Disqus - Latest Comments for Plankhead

Re: The Plan to Replace Congress With Software Is Running Two Candidates This Year

Zacqary Adam Xeper — Wed, 25 Jun 2014 01:25:47 -0000

"Then there the consideration that direct democracy itself is inherently flawed, which is why we have a representative system (what the Founding Fathers actually put in place) to begin with."

So your entire worldview is based on received wisdom from rich slaveholders in the 1700s who had a hate-boner for Athens. I'm impressed by your capacity for original thought.

"Not every individual is informed on every political issue, or has time to educate themselves."

Perhaps this would then be a good motivator for you to get off your smug ass and inform some voters instead of just shouting baseless complaints about how misinformed some people probably maybe are, you guess.

"Bills can be incredibly complex, and dull as hell, so it can be problematic when someone with zero political background waltzes into Congress with the power to make laws."

Because a change as radical as fucking direct democracy couldn't possibly significantly transform the character of bills to make them more accessible. It wouldn't occur to anyone that a bunch of texts that affect the lives of 300 million people should maybe be written to be comprehensible by all those 300 million people.
I'm sure that lazily parroting 9th grade social studies tropes makes for a much more effortless clickbait, though, so I understand.

Re: Amazon commissions new trans-based TV series ‘Transparent’

Zacqary Adam Xeper — Wed, 02 Apr 2014 00:51:11 -0000

First there was Transamerica, a movie about a trans woman taking a road trip across America.

Now there's Transparent, a series about a transgender parent.

GROOOOOAAAAAANNNNNNN

Re: Bitcoin Could Lead To Liberty Paradise, But Also To Surveillance Dystopia

Zacqary Adam Xeper — Wed, 04 Dec 2013 13:57:34 -0000

This is what's always concerned me with the calls to "get money out of politics" and limit campaign contributions in the US. If there are records on what rich lobbyists give to establishment politicians, there's also a record of marginalized people who give money to radical parties. McCarthyism was only a few decades ago, and as things get more politically turbulent there's no reason it can't come back. We've all seen the kind of harassment Occupy activists have received, and Travis McCrea already got hassled at the border for being a Pirate. I don't think it's unreasonable to assume that if any anti-establishment party became a credible threat, whether the Pirate Party or the Green Party, that the government might start intimidating individual donors.

Which is why the real way to get money out of politics is to figure out how to win campaigns for free. Make money irrelevant.

Re: Wadjet Eye's debut The Shivah get's a re-release

Zacqary Adam Xeper — Tue, 19 Nov 2013 02:11:29 -0000

Oy, I played this game years ago back in the old country and let me tell you, it was to die for. Hearing this news makes me all verklempt. Those Wadjet Eye boys, achh, such mensches.

Re: Why you shouldn't play Beyond: Two Souls more than once

Zacqary Adam Xeper — Wed, 09 Oct 2013 17:44:03 -0000

Why isn't this criticism thrown at The Walking Dead? That game's as choice-centric as Heavy Rain, and replaying it ruins the magic just as much. Why is that okay for Telltale but not for David Cage?

The fact that Telltale's writers don't suck is a legitimate answer. I'm just curious.

Re: Why you shouldn't play Beyond: Two Souls more than once

Zacqary Adam Xeper — Wed, 09 Oct 2013 17:38:39 -0000

Because he's not in charge of setting the price point. For all we know, David Cage may completely agree that $60 is a ridiculous and financially unsustainable price for all games, let alone just this one. Or maybe not. Nobody seems to have asked him. But either way, Sony's the publisher, and they set the price.

Re: CBS Blackout Triggers Surge in TV-Show Piracy

Zacqary Adam Xeper — Wed, 07 Aug 2013 18:02:16 -0000

I wonder what would happen if Time Warner just fucking set up an antenna in their facility and transmitted the CBS feed. Well, okay, a legal battle would probably happen, but they might even win.

Which is, I guess, why they don't want to do it. Because Time Warner also produces intellectual property and wouldn't want to invalidate their other subsidiary's business model.

Re: CBS Blackout Triggers Surge in TV-Show Piracy

Zacqary Adam Xeper — Wed, 07 Aug 2013 10:57:18 -0000

It always blows my mind whenever cable companies are having licensing disputes with over-the-air channels.

Re: Ouya launch: Great potential for devs - let's see where it goes

Zacqary Adam Xeper — Thu, 27 Jun 2013 03:04:23 -0000

Everyone's all like "ermegherd the Ouya has no killer erp."

Have these same journalists forgotten about all the articles they wrote three weeks ago saying "Oh my god Towerfall is the Ouya's killer app"?

Re: Netflix's Content Strategy: CompuServe 2.0? - by Matt Asay

Zacqary Adam Xeper — Thu, 20 Jun 2013 12:15:43 -0000

House of Cards isn't exclusive to Netflix. It's also on The Pirate Bay.

