Argonel 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (73) comment rss

  • On the post: Two Top Intelligence Officials, Both Of Whom Admitted To Lying In The Past, Now Try To Rewrite History And Deny The Lies

    Argonel ( profile ), 19 Sep, 2014 @ 09:24am

    Re: Re:

    They are trying to be sneaky, fortunately that is another thing they appear to be incompetent at.

  • On the post: Skies Safer Than Ever After TSA Prevents Passenger From Boarding Flight With Cartoonish Novelty 'Bomb'

    Argonel ( profile ), 09 Sep, 2014 @ 01:30pm

    Re: Re: Re:

    IIRC just a couple years ago someone was killed by one of these civil war mortar shells when it exploded while he was messing with it. Just because they didn't go off when they were fired or in the last 140 years doesn't mean it is actually safe.

    That being said the thugs in the TSA really need to spiff up their wardrobe it would be more entertaining to talk about them if they actually wore jackboots.

  • On the post: Corporate Sovereignty Debate Heats Up In Australia

    Argonel ( profile ), 04 Sep, 2014 @ 06:26am

    Dear governments,
    Corporate sovereignty is a persistent feature of dystopian science fiction because it is meant to be a warning, not an instruction manual.

    Signed,
    The Voting Public

  • On the post: Counter-Strike Player's Twitch Stream Captures His Own SWATting… And Some Questionable Police Behavior

    Argonel ( profile ), 29 Aug, 2014 @ 05:43am

    I'm considering changing my phone password to "getawarrant" but I don't think I really want to be typing that dozens of times a day. For now the PIN 1234* will have to be an acceptable tradeoff between security and convienince.

    *Not my actual PIN.

  • On the post: Police In Ferguson Back To Threatening And Arresting Reporters: Tells Them To 'Get The Fuck Out Of Here'

    Argonel ( profile ), 18 Aug, 2014 @ 08:20am

    Re: Re: Re: Re: That didn't last long

    It is a pretty bad sign that we had to check if instigating vs investigating was meant. Considering that the FBI is a large organization they could be doing both.

  • On the post: Ron Wyden: It's Time To Kill The Third Party Doctrine And Go Back To Respecting Privacy

    Argonel ( profile ), 18 Aug, 2014 @ 08:11am

    Can we revise the third party doctrine to "Third parties may not be compelled to provide documents or information about you without a proper warrant or subpoena just as you cannot be compelled to provide information without a warrant or subpoena. This shall not be construed as preventing a third party from volunteering information if they choose to do so."

    It shouldn't be hard for a law enforcement agency to convince a judge to allow them to have a cell phone provider disclose if a suspects cell phone was in the vicinity of a bank at the time of a bank robbery. Even if it is more work than just calling up Verizon and saying give me a list of everyone that was within half a mile of this bank within half an hour of the robbery.

  • On the post: White House Reverses Course: Now Allowing Lobbyists To Serve On Insider Government 'Advisory' Boards

    Argonel ( profile ), 13 Aug, 2014 @ 10:08am

    Re: Re: Most Corrupt Administration - EVER

    To the point. I voted for O the first time because the other choice looked worse and he at least looked like he was capable of assembling a competent team to figurehead. Lesson learned I voted against him the second time around for all the good it did. If nothing else I preserved my right to complain about politics since I did my part to try to change the results.

  • On the post: Only A Giant Telco Could Introduce Bandwidth Throttling And Spin It As 'Network Optimization'

    Argonel ( profile ), 28 Jul, 2014 @ 09:51am

    Re: Re: Re: Re:

    This plan only affect people with unlimited plans, that are in the top 5% of users, at congested cell towers. So yes they want to deter heavy users that aren't payer per Gb. Also currently to be in the top 5% you have to use more than about 4.7GB in a month. I personally have beer using 12-14 GB per month so I am part of the problem and could potentially face throttling.

  • On the post: Only A Giant Telco Could Introduce Bandwidth Throttling And Spin It As 'Network Optimization'

    Argonel ( profile ), 28 Jul, 2014 @ 06:04am

    Re:

    Considering that their financial reporting indicates that they have been spending a little over $4 billion per quarter as capital expenditures. That is a lot of not spending any money on infrastructure.

  • On the post: Only A Giant Telco Could Introduce Bandwidth Throttling And Spin It As 'Network Optimization'

    Argonel ( profile ), 28 Jul, 2014 @ 05:55am

    As far as throttling goes this is the least offensive version I have seen. Assuming that it is implemented as they say it is it actually makes sense as network management and to limit contention for a limited resource. specifically this means that people who are paying more (the metered customers) get preferential access over the heaviest unmetered users. Limiting the effect to congested towers rather than a blanket limitation means it should have minimal impact to most of the people who could be affected.

