anonymousanonymouscoward 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: Regulators Are Ignoring How Low Orbit Satellite Broadband Is Trashing The Night Sky

    anonymousanonymouscoward ( profile ), 22 Aug, 2020 @ 02:20pm

    Re:

    Not being expert in either Photoshop or GIMP I believe he is talking about the ability to fill in certain spaces with information from adjoining pixels. What I think he is missing that that astronomers don't take pictures for esoteric reasons. They want to know what is out there, and while one pixels worth of information may not be the same as the next pixel and filling in those blanks with false information does them no good at all. They need to see all the pixels, as they exist, not as imagined.

  • On the post: Content Moderation Knowledge Sharing Shouldn't Be A Backdoor To Cross-Platform Censorship

    anonymousanonymouscoward ( profile ), 21 Aug, 2020 @ 06:02pm

    Re: These tools...

    "Are these tools capable of stopping child pornography from spreading across the Web?"
    Probably not, but that, in and of itself, is little reason for politicians to stop working on ways to enable control over the populace. The stated goal is rarely the same as the intended goal. The intended goal is never spoken about, in public.

  • On the post: Judge Recommends Copyright Troll Richard Liebowitz Be Removed From Roll Of The Court For Misconduct In Default Judgment Case

    anonymousanonymouscoward ( profile ), 21 Aug, 2020 @ 01:36pm

    Re:

    I think it's called nincompoopism. I don't think it has made it into the DSM IV, yet, but it should be there. It might seem to be intertwined with narcissism but it has a special flair for arrogance.

  • On the post: Regulators Are Ignoring How Low Orbit Satellite Broadband Is Trashing The Night Sky

    anonymousanonymouscoward ( profile ), 21 Aug, 2020 @ 05:58pm

    Shift left! If I do we will miss the runway! Well...

    What about returning spacecraft, say from the space station? Do they have a responsibility to vector around these floating mines? Will they have some liability when they fail to vector around these floating mines?

    Don't get me wrong, I like the idea of low earth orbit satellites, but have all the potential unintended consequences even been considered?

  • On the post: California Fusion Center Tracked Anti-Police Protests, Sent Info To 14,000 Police Officers

    anonymousanonymouscoward ( profile ), 20 Aug, 2020 @ 02:15pm

    Re: Re: One and the same

    It might be dislike, distrust, or dismay, but it is not bigotry.

  • On the post: Has The Pandemic Shown That The Techlash Was Nonsense?

    anonymousanonymouscoward ( profile ), 20 Aug, 2020 @ 02:12pm

    Re:

    I am not so sure they are stupid. It is more likely arrogant. The old saw goes if it bleeds, it leads. If there is no real blood in the water, they they try to create it. Besides, if you tell a lie enough times, somebody is gonna believe it.

  • On the post: New Jersey Supreme Court Says 'Forgone Conclusion' Trumps Fifth Amendment In Crooked Cop Case

    anonymousanonymouscoward ( profile ), 20 Aug, 2020 @ 02:55pm

    Investigators dislike effort, shove workload off on lawyers.

    "[T]he State argues that communication between co-conspirators has no special privacy status, that the State “has established . . . that it already knows what is on the phone[s],” and that the State has a superior right to the contents of the phones because of the unchallenged search warrant."

    If this is true, then they don't really need to get into the cellphones at all, right? As has been pointed out many times in the past, cases were made long before cellphones existed, so let them make their cases without the cellphones. Besides, if all they want to prove is that A talked to B, then the service providers will have that information (or at least that number A and number B had a connection for X minutes and seconds). If it is something else, but they already know what it is, then they have another source for the information and again don't need to get into the cellphone.

    So far as to the 'no special privacy status' no, no special right, just the regular ones. Communication is private until it isn't (like in a sealed envelope going through the postal service), and being government actors they are bound by the 1st Amendment (get a warrant, just think though, if you present probable cause you may have to disclose where you got it from which might show the lack of need for a warrant and makes me wonder why the warrant they got was unchallenged both by the issuing judge and whomever is representing the defendants). Remember, people's rights are not limited to those restrictions on government listed in the Constitution.

