Jack Of Shadows 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (99)

• On the post: DailyDirt: Weapons In The Sky

  

  Jack Of Shadows ( profile ), 22 May, 2013 @ 12:34am

  Actually...

  The US Navy's UCAS X-47D also successfully accomplished a touch-and-go on the USS George H. W. Bush . I have no word on whether it did the T&G on its own or used the carriers built-in ACLS (Automated Carrier Landing System. [ACLS automagically lands the plane but pilots, being control freaks, loathe it.] Standing-room only, aircraft on deck, both of which were surprising. Usually we don't allow audiences, then again, seems like it's doing extremely well.

• On the post: DailyDirt: Getting An Online Education…

  

  Jack Of Shadows ( profile ), 18 May, 2013 @ 10:54pm

  The military...

  If you are looking for why, what, when, where and how distance learning should be done, just go look at the military. We've been doing it for decades. Correspondence, computerized, online, peer-to-peer, temporarily assigned (non-military) professors (even if not degreed in that subject but know how), whatever. The subjects can be pretty much anything and help is usually close to hand given our diverse backgrounds and skills. The really nice thing, as I've found from personal experience, is being able to challenge anything in the courses, even subject requirements, and actually see the changes made rapidly to correct a poor to awful situation. Been there, done that, burned the t-shirt.
  
  I've heard, damn near my whole life given both parents (then) serving, how unintelligent service members are and similarly poorly educated. The day of the dumb private or hick bosun's mate are far in the past. Part and parcel in the services today, you are not only a student, you are expected to be an instructor if only in your professional field(s). And if no teacher is handy, do it at a distance and practice locally.

• On the post: University Of California Sides With Journal Publishers Over Its Own Struggling Libraries

  

  Jack Of Shadows ( profile ), 25 Apr, 2013 @ 07:22pm

  California Constitution

  When the state's Constitution was drafted one of the main provisions, in order to attract women of childbearing age to the state back then, was lower cost higher education. I haven't read the thing in decades, but I have to wonder how consistent this letter/position is with the current Constitution of the California Republic.

• On the post: Prenda Now In Trouble In Another Case In California

  

  Jack Of Shadows ( profile ), 19 Apr, 2013 @ 07:44pm

  Re: Re:

  Set up correctly, it is quite aware of torrent file download tools so it can merrily delete any history, especially if such history and related folders are set up to land in a temp folder. You'd have to bring bigger guns to the party on the forensics side.
  
  Hell, on my system even that wouldn't work. Temp files here are all created from scratch in a RAM disk. Not for reason of stealth, just efficiencies of scale.

• On the post: This Is Not The Cloud Computing We Should Have

  

  Jack Of Shadows ( profile ), 30 Mar, 2013 @ 11:08pm

  Re: Network Computing

  Actually I do remember the NC. It's changed its name numerous times but the concept is bog-standard since IBM et al. created time-sharing way back when. Now it goes under the name VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure) and it's still time-sharing, it can just reach a lot farther. However when you tote all the costs up, even the savings from improved managability (less staff to manage the machines), it still doesn't pay.
  
  It's an astute solution in some contexts which requires some expertise to properly engineer, install, and especially maintain. Just like cloud, actually. I do a lot of cloud here, hosting myself (and easily others) and I can reach out and touch my stuff from anywhere I can connect, via multiple mechanisms, all in a secure manner but hell, I've been doing this kind of thing all my (52-yo) long life even discounting a significant head start. I'm an engineer and I'm an (absolutely?) paranoid control freak. As someone else pointed out, this still ain't turnkey in any way, shape, or form and it ain't cheap to do right You can chuck most consumer-grade stuff right out the window.
  
  It's conceivable that someone could turnkey this (free tier of AWS is usable), but someone would still have to create & spin-up the instances and there would be maintenance issues, there always are, but doable. Still it's just easier to have encrypted (e.g. TrueCrypt on computer, EDS on Android) pocket storage. Hell, even my mobile hot-spot has copies of my encrypted containers. I do wonder how long that free tier on Amazon would last if everyone could do it though ;-).

• On the post: This Is Not The Cloud Computing We Should Have

  

  Jack Of Shadows ( profile ), 30 Mar, 2013 @ 12:12am

  These are not the Cloudservices you are looking for. ... Move along.

