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Comment Re: Easy fix for empty and sad (Score 2) 250

Better yet, why not create a headset that interfaces with and overrides the sensory inputs of your brain, then once enough people join your world, remove the quit button. And to dissuade any outsider from emancipating you from the virtual world by forcibly removing your headset, install a high amplitude microwave transmitter that activates upon attempted headset removal. Call it Horizon Worlds Online.

Comment Re: I have at least two dogs in my neighbourhood (Score 1) 150

Security theatre doesn't always have to imply it's completely ineffective.
Sure, the TSA may be woefully incompetent when it comes to identifying actually moderately hidden security vulnerabilities.
However, we can't evaluate nearly as well just how many people may have been dissuaded simply by the prospect that they may be searched.

Not to mention, we don't really know how much of this is simply correlation rather than causation.
The study mentions that it applies only to neighbourhoods where neighbours have a lot of trust in each other.
Could it be then, that those with dogs, are also more likely to be wealthier and thus less predisposed to crime in their neighbourhood due to location alone?

Comment I have at least two dogs in my neighbourhood (Score 0) 150

From the morning till the evening, on a few days of the week, I will hear nothing but those two dogs barking at each other back and forth ad nauseam.
Not to mention the occasional excrement that is graciously left out on the sidewalk on some chancy days.

The barking problem has been somewhat mitigated with a new pair of noise cancelling headphones...
but I do still question if this is a worthwhile sacrifice for the occasional security theatre.

Comment Re:Now it's suddenly bad? (Score 1) 83

Maybe not a pig yet, but I do recall some small success with small animals... was it a rabbit? I don't remember. In any case, the intention is not for immediate success, but rather for potential future success. And modern methods involve fluids that minimize crystallization, so as to not damage tissue. I mean, if it costs as much as a Netflix subscription if you start saving up young, and it allows you the minuscule possibility of seeing the far future, why not.

But I suppose it does share quite a few similarities with the marketing and application of pseudoscience, so you're not wrong there.

Comment Re:It's not bad, full stop. (Score 1) 83

Sounds like this already happens pretty frequently nowadays, at differing layers of abstraction; be it having been born in a developing country, inheriting a poor dietary education, or simply having freer access to more (advanced) medical care as is already the case in places such as the US. Oh, and cryogenic freezing, if that still counts.

But yet, I would still be in agreement with what I'd imagine to be a majority of people that the only way to ethically permit access to such hypothetical anti-aging medicine is to permit everyone access to a similar extent as going to get a flu shot.

Comment Re:Now it's suddenly bad? (Score 2) 83

Sounds like is already happening pretty frequently nowadays, at differing layers of abstraction; be it having been born in a developing country, inheriting a poor dietary education, or simply having freer access to more (advanced) medical care as is already the case in places such as the US. Oh, and cryogenic freezing, if that still counts.

But yet, I would still be in agreement with what I'd imagine to be a majority that the only way to ethically permit access to such hypothetical anti-aging medicine is to permit everyone access to a similar extent as going to get a flu shot.

Comment Re:Never mind... (Score 2) 81

Like Facebook or not, M-sense arguably hasn't the greatest non-generic logo claim given that theirs is also based around a 1:2 Lissajous figure.

In any case, it's doubtable that courts would uphold such case against Facebook if it did come to that, given their size and power, and their somewhat more *meta* ambitions that probably won't extend to health monitoring apps for the near future.

Submission + - SPAM: Sega Sued For 'Rigged' Arcade Machine

An anonymous reader writes: Sega’s Key Master arcade game is causing problems for the company once again. A new lawsuit alleges that Key Master is intentionally rigged against players. It’s marketed as a game of skill, but players claim machines bar against awarding successful runs, making Key Master more of a chance-based game. Marcelo Muto filed the lawsuit on Monday in a California court. It’s a proposed class action lawsuit looking for $5 million in damages to be distributed amongst wronged consumers. With Sega, Play It! Amusements (which is owned by Sega and now called Sega Amusements) and Komuse America (which co-manufactures Key Master) are named in the suit.

Key Master has been the target of multiple court cases in the past, dating back to at least 2013. This 2021 lawsuit, as well as the others, claims these machines are rigged only to allow players to win prizes at certain times — specifically, at intervals determined by player losses. You’ve probably seen Key Master machines in malls or arcades, touting prizes like iPads, earbuds, and other pricey electronics. To play, you must navigate a key towards a specific keyhole by stopping the automatic movement by hitting a button. If the key goes in, you win the prize. The problem, according to the lawsuit, is that these machines are programmed to only allow players the ability to win after a certain number of player failures. If the machine is not ready to award a prize, it’s allegedly programmed to overshoot the keyhole — even if the player hit the button at the correct time — and force the player to lose.

The problem here is that Key Master isn’t marketed as a game of chance. It’s portrayed as “a simple game of pure skill with a straight-forward directive,” lawyers said. However, lawyers said that the deception behind the machine — that it won’t award players until certain settings are met — is laid out in the game’s manual, which was provided alongside the lawsuit as evidence. In the manual, according to screenshots, the Key Master machine “will not reward a prize until the number of player attempts reaches the threshold of attempts set by [the] operator.” Lawyers for Muto said the default setting is 700, but that each machine can be programmed by individual operators.

