Zac Morris 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (24) comment rss

  • On the post: AIDS Denialist Files Defamation Suit In Hopes Of Silencing HIV-Positive Critic

    Zac Morris ( profile ), 24 Jul, 2013 @ 08:38am

    Re: AIDS denialism

    Technically, it's not AIDS denialism. They believe that AIDS exists, but that it is NOT caused by HIV. They typically espouse that HIV is a common virus among humans, and that AIDS is caused by a combination of health afflictions rooted in behaviors such as drug abuse, debauchery, and more recently even by the very medications used to treat HIV.

    Yet, even many advocates of this belief use the words HIV and AIDS interchangeably, which in-and-of itself shows their lack of credibility.

    Unfortunately (or fortunately, if you're so inclined) in the last 25 years, most of the advocates of these beliefs have died. In a total demonstration of denialism, the followers of these beliefs most often blame those deaths on "natural causes"; since dying from pneumonia actually is a "natural" common-enough cause of death among the overall human population. They have even modified their beliefs to explain more recent deaths of people that have embraced this belief system, thus stopping 10+ years of effective drug therapy, as a side-effect of those very drugs!

    Sadly, the pathology of Denialism is the real sickness here; whether that be the ultra conservative homophobe that is just denying their own homosexuality, or by extension many that believe AIDS is a punishment for behavior and not merely a mindless viral agent.

  • On the post: DRM-Plus, Or How Eidos Is Treating Anyone With A Jail-Broken iPad Like A Criminal

    Zac Morris ( profile ), 12 Jul, 2013 @ 07:13am

    H2

    Really? "has attained peak levels of dick-ish-ness this side of owning an H2 Hummer"

    So you know the life of every H2 Hummer owner?

    I'm a staunch supporter of EFF, ACLU, etc. Like Techdirt, I believe that DRM does nothing but harm paying customers while giving Company Execs a false sense of security.

    I own an H2 Hummer, that I use primarily for towing and transporting a group of people when we travel. I have added several efficiency mods, including a solar array, electronics "chip", etc. It is 10yrs old and still in excellent working condition. It is actually one of the few modern vehicles that is easy to repair because there is enough engine space to get at components without having to remove the entire engine! When the engine declines in repairability then I plan to convert it to a diesel engine, and look into various biodiesel solutions. I plan to own this vehicle, easily, another 10-20 years!

    Add to all of this that I work from home (no commute), have no children, and use a 60mpg motorcycle for "local travel". So even with said H2 my carbon footprint is still less than the average American.

    You do nothing but show you own ignorances and reduce the effectiveness of what you're trying to communicate, when you add such blatant "comparisons" to what you believe are "universal" bad guys.

  • On the post: Universal Music's Latest Bet On The Future: People Will Buy Music On Plastic Discs, Right?

    Zac Morris ( profile ), 03 Jul, 2013 @ 01:11pm

    5.1, 6.1, 7.1 encoded?

    My question is, will the music be remixed/encoded to provide 5.1-7.1 surround?

    If so, I would actually consider buying these.

  • On the post: Sending A Dick Pic As Your Response To A Lawsuit: Not An Effective Legal Strategy

    Zac Morris ( profile ), 27 Jun, 2013 @ 03:14pm

    Re: Re:

    You guys are just being dicks! ;-)

  • On the post: Sending A Dick Pic As Your Response To A Lawsuit: Not An Effective Legal Strategy

    Zac Morris ( profile ), 27 Jun, 2013 @ 03:14pm

    Sounds effective to me

    I hate to sound like an ass, but if his goal is to cause even more stress to this person, with only a $750 slap on the wrist, I'd say has strategy sounds pretty effective to me...

  • On the post: Senator Lindsey Graham Apparently Not Sure If Bloggers Deserve 'First Amendment Protection'

    Zac Morris ( profile ), 06 Jun, 2013 @ 03:28pm

    What about freedom of NO SPEECH?

    Why should anyone, in any capacity, be "forced" to divulge ANY information [including decrypt a hard drive]?

    You have the right to remain silent, except when you don't?!?

    I don't get it...

