Eh… an organization will generally just comply with any law at first. Senior leadership would have to approve of not conforming to a law, so there would be meetings and deliberations on it. Considerations need to made about the safety of the employees and that kind of thing.
The extensions were only blocked for a week. So it’s not fair to claim Mozilla was licking Russia’s boot.
From the article:
The browser extensions, which are hosted on the Mozilla store, were made unavailable in the Land of Putin on or around June 8 after a request by the Russian government and its internet censorship agency, Roskomnadzor.
or to enable Russia to interfere with the extensions’ code for their own ends?
Well for the extensions that are open source it is possible for Russia to meddle with the code, but they’d have to get past code review. But this is concern for anything open source not just Mozilla stuff. It’s rare that something gets bad gets into an open source project, but it did happen a few months ago with ssh. Didn’t get past testing and required someone to work on open source projects for years before they got a level of trust to get something pulled into main source tree. So it’s basically the equivalent of getting a job at a company for years just to put malware into some proprietary software. Which could also happen, but if there’s a good code review process it shouldn’t happen.
Excepting those kind of weird scenarios, unless they’re extensions made by a Russian company that Moscow control over, then no, the extensions wouldn’t have been fiddled with by the Russian government. And if they were extensions the Russian government had the ability to change, they wouldn’t be trying to ban them.
What impact? You mean having Russians use a browser that allows the state to spy on them? If someone goes to prison for using Firefox to post something critical of the government, is that the impact Mozilla wants to have?
At a certain point you have to say “if the government of an authoritarian makes it illegal to use our browser because we aren’t going along with them spying on their citizens then so be it.”
It’s debatable at what point a software company becomes morally complicit with the oppression done by an authoritarian government. But it seems to me the wisest choice is to say “this is our software, take it or leave it.”
Judging from how much steel they’d have around at a single warehouse near to where I used to live, I’d hazard to guess that it would take much less time than a couple of months to get the steel.
But yeah, it’s a moot point, because like you say it’s going take far more time to design a new bridge and get together the crews to build it. We don’t have some idle SCVs around just waiting to start building as soon as you click on the the location.
And I’m no engineer, but I’m guessing the steel from a bridge that collapsed would be too warped to be useful and the pieces that looked ok would have to undergo testing to make sure the stress they went under didn’t compromise the material in some way. I’d guess it would be more expensive to use that steel than to just use new steel.
Given how low level it is and the timespan involved, there probably wasn’t a specific use in mind. Just adding capability for a future attack to be determined later.
Before resting on our laurels, we should consider it’s possible it’s more widespread but just not being disclosed until after it’s patched.
It would be wise to be on the lookout for security patches for the next few days.
Well yeah there’s so much more. Transporters are magical devices that either work or not work depending on the needs of the plot. Nobody even considers whether it’s actually them on the other side of that transporter beam. They can cure diseases with it except when they can’t. They can create copies of people with a transporter but for some reason bad guys like the Dominion never explore this despite being willing to clone soldiers. Why does anyone bother boarding a ship instead of beaming everyone on the ship into their brig (or into space if they’re bad guys? Because transporters are just magic that work according whatever is needed by the story. The consequences of this technology is never really explored which is what science fiction normally does.
Q is straight up a sorcerer, in the episode where he loses his power it’s straight up stated the Q have the ability to alter the constants that govern science at will. Literally magic. Geordi doesn’t respond with “this fundamentally changes how we need to think about physics” as a scientist would when given an indication that scientific theories are incomplete. Nope it’s just “we can’t do that because we aren’t Q” and everyone moves on. It’s just commonly accepted that aliens have magic because they are aliens and it’s rarely questioned.
Star Trek II is often regarded as the best Trek movies and it’s about a villain with a planet destroying weapon. Ah but wallpaper over the planet destroying weapon with the fact that it can be used to instantly terraform planets that sounds sciencey enough so no one will notice the actual story is just a villain with super weapon.
The list goes on and on. Star Wars actually does more to explore the consequences of technology and people having special abilities than Star Trek does. Exploring consequences is what science fiction is about not sounding sciency.
Now to be clear, I like Star Trek, and have watched a lot of it. I’m just not under an illusion about what it is. It’s great at exploring social issues and ethics and uses it’s fantastical setting to allow the audience to see issues from a different perspective. And that’s great. And occasionally there are a few ethical issues that is actually science fiction, like “Measure of a Man.” But those episodes are more the exception than the rule. The bulk of Star Trek is creating scenarios to discuss morals and ethics where the “science” is actually just magic.
