This reminds me of the scum/scam artists that call saying they are from Microsoft security and their systems have detected malware on my Windows computers, blah, blah, blah. Right! There are exactly ZERO Microsoft systems in our house! We have Macs and Linux systems. Windows? Well, I do run it in a virtual machine occasionally... The host OS is a derivative of Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
In short, what Keurig thought was a clever way to lock down a market and make extra money, wound up making the company look like a tone-deaf, anti-competitive, mechanical dinosaur powered by over-caffeinated nitwits.
So, if I call my local Congressperson an idiot (he is), much like the Mayor of Granby, then both can have me arrested for a) insulting them, or worse b) defamation of character because they could claim that they can prove they aren't idiots? Well, I'd call them either idiots or morons, but that would be an insult to idiots and morons everywhere! Let's just call them what they are, incompetent dickheads!
This is why we can't have nice things. We have to spend most of our time and resources trying to adhere to laws that clueless legislators (re. idiots) have passed that have no foundation in reality, and are impossible to implement in any case.
Where is Sue when you need her? I would suggest that the village sue the hotel chain to have their trademark revoked since the village name precedes that of the hotel chain by almost 1000 years, so it (the village) has a prior claim.
I think I'm going to start a company called "Branson is not a Virgin" which would sell t-shirts with a big raised middle finger emblazoned on them - truth in advertising!
I can easily saturate my 25-30mbps business U-Verse link. Since it is still DSL, it is still asymmetric in that I don't get those speeds up to the internet, which would be nice if I decided to host a good web site! Comcrap and AT&T lobbied (with million$) to keep our community from providing a public fiber to the home network some years ago. I have canvassed neighbors who voted against the initiative, and EVERY ONE has said they would vote for it now! I've been trying to get our local government to put this initiative to the vote again. No response... :-(
Writing software to deal with this stuff is not simple. Most developers simply gloss it over, and when everything crashes they simply shutdown and restart all their systems. FWIW, I had to write software that could deal with leap seconds back about 20 years ago, so I know something of what I speak here.
Patent applications for truly innovative stuff go through hell to get approved, usually taking several iterations and refinements. Worthless ones seem to fly through the process. I suspect this dichotomy is due to the fact that the examiners are idiots and while they can understand the latter, the former actually requires some intellectual effort - otherwise it would be obvious and thus not patentable.
On the post: Court To Homeland Security: Wait, No, You Can't Just Take Anyone's Laptop At The Border To Bring Somewhere To Search
We are the government
On the post: Anti-Piracy Activist Issues Takedown To Chilling Effects To Take Down Her Takedown Notice To Google
Doh!
On the post: Verizon Picks The Worst Possible Person To Try To Bullshit Into Unnecessary Upgrade
Scam artists
On the post: Phi Sigma Sigma Sorority Sues Member For Revealing Secret Handshake On Penny Arcade Forum
You can't teach an idiot
On the post: Keurig CEO Sort Of (But Not Really) Apologizes For Company's Ridiculous Foray Into Obnoxious Coffee DRM
Best sentence of the year in Tech Dirt
On the post: Quebec Town Makes It Illegal To Insult Police Officers And Other Public Officials
So if I do this...
On the post: Judge Throws Out Lawsuit From Redditor Who Found An FBI Tracking Device On His Car
Why give it back?
On the post: FBI Spent Years 'Researching' The Lyrics To 'Louie, Louie' Before Realizing The Copyright Office Must Have Them
Sheesh - what a waste!
On the post: Dangerous And Ridiculous: Facebook Won't Let Sites Join Its Internet.org Program If They Encrypt Traffic
I'd call Z a shithead
On the post: Encryption: What The FBI Wants It Can Only Have By Destroying Computing And Censoring The Internet
Why we can't have nice things...
On the post: France And Canada Both Move To Massively Expand The Surveillance State
Ignorant assholes!
On the post: 1000-Year-Old Village Told To Stop Using Name Because Of Trademark Claim From Hotel Chain Founded There
Sue! Sue! Sue!
On the post: The Virgin Group Disputes Trademark Application Of Tiny Olive Oil Company Vasse Virgin Because Of Course They Did
The absurdities of rich people
On the post: DOJ Apparently Last To Know About Widespread Stingray Usage/Secrecy; Vows To Look Into It
And when the report is done?
On the post: FBI Hands Over 5000 Pages Of Stingray Info To MuckRock, Redacts Nearly All Of It
And so it goes on, and on, and on...
On the post: Connecticut Gets Tired Of Waiting For State's Regional Broadband Duopoly, Starts Pushing Gigabit Networks
Mo' fasta' == mo' betta'
On the post: ESPN & NFL Network Still Pretending Twitter Doesn't Exist During NFL Draft
Past? or Future?
On the post: DailyDirt: Time, Time, Time. See What's Become Of..
Leap seconds
On the post: Why Does The US Patent Office Keep Approving Clearly Ridiculous Patents?
Goes to show
On the post: Tom Friedman: If We Don't Sign The TPP Agreement, The World Will Be Overtaken By ISIS, Anarchy And China
Goes to show
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