John Fenderson 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (17316)

• On the post: Super Slimey: Comodo Tries To Trademark 'Let's Encrypt' [Updated]

  

  John Fenderson ( profile ), 24 Jun, 2016 @ 02:28pm

  Re:

  Yes, this.
  
  The best thing I can possibly say about Comodo is that they are not trustworthy.

• On the post: Emails Show Hillary Clinton's Email Server Was A Massive Security Headache, Set Up To Route Around FOIA Requests

  

  John Fenderson ( profile ), 24 Jun, 2016 @ 12:47pm

  Re: Foreshadowing?

  Either way, we all lose.

• On the post: Emails Show Hillary Clinton's Email Server Was A Massive Security Headache, Set Up To Route Around FOIA Requests

  

  John Fenderson ( profile ), 24 Jun, 2016 @ 12:27pm

  Re:

  Indeed. This is one of the most frustrating things about the issue.
  
  Every time I've worked for a company that was large or had government contracts, I've been required to use the company email system for all company-related communications because they are required to retain copies of all of that.
  
  I have never used company systems for anything but the most trivial of personal emails because... why in the world would anyone do that? Privacy issues aside (you have no expectation of privacy when using your employer's IT systems), what happens when you move to a different company? You'd have to tell everyone you know to start using a different email address. Wouldn't it be better to just have a personal one that doesn't change?

• On the post: Tying Rights To Useless 'Terrorist Watchlists' Is A Terrible Idea

  

  John Fenderson ( profile ), 24 Jun, 2016 @ 12:18pm

  Re: Please check your facts.

  Thanks for this explanation. I spent a year where I got singled out for extra special attention whenever I'd fly, but was never prevented from flying -- and I was never able to get an explanation of why (aside from "someone with your name has been flagged", which was chilling because I have a very, very common name). Ultimately, it just stopped happening, so I guess that name was removed.
  
  Now at least I know what list that was.

• On the post: Emails Show Hillary Clinton's Email Server Was A Massive Security Headache, Set Up To Route Around FOIA Requests

  

  John Fenderson ( profile ), 24 Jun, 2016 @ 10:57am

  Re: ummm

  "Maybe you should shut up until after the election."
  
  This is one of the most unamerican things I've heard this week.

• On the post: DOJ Insists That Rule 41 Change Is Not Important, Nothing To See Here, Move On Annoying Privacy Activist People

  

  John Fenderson ( profile ), 24 Jun, 2016 @ 08:20am

  Re: Okay: Hacking BY THE STATE of a NON-STATE PROPERTY implies malicious intent.

  Absolutely yes!
  
  Given the specific nature of my geekitude, I frame the thing slightly differently. Security is about protecting against attackers. An "attacker" is "anyone or anything that is attempting to bypass your security mechanisms without your consent".
  
  Since I take a very technical view, the intent of the attacker is completely irrelevant and I don't even have to consider subjective things like whether or not the attacker is malicious.
  
  But I'm not only a huge geek, I'm also a pedantic geek.

• On the post: Judge Says FBI Can Hack Computers Without A Warrant Because Computer Users Get Hacked All The Time

  

  John Fenderson ( profile ), 24 Jun, 2016 @ 12:46pm

  Interesting

  So the judge really believes that there is no "expectation of privacy" in cases where your security isn't perfect? Because that's what he said.
  
  Which means that there can be no "expectation of privacy" in anything, ever, at any time.
  
  Clearly, "expectation of privacy" is now a completely bankrupt notion.

• On the post: Dweezil Zappa Renames His Tour Again: Dweezil Zappa Plays Whatever The F@%k He Wants; The Cease & Desist Tour

  

  John Fenderson ( profile ), 24 Jun, 2016 @ 12:41pm

  Frank Zappa would be pleased

  Frank Zappa would be pleased at the name Dweezil has chosen. Frank had done very similar things in response to a couple of contractual disputes during his career.

• On the post: General Mills Granted A Design Patent On A Tortilla Bowl Because Why Even Pretend Anymore?

  

  John Fenderson ( profile ), 24 Jun, 2016 @ 10:58am

  Well, at least it's a design patent

  It would be worse if it was a real patent.

• On the post: CIA Director John Brennan Says Non-US Encryption Is 'Theoretical'

  

  John Fenderson ( profile ), 23 Jun, 2016 @ 06:38pm

  Re: Re: Re: Slight Mistake Here

  Most of of crypto technologies in use today were either developed entirely or partially outside the US.
  
  As to accepted standards, I'm not sure of the point. There is no need for people to adhere to the accepted standards unless they want other existing software to be able to decrypt it.
  
  If those standards are backdoored (as some are found to be from time to time), what happens is that everyone stops using them, standard or not. Even if, for some reason, that didn't happen, that's still only a minor irritation. Everyone can still use nonstandardized crypto for their own needs -- they'd just have to supply the decryption code to anyone else who they want to be able to decrypt it.
  
  If they don't want anyone else to be able to decrypt it, then there's not even that minor problem.

