DMan55 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (53) comment rss

  • On the post: If Lori Drew Is Guilty, So Are Most Internet Users

    DMan55 ( profile ), 24 Jul, 2008 @ 02:20pm

    Shrue, that seems like

    the most reasonable thing you've posted. I'm not saying you can guard your kids 100% of the time, but seeing as the kid was diagnosed with depression, you'd think the parents would have been even MORE vigilant in protecting and monitoring her emotional state.

    Now that said... if the girl was that far gone and that close to the edge, then some kid at school could have told her she smelled bad and set her off... So why blame this one woman.

    We don't disagree that this chick is a bad person, but I'm not one to abuse the law in the name of vengeance or vindication. Once we start modifying or making up new criminal law on the fly, we're all screwed. And I for one value the future of our legal system over one family's misfortune.

  • On the post: If Lori Drew Is Guilty, So Are Most Internet Users

    DMan55 ( profile ), 24 Jul, 2008 @ 02:03pm

    SierraNightTide...

    I've seen MANY cases were a parent talks down to their kids, verbally abuses them, and overall treats them like shit... I've yet to EVER see any of them prosecuted for murder if the child commits suicide...

    Even better if you treat your kid like shit and the kid grows up to be a bank robber, are you an accessory to said crime? I mean your "abuse" led them down a bad path...

    Your logic and reasoning are just plain flawed.

  • On the post: If Lori Drew Is Guilty, So Are Most Internet Users

    DMan55 ( profile ), 24 Jul, 2008 @ 01:58pm

    Agree Bob...

    But even Negligent Homicide requires that the perpetrator have some idea that what they were doing would cause death or injury.

    If I pour nails on a busy freeway and it causes an accident that kills someone, that's Negligent Homicide or reckless endangerment homicide.

    If I put a tack in someone chair, in an attempt to be funny or a joker, and the sit on the tack, and get an infection, and die.... I might be guilty of poor choice, but not homicide.

  • On the post: If Lori Drew Is Guilty, So Are Most Internet Users

    DMan55 ( profile ), 24 Jul, 2008 @ 01:52pm

    Shrue do you use the internet much?

    half the people on the internet that are pretending to be women ARE MEN... Want to pass a law to fix that!?


    YES, I have a 13 year old of my very own... and I watch who he talks to, and he knows I'll know... He knows I have his back and he knows I'll kick him in his back side if needed.

    BTW, my son has ASKED for a Myspace account... we're still working out the details on how/if he can have one, and when he's allowed to access it... and who he'll be allowed to interact with while he's using it.

    I won't have complete control... no parent can. But I sure as hell won't be clueless... I won't let him spiral into depression and never notice until it's too late. I won't let someone brain wash him into a false reality without asking a few questions.

    I guess you're one of those parents that thinks it's better to be "friends" with your kids than parents... Well that explains alot.

  • On the post: If Lori Drew Is Guilty, So Are Most Internet Users

    DMan55 ( profile ), 24 Jul, 2008 @ 01:42pm

    hehe nice Matt... but fact is there are more people out there abusing the anonymity the Internet provides than there are people like you that carry their personal persona online with them. I personally would be happy to give my contact info to anyone that needs it... but there are some wacked out people out there... and in order to protect myself and my family (because I'm a responsible parent) I guard my personal information.

    I blame society on the whole because we all should take some responsibility for the world and the environment we create. I've seen way too many parents take a "kids will be kids" approach to parenting... then when their kids grow up to be ass-hats, we wonder why the world is full of ass-hats.

  • On the post: If Lori Drew Is Guilty, So Are Most Internet Users

    DMan55 ( profile ), 24 Jul, 2008 @ 01:37pm

    HEHE Wow, ehrichweiss where are you from...

    "So you have proof that Lori Drew is innocent? Nope, you don't."

    HEHE uhm, She's Innocent until PROVEN guilty... that's my proof.

    And you just sound more and more ignorant making statements like "If you walk up to your co-worker knowing they have a mental illness and tell them to jump off a bridge, you CAN go to jail regardless of what you might hypothesize."

    Unless you can prove that I KNEW before had that the person in question was mentally incompetent and that my actions would in fact lead to them carrying out my direction... the NO I'm not legally responsible. Drew wasn't a psychologist, she was just a stupid person that could have in no way known the ultimate outcome of her actions. Look it up... paste in some case law if you can find it.

