Ryan 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (153) comment rss

  • On the post: Another City Caught Lowering Yellow Light Times To Catch More Red Light Runners

    Ryan ( profile ), 02 Jul, 2009 @ 10:07am

    With or without cameras

    My city has done this for years, and we don't have red light cameras.

    Every light in the city is timed so that if you leave a red light from a stopped position, and drive normally, you're going to get to the next light just in time to make a tough decision between stopping early or accelerating for a few feet to go through the yellow light.

    The 1/2 mile stretch of "downtown" contains 4 traffic lights, and motorists get stopped at all of them.

    The city engineers specifically set them up so that cops could write red light and speeding tickets.

    Allen Park, MI is one giant speed trap.

  • On the post: China Tries To Ban Virtual Gold Farmers

    Ryan ( profile ), 01 Jul, 2009 @ 06:44am

    or..

    The best way these farmers work is to put out WoW addons that are really keyloggers to steal your account.

    Once they steal your account, they take all your gold, sell all your items (and, eventually even get somebody with guild bank access and take all the guild stuff)

    They then transfer all that gold a few times to different characters, and then sell it.

    By the time you complain and get it all back, it's already been given to other people as well, so you both end up with it.

    The accounts they use are 30 day free trial accounts. It doesn't cost them anything and there's no need to use stolen credit cards. You don't have to be top level to farm effectively, so they can do it with 30 day free trials.

    Heck, my character doesn't even farm - he just plays the auction house by buying things low and selling them higher. Artificially controlling the price of goods on a server is way more profitable than farming.

  • On the post: Apple's Confused iPhone App Censors: Softcore Porn? Ok.

    Ryan ( profile ), 11 Jun, 2009 @ 01:17pm

    I've found that if you just keep re-submitting the app without making any changes, eventually you'll get a moderator that isn't an idiot.

    I've had to do that with every iteration of the noslang.com internet slang dictionary app. ( http://www.noslang.com/iphone.php )

    They kept rejecting it because people might be offended by the word "ass", then "a*s" was offensive, but "a**" wasn't. I never understood that.

  • On the post: That's One Way To Grab Search Traffic

    Ryan ( profile ), 09 Jun, 2009 @ 06:46am

    The bigger problem I have with Bing is their marketing strategy. They're spending TONS on google adwords ads. Which is equivalent to saying "hey Google, here's a few million - we're gonna beat you now"

    It may steal some temporary visitors away from Google, but at the end of the day big G has the money.

  • On the post: More Congress Critters Want To Track And Tax Your Driving Habits

    Ryan ( profile ), 29 Apr, 2009 @ 02:10pm

    better solutions

    i did a blog post about this a LONG time ago - there's tons of better options than a mileage tax. here's a few of them: http://www.dotcult.com/better-solutions-than-a-mileage-tax

  • On the post: Is Casio Aiming For The Sexter Market With Its Latest Phone?

    Ryan ( profile ), 14 Apr, 2009 @ 06:12am

    or

    Or we could get over the whole "kids are using ____ for sexual stuff" scare posts and just realize that teens have sex. Deal with it, accept it, and educate them to be smart and safe about it.

    Nah, that won't ever happen. Ban cell phones for anyone under 18. Quick congress, get on it.

  • On the post: Prisoner Sues Because Prison Confiscated And Destroyed His Contraband Mobile Phone

    Ryan ( profile ), 01 Apr, 2009 @ 11:28am

    the real problem

    The real issue here is why are prisoners trying to smuggle in phones? Most prisons/jails are set up so that prisoners can only make collect calls. It's lonely in there and i'm sure nobody likes to pay to talk to a prisoner.

    If they'd set up a system whereby prisoners could pay for phone minutes, I'm sure it would alleviate the need for them to smuggle in mobile phones.

  • On the post: In-Flight WiFi Deployments Grow — Is The Demand For Real This Time?

    Ryan ( profile ), 31 Mar, 2009 @ 09:12pm

    the real reason

    the real reason most planes don't offer voice is for the passengers. As a frequent flier, I'd hate sitting next to somebody who's talking on the phone for 5 hours. It would be annoying as hell - especially on those red-eye flights where i try to sleep.

  • On the post: In-Flight WiFi Deployments Grow — Is The Demand For Real This Time?

    Ryan ( profile ), 31 Mar, 2009 @ 05:54pm

    right

    the problem is all the addon fees. If they just added all of that crap into the ticket price I'd be fine with it.

    I'm perfectly happy paying an extra $20 up front to book on an airline that has WIFI, it's the extra $20 on the plane that day that makes me say "screw that i'll just watch a DVD instead"

  • On the post: Online Publishers' Solution To Falling Ad Revenues: Bigger, More Annoying Ads

    Ryan ( profile ), 11 Mar, 2009 @ 10:55am

    adblock is part of the problem

    Even if companies made ads engaging and useful, people still wouldn't see them - thanks to programs like adblock. That's what's driving companies to make more annoying ads. Even the most useful relevant engaging ad, still isn't seen.

