Atkray's Favorite Techdirt Posts Of The Week
from the theme-o'-the-week dept
This week's favorites post come from Atkray.
I get asked about it, so for those who wonder, Atkray combines the ATK
from the motorcycle company, not the rocket engine manufacturer, with Ray my given name. I am grateful for this opportunity to give back a little and hope that my reflections on the past week will be of value or entertainment to some of you.
By Sunday night, I find that I have stared at the favorites, the most insightful, and funny posts long enough. Consequently, by Monday morning I am ready to see what the new week brings. This week I skipped the first post and went straight to the monkeys writing Shakespeare. I was a tad disappointed to see the output was not what I expected and for some reason the side note about the real monkeys typing mostly the letter "s" and then urinating on the keyboards left me wondering if, for the sake of authenticity, it is necessary to program the virtual monkey to do the same. Unfortunately, the comments deteriorated to personal attacks rather quickly before changing to a most interesting discussion of infinite and near infinite. I can see monkeys writing Shakespeare becoming the next folding@home.
Behaving more like monkeys than officers, NYPD kicked off what became the theme for the week, cops being caught on video and lying.
Building on that theme, on Tuesday we had the Canadians getting involved with a face-tasing, as well as the bonus multi-angle feature of the Wall Street incident from Monday. On Wednesday the police in Chicago felt left out, so we got the story of cops disrupting funeral processions and then lying about it. I really enjoyed the position put forth by an AC that it is only a small percentage of the cops that are bad so we shouldn’t worry. On Thursday, the entire state of Illinois joined the theme and decided to appeal a ruling that filming police is protected by that pesky old Constitution. Of course allowing the focus to shift westward is unacceptable to New Yorkers so they started rounding up people with cameras and hauling them off in the paddy wagon, prompting an epic comment from Dark Helmet (widely rumored to live in or around Chicago) that made me go digging through old boxes so I could watch Ghostbusters again. Friday returned back to Illinois with the story of a guy being threatened with a felony and 15 years in jail for filming a traffic stop.
It is a rare week when we don’t get more news from Righthaven, and I find it entertaining to see the Karma boomerang in action -- although it appears that even the judges involved may be feeling a little pity for Righthaven and the beating it is taking.
The seemingly inevitable arrival of the police state was shown to us by officials at the University of Wisconsin-Stout, where officials decided to censor a professor by misunderstanding (totally) a poster he put up. Nice to see that freedom of thought and expression won’t be interfering with the indoctrinations. This story was my favorite of the week with the second poster the professor put up making me literally laugh out loud.
I was disappointed to see Governor Moonbeam (disclosure: I lived in the state when he and Linda were an item) has the opportunity to help out the citizens by protecting their 4th Amendment rights on traffic stops, but appears to be bought and paid for by the law enforcement lobbyists.
The news that Direct TV sees that the prices Hollywood dictates are not the prices customers are willing to pay gave me a glimmer of hope. But then Time Warner's belief that no one is cutting the cord snapped me back to reality. Even the little old ladies in my neighborhood are talking about dropping cable.
The Friday afternoon downer that (as expected) the US will be signing ACTA still wasn’t enough to overcome the unexpected surprise that at least 2 Senators on the Judiciary Committee believe that TOS violations should not be a crime. I fired off another email to Senator Hatch telling him to listen to his colleagues, but figure I’ll get another form letter in about 3 weeks.
I want to close with an observation. Mike posted about a conference and mentioned a discount for TD readers. It was a nice gesture and the conference may appeal to visitors here. As can be expected, the usual group of ACs promptly chimed in with derogatory remarks and personal attacks. This is common and as mentioned here is not indicative of all ACs. Mike undergoes daily personal attacks by those who seem incapable of expressing themselves in an articulate and adult manner. Others are frequently attacked as well. Those attacking resort to third-grade playground bully tactics and run away when confronted. They truly are cowards. To those who insist on trying to degrade Techdirt, you only show others your true colors. I appreciate when someone with an opposing view brings a valid and well thought out disagreement, but unfortunately that seems to be an increasingly rare event. To those who do, I thank you. While I may not agree with you, at least I can respect you and should I meet you in person I would enjoy sitting down over lunch and having a conversation... You keep all ACs from being painted with the broadbrush of trolling.
Thank you to Mike for this opportunity to share.
feldercrump
You can't know what idea backs the word feldercrump.
I tried highlight > right click > search with Google.
I'm thinking it means "I invented Email"
Re: All furniture is not a chair
Considering the speeds available to me, I don't really see how you can call them BROADBAND PROVIDERS either.
RE: Rhode Island Law Would Mandate Porn Filters,
Hey Karl, I think you spelled Utah wrong.
Re: Abolish Copyright
While I would support your suggestion, I think a good compromise with the maximists should be:
1: You must register for your 7 year copyright within 30 days of creation. (charge nominal fee)
2: After 7 years you can renew for an additional 7 years.(charge 2X current US government published poverty level for a family of 4) That way only those making money with their copyright can afford to renew.
3: Copyright ends with death.
4: Copyright is not transferable. (owner is assigned at registration)
5: Software is not copyright-able under any circumstance.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: So in 2013 HBO states of whatever, and this is my United States of Whatever, and this is my United States of Whatever
I always wondered about the subject field on those posts.
Thank you for the explanation, now it all makes sense.
(untitled comment)
They should have used The Speech®Â to sell Crock Potsâ„¢.
Re:
I would be very concerned that any such app was in fact a product of the NSA.
(untitled comment)
And a new T shirt please.
Re: Re:
Still made me almost choke on the water I was drinking.
Re: Wow!
"If anything, we would likely support a rollback to a term of life-plus-50 if it were politically feasible."
It's a Trap!!!
Re:
Not necessarily applicable to this one, but my neighbor has one where he uses a headset to see what the drone sees. Using a handheld controller without looking is arguably much easier than a touch screen interface.
Re: Re:
Minor point, we didn't build the devices. For the most part, the Chinese did.
Re:
"DOJ prosecutor seems to be saying that you need to be ignorant in order to be innocent."
Of course that is what he is saying, that is exactly how it works for cops.
Re:
Everything anyone needs to know about smart toasters.
https://youtu.be/LRq_SAuQDec
Re: Re:
Nah.
The filing says he was represented by Steven Abrams.
I'm guessing it is this guy across the river.(warning "Cyber") http://www.abramsforensics.com/
That website tells me that the doctor found the perfect firm to represent him.
(untitled comment)
Pretty sure these are the same ones sold at more reputable sites for 5 bucks each.
Re: Re: Re: Pet "Consumers" Again.
You know that was the thing that was puzzeling me, howis that the cop hit a dog that size with only one shot.
I'm glad you explained how that happened.
Re: Newt
I was wondering the same thing...
Is it
1: "she turned me into a"
2: A former congresscritter
3: A collector of Fantastic beasts.
Thanks Tim.
I just cancelled thanksgiving dinner at uncle Larry's.
Well that explains it
In the Salt Lake Valley one of the major outdoor advertisers will periodically post billboards with random trivia facts along with phone numbers and or website url's.
They do this so they can show prospective clients how effective their advertising is.
On a recent trip into the city I saw a billboard that said Cosmo is porn! with a phone number.
Silly me. I thought it was one of the signs from the advertising company.
It never entered my thought process that it might be a legit attempt to convince people to support Todd Weiler.