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Comment Stupid hidden apps (Score 4, Insightful) 34

One reason this type of scam works well (though it is not specifically relevant to the Super Mario case since it is not yet released for Android at all) is the horrendous practice to completely hide apps not available in your region / compatible with your device. This makes any similarly named app show up as the "only option", and will easily fool people.

You know what, Google? If I am looking for an app, I rather you show me that it exists but cannot be installed, rather than have me dig through tons of search results in vain.

Comment Re:What the heck? (Score 1) 354

Many seemingly confused and/or contradictory summaries here...

Here is my attempt:
1. Company (Mojang) releases game (Minecraft) + multiplayer server under closed license
2. Third party uses decompilation to create derivative work of server. Creates GPL project (CraftBukkit) in violation of both Mojang's license and the GPL (all code must be GPL). Mojang does *not* try to stop the unlawful redistribution.
3. An individual (Wolfe) contributes GPL code to this project.
4. Mojang hires devs of CraftBukkit and thus gets 'some kind of control' over CraftBukkit.
5. Wolfe submits DCMA takedown to those who redistribute CraftBukkit becasue it is in violation of his code's GPL, since it is distributed integrated with non-GPL code.

Note that *redistribution* is the key for the GPL license. The important question is thus: did Mojang ever *redistribute* CraftBukkit themselves? If they did, at that time they released the *decompilated* server code at whatever license it was specified. But, if there is nothing resembling an official Mojang release of a Bukkit binary or code, then nothing of this matters for them. The only people who then are in the wrong are the ones who redistributed a combination of a GPL and Mojangs closed source. They are liable both to Mojang (who are not currently complaining) AND the people who's GPLd code are used (one individual who now IS complaining). Per the DMCA takedowns they have to stop this redistribution.

Furthermore, IF Mojang did distribute this binary or code themselves, it appears some people (possibly Wolfe?) argues that this requires them to also open the original source code of the game server. That is an actually very interesting non-obvious license discussion. Personally, I don't *think* it has legal standing. The fact that Bukkit was built on top of the decompiled code makes Bukkit more of a normal derivative work from the decompiled code than the original minecraft server code. It would be a widely different matter if someone contributed obfuscated code to an already existing GPL project and then redistributed the combination.

Comment Re:FTL Faster Than Light (Score 1) 669

I'd ask the frog "If yesterday I had asked you behind which door are the Riches and Power, what would you have said?" and then go through the opposite door.

Plot twist: The frog says: "I would have said: I have no idea what you are talking about". Explanation: the puzzle was created today. The every second day rule only applies starting from the day the puzzle is created.

Actually, asking "if tomorrow I ask you" is equally unsafe, since it could be that this is the final day before the puzzle is dismantled. To be safe you need to go with something more creative like "true or not, if we pretend this puzzle is still active tomorrow, and I were to ask you ..., etc."

But perhaps a more elegant solution is just "if the days you are lying and telling the truth had been reversed, and I asked you ...., etc."

Comment Re:FTL Faster Than Light (Score 1) 669

You can ask the frog one question, but it will always lie.

This makes no sense! If you know the Frog always lies, just ask him "Where are the Riches and Power?" and be on your merry way through the opposite door.

Shouldn't the phrasing rather be something like "You can ask the frog one question, but every second day it lies, and every second day it tells the truth."

Now it is possible, but non-trivial, to formulate a question that tells you which door to use. (But not if the Frog is dead, though.)

I suppose the plot twist may be that both doors open to the same room, and the puzzle was designed by someone wanting to teach you the lesson that riches and power leads to certain destruction :)

Comment Use gnome 3, gnome-shell (Score 0) 1154

Gnome3/gnome-shell now allows for a huge amount of customization with plugins, which really aren't that difficult to develop. Whatever "vision" you have about how the desktop should behave, why not simply implement it as a Gnome3 plugin?

With carefully selected, already available, plugins, you can more or less turn Gnome3 into the look and feel of Gnome 2, if that is what you really want; so I really do not understand what all the "Gnome 3 is so bad compared to Gnome 2" comes from. It seems all that is needed to solve that problem is for someone to prepare and maintain an easily installable "plugin cocktail".

The only major "desktop problem" I currently see is the duplication of effort between Unity and Gnome 3. I hope someone re-implements the Unity panel + dash as a Gnome 3. I would love to run Gnome 3 with dash.

Comment Re:i worked for another Lauder company (Score 1) 154

I can see the point others often bring up about OnLive being "impossible" based on the total cost of bandwidth. But how can the light speed latency make OnLive impossible? Whatever theoretical calculations you can come up with are trumped by me actually playing Batman Arkham Asylum on Onlive and not being disturbed by the lag.

Games

Developer Panel Asks Whether AAA Games Are Too Long 342

Gamespot reports on a discussion at the Develop 2011 conference in which a panel of game designers debated whether recent big-budget releases like Heavy Rain and L.A. Noire were too long for a typical gamer's taste. Quoting: "'Gamers are losing patience,' said [Alexis Kennedy of Failbetter Games], when asked about his own experiences with Heavy Rain, 'so many people don't reach the end and lose the full impact of the story.' He wasn't complimentary of its narrative either, questioning the benefit of basing a game on long-form narrative such as film, resulting in a 'bastardized' storyline that doesn't quite work. ... The likes of social and casual games, particularly the cheap games available on mobile, have changed the expectations of gamers, the panel concluded. Since gamers are paying less money, there's less need to create 10-hour-plus gaming experiences, because consumers no longer feel shortchanged."

