Ferin 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (42) comment rss

  • On the post: Judge Says Ratings Agencies Are Not Necessarily Protected By Free Speech

    Ferin ( profile ), 09 Sep, 2009 @ 10:28am

    I'm not sure I get the logic here. I can kinda see allowing the suit if there's evidence that the rating company deliberately mislead the people involved somehow and that lead to them suffering harm. That would make sense to me at least.

    But the article seems to say she's only looking at who got the ratings, and I don't understand why that matters.

  • On the post: Interview With William Patry: Understanding How The Copyright Debate Got Twisted

    Ferin ( profile ), 25 Aug, 2009 @ 07:09pm

    Interesting interview, can't wait to read the book.

  • On the post: The Myth Behind Craigslist: It's Not Maximizing Revenue Potential

    Ferin ( profile ), 25 Aug, 2009 @ 06:59pm

    workign long term

    I think in the end it's a clash of viewpoints. Craigslist is taking the long view and realizing if it does what everybody thinks it should to maximize profits RIGHT NOW that it will shorten it's overall lifespan drastically. They're looking to maximize over the long term, and that's something wall Street just doesn't do much of anymore.

  • On the post: Yes, People Dislike The RIAA Because Of Its Actions, Not Because Everyone Hates Music Business People

    Ferin ( profile ), 15 Aug, 2009 @ 09:45am

    Yeah, that's about right.

    I really only dislike the RIAA as a business because of their business decisions. They saw their customers embracing a new technology that liberated the music or other media from any one format and drove distribution cost down to almost nothing. And instead of looking forward and embracing the technology, they decided to do everything in their power to simply halt technology in its tracks right there.

    I dislike any business when the only things I hear about are all the great new services and technologies they've tried to shut down to protect their own obsolete business practices. I don't have a problem with people making a buck, but I do have a problem with somebody desperately lashing out at progress cause they can't learn to adapt.

  • On the post: More Reasons To Go To The Movies: Next Iron Man In IMAX And 3D

    Ferin ( profile ), 10 Aug, 2009 @ 07:48am

    Re: Re: Big atraction now

    can you scale down the max film to fit it onto a normal screen without making it look really bad though? I thought that there were some problems trying to do that?

  • On the post: NFL Tries To Keep A Lid On Legal Sports Betting

    Ferin ( profile ), 10 Aug, 2009 @ 07:42am

    Re:

    Ah, my point was simply that fans and officials are already getting upset over things that seem, at least to me, rather trivial so I don't see a problem in adding gambling to that list.

    Perhaps a better example would have been my family's constant assertions that when OSU plays in the... PAC 10, PAC 12? that the officials from those schools always rule against us.

    It just seems to me that people already tend to decide that things going against their team are less than on the up and up, at least in some cases, So I don't see that gambling is going to suddenly make that an issue.

  • On the post: What's A Big City Without A Newspaper? Still A Big City Last I Checked

    Ferin ( profile ), 10 Aug, 2009 @ 07:29am

    dailies aren't so great

    To be honest I couldn't care less about our city's one daily (Columbus Dispatch). If I want to see some local news I'll either check one of our 4(!) local stations r pull up the weekly rag (the other paper ftw). Breaking news comes faster on tv, and the other paper is a hell of a lot more objective and interesting to read.

  • On the post: Can Your Slashdot Comments Get You A Job?

    Ferin ( profile ), 05 Aug, 2009 @ 08:12am

    no

    If somebody actually gets hired, solely based on being a frequent FIRST! commenter, I think I will cry.

  • On the post: NFL Tries To Keep A Lid On Legal Sports Betting

    Ferin ( profile ), 18 Jun, 2009 @ 08:51am

    what...?

    Isn't this the sport where they were ready to bring out torches and pitchforks over one team video taping the practice sessions of another? (I am sadly, not that into sports, forgive my lack of specific knowledge.)

    I'd say that they're well past the stage of "gambling fans to question whether an erroneous officiating call or a dropped pass late in the game resulted from an honest mistake or an intentional act by a corrupt player or referee".

  • On the post: Will Apple's Low Revenues Slow Down The App Store Phenomenon?

    Ferin ( profile ), 20 May, 2009 @ 10:38pm

    I don't think so.

    The way I look at it, Apple isn't in the business of selling apps or music. They're in the business of selling ipods. You get an ipod, and all this stuff that makes your life better comes on it. It breaks maybe a couple years later, what are you gonna do? Toss all the effort and money that went into your ipod down the drain, or buy a new one and start over right where you left off?

    They don't really care about app revenue, or music revenue. The real money is in selling the devices they come on.

