Roy Wilson 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (1093)

• On the post: Anti-Cheat Software Company Contracted By Rutgers Fails To Live Up To Privacy Agreement With Students

  

  Roy Wilson ( profile ), 15 Sep, 2015 @ 04:22pm

  Thanks for...

  ..the complete set of biometrics.
  
  Seriously, college kids stupid enough to sign on to something like this, much less PAY to be violated this way, got what they deserved.

• On the post: The Crazy Permission-Asking Media Scrum That Descends When Photographic News Happens On Twitter

  

  Roy Wilson ( profile ), 14 Sep, 2015 @ 09:48am

  a few minors scratches

  Extraneous "s" in there....

• On the post: One Man Troll Army Arrested For Supporting Terrorists: Where's The Line Between Trolling And Terrorism?

  

  Roy Wilson ( profile ), 14 Sep, 2015 @ 08:01am

  refused to criminalized "hate speech"

  Extraneous "d" there..

• On the post: Mother Of Daughter Who Committed Suicide Sues Amazon For Facilitating The Purchase Of Cyanide From A Third-Party Seller

  

  Roy Wilson ( profile ), 11 Sep, 2015 @ 02:32pm

  Re: In defense of the university

  The primary use of cyanide compounds is the case-hardening of steel.

• On the post: NYC Judge: Taxis Must Compete With Uber, No Matter The Medallion Industry

  

  Roy Wilson ( profile ), 11 Sep, 2015 @ 12:11pm

  Re:

  "where do limo drivers, shuttle buses, and cars-for-hire fall into all of this?"
  
  Limo drivers in NY need a Class E license, same as a Taxi driver. Shuttle buses are fixed-route, cars for hire (limo or anything under 16 passengers) require Livery plates and the driver must have a Class E.
  
  In NY, anyway.

• On the post: West Point Prof Who Called For Killing Of Academics Opposed To US Terror War Resigns

  

  Roy Wilson ( profile ), 01 Sep, 2015 @ 05:06pm

  His credentials...

  ...we should give this guy his own TV show. He could narrate the opening, something along the lines of "My IQ is 197..."

• On the post: Sony Pictures, Which Hyped Up 'Harm' Of Hack, Now Tells Court No Harm Done To Employees

  

  Roy Wilson ( profile ), 31 Aug, 2015 @ 10:21am

  It's a strategy...

  ...designed to prevent them from disclosing items as evidence.

• On the post: City of San Jose Looking To Attach Automatic License Plate Readers To Garbage Trucks

  

  Roy Wilson ( profile ), 27 Aug, 2015 @ 04:37pm

  This could be fun...

  If I put an ALPR on my private cars, can I beat up handcuffed "suspects", or should I just shoot them?

• On the post: UK Orders Google To 'Forget' News Articles Discussing Previous Right To Be Forgotten Requests

  

  Roy Wilson ( profile ), 21 Aug, 2015 @ 10:32am

  Re: Re: Missing the point here...

  Sigh. Paranoia? They're ALREADY doing it.
  
  Public search engine will turn up nothing due to blacklisting. Same search engine accessed from an "undesignated official government IP" will bypass the blacklist.
  
  C'mon, this is simple DBMS work. Level One users have a lot more access to data, not just edit/delete functions than Level Ten users.

• On the post: The Day Someone Signed Me Up For An Ashley Madison Account (That Day Would Be Yesterday)

  

  Roy Wilson ( profile ), 21 Aug, 2015 @ 10:24am

  C'mon, this is great!

  And sooo much cheaper than buying yearly subscriptions for people that annoy you to Blue Boy or On Our Backs....

• On the post: UK Orders Google To 'Forget' News Articles Discussing Previous Right To Be Forgotten Requests

  

  Roy Wilson ( profile ), 21 Aug, 2015 @ 07:23am

  Missing the point here...

  As was revealed by the Torture Report(s), Google provides specialized, PRIVATE search engine technology to PRIVATE datasets.
  
  These rulings are to keep the PUBLIC from access - is anyone really naive enough to believe they'll vanish from GOVERNMENT databases?
  
  Move along, citizen, nothing to see here....

• On the post: Woman Catches Cop Beating Handcuffed Suspect; Police Union First In Line To Shoot The Messenger

  

  Roy Wilson ( profile ), 20 Aug, 2015 @ 04:54am

  Re: Re: Re: Re:

  Putting it to the cloud or other service off-device brings up some very nasty Chain of Custody problems if you try to produce it as evidence. The actual phone/camera that did the recording is much easier to introduce without having it excluded for CoC problems. Backing up to an online storage site is another matter.
  
