Oliver Wendell Jones 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: Tracking Your Every Media Move

    Oliver Wendell Jones ( profile ), 04 Jun, 2003 @ 01:00pm

    I'd do it.

    If it meant that my opinion on what shows belong on TV would actually matter... and if they paid me. :-)

  • On the post: Palm Plans To Acquire Handspring

    Oliver Wendell Jones ( profile ), 04 Jun, 2003 @ 10:49am

    Springboard is dead

    Springboard is dead.

    Almost all Handspring products now are Treos which don't include Springboard slots.

    My employer was spending a butt-load of money developing a new Handspring/Springboard based product when the rumor was spread about Handspring ceasing the production of the Visor model line. We sent representatives to their headquarters and we were reassured that the reported comment had been taken out of context and that sometime in the future they *might* go that route, but for now Visors and Springboards were still alive and kicking.

    We went back to work and about 30 days prior to the launch of a product that has now had a million+ dollars spent developing it, Handspring came out and announced that the rumors were true, they were getting out of the PDA business and focusing on the 'Communicator' business and would be selling primarily Treos without Springboards.

    Needless to say, we were not happy, especially since we had already purchased over a thousand various Visor models we had planned to use as a give away promotion on top of the million+ dollars already spent on R&D.

  • On the post: Broadband Internet Use Has Its Risks

    Oliver Wendell Jones ( profile ), 04 Jun, 2003 @ 08:15am

    Re: laziness never pays off.

    Is your grandmother smart enough to find anti-viral software and a firewall on her own and install them? Or, like most everyone's elderly relatives does she call you up and ask you to come take care of it?

    There is no good reason why an ISP shouldn't be responsible for making sure that all of their customers have all the software they need from Day 1 and provide support to them for installing it.

    It's no different from when I got to renew my license plates and the BMV makes sure I have valid car insurance before they'll let me drive another year. They have a legal, ethical and moral responsibility to make sure that the users of their service (the 'privilege' of driving) are protecting themselves and others around them.

    Earthlink goes out of their way to tell you about the free pop-up blocker that they provide, MSN is gung-ho about the SPAM e-mail protection that they provide - where are the ISPs who are going on and on about the security and safety that they provide?

  • On the post: Broadband Internet Use Has Its Risks

    Oliver Wendell Jones ( profile ), 04 Jun, 2003 @ 07:58am

    ISPs Responsibility

    Broadband ISPs should contact companies like Symantec (makers of Norton AntiVirus) and Zone Labs (makers of ZoneAlarm) and get quantity-discounted versions of their respective software and put it on the setup disc they give to new and existing customers.

    With those two programs running on every one of their connected Windows machines, we could see viruses, worms, DDOS attacks and just about everything else eliminated in short order in the U.S., but only if the ISPs really want to do it.

    Maybe with all the crazy 'net legislation being discussed, we should encourage our senators and representatives to push for mandatory anti-viral and firewall software inclusion in all broadband startup kits. Don't mandate the use of it, just make sure that every user gets a copy of the software.

  • On the post: Driving While Intaxicated

    Oliver Wendell Jones ( profile ), 03 Jun, 2003 @ 02:31pm

    GPS Ain't Cheap

    So, just out of curiosity, how much are they predicting each car's GPS unit will cost, how much will the gas pump add-ons cost, etc.
    How many months or years of mileage taxes will have to be collected before they start to show a profit?

    More importantly, who's going to pay for these gadgets? Who's going to install them?

    I would personally prefer to see the gas tax go up than have to come up with a one time lump sum payment of $300+ (just a guess) to buy and install a GPS system in my car. I would be very disappointed with any Representatives or Senator who voted to force me to spend me my money on a gadget that I don't think will solve the problem AND will let the government track my movements.

    I'm gonna further guess that cars can't be sold without the gadgets pre-installed after a certain date, which means that auto dealerships are going to have to add that to the total cost of every vehicle they sell, and since car dealerships always tack on ridiculous amounts for the simplest things (oh, you want floor mats? no problem, those are only $800 extra) I'm sure this will drive car prices up which will mean there are more older, less fuel efficient cars on the road.