  • On the post: Activist Group Uses DMCA To Take Down Video Exposing Its Fake Concerned Citizens

    Ferin ( profile ), 14 Apr, 2009 @ 08:28pm

    Why NOM filed

    Saw on another site that the Youtuber who uploaded it received info from NOM in the take down request. Apparently they say some of the audition tapes that were shown in the MSNBC segment were of actors that were not used, and thus NOM did not have them sign all the proper releases.

    http://joemygod.blogspot.com/2009/04/is-nom-worried-about-being-sued-by.html

    Not sure what to make of it, myself.

  • On the post: Would A Patent's Title Be Classified?

    Ferin ( profile ), 12 Dec, 2008 @ 05:03am

    Could have been classified then abandoned.

    It's actually a rather interesting idea, possibly it was classified previously and the army or whoever gave up on it?

    Nifty idea though, I wonder if it would work or not?

  • On the post: Device Designed To Annoy Young People Can Now Annoy Everyone

    Ferin ( profile ), 03 Dec, 2008 @ 05:25am

    Just wait

    I can't wait to see this deployed. You know there has to be some obnoxious, stinking animal or bug out there that will think this thing is emitting a bloody mating call, and that will be the end of it.

    And btw, I do consider country music to be a violation of human rights.

  • On the post: It Makes No Sense For The President To Not Use Email

    Ferin ( profile ), 18 Nov, 2008 @ 04:57am

    This is getting out of ahnd

    Ok, when I first heard about this, it was that he couldn't use his blackberry due to concerns about it's security. A reasonable idea. The service isn't controlled by the government, fine. But every successive story I've seen the blackout gets wider and wider.

    Does anyone have an acutal straight answer? Is he giving up the crackberry, or all E-comms? And why the hell could the Whitehouse's internal email servers not be secure enough for the president to use, at least for day to day business?

  • On the post: Instead Of Bailing Out Broken Banks, Why Not Build New Banks?

    Ferin ( profile ), 14 Nov, 2008 @ 04:59am

    Ah, Man...

    "something like building a new airplane from within a troubled airplane that's flying at 40,000 feet, getting it to fly from the air, and then moving people from the troubled airplane to the new one"

    I'm gonna spend all day thinking about how to make that work now.

    It is kind of an interesting proposal I guess, but I think you're right that it's too damn risky.

  • On the post: Devices Monitor Whether You're A Good Conversationalist

    Ferin ( profile ), 30 Oct, 2008 @ 05:06am

    Huh

    I always figured if you thought something like this was a good idea it was good indicator of your conversational skills.

  • On the post: Artist Thrilled That His Work Was 'Stolen' By Fashion Designer

    Ferin ( profile ), 30 Oct, 2008 @ 05:03am

    True, but...

    I'm still not always clear that this is something to be cheerful about. An artist on one of the sites I visit had some of her work used, without attribution, by a company making clothes for Wal Mart.

    I kind of get your point about everybody building on other's work, but it still bothers me a bit that she recieves no credit, not even a damn link on thier site or her name on the the shirt to get some more exposure.

    The artist did cheerfully admits she apes Don Bluth's artistic style closely, and she puts the images up as a hobby on an art site, but she still felt kinda bummed about the whole episode.

    I guess on some level I'm still not sure that there shouldn't be some kind of acknowledgement or something for somebody's work, provided freely or not.

  • On the post: Guy Who Insists E-Voting Machines Work Fine… Demonstrates They Don't

    Ferin ( profile ), 29 Oct, 2008 @ 08:47am

    ...

    Unbelievable. Why does anyone think this is somehow better tahn the damn butterfly ballots from florida? Screw instant results. Go back to a handcounted paper ballot system, monitored by both parties and independants, and make people get marked with permanent ink or something to rpevent extra voting. It sickens me to think that there are third world countries more capable of running an honest election than the US is.

  • On the post: Dutch Kids Convicted For Stealing Virtual Magic Amulet

    Ferin ( profile ), 22 Oct, 2008 @ 12:31pm

    Could apply

    I'm not sure theft charges wouldn't apply. It sounds like there's some possibility that the kids meant to take these things and sell them for cash. Certainly the assault and battery charges should apply, but I'm not sure you can't call this theft on some level, or at least bring it up as an issue.

  • On the post: Lebanon Claiming Only It Owns Hummus, Falafel, Tabouleh And Baba Gannouj

    Ferin ( profile ), 08 Oct, 2008 @ 12:05pm

    Re: WHAT ABOUT MY FISH

    Hooray for obscure cartoon references.

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