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[scriver]

No but you don't understand it's not just a great pun

Cents are called cents because they're a hundreth

Dimes are called dimes because it's a tenth

Dime means a tenth, it's the ten equivalent to a cent's hundred

[Maximum Spin]

No but you don't understand it's not just a great pun

Cents are called cents because they're a hundreth

Dimes are called dimes because it's a tenth

Dime means a tenth, it's the ten equivalent to a cent's hundred

I know, but "cent" means "hundred" (not "hundredth") while "dime" means "tenth", so there's a mismatch in the form.

Plus, "perdix" is latin for "partridge" and therefore intrinsically better.

[delphonso]

Gotcha so it's a partridge.

[feelotraveller]

Partridges are perdition.

[methylatedspirit]

Why is it illegal to redistribute binaries of FFmpeg (for instance) that have patented and non-free components in them (such as codecs for H.264, H.265, AAC...), but it's perfectly legal to just point people towards a binary of FFmpeg that just so happens to have those components in them? Audacity does this to enable support for AAC and other formats it can't legally include directly.

I believe it's a loophole, where you host these binaries in places that don't recognize software patents, so the companies that hold the patents literally can't do anything about it, but I'm surprised that's even allowed. Couldn't ISPs (under legal pressure from the rights holders of said formats) block them outright, since there's an intellectual property violation? If they can do it for Pirate Bay, what's stopping them from denying access to free binaries of FFmpeg with non-free components? I mean, it'd be a total shitshow for the open-source audio and video editing landscape (imagine not being able to decode the format that 99% of cameras film in, then telling users to compile FFmpeg from scratch on a Windows/Mac), but greed hasn't ever stopped companies, even if it is beyond stupid.

Edit: It seems that FFmpeg can use its own library, libavcodec, to encode and decode proprietary formats. Then again, the part about the software patents it may be infringing on makes it dubious in jurisdictions where they do actually recognize them.

Edit 2: Better precision; "ISPs" qualified with "(under legal pressure from the rights holders of said formats)"

[Maximum Spin]

I believe it's a loophole, where you host these binaries in places that don't recognize software patents, so the companies that hold the patents literally can't do anything about it, but I'm surprised that's even allowed. Couldn't ISPs block them outright, since there's an intellectual property violation?

Yes.

If they can do it for Pirate Bay, what's stopping them from denying access to free binaries of FFmpeg with non-free components?

What do they have to gain? They don't sell those components. Truth is, ISPs don't give a shit about the Pirate Bay either, which is why it's still perfectly accessible to most people; blocking only happens in places where legal pressure has been applied, like Britain. You allude to greed, but from the ISP's perspective, greed aligns with NOT blocking these things so people will pay them money for the data transfer to download them.

[methylatedspirit]

If they can do it for Pirate Bay, what's stopping them from denying access to free binaries of FFmpeg with non-free components?

What do they have to gain? They don't sell those components. Truth is, ISPs don't give a shit about the Pirate Bay either, which is why it's still perfectly accessible to most people; blocking only happens in places where legal pressure has been applied, like Britain. You allude to greed, but from the ISP's perspective, greed aligns with NOT blocking these things so people will pay them money for the data transfer to download them.

I was being imprecise with my words for the sake of readability. I have my own presets, but for long-form stuff I aim for 3 lines, maximum 4-5 ("lines" defined by the device I'm writing on) in the post editor per paragraph, typically. Sorry.

What I meant to say was "ISPs bowing to legal pressure from the rights holders of these formats". The ISPs would much prefer to not block it, of course, but surely whoever holds the rights to H.264, H.265, AAC, surely they'd have some kind of desire to block unauthorized access to non-free binaries of FFmpeg. The first way to do that, I was thinking, is to put legal pressure on the ISPs to block them. Every download of those binaries would be lost licensing patent money, surely (though I'm not quite sure from whom; private users aren't exactly bound very strongly by rights laws). It'd be some comic-book-villain-type stuff, but I've seen worse.

[Maximum Spin]

What I meant to say was "ISPs bowing to legal pressure from the rights holders of these formats". The ISPs would much prefer to not block it, of course, but surely whoever holds the rights to H.264, H.265, AAC, surely they'd have some kind of desire to block unauthorized access to non-free binaries of FFmpeg. The first way to do that, I was thinking, is to put legal pressure on the ISPs to block them. Every download of those binaries would be lost licensing patent money, surely (though I'm not quite sure from whom; private users aren't exactly bound very strongly by rights laws). It'd be some comic-book-villain-type stuff, but I've seen worse.

In the US, ISPs have pretty strong legal protections against this kind of pressure, and they certainly don't want to take any actions that might be perceived as eroding that protection. Besides, the patent holders might just not care that much; most of their income comes from large companies who can be pressured directly, not end-users. Cisco pays out the nose to provide an open-source H.264 implementation, for example; no amount of people downloading bootleg H.264 decoders is likely going to affect MPEG LA's bottom line.

[methylatedspirit]

In theory, would there be a way to pull off a Ship of Theseus on Linux, replacing system components, one-by-one, to go from one distro (say, Ubuntu) to another (Arch, for example) without formatting the system partition, and without booting off another partition? This isn't about practicality; I'm very aware that a reinstall would be far more practical. Hell, LFS would be easier than this.

[wierd]

Yes.

See also, chroot and debootstrap, for example.


(You create a boot disk of the flavor of linux you want, then mount the system volume you want to change the system on.  you copy the package manager utilities for your desired linux to the mounted volume, then chroot inside. You alter your equivalent of /etc/apt/sources.list (for debian likes) for whatever flavor you are using, so that it points at the correct repository.  Then you tell the package manager to force-reinstall all packages. This will cause the package manager to download and reinstall the packages, using packages from its repository, replacing the installed ones.  After everything is finished, make sure your system is in a sane state by having the package manager check everything.

Then you need to rebuild the initramfs, so that it matches the desired kernel. Depending on what loader you use, that is going to be specific to that loader.

After that, exit the chroot, unmount the volume, and attempt reboot.

Cross your fingers.

[methylatedspirit]

Apart from Bad Apple, are there any black-and-white (1 or 2 BPP grayscale) music videos?

[Frumple]

Uh. Yes? Like, I don't recall any off the top of my head, exactly, but there were basically entire black and white cartoon series that were effectively music videos, back in the days before color video existed. Just as a starting point.

[Kagus]

Uh. Yes? Like, I don't recall any off the top of my head, exactly, but there were basically entire black and white cartoon series that were effectively music videos, back in the days before color video existed. Just as a starting point.

Right, but my understanding of this wasn't "black and white" as in the traditional grayscale, but Black #000000 and White #FFFFFF. So stuff like Betty Boop don't quite pass, as that has too many shades of gray (almost enough to write a book about, even!).

[MaxTheFox]

What are some good modern (Cold War and beyond)-era grand strategy games? The Cold War Enhancement mod for Vic2 is very good but it's clunky because it's built on a game that's made to represent the 19th century.

I don't mind massive complexity so take that into consideration.

[Enemy post]

What are some good modern (Cold War and beyond)-era grand strategy games? The Cold War Enhancement mod for Vic2 is very good but it's clunky because it's built on a game that's made to represent the 19th century.

I don't mind massive complexity so take that into consideration.

I'm interested in this question too. I see lots of modern and Cold War strategy games, but finding an unambiguously good one seems much more difficult.

Superpower 2 is probably the most popular, though I haven't played it.

*There's also Democracy 4, though I'm not sure if that's what you're looking for.