xenomancer 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (509)

• On the post: Two-Cent Doughnuts Breed Decades Of Bad Blood: It's Not So Easy Going From Free To Paid

  

  xenomancer ( profile ), 24 Jul, 2012 @ 04:57pm

  Re: Re: Paywalls

  ... said the two registered users. I realize the significant difference between a signup requirement and the clear option of equally functional anonymity presented by Techdirt, but the great irony of your sentiments in spite of the clear influence of CWF+RTB was too much not to point out.
  
  /myonedoughnut

• On the post: Josh Mendelsohn's Favorite Techdirt Posts Of The Week

  

  xenomancer ( profile ), 21 Jul, 2012 @ 07:56pm

  Re: Re:

  Hey, be fair: It's not the monopolies that are all that bad. It's not allowing them to die out naturally, codifying their protection in law, the associated regulatory capture and political corruption, and the pond scum sucking bottom feeder bitches trying to defend the whole state of affairs that are ruining the future of our culture.

• On the post: US Olympic Committee Forces 30 Year Old Philidelphia Gyro Restaraunt To Change Its Name

  

  xenomancer ( profile ), 19 Jul, 2012 @ 02:38pm

  Re:

  You forgot e(EVERYTHING), but no one wants that shit from the 90's anyway.

• On the post: US Olympic Committee Forces 30 Year Old Philidelphia Gyro Restaraunt To Change Its Name

  

  xenomancer ( profile ), 19 Jul, 2012 @ 02:24pm

  Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:

  Ninja speaks in RPN? Impress Yoda he would.

• On the post: US Olympic Committee Forces 30 Year Old Philidelphia Gyro Restaraunt To Change Its Name

  

  xenomancer ( profile ), 19 Jul, 2012 @ 02:16pm

  Re: Re: Re: Disgusting

  On the other hand, what THEY COULD do is PROVIDE REASONABLE LICENSING OPTIONS to those using the word in what would otherwise be a completely innocuous manner AND NOT LITIGATE unless there was tangible proof of harm to or false association with their brand.

• On the post: Pro-Copyright Judges Never Drop Cases Over Conflicts, So Why Does Megaupload Judge Have To Step Down?

  

  xenomancer ( profile ), 18 Jul, 2012 @ 03:42am

  Re: Re: Re:

  The world is ruled by hot button issues, while real serious problems are ignored.

  Normally, as an engineer, I'd say "well, then we'll just have to fix that; I'll get back to you in a week," but there's only so much that can be done without "playing the game." And we've seen how well that's gone over just about every time it's been tried. Events like the revolution that founded this country that give me hope that the right conditions can still exist for real changes to occur. Maybe they'll even last a little longer next time.

• On the post: Police In Tasmania Explain To The Public That Someone Saying Something Mean Online Is Not Illegal

  

  xenomancer ( profile ), 17 Jul, 2012 @ 07:08pm

  Well, given the proximity, I'm not that surprised after the whole iiNet circus. If the content providers followed suit with the ISPs in the general region, this is the logical end point where people start developing a sense of humor and a thicker skin. Now, if only courts/lawyers on this side of the planet gave out similar advice... bah, I'm sure the result of that would be a decade of fearful lawyers and a bunch of very angry and clueless lawsuit-happy people not being drained of money fast enough.

• On the post: UK Plans To Make All Government-Funded Research Free To The Public Immediately Upon Publication

  

  xenomancer ( profile ), 16 Jul, 2012 @ 11:04pm

  A Step in the Right Direction

  Even though there is a silly fee attached to it, at least the value of access to research has been recognized, even if just indirectly. Access like this would have likely prevented issues like the debacle over vaccination with Nature. With more people reading the articles and critically analyzing them, the peer review process will benefit from the implicit check by the public.

• On the post: Olympic Level Ridiculousness: You Can't Link To The Olympics Website If You Say Something Mean About Them

  

  xenomancer ( profile ), 13 Jul, 2012 @ 03:26pm

  Re: Re: "in a text-only format"???

  Well, let's be reasonable and fair: they have many ideas on what they're talking about; it's just that all of those ideas are also very wrong.

• On the post: Olympic Level Ridiculousness: You Can't Link To The Olympics Website If You Say Something Mean About Them

  

  xenomancer ( profile ), 13 Jul, 2012 @ 03:21pm

  Re: Re: Re: Light bulb!

  /doingmypart

• On the post: Olympic Level Ridiculousness: You Can't Link To The Olympics Website If You Say Something Mean About Them

  

  xenomancer ( profile ), 13 Jul, 2012 @ 03:20pm

  Re: Re: Light bulb!

