Mark 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (33) comment rss

  • On the post: Brits Prefer Phoning Naked, No Word On Toilet Habits

    Mark ( profile ), 24 Mar, 2006 @ 02:59pm

    Lee...

    Next time I'm at your place and I ask if I can use your phone, remind me to wash the handset.

  • On the post: People Think Talking From The Toilet Is A Bunch Of Crap

    Mark ( profile ), 14 Mar, 2006 @ 01:52pm

    pervasiveness

    "You'd almost expect people to become more forgiving about when and where people use their phones as they become more pervasive"

    Actually, the reverse -- as it becomes more pervasive, even inherently obnoxious people have come to realize how unpleasant it is when someone else discusses their prostate exam in the middle of a movie, and how much you look like a moron for answering the phone when you clearly should have shut it off in the first place. It's like boom boxes back in the '80s. First reaction: "Hey, cool! I can bring my tunes with me and blast them as loud as I want!" Second reaction: "Uhhh ... maybe not such a good idea."

  • On the post: Rumors Of McNealy's Resignation Greatly Exaggerated

    Mark ( profile ), 07 Mar, 2006 @ 12:34pm

    telephone game

    Reminds me of something I read once when still in grad school. It was an book on Cretan archaeology that mentioned off-hand burnt human remains in a sacrifice site. I was interested in that, so I followed the footnote to a source that cited a source that cited a source that finally pointed back to the original ... which said something completely different. What was found at the site were small clay replicas of human body parts that had been burned in a fire. So the report of human sacrifice was perfectly accurate except for two small details: the remains weren't human and it didn't appear to be a sacrifice.

    So the lesson here, I guess, is that we should count ourselves lucky that Digg isn't accusing McNealy of committing human sacrifice.

  • On the post: Can Online Censorship Really Work In China?

    Mark ( profile ), 20 Feb, 2006 @ 08:45am

    Truth more believable than fiction?

    "Of course, the lesson in all of this that should apply to both situations is that truth and honest opinions are what spread, and they do so naturally and (as much as possible) around barriers. Propaganda is tougher to spread if people don't believe it -- and truth is hard to suppress, once it's out there."

    I'd really like that to be true, but is there any reason to think that truth is more believable -- and therefore more likely to spread online -- than falsehood? There are still people out there who think Hitler was a courageous crusader against an international Jewish conspiracy, and that the Holocaust is a hoax. There are people who devoutly believe that the U.S. space program never actually landed on the moon. There are those who believe -- despite repeated disappointment -- that the end of the world is right around the corner. It would seem that history teaches us that error is often much more seductive than truth.

    I remember when the demonstrations at Tiananmen Square were in progress, and every talking head on television was pronouncing that truth and freedom were like a genie in a bottle: once it gets out, you can't get it back in again. But then the tanks showed up and that genie was bottled quite handily. Maybe the remarkable fact is that truth sometimes does win out in spite of everything. Just as often, though, propaganda, lies, and disinformation rule the day.

  • On the post: The Return Of California's Telco Bill Of Rights

    Mark ( profile ), 29 Dec, 2005 @ 10:38am

    state and federal

    Myself, I'm more comfortable with regulation on the state level. Sure, it causes some complexity problems for the cellular companies, but we're talking massive conglomerates here -- I think they can find it in their budget to hire a compliance officer or two. Meanwhile, we've already seen that Congress and th FTC are categorically unable to regulate such things impartially; inevitably there's some powerful lobby whispering in their ears, and in many cases actually drafting the legislation. While those forces also operate on the state level, my gut-level feeling is that a state senator is going to be closer to his consituents and therefore somewhat more likely to act in their interests.

  • On the post: No, WiMAX Won't Kill WiFi

    Mark ( profile ), 20 Dec, 2005 @ 03:48pm

    root beer vs. water

    "Root beer, coffee and water are all drinks that serve basically the same end purpose. I don't remember seeing too many 'root beer will kill water stories' lately."

