Eldakka 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (780)

• On the post: Shameful Security: StartCom Charges People To Revoke SSL Certs Vulnerable To Heartbleed

  

  Eldakka ( profile ), 09 Apr, 2014 @ 08:49pm

  Re: Re: Re: Disagree

  When it was found that a large number of their certs were signed with weak debian keys (remember that fiasco?) they automatically revoked them.

  Yes, because that was a problem of their own making.
  
  However, while I think they should be revoking certs for free, it is a different situation because they didn't make the problem.

• On the post: Shameful Security: StartCom Charges People To Revoke SSL Certs Vulnerable To Heartbleed

  

  Eldakka ( profile ), 09 Apr, 2014 @ 08:47pm

  Re: Re: Disagree

  they endanger everyone who uses the internet.

  Come again?
  
  How do they endanger everyone useing the internet? At worst they endanger the sites and users of the sites the certificates are for. That is not "everyone who uses the internet".

• On the post: EU Data Retention Requirements Ruled 'Invalid' By EU Court Of Justice

  

  Eldakka ( profile ), 08 Apr, 2014 @ 07:47pm

  Since this decision is effectively retrospective to the date of implementation of this directive, does that mean that anyone convicted of crimes based on evidence obtained by exercising this directive (or the local laws made to comply with the directive) now have valid grounds of appeal?

• On the post: Judge Otis Wright Slams 'Made Up' Government 'Plot' Designed To Ensnare Gullible Poor People

  

  Eldakka ( profile ), 20 Mar, 2014 @ 09:07pm

  Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Setting up Terrorists

  Upvoted for truth and for potty mouth!

• On the post: CIA Tells FOIA Requester It Can Only Make PDFs By Printing Out Electronic Documents And Re-Scanning Them

  

  Eldakka ( profile ), 18 Mar, 2014 @ 10:19pm

  Re: Re: Re: Makes sense

  Adobe Acrobat (Adobe's PDF creator) has an actual specific redaction MODE. There is a tool that says something like "redaction tool" that performs, you know, actual redactions of the selected area rather than just 'black-boxing' it.
  
  There also a function, I think it's called 'sanitizing' or something similiar, within Acrobat that destroys all the metadata fields in the PDF to remove the author information and all other information specifically for public releases of documents.

• On the post: Bogus Comparison Between Detroit In 1990 And Silicon Valley In 2012

  

  Eldakka ( profile ), 18 Mar, 2014 @ 07:13pm

  Re: Aren't you forgetting the normal distribution of skills

  I think you overestimate how smart people need to be to work in jobs coming out of Silicon Valley technologies.
  
  I've worked in IT for 20 years.
  
  I've done various jobs, developer, UNIX sysadmin, middleware support etc.
  
  I think I've done them all competently.
  
  And I'd probably scrape into the top 40%, let alone top 16%...

• On the post: NSA Has Capability To Record And Store ALL Foreign Phone Calls In Certain Countries

  

  Eldakka ( profile ), 18 Mar, 2014 @ 06:40pm

  Re:

  "the United States is not spying on ordinary people who don?t threaten our national security"

  
  
  The Whitehouse and Intelligence organisations think EVERYONE is, at least potentially, threatening their national security. Therefore by definition no-one falls within the "ordinary people who don't threaten our national security" category.

• On the post: Australian Attorney General Wants To Make It A Criminal Offense To Not Turn Over Private Encryption Keys

  

  Eldakka ( profile ), 17 Mar, 2014 @ 04:11pm

  Re: Re:

  Sorta.
  
  The AG is a member of parliament (i.e. voted into the legislature's upper or lower house in a general election) appointed by the Governor General upon advice of the Prime Minister.
  
  So the AG's position is not directly voted on, but the AG must be appointed out of the pool of people voted into the legislature in a general (or by-) election.

• On the post: More Details Revealed Concerning CIA's Spying On Senate Intelligence Committee

  

  Eldakka ( profile ), 05 Mar, 2014 @ 12:56pm

  Re: CFAA

  Those are the only two outcomes technically possible, which is a huge problem for the Executive Branch.

  
  
  I agree.
  
  I'd assume that an investigation of this level would require authorization from the Attorney General if not the President himself.
  
  So either:
  1) The AG or the President authorized an investigation into staffers of the senate intelligence committee - bad juju for the the authorizers, possibly political suicide; or,
  2) The CIA illegally spied on the senate intelligence committee hence breaking MANY laws (CFAA plus other laws regarding the legal limits of the CIA etc).
  
  ...

• On the post: Australian Broadcasters, Netflix Competitors Pout Because Netflix Hasn't Banned VPN Users Yet

  

  Eldakka ( profile ), 04 Mar, 2014 @ 04:07pm

  Re: Geo-restrictions on the internet

  the internet is a... well, *GASP* international net.

  
  
  Incorrect. The Internet is a series of interconnected networks. A network of networks. It is not one gigantic network. It is made up of national (and other) networks that are themselves made up of thousands, millions of separate networks that all interconnect. Each ISP is its own, separate network that interconnects with other networks (this is where peering comes in, see the recent stories about netflix peering problems).

• On the post: Xbox One Sales Lag PS4 As Microsoft Slowly Figures Out You Can't Tell Gamers What They're Supposed To Want

  

  Eldakka ( profile ), 23 Feb, 2014 @ 04:08pm

  Re:

  the old standard bluetooth devices that worked on PS3 no longer work on PS4... including Sony branded devices!

  
  
  Of course they don't, how else would they get you to buy new devices?

• On the post: Valve: No, Our Gaming Anti-Cheat System Isn't Tracking Your Voracious Porn Habits

  

  Eldakka ( profile ), 20 Feb, 2014 @ 04:17pm

  Re: Re:

  Actually no, it's more like having a setuid root script that steam can modify at will on my system, so can therefore be used to run ANYTHING. If steam update got hacked (say by the NSA), millions of computers could get infected by spyware/trojans etc.

