Robin Byron 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (94) comment rss

  • On the post: Does The GPL Still Matter?

    Robin Byron ( profile ), 08 May, 2008 @ 08:58pm

    Troll?

    a point in the open source movement's history when the GPL is decreasingly essential.

    It would appear you insight is becoming increasingly irrelevant; or just terribly uninformed, not to mention the fact that when you posted this article skype had already 'decided' to skip the appeal. The GPL wins, again! You could read more over at Groklaw but I seriously doubt you care.

  • On the post: Will Psystar Represent A Key Case Concerning Enforceability Of EULAs?

    Robin Byron ( profile ), 05 May, 2008 @ 11:01am

    work-arounds?

    They could give the customer the legal copy of OS X to install themselves or put it in an install partition on the HDD (not technically 'installed') with a first time start-up/install script such as HP (others?) does/did with the Windows XP backup partition.

  • On the post: Taking The Books-On-Demand Business Quite Literally

    Robin Byron ( profile ), 14 Apr, 2008 @ 12:10pm

    Re: Re: Uh, isn't this called a search engine?

    Something like:

    It was a dark and stormy night. (dump Google core here). The End

  • On the post: Can Yahoo, Microsoft, Google, AOL And News Corp Sit Down And Just Divvy Up The Internet Already?

    Robin Byron ( profile ), 10 Apr, 2008 @ 07:24am

    Big Mess

    I have little to no business sense but News Corp. + Microsoft sounds like a perfect fit,n..

    MSFOX motto -- "All fits of pleasure we balanced by an equal degree of pain." --Swift

  • On the post: Lieberman's Misconfigured Server Took It Offline — Not Opposition DoS Attacks

    Robin Byron ( profile ), 09 Apr, 2008 @ 07:51pm

    Joe who?

    Lieberman, Lieberman, oh yeah, that schmuck that handles that schlemiel McCain.

  • On the post: New RIAA Argument: Throwing A Promo CD In The Garbage = Unauthorized Distribution

    Robin Byron ( profile ), 09 Apr, 2008 @ 10:55am

    Your trash? No!

    "It becomes abandoned property, which is why the police can look through your garbage without a warrant."

    And, in case anyone was wondering, as I was, this was confirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1988.

  • On the post: Pittsburgh Couple Sues Google Over Photos Of Their House

    Robin Byron ( profile ), 05 Apr, 2008 @ 01:18pm

    No Kidding!

    The detached garage of my last house was nearly that big.

  • On the post: Creative Labs Backs Down After PR Mess

    Robin Byron ( profile ), 04 Apr, 2008 @ 06:45am

    Re: Meh

    "When the top of the line audio product still does not properly function with Vista"

    And they admit that they have deliberately crippled their products.

  • On the post: Brain Surgeon Announces That Mobile Phones Cause Cancer… But Without Any New Research

    Robin Byron ( profile ), 03 Apr, 2008 @ 07:47am

    Cell phones/Smoking

    How many cell phones did these monkeys smoke a day?

    Notes to self: (1)Drink more caffeine to stave off Dementia. (2)Why are friends calling me 'Tweek'? (3)Drain prostate today; several times.

  • On the post: Can A Luxury Theater Get People To The Theater?

    Robin Byron ( profile ), 01 Apr, 2008 @ 10:05am

    Okay, I'll bite (1Apr08)

    "...as well as a lounge and bar serving cocktails and appetizers, a concierge service and valet parking."

    What, no blackjack and hookers?

  • On the post: Computers Are Programmed By People Not Magic

    Robin Byron ( profile ), 27 Mar, 2008 @ 09:21pm

    Re: Artifacts everywhere. Pulling them togethe

    I'd buy SAP but I bet a lot of folks in this country wouldn't because they are 'fur-i-ners'. As for MS offering olive branches to the foss community, I'm not seeing that in the ongoing OOXML saga.

  • On the post: Computers Are Programmed By People Not Magic

    Robin Byron ( profile ), 27 Mar, 2008 @ 07:43pm

    Re: Artifacts everywhere. Pulling them together is

    "If eVoting has a chance in hell, it would need to be led by a group effort of bleeding edge companies such as Sun, Google, Oracle and Microsoft to consider an alliance to bring their real world experience to the table to create open standards..."