  But if you want it introduced as an Exhibit, you really want the phone itself, with the original recording on it.

• On the post: Sophos: If You'd Like A Copy Of Our Free AV Software, You'll Need To Prove You're Not A Terrorist

  

  Roy Wilson ( profile ), 10 Aug, 2015 @ 07:09am

  Re: Stupid or worrisome, take your pick

  "If they're blocking people from downloading their software based upon names"
  
  No. They SAY it's a name check. Sophos deals with some very tight encryption and other software.
  
  They're using a "third party" (which could very well be NSA, CIA, or DHS) to check who is accessing their systems.
  
  I suspect it's NOT a simple name check. Something about either the information the guy entered, or his IP/MAC, route to server, etc. threw up flags.

• On the post: The Drug War Is Creating Problems Too Big To Fix

  

  Roy Wilson ( profile ), 30 Jul, 2015 @ 06:31am

  How soon they forget....

  It was only 10-15 years back that the FBI lab was busted for faking DNA tests.
  
  Result? I think they "fired" the guy in charge ex post facto - he'd already retired.
  
  Cases re-opened? ZERO.

• On the post: Let's Encrypt Releases Transparency Report — All Zeroes Across The Board

  

  Roy Wilson ( profile ), 03 Jul, 2015 @ 05:50am

  sdrawcaB

  I think you may be looking at this backwards. It seems very similar to "reports" I used to send around the company whenever a new database was requested, with a memo to inform me of any changes required before I cast it in stone. Add/drop fields, add/drop columns, etc.
  
  And all the fields were filled with a single character - usually a zero, just to keep the formatting correct.

• On the post: Boston Police Hiding Administrative Stingray Docs Behind 'Investigatory Materials' Exemption

  

  Roy Wilson ( profile ), 19 Jun, 2015 @ 05:04am

  sensitive technological capabilities

  I'm starting to wonder if they're not releasing Stingray specifications because it's "easy" to detect and/or block. Perhaps it has a unique identifier that can be mapped around easily, which would mean an app for phones would be released about three nanoseconds after the specs became public.
  
  The stonewalling doesn't really make sense for any other reason at this point. It's not like they're going to stop using it, no matter what a court tells them to do.

• On the post: Mi Amiga: One Michigan School District's Three-Decades-Old Hero Computer That Still Manages HVAC Today

  

  Roy Wilson ( profile ), 18 Jun, 2015 @ 03:59am

  Re: Re: non-server rated model instead.

  "Back in the day" :) we used to purchase "rated" (which eventually was renamed "server grade") Maxtor XT1140 drives at a tremendous premium. The only difference between them and the "consumer" model was that Maxtor guaranteed zero bad blocks (MFM drives, couldn't map bad blocks to the inner spindle unused space).
  
  They also added a zero to the MTBF on the drives. As another person pointed out, when one failed it was usually the drive electronics, not the platters or the motors.

• On the post: Mi Amiga: One Michigan School District's Three-Decades-Old Hero Computer That Still Manages HVAC Today

  

  Roy Wilson ( profile ), 18 Jun, 2015 @ 03:56am

  Not all that surprising

  There's a LOT of equipment out there still running from the same period. You just don't usually hear about it.
  
  The airwing controls on the Space Shuttles are controlled by a Tandy Color Computer 3 motherboard, running OS-9. Yeah, the $400 CoCo3 game machine from 1986 or so is what brought those Shuttles in to land safely.

• On the post: Stewart Baker: Journalists Are To Blame For Making The NSA Look Like It's Doing All The Things It's Actually Doing

  

  Roy Wilson ( profile ), 17 Jun, 2015 @ 09:10am

  4th

  Actually, it doesn't. What it protects against is anything seized during an illegal being used as evidence against you.
  
  That is the basis of "Law" behind Asset Forfeiture. If they don't use it as evidence, they can keep it.

• On the post: CIA Still Acting Like A Domestic Surveillance Agency, Despite Instructions Otherwise

  

  Roy Wilson ( profile ), 17 Jun, 2015 @ 02:41pm

  Why is anyone surprised?

  There's NO penalty that can be applied against any US Intelligence (or other) service. None. Zip. Zero. Nada.
  
  What disincentive do they have to NOT continue business as usual?

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