  • On the post: Blame The Video Games – Part II

    Oliver Wendell Jones ( profile ), 03 Jun, 2003 @ 02:12pm

    You missed the obvious point of blame

    It's not video games, in this case it's the evil Key Logger.

    Yes, Key Loggers must be banned, just look at the evil they can be used for!

  • On the post: Public Domain Works Can Be Used Without Credit

    Oliver Wendell Jones ( profile ), 03 Jun, 2003 @ 09:19am

    Re: Public domain? What's that?

    It will take time, but at some point we will have reasonable ip laws.

    Hey, while we're wishing, can I have a pony? ;-)

  • On the post: Smaller, Cheaper Hard Drives For Portable Devices

    Oliver Wendell Jones ( profile ), 03 Jun, 2003 @ 09:17am

    Re: Port-a-Pedo

    I'm not sure if this comment was serious or not, but I seriously doubt their going to ever start checking key chain USB drives at traffic stops. I have one that I carry (not on a keychain) and withing spitting distance of where I'm sitting are 3 other geeks who carry these drives with them - two on neck lanyards (geek!) and one in his breast pocket (like me).

    To the best of my knowledge, none of us are pedophiles.

    I'm tempted to put it on my keychain and hope some cop stops me and asks to view the contents of my USB drive. I could really use the money I would receive when I sue the police for violation of my fourth (or is it fifth?) ammendment rights to protection vs. illegal search and seizures.

  • On the post: Motorola's Turkish Telecom Feud Goes To The Court Of Public Opinion

    Oliver Wendell Jones ( profile ), 02 Jun, 2003 @ 08:36am

    I'm glad I don't own any Motorolla stock

    Sounds like they've got some 'splaining to do!

  • On the post: Leasecomm Settles Scam Charges, Cancels $24M In Customer Debt

    Oliver Wendell Jones ( profile ), 30 May, 2003 @ 11:06am

    I know why...

    Leasecomm admits to no guilt (why is this always the case?)

    If you admit guilt in court then it becomes evidence that can be used against you in later civil trials, i.e., if Leasecomm had sued me and actually managed to take my money from me in court, at this point best I could hope for would be to get my money back - if however they admitted their guilt - I could counter-sue them and use the fact that they had admitted their own guilt against them to strengthen my case.

  • On the post: eBay Lawsuit Patents Up For Sale

    Oliver Wendell Jones ( profile ), 29 May, 2003 @ 02:46pm

    A Shower?

    Does anyone else feel slimy after reading articles like this?

    Hello, I'm noone special and I took an existing idea and added the words "on the internet" to it and patented it and since our patent offices don't bother to consider whether it makes sense or not, I know can make a hundred bazillion dollars off of other people's work!

    I need a shower...

  • On the post: Net-Driven Sales To Surge

    Oliver Wendell Jones ( profile ), 29 May, 2003 @ 11:27am

    Discount?

    Maybe if dealers offered some sort of discount for offline purchases based around online info searches (i.e., go to BestBuy.com, look at TVs, print out a coupon good for 20% off the extended service plan for any TV purchase in the next 7 days) and use that to track it.

    The tricky part is coming up with something that makes it worth the time of the consumer without it costing the store too much, i.e, a 20% off the TV coupon is probably out of the question.

  • On the post: Who Owns Your DNA?

    Oliver Wendell Jones ( profile ), 29 May, 2003 @ 09:21am

    What's the precendent?

    If you work in a place where a crime is committed and the police have all the employees fingerprinted to try and figure out which prints don't match the employees, or some similar situation where you are not guilty of a crime and aren't even a suspect, but evidence is collected to rule you out, is that information kept by the police?

    On C.S.I. and all the other shows where they run a fingerprint through the database and get a match, it's always something like "he applied for a gun permit, so we had his prints on file" or something benign like that, it's never "he worked some place that was burglarized and was printed even though he had nothing to do with the crime".

  • On the post: Pop-Ups Work?

    Oliver Wendell Jones ( profile ), 29 May, 2003 @ 08:12am

    Re: Pop ups

    Of if you prefer the compatability of IE, or just don't want to load two different browsers on your system, try CrazyBrowser (http://www.crazybrowser.com) which is a free front-end for IE that gives you tabbed browsing and pop-up ad blocking. I just checked and it shows that it has blocked 2259 pop up ads since I installed it.