• On the post: Seeing Opportunity, Congress Tries To Rush Through Its Plan To Legalize FBI Abuses Citing 'Orlando!'

  

  John Fenderson ( profile ), 23 Jun, 2016 @ 06:28pm

  Re:

  This sort of response is an example of why it's impossible to have a real conversation about guns. Your comment not only doesn't really address what I said, it goes on and on about how banning them is bad, even though I explicitly stated that I do not support banning them.

• On the post: Supreme Court Says, Yes, The Patent Office Can Review Crappy Patents Using Broad Standards

  

  John Fenderson ( profile ), 23 Jun, 2016 @ 06:20pm

  Re: Re: Re:

  Yes. Not just with copyright, but with almost every other form of IP. "I bet you'd love the patent system if you had anything to patent", etc.
  
  I always wonder about the reasoning that leads to such statements, because they so often completely wrong. Take patents for example, I don't patent my own inventions because I don't see the value in doing so in my own situation. But I know a lot of people who have patents, and almost all of them think that the patent system is doing active damage to society as a whole.
  
  I suspect that it's another example of the strong tendency of people to think that their own viewpoint of something is automatically representative of the majority view.

• On the post: No Man's Sky Settles With Sky TV So It Can Have 'Sky' In Its Name

  

  John Fenderson ( profile ), 23 Jun, 2016 @ 06:13pm

  Re: Re: Re: Their own fault?

  "if the publishers had handled the initial threat differently, the outcome would have been different"
  
  Obviously, I don't know the details either, but I am assuming the response to any initial threat would have been "no." That would have been enough to trigger the lawsuit.
  
  The thing is, assuming that my assumption is roughly true, I'm not sure how it could have been handled differently. "No" would have been the correct response.
  
  Although, I confess, my instinct would have been to respond with "fuck off". But that's one of the reasons I have an attorney -- so I know when to not speak my mind.

• On the post: DOJ Insists That Rule 41 Change Is Not Important, Nothing To See Here, Move On Annoying Privacy Activist People

  

  John Fenderson ( profile ), 23 Jun, 2016 @ 06:05pm

  Re: Hacking implies malicious intent.

  "Hack implies malicious intent"
  
  I realize that this linguistic battle has been lost for a long time, but it makes me sad whenever people equate hacking with malicious or illegal behavior.

• On the post: Sony Settlement Gives PS3 Owners $9 After Company Made Console Less Useful Via Firmware Update

  

  John Fenderson ( profile ), 23 Jun, 2016 @ 05:58pm

  Re:

  I might be willing to do the work needed for the $55, but only if I didn't really have anything better to do. The $9 isn't worth any effort beyond perhaps filling out a form.

• On the post: Led Zeppelin Wins Copyright Case Over Stairway To Heaven

  

  John Fenderson ( profile ), 23 Jun, 2016 @ 05:54pm

  Re: Decisions based on which side is more likable

  "Perhaps humans are too stupid"
  
  Perhaps, but from what I've seen it looks like the problem with juries isn't the level of intelligence of humans generally, but that attorneys tend to try to keep thoughtful, intelligent people off of juries, and that juries are subjected to shameless manipulation.

• On the post: Rather Than Launch A Massive DDoS Attack, This Time China Just Asks GitHub To Take Down Page It Doesn't Like

  

  John Fenderson ( profile ), 23 Jun, 2016 @ 05:50pm

  Re: China DDoS

  "cursing China to any form of internet attack while your own Gov releases a virus"
  
  It might be, except that Techdirt isn't shy about cursing the US or any other nation for doing such things as well. I don't see why China would get a special pass from criticism.

• On the post: Russia's Problem (According To Russian Politicians): Not Enough Mass Surveillance

  

  John Fenderson ( profile ), 23 Jun, 2016 @ 02:03pm

  Re: control

  As a child, I always thought of Santa as a bad guy. That song was one of the reasons why.

• On the post: DOJ Drops Stupid Drug Trafficking Charges Against FedEx After Judge Criticizes Its 'Novel Prosecution'

  

  John Fenderson ( profile ), 22 Jun, 2016 @ 03:55pm

  Re: Re: Where does?

  Thanks for the explanation! I also didn't connect "purple and orange" to FedEx. I guess I just don't have their color scheme memorized.

• On the post: Seeing Opportunity, Congress Tries To Rush Through Its Plan To Legalize FBI Abuses Citing 'Orlando!'

  

  John Fenderson ( profile ), 22 Jun, 2016 @ 03:53pm

  Re: Re: Re: Same with gun laws

  While I do not support banning guns (something for which there is nearly zero support anyway, despite the rhetoric)...
  
  "Would it not be better to have every criminal outgunned by law abiding citizens?"
  
  No. It would most certainly be worse. The last thing we need is for multiple, uncoordinated, and untrained (for this sort of thing, not for guns) people to start shooting no matter how good their intentions.
  
  We get enough of that nonsense just from the cops.

Next >>