Robert P’s Techdirt Profile

On the post: Two Senators Sold A Bunch Of Stock After Being Briefed About COVID-19; While Telling The World Things Were Going To Be Fine

Robert P ( profile ), 20 Mar, 2020 @ 07:14am

Up to 4 senators now

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/11214675/four-republican-senators-dumped-millions-in-stocks-after-classified-briefings-on-coronavirus-before-market-crashed/

On the post: Game Studio Threatens Employees' Jobs If They Don't Write Positive Reviews Of Own Game, Then Steam Pulls Game Entirely

Robert P ( profile ), 26 Feb, 2018 @ 07:18am

everybody loses anyway

CEO says "everybody write a review or you're fired"
Valve says "no, that's wrong" pulls all games
Company has nothing to sell
All employees fired?

Seems like this was a shitty deal for the employees either way.

On the post: Whether Or Not Russians Hacked DNC Means Nothing Concerning How Newsworthy The Details Are

Robert P ( profile ), 25 Jul, 2016 @ 01:10pm

Who did the hacking isn't the important part

I agree that it's not terribly important who got the data. What struck me was reading that it's possible that they (Russia) modified the data. I think that changes the value and credibility of what was released. If it can be proved that one page was changed or created, what does that say for the rest of the data?

http://motherboard.vice.com/read/all-signs-point-to-russia-being-behind-the-dnc-hack#

On the post: Post Merger-Failure, Comcast Still Dedicated To Treating Customers Like Shit

Robert P ( profile ), 18 Jun, 2015 @ 08:05am

Comcast support has been good to me

I hate to buck the trend, but I've had a number of good experiences with Comcast support. I live a bit out in the country. Whenever I've had to have someone come to my house, it's always been within a day (or same day). I attribute this to not having a large customer base, which means higher availability. I also have a comcast "store" nearby and those people are all local and very friendly.

My most recent experience was a couple days ago. I recently upgraded my Tivo. After using the Tivo for a few days, I noticed I was missing some channels that another Tivo in the house was getting. I called Comcast. The guy I talked to didn't fix the problem, but he did notice that I had some old codes on my account. He fixed the codes, which upgraded my service from 25Mb to 50Mb and reduce my bill by about $20. He then dispatched someone to come take a look.

When the guy came onsite, it wasn't a physical problem, but he stuck around working through his various internal support channels until someone found a mismatch on the hostid of my Tivo to what was on the account. Once that was fixed, everything worked.

So, there are some problems with the above. Why was a manual review required to find old/outdated codes, why couldn't the first guy fix the hostid problem, etc. My point is, everyone I worked with was professional and seemed to be to be honestly trying to both solve my problem and make things better for me.

Not discounting the tremendous number of horror stories out there and I'm also still pissed at Comcast for capping my data but I wanted to point out that it's not all bad with them. There are people who work there who honesty try to do what they can for the customer.

On the post: Virginia Towns Using Federally-Funded License Plate Readers To Collect Local Taxes

Robert P ( profile ), 30 Mar, 2015 @ 09:23pm

For the children

Well, it's my understanding that child molesters never pay taxes. Think of the children!

On the post: Apple's Insistence On DRM And Other Restrictions Means EFF's New App Is Android-Only

Robert P ( profile ), 12 Jan, 2015 @ 07:41am

failing

Clearly, something has to change at Apple.

http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=aapl

On the post: Big Broadband Begs FCC Not To Expose Their Lies By Defining Broadband Accurately

Robert P ( profile ), 10 Sep, 2014 @ 01:55pm

"happy" with comcast speed

I just noticed something interesting in this article about Comcast. The plan I'm paying for (for internet) says I will get 12Mbps download. I'm actually getting 25Mb (or more, I've seen peaks over 50). Given what I'm actually getting, I can see now reason to pay for more service. This behavior gives them the ability to say "...many consumers choose to buy services with lower download speeds."

Makes me wonder if this is why I'm getting faster speeds than they're "required" to give according to the plan I'm purchasing. If I was consistently getting 12, I'd definitely be paying more to get faster service.

On the post: DOJ Says Americans Have No 4th Amendment Protections At All When They Communicate With Foreigners

Robert P ( profile ), 15 May, 2014 @ 08:38am

Expectations

So, in other words; I know you're going to shoot me, since I know (expect) you're going to shoot me, it's not really murder, it's more like suicide. Therefore, you're not really doing anything wrong.

sure

On the post: LA Sheriff's Dept. On New Surveillance Program: We Knew The Public Wouldn't Like It, So We Kept It A Secret

Robert P ( profile ), 17 Apr, 2014 @ 10:18am

"...so in order to mitigate any of those kinds of complaints, we basically kept it pretty hush-hush.?

The level of honesty from this officer clearly can not be tolerated. He should be fired immediately.

On the post: Snowden's Constitution vs Obama's Constitution

Robert P ( profile ), 03 Jul, 2013 @ 12:17pm

taking/seizing?

I don't think you can argue that copying isn't stealing and then say what the government is doing is "the taking of private information ? is what the government has now been forced to admit "

They're not taking anything, it still exists where it did originally. They're copying it. Minor distinction? Maybe, but that's the distinction you use when someone says people can't steal data.

