Brendan 's BestNetTech Comments

Latest Comments (416)

• On the post: Streaming Exclusives Will Drive Users Back To Piracy And The Industry Is Largely Oblivious

  

  Brendan ( profile ), 19 Oct, 2018 @ 06:46pm

  Fragmentation

  Even if money were not a consideration, I don't want to keep track of shows across five, ten or thirty services. How am I supposed to remember which to log in to if I want to watch the next episode The Tales of Whatever?
  
  A hugely undervalued aspect of Netflix was bringing sanity and a (mostly) good UI to media organization and viewing.

• On the post: Announcing: Our New Sky Is Rising Report!

  

  Brendan ( profile ), 26 Jan, 2013 @ 09:29am

  Formatting on fact sheets...

  Happy to see an update to the report, but was a bit thrown by the country summary fact sheets. The various facets (video games, music, etc) were in different positions on the page for each country. This as a bit annoying to hunt for and compare across countries on the mobile device.
  
  I wood recommend laying out pages like that with the same structure in the future.
  
  Either way, awesome to see. Keep it up!

• On the post: Supreme Court Will Finally Say If Genes Are Patentable

  

  Brendan ( profile ), 02 Dec, 2012 @ 10:15am

  Re: Errata

  I had the same thought. The error (I believe) repeats in the final paragraph. The CAFC will tapdance around Mayo, not Myriad.

• On the post: United Airlines Sues Passenger Complaint Site Untied

  

  Brendan ( profile ), 02 Dec, 2012 @ 10:09am

  Re: outdated screen shot

  It still looks pretty similar to me. I can tell the details are different, but I wouldn't say the layout is substantially changed. It felt like I was playing "spot the differences" like the picture game in a kids magazine. That said, I completely support your case as parody/ sucks site.
  
  I'm more curious why this was filed in canada. Are you based north of the border?

• On the post: Bradley Manning Hearing Shows Military Bosses More Concerned About Media Attention Than Manning's Conditions

  

  Brendan ( profile ), 28 Nov, 2012 @ 12:35pm

  excepts the plea

  Should be accepts theplea

• On the post: Unfortunate: Kickstarter's Overaggressive Reaction To DMCA Notices

  

  Brendan ( profile ), 24 Sep, 2012 @ 09:35pm

  Re: Re: Re:

  Its just a tag for the article. Every tag needs to have a first article using it at some point.
  
  You need to chill out a few notches.

• On the post: Rethinking Higher Education Is Important, But NY Times Analysis Is Lacking

  

  Brendan ( profile ), 20 Sep, 2012 @ 06:03am

  Re: Seriously?

  I didn't mind it. I'm curious about the auther, though. Its a name I have not noticed before. Community submission that got published verbatim?

• On the post: Libraries Go Direct To Indie Authors, Rather Than Deal With Big Publisher Ebook Limits

  

  Brendan ( profile ), 10 Sep, 2012 @ 09:56pm

  Re: Re: Re: Re: Great, but

  You fail to see the big picture. I would consider it an amazing opportunity to get my books into every school in the USA, even if I made nothing up front.
  
  Consider that there are roughly 80 million students in the USA. If you can convince just 1% of those students to pick up your book and try to read it, you've just had 800,000 reads. If just 1% of those readers actually _liked_ your book, you've just picked up 8,000 new fans. If they buy 1 book each, you just made $24,000.
  
  If your books are good, you'll find more fans buying more books, making you more money. If your books are terrible, maybe you only make $5-10 thousand, and that's ok, because you didn't spend that much time on it, or it's just a side hobby.
  
  Think bigger.

• On the post: Congressional Research Service Takes On The Question Of Patent Trolls

  

  Brendan ( profile ), 29 Aug, 2012 @ 12:27am

  What might solutions for the pressure look like?

  My thoughts are that the risk isn't big enough for the "PAE" to care about the legitimacy of their claim. If we forced frivolous aggressors to cover legal costs for the defendant, they might consider the lawsuits more caeefully before moving forward.
  
  Current system makes it most profitable to throw it all at the wall and see what sticks. We need to change the incentive structure.

