Ben 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (454)

• On the post: Rethinking And Refreshing Techdirt’s Weekend Posts: We Want Your Feedback

  

  Ben ( profile ), 09 Mar, 2026 @ 07:00am

  If it's so obvious...

  ... perhaps you would like to enlighten the rest of the class?

• On the post: We’re Training Students To Write Worse To Prove They’re Not Robots, And It’s Pushing Them To Use More AI

  

  Ben ( profile ), 08 Mar, 2026 @ 05:20am

  Tool use

  Yes, this is how we should be using AI... as a tool to achieve more. It doesn't replace us, it assists us. The policy at my place of work is that AI tool usage is acceptable (though not mandatory), but the employee still takes 100% responsibility for the output in their name. So if you let AI fck up... you fcked up, and YOU will find out. Like you, MathFox, I've used AI to save typing time, and make suggestions on how to solve problems, including diagnosing some of the more esoteric (to put it politely) error messages from XML/XSLT processors (for example). But all the code from my computer is still committed in my name, and I'm the one that is in my periodic reviews, not AI.

• On the post: The Trump Administration Just Admitted Its War On Law Firms Was A Bluff. The Cowards Who Folded Already Paid The Price.

  

  Ben ( profile ), 05 Mar, 2026 @ 04:37am

  Time to rebrand

  I expect a mix of these strategies will play out: 1) rebrand, 2) found new companies with (most of?) the same partners, 3) try to power through regardless. 1 & 2 are functionally very similar, though 1 carries more risk of "didn't you know, they used to be ?". 3 relies upon the lack of googling skills in their future client base.

• On the post: AI Bros Wanted Trump. Now They Learn What Happens When You Tell Him No.

  

  Ben ( profile ), 03 Mar, 2026 @ 04:15am

  Because juries are soooo effective at justice, and supreme courts so immune from internal political influence (Justice Roberts, anyone?) as to be credible checks & balances upon anything. The ICC's mission is to try to find and prosecute the worst of the worst. Right now, Hegseth and Trump fit that bill, just as much as an 'tin pot dictator' putting down public protest and dissent with violence.

• On the post: The NFL Won A Lawsuit Over Its Bluesky Ban. Its Social Media Strategy Is Still A Loser

  

  Ben ( profile ), 02 Mar, 2026 @ 04:40am

  Apples & Oranges

  You're comparing the wrong things. Starship isn't comparable to Apollo, but to the much more experimental Redstone & Mercury programs that came before it. And Starship hasn't killed anyone yet, unlike Apollo.

• On the post: DOJ’s Losing Streak Continues Because Federal Officers Just Can’t Stop Lying

  

  Ben ( profile ), 27 Feb, 2026 @ 05:39am

  By the prosecutorial branch of the govern..... oh!

• On the post: A Year In, And It’s Time To Recognize: The Oval Office Is Empty

  

  Ben ( profile ), 25 Jan, 2026 @ 05:27am

  Deserve?

  I think 'deserve' is a little strong. Nobody really deserves Trump (apart from, perhaps, people like Epstein). Perhaps 'inflicted this upon yourselves' is more accurate. It's up to you and your representatives to fix it. NOW!

• On the post: Techdirt 2025: The Stats

  

  Ben ( profile ), 25 Jan, 2026 @ 05:17am

  IIRC (It's a long time ago now)

  My recollection is that I discovered Techdirt from Fark. But that's a looong time ago now, and I've not visited Fark in many years.

• On the post: Trump Tries To Disappear Impeachment References At Smithsonian

  

  Ben ( profile ), 14 Jan, 2026 @ 04:40am

  That would be a nice Christmas present... in 2025. Only problem is that it requires Congress to get off their fat asses and actually find their collective SPINE.