  What we have is a Jedi Mind Trick happening with the media, analysts, and CIOs seem to be well fitted for the role of the weak-willed Storm Troopers. We are still stuck at the same place we were at back before the Dotcom Meltdown amongst various Service Providers, each with their own interfaces generally unable to share with anybody else. We have, now, various X-as-a-Service providers with services supposedly using a SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) built on Standards-compliant goodness. Unfortunately, paraphrasing Linus'es dictum still applies: "I love standards. Standards are wonderful! There are so many to choose from!"
  
  We are still stuck with the old model; almost completely unable to translate between clouds and apps, due to everyone wanting their own sandbox and further wanting to take ALL of Everyone's marbles home at the end of the day. Yes, there are ESB (Enterprise Service Bus) connectors and/or Managed Service Providers who can connect one "cloud" to another, but each one is pretty much a one-shot interface that will almost certainly end up being on the receiving end of a Microsoft or Twitter interface (Service) change with the next update/upgrade. You might just want to take your marbles home (private cloud) or, gods above and demons below forfend, to another provider.
  
  There are numerous proposed, even a few implemented solutions, however they are rare enough that only a really forward-looking engineering team and/or CIO will bother about portability and inter-communications when considering requirements. I have been thinking about this problem for a couple of decades. Really. I saw this train-wreck coming a long way off, before the web breathed its first, and like most problems it's pretty simple. Unfortunately, to borrow from L. E. Modessitt, "simple problems are hard." Really, really hard.
  
  What it will take to change this? As with info-sec, a major catastrophe of some sort such as the collapse of first-tier service provider. We didn't learn from the last war (Dotcom) so we'll have to have a repeated do-overs until we get it right.

• On the post: Wallet Maker Shows Everyone How To Make Their Own Awesome Wallet

  

  Jack Of Shadows ( profile ), 17 Jan, 2013 @ 08:02am

  Zero Distance

  Lest we forget, we are in an era of zero-distance, 1:1 relationships, so if someone handy at process engineering, or a gifted amateur, comes along they have the opportunity to see where an improvement can be made and can offer it. That's a win-win for the company and the engineer/amateur.
  
  The company can quickly incorporate any suggested process innovation. The innovator can potentially get some kind of financial compensation or other reward. Actually keeping processes in shrouded secrecy levies costs in terms of missed or delayed opportunities, even future loss of market share to the innovator that eventually arrives at the better processes.

• On the post: Is Facebook's Facial Recognition That Scary?

  

  Jack Of Shadows ( profile ), 11 Aug, 2012 @ 08:20pm

  Re: Where does it stop?

  Actually humans, so far as I have been able to identify, are the only species to brand and then (socially) track themselves. Facebook wasn't even a glimmer of an idea before this was practiced.
  
  It is far too late to stop it. The war was lost with the first pair of Levi's bought because of the stitching and little red tag. Sorry.

• On the post: Why Tragedies Result In Overreactions: 'Our Brains Aren't Very Good At Risk Analysis'

  

  Jack Of Shadows ( profile ), 04 Aug, 2012 @ 03:10pm

  Tragic flaws

  Which is a bit insightful. To touch that up a bit: It is the *repetition* of drunk driving deaths, each different in some particulars, that lends a certain tragic inevitability to that class of events. Schneier's point was that it was a particular, *singular*, tragic event that lends itself for this type of resolution. As if we should, somehow, some way regain control of (our) life. The tragic flaw of the Greek dramas, again.
  
  You can guard against this in some way, and the framers of the Constitution did attempt to put some such safeguards from the thundering herd of the majority but it can be overridden and has on occasions too numerous to cite. [I can, endlessly almost, but what's the point.]

• On the post: Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt

  

  Jack Of Shadows ( profile ), 29 Jul, 2012 @ 10:14pm

  This reminds me of ...

  "This reminds me of the famous Marcus Brigstocke joke: 'If Pac-Man had affected us as kids, we'd all be running around in dark rooms, munching pills and listening to repetitive electronic music.'"
  
  ... It's called a Rave.
  
  So it skipped a generation.

