Dan 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (425)

• On the post: Can Google Be Held Liable For Man Who Died Following Google Maps Over A Collapsed Bridge?

  

  Dan ( profile ), 25 Sep, 2023 @ 11:27am

  I would agree with that...

  The bridge/roadway should have been properly blocked off or destroyed.

• On the post: Can Google Be Held Liable For Man Who Died Following Google Maps Over A Collapsed Bridge?

  

  Dan ( profile ), 25 Sep, 2023 @ 11:25am

  I think it all depends...

  For example, a company strives for 90+ world wide market share, even when their product doesn't deserve it. Yet, another form of human stupidity... If they actually achieve that market share, is it really a free market/caveat emptor situation anymore? How many fit that description, currently? Google everything, Microsoft, Adobe, Intuit, John Deere, every auto maker, and on and on... "You can certainly control the world now if you want to, but you better not screw it up." If you think that someone could figure out how to hack Windows bank ATM software (Windows 9, I think) all over the planet, and Microsoft could get away with being not responsible because of an exception clause in the licensing, you're fooling yourself. Someone {gov} would come down hard. TikTok blowing up is one thing. This is something else. The implications here are obvious. If you want the benefit of being big boy, does that imply some liability of wearing big boy pants? Certainly a good debate topic...

• On the post: A New Low: Just 46% Of U.S. Households Subscribe To Traditional Cable TV

  

  Dan ( profile ), 18 Sep, 2023 @ 07:42am

  Critical mass

  Over the years I've noticed the quality of the content in general going down, as we all have. I often wonder if there will be a "critical mass" point where people will just say, "too many commercials with crap in between. Why bother turning on broadcast at all?" I myself have gotten to the point where I turn on YouTube TV, and the commercial break seems to be always underway and so lengthy that I turn it back off and turn on YouTube or Emby.

• On the post: AT&T Once Again Wants ‘Big Tech’ To Pay For Broadband Upgrades

  

  Dan ( profile ), 14 Sep, 2023 @ 08:19am

  Where it goes...

  AT&T has to get those dividends to pay out from somewhere. If you doubt that, look at their consistent dividend history. I suspect there is more then one historical year that the dividend didn't quite match up with P&L performance.

• On the post: College Kids Are Easily Bypassing Stupid University TikTok Bans

  

  Dan ( profile ), 13 Sep, 2023 @ 11:40am

  Fallback feature as well

  Not only the comments already made about tik tok being mostly a phone app anyway, but many phones have a fallback feature that if data can't be had via Wi-Fi, the phone will automatically try the cellular network.

• On the post: College Kids Are Easily Bypassing Stupid University TikTok Bans

  

  Dan ( profile ), 13 Sep, 2023 @ 07:01am

  Actually...

  If all politicians keep thinking this shortsightedly that all their future laws/bans/whatever are this easily and conveniently circumvented, maybe the future is looking brighter after all.

• On the post: FCC Proposes Voluntary Security Labels For ‘Internet Of Things’ Devices Most Companies Will Probably Ignore

  

  Dan ( profile ), 08 Sep, 2023 @ 11:06am

  The bare minimum

  At the bare minimum they should at least advise device makers to have something obvious about changing the default password. The router makers are good about that, but who thinks about changing the password on a fridge?

• On the post: Texas Ruling Shows You Can’t Regulate Online Pornography Like A Public Health Crisis

  

  Dan ( profile ), 31 Aug, 2023 @ 06:16pm

  So much for the party of limited goverment.

  Title says it all...

• On the post: Texas Ruling Shows You Can’t Regulate Online Pornography Like A Public Health Crisis

  

  Dan ( profile ), 31 Aug, 2023 @ 06:14pm

  A good first step

  Perhaps a good first step for Texas parents would be to flip over all their kids' mattesses and see if there is anything underneath. Oh wait... that's probably just the dad.

• On the post: Apple Realizes It’s Swimming Upstream, Now Supports California Right To Repair Bill

  

  Dan ( profile ), 29 Aug, 2023 @ 09:32am

  Don't you mean the fruit?

