Derek Bredensteiner 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: Minecraft's Developer Making $350,000 $100,000 Per Day [Updated]

    Derek Bredensteiner ( profile ), 05 Oct, 2010 @ 11:37am

    Totals

    As of right now (current reported sales and current exchange rate):

    http://www.minecraft.net/stats.jsp
    332759 (30.26%) have bought the game.

    http://www.minecraft.net/prepurchase.jsp
    If you pre-purchase now during alpha, you pay just €9.95!


    4,580,037.14 US dollars. Not bad.

  • On the post: Surprise, Surprise: MPAA In Favor Of Current ACTA Text Before Anyone's Supposed To Have Seen It

    Derek Bredensteiner ( profile ), 05 Oct, 2010 @ 09:46am

    Re: surprise

    ... is what you'll say once the final draft has been released, right?

  • On the post: City Councilor Sue Uteck Silences, Threatens To Sue, Person Who Set Up FakeSueUteck On Twitter

    Derek Bredensteiner ( profile ), 01 Oct, 2010 @ 02:01pm

    Learning Experience

    http://thechronicleherald.ca/Metro/1203858.html

    "I don’t want the police to waste any more precious resources on it. I’m sure the fake tweeters will move on to something else soon enough," Uteck said in an interview.

    Uteck said she will just ride out the trend for the time being and write off the entire experience as a learning exercise and a cost of being in the public eye.

    "Honestly, who has the time for this? It’s just another technological change that I have to learn about."

    She said the unsettling thing about the experience was the readiness with which some people believed the trash talk about Kelly on Twitter was real.

  • On the post: What Else Might COICA Be Used To Censor

    Derek Bredensteiner ( profile ), 29 Sep, 2010 @ 05:12pm

    Re: It's so much worse...

    Good point, let's make sure techdirt is on the list of services that would have got (or will get) shut down by such a law.

    The Pirate Bay

  • On the post: RIAA Claims That If COICA Isn't Passed, Americans Are 'Put At Risk'

    Derek Bredensteiner ( profile ), 29 Sep, 2010 @ 10:51am

    Re: @RiskAmerica

    Agreed, I thought everyone knew this was the Wikileaks law?

  • On the post: Our Own Dark Helmet Shares Lessons From Crowdfunding Experiment

    Derek Bredensteiner ( profile ), 28 Sep, 2010 @ 03:36pm

    Re: Re: Re: Re: DH Contacted

    I think a "short story" (or some other such self contained concept) is more likely to get passed around and promote your brand (yourself) than a "sample chapter". Sample chapter conjures up an image of something incomplete and small which only serves to entice me to purchase the complete book. Short story conjures up an image of self contained which I may or may not enjoy, but at least I won't be left on the hook to buy something just to figure out what happens.

    It's the difference between offering a complete track and offering up a 10 second complete. Which one is more likely to get shared/promoted/passed around?

  • On the post: Once More, With Feeling: Embracing 'Free' Doesn't Mean You Make No Money

    Derek Bredensteiner ( profile ), 28 Sep, 2010 @ 12:47pm

    Re: Just dense

    I tried to show someone a clip of family guy on hulu the other day. Let me repeat that, a clip. The player starts up and a commercial begins. At the top of the screen I notice it says it's playing advertisement 1 of 2, and the "video" will begin in 43 seconds. I closed it. I didn't see their advertisement, I didn't watch the clip.

    Isn't that what the majority of people would do when encountered with an advertisement longer than the content they intend to watch? How is this not obvious to whomever decided to "monetize" the clips and trailers in that fashion?

  • On the post: Obama Comes Out Against Censoring The Internet; Will He Veto Leahy/Hatch Censorship Bill?

    Derek Bredensteiner ( profile ), 24 Sep, 2010 @ 02:25pm

    Context much?

    "We will promote new tools of communication so people are empowered to connect with one another and, in repressive societies, to do so with security. We will support a free and open Internet, so individuals have the information to make up their own minds."

    He's pretty clearly talking about other nations here, not the U.S. government. Other countries censor the internet, while the U.S. government is only protecting the children and musicians. There's a difference. Come on now, keep up.

  • On the post: How Long Until Joan Lunden Disassociates Herself From World Progress Report?

    Derek Bredensteiner ( profile ), 20 Sep, 2010 @ 06:50pm

    For those that don't want to invest 20 minutes reading Mike's post ...

    Vision Media TV Group keeps changing their name, and keeps getting new spokespersons. They're picture is in the dictionary under scam. When this is revealed about the new name they're running under, their spokesperson bails. They just got a new name and a new spokesperson. Guess what happens next?

  • On the post: Yahoo Happily Admits It Manipulates Ad Auctions To Get Advertisers To Bid More

    Derek Bredensteiner ( profile ), 18 Sep, 2010 @ 05:35pm

    Haha, subtle

    "As Eric Goldman notes", somehow I feel you haven't conveyed the energy level of his tweet there.

  • On the post: Early Warning Signs: App Usage On Mobile Phones Still Not That Impressive

    Derek Bredensteiner ( profile ), 16 Sep, 2010 @ 11:27pm

    Re:

    I don't think that is that uncommon of a pattern, nor unexpected. You try a lot of apps, maybe you find a few you like and have repeatable utility. You use those few apps. Isn't this pretty obvious to anyone using a smartphone? Oh, I know what it is ... those guys betting on it have blackberry's.

