ElijahBlue 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: Lawyer Seriously Slapped Down For SLAPP Attempt Against Librarian Blogger

    ElijahBlue ( profile ), 03 Jul, 2008 @ 04:27pm

    People 1: Sharks and bottom feeders: 0

    SMAACKDOWN!!!

  • On the post: No, Grand Theft Auto Isn't To Blame For Dumb Teens Getting Violent

    ElijahBlue ( profile ), 29 Jun, 2008 @ 09:22am

    Re: The real problem....

    Gnarly, dude. I robbed a bank to feed my Dig-Dug addiction. I never played the ET game, not sure how I missed it.

  • On the post: Don't Blame Rick752 For Blocking Ads; Blame Those Who Made Ads Annoying

    ElijahBlue ( profile ), 26 Jun, 2008 @ 10:54am

    I remember when online target marketing banner ads really worked. As a consumer, going back as far as say 1997, I remember finding the banner ads that popped up at the top of my Yahoo! mail page to be useful.

    Now, I'm a googleite, having long since abandoned Yahoo! and their increasingly overbearing ads that sing, dance and play movies, and clog up my internet pipes. I find myself ignoring content ads almost completely because now, most are either junk, scams or from companies I don't recognize.

    In the old Yahoo! days, I did the following: applied for a Chevron gasoline credit card, opened a bank account, and at lesat two credit card accounts, based on 'relevant banner ads' that popped up on my screen. Today, with the rise of internet fraud and realistic-looking phishing fake banner ads, I refuse to click on anything presented to me as an online advertisement.

    Back in the old days, when you could still trust online ad content, and I was totally p--d off at my bank (Wells Fargo, thieves and bandits in three-piece suits), I typed in keywords in the Yahoo search engine, like 'I hate my bank' and 'Wells Fargo sucks!' until a relevant ad popped up, leading me to open a bank account with a competing financial institution. Eight, nine years later, I'm still perfectly happy with that bank. This happens to be a company whose primary business isn't banking, and without target banner advertising, I never would have known they offered this service.

  • On the post: Santa Fe Ignores WiFi Allergists; Recognizes Setting Up WiFi Isn't A Violation Of The ADA

    ElijahBlue ( profile ), 16 Jun, 2008 @ 12:26pm

    I know one of these people. She swears on her mother's grave that she's allergic to cellular and wi-fi signals. I think she's fucking nuts.

    My favorite torture is to whip out my PDA, which she doesn't know has a wi-fi signal, and I start reading my email and surfing the Net while she explains her theories about wi-fi signals, migraine headaches and heart palpitations. So far, she hasn't dropped dead in front of me.

  • On the post: 'Free Software' Scammers Fined $2.2 Million

    ElijahBlue ( profile ), 13 Jun, 2008 @ 05:41pm

    There is no such thing as a free lunch. I will gladly accept free offers from companies that don't require that I pay s&h charges (because that involves giving them my credit card number). However, just because some people (okay a whole lot of people) are extremely stupid and gullible, that doesn't mean it's okay to take advantage of them through deceptive and fraudulent business practices. I am extremely comfortable with the FTC doing their job and sticking it to these bastards with a fine, although they could just file bankruptcy and walk away from it.

  • On the post: What's Wrong With Putting A Fake Ad In A Newspaper?

    ElijahBlue ( profile ), 12 Jun, 2008 @ 07:27pm

    Re:

    I say amen to your words of truth.

  • On the post: There's Stupidity Somewhere Here, But It's Not Coming From Google…

    ElijahBlue ( profile ), 10 Jun, 2008 @ 05:57pm

    I skim-read through JSTOR. My public library system allows only two JSTOR users online at one time, and that includes in-library and remote users, so I skim and save articles to read later. This library system serves millions of people, and it's awfully rude to tie up the system while I peruse and read every single article from start to finish.

