Gumnos 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (132)

• On the post: You're Entitled To Your Own Opinions, But Not Your Own Facts About Copyright, NY Times Edition

  

  Gumnos ( profile ), 23 May, 2016 @ 12:19pm

  Re: copyright for the benefit of the creators

  Patently false at least in the US where the purpose is explicitly

  to promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.
  —United States Constitution, Article I, Section 8, Clause 8

  Copyright is just an attempt at a means to advance "Science and useful Arts".

• On the post: Homeland Security Wants To Subpoena Us Over A Clearly Hyperbolic Techdirt Comment

  

  Gumnos ( profile ), 09 May, 2016 @ 11:08am

  Re: Re: speech as the first step to doing something really bad

  There is no way for anyone to know if any speech is "NOT the first step in doing something really bad."

  Oh, I know of at least one phrase that nigh guarantees subsequent malfeasance. “I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

• On the post: As Broadband Usage Caps Expand, Complaints To The FCC Skyrocket

  

  Gumnos ( profile ), 01 May, 2016 @ 04:53pm

  Re: measuring Comcast

  Just making sure that your router logged all WAN traffic, not just HTTP/HTTPS. A 70GB discrepancy is still a HUGE difference and would be hard to reach on DNS/NTP-queries (or other common UDP traffic) alone, but I could see it being from IMAP/POP/SMTP or SSH/BitTorrent traffic.
  
  Or maybe Comcast is injecting 70GB of super-cookies in your HTTP(non-S) traffic and billing you for the privilege. ????

• On the post: Court Tells Cops They Can't Open A Flip Phone Without A Warrant

  

  Gumnos ( profile ), 26 Apr, 2016 @ 03:58am

  Re: Re:

  Options include accepting the spoliation of evidence as collateral damage for the illegal search; coming up with a Faraday-bag style isolation like you describe; or being willing to accept that a remote wipe is a possibility. If the phone's owner has been arrested, it's less likely that they have capabilities to execute a remote wipe, but it's a possibility.
  
  However, it's possible to force either the potential spoliation-of-battery-case-evidence or device-gets-wiped situation by writing some sort of "wake every 30 minutes and check if my owner has entered their pass-code at any time in the last 24hr, and if not, wipe myself" program.

• On the post: Court Tells Cops They Can't Open A Flip Phone Without A Warrant

  

  Gumnos ( profile ), 25 Apr, 2016 @ 11:52am

  officers could have removed the battery without opening the phone

  
  
  Well, until evidence such as LSD tabs or a hit-list falls out of the battery compartment. If there's no warrant and it's not in plain view, it's an illegal search. Full stop.

• On the post: Former DHS Secretary Says We Can Make Airports Safer From Terrorists By Rearranging Security Checkpoints

  

  Gumnos ( profile ), 23 Mar, 2016 @ 09:50am

  Rearranging deck chairs

  “White Star Line says we can make the successor to the Titanic safer by rearranging the deck chairs”

• On the post: Congressmen Upton, Walden Latest To Insist Nobody Needs Faster Broadband

  

  Gumnos ( profile ), 10 Feb, 2016 @ 06:56am

  640k should be enough for anybody

  Just like 14.4k dial-up should be enough for anybody.

• On the post: Texas Police Arrest Kid For Building A Clock

  

  Gumnos ( profile ), 16 Sep, 2015 @ 08:30am

  The moral of this story...

  If you're going to bring a bomb to school in TX, make sure that it looks like some professionally made football equipment, not like a tinkerer's project. Because this is TX where football goes unquestioned (unlike all that sciency-math-inventor stuff).

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

  

  Gumnos ( profile ), 19 Aug, 2015 @ 03:52pm

  Protecting…

  the officer in question was “protecting our community.”

  
  
  Yeah, just try "protecting" an officer like that and see how well it goes down.

• On the post: Leonard Nimoy's Son Needs To Crowdfund Money For Spock Documentary… To License Photos And Videos

  

  Gumnos ( profile ), 19 Jun, 2015 @ 12:56pm

  Is there any way…

  Is there any way this could be called anything other than a "Spockumentary"?

• On the post: CIA Refuses To Release Osama's Porn Collection Information To Bro Who Submitted FOIA For It

  

  Gumnos ( profile ), 15 Jun, 2015 @ 12:10pm

  Re: porn

  Given that all other communications seemed to occur by secure couriered flash-drives, that browsing porn (or any other sort of images) via flash-drive would be pretty tedious.
  