  • On the post: Why Does The NY Times Rely So Often On Single Anecdote Trend Pieces Not Supported By The Data?

    Derek Bredensteiner ( profile ), 27 Aug, 2010 @ 11:53am

    Re: Luddites

    I'm not sure if you're truly being sarcastic or not, but that statement is probably not as far off from the truth as most people reading it would think.

    There is clearly a pattern in these unsubstantiated articles of anti-technology, and it's not a far leap to see that it serves the agenda of someone that wants the world to keep reading their physical rag.

    Perhaps not even anti-technology, but more "Let's all go back to the good old days where you sit on your porch outside drinking coffee and reading the one newspaper that tells you what to think."

  • On the post: Election Watcher Files Affidavit Saying He Saw Sequoia Employee Illegally Connect To E-Voting Tabulator

    Derek Bredensteiner ( profile ), 25 Aug, 2010 @ 10:31am

    Oy

    Dude needs to work on his people skills, I can't help but think a cooler hand here would of resulted a more expedited explanation of what was going on instead of resulting in an affidavit calling election officials "angry" and "sneering".

    What's most unsettling to me about this is how much authority the Sequoia employee seems to command in that situation. Reading the affidavit, it seems "the lead Maricopa County elections tech (John Stewart)" was unwilling to even even monitor the alleged incident, that he "couldn't get involved". Alright, that's fine, so who can get involved?

  • On the post: Is There A Better Way To Text While Driving?

    Derek Bredensteiner ( profile ), 25 Aug, 2010 @ 10:09am

    Re: Back to the future?

    This attitude is exactly why the solution to this problem is so slowly coming about. Why would anyone want to go through all this would a phone call accomplishes the same thing about 50 times faster?

    Reason #1 is the same reason people on hands free talking are still at great risk - your attention. With a text message conversation, controlled by voice or otherwise, you decide when you divert your attention to it. With a person on a phone call they will speak when it's convenient for them, and if you want to communicate with them you will divert some attention (and perhaps do so at an inopportune moment).

    Reason #2 is that driving is not the only thing in our lives deserving of attention, and the structure of text messaging allows the person on the other end to make the same decisions about when to divert their attention to the message(s).

  • On the post: Vote On Whether Or Not I Get To Speak At SXSW

    Derek Bredensteiner ( profile ), 12 Aug, 2010 @ 02:08pm

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Check for a sale at Joseph A Bank first.

    Wait, I was serious.

  • On the post: Vote On Whether Or Not I Get To Speak At SXSW

    Derek Bredensteiner ( profile ), 12 Aug, 2010 @ 01:16pm

    Re: Check for a sale at Joseph A Bank first.

    Seconded.

  • On the post: Google And Verizon Announce… Um… Something That Appears To Mean Nothing

    Derek Bredensteiner ( profile ), 09 Aug, 2010 @ 03:24pm

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Public Knowledge Ads...

    Public Knowledge Banner Image Link

  • On the post: Dear Warner Bros., It's Not 'Word Of Mouth' If You Have To Pay People To Promote Your Movies

    Derek Bredensteiner ( profile ), 28 Jul, 2010 @ 03:59pm

    Re: Response

    Is this seriously the reaction they would have to this article? All a response like this would do is confirm everything that was said about how they really don't get it. It's mind boggling in it's misunderstanding of the message presented.

    I've gotta give WB the benefit of the doubt here and assume someone else went to a lot of effort to sound credibly like them. That, or the people in charge of the WB Word Team are astoundingly misguided in how to engage and interact on the "social web".

    Step 1) Try to bribe people
    Step 2) Lash out at people who suggest bribery isn't as effective as engaging your audience

    What's step 3? Sue and lash out at your customers that are trying to talk about your films/television and issue DMCA take-downs against them because they used a clip you provided ... ... oh ... yeah, I guess they do that too.

  • On the post: Surprising New DMCA Exceptions: Jailbreaking Smartphones, Noncommercial Videos Somewhat Allowed

    Derek Bredensteiner ( profile ), 26 Jul, 2010 @ 01:52pm

    Re: Re: This is the one that surprised me ...

    Agreed, we're barely at the stage where the text to speech understands a complete word. We've got a long ways to go before it understands a sentence and the relevant stresses and tonality for that. And an even longer way to go until it understands the subject matter and the appropriate emphases due to that.

    Not that every human speaker is capable of the latter, but it certainly makes for a more enjoyable listening when they do.

  • On the post: Not Very Transparent: EU ACTA Negotiators Present To EU Parliament In Secret

    Derek Bredensteiner ( profile ), 13 Jul, 2010 @ 05:06pm

    U.S. Hypocrisy

    From the Article:

    "There is slight hypocrisy from the U.S. over the protection of geographical indications" he said, as the U.S. opposed that in ACTA, but was using trademarks to get the agreement through the back door. "We will not swallow it," he said of the E.U.'s position regarding negotiating with the U.S.
    Geographical indications generally apply to high-quality agricultural products and are a name or sign placed on a product that shows its place of origin.

    So the issue tainted by hypocrisy is Champagne and Scotch? Yes, that's clearly the most important issue on the table.

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