Robin Byron 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (94) comment rss

  • On the post: SWAT Team Raids House And Kills Homeowner Because Criminal Who Burglarized The House Told Them To

    Robin Byron ( profile ), 08 Oct, 2014 @ 09:46pm

    Re: Self-fulfilling prophecy

    And there are one hell of a lot of veterans out there with urban combat experience.

  • On the post: Techdirt Sued For $10 Million In A Frivolous Lawsuit For Posting An Earlier Frivolous Lawsuit

    Robin Byron ( profile ), 14 Jul, 2014 @ 09:31pm

    Re: Re:

    Well, as long as it's not fortified with curry.

  • On the post: Re-Inventing The Wheel (For Real)

    Robin Byron ( profile ), 14 Jul, 2011 @ 10:34am

    While I see some fun applications for this (bumper cars, lawn mowers, office/industrial bots), the story also gives me hope for our future knowing that young men and women around the globe are exercising their imaginations, skills and abilities to do new, cool things. And, for those that didn't notice in the video, Curtis Boirum has already gone well beyond the original (1938) concept.

  • On the post: Ghostbuster Sues MySpace For Allowing Another Ghostbuster To Set Up A Website With A Similar Name

    Robin Byron ( profile ), 10 Jul, 2010 @ 10:51am

    The best documentary....

    ...on ghost hunters was aired by the South Park team.

  • On the post: Internet Addiction Might Actually Get Recognized By The Official Book Of Mental Disorders?

    Robin Byron ( profile ), 24 Feb, 2010 @ 11:34am

    So many people still stuck in a twentieth century mindset. Outside of some real obsessive behavior (games, porn, gambling; already covered by 'obsessive/compulsive behavior'), this is how we stay connected to our digital world. We communicate with family, friends and people around the world, we conduct business, we participate in news and information sites, we are invited to join scientific research projects and the list goes on and on. 'Internet Addiction' is utter BS.

    Before I go online every day, I run four to six miles. I've been a runner for over forty years. I know I have a problem but I just can't stop running.

  • On the post: Who Dat Holds The Trademark To Who Dat? NFL Threatens While WhoDat Inc. Asks Why?

    Robin Byron ( profile ), 29 Jan, 2010 @ 10:42am

    Re: for Pete's sake..

    ⚜Screw the NFL⚜

  • On the post: Wait, Someone Expects People To Pay To Let People Know When They're Being Sarcastic? That'll Work

    Robin Byron ( profile ), 16 Jan, 2010 @ 08:42am

    Yeah but...

    ...⸮ was invented in France so it doesn't count. Freedom fries anyone?/⸮

  • On the post: White House Actually Goes Against Hollywood, Supports Copyright Exemptions For Visually Impaired

    Robin Byron ( profile ), 16 Dec, 2009 @ 12:06pm

    For a second there...

    ...I actually thought the article was going to point out something the administration would do right, but it's just politics as usual. Same as jobs, education, health care and the wars. Spineless pussies!

  • On the post: White House Actually Goes Against Hollywood, Supports Copyright Exemptions For Visually Impaired

    Robin Byron ( profile ), 16 Dec, 2009 @ 12:00pm

    For a second there...

  • On the post: The Jitterbug Phone…Turns Out It's For Seniors

    Robin Byron ( profile ), 08 Jun, 2009 @ 10:04pm

    Seniors or non tech savvy?

    I get the feeling Jitterbug is directed more at the non tech segment of the population regardless of age; the same people who couldn't, or wouldn't, set the time on a VCR with the instructions in their hand. Every generation has lots of folks who don't get tech or just don't care.

    I just wish my Centro was hearing aid compliant like my old Ericsson.

  • On the post: If Everyone Likes The Palm Pre, Why So Much Hedging?

    Robin Byron ( profile ), 05 Jun, 2009 @ 10:43am

    And...

    It seems that Palm is now supporting PreDevCamp as well. Kudos to Palm for seeing the light.

  • On the post: Alternative Weekly Papers See Spike In Adult Ads Following Craigslist Decision

    Robin Byron ( profile ), 03 Jun, 2009 @ 10:31am

    SAETI

    Congratulations on your absolutely masterful cluelessness.

    May the gods wrest your weary mind.

  • On the post: Police Blame Video Games For 2-Year-Old Stabbing 5-Month-Old

    Robin Byron ( profile ), 28 May, 2009 @ 12:51pm

    Re: Before video-games

    Didn't anything like that happen BEFORE there where video-games??? What was to blame then? TV? Books?

