http://www.techdirt.com/ Easily digestible tech news.... http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130522/02021423169/defense-digital-freedom-its-time-to-get-beyond-cyber-hyperbole.shtml#c351 Sat, 25 May 2013 07:49:41 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130522/02021423169/defense-digital-freedom-its-time-to-get-beyond-cyber-hyperbole.shtml#c351
If that is not FUD, then I don't know what is.]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130405/15314122604/appeals-court-protects-anonymity-critics-cooley-law-school-could-have-done-more.shtml#c459 Sat, 25 May 2013 07:43:07 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130405/15314122604/appeals-court-protects-anonymity-critics-cooley-law-school-could-have-done-more.shtml#c459 Thomas. M. Cooley Law School has instilled in many of its graduates the skills necessary to become a successful.

A successful what? And what is your position at Thomas M. Cooley Law School?]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130524/06445123204/xbox-one-release-tons-questions-very-few-answers.shtml#c1641 Sat, 25 May 2013 07:37:56 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130524/06445123204/xbox-one-release-tons-questions-very-few-answers.shtml#c1641 Want to play Games then build a PC.Stay far away from this XBOX and stay away from Sony as well.Both of these will be Consumer Unfriendly.And this XBOX is looking like it is also a Privacy Issue but I can smell Sony going the same route.Both of these will have DRM Wazoo built into the unit.And MS will have a Camera On always........and for those who pay attention MS even has a Patent which could scan a living room and count how many people, etc are there.
F-You !
Build a PC
Go on VPN
Bypass DRM by downloading some kind of CRACK
Get to screw around and Tech out..........design and customize your own PC ala Gaming/Living Room Entertainment Center.
No Cameras built in, always on VPN, trying to just have some privacy, and no damn DRM.]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130522/02021423169/defense-digital-freedom-its-time-to-get-beyond-cyber-hyperbole.shtml#c349 Sat, 25 May 2013 07:24:36 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130522/02021423169/defense-digital-freedom-its-time-to-get-beyond-cyber-hyperbole.shtml#c349
"Saddam had no WMD" "Saddam had no WMD" "Saddam had no WMD" "Saddam had no WMD" "Most of the rational people making the case for taking out Saddam knew there was no WMD at the time, but that was not the end of the story. He was a genocidal, totalitarian, Big Brother - the sanctions were killing hundreds of thousands and we couldn't lift the sanctions/no-fly-zones in case he tried to kill the Kurds again or try to get Iran/Kuwait again. There was very little alternative from historical experience. If he didn't implode the country, Uday and Qusay certainly would have. If it were anyone else - the killers of Rwanda, Darfur, Milosevic in Bosnia and Kosovo, the Burmese generals, Assad in Syria, the military of North Korea or fucking Joseph Kony - our need to take them out would be indisputable." "Saddam had no WMD" "Saddam had no WMD" "Saddam had no WMD" "Saddam had no WMD" "Saddam had no WMD" "Saddam had no WMD"

Rationality means neither having blind faith in leaders NOR doing the exact opposite of what your leaders say. It means looking at evidence, argument, being dialectical, avoiding cliche, not being a megaphone for anybody, coming up with your own unique rhetoric, being willing to stand in front of millions of people and tell them they've all bought into an ad populum fallacy without blinking, and this is most important of all: being willing to self-scrutinise and not being afraid to change your mind about something even after being incredibly committed to the other side. All of this. The only way one can claim to be rational with any credibility at all is if one accepts how fallible and prone to bias one is.

I think there are genuine threats that can be born out of the internet. I'm queasy about the 2nd amendment but I cannot help paraphrase the NRA's mantra and substitute one key word to demonstrate what I mean: "the internet doesn't free people, people free people."

It disturbs me when the Chinese government, for example, sets up fake opposition blog websites in order to lure dissenters and snares them unexpectedly when the time is right. It disturbs me when Islamic fascists will crowdsource protest videos in order to identify the protesters and murder them the next time they step outside their houses. It disturbs me when everything you potentially send on the internet cannot be undone since it is a huge recording machine, and future employers can find it easier than ever to hold one embarrassing moment against you at every turn. It disturbs me how, as someone who believes in separation of powers, power has accumulated very centrally in terms of cloud computing (personal data being stolen in one swoop in the Megaupload raid - because apparently the actions of a few people were excuse enough to shut down a whole company), Google being effectively the centre of the internet, and ISPs having too many bottle necks of the economy due to globalisation effects. It disturbs me how witch-hunt and mob mentalities can spring up easier than before, whether it is using Blackberries to start riots in England, falsely naming names in sex-predator hysteria, or Reddit turning vigilante over an innocent person. It disturbs me how conservative many media organisations are being about the utopian fantasy that is copyright law, and how they keep pushing forward anti-piracy laws with all kinds of slippery slopes while hiding behind copyright as a veto, against seemingly no real opposition in Parliaments.

When it comes to that last point, I hope the irony isn't lost on everyone. As long as you are willing to stand up for intellectual honesty when it comes to, say, copyright being extended infinitely and on no basis, you end up realising that the "cyber" war was declared on YOU, and not the other way around.

However - the arguments about liberty, privacy, and freedom remain the same. The internet has done little to change them. Some change, yes, but not much. The metaphor I use to describe the internet's role in politics and a lot of other things is that it is a "catalyst" - it doesn't change the chemical reaction, but it speeds it up and gives it more life. This is true for the good and the bad.]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110311/01465413450/dailydirt-diy-soda-pop-whatever-you-call-carbonated-beverages.shtml#c109 Sat, 25 May 2013 07:24:05 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110311/01465413450/dailydirt-diy-soda-pop-whatever-you-call-carbonated-beverages.shtml#c109
Human rights violations in Isreal/Palestine
Hardware lock-in using patents to force their business model on customers.

