lars626 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: New Mexico Legislators Sue City For Refusing To Follow New Asset Forfeiture Law

    lars626 ( profile ), 08 Dec, 2015 @ 04:53pm

    Grand theft

    Taking a vehicle you have no legal right to take is grand theft. Do you prosecute the police officer, his chief, or the city council? Or all of them?

  • On the post: Law Professor Pens Ridiculous, Nearly Fact-Free, Misleading Attack On The Most Important Law On The Internet

    lars626 ( profile ), 03 Nov, 2015 @ 12:43pm

    Which law school is Ann Bartow a professor at?
    Wherever she is the constitutional law prof. needs to have a serious talk with her.

    If she mentioned the school in her bio for the article the school is in for a thumping for allowing her out of her box. Imagine someone like her running around out in the real world.

  • On the post: DEA Agents Caught Soliciting Prostitutes Rewarded With Light Punishments, Bonus Checks

    lars626 ( profile ), 29 Oct, 2015 @ 06:11pm

    Purge

    What they need at the DEA and many other federal agencies is a serious set of middle management purges, followed up by clear and explicit policy changes. To be followed by ass kicking and/or further purges for noncompliance.

    The only way to remove a cancer this far along is with some radical surgery. Those are MY tax dollars paying those worthless scum and I am Not happy.

  • On the post: Library Of Congress Releases DMCA Anti-Circumvention Exemptions… And It's A Hot Mess

    lars626 ( profile ), 27 Oct, 2015 @ 02:12pm

    Flinchy

    I can't blame them for being flinchy about the whole mess. I suspect some of this had to be due to the retiring Librarian of Congress being technologically clueless in the first degree. Hopefully the new one will understand something more advanced than a dial telephone.

    I don't know if they are allowed to 'clarify' these rules after they are issued, or if we will have to wait three years.

  • On the post: Motherboard's Version Of 'Valuing Discussion' Involves No Longer Letting You Comment

    lars626 ( profile ), 05 Oct, 2015 @ 09:06pm

    I quit counting the number of so-called news sites that I have stopped reading because they shutdown comments. Worse are the ones that require the use of a 'verified' Facebook ID. Verified means that I had to volunteer my phone number so they could resell it to a 'business associate'. My giving it up lets them ignore the do not call list. Slimy weasels.

    Yes, I avoid sites where the noise level is too high, but usually there was nothing there in the first place.

  • On the post: Facebook Hopes Renaming Internet.org App Will Shut Net Neutrality Critics Up

    lars626 ( profile ), 28 Sep, 2015 @ 12:02pm

    Retreads

    As I read I intended to make a comment, until I got to the last sentence referring to AOL. Oh well, no comment on that.

    Then it occurred to me that Mr. Z, the perpetually clueless twerp, could not even come up with a new bad idea. He had to take an old bad idea and try to make it work a second time.

  • On the post: Court Says Fifth Amendment Covers Smartphone Passcodes, But It's Hardly A Victory For Constitutional Rights

    lars626 ( profile ), 28 Sep, 2015 @ 08:28am

    From another view

    The phones were the property of Capital One.
    When they were fired they returned the phones to Capital One.
    If they did not delete the 'personal' information from the phone does that information now belong to Capital One?

    Can the government compel them to turn over the passwords to inspect Capital Ones property. How would this be different that if they knew the only password to a data server?

  • On the post: FTC Finally Goes After Roca Labs For Its Sketchy 'Weight Loss' Scheme & Misleading Promotions

    lars626 ( profile ), 25 Sep, 2015 @ 09:08am

    Don't kick the dog

    I can imagine a few things that are more stupid than suing Marc Randazza over something like this. Even if he is widely no for his soft spoken and tolerant demeanor it is a bad idea to sue. Similar to walking up and kicking a bear cub with its' mother near by.

  • On the post: DailyDirt: Breaking Bad… With Yeast?

    lars626 ( profile ), 23 Sep, 2015 @ 07:11pm

    THC-infused beer. I am not sure I am ready for that. A few beers and you relax And have a legendary case of the munchies. The day this hits the market I am buying Frito-Lay stock.

  • On the post: Police Drop Case Against Kid Who Made Clock, While Mayor Worries About The Impact… On The Police

    lars626 ( profile ), 16 Sep, 2015 @ 02:43pm

    They determined that it was not an immediate danger so they did not evacuate the school. But Ahmed was so dangerous that they put handcuffs on him.

    He brought it to show his teachers. Are the teachers so ignorant that they did not recognize what the components were? Maybe in elementary school, but this was high school; and the junior high has a robotics program. Or did the principal freak out and not even bother to have a science teacher even look at it.

    This kind of over reaction cannot be tolerated. With this type of thinking some of the stuff my buddy George built in high school (1967) would have had half the town evacuated.

