tom 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: US Marshal Shuts Down Citizen Recording By Grabbing Phone And Smashing It On The Ground

    tom ( profile ), 28 Apr, 2015 @ 02:45pm

    Law Enforcement likes to stack charges so to return the favor: Charges of Assault, Robbery, Destruction of Private Property, Destruction of Evidence, Obstruction of Justice and Improper Disposal of Hazardous Waste would be in order.

  • On the post: Richard Dreyfuss Takes Disney To Court Over Its Refusal To Allow An Outside Auditor To Examine Its Accounting Methods

    tom ( profile ), 22 Apr, 2015 @ 12:27pm

    New version of old story. The first version I remember is a 60 minutes piece on how someone involved in the movie Coming to America hadn't received any money because the studio claimed it had lost money. The studio probably still lists that movie as a money loser.

    Lesson learned: Any contract with a media studio should only involve numbers like percent of (world wide gross proceeds + books sales + toy sales + video + cable + what ever else might make the studio money).

  • On the post: What Do You Do When Preserving Evidence Is Labeled 'Possession' And Destroying It Is A Felony?

    tom ( profile ), 03 Apr, 2015 @ 08:45am

    In Oklahoma, if you are an IT person, this is a simple case. You are required under state law to contact law enforcement. Failure to do so can result in you being charged.

    I have found the best way to destroy a hard drive is to disassemble, and if the platters are aluminum, melt them, if they are glass, shatter them, repeatedly. If anyone asks, just tell them the drive failed and you were applying your normal identity theft prevention measures. Since most governments now mandate similar procedures on no longer needed drives, shouldn't be an issue.

  • On the post: Apartment Complex Claims Copyright Of Tenants' Reviews And Photos, Charges $10k Fee For Criticism

    tom ( profile ), 11 Mar, 2015 @ 04:26pm

    I guess the lawyers for this complex have not fully thought this out. Say as part of my comments on the apartment, I state how awful a site it is for producing child porn, complete with many vivid examples. By this contract, the apartment complex is now the legal owner of these images and subject to the laws for possession of same.

  • On the post: Google Gets Prude: Says No More Adult Content On Blogger

    tom ( profile ), 24 Feb, 2015 @ 12:31pm

    Where is the betting pool on how long before Yahoo follows suit with Tumbler?

  • On the post: NVIDIA Calls A Feature A 'Bug,' Strips Away Overclocking Option On Its Mobile Device Cards

    tom ( profile ), 17 Feb, 2015 @ 09:25am

    This was probably brought about by that certain percent of customers who happily overclocked their laptops to the max so they could claim they got 3 more FPS in game Y then their clan mates. And when the magic smoke came out 30 minutes later, they with great amount of public yelling, exclaimed what a POS said laptop was and sent it back to the seller, all the time disavowing any knowledge about overclocking.

    Perhaps the drivers should be modified to allow overclocking only after the user agrees to having the laptop's and GPU's serial numbers sent the manufacturers of both with a screen notice that overclocking voids the warranty. Now there would be a record that the end user knew the dangers and did it anyway and accepted the loss of warranty.

  • On the post: Samsung Ad Injections Perfectly Illustrate Why I Want My 'Smart' TV To Be As Dumb As Possible

    tom ( profile ), 11 Feb, 2015 @ 02:45pm

    Re: Re: Re: Re:

    Short term way to safe guard yourself from "smart" gizmos:

    1. Purchase a real firewall/router and install between your home network and the Internet. Skip the cheap consumer grade ones.
    2. Add a default rule that blocks all traffic to everywhere. Both for inbound and outbound traffic.
    3. Add specific rules for whatever gizmos you have that you want to allow to talk to the outside world. Limit the traffic to just the specific IP/Domain name needed to enable the functionality desired.

    With this setup, even if the smart TV is allowed to report back to 'Smart TV Central Command' via a specific firewall rule, it would not be allowed to access ads from websites other then 'Central Command', so the streaming Yahoo ad would fail.

  • On the post: Cable's Answer To A Changing TV Landscape? Stuff More Ads Into Every Hour

    tom ( profile ), 03 Feb, 2015 @ 07:51am

    To paraphrase the Star Wars comment, "The more commercials you stuff down our throats, the more we will cut the cord."

