redwall_hp 's BestNetTech Comments

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  • On the post: Time Magazine's New Paywall? Buy The Paper Version Or The iPad Version To Read

    redwall_hp ( profile ), 07 Jul, 2010 @ 12:16pm

    Let's see. I don't want to read more paper magazines, really. And I don't own an iPad because I already have a laptop and an iPod Touch. I guess I don't need to read Time.

    Short-sighted, it cuts out a lot of potential readers, and it's really kind of stupid to try to publish exclusively for one device.

  • On the post: Woot Asks AP To Pay Up For Quoting Woot Blog Post Without Paying [Updated]

    redwall_hp ( profile ), 06 Jul, 2010 @ 12:23pm

    Re: Re: What the AP asks of us

    I'm too lazy to reread the AP article... If they put quote marks around the verbatim quotes and properly attributed their source, no. But if they didn't, then that would be plagiarism. (Which is what copyright law is really supposed to protect creators from, rather then being used as a cudgel to prop up a business model.)

  • On the post: Teenager And Composer Argue Over File Sharing

    redwall_hp ( profile ), 06 Jul, 2010 @ 12:17pm

    In the golden age of music, back before there was recording technology, the primary means of music distribution was sheet music. The composer didn't make any money off of it. Performers would learn to play each others' folk songs and be paid by towns or taverns to play for a night. There was no concept of someone "owning" the music.

  • On the post: Patent Lawyer Insists Open Source Stifles Innovation

    redwall_hp ( profile ), 06 Jul, 2010 @ 12:10pm

    Re: Thomas Edison

    Guess why the movie industry is in Hollywood. They wanted to escape the patents Edison owned on motion picture technology.

  • On the post: Patent Lawyer Insists Open Source Stifles Innovation

    redwall_hp ( profile ), 06 Jul, 2010 @ 12:09pm

    Re:

    The primary thing "Edison" did was to, though trial and error, find a filament that wouldn't burn up after a few minutes of usage. I put Edison in quotes because it wasn't really him for the most part; it was his many employees who did the largest share of the work.

  • On the post: Patent Lawyer Insists Open Source Stifles Innovation

    redwall_hp ( profile ), 06 Jul, 2010 @ 12:07pm

    Re:

    Hey, WordPress isn't that bad. I'll admit, the source is a bit nasty, but the end product is far better than the likes of Drupal and Joomla. Better back end interface, a good plugin and theme API. (I have first-hand experience working on the WordPress core. It's a bit messy. I enjoy writing plugins though.)

    As for web servers, I use NGINX instead of Apache. Apache takes far too much RAM.

  • On the post: No Fly List Members Sue The Gov't; Want To Find Out Why They Can't Fly

    redwall_hp ( profile ), 01 Jul, 2010 @ 11:56am

    Re: Re: Well fuck 'em.

    A wise man (Benjamin Franklin) once said "He who sacrifices freedom for security deserves neither."

    Sadly, the general public seems all to willing to give up their basic rights—rights the Constitution and its amendments are supposed to protect—for a false sense of security.

  • On the post: No Fly List Members Sue The Gov't; Want To Find Out Why They Can't Fly

    redwall_hp ( profile ), 01 Jul, 2010 @ 11:52am

    Well, it is entirely unconstitutional, isn't it? The Bill of Rights spells it out pretty well. You have the right to know what you're accused of and to confront your accuser in court. The "No Fly List" is secret and there is no accountability for the people who might add you to it. Claiming "national security" as a magic loophole for everything is just bullshit.

  • On the post: ACLU Jumps Into Case Where North Carolina Wants Detailed Info On Your Amazon Purchases

    redwall_hp ( profile ), 24 Jun, 2010 @ 11:20am

    Re: If idiots paid their use taxes it wouldnt be asking

    Option #3: Companies and consumers fight back and tell the state that they have no right to collect sales tax for goods purchased online. Especially from a business that physically exists in a different state.

  • On the post: Official Twilight T-Shirt Contest Won't Let You Use Anything From Twilight

    redwall_hp ( profile ), 18 Jun, 2010 @ 09:54pm

    Seriously, what the hell? I despise this franchise. It wasn't so bad before the movies started, back when the people who read it kept to themselves. But the new breed of Twilight freaks, and all of the attention the franchise gets in the media, really get on my nerves. The worst offense? That the media keeps trying to label it a "fantasy series" and compare it to greats like Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings, Wheel of Time, A Game of Thrones, Dragonriders of Pern, Mistborn, etc. etc.. (Okay, maybe not the last few, since they're not on the most of the public's radar...) No. It's just a cheap teen romance story with a bunch of marketing firepower behind it. It's not even a real gothic horror story, which is kind of a prerequisite for a story so deep into vampire territory, don't you think? (Excusing the oxymoronic vegetarian vampires and their lack of weaknesses or vampire-like traits.) Sorry. I'm done venting. I run a fantasy site, so this bothers me more than it should.

