MBraedley 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (91) comment rss

  • On the post: Wait, Now I Need Security Software For My Car, Too?

    MBraedley ( profile ), 17 May, 2010 @ 04:15am

    To be fair:

    Hackers (currently) must gain physical access to the car in order to perform these hacks. They need access to the diagnostics port. I only say this because it wasn't mentioned at all in the post.

  • On the post: It's Baaaaaack: Canadian DMCA Bill Expected Next Month

    MBraedley ( profile ), 06 May, 2010 @ 07:05am

    Back to the drawing board

    Since this will inevitably be shot down (NDP will never support this, Liberals want back in power, so need to appease constituencies, and the Bloc will look out for the interests of Quebecers), it looks like we'll be going back to the drawing board. Hopefully that can happen before ACTA is signed. As Michael Geist suggests, I'll be writing a letter to various PMs this weekend.

  • On the post: Escapist Website Mass Bans (Then Unbans And Guilts) Users Who Mention Adblock

    MBraedley ( profile ), 21 Apr, 2010 @ 07:13am

    Re: Re:

    Unless there's a site specific filter for setting hide instead of block, it's really not worth my time setting the custom filters. I have a similar issue with Ars where I want to support their site, but really don't want to see the ads (I tried whitelisting for about a day and just couldn't keep them whitelisted).

  • On the post: OK Go Chats With Planet Money About The Music Business

    MBraedley ( profile ), 21 Apr, 2010 @ 07:07am

    Re: Re: Re:

    Wow, you really don't know what went on. EMI didn't dump OK Go because OK Go wanted to do some progressive stuff, OK Go dumped EMI because EMI wouldn't let them do it. OK Go obviously feels that the drop in sales because they no longer are with EMI is offset by the increase in sales because they are implementing CwF + RtB.

  • On the post: Escapist Website Mass Bans (Then Unbans And Guilts) Users Who Mention Adblock

    MBraedley ( profile ), 21 Apr, 2010 @ 05:49am

    Re:

    I would tend to agree. In fact, I only whitelisted Escapist because Zero Punctuation won't play while I have adblock enabled, and if I could get by without a full whitelist (I probably could), I would. I don't use the site for anything else. The simple fact is if you want me to see your ads, then host them yourself and don't make them so that I'm all but forced to look at them. Others have managed to do this and do it well.

  • On the post: OK Go Chats With Planet Money About The Music Business

    MBraedley ( profile ), 20 Apr, 2010 @ 06:41am

    Re:

    No, 1 million views gets you word of mouth, which gets you another 10 million views, which gets you a few hundred thousand sales between iTunes, Amazon, and brick and mortar stores, which gets you a a nice paycheck in order to buy that $4 coffee at Starbucks.

  • On the post: OK Go Chats With Planet Money About The Music Business

    MBraedley ( profile ), 20 Apr, 2010 @ 06:07am

    Re:

    I don't see how you can say that considering that their latest album and the singles that have come with it have been relatively successful. When you consider that they produced not one but two single shot videos for the same song, the first with over a million views, and the second with over 11 million in under 2 months, it's hard to say that they have failed. On the contrary, now that they have more freedom to to do what they want, and do what will impress they're fans, means that they can pretty much only get bigger over the next little while.

  • On the post: Smallville Creators Sue Warner Bros, Say They Never Got Fair Market Price For Their Work

    MBraedley ( profile ), 30 Mar, 2010 @ 05:25am

    You seem to be missing something. Each time a series is renewed, they re-evaluate the market worth of the series. Yes, there are typically options in the contracts that cap the market value increase for the network, but they only extend a few seasons. After that, a new contract needs to be written (or reused, whatever), and the cap no longer applies. If the producers feel that they didn't get a fair deal at this last renegotiation, and that the negotiation itself wasn't conducted properly, then they have every right to be upset and ask for pack pay.

  • On the post: Facebook Threatens Greasemonkey Script Writer

    MBraedley ( profile ), 25 Mar, 2010 @ 11:35am

    Re:

    I actually told a friend that she spent far too much time on Farmville, because it occupied all but two of her wall posts.

    I never got a response.

  • On the post: Switzerland So Neutral It Won't Even Let In Violent Video Games

    MBraedley ( profile ), 22 Mar, 2010 @ 07:56am

    Re:

    Dammit, you beat me to it!
    And made a joke while you were at it.

  • On the post: Overwhelming Majority Of EU Parliament Votes Against ACTA

    MBraedley ( profile ), 10 Mar, 2010 @ 07:56am

    Re:

    My mistake, it's only 98% I entered it into the calculator incorrectly.

  • On the post: Overwhelming Majority Of EU Parliament Votes Against ACTA

    MBraedley ( profile ), 10 Mar, 2010 @ 07:54am

    I'm not surprised in the least that this passed. What's a little surprising to me is that it passed with 98.5% of the votes. I was expecting something more along the lines of 2/3 to 3/4 of the vote.