On the post: If You Don?t 'Like' Your Student Loan Servicer on Facebook, You Will Default

Robert P ( profile ), 26 Apr, 2013 @ 06:28am

Re:

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought that way. I didn't get the "like us or else" message from reading the infographic. To me, it just looks like they're saying if you can't pay, those who contact us end up working something out, those who don't contact us, just don't pay and end up defaulting.

On the post: If Your Cable Company Were Honest, This Is What Its Commercial Would Look Like

Robert P ( profile ), 29 Mar, 2013 @ 11:42am

very funny, fortunately doesn't fit my experience

I've been a fortunate and happy Comcast customer, especially since I moved to my current residence. I get good (not as best as possible) internet speeds, very reliable service (almost no outages) and when needed, they comcast guy is usually available the next day, shows up on time and knows what he's talking about.

I'm the 1%

On the post: Will People Trust Google's New 'Note' Keeping Service After Reader Shutdown?

Robert P ( profile ), 21 Mar, 2013 @ 06:45am

Moving away from Google

It's a great search engine, but I'm finding myself moving away from Google (albeit slowly) for this very reason. I've seen quite a few apps come and go (I was a big fan of Wave). Given how little faith we can have on the long term viability of a given app they come up with (google health anyone?) it's just to risky to start using something of theirs now.

BTW, Bing's a pretty strong competitor on the search front too.

On the post: Germany's Curious Income Divide On Infringement Remedies: High-Earners Support Content Blocking, Oppose Disconnection

Robert P ( profile ), 13 Feb, 2013 @ 09:31am

Another conjecture (the first thing I thought of) is that people who make more are probably using broadband more (and/or higher speeds) and thus would see disconnect as being a more harsh penalty than those who might not use it as much.

On the post: Inventor Of The Wind-Up Radio Complains About 'Google Generation'

Robert P ( profile ), 17 Jan, 2013 @ 11:37am

I suspect this is taken a bit out of context, or maybe he just didn't make himself clear (or maybe he's a loon but happens to agree with my perspective a bit).

I agree that people (whether the "youth of today or my age or whatever) should know how to do some things on their own. You should know how to change a tire, put gas in your car (check youtube for the moronic people who just can't see to manage that) drive a nail in and hang a picture, etc.

You should have a basic understanding of how your computer/tv/DVD/etc. works vs. just where the power button is and how the UI works.

If your response to every question is lmgtfy, then you're probably spending a whole lot less time thinking critically than you should.

On the post: 2012 Democrats: Remember That Civil Liberties Thing From 2008? Um, Nevermind

Robert P ( profile ), 05 Sep, 2012 @ 07:38am

Do they exist?

Mike, you said: "Wouldn't it be nice if we actually elected a principled politician? Do they even exist any more?"

Not wanting to start a "but he sucks, look at x" flame war, but in my opinion, Ron Paul would have been the best contender for "principled politician". Also Senator Wyden.

On the post: Now NBC Execs Are Just Trolling: Claim They Regret Not Tape Delaying More Of The Olympics

Robert P ( profile ), 15 Aug, 2012 @ 09:35am

I think you used the wrong word.

When you said "gee, how can we 'exclude' people?" I think what they're actually thinking is "gee, how can we 'monetize' people?" They don't want to exclude anyone (rather the opposite) they just want to find the way to make the most money per viewer as possible. Finding better/more convenient ways for viewers to consume content is not really part of their mindset, unfortunately.

On the post: Chinese Microblog Service Introduces Five-Strike Program To Block 'Rumors' And 'Evil Teachings'

Robert P ( profile ), 01 Jun, 2012 @ 09:44am

What's sad is that this sounds very much like something I'd expect a US senator/congressman to write. Just about all of these could be reworded to something we're hearing from our "leaders" right now.

On the post: Digital Distribution: Exchanging Control For Convenience

Robert P ( profile ), 30 Mar, 2012 @ 05:11am

Shazam managed it fine

I "bought" the free version of Shazam back when I had my first iPhone. When they started to monetize their success (good for them) they were able to take all their users who had purchased the app for free and essentially convert them to fully paid versions. I continued to get enjoy the app with all the new features they were now charging for. During an iPhone migration, I briefly lost access to the app (It didn't recognize my new phone) but when I contacted them, I was able to provide proof of purchase and they re-enabled my account immediately.

I don't see why Bravo couldn't do the same thing. Apple should make this a requirement (surprised it's not already) that app owners retain whatever access they had when they purchased the app, regardless what they paid for it.

On the post: Hobbit Actors Stephen Fry & Ian McKellen Pay License For Hobbit Pub

Robert P ( profile ), 22 Mar, 2012 @ 08:13am

Backfired?

While I think SZC was dumb suing the bar, how has this really backfired for them? Will they make fewer movies? Will people not go to see their movies? Are they having to pay someone as a result of this activity? Yeah, they got some bad press (from people who are aware of this at all) but what else?

BTW, serious question, not rhetoric. Has there actually been any repercussions to their actions?

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