    Nice analogy, but unfortunately not all that apt. When was the last time you bought a cup that could only hold water, and not any other liquid? But when people buy computing devices that can only connect to one or two wireless protocols, they see nothing odd about that. One protocol can kill another if manufacturers accept it as the defacto standard, even if it would make more sense for the protocols to operate in parallel.

  • On the post: New Google Mantra: Pay Less Taxes

    Mark ( profile ), 14 Dec, 2005 @ 04:39pm

    corporate tax havens

    "Still, is there anything really wrong with this?"

    Let's see -- is there anything wrong with a company separating its assets from its operations so as to avoid paying taxes that help finance the state and federal services and resources that are vital to its employees and its corporate operations?

    Yes, yes there is.

  • On the post: Predicting Hollywood's Blockbusters

    Mark ( profile ), 14 Dec, 2005 @ 04:36pm

    predict-o-matic

    You know where this could be useful? If it delivers the message that derivative crap will fail at the box office, and one studio head believes the message and instructs his employees to work on better, more original material. Even if the program is a piece of crap, it could still prove beneficial if it forces Hollywood out of one or more of its bad habits.

  • On the post: Worried About Being Recognized Photographically Online? We've Got The Solution

    Mark ( profile ), 07 Dec, 2005 @ 10:55am

    Silly Wikipedia arguments

    Mike, I'm wondering -- what makes the "argument" over the fake Wikipedia bio "silly"? I personally think that public accusations of involvement in a political assassination are fairly serious. Since you've stepped up to defend Wikipedia on a number of occasions, I'd rather see a reasoned response to this story than just vague, dismissive hand-waving on the grounds that it's somehow "silly" to be accused of killing someone -- or maybe it's "silly" to be angry that someone has accused you of something like that?

  • On the post: EFF Says DMCA Rulemaking: Fails Consumers Completely

    Mark ( profile ), 01 Dec, 2005 @ 10:50am

    EFF and all that

    Realistically, does anyone in a position of power listen to what the EFF is telling them? That's an organization that -- with the best of intentions -- seems to consistently be preaching to the choir.

  • On the post: Grand Challenge Seems A Lot More Grand This Year

    Mark ( profile ), 10 Oct, 2005 @ 10:00am

    worst to best?

    "However, just a year and a half after the 'best' one of these vehicles could do was a little over 7 miles, 5 vehicles successfully completed the 132-mile course (four of them within the 10-hour limit). That's a pretty impressive improvement rate."

    There's an interview on the Grand Challenge website (grandchallenge.org) this morning that might explain some of the rapid progress. Apparently in last year's course, the most difficult portion was seven miles in. This year, the most difficult portion was 125 miles in. So, if a few competitors last year had been just a bit better and been able to negotiate that difficult initial pass, they might have gone on to finish the course. Of course, this year's competitors were certainly better, having had another year to debug their software and practice, but the degree of improvement might have been exaggerated by the layout of the two courses.

  • On the post: Blaming The Mobile Phone For Economic Troubles, Stupidity

    Mark ( profile ), 10 Sep, 2004 @ 01:35pm

    Re: Not enough new jobs

    "In the USA, parents point to hard-working immigrant students to tell their kids to study harder, but Japan is more isolated and complacent."

    Ironic. I grew up when the great fear in the US was competition from Japan, and hard-working Japanese immigrants were offered to us as examples of why our lazy, shiftless, high-school-aged asses were dooming the US to second-rate status. Now while Asian immigrant students are still used iconically in that manner, it seems the focus has shifted to hard-working Chinese and Koreans. I guess our culture is fortunate -- as soon as the Japanese youth get as shiftless good for nothing as we are, we have lots of other Asian varieties to choose from. (Joke.)

  • On the post: Where Do You Use Wireless Devices?

    Mark ( profile ), 10 Sep, 2004 @ 01:30pm

    Wireless toilets

    It was actually several years ago that I first sat in a public toilet, next to a stall in which a guy was talking on his cell phone while taking a dump. The amazing thing is he flushed the toilet without even pausing in his conversation. I hope that guy remembered to wash his cell phone regularly.