  • On the post: Why You Don't Want Politicians Doing Your Engineering For You

    MBraedley ( profile ), 08 Mar, 2010 @ 06:13pm

    Re: It's a language barrier

    Our elected officials may be lay people when it comes to the sciences, engineering, and technology, but we expect them to be problem solvers. Guess what the primary skill of an engineer is. We also expect critical thinking out of them. Norton obviously wasn't thinking critically. What she should have asked is why does Toyota need to replicate the problem. Then she would have understood that in order to solve the problem, they need to know what caused it. This is why software developers and testers start the second paragraph of a bug report with three words: Steps to replicate. No, I don't expect elected officials to understand this when they first enter office, but if Norton had asked why instead of putting Toyoda on the defensive, everyone would have gotten a lot more out of the hearing.

  • On the post: Court Says Domain Name Is Located Where Its Registrar Registry Is Located

    MBraedley ( profile ), 03 Mar, 2010 @ 05:00am

    Re: A can of worms on wheels

    In the past, I've held the position that jurisdiction is determined by the location of the physical server (which I believe is the case in Canada, although don't quote me on that). However, an issue arises with the introduction of cloud computing. A single server instance can be spread across many physical servers across many states or provinces, possibly across many countries. Which instance a particular user interacts with is usually determined by where they are, but for the purpose of jurisdiction, which physical server do you use?

  • On the post: Home Cooking Is Killing The Restaurant Industry!

    MBraedley ( profile ), 25 Feb, 2010 @ 08:01am

    Re: Re: Re: Yeah!

    There's also pressure from various US lobby groups to plug the "wooden hole" and force everyone to upgrade to silicon cooking utensils. Even though wooden utensils are sometimes grainy and usually technically inferior to their silicon (or even plastic) counterparts, many people still rely on them during their daily cooking.

  • On the post: Instead Of Suing Each Other Over Who Can Claim 'Most Reliable' Why Not Invest In Making A More Reliable Network?

    MBraedley ( profile ), 19 Feb, 2010 @ 12:10pm

    The issue is that false advertising is much more serious here than it is in the US. That's partly why statements like "the next leading competitor" are so common in Canadian commercials. Subjective statements are frowned upon already, but when they can be reasonably challenged by a competitor is when companies start to get in trouble.

  • On the post: NBC's Delayed Telecasts Show A Company Living In The Last Century

    MBraedley ( profile ), 19 Feb, 2010 @ 05:17am

    Re: stop whining

    The fact that NBC is loosing money on this Olympics (for the first time ever) is proof enough that they have not made smart business decisions. They are hemorrhaging viewers to Canadian proxy servers so they can watch CTV's online coverage.

    As for the exciting part, half-pipe, snowboard cross, ski cross, and moguls are all pretty exciting too.

  • On the post: NBC's Delayed Telecasts Show A Company Living In The Last Century

    MBraedley ( profile ), 19 Feb, 2010 @ 05:11am

    Re:

    Realize that with Sydney and Beijing, they could broadcast primetime completely live because of the time zone differences. With Athens and Turin, you could show live coverage all through the night, because live Olympic coverage, regardless of the time of day, will bring in more than infomercials will, and then they could show a nice neat package of the days events during primetime. This in no way stopped the papers from printing gold medal winners on the front page, even if they only got the news 20 minutes before printing. Some editors in chief didn't even know what would be on their front page in the morning.

  • On the post: NBC's Delayed Telecasts Show A Company Living In The Last Century

    MBraedley ( profile ), 18 Feb, 2010 @ 01:11pm

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: It's about courtasy

    Yes, but my point is that the DVRers don't care about spoilers to begin with. They know there's a high likelihood, especially with sporting events, that they'll be spoiled some way or another. They live with this fact and move on. The dinosaurs, OTOH, don't understand that if they don't want to be spoiled, they have to actively avoid situations where they could be spoiled. DVRers do understand this, and will say things like "I haven't seen that episode yet, don't spoil it for me" when the topic comes up in casual conversations.

  • On the post: NBC's Delayed Telecasts Show A Company Living In The Last Century

    MBraedley ( profile ), 18 Feb, 2010 @ 06:54am

    Re: It's about courtasy

    "Mike, your argument that by broadcasting Olympic events live, NBC would avoid some of these problems may be valid for diehard fans that would watch the events in off hours, but what about the people who DVR the events for viewing the next day? You have the exact same problem of Olympic events being spoiled by overzealous news organizations.

    Maybe you should read the post again, because it's not the people who DVR the events that are complaining about the newspapers posting results early. These people realize that there is a high likelihood that they'll see the results before they watch the event later. The people who are complaining are the ones that don't know any better.

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