All of the supposed "piracy-killing" that Netflix, Amazon Instant, et al are doing is going to be wiped away completely if this "exclusive content" pissing contest keeps going. Nobody wants to sign up for 47 different $8/month subscriptions. Not even $1/month. People who won't pirate will happily go back to paying $80 every month for cable, even if it would cost them just $47 to sign up for 47 services. It's not about the price. It's about how many fucking bills you have to pay.

Re: An industry that needs Xbox One DRM is a failed industry

Zacqary Adam Xeper — Thu, 20 Jun 2013 11:13:29 -0000

Even better: he got his start in the PC shareware market.

Re: How the new Disrupt engine gives life to Watch Dogs

Zacqary Adam Xeper — Fri, 10 May 2013 22:22:19 -0000

"We have the Anvil engine on Assassin's Creed and the Dunia engine on Far Cry."

And what, now you're just going to throw them aside, never to be used again? Just throw out all your perfectly usable code every once in a while to start from scratch? Why aren't Anvil and Dunia on GitHub if you're not using them anymore?

I can't wrap my head around the AAA game industry's aversion to open sourcing shit. A bunch of developers collaborating on an engine would shave millions off the typical unsustainable game budget.

Re: Game Dev Tycoon turns piracy back on the pirates

Zacqary Adam Xeper — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 16:18:26 -0000

"Greenheart, for its part, is hoping to appeal to pirates, claiming not to be mad but urging them to consider a purchase to help them out."

That seems completely at odds with what they're actually doing. What they're doing is being street performers who shout "fuck you, freeloader" to everyone who walks by without throwing money in the guitar case. Except in this case the guitar case is closed and stashed out of view, and you have to actively seek it out and open it yourself. And you're only allowed to throw in $8, no more, no less.

Re: CISPA: Congress wants to create unlimited Internet spying powers - KILL THIS BILL! KILL IT WITH FIRE!

Zacqary Adam Xeper — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 19:35:25 -0000

I didn't even ratify the damn constitution. I was just born here and didn't have a choice.

Re: Valve, J.J. Abrams Will Team Up For Future Games, Movies

Zacqary Adam Xeper — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 15:48:51 -0000

Cloud Atlas was spectacular.

Re: I Really Had to Pee…

Zacqary Adam Xeper — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 04:06:17 -0000

Lex was a big ce-le-bri-ty / He told the Internet that he really had to pee

Sorry, that's just what I immediately thought of and now I can't get that song out of my head.

Re: Sita Sings the Blues goes CC0

Zacqary Adam Xeper — Sat, 19 Jan 2013 12:46:40 -0000

I doubt this will make any of the lawyers understand the situation any more.

Re: Do Human Eyes Have “Film Grain”?

Zacqary Adam Xeper — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 18:42:34 -0000

I had a really bad fever the other day and my GVH was more visible than ever, even with my eyes open. Supposedly migraines cause them to get brighter too.

Re: Fans choose alternate cover art for BioShock Infinite

Zacqary Adam Xeper — Mon, 24 Dec 2012 05:53:15 -0000

I think the section at the top that literally says "Bioshock Infinite" says Bioshock Infinite.

Re: Global countdown to 'end of the world'

Zacqary Adam Xeper — Fri, 21 Dec 2012 05:59:45 -0000

Really, Al Jazeera? I would expect this from CNN but I thought you were better than reporting on this non-story.

Re: Congressman calls for ban on 3D printed guns

Zacqary Adam Xeper — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 03:09:16 -0000

Could you link me to the existing laws regarding homemade firearms? I'm trying to arrange a meeting with Steve Israel (he's my congressman) about this, so I need all the logic I can get my hands on.

Re: You Cloned My Game? I Ain’t Even Mad, Bro

Zacqary Adam Xeper — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 15:23:04 -0000

Isn't it a shame that we've all been taught to believe that the only possible alternative to the way the world is run now is a bunch of stupid ideas that crazy dictators tried once upon a time, and that we should immediately turn off our brains as soon as that goal is suggested instead of thinking creatively about how to make it actually work?

Re: You Cloned My Game? I Ain’t Even Mad, Bro

Zacqary Adam Xeper — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 18:34:06 -0000

Isn't it a shame that the fact that we all have to worry about making enough money to feed ourselves makes us angry at each other for sharing, replicating, and building on each other's ideas?

Re: Me.ga Hackers: We’re Real Pirates & We’ll Sell Dotcom’s Domain To Universal

Zacqary Adam Xeper — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 15:57:06 -0000

Ha. You arrogant academic and your quaint notions of "evidence" and your belief that things "exist." Evidence is just one of many subjective points of view. As is existence. Existence is all in your head. Which doesn't exist. Your entire existence is a social construct. Superliminalizationment.

Re: Me.ga Hackers: We’re Real Pirates & We’ll Sell Dotcom’s Domain To Universal

Zacqary Adam Xeper — Wed, 07 Nov 2012 05:07:07 -0000

"We’re pure in a diogenist way, we’re the true pirates, the true anarchists"

Yes! Down with unscrupulous profiteering, long live hollow postmodern philosophical bullshit!