    Damn Chef, give a guy a warning before you say outrageously funny stuff like that. I just shot hot coffee through my nose and all over my keyboard. I don't care about the laptop but I just achieved the perfect gnome setup.

  • On the post: Are We Becoming Too Dependent On Mobile Phones?

    Robin Byron ( profile ), 27 Mar, 2008 @ 07:43am

    Backup

    At&t doesn't offer automatic backup that I know of but you can copy your SmartChip contacts to another phone or computer using USB/Bluetooth/IrDA or you could just clone the chip (with a little help, of course; wink, wink, nudge, nudge.) and put it in a safe place.

  • On the post: WiFi Fear Kills Free Local WiFi Plan

    Robin Byron ( profile ), 25 Mar, 2008 @ 06:11am

    The only thing we have to fear....

    Aren't these the same folks who think 'ping-pong balls' is a venereal disease?

    I'm sure godless, commie, free software, and ESR, are banned there as well.

  • On the post: Top Spammer Pleads Guilty, But Spam Still Going Strong

    Robin Byron ( profile ), 17 Mar, 2008 @ 06:28pm

    Spam score: Feds-0, Spammers-3(+)*10^9/day

    Still, when he was arrested last May federal authorities actually claimed that the arrest might lead to a decrease in spam. How did that work out?

    I don't recall any fluctuation from last may but I do know that spam on my cox-mail and gmail accounts has increased 50-60% in the last two weeks. Anyone else seen this kind of increase, or is it just me?

  • On the post: DHS Official: 'Real ID Has A Bad Bumper Sticker Reputation'

    Robin Byron ( profile ), 05 Mar, 2008 @ 01:35pm

    Security Theater

    I doubt terrorists cells which are already established here (Do you think they aren't) will have much difficulty getting around anything DHS can think up. Lumbering bureaucracies are sitting ducks for guerrilla tactics.

  • On the post: Bill Gates Still Believes Speech Will Replace Keyboards

    Robin Byron ( profile ), 22 Feb, 2008 @ 09:56pm

    Perhaps' once you get beyond...

    "Dear aunt, let's set so double the killer delete select all"

  • On the post: SCO Gets A Lifeline; Plans To Continue Quixotic Legal Quest

    Robin Byron ( profile ), 15 Feb, 2008 @ 08:33am

    Re: Suspect

    "Microsoft can't be too far away."

    And, don't forget the Mormon Mafia.

  • On the post: Bill Gates Isn't Calling For Kinder Capitalism — He's Calling For Better Understanding Of Capitalism

    Robin Byron ( profile ), 24 Jan, 2008 @ 12:24pm

    Altruism or lock-in with a nice wrapper?

    I don't know where Bill balances out on the scales of justice and I don't care. That is between him and his god. But, I can't help but wonder if his recent world speaking tour isn't just lubrication for the announcement to spend $235.5 in schools worldwide, in the form of a low-cost Windows+Intel computers, thus, locking in a new, global generation of users and killing off OLPC's XO laptop at the same time. Hey, once bitten, twice shy.

    PJ over at Groklaw has more on this story.

  • On the post: OLPC And Intel Split Over Friction From Competing Laptop

    Robin Byron ( profile ), 07 Jan, 2008 @ 10:18pm

    Re: After checking the facts......

    I didn't say your post was FUD. I said it was "close" to being FUD. I was wrong to say that. It's more along the lines of a troll. There is plenty of information on the net about Intel quiting OLPC and I know you can find it just as easily as I can but you could start by comparing your article with this.[nytimes.com] That doesn't sound like "sour grapes" to me. Sounds more like the Intel gang are a bunch of self centered, egotistical pricks taking advantage of people trying to help others.

    Almost all the techdirt articles on OLPC seem to take on a condescending air toward the project and treat it as a dumb tech company that doesn't know how to run a business. They are neither! Perhaps you could offer OLPC some expert help.

    Finally, I don't think you appreciate, at all, the philosophy behind the project or the XO computer. Have you seen the XO, played with it, scrutinized the design, know how it works, know why they chose the software installed? Do you know that there is a button on the XO keyboard which will show you the source code of the application you are using? Do you know why they did this?

Next >>