by atom copy (yes, this would be impossible space magic, just go with me here) of something with a copyright on it, is that copyright infringement?

If yes, then how can an exact digital copy of a series of 1's and 0's with a copyright on them not be copyright infringement?

Note: this wasn't really the conclusion I was aiming for... stupid thought experiment...

Both would be copyright infringement. I don't know who said it wouldn't be. It doesn't even have to be an exact duplicate to be copyright infringement. The GP was simply pointing out that copyright infringement is not theft. Theft is when the item is removed from its original owner's possession.

Here's a couple side by side examples:

If you walk into a shop, grab a DVD, and sneak it out without paying for it, then you have committed theft. You have stolen the item from the shop.

If someone goes into the shop and purchases that DVD, creates an ISO of it on their home computer, and sends it to you over the internet, then you have committed copyright infringement. You have infringed upon the rights of whoever holds the copyright over it. They are in control of how copies of the item are allowed to be produced, and you disobeyed them.

Comment Re:Floppy? Bring on the death of the CDROM. (Score 1) 558

Can't we just get rid of all those portable media ASAP?
Flash memory may be more durable than CDs but they still break, especially the cheap ones.
Just put everything on a server that can be properly secured.
I can't remember the last time that I used a computer that was not connected to the internet.
I prefer to have my files accessible online so I don't have to care about where the latest version of my file is stored or if the right stuff is on my usb key.
Neither do I have to worry about the media being stolen, nor do I have to bother with encryption.

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