Spectere 's Techdirt Comments

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

    Spectere ( profile ), 08 Oct, 2010 @ 03:56pm

    Re: Re:

    I think you're reading too much into what I wrote.

    I'm talking more about a confirmed online identity. As in, if you see a registered user by the name of Spectere making a comment on Techdirt, unless someone else obtained my password then it's definitely me.

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

    Spectere ( profile ), 08 Oct, 2010 @ 06:18am

    Being forced to register dissuades me from commenting. Even if I have something valuable to add to the conversation I find that I'd rather not spend one minute typing in my info, three minutes to figure out the captcha, and five minutes waiting for a confirmation e-mail to drop in my inbox. All for a site that I'm only going to log into once.

    The option for registration is nice, especially if you go to a site often and it provides additional benefits (even confirmed identity) but mandatory registrations are annoying. I like just being able to put in my name, typing in my message, and clicking "submit." It also keeps me going to the site (hello, ad revenue?) because I typically pop back in every once in a while to see if anyone replied to my comment.

    For me it's not really even about anonymity, though the option is nice. Gravatars are used by so many blogs nowadays that you can be reasonably sure that a picture of Shadow the Hedgehog represents me. I just like not having to fart around with authentication and user accounts. I do enough of that at work.

  • On the post: Nokia VP Compares Android To Peeing In Your Pants To Stay Warm

    Spectere ( profile ), 01 Oct, 2010 @ 09:11am

    Re: Nokia is not able to advance easily.

    Ovi Maps is free (and accessible with no data plan)


    Are the maps included in the program or are they downloaded via wi-fi?

    If it's the latter, that's not an advantage at all, just a nice feature that everyone else has. Neither Apple's nor Google's mobile map apps require a data plan or a GPS. Apple even made it available on the iPod touch at some point (my 4th gen with 4.1 has it, not sure about previous versions or devices).

    The phones themselves requiring a data plan to activate can be an issue, but there are ways around that for both iOS and Android, the easiest being to cancel the data plan immediately after purchasing the phone (I know this works with T-Mobile, but I don't think you'd have any luck doing that with an iPhone and/or AT&T).

  • On the post: Nokia VP Compares Android To Peeing In Your Pants To Stay Warm

    Spectere ( profile ), 01 Oct, 2010 @ 09:06am

    Re: Re: Nokia / Symbian

    No, Apple uses a fork of FreeBSD that they dubbed Darwin.

    The only thing that makes OS X remotely close to a Linux distro is its use of a GNU userland.

  • On the post: Couple Kicked Out Of Hotel After Manager Accuses Them Of Writing A Bad Review

    Spectere ( profile ), 23 Sep, 2010 @ 01:37pm

    Why is everyone bringing up the first amendment? The incident happened in England.

    I'm not sure exactly what rights our British friends have and how they are worded, but I think it's pretty safe to say that the first amendment of the American Bill of Rights is pretty meaningless in this particular case.

  • On the post: Pissing Off A Movie Critic By Claiming Copyright Over A Video Review… Probably Not Smart

    Spectere ( profile ), 22 Jul, 2010 @ 05:45pm

    I'm a Nostalgia Critic fan myself and have found this whole debacle to be a bit...odd.

    I've always wondered exactly how these Internet reviewers seem to stay afloat as long as they stay far away from YouTube. Indeed, Walker was given the boot from YouTube due to having too many takedown notices for "5 Second Movies" project. Since ThatGuyWithTheGlasses.com went up, however, there were no takedowns issued for any of the content.

    The part that I find most puzzling about that fact in particular is that all of the big studios have left him and his (ever-growing) crew alone. Walker, in particular, does tend to use many clips from the movies that he reviews to the point that they make up the majority of the review, so it's kind of surprising (to me) that an independent studio would put in a takedown notice when a large, multi-billion dollar studio wouldn't. The Nostalgia Critic character has been around for a few years now and has grown dramatically in popularity, so I would find it very hard to believe that the bigwigs in Hollywood don't know about him.

