PT 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (150)

• On the post: Let's Do Business: How Lifting The Embargo Has Opened The Door For Cuban Trademark Suits

  

  PT ( profile ), 27 Mar, 2015 @ 03:36pm

  "Keep in mind, of course, that the state that owns Cubatabaco is a communist nation"
  
  I fail to see how the political party running their government is in any way relevant - we don't seem to have a problem doing business with odious regimes at the other end of the spectrum. Cohiba always has and always will mean Cuban cigars. Everyone knows that the Cohibas you can legally purchase in the United States are a cheap counterfeit, and illegally imported real Cohibas have always been at a premium, but this is a case where an idiot in a hurry could be genuinely misled. The trademark should revert to Cuba.

• On the post: UK Police Can't Confirm Or Deny Investigation Of Journalists It Publicly Confirmed In 2013

  

  PT ( profile ), 24 Mar, 2015 @ 11:54am

  "Freedom of Information Act. Three harmless words. I look at those words as I write them, and feel like shaking my head 'til it drops off. You idiot. You naive, foolish, irresponsible nincompoop. There is really no description of stupidity, no matter how vivid, that is adequate. I quake at the imbecility of it."
  
  Those are former PM Tony Blair's words, speaking of himself in his memoir, and bitterly regretting that he allowed the FoIA to pass under his administration. When this is the attitude of people at the top, it's hardly surprising if the henchmen pick it up and run with it.

• On the post: FBI's 'We're From The Cable Company' Ruse Not Convincing To Magistrate Judge

  

  PT ( profile ), 04 Feb, 2015 @ 10:59am

  Re:

  That's a very good question. This affair is really the business of the State of Nevada, not the Federal Government. One supposes they were concerned about losing a nickel's tax. However, the FBI does seem to have a hard-on for Nevada. I recall that almost the first application of the Patriot Act was the FBI using it to investigate whether a local Las Vegas politician was receiving favors from a strip club.

• On the post: How The NSA Works Hard To Break Encryption Any Way It Can

  

  PT ( profile ), 30 Dec, 2014 @ 03:04pm

  Re: If you are innocent

  Y'know, as a consultant, almost every one of my clients makes me sign an NDA (non disclosure agreement)promising Draconian penalties if I disclose their valuable secrets to a third party. Yet when I offer them my public key and ask for theirs, they look at me in blank surprise. They have no concern about sending their valuable secret drawings and business plans in plain text on unencrypted email.
  
  So I guess innocence isn't about having nothing to hide. It's about being completely fucking clueless.

• On the post: Whether Or Not Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood Is In Hollywood's Pocket, He Sure Doesn't Understand Free Speech Or The Internet

  

  PT ( profile ), 19 Dec, 2014 @ 01:03pm

  Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:

  I don't think we care whether you read it or not.

• On the post: Mayor Of Arizona Town Publicly Shames Lousy Broadband Service Provider With Apology Letter To Hotel Guests

  

  PT ( profile ), 19 Jul, 2014 @ 03:16am

  Re:

  LOL, it's in Arizona. No chance.

• On the post: On How UK's Political Elite Shoved Through A Data Retention Bill

  

  PT ( profile ), 11 Jul, 2014 @ 09:19am

  Look on the bright side

  Now they won't have to inconvenience you by seizing all your computers and electronics when they kick your door down, because they'll already have it all.

• On the post: Awesome Stuff: One Last Chance To Join With Thousands Of Others To Help Limit The Influence Of Money In Politics

  

  PT ( profile ), 05 Jul, 2014 @ 03:46am

  Re:

  I disagree. Two to four years would be enough time to get anything through, if it weren't for the the old farts in their 15th or 20th terms gaming the system to defend their own pork. And if that's not long enough, maybe we don't need it anyway. It's not like we haven't got enough laws already.

• On the post: Will Broadly-Written 'Revenge Porn' Laws Encourage Shady Law Firms To Engage In 'Revenge Porn' Trolling?

  

  PT ( profile ), 08 May, 2014 @ 10:52am

  Relax, it's Arizona. Those crazy, wacky folks down there just want to get their state back on national television now the ok-to-discriminate-against-gays thing has run its course.

• On the post: Big Tech Companies Agree To Pay Up Over Hiring Collusion

  

  PT ( profile ), 25 Apr, 2014 @ 03:13am

  I'm an engineer, getting on a bit now, and this sort of collusion has been a fact of life my entire career. Whenever there's a group of similar tech companies in the same area, you have to go outside the area even to get a job interview. Once you get out of the area for a while, though, any of those companies will hire you back.
  
  It can't be stopped, at least not so long as nobody goes to jail for doing it.

