Comment Re:Stallman For President (Score 0) 183
This is all off-topic but: You people don't understand affirmative action.
Affirmative action is supposed to eliminate "closet racism". In theory it should work well in a society where there is a visible racial/ethnic/gender bias which is not openly expressed and still discriminates "under the hood".
Its supposed to create a culture of (initially) fake equality where every person (no matter their race/gender/ethos) are shown to be capable of holding a certain position which would otherwise be unlikely to get to - not because they're not capable, but because they're being discriminated against.
When future generations will take look at the world they will see a lot of examples of all kinds of people holding all kinds of positions in society. Learning by seeing is much stronger than learning by "being told" - the second method being the most prevalent method of transferring "closet racism" to the next generation. Thereby, the previously "fake" equality becomes natural equality, eliminating the need for "affirmative action" and undoing past harsh discrimination.
Afterwards (in theory) you have a level playing field and no discrimination. From that point on employment based solely on qualifications is the next step.
Of course, whether this is still necessary or not is debatable.
Comment Depends what you mean by "comparable" (Score 0) 201
I don't know if this one qualifies as "comparable". Its Connect4, has an AI and also has online play via Facebook.
It uses SVG/VML (actually Raphael) for graphics and doesn't even require HTML5
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Comment Re:cash4cronies (Score 0) 434
One of the reasons would probably be corruption which is harder to police and expose. What would stop the individual shareholders from donating money? They would obviously qualify as people.
Comment Re:You're right - the tools are stupid. (Score 0) 500
If you switch to the new (and sometimes painfully slow) comments interface then the problems should disappear for all browsers
Google Launches CADIE, the First True AI 246
Comment Re:Here we go again..... (Score 0) 249
Perhaps the name Currentchange would be better.
Comment Re:DOD Guidlines. Re:"The only fireproof (Score 0) 527
6. Send the copy of the drive (made before step 1) to your enemy?
Nintendo Slapped With Wiimote Strap Lawsuit Once Again 356
Comment What to do, pirate or not play at all (Score 0) 531
I'm not advocating, I am just thinking. There are two ways to send the message that you hate DRM trough "buyer action"
1) You refuse to buy or pirate (basically play) the game in any way
This sends the message that:
a) The game is crap
OR
b) The protection system (DRM) is unacceptable
2) You pirate the game
which sends the message
a) The DRM was actually needed, but it was not strong enough (we can squeeze out more buyers with stronger DRM)
XOR
b) DRM protection systems never work against piracy.
Now lets see the most likely scenario of advocating Message 1:
From a practical standpoint, at this stage message 1b is probably lost in noise because of its rarity. Message 1b is also not the full message - the full message includes the 2b part too.
Most people ignore advocacy of message 1 because they want to play the game anyway. Some of those will pirate the game, some will just put up with the DRM. Those that accept the message will probably not be in big enough numbers. Basically 1b will remain noise, because publishers just want to blame piracy.
On the other hand, the most likely scenario of advocating Message 2:
Many people already pirate games anyway, and contributing to their numbers increases the strength of the message. As a result the DRM schemes become even more restrictive and invasive. Bigger and bigger portion of the people that don't pirate the games can't bother to put up with the DRM crap. An increasing amount of people become aware of what DRM really is and how it complicates things for them (this is already happening). At some point the DRM becomes so invasive that the people that pirate games largely outnumber the people that actually buy games.
There will inevitably be a significant split in companies, the ones that decide to go ahead with stronger DRM measures, and the ones (possibly even new ones / raise of the Indie ones) that decide to drop (or just start without) DRM. IF this happens, Message 2a and 2b are fighting against each-other equally, trough market competition of companies, and very soon message 2b will win. IF this doesn't happen (all companies decide for stronger DRM), game companies will simply go out of business at some point.
Of course, this assumes that all DRM will be always broken (circumvented), which is a pretty good assumption to begin with...
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