Michael Lockyear 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (158)

• On the post: FTC Concludes Investigation Into Google's Street View Data Collection Without Penalties

  

  Michael Lockyear ( profile ), 28 Oct, 2010 @ 01:30am

  Google is not problem

  Google is not the problem...idiots broadcasting their unencrypted data is the problem. "Listening-in" to wifi traffic (and using that information) has become a trivial exercise.

• On the post: Who 'Owns' A Twitter Account: Employer Or Employee?

  

  Michael Lockyear ( profile ), 27 Oct, 2010 @ 03:51am

  Twitter owns the account

  I believe that neither employer nor employee own a Twitter account...Twitter do...Twitter decides what functionality your account has and what it can be used for. If anyone disagrees see what happens when you try to sell your account.

• On the post: Student's Off-Campus YouTube Bullying Of Another Student Protected Free Speech

  

  Michael Lockyear ( profile ), 26 Oct, 2010 @ 02:28am

  Two sets of rules

  It would appear that there are 2 sets of rules: 1 for adults and one for children.
  
  If an adult made "derogatory, sexual and defamatory statements" about a colleague on Youtube and then invited a bunch of co-workers to view the video they would be fired for sexual harassment. They would certainly be given more than a "2-day suspension".

• On the post: Indonesia Proposes Law To Review & Tax Every Internet Application

  

  Michael Lockyear ( profile ), 21 Oct, 2010 @ 02:13am

  Field experience

  Clearly a way for the Indonesian government to protect its agricultural industry...(soon to be) unemployed programmers can now get some field experience.

• On the post: Canadian Man Charged With Criminal Libel By The Police

  

  Michael Lockyear ( profile ), 21 Sep, 2010 @ 12:54am

  The address (I believe) of the site which upsets the Calgary police:
  
  http://www.rottenapples.info/

• On the post: Intel Threatens To Use The DMCA Against Anyone Who Uses The HDCP Crack

  

  Michael Lockyear ( profile ), 20 Sep, 2010 @ 05:27am

  Who cares?

  The DMCA is American...the last time I checked all of my electronics come from China (or Taiwan, Malaysia, etc)!
  
  For a non-American this means that sooner or later our devices will bypass this form of DRM "out of the box"...devices supporting the DRM will be (are) worth less than devices which just work.

• On the post: Shameful News Industry Willing To Sacrifice Wikileaks To Get Shield Law

  

  Michael Lockyear ( profile ), 31 Aug, 2010 @ 06:44am

  Aren't we lucky that Wikileaks is not dependent on US laws!

• On the post: Artists Realizing It's Time To Offer Cheaper Concert Tickets Directly, And To Get Rid Of Annoying Fees

  

  Michael Lockyear ( profile ), 20 Aug, 2010 @ 07:33am

  Six of one and half a dozen of the other

  Both the Pixies and Joe Pugg used / are using a middleman ...Topspin.
  
  Topspin is not free. The musician pays between 5% and 20% per transaction, which varies based on the price of the item being sold. In addition, the musician must also pay credit card fees and bandwidth charges.
  
  The musician would (obviously)consider these transaction fees before setting the ticket price...either way the concert goer is going to pay.

• On the post: Hadopi's Secret Internet Spying Spec Leaked

  

  Michael Lockyear ( profile ), 04 Aug, 2010 @ 03:07pm

  How will the French government force its citizens to install this spyware?

• On the post: Indonesian ISPs Ordered To Ban All Porn In Just A Few Weeks

  

  Michael Lockyear ( profile ), 02 Aug, 2010 @ 04:50am

  Real Muslims (and Christians for that matter) don't look at porn...why do they need a filter? The answer (quite obvious), from the NY Times article, "The filter would begin with pornography and would later be expanded to other undesirable sites."
  
  Even if they can scrape together a list of sites to block, circumvention is literally child's play.

• On the post: Barney Frank's Attempt To Allow & Tax Online Gambling Moves Forward (Again)

  

  Michael Lockyear ( profile ), 29 Jul, 2010 @ 02:34am

  I doubt that offshore companies, that are operating tax-free and probably legally in the jurisdictions where they are based, are overly concerned whether or not the US gives them a license!