    Yes! In the late '40s, I became a knife wielding assailant at the age of three or four with the encouragement of older neighborhood kids. Using a tiny folding knife which you could get in a penny gum-ball machine at the time, given me by the conspirators, I attacked the hood bully, stabbing him in the left biceps. I doubt I held anything that could be considered malice toward this individual and you'd probably have to chalk the attack up to peer pressure of sorts though I wasn't old enough to understand the concept. Got a stern talking to from Mom and Dad and was grounded for several days, as I recall. Imagine how knives in gum-ball machines would go over today.

  • On the post: The Conversation Is What Matters, From Learning To Journalism And Beyond

    Robin Byron ( profile ), 01 May, 2009 @ 09:14pm

    Excellent, informative and thought provoking article, Mike.

    Occasionally, I can barely contain my anger when an online journalist makes some statement that I know is incorrect, that I can prove wrong, yet, there is no feedback system. Big Internet media seems to allow feedback for a few select articles that are rarely of any great importance but articles of social, economic or political interest to us all offer none. I have actually found a few small newspapers that are more responsive to comments made online regarding articles printed in their paper.

    About a year after Dr Carl Sagan's death, information circulated that he occasionally smoked a joint to relax. A well known, syndicated, southern journalist, whose name escapes me right now, wrote an opinion piece that was in my local newspaper along the lines of 'no wonder Dr Sagan was way out there and blah, blah, haha'. I suppose he found the whole thing pretty amusing. I wanted so badly to respond to this guy, remind him of Dr Sagan's achievements, accolades and honors, but there was absolutely no way to contact him and I sincerely doubt he would have cared anyway.

    Nowadays, I tend to ignore journalist who ignore their readers.

  • On the post: South Carolina Candidate For Governor Claims There Are Millions Of Internet Child Predators

    Robin Byron ( profile ), 29 Apr, 2009 @ 09:38am

    A small ray of future hope...

    As more of us retired northerners move to SC, perhaps some day we can drop-kick these bible-thumping, redneck morons out of office.

    But for now, the good-ol'-boy system is well entrenched here. And, based on recent past headlines, would anybody be especially surprised if this guy turned out to be one of the pedophiles he's so worried about?

    As for me, I'm attracted to women in their late 50's, early 60's. Mmm, gray babes!

  • On the post: Using Trademark To 'Privatize The English Language'

    Robin Byron ( profile ), 28 Apr, 2009 @ 09:23am

    She's trying for the 'streisand effect' I'll wager.

    You can't trademark the title of a book; pure and simple. Her lawyers must have gotten their degrees in the same place she did; a crackerjacks(tm) box.

    PhD indeed, and the best she can do is write another two-bit self-help book nobody wants to read. What a waste of an education.

  • On the post: Lawyer Sues Citibank For Not Stopping Him From Losing Money In Nigerian Scam

    Robin Byron ( profile ), 29 Jan, 2009 @ 12:28pm

    The attorney wasn't honest either!

    Sounds like he was trying to collect money he didn't deserve in the first place, assuming the clients of the fictitious Japanese company were also fictitious and he hadn't contacted the client that had supposedly agreed to pay his debt.

  • On the post: Can A Professor Force Students To Destroy All Their Notes?

    Robin Byron ( profile ), 27 Jan, 2009 @ 04:02pm

    So...

    ...next, classroom text publishers will demand that professors turn over their lecture material which, of course, is based on the book? Because, if a professors lectures are good enough, who needs the text?

  • On the post: Wait, Wasn't Google Supposed To Have Destroyed Our Interest In Reading Books?

    Robin Byron ( profile ), 16 Jan, 2009 @ 08:15am

    From one of Mikes 'older folks'

    Anecdotal, I know, but... An interest in reading is instilled in a child primarily by the parent and it has been my experience that once that interest is there, it remains unaffected by tv, Google or anything else. My parents regularly read to me and my wife and I read to our children and grand children from the time they were able to sit up. Our kids and grand kids were/are all 'gifted' honor students not because there was anything particularly special about them but because we took an active interest in their education.

    The grand kids, 12-16 year-olds, enjoy reading books, watching movies on the tube, playing WoW and Halo, texting their friends (It has been demonstrated by many qualified people that there is absolutely nothing wrong with texting slang. All you pedantic pricks get offa my lawn) and Googleing for new books and free stuff by their favorite authors.

    ~Mike: "... what older folks claim.."? You need a quantifier in there. Something like 'some' or 'many'. We 'older folks' aren't all stuck in the '50s, or even the '40s. ;) By the way, I'm, "...will you still need me, will you still feed me, when I'm 64..." years old.

  • On the post: On Staying Happy

    Robin Byron ( profile ), 01 Jan, 2009 @ 09:50am

    Happiness

    Though Techdirt articles often fire my congenital cynicism, truth and light does shine through and that is cause for some modicum of joy, I suppose.

    Keep up the great work and a better year to all.

    I will continue my lifelong quest to be more positive.

Next >>