Tom’s Comments

• Dec 14th, 2013 @ 10:21am

  (untitled comment)

  on DailyDirt: Sriracha Apocalypse Watch
  Definitely a fan of tobanjan. I usually only find it at import stores, but we always keep some on hand. In addition to being the primary ingredient in Mabo-dofu, it's great in ramen and stir fry.
• Dec 10th, 2013 @ 8:45am

  Re: Taking Advantage of the Stupid is NOT a Crime, It's the American Way

  on Teenager Pays Hundreds Of Dollars For A Picture Of An Xbox One

  How do you think Facebook grew to be multi-billion dollar company? It wasn't because the upper slice of the bell curve needed an outlet to share pictures of their supper.

  
  
  You, sir, win the Internet today.
  
  Almost as good, though, is the new listing for a picture of the guy who bought a picture of an Xbox One. [listing]
• Feb 3rd, 2011 @ 1:35pm

  Thank you note

  on Senator Wyden Asks WTF Is Up With Homeland Security Domain Seizures
  Although I'm not a resident of Oregon, I sent him a thank you note for this action. You can too.
  
  http://wyden.senate.gov/contact/
• Jan 21st, 2011 @ 11:02am

  They're still affiliates

  on California Appeals Court Says Company Can Be Held Liable For Spam It Didn't Write Or Know About
  I think your summary suffers from a bit of hyperbole ... just sending stuff to Cali residents wouldn't be enough. Affiliates benefit (short term) from sending spam, and the parent company (companies) have agreements and financial information for the offenders. The root company is not prevented from taking action to recoup costs from the offending affiliate (in fact, they should be encouraged to).
  
  Holding root vendors liable does two things. First, it prevents vendors from affiliate hopping—that is, moving from one badly behaved affiliate to another. Second, if provides consumers, who typically have less relative power in these adversarial relationships, with an easy to identify entity that should hold some responsibility in solving the problem of spam. Tracking down vendors is easy; just follow the credit card payment. Tracking down spammers is hard (and often impossible, due to overseas connections).
• Jan 21st, 2011 @ 8:03am

  Check and recheck

  on Wikia Owned Wikileaks.com Domain; Assange Ignored Attempts To Hand It Over
  No, the article was correct. I too "checked" (via dnsstuf.com):
  Registrar: GODADDY.COM, INC.
  Status: clientDeleteProhibited
  Dates: Created 03-jan-2007 Updated 04-jan-2011 Expires 03-jan-2012
  DNS Servers: NS51.DOMAINCONTROL.COM NS52.DOMAINCONTROL.COM
  
  Info for both .net and .com ere the same. However, if you follow the whois information and look it up on GoDaddy, it does show it expired ... until you grab the underlying whois info from them, which shows the 2012 date. So, GoDaddy's data is a mess, but the whois seems consistent from multiple sources.
• Dec 9th, 2010 @ 6:37am

  Hold on a moment... (as T.A.G.)

  on Copyright Lawsuit May Reveal Whether Documentary Movie Was Real Or Faked

  Note that nothing actually changes about the movie. When a copyright system punishes people based on how people classify a movie, that seems like the system isn't working.

  Yet isn't that exactly what occurs for a parody exception, which you're in favor of? Indeed, most of the exceptions hinge on how we classify some new work without changing the work itself. Although I often agree with your arguments, I'm not sure the line of reasoning at the end was thought through.