Keroberos 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: Jeffrey Katzenberg: The New Pricing Model For Movies Will Be Based On The Viewer's Screen Size

    Keroberos ( profile ), 30 Apr, 2014 @ 02:10pm

    This is so idiotic that it boggles the mind. No screen in the world reports its screen size--they report its resolution (number of pixels). My 24in PC monitor has the exact same resolution as my 40in HDTV (1920x1080 pixels). No screen manufacturer is going to put the money into developing and implementing a system for a service that doesn't exist. And who will pay for this service if no TV supports it? It's like 3D TV all over again--how many people watch 3D movies at home?

  • On the post: What If You Gave A (Drug) War And Nobody Came? Deputies Answer Rhetorical Question With Planted Evidence

    Keroberos ( profile ), 29 Apr, 2014 @ 04:11pm

    Re: Re: Re: Re: One law for me, and another for thee

    That's not the role of the court.
    Yes, but if evidence of a crime by someone other than the defendant comes out in the course of a trial, you bet that it should and is reported to the proper authorities. Do you honestly think the courts are allowed to just ignore it?

  • On the post: NBC Insists Twitter Is Useless Because Not Enough People Tweeted During The Olympics… Which NBC Made Difficult To Watch Online

    Keroberos ( profile ), 29 Apr, 2014 @ 03:07pm

    I think this so-called "research chief" needs to show some actual research. Making a statement that only 19% of viewers posted to social media is bad needs some numbers--and you know, some actual research--to back it up.

    What percentage were they expecting (or hoping) would use social media? Where's the research showing that it would be valid to believe that?

    Why do they believe that 19% is a bad number? Do they have research on other events that show that number could be higher?

    Honestly, this is an area that any "research" is mostly just vague guessing--to many variables, nothing to compare against, and no ability to repeat any experiments with identical variables.

  • On the post: Driver Finds Himself Surrounded By Cops With Guns Out After Automatic License Plate Reader Misreads His Plate

    Keroberos ( profile ), 28 Apr, 2014 @ 05:12am

    Re: Re:

    No, they were correct in pulling the car over. Issues with verifying a plate number in heavy traffic are common, and the plate could have been switched to another car. But the car was stopped with a cop in front and back, you would think they would manually rerun the plates, before confronting the driver (he wasn't going anywhere at that point). In every traffic stop I've been involved in, it's been a minute (or more) after the stop before the officer gets out of his car to talk to you. I always assumed they were running the plates at this time to check for any outstanding issues on the car or the registered owner. Taking a minute to verify this manually would have turned a situation that caused citizen concern (and sparked the attention of the media) into something everyone involved gets a chuckle out of (and no one else hears about).

  • On the post: Driver Finds Himself Surrounded By Cops With Guns Out After Automatic License Plate Reader Misreads His Plate

    Keroberos ( profile ), 28 Apr, 2014 @ 04:37am

    We're sorry Mrs. Buttle, We were looking for an Archibald Tuttle--but, you know--mistakes happens.

    What worries me is after pulling the car over an eyeball verification and manually rerunning of the plate number would have told them that this was not the car or plate they were looking for. They just blindly accepted that the ALPR was correct in reading the plate. And you can't tell me they couldn't see the license plate for a manual verification after the car in question pulled over and stopped.

  • On the post: The Stupidity Of Installing Bloatware That No One Uses… And Everyone Hates

    Keroberos ( profile ), 24 Apr, 2014 @ 02:43pm

    Re: Re: Re:

    Yes, because cell phone manufacturers and service providers are able to take the basic Android ROM and make as many changes to it as they see fit. The OEM version of Windows that Dell gets from Microsoft is identical to the one that HP gets and the only thing they can change is adding the pre-installed software (the Windows OS comes pre-compiled, the Android ROM is source code). If the PC OEMs could lock you from uninstalling that crap they would.

  • On the post: DOJ Whines That A Warrant To Search A Mobile Phone Makes It More Difficult To Catch Criminals

    Keroberos ( profile ), 24 Apr, 2014 @ 03:05pm

    To truly see how ridiculous this is replace the word "phone" with "house" and see how it looks.

    Rather, the primary function of a warrant requirement would be to preclude officers from searching a house when they have reason to believe that it contains evidence of crime, but cannot establish the higher standard of probable cause?or cannot obtain a warrant before a house becomes inaccessible.
    Becomes rather chilling, doesn't it?

    Of course, I always thought that the Fourth Amendment was created specifically to make the police's job harder.

    But you know, they have my sympathy. It must be really hard to get a police state started up with all those pesky rules in the way.

  • On the post: The Stupidity Of Installing Bloatware That No One Uses… And Everyone Hates

    Keroberos ( profile ), 24 Apr, 2014 @ 06:27am

    Re:

    At some point they will stop wasting money bundling such crap with the hardware.
    Not likely, If it's like all the bloatware that comes pre-installed on OEM PCs--The software-makers are the ones paying the manufacturers to bundle that crap with the hardware. I seriously doubt the hardware manufacturers would be willing to turn down free money. Plus, it reduces the cost of the manufacturing the hardware--meaning more profit with little extra work involved.

  • On the post: Why Do So Many People Describe Aereo 'Complying' With Copyright Law As The Company 'Circumventing' Copyright Law?

