mjb5406 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (217) comment rss

  • On the post: Google Tries To Make It Easy For Anyone To Create Android Apps

    mjb5406 ( profile ), 13 Jul, 2010 @ 07:24am

    Re: Re: Re: Re:

    Thanks for those small little tidbits (had to say it). Yeah, those irk me too... but more when they are put on things like signage than when people use them in speech. It makes me nuts to see so many signs on store lately proclaiming "ATM Machine Inside". It would even save paint to simply say "ATM Inside"!

  • On the post: Google Tries To Make It Easy For Anyone To Create Android Apps

    mjb5406 ( profile ), 13 Jul, 2010 @ 06:22am

    Re: Re:

    What what, you you don't don't like like redundancy redundancy?

  • On the post: Google Tries To Make It Easy For Anyone To Create Android Apps

    mjb5406 ( profile ), 12 Jul, 2010 @ 08:03pm

    Re:

    Lacking in morals??? What is wrong with a company developing a product that promotes other facets of its business? The "Google Cloud" has saved many an Android phone user from losing their contacts and calendars; Gmail, if used as an IMAP server, saves up to 8GB of user emails without the user having to worry about backing them up on their computer. Ads are a way of life on ANY platform, whether it's Android, iPhone, or Windows Phone, not to mention desktop software, when the software itself is free... how should developers get remuneration for free apps? You make this business model sound like communism or something worse; but it's an established model, not unique to Google, and the bottom line is that people, and companies, like to make money from what they do. Google doesn't charge for many of its cloud-based services, so it's entitled to make money elsewhere.

  • On the post: Google Tries To Make It Easy For Anyone To Create Android Apps

    mjb5406 ( profile ), 12 Jul, 2010 @ 06:47pm

    Re: Geeking out a bit

    As a developer, I disagree with your assessment. A well crafted RAD tool can (and has in the past) generated elegant code; if anything, it prevents the developer from making the code more convoluted and senseless because the "building blocks" use predetermined code fragments that cannot be changed or embellished by the end-user. As a result, for example, 2 different developers that use the same building blocks but linked in different ways will create underlying code that, while having a different execution sequence, will contain the same lines of code. I don't believe Google intends for this to replace the SDK; in fact, I think that if you examine programs currently in Android Market that have been developed using the SDK you'll find far greater instances of inelegant, and downright sloppy, code, since many casual developers do not employ any sort of coding methodology (not even for things like standard variable names). In RAD, however, those things are taken care of by the environment and, if properly implemented, will often provide a better code base than hand coding will.

  • On the post: Best Buy Says Creator Of iPhone/Evo Video Can Keep His Job; Guy Says He'd Rather Not

    mjb5406 ( profile ), 08 Jul, 2010 @ 03:38pm

    Re: BUT!!!!!!!

    I was going to call you a gutless Apple fanboy, but my computer is tethered to my iPhone 4 and the signal keeps dro

  • On the post: Woman Sues Theater For Pressing Charges Over Filming Twilight Snippets At Birthday Party

    mjb5406 ( profile ), 02 Jul, 2010 @ 08:42am

    Re: Re:

    Oh no, say it's not true! Those admirable men in blue, protecting Allstate Arena from who knows what heinous crime! And you dare smear the name of the late, great (in his own mind) Donald E. Stephens! His son, Bradley, is gonna get Vinnie "The Corkscrew" after you!

  • On the post: Woman Sues Theater For Pressing Charges Over Filming Twilight Snippets At Birthday Party

    mjb5406 ( profile ), 02 Jul, 2010 @ 08:40am

    Re: MPAA - the new DA?

    Oh, you obviously don't know about Rosemont, IL... its late mayor, Donald E. Stephens, had reputed mob ties (never proven) and, supposedly, his son, Bradley, who became mayor after his father's death, is no more reputable. The police department is usually not good for much more than directing traffic around Allstate Arena (and they do a poor job of that, too). Nit the best police force, and collusion with the MPAA is no surprise at all.

  • On the post: Parents Television Council Demands Details Of Comcast's Porn Revenue

    mjb5406 ( profile ), 30 Jun, 2010 @ 08:18am

    The PTC is a Joke

    I've said it before and I'll say it again... the PTC has suck screwed up priorities that it's frightening. As often is the case, the lay blame for the "moral degeneration" of kids at the feet of someone else, when, in reality, it's the fault of uninvolved, uninterested parents. Comcast's retort is simple... every one of its set-top boxes (which is the ONLY way to view the porn they sell) has parental controls... USE THEM. This isn't a case where viewing that kind of programming should be "opt in", forcing people to, by default, enter a code to watch it. I'm sure, however, that the PTC is, as usual, funded by some politically connected, conservative group of religious fanatics. This has nothing to do with the Comcast/NBC-U merger, and everything to do with furthering their misguided agenda.