• On the post: Early Indications Say Paywall For The Times Is A Dreadful Failure

  

  Michael Lockyear ( profile ), 18 Jul, 2010 @ 12:26pm

  Re:

  >>>>OMG! It's like the people at "The Times" have been living in a bubble ...
  
  ...a pay-bubble!

• On the post: Authorities Force 73,000 Blogs Offline?

  

  Michael Lockyear ( profile ), 16 Jul, 2010 @ 07:40am

  Re:

  I very much doubt that you are going to get the full answer from Homeland Security. And even if they did give an answer, would anyone actually believe it?

• On the post: Andy Grove Suggests US Protectionism For Tech Jobs

  

  Michael Lockyear ( profile ), 12 Jul, 2010 @ 10:40am

  Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:

  I suspect that the real reason the US did well in the 1950's and 1960's was the fact that they did not have any real competition - Europe and Japan were still rebuilding after being devastated by WW2 and large parts of Asia were either genuinely trying to be Communist or involved in messy conflicts.
  
  From the late 1960's onwards, many of these issues started to reverse and the US started to experience competition and trade deficits...downhill ever since.

• On the post: Andy Grove Suggests US Protectionism For Tech Jobs

  

  Michael Lockyear ( profile ), 12 Jul, 2010 @ 08:59am

  Re: Re: Re: reaching equilibrium sooner

  I don't think that is what Andy Grove had in mind though!
  
  PS Although I am NOT American, my spellchecker is!

• On the post: Andy Grove Suggests US Protectionism For Tech Jobs

  

  Michael Lockyear ( profile ), 11 Jul, 2010 @ 11:16am

  Re: reaching equilibrium sooner

  The playing field will only be leveled if the tariffs go the workers of the third-world countries, so that they can have pensions, health-care and 27 different flavors of jelly bean in the cafetaria.

• On the post: Andy Grove Suggests US Protectionism For Tech Jobs

  

  Michael Lockyear ( profile ), 11 Jul, 2010 @ 11:06am

  Re: Re: Re: Re:

  The market determines the value of your work...what would you prefer?
  
  The organization you describe does not sound very competitive...probably needs protective tariffs or some bail-out funds :)

• On the post: Andy Grove Suggests US Protectionism For Tech Jobs

  

  Michael Lockyear ( profile ), 11 Jul, 2010 @ 10:56am

  Re: Re: Re: Re:

  "This is a really insulting thing to say to the ordinary people of your own country. You can expect to be "the first against the wall when the revolution comes" if you continue to make comments like that. How can you judge what the value of a man's work is?"/ lol! I am not American and don't live in America! That said, I don't think that economic reality is a matter of patriotism. As for the value of a man's work...the market decides.

• On the post: Andy Grove Suggests US Protectionism For Tech Jobs

  

  Michael Lockyear ( profile ), 11 Jul, 2010 @ 06:32am

  Re: Re:

  US factory workers expect to live middle-class lifestyles. Unfortunately they cannot add enough value to justify being paid for what they do (or don't do). This is not sustainable.
  
  Import tariffs and similar taxes will simply deny Americans the freedom to make their own market decisions. If commodity technology products increase in price, there will be parents who can no longer afford to give their kids PC's, there will be schools which will no longer be able to put computers in the classroom, etc.
  
  One has to question whether or not the tech companies (like Google) built on the back of cheap computing power would have ever come into existence (in the US that is) if consumers had to subsidize the uncompetitive.
  
  If you cannot add the value, you are not entitled to the reward.

• On the post: Andy Grove Suggests US Protectionism For Tech Jobs

  

  Michael Lockyear ( profile ), 10 Jul, 2010 @ 09:01am

  I suspect that the Chinese must be quaking in their boots at the prospect of the American tech industry being run like General Motors! Until such time as US factory workers are prepared to work the same hours for the same pay and benefits as their Chinese counterparts, US factory workers will not be competitive (in the industries which have been off-shored). Taking money away from people who have it (because they earned it) and giving it to people and companies that don't have it (because they cannot compete) sounds like a great way to make a country more successful! Of course, if Mr Grove's idea is implemented the US will need a cadre of central planners to decide who (i.e. which defense contractor) gets the "scaling funds" and who doesn't...maybe the Chinese Communist party has a few that are no longer needed!

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