Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt
from the crossover-hits dept
It's been a while since we've had a week with this much crossover between the insightful and funny categories. First, we've got our first place comment for insightful that also came in third on the funny side — an anonymous response to James Comey's ongoing insistence that "American ingenuity is great, so I don't really believe all these computer science experts who say that it's 'too hard' to give the government access. I think they haven't really tried":
American ingenuity is great, so I don't really believe all these FBI directors who say that it's "too hard" to catch all the bad guys. I think they haven't really tried.
Meanwhile, our second place comment for insightful is also our second place comment for funny. It's another anonymous one, in response to that very same story:
Sounds like James Comey would blame the mathematicians for not trying hard enough when they say they cannot make 2+2=5;
For editor's choice on the insightful side, we'll continue the trend with two more anonymous comments. First up, it's a response to Spain's new police-state law outlawing protests and dissent:
When you have to legislate respect towards authority, that's an admission that you no longer have it.
Next, it's a comment about the new Hulu-exclusive South Park deal and Matt Stone's bizarre attitude towards technology, pointing out what moves like this usually mean for the art form as a whole:
Well, they are leaving the field free for the next generation of cartoon creators to use the Internet to become even more famous than they were. The next generation several advantages, like free software for creating their cartoons, computers than can deal with the rendering, and a well known distribution channel called youtube. All the next generation of cartoonist have to worry about is telling their stories, and attracting their audience.
Over on the funny side, our first place comment comes in response to India's Aadhaar identity number system, which aims for universal coverage of India's 1.2-billion people. Brent Ashley coyly called out our writer in "support" of such a system:
Will the real Glyn Moody please stand up
"Follow me @glynmoody on Twitter or identi.ca, and +glynmoody on Google+"
So many identities. It would be so much easier if you just gave us your Aadhaar
We've already had our second place funny comment above, so now on to editor's choice, where we start with Baron von Robber's response to the MPAA's attempt to argue that leaked Sony emails should remain privileged:
If there is one thing Hollywood is good at is make-believe.
Finally, since we started with a string of anonymous comments, we'll end with one more. This time it's in response to New Zealand's new and highly problematic law against cyberbullying which, if parsed correctly, has a highly appropriate name:
"Harmful Digital Communications Act"
Well named. Presumably "harmful" modifies "Act" rather than "communications".
That's all for this week, folks!
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Computer scientists haven't tried hard enough.
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