jsf’s Techdirt Profile

On the post: CBS Airs NSA Propaganda Informercial Masquerading As 'Hard Hitting' 60 Minutes Journalism By Reporter With Massive Conflict Of Interest

jsf ( profile ), 17 Dec, 2013 @ 07:38am

Lost Credibility

60 Minutes really lost it's punch and credibility when they pushed out Don Hewitt 10+ years ago. It's all just fluff now to help bring in advertising dollars.

On the post: Insanity Rules In East Texas: Jury Finds Newegg Infringes On Ridiculous Encryption Patent

jsf ( profile ), 27 Nov, 2013 @ 09:09am

Re: Re:

The big difference is that the guys at GCHQ likely had the general idea before Diffie, but they didn't do much with it. Diffie went the few steps further to make a useable method/process, instead of an interesting idea.

On the post: Redefining English: Senator Feinstein Says The Press Needs To Stop Calling Patriot Act Surveillance Program A 'Surveillance Program'

jsf ( profile ), 27 Sep, 2013 @ 07:52am

Sounds like a project I worked on years ago where one of the participants said the following with a straight face.

"Just because it is on the requirements list doesn't mean it is required."

I asked them if the understood what the word "required" meant. At which point they got up and walked out to of the room.

On the post: Court Reveals 'Secret Interpretation' Of The Patriot Act, Allowing NSA To Collect All Phone Call Data

jsf ( profile ), 18 Sep, 2013 @ 09:30am

Re:

That's the easy part to explain, in a conspiracy theory sort of way. ;-)

1) The NSA has been monitoring everyone, including all of the members of the House and Senate.

2) The NSA has dirt on most, if not all of them.

3) ...

4) Profit!!!

On the post: If The NSA Doesn't Know How Its Systems Are Used, Then It Can't Know They Haven't Been Abused

jsf ( profile ), 16 Sep, 2013 @ 07:49am

Potentially Bigger Issues

Even worse is the possibility that their systems have been compromised, not by insiders or even foreign agents, but by criminal organizations such as the spammers/scammers that we all encounter daily.

On the post: Contractors Providing Background Checks For NSA Caught Falsifying Reports, Interviewing The Dead

jsf ( profile ), 11 Jul, 2013 @ 07:12am

Contractors? Really?

One of the problems this shows is that the government has turned too much over to outside contractors. Who really thinks it is a good idea to have a for profit company doing security checks? Not to mention allowing a company that does security checks to vet their own employees.

Almost makes you long for the cold war days when the intelligence organizations actually took this stuff seriously. Probably too seriously back then, but at least it wasn't about profits.

On the post: The Value Of Kickstarter: Connecting With Fans On-The-Fly

jsf ( profile ), 28 Jun, 2013 @ 09:52am

Re:

I think part of the difference with Kickstarter, and many "indie games", is that customers get a look at some of the details long before they would in a regular development cycle.

So yes you need the quick response time of the internet to make this happen, but it is not the cause.

Even with the internet around we don't know much about any game from a big publisher until shortly before release. We never get to give input before the overall design or requirements are finalized, like you can with a Kickstarter or something like a Minecraft during alpha/beta.

On the post: Pilots Want To Know Why The DHS/CBP Are Searching Their Planes Without Warrants

jsf ( profile ), 28 Jun, 2013 @ 08:35am

Re:

If they are doing a border search they DO need at least some reason to believe that the person actually left the country.

Actually the CBP doesn't need this at all. Oddly enough their jurisdiction is only limited by you currently being or having passed within 100 miles of the border. If either condition is met they can stop you without any real cause and do whatever they like. The CBP is the least regulated law enforcement agency in the country, because they do not need a warrant in order to do searches.

On the post: Internet Catches Texas Senate Fudging Time-Stamps On Abortion Bill

jsf ( profile ), 27 Jun, 2013 @ 09:23am

Official Clock

The date/time on the web page may not matter in this case. Most, if not all state legislative bodies have a single clock that represents the official time. Usually this is within the voting chamber and visible to all members. By either law or parliamentary ruling this is the only clock that counts.

Based on the videos it would seem that the big clock in the chamber is the likely official time and that indicated it was past midnight.

As far as recorded dates and times on bill passages fudging has been a relatively common place thing for as long as the USA has been around. It has become much harder to do without notice since legislative proceedings have become televised.

On the post: NSA's Response To Snowden Leaks Isn't To Stop Spying, But To Make It More Difficult To Blow The Whistle

jsf ( profile ), 27 Jun, 2013 @ 08:57am

How?

