RandomGuy 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: UK Police Officer Accused Of 'Planting' Song Titles Into Evidence Over Shooting

    RandomGuy ( profile ), 07 Nov, 2010 @ 09:47pm

    Re: Its not his fault...

    So is repetition

  • On the post: USPTO Not At All Happy About Justice Department Saying Genes Shouldn't Be Patentable

    RandomGuy ( profile ), 03 Nov, 2010 @ 07:02pm

    Re: Re: Re: Re:

    "Just wait until you get some genetic modification done. When you have a kid, and that trait is carried forward [...]"

    That's not how it works. Genetic modification to a living person (gene therapy) only affects somatic cells, not the germ line. This means that the egg or sperm cells retain the original, unmodified genome sequence, so it is not passed on to future generations. Most geneticists regard modification of the germ cell lines to be as ethically abhorrent as human cloning.

    But you bring up a valid point regarding gene dispersal. I have heard cases of farmers being prosecuted for 'gene piracy', when their crops have become inadvertently contaminated with Monsanto genes.

  • On the post: One Dunkin Donuts Tries To Abolish The Penny… Until Customers Demand It Back

    RandomGuy ( profile ), 03 Nov, 2010 @ 06:33pm

    Re: Just get rid of pennies!

    The reason prices were set at, say, $2.99 instead of a round $3.00 is because shopkeepers wanted to ensure that each transaction generated some change for the customer.

    This would require their employee to open the cash register to get the change, thus recording the sale and preventing the employee from simply pocketing the three bucks.

  • On the post: South Korean Animators Protest Banksy Simpsons Opening… Which They Animated

    RandomGuy ( profile ), 02 Nov, 2010 @ 10:22pm

    I find it quite entertaining that the groups getting their feathers ruffled over this intro are the very ones who made/broadcast it.

    Job well done then, Banksy.

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

    RandomGuy ( profile ), 02 Nov, 2010 @ 10:12pm

    Re:

    One man's freedom fighter is another man's terrorist.

    The NSA has their own ideas as to who the good guys and bad guys are.

  • On the post: One Dunkin Donuts Tries To Abolish The Penny… Until Customers Demand It Back

    RandomGuy ( profile ), 02 Nov, 2010 @ 09:37pm

    Re: Re: Friggin' rediculous indeed

    "[The metric system is] not human friendly"

    Are you kidding? It's much easier to work with, especially when it comes to converting between units.

    "Those units aren't easily divisible in portions that actual people are good at dealing with like halves or thirds"

    Actual people are not good at dealing with units divided into ten portions? I was under the impression that we were taught to count in a base 10 system since childhood.

    I could easily see those exact same arguments directed towards the imperial system.

    Disclosure: I do work in a lab, with high precision scales, and grew up with the metric system. But I believe my points still stand.

  • On the post: USPTO Not At All Happy About Justice Department Saying Genes Shouldn't Be Patentable

    RandomGuy ( profile ), 02 Nov, 2010 @ 09:24pm

    Re: Re:

    That's a good thing, because molecular biology overwhelming uses only a few methods for isolating genes. If anyone held a patent on that, they could hold the entire industry to ransom.

    I'm all for naturally occuring genes to be declared unpatentable (as is the case with rocks, trees, rivers, and other naturally occuring things) - but why shouldn't modified genes be patentable? They're a new creation.

    Just like the arranging of materials into a functional device can be patented (ie; an invention), surely the arranging of DNA into a functional (and novel) gene could also?

  • On the post: FTC Concludes Investigation Into Google's Street View Data Collection Without Penalties

    RandomGuy ( profile ), 27 Oct, 2010 @ 07:54pm

    Anyone throwing their passwords around an unsecured wifi connection can expect trouble.

    Google may be becoming evil, but there are a lot of people already there.

  • On the post: Not Very Biblical: Investor Sues Bible.com For Not Being Profitable Enough

    RandomGuy ( profile ), 27 Oct, 2010 @ 06:36am

    Nothing gets the comments like a post related to religion, eh?

  • On the post: Local News Website Says You Need To Pay To Read Its Stories, Says It's Collecting Visitor IPs To Sue

    RandomGuy ( profile ), 27 Oct, 2010 @ 06:35am

    Re: Streisand effect?

    It's no hoax, Maxam really is that idiodic.

    Although I must admit I did increase her hits a tad, because after reading this article I just had to read multiple pages. Even if I had to paste the URL in myself, seeing as links from Techdirt land on a 403 page.

    In other news today, I need something far more productive to spend my time doing.

  • On the post: The Revolution Will Be Distributed: Wikileaks, Anonymous And How Little The Old Guard Realizes What's Going On

    RandomGuy ( profile ), 27 Oct, 2010 @ 05:58am

    Excellent article.

