Ray Trygstad 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: Can We Stop Asking For A New Internet?

    Ray Trygstad ( profile ), 16 Feb, 2009 @ 07:38am

    Didn't we try something like this already?

    As I recall, it was called something like "AOL", and everyone with any grasp of what the Internet ought to be pretty much universally agreed that it sucked.

  • On the post: Can We Stop Asking For A New Internet?

    Ray Trygstad ( profile ), 16 Feb, 2009 @ 07:38am

    Didn't we try something like this already?

    As I recall, it was called something like "AOL", and everyone with any grasp of what the Internet ought to be pretty much universally agreed that it sucked.

  • On the post: Can You Re-Copyright Photos In The Public Domain?

    Ray Trygstad ( profile ), 13 Feb, 2009 @ 11:18am

    Corbis slaps "Copyright" on thousands of public domain photos...

    If you go through the Corbis photo collection you will find perhaps thousands of photos that started out their life as an "Official U.S. Navy photograph" or "Official NASA photograph". By law any photograph produced by the U.S. government is in the public domain but as far as I can see Corbis slaps a copyright notice--and a watermark--on them pretty damn indiscriminately. And I am pretty sure they are not the only ones. I don't know how well they enforce this but I have sure seen a lot of photos I recognized from my life in the Navy with a Corbis watermark slapped across them.

  • On the post: If You're Trying To Unseat An Entrenched Technology, You Need To Offer Some Significant Improvements

    Ray Trygstad ( profile ), 06 Feb, 2009 @ 02:33pm

    HD Radio in the US is PROPRIETARY

    Instead of an open standard that anyone could build to, the FCC selected an HD radio standard that is proprietary and is entirely under the thumb of the owner, iBiquity. This enormously and artificially drives up the cost of HD radio in the U.S. You can buy an FM stereo receiver in dollar stores but HD radios are rarely available for less than $100 due to the "iBiquity tax". I've got news for the broadcasting industry and the FCC: Americans ain't gonna pay $100 for a RADIO. There are too many alternatives available out there today: way too many. If digital (i.e. HD radio) were as cheap as analog radio but with better sound, many of us would be there in a heartbeat, but it's just too much money for too little advantage now.

  • On the post: Another Author Has A Book Leak, And Offers Up The 'Oopsie' Version For Sale

    Ray Trygstad ( profile ), 24 Sep, 2008 @ 07:40pm

    I buy Baen books when I buy books...

    ...because I actually READ ebooks on my ancient Dell Axim PDA. I am so grateful to Baen for their free sharing of ebooks that I always look for the Baen circle on books in the bookstore. I also trust their editors to consistently select books that I will like, so I know my dollars are will spent--and are furthering and promoting a business model of the future and not of the past.

  • On the post: Lexmark Trying To Help Users Print Less When They Print The Web

    Ray Trygstad ( profile ), 29 Aug, 2008 @ 07:05am

    Another great Firefox tool does the same thing:

    Rob Brown's Aardvark: Lets you selectively remove anything from a Web page, and even de-widthify text that only occupies half the width of the printed page. I won't print without it. (http://karmatics.com/aardvark/)

  • On the post: University Makes Students Take Copyright Quiz To Get Timed Access To P2P

    Ray Trygstad ( profile ), 16 May, 2008 @ 08:40am

    That's how we get Linux distributions...

    At the university where I work, Bittorrent is how we expect our students to get their Linux distributions. Guess they don't worry about that; sort of odd for a technology school. I also wonder it they block Rapidshare.

  • On the post: Your Electric Vehicle Is Too Quiet; Congress May Force It To Be Louder

    Ray Trygstad ( profile ), 14 Apr, 2008 @ 03:55pm

    I know how to fix this...

    ...you just use playing cards and clothespins in the spokes. Always worked to make my bicycle just roar along.

  • On the post: Are Blog Comments Like A Laser Pointer To A Cat?

    Ray Trygstad ( profile ), 13 Mar, 2008 @ 10:39am

    Hands down best set of comments anywhere...

    ...are the comments on the page on Amazon.com where you can buy Uranium ore. Trust me. Prepare to laugh. Go read them.

  • On the post: Blaming YouTube For Kids Blowing Stuff Up?

    Ray Trygstad ( profile ), 03 Mar, 2008 @ 01:40pm

    Kids blowing things up? We were doing that in the

    I had LOTS of friends who blew MANY things up in the late 60's/early 70's with no YouTube at all for inspiration. They even manufactured their own nitroglycerin, a pretty tricky process. A couple of them spent one summer afternoon blowing up granite boulders in a lot right across the road from the local San Diego County Sheriff's substation. The deputies did come over to check on them, but since they they were properly attired in coveralls and hard hats they just let them continue; you think they might have noticed that THEY WERE ONLY 15 YEARS OLD. One guy even was caught (before detonation) with the entire footbridge leading to the back gate of our junior high all wired up and ready to blow. Nobody ever had any intention of hurting anyone, no revolutionary crap, they just loved to watch things BLOW UP. (And what 15-year-old boy doesn't?)

  • On the post: Isn't It Better To Keep Smart Foreign Workers In The US Than Sending Them Home To Compete?

    Ray Trygstad ( profile ), 28 Feb, 2008 @ 10:33am

    I said this two years ago.

    I teach literally hundreds of international students each year and there is almost one universal constant among them: they really do not want to go home. See my blog entry, Amnesty for Illegal Immigrants? How 'bout an H-1B Amnesty? for more on the subject.

