Beta 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: Supreme Court Quietly Changes Rulings After Releasing Them; Refuses To Reveal What Those Changes Are

    Beta ( profile ), 27 May, 2014 @ 11:38am

    What's the big deal?

    Anyone can fix this by maintaining an archive site. It's not as if MiniTruth goons are going to show up to revise your records of what the SC site used to say.

    And I think "private, secret law" is an overstatement. These revision records give insight into the Justices' thought processes (such as they may be), but they don't have legal weight, they can't be invoked or even cited as precedent. At worst they might give a slight edge to someone preparing to argue before the SC.

    Do not attribute to sinister conspiracy what can adequately be explained by eighteenth-century thinking and aversion to embarrassment.

  • On the post: Another Bogus Hit From A License Plate Reader Results In Another Citizen Surrounded By Cops With Guns Out

    Beta ( profile ), 24 May, 2014 @ 05:21am

    Re:

    Q: How many San Francisco police officers does it take to look at a license plate?
    A: Huh?

  • On the post: Germany Plans To Ban Computer Companies That Work With NSA From Sensitive Public Contracts

    Beta ( profile ), 21 May, 2014 @ 08:16am

    Reflections on Trusting Trust

    These new rules appeal to public outrage and give commercial advantage to German computer companies; this would be a good political move even if it did nothing at all to improve security -- which may be the case.

    Back doors are possible. They can be very difficult to detect. Spies love them, and intelligence agencies will pay well for them, no matter what laws we pass. So once we're done posturing, maybe we should give some more thought to the problem of doing secure computation on machines we can never entirely trust.

  • On the post: Another Improvement To The Star Wars 'New' Trilogy Torpedoed By Copyright

    Beta ( profile ), 14 May, 2014 @ 11:43am

    Re: Re: unspeakable numbers

    My point is that all they have to do is release the start/stop times. There are a lot of people out there now who could take the list, grab their own copies of the prequels, put in a minute's work, and sit down and watch the recut version. And the fraction of the viewing public that can do that is only going to increase (barring a big new turn of events in the War on General Computing).

    For years I've been advising people to watch "The Abyss"-- but skip the last five minutes or so (I have the exact time around here someplace). The first half of "The Puppet Masters" is good too. "Heroes" is great if you skip the second season entirely. And I don't know how many times I've recommended a particular chapter or volume of a book, or book of a series.

    Copying and distributing recuts are logically independent, and they're now becoming practically independent too.

  • On the post: Another Improvement To The Star Wars 'New' Trilogy Torpedoed By Copyright

    Beta ( profile ), 14 May, 2014 @ 08:30am

    unspeakable numbers

    Not having seen these recuts, I find it very difficult to believe that one could simply carve a good movie out of those three monstrosities.

    But, if it really is just a matter of cutting away the bad stuff and reordering the scraps that are left, then a recut version is basically just... the three prequels plus a short list of start/stop time indices. Could someone really be sued for copyright infringement, for circulating a couple of hundred numbers which are not copyrighted?

  • On the post: Emails Show Peoria Police Knew There Was No Legal Basis To Pursue Twitter User Who Parodied Mayor Jim Ardis [Updated]

    Beta ( profile ), 13 May, 2014 @ 07:00am

    Re:

    Don't forget this part:

    In his search warrant affidavit, detective Stevie Hughes wrote that there was ?probable cause to believe? [things for which there was never a shred of evidence].

    Although a perjury charge is unlikely, I would pay good money to see Detective Hughes squirm on the witness stand in a civil case. And if there were any logic in the system, no affidavit by Hughes would ever make it past a judge's wastebasket again.

  • On the post: DHS Fusion Center Admits Photographer Is Covered By 1st Amendment But Just Doesn't Like The Way He Treats Officers

    Beta ( profile ), 28 Apr, 2014 @ 12:50pm

    provocative innocence

    "...The manner in which he lures the officers in is concerning."

    He is luring us in, and this is very concerning, therefore we should approach him. It is a lure, in that there is really no reason for us to approach him, and yet he is causing us to approach him by acting in a way that gives us no reason to do so. If there really were a reason for us to approach him, then he would not be luring us. In that case he would be doing nothing wrong, but in fact he is doing nothing wrong; this is very concerning.

  • On the post: Five Illinois Cops Are Caught Lying On The Stand When Defense Produces A Recording Contradicting Their Testimony

    Beta ( profile ), 23 Apr, 2014 @ 07:43am

    Re: Cops and Perjury

    If (when the evidence is incontrovertible) they will be tried, convicted and punished like anyone else, then I think perjury is good enough, and appropriate.

    If (when the evidence is incontrovertible) no prosecutor will prosecute them, no court will convict them and no judge will send them up the river, then I don't see the point of increasing the penalties.

  • On the post: DailyDirt: Judging The Quality of Science

    Beta ( profile ), 10 Apr, 2014 @ 02:37am

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Science or Pseudo-Science - How can we tell

    You seem to know just enough about physics to compose this word salad. That may be good enough to impress the people who buy Deepak Chopra's books, but I'm glad that Jimmy Wales won't tolerate such garbage. Maybe you can't tell the difference between science and pseudoscience, but we can.