    Quit trying to screw with our rights, do your jobs the right way, even if it is more work.

  • On the post: Ricky Byrdsong And The Cost Of Speech

    anonymousanonymouscoward ( profile ), 19 Aug, 2020 @ 02:30pm

    Re: Re: Re:

    No, the Illinois Bar Association is not a government actor. You can tell by the word association in their name. In addition, it is not the Bar Association that licenses lawyers in Illinois, "The Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission (ARDC or Commission) operates under the authority of the Illinois Supreme Court, which has sole authority to regulate the admission and discipline of lawyers in Illinois.". The Internet is your friend, learn to use it.

  • On the post: Ricky Byrdsong And The Cost Of Speech

    anonymousanonymouscoward ( profile ), 19 Aug, 2020 @ 01:56pm

    Re:

    Was there a government actor in the article that I missed? Only a government actor declaring any speed they don't like to be hate speech and have it be a 1st Amendment violation. On the other hand, assuming you and I are both not government actors, we can call any speech we like hate speech. But we cannot avoid consequences, such as being kicked off a platform or have many, many, many opposing comments to our statements. Or being wrong.

  • On the post: Indiana Cities File Doomed Lawsuit Against Disney, Netflix, Demand 5% of Gross Revenues

    anonymousanonymouscoward ( profile ), 19 Aug, 2020 @ 08:10am

    Re: Do you want riots? Because that's how you get riots

    Wouldn't it be a bit selfish for Netflix to not accede to their demands? After all 5% of gross revenue isn't very much, and .05 times 50 is only 2.5 which is only 250% of gross revenue, and that's before expenses. Netflix can easily afford that as everybody knows the Indiana legislature attempted to reconfigured Pi to equal 3.2 so why shouldn't a company be able to pay out 250 times their income and still be successful, according to several Indiana cities?

  • On the post: England's Exam Fiasco Shows How Not To Apply Algorithms To Complex Problems With Massive Social Impact

    anonymousanonymouscoward ( profile ), 18 Aug, 2020 @ 07:05am

    Re: A view from the inside

    Isn't there a bit of a problem in 'predicting' how a student would do? Isn't education about acquiring knowledge and to some degree skill? Saying that some student has worked hard and has potential isn't the same thing as they have the knowledge/skill. Down the road, in future courses (or jobs/careers/professions) that presume a certain level of knowledge/skill (that isn't actually there) there could be problems and remedial action then becomes necessary. I am not suggesting that students get held back, but moving forward some consideration of what is actually happening is necessary. Along with a plan to assist the students for things missed that are out of their control.

  • On the post: Google Responds To Hong Kong's New National Security Law By Rejecting Its Government's Requests For Data

    anonymousanonymouscoward ( profile ), 18 Aug, 2020 @ 06:40am

    Re: Re: Re: The US should offer Hong Kong US protection status

    AC said "all Hong Kong citizens". Now if he had been a bit more circumspect, as in (for example, but extended to other reasonable reasons for exclusion) all non-criminal Hong Kong citizens...

  • On the post: Shitbirds Of A Feather Flock Together: ICE Signs $274,000 Contract With Clearview

    anonymousanonymouscoward ( profile ), 18 Aug, 2020 @ 12:41pm

    Point of order

    First, at what point does Clearview become a state actor? Second, will TSA/HSI apply for a warrant for each and every use of this database, as they should?

    To the first question, if Clearview is only supplying its goods to law enforcement, aren't they already a state actor?

    And as to the second question, I seriously doubt it, at least until they get caught and fail to properly set up their parallel construction scenarios, and even then only when they feel like it.

  • On the post: Judge Forbids Facebook Users Being Sued By A Cop From Publishing The Cop's Name On Social Media

    anonymousanonymouscoward ( profile ), 18 Aug, 2020 @ 07:45am

    Communication and co-option

    Well, the judge seems to have made a really bad decision, though we don't really have enough information to determine his motivation. Automatically assuming that that motivation is racially nefarious might be a mistake. Or it could be spot on. Don't assume.