  Funny, I was honestly just mulling over creating such an association with rabbit flatulence when I stumbled upon your much more amusing rhetoric regarding dirty rotten rabbit raping rectal-rogues. I have to say, if the Olympics and the dirty rotten rabbit raping rectal-rogues work together, their powers combined would be great. Hell, many people are looking forward to the Olympics. I'm not sure I quite understand this as there will be so many dirty rotten rabbit raping rectal-rogues attending. Maybe if other pitch in, more awareness of the dirty rotten rabbit raping rectal-rogues at the Olympics, in London can spread in England.

• On the post: Lord Finesse's Lawyers Now Using Copyright To Stifle Dan Bull's Criticism Of His Lawsuit Against Mac Miller

  

  xenomancer ( profile ), 13 Jul, 2012 @ 03:09pm

  Re: Wow

  If I recall correctly, from what we've seen of copytroll lawsuits so far, even judges pissed off with those "claiming" infringement have refused to follow through and find the obvious bad faith of such take downs actionable. It's one of the major weaknesses of the DMCA.

• On the post: NY Considering Bill To Require Open Access To State Funded Research

  

  xenomancer ( profile ), 13 Jul, 2012 @ 03:04pm

  Re: Re: 6 Months?

  As a member of the scientific and engineering communities, I have to disagree. While allowing such information to be public upon publication may not always aid the layman, it does aid in circulating the information around the scientific community (arXiv is a great example of this at work). We scientists do not get a free pass to such information with a smile or a professional promise; we pay for access (typical rates are ~$30 for 24hrs access or one-time access to a bulk number of articles at a similar cost) or are granted access via the questionable channel of sharing between colleagues at the crumbling largess of the publishers. The widespread circulation allowed by removing the monetary cost of access reinforces the peer-review process by opening the forum to a wider audience for analysis. While many scientists still publish their work on their private websites or share the PDF's at request, this practice is actively discouraged by many journals and limits the audience to those who know of the scientist making the article available.
  
  Getting an article accepted and published often takes a year or longer. That is also the time it usually takes to at least design if not begin followup work, by which time critical feedback does not always have the opportunity to seriously affect the followup work's design without extra costs.

• On the post: NY Considering Bill To Require Open Access To State Funded Research

  

  xenomancer ( profile ), 13 Jul, 2012 @ 12:13am

  6 Months?

  I'm sorry, but that is still too long. As far as I'm concerned, the time taken to produce and publish the research is time enough. Just look what windowing has done to the entertainment industry (HUGE STRAW MAN, but I think a valid consideration in contemporary context).

• On the post: Dear Judge Koh: Competition Is No Reason To Ban A Phone

  

  xenomancer ( profile ), 02 Jul, 2012 @ 02:00pm

  Re: LOOK AT HOW SIMILAR THEY ARE!!!!!!!

  >.> *combinations of

• On the post: Dear Judge Koh: Competition Is No Reason To Ban A Phone

  

  xenomancer ( profile ), 02 Jul, 2012 @ 01:59pm

  LOOK AT HOW SIMILAR THEY ARE!!!!!!!

  The rounded corners, oh GOD, THE ROUNDED CORNERS!!! Whole markets are rising and falling on unique combinations osculating radii!!! How DARE they use this CRITICAL feature without permission??? Do they know how many hours of sanding it took to shave each phone down to specs by hand???
  
  Oh, they aren't unique? There's other stuff involved in making a phone? The curves aren't shaped into being by the mental prowess of the Geniuses? Well, that just ruins all the fun.

• On the post: ACTAfacts? ACTAfiction? Or Just Unsourced Pro-ACTA Propaganda Purporting To Be Objective?

  

  xenomancer ( profile ), 29 Jun, 2012 @ 02:46am

  Like Cat Facts

  "such analysis does not suddenly make the report invalid and the information contained in it unfounded"

  One does not simply unsubscribe from actafacts.com

  Hardy appears to be admitting that all he cared about was making sure the number was "big enough," not particularly "accurate."

  Hell, at least when I come up with large numbers (like here and here and here) I'm clear on methodology and how little to think of them.

• On the post: Microsoft's 'Threat Management Gateway' Blocks Free Software Foundation Donation Page As 'Gambling'

  

  xenomancer ( profile ), 25 Jun, 2012 @ 11:13am

  Re: Re: Re: Re:

  And, I, the romantic comedy psycho thriller starting only Robbin Williams.

• On the post: Microsoft's 'Threat Management Gateway' Blocks Free Software Foundation Donation Page As 'Gambling'

  

  xenomancer ( profile ), 25 Jun, 2012 @ 03:54am

  Re: Re:

  Is it voiced by Gilbert Gottfried?
  
  (BLACK JACK!!!)

• On the post: Microsoft's 'Threat Management Gateway' Blocks Free Software Foundation Donation Page As 'Gambling'

  

  xenomancer ( profile ), 25 Jun, 2012 @ 02:37am

  Re: Give Them Credit

  In retrospect, I suppose the whole spending money to support something given away freely has Microsoft's algorithm crying in a corner.

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