  • On the post: Legislators Send Letter To Treasury Department Demanding Release Of Funds Seized In Bogus Structuring Case

    lars626 ( profile ), 20 Aug, 2015 @ 02:31pm

    If they were to dig just a little I bet they would find that most of this comes from just a small number of people at the IRS. Determine the worst ones and fire them. The word would get around.

    If you are rewarded for bad behavior you will just keep behaving badly; on the other hand ...

  • On the post: NYPD Sergeants Assoc. Using Flickr To Publicly Humiliate Homeless To Play Politics With Mayor De Blasio

    lars626 ( profile ), 13 Aug, 2015 @ 02:33pm

    Family and friends?

    And when the family and friends start taking pictures of the homeless I hope they won't mind too much if someone else takes pictures of them doing it. We could post them to a Flickr account. Maybe name it 'Stabbing the wounded'.

  • On the post: Lenovo Busted For Stealthily Installing Crapware Via BIOS On Fresh Windows Installs

    lars626 ( profile ), 13 Aug, 2015 @ 09:05am

    All laptops?

    Did they pull this trick on the direct sale business models too or just the consumer ones? If they did this to GM or Ford or one of the big banks they could be facing a tsunami of legal action.

    Is there a way to pull this trick on a Linux machine?

  • On the post: St. Louis County Charges Journalists Who Covered Ferguson Protests With Trespassing

    lars626 ( profile ), 11 Aug, 2015 @ 06:42am

    Tresspass

    Did anyone from McDonald's file a complaint? Can it actually be trespassing if the property owner does not consider it to be trespassing?

    Do we know yet who the cop was that filed the report?

  • On the post: Donald Trump's Clueless Lawyer Threatens Press, Says It's Ok To Rape Your Spouse

    lars626 ( profile ), 28 Jul, 2015 @ 03:32pm

    Re: Is this a thing

    Too true. (sigh)

  • On the post: Donald Trump's Clueless Lawyer Threatens Press, Says It's Ok To Rape Your Spouse

    lars626 ( profile ), 28 Jul, 2015 @ 03:31pm

    Simple concept

    It should be so obvious:
    "Sex without consent is rape."
    It doesn't matter if he does it or she does it or they do it. No consent = rape.

    You would think that even a Cooley graduate would understand. What would he say if his sister's husband got over aggressive?

  • On the post: Eight Years After Bogus Expulsion Over Supposed 'Threat,' Former Student Obtains $900k Settlement From University

    lars626 ( profile ), 27 Jul, 2015 @ 12:52pm

    The 'qualified immunity' went away when he asked the colleges lawyers about it and they said NOT to do it.

  • On the post: Car Hack Demonstrates Why Security Researchers Shouldn't Have To Worry About Copyright In Exposing Weaknesses

    lars626 ( profile ), 22 Jul, 2015 @ 02:18pm

    Security?

    Scenario:
    1. Man annoys his neighbor, who has serious anger management issues.
    2. Angry neighbor hacks into his new car because manufacturer failed to proactively upgrade known security flaw.
    3. Man begins to back out of his driveway but hits the brakes when he sees a school bus on the street.
    4. Brakes do not function due to the angry neighbors' hack and he T-bones the bus.
    5. Children are injured, some seriously.
    6. Bus driver says he saw the brake lights come on but the car did not slow down.
    7. Investigation discovers the hack and the perpetrator.
    8. Parent sue angry neighbor, who has few assets, and the manufacturer. Lawyers find during discovery that manufacturer was aware of the problem but decided not to fix it.
    9. County Attorney tries to determine if criminal charges could apply to the case and if so who to charge.

  • On the post: Comcast Really Wants Me To Stop Calling Their Top Lobbyist A 'Top Lobbyist'

    lars626 ( profile ), 22 Jul, 2015 @ 07:57am

    cabildero

    Call him a 'cabildero'.
    That is the Spanish word for lobbyist.
    More words of Spanish origin are becoming commonly used every day. No reason not to contribute. Besides, if we start using it some people will actually look it up and as a result actually think about what was said.

    There are other words that come to mind, but my mother would not have approved of me using them. We could just use 'varmint'. She would not mind that one and it does imply the proper level of disdain.

  • On the post: A ContentID For Online Bullying? What Could Possibly Go Wrong…

    lars626 ( profile ), 14 Jul, 2015 @ 09:11am

    On the other hand ...

    All these content-ID schemes sound great. But like many solutions, especially when using software, they don't create a complete solution. They work to shutdown the bad, sometimes, and take a lot of the good with it.

    When they do take down the wrong things there Must be a way to disagree and override the take down. The current YouTube system is not adequate. The should also be a way for the operators to lock out repeat offenders, including an appeal process if they disagree.

    Any system that has an automated take down should have shield setting. This would prevent content that has been determined to be 'acceptable' from being taken down automatically. This would cover fair use or repeated bogus take downs on content that someone finds disagreeable.

    This is not a problem that will be quickly solved, if ever. What I don't understand is why Google has not made improvements in YouTube. They must not be making any money off the thing and have a tight budget.

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