  • On the post: Pissing Off A Movie Critic By Claiming Copyright Over A Video Review… Probably Not Smart

    Spectere ( profile ), 22 Jul, 2010 @ 05:33pm

    Re:

    "Wiseau Films" has already submitted takedowns for several of the reposts, so...yeah, he's definitely trying to wipe the review off the Interwebs.

  • On the post: Motorola Does Openness Wrong; Bricks Your Droid X If You Tamper

    Spectere ( profile ), 15 Jul, 2010 @ 01:23pm

    Re: Good to know

    Yeah, the RAZR series (and the V series in general) was pretty easy to hack the crap out of. I heavily modified my imported V620 when I still had it. A bit of creative file management (in addition to a data cable and a piece of free software) was the only way to get any decent mileage out of the whopping 5MB of internal memory on those older devices. There's nothing quite as satisfying as deleting those lame "protected" ringtones from your device to make room for your own. :)

    There are also dozens of free applications that allowed you to change OEM settings, such as the text on the outer display, as well as various other internal settings that are normally untouchable. If you're feeling spunky you could also flash the ROM to a stock Motorola one if you wanted to remove all carrier branding without a whole lot of effort.

    Long story short, yes, the representative that said that is full of shit.

  • On the post: Motorola Does Openness Wrong; Bricks Your Droid X If You Tamper

    Spectere ( profile ), 15 Jul, 2010 @ 01:16pm

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Yo Dark Helmet!

    In a nutshell, it's a FroYo (Android 2.2) ROM for an assortment of devices. Even the venerable G1 can run FroYo thanks to Cyanogen (that said, I haven't had much luck with CM6 on my G1, so I'm still rollin' with CM5. I doubt you'll have any significant issues with the much beefier Droid).

  • On the post: Judge Won't Dismiss Antitrust Charges Against Microsoft For Breaking 3rd Party Xbox Memory Cards

    Spectere ( profile ), 01 May, 2010 @ 01:09pm

    Re: Sony & PS3 Next?

    Why? The PS3 doesn't use proprietary storage media and memory formats, unlike the Xbox 360 (unless you use a USB memory stick as a memory card, you must use overpriced Microsoft memory cards and hard drives if you don't want to get locked out of them) and the Wii (you cannot upgrade the tiny internal storage at all, though you can use standard SD cards to store some things).

    The PS3 also allows you to use standard Bluetooth and USB headsets, something that the Xbox 360 and the Wii don't allow. Their controllers are also standard Bluetooth devices

    If you're referring to a lawsuit related to the removal of the Other OS option, that's already on the books.

  • On the post: Ubisoft DRM Gets Worse And Worse: Kicks You Out Of Game If You Have A Flakey WiFi Connection

    Spectere ( profile ), 19 Feb, 2010 @ 06:21am

    Re: This is why I won't buy ME2

    You're in luck. The retail copy of ME2 uses only a basic disc check.

    The Steam copy has nothing extra bolted on to the Steam DRM.

    I'm glad that EA seems to have learned their lesson. It's sad that Ubisoft and friends haven't learned from EA's DRM experiments.

  • On the post: Ubisoft DRM Gets Worse And Worse: Kicks You Out Of Game If You Have A Flakey WiFi Connection

    Spectere ( profile ), 18 Feb, 2010 @ 09:01pm

    Re: Re: ...and the retards come out to play...

    If you would have purchased the SarcMark® software that misunderstanding would have never occurred, y'know.

  • On the post: Ubisoft DRM Gets Worse And Worse: Kicks You Out Of Game If You Have A Flakey WiFi Connection

    Spectere ( profile ), 18 Feb, 2010 @ 07:05pm

    Re:

    If they want to treat me like a criminal they're sure as hell not getting my money.

    I have enough willpower (not to mention a collection of damn good games that aren't loaded down with pointless, invasive DRM) to avoid a few titles here and there.

  • On the post: Ubisoft DRM Gets Worse And Worse: Kicks You Out Of Game If You Have A Flakey WiFi Connection

    Spectere ( profile ), 18 Feb, 2010 @ 07:00pm

    Re:

    Wi-fi itself isn't the problem, it's that it's becoming too popular.