    Also, opening and reading a PDF file online slows down my computer. I end up with much better results by saving a file as a download and reading the document later. I also may not have an immediate need for that file - as a researcher, I often find documents that I don't need at that moment, but which will prove to be useful later on. Did any of these brilliant researchers think about these possibilities before they jumped to stupid conclusions?

  • On the post: Apparently, Amazon Decided On A Long Weekend; Goes Down Again

    ElijahBlue ( profile ), 09 Jun, 2008 @ 05:40pm

    Something more than Amazon is revealing?

    It could have been any idiot with a prepaid cell phone calling in, but on Leo LaPorte's Sunday tech show (radio), someone called in claiming this had to be a very sophisticated denial of service attack that could have only been initiated by someone with hundreds of computers available and the skill to initiate this kind of a blitz on a retailer like Amazon. When LaPorte pressed the man for details, asking why the backup systems that Amazon must have had in place didn't work, the callerclaimed that this DOS attack was enough to also take out all of the backup/mirror servers that Amazon usually relies upon to keep their servers going in a crisis.

    The caller also pointed out that at the same time as Amazon's first outage, IMDB was also taken offline with an identical service outage problem. Turns out that Amazon owns IMDB, something they don't go out of their way to reveal to the public. He didn't sound like a crackpot, BTW.

  • On the post: Woman Sues Google Because Of Scammy Advertiser

    ElijahBlue ( profile ), 04 Jun, 2008 @ 09:08am

    Dummy

    This is one reason why I haven't signed up to offer Google advertising on my blog page. I don't like the crappy text ads that show up when I look at someone else's blog. But I don't think that Google should be sued over this - when does common sense set in, and when do consumers take responsibility for their own actions?

  • On the post: Yet Another Company Thinks It Can Stretch WiFi To Compete With WiMAX

    ElijahBlue ( profile ), 28 May, 2008 @ 01:05am

    Ok maybe I'm a dope. What's wrong with wi-fi as it exists right now?

  • On the post: Bands Should Give Away Their Music With Every Concert Ticket Sold

    ElijahBlue ( profile ), 17 May, 2008 @ 10:24pm

    Re: Not a bad idea, but...

    don't enjoy concert atmospheres. They're crowded, loud, usually uncomfortable in their seated, and someone is always smoking pot if they're outside... I'll sit in my pajamas and listen to music, I take my mp3 player to Wal-Mart, I make alot of mix CDs for my mini-van but no concerts for me, thank you.

    The three or four concerts I've been to in my life have created some of my best memories. Now, I have a jones for the best seats in the house, so I don't do bleachers and I'd stay home before I ever accepted a ticket in the nosebleed section. I would say that I've been to far fewer concerts than anyone else I know, but the ones I've been to were the best that they could be. Treat yourself just once in your life to the best concert seat in the house. You won't regret it.

  • On the post: Will Self-Control Work For In-Flight Internet Access?

    ElijahBlue ( profile ), 16 May, 2008 @ 09:12pm

    In the original news story, there's mention of what happens when the yahoo in front of you decides to recline their seat as far back as it will go, and your laptop is on the fold-down tray? As far back as 1990, I recall telling a woman with three children sitting in front of me on a red-eye from DC to LA that if her little darlings continued playing with the seat controls, she could buy me a new laptop, because the monsters kept tilting the seats back and forth.

    I had asked her nicely several times and she just ignored me, so the last time I asked, it was in a very loud voice, and it worked. She took control of her kids and they stopped playing with the seats. Today I wouldn't dare to get so loud on an airplane, with the Nazi attitude of flight crews.

  • On the post: Bands Should Give Away Their Music With Every Concert Ticket Sold

    ElijahBlue ( profile ), 16 May, 2008 @ 08:31pm

    I think there's a danger in one person proclaiming what everyone else should do. A free CD or download coupon with a paid concert ticket might work for some musicians, but for others, it wouldn't work with their fan base.

  • On the post: How Many Ways Do You Connect To The Internet?

