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Comment Master System, Genesis, Game Boy (Score 1) 41

People still develop new games for the Master System (which uses a Z80), the Genesis (which uses a Z80 as a sound coprocessor), and especially the Game Boy (whose Sharp SM83 CPU isn't exactly a Z80 but is similar). And they're selling these games both as ROM filess on itch.io and as cartridges.

Comment Re: Context? (Score 1) 131

The advertising clause wasn't "non-free" as much as a practical problem that was incompatible with the GPL's ban on additional restrictions. It was largely removed when much popular software switched from the 4-clause original BSD license to the 3-clause or 2-clause version.

The appropriate copyright notice clause remained in 3-clause and 2-clause BSD licenses. This clause is also present in GPLv2 and GPLv3.

Comment Re:between 165k and 222k usd? (Score 1) 49

I live in Oslo, Norway. I'm driving a BMW i3 I bought new 12 years ago. It was a piece of shit the day I bought it. It's the exact same piece of shit now. I've calculate that so far, I'm at about $245 USD per month total cost of ownership including charging and toll booths across these 12 years. I suspect I can drive it for another 6-10 years and by then I expect the TCO to have dropped to about $195 a month before it starts increasing again.

I can't drive this shit heap too far, 120km on a great day in the middle of summer. And I had an incident a few years back on the countryside in -11C temperatures where I only got 50km in the mountains that day.... that was REALLY COLD but I had blankets for the 3 hour wait for the tow truck.

We'll take a vacation in a few weeks, we'll rent a crappy tesla and drive to Gothenburg or Stockholm. Still massively cheaper than wasting money on a new car that would give me better range for the week or two I need it to. But I still go grocery shopping a few times a month in Sweden because I'm not stupid and this crap car can make it there with a little extra charge each way. Which is no problem because there are chargers at pretty much every exit and they're cheap.

So, that brings me to trucks...

1) one driver 5 truck caravans. This is close and it's going to happen. In fact, I'm pretty sure within a very short time, we'll see most trucks driverless on the highway and then you'll see professional drivers being delivered to trucks for last-mile travel where the trucks will still do the driving, but supervised. And then in time, no more drivers... except in New York where some guy named Joe Joe who graduated from "Vinnie's airplane towing school" is considered more qualified than an airline pilot with a hundred thousand hours of flight time and a formal education and tows airplanes to the terminal because "we're a union shop".

2) Telsa isn't selling the trucks to make money from the trucks... oh they will... but consider that a model-X at 1/50 the size is like 1/3 the cost of the truck. The money comes from the infrastructure. Tesla will build out a charging network even if they have to dip into the college funds of Musk's 72 children to do so. And he'll use fuel cell and solar and possibly wind to charge up the battery power banks. He'll then find a way to cut deals with the truck stops that he'll install the chargers at their truck stops in exchange for parts of the food profits and for massive discounts on any fuel needed for the fuel cells. Then he'll make a deal with netflix and disney plus and all of them for the entertainment systems in the trucks and he'll charge the truck drivers for Starlink. And he'll then have a huge fleet of spare Tesla Semi's that can be quickly delivered to drivers on the road who have problems. They'll then arrange for the semi to be serviced and returned to the driver as he passes back. Of course, all at a cost.

Within 5 years, he'll have streamlined most of the US land freight infrastructure, bled everyone dry in the process and be strongly positioned to sell Tesla Semi as a service in competition with the existing fleets.

Europe and Asia (outside of Russia and India) will be a much tougher win because we prefer rail where possible. And at least here in Norway, we would still rather invest in new rails rather than new roads.

Comment Simple calculator or screw it (Score 1) 105

The Windows Start Menu is so frigging confusing that I use it for two things

1) press windows, type name of app, press enter
2) press start, type basic equation (I.e 5/1.35), pray it gives me numbers and not an advertisement for feminine hygiene products

I am terrified when I need to use a mouse on the start menu. It's as though it can do everything except start programs

Comment Re:Maybe... (Score 1) 81

Now that most people have a fast internet connection

In the case of BitTorrent, even the fastest Internet connection won't get you a lot of successful peer connections if your ISP blocks all inbound TCP connections.

If youtube goes away, streaming video won't disappear, some new ecosystem will grow in its place.

Such a new ecosystem already has grown, as I understand it. It's called getting Netflix, HBO Max, Paramount+, Disney+/Hulu, Peacock, Prime Video, or Apple TV to accept your pitch and fund it. These take the place of cable television channels in the pre-broadband economy. And there are still a lot more pilot screenplays than budget to produce all of them.

Comment Re:Maybe... (Score 1) 81

1. The same way 99% of content producers do it today. Less than one percent of youtube content is monetized in any meaningful way.

Would it benefit the public to completely do away with the other 1%? How could something like The Amazing Digital Circus have been produced purely on a hobby budget?

2. Word of mouth. Curated lists.

How does the producer of a video go about seeding "word of mouth" and getting onto "curated lists"?

3. The protocol already handles this.

Yes, by excluding a lot of viewers who lack an IP address that can accept inbound TCP connections, unless I'm missing something. It also excludes viewers who have an iPhone or iPad and don't have a Mac with which to build and ad-hoc sign an app because Apple has reportedly banned BitTorrent clients from the App Store.

Comment Re:Maybe... (Score 1) 81

The same way it all worked before youtube.

And how might that have been? I might be misremembering, but this was my recollection:

1. Movie studios and TV channels funded production of videos to be viewed by the public. Very few pitches got funded.
2. Movie studios promoted upcoming and newly released movies through television advertising, and TV channels promoted shows to the channel's own viewers.
3. Movies were paywalled, and TV was ad-supported (in the case of broadcast) or behind the combination of ads and a paywall (in the case of cable).

Also, before YouTube, most end-user devices on the Internet had an IP address, even if dynamic, which could accept incoming connections. Nowadays, a lot of Internet subscribers' devices are behind network address translation (NAT), and if you share your IP address with the whole neighborhood, the ISP is unlikely to forward a port to your device.

Comment Re:Maybe... (Score 1) 81

Under your proposal:
1. How would the producer of a video cover the cost of producing the video before it even reaches BitTorrent?
2. How would a viewer learn of a video that they are likely to enjoy?
3. How would the system work around users who "leech", or view the video without contributing to its decentralized hosting?

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