    Go to a house in the suburb and you'll be fine. Go to an apartment complex and you'll be lucky to not get booted off every once in a while. I used to live in a densely populated apartment complex in Maryland and I'd get at least 15-20 networks popping up on my list at any given time. If I were to fire up Network Stumbler or Kismet I'd be looking at triple that. Considering the limited number of channels and the even more limited number of channels with no overlay (three, to be exact) it's difficult not to see a great deal of interference.

    Let's not even get into 2.4GHz cordless phones. There's nothing like getting kicked off your own network because your friendly neighbor one floor beneath you made or received a phone call. It made me with that 802.11a had caught on.

  • On the post: Former Music Exec Tells Book Publishers They're Acting Just Like The Recording Industry 10 Years Ago

    Spectere ( profile ), 10 Feb, 2010 @ 11:11am

    Re: Re: Re: Re:

    TAM might be a lot of things, but accusing him of being Chris Crocker is just way over the line. I mean...damn, that's just mean, dude.

  • On the post: Photographer Thrilled That Apple Using His Photo As Default iPad Background, Despite No Official Agreement

    Spectere ( profile ), 09 Feb, 2010 @ 06:51am

    Re: Re: Re: Re: McLuhan was correct

    And...my line breaks disappeared for some reason. Lovely.

  • On the post: Photographer Thrilled That Apple Using His Photo As Default iPad Background, Despite No Official Agreement

    Spectere ( profile ), 09 Feb, 2010 @ 06:51am

    Re: Re: Re: McLuhan was correct

    It's not the camera, it's the person behind it. You can't give just anyone a set of the finest paints and supplies and expect them to paint you a masterpiece. Likewise, giving somebody an expensive digital camera isn't going to make them a master photographer. Hell, I've seen people with $2000 digital cameras do patently dumb and/or pointless things (like, say, using a strobe on full power on a lit stage in the distance). You throw a cell phone in someone's hand and they could easily wind up with a better photo than someone with a $2000 camera; certainly not a cleaner picture but an overall better one. That said, it's ignorant to disregard the skill of some of these professional photographers. The great photographers over the years don't just take snaps, they use the camera to create art. In Misrach's "Pyramid Lake (At Night)," for instance, there is much more to the photo than simply the scene itself. The vignetting and long exposure time (which created the star trails) are one of the things that truly made the photo. Even if someone were standing in the same spot as Misrach, taking the photo at the exact same time, it would come out very differently.

  • On the post: Philip K. Dick Estate Sends Google Cease And Desist Over Nexus One Name

    Spectere ( profile ), 07 Jan, 2010 @ 07:57am

    Blizzard -- you're next!

    Gawd, I hope she doesn't start playing World of Warcraft. If she does, Blizzard is probably going to get a C&D for their ballsy use of that "trademarked" word within their game.

    Or how about the reference to that word in Star Trek Generations?

    Oh goodness, more flagrant, unauthorized uses of that word!

    *sigh* This is like the EDGE Games fiasco all over again.

  • On the post: Apple Fighting Macpro In Australia, Despite Is Using That Name For 26 Years

    Spectere ( profile ), 05 Dec, 2009 @ 09:14pm

    Re: Re: Now is the time to strike.

    People need to learn that PC is a general term and covers all personal computers.

    Tell that to Apple.

  • On the post: Judge Bars Sale Of Microsoft Word For Patent Infringement (Though It Won't Stick)

    Spectere ( profile ), 13 Aug, 2009 @ 06:49am

    Re: Re: Hey guys! Newsflash!

    You're making a pretty huge assumption that the company is going to turn a blind eye to someone who is infringing on their "patent" just because they're developing a free, GPL licensed, office package.

    The way I see this going down, i4i is going to get licensing fees from everyone that they possibly can. And considering OpenOffice.org was initiated by Sun Microsystems, you'd better believe that they'll be next if they manage to get anything out of Microsoft.

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