• On the post: Microsoft CEO Laments Criticism Of “AI Slop,” Causing The Whole Internet To Double Down On Criticism Of “Microslop”

  

  Ben ( profile ), 12 Jan, 2026 @ 07:31am

  Java

  I never saw Sun Microsystems claim everything was Java... only where there was Java actually used. (a former Sun user and closing in on 30 years a Java programmer)

• On the post: Trump’s Drone Ban Is Corrupt, Protectionist Nonsense Dressed Up As A National Security Fix

  

  Ben ( profile ), 01 Jan, 2026 @ 03:36am

  As a SAR volunteer I endorse the above comment!

• On the post: Judge To Texas: You Can’t Age-Gate The Entire Internet Without Evidence

  

  Ben ( profile ), 01 Jan, 2026 @ 03:33am

  The Brits?

  No, some government wonks in Westminster, London, England will demand to differ. The rest of us are still sane.

• On the post: State Department Exiles Critics to “Protect” Free Speech

  

  Ben ( profile ), 30 Dec, 2025 @ 05:14am

  I can't figure out whether you're supporting Mike's position sarcastically, or just don't understand a single word he wrote.

• On the post: 10 (Not So) Hidden Dangers of Age Verification

  

  Ben ( profile ), 26 Dec, 2025 @ 05:07am

  US sites for US people

  No-one seems to have considered that the Internet is international, but ID documents are not. I cannot ever get a US drivers license, and so any simplistic age/ID-gating based upon that document excludes roughly 8 billion citizens of the Internet, not just the approx 300 million (a mere 3.75% of the global population) population of the USA. An ID document based system (if you really want it to work, and I don't) needs to allow Tonga, Ukrainian, German, Brazilian, Chinese, Nigerian, and British formal IDs ... and all the rest, or you're excluding more than just a few LGBTQ+, Black, Native, or non-Caucasian people locally. Why are US internet businesses cutting off over 95% of their possible market by tolerating this shit?

• On the post: India’s Government Rolls Back Invasive Cell Phone Tracking Mandate 48 Hours After Issuing It

  

  Ben ( profile ), 13 Dec, 2025 @ 03:38pm

  The USA might be racist...

  ... but WTF has that got to do with the Indian government's actions and backpedalling?

• On the post: Not Just Measles: Anti-Vaxxers Have Produced 3 Infant Deaths From Pertussis

  

  Ben ( profile ), 27 Nov, 2025 @ 04:16am

  souls and worms

  Seems pretty clear that part of the meal for the brain worm included JFK Jr's soul. Or at least, the part that enabled him to distinguish fact from deadly fantasy.

• On the post: Brendan Carr Launches Baseless ‘Investigation’ Into PBS, NPR, And BBC To Try And Silence Criticism Of His Weird, Unpopular Boss

  

  Ben ( profile ), 20 Nov, 2025 @ 04:08pm

  BBC reporting

  There is now a BBC News article on the subject of the letter which they have now received.

• On the post: Furloughed Employees Sue Administration For Adding Partisan Wording To Their Out-Of-Office Messages

  

  Ben ( profile ), 13 Nov, 2025 @ 12:21pm

  What's next? Email signatures, government websites, OOO messages just in time for the midterms? Or if trumpbaby doesn't manage to invent an emergency in time for the next presidential election... the next presidential election. Nothing is off limits to this bunch of Nazis.

• On the post: YouTube TV Customers Lose Access To ABC Channels, DVR Recordings Due To Annoying, Avoidable Disney Contract Dispute

  

  Ben ( profile ), 10 Nov, 2025 @ 06:40am

  Poor memory?

  I have a dim recollection of a time and a technology that meant that I owned an actual copy of the media I wanted to... and could put said physical media in a device and display it on a screen with no internet connection. What was that archaic media? Oh yeah, DVD. On demand sports and news-comedy shows? Who cares, there'll be another one along in a week, just the same as the last one.

• On the post: ‘Stop Killing Games’ Finds More Allies From MPs In The UK

  

  Ben ( profile ), 09 Nov, 2025 @ 03:35am

  No, I'm not in the UK either... but both the cited MPs are. If any here are constituents of those MPs, they should be writing to the MPs to suggest it. And, quite frankly, I'm surprised that Sewards (who's on the relevant parliamentary group) hasn't already thought of it and done it.

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