  • On the post: Official Twilight T-Shirt Contest Won't Let You Use Anything From Twilight

    mjb5406 ( profile ), 20 Jun, 2010 @ 02:17pm

    Can we call it...

    Can someone design a logo and t-shirt for "twitlight" and submit it, please?

  • On the post: Didn't Take Long: Lots Of People Getting Sued By US Copyright Group Claim Innocence

    mjb5406 ( profile ), 11 Jun, 2010 @ 01:19pm

    Can they?

    Would there be a possibility of a class action suit against US Copyright Group for copyright law abuse?

  • On the post: Congresswoman Suggests That Comcast Tried To Bribe Her To Support Merger

    mjb5406 ( profile ), 09 Jun, 2010 @ 06:21am

    Doomed

    I've said it before... the worst cable provider buyiing the worst content provider. A death knell.

  • On the post: Terrible Ruling: Forwarding A Link Can Be Considered Defamation

    mjb5406 ( profile ), 07 Jun, 2010 @ 10:36am

    And the surprise is?

    Texas... seems like when people there go into politics or become judges something snaps and they start making themselves look stupid. Bad enough that Governor Perry wants to secede from the US!

  • On the post: CSIRO Wants To Expand Its WiFi Tax: Sues Mobile Operators

    mjb5406 ( profile ), 02 Jun, 2010 @ 06:44am

    The Land Down Under

    It's not surprising that a country known for its rather draconian internet censoring would allow something like a mathematical equation to be patented.

  • On the post: Challenge To Existing Australian Censorship Rules Rejected

    mjb5406 ( profile ), 18 May, 2010 @ 07:06am

    The Body Politic

    So that means that, in Australia, you have to be 18 to view any kind of political discussion on the 'net? Totally ridiculous.

  • On the post: Laptop Scandal School's Own Law Firm: Aside From Those 58,000 Spy Photos, There's No Evidence Of Spying

    mjb5406 ( profile ), 06 May, 2010 @ 08:23am

    Got this from an attorney...

    Yes, I also read Engadget, which also reported on this. I questioned the legitimacy of a school district-hired attorney issuing this report, saying that a neutral third party should be used instead, and received this reply:

    'I am an attorney and I can tell you first hand that you can get "experts" to find just about anything you want them to. I'd be willing to bet that the expert report and subsequent affidavits submitted by the students counsel are the exact opposite of this report.'

  • On the post: Can Oprah Do What Driving-While-Yakking Laws Can't?

    mjb5406 ( profile ), 04 May, 2010 @ 01:18pm

    Even more importantly...

    WTF is with Oprah having an EVO??? Is this another situation where the people with money get preferential treatment? Sprint customers won't see it until maybe June something, but Oprah gets one? Come on, Dan Hesse... give us a nreak!

  • On the post: Apple: Closed, Proprietary Systems Are Bad (Unless They're Our Own)

    mjb5406 ( profile ), 29 Apr, 2010 @ 07:46pm

    It wasn't always this way...

    Remember when the iPhone first made its appearance? There was no such thing as native app... everything was WebApps, and had to run on the iPhone's version of Safari. That's Jobs' mentality... he wants total, 100% control of the entire Apple ecosystem.

  • On the post: Apple: Closed, Proprietary Systems Are Bad (Unless They're Our Own)

    mjb5406 ( profile ), 29 Apr, 2010 @ 07:44pm

    Re: No different than other "platforms"

    The bottom line is that Steve Jobs wants developers to only develop for the iPhone. _Period. He never wants to see an iPhone app appear on the Android Market or the BlackBerry AppStore. This is Jobs' world, run by his rules, and if you don't like it, go elsewhere. He has blatant contempt for anything non-Apple... like he said "if you want porn, get an Android phone". Lots of lass, Stevie.

  • On the post: Apple: Closed, Proprietary Systems Are Bad (Unless They're Our Own)

    mjb5406 ( profile ), 29 Apr, 2010 @ 07:41pm

    Re:

    Yes, because it's SO easy to cross-develop when you MUST use the iPhone SDK and Xcode on a Mac, which ONLY runs on a Mac and ONLY generates iPhone apps. Jobs won't allow you to use cross-compilers, generators, whatever, unless Apple provides the tool. Even Microsoft doesn't force that.

    Unless you are a programmer (I am), don't make stupid assumptions about "reusability of code" because Apple's SDK is in and of itself proprietary. This isn't Java.

  • On the post: Middle School Principal Tells Parents To Ban Facebook And Spy On Text Messages

    mjb5406 ( profile ), 29 Apr, 2010 @ 02:25pm

    Next thing you know...

    ... the school will install software on the kids' PCs that will allow them to remotely activate webcams to monitor students' activities.

    Oh wait... that sounds familiar!

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