Jimr 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (236) comment rss

  • On the post: DailyDirt: Step Right Up And Try Your Luck…

    Jimr ( profile ), 27 Oct, 2011 @ 07:21am

    Good point ECA.
    We had a local government program to reduce energy usage.

    It worked as after a year there was an announcement that the program contributed to 5% drop in energy usage for our community. The power company's solution to this presumably long term drop in revenue was to increase the mandatory monthly connection fee. Doing some quick math and it was clear the power company total take in Cash was slight higher than before and yet we had reduced energy consumption by 5%.

    Whoopie we help generated more profitable revenue for the energy company!

    I am rooting for any alternative home energy solution so I can cut the power cord to my house.

  • On the post: Hollywood's Kinder, Gentler DRM: UltraViolet, Getting Slammed In Reviews

    Jimr ( profile ), 26 Oct, 2011 @ 10:43am

    I am more generally pissed about the price schema of things.
    Physical DVD $25, Physical Blu-ray $30, Physical Blu-ray with digital download $35. Just the digital download $30 and in a couple of cases I saw it $39.99. I could 'rent' the digital download for $20. What a deal!

    All I really want is the digital copy so I easily port it to what ever medium I want to watch it on. If the price was under $5 to own a non-DRMed digital download movie I would buy 2-5 a week.

    As it is now I typical just wait to it airs on TV and then PVR it and if I want to keep it around I edit out all the commercials.

  • On the post: EU Politician Wants Internet Surveillance Built Into Every Operating System

    Jimr ( profile ), 25 Oct, 2011 @ 08:45am

    Next up... in the interest of the children all you mail will be opened and scanned into a central repository before it is delivered to you. Combined with the transcripts of all your phone calls it will help police better make associations about you and level of criminal you undoubtedly are.

  • On the post: China: Great Firewall Isn't Censorship, It's Safeguarding The Public

    Jimr ( profile ), 21 Oct, 2011 @ 10:26am

    If we just lock everyone up in some secure 8 foot by 8 foot cell and supply them with food and water and 1 hour of exercise a day then everyone would be absolutely safe.

    Safety and freedom have to be balanced. Right now the trend is to sacrifice more and more freedom to gain a small and smaller amount of safety.

  • On the post: Louisiana Makes It Illegal To Use Cash For Secondhand Sales

    Jimr ( profile ), 20 Oct, 2011 @ 12:03pm

    They second hand stores should see this an an opportunity to open up a check cashing service next to their business (at 2% of the face value of the check). Or just do at the till - issue the check and then ask if they would like to cash it in for real cash.

  • On the post: What If A Court Gave An Important Ruling, But We Were Not Allowed To Know What It Was?

    Jimr ( profile ), 17 Oct, 2011 @ 01:21pm

    ignorance of the law is no excuse. You should just 'know' the law so why would you need to see the ruling.

  • On the post: US Postal Service Sends Postage Due Bill To Guy Who Put Block Party Invites Into Neighbors' Mailboxes

    Jimr ( profile ), 14 Oct, 2011 @ 08:02am

    Lucky I do not have a mail box.
    We have a large outdoor mail box container at the end of the street on the very busy road. That is the new trend around here to save money. No longer door service just close to your block. This way the mail person can drive down the busy main streets and stop (blocking all traffic) and fill everyone's mail boxes in the area in about 5 minutes.

  • On the post: That Didn't Take Long: Amazon Sued For Patent Infringement For New Kindle Fire Tablet

    Jimr ( profile ), 12 Oct, 2011 @ 02:22pm

    I am surprised they took action so quick. I though they would sit back let Amazon sell a ton of devices before hitting them up for cash and outrageous licensing fees.

  • On the post: Unfortunate: Novelist Joins Lawsuit Against Libraries; Would Apparently Prefer His Book Rot In Obscurity

    Jimr ( profile ), 12 Oct, 2011 @ 07:31am

    I am sure Salamanca just does not want anyone reading his works. He obviously wants his work to quietly die in obscurity. And that is his choice.

