PaulT 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: 56% Of VR Devs Say VR ‘Declining Or Stagnating’

    PaulT ( profile ), 03 Nov, 2024 @ 02:08pm

    "The other problem has largely been the lack of any true, unmissable “killer app.”"
    This is the real problem. It's all well and good talking about potential, but people need the reason to spend the extra cash. A couple of decent games isn't enough reason for people to spend the same as they would on another console, and let's face it nobody outside of Meta's labs wants to virtually be near the people they work with. A normal console and Zoom/Teams are perfectly fine for these needs. There are some edge cases where it's very useful, but for the average person it's not important. It's like the Kinect debacle on XBox overall - some researchers found it a very useful tool, but it was a failure when they tried forcing every XBox One to add $100 to have one included. Maybe something will appear, but if you want tech to go mass market you have to have a reason for people to buy it, and while it's generally seen as an optional add on with few practical uses, that's where it's going to stay.

  • On the post: VGHF, Libraries Lose Again On DMCA Exemption Request To Preserve Old Video Games

    PaulT ( profile ), 03 Nov, 2024 @ 01:50pm

    You'd be better off learning things rather than copying everything you find in a random Google search. Even your link names tell you that you're full of it (e.g. second one "too much gaming" - OK, how does that affect people who don't play too much? You said "everyone" but most of the links are about kids ...) Also, IIRC, some of the older studies like the 2000 one you linked have been largely disproven. For example, lack of evidence that increased aggressing within a game translates outside the game, not to mention the inherent problem with using adult games to try and determine childhood issues and then use that to restrict adults.

  • On the post: ChatGPT Dreams Up Fake Studies, Alaska Cites Them To Support School Phone Ban

    PaulT ( profile ), 03 Nov, 2024 @ 01:44pm

    That is a weird take on the subject. Two of the things you listed were that you require direct contact with your kids even while in class and even if they disrupt the wishes of other parents, without involving the school themselves. Which just seems creepy. The other is advocating that children who aren't legally allowed to but cigarettes be allowed to smoke them on premises no matter the objections of other children, parents, or potentially law enforcement. As for "rights", other people have them too. Parents do indeed have rights - that includes the parents who don't want your spawn lighting up illegally obtained things in front of their kids, for example.

  • On the post: ChatGPT Dreams Up Fake Studies, Alaska Cites Them To Support School Phone Ban

    PaulT ( profile ), 03 Nov, 2024 @ 01:35pm

    "TechDirt writers act like AI is the greatest thing since baked bread"
    Citation needed. At the end of the day, it's a tool and like most tools it has positive and negative uses. Saying it's an interesting and cool thing in one area doesn't mean you support it replacing research assistants, for example. Also, if you're going to criticise "AI", understand that's a wide area, of which LLMs with a chatbot interface is only a small part, even if everyone's fixated on ChatGPT right now.

  • On the post: ChatGPT Dreams Up Fake Studies, Alaska Cites Them To Support School Phone Ban

    PaulT ( profile ), 03 Nov, 2024 @ 01:32pm

    Because they got as far as "LLMs might be able to replace interns" but not as far as "actually, we need people to fact check LLMs" before they were. called on it.

  • On the post: Study: 76% Of U.S. Residents Want Government To Do Something About Soaring Broadband Prices

    PaulT ( profile ), 03 Nov, 2024 @ 01:26pm

    Good news - since there's only one person saying something as stupid as this, by your own definition we can ignore you.

  • On the post: Threads Bans Anyone For Mentioning Hitler, Even To Criticize

    PaulT ( profile ), 03 Nov, 2024 @ 01:23pm

    "The only context I can think of is “white people looking to be offended by marginalized people”."
    It was certainly used in the 70s in the blaxploitation movies where the n word was commonly used against the hero by the (usually) white villain and they'd respond in kind. But, yeah, it's hardly the same weight behind the word.

  • On the post: Settlement In Florida Book Ban Lawsuit Means A Bunch Of Books Are Headed Back To School Libraries

    PaulT ( profile ), 21 Sep, 2024 @ 02:27pm

    So, you oppose the religious leaders, scout masters and Republicans who regularly get caught with CSAM? You oppose the weird Honey Boo Boo show or whatever that thing was called, where kids are paraded around in beauty pageants? Oh, no apparently you just oppose books that admit that gay people exist and that teenagers go through puberty. You're free to stop your kids from reading those if you wish (though don't be surprised if they do it anyway), but your attempts to stop others from doing so will fail.

  • On the post: Settlement In Florida Book Ban Lawsuit Means A Bunch Of Books Are Headed Back To School Libraries

    PaulT ( profile ), 21 Sep, 2024 @ 02:20pm

    You have to use the alternative dictionary used by bigots. In that dictionary, "freedom" means "I can do or say whatever I want without consequences, and neither myself nor my family will be exposed to things we don't approve of". Unfortunately, that's not compatible with the real world, so you end up with idiots trying to ban books that mention reality. Or, even not reality, since these people will happily fight each other over the correct version of the bible if no other book is present. The only silver lining here is that for the kids who do want to be educated, they're created a must read list of books to find, in an age where it's essentially impossible to block them.

  • On the post: ExTwitter’s Brazil Ban Evasion: Cloudflare’s CDN Becomes Latest Battleground

    PaulT ( profile ), 21 Sep, 2024 @ 02:13pm

    "Brazilian law DOES NOT APPLY in the United States, and Cloudflare needs to tell the Brazilian government to flag off."
    It's sort of difficult to operate a CDN if you're going to offend the governments in the countries you run your servers from. You can't grow infrastructure if you're saying you will be operating criminally. https://blog.cloudflare.com/expanding-to-25-plus-cities-in-brazil/ If they choose to only follow US laws, they restrict themselves to 3% of the world population, and also remove most of the reasons why people use them to begin with (yes, DDOS protection and caching among other things are important but at heart the CDN is why they grew).

