Michael Wigle 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (5) comment rss

  • On the post: Obama Administration Says It Can Spy On Americans, But Can't Tell You What Law Allows It

    Michael Wigle ( profile ), 14 Feb, 2011 @ 12:47pm

    Re: Re: Re: Really guys?

    The best I could find with a quick google was a link to a book called Three Felonies a Day: How the Feds Target the Innocent found here: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1594032556/reasonmagazineA/ . It was an estimate made by the author. It doesn't sound like a study that would hold up to peer review was done to make the point. It sounds like his main focus is Internet-related felonies due to the mass of new internet-based laws.

  • On the post: Terrorism And Risk Assessment In Comic Form

    Michael Wigle ( profile ), 07 Dec, 2010 @ 08:08am

    Misunderstood

    I think you misunderstood the meaning due to poor sentence structure. It looks to me like the commenter meant to say that it is important to ensure the population has a minimum base pay that would permit both enough food to eat and to be able to afford basic health care.

    It doesn't look to me like they were implying that doctor's were not getting paid enough.

  • On the post: Court Says Border Patrol Can Take Your Laptop For Off-Site Search If They Have Reasonable Suspicion

    Michael Wigle ( profile ), 04 Jun, 2010 @ 05:41am

    Re:

    I believe they can. It would be similar to requiring you to provide keys to a suitcase. Of course, if you refuse, my understanding is that you not only get in trouble but they'll just take the laptop off-site to be worked on more thoroughly.

    Best solution is probably a hidden True Crypt drive. I highly doubt most of these folks could find one and if what is visible is mundane there would be no reason to look hard. Of course, that's assuming you are not actually smuggling something illegal on the laptop and just want to keep your personal or coporate data private.

    If you are smuggling illegal content across a border on a laptop, well, you're just not very smart.

  • On the post: Nation's First Major Broadband Over Powerline Deployment Shuts Down

    Michael Wigle ( profile ), 13 Apr, 2010 @ 06:44pm

    Re: Nerd Alert

    The problem with your analogy is that a home or business can decide they don't want or need a fax machine and get VOIP. They can even use other services so they can still send/receive faxes even with their VOIP, just not a traditional one.

    However, with BPL the transmissions significantly interfered with transmissions over large portions of area because the power lines themselves were generating interference.

    So, to use your analogy, it would be like suggesting VOIP is an issue because if I use VOIP the rest of the city can't use their fax machines or alternative services to send/receive fax machines.

    Although to be fair, being a ham myself, I've heard that in a couple of places it's been possible to have BPL without causing any significant interference in other frequencies. I think it's just too expensive for most utility companies to convert their infrastructure to work that way.

  • On the post: Don't Blame Rick752 For Blocking Ads; Blame Those Who Made Ads Annoying

    Michael Wigle ( profile ), 26 Jun, 2008 @ 10:13am

    Re: They corrupted the net, ABP fixed their corruption

    I agree. To be honest, when AdBlock misses an ad on a page I don't automatically block it anymore because I'm starting to see some reasonable, unobtrusive, and relevant ads on some sites. Mind you, they tend to be tech sites with ads that benefit that particular tech company but maybe that's what I like about it. A few simple static picture or, even better, text ads on a site is perfectly acceptable to me. It's this war of "How obnoxious and in your face can I make my ad?" that has made me choose to block large portions of content. The site owners and advertisers need to react to the feedback, not force their way of doing things on us out of laziness.