Uh, gaming may not be too great on that. The video chip is very good, but the CPU is about equivalent to a Pentium II, at 300 Mhz. You can obviously do a lot with a processor that fast, but it's also ARM architecture, meaning it's not going to be running old Windows or DOS games easily or well.... emulation will, likely, be very slow indeed.

Strategy games, where you have access to the source code, will probably work. Battle for Wesnoth, the roguelikes (aka Nethack,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Malor at 5:28 AM on February 29, 2012

As long as readers are tied to specific stores and use store specific drm (and in amazon's case use a store specific format), i don't want to be their customers.

Note that Amazon's format, .azw, is really just .mobi with a couple of tiny, nearly irrelevant changes. Kindles read .mobi directly, and converting an AZW to work on a reader that supports .mobi would be trivial, once you broke the DRM.

Of course,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Malor at 5:22 PM on February 28, 2012

Calling him 'paranoid', grouse, says more about you than it does about him.
posted to MetaFilter by Malor at 1:18 AM on February 29, 2012

But that's not really a bike -- bikes have two wheels, and you have to balance on them.

This vehicle has four wheels, stands on its own, and, presumably, has a braking system. I'd call that a pedal-powered trolley, myself.
posted to MetaFilter by Malor at 7:09 PM on February 28, 2012

Oh, plus a motor! Trolley for sure. Not a bike.
posted to MetaFilter by Malor at 7:09 PM on February 28, 2012

Just this morning, I heard NPR refer to the Citizens United decision as the one that let "corporations and unions" donate unlimited funds to campaigns.

WHAT THE FRAK IS UNIONS DOING IN THERE? CU has NOTHING to do with unions. It's about corporations, purely, 100%. The fact that unions could form corporations to donate money is completely frakking irrelevant. Dairy farmers could form PACs, why weren't dairy farmers mentioned? Or bicycle repairmen? Or... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Malor at 5:56 PM on February 28, 2012

Well, okay, that and 'enhanced interrogation techniques' instead of torture. That was about equivalently mendacious.
posted to MetaFilter by Malor at 6:02 PM on February 28, 2012

I got two takeaways from this. First, Martin Luther was a dick. Second, people thought of him as the progressive, enlightened version of religion.

Whoah.
posted to MetaFilter by Malor at 5:01 PM on February 28, 2012

but using usual content industry metrics where the retail value of pirated content is counted,

Don't. Just don't. If I walk past a lemonade stand and don't buy a lemonade, the stand didn't take a loss.
posted to MetaFilter by Malor at 3:18 PM on February 27, 2012

(not to say that what they're doing here is okay, but NOT ONE PERSON who buys one of these readers would have ever bought all 4,001 books. Probably most of them will never read that many books in their entire lifetimes.)
posted to MetaFilter by Malor at 3:19 PM on February 27, 2012

Big monied copyright holders engaging in ebook piracy (in fact, profiting from ebook piracy) is far, far worse than anything pirate bay has ever done.

Agreed completely that this is bad, and should be actively punished. No argument there.

What I'm objecting to is the ridiculous, hyped assertions about economic damage. Claiming that someone that bought one of these e-book readers just did 4,001 * 7.50 = $30,007.50 in damages... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Malor at 5:03 PM on February 27, 2012

Yes, the RIAA and MPAA do that all the fucking time. Those kind of loss metrics are what's driving all that horrible legislation -- they're screaming about 'losing billions'. But if you took them at face value about their losses, if those were actually lost sales that were converted to purchases, their industry would instantly grow by something like ten times.

It's a ridiculously, wildly inflated set of assumptions and assertions.
posted to MetaFilter by Malor at 4:48 PM on February 28, 2012

As an aside, what did this part refer to?

the humiliating treatment of our President and Vice President by those who no longer respect our power

This was before I was born, so I have absolutely no idea what he might be referencing here.
posted to MetaFilter by Malor at 4:06 AM on February 28, 2012

Ok, you guys drink, I'll be the designated point-and-laugher. :)
posted to MetaFilter by Malor at 8:56 PM on February 25, 2012

Yes, Blasdelb, and it's particularly frightening how all these MeFites don't understand the difference between fantasy and reality. They're clearly unable to harmlessly play at something they would never do in real life. Bunch of sickos we got here.

</sarcasm>
posted to MetaFilter by Malor at 5:08 PM on February 26, 2012

Trying to parse the meaning of a city of Windows filesharing was an interesting, if brief, mental exercise.

And, for what it's worth, I don't care if they're over-done, I love tilt-shift movies. And this is a really good one.
posted to MetaFilter by Malor at 4:22 AM on February 26, 2012

must we assume the worst just because they are from North Korea?