  • On the post: Government Has No Business Regulating Spam

    Oliver Wendell Jones ( profile ), 28 May, 2003 @ 07:34am

    Simple Solution - Don't Outlaw SPAM.

    Now before you get mad, hear me out.

    You don't outlaw SPAM, you outlaw the sale of any item or service via SPAM.

    Everyone knows that SPAMmers go to great lengths to protect their own identity by using invalid return e-mail addresses, open mail relays, etc., and thus they are often times very difficult to find.

    The vendors who sell stuff through SPAM however have to make themselves visible either through a website or telephone number that *can* be traced (with the exception of 1 or 2 SPAMs I seem to get every day that offer a product and provide absolutely no way to get in touch with them...).

    If we make it a federal felony crime with mandatory jail time and steep fines ($5 per person SPAMmed is plenty steep) to sell any product or service via SPAM, and then go out and arrest the people that do so, people will stop selling via SPAM and the SPAM senders will eventually go out of business.

  • On the post: Best Buy Halts Development Of Own-Brand Notebooks Under Pressure From Big Brands

    Oliver Wendell Jones ( profile ), 27 May, 2003 @ 02:28pm

    Isn't this what everyone hates M$ for?

    It sounds to me like HP is exhibiting anti-competitive behavior. I'm just curious what kind of pressure HP could be bringing on BestBuy to make them change their mind? Pricing?

    Isn't that what got Microsoft into so much hot water?

  • On the post: SMS Spam Saves Lives?

    Oliver Wendell Jones ( profile ), 27 May, 2003 @ 02:20pm

    THIS IS NOT SPAM!

    To whom it may concern,

    This is NOT SPAM!

    I am dying of a rare disease, so rare that even if I told you the name you wouldn't recognize it, not even if you were the doctor who had originally discovered it - it's that rare.

    Anyway, my doctor has told me that if I can raise $1,000,000,000,000 there is an experimental surgery that might reverse my condition and allow me to once again lead a semi-normal life.

    In order to earn this money, I'm taking this opportunity to let you know about the following products that I think you might be interested in.

    * Cheap Generic Viagra!
    * Penis Enlargement - adds 2 - 3", guaranteed!
    * Human Growth Hormones - guaranteed to cure make you lose weight, reverse aging, bring the dead back to life and cure any known medical condition (except for really, really, really rare diseases)
    * Hot young school girls who want to have sex with you!

    Please, please, please help me out and click one of the above links. I don't think I can convince my ISP to let me send another message like this without coughing up a lung...

  • On the post: Forgers Using PC Printers To Make Currency

    Oliver Wendell Jones ( profile ), 27 May, 2003 @ 08:11am

    Time for a new law?

    Maybe it's time for a new law that bans the distributions of press releases warning people about a one in a zillion chance of a problem occurring and oh, by the way, we just happen to have a solution available if what we just warned you about makes you nervous...

  • On the post: Don't Copy Matrix Hacking, Warns Computer Society

    Oliver Wendell Jones ( profile ), 22 May, 2003 @ 02:04pm

    You know what?

    Within 2 minutes of leaving the theater where I had just seen Wargames, I had already coded 90% of a 'War-dialing' program.

    I doubt I'm the only computer geek in the world who can't wait to get home and emulate some realistic hack seen in a flick.

  • On the post: Pictures As Passwords

    Oliver Wendell Jones ( profile ), 21 May, 2003 @ 11:20am

    I hope they don't have a patent

    Or that it came about before that horrid movie Johnny Mnemonic, because that's what was used as a password for his cranial storage.
    Any password that involves you moving a cursor around on a screen is easily surpassable by anybody within visual range, and that includes via security camera.
    Maybe if they put the pictures in a 3x3 grid that corresponded to the 1-9 keys on the keypad, but even at that it's still easily 'readable' by anyone who cares enough to try. People can read your PIN numbers at ATM machines from 10+ feet away, so this shouldn't be any more difficult.
    This is one of those things that sounds good, looks pretty, but is fairly useless. At least in my humble opinion...

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