    The reality is that most shows now feature 100% commercial time, if you count the station ID bug that often features an ad for a different show, not to mention the always popular pop up ads for yet another show. And it often isn't just one bug. Some networks have three, the station id bug, a second one for the next show ad and a 3rd for the twitter channel. For me, those networks are now on my don't watch list.

    It really is getting to the point where it would be cheaper to drop cable altogether and go old school. Just buy DVD/BR bundles of series I want as they come up during sales. No buffering or bandwidth issues. Just watch the shows I want with no bugs, pop ups or other ads.

  • On the post: FCC To Raise Minimum Broadband Definition To 25 Mbps, Further Highlighting Nation's Pathetic Lack Of Broadband Competition

    tom ( profile ), 14 Jan, 2015 @ 09:16am

    Re: Re: Rural?

    Another central OKC resident. AT&T keeps sending "Please upgrade to U-Verse" stuff. When I checked a couple of months ago, the best U-Verse they could offer was the same 3Mb service I currently get via standard DSL. Not even enough to run their much advertised VOIP phone offering.

  • On the post: Google, Microsoft, Wireless Carriers Form Rare Alliance To Battle Marriott's Dumb Wi-Fi 'Jamming'

    tom ( profile ), 23 Dec, 2014 @ 06:47pm

    I stayed at the Fairfield Inn by Marriott in Atlanta for Dragoncon 2013 and 2014 and they include wifi with the room. A friend's hot spot worked fine via wifi as well.

    It may be Marriott corporate wanting to squeeze a little extra profit out of hotels actually owned by Marriott.

    Of course, with the room and parking rates the hotels charge during Dragoncon, they don't need to charge for wifi...

  • On the post: Iowa Dept. Of Transportation Announces Plan To Give Police Officers, Security Personnel Full Access To Your Smartphone

    tom ( profile ), 17 Dec, 2014 @ 06:55am

    Re: Re: End around

    Option 1 - Charge you with possession of pornography in violation of Statute 42B-Section3a.

    Option 2 - Charge you with attempting to bribe Officer by offering to share said porn.

    Option 3 - Charge you with attempted blackmail of said politicians with said porn.

    Possible Option 4 - If any of the porn pics look remotely underage, fully investigate you for possible child porn possession, creation and/or distribution charges.

  • On the post: French Publishers Think They Can Fix Online Advertising By Suing The Company Behind AdBlockPlus

    tom ( profile ), 09 Dec, 2014 @ 04:32pm

    Until websites are held legally liable for malware delivered via scripts and trackers spawned by that website, Adblock, NoScript, Ghostery and others will be necessary basic security measures. As I type this, Ghostery is blocking 13 trackers and Noscript is blocking 9 of 13 scripts. I wonder how many of these scripts have been reviewed by Techdirt and is Techdirt willing to put their bank account at risk by assuming liability if one or more of those scripts and trackers load malware on my PC or lead to identity theft?

    Until websites are willing to risk their bank accounts, I will continue to run Adblock and programs to protect mine.

  • On the post: WTF ATF: The ATF's Fake Retail Stores, Bad Behavior… And Why It Only Came Out Because They Failed To Pay Rent

    tom ( profile ), 26 Nov, 2014 @ 01:34pm

    My guess is that no one will be held accountable and the poor landlord will find he is being audited by the nice folks at the IRS for improper expense deductions related to his rental properties.

    If Fast and Furious had been done by the Wylie Coyote Gun Co., the CEO and high company officials would already have been tried and convicted and be in jail. The Board of Directors would be facing charges of improper oversight. The company itself would be facing millions of dollars in civil rights violations lawsuits brought by the DOJ on behalf of the families of the hundreds of folks killed by the weapons willfully and knowingly sold to known criminals.
    But since the ATF did it, the worst that happened was one official retired with benefits, a few others were transferred to other duties, and the whole thing covered up.
    If Wylie Coyote Gun Co. had hindered the investigation like the ATF/DOJ has, they would also be facing Obstruction of Justice charges. Since the hindering is done by the DOJ, it is called Executive Privilege.

  • On the post: School Claims Teen's Writing About Marijuana Use Is 'Drug Possession'

    tom ( profile ), 23 Sep, 2014 @ 06:52am

    Has anyone in the school made copies of the stories in question? If so, the father should raise copyright violation issues. As an AC previously noted, failure to return found property to the owner is considered a crime in many places. The father should also consider filing a 'lost income' suit on behalf of his daughter against the school administrators over depriving his daughter, an aspiring author, of her tools of the trade and works in progress.