andrew_duane’s Techdirt Profile

On the post: US Gov't Agencies Freak Out Over Juniper Backdoor; Perhaps They'll Now Realize Why Backdoors Are A Mistake

andrew_duane ( profile ), 21 Dec, 2015 @ 01:55pm

Re: Just ScreenOS?

Yes, this affects just ScreenOS. JUNOS is a completely different thing from a completely different code base. It is unaffected by this breach.

And to "some_guy" at comment #38.... Israel? WTF?

On the post: The Judicial System May Be Bad, But The Privatized Judicial System Of Arbitration Is Worse

andrew_duane ( profile ), 02 Nov, 2015 @ 01:22pm

Re: What's the answer?

Maybe something akin to Jury Duty. Have a pool of arbitrators (possibly filled by the courts), and assign one randomly to each case as it is brought.
That removes the direct financial incentive of the company being the one "hiring" the arbitrator, and the arbitrator needing to encourage future business.

On the post: Government Appoints Insider With Terrible FOIA Track Record To Head Up Gov't Info Services At National Archives

andrew_duane ( profile ), 27 Jul, 2015 @ 07:25am

So that's what a news agency is

Holzer wrote a 2014 letter that MuckRock, which provides a FOIA request and hosting service, was "not a member of the news media"
According to Holzer, MuckRock is a "commercial" entity

So that's why News Media (like the New York Times, Washington Post, etc) are failing.... they aren't commercial enterprises!

On the post: Is It Acceptable For Academics To Pay For Privatized, Expedited Peer Review?

andrew_duane ( profile ), 08 Apr, 2015 @ 05:32am

Someone needs to peer review their math

Doing the math here, assuming each review had only one reviewer paid to do it, that's $750 - $100 = $650 per review. $650 x 920 scored papers = $598,000. Yet the company claims $20,000,000 in revenue last year?

Maybe the $750 is just an application fee, and there are many more demands for money afterward (like a FOIA fee of $5 per page to print the review?).

On the post: AT&T Publicly Promises Tennessee A Broadband Revolution, Privately Fights To Keep It A Broadband Backwater

andrew_duane ( profile ), 03 Apr, 2015 @ 06:30am

By the way, I notice that when you go to AT&T's webpage on the 150GB usage caps, there's a helpful link "how much is 150GB?". Instead of a small paragraph of text that takes a few hundred bytes, it's a 2-minute video that takes a couple of MB. So the answer is: "about 7500 of these videos".

On the post: South Carolina Says It's A Felony For Prisoners To Look At Facebook; Sends Many To Solitary Confinement

andrew_duane ( profile ), 13 Feb, 2015 @ 07:04am

Putting it in perspective

To quote the EFF on this:

"In other words, if a South Carolina inmate caused a riot, took three hostages, murdered them, stole their clothes, and then escaped, he could still wind up with fewer Level 1 offenses than an inmate who updated Facebook every day for two weeks."

On the post: DRM Destroys Value: Why Years Old, But DRM Free, Devices Sell For Twice The Price Of New Devices

andrew_duane ( profile ), 27 Jan, 2015 @ 09:14am

Sometimes it's not only DRM that does this

While DRM is certainly responsible for this a lot of the time, sometimes it's good old-fashioned feature creep.

Example in point: iPod Nanos. I love my 5th gen nano, but the newer ones are twice the size and dropped half the useful simple things in an effort to cram more useless "spiffiness" into them. The result: used 5th gens sell for considerably more than new 6th gens on Ebay. When mine finally dies, I will go there to buy one rather than fork out $150 for a new one from Apple.

On the post: Entirely Coincidentally, NSA Signals Intelligence Director Moved To New Position After Conflicts Of Interest Were Exposed By Buzzfeed

andrew_duane ( profile ), 29 Oct, 2014 @ 05:44am

"If the agency expects to be entrusted with the data and communications of the world, it needs to be above reproach on every observable level."

Of course, there are two ways to accomplish this:

1) Actually be above reproach
2) Limit the number of observable levels

On the post: Revealed: ISPs Already Violating Net Neutrality To Block Encryption And Make Everyone Less Safe Online

andrew_duane ( profile ), 13 Oct, 2014 @ 12:27pm

Re: Throttling

Technically Verizon wasn't throttling Netflix, they were throttling Level 3, which carries Netflix traffic. And congested peering ports aren't throttling, unless they are deliberately under-provisioned to the point where they cannot carry their designated load.

Link capacity of peering connections (as well as all other Network-with-a-capital-N connections) aren't just pulled out of a hat. Extremely large amounts of throughput analysis is done to understand the requirements of the link. It is extremely important to ISPs to be able to handle the required bandwidth.

This issue would have been spotted in 5 minutes by a junior engineer. Add the fact that it was fixed only after weeks of press shaming and the "payments" from Netflix means it was deliberately designed to extort such payments.

