Comments for Apreche.net

Comment on Strict Open Source Policies Lead to Fail by James

James — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 02:20:37 +0000

“Willingness?” I’m not sure H.264 support has *that* much to do with ideology. Opera has stated that they won’t include H.264 support because the licensing fees are too expensive. I’m sure that factored into Mozilla’s decision.

When Chromium ships in a lot of distributions, it won’t support H.264 either; distributions will have to strip it out due because of the legal issues. Fedora is considering starting work on integrating Chromium with Gstreamer in order to have a legal way to distribute the browser for free and let the user plug the codec in without Fedora Project or Red Hat getting sued. Or maybe everyone will just download licensed binaries from Google. Hardly ideal, but hardly unlikely, either. *shrug*

YouTube decided to go with H.264 over two years ago; I think up until now it’s mostly been used for Apple TV and iPhone (and other mobile phones?). Given that relations with Apple have been weakening somewhat as of late, it’s not completely ridiculous to postulate that they’ll start moving toward Theora in the future.

I dunno. It’s pretty similar to the Linux MP3 situation, which hasn’t drastically changed much in recent years.

Comment on Let’s Fight Terrorism For Real by Apsup

Apsup — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 22:51:16 +0000

Interesting ideas, but I don’t think it would work as well as you think. First of all did you consider the amount of trolls and other idiot people on the internet who might appear as a “textbook case of a terrorist” but who doesn’t act up his beleves outside the internet.

Also what should people do when they find “potential terrorist”. Tell the police? They won’t have resources to go after every “I suspect that my facebook friend is a terrorist”-case.

So good luck for your witch hunt, but I have my doubts.

Comment on Open Source is Good for the Environment by Elaine

Elaine — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 10:24:15 +0000

I’m glad your blogging more often, I love to read it. You make some very good points and have interesting ideas.

Comment on The Use Cases for a Tablet by Tasel

Tasel — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 01:24:49 +0000

Dugg over at http://digg.com/hardware/The_Use_Cases_for_a_Tablet_PC_or_why_they_ve_all_sucked

Comment on The Use Cases for a Tablet by Usagimaru

Usagimaru — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 01:12:56 +0000

Have you see the Lenovo IdeaPad hybrid?
http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/05/lenovo-ideapad-u1-hybrid-hands-on-and-impressions/
It’s a laptop with ultrathin specs, and a detachable screen that is a resistive multitouch tablet with a 1GHz processor and a custom linux OS.

I see this as being a gamechanger. The tablet part has just enough power to do anything you would want to do in laying down or standing up positions, the laptop part has enough power to do any work you would throw at it, and you don’t have to carry around an extra device.

Comment on The Guaranteed Cure by Beau Gussman

Beau Gussman — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 08:04:12 +0000

I find this fascinating, but I think the success rate may depend on the habit in question. For example; I am a sex addict.
Which begs: Would these people be vetted, bonded, etc? (armed, immunized …)

Comment on We Need Nicer Medicine by Emiko

Emiko — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 21:40:33 +0000

My Mom’s OBGYN has a skin care spa next door, and they are connected in the clinic. You can go get a facial and a massage from the skin health people, after which you go over and the doctors take your mammogram or pap-smear or whatever. Apparently the OBGYN is stressful for a lot of women, but I thought this was ingenious. The doctors do not have more work, the patients enjoy the spa, everybody wins.

You should talk to my sister, a med student, on the show. Patient/Doctor interactions is one of her special areas of interest.

Comment on How Badly Do You Want It? by Mister Blithe

Mister Blithe — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 18:07:41 +0000

Your analogy of the infinite apples is insipid because it assumes it didn’t cost anything to create those apples in the first place. If I have infinite apples but it cost me $1000 to produce that first apple that I could then copy, am I still a bad person who hates joy and freedom if I charge people for the apples? Remember too, if I have to spend my own money to create these apples, that means I have to also have a regular day job, which means I have less time to create other replicable fruits.

I remember listening to your podcast episode about buying anime not being an act of charity or some such, where you guys said something about how you won’t buy anime simply to support the people who make it. This is ironic, because what you are essentially saying here is that all acts of content creation should become acts of charity on the part of the creators; I pay money to produce a song or a videogame or whatever, and then I give it away for free because to do otherwise would be to hate joy.

Comment on Persistence Sells and Ruins Games by moritheil

moritheil — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 03:30:48 +0000

Very good article. I’ll blog in response to this.

Comment on Privacy is Dead by Joey Snackpants

Joey Snackpants — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 19:48:42 +0000

I never equated privacy and premature leaking of intellectual property… but looking at it in this context, you are correct in the fears of information… along with the hypocrisy of privacy advocates that download bittorrent.