  • On the post: Various Rights Group Fight Back Against The Wikileaks Injunction

    Ray Trygstad ( profile ), 27 Feb, 2008 @ 11:17am

    Wikileaks alternate domain name...

    Just to help out, I have pointed a subdomain of one of my domains at the main Wikileaks site: http://wikileaks.pondscumandlawyers.com/. An appropriate name for the site, given the circumstances!

  • On the post: Publishers Jumping On The Free Book Bandwagon (Somewhat, But Not Fully)

    Ray Trygstad ( profile ), 19 Feb, 2008 @ 08:21am

    Tor has had free books for a while...

    I am currently reading a Tor science-fiction novel, Postsingular by Randy Rucker, on my Dell Axim PDA--where I do most of my reading thanks to Baen Books and Project Gutenberg. It was released under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License. Now Tor may not have been as open about making their books free as Baen, but they certainly will allow their authors to make their books free. Also, both Tor and Del Rey, the other two major sci-fi publishers, have made books available as electronic versions with no DRM at Baen's Webscriptions site (http://www.webscription.net/).

  • On the post: Feds' Edict To Encrypt Hard Drives Gets — You Guessed It — Ignored

    Ray Trygstad ( profile ), 17 Jul, 2007 @ 05:54pm

    The problem is UNFUNDED edicts

    Based on my experience as an Information Systems Security Officer in the Navy, the problem is that when these edicts are made there is never any accompanying funding to carry them out. It's not that the people WANT to ignore the edict; it's just that's the way the system works: someone makes a rule without considering the cost of compliance and certainly without ensuring that funds are made available to comply. Since there is no money to fund it, it's not possible to comply, even if you really, really want to.

  • On the post: Microsoft's Claims About Linux Patent Infringement Are Old News And Old FUD

    Ray Trygstad ( profile ), 14 May, 2007 @ 08:51pm

    Gee, so what else can we run on our X86-based serv

    As an IT Director, this whole issue actually got me to thinking "Gee, what else can I run on my X86 servers?". My first thought: Solaris! Sun has already been though one lawsuit mill with Microsoft--and won as I recall--and their product, without support, costs oooh what: $0.00? Does anyone really think Microsoft is going to sue folks running Solaris? (And in all honesty, does anyone feel they're going to actually sue anyone?) But please, if Microsoft does scare you into dumping Linux, well, the least you can do is to dump Microsoft at the same time! So if you're really scared, maybe dumping Linux AND Micro$oft and running Solaris is the answer. But please, don't pay up: this is just a shakedown.

  • On the post: Veterans Administration Now Known As Ministry For Data Leaks

    Ray Trygstad ( profile ), 06 Feb, 2007 @ 08:12pm

    It's a Policy Issue!

    This is not a failure of technology: it's a failure of policy, which is the core management tool for information security. There has to be a policy governing data on portable devices, the policy has to be enforced, and there has to be consequences for failure to comply. The policy might prescribe a technological control (i.e. encryption), but there has to be policy. This certainly does not seem to be the case in the Department of Veteran's Affairs.

    BTW the government is NOT exempt from HIPAA; on top of that, as a Federal agency, the DVA is also subject to FISMA, the Federal Information Security Management Act, which is much tougher than any IT security standards legislatively required of any commercial entities.

  • On the post: But How Will Mozart Have Incentive To Write New Music With All His Works Available For Free?

    Ray Trygstad ( profile ), 14 Dec, 2006 @ 11:22am

    Free Classical Music

    Well, it's completely unmaintained and in terrible disarray, but the entire catalog, mostly classical, of the now-defunct Seattle record company Pandora is available at iBiblio at http://music.ibiblio.org/pub/multimedia/pandora/. Don't try to get to it through the iBiblio main page, though, because all of the links are broken.

  • On the post: 'Go Forth And Multiply' Evidently Doesn't Apply To Online Sermons

    Ray Trygstad ( profile ), 17 Nov, 2006 @ 07:55am

    Plagiarism is a Sermon Tradition

    While the fact is that ethics requires attribution of sources, the use of other's materials in sermons goes back to...well, as far back as sermons go. I have many of my sermons online, and others are welcome to use them; all I really want is for them to share the same message I was sharing. If I found a really compelling sermon that met a need, I would use it--with attribution--without a pang of regret or conscience, and 99% of the time the author of the sermon would probably be delighted to know I used it. I know other folks have preached my sermons and I certainly do not mind. Yes, sermons are ''intellectual property'' but because of their purpose and how they are used, it is in a very different sense than most people view IP.

  • On the post: Did Shaquille O'Neal Raid The Wrong Home For Child Porn Over Mistaken IP Address?

    Ray Trygstad ( profile ), 23 Oct, 2006 @ 01:40pm

    Shaq actually does know something about this stuff

    I know for a fact that Shaq was in a class on online solicitation of minors and child pornography taught by Michael Sullivan of the Illinois Attorney General's office. SO he does know something, and Sullivan is a good instructor.

  • On the post: Note To Telcos: Please Get Better Shills

    Ray Trygstad ( profile ), 29 Aug, 2006 @ 12:15pm

    So How Much Does Google Actually Pay?

    It seems to me that Google ought to be trotting out the receipts to show what they are actually paying their provider, RCN, for their bandwidth. This rant about how Google is using the bandwidth "for free" is such a load of crap; every bit and byte of bandwidth on the 'net has been paid for AT BOTH ENDS! That is the essence of the concept of net neutrality; it's all BEEN PAID FOR so those maintaining the pipes should have no say as to what goes through them. They should just shut up and pump.

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