Given that those kids are right at the outer limit of what kids that age are capable of (the finger strength alone would be brutally difficult), and given what we know about NK's history and practices, it is quite reasonable to assume that they were driven to those extremes in ways that we would find abhorrent.
posted to MetaFilter by Malor at 8:49 PM on February 24, 2012

The first title in the subhead got an involuntary laugh out of me: A Century of Sand Dredging in the Bristol Channel: Volume Two

Volume Two. It was so fascinating, he couldn't stop at one!
posted to MetaFilter by Malor at 5:00 AM on February 24, 2012

This is pretty terrible, actually.
posted to MetaFilter by Malor at 12:03 AM on February 24, 2012

No, because if she were, she wouldn't have been able to read (or even know about) those letters. :)
posted to MetaFilter by Malor at 1:50 PM on February 23, 2012

/s/were/weren't/
posted to MetaFilter by Malor at 1:51 PM on February 23, 2012

I skimmed that article with a gimlet eye, ready with a savage comment if he said anything bad about Wind Waker, but he thinks it's a bright spot in the Zelda series. That was unusual enough that I settled in to read his essay carefully, and I found I agreed with most of it.

Basically, he thinks Zelda has lost all exploration and challenge -- it's just a series of set pieces, which you must experience in a set order. I think that's absolutely true,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Malor at 6:55 PM on February 22, 2012

Okami was an amazing game with one gigantic, critical flaw: character dialog couldn't be sped up or skipped. You had to wait, endlessly and tediously, for the characters to say 'mwa mwa mwa mwa' at length, when you'd already read the text twenty times over.

What's really, REALLY stupid about this is that you can skip the mwa mwa mwa on a replay. So the designers knew it was an issue, and actually thought leaving in unskippable gibberish-speak was a... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Malor at 8:45 PM on February 22, 2012

Oh, also: I had a hell of a time painting on the Wii version. Drawing straight lines was easy on the PS2, because you were just pushing a thumbstick, but I think the Wii version re-used the same code to analyze your painting, and I found drawing a straight line with my whole arm to be EXTREMELY difficult. So it was very unforgiving. I could maybe get one straight line in five recognized as being a straight line, and eventually I gave up entirely on the Wii version. It was endlessly tedious... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Malor at 8:50 PM on February 22, 2012

Right, that's what I was saying upthread. If Nintendo did what Thompson wanted, fans would hate it, and sales would be poor. Then, over time, people would gradually realize that, hey... that 2013 Link game was great! We should have more of those! But it would be too late, because videogame sales are so dependent on the first month or two.

Even if the new game was compellingly better, screwing with the formula and violating expectations will get... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Malor at 10:31 AM on February 23, 2012

(sorry, I was responding to muddgirl...ersatz's comment snuck in there while I was writing it. )
posted to MetaFilter by Malor at 10:33 AM on February 23, 2012

Actually, I think what he's saying is that he wants enough new stuff in each Zelda to be reminded of what it was like to be 11 years old and playing Legend of Zelda for the first time.
posted to MetaFilter by Malor at 1:19 PM on February 23, 2012

Actually, Sticher, How To Train Your Dragon did that pretty well. The protagonist's love interest was a female warrior, and nobody else in the story noticed or cared. She was, in fact, probably the most competent of all the trainees by normal Viking standards, part of what the protagonist seemed to like about her.

That was the first Dreamworks movie I've seen that I thought was genuinely good... most of them have been tech demos or schlock. It... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Malor at 1:05 PM on February 23, 2012

The thought occurs, maxwelton, that with activities of that kind of danger level, maybe it's better to be old and regret not doing it, in exchange for being able to be old, and regret not doing it.
posted to MetaFilter by Malor at 1:44 AM on February 23, 2012

I believe that all the UI teams for Linux more or less simultaneously went insane. Instead of keeping their users happy, they decided to fuck those users over totally to go chasing people that DIDN'T use Linux.

The desktop has been rewritten for stupid people, but stupid people won't use Linux because it doesn't come on their computers to start with. The only time they'll use it is when a power user either convinces them to, or actively installs it on their computers.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Malor at 3:51 PM on February 21, 2012

You know, the thought occurs to me that one big use for this might be as a 'cloud replacement'. That is, rather than depending on other people and other services to do what you need, with all the ancillary problems of your eyeballs becoming a product, and the security issues in having other people storing your critical data.... instead of doing that, you could just carry it all with you, in your pocket.

It's really startling how little space textual... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Malor at 7:58 PM on February 21, 2012

Yes, delmoi, expecting software to work as well as the prior software from the same company is completely brain-damaged and stupid. You're so right.
posted to MetaFilter by Malor at 2:45 AM on February 22, 2012

Yeah, but that gets us back to the point I was talking about -- your phone isn't the canonical repository for everything, and the central device, if you're pulling stuff down from the cloud and treating the phone as a device that can be wiped as needed.

Of course it is. If you're using the cloud as a backup, it's just a backup, not the primary source. It's the safety net, not the tightrope.

I mean, by that argument, my home... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Malor at 3:49 PM on February 22, 2012

He's reckless, impulsive, and always recommends the wrong course of action. His job is to keep the Enterprise safe, yet enemies teleport onto the bridge ALL THE DAMN TIME. How does he keep his job?