    Keroberos ( profile ), 23 Apr, 2014 @ 02:27pm

    Hey Look. A Logic Chopping Game We Can All Play.

    All I'm trying to get at, and I'm not saying it's outcome determinative or necessarily bad, I'm just saying your legal opinion is based solely on circumventing current legal precedent that you don't want to comply with, which is fine. I mean, that's -- you know, judges do that.

  • On the post: Revolving Door: MPAA Hires Chief USTR Negotiator Behind ACTA And TPP's IP Chapter

    Keroberos ( profile ), 22 Apr, 2014 @ 02:07pm

    Re: S.O.P. in D.C.

    Just wait. Barring any unforeseen changes in our political system, this will happen soon enough.

  • On the post: Revolving Door: MPAA Hires Chief USTR Negotiator Behind ACTA And TPP's IP Chapter

    Keroberos ( profile ), 22 Apr, 2014 @ 02:04pm

    As Lee notes, as easy as it is to ascribe comic-book levels of ill-intent here, that's unlikely. McCoy and others genuinely believe what they're doing is the right thing.
    Nope. I used to give them the benefit of doubt, but I don't buy that anymore. These people have spent their entire careers rationalizing that what's enriches them and furthers advancement for them and their cronies must be what's good for the country. They have ignored dissenting opinions for far too long (I don't believe for a second that they haven't received information from anyone other than the industry they are regulating) that it can only be a deliberate attempt to subvert the regulatory processes for their own personal gain.

  • On the post: Sheriff's Dept. Charges Man With No Drugs With 'Intent To Distribute Counterfeit Controlled Substances'

    Keroberos ( profile ), 26 Mar, 2014 @ 02:44pm

    Don't get caught with this stuff kids. You'll go to jail.


    (It's frankincense)

  • On the post: Watch Repairer Goes Legal Over Tame Yelp Review, Streisand Effect Takes Over

    Keroberos ( profile ), 24 Mar, 2014 @ 07:19pm

    Re: You, sir, are mistaken

    And a 100% probability that this lawyer is just out to make a quick buck.

    Example...

    Unless at your direction Yelp to removes that review...
    To lazy to check your grammar?

    English. Do you speak it?

  • On the post: Town Built Around No WiFi/Radio Waves Rules Is Right Next To NSA Snoop Center

    Keroberos ( profile ), 19 Mar, 2014 @ 06:59am

    Re:

    Plus all the other sources of EM radiation we come into contact with in our day to day lives--like everything that uses or transmits electricity and the radio waves from aircraft, air traffic control stations, weather stations, TV and radio stations, and satellites. Also, that giant ball of fusing hydrogen that our planet orbits around has been found to emit EM radiation like all the freaking time.

  • On the post: No, Government Computers Won't Suddenly Be Vulnerable To Hackers On April 8; They Already Are

    Keroberos ( profile ), 17 Mar, 2014 @ 01:25pm

    Re: XP security

    Windows is inherently insecure...
    AllOS's are inherently insecure. Security really isn't something that can be inherent to a piece of software. Any OS or app can be hacked.

  • On the post: No, Government Computers Won't Suddenly Be Vulnerable To Hackers On April 8; They Already Are

    Keroberos ( profile ), 17 Mar, 2014 @ 01:13pm

    Re:

    All they have done since then is add fancy guis.
    Um...No. Microsoft has added quite a few under the hood security enhancements since XP. Examples: Address Space Layout Randomization--Prior to Vista, many (all?) of Window's processes ran in the same memory space on every computer, that makes it very easy for a malicious program to hook into Window's core functions. Improved Data Execution Prevention, especially in 64bit versions--prevents buffer overflow errors from executing code. Application isolation--A low level app (non administrator) cannot hook into a higher level app or function or make any changes to the system or other apps (yes those annoying UAC prompts are there for a reason).

  • On the post: Keith Alexander's Big Idea: What If The NSA Just Collected Phone Data On Suspected Terrorists?

    Keroberos ( profile ), 28 Feb, 2014 @ 11:47am

    We can't let him retire now. This idea is pure genius. Only collect info on suspected bad guys and those in contact with them. I can't believe no one thought of this before now.

  • On the post: Cost-Benefit Analysis On Why We Should Just Do Away With The TSA Completely

    Keroberos ( profile ), 02 Jan, 2014 @ 10:57am

    Re:

    Not just news outlets, any politician wanting to scale back the TSA would get the same from their opponents.

  • On the post: Canadian Copyright Collective Calls It A Day After 15 Years Of Failing To Make Payments To Rights Holders

    Keroberos ( profile ), 30 Dec, 2013 @ 12:08pm

    Re:

    Not just from the copyright holders, since they claim they received less than 150k from the tariffs which is what should have been payed to the rights holders, but have 850k in debts which they accrued for doing absolutely nothing.

  • On the post: Canadian Copyright Collective Calls It A Day After 15 Years Of Failing To Make Payments To Rights Holders

    Keroberos ( profile ), 30 Dec, 2013 @ 11:40am

    Re: Getting the obvious question out of the way:

    According to them they never collected more than 10k per year from the tariffs, so the real question is--how in the hell did they keep getting loans without showing the ability to repay them?

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