• On the post: Apple Realizes It’s Swimming Upstream, Now Supports California Right To Repair Bill

  

  Dan ( profile ), 29 Aug, 2023 @ 07:02am

  Echoes of New York

  I'm skeptical that they would support this, unless they know the CA bill doesn't have the same loopholes as New York. We already know the game console exception is for copyright protection. (Regardless of the fact there is existing anti-circumvention laws on the books.)

• On the post: After Canada Starts Taxing News Links, Canadians Are Upset That They Can’t Follow News Of Wildfires On Facebook

  

  Dan ( profile ), 18 Aug, 2023 @ 10:45am

  posting screenshots of news articles...

  It's likely that they [the news sites] will be totally stupid and shut down the screenshots too eventually. Copyright, blah, blah, blah...

• On the post: FCC Hits Robocall Scammers With $300 Million Fine That Still Somehow Means Nothing

  

  Dan ( profile ), 08 Aug, 2023 @ 10:20am

  Easy way...

  "Dead"?! There's getting off easy...

• On the post: FCC Hits Robocall Scammers With $300 Million Fine That Still Somehow Means Nothing

  

  Dan ( profile ), 08 Aug, 2023 @ 08:25am

  Good ideas all, but...

  What's the point in modifying legislation if the DOJ isn't going to enforce it? One of the major points of the article is the fact that the DOJ isn't going to do anything. Marketing calls are a nuisance, but I'm guessing that from their point of view, they have much bigger fish to fry. What those fish are, I have no idea.

• On the post: After Bodycam Footage Undoes Its Narrative, NYPD Agrees To Pay $13 Million To Anti-Police Violence Protesters

  

  Dan ( profile ), 07 Aug, 2023 @ 03:36pm

  Two and you're out...

  If I was in charge of a local government, I'd have a policy of "If you are the defendant in more than one lawsuit in your career win or lose, you're out." A nice objective standard that blows past any subjective crap.

• On the post: Telecom Activists Aren’t Impressed By The FCC’s ‘Nutrition Label’ For Broadband

  

  Dan ( profile ), 03 Aug, 2023 @ 09:11am

  Good point

  I think that's a good point. We seem to be doing reasonably well considering the FCC commission can't make any decisions most of the time because nominations are always deadlocked in Congress. When they do have enough people, they're usually just a rubber stamp.

• On the post: Telecom Activists Aren’t Impressed By The FCC’s ‘Nutrition Label’ For Broadband

  

  Dan ( profile ), 03 Aug, 2023 @ 08:09am

  If they really want to hit them where it hurts...

  In advertising you always have the particular phrase, download speeds "up to". If the FCC really wants to stick it in and make it hurt, one thing I always thought they should do is, math out what the download speed would be if they utilized the line 24/7, while managing to stay under the data cap. "Sorry, that's the maximum download speed you can advertise. If you don't like it, raise your cap."

• On the post: NSA Asks Congress To Not Block Federal Agencies From Collecting Location Data Without A Warrant

  

  Dan ( profile ), 02 Aug, 2023 @ 04:09pm

  Well then...

  Well then, maybe the war on Big Tech is in the wrong place.

• On the post: NSA Asks Congress To Not Block Federal Agencies From Collecting Location Data Without A Warrant

  

  Dan ( profile ), 02 Aug, 2023 @ 01:10pm

  My skepticism tells me this isn't going to get very far or do very much.

  My skepticism is not allowing me to be hopeful, even if an amendment passes requiring a warrant for a major data buy. The NSA is going to go to the FISA court to get one anyway. The FISA court signs most anything on blind faith.

• On the post: Senators Warren & Graham Want To Create New Online Speech Police Commission

  

  Dan ( profile ), 31 Jul, 2023 @ 01:52pm

  Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse

  Two things, 1) Who thought this was a good idea to start with? 2) Who thought it was a good idea to combine a leftist and a rightist and hope to come up with anything intelligible? It's probably true that the same person is responsible for both 1) and 2). Such concentrated idiocy has to be unique. If it weren't, our species would already be extinct.

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