• On the post: Senate Not Concerned About How Often NSA Spies On Americans, But Very Concerned That It Built Open Source Software To Do So

  

  Jack Of Shadows ( profile ), 21 Jul, 2012 @ 07:40pm

  Re: Re: I'm reminded of a book . . .

  Actually it fell by design.

• On the post: Justice Department Sues Telco For Daring To Challenge Its Secret Demands For Private Information

  

  Jack Of Shadows ( profile ), 19 Jul, 2012 @ 07:57pm

  Re: Re: Too depressing

  I prefer 'despondent' myself. I didn't vote for any of the turkeys on offer in the primary and unless something radical in the way of propositions is upcoming, I won't vote in November. I've only missed one election in my whole life up until last June. My ballot went to the Persian Gulf while I washed up in Millington, TN.

• On the post: New Cybersecurity Bill May Actually Take Privacy Concerns Seriously

  

  Jack Of Shadows ( profile ), 19 Jul, 2012 @ 07:46pm

  I was sort of okay right up too...

  "... or protect children from serious threats." Who defines serious threats? Aren't serious threats to everyone a better standard? This is right along the lines of what CalOSHA tried to pull when I was stationed in San Diego, CA. They came out and told us that one of our pregnant sailors could not work around the radar equipment as the RF (radio-waves) were too high. When I asked why the standard was different for pregnant females than males, they told me it was a regulation. I told them to show me. (I already knew the regulation as I had incorporated it into a radiation hazard software application I wrote). They couldn't.
  
  I then showed the regulation to my commanding officer and he told them to try again. They finally admitted that their test equipment was out of calibration. (Rather than shut down all San Diego regional air traffic.) After re-calibration, the test results were barely above background, well below limits. BTW, we also checked the RF levels for ourselves and it was fine for everyone.
  
  I've become awfully tired of victim arguments, especially when I see them manipulated again, and again, and again, against written intent.

• On the post: Hipmunk Raises Money… And Is Immediately Threatened By Patent Troll

  

  Jack Of Shadows ( profile ), 11 Jul, 2012 @ 01:47am

  Re: Re: Re:

  Actually it's the description of a state-machine, architecturally, and therefore unpatentable on its face.

• On the post: Funnyjunk's Lawyer Charles Carreon Just Keeps Digging: Promises He'll Find Some Law To Go After Oatmeal's Matt Inman

  

  Jack Of Shadows ( profile ), 20 Jun, 2012 @ 06:11pm

  Intro to Ca. Law

  Wow. Nice introduction to the anti-SLAPP law here. Thank you.

• On the post: Who's The Coward? Thin-Skinned NY Politicians Try To Ban Anonymous Comments

  

  Jack Of Shadows ( profile ), 23 May, 2012 @ 01:24pm

  Cui bono

  One point I haven't seen raised is exactly to whom the good here. It's pretty obvious that the Supreme Court has ruled on point that such a requirement is unconstitutional but who knows, perhaps a later court might break the other way. That actually doesn't matter in my view. What does matter is who is going to pay the lawyers to get this thing up in *front* of that court. In this case, it is we the taxpayers who are going to be paying those salaries. So, we get the distinct displeasure of funding a (possible) reduction in our future rights. Sad.

• On the post: Some Countries Want To Fix TPP… By Making It More Like ACTA

  

  Jack Of Shadows ( profile ), 22 May, 2012 @ 09:27am

  Where you gonna put 'em?

  That last comment is noteworthy, because it shows that the copyright industries want to punish general users swapping unauthorized copies with criminal sanctions even if there is no money involved. It confirms that these treaties are not really about fighting organized crime, as they are often presented, but truly a war on online sharing itself, where the aim is to put ordinary people behind bars.
  
  
  
  Especially noteworthy is that the United States already has the highest level of incarceration, per capita, in the world. Also prisons, especially in California, are subject to court ordered reductions in prisoners due to overcrowding. Toss in the fact that my state, California, suffers from a severe lack of revenues. What this all adds up to is that there aren't any more beds available and there is no end in sight to this lack due to budget cuts as a result of an eroded tax base.
  
  
  
  
  So what's a state to do? Why they hand their prisoners over to county and municipal jails, which are also overcrowded and unlikely to add new bed space as well, but having the singular advantage of more creative methods of punishment. The overall result is non-violent offenders are the first in line to be dumped on the counties and municipalities which similarly dump them in addition to their over-supply back out on the street often times on probation, community service and perhaps GPS monitoring, tossed into the mix. Some enforcement!
  
