DISQUS

When people's responses consist of nothing but insults, they're thoroughly beaten in the argument. And when they use "Moron" as a last name ... what can I say? :)

A fourth possibility: One site picked up your post, and mentioned it to a readership which either is fairly large or particularly inclined to post comments. (Rather unintelligent comments, if McSim is an example.)

Harold (whom I've known for years and think highly of) does seem uncharacteristically obsessed in this Comcast matter.

"Mawebowent"? That sounds like an accusation Elmer Fudd would make!

Having been the target of an Internet harassment campaign which lasted for years and included multiple cases of threats and malicious impersonation, I'd say the best thing that can happen is for more lawyers to learn how to deal with such cases. I had to get an out-of-state lawyer (undoubtedly a common concern where Internet harassment is involved), and he was a complete shyster who drained me of lots of money without ever submitting anything to a court. The presence of more lawyers competent in Internet-related harassment issues would be a huge help.

In economics, the opposite of "scarce" isn't "abundant," but "unlimited." Anyone who's every downloaded a large file knows that bandwidth is hardly unlimited.

The key is explaining what is meant economically by a "scarce resource" and why it matters. Food is abundant in the United States, too, but it would be senseless to have a "food neutrality" requirement in which everything you eat comes at the same per-pound price.

The more basic problem with the AWS-3 auction is that it would create a nationwide de jure monopoly. With or without explicit filtering, this will give the FCC a lot of influence over what's offered, and the monopolist a lot of influence over the FCC.

The defenders of the FCC's approach call it "regulation by adjudication." In other words, one first brings charges then makes up rules. This used to be called "ex post facto."

I've criticized Comcast's network management on my blog (while making it clear that I don't support regulatory responses) and have blasted Cuomo for his anti-Usenet campaign. This is the first I've heard of Cuomo's threat against Comcast.

That sounds like spam to me. It will do what spam always does: make a lot of people mad and get a very tiny number of positive responses.

I spent over fifteen years of my career as an independent consultant. My life was made vastly more difficult by morons who decide to be "contract employees" and then turn around and claim they were really employees.

If you sign a contract saying you're operating as an independent business, then you're an independent business. Run it as one. Stop treating your business shingle as a Venetian blind you can open and close at will.

Rove immediately realized he can just spit on a Congressional subpoena and get away with it. Congress's credibility when standing up to the administration is now zero.

The article cites the claim that 23 million people will wake up without digital TV. But that's counting all the people who have cable and therefore don't care about broadcast TV! If every person who had broadcast-only TV failed to get a converter box, it would add up to considerably less than 23 million.

Some left-wing blogs are floating a proposal to force private businesses to provide free wi-fi. It remains to be seen whether this will become a serious threat.

That's the wrong question. When governments undertake business activities, it's success, not failure, which is surprising and needs explanation.

That ad says "Our most powerful computer ever," not "THE most powerful computer ever."

When I saw the subject line, I thought at first you were talking about the flame-up in Harvard Square last Friday.

Irony alert! Strong magnetic forces are acting on your leg!

Cartoons are, more or less by definition, caricatures. How much does Elmer Fudd or Yosemite Sam represent an actual white human being?

The use of dialect as an element of humor was common in the forties, and not restricted to blacks. Taking the most obvious Warner's example, look at the Pepe le Pew cartoons. Those make me cringe because I know how little Pepe's language has to do with actual French, but no one could say that the intent is to present him as stupid. (He's blind to his own defects, yes, but that's shown by other means.)

There are other Warner cartoons of the period that clearly are racist. "All This and Rabbit Stew" may be the most blatant; it shows a black kid who's slow, stupid, and addicted to gambling. "Confederate Honey" has a really disgusting moment in which the blacks picking cotton are shown as lazy and doing hardly any physical work. If it's desirable to show examples of racism in cartoons to modern school kids, I'd choose those two as among the most obvious.

But portraying "Coal Black" as racist requires applying a different standard to it than to other cartoon work of the same period.

"Coal Black" was a top-quality Warner cartoon, using energetic jazz music, parodying Disney's "Snow White," and giving us a cartoon character who's sexier than Jessica Rabbit. The one item in it I can see that's offensive is directed at a different ethnic group; Murder, Inc. offers to kill "Japs FREE!" Since the cartoon was made during World War II, that bit isn't too surprising.

People keep saying it's offensive. Could someone tell me exactly how?

Funniest thing I've seen yet this week! (Even if it is 8:30 on Sunday morning.)

PDF is not an "open" standard in the sense of being non-proprietary or (until recently) approved by a standards body, but its specification has been public for a long time, ensuring that third parties can develop applications to read and write it (and they have). This is a very different situation from Microsoft's non-XML formats.

Well, I was wrong. The feds capitulated to New Hampshire, and it's a safe bet they're drafting their surrenders to Maine and South Carolina. I'm still not sure I understand it.

That sounds like linear extrapolation. I expect that there will be a niche market for newspapers long after most cities no longer have their own dailies. At least there will be publications in newsprint format, even if they no longer attempt to carry the latest news.

The last I checked, DHS still intends to impose punitive measures on the people of three states, including New Hampshire.

The reason for punishing New Hampshire may be that Senator Sununu has cosponsored legislation to repeal Real ID.

"CAN-SPAM" has so many holes in it that it's known as the "You Can Spam" act.

Rackspace is notorious for failing to terminate websites that are used for spamming.