vegetaman 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (216)

• On the post: No, Sim City Debacle Doesn't Mean Gamers Need A Bill Of Rights

  

  vegetaman ( profile ), 15 Mar, 2013 @ 04:53am

  To quote Battlestar Galactica...

  This has happened before...
  
  and it will happen again...
  
  and again...
  
  and again...

• On the post: No, Sim City Debacle Doesn't Mean Gamers Need A Bill Of Rights

  

  vegetaman ( profile ), 14 Mar, 2013 @ 04:53pm

  The Irony

  Little did EA know that the biggest "social component" of their always-online game would be everybody bitching about how badly they fucked up and crippled this new SimCity game.

• On the post: Facebook Backs Away Quietly From Its CISPA Support

  

  vegetaman ( profile ), 14 Mar, 2013 @ 04:51pm

  Interesting.

  [i]Facebook made its case publicly, agreeing that there were some privacy and civil liberties concerns with the bill, but that on the whole the bill was good.[/i]
  
  I feel a strong irony of the fact that facebook agrees there are "privacy concerns" but agrees with the bill anyway, because that's pretty much the way they feel about user privacy isn't it?
  
  Not quite as ironic as how EA used the trumped up 'social aspect' of the new SimCity as a way to pretend that always-on DRM and no single player was legitimate. Little did they know that the ultimate social aspect of their game would be all the gamers, message boards, news articles and blogs that were bitching about how much EA (and Maxis) royally frakked up a loved franchise.
  
  But EA has been digging this hole for years, so I don't see them doing an about face anytime soon -- whereas Facebook apparently thinks it still needs to save some face.

• On the post: Undisclosed USPTO Employees Write Report Saying USPTO Does A Great Job Handling Software & Smartphone Patents

  

  vegetaman ( profile ), 21 Feb, 2013 @ 03:53am

  What they really should have said was:
  
  'We think we do a great job handling software and smartphone patents, in spite of knowing nothing about either of them!'

• On the post: Russia Uses New Internet Censorship Bill To Silence Prominent Reporters Who Criticized The Government

  

  vegetaman ( profile ), 14 Feb, 2013 @ 04:45am

  Leaders change but the oppression remains the same.

• On the post: Canada Denies Patent For Drug, So US Pharma Company Demands $100 Million As Compensation For 'Expropriation'

  

  vegetaman ( profile ), 09 Feb, 2013 @ 10:34am

  Re:

  I honestly could see the Shadowrun style corporate ruled world emerge in the next... 50 years or so.

• On the post: CISPA Sponsor Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger Promises The Return Of CISPA

  

  vegetaman ( profile ), 07 Feb, 2013 @ 10:10pm

  The concern, still, is what do the privacy protections look like in the bill and (more importantly) what the Senate will come up with on this front.

  Their concern is that the American public still has a right to privacy protections -- and they're mostly concerned that they can't figure out an easy way to circumvent that.

• On the post: Canadian Schools Ban WiFi Based On Bad Science

  

  vegetaman ( profile ), 06 Feb, 2013 @ 04:58am

  I don't feel so bad for not carrying my cell phone on me all day after reading this, though. I usually put it on the table or leave it in the car.

• On the post: Netflix Releases All 13 Episodes Of Its Own TV Show House Of Cards At Once

  

  vegetaman ( profile ), 01 Feb, 2013 @ 10:18pm

  Battlestar Galactica - Blood & Chrome

  BSG: Blood and Chrome was released onto youtube a week at a time. I thought that was pretty good. I feel like getting all 13 episodes in one shot is sort of like Caprica did at the end, just to burn off the episodes. You need some sort of time delay, I think, just to make people want it. A handful of people want to consume the series when it is all out all at once at the end. However, plenty of others enjoy just having a couple of shows to watch a week. But, it should be neat to see it play out.

• On the post: Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt

  

  vegetaman ( profile ), 28 Jan, 2013 @ 07:32pm

  Re: Re: Safe Crackers

  Thank you, I appreciate it.

