DannyB 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: Chicago Considers Another Dumb 'Texting And Walking' Law To Raise Revenue

    DannyB ( profile ), 30 Nov, 2017 @ 05:58am

    Bu, bu, but . . . .

    Your honor! I was NOT texting and walking. I was updating my FaceBorg pages. My Twit friends were nominating me for the highly coveted Darwin Award.

  • On the post: Everything That's Wrong With Social Media And Big Internet Companies: Part 1

    DannyB ( profile ), 29 Nov, 2017 @ 01:59pm

    Other things wrong with Social Media

    1. It is socially awkward in a way that real life is not. Some people I would rather avoid. There's nothing wrong with that.
    2. It becomes, like YouTube, a "look at me!", "look what I did" where people get their self worth from trying to please other people.
    3. It is a black hole for time.

  • On the post: Government Exposes Documents Detailing Sensitive NSA Software, Surveillance Programs

    DannyB ( profile ), 29 Nov, 2017 @ 01:54pm

    Sprawl

    Maybe the intelligance agencies and all their appendages have simply become so big, too big to effectively keep all their secrets bottled up.

    It seems, intuitively, that a small organization is better able to keep secrets than a gigantic impersonal organization.

  • On the post: Court Says Cop's Theft Of Evidence Shouldn't Have Any Effect On Man's 15-Year Drug Sentence

    DannyB ( profile ), 29 Nov, 2017 @ 05:53am

    I have to side with the court in this case

    I have to side with the court. The deception of law enforcement should definitely not affect the 15 year sentence.

    What it should affect is the CONVICTION. The conviction should be thrown out, ground up into fine powder, burned, and the ashes made into a new coffee ingredient for bad cops to drink.

  • On the post: Sheriff Says He Won't Deploy Body Cameras Because He Doesn't Want His Deputies Criticized

    DannyB ( profile ), 27 Nov, 2017 @ 02:24pm

    It sounds like the Feds need to take over

    This is one police department that needs to be taken over by the Feds until it can be reformed. The Sheriff's statement is evidence of the necessity.

  • On the post: New York Court Says NYPD Must Get Warrants To Deploy Stingrays

    DannyB ( profile ), 22 Nov, 2017 @ 09:41am

    Re: Re: How about disclosing the workings of Stingray?

    As for your correction, aren't we saying the same thing? Stingray Use implies Warrant was obtained?

    I suspect that the production, testing, use of Stingray might actually be illegal, assuming it uses stolen crypto keys and/or credentials in order to merely function. I doubt that the warrant makes that legal. I suspect the court doesn't understand how Stingray works (because it is so secret) and if the court did understand, it would NOT be issuing warrants to use an illegal device to gather evidence for a prosecution.

  • On the post: New York Court Says NYPD Must Get Warrants To Deploy Stingrays

    DannyB ( profile ), 22 Nov, 2017 @ 05:59am

    How about disclosing the workings of Stingray?

    Now that Stingray can be used, with a warrant, what's the big secret?

    Why is Stingray guarded with a level of secrecy that rises to the level of a national security problem?

    What I'm getting at is how Stingray does what it does.

    Hypothesis:

    Stingray fools phones into thinking Stingray is a cell phone tower. In order to do this, either:

    1. The highly secure protocols are breached by Stingray having stolen crypto keys and / or credentials.

    2. The highly insecure protocols are easily breached.

    Either way would explain the extreme secrecy. In case 1, if the mobile network operators knew which credentials / keys were being used, they would revoke them, and all the mobile phones in the field would reject Stingray "cell towers". If these keys became widely known, then everyone including every high school kid would have their own stingray.

    In case 2, if the secret of the weak protocol and how to exploit it were known, everyone including every high school kid would have their own Stingray.

    If the public could build Stingrays, that would be unthinkable! Poor people could spy on the rich and powerful.

  • On the post: As The FCC Guts Net Neutrality, Comcast Again Falsely Claims You Have Nothing To Worry About

    DannyB ( profile ), 22 Nov, 2017 @ 05:50am

    Comcast users, you have nothing to worry about

    Seriously. You have nothing to worry about. Do you actually think Comcast service could get any worse?

    Okay, maybe it can. Always look on the bright side. No matter how bad your internet service, it can always get worse.

  • On the post: Surveillance Fans Angry Journalist Used Metadata, Contact Chaining To Out Comey's Secret Twitter Account

    DannyB ( profile ), 20 Nov, 2017 @ 06:08am

    Talk about an impossible to parse headline

    Surveillance Fans Angry Journalist Used Metadata, Contact Chaining To Out Comey's Secret Twitter Account

    Talk about a difficult to parse headline. This is where a backtracking parser is needed. Context free simply won't cut it.

    Attempt #1. Surveillance is the verb? No. That one quickly fails to parse.

    Attempt #2. Fans is the verb? That one starts to parse. Surveillance, the subject, Fans something, And what it fans is an Angry Journalist, but then parsing falls apart.