    If the burden of proof is on the accuser, isn't it equally their burden to discover whom to accuse in the first place! I have never understood the whole judicial process of compelling people to testify to anything!

    Freedom of Speech should apply equally to the freedom NOT to speak/testify, to anything!

  • On the post: Student Wins Intel Science Fair; Threatened With Patent Infringement Claims For Patent Not Yet Granted

    Zac Morris ( profile ), 03 Jun, 2013 @ 12:03pm

    Re: Re: Solar road

    "Solar" isn't just photovoltaics; it also includes heat.

    Running steel rods through "black top" (or even concrete) highways and then concerting that heat into energy is trivial. Trivial that is, if it didn't require a bloated government contract to implement...

  • On the post: Justice Department IT Staff So Incompetent They Block All Webex Conferences

    Zac Morris ( profile ), 03 Aug, 2012 @ 02:19pm

    WebEx allows desktop sharing

    There are two valid reasons I can think of for this...

    WebEx Conferencing is configured "per host domain", and those settings include whether or not the "owner" of the conference requires an SSL based connection (not on by default), or on the "public" servers.

    Since WebEx enables full desktop sharing between participants (beyond just single file PowerPoint sharing), this could easily expose information that shouldn't be seen by others on a conference.

    I can tell you from experience that the incompetence is on the users, because I've often seen some stuff that people have unintentionally shared that they should not have...

  • On the post: ACLU Allowed Into Lawsuit Over North Carolina's Demands To Hand Over Amazon Purchase History

    Zac Morris ( profile ), 17 Aug, 2010 @ 08:14am

    Personal Property Tax

    NC levies a Personal Property Tax. This used to cover everything from computers to Autos.

    Now it is just levied against big ticket items like Autos, Boats, RVs, etc.; and this is on top of usage fees for these items.

    NC residents are also supposed to list all Internet purchases on their yearly tax return forms; so I'm sure this information is being used to target audits of those people that never list these purchases.

    As a member of the ACLU I'm glad they are trying to expose this practice for the money grab that it is.

  • On the post: Are Yahoo & The AP Manipulating Comments? Or Are They Just Really Bad At The Internet? [Updated]

    Zac Morris ( profile ), 04 Jun, 2010 @ 08:47am

    Incompetence is a strong word

    As a programmer, I had to cringe at your use of the word "Incompetence". I think this is a bit harsh and here is why:

    As the single programmer for several small projects, I make "assumptions" about what the client MIGHT want, all the time. If fact, it's usually the only way I can stay even current with what clients are asking for; that is to try to guess at what features they will ask for later on. Thus while I'm in the code (which getting to the point of actual coding can be the most time consuming piece of an application) I try to add what is asked for, and I also try to stub in as much "nice to haves" or "guess they will ask for" as possible. Thus when the client inevitably asks for such functionality I can just flip a switch and the functionality is there.

    Granted, an experienced programmer codes in "switches" where a less experienced programmer [or a rushed programmer] might just make the functionality available without the client asking for it; but I would say this was more "exuberance" than "Incompetence".

    I can not comment whether this specific issue is something nefarious, incompetence, or just programmer exuberance; but when individuals "competence" is on the line, I would urge you to lean towards giving them the benefit of the doubt and at least ALSO point out other alternatives than just "incompetence".

  • On the post: Messing With Copy/Paste Could Present Security Issues

    Zac Morris ( profile ), 03 Jun, 2010 @ 12:25pm

    Just get GreasMonkey

    Just get GreaseMonkey and/or AdBlock, better than turning off all JavaScript.

  • On the post: An Answer To The Impending Bankruptcy Of Social Security: An Immigration Brain Gain

    Zac Morris ( profile ), 20 Apr, 2010 @ 07:27am

    The first thought that comes to mind...

    Regarding the H1-B visa "study" of the past, something tells me that it is more relational than causative...

    The last time that we had such a large active H1-B visa program was during the tech boom, when the growth of new jobs outpaced tech company's ability to fill them with non-immigrants.