• On the post: Valve: No, Our Gaming Anti-Cheat System Isn't Tracking Your Voracious Porn Habits

  

  Eldakka ( profile ), 20 Feb, 2014 @ 04:15pm

  Re: Re: As a Single Player Hacker

  
  ...I take it you don't use apple products either...

  
  
  Correct.

• On the post: Oregon Police Push State Law-Violating ID Scanners On Nightclub And Bar Owners

  

  Eldakka ( profile ), 20 Feb, 2014 @ 12:25am

  Re: Good arguments, but...

  I'm not sure exactly what you are replying to.
  
  This article has nothing to do with constitutional rights and so on.
  
  It is to do with an Oregon state law, House Bill 2371, that makes it illegal for information gained from swiping an identity card (such as a drivers license) to be stored and/or passed on. And the fact that the police are encouraging, enabling, those business to break said law:
  
  https://olis.leg.state.or.us/liz/2009R1/Measures/Text/HB2371/Enrolled
  
  

  
  (2) Except as provided in subsection (6) of this section, a private entity may not swipe
  an individual′s driver license or identification card, except for the following purposes:
  (a) To verify the authenticity of a driver license or identification card or to verify the
  identity of the individual if the individual pays for a good or service with a method other than
  cash, returns an item or requests a refund.
  (b) To verify the individual′s age when providing an age-restricted good or service to any
  person about whom there is any reasonable doubt of the person′s having reached 21 years
  of age.
  (c) To prevent fraud or other criminal activity if an individual returns an item or requests
  a refund and the private entity uses a fraud prevention service company or system.
  (d) To transmit information to a check services company for the purpose of approving
  negotiable instruments, electronic funds transfers or similar methods of payment.
  (3) A private entity that swipes an individual′s driver license or identification card under
  subsection (2)(a) or (b) of this section may not store, sell or share personal information
  collected from swiping the driver license or identification card.
  

  
  
  Also interesting to note is that the law allows for remedies, actual damages or $1000, whichever is greater, and awarding costs to the plaintiff:
  

  
  (8) In addition to any other remedy provided by law, an individual may bring an action
  to recover actual damages or $1,000, whichever is greater, and to obtain equitable relief, if
  equitable relief is available, against an entity that swipes, stores, shares, sells or otherwise
  uses the individual′s personal information in violation of this section. A court shall award a
  prevailing plaintiff reasonable costs and attorney fees. If a court finds that a violation of this
  section was willful or knowing, the court may increase the amount of the award to no more
  than three times the amount otherwise available.
  

  
  
  So anyone in Multnomah County and Portland who has had their license swiped by one of these businesses could be heading for a $1000 windfall.
  
  And any business that is sued over this should then sue the Police department for THEIR costs due to the Police departments incitement to break the law.

• On the post: The DHS Sends Out The Call For A National License Plate Database

  

  Eldakka ( profile ), 18 Feb, 2014 @ 03:36pm

  It's always argued that what you do in public carries no expectation of privacy,

  
  
  "no expectation of privacy" is the LACK of privacy, not the OPPOSITE of privacy.
  
  However it seems that "no expectation of privacy" has somehow morphed into the opposite of privacy, "you WILL be tracked, followed, eaves-dropped on, bugged, and collated into a database".

• On the post: Claims About Snowden's 'Harms' Based On Two Assumptions Unlikely To Be True

  

  Eldakka ( profile ), 11 Feb, 2014 @ 11:47pm

  Re: Re: Re: Snowden's documents

  I actually parsed it at first as
  
  "mad, insane, paranoid cocks"

• On the post: Drug Task Force Officer Denied Qualified Immunity For Violating Citizen's Rights With Illicitly-Obtained No-Knock Warrant

  

  Eldakka ( profile ), 05 Feb, 2014 @ 06:24pm

  Re: Re: Re: Re: Lessons learnt

  Judges should alwasy ask the following questions:
  
  1) Where has the information come from?
  2) What is the background of the informant? (i.e. r they a drug dealer who is seeking a reduced sentence for providing information)
  3) What independant steps has the PD taken to verify this information?
  4) What were the results of those steps?
  5) Has the PD or any other body/individual undertaken additional investigation into the target of the warrant?
  6) What were the reults of that investigation?

• On the post: Honesty Policy: Russia Making No Bones About Spying On Everyone During The Olympics

  

  Eldakka ( profile ), 03 Feb, 2014 @ 03:08pm

  Re:

  What civil liberties are being violated?
  
  Does Russian law/constitution recognise/enshrine civil liberties?
  
  If not then they can't be violated in Russia as they don't exist.

• On the post: Homeland Security Is An Embarassment With The Way It Treats US Citizens At The Border

  

  Eldakka ( profile ), 30 Jan, 2014 @ 09:42pm

  Re: Re: Welcome to the US

  /pedant
  
  

  Pray I don't alter it any further.

• On the post: Man Subjected To Multiple Rectal Searches And Enemas By Police Officers Receives $1.6 Million Settlement

  

  Eldakka ( profile ), 22 Jan, 2014 @ 07:25pm

  Re: Re: Re:

  What this guy suffered was embarrassment and inconvenience.

  
  
  No, what ths guy suffered was:
  
  1) Wrongful arrest
  2) wrongful imprisonment
  3) Assault
  
  Let's take your analogy to an extreme.
  
  I know this girl who likes playing 'rape games' with her partners, and likes being choked during sex.
  
  Are you saying that if she was actually raped and choked by some random stranger then it'd just be "embarrassment and inconvienience" because she sometimes consents to similiar acts?

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