Being consistently incorrect is almost as valuable as being consistently correct. If you listen to Worf's advice, and then always do the exact opposite thing, you will prosper.

He would make someone on Earth... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Malor at 8:37 PM on February 21, 2012

Wow.... as xedrik says, bradbane's link is FPP-worthy all on its own. The main post here really should be a secondary link, as in, "Oh, and this guy ALSO takes pictures of his dog on things."
posted to MetaFilter by Malor at 12:33 PM on February 21, 2012

That's the "throw shit at the wall and see what sticks" theory of game design. Blech.
posted to MetaFilter by Malor at 8:41 AM on February 20, 2012

and set their feet on fire.

.... and they're mean about deadlines.
posted to MetaFilter by Malor at 12:38 AM on February 20, 2012

We make plenty of stuff.

All you have to do is look at our gigantic trade deficit to know this isn't true. However much we manufacture, it is not enough. And enormous dollar holdings have built up overseas, which is yet another form of American debt; we will have to eventually either work to repatriate those dollars, by creating and shipping stuff that other countries want, or else repudiate the debt by destroying the currency.... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Malor at 11:28 PM on February 19, 2012

Dogs don't watch tv.

That was true in the CRT days -- I think cats and dogs just saw the moving line of the raster beam, rather than images.

But now that LCD and plasma HD screens have persistent displays, suddenly they can see the images. That's why there's all those videos on Youtube of cats trying to catch bugs that are inside an iPad.

DogTV would have been useless in 2002, but it might just fly in 2012.
posted to MetaFilter by Malor at 10:08 AM on February 19, 2012

To try to put that in perspective..... imagine standing on the Earth at the equator. A wall of flame starts a short distance away, and heads away from you, traveling along the equator, at 300,000 miles per hour.

How long will it take to go all the way around the planet, and engulf you?

Five minutes.
posted to MetaFilter by Malor at 10:55 PM on February 17, 2012

Mac App Store and identified developers:

This is actually the setting that worries me the most. The question I have is this: will I have control over the keys? Can I add a new key to the root store, and sign my own executables, even ones that run as root? Can I add other people's keys as well, trusting them to write code for my computer?

If I can, then Gatekeeper will be a powerful security feature, a wonderful tool. If I... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Malor at 6:20 AM on February 17, 2012

Right, but it would be much better if I could use Gatekeeper to verify that my code is really mine, and hasn't been hijacked by any outside entity. That would be an awesome feature, in fact, better than any other shipping OS.

Trusted Computing can be a powerful security tool if I have control of the keys. If I don't, it is almost purely a weapon against me.
posted to MetaFilter by Malor at 6:28 AM on February 17, 2012

Goddamm, did you guys take a knock to the head today or something?

What I'm saying is this: it could be A GREAT SECURITY TOOL if it's done right, if I have control over the keys.

What is up with reading comprehension today?
posted to MetaFilter by Malor at 6:35 AM on February 17, 2012

As this site points out, Gatekeeper is a direct assault on Steam for the Mac.
posted to MetaFilter by Malor at 6:51 AM on February 17, 2012

I doubt Apple would ever do that. Odds are, anyone who would be interested in adding their own signature authorities is just going to run in 'Allow unsigned code' mode or compiling everything themselves.

Which would be stupid. If you have the Gatekeeper functionality, and you can install new root keys as you SHOULD be able to, since you DO own the hardware, right? So... then you sign any app you compile or write yourself. Your... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Malor at 9:47 AM on February 17, 2012

I don't think you really understand what Gatekeeper is or does, what code signing is or does, or what a certificate authority is or does. Think more along the lines of SSL certificates. You may want to back away from the discussion until you do a little research... you're confused, and confusing people who may be interested in the topic.

No, actually, I understand exactly what code signing is. Precisely. You're the confused one,... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Malor at 10:31 AM on February 17, 2012

(and, yes, to forestall objections, I do understand the difference between public and private keys, but that's not really relevant to what I'm talking about, so I just glossed past it with 'keys'.)
posted to MetaFilter by Malor at 10:34 AM on February 17, 2012

Blech. Despise the limited-clicks mechanic.
posted to MetaFilter by Malor at 6:52 AM on February 17, 2012

If he thinks keeping your legs closed stops sex, that guy must be the most boring lover ever.
posted to MetaFilter by Malor at 6:42 AM on February 17, 2012

xarnop: I am vaccinated and have horirble immune system function and pretty much a body that is in pain and dysfunctional in too many ways to describe.

You know, you might want to look into 'helminthic therapy', which is a real actual therapy prescribed by real, actual doctors, where you ingest pig whipworm. (They live in your body for some time, but can't reproduce in humans, so you're not infectious.)

The human immune... [more]
posted to MetaFilter by Malor at 9:44 AM on February 16, 2012