Ben 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (448)

• On the post: Bill Cassidy Loses Primary; RFK Jr. Will Be His Legacy

  

  Ben ( profile ), 20 May, 2026 @ 02:30am

  No worries

  Don't worry, Cassidy will fall on his feet into some nice cushy job in the private sector. So it's all good. /s

• On the post: Game Dev Streisands Negative Reviews After Asking For One To Be Deleted

  

  Ben ( profile ), 20 May, 2026 @ 02:28am

  Oh, well done, sir. Perfect way to illustrate my point.

• On the post: Game Dev Streisands Negative Reviews After Asking For One To Be Deleted

  

  Ben ( profile ), 19 May, 2026 @ 02:08am

  Toxicity

  Have we gone too far along the toxic reactions? It seems the devs made a polite request, even if they really shouldn't have done. No threats of penalty or a law suit. Yes, they were wrong, but to excoriate them in the manner that appears to have happened is a toxic over-reaction to an (apparently) mis-guided mistake. It's like handing out a five year prison sentence for a jay-walking misdemeanour.

• On the post: Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt

  

  Ben ( profile ), 20 Apr, 2026 @ 04:53pm

  Assume away

  The AC's comments jibe with my own training on the subject, so you can take your assumptions and stuff 'em where the sun don't shine.

• On the post: Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt

  

  Ben ( profile ), 20 Apr, 2026 @ 08:45am

  No thanks

  No thanks; there's no telling what disease I might catch!!

• On the post: Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt

  

  Ben ( profile ), 20 Apr, 2026 @ 03:19am

  Assuming a lot

  Given the detailed description of procedure, I think you're making a very shaky assumption that the Anonymous Coward is an 'average person' in this field. I think they're much more likely to be 'relevant authorities'-adjacent, so have a much better grasp upon chain-of-custody and rules of evidence handling than you do.

• On the post: Trump Fires Attorney General Pam Bondi For Not Making His Vindictive Fantasies A Reality

  

  Ben ( profile ), 07 Apr, 2026 @ 04:05am

  Let's not go there.

  Let's not descend to that level. We can be better; we should be better; we must be better than that.

• On the post: Amazon Enshittifies Prime Streaming With Higher Costs To Avoid Ads

  

  Ben ( profile ), 23 Mar, 2026 @ 09:22am

  big red button

  You're ignoring the other option: the big red button marked 'off'.

• On the post: Afroman’s Defamation Trial Is Going About As Well For The Deputies As Their Original Raid Did

  

  Ben ( profile ), 19 Mar, 2026 @ 08:52am

  it's gone international

  The court victory in favour of Afroman has been covered on the BBC. Calling Ms. Streisand to the lobby. Can Ms. Streisand please attend the lobby!

• On the post: Pete Hegseth: We Can’t Wait For Larry Ellison To Turn CNN Into Another Right Wing Propaganda Mill

  

  Ben ( profile ), 18 Mar, 2026 @ 09:30am

  Control

  It’s sheer hubris to think they can maintain information control in a country this massive and diverse, and there will be some useful entertainment value in watching them set money on fire trying.

  Anyone remember how well that turned out for the Soviet Union... no? Just us that actually learn from history then.

• On the post: At The WBC: Mark DeRosa Screwed Up & Then MLB Streisanded The Story

  

  Ben ( profile ), 14 Mar, 2026 @ 02:53am

  All publicity is good publicity

  If it weren't for this fuck-up, I'd never had heard of the WBC, so there's that I suppose.

• On the post: Don’t Ban Kids From Using Chatbots

  

  Ben ( profile ), 13 Mar, 2026 @ 08:56am

  In silence?

  No, this administration simply don't care whether they suffer in silence or not, providing they suffer. OTOH they might well prefer to hear the screams as that'll indicate that suffering is happening. Which is what they want.

• On the post: Trump Kicks Kristi Noem To The Curb For Being Exactly The Sort Of Person Trump Wanted Her To Be

  

  Ben ( profile ), 10 Mar, 2026 @ 12:14pm

  "We can now openly admit...that Kristi Noem was an utter, complete, total catastrophe..."

  No shit, Sherlock!

• On the post: The Government Told Courts It Could Easily Refund Unlawful Tariffs. Now It Says It Can’t.

  

  Ben ( profile ), 10 Mar, 2026 @ 05:50am

  customers?

  And if the importers do manage to get their $166 billion back, who's going to distribute it to the companies and customers who paid over the odds for their goods? So what started as a tax grab by the administration to pay for tax breaks for the super rich will eventually become a short-term tax that stays with the corporate entities that managed to squeeze the funds out of the people. Good job, little government critters!

• On the post: Rethinking And Refreshing Techdirt’s Weekend Posts: We Want Your Feedback

  

  Ben ( profile ), 09 Mar, 2026 @ 07:00am

  If it's so obvious...

  ... perhaps you would like to enlighten the rest of the class?

• On the post: We’re Training Students To Write Worse To Prove They’re Not Robots, And It’s Pushing Them To Use More AI

  

  Ben ( profile ), 08 Mar, 2026 @ 05:20am

  Tool use

  Yes, this is how we should be using AI... as a tool to achieve more. It doesn't replace us, it assists us. The policy at my place of work is that AI tool usage is acceptable (though not mandatory), but the employee still takes 100% responsibility for the output in their name. So if you let AI fck up... you fcked up, and YOU will find out. Like you, MathFox, I've used AI to save typing time, and make suggestions on how to solve problems, including diagnosing some of the more esoteric (to put it politely) error messages from XML/XSLT processors (for example). But all the code from my computer is still committed in my name, and I'm the one that is in my periodic reviews, not AI.

• On the post: The Trump Administration Just Admitted Its War On Law Firms Was A Bluff. The Cowards Who Folded Already Paid The Price.

  

  Ben ( profile ), 05 Mar, 2026 @ 04:37am

  Time to rebrand

  I expect a mix of these strategies will play out: 1) rebrand, 2) found new companies with (most of?) the same partners, 3) try to power through regardless. 1 & 2 are functionally very similar, though 1 carries more risk of "didn't you know, they used to be ?". 3 relies upon the lack of googling skills in their future client base.

• On the post: AI Bros Wanted Trump. Now They Learn What Happens When You Tell Him No.

  

  Ben ( profile ), 03 Mar, 2026 @ 04:15am

  Because juries are soooo effective at justice, and supreme courts so immune from internal political influence (Justice Roberts, anyone?) as to be credible checks & balances upon anything. The ICC's mission is to try to find and prosecute the worst of the worst. Right now, Hegseth and Trump fit that bill, just as much as an 'tin pot dictator' putting down public protest and dissent with violence.

• On the post: The NFL Won A Lawsuit Over Its Bluesky Ban. Its Social Media Strategy Is Still A Loser

  

  Ben ( profile ), 02 Mar, 2026 @ 04:40am

  Apples & Oranges

  You're comparing the wrong things. Starship isn't comparable to Apollo, but to the much more experimental Redstone & Mercury programs that came before it. And Starship hasn't killed anyone yet, unlike Apollo.

• On the post: DOJ’s Losing Streak Continues Because Federal Officers Just Can’t Stop Lying

  

  Ben ( profile ), 27 Feb, 2026 @ 05:39am

  By the prosecutorial branch of the govern..... oh!

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