  • On the post: Judge Refuses To Dismiss Twitter From Patent Lawsuit Concerning Patent On Interacting With Famous People Online

    Jimr ( profile ), 07 Oct, 2011 @ 11:22am

    What is the legal definition of famous? How many people out of 1000 have to recognize you for you to be famous - is just local famous, national, world wide? Are you just famous in certain circles? You may have been famous in high school but after restraining order you could not longer stock the high school girls?

    I would say it to vague to use the world famous.

    Beside which I think Hollywood itself is prior art to an interactive virtual community of famous people.

  • On the post: France Continues Mass Processing Of Infringement Accusations: 60 People Get Third Strike Notice… 650,000 Get First Strike

    Jimr ( profile ), 05 Oct, 2011 @ 10:10am

    I wonder how many elected officials or copyright industry executive received any warnings at all?

  • On the post: Supreme Court Won't Hear Case Saying That You Have No First Sale Rights With Software

    Jimr ( profile ), 05 Oct, 2011 @ 07:41am

    This gives some credence record industry case that purchased music is really just a license to play that music on a specific device for which it was licensed for. (and no resale too. Now how is the record industry going to work in a termination date for that license.

  • On the post: What Does Japan Need To Do To Deal With The Aftermath Of The Devastating Earthquake? Apparently Pass ACTA!

    Jimr ( profile ), 04 Oct, 2011 @ 06:50am

    Now if your country does not sign then you are obvious not in support of Reconstruction from Great East Japan Earthquake.... you insensitive clod!

  • On the post: DailyDirt: Living Out Of A Box (Literally)

    Jimr ( profile ), 30 Sep, 2011 @ 07:12am

    I have seen those shipping contain 'homes' at a local trade. Impressive what they do. I saw the ones from 3twenty Solutions. Theirs where not quite as elaborate was the ones in you article, but very functional at a very good cost.

    I would not mind one for a remote cabin by a secluded lake.

  • On the post: Canadian Copyright Reform Authors Know The Law Outlaws Circumvention Even If No Infringement… But Don't Seem To Care

    Jimr ( profile ), 29 Sep, 2011 @ 11:37am

    With this new bill I would expect the media levy (tax) will be removed. After all you are a criminal now if you break any digital locks. It should also now be much easier to prove tangible dollars in lost revenue to these new criminals that will be filling up the new prisons that are to build (really really, it is in another bill). I wonder who will welcome the new release of threatening to sue for copyright infringement, or settle, and/or NOW face federal prison time.

  • On the post: DailyDirt: All The Little Things

    Jimr ( profile ), 28 Sep, 2011 @ 09:29am

    I put my old shoes in the new shoe box. This gives them then prefect environment to 'age' in. Then I filter liquid through them and sell it as wine to would be wine enthusiasts. I often too slap a picture of a fruit on the wine bottle.

  • On the post: Police Caught Tasing Teen Without Warning

    Jimr ( profile ), 27 Sep, 2011 @ 08:30am

    I would appear, just from the video, that undo (unreasonable) force was used to stop the situation.

    Just because you have a weapon in your hand does not give you any right to use it when not necessary. Tasing like shooting someone should be seen as one of the last options.

  • On the post: House Version Of PROTECT IP To Cover Cyberlockers Too

    Jimr ( profile ), 27 Sep, 2011 @ 06:14am

    Cloud computing is builds upon the Cyberlocker idea. After all cloud computing is just online storage set up in a fashion to hopefully increase reliability and availability if implemented correctly.

    I have had a paid online secure storage location for years and it is massive in size.

    Even our world wide company has a secure FTP-like site where I can easily transfer massive files in a secure way.

    I do not trust the government to technically knowledgeable enough to craft a bill that would not end up hurting everyone's business in an effort to appease the MPAA.

  • On the post: New Way To Build A Snowman: Patented!

    Jimr ( profile ), 23 Sep, 2011 @ 11:36am

    I think Frost is considered prior art. Maybe he should come to life and kick her a**.

  • On the post: Size Doesn't Matter: The Question Is Whether Google Hurts Consumers

    Jimr ( profile ), 23 Sep, 2011 @ 06:29am

    Good thing the banks are too big to fail and subject to massive government bailouts.

    Google needs to take lesson from the bank and try to grow exponentially so they too can become to big to fail and hence no longer subject to the regular rules of business or congressional oversight. The only problem is that Google is not big enough. Google needs to be as big as banks!

Next >>