  • On the post: If Lori Drew Is Guilty, So Are Most Internet Users

    DMan55 ( profile ), 24 Jul, 2008 @ 01:31pm

    Shrue, stick to the facts here...

    IF Drew claimed to be a therapist... or claimed to be her parents... or claimed to be law enforcement... yes you'd have a point. But she was just some other anonymous user...

    There was no misrepresentation here at all... Again... It's the PARENT'S responsibility to protect their kids. If someone had told the 13 year old to get off the computer, or asked who she was talking to, or monitored her conversations, or asked why her mood was changing, or done ANYTHING for that matter, this wouldn't be an issue.

    If my kid comes home depressed, I'm talking to him and watching his behavior for a while, PERIOD. If I see he has new friends... I'm keeping an eye on them until I'm comfortable I can drop my guard by half a click... but even then I will be watching. That's my job!

  • On the post: If Lori Drew Is Guilty, So Are Most Internet Users

    DMan55 ( profile ), 24 Jul, 2008 @ 01:12pm

    Come on ehrichweiss are you serious!?

    Using the Al Capone "untouchable" analogy!? Wow you really don't have an argument if you have to reach that far into the false logic stack!

    If EVERYONE committed tax fraud then, I doubt Capone would have been convicted... it's not like they gave him a huge sentence for unpaid parking tickets.

    And Al Capone did A LOT of bad things, all of them absolutely illegal... they just lacked the evidence.

    Lori Drew did nothing illegal... NOTHING. Her acts were irresponsible and led to someone else committing suicide. But her acts in themselves were NOT illegal.

    If someone had unplugged Megan's PC she'd still be alive.

    I walk up to a co worker and say "go jump off a bridge", and they do it... Does that mean I committed a crime?

  • On the post: If Lori Drew Is Guilty, So Are Most Internet Users

    DMan55 ( profile ), 24 Jul, 2008 @ 12:59pm

    The DA that filed charges

    should be fired. He's wasting tax payer money and abusing the law in a way that serves no one and again... just wastes tax payer money. Even if he won an emotionally charged verdict, it wouldn't hold up on appeal.

    Fact is this was an unfortunate situation... That's all.

    Bullying has been around as long as humanity, that will never change.

    Ask yourself this... if that girl had killed 13 people then committed suicide would we still be soooo hot to blame the bullies? Cuz as I recall that's happened a few times in the last few years... In those cases we held the boys responsible for their own acts. Megan Meier (like it or not) did this to herself and her parents weren't active enough in her life to help her when she apparently needed it.

    Am I blaming the parents? Yes... because ultimately when a child does something it is at least partially your fault... that's what you get when you sign up to become a parent... it's called responsibility.

    Do I blame Lori Drew? YES... she may not be legally liable, but she's an idiot to say the least. I can only hope she learns something from the whole thing... which from the interviews I've seen, she has. It's a hard lesson, but one I think hit home.

    Do I blame society? Yep... we don't get off that easy. We all love the anonymity of the Internet... last I checked, no one here used their real name and contact information in this thread. And we can all say some pretty cruel and stupid things, esp in forums and chat sites and social networking sites... for the most part anonymity can bring out the dark side of people. So how does prosecuting one person for doing something that everyone does to some degree help anyone? Answer: It doesn't!

    Try this... lets see who in this thread can suggest a law that WOULD in fact be applicable in this case and would have prevented this tragedy... but also wouldn't screw each and every one of us in some way.

    Lets ban talking bad about people online... lets ban pretending to be someone you aren't online (be careful using E-Harmony, or that chick you pissed off last week will have you sent to jail for false representation)...

  • On the post: Your Electric Vehicle Is Too Quiet; Congress May Force It To Be Louder

    DMan55 ( profile ), 14 Apr, 2008 @ 04:58pm

    Re: Noise Noise Noise... It's not needed

    Wooster, depening on the pavement you're on a hybrid running of battery only sounds the same as if it was standing still. I just ran outside and did a listen test. Yes, you can hear the sound of pavement as it comes to a stop, but I had my sun run across the same gravel and he actually made more noise.

    Again... to you extremists that can't get it through your heads. There is a HUGE difference between wanting cars to sound like Jet engines, and want them to be audibly recognizable.

    And why should we pass a law capping the max sound limits before we pass a law mandating the min?... IMHO we should do them at the same time if that's possible/practical...

