mhenriday 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (49) comment rss

  • On the post: Google Sues The US Government For Only Considering Microsoft Solutions

    mhenriday ( profile ), 04 Nov, 2010 @ 03:58am

    The most obvious conclusions to be drawn from the article to which you refer, Darren,

    would seem to be that : 1) Microsoft chose to use a Linux server as one running Windows did not meet their needs, and 2) Those assigned to running it were incompetent. Perhaps you would care to explain just how this invalidates Google's objections to the manner in which the US DOI crafted the RFQ ?... Henri

  • On the post: Google Sues The US Government For Only Considering Microsoft Solutions

    mhenriday ( profile ), 03 Nov, 2010 @ 10:18am

    Allegations that it was for reasons of security

    that the US Department of the Interior floated a request for quotation which only considers proposals involving the Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite might want to consider reading, just as one example of many, Dan Goodin's recent Reg article (goo.gl/AB3p0). Security problems, as we all know, are rife in IT, but to propose Microsoft as the solution shows either naked self-interest or a degree of naivet? which is hardly credible. Writing a specification to pass a given company's product and only that product is not the way to run an organisation, whether government or private - although it may benefit the personal economies of certain officials.... Henri

  • On the post: EFF Sues The Gov't, Demanding Proof That It Needs To Put Wiretap Backdoors Into All Communications

    mhenriday ( profile ), 03 Nov, 2010 @ 10:04am

    Land of the free,

    home of the brave. Of course, things are bound to improve, now that those freedom-loving Republicans (in addition to such figures as Richard Bruce Cheney and George Walker Bush, Joseph Raymond McCarthy comes to mind) have taken over control of the US House of Representatives....

    Henri

  • On the post: Homeland Security Giving Extra Political Scrutiny To 'Activist' Groups FOIA Requests, Singles Out EFF

    mhenriday ( profile ), 03 Nov, 2010 @ 09:58am

    FOIA is to a large degree a fraud -

    handling of cases is delayed, bogus reasons for refusing access to information are widely employeed by the authorities, and most significant of all, the political backgrounds of those who demand information according to the stipulations of the law are investigated. Is anybody particularly surprised ?... Henri

  • On the post: NASA Once Again Auctioning Off Patents Your Tax Dollars Paid For

    mhenriday ( profile ), 03 Nov, 2010 @ 09:48am

    Mathematical algorithms

    should not be subject to patents in the first place - imagine every school child paying, say, Microsoft for using the Pythagorean theorem (which was, of course, well known long before Pythagoras) ! But selling out the results of research funded by the public purse to deep-pocketed corporations is par for the course - government of the rich, by the rich, and for the rich scores yet another triumph !... Henri

  • On the post: India Upset With RIM Because Solution To Spy On Emails Doesn't Work Well

    mhenriday ( profile ), 02 Oct, 2010 @ 09:39am

    @ an anonymous coward from the USA

    You don't seem to have been doing your homework - or perhaps, since the news is all of two months old, you've simply forgotten that your government wants to allow the FBI to compel internet providers to turn over records of an individual's internet activity without a court order (goo.gl/Lijh ). Can it be that like many in your country, you are more concerned with the mote in your neighbour's eye than the beam in your own ? As for tech being ripped off, how much, for example, do you pay the Chinese everytime you wipe yourself after defecation ? Both paper and more specifically, toilet paper are Chinese inventions.... Henri

  • On the post: Microsoft Exec Says 'Open' Means 'Incompetent'

    mhenriday ( profile ), 17 Sep, 2010 @ 02:02am

    Given Microsoft's own record of 'competence'

    in pushing products which cause end users and those whose task is to help them no end of trouble, the problem here seems to be one of definitions - Microsoft simply uses a definition of 'competence' - that which contributes to Microsoft's profits or otherwise is convenient for the company - which differs from that used by the rest of the world. A linguist might say that this usage of 'competence' is cognate with Microsoft's usage of the phrase 'standards compliant'.... Henri

  • On the post: Are Swedish Police Violating Copyright Law In Creating Shoe Database?

    mhenriday ( profile ), 10 Sep, 2010 @ 06:23am

    Our police here in Sweden

    are like police all over the world - to them, legality is an extremely malleable concept. Or, to paraphrase a certain Richard Milhouse Nixon, «if the police do it, it's legal».... Henri

  • On the post: Shameful News Industry Willing To Sacrifice Wikileaks To Get Shield Law

    mhenriday ( profile ), 03 Sep, 2010 @ 11:46am

    The best comment I've seen on corporate journalists'

    relations with and attitudes toward Wikileaks, was actually penned to reflect another case, viz, Michael Hastings's Rolling Stone article on Mr Stanley McCrystal. Here a link (http://preview.tinyurl.com/2dr3b3r ) to Dwayne Booth's cartoon, which says all that needs to be said on the subject.... Henri

  • On the post: Legal Threat Demands We Shut Down Techdirt

    mhenriday ( profile ), 27 Aug, 2010 @ 05:08am

    UK libel laws

    Keep on fighting, Mike ; this battle is not only for you and Tech Dirt, but for us all ! In case you are not entirely up-to-date about the UK's absurd libel laws, you might want to check out the website (http://www.simonsingh.net/) of Dr Simon Singh, who's had his dusts with them.... Henri

  • On the post: Thai Government Wants To Copyright Muay Thai

    mhenriday ( profile ), 08 Aug, 2010 @ 10:43am

    China doesn't need to copyright Gongfu -

    instead they could put a nice little copyright on, e g, paper, including the kind that we use to wipe or nether regions after defecation. Imagine those MPAA and RIAA biggies having to shell out each time ; perhaps they'd worry less about so-called «pirate» versions of films being sold in Beijing and Shanghai.... Henri