I also like Star Wars. And the whole pretentious thing about Star Trek being sci-fi while Star Wars is fantasy is annoying and false. Star Trek is more fantasy that Star Wars, it’s just that Star Trek has more technobabble to make it sound vaguely sciencey. But it’s mostly just the Odyssey + technobabble.
Star Trek goes out of its way, to the point of creating the term technobabble
What’s the difference between technobabble and a magical incantation from the perspective of story telling. Geordi Laforge casts +1 technobabble and it’s super effective.
You also say the classic Tolkein races. Not sure why.
Really? Put a photo of an Tolkien Elf next to a Star Trek Vulcan. You don’t see any resemblance there? None at all? Besides that Elves are an elder race that are at times disconnected from the affairs of humans. Despite this, there’s an alliance formed between Humans and Elves. It’s not all that different from the relationship between Humans and Vulcans in Star Trek is it? In story terms Vulcans serve the same role as Elves and Klingons are a violent adversary to the Human and Vulcan alliance, aka the Federation. How did that war end again? Wasn’t there magic sorcerers involved in ending the war between the Federation and the Klingons? Oh beings of pure energy (nothing at all like a sorcerer) that they basically never talked about later. Did someone even try to contact the Organians to get them to help sort out the Dominion war? I guess that was a one time thing. There’s literally Gods that can force adversaries to end a war in Star Trek, but only that one time because the existence of such beings didn’t have any long term consequences for how diplomacy was conducted in that Galaxy.
Sorry, but in story terms, it’s just plain magic. Science is repeatable and studied. Star Trek just substitutes “a wizard did it” with “an alien did it” but there’s no meaningful difference.
There’s nothing in Star Wars that doesn’t exist in Star Trek. Telekinesis, telepathy, mind control, prescience, all appear in Star Trek with the only explanation being “because aliens.” And in Star Wars with midichlorians, the explanation is “because microscopic aliens.” Nobody really likes that in Star Wars because technobabble explanations are silly.
The princess doesn’t choose to chill with anyone, she’s rescued by a teenager and a drug smuggler with his talking dog, a group that already does not make a single ounce of sense to be together.
Of all the things in Star Wars that’s poorly explained you chose an example that actually was explained. Teenager found a distress message from the princess, and the smuggler was there because money.
They’ve got flying machines and can go to space but are using swords.
If you have prescient abilities you’re able to see were a blaster will be fired before it’s fired and be able to move the sword to exactly where it needs to be beforehand to deflect it. Something that makes sense if you consider the relationship between the abilities and technology. Also traditions are a big thing in a lot of religions.
Also George Lucas uses the term “science fantasy” when talking about Star Wars, not science fiction.
Of course there’s no doubt a lot of fantasy elements in Star Wars. But not nearly as many fantasy elements as in Star Trek. If you were to say both Star Trek and Star Wars are fantasy, then sure. But saying Star Trek is sci-fi while Star Wars is fantasy is just ignoring how much fantasy Star Trek has going on. There’s no real definition of what makes something fantasy and what makes something sci-fi, but where ever you choose to draw that arbitrary line Star Trek is going to be on the fantasy side of that line if Star Trek is, because there’s way more fantasy going on in Star Trek than in Star Wars. Just Star Wars doesn’t do as much meaningless technobabble and doesn’t hand wave away the significance of some people having telekinesis, telepathy, prescience, etc.
They put the value of privacy on the invoice when they sold it.
Star Trek is fantasy masquerading as sci-fi while Star Wars is sci-fi masquerading as fantasy. Both fandoms get really upset when the mask starts to slip on either.
Star Trek is a fantasy in the same vein as the Odyssey. Go somewhere on a ship, encounter magical creatures, get into a problem that’s resolved with a moral lesson. The magic of the creatures is never really explained in the Odyssey beyond the magic just being inherent in those creature. Same goes for the magic of various aliens in Star Trek. Vulcans can do mind melds because that’s a magic only Vulcans possess. Can it be studied and reproduced by others? Nope. It’s magic inherent to being a Vulcan.
It also should be noted the resemblance between Star Trek races and classic Tokien races. Vulcans are Elves, Klingons are Orcs, Romulans are Dark Elves.
In Star Wars people have magical abilities like telepathy, telekinesis, and prescience. These abilities are present in Star Trek. But in Star Wars, these abilities aren’t inherent in being a certain species. And the ramifications are explored. People might build religions around those who have these abilities. Maintaining a galaxy wide civilization would be difficult on its own, but you add in an X factor like certain people having the ability to control people’s minds that have holy wars against each other, it’s likely there would be a constant cycle of collapse, rebuilding, then collapsing again. So you’d expect some feudal power structures to form on some planets during the dark ages of a galaxy like this. So it makes sense that princesses, knights, wizards, pirates, gangsters would all exist in a galaxy that has holy wars between groups that have mind powers.