Comment on Used Books on Amazon for $0.01 by Hannah

Hannah — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 22:38:31 +0000

I have also been trying to figure out this phenomenon. However, your explanation, while logical, does not account for the fact that many of the $0.01 books on Amazon are used. This would indicate that individuals are selling their books for this price, rather than bookstores and printers. Such a mystery.

Comment on Privacy is Dead by Lily

Lily — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 19:55:14 +0000

You have just eloquently expressed everything I’ve been thinking for the past five years.

Comment on Injustice by Association by Eli Oliveras

Eli Oliveras — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 03:06:22 +0000

Great read man. I am no ware as eloquent as yourself, or well informed but I must say from a humble guy such as myself to you: “Well done!”

Comment on How Badly Do You Want It? by Brian Anson

Brian Anson — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 15:47:10 +0000

You talk about “what is right and good.” What is “right and good” is not taking something that doesn’t belong to you. I agree with what Commo is saying. A video game is not essential to life. Its not even essential for happiness. Just because you don’t have the money for it doesn’t mean that its right for you to go and take it. Your argument is about digital distribution, but you could apply your logic to anything. I could walk into Best Buy, see a game there and say, “I don’t have the money to try this game, so I’m just going to take.” Why do you think that one is wrong and not the other? Again, games publishers need to make money if they’re going to stay in business. They don’t have “infinite apples.” There is a limit to their resources, and if those run out then their won’t be any more games. Is it really better for a game to come out, and then there can’t be any more games after that? And they should make money. They should be paid for their work. Answer this question honestly, how would you feel if you had to work and then not get paid for it? I’m guessing that you’re going to have a negative resonse to that, so why would you do it to someone else?

Comment on How Badly Do You Want It? by Commo

Commo — Fri, 01 May 2009 04:01:00 +0000

I agree with some of your points, but I won’t go as far as to say that anti-piracy people are wrong. The makers of World of Goo are independents, who made the game with their money and time. If they want to make another game, they need to be compensated for World of Goo before that can happen. A 90% piracy rate is bad, because it means less money for them to use towards their next game. I’m not totally inclined to believe that all of that 90% would not have paid for the game if there was no piracy. If even 20% of them would have considered buying the game if there were no means to get it for free, then I think that is enough of a reason to eliminate the piracy. Especially if it means more funds going to their next game.
As far as the pirates who would not have paid for it anyway, effectively “freeloaders”, who cares about them? If they didn’t care enough to pay for it, what makes them entitled to consume the product? A videogame or movie is not an apple, it is not going to affect their life in any way. If it would affect their life, well maybe they should consider paying. I’m sure the World of Goo makers don’t give a shit about the freeloaders, they care about the people who may have paid if not given the alternative. Those are the people they are going to need if they want to make another game. Considering that World of Goo was a pretty good game, I think helping the designers gain the fund to make their next game is a more important than allowing a bunch of college kids get their next free fix.

Comment on How Badly Do You Want It? by Sail

Sail — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 22:58:39 +0000

Scott, you are the master of the analogy.

Comment on How Badly Do You Want It? by Railith

Railith — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 21:37:51 +0000

I think the biggest issue with digital piracy is that people are still struggling to figure out exactly what their content is worth. A 90% piracy rate is a pricing problem and not a business problem.

Comment on How Badly Do You Want It? by Michael

Michael — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 21:09:03 +0000

Like most people of my generation, I did the whole piracy thing for awhile, but I’ve done it less and less lately. There are various reasons for this, one being the fact that more companies are allowing me to access the content in the way that I want, and also that I am in a better position to pay for what I want. I have also learned to accept the things that I cannot have in a world of limited resources. Of course there are only artificial limits on digital goods. What this argument ultimately comes down to is whether or not people are creating these things as a means of supporting themselves. If making a game is your only source of income, you want as many people to pay for it as possible. A pirated copy is a sale that you will must likely never have and it can not even really be considered marketing for the fact that most people who pirate usually continue to do so. So what we end up with are people who did something as a labor of love, but who will not be able to do so again. It comes down to how much did your apples cost you. As much as it is romanticized, the word piracy has a negative connotation. Sorry this has been sorta rambling, but I’m really tired and have to get ready for work, plus I was watching Gabe draw the latest comic on ustream. Feel free to pick out all of my weak points and I will hopefully be able to come back with a better argument. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are all that is promised, everything else is up to the individual. Peace and congrats on the job get.

Comment on How Badly Do You Want It? by Mike Schneider

Mike Schneider — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 20:39:57 +0000

Scott, do you think piracy should be legalized? Or do you think we should leave it the way it is now, but have the MAFIAA (www.mafiaa.org) stop trying to sue people? I agree with everything you’ve said here 100%, but I don’t quite see what action, if any, you suggest we or our government take to change anything.

Comment on Almost Everything is a Miracle by Jason

Jason — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 03:05:37 +0000

Are… are you suddenly an OPTIMIST, Scott? (Jaw drop)