  • On the post: ExTwitter’s Brazil Ban Evasion: Cloudflare’s CDN Becomes Latest Battleground

    PaulT ( profile ), 21 Sep, 2024 @ 02:04pm

    "it’s mostly just a front for criminals" As someone who works for a perfectly legal EU company that's approaching €1.5 billion in revenue, I'd love to see the study that shows this. Or, are you just one of those people who only read headlines when they were asked to drop accounts for bad actors, so now you assume that anyone needing DDOS protection, caching and CDNs must be illegal?

    "it’s still losing money because the people working there are idiots"
    I'd love specifics here. A quick check from my side indicates that they made a lot more revenue YoY in recent financials but they haven't gone into the black yet on operating income based on that. What specifically do you think is preventing the extra revenue from creating a profit, since you're so knowledgeable about their finances?

  • On the post: Ordinary Meaning, Extraordinary Methods: Judge Newsom Digs Deeper Into AI In The Courtroom

    PaulT ( profile ), 14 Sep, 2024 @ 07:14pm

    "Before people freak out, he’s quite clear that he’s not suggesting this replace human judgment or that this is the be-all end-all of any such “ordinary meaning” determination"
    Except, there's plenty of evidence that a) LLMs often "hallucinate" wildly so their "judgement" is questionable at best, and b) that when faced with "computer told me so", many humans do defer to the machine. It's an interesting experiment, but likely to have major issues if people start using it in practice.

  • On the post: More Of RFK Jr.’s ‘Don’t Moderate Me, Bro’ Cases Are Laughed Out Of Court

    PaulT ( profile ), 14 Sep, 2024 @ 07:08pm

    What's truly sad is that even after his performance at the debate where he repeated fictional internet memes and admitted that after 9 years he still doesn't have a healthcare plan, it's still a relatively close race according to polls, and some people think that letting a bankrupt rapist felon who killed hundreds of thousands of people through incompetence last time would be the best choice for president.

  • On the post: Taylor Swift Responded To Trump’s AI Driven Nonsense With An Endorsement Rather Than A Lawsuit

    PaulT ( profile ), 14 Sep, 2024 @ 07:00pm

    Oh, is this the tactic now? MAGAts recognise they're outclassed so they just pretend that everyone who filled the numerous stadiums on the tour and created new box office records with the concert film are not actually eligible to vote? If I were you I'd be more worried about the 24 year olds - a demographic that's usually more apathetic and less likely to vote, but is being motivated by a combination of celebrity endorsement and promises of attempted disenfranchisement to turn up in greater numbers.

  • On the post: Monopolized U.S. Telecom Industry Eyes More Consolidation, Because What Could Go Wrong

    PaulT ( profile ), 14 Sep, 2024 @ 06:53pm

    These people aren't interested in such things. They go in, strip everything to the bone, and get out while the stock is still good. They operate on what's good for their bottom line this quarter, not what the company will be like 5 years after they take their golden parachute.

  • On the post: Warner Bros. Copyright Striking Reactions To The ‘Minecraft’ Movie Trailer

    PaulT ( profile ), 14 Sep, 2024 @ 06:50pm

    Hey, I missed the point where stupid copyright enforcement is OK if it's only on kids' content. Could you explain that for me?

  • On the post: Warner Bros. Copyright Striking Reactions To The ‘Minecraft’ Movie Trailer

    PaulT ( profile ), 14 Sep, 2024 @ 06:48pm

    This is WB, not MS. I don't know if they had any creative control, but it's likely they just took money from WB and let them run with it. Time will tell if they recover like Sony did with Sonic, or if it's just a payday with the wrong people involved creatively like Borderlands.

  • On the post: ‘Patriot Reporter’ Latest Conspiracy Theorist To Discover It’s Not Libel If It’s The Truth

    PaulT ( profile ), 14 Sep, 2024 @ 06:46pm

    "According to claims made in court, Godlewski is “one of the highest Anons” (drug reference inferred even if not meant to be implied) and supposedly earns $5 million a month with his QAnon-related “broadcasts” on social media."
    Given the typical accuracy of QAnon types, I choose to read that as "Godlewski is currently unemployed and giving handjobs for crack". Although, I do fear that repeating poorly written fiction might be as lucrative as he claims.

  • On the post: Thanks Complicated Music Licensing Schemes: ‘Alan Wake’ Updated To Remove Bowie Song From Credits

    PaulT ( profile ), 14 Sep, 2024 @ 06:41pm

    Absolutely it does, although it's only complete morons who retroactively change the content. Generally speaking, licences for things like music are negotiated for specific formats or regions. So, there's been plenty of examples of TV shows and movies where they only negotiated for the original broadcast, for a theatrical run and/or VHS and got stuck when trying to release on DVD, Blu Ray or streaming because the original licence didn't cover it.

  • On the post: Thanks Complicated Music Licensing Schemes: ‘Alan Wake’ Updated To Remove Bowie Song From Credits

    PaulT ( profile ), 14 Sep, 2024 @ 06:34pm

    What it should mean is that the licence was applied at the point of manufacture, so it's not liable for expired content like a digital copy where the licence is applied at the point of sale. But, there are insane people in charge of these things...

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