Comment Re:How? (Score 1) 102
It has nothing to do with being cowards, they are robots. It's a case of saving a little money at the expense of being excluded from a lot of money.
Comment Re:How? (Score 1) 102
Piracy laws are very effective... for curbing intentional piracy in businesses because they have too much to lose to break laws like these and they are basically robots with instructions to follow the law.
But they won't outlaw these, what they'd do is prohibit companies that use them from government work/contracts and the government gives away WAY too much of our money to give that up.
But they won't outlaw these, what they'd do is prohibit companies that use them from government work/contracts and the government gives away WAY too much of our money to give that up.
Comment Re:What's a thinking man to do? (Score 2, Insightful) 49
Imaginary Property apologist.
Username checks out.
Submission + - Has Slashdot Become More Ads Than "News for Nerds, Stuff That Matters"? 2
FictionPimp writes: Load Slashdot's front page today without an ad blocker and count what you see before scrolling.
Above the fold, there are 6 distinct ad placements: a full-width Retool banner just below the navigation, a MongoDB Atlas inline banner styled to look like a site notice sitting directly above the first story, two sidebar ad units (one for a game dev course bundle, one for business software comparison), a "Sponsored Content" slot beginning to appear at the bottom edge, and a sticky MongoDB footer bar fixed to the bottom of the screen. MongoDB alone holds two simultaneous placements on the same page load. The ratio is 6 ads to 2 stories before you even scroll.
Slashdot has carried the tagline "News for nerds, stuff that matters" since Rob Malda was running the site out of a college dorm in 1997. It is now owned by Slashdot Media, the same parent as SourceForge, and the nav bar includes a "Thought Leadership" section, which is industry parlance for paid editorial content.
None of this is unique to Slashdot. Display advertising is how independent tech publications survive. But there is a meaningful difference between ads that share a page with content and ads that outnumber and surround the content, with some of them actively designed to look like part of the editorial feed.
The question for the Slashdot community: at what point does the original promise of the site, a curated community-moderated signal in a noisy web, get buried under the noise it was supposed to filter? Should the site be rebranded: "Ads for Nerds, News if we can fit it in"?
Above the fold, there are 6 distinct ad placements: a full-width Retool banner just below the navigation, a MongoDB Atlas inline banner styled to look like a site notice sitting directly above the first story, two sidebar ad units (one for a game dev course bundle, one for business software comparison), a "Sponsored Content" slot beginning to appear at the bottom edge, and a sticky MongoDB footer bar fixed to the bottom of the screen. MongoDB alone holds two simultaneous placements on the same page load. The ratio is 6 ads to 2 stories before you even scroll.
Slashdot has carried the tagline "News for nerds, stuff that matters" since Rob Malda was running the site out of a college dorm in 1997. It is now owned by Slashdot Media, the same parent as SourceForge, and the nav bar includes a "Thought Leadership" section, which is industry parlance for paid editorial content.
None of this is unique to Slashdot. Display advertising is how independent tech publications survive. But there is a meaningful difference between ads that share a page with content and ads that outnumber and surround the content, with some of them actively designed to look like part of the editorial feed.
The question for the Slashdot community: at what point does the original promise of the site, a curated community-moderated signal in a noisy web, get buried under the noise it was supposed to filter? Should the site be rebranded: "Ads for Nerds, News if we can fit it in"?
Comment Re:New name (Score 2) 23
Ubisucks: Get used to not owning games!
Gamers: Get used to not having customers!
Comment Re:Doctorow says legalize theft (Score 1) 90
Reverse-engineering is ALSO a technique for PRESERVING software for long-dead platforms.
Reverse-engineering is ALSO a technique for interoperability.
It has many uses, both legal and illegal.
Comment Re:Now Microsoft et al should fix their #$% button (Score 1) 57
100%.
Flat Design SUCKS because it turns every signal into noise where you can no longer easily tell what is:
a) interactable vs
b) static.
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Path of Exile 2 IMHO is a boring, tedious Ruthless Souls-lite grindfest.
Comment Re:Steam Awards (Score 1) 25
Pretty much. Steam is based on the customer's opinion -- the one that gamers actually care about.
From the website
Nominations for The Game Awards are selected by a voting jury of OVER 100 leading media and influencer outlets across the globe.
Not one gives a shit about a bunch of shills giving awards over games.
The main thing gamers care about is:
Is it worth playing?
Comment Re:Yes, but... (Score 1) 68
Q. What do you get when you play country music backwards?
A. You get your wife back, your truck back, your dog back, your house back, and your job back.
And to really ruin Country Music: Johnny Cash - Barbie Girl (Cover by There I Ruined it) Restoration
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Path of Exile 2 is a boring, tedious Ruthless Souls-Lite grindfest.
Comment Repeat after me ... (Score 0) 5
It is not IF you will get hacked, but WHEN you will get hacked.
What is Logitech doing to prevent this from happening in the future?
Comment Re:We're now free (Score 1) 68
> ads that pop up piped in directly from Microsoft.
When did Windows turn into a shitty mobile game?
Comment Re: Bad ideas that just won't go away (Score 2) 148
> "Tea; earl grey; hot." and you wind up with a 3d print of the letter "T" painted earl grey and warmed to 100
LUL! That is a perfect example of voice UI being ambiguous. I've had these discussions for decades but never had a good example. I'm cribbing that.
> "Computer, fire torpedo bays 1 through 5!" takes a lot longer than me pressing the button
Yup, as much as I love ST:TNG I've had that criticism for decades. Voice UI is HORRIBLY SLOW, not to mention ambiguous.
Why the hell wouldn't the captain just press a button to raise shield instead of wasting time to say "Raise Shields", waiting for Worf to listen, and wait for them to actually execute it. That's at last 1 - 2 seconds of wasted time.
Also, wouldn't the computer monitor this and automatically raise shields? I'm sure its reaction time is helluva lot faster then humans!
Comment Re:right to repair should give the right to post t (Score 1) 105
I know, I know, don't feed the trolls
While not explicitly listed it could be argued that it is implicitly listed via:
1. The Constitutions' Ninth Amendment:
Ninth Amendment
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.
2. The Bill of Rights' Tenth Amendment
Amendment X
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
That is, does the Bill of Rights or Constitution say that we CAN'T repair?
Comment Re:Good. Steam is a CHILDREN FRIENDLY platform. (Score 3, Informative) 123
> People with no social skills and absolutely no credibility
Ad hominem and gaslighting much?
The actual issue is that a payment processors should NOT be able to dictate HOW a payment is to be used. What's next, banning purchases over books? movies? Payment processors should NOT be arbitrators of morality.
> Steam is meant to be a child friendly platform
[Citation] and [Bullshit].
You DO realize that adult games are hidden by default AND you need to be logged in to see them, right?
Comment Re:What does that even mean? (Score 1) 40
Indeed. Popularity is a shitty metric.
By Stack Overflow's "Logic" then McDonalds must be #1 because BILLIONS are served.
Popularity != Quality. i.e. Javascript, Python, and PHP are clusterfucks of bad design.
Customers don't care what language you implemented the solution in -- they just want shit to work.
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Path of Exile 2 is an incomplete, boring, tedious, Ruth Souls-lite grindfest.
