TimK 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (83) comment rss

  • On the post: Digital Homicide Drops Its Lawsuit Against Steam Users, Says It's Shutting Down Completely

    TimK ( profile ), 07 Oct, 2016 @ 06:53am

    Re:

    That was too easy....

  • On the post: Comcast/NBC Tone Deafness, Not 'Millennials' To Blame For Olympics Ratings Drop

    TimK ( profile ), 25 Aug, 2016 @ 09:32am

    NBC is awful. Their coverage is awful. The volume of commercials is awful. The volume of boring background fluff pieces is awful. Everything they do is awful.

    I'm not that into the Olympics but if I was bored and there was nothing on I'd TRY to watch some of it....but it was nearly impossible. SOOOOO many commercials, so many "coming up next" lies....followed by more commercials, then a 30 second clip of some athletes....then more commercials. Then I turned off the TV.

    My wife who really likes to watch gymnastics even got to the point where she stopped watching because the events were long since decided, the results were everywhere online, and she didn't want to stay up until 11pm to see an event where she already knew what happened. Maybe if they aired popular events on delay at 8pm it wouldn't be SO bad....but to try to force people to sit through a whole night full of commercials to see what they want at 11pm is ridiculous.

    We aren't millenials. We're 40-somethings. And we pay for cable. And we weren't watching.

  • On the post: Dish Agrees To Cripple Its Ad-Skipping DVR To Settle Fox Lawsuit

    TimK ( profile ), 12 Feb, 2016 @ 03:40pm

    I'd be pretty pissed off if I was a Dish customer and signed up for a service promising me autoskip...and then they went and bent over for CBS and Fox. I'd probably have to cut down the satellite dish on my roof.

  • On the post: Newsflash: Car Network Security Is Still A Horrible, Very Dangerous Joke

    TimK ( profile ), 21 Jul, 2015 @ 02:34pm

    Just downloaded the update for our 2014 Cherokee. While I'm not shocked at the flaw, at least it appears Chrysler is fixing it and not just claiming it's no big deal. That assumes that the fix actually fixes it....

  • On the post: In-Bev Gets One Guy Making Charitable Juice Drinks To Change His Brand Name

    TimK ( profile ), 14 Mar, 2015 @ 12:52pm

    I get that he has to change the name b/c he can't afford to fight it, but he should fight back through his choice of a new name. Like perhaps "In-Bev can suck our apples"... juice.

    F-ing bullies.

  • On the post: Verizon Latest To Balk At Weather Channel Rate Hikes For 'Weather Coverage' That's 70% Fluff And Nonsense

    TimK ( profile ), 12 Mar, 2015 @ 02:13pm

    I was actually pleased to get the notice that they were dropping the (no) Weather Channel. They do everything but weather, unless there is a big storm and then they do 24/7 reporting on that storm. Not to mention that if I want to see the weather for my area, I don't want to wait until my area is covered. It's ever so way incredibly faster and easier to look it up online or on my phone. And speaking of online weather service, I find that the Weather Channel's online service is the most worthless.

    Anyway, I'm glad they were dropped, if for no other reason than that I shall never again have to listen to anyone call a cluster of thunderstorms by name.

  • On the post: In Wake Of NSA Leaks, China Drops Major US Tech Companies From Its Approved Supplier List

    TimK ( profile ), 27 Feb, 2015 @ 06:34am

    I can't wait until Cisco sues the US Government for the "loss of income" this has caused, and then we all get to pay the bill.

    Yay.

  • On the post: District Superintendent Claims 14-Year-Old Student Bullied Her By Using Her Photo In A Criminal Justice Class Project

    TimK ( profile ), 08 Nov, 2014 @ 08:29am

    If she thought THAT was bullying, I wonder how she is going to feel about all the nasty emails she gets from people who read about this story online or see it on the news. I mean, her name and email address are prominently featured in this article and posted on the School District's website.

  • On the post: FAA: Drones Are Okay For Hollywood, But Not Okay For Sports

    TimK ( profile ), 26 Sep, 2014 @ 06:25am

    Can we stop calling them drones? Please. They are remote controlled helicopters. I'm pretty sure that "drones" were typically at least semi-autonomous. When did the FAA start regulating Aerial RC vehicles outside of the small bubble around airports and helipads?

  • On the post: FCC's Tom Wheeler Admits There Isn't Really Broadband Competition

    TimK ( profile ), 04 Sep, 2014 @ 01:18pm

    3 choices???

    Who are these people with 3 high speed providers and where do they live? I thought I was "lucky" to have a "choice" between Verizon FiOS and Comcast where I live. I don't even know what a 3rd choice could be...

  • On the post: Veterans Administration Inspector General Demands Whistleblower Documents Submitted To Government Watchdog Group

    TimK ( profile ), 11 Jun, 2014 @ 07:05am

    Well, the alternative to trying to submit info through email and web drop boxes is quite obvious to me. What better way to protect your anonymity than through the good old US Postal service. Stuff an envelope, put a stamp on it, no return address, and drop it in a mailbox nowhere near your home or work.

