BernardoVerda 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (1062)

• On the post: Cowardice And Capitulation At Cornell

  

  BernardoVerda ( profile ), 12 Nov, 2025 @ 03:41pm

  Re: Same old same old

  Oddly enough, back in the real world, I've found that much more often than not, my non white/cis/male colleagues and bosses have been noticeably more competent than average (and if not, quickly became so). I also noticed that despite that, they were noticeably slower to get promoted (hell, on occasion I was even the one to be promoted instead).

• On the post: Trump DOJ Fires Prosecutors, Scrubs Court Records Of Mention Of January 6 Insurrection

  

  BernardoVerda ( profile ), 06 Nov, 2025 @ 11:23am

  Fictional reality

  Oceania, in Orwell's 1984, probably started something like this.

• On the post: 60 Minutes Edits Donald Trump Telling Them 60 Minutes Should Edit Donald Trump Talking About How 60 Minutes Paid Him For Editing Kamala Harris

  

  BernardoVerda ( profile ), 06 Nov, 2025 @ 11:14am

  That's actually a fair point. Trump's enablers clearly have had (and these days even more so) much clearer understanding of what they're doing, why they're doing it, and that their true agenda is actually contrary to the wishes of the American public. Trump is in many ways a cat's paw or a figurehead for other interests. On the other hand, Truman had reason for that "The Buck Stops Here" sign on his desk in the Oval Office.

• On the post: Samsung Officially Rolls Out Update To Annoy You With Ads On Smart Fridges

  

  BernardoVerda ( profile ), 06 Nov, 2025 @ 11:00am

  If the fridge scans product codes or somehow helps keep track of the contents, some updating of the software may have a point? And of course, if such a mechanism (or even just an internal database) may require an internet connection, security updates are going to be necessary as well. Such features could be designed to not require an internet connection -- but that would require some inconvenience to the householder, to enter such data themselves.

• On the post: Samsung Officially Rolls Out Update To Annoy You With Ads On Smart Fridges

  

  BernardoVerda ( profile ), 05 Nov, 2025 @ 10:18am

  The evolution of "fair dealing" and "prosperity".

  1975: "You buy our product, and it's yours. Value for money. (And heck, it might even be good quality.)" 2025: "You will own nothing, and be happy. What real choice do you have anyways? (Well, we'll be happier than you, of course.)"

• On the post: Fox News Fell For AI-Generated Rage Bait, Rewrote Story To Pretend It Didn’t

  

  BernardoVerda ( profile ), 04 Nov, 2025 @ 12:01pm

  George Orwell says, "I told you so."

• On the post: 60 Minutes Edits Donald Trump Telling Them 60 Minutes Should Edit Donald Trump Talking About How 60 Minutes Paid Him For Editing Kamala Harris

  

  BernardoVerda ( profile ), 03 Nov, 2025 @ 01:11pm

  So... any chance the 60 Minutes crew is engaging in malicious compliance?

• On the post: How “Neutrality” And “Free Speech” Become Excuses For Driving Out The People You Claim To Value

  

  BernardoVerda ( profile ), 28 Oct, 2025 @ 03:49pm

  The Guardian: No shame, no opprobrium: racism is priced in now.

  The Guardian: No shame, no opprobrium: racism is priced in now. Of all the right’s victories, this one has been critical https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/oct/27/racism-right-tory-nigel-farage-bigot

• On the post: Trump Says We’re Just Going To Straight Up Murder A Bunch Of People

  

  BernardoVerda ( profile ), 27 Oct, 2025 @ 04:46pm

  Citation(s) needed. Needed desperately.

  And no, Trump's say-so doesn't count. Nor does that of any of his cabinet or MAGA/Project 2025 coterie. They've simply lied about too many things -- too often, too baldly, too loudly, and even too damn proudly -- to retain any credibility. Present valid receipts, or step aside.

• On the post: The Federal Police Are Rioting: Chicago Edition

  

  BernardoVerda ( profile ), 16 Oct, 2025 @ 10:28am

  You keep using those words. None of them mean what you think they mean.

• On the post: Trump’s Immigration Theater: Pulling Cops Off Child Sex Crimes To Chase Landscapers

  

  BernardoVerda ( profile ), 08 Oct, 2025 @ 03:46pm

  But these people get their understanding of society from TV and movies.

  Bad TV and bad movies -- shallow, formulaic, over-simplistic TV shows and superficial, stereotype-ridden, over-simplistic movies.

