cryptozoologist 's BestNetTech Comments

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  • On the post: Apple To Face Antitrust Investigation Over Its iPhone Development Policies?

    cryptozoologist ( profile ), 03 May, 2010 @ 03:11pm

    nothing to see here...

    this is no different than console game manufacturers controlling their platform. consumers who don't like having to ask apple what software is ok for their own phone have plenty of other options.

  • On the post: Mardis Gras Indians Claim Copyright Protection Over Outfits

    cryptozoologist ( profile ), 27 Mar, 2010 @ 07:28am

    i believe the proper response is

    a photoshop contest to satirize the alleged 0wnership of such images

  • On the post: Brian Eno Explains How The Recording Industry Is Like Whale Blubber

    cryptozoologist ( profile ), 26 Jan, 2010 @ 10:19am

    i was considering the plight of the music industry a few weeks ago trying to think of a non-material good that was lucrative and was then disrupted out of existence. the best analogy i could come up with was indulgences sold by the catholic church prior to the protestant reformation.

    before martin luther nailed 'Ninety-Five Theses on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences' to the door of the church, and for a good time afterward, the catholic church would grant you an indulgence, an absolution of your sins, in exchange for money. business was good and this was a major profit center for the church.

    for the next 130 years protestants and catholics waged holy war on each other until the Peace of Westphalia ushered in the era of christain tolerance we enjoy today.

    fast forward to the beginning of the 21st century and the record industry is out prosecuting heretics who dare question the orthodoxy of 'big content'

    the good news is that nobody is being burned at the stake and that a resolution should take less than 130 years.

  • On the post: Sarah Palin Joins Al Gore In Not Realizing That Everyone's A Reporter These Days

    cryptozoologist ( profile ), 06 Nov, 2009 @ 08:53pm

    nothing new here

    sarah palin has never been adept at managing the media. after she was nominated for vp, it was several days before she gave any interviews at all. the result was complete abdication of her message to the media feedback chaotic amplification loop. when she finally did give interviews, the scrutiny was so intense that her actual message was lost.

    sarah, if you've got something to say, get out and say it. if you make a foolish remark from time to time, that is ok as long as it is a small percentage of what you've said. jesse jackson, joe biden, and a whole pantheon of public figures have said something difficult to explain, but since it is a small percentage of their total verbal output people are willing to cut them a little slack.

  • On the post: The Moral Argument In Favor Of File Sharing?

    cryptozoologist ( profile ), 06 Nov, 2009 @ 08:26pm

    why bother?

    "some will ask why anyone would bother in the first place"

    the answer is not easy, but one must acknowledge that creators do bother even when monetary compensation is not part of the equation. one obvious example that springs to mind is the free software movement. there is an entire operating system (several in fact) and a complete ecosystem of applications surrounding them, that is vibrant and growing yet not driven by the desire to extract residual payment from all uses downstream.

    people created music before anyone ever thought of copyright and if copyright were to disappear from the face of the earth would continue to do so.

    some creators are motivated by vanity, some by altruism, some by their faith and some for a myriad of other reasons, yet they are motivated, nay compelled, to create.

    those who create solely for monetary considerations are called 'hacks' or sometimes even 'whores'. who among us would truly be diminished if these voices were to go silent?

  • On the post: Is It Really A Problem That 'Only' 31 Newspapers Sent Reporters To The World Series?

    cryptozoologist ( profile ), 04 Nov, 2009 @ 05:15pm

    but what _is_ a sign of a dying industry...

    is what is implicit in the following excerpt:
    "First of all, those 29 other papers are all papers whose local teams are not in the World Series"

    what is implied is that each town has only one newspaper. while certainly the norm these days it was not that long ago that most cities of reasonable size had a 'morning' and an 'evening' paper. if one goes back even further in time the larger cities likely had even more than 2 papers. sigh.

  • On the post: Anti-File Sharing Propaganda Back To Focusing On That Horrible Malware You'll Get

    cryptozoologist ( profile ), 15 Oct, 2009 @ 07:43am

    sounds like what they are really suggesting...

    is for people to simply switch to free/open source operating environments. i use linux and only free software on it. i have no problems with malware, i have no antivirus software (that requires a subscription), i have no antimalware software and i don't need it. i have absolutely nothing to fear from the likes of the bsa what i don't understand is why when people have such horrific experiences with windows, they don't just ask for their money back.