• On the post: Heartbleed Bug In OpenSSL Makes It Worse Than No Encryption At All

  

  PT ( profile ), 10 Apr, 2014 @ 09:25am

  Re: Has anyone tested other sites?

  I don't know - I'm still waiting for the screen to refresh.

• On the post: New Jersey's Attorney General Freaks Out About Proof-Of-Concept Bitcoin Mining App; Issues Ridiculous Subpoena

  

  PT ( profile ), 06 Feb, 2014 @ 10:02am

  Re: Another enjoyable bit of non-fluff from out_of_the_blue.

  tl;dr

• On the post: Awesome Stuff: Nixie Tube And Oscilloscope Clocks

  

  PT ( profile ), 26 Jan, 2014 @ 12:02pm

  Re:

  It's a vector display. I see you don't appreciate technical elegance.

• On the post: Awesome Stuff: Nixie Tube And Oscilloscope Clocks

  

  PT ( profile ), 26 Jan, 2014 @ 12:16pm

  These, especially the Blub, are some of the ugliest and most tasteless nixie clocks I've ever seen. Compare them to what you see here - http://www.tubeclockdb.com/ - or on Etsy.

• On the post: AT&T's 'Sponsored Data' Program An Admission That Data Caps Have Nothing To Do With Congestion

  

  PT ( profile ), 06 Jan, 2014 @ 10:56pm

  This too shall pass

  When I first got on the (wired) internet, I had a plan that allowed me 40 free megabytes a month. Of course files were much smaller then, as were hard drives, and there was no streaming music or video, but I still used 40MB in two days and had a monthly bill bigger than my mortgage. I cancelled the plan. The ISP called me, terribly mystified and hurt, and I told him why. I must not have been the only one, because a year later, every ISP was offering unlimited plans.
  
  At the present time, we suffer from a terrible lack of competition in cellular services. But it will not always be so. Let AT&T piss everyone off; it will just hasten the day when data caps and annual contracts are a distant memory like 40MB/mo wired plans.

• On the post: How To Solve The Piracy Problem: Give Everyone A Basic Income For Doing Nothing

  

  PT ( profile ), 28 Dec, 2013 @ 12:26pm

  Re:

  When I need a man to unclog my sink or toilet, I already have to pay him an extraordinary amount.

• On the post: Disappointing To See Canonical Act Like A Trademark Bully Over Ubuntu

  

  PT ( profile ), 09 Nov, 2013 @ 11:20pm

  Re:

  I removed Ubuntu from my machines a couple of years ago, not over this, but because it tried too hard to distance itself from the familiar. I didn't have the time nor the inclination to learn a whole new way of doing things. If Shuttleworth were to design a car, he'd probably differentiate it from General Motors by putting the accelerator on the left. And he'd weld the hood shut.

• On the post: Gen. Alexander Offers To Store Phone Metadata At A 'Neutral Site' To Alleviate Concerns About The NSA's Spying

  

  PT ( profile ), 12 Oct, 2013 @ 12:49pm

  Re:

  Interesting viewpoint, AC. I wonder where you're sitting as you view it.
  
  From where I sit it's true there doesn't appear to be a lot of debate going on, but it's a rare day when it doesn't come up several times in conversation at the office. In fact, it seems to be creating future political activists out of thin air. If you were to spend a little time researching the left-wing and libertarian blogs you would see the debate is far from over - though of course, it's suppressed on the "establishment" conservative blogs as a dissenting opinion, so you wouldn't see much there.
  
  Anyway, I don't think TD is going to drop the subject, and as an insider, I thank you sincerely for your contribution to the debate.

• On the post: New Leak Shows NSA Shares Raw Domestic Communications Data With Israeli Intelligence

  

  PT ( profile ), 12 Sep, 2013 @ 03:23am

  I seem to recall that Amdocs, an Israeli company, handles just about all of the telephone billing for the entire USA.
  
  http://rense.com/general18/isr2.htm
  
  Who needs a pen register when our friends already have all the meta data on every call made by everyone to anyone? 'Course, they probably want something in exchange for it.

• On the post: How Many Lies Can A Politician Stuff Into A Single Sentence About NSA Surveillance?

  

  PT ( profile ), 12 Sep, 2013 @ 03:02am

  Heck's only been in Congress for three years, yet he's already on three important committees, takes $80k (that we know of) from defense lobbyists, and got TV commercials for the last election - his first re-election - paid for by the US Chamber of Commerce. A pretty meteoric career for someone who framed himself as a humble citizen who just wanted to make a difference.
  
  Incidentally, he got an amendment of his own passed in that same debate, thanks to which the nation will now spend many millions of our tax dollars buying Iron Dome missile systems from Israel.

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