El_Segfaulto's Favorite Techdirt Posts Of The Week
from the winner's-circle dept
Last week, el_segfaulto scored a rare double win, getting both "most insightful" and "funniest" comments of the week -- on two separate comments (it's been done on a single comment before). Given that, we figured he easily deserved to write up this week's "favorites" post...
Good weekend everybody. Welcome to the recap and another round of favorite posts. When Mike first asked me to write this, I started brainstorming ways of doing it fairly. I wrote an algorithm to compare the number of total comments to the percentage of those that I find troll-like for each article. I solicited opinions from coworkers, friends, the crazy homeless guy that hangs out on the route I take to get coffee in the morning. Unfortunately for you all, I realized that all of that work was for naught and I decided to simply list off the articles that I enjoyed reading and the articles that elicited the best comments. A big thanks to Mike for the opportunity to write this up and for letting me have a little extra time to get everything in order.
So...without further adieu, let's geek it up a notch!
Honorable mentions:- Another viewpoint - Another View Of The Netflix Price Hike: It's Speeding Up The Shift To Online Streaming
- Government out of control - Feds Say They Can Search Bradley Manning's Friend's Laptop Because They Can
- Comic Relief - Judge Waxes Comedic On Whether You Can Trademark Quilted Diamonds On Toilet Paper
- A sudden outbreak of common sense - Apple Does Not Have More Cash Than The US Gov't; Stop Saying That It Does
10) I wanted to start with an encouraging article. As was noted throughout UK Government Announces Copyright Plans, the UK seems to be taking a surprisingly reasonable route towards copyright reform.
9) Apple Continues To Scream To The World How Competitive Samsung's Tablet Is By Getting It Banned In Australia in a number of tech blogs throughout the internet. It's always fun to see the Apple fans come out in droves to protect the mothership. Unfortunately most of the Techdirt readers kept it civil and calm...next time I want flames.
8) More good news! Apparently the Economist is starting to recognize that patents have become far more of a hindrance than an incentive to create. The Economist Once Again Worried About Our Innovation-Hindering Patent System may not have brought out a ton of comments, but the story itself was interesting and the comment thread good, albeit a little meandering.
7) I try to avoid reading too many patent articles if at all possible (they anger up the blood) but reading Hulu Sued For Violating 'TV Guide' Patent led me on a long rant at work so I felt it deserved some recognition.
6) 20th Century Fox Claims 'Dice Age' Game Sounds Too Much Like Ice Age Movie was a good read, but for whatever reason a lot of the comments had me in stitches.
5) Is Google Antitrust Investigation Simply A Repeat Of Wasteful Microsoft Antitrust Effort? brought up a lot of good points and actually changed my opinion of the software behemoths slightly, and that's all anyone can ask from a written work.
4) For some reason I find that reading about multinational megacorps going at it reminds me of watching a Godzilla movie, no matter which monster wins the citizens of Tokyo lose. Amazon Stops Accepting Apps In Germany Due To Apple's App Store Trademark Claim is a great story and thread of trademarks gone amok.
3) Really Bad Idea: Make ISPs Liable For Cybercrime Efforts was a good read and, as always, the comments failed to disappoint.
2) The infuriating post of the week has to go to Court Shuts Down Zediva: Apparently The Length Of The Cable Determines If Something Is Infringing. Hearing a court make this kind of judgment made me die a little inside.
1) As a security geek my favorite post of the week has to be Defense Department Pretty Much Incompetent In Dealing With Online Threats. Over the past year there has been a multitude of hacks and attacks throughout the world. Although I'm not convinced that the DoD is that inept, it was an eye-opening article with a ton of insightful comments.
If you've gotten this far...congratulations! Thanks for reading and enjoy the summer, while it lasts.


Re: Re: Re: Re:
SOPA and its ilk are dead, but we all know that the critters will push it through as a rider on some other bill. I'm trying to campaign on diversifying the state economy and on paring back issues like the PATRIOT act and getting the TSA out of our pants. Unfortunately I'm young (30), single (soon to be engaged), and no democrat has ever won the 2nd district.
I appreciate the good wishes, I really do believe that the key to fixing politics is to remove the career politicians. The problem is that they're so entrenched it will take a major event to dislodge them.
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District 2, Nevada - Democrat. I hate the two party system as much as anybody but in order to even stand a change you have to ally with one or the other.
(untitled comment)
I've been making campaign stops since March in my run to Washington. I can honestly tell you that no matter how much I rail against SOPA/PIPA/CISPA, almost nobody in the audience gives even a glimmer of understanding. We may be facing a losing battle here, guys.
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I am none of those things! I am a commie-nazi hippie flag burner and I will thank you to note the difference!
Re: Re: I agree...but also disgree
Where I live, prostitution is legal, controlled, regulated, and taxed. As George Carlin said, selling is legal [sex] is legal, why isn't selling [sex] legal?
Re: Re: I agree...but also disgree
Where I live, prostitution is legal, controlled, regulated, and taxed. As George Carlin said, selling is legal [sex] is legal, why isn't selling [sex] legal?
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I hate to tell you this, but my friends and I were ripping CDs and sharing them via sneakernet and good ole dorm LAN parties long before broadband was ubiquitous. Of course that was back when an 80gb hard drive was nearly $300, nowadays you can get a 2tb for under $100. Processing power and storage have at least as much to do with it as transfer speed.
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Must...resist...opening an Xtacles account...
Re: Re: Rush, Rush, Rush I thought that you were more savvy than that.
Well...If we make him angry enough he could have a stroke and die. One less hate-monger with a pulpit would definitely be a noble end.
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It hurts your eyes...and the collective IQ of the Western world.
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Louis C.K. the lunchbox! Louis C.K. the breakfast cereal! Louis C.K. the flamethrower!
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Riiiight...and McCartney and Lennon wouldn't have made amazing works of art if it weren't for the millions of dollars and legions of groupies. I hate to break it to you, but real artists, enjoy creating art for the sake of art. Getting paid is nice, but I'd rather see 10,000 artists make $50,000 per year than 100 artists make $5,000,000 per year.
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Sir, we promise to get off of your lawn soon. I must say that I take offense to your thesis that creative work cannot be made on a PC. Last time I checked, 98.4% of a Michael Bay movie is composed of CG (if you don't know what the 'C' stands for in that feel free to respond).
It is entirely possible for artists to reach their audience and sell their work online, and here's the important part...without a middle-man.
That fact is what terrifies the useless Luddites. The paper pushers are no longer needed, now they'll have to find some other way to milk money without contributing anything to society. I hear Walmart is always looking for greeters...
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Meh, it could have been worse. I didn't see any comic sans or wingdings.
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So now we start punishing people based on what they might do?
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Linux with ImageMagick
Re: Re: Oh, it all depends upon how you measure it
I just watched a nifty SciFi movie that I hadn't heard of before. The Man From Earth. It was made in 2007 (I think...) and written by Jerome Bixby (of Star Trek fame). There were no special effects, just a man telling a story to his friends. And it was better than any Michael Bay action-fest with a budget higher than the combined GDP of South America.
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I'm a bit confused...Your first statement says that not having a backup is irresponsible, but your second statement says that you shouldn't maintain multiple storage facilities. Is this some new form of NewSpeak or am I just having a stroke?
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Paging Dr. Freud...
Re: They can barely use their Blackberries
Sure there is! It's next to President Obama's magic "make gas prices go down" dial.