On the post: DHS Wants To Expand 'See Something, Say Something' To Retailers Selling You Pressure Cookers

andrew_duane ( profile ), 12 Sep, 2014 @ 06:15am

Be careful what you ask for

I say the way to combat this stupidity is to give the DHS exactly what they want. Let's see how they handle a few hundred thousand reports a day every day for the next year. Spun this way, every box of nails, every roll of duct tape, every bottle of bleach is a potential terrorist threat.

"When the gods want to punish us, they answer our prayers".

On the post: Malibu Media Continues To Seek Six Strikes Data From Broadband Providers To Use Against People It Sues

andrew_duane ( profile ), 02 Jun, 2014 @ 04:30pm

Possible way to fight back?

If you can't use basic defenses (like public domain), I wonder if someone could fight back by suing Malibu Media or whoever for defamation/libel? They are accusing you of a crime despite proof that you committed no crime, and doing it in public documents.

On the post: House Committee To Investigate NHTSA's Roadside Blood And Saliva 'Surveys'

andrew_duane ( profile ), 18 Mar, 2014 @ 05:00am

Don't forget "anonymous"

Lots of comments about voluntary, but don't forget about the other part of the lie: anonymous.

You are driving your car with license plates on it; chances are that by the time you've rolled your window down the cops know who you are by running your plates. Yes, it's not 100% but it's close enough for most people to think there is nothing anonymous about this at all.

On the post: Google's Fight Against Distracted Driving Laws Might Not Be A Bad Thing For The Inevitable, Glorious Transhumanist Future

andrew_duane ( profile ), 27 Feb, 2014 @ 05:55am

Another silly attempt to micro-manage by specific technology, in an area where technologies change on a monthly basis. The rules against texting for example.... how about my phone which can text hands-free (voice control)? How about sending email? Twitter/Facebook updates? Thumbs up/down on Pandora? Touching the screen to see what time it is?

As for HUDs, my car can have one factory installed? Several makers are experimenting with HUDs to give important information. Will this be banned too? Will we need a lawyer to interpret whatever legal language comes out to tell us?

I'd sigh and say "my tax dollars at work" but it hardly seems like it's working, now does it?

On the post: Grand Jury Somehow Fails To Indict Man Who Shot Deputy During No-Knock, Pre-Dawn Raid For Capital Murder

andrew_duane ( profile ), 13 Feb, 2014 @ 07:28am

Obstacles to curbing grand juries

"The biggest obstacle to curbing grand juries (much less eliminating them) is the government itself."

Well, there is that pesky fifth amendment:

"No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger"

I am surprised that no one has (yet) suggested "time of ... public danger" as a convenient way around it.

On the post: Was Level 3 The Weak Link That Gave The Feds A Way To Hack Into Google's Network?

andrew_duane ( profile ), 31 Oct, 2013 @ 12:49pm

Non-Denial Acknowledgement

It seems to me that the gag orders are self-defeating.

If you didn't get asked for help: "No, we did not get a government request"
If you *did* get asked for help: "We can neither confirm nor deny that we got a government request"

You didn't confirm or deny it or talk about it, but you said yes anyway.

Simple.

On the post: CA School District Announces It's Doing Round-The-Clock Monitoring Of Its 13,000 Students' Social Media Activities

andrew_duane ( profile ), 10 Sep, 2013 @ 04:45am

It's simple the "Kid's Menu" section of the grown-up NSA surveillance offerings.

On the post: NSA Infringed Adam Hart-Davis' Photograph For Its PRISM Logo

andrew_duane ( profile ), 13 Jun, 2013 @ 08:21am

That's strike 1

1 down, 5 more strikes to go. I wonder how you would go about disconnecting the NSA from the Internet?

:-)

On the post: New Hampshire Politicians Want To Make 'Satellite View' On Maps A Criminal Offense

andrew_duane ( profile ), 22 Feb, 2013 @ 08:48am

More info on Rep. Kurk

Since he's almost my district in NH, I looked him up on the state legislature website. I found his set of bills sponsored:

http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/house/members/memberbillssponsored.aspx?member=372821

In general, it's a reasonable set of "privacy" related items: pulling SS#'s off court documents, refusing federal ID requirements, etc. This one is just out of left field though. Not sure what he is trying to accomplish.

To send him mail, get to his home page at:

http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/house/members/member.aspx

On the post: Justice Sotomayor Doesn't Want Cameras In The Supreme Court Because Americans Won't Understand

andrew_duane ( profile ), 21 Feb, 2013 @ 10:54am

Theory versus Practice

"Apparently, much like the rest of the administration, transparency is a great talking point in theory. In practice, however, it's a very different story."

Well, in theory there is no difference between theory and practice, but in practice there is.

On the post: Mesa County Police Have Been Using Drones For Years, Still Coming Up With Rules On Use

andrew_duane ( profile ), 19 Dec, 2012 @ 04:49am

Doing the math

Did anyone else do the math on that "160 hours of flight time since January 2011"? Two drones, times two years, that's 40 hours per year per drone, or less than 1 hour per week. Given what these things cost, you'd expect they'd be in the air as much as possible. Of course, it could just be 160 hours they are willing to fess up to.....

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