    Attempt #3. Used is the verb? Surveillance Fans is possessive, and owns an Angry Journalist. So an Angry Journalist owned by Surveillance Fans, Used Metadata, and had to Contact something . . . well, that one parses completely but fails to make sense and thus is rejected during semantic analysis phase. Thus backtracking into the current parser state for another try is triggered from a different phase of the recognizer.

    Attempt #4: Angry is the verb? Surveillande Fans is the subject, and they are Angry that a Journalist Used Metadata, that works, and then after parsing the entire rest of the sentence, the comma means Surveillance Fans are Angry about 2 things separated by a comma.

    Whew! I need another diet coke.

  • On the post: Russian Foreign Ministry Accuses America Of Supporting ISIS With Video Game Footage

    DannyB ( profile ), 16 Nov, 2017 @ 05:52am

    Intended for a local audience

    I can't help but think that these videos, of game footage, are mostly propaganda intended for the citizens of that country, who mostly, might not know any better.

  • On the post: Recent Intel Chipsets Have A Built-In Hidden Computer, Running Minix With A Networking Stack And A Web Server

    DannyB ( profile ), 10 Nov, 2017 @ 10:01am

    Re: Re: Get Over It, Time To Move On

    I'm being sarcastic, but maybe not obviously enough.

    This is an issue of major importance.

    I'm also pointing out that they probably won't stop by just pre-compromising microprocessors. They will probably try to compromise other hardware as well. By "they" I mean whoever put Intel up to this nonsense.

    As things stand at the moment, can you even trust your compiler tool chain when run on an Intel microprocessor? (See "Trusting Trust" article from ancient times.)

  • On the post: David Boies Accused Of Running Horrifying Spy Operation Against Harvey Weinstein's Accusers

    DannyB ( profile ), 10 Nov, 2017 @ 06:29am

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:

    The litigation might still be stuck in the courts. The the dust had settled. Everyone knew Microsoft wouldn't get any (effective) consequences for trying to monopolize the internet. And the industry had moved on. The fact that the gears continued to slowly turn in the courts had little effect.

    It was clear they would not regulate the IE behavior -- which they did not. By the time users were given a choice of browser, it hardly mattered.

    An effective remedy would be to break up Microsoft into three parts: Microsoft A, Microsoft B, and Microsoft C.

    Each part gets ALL of the current Microsoft products and split of the total resources. Now go compete with each other boys! Now each of A, B and C would be trying to make their products better and / or cheaper against the others. No more monopoly. If I don't like what Microsoft A is offering, I can go buy Microsoft C's product.

  • On the post: Recent Intel Chipsets Have A Built-In Hidden Computer, Running Minix With A Networking Stack And A Web Server

    DannyB ( profile ), 10 Nov, 2017 @ 06:22am

    Get Over It, Time To Move On

    The fact that your hardware is compromised from the factory and the compromise is baked right into the hardware is OLD NEWS. Years old.

    Time to move on to something new.

    With the large sizes of modern hard drives it is time to start building "management engines" directly into the drives. Each hard drive would have a secondary network connector (ethernet, wifi) in addition to the primary connection of the drive to the computer (scsi, sata, eide, etc). The drive would refuse to work without the network connector being operational at least occasionally.

    This would enable the mother ship to analyze the contents of your drive. Because of: (in decreasing order of national importance)

    [x] anti-Trump comments!

    [x] Copyright Infringement

    [x] videos of crimes committed by police

    [x] Think of the Children!

    [x] Blackmail material

    [_] Justin Bieber music

    [x] Crypto keys

    [x] Terrorism

    Furthermore, the mother ship would be able to communicate with the management engine inside of a hard drive in order to write to it which is useful for planting evidence.

    The remote monitoring consoles for scanning and altering hard drives need an advanced UI that can be operated by one hand. This leaves the other hand free for . . . um . . . .

    eating donuts. And other activities.

  • On the post: Taylor Swift Using Dubious Trademark Registrations To Shut Down Sales Of Fan-Made Goods

    DannyB ( profile ), 09 Nov, 2017 @ 01:40pm

    Re:

    According to both the RIAA and MPAA, suing your fans is the most highly recommended way to get even more fans.

  • On the post: Playboy Sues BoingBoing For Linking To Collection Of Centerfold Pictures

    DannyB ( profile ), 09 Nov, 2017 @ 01:37pm

    Re: Linking?

    The lesson: link to copyright infringement more quietly. Even if you are not the copyright infringer, and don't intend to commit any actual infringement or downloading.

  • On the post: David Boies Accused Of Running Horrifying Spy Operation Against Harvey Weinstein's Accusers

    DannyB ( profile ), 09 Nov, 2017 @ 06:02am

    Re: Re: Re: Re:

    Pointing out Mac OS (about 5% by 1999) and Linux (approx 0%) helps make the case against Microsoft.

    Microsoft was engaging in behavior that led to the antitrust suit.