So who is going to implement this two person system?

Oh the people who set it up and administer it.

You mean the system administrators that the system is supposed to block?

Yes!

So you are going to have the guys that you want to limit install the locks?

Yes!

That will work out great. ;-)

On the post: Pretending That Instructions To Print A Gun Aren't Out There Won't Change The Reality That They Are

jsf ( profile ), 14 May, 2013 @ 06:45am

Re: Re: Re: Sounds familiar

I have that same shirt. It was fun to be an arms trafficker while it lasted. ;-)

On the post: Did FBI Counterterrorism Agent Reveal That Feds Now Record All Phone Calls?

jsf ( profile ), 08 May, 2013 @ 09:45am

Unlikely

Given the number on minutes that people in the US spend on the phone it is unlikely that it is all recorded and saved for any length of time. Mobile phone use alone is something like 200 billions minutes per year. Even if you build petabyte arrays as cheap as BackBlaze does, it would take something like 20 trillions dollars worth of hardware to store a single years worth of mobile calls. That's almost an order of magnitude greater than the US budget, just for cell phone calls.

On the post: According To MN State Auditors, Success In The Music Biz Means Signing With A Major Label; Not Touring

jsf ( profile ), 02 May, 2013 @ 07:48am

Re:

There are plenty of smaller bands/musicians that make a living , or a significant portion of their living, from touring. I know of a few personally.

Mostly they are regional or even local to a single metropolitan area. Which keeps the travel cost much lower.

For example I know of musicians that make well over half their income playing somewhere in the Chicago area just about every Thursday, Friday and Saturday night of the year.

Touring like this is a hell of a lot of work and is by no means easy, but there are people that do it that are not "big time" players.

On the post: DailyDirt: Breakfast of Champions…

jsf ( profile ), 22 Apr, 2013 @ 07:22am

Not that much caffeine really

Regarding Kickstart, most coffee people buy from places like Starbucks has 2-4 times the caffeine per ounce. This drink doesn't even have all that many calories, 80, relative to other breakfast drinks such as orange juice.

On the post: Mutual 'Friend' Of John Steele And Alan Cooper Implies That Cooper Was 'Off His Meds' When Accusing Steele Of Identity Fraud

jsf ( profile ), 09 Apr, 2013 @ 07:27am

Re:

It looks like the messages are in iMessage on an iPhone. iMessage keeps everything by default. I can see message on my iPhone all the way back to 2010 when I got it. SO no need to save anything, it is done by default.

That still doesn't give any context or prove who sent the messages.

On the post: Apple Threatens To Kick Out Comic Book App Over 'Adult' Content, Forcing Publisher To Pull 40% Of Its 4,000 Titles

jsf ( profile ), 09 Apr, 2013 @ 06:44am

Hypocrites

Meanwhile Apple sells plenty of adult material through their own apps in the way of movies and books.

On the post: No, Freak Gross Injuries Shouldn't Mean Media Outlets Can't Show Them

jsf ( profile ), 02 Apr, 2013 @ 06:46am

Re:

It all depends on what you have seen before. For a lot of people this type of injury may be "disturbing".

Having worked as an athletic trainer in college I have actually seen this type of injury before. Usually in contact sports like football. I have also seen what I would consider much worse when I did a couple ride alongs with EMTs.

Does this type of injury make me cringe? Yes, in the of that's got to hurt type of way. But, then I switch into how do we stabilize this and get the medical care needed.

On the post: Musician Alex Day Explains How He Beat Justin Timberlake In The Charts Basically Just Via YouTube

jsf ( profile ), 26 Mar, 2013 @ 07:06am

The Secret

The one consistent thing that I have noticed most about successful "internet artists", particularly podcast and video bloggers, is that they are actually entertaining.

Over the decades I have followed a lot of different musical acts and it is surprising how few of them are actually entertaining in person or during shows.

It seems to really be as simple as just be entertaining.

On the post: Judge Wright Orders Second Prenda Hearing, Tells Everyone They Better Actually Show Up This Time

jsf ( profile ), 15 Mar, 2013 @ 06:52am

Cameras in Court

These cases are why they should cameras in court. This would be one reality show I would pay to watch. ;-)

On the post: North Korean Propaganda: Now With More Elder Scrolls!

jsf ( profile ), 28 Feb, 2013 @ 07:00am

Music is From Elder Scrolls: Skyrim

Not to be too nit picky, but the music is from Elder Scrolls: Skyrim, not Oblivion.

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