    As a website publisher, I don't allow any annoying ads on my website - but I do understand the problem these companies are facing.. and I know that useful engaging ads won't solve the problem entirely.

  • On the post: If You Want To Charge For News, Can You Answer These Questions?

    Ryan ( profile ), 10 Mar, 2009 @ 02:43pm

    ads too

    If only they'd learn this about their ad pricing too. Stop assuming that if you have 1 million subscribers, that my ad on page 7E is going to get 1 million views.

    Have you priced a newspaper ad recently? Such an ad is likely to get me about 25-30 responses, but will cost over $1000 dollars.

  • On the post: Some Georgetown Profs Want To Ban Laptops In Class

    Ryan ( profile ), 12 Feb, 2009 @ 11:44am

    too easy

    Most of the time I spent in college not paying attention was because the class was too easy.

    My 400 level web development class for example - I did all of the assignments and the final project in the first 2 hour lecture, and got an A on them. We'd have to do presentations and such, and for some reason attendance counted, so I'd show up and play desktop tower defense.

    Same for Discreet math. The room was basically a faraday cage, so I stopped bringing my laptop. I'd eat breakfast than sleep. The professors would snake around the room with each question he asked. when it was my turn he'd wake me up, and I'd answer the question before going back to bed.

    The problem here isn't laptops, it's boring and easy classes.

  • On the post: Can The Solution To Spam Be Hoax Spam?

    Ryan ( profile ), 04 Feb, 2009 @ 07:47am

    hmm

    sounds good to me, but let's go one further and make the govt sent spam install a virus that nukes the computers of those who click on the links.

    Since they won't learn the easy way, let's let them learn the hard way. After reformatting every time they click an email link, they'll eventually learn - or just stay off the internet.

    Either way, win win.

  • On the post: Trust Your Customers… And They Do Amazing Things…

    Ryan ( profile ), 05 Jan, 2009 @ 01:49pm

    heh

    Try this in Detroit and see what happens. I bet it's nowhere near the same result.

  • On the post: Can You Guilt Someone Into Not Pirating Software?

    Ryan ( profile ), 18 Dec, 2008 @ 11:59am

    hmm

    when did the idea of selling software become a bad thing?

  • On the post: Did You Know Caching Is How Perverts Avoid Downloading?

    Ryan ( profile ), 18 Dec, 2008 @ 11:51am

    Child porn laws can never be reasonable.

    Judges, prosecutors, etc are all elected - and nobody wants to be the one who appears soft on child porn.

    As long as it's a public election, child porn laws will continue to grow more and more strict and ridiculous.

  • On the post: Researchers Become Spammers To See How Successful Spam Is

    Ryan ( profile ), 10 Nov, 2008 @ 11:09pm

    but

    it seems low until you look at the cost of sending spam.

    If I hack your email account, I can send out millions of emails from it for no cost what so ever.

    The current going rate for an email account on the black market is less than $1.

    If I have a bot net, or write a virus to do it, my cost per spam blast is very minimal.

    If it costs me $20 to send out my spam blast, and 1 person buys, I profit.

    It only takes .01% return rate to be profitable.

    For more information see the book called "inside the spam cartel" published by Syngress. It's written by a former spammer.

  • On the post: Will Others Now Line Up To Get Paid From Google?

    Ryan ( profile ), 05 Nov, 2008 @ 10:56am

    websites are different

    The only problem here is that website owners see the value of being listed in google. Almost 50% of my traffic comes from Google on a daily basis - without them I won't make as much money.

    Newspapers and books don't see the value from Google. Newspapers don't want to be online as it will lower their advertising value. Publishers want to sell books, and they've yet to realize how being in google can do that.

    Websites will never demand payment from google as they greatly fear being removed from the index.

  • On the post: The Uneasy Balance Between Wikipedia And Truth

    Ryan ( profile ), 21 Oct, 2008 @ 10:47am

    wow

    can you imagine how boring your life must be if you get into a wikipedia argument over mike's birthday? amazing.

  • On the post: The Traditional Banner Ad Business May Be In Even More Trouble Than You Think

    Ryan ( profile ), 16 Oct, 2008 @ 07:13pm

    Re: mike

    there's nothing wrong with my business model. I chose a business model that works, and it happens to be banner ads.

    It works because people still click on them and companies still see value in putting them there.

    If they ever stop working, I'll have to adopt to a new business model. That model will still "work" - as in it makes more money than it costs, but I'm sure it will involve some paid walls and some pissed off users.

    While I love reading techdirt, You're very quick to bash every business model out there without offering any suggestions.

    let's suppose MySpace and Facebook ditch banner ads all together. How do they make money without pissing off their user base. Go with it.. That'd be a post I'd like to read.

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