  • On the post: DailyDirt: Judging The Quality of Science

    Beta ( profile ), 09 Apr, 2014 @ 06:56pm

    Re: Re: Re: Science or Pseudo-Science - How can we tell

    Considering the fact that gravity goes as one over distance squared, and dipole-dipole interaction goes as one over distance to the fourth power, I'd say that's considerably less plausible than an elephant surviving in vacuum.

  • On the post: DailyDirt: Judging The Quality of Science

    Beta ( profile ), 09 Apr, 2014 @ 06:32pm

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Science or Pseudo-Science - How can we tell

    You're wrong about neutron stars; show your calculations if you like. I'll hold off on black holes until I'm satisfied you know what your words mean.

  • On the post: George W. Bush Used Top Google Results For All His Paintings; Will He Be Sued For Copyright Infringement?

    Beta ( profile ), 09 Apr, 2014 @ 05:03pm

    fair's fair

    It's true that Mr. Bush will not be sued over these paintings because he is a former president of the United States.

    But let's face it, if he weren't a former president of the United States, no one would ever have looked twice at these wretched paintings.

  • On the post: DailyDirt: Judging The Quality of Science

    Beta ( profile ), 09 Apr, 2014 @ 04:42am

    Re: Science or Pseudo-Science - How can we tell

    "I know of various experiments that have been proposed which have been given no support at all. These experiments would categorically dispose of the alternative model if they failed. Yet as far as I can tell, no such experiments are being worked on because it would be career suicide to partake of these experiments. It quite often appears that those controlling the purse strings are the ones who would lose most with their reputations if they allow the experiments to go through."


    Umm... All of that would apply to an experiment like "let's launch an elephant into orbit to test the theory that elephants can survive unprotected in outer space".

    Please, tell us about one of these proposed experiments. Be specific.

  • On the post: DailyDirt: Judging The Quality of Science

    Beta ( profile ), 09 Apr, 2014 @ 04:33am

    Re: Re: Re: Science or Pseudo-Science - How can we tell

    "Black holes, neutron stars, dark matter and dark energy... have been proposed based on the mathematical models developed and are believed to exist. But they have not actually been observed as testable entities."

    I don't know what you mean by "observed as testable entities". Our theories of these entities make predictions, which we can and do test. If you don't want to believe in them, fine, don't. But I have a sneaking suspicion that the "models which go against the mainstream" -- which you mention but don't specify -- don't stack up so well.

  • On the post: The TSA Vs. The Fourth Amendment: You're Free To Board A Plane, But You're Not Free To Leave The Screening Area

    Beta ( profile ), 08 Apr, 2014 @ 09:50am

    Re: There's a problem with this reasoning

    "We must call off the attack. My plan was to carry a gun through security, and abort if I was about to be detected, but now that is impossible."

    "Too bad, and it was so... Wait. You can tell when you're about to be detected?"

    "Yes, I can look at what they're doing and see whether it would be enough to detect my gun."

    "Well, why not do that without the gun?"

    "Because it doesn't do any good to get through security without a gun! Even if I found that security was lax, I'd be on the plane unarmed. Use your head!"

    "But if you find that security is lax, then you can call me and I'll come through after you with the gun."

    "Good heavens... My friend, I'll bet you're smarter than two panels of Circuit Court judges!"

  • On the post: The TSA Vs. The Fourth Amendment: You're Free To Board A Plane, But You're Not Free To Leave The Screening Area

    Beta ( profile ), 08 Apr, 2014 @ 09:32am

    probing for lax judges

    A right is not a right if it can be denied on the grounds that it might make crime easier. If this is sound law, then they should have repealed the fourth amendment before the ink was dry.

  • On the post: Governin': Sen. Dan Coats Questions The Wrong Witness At The Wrong Hearing

    Beta ( profile ), 04 Apr, 2014 @ 04:41pm

    fair's fair

    He made a mistake, and as soon as he realized he'd made a mistake, he admitted it. All right, he made an excuse and didn't quite apologize, but he didn't try to bluff his way through or blame it on someone else. I don't like to defend a man with his record, but this seems like a small error well handled, not a hilarious gaffe, not an example of instinctive evasive-action dishonesty, and not an appalling lapse in cognition that ought to put him on the next plane home.

  • On the post: Former Obama Official: Free Speech Ruling Hurts 'Public Civility' And 'Democratic Self-Government'

    Beta ( profile ), 25 Mar, 2014 @ 11:44am

    sauce for the goose

    Professor Sunstein doesn't mention whether he would approve of similar liability for politicians who make false statements to the public.

  • On the post: Exile: Sarah Harrison On Paying The Price For Helping Edward Snowden

    Beta ( profile ), 22 Mar, 2014 @ 05:13am

    Re: problem

    "It's... working to protect someone from being arrested and forced to face justice."

    If imprisonment under a law against political reform is justice, then I would be proud to protect someone from being forced to face it.

  • On the post: Kid Bullied For My Little Pony Backpack Told Not To Bring It To School Anymore

    Beta ( profile ), 19 Mar, 2014 @ 01:15pm

    They could at least call this what it is: an infinite tolerance policy.

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