Ben 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: From Defenders To Skeptics: The Sharp Decline In Young Americans’ Support For Free Speech

    Ben ( profile ), 27 May, 2025 @ 12:32pm

    Italics

    There's an unclosed or or similar (styled div or p, perhaps?) at the end of the final paragraph of the article. It's leaking into subsequent content.

  • On the post: How Not To CwF+RtB: Tell Fans They’ll Pay Any Price If They’re ‘Real’ Fans

    Ben ( profile ), 22 May, 2025 @ 04:00pm 

    And if Pitchford’s company sales decline as a result and he makes less money than he would have otherwise, well, I suppose I’ll let him eat cake.
    And of course, low sales will be "because of piracy", not the fault of a CEO who can't do social media. Obligatory: I'm out. (but then I've not played more than 10 minutes of the previous three games anyway)

  • On the post: Fallout 1 & 2 Source Code Preserved Only Through One Person Refusing To Delete Copies Of It

    Ben ( profile ), 08 May, 2025 @ 03:11am

    It depends (doesn't it always)

    For source code vs code/assets/etc ... the oldest games had the assets baked into the code as data blocks, so the assets are in the source code. Later games used separate resource files, loaded at run-time, so, as always, it depends upon how the developers managed those assets as to whether they're kept with the code, or managed separately. Regarding getting the source code back from the retail copy ... for some languages (eg. Java), it is possible to de-compile them. But few mainstream games (OG Minecraft being a notable exception) are written in Java. Most are written in C or C++. In which case, I wouldn't put money on de-compilation giving you meaningful, understandable, readable answers as to the original source code.

  • On the post: US Government Almost Kills Critical Cybersecurity Database

    Ben ( profile ), 17 Apr, 2025 @ 02:03am

    Trust?

    The CVE system requires trust, and nobody is going to trust something thrown together in a few weeks by a bunch of script kiddies more interested in seeing the US burn than in providing reliable security information to the real professionals out there on the Internet.

  • On the post: Trump’s Tariffs Cause Delay In Nintendo Switch 2 Pre-Orders For American Market

    Ben ( profile ), 09 Apr, 2025 @ 03:41am

    A canary perhaps?

    Is this case a sign of things to come? International businesses deciding to do the Internet thing and just routing around the damage to the international network of trade? I know y'all think that the USA is the cornerstone of everything, but surely isolating the isolationists is at least one of the options the rest of the international trading world might consider.

  • On the post: There It Is: RFK Jr. Suggests Best Strategy For Combatting Measles Is For Everyone To Get It

    Ben ( profile ), 17 Mar, 2025 @ 09:52am

    That's what you get for living in a country that play-acts as a first world country.

  • On the post: Ron Wyden Presses FTC For Disclosure Rules On Ownership Rights Of Digital Purchases

    Ben ( profile ), 04 Mar, 2025 @ 05:17am

    Which industry?

    If you're talking about games, or music, or digital video, the 'industry' will carry on just as they have done for the last 30+ years. They'll still sell the limited licenses they always have done, and that the more savvy consumers are already aware of. A few consumers might be put off, but most have had their fingers burnt at least once by now and are already wary of digital... but still buy anyway because the convenience of the purchase suits them.

  • On the post: The UK Government Just Made Everyone Less Safe As Apple Shuts Down iCloud Encryption

    Ben ( profile ), 26 Feb, 2025 @ 07:28am

    That 'stand' should have been an uniquivocal 'NO!' Followed up by "We'll see you in court." Milquetoast Apple strikes again. They don't actually have their customers' best interests heart at all.

  • On the post: Trump EO Tries To Destroy Whatever Corporate Regulatory Oversight Hasn’t Been Already Killed By DOGE And The Supreme Court

    Ben ( profile ), 21 Feb, 2025 @ 08:04am

    That is not how we tackle the kingdom of Trump and MAGA; we need to be better than them. They're the ones with the assault rifles and assassins on the roofs at political rallies.

  • On the post: Court Grants Immunity To DA Who Shared Nude Photos From A Searched Phone With Local Law Enforcement

    Ben ( profile ), 20 Feb, 2025 @ 08:30am

    Probably not

    ... muh FREeeze PeaCH. (See? There should be limits.)

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

    Ben ( profile ), 18 Feb, 2025 @ 04:36am

    A monarch

    A monarch needs neither permission (according the gutless GOP), nor forgiveness (according to SCOTUS). Welcome to the world of Trump Rex.

  • On the post: Appeals Court Says Town Can’t Forbid Cops From Flying The ‘Thin Blue Line’ Flag

    Ben ( profile ), 11 Feb, 2025 @ 04:57am

    Split-second decisions?