  
  
  
  I would be lax in not pointing out that the very industry that shows a bent for creative accounting such that they pay little or no taxes are clamoring for serious criminal enforcement using money extracted for the very citizens they often wish to criminalize. My state has already had one tax revolt which triggered a round of tax revolts around the United States. Pity the (literally, by their lights) poor entertainment industry when the bill comes due on their efforts in criminalization of copyright infringement.
  
  
  
  So I ask 'em, where you gonna put 'em?
  
  
  
  [Criminalization without enforcement not only breeds contempt for any one particular law but for all laws. Why does the copyright mafia persist in not only annoying their customers but also show a real talent for getting the complete opposite of their goal. Witness for the jury the DDOS attacks on The Pirate Bay, among others. This takes real talent folks!]

• On the post: Congress To Amend NDAA To Give DoD & NSA Greater 'Cyberwar' Powers

  

  Jack Of Shadows ( profile ), 13 May, 2012 @ 08:17pm

  Late to the party, sorry!

  If you are at all familiar with the statutory authority of the various Commanders in Chiefs (CINC's in military parlance, such as CINCPAC, CINCCENT, &c.) and that of, for instance, Supreme Allied Commander, Europe (SACEUR, again in military parlance), they do not have to wait around for civilian authority to pull their thumbs or other appendages out of whatever orifices they have them stuck into to preempt or react to an imminent threat or attack. It's been that way for an awfully long time; no new Pearl Harbors anyone?
  
  Now, why the change in this case if the law was already drawn as to what the DoD, especially the military, can do? It comes down to one non-obvious conclusion. Formerly the law stated that cyber-warfare attacks and threats were to be treated as equivalent to kinetic (bombs, bullets, that kind of thing) weapons. Bits equals bombs. The new law says nothing of the kind. This allows cyber-warfare to be treated as equivalent to a NBC (Nuclear, Biological, Chemical) attack. Bits equals WMD's. That policy question has been bouncing around Washington, D. C., and think-tank set for a while now. Congress has officially gone on paper as to what equivalence, or actually the lack of direct equivalence really, between the various arenas of combat.
  
  So, if Iran, China, Russia, hell North Korea, should engage in this kind of asymmetric warfare, they could wake up to a second sunrise, if they aren't already plasma.
  
  [Note: This is not speculation. I served for well over a decade in the US Navy and from the time I swore my oath of enlistment, I've been interested in exactly what "protecting the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic" and on the nature of a "lawful" order from "those officers appointed above me. Then again, everyone in my extended family has served in one of the branches. It's what we do and have done for generations. Ummm, those that aren't rock-farmers. I can also blame Mom, who corrupted me with many a Robert A. Heinlein novel at an extremely young age.]

• On the post: The Washington Declaration On Intellectual Property And The Public Interest… Which Politicians Will Ignore

  

  Jack Of Shadows ( profile ), 10 Sep, 2011 @ 03:15pm

  Re:

  I'd say you have it half-right. You also have to look at this from the short/long-term interests of the elected officials. Since they suffer from a serious case of myopia, almost everyone only thinking about their next election, seldom will you see a difference in behavior now, or forever. This is one of the problems for which the Founding Fathers had no solution. Then again, no one else has had one either. Yet.
  
  As an aside, a lot of verbage is spent on the short-sidedness of corporate officers and their appointed officers. They only consider the next quarter's results. We haven't found a solution for that either.
  
  Same problem, different social groups.

• On the post: How Do You Measure The 'Benefits' Of Copyright?

  

  Jack Of Shadows ( profile ), 24 Nov, 2010 @ 08:55pm

  You really need an ecometrician

  For the marginal benefits/costs measurement you don't really need an economist. We have all too many of those. You need a hungry (reputation-wise) econometrician willing to take on this challenge. They are often maligned (for measuring our woes, such as unemployment or inflation rates), seriously crazy numbers people that really, really like measuring things, often for the first time. I'm no longer in fighting trim so I'll pass on the challenge. [IOW I've become even more crazy, if that is possible, since I retired.]

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