  • On the post: Twitter Is Like A Casual Conversation Among Friends Over Dinner

    redwall_hp ( profile ), 14 Jun, 2010 @ 09:48am

    Re:

    Yep, you're doing it wrong. Luckily there's an easy fix. Log in to Twitter and go to your settings. There should be an option somewhere to hide @replies (or "mentions") to people you don't know. That was once the case, anyway. I seem to recall talk that Twitter had made the hiding option the default and removed the choice.

  • On the post: Finland Plans To Decriminalize Using Open WiFi [Updated]

    redwall_hp ( profile ), 12 Jun, 2010 @ 10:28am

    Re: Re: Re: Re: a step away

    "unlocked and unmonitored open internet access creates a legal black hole"

    As it should be. The internet should remain free form the tampering of any government. Perhaps it should have its own governing body free from national ties.

  • On the post: More Studies Show That Violent Video Games Aren't A Problem For Kids

    redwall_hp ( profile ), 10 Jun, 2010 @ 10:00am

    Oh, violence in video game is a problem...but the much more violent Hollywood films aren't? Some of the films landing a PG or PG-13 rating are pretty nasty. Pirates of the Caribbean 3 seemed like it should have merited an R rating, given some of the things in it. (Seriously, someone has his face torn off...)

  • On the post: More Studies Show That Violent Video Games Aren't A Problem For Kids

    redwall_hp ( profile ), 10 Jun, 2010 @ 09:56am

    Re: Re: Duh.

    The internet is still a frequent scapegoat. QED: "internet addiction."

  • On the post: Pentagon: If You Don't Let The US Gov't Spy On Your Network, You Place American Lives At Risk

    redwall_hp ( profile ), 28 May, 2010 @ 11:46am

    Re:

    I think some companies like Google and the ISPs need to say the same thing to the Pentagon, and Congress while they're at it.

  • On the post: Pentagon: If You Don't Let The US Gov't Spy On Your Network, You Place American Lives At Risk

    redwall_hp ( profile ), 28 May, 2010 @ 11:44am

    Re: ALWAYS HAD CONTROL

    Until it wasn't. It's no longer associated with ARPA in any way, and it's *global.* The internet belongs to the world now, not a single country.

  • On the post: Netflix Agrees To Delay Fox And Universal New Releases, Annoy Avatar Fans

    redwall_hp ( profile ), 12 Apr, 2010 @ 04:24pm

    Especially with the deal where Blockbuster will still get the films on release day, this is getting deep into antitrust territory. Someone's going to open fire against the movie industry any day now. :)

  • On the post: Results From Dungeons & Dragons Online Going Free: Revenue Up 500%

    redwall_hp ( profile ), 01 Apr, 2010 @ 08:42pm

    I play DDO a little bit, but WoW has it's strengths too. I wouldn't want to pay $12-$15 a month for it, but I think it has more polish overall (and a larger, more open world to explore). DDO has better quests, though.

    Blizzard offers, for WoW, a pre-pay option for people who don't want to have a subscription. This gave me a great idea for something midway between a subscription and paid add-on content: the AOL model. I'm not about to play 4 hours of WarCraft every day, so a prepaid option makes more sense than a subscription for me. The only problem is you pay for a certain number of days your account will remain active.

    Picture this: you pre-pay for a certain number of days or hours, and your balance decreases as you pay. If you don't actively play the game, the balance just sits there unused. It seems like a nice midway point between a subscription model and the freemium model.

  • On the post: Results From Dungeons & Dragons Online Going Free: Revenue Up 500%

    redwall_hp ( profile ), 01 Apr, 2010 @ 08:30pm

    Re: Re: Free with a catch

    Note that it will stay open after you quit the game, so you will have to right-click the tray icon and close it. But you can set it to not run on startup.

  • On the post: Canon Becomes The Online Equivalent Of Madonna Or Prince, Becoming The First Single Word Domain Holder

    redwall_hp ( profile ), 19 Mar, 2010 @ 01:31pm

    Re: Re: Probably not a good idea

    "http://" or "www." work well for that. They're associated with the internet every bit as much as ".com" is.

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