Link to Original Source

Comment Re:I feel sorry ... (Score 1) 85

Well, communist is the governing party's own self-proclaimed title—but sure, you could make the claim that the country is lacking some modern resemblance to other, more prototypical (former) communist countries.

Rather than resorting to personal attacks on others though, perhaps you could've instead put forth why you think "communist" is nothing but an antiquated misnomer.

Comment Re:Why/How are game consoles special? (Score 1) 108

I feel like you misinterpreted what I meant. I was talking about the legal exemptions granted to consoles revolving around consumers' ability to modify and jailbreak their devices as they please—which as far as I recall, is still heavily restricted with consoles.

The Register also confirmed that the exemption for gamers should not extend to jailbreaking of console software because such jailbreaking is strongly associated with video game piracy. With respect to preservation uses, looking to certain aspects of section 108 of the Copyright Act for guidance, the Register found that the record supported an exemption for libraries and archives, as well as for museums,to allow circumvention of TPMs so that video games can be preserved in playable condition when authentication servers are discontinued. In accordance with section 108, such institutions must be open to the public and/or to unaffiliated researchers, and the activities at issue must not be for commercial purposes. As with gamers generally, the recommended exemption for preservationists does not extend to circumvention to enable online multiplayer play, which is an activity that would extend beyond the walls of the preserving institution.

But because the risk of piracy is much lower in a preservationist setting than with respect to gamers at large, the Register recommended that preservationists have the ability to circumvent TPMs controlling access to video game console software when necessary to maintain a console game in playable form.Accordingly, based on the Register’s recommendation, the Librarian adopts the following exemption:

(i) Video games in the form of computer programs embodied in physical or downloaded formats that have been lawfully acquired as complete games, when the copyright owner or its authorized representative has ceased to provide access to an external computer server necessary to facilitate an authentication process to enable local gameplay, solely for the purpose of:

  • (A) Permitting access to the video game to allow copying and modification of the computer program to restore access to the game for personal gameplay on a personal computer or video game console; or
  • (B) Permitting access to the video game to allow copying and modification of the computer program to restore access to the game on a personal computer or video game console when necessary to allow preservation of the game in a playable form by an eligible library, archives or museum, where such activities are carried out without any purpose of direct or indirect commercial advantage and the video game is not distributed or made available outside of the physical premises of the eligible library, archives or museum.

(ii) Computer programs used to operate video game consoles solely to the extent necessary for an eligible library, archives or museum to engage in the preservation activities described in paragraph (i)(B).

(iii) For purposes of the exemptions in paragraphs (i) and (ii), the following definitions shall apply:

  • (A) “Complete games” means video games that can be played by users without accessing or reproducing copyrightable content stored or previously stored on an external computer server.
  • (B) “Ceased to provide access” means that the copyright owner or its authorized representative has either issued an affirmative statement indicating that external server support for the video game has ended and such support is in fact no longer available or, alternatively, server support has been discontinued for a period of at least six months; provided, however, that server support has not since been restored.
  • (C) “Local gameplay” means gameplay conducted on a personal computer or video game console, or locally connected personal computers or consoles, and not through an online service or facility.(D)A library, archives or museum is considered “eligible” when the collections of the library, archives or museum are open to the public and/or are routinely made available to researchers who are not affiliated with the library, archives or museum.

Comment Re:Falls flat on raytracing (Score 1) 76

Where have you gotten your performance figure that the 6800xt can barely keep up with the 3060ti? Because the only scenarios I can think of that potentially occurring are in heavily Nvidia optimized games, like Minecraft RTX or Quake II RTX, and even then, that's with DLSS on. I made the assumption that you're talking about games, since you mentioned DLSS, in which case, the 6800xt tends to trade blows with the 3080 (DLSS off) with performance typically leaning more towards AMD, likely due to console architectural optimizations.

As for DLSS and AMD's currently absent equivalent, I completely agree that AMD ought've released something sooner, as when properly supported, DLSS can sometimes work wonders.

Although, now that I think about it, you reference the 6800xt but I'm convinced you would've reasonably meant the 6700xt. In such case, your comment would carry a little more validity. Though, I'd imagine it's still a little superfluous to add that the higher-tier cards perform better than the lower-tiered counterparts and their closest competitors.

Comment Re:Why/How are game consoles special? (Score 1) 108

Gotta love the incessant legal protections/exemptions that serve only to proliferate this whole loss-leader business model—one that may not even be so severely devastated if consoles were to simply be held to the same standards as every other consumer electronic device.

Comment Re:Confusing at best.. (Score 1) 189

Eh, they trade blows, but LastPass is a little more convenient at times. Form detection (especially in regards to saving new passwords) is far more advanced on LastPass. You also don't run the risk of accidentally closing the addon dialogue and deleting whatever information was not yet saved to it as easily with LastPass. Additionally, Bitwarden doesn't work in Private windows on Firefox, you have to either navigate to the vault.bitwarden, get the desktop app, or open a window popup from some regular Firefox tab...

And yet, despite all that, I don't think I'll be switching back any time soon, this article only corroborating my decision to support some less convenient and slightly nicer looking piece of open-source software.

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