Comment Re:The reasons for failure (Score 1) 762

I think the pilot episode did motivate Eli's place on the ship, and he *could* have been a great character if the series had stayed consistent with the picture of him as a "highly unmotivated genius". Previous SG scientists have all been highly motivated and hard working, driven by a need to prove themselves. Eli could have been a nice contrast to this, with someone who is brilliant but really doesn't care much.

But you are right, in the rest of the episodes he was turned into just "a slacker teenager" who doesn't show any of the genius that brought him onboard in the first place. The writers pretty much use him as a button-mashing monkey for times when the story keeps Rush away from the console.

Comment Re:The reasons for failure (Score 1) 762

I am with you all the way on that the ship and its role in the mythos was tragically underused. Had they focused more on that, and tied the plot to it, the series could have been brilliant.

You make a good point on the crew-crew interaction. However, it may still be that this was caused by the "main plot" being so thin in most episodes, as it did put more focus on the soap opera part. I mean, also in SG-1 the character interactions could be cheesy at times, but this was less evident as the focus typically was on an engaging plot. A counter-example is one of my least favorite SG-1 episodes 'Solitudes' where O'Neill and Carter spends the whole episode stranded in a cave, with O'Neill dying. It is one of the few 'crew against nature' plots in SG-1, and to me, it mostly falls flat.

Comment The reasons for failure (Score 4, Insightful) 762

My take at some reasons for failure:

1. Most of their viewers identify with Eli (the slacker nerd genius), but he ended as a minor support character, often just tangentially involved in the plot. He should have been SGU's Rodney.
2. Unlike previous Stargate iterations and BSG they tried to pull off 'crew against nature' plot lines rather than 'crew against enemies' . To get such plots feel like 'action' is really hard. A lot of them (especially in the beginning) was "crew lands on planet, somehow gets stuck, must get back in time before the ship leaves". There is only so many times you can do that before it becomes repetitive.
3. Point '2' got even worse since the planets often were ridiculously uninspired, "Desert planet", "Freezing planet", "Jungle planet", etc.

All this said, I think the show was heading in an interesting direction. I'm sad to see it go.

Comment Re:This would actually be useful. (Score 1) 63

Thanks for the tip. I didn't know about this (needs a plugin for thunderbird)

But I couldn't find a standard for redirected email, is there a rfc for this? Essentially it is like Ccc: + setting a custom from address. To me this really proves how this Aprils fools joke really isn't a joke. Rather, it would be nice with a standard for headers that covers this functionality.

Comment Re:This would actually be useful. (Score 1) 63

You could always use "Forward", which includes the original message along with the list of original recipients.

Which usually requires you to add an awkward "Hi, I forgot to send this to you" to not make the inline headers too confusing. Sure, this is what I do today, but it is less convenient than Ccc: would be, and exposes my mistake, which I'd rather avoid if I could.

Comment Re:This would actually be useful. (Score 1) 63

Sounds more like you'd want to recall the original, and re-send the revision.

I am absolutely opposed to a feature that would allow people to alter email I have already received. I often use my email as an historic record of events, and would hate if I could not be sure that it is immutable.

Also, I'm pretty sure there is no standard for doing this across mail systems. To roll it out would require a major revamp of email as we know it today, since it requires some careful form of cross-realm authentication. On the other hand, the Ccc: header is just a straightforward feature to implement in the MUA.

With a CCC, the original group still doesn't know Alice is invited.

True, but for me this usually is not as important as to point out to Alice that she is not the only one getting the email. In the rare occasions when it is critically important that everyone is aware of everyone else, a followup email with "I forgot Alice" would be motivated.

Comment Re:This would actually be useful. (Score 1) 63

Personally, I'd like support for multiple Dcc: headers: Disjoint Carbon Copies. I want to send the same message to multiple groups of addresses where I want those in one set to know they were all copied but want to hide that it was sent to the other group, and vice versa.

If the Ccc header was implemented, you could easily do this by sending the mail multiple times. Send the mail once to just the To:/Cc: recipients. Then put the To:/Cc: recipients in the Ccc: header, and for each set of Dcc: recipients send a copy with them in the Cc: field.

Since I can't figure out a way to emulate Ccc: with Dcc:, my vote is with Ccc:.

Comment Re:This would actually be useful. (Score 3, Insightful) 63

I have actually wanted this feature at times and wondered why there was no way in the MUA UI to do it. Not for keeping people out of the loop, but for resending emails that get bounced (say, misspelled email or delivery failure) or to recipients I forgot the first time.

Lets say that you are sending out a move invite to a number of friends. Just after you send it you notice that you forgot Alice. Now you need to send the invite just to her, but you prefer the email to look as the original so that she can see who else is invited. This is a common occurrence! And it would be very convenient if you could just bring up the email again, move everyone from To/Cc into Ccc, and then put her as the only CC.

Please explain to me again why this is presented as an Aprils fool, rather than a genuine feature?

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