mermaldad 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: The Many Killers Of The Film Industry: Volume 2 – A Disaster Called Television

    mermaldad ( profile ), 25 Oct, 2011 @ 03:07pm

    Filled with omissions, half truths, and outright lies...

    ...Oh, I'm sorry, I thought we were talking about the latest attempts to justify PROTECT IP. Nevertheless, I did notice a glaring omission in this article, on the first line, no less.

    The guy's name was actually Fran?ois Magnavoix. The spelling was mangled when he filed for a trademark, and the misspelled name stuck.

    Just wanted to do my part to maintain the high standards of veracity expected on Techdirt.

  • On the post: Can We Kill Off This Myth That The Internet Is A Wild West That Needs To Be Tamed?

    mermaldad ( profile ), 28 May, 2011 @ 08:12pm

    Ah yes, the wild west...

    A dark stranger entered the saloon. The murmur in the room subsided as all in the room paused to study him as he walked to the bar.

    "Whiskey," he growled at the bartender.

    The bartenders hands shook a little as he pulled out a printed paper and a pen. "Sign this," he said to the stranger.

    "What is it?"

    "It's a registration form. If you want a drink, you're going to have to sign it. It says that you will abide by our Terms of Service and agree to our Privacy Policy, which are in these here documents." The bartender slid two thick piles of papers toward the man.

    The stranger's registered anger, then resignation. "All right, I'll sign," he said as he scrawled an X on the page. "Just give me my whiskey."

    "Not so fast, partner. You didn't check the box that says you have read and agree to the terms of the TOS and Privacy Policy." The bartender pushed the stacks of paper a little closer to the stranger.

    "Bah," he said, pushing the piles aside, "I never read those." He made the check mark and slid the paper back toward the bartender.

    "Thank you," said the bartender as he poured a shot and set it down in front of the stranger.

  • On the post: Enron Auction Knocks Out Auction Site

    mermaldad ( profile ), 16 May, 2011 @ 05:05pm

    Ooh, ooh, can I get in on this?

    Is the server back up?

  • On the post: Belgian Appeals Court Says Google Must Pay Up For Linking To Newspaper Websites

    mermaldad ( profile ), 16 May, 2011 @ 04:46pm

    If I ran a minor newspaper in Belgium...

    If I ran a minor newspaper in Belgium I would sign a deal with Google giving them a free license to link to (and cache) my website in accordance with my robots.txt file. The deal would also include paid advertising on Google.

    I bet you could beat out the majors and become the go-to news website in Belgium.

  • On the post: DailyDirt: One-Man Flying Machines…

    mermaldad ( profile ), 14 May, 2011 @ 02:07pm

    Regarding thePuffin Article

    Regarding the Puffin article: "It has no flight ceiling?it is not air-breathing like gas engines are, and thus is not limited by thin air?so it could go up to about 9,150 meters before its energy runs low enough to drive it to descend."

    Uh, doesn't it produce thrust using propellers? I may be mistaken (I'm just an aerospace engineer), but isn't a propeller limited by thin air?

    All in all, an interesting article, but some of the claims are rather hype-filled.

  • On the post: Yet Another Person Sues Google Because They Don't Like Pornographic Results When People Search On Their Name

    mermaldad ( profile ), 25 Feb, 2011 @ 08:33pm

    Let me be absolutely clear here...

    Let me be absolutely clear here, Alex Petrov (the plaintiff) is in no way associated with gay porn. When you think of Alex Petrov, don't think about lewd acts. Do not associate Alex Petrov with bestiality. If you are a human, don't make these associations. If you are a search engine spider, don't link these terms just because they appear near each other in so many reports and comments across the Internet.

    And definitely don't even think of Alex Petrov and Bev Stayart in a porno together...

    This ends my public service message.

    Mr. Petrov, you don't need to thank me. I'm just doing my public duty.

  • On the post: Police Chief Tells Parents To Hack Kids' Facebook Accounts

    mermaldad ( profile ), 18 Feb, 2011 @ 09:16am

    There is a time and a place...

    I'll confess. I have used a monitoring tool to spy on one of my children. This happened a few years ago when Child was in high school. My wife and I had begun to notice that Child was lying to to us...a lot. Based on other observations, we were pretty certain that Child was hiding something big. I installed the software to find out what I needed to know and then disabled it. It turned out that child was getting into something that could become cery serious, so I don't regret my actions.

    That said, I agree with Mike that routinely monitoring your kids is not the way to build a trusting relationship, or indeed to teach them how to handle the Internet.

  • On the post: BofA Patents A Way Of Denying Overdraft Fee Refunds

    mermaldad ( profile ), 20 Sep, 2010 @ 12:01pm

    If I were in charge of a rival bank, this patent would feature prominently in my next ad campaign.

  • On the post: People Pay For Access, Not Content… But Most People Don't Understand The Difference

    mermaldad ( profile ), 11 Jun, 2010 @ 03:05pm

    Define content

    I pay my ISP for access to the Internet, but here is where things get into semantics. I make a Skype call. Is that "content" that I am accessing? What I am seeking in that instance is interaction with the person on the other end. If you define that as content, fine. But it is content that didn't exist before I sought it.

    If there were no content on the web, it would be a sad place not worth visiting. However it turns out that there is a lot of content on the web. Some of it is unique, most of it is not. If Techdirt were to cease to exist tomorrow, would I be able to find another site offering similar stories and discussions? Sure. Not exactly the same, but similar.