I much prefer my generic soda charger with cartridges that ollow a common, open standard.]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130524/06445123204/xbox-one-release-tons-questions-very-few-answers.shtml#c1589 Sat, 25 May 2013 07:18:17 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130524/06445123204/xbox-one-release-tons-questions-very-few-answers.shtml#c1589 http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130524/06445123204/xbox-one-release-tons-questions-very-few-answers.shtml#c1572 Sat, 25 May 2013 07:14:41 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130524/06445123204/xbox-one-release-tons-questions-very-few-answers.shtml#c1572
My point is, if you jump ship to Sony, I doubt you'll be missing anything.]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130524/06445123204/xbox-one-release-tons-questions-very-few-answers.shtml#c1555 Sat, 25 May 2013 07:08:54 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130524/06445123204/xbox-one-release-tons-questions-very-few-answers.shtml#c1555 http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130524/06445123204/xbox-one-release-tons-questions-very-few-answers.shtml#c1541 Sat, 25 May 2013 07:08:26 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130524/06445123204/xbox-one-release-tons-questions-very-few-answers.shtml#c1541 http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130524/06445123204/xbox-one-release-tons-questions-very-few-answers.shtml#c1506 Sat, 25 May 2013 07:05:09 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130524/06445123204/xbox-one-release-tons-questions-very-few-answers.shtml#c1506 http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130521/17321623162/released-video-silva-beating-shows-his-last-moments-video-actual-beating-still-missing.shtml#c1000 Sat, 25 May 2013 07:01:17 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130521/17321623162/released-video-silva-beating-shows-his-last-moments-video-actual-beating-still-missing.shtml#c1000 the police should have asked for copies of the evidence

According to the witnesses' original attorney, John Tello, the witnesses permitted a police technician to attempt to copy the videos from the cellphone to a tablet computer. This unsuccessful attempt at copying occurred before the phones were seized.

The news report is unclear as to whether Mr Tello actually witnessed this attempt at copying, or whether he was relating something he had been told.



]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130524/06445123204/xbox-one-release-tons-questions-very-few-answers.shtml#c1455 Sat, 25 May 2013 07:01:13 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130524/06445123204/xbox-one-release-tons-questions-very-few-answers.shtml#c1455
Home uses make it a REALLY good SNES and NES emulator box (the controllers feel natural.]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130524/06445123204/xbox-one-release-tons-questions-very-few-answers.shtml#c1446 Sat, 25 May 2013 06:59:50 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130524/06445123204/xbox-one-release-tons-questions-very-few-answers.shtml#c1446 http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130524/06445123204/xbox-one-release-tons-questions-very-few-answers.shtml#c1415 Sat, 25 May 2013 06:53:41 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130524/06445123204/xbox-one-release-tons-questions-very-few-answers.shtml#c1415 http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130524/06445123204/xbox-one-release-tons-questions-very-few-answers.shtml#c1394 Sat, 25 May 2013 06:51:15 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130524/06445123204/xbox-one-release-tons-questions-very-few-answers.shtml#c1394
M$ changed to an AMD GPU as well as an AMD x86 processor...the original XBox also used an x86 CPU that was made by intel.

Have fun rebuying your games fanboy.]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130524/06445123204/xbox-one-release-tons-questions-very-few-answers.shtml#c1370 Sat, 25 May 2013 06:45:38 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130524/06445123204/xbox-one-release-tons-questions-very-few-answers.shtml#c1370
Or, i could go back to PC gaming.]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130505/14372422951/court-finds-fantasy-stories-obscene.shtml#c1188 Sat, 25 May 2013 06:44:44 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130505/14372422951/court-finds-fantasy-stories-obscene.shtml#c1188
Judge did not review the whole work, only a sample, which is a classic error always resulting in an overturned verdict upon appeal.

Judge substituted his own views for the testimony of an expert witness.

Judge misinterpreted the legal standard - it's not serious artistic, literary, political AND scientific value (if it was, all four would have to be present). The standard is that it's legal if there is serious artistic, literary, political OR scientific value. The expert testimony shows that there is serious literary and political value.

This is a heavily biased judge who flagrantly disregarded the law in order to inflict the financial costs of an appeal on the innocent defendant. Judicial misconduct at its worst.]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130524/06445123204/xbox-one-release-tons-questions-very-few-answers.shtml#c1347 Sat, 25 May 2013 06:35:07 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130524/06445123204/xbox-one-release-tons-questions-very-few-answers.shtml#c1347
If Xbox One requires digital registration and a fee in order to play used games, PS4 will as well. No way would something like this be exclusive to only one platform, otherwise users could circumvent the process simply by buying software on the competitor's console.]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130517/16293423122/think-doj-spying-reporters-was-unprecedented-think-again.shtml#c92 Sat, 25 May 2013 06:35:07 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130517/16293423122/think-doj-spying-reporters-was-unprecedented-think-again.shtml#c92
Interpret THIS DOJ!]]> http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130522/00412423167/fair-use-me-not-thee.shtml#c297 Sat, 25 May 2013 06:33:50 PDT http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130522/00412423167/fair-use-me-not-thee.shtml#c297