  • On the post: Basic Building Blocks Of Life Patented… But Wins A Nobel Prize

    cryptozoologist ( profile ), 08 Oct, 2009 @ 05:52am

    alfred would approve

    although i am in no way in favor of patenting nature, i would like to point out that alfred nobel patented tnt (at least according to wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamite )

  • On the post: Why Does Lego Get To Stop Spinal Tap From Using Lego Video?

    cryptozoologist ( profile ), 20 Aug, 2009 @ 09:52am

    my experience with lego's lawyers

    i was writing a book about cool stuff one could build with lego bricks. i wrote to the lego corp to get some guidance about how to use their logos and trademarks in ways they wouldn't object to. like for instance they really don't like it when the bricks are referred to as 'legos' preferring 'lego bricks' for example. the response i got was a threat that if i was going to write such a book that i would have to negotiate a royalty arrangement with them my book project would not go forward. i wrote back explaining that the entire project would not need to even mention lego at all beyond stating that 'lego(tm) or any of the excellent compatible bricks are required for the models in this book'. i never heard back from them, also i have yet to finish the book. this still leaves a bitter taste in my mouth a decade later. all i wanted to do was promote their product but they decided to be jerks.

  • On the post: The Google Trends Suicide Watch

    cryptozoologist ( profile ), 14 Jul, 2009 @ 05:58am

    correlation vs causality

    of course simply publishing this article will lead to an increase in google searches of "commit suicide painlessly" leading to a senseless increase in the suicide rate ;-)

  • On the post: Because The Mainstream Press Never Copies Stories From Bloggers Without Credit…

    cryptozoologist ( profile ), 08 Jul, 2009 @ 07:34am

    parasite as a verb.....

    i can't quite put my finger on why it sounds awkward to me to use 'parasite' as a verb. i poked around on at thesaurus.com and found 'leech' to be a pretty good verb to substitute. perhaps english could adopt a foreign word to fill this niche. any suggestions?

  • On the post: Serious Worries About Locking Up Synthetic Biology Through Patents

    cryptozoologist ( profile ), 13 Feb, 2009 @ 10:27am

    be careful what you wish for

    while i appreciate and agree with your economic analysis i would like to point out a major difference between software and synthetic biology is that innovation in the former has little or no chance of wiping out humanity/all_life_on_earth and that it may well be that putting the brakes on this kind of innovation may be in our collective best interest.

  • On the post: McCain Campaign Ignores Cease-And-Desist; Keeps Playing 'Barracuda'

    cryptozoologist ( profile ), 10 Sep, 2008 @ 04:48pm

    but what they can do is...

    record a scathing parody of their song and release it as soon as possible.

  • On the post: The First Step Is For Microsoft To Admit It Has A Problem

    cryptozoologist ( profile ), 22 Aug, 2008 @ 06:19am

    least likely, or perhaps most?

    i'm sure i must disagree with this part:
    "These are exactly the people who can least reasonably be expected to install modular improvements to their browser's underlying technology."

    i think most ie users would be only too happy to 'click here to install missing plugin' without a thought as to where it might be coming from.

  • On the post: Has The Recording Industry Given Up On DRM For Streaming Music?

    cryptozoologist ( profile ), 21 Aug, 2008 @ 07:03am

    who owns your computer?

    i recall a story where a drm scheme was bypassed simply by holding down the shift key when inserting the cd to prevent autoplay on the windows platform. the publisher of the content argued that advertising this fact constituted circumvention under the dmca. a similar (ly feeble) claim might be made for copying an .mp3 file from one's browser cache. however, as a user of the gnu/linux operating system (ubuntu flavor) when i listen to such content with the totem media player, i have an option to save the stream as an .mp3 file and am protected from such claims.

    just a friendly reminder that if you want your computer to do what _you_ want, and not what microsoft, apple, and their media partners want your computer to do, then you have to run a free (as in feeedom, of course) operating system)

  • On the post: Understanding The Difference Between Price And Value; Product And Benefit

    cryptozoologist ( profile ), 21 Aug, 2008 @ 06:46am

    value vs price

    an example of this is that the gideons have been giving away free bibles for a very long time but most people in western society would never claim a bible has no value.