• On the post: If The Government Needs To Step In To Help Your Business Model, You Shouldn't Be In Business

  

  Brendan ( profile ), 02 Aug, 2012 @ 07:38am

  Re: Re: Re: Re:

  Your revisionist view of the world must makes things pretty exciting. You can just pretend history agrees with you, and if you truly believe in your river of shit, you don't even need to worry about anyone pointing out th massive inaccuracies.

• On the post: Google To Help Take On Mexican Drug Cartels

  

  Brendan ( profile ), 21 Jul, 2012 @ 09:07pm

  Re: Re: Re: Re: Yer kidding right?

  If you could wave a magic wand and have the drugs go away, sure. But sadly that's not possible. Outright bans just don't work. End of story. What vdoes work is education and treatment. Coincidentally, these approaches are also much cheaper than (ineffective) enforcement, and have less collateral damage.

• On the post: South Korea Gives Mobile Operators Permission To Ignore Net Neutrality By Surcharging Or Blocking VOIP Services

  

  Brendan ( profile ), 12 Jul, 2012 @ 11:37pm

  Re:

  And more importantly, the less they have to spend upgrading their network.

• On the post: How Not To Build A 21st Century Trade Agreement: In Secret

  

  Brendan ( profile ), 11 Jul, 2012 @ 11:50am

  Re:

  Then the process is wrong and must be changed. It is no longer acceptable to draft laws (the ultimate goal of these multilateral ?trade agreements") in secret.

• On the post: Excerpt From Rob Reid's Year Zero; Plus A Chance To Win The Book

  

  Brendan ( profile ), 10 Jul, 2012 @ 03:23pm

  If my comment is deemed a winner I demand it be broadcasted into outer space for archiving by aliens. Can't seem to trsut anyone "local" to not ruin everything.
  
  However, I will be secretely witholding the full copyright (a la Righthaven Pseudo-transfer) and my intergalactic heirs will sue every specias in the universe in 500 years. This will be possible thanks to the next 20 copyright term extensions, each for an additional 20 years, based on the Titan convention and the Ceres agreement.
  
  YOU'LL ALL PAY!! (Me... lots of money. Space money.)

• On the post: Poll Shows Only 9% Of UK Public Think Richard O'Dwyer Should Be Extradited

  

  Brendan ( profile ), 06 Jul, 2012 @ 03:10pm

  Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:

  Care to share what part of that is illegal, specifically in the UK?
  
  Does the statement "You can download movies and tv at no cost from the pirate bay .se" also set off alarms in your imaginary world? Because that's functionally equivalent to a hyperlink, just less convenient.

• On the post: Pirate Bay Block Initiates Streisand Cascade, Drives Record Traffic

  

  Brendan ( profile ), 04 May, 2012 @ 08:22am

  Re: Re:

  It's amazing how well Jurassic Park stands up to modern scrutiny.

• On the post: How Rumblefish Ended Up Claiming Copyright On A Song Uploaded By The Band Who Actually Held The Copyright

  

  Brendan ( profile ), 25 Apr, 2012 @ 07:38pm

  Re:

  ...and you guys don't like my idea of making this clown answer 10 or 12 captchas before he can post this drivel?

• On the post: Valve Tries To Charge People Based On How Likable They Are: Trolls Pay Full Price

  

  Brendan ( profile ), 24 Apr, 2012 @ 08:01am

  Re: Re: For BestNetTech Comments

  I acknowledge this. Unless you're deliberately masking your IP/browser, you could be tracked other ways.

• On the post: Valve Tries To Charge People Based On How Likable They Are: Trolls Pay Full Price

  

  Brendan ( profile ), 23 Apr, 2012 @ 10:14pm

  Re:

  Rights against discrimination are usually against an explicit list of criteria. Race, gender, etc.
  
  I would think a company could choose to offer discounts to customers it feels promote it games well. Much like sending out vouchers to good customers, or denying business to jerks, that is not "discriminatory" in the negative rights-based sense.

• On the post: Valve Tries To Charge People Based On How Likable They Are: Trolls Pay Full Price

  

  Brendan ( profile ), 23 Apr, 2012 @ 09:58pm

  Re: Re: For BestNetTech Comments

  The details to prevent gaming are tricky, sure. But those issues aside (which I admit are significant), do you object to the spirit of the system?

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