But people like Star Wars to be a fantasy with mysteries about how it came about. It is set in another Galaxy and started in the middle of an ongoing story. So many people aren’t going to like over-explanations, at least not in canon, because it takes away the mystery and makes it too obvious that Star Wars is actually sci-fi.
Star Trek is fantasy, Star Wars is sci-fi. Just nobody wants to admit it.
Yeah I don’t play any FPS games, and way more Zelda than you have. So it could be certain movements on the sticks wear them out quicker.
Of course it could just be how we’re using the controllers is different. Maybe I’m just hard on equipment.
Or you just got better sticks.
I mean it is a problem on all controllers really, PS and XBox controllers can have drift problems too. But the Switch controllers are notorious for it, so I always wonder if it has something to do with the games that are exclusive to the Switch. But maybe Nintendo just has quality control problems with their controllers. Who knows?
Do you play a lot of Zelda? Just asking because my suspicion is that the joycons go bad quicker depending on how they’re used which is dependent on the games you play.
I play a good amount of Zelda on mine and have had to replace the sticks multiple times.
We want an open Federation!
But no Ferengi allowed.
Yeah back in the golden era of streaming you only needed Netflix, most of the shows on there were good, and everything would eventually be on there. So piracy was too much of pain in the ass to bother with to save $10 a month.
Now there’s 10 different streaming services most of them cost a lot more than $10 per month, you have to wade through pages of crap to find anything worth watching. If you hear about a show or movie that sounds interesting you can’t just wait for it to show up on Netflix. You have to go and search for which streaming service has the show you want and there’s a good likelihood you’re not subscribed to that one.
It’s now far easier to search on the 'bay for what you want to see (you have to do a search anyway) and they always have it. Yeah I guess you’re not instantly watching it, but you’re not instantly watching a thing you want to see on a streaming service now anyway, because have to scroll past a wall of crap to find anything.
My general feeling on piracy is that when you’re young and don’t have much money, you can’t afford to pay for it anyway, you may as well pirate it. When you get older and can afford it then you should pay for movies and video games and stuff. But when they make it more of a pain in the ass to buy something than it is to pirate things, then I dunno what to say. I have money and want to pay for a service that I can just chill and watch cool stuff, but they seem more interested in various schemes to impress shareholders than providing me the thing I’m willing to pay for.
You wouldn’t download and then delete a car would you?
Those materials wouldn’t exist if the Big Bang didn’t happen. So sue whoever made that happen.
“In the beginning the Universe was created. This had made many people very angry and has been widely regarded as a bad move.” ― Douglas Adams
Well yeah, the platform owned by the richest guy in the world is the place to go to follow all the monetized socialists that are making millions playing video games on youtube and selling awesome socialist merch.
So of course all the cool socialists hang out there. Gotta be there to find out which products to buy to get socialist cred.
Have they come out with the new socialist NFTs yet? I mean the capitalist (eewww grosss, rite?) crypto market collapsed so it makes sense to buy MarxCoins now right? Vaush needs a new Luxury SUV, Hasan needs a new yacht, buy MarxCoins now! Dialectic NFTs on sale soon!
Block their IPs. Keeps happening? Block their subnet. Of course taking this approach we may end up blocking all of Russia, China, NK, etc.
Nothing of value will be lost.
I don’t know what I’m trying to say with this comment.
That’s a indicative of nervousness over even discussing the problem. Which shouldn’t be the case. The existence of a larger problem doesn’t mean people should feel nervousness over discussing smaller problems.
Also this isn’t a smaller problem for the person affected. A man that is abused is no small problem for that man. It’s the biggest problem in their life, just as for a woman that’s being abused that’s the biggest problem in her life. The fact that more women are being abused than men doesn’t lessen the effect of the abuse on the individual whether the victim is a man or a woman.
There’s a tendency for statistics to override empathy for an individual. “Ah well, that doesn’t happen very often, so whatever.” But it did happen for that person and it’s just as horrible for that person as it is for individuals in that statically larger group.
So we should make an effort to prevent statistics from negating empathy. There shouldn’t be a stigma against someone talking about a problem that’s statistically less probable as if low probability means something didn’t happen and isn’t worth talking about. It happened and and we should be aware of how statistics can have the tendency to turn us into statistical psychopaths which prevents real problems from being addressed.
It’s inevitable.
But if steam becomes enshittified I’ll move onto something else and use torrent sites to download the older games I care about that I’ve bought on steam. It wouldn’t really be pirating them, since I’ve bought them already.
For now steam is fine, and I appreciate the work they’ve done on supporting Linux, so I’ll keep on using it to buy games.