mkam 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: Paramount Says 28 Day Delay On Redbox Makes No Sense; Doesn't Cannibalize DVD Sales

    mkam ( profile ), 16 Jun, 2010 @ 11:23am

    Re: Double standard?

    The blockbuster ones have been showing up around my area too. I haven't been able to confirm but I would expect they are available to supply the movies that Redbox is not allowed. I guess Redbox signed an agreement so it is not a legal issue with the studios controlling the downstream market but it does seem sketchy.

  • On the post: Would You Confuse This Couch With Humphrey Bogart?

    mkam ( profile ), 16 Jun, 2010 @ 05:03am

    Re:

    But what do the slashdot-style buttons do? I have been downing and upping posts and it doesn't seem to have an effect. Maybe it is an experiment right now.

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

    mkam ( profile ), 18 Feb, 2010 @ 09:37am

    Re: Re: get some sleep

    Looks like it works from the US. Thanks for the tip.

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

    mkam ( profile ), 18 Feb, 2010 @ 04:52am

    get some sleep

    Mike do you sleep?

    I watched the men's downhill although I already knew that Bode surprisingly got the bronze. It was pretty hard to avoid unless you avoid all TV, news, and the Internet. I wanted to see the run anyway. I have been disappointed they don't stream any of the events I would like to see on the Internet. Can't they stream with ads or something to make their money. For many people who really love a sport even streaming the training runs would get some viewership, with only NBC having to pay for bandwidth.

    It used to be about the athletic competition and now it is about Coke Cola, or whomever is the official X of the olympic games. (fill in the X with tshirt, dishwashing liquid, car, etc)

  • On the post: Disney's Takedown Of Roger Ebert's Tribute To Gene Siskel

    mkam ( profile ), 18 Feb, 2010 @ 04:23am

    Re: Re: Re: sigh

    Well, you could always rent blu-rays, then rip and convert them to h.264/MKV. They look just as nice without the DRM.

    Sounds like a lot of work. Aren't there people who do this for you and post the torrents on the Internet?

  • On the post: Disney's Takedown Of Roger Ebert's Tribute To Gene Siskel

    mkam ( profile ), 17 Feb, 2010 @ 12:22pm

    Re: sigh

    I find the same things as you Rich. I try to mention any of the issues that are talking about to friends and family don't care. When I say I will never buy a blu-ray because of the problems with the devices having to verify you are legit and the annoying DRM no one cares. They say 'but they look so nice'.

    I write software and agree that it is impossible to 'steal' others patented ideas. The 'theft' is fairly complicated. I usually have a problem that needs to be solved, or a game that I want to write. I then write the code necessary to solve the problem. Perhaps this program will have to connect to the Internet for some data, or will interface with a GPS to find out where it is. Then I use this information to solve the problem. I probably 'steal' several ideas from patents along the way without knowing or caring. Of course if you don't make money no one cares.

  • On the post: US Opens Up All Sorts Of Gov't Documents

    mkam ( profile ), 06 Oct, 2009 @ 09:42am

    Re: An interesting note:

    Not on my DOD box. Must be a local block.

  • On the post: Kraft Gets Into The Music Business

    mkam ( profile ), 12 Mar, 2009 @ 09:04am

    Re: Contradiction

    Isn't the fact that the song is being sold on iTunes contradictory of your new business model argument?

    Actually that is just icing on the cake. The point that was being made is that the artist was 'commissioned' to make the song. Hence he or she was paid to produce the music which was not in existence yet. This pay for produce is the business model, and if they sell some on iTunes, then so be it.

  • On the post: Yet Another Truth Telling Computer… Haven't We Seen This Before?

    mkam ( profile ), 09 Mar, 2009 @ 11:04am

    Re: One step for innovation, I'd say.

    oogle is notoriously bad about this now. When I want results, I want results, not links to purchase those results.

    I didn't know that you weren't allowed to go choose another search engine that would suit your purposes? Go use Altavista or whatever MS has now if they are better. I personally think Google does an order of magnitude better than almost all of the other search engines.

  • On the post: Are Industry Best Practices Enough To Protect Net Neutrality?

    mkam ( profile ), 09 Mar, 2009 @ 10:58am

    Re: Re:

    Good post Chris.

    It all comes down to lack of competition. I just moved to a new location in a downtown area (walk to everything), and guess what happened when I go to get Internet at my house. Yep, Cox is the only game in town (not even DSL), and they charge $45/month for a 1.5 Mbps line. The only saving grace is I get like 20% of that speed most of the time. Normally I get like 10% of the advertised speed.

    You don't need to enforce net neutrality if you have competition, you only need regulation where there is no competition (probably 95% of America).

  • On the post: Yet Another Study Shows How Patents Create Suboptimal Innovation

    mkam ( profile ), 09 Mar, 2009 @ 10:33am

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:

    What do you think the value of a Nike shoe is if you can buy the chinese knockoffs in WalMart for 19.95?

    Have you ever been to Walmart and seen the 4 stripe knockoff Adidas shoes? They are on the market right now in exactly the same way that you say they are not. You know what, it only takes you one time of buying the knockoffs before you learn why they are $19.95, and you go back to buying a $40 pair of shoes, with some quality construction.

    Your example doesn't make since and isn't even close to reality.