  • On the post: Your Electric Vehicle Is Too Quiet; Congress May Force It To Be Louder

    DMan55 ( profile ), 14 Apr, 2008 @ 04:52pm

    Re: Re:

    >> Hearing is one of my senses. It tells me a hell of alot >> and losing
    >> that sense is disturbing... freakishly disturbing.

    >No one's suggesting that anyone lose their sense of >hearing. I can't believe that you're seriously suggesting >that quiet cars is the equivalent of going deaf.

    HEHE Dude... are you really not getting it? No one's suggesting people are going deaf... We're saying that some degree of noise tells us about our surroundings. And a car that makes no noise is a problem because the lack of noise takes away that information. I can hear people walking, people talking, birds chirping... but I can't hear the car that's about to run over me.... I'd rather hear the people walking and talking, and the birds chirping... but if a car is in my general domain, I'd also like to know it's their regarldess of if being in my direct line of sight.

  • On the post: Your Electric Vehicle Is Too Quiet; Congress May Force It To Be Louder

    DMan55 ( profile ), 14 Apr, 2008 @ 03:55pm

    > the only thing this is going to do is create a revenue
    > stream for "law enforcement"

    No kidding. I can't wait for the cops to start ticketing some people for making too much noise with their cars, then turning around and citing someone else for not making enough noise.

    What a wonderful world we live in.

    WOW you people live on extremes don't you.... Well... guess what, THAT'S LIFE.

    It is illegal to modify your headlights to such a degree that they blind others... It's ALSO illegal to not run with enough headlights such that people can see you! OMFG... both extremes are illegal! Wow who'da thunk it!

    Same applies here people... Too much noise is as bad as the complete absence of noise. It's really simple if think about it even for 1/2 a second.

  • On the post: Your Electric Vehicle Is Too Quiet; Congress May Force It To Be Louder

    DMan55 ( profile ), 14 Apr, 2008 @ 03:52pm

    BTR1701, I love the outdoors. But even when I'm hiking on a trail, I LIKE hearing a cricket chirp every now and then. I LIKE knowing what's in my surroundings. Hearing is one of my senses. It tells me a hell of alot and losing that sense is disturbing... freakishly disturbing. I don't even like it when a guy walks up from behind me and passes me without me hearing him. That freaks me out. If I'm walking down the street at night I'm listening for people approaching me from the rear... just so I know they're there. Someone trying to be that quiet is usually doing it for a reason!

    There's rarely a need for absolute quiet... that's not the same as just not making alot of noise.

  • On the post: Your Electric Vehicle Is Too Quiet; Congress May Force It To Be Louder

    DMan55 ( profile ), 14 Apr, 2008 @ 03:47pm

    Anonymous coward... You did NOT hear the electric motor all the way up the block. You heard the gas engine that kicks in if he's running in that mode. If the car is decelerating or running at a low enough speed, the engine cuts out and the electric motor does not make a sound. I drive one and sometimes I can't tell if the damn thing is even on or not.

    To others of you... find a clue... its someplace in the middle...

    No we don't need to add to noise pollution. No we don't need them to sound like monster trucks... but there's plenty of ground between complete silence and a highway at rush hour.

    Oddly enough, Anonymous Cowards idea about cards in a bicycle spoke isn't bad... it's an ambient noise that simple alerts people that something is there! When I drive over loose gravel the sound of the wheels grinding over the ground makes plenty of noise... the problem is that if I drove up to you in electric only mode, on a paved street, I could drive up to withing 6 inches of you and you wouldn't know I was there. That's dangerous.

    As far as Congress doing its job... There are lots of issues in the world... this is a rather simple one... have them make some noise and move on... but just because its simple and may not affect everyone today, does not mean Congress should ignore it.

  • On the post: Your Electric Vehicle Is Too Quiet; Congress May Force It To Be Louder

    DMan55 ( profile ), 14 Apr, 2008 @ 02:27pm

    Looking at this from a realistic perspective,..

    This is NOT that silly. I've driven hybrids... they're freakishly quiet. Saying that if someone doesn't look both ways then they deserve to be hit is stupid, arrogant, and ignorant of basic human behavior. YES, we should look both ways before we cross a street, but we've also been trained to use our other senses to help us detect danger. Our hearing is certainly one of them. I look down the street, but if I hear a vehicle, I spend a little more time looking and pay a little more attention... because my ears are telling me something my eyes might be missing. Sure whatever we do today will seem silly in the future once we've gotten used to the technology... so what, we'll leave it to our children and grandchildren to change the laws when they deem them unnecessary. That's their job. The only real question in my mind is how do we make electric cars audibly noticeable, but not contributing to noise pollution (to a great degree). Anyone know if the technology exists to create a heavy bass, almost subsonic noise that had a moderate audible range, could be directed, such that you'd need to be standing almost directly in front of it to hear/feel it?