    Obviously if you are trying to unload 60,000 documents like Snowden that doesn't work, but for info on VA wait times and scheduling issues, it seems like a paper document would be sufficient.

  • On the post: Law School Trustee's Company Chills Critical Speech With Subpoena For Students' Personal Emails

    TimK ( profile ), 21 Apr, 2014 @ 01:28pm

    Re: Short term vs. Long term

    Actually, for a university, $1.25 million isn't a hefty sum. NYU's total endowment is worth approximately $3 BILLION. It is in the school's best interest to tell Strauss and his money to hit the road.

  • On the post: TSA Collects Nearly $500,000 In Abandoned Change Per Year And Has No Idea What To Do With It

    TimK ( profile ), 06 Dec, 2013 @ 04:00pm

    Having the pleasure of traveling by air last week, I of course opted out of being scanned and enjoyed a not-so-thorough pat down.

    I'm a little torn by the whole thing. On one hand, I truly appreciate that the TSA officer didn't come within 6 inches of my junk... on the other hand, it just shows how pointless the whole pat down process is if they aren't even bothering to check the most obvious and most ideal hiding place.

    Sure, he made certain I didn't have any razor blades taped inside the neck of my T-shirt or to the bottom of my feet.... but I could've had 2 hand grenades and a bottle of lighter fluid in my crotch and he'd never know.

  • On the post: 'Attribution Troll' Issues DMCA Notice To Remove Critical Posts From Techdirt, Boing Boing And Popehat

    TimK ( profile ), 14 Nov, 2013 @ 11:16am

    If only our tongues were made of glass, how much less careful we could be when eating really hot pizza!

  • On the post: Dianne Feinstein's Bragging About NSA Surveillance Program May Finally Result In It Being Declared Unconstitutional

    TimK ( profile ), 19 Oct, 2013 @ 11:46am

    I'm confused....

    So, either there were 100 arrests and 9 cases based on information obtained through warrantless wiretaps, which was not presented to the defendants, therefore the DOJ lied to the Supreme Court about the FAA to avoid any chance of it being declared unconstitutional.

    or

    There were no arrests and no prosecutions based on the FAA's warrantless wiretap programs.

    Would the government please pick one so we know which way to go? Either you did "A" and we now have what we need for the SCOTUS to declare it illegal and end the program. Or it was "B" and proves that the FAA's warrantless wiretapping has been utterly worthless and needs to be ended.

    Either one works, just let us know which one it is...

  • On the post: Experience Stop And Frisk Thanks To This POV Video

    TimK ( profile ), 18 Oct, 2013 @ 07:41am

    Welcome to Philadelphia. If you think these two are the exception, you'd be wrong.

  • On the post: NYC Tracking E-ZPass Tags All Over The City, Without Telling Drivers

    TimK ( profile ), 13 Sep, 2013 @ 08:26am

    Here in PA they also utilize EZ Pass readers for traffic monitoring, and have for quite some time. Its quite useful to know the average travel time and often the LED info boards over the highway help me to avoid backups.

    As long as the data is truly scrambled and wiped after a few hours and not stored or shared with the government, I'm ok with its use.

    Not sure if its in the EZ Pass terms.

    All that being said, "the government" could track vehicles just as easily with roadside license plate scanning cameras. And they could do that for nefarious purposes or just to get average travel times.

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

    TimK ( profile ), 11 Sep, 2013 @ 05:10pm

    Which one of these is Treason?

    A.) Spying on your own government and releasing its secrets to "We the people"....

    or

    B.) Spying on "We the people" and releasing their secrets to a foreign government...


    For reference:
    trea?son
    noun
    1. the crime of betraying one's country, esp. by attempting to kill the sovereign or overthrow the government.

  • On the post: Blatant Intimidation: Glenn Greenwald's Partner Detained At Heathrow Under Terrorism Law, All His Electronics Seized

    TimK ( profile ), 19 Aug, 2013 @ 05:17am

    Re: Re:

    I just hope that journalists here in the US, like those working for the Times, realize how serious this is, and what this means to them, their friends and their families. Freedom of the press is just one more freedom that has now been taken away.

  • On the post: Blatant Intimidation: Glenn Greenwald's Partner Detained At Heathrow Under Terrorism Law, All His Electronics Seized

    TimK ( profile ), 19 Aug, 2013 @ 05:13am

    Re:

    According to the NY Times article, that is exactly what it was. He was apparently carrying encrypted thumb drives from Greenwald.

    "Mr. Miranda was in Berlin to deliver documents related to Mr. Greenwald?s investigation into government surveillance to Ms. Poitras, Mr. Greenwald said. Ms. Poitras, in turn, gave Mr. Miranda different documents to pass to Mr. Greenwald. Those documents, which were stored on encrypted thumb drives, were confiscated by airport security, Mr. Greenwald said. All of the documents came from the trove of materials provided to the two journalists by Mr. Snowden. The British authorities seized all of his electronic media ? including video games, DVDs and data storage devices ? and did not return them, Mr. Greenwald said."


    I'm not sure what the point of taking it was. Unless the NSA just wants to know what he has on them!

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