    This also goes a long way to explain why the powers that be are in such a rush to implement policies to curtail the potentially disruptive powers of instant, mass organisation afforded by the internet. Examples such as net neutrality, censorship and IP enforcement spring to mind.

    Those attempts will ultimately fail. Cue analogies to hydras, starfish and such, and throw in a quote about the internet perceiving censorship as damage and routing around it, and let's call it a day.

    All the more power to the Wikileaks and the Bit Torrents of the world. The establishment is running scared. I approve.

  • On the post: Who 'Owns' A Twitter Account: Employer Or Employee?

    RandomGuy ( profile ), 27 Oct, 2010 @ 03:50am

    Re: Reasonable solution

    That's right, I don't see how this is even an issue.

    Personal twitter accounts, clearly designated as such, should belong to the person who created them, whereas company accounts belong to the company. What is the world coming to when a sentence like that needs to even exist? Common sense, anyone?

    A murky area can appear when people use personal accounts to post company tweets, simple solution is: don't.

  • On the post: Judge Orders Limewire To Shut Down; Limewire Pretends It Can Still Exist

    RandomGuy ( profile ), 26 Oct, 2010 @ 10:44pm

    Re: Re: Re:

    Right, and the mafia isn't a criminal organistion, its members just happen to be criminals.

    And armies don't kill people, individual soldiers kill people.

    Etc.

  • On the post: Judge Orders Limewire To Shut Down; Limewire Pretends It Can Still Exist

    RandomGuy ( profile ), 26 Oct, 2010 @ 10:38pm

    Re: Re: Re: Sorry Mike

    Isn't that what happened when TPB copped that unfavourable court ruling? I recall someone downloaded the entire site and made a meta-torrent out of all the torrents, thus negating any chance of shutting the site down.

  • On the post: US Gov't Relying On 'Narcissistic Tendencies' To Get People To Accept Facebook Friend Requests To Spy On You

    RandomGuy ( profile ), 15 Oct, 2010 @ 09:37pm

    I see a few comments here along the lines of "waste of resources", but don't be so quick to discount facebook as an information gathering tool.

    One look through a person's photo albums (including photos they're tagged in) and friends list will immediately provide a high quality list of the people they they associate most often with.

    It would take months, if not years of surveillance to gather the kind of information that a facebook profile presents. Facebook Places also ups the ante, by providing a chronological list of location data. Priceless.

    Additionally, the cost to the observing agency is minimal.

    Of course, if anyone is stupid enough to use facebook for criminal deeds then they deserve what they're gonna get.

    Basic rules of internetting, people, if you're gonna use these services learn how to protect your privacy. Locking down your profile from outside views and denying friend requests from strangers should be a given.

  • On the post: Sarkozy: We Must Regulate The Internet To Ensure Freedom

    RandomGuy ( profile ), 12 Oct, 2010 @ 08:35pm

    Get used to this, echoes of this story can be heard across an increasing number of Western nations (Australia and the US are two other examples, but expect a lot more in very near future).

    While this can be looked at as a kickback for big content, that is essentially a side effect, as there are bigger issues at play. Stemming the free flow of information is vital for the oligarchy to maintain their positions. A coordinated, informed electorate is exactly the opposite of what the current crop of world leaders want.

  • On the post: The History Of The (Fake) 'Free Public WiFi' You Always See At Airports

    RandomGuy ( profile ), 12 Oct, 2010 @ 01:24am

    Re: Not A Virus, A Prion

    As a molecular biologist I totally agree with your statement, but prion is hardly in the common vernacular.

  • On the post: Is Passing Query String Data In Referral URLs A Privacy Violation?

    RandomGuy ( profile ), 12 Oct, 2010 @ 12:56am

    I'm not sure this feature should be entirely eliminated, as it serves some purposes (as other commenters have pointed out, in SEO and intra-site searching), but there are times when I do personally want to enter a site on a 'clean slate', and when I do it's simply a matter of copying and pasting the url into the address box. Not the most convenient way to access a site, but it works.

    Although I wasn't really aware of Google doing this until I first dug around Analytics, I'd still place it towards the lower end of the scale of privacy concerns.

  • On the post: More Stories Of People Following GPS Blindly Into Dangerous Situations

    RandomGuy ( profile ), 09 Oct, 2010 @ 01:57am

    Re:

    Who would use this as an example of GPS systems being bad for you?

    Surely the take home message here is 'stupidity is bad for you'. If you follow a little electronic device's direction into a reservoir/up a mountain/into a minefield (it'll happen sooner or later), then it's gotta be a case of PEBSWAS (Problem Exists Between Steering Wheel And Seat).

  • On the post: Reuters Dumps Anonymous Comments: Throwing Out A Bunch Of Babies With The Bathwater?

    RandomGuy ( profile ), 09 Oct, 2010 @ 01:12am

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Fine with anonymous commenters?

    After some of these comments, maybe it should be changed to Anonymous Crybaby.

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