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(Mis)Uses of Technology

by Mike Masnick

Tue, Jun 28th 2005 10:07pm





So Is He Google Jon Now?

from the crackety-crack dept

Well that didn't take long at all. We were a bit surprised yesterday to find out that Google's new media player only played files on Google's own video site, as that seemed like a needless restriction. In fact, it made it so needless that there seemed to be little reason at all to bother downloading it. It just makes Google Video that much more of a pain to use. However, along comes "DVD Jon" Johansen, who clearly does not like being limited. He's already hacked Google's version of VLC to let it be used outside of Google. Kind of makes you wonder why Google put up the restriction in the first place.

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  1.  
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    thatguy, Jun 29th, 2005 @ 10:20am

    not really "hacked"

    VLC's code was simply changed a little bit and it can actually be found at code.google.com. To say he hacked the code it a little excessive considering all he did was delete the additions google made to VLC's source code. This was just an overhyped article written to make google look bad because they just got owned by some dude. This was probably the easiest "hack" DVD Jon has ever done...

    Not really that exciting.

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  2.  
    icon
    Mike (profile), Jun 29th, 2005 @ 1:38pm

    Re: not really hacked

    Man. People get pissed off at me for using "hacked" only to mean breaking in, rather than tinkering with. So, now, when I use it in that way, other people get upset with me. :) I guess I can't win.

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  3.  
    identicon
    thatguy, Jun 29th, 2005 @ 5:24pm

    Re: not really hacked

    I wasn't saying there was anything wrong with you using the term hacked. It was the term used in all the articles floating around. If anything, I was criticizing the main stream media for their use of the term and overhyping yet again.

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]


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