  • On the post: Pentagon Demands Wikileaks 'Returns' Leaked Documents; Does It Not Know How Digital Documents Work?

    mhenriday ( profile ), 07 Aug, 2010 @ 10:03am

    Perhaps the Pentagon

    could be persuaded to «do the right thing», put a stop to its continual wars of aggression abroad, dismantle the Empire, and restore the Republic ? Or am I just constitutionally naive ?... Henri

  • On the post: Bill Introduced To Pressure Countries That Seek To Break The Internet

    mhenriday ( profile ), 03 Jul, 2010 @ 04:48am

    One of the privileges that a million million (10^12) dollars annually

    appropriated to the military from the pockets of US taxpayers buys members of that country's Congress is the fond illusion that their legislative powers do not stop at the country's borders, but extend throughout the globe - and presumably the rest of the Universe as well (and to any parallel universes that may exist). They seem to have forgotten that the main reason adduced by the rebel movement in the Thirteen British Colonies on North America's East Coast for forswearing allegiance to the British Crown was that legislation regulating those colonies had been adopted without the participation of representatives of their residents. How many representatives of the residents of Afghanistan, Pakistan, and China are presently found in the US Congress (given that the state of Israel does seem to be exceedingly well represented there, legislation regarding that particular country cannot, of course, be regarded as an anomaly or a casus belli) ?... Henri

  • On the post: Economic Threat: Legacy Industries With Bogus 'Safety' Claims To Stop More Efficient Competition

    mhenriday ( profile ), 03 Jul, 2010 @ 04:25am

    Do the Japanese - as a group - need to cut their hair

    more frequently, with or without it being washed first ? Is offering an option for them to get their hair cut without its being washed really to be regarded as «innovation» and would the increase in number of haircuts per capita per annum that presumably would ensue (no evidence for this proposition is presented ; it is merely assumed as corresponding to the received economic dictum, itself unproved, to the effect that lower-priced services will always be more frequently employed, whether or no they are needed) constitute «real economic growth» (Mike's italics) ? But Professor Rajan's not particularly original argument will no doubt be echoed by those who feel that requirements regarding hygiene, worker safety, fuel efficiency, minimum wages, etc are simply devices for preventing the economy from performing its task of producing goods at the cheapest price possible (which is done by externalising social costs to the maximum extent possible). Regulations can be - and are - certainly used to preserve existing inefficiencies to the benefit of current producers, but this is not to say that a society in which economic activity is subject to no regulation at all would be an improvement. I'm not sure Mike would really care to live in such a society ; Adam Smith certainly didn't recommend it and I know I shouldn't care for it either.... Henri

  • On the post: Google On China: Yeah, So Apparently The Gov't Doesn't Like Us Redirecting All Traffic To Hong Kong

    mhenriday ( profile ), 30 Jun, 2010 @ 12:06pm

    Shaun Rein has posted

    a perceptive - dare I say wise ? - commentary on this issue over at Forbes (http://preview.tinyurl.com/2vbqw8u )....

  • On the post: Now That Booz Allen Scared The Gov't Into Hundreds Of Millions Of Dollars In Contracts, It's Time To Cash Out

    mhenriday ( profile ), 25 Jun, 2010 @ 04:59am

    Be afraid, be very afraid !

    Meanwhile, we shall continue to pick your pocket to the benefit of our owners and stockholders.... Henri

  • On the post: Company Decides To Run For Congress

    mhenriday ( profile ), 07 Feb, 2010 @ 08:30am

    The video

    says everything that needs to be said about the state of the political system in the United States - and in only !:14 !... Henri

  • On the post: Google Considers Leaving China If China Will Not Allow Uncensored Search

    mhenriday ( profile ), 14 Jan, 2010 @ 06:07am

    Have to agree with Mike,

    that it's very likely that «there's something much bigger happening behind the scenes to lead to this. I doubt that this decision came out of some hackers trying to access Gmail accounts. The real question is what China does now -- and whether either side is bluffing?» After all, the Google leadership is reported to have consulted with Ms Clinton before going public with its decision - is Google now an arm of the US State Department - or rather the Pentagon, since it's obvious that the latter trumps the former in the councils of the Obama adminsitration, just as it did in those of its predecessors. Note also that in all the articles on «hacking» and «high-technology espionage» that have been published in the corporate media on this development, not a word has devoted to the forays of the United States in this particular area, like the infamous Echelon, which is estimated to intercept up to three thousand million messages daily. Or, for that matter, the infamous «Patriot Act», which allows library loans to be checked without any notice, and imposes Draconian penalties if librarians reveal this to library users. But as noted long ago (Matthew 7:3), the mote in one's neighbour's eye is always of greater interest than the beam in one's own. I, for one, find it difficult to take seriously the indignation at human rights violations in other lands expressed by media organs which support their own country's criminal wars of aggression abroad.... Henri

  • On the post: Post TSA's New Security Rules And Get A Visit And Subpoena From Homeland Security

    mhenriday ( profile ), 31 Dec, 2009 @ 12:24pm

    «shouldn't Homeland Security be spending more time

    tracking terrorists and coming up with plans that actually make us safer?» As a matter of fact, Mike, given that the evidence points to this being yet another false-flag CIA operation with the young man helped aboard the plane over the objections of aeroport personnel, despite not having a boarding card, perhaps other objectives than making you safer are uppermost in the minds of certain of your government's officials. «What objectives ?», you might ask - how about justifiying a war on Yemen for a starter.... Henri

  • On the post: Artist Barred From Selling His Own Artwork For Daring To Promote University Of Alabama Football Feats

    mhenriday ( profile ), 27 Dec, 2009 @ 03:42pm

    May I ask what the Hell

    universities are doing in the sports business in the first place ?... Henri

Next >>