  • On the post: Warner Bros. Turns A Kickstarter Success Story Into A Flaming Mess With Proprietary Platforms And DRM

    Argonel ( profile ), 17 Mar, 2014 @ 09:00am

    I love Ultraviolet, at least when included with Blu-ray combo packs. This means I get a Blu-ray copy for myself, a DVD copy to give to someone I like, and an Ultraviolet code to give to someone I secretly loathe. It looks like I'm giving them a gift, but they have to deal with Ultraviolet digital copies. I will never use an Ultraviolet code myself.

  • On the post: Corruption Index: If A State Moves To Ban Tesla Direct Sales, It's A Sign Of Corruption

    Argonel ( profile ), 12 Mar, 2014 @ 07:13am

    Re: Re: Missing the point here...

    More specifically, Car salesmen and Politicians compete fiercely for the titles of most hated and least trusted. I really wouldn't feel bad about watching them lose their jobs.

  • On the post: Commercial Drones Declared Legal; Release The Tacocopters

    Argonel ( profile ), 07 Mar, 2014 @ 10:52am

    Re: Re:

    Yes that is exactly where those numbers came from. If we get into an actual rulemaking process then there can be public comment and the envelope will be defined by an acceptable danger level.

  • On the post: Commercial Drones Declared Legal; Release The Tacocopters

    Argonel ( profile ), 07 Mar, 2014 @ 06:34am

    I think someone should propose a law or rule to establish a firm cutoff point based on performance characteristics and public safety. I would suggest that models that weigh less than 15 pounds, have a maximum speed less than 40 MPH and have a maximum stored energy equivalent to half a gallon of gasoline should be exempt from FAA regulation. Models or drones that exceed that performance envelope could then be regulated on some level to assure public safety, but they wouldn't need to meet the standards for manned flight.

    Also instead of no commercial use of drones I think we need safety standards. Non-commercial uses would have pretty lax standards, while commercial uses need to meet stricter requirements. In any case the operator would obviously be responsible for damages if they lose control of their drone.

    Alternately we can let the FAA claim jurisdiction over all commercial flight and send them after people with homing pigeons.

  • On the post: Police Chief Charged With More Than 130 Violations Has Collected Over $115,000 Without Working A Day This Year

    Argonel ( profile ), 30 Sep, 2013 @ 01:59pm

    There must be something concrete that he can be fired for. Perhaps he owns a yellow shirt or has blue eyes. At this point it appears that it would have been cheaper to just fire him for unspecified reasons and paid his unemployment claims while he looked for work somewhere else.

  • On the post: The DOJ's Insane Argument Against Weev: He's A Felon Because He Broke The Rules We Made Up

    Argonel ( profile ), 30 Sep, 2013 @ 11:24am

    Word limit and "rules"

    I don't suppose the DOJ lawyers can be sanctioned for filing an over length brief? Also I think an appropriate remedy would be to truncate their brief at the 14,000 word limit and fine the lawyers $0.10 per word over the limit. By my count that would leave the lawyers on the hook for $1,249.50 and their brief might make even less sense than it does currently.

  • On the post: The US Government Has Betrayed The Internet; It's Time To Fix That Now

    Argonel ( profile ), 05 Sep, 2013 @ 07:49pm

    Re: Re: Re:

    You cannot consider a computer secure if anyone else has at any time had unmonitored access to it. Since I doubt you designed your own processor and fabbed your own chips you are in the same boat as the rest of us.

    The reason the government doesn't want Huawei bidding on communications infrastructure is the government is afraid they will do the same things that they are doing with respect to spying.

  • On the post: Former US Official: Edward Snowden Was Too Brilliant To Work For The NSA

    Argonel ( profile ), 29 Aug, 2013 @ 12:10pm

    Re: Obama thinks everyone is stupid

    when President Obama's administration puts sympathetic insiders on the board set to review all of these programs and their abuses, it teaches us that the man holding the highest office in our land thinks we're all very, very stupid.


    No, he thinks he is smarter than everyone else.

    I'm pretty sure these are both ways of saying the same thing.

  • On the post: Shooting The Messenger: SF Fire Dept. Officials Attack Firefighter, Helmet Cam After Asiana Airlines Crash

    Argonel ( profile ), 27 Aug, 2013 @ 10:32am

    So instead of punishing unauthorized releases of recordings they say don't record anything. makes it a little difficult to use recordings as a training tool which will in turn make it difficult to get any better at your jobs. Of course it also makes it hard to hold anyone accountable for mistakes.

    Good for the politician in the short term, bad for the department in the long term. No bets on how this will turn out.

  • On the post: Supreme Court Justices Can't Figure Out Email, Completely Mystified By Social Media

    Argonel ( profile ), 21 Aug, 2013 @ 02:23pm

    Re: 25 year old tech

    You don't even have to understand the technology to make sane decisions about it. The name covers it pretty well. E-mail aka electronic mail aka mail that is sent electronically. Sounds like private communications, get a warrant if you want to intercept and read it.

    Functionally it is closer to a post card, but it isn't like getting a warrant is an insurmountable barrier if you have any evidence of wrongdoing.

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