• On the post: Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt

  

  vegetaman ( profile ), 27 Jan, 2013 @ 03:30pm

  Safe Crackers

  The comment about cracking safes is golden. Our country has a really big problem with this train of thought in general -- they attempt to fix the symptoms of problems, not the cause (ie. it's not bad security practices to do this -- just avoid this one guy who who know may be able to crack your safes!).
  
  Politicians are especially bad at this, because usually causes are much more complex than the symptoms they manifest as. So it looks like they're "doing something" and getting that re-electability cred they so desire.

• On the post: New York State Starts Walking Back On Transparency; Grants Gun Owners Exemption From Disclosure Of Public Records

  

  vegetaman ( profile ), 20 Jan, 2013 @ 11:06am

  Come on Techdirt, you're better than this.

  Whether some law abiding citizen chooses to own a gun or not is *THEIR* business. Putting their name and address out there for the whole world to see, as happened in NY, seems to actually run counter to the whole public safety ideal, doesn't it?

• On the post: NRA: Games To Blame For Violence! Also, Here's A Shooting Game For 4-Year-Olds!

  

  vegetaman ( profile ), 17 Jan, 2013 @ 05:44pm

  Re:

  I pretty much agree with how Jon B. put it. I don't see any "hypocrisy" here. Seems like pretty much a non-story to me.

• On the post: GEMA Vs. YouTube Hits The Three Year Mark As Rate Negotiations Fall Through Again

  

  vegetaman ( profile ), 16 Jan, 2013 @ 08:23pm

  So... I take it that everybody seems to think that Google just prints money, and they want in.
  
  I mean, damn it, they're established middlemen and gatekeepers of the industry. They're just too big to fail!

• On the post: Was An Advertisement In Vogue The Inspiration For The Star Wars Opening Crawls?

  

  vegetaman ( profile ), 14 Jan, 2013 @ 08:50pm

  Re: Re: Flash Gordon?

  Yep, just came in to post this. Several Star Wars documentary features point this out pretty blatantly.
  
  http://youtu.be/VGbSOEWRgu0?t=1m30s
  
  Tim's point still stands, though.

• On the post: Time Warner's 'Conversation' Website Ditches All Comments; The Conversation Is Just Them To You

  

  vegetaman ( profile ), 12 Jan, 2013 @ 11:42am

  As usual, the word "conversation" really means "a one sided lecture".

• On the post: The Flipside: Embracing Closed Gardens Like The Apple App Store Shows Just How Un-Free You Want To Be

  

  vegetaman ( profile ), 11 Jan, 2013 @ 04:52am

  See, if we don't talk about wars, they're not really happening! Apple is just doing their part to help us Americans maintain our oblivious status quo.
  
  "I reject your reality, and substitute my own."

• On the post: Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt

  

  vegetaman ( profile ), 06 Jan, 2013 @ 04:05pm

  There were a lot of fantastic funny/insightful posts on that Sony story. Glad to know I'm in good company of people who are so offended by their track record (new DRM scheme, the old rootkits scandal, failure to give a shit about customer's information ala PSN hacking) who refuse to buy or use another Sony product.

• On the post: Sony Patent Application Takes On Used Game Sales, Piracy With Embedded RFID Chips In Game Discs

  

  vegetaman ( profile ), 04 Jan, 2013 @ 04:53am

  Go ahead and do it Sony, and I'll never buy/play another one of your products again.
  
  Oh wait, I already don't, thanks to other various stupid crap from the past (rootkit scandal, anyone?).

• On the post: Blowback From Publication Of Gun Owner Data Continues — Threats, Lawsuits And Rejected FOIA Requests

  

  vegetaman ( profile ), 03 Jan, 2013 @ 07:29pm

  Perhaps you remember when the Associated Press attempted to get this information on Illinois FOID card owners? Well, the state AG said they had to be turned over, and the ISP said "no", and they passed a law that kept this information private (law enforcement and such agencies only).
  
  In my personal view, Illinois actually got that one right -- it's information that does not need to be public.

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