Chronicling the depravities of the State.
Yesterday I stumbled across this lovely story of a landlord putting a clause into their lease agreement that would punish renters that wrote bad reviews with a $10,000 fine. As if that wasn’t enough the lease agreement also gives the landlord the copyright to anything a renter creates involving the property (including photographs of the … Continue reading “In Libertopia Valid Contracts Require Exit Clauses”
Crossbreed Holsters, as the name implies, makes some damn fine holsters. Although the religious connotations behind the name don’t really jive with me the company’s customer service and warranty are good enough that I’m willing to let it slide. At least I was. I just found out that the company is suing Alien Gear for … Continue reading “I’m No Longer Doing Business with Crossbreed Holsters”
The ice bucket challenge has been very lucrative for the ALS Association. So far the marketing ploy has raised $94 million for the charity. I’ve often noticed that the more successful a charity becomes the more corrupt it also becomes. Now that the ALS Association has its money it’s working to prove my theory: No … Continue reading “ALS Association Moves to Block Other Charities from Enjoying Similar Success”
If you’ve been involved in libertarian circles for a while you’ve probably heard the name Stefan Molyneux. He is a self-proclaimed philosopher who considers himself an anarcho-capitalist. In addition to that he’s also a narcissistic ass who mirrors a cult leader more than an individual who supposedly opposed rulers. As with most narcissists Molyneux doesn’t … Continue reading “How to be a Hypocrite Staring Stefan Molyneux”
Earlier this week the United States Patent Office invalided the trademarks for the Washington Redskins (it’s a handegg team for those who, like me, aren’t familiar): The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board canceled six federal trademark registrations owned by the Washington NFL club today, ruling that the term “Redskins” was disparaging to “a substantial composite” … Continue reading “Patent Office Off to a Good Start”
On June 4th the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) kicked off the Tor Challenge, which is its attempt to encourage more people to run Tor Relays. Running a relay is fun and easy to do but I never imagined that the Tor Challenge would be such a rousing success: However, Adrian Leppard, the guy in charge … Continue reading “The Tor Challenge is Apparently Going Strong”
In a very positive, and unusual, twist of events Tesla Motors has decided to compete on the quality of its electric cars instead of relying on an intellectual monopoly: Yesterday, there was a wall of Tesla patents in the lobby of our Palo Alto headquarters. That is no longer the case. They have been removed, … Continue reading “Good Guy Tesla”
There are some rumors that just won’t die. What’s worse is when these rumors are reported as facts. Take this article. It claims that Apple is implementing a method that would allow law enforcement agents to remotely disable an iPhone’s camera: The rapid emergence of smart phones with high definition cameras leads to consequences for … Continue reading “Patents Don’t Equal Implementation”
Yesterday Mozilla released the latest version of its Firefox web browser. The most significant change is the user interface, which received a complete overhaul: Mozilla is launching its most important release of Firefox in a very long time today. After almost two years of working on its Australis redesign, the company is now finally ready … Continue reading “Mozilla Releases Chrome, Err, Firefox 29 and It’s Basically Chrome”
It’s nice to sit on the sidelines and observe the great political competitions as they play out. People often criticize those of us on the sidelines and claim that we’re not pulling our weight. But we see things from our vantage point that those playing the games do not. One example is the apparent inability … Continue reading “The Minnesota GOP Setting Itself Up to Fail Again”