    Microsoft saw a threat in these new emerging Web Browser thingies. OMG!!! It might be possible to build applications that make the OS irrelevant! And, of course, it eventually happened.

    In 1995, Macs were easy to connect to the dial up internet. It had nice GUI applications for the staple applications: Usenet, FTP, Email and Telnet. Also Gopher. And this new web browser thingy: Mosaic, and soon Netscape. PC's were difficult to set up for dial up internet access. I know, I helped several friends do it.

    Bill Gates said the internet was just a fad. Well, of course. Because he saw the world entirely in terms of his business model.

    Suddenly Microsoft woke up and smelled the internet! OMG!!! We need a web browser. So Microsoft found a company, SpyGlass who made a browser for the PC. Microsoft bought it for $100,000 up front + a royalty percent of sales. Microsoft renamed SpyGlass to Internet Explorer. And guess how many copies of Internet Explorer were ever sold? Zero.

    Yet Microsoft invested $150 Million over time into development of Internet Explorer. Why? In order to turn the internet into Microsoft's exclusive domain. No other systems should even bother attempting to connect. So IE got some deliciously addictive (and insecure!) extensions that allowed running Windows code in the browser, that depended upon having IE and Windows as your browser.

    There already were emerging standards for how to write rich internet applications at the time. But Microsoft worked to make sure it's unique features in IE were enough to attract a significant number of developers. Then at version 6, Microsoft just let IE stagnate. Having fractured the web, Microsoft had significantly "Microsoftized" the internet.

    Microsoft made other efforts. IIS was intended to work "better" with IE. And Front Page also.

    This is what led to the antitrust lawsuit. And it was well deserved.

    Meanwhile, those mammals started coming out from their hidey holes and caves. FireFox rose from the ashes of Netscape. It got better and better. Over years, due to its clear superiority, its market share grew and grew. Long after the dust had settled on the antitrust suit, Firefox share was over 50% which prompted another crisis at Microsoft! OMG, we need to improve IE some more. Hence IE 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11.

    During these years, real web applications came into their own. Now any modern business application is a web application. During the years of IE 7 and beyond, IE was the bane and thorn in the side of every web developer. But open source libraries were able to abstract away the differences between IE and actual web standards. Eventually Microsoft realized it had the laughingstock of a web browser and embraced modern web standards.

    But look how long it took. And how much blood, sweat and tears.

    I for one am glad that Microsoft's best days are behind it.

  • On the post: David Boies Accused Of Running Horrifying Spy Operation Against Harvey Weinstein's Accusers

    DannyB ( profile ), 08 Nov, 2017 @ 01:47pm

    Re: Re:

    Microsoft was worse. Far worse.

    I can own and use a computer without FaceTwit.

    At the time, one could not own a computer without Microsoft. At least not without going to absolutely extraordinary effort (at the time). Try installing slackware at that time. What leads to antitrust is that Microsoft took plenty of steps to ensure that there could be absolutely no competition.

  • On the post: David Boies Accused Of Running Horrifying Spy Operation Against Harvey Weinstein's Accusers

    DannyB ( profile ), 08 Nov, 2017 @ 01:44pm

    Re: Lies, Damned Lies and David Boies

    Something I remember from Groklaw (God bless it) was this thing called "candor before the tribunal". Lawyers can not lie to the court. Or misrepresent things in a way that misleads the court.

    Perhaps a lawyer can chime in here.

  • On the post: David Boies Accused Of Running Horrifying Spy Operation Against Harvey Weinstein's Accusers

    DannyB ( profile ), 08 Nov, 2017 @ 01:42pm

    Re:

    Nonetheless, Alsup characterizes it correctly. Any junior programmer would certainly write this in well under five minutes. At this point in my career I would have spent more than 1 minute on a range check function like that. I would have thought of most of the act of writing a function declaration to be a lot of ceremony necessary to produce a reusable function.

  • On the post: David Boies Accused Of Running Horrifying Spy Operation Against Harvey Weinstein's Accusers

    DannyB ( profile ), 08 Nov, 2017 @ 01:40pm

    Re:

    Yes. That.

    I strongly agree.

    To anyone who would think that this was overreach, I would ask WHERE WERE YOU IN THE 1990's ????? UNDER A ROCK ???

    When Boise was prosecuting Microsoft for antitrust, I looked up to him. I had never heard of him before, and I was a lot younger.

    When his firm took on the SCO case, I thought this nice lawyer had no idea what a bad client he had accepted.

    But now I can recognize Boise for what he is. Maybe the Microsoft prosecution was an anomaly.

    But Microsoft absolutely positively deserved this antitrust prosecution. Too bad the judge screwed it up at the very last minute before publishing his decision.

    But then the Bush administration came in. And Asscroft dropped the whole thing for "lack of merit".

    At the time, I could realize that the rise of open source may seem slow. But it was inexorable. Unstoppable. And that one day Microsoft's best days would be behind it. I think we have CLEARLY crossed well past that line by now.

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