    ElijahBlue ( profile ), 14 May, 2008 @ 06:38pm

    Only Four For Me

    Let's see. I have a desktop, a laptop, a cell phone with internet access (although Verizon has crippled it so that it majorly sucks), and a PDA through T-Mobile. That makes only four devices. Guess I'm less than cool, eh?

  • On the post: Follow Up On Paulo Coelho Embracing Pirating His Own Books

    ElijahBlue ( profile ), 14 May, 2008 @ 10:42am

    Coelho Who?

    I've actually never heard of this author, and I'm not all that impressed with Torrent downloading, but I'll go and buy one of his books from B&N, just to support this kind of creative, out-of-the-box thinking.

  • On the post: BBC Upset That Fans Are Knitting Dr. Who Characters

    ElijahBlue ( profile ), 11 May, 2008 @ 10:51pm

    Re:

    When the long arm of the law reaches out and grabs your knitting needles, you're going down for the count, wifezilla. I hear the Feds really want to make an example out of knitting-trademark-infringing mamas and grandmas. Today, you're just a nice lady with a serious knitting addiction, but tomorrow, you might wake up and start downloading bootleg music or wrapping kilos of heroin and weighing them in your home office.

    You say that you're using that scale to weigh your Ebay packages, so you can check the cost of the postage? Pshaw. Hands against the wall, wifezilla, and drop the knitting needles.

  • On the post: BBC Upset That Fans Are Knitting Dr. Who Characters

    ElijahBlue ( profile ), 10 May, 2008 @ 01:19pm

    A yes vote for the Dr. Who knitting grannies is a vote for terrorism! Haven't any of you ever heard about how all of those bootleg music and DVD makers are a secret cash cow for Al Qaeda? The knitting grannies must be stopped before they take over the world and force us at needle point to convert to the four-square afghan method.

  • On the post: LA Includes Piracy With Drugs, Gangs, Prostitution And Gambling As 'Detrimental To Public Health & Safety'

    ElijahBlue ( profile ), 08 May, 2008 @ 08:39pm

    This is why I hate LA

    This is great, from the same bureaucratic morons who have publicly declared that LA does not have a problem with brown on black violence, and that Mexican gangbangers aren't targeting innocent black citizens as their victims for extermination and genocide.

    Isn't it strange that the FEDS have recently successfully prosecuted these same Mexican hoodlums for targeted hate crimes against blacks, ensuring that when the state lets them go, they'll serve the rest of their lives in Federal prison, but the local Chief of Police (William Bratton) goes on TV and blathers that there is no crisis of brown on black violence in this city.

    But we'll gather up scarce city resources to prosecute copyright infringers. Yahoo, way to go, city leaders.

  • On the post: Will Lifelock's CEO Get To Be A Part Of The Class Action Lawsuit Against Lifelock?

    ElijahBlue ( profile ), 02 May, 2008 @ 09:19am

    Free service to California residents

    By the way, if you live in the state of California, you can request a 'credit freeze' from all three credit bureaus. Flat rate of $10 each and I think the freeze lasts 5 years.

    It's a minor PITA, as you have to pay a fee to unlock a credit bureau report whenever you want to apply for credit or a credit line increase. The identity thieves have a harder time trying to steal your identity if they can't see your credit report, and it's also good for people who have legitimate (or illegitimate) worries about privacy.

    Exception - current and recent companies who you have credit with can access your reports, so it's not a free ride for the deadbeat.

  • On the post: Louis Vuitton Sues Darfur Fundraiser; Seems Unclear On The Concept Of Trademark

    ElijahBlue ( profile ), 25 Apr, 2008 @ 09:41pm

    Bad PR move just bad PR move

    Hey LV, why don't you donate one of your overpriced genuine bags so this woman can auction it off to raise money for the starving people in Darfur?

    In my opinion, there isn't much of a correlation between consumer excess in the West and the wretched conditions of those poor souls who are suffering in Darfur, but in this case, LV should engage in a little bit of good PR and end this lawsuit.

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