Michael Ho 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (703)

• On the post: DailyDirt: Flying Paper Airplanes

  

  Michael Ho ( profile ), 28 Mar, 2012 @ 07:00pm

  Re: Longest flown/thrown...

  Actually, it looks like the record for a thrown object is a boomerang (which seems strange if it returned to the thrower...) at just over 1400 ft.
  
  see Guinness World Records

• On the post: DailyDirt: Bio-Inspired Superglue

  

  Michael Ho ( profile ), 27 Mar, 2012 @ 03:11am

  Re:

  David Letterman has done a few full-body velcro stunts... and there are a bunch of people working on "geckoman" stuff so that people can climb walls like spiderman.
  http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/02/pentagon-researchers-create-spider-man-gadgetry-for-real-life-wall-crawlers/

• On the post: DailyDirt: Girl Scout Cookies Make Everything Better

  

  Michael Ho ( profile ), 23 Mar, 2012 @ 11:51pm

  Re:

  But Thin Mints support the Girl Scouts!
  
  Grasshopper cookies just support fictional elves...

• On the post: DailyDirt: Put The Fun In Crowdfunding

  

  Michael Ho ( profile ), 23 Mar, 2012 @ 04:14pm

  Thanks to whoever Flattr'd this post!

  I think it's interesting that this post on crowdfunding gets a Flattr vote.
  
  Should we post more crowdfunding-related DailyDirts...?
  
  Thanks to our anonymous benefactor!

• On the post: DailyDirt: Beating The Odds

  

  Michael Ho ( profile ), 21 Mar, 2012 @ 11:32pm

  Re: Press Your Luck

  It's an old story, but a fascinating one, nonetheless. I fully expect there to be a movie loosely based on Larson's life -- somewhat like Punch Drunk Love.

• On the post: DailyDirt: Spiders, Man!

  

  Michael Ho ( profile ), 21 Mar, 2012 @ 12:30am

  Re: Re:

  The good old "spiders on drugs" video.... haven't seen that in a while, Anonymous Coward.

• On the post: NCAA Goes Backwards On Streaming The Basketball Tournament

  

  Michael Ho ( profile ), 16 Mar, 2012 @ 05:11pm

  How big will their streaming viewership be?

  In 2010, March Madness had 3 million computer-viewing fans... I wonder if those stats will come out this year.
  http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2010/0320/NCAA-March-Madness-On-Demand-sets-streaming-video-record

• On the post: DailyDirt: Airing Out Dirty Corporate Laundry

  

  Michael Ho ( profile ), 16 Mar, 2012 @ 01:03am

  Re: Google vs Microsoft Corporate Culture

  Innovation happens at big companies, so I don't question Whittaker's credibility -- he wanted to work on innovative projects with the plentiful resources of a fortune500 firm, and Google+ seemed to be funneling projects into a more narrow direction than Microsoft (according to Whittaker, at least).
  
  Google is still funding "X projects" like autonomous vehicles and its fiber project in Kansas City, so it's not all G+ at the Googleplex....

• On the post: DailyDirt: Open Source Robots

  

  Michael Ho ( profile ), 13 Mar, 2012 @ 11:46pm

  Re:

  Why not?

• On the post: DailyDirt: Personal Analytics.. On The Rise?

  

  Michael Ho ( profile ), 13 Mar, 2012 @ 01:26pm

  Re: Re:

  Thanks, Melissa!

• On the post: DailyDirt: Personal Analytics.. On The Rise?

  

  Michael Ho ( profile ), 13 Mar, 2012 @ 01:25pm

  Re:

  One of our consistent themes around here is that "content is advertising, and advertising is content" -- so it shouldn't be that strange that we like how StumbleUpon provides both. However, I'm not sure where you get the idea that SU doesn't clearly disclose what is sponsored and what isn't sponsored. If you look at SU's top bar, it will say "sponsored" when SU is showing an ad:
  http://i.imgur.com/fapol.png
  
  To be transparent, we have no formal agreement with StumbleUpon -- but SU users seem to like to stumble us, so we feel it's nice for us to recommend SU back to our audience to build up our traffic a little. These posts can be considered an ad depending on how you define advertising... but we're just trying to provide entertaining content and links.

• On the post: DailyDirt: Fresh Water On Demand

  

  Michael Ho ( profile ), 12 Mar, 2012 @ 12:16pm

  Re: ?Aged For Millions Of Years? Nonsense

  It's a stupid gimmick, but you almost have to respect that the guy would actually use a real glacier -- instead of just freezing tap water and just telling people it came from a glacier.

• On the post: DailyDirt: Big Brother Ads

  

  Michael Ho ( profile ), 08 Mar, 2012 @ 03:05pm

  Re: Data protection?

  Grumpy, it seems doubtful that an advertiser would use a *billboard* to advertise to a single individual. So while one of these fancy face recognition billboards could tell that you're standing in front of it, the ad inventory would only be able to display ads targeted at your demographic (not you personally).
  
  just my two cents on that question.

• On the post: DailyDirt: Big Brother Ads

  

  Michael Ho ( profile ), 08 Mar, 2012 @ 03:02pm

  Re: Ads and Advertisers

  It would be somewhat surprising if that were really true... marketing/advertising is a part of nearly every company's budget, but it shouldn't add up to be more than the overall budgets across all industries. It wouldn't be surprising, though, if ad companies were more profitable than the companies they work for -- which could lead to the impression that the ad business is bigger/better....

• On the post: DailyDirt: If I Could Catch Time In A Bottle…

  

  Michael Ho ( profile ), 07 Mar, 2012 @ 04:36pm

  Re: scientific method

  I'll just say that I never stated that the repeatable experiments are the ONLY requirements in the scientific method... and that it'd be somewhat difficult to achieve a "scientific consensus" if observations weren't able to be independently verified...
  
  One last clarification: science doesn't prove anything. Science can only disprove.

• On the post: DailyDirt: If I Could Catch Time In A Bottle…

  

  Michael Ho ( profile ), 07 Mar, 2012 @ 04:31pm

  Re: Re:

  "and of course gravity affects anti-matter just like affects normal matter."
  
  [citation needed!]

• On the post: DailyDirt: If I Could Catch Time In A Bottle…

  

  Michael Ho ( profile ), 07 Mar, 2012 @ 01:45pm

  Re: Give the CERN team credit

  You're totally right about how the scientific process played out. The CERN team did a superb job of handling a mysterious measurement that, if accurate, would have been a significant discovery. (Completely unlike the NASA press event on arsenic-based life...)
  
  I've updated the post to reflect your edit. Thanks!

• On the post: DailyDirt: The Rest Of The Universe

  

  Michael Ho ( profile ), 05 Mar, 2012 @ 05:52pm

  Re:

  Heh. Nice Star Wars reference... but it would actually be really cool if there were advanced civilizations cruising around in huge planet-sized ships.
  
  It would even still be cool if there were just single-celled life existing on a nomad planet....

• On the post: DailyDirt: Who's That Kid With The Oreo Cookie?

  

  Michael Ho ( profile ), 02 Mar, 2012 @ 06:31pm

  Re: Re:

  Ack! and I didn't even realize Kellogg killed off those Hydrox cookies...
  
  http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120069573721101481.html

• On the post: DailyDirt: Who's That Kid With The Oreo Cookie?

  

  Michael Ho ( profile ), 02 Mar, 2012 @ 06:14pm

  Re:

  Sorry, I should've included those.. but I haven't had one in soooo long that I'd forgotten about them.

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