• On the post: Google’s Requirement For All Android Developers To Register And Be Verified Threatens To Close Down Open Source App Store F-Droid

  

  BernardoVerda ( profile ), 07 Oct, 2025 @ 01:53pm

  The value proposition that doesn't show up as a line item on the corporate account books

  At least half of Android's value to me is simply being able to "side-load" apps from F-Droid on my "smartphone". Loading apps from F-Droid simply makes it so much easier to keep unwanted/unwarranted snooping away from my phone. (F-Droid has one particular, very simple feature that makes life so much easier: it explicitly breaks out and identifies "anti-features" -- app features that I might not want or aren't actually necessary for the function the app provides (like tracking me, tracking my habits/usage, serving ads, collecting data, not having a clear, easily activated account/data deletion mechanism, etc). The result is that I can figure out whether I really want to install a particular app, much more quickly and easily on the F-Droid app store than on Google Play. (And you'd be surprised how many apps on the Google Play store are essentially the same code, dressed up in a different skin and with additional code to track/serve ads/whatever the developer chooses.) Probably related: the F-Droid apps also tend to be noticeably easier on my battery (even when it's clearly the same app, available from both Google Play and F-Droid). I consider the ready accessibility of F-Droid (and similar app repositories) as an easy to use, viable app repository, to be a useful (and unfortunately necessary) check on Google's corporate instincts to put its ability to control and exploit Android users ahead of providing its users with reasonable product/service on reasonable terms.

• On the post: Trump Publishes Enemies List To White House Website, And It’s Just Democrats Speaking The Truth

  

  BernardoVerda ( profile ), 02 Oct, 2025 @ 04:21pm

  Never mind the fact that the gunman managed to kill/injure more immigrants than ICE officers — something that might suggest immigrants were the real target, no matter what investigators claimed to have found scrawled on some unused bullets.

  Someone kindly correct me if I'm misinformed -- but as far as I know, every victim of that shooting was a detainee, and in restraints when shot.

• On the post: MAGA’s Big Miscalculation

  

  BernardoVerda ( profile ), 26 Sep, 2025 @ 03:01pm

  Continuously calls everyone who disagrees with them “Nazis”

  Nah. We just call the fascists, neo-Nazis, and flagrant self-identified Nazis, Nazis. It might not be 100% technically correct in all cases, as I suppose that technically, a 'fascist' might not necessarily be literally a 'nazi', seig heil-ing and wearing swastika armbands -- but it's more than close enough for most non-academic, political discourse.)

• On the post: Trump Declares Everyone Who Doesn’t Kiss His Ass Is A Terrorist

  

  BernardoVerda ( profile ), 26 Sep, 2025 @ 11:55am

  "If conservatives become convinced that they cannot win democratically, they will not abandon conservatism. They will reject democracy." David Frum, former(?) Republican, 2017

• On the post: MAGA’s Big Miscalculation

  

  BernardoVerda ( profile ), 24 Sep, 2025 @ 01:02pm

  Bravo! My vote for funniest comment of the week.

• On the post: MAGA’s Big Miscalculation

  

  BernardoVerda ( profile ), 24 Sep, 2025 @ 12:46pm

  These are Cipolla's five fundamental laws of stupidity:

  These are Cipolla's five fundamental laws of stupidity:

  1. Always and inevitably, everyone underestimates the number of stupid individuals in circulation.
  2. The probability that a certain person (will) be stupid is independent of any other characteristic of that person.
  3. A stupid person is a person who causes losses to another person or to a group of persons while himself deriving no gain and even possibly incurring losses.
  4. Non-stupid people always underestimate the damaging power of stupid individuals. In particular, non-stupid people constantly forget that at all times and places, and under any circumstances, to deal and/or associate with stupid people always turns out to be a costly mistake.
  5. A stupid person is the most dangerous type of person.

  Corollary: a stupid person is more dangerous than a pillager.

• On the post: MAGA’s Big Miscalculation

  

  BernardoVerda ( profile ), 24 Sep, 2025 @ 12:39pm

  Bumper sticker logic: if we ask them to explain, we're thinking -- thus they know they won't get very far without trash talk, fallacies, and straw-men.

• On the post: The Right Wing Zealots At Sinclair & Nexstar Push Their Luck, Refuse To Put Jimmy Kimmel Back On The Air

  

  BernardoVerda ( profile ), 24 Sep, 2025 @ 12:33pm

  Not so fast. Make them work for it, or they won't take this seriously.

  Don't re-sub right away. Make them earn it. Otherwise they don't actually lose anything. In fact it just encourages them to see what they can get away with -- "testing the water" and pulling back if the water's too cold. (Bonus: with this already unmerited (and now undeserved too) price hike, it's even smarter for the viewers to hold off -- if enough former customers show themselves to be reluctant to come back, the media companies will likely offer "special deals" to lure those protesters back into the fold... likely even offer to renew at the pre price-hike rate.)

• On the post: MAGA’s Big Miscalculation

  

  BernardoVerda ( profile ), 22 Sep, 2025 @ 02:41pm

  More like the "Moral Majority Inquisition", actually. I suppose that rather dates me. Perhaps that should be the Focus On Family Inquisition..? No... the Heritage Foundation Inquisition...? Nope. The Southern Baptist Inquisition..? The MAGA Inquisition..? No, no, no... Of course! Now I've got it! It will be recorded in history as "The Libs Of Tik Tok Inquisition."

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