  • On the post: Not Quite The Full Story On The Environmental Impact Of Google Searches

    mkam ( profile ), 12 Jan, 2009 @ 04:43am

    I read this this weekend and it was painfully obvious that this only covered 1 side of the equation. Think of all the newspapers that aren't getting printed anymore, and all of the CDs that people are not buying because everything is digital. I would like to see a study that actually tried to see if google was a net gain or net negative.

  • On the post: Creating A List From A Database? Prepare For A Patent Infringement Suit

    mkam ( profile ), 17 Jul, 2008 @ 01:31pm

    Related Patents = Joke

    Did anyone see the related patents.
    Online shopping changes based on history of the user? ARE YOU KIDDING ME!

    http://www.google.com/patents?vid=USPAT5909023

    "An online shopping support method and system capable of supplying proper services matching user specific needs and conditions. Purchase history information of each good purchased by each user is stored at a service offering system. In response to an input of identification information from a service use system, the service offering system searches the purchase history information of the user corresponding to a user identifier and calculates a purchase interval of each good purchased by the user. The service offering system judges, for each good whose purchase interval was calculated, whether the time corresponding to the purchase interval has lapsed after the latest purchase day. The service offering system transmits information of the good whose time corresponding to the purchase interval has lapsed to the service use system via a communication network and displaying the information at the service use system."

    Is this the same as you shop at a place for a while and they recognize you and give you a better deal? I do this all the time at restaurants or bars. Oh, but wait it is online so it is now patentable. I wonder if anyone has patented doing this on a mobile phone yet?

  • On the post: RIAA Says Copyright Filters Could Be Put In Anti-Virus Software

    mkam ( profile ), 08 Feb, 2008 @ 04:41am

    Re: RE:

    This was the situation a couple of days ago. My TIVO missed the episode of House because the Super Big Game ran long. So I went to Fox's website to try to watch it. But No! Fox won't put the new episode of House on the web for 8 days. Was I going to wait, hell no. I went to the pirate bay downloaded a high def, commercial free version is about an hour. Now that is convenience. I think there is problem with your business when the pirates have a far superior product to offer. Do they make versions of Windows in China that don't crash and cost less? Can I get one of those?

    mkam

  • On the post: CIA Claims Cyberattacks At Fault In Blackouts

    mkam ( profile ), 19 Jan, 2008 @ 05:34am

    Re:

    They're freedom-haters. They hate your freedom. Make sure you vote for Giuliani that's all he talks about. How about 8 more years of this pandering, I haven't had enough.

    mkam

  • On the post: National Motorists Association Challenges Cities To Prove Red-Light Cameras Are Safer

    mkam ( profile ), 07 Jan, 2008 @ 07:09am

    Re:

    I got a red light camera violation in the mail. In the image you can clearly see that the traffic is backed up for quite a ways and my car is 90% through the light. On the photo it puts the velocity at which I 'ran' the red light. It said that I was going 2 mph through the light.

    In addition at the red light camera by my house the yellow used to be 6 seconds. (its a 45 mph road) After the red light camera got installed the yellow miraculously became ~4 seconds. If it is raining there is no way that you can stop. Cameras are blatant money grab and I always vote against anyone that advocates their use.

    mkam

  • On the post: Should eBay Merge With Amazon?

    mkam ( profile ), 18 Dec, 2007 @ 05:49am

    half.com vs amazon

    The other question I would ask is what would happen between half.com and amazon. I don't ebay much but use half.com all the time for naming my price and selling, and buying stuff at a fixed price. It is consistently lower than amazon on most duplicate items. Ebay, in my mind, doesn't really complete with amazon (at least they have vastly different approaches to selling). I could see ebay staying the same and amazon merging towards a more open format like half.com which would potentially drive more sellers and buyers to amazon.

    mkam

  • On the post: Reliability Requires Redundancy

    mkam ( profile ), 10 Dec, 2007 @ 01:48pm

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Nice Ad

    I thought it was a plug but it actually related to the topic at hand. Keep writing the good posts.

    Relating to the topic, I always thought that google answers would have trouble surviving because of the cost for the answers. They could have found some method of attracting good answers that didn't involve as much cost. However, maybe you get what you pay for so that is why the signal to noise ratio on Yahoo answers is so low.

    mkam

  • On the post: Wi-LAN Follows New Patent Hoarder Strategy: Sue Everyone All At Once

    mkam ( profile ), 05 Nov, 2007 @ 04:00am

    Re: Re: Ignorance is no excuse!

    Don't feed the troll Mike. Wi-LAN produces no products and I believe their slogan is 'a leader in licensing innovation' or some BS like that. This is exactly what is wrong with the patent system.

  • On the post: Comcast Still Dancing Around Its Content Jamming Operations; What's Wrong With Admitting It?

    mkam ( profile ), 23 Oct, 2007 @ 03:27am

    The most important point

    If you mistakenly assume that there is competition in the broadband Internet market then Comcast is making mad decisions. The fact of the matter is people already don't like them and in a good market they are the lesser of two evils and in a bad market they are the only one. So they probably are just cutting some of there overhead costs (less traffic) and their customer base won't be changed much. Sounds like increases profit for me. Maybe if the customers are lucky they will tack on a 'QOS tariff' on the bills for all this good work they are doing.

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