  
  Osama: [browsing aforementioned gay Mexican midget porn] Amir, I request to see this image but with his leather jacket removed
  Amir: Yes, sir.
  [3 months transpire]
  Amir: Here, sir, is the next image in the series. He has removed the leather jacket.
  Osama: Mmm. That naughty fellow. Just how I like it. Now, Amir, fetch me the next image in the sequence. The one without the leather chaps…
  Amir: «sighs» Yes, sir.
  [3 more months transpire]
  Amir:Sir, your…
  Osama: [rips flash drive from Amir's hand and runs to private section of cave]
  

• On the post: Hack Of Federal Gov't Employee Info Is Much, Much Worse Than Originally Stated: Unencrypted Social Security Numbers Leaked

  

  Gumnos ( profile ), 12 Jun, 2015 @ 08:29am

  Thank goodness…

  Phew, thank goodness that the use of SSNs is limited to the designated purpose, not as some nation-wide identifier used for any and all other purposes. Oh, wait. Crap.

• On the post: Alert: North Korea Now Capable Of Using Photoshop To Launch Missiles From Submarines

  

  Gumnos ( profile ), 22 May, 2015 @ 06:11am

  Re: Photoshop

  The Supreme Leader needs neither Photoshop nor GIMP. His mind natively manipulates the bits on disk.

• On the post: Cable Industry Tries To Distance Itself From Decades Of Poor Service By Eliminating The Word 'Cable'

  

  Gumnos ( profile ), 13 May, 2015 @ 08:41am

  Re: Renaming

  That isn't tax-evasion, it's an "alternate payment plan".
  
  That isn't stealing, it's "undercompensated resource reallocation".
  
  That isn't murder, it's "problem solving".
  
  I'm sure we can come up with lots more on both sides of the governmental divide.

• On the post: Encryption: What The FBI Wants It Can Only Have By Destroying Computing And Censoring The Internet

  

  Gumnos ( profile ), 06 May, 2015 @ 12:46pm

  Re: Sic Transit Gloria Mundi

  Am I missing that content? Decoding it as base64 and passing it to file(1) identifies as "SysEx File -" which I've never heard of and The Great Google doesn't give much detail on.

• On the post: Comic Artists Claim Copyright On Metallic Suits And The Three Point Landing

  

  Gumnos ( profile ), 29 Apr, 2015 @ 11:17am

  Re: Back to Spiderman?

  Try Hellenistic Greece for three-point stances. ☺

• On the post: Google To EU: You Know, No One Really Uses Our Vertical Search Products

  

  Gumnos ( profile ), 19 Apr, 2015 @ 12:22pm

  Re: Search Engines

  Oh come on. Putting Bing first? That's seriously dissuading! “Here's our best guess for what you want:

• On the post: TSA Agents Outwitted By Cory Doctorow's Unlocked, 'TSA-Safe' Suitcase

  

  Gumnos ( profile ), 15 Apr, 2015 @ 10:30am

  While I posted this a while back…

  WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Transportation Security Administration announces its recent partnership with the Roman Catholic Church. Beginning in time for the Christmas travel season, the Vatican will supply additional staff to perform pat-down searches and monitor the full-body scanners.
  
  A small but vocal minority of fliers have expressed concern regarding the program. TSA spokesman Dick Tickle dismisses the opposition as an aggrieved minority, stating that the financial savings and increased security benefit taxpayers and travellers alike.
  
  "My co-workers and I are uncomfortable with the intimate nature of the pat-down searches required for those who opt out of the full-body scannings," notes TSA agent Willie G. Roper. "The priests don't seem to object, the people trust them, and they reportedly bring years of experience with them."
  
  Father John Geoghan eagerly looks forward to helping secure America's transportation network. "I've seen the images produced by the backscatter/millimeter-wave systems, and there's no hiding anything."
  
  Given the expected success of the new program, Tickle hints that the agency plans to extend its subcontracting relationships, starting with state correctional institutions. "A number of parolees and work-release prisoners have a difficult time finding jobs because of their record. In some cases, their names will appear on the sex-offender registry for the rest of their life. We offer them hope at reintegrating into society while making travel safer."

• On the post: DOJ Asserts Its Desire To Live In A Fantasy World Where Publicly-Disclosed Documents Haven't Been Publicly Disclosed

  

  Gumnos ( profile ), 10 Apr, 2015 @ 09:42am

  Ah, that technique

  I didn't realize that law schools still taught the “sorry, I can't hear you, my fingers are in my ears, LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA-LA!” technique of representation.

• On the post: Weather Channel Tackles Criticism For Airing Too Much Fluff, With New Ads Attacking Competitors For Airing Too Much Fluff

  

  Gumnos ( profile ), 08 Apr, 2015 @ 05:55am

  Sorta amazed it's still a thing

  First, I never figured I'd see such readily obvious comparisons between The Weather Channel and MTV. MTV used to actually show music around the clock, but is now mostly filler fluff with no music. The Weather Channel used to actually show weather around the clock, but is now mostly filler fluff with no weather.
  
  Second, this is the same Weather Channel that, on multiple occasions, has given an up-to-the-minute forecast of 0% chance of precipitation for my rather small Zip code when I can see a deluge outside. No love lost for those weather witches.

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