    Are you seriously telling me that fire-fighters don't make split-second, life-or-death decisions on a regular basis? Yes, a lot of fire-fighting is about property, but it's also about saving lives. Fire-fighters might not carry guns, so you won't end up dead because they pulled a trigger, but if they get a decision wrong about where the natural gas line runs towards your property, then you'll be dead just as quickly. (hypothetical example) Just another person indicating either a lack of five seconds thinking before answering, or deciding to tell everyone just how much they know about the emergency services... with out telling us how much they know about the emergency services.

  • On the post: No, The People Didn’t Vote For This

    Ben ( profile ), 10 Feb, 2025 @ 01:31pm

    Balls?

    Somebody has got to start dipping into their trousers and find their collective & figurative balls! So when is Congress going to stop Trump? Alternatively, when are the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the much-vaunted American armed forces going to initiate a coup? Third alternative: all you 2nd Amendment gun-owners? It's time to oppose the illegal actions of the authorities and declare a civil war. Those are the three alternatives I see, because the media aren't going to do it (though they'll make money from a. pointlessly speculating about it, or b. gleefully reporting on the gruesome action). The tech bros aren't going to do it, because they've already hitched their wagon. The police aren't going to do it because they love Trump's authoritarian positions. Wall Street won't do it because their precious stock prices will suffer. It's gonna have to be one of the first three options.

  • On the post: No, Conscripting The App Stores Doesn’t Solve The Problems With Age Verification

    Ben ( profile ), 31 Jan, 2025 @ 07:59am

    open internet

    Especially as most of the internet isn't under America law.

  • On the post: M. Night Shyamalan, Apple Evade Copyright Lawsuit By Filmmaker For The Most Obvious Of Reasons

    Ben ( profile ), 31 Jan, 2025 @ 07:54am

    WTAF?

    Did you just ask ChatGPT to create a response with as many trademarks as possible, because you certainly didn't waste any time making it readable, parse-able or understandable.

  • On the post: TikTok, AliExpress, SHEIN, Temu, WeChat, And Xiaomi Hit With GDPR Complaints Over Personal Data Transfers To China

    Ben ( profile ), 28 Jan, 2025 @ 04:08am

    Data protection law working

    And this is what happens when a federation of states has a legitimate (if arguably flawed) data protection regime. Perhaps the next Congress would like to consider similar legislation... and then have a real stick to hit TikTok with (and the like), not just a phantom of "a national security threat but we can't tell you what or why because it's all SeKReT, like".

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

    Ben ( profile ), 27 Jan, 2025 @ 04:09am

    lmgtfy

    One minute with Google and the LAFD website puts the lie to that. The Chief Fire Officer may be female, but that doesn't make her a lesbian, and the rest of the top of the organisation is male. https://lafd.org/about/organization So, no, 'everyone' doesn't know that at all.

  • On the post: NY Post: Fact Checking Is Now Censorship

    Ben ( profile ), 14 Jan, 2025 @ 02:19am

    Fake news.

  • On the post: Kentucky Police Kill Innocent Man While Serving Warrant At Wrong Address

    Ben ( profile ), 09 Jan, 2025 @ 08:18am

    Upgraded?

    UK news agency, The Guardian.
    It's a newspaper known for typos in their own fscking name! (it's known as the Grauniad round here for reasons!) The Guardian is not an organisation like Associated Press or Reuters.

  • On the post: Embodied Is Actually Trying To Release ‘Moxie’ Robots To The Open Source Community

    Ben ( profile ), 01 Jan, 2025 @ 07:25am

    You'll be an old-timer one day

    One day you'll suddenly realise you've become an old-timer when you recognise that whatever the current trend on the client/server vs local rainbow is, that you've seen it all before. IT infrastructure has been cruising back and forth on this rainbow or pendulum swing for decades. And at every stage you'll have people claiming the 'other end of the swing' is the right solution. It never is. You want the local power & flexibility of smart devices, sure, but you also want the flexibility of shared services & data migratability. (Commercially, you want a bit of control & subscription-based goodness too, but let's keep that bit quiet for now). You might even be able to leverage having some of the more difficult computing work (let's say, AI language processing for the current trendiness) done on a large remote server. Next generation will move that back to the local device... but there'll always be the next-next-gen need to push something central again. Yes, old-timers know what they know, and they often like to stick to what they know, but that's often because they've seen everything else and know what they know is better for the problems they are trying to solve. (Though they may be wrong about the problems you are trying to solve)

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