    In the current situation, with the migration to "off-shoring" after the bust, there is already a glut of skilled tech workers here in America, which has even increased as those in the education system, slightly before and during the bust, are also now on the market as well.

    I am not against immigration in general, and I highly support a fairly open startup Visa program, but I think the H1-B program needs to be careful to focus on filling any holes [medical?] vs being used in area where there is a glut of workers here already.

    Is it even "legal" to limit what industries can hire via the current H1-B program?

  • On the post: Dungeons And Dragons Players Revolt, Storm Super Rewards Castle

    Zac Morris ( profile ), 19 Apr, 2010 @ 01:20pm

    Today is my 9th anniversary, thanks for the gift idea TechDirt!

    Today is my 9th anniversary with my partner. Thanks for the gift idea TechDirt. The Celestial Mount is PERFECT!

    ;-)

  • On the post: James Cameron: Innovation Trumps Any Piracy Threat

    Zac Morris ( profile ), 29 Mar, 2010 @ 03:20pm

    Heard reporting this morning that Dragon push out Avatar from it's last 3D cenema

    I heard reported this morning that "How to Train your Dragon", pushed out Avatar from it's last remaining 3D theatres?

    I'm thinking they may have confused pushing it out of the top ten with pushing it out of actual 3D theatres? I'd heard that was likely with Clash of the Titans, but wasn't sure if it would be until then?

  • On the post: Jaron Lanier Says That Musicians Using Free To Succeed Are Lying

    Zac Morris ( profile ), 25 Mar, 2010 @ 03:08pm

    Jaron has lost his mind, or been replaced by a V! ;-)

    The stuff he's been spouting during the last year is just comically antiquated.

    If I hear one more person say what a visionary he is, I think I'm going to puke.

    -Zac Morris

  • On the post: Facebook Threatens Greasemonkey Script Writer

    Zac Morris ( profile ), 25 Mar, 2010 @ 01:30pm

    Why not lite?

    @IPv6Freely, Because of the Pokes baby! ;-)

    People don't want to be limited by what someone ELSE tells them they should want to see. It needs to be understood that user customization is a right, not a privilege!

  • On the post: Facebook Threatens Greasemonkey Script Writer

    Zac Morris ( profile ), 25 Mar, 2010 @ 12:46pm

    Latest post to the Author's FB page

    Here is the latest post to the author's Facebook page:

      Fluff Busting Purity Well the corporate bullies have struck again, they are threatening to delete this page and shutdown my website too if their ridiculous demands are not met by 7pm GMT this evening. They demand I remove all references to "FB Purity" and also even more bizarrely "F*** B*** Purity" from both myfan page and my website

    Seems like a thin case Facebook has, but I've seen more ridiculous cases win. Do they have a leg to stand on?

  • On the post: Network Solutions Confused About The DMCA

    Zac Morris ( profile ), 01 Mar, 2010 @ 09:19am

    Point/Counter-Point

    @I AM SPARTACUS: Wikipedia "content" is not considered a reference grade quality "source"; at best you can use it as an index card system to find actual "sources" in the footnotes.

    @Overcase: You need to check-out Wine Allows you to run native Windows games on Linux [actually getting better frame-rates than on Windows OS]

  • On the post: Instead Of Suing Each Other Over Who Can Claim 'Most Reliable' Why Not Invest In Making A More Reliable Network?

    Zac Morris ( profile ), 19 Feb, 2010 @ 10:52am

    I see your mistake

    Ahhhh, I think I see your mistake. It's one I make all the time. See, you're assuming that people should be pragmatic. Actually the "appearance" of being "the best" is way more important to these companies than actually BEING the best. Because people are such idiots, that they don't actually do any research when they subscribe to a service, they just believe the last thing they saw on TV. It's an easy mistake to make, hope this clears it up for you. ;-)

  • On the post: ACLU Looking To Challenge Homeland Security On Border Laptop Searches

    Zac Morris ( profile ), 15 Jan, 2010 @ 05:45am

    Question regarding encryption

    Does anyone know the legal points of how encryption effects this policy?

    Are you required to actually login to your OS [for OS level encryption], or into any addon-encrypted repositories stored on the device?

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