  • On the post: Financial Times Looks To Put Its Blogs Behind Paywalls Too

    mermaldad ( profile ), 11 Jun, 2010 @ 12:39pm

    Re:

    First, I won't be tweeting stories that followers can't read. I will be tweeting stories that followers won't read. That is an entirely subtle distinction.

    There, fixed that for ya.

  • On the post: If Astronomers Can Happily Share The Business With Amateurs, Why Do Some Journalists Get So Upset?

    mermaldad ( profile ), 04 Jun, 2010 @ 05:30am

    Re: In astronomy circles ---probably more than other sciences -- there is really no practical "scientific research" difference between pros & amateurs.

    and liability insurance , (in case he releases a new life form that the goes wild and eats the city of Pittsburgh .)
    Actually, a study was conducted and it turns out that very few people would mind if something ate Pittsburgh (with the exception of some people in Pittsburgh, of course). Cleveland is the same way. And Detroit. And L.A.

  • On the post: Author Joe Konrath Experiments With 'Piracy' To See How It Impacts Sales

    mermaldad ( profile ), 02 Jun, 2010 @ 06:52am

    Where Does Give It Away and Pray End and a Real Business Model Begins?

    Mike is fond of the term "Give it away and pray" to describe the thinking of those who don't really have a plan for making money as they give their work away for free. I think he's right that there a number of people who do this. Just look at the dot com boom and bust to see some shining examples. However, I think Mike is sometimes a little quick to use this term. Just because you don't know what their plan is doesn't mean they don't have one.

    Also, the act of giving away something that cost you money to produce is an act of faith. Just as the recording industry is slowly learning that no one guaranteed them a permanent market for shiny plastic disks, no one promises anyone that their investment in time and money will net returns. A solid business model helps, but it's no guarantee. So a little bit of prayer is a necessary part of any business model.

  • On the post: Argentinian Politician's Proposal For New Anti-Plagiarism Law Plagiarizes Wikipedia

    mermaldad ( profile ), 18 May, 2010 @ 08:32am

    Re: Re: He didn't write the article

    Then he's lying about his credentials and in violation of his own law.

  • On the post: Argentinian Politician's Proposal For New Anti-Plagiarism Law Plagiarizes Wikipedia

    mermaldad ( profile ), 18 May, 2010 @ 08:29am

    Re: Re: Ha

    Then obviously the bill needs to be amended to make it retroactive.

    My own guess is that this politician's political enemies managed to plant a mole among his staffers. That mole planted the Wikipedia text in the plagiarism bill and he, like most politicians, rubber stamped it. Now the political hay-making can begin!

  • On the post: Do We Really Want To Criminalize Bad Jokes?

    mermaldad ( profile ), 12 May, 2010 @ 10:31am

    Making bad jokes

    While there are some jokes that are so bad, it's almost criminal, I'd hate to criminalize bad jokes. I've made a few myself, including some in this venue (though I doubt anyone would find any of them "menacing").

    I'd consider appealing this one.

  • On the post: UK Court Says Sports Schedules Can Be Covered By Copyright

    mermaldad ( profile ), 07 May, 2010 @ 08:41am

    Re: Spoiler

    Or have a contest where readers can log onto a website and create a "fantasy" schedule for two years from now. All the readers' schedules will be "published" on the website with attribution in exchange for transfer of the copyright to the paper. When the league tries to publish their schedule, there's a good chance it will be in violation of one of the schedules which the paper already published.

  • On the post: Germany "Horrified" That Google's Collecting Publicly-Available Data

    mermaldad ( profile ), 28 Apr, 2010 @ 05:14am

    Re: Hidden SSID's not actually secure, or hidden

    > ...with a strong password (not "i love zack efron").

    Hey! Who told you my password?

  • On the post: iPhone Hits Just Keep On Coming For Apple: Sued Over Liquid Damage Sensors

    mermaldad ( profile ), 21 Apr, 2010 @ 05:12am

    My experience

    In my family we've had several phones exposed to water. I can't say anything about the liquid damage sensors, but I can report about the durability of phones. My daughter unknowingly dropped her phone on a sidewalk. The case cracked and the phone sat in the rain for a while. It worked after it dried out, but only partially. My wife has dropped her phone in the toilet--not once, but twice--and both times the phone was trashed. My son ran his phone through the washing machine once and had the phone in his pocket when he immersed himself in cool water after a run. Both of these to the same phone, which works to this day. So water isn't instant death to phones, especially if you disconnect the battery and dry the phone as quickly as possible.

  • On the post: If 'Piracy' Is Killing Filmmaking, Why Do Nigeria, China And India Have Thriving Movie Businesses?

    mermaldad ( profile ), 09 Apr, 2010 @ 06:00am

    Something isn't adding up here...

    While I agree with the main point of the story, something in the quote isn't adding up...

    The three largest film industries in the world are India, Nigeria and China. Nigeria cranks out some 2,000 films a year (Nollywood), India produces about 1,000 a year (Bollywood) and China less than 500. Together they produce four times as many films per year as Hollywood.
    So if India, Nigeria, and China produce 3500 movies a year (2000+1000+500) and Hollywood produces one fourth as many, which is 875, then isn't the U.S. the third largest film industry in the world?

  • On the post: Paywall/Open Debate Applied To University Education As Well

    mermaldad ( profile ), 31 Mar, 2010 @ 08:52am

    Another way that OCW can help the professor

    Another way that OCW can help the professor and the university is if some high school teachers use the OCW materials to enhance their teaching. With some difficult concepts it takes time to assimilate them. Having been exposed to a concept briefly in high school can make that concept less foreign when it is discussed in detail in college.

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