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JavaScript doesn't get compiled into binary. The human readable source code file just gets processed directly by an engine that executes each command. You're right though, the fact that this is in a form that's so easy to read is extremely surprising.

Normally what's done with script languages like JavaScript is to obfuscate the file by processing it with a tool that would rename everything to be meaningless, and change spacing, line breaks, etc in a way that is still executable, but overwhelmingly tedious/difficult for any human to read and understand.

Did they really ship the game with such open sourced code? For a company so concerned about preventing piracy, I find that pretty hard to believe. It's like they didn't even try.

That's actually a really interesting point. In software, selling as a product usually means the customer pays once and never buys that product again. Selling as a service means something recurring like a subscription.

I think it's easy for software people to forget those aren't the only models.

Awesome. Thanks for that. Do you know if there are any examples showing the opposite approach? If they force the bacteria to go directly from no antibiotics to the maximum concentration, with no stepping stones, I wonder if that just slows down their mutation or if it actually makes it completely impossible.

AFAIK, Guild Wars 2 has essentially zero downtime for updates. There was a talk posted online a while ago about their backend tools and architecture. It's really very impressive actually.

[1] http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/13u1mz/watch_thi...

As far as interoperating community-run servers: cheating is the first thing that comes to mind. A lot of restrictions in MMO's are not so much for DRM as they are for maintaining fairness in the game, or preventing people from destroying the in-game economy.

It's an interesting case study. This happens with nearly every MMO and people grumble but accept it. Within a couple weeks, the server issues are mostly resolved and people don't think about it anymore.

And yet, people are pissed about this. The fact that people see the game as single player seems to make a huge difference. It seems the lesson is that, if you want to do the always-on thing, you need to design your game so that it doesn't even make sense to play it alone.

I'm really curious to see what SimCity's sales are like in a month though. I wouldn't be too terribly shocked if people just sucked it up and bought it anyway as long as the servers are stable. If that happens, then maybe EA didn't make such a mistake after all?

You have to be connected to their servers to play it, just like you would with an MMO style game. Unfortunately, just like an MMO style game at launch, their servers are totally overloaded right now and many people are just completely unable to play the game.

The uproar is because the online requirement isn't inherently necessary to the gameplay (although EA has done their best to add some multiplayer aspects). It's primarily a business decision intending to make it more difficult to pirate or buy the game used.

Is it possible for a manufacturer to just provide a statement upfront when you buy the car that they can't guarantee that the car is 100% accident-proof, and you use the car at your own risk? That might put people off initially, but as people get more exposure and realize the cars are more or less safe, they'd be willing to use them and just get insurance like they currently do.

Ah. Well sure, people complain about big changes, every time they happen, mostly because they don't like having to relearn things.

When FB introduced the newsfeed, people thought it was supremely creepy and they complained. Now they probably don't remember what it was like without it. When the timeline was introduced, it was the same thing. People complained about business accounts, apps, searching, photo tagging...every major change gets loads of complaints. And yet most people accept or even love those things within a couple months, and FB has continued to grow monumentally.

I see no reason to imagine this visual redesign or even the upcoming graph search will be any different.

Except this is a good change, from what I can see. I think it really does make the site nicer to look at. Why would improving the site accelerate their decline?

It's a somewhat common concern with pet reptiles.

[1] http://www.cdc.gov/features/salmonellafrogturtle

Communist countries aren't the only ones that use nicer sounding terms than what they really are.

Apparently those who learn a sign language as their first language think (and I would assume read) in that sign language. Rather than "saying" the words in their head, apparently it's more like feeling the motions their hands would make if they were actually signing.

Hm...fair enough. I'm still skeptical, honestly, but I don't know enough about Chinese specifically to argue with that. I do see your point about Japanese being a mixture of systems.

I found it a little confusing too, but my understanding is that it refers to just repeating the words in your mind. When you do this, apparently the signals actually get sent to your tongue and vocal chords as if you were talking out loud, but those signals are so weak that you don't really move the muscles in any noticeable way. You do move the muscles very slightly though, and this can be detected with certain tools.

My personal experience studying Japanese for a few years makes me skeptical of this claim. Granted, the radicals, etc in the symbols can give you a hint of their meaning, but ultimately a writing system is created to communicate vocalized words.

In fact, many of the "hints" in the written symbols are based on words that sound similar to other words when pronounced (their actual meaning being unrelated), which is fully lost if you cut out the vocalization. As another point, most words are written with multiple symbols, and the meaning of the overall word may be rather different than the words you would get if you read the symbols individually. At that point, I don't see any difference from a word written with an alphabet like English.

I think the asymmetric design is very interesting and kind of cool looking. But I agree that it also draws your attention to it. With something like an earring or patch of color on your clothing, that's normal enough not to be jarring, but with this...I think it totally emphasizes how new and strange it is.

> Especially given that recordings can be faked, there is no dividing line between these.

How many of the people you know have ever created a video that seems completely true but is actually doctored? I'm a software developer, reasonably comfortable with technology, but I wouldn't know how, and I'm not even sure if I know anyone I could ask to do it. Certainly not without a fair amount of expense. Contrast that with verbal accounts of "internal memory": even a three year old is perfectly capable of lying, about pretty much anything.

So, if you tell or show someone something privately, you at least have the fallback of denying it if they go and share it against your wishes. If they record it, then in almost all cases people will take it as fact and there's nothing you can do. Not only that, but then they can actually show other people rather than just telling them. For many things, that's a much bigger deal.

Because most people care very much about social relationships, and like it or not, other people just naturally tend to be put off by things that look strange or unattractive. You might decide you genuinely don't care what anyone thinks of you, but realistically speaking that's a somewhat unusual stance.

Doesn't seem like it'd be much different from glancing at the dash, console, GPS, etc.

Overall, yes. I wonder, though, could the spin of the Earth have any effect on the distribution?

The table gives a source for every data item. They all look to be from here: http://www.lpi.usra.edu/meteor/metbull.php

What specifically made the driving in Russia so terrifying? Was it the kind of things the article was talking about, or something else?

So is the article just picking out a few isolated incidents and painting a completely unrealistic picture of driving in Russia?

Yes, this is really what I'm wondering.

Hm, fair enough. But how often do your friends actually get attacked? Is it really a reasonable fear for them? I've never been there myself so I might be completely wrong, but my impression of Texas is that the culture there is more paranoid than necessary, and unusually preoccupied with the idea of lethal self-defense.

And what kind of area was this? Part of my surprise about Russia is that it sounds like this kind of thing happens everywhere.

That's fair, and that's partially why I'm asking. I know many have the impression that the United States is incredibly dangerous, to which I would say that's only really true in very specific areas - generally the poorest areas where people are desperate. This sounds really widespread, though. I've never heard of people in the US carrying around weapons purely in case of road rage, for example.

Russia sounds like a pretty scary place, to be honest. Is it really as bad as this makes it sound? How does a whole country get to be so sociopathic?

Granted I have no numbers, but between the convenience of Steam, the seasonal sales, and the fact that it's trivial to use an Xbox 360 controller on a PC...I just don't see this. Why would they bother releasing on PC at all if it wasn't profitable? If anything, it seems like more console games than ever are getting cross platform releases on to PC. Personally, I'm seeing less and less reason to own a console at all. My xbox is really just a netflix player these days.

Very true. Having not really watched the show before, though, I'm really curious what that scene is like with the laugh track still in. They pause so frequently, I wonder if it would still be a little hard to follow?