    I am also concerned that a symbol that has the connotation of things are OK has apparently been co-opted by some to have a different meaning (and since I don't immerse myself in the white supremacist culture have never heard of this before). Without context, which may or may not be enlightening or even correctly interpreted, knowing that that hand gesture means its original meaning or the co-opted one, or something else again that someone just made up does not seem possible. And there is nothing to prevent anyone from co-opting that gesture to have some other new meaning (as has already been done, it seems), and the burden of proof as to which meaning was intended would be upon the accuser. Good luck with that.

    I don't know this cop and I am not defending him, nor his action, as I, nor we, actually know what he intended with the use of the OK gesture. Only he does. I am not sure how any observer could imply what his intentions were, with absolute accuracy. That he has a sketchy background might be suggestive, but that seems to be pretty circumstantial. On the other hand, the cop's assumption that others assumed the gesture connotation was the bad one is hardly defamatory as those others are stating an opinion about the gesture use.

    The entire case is fraught with inanities. The original gesture, the interpretation of the gesture, the whining and opinion expressing on social media (right or wrong), the lawsuit, and the judges order all appear to be ridiculous in the extreme. But speech is free in this country, unless you have to pay a lawyer to keep it free. I don't see the lawsuit going anywhere, and the judge may get an uncomfortable talking to. The lawyers win, again.

  • On the post: Confused Critic Of Section 230 Now In Charge Of NTIA

    anonymousanonymouscoward ( profile ), 17 Aug, 2020 @ 05:54pm

    Re: Re:

    That link came from a mobile device. Try removing the 'm' between 'en' and 'wikipedia'.

  • On the post: Google Responds To Hong Kong's New National Security Law By Rejecting Its Government's Requests For Data

    anonymousanonymouscoward ( profile ), 17 Aug, 2020 @ 03:00pm

    Re: The US should offer Hong Kong US protection status

    "...he US should step up and allow all Hong Kong citizens to move to the US."
    Yeah, that'll work. We could use a few more triad members here in the US!

  • On the post: It Doesn't Make Sense To Treat Ads The Same As User Generated Content

    anonymousanonymouscoward ( profile ), 17 Aug, 2020 @ 02:58pm

    Re: Re: But... Wha... Why?

    That would mean that every website, large and small, would need to review each and every ad posted to their sites, before allowing the ad to appear. How does that play with the ad networks contracts? How would that play for a small website like Techdirt, from a labor/expense standpoint? Does one ad slipped through over a weekend constitute liability to the website?

  • On the post: Charter Spectrum Tells FCC Broadband Caps Are 'Popular' As It Tries To Kill Merger Conditions Preventing Them

    anonymousanonymouscoward ( profile ), 17 Aug, 2020 @ 07:06am

    Re: Popularity

    "...some of them then discover they have the problem that they cannot wear both their Broadband Cap and their MAGA cap at the same time."
    Why not? Some monsters have more than one head (see, for example, Greek mythology).

  • On the post: Charter Spectrum Tells FCC Broadband Caps Are 'Popular' As It Tries To Kill Merger Conditions Preventing Them

    anonymousanonymouscoward ( profile ), 17 Aug, 2020 @ 07:01am

    What they are truly afraid of

    If real competition were to come to fruition, one could bet (comfortably) that the existing providers would be screaming unfair competition if some new provider put up a service that was just cost plus some reasonable profit.

  • On the post: Clearview Hires Prominent First Amendment Lawyer To Argue For Its Right To Sell Scraped Data To Cops

    anonymousanonymouscoward ( profile ), 14 Aug, 2020 @ 03:42pm

    Re: tldr; Clearview still sucks.

    "Amendment 9 - Construction of Constitution "The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people."
    This has been used to establish several rights not enumerated thought privacy in general is not on that list, so far, though privacy in a marriage is. Another issue is that the data belongs to whomever it describes and not Clearview. It is not like other third party data where by contractual arrangement data is created due to a transaction for a service being provided (which should be 4th Amendment protected but that is another issue, (then again why wouldn't the data Clearview has be 4th Amendment protected, at least where the governments purchases are concerned?)) whereas in these cases the data is either posted by the individual or someone they know (most likely) and is not the result of any transaction.

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