  • On the post: MobiTV Has A Totally Unsecured Feed, Threatens To Take Down HowardForums For Pointing That Out

    DMan55 ( profile ), 07 Mar, 2008 @ 12:19pm

    Wow this is stupid

    If I keep my usernames and passwords in a file called UserInfo.txt in the root of my web server... but don't make that a public link... even go so far to disable spiders for that file... Is it "hacking" or illegal if someone points out that www.myserver.com/userinfo.txt contains a raw list of usernames and passwords for my web site!?

    Personally I think not... it's shitty security and poor implementation on my end!

    I tried VLC and the urls listed and it seems to not work at the moment, so maybe they actually did the correct thing and FIXED the hole instead of trying to hang the messenger!

  • On the post: MobiTV Has A Totally Unsecured Feed, Threatens To Take Down HowardForums For Pointing That Out

    DMan55 ( profile ), 07 Mar, 2008 @ 12:12pm

    If I keep my usernames and passwords in a file called UserInfo.txt in the root of my web server... but don't make that a public link... even go so far to disable spiders for that file... Is it "hacking" or illegal if someone points out that www.myserver.com/userinfo.txt contains a raw list of usernames and passwords for my web site!?

    Personally I think not... it's shitty security and poor implementation on my end!

    I tried VLC and the urls listed and it seems to not work at the moment, so maybe they actually did the correct thing and FIXED the hole instead of trying to hang the messenger!

  • On the post: Isn't It Better To Keep Smart Foreign Workers In The US Than Sending Them Home To Compete?

    DMan55 ( profile ), 28 Feb, 2008 @ 09:37am

    Racism has always been America's greatest disease

    Ahh, and this is why the Bigots will lose in the end... Fear mongering and ignorance.

    I happen to have a cousin who's an engineer living in Japan... has been for many years. They're a tough bunch, but aren't afraid to pay for great employees. Ultimately this is why America's economy sucks. We don't fix the problem when our corporations send our jobs to other countries, but we bitch and moan when they hire a limited number of the best people from those countries. What morons we are.

    It works MUCH better when WE hire from their best, and bring them here to pay our taxes and benefit OUR economy... the trivial amounts they send home... so what. We benefit more in the end. What we should REALLY crack down on is American companies that create entire service/manufactoring divisions in foreign countries to save a buck at the expense of THEIR supposed country!

    We're so freaking hypocritical its sickening. The get mad when farmers hire Mexican immigrants to come to this country and work for lower wages... supposedly they're taking the lowest paying jobs away from Americans... that apparently don't want them anyway... but who's thinking about that...

    But much of our economic woes are a direct results of the mass migration of higher paying tech/manufacturing jobs that American companies have been smuggling out of the country for the last 10 years. Oh, but at least the foreigners stayed in their own country...

  • On the post: Nintendo's Own Study Show Wii Not So Great As Exercise

    DMan55 ( profile ), 26 Dec, 2007 @ 12:02pm

    Hmmm... why is this even a topic of discussion?

    Of course the Wii isn't an exercise machine! Its a video game console. If you want to do real exercise, then go outside and do some work or go to the gym.

    The bigger point is, the Wii is at least more involving physically then most other gaming activities. I've seen Wii systems being used in retirement communities. For them, the wii is a good way to getting them active and involved socially. I don't think you can say any of that is a bad thing.

  • On the post: Personal (But Illegal) Mobile Phone Jammers Getting More Popular?

    DMan55 ( profile ), 05 Nov, 2007 @ 02:58pm

    Anonymous Coward...

    The problem is... what if I'm dialing 911 for a REAL emergency, and some moron either doesn't know this is a real emergency or just wants to screw around...

    This is simply a case of vigilantism. Let law enforcement deal with enforcing the laws fairly and with common sense! Whenever regular people get involved with regulating the public, the public gets screwed.

    ---- Constant contact....dude... come on... Ties change. this isn't 1970. Its stupid to say that just because we've only had technology for a few years, that we can simply do without it today. Today cel phones are a "required" or at least heavily relied upon piece of communication equipment for business and families alike. Just because you think people did without it yesterday has nothing to do with the argument of how we use the technology today and tomorrow.

Next >>