Michael Johnstone 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: Here's The Ridiculous Texas Law That Allows Law Enforcement To Pretend A Digital Clock Is A Hoax Bomb

    Michael Johnstone ( profile ), 17 Sep, 2015 @ 02:07pm

    Re: Law Enforcement is Job Enforcement

    I probably should have written "anti-terrorism", but it's the FUD around the buzzword terrorism that gets the money.

  • On the post: FCC: Sorry, No — Net Neutrality Does Not Violate ISPs' First Amendment Rights

    Michael Johnstone ( profile ), 17 Sep, 2015 @ 04:32pm

    The Public Face of the Issue...

    Hides the behind-the-scenes war. In my imagination I envision the Telcom good-ol'-boy network having lunch with Tom Wheeler and getting all red face over his turn-coat behavior. I love to think that the power structures gets torpedoed by someone with a little social good will. I know it's a dream, but it still feels good.

  • On the post: Sexting Teens Sentenced To A Year Without Cellphones And All The Warrantless Searches They Can Be Subjected To

    Michael Johnstone ( profile ), 17 Sep, 2015 @ 02:14pm

    The Hidden Distributors of Child Porn

    Officials who love child porn going after others who possess it. There have been some recent cases where ex-officials have been snagged in child porn distribution cases.

    These child porn addicts love sucking it up anyway they can. No matter whose life it destroys. Sick bastards.

  • On the post: Here's The Ridiculous Texas Law That Allows Law Enforcement To Pretend A Digital Clock Is A Hoax Bomb

    Michael Johnstone ( profile ), 17 Sep, 2015 @ 02:02pm

    Law Enforcement is Job Enforcement

    My local 7/11 has had two cases of people causing actual disturbances (one customer picked up a stool to hit another customer) and so they called the cops two blocks away (I was in the store at the time and heard the manager's end of the conversation). Neither time did any police do anything, nothing, not one thing, never, ever (I asked).

    So when I hear about the Irvine Incident I have to wonder why. And I think it's because the money (and jobs) are in terrorism and not general public service.

  • On the post: Larry Lessig Tells New Zealand Court That DOJ's Case Against Kim Dotcom Is A Sham

    Michael Johnstone ( profile ), 17 Sep, 2015 @ 10:02am

    I'm Calling for a Separation of Media and State

    Troll armies aren't exclusive to Putin, and I'm wondering if MPAA and RIAA don't have their own paid troll armies. I'm beginning to believe this because I notice whenever the case against Megaupload and Kim Dotcom is mentioned there is an extraordinary amount of arbitrary and ridiculous comments disparaging the facts and truth of the case. Almost like they have a stake in the outcome.

    With the Sony hack and the Megaupload case I'm seeing too many signs that the government and media are tightly joined. Maybe more so than religion media should be separated from government, because it seems that only those favored by media get justice.

    I would like to call it the Aaron Swartz constitutional amendment, because I think he saw the issue before I did.

  • On the post: US Counterterrorism Official Says US Is 'The Angel Of Death' And Should Be Target Killing ISIS Tweeters

    Michael Johnstone ( profile ), 10 Sep, 2015 @ 02:19pm

    SkyNet Can't Be Worse

    I don't believe that when we hit The Singularity the machine functioning AI is going to waste resources on drone killing humans. Not when it's possible to engineer a CRISPR/cas9 bacterium that could selectively target specific biological life forms and not others.

    The Terminator franchise assumed the AI would be like us. This is quite doubtful, I think.

    It is much more likely that the SkyNet shown in the movies was operated by a military contractor.

  • On the post: US Counterterrorism Official Says US Is 'The Angel Of Death' And Should Be Target Killing ISIS Tweeters

    Michael Johnstone ( profile ), 10 Sep, 2015 @ 02:07pm

    Is There Any Doubt

    How can you not read this ABC report and not believe that countries aren't ran by megalomaniac, power brokers who likely have no more empathy for cockroaches than they do for the powerless?

    Whether you look at the State's response to the Michigan militia, volunteer border observers, Ruby Ridge, Branch Davidian, Aaron Swartz, Elián González, Martin Luther King, whistle blowers, Edward Snowden, Kim Dotcom, Antigua, etc., etc., etc. the evidence shows that the State's power structure is designed to maintain it's hold at any cost.

    If you a disrupter to this status quo and vulnerable you'll be eliminated.

  • On the post: Should Police Have The Right To Take Control Of Self-Driving Cars?

    Michael Johnstone ( profile ), 09 Sep, 2015 @ 02:56pm

    What Could Go Wrong

    What could go wrong giving more power to those who've already proven to abuse what power they have?

  • On the post: Sexting Teen Charged With Sexually Exploiting Himself

    Michael Johnstone ( profile ), 04 Sep, 2015 @ 12:28pm

    This Issue is Being Discussed at The Atlantic

    http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/09/for-sexting-teens-the-authorities-are-the-biggest-threat/403318/

    Ten years too late for some unfortunately soles.

    The powerful prey on the weak, and the kids and their families don't stand a chance against the legal machine. A machine that has proven to be as corrupt as those it seeks to administer justice to.

  • On the post: Thomas Goolnik Really Wants To Be Forgotten: Google Disappears Our Post About His Right To Be Forgotten Request

    Michael Johnstone ( profile ), 04 Sep, 2015 @ 12:22pm

    Google Reviewers?

    Who says a Google RTBF reviewer is human? As a point in case I noticed that Google Maps blurs faces, and I thought that humans did that until I saw the face of a statue blurred, and so now I think it's face recognition software that does the blurring. I bet Google uses software to do RTBF and not humans. Software won't recognize your footnote to the reviewer, and will again fail the Turing Test.

  • On the post: T-Mobile CEO Vows To Hunt Down 'Thieves&#39 And 'Clever Hackers' That 'Abuse' Company's Unlimited Data Plans

    Michael Johnstone ( profile ), 01 Sep, 2015 @ 03:51pm

    To the Local T-Mobile Office's Credit

    The sales dudes and dudettes at my local T-Mobile shop made it a point of telling me that T-Mobile throttles.

    In regards to users by-passing the carrier imposed data throttle by rooting a phone so as to remove a carrier lock on the SIM, I can understand John Legere's issue. But if Legere wants to resolve this matter in a customer friendly way I think he should embrace unlocked and rooted phones, and then look at other ways to regulate the amount of data usage.

    As a network administrator I understand the issue of balancing the needs of the community in relation to the desires of a heavy consuming minority. There are good ways and bad ways of handling this type of situation. I hope T-Mobile chooses the good way.

  • On the post: Border Patrol Agent Forwarded All Emails To Someone Else's Gmail; Only Discovered When 'Civilian' Responded

    Michael Johnstone ( profile ), 28 Aug, 2015 @ 02:26pm

    That Private Citizen Was Lucky

    It could have gone another way for the reporting citizen and they could have been accused of hacking a government account. Yes, most normal people know that wouldn't be true, but based on recent reports it seems that the courts are more of neophytes than the CBP.

  • On the post: AT&T Injecting Ads Into Its Wi-Fi Hotspot Data Streams

    Michael Johnstone ( profile ), 25 Aug, 2015 @ 04:36pm

    A Niche Market Opportunity

    You are a consumer, and you know that Big Business is in the business of screwing you over. But they hold the goods services you want, and you have to go through them to get these things. So you do things like regularly change vendors knowing that companies like to offer new customers good service, or run applications that remove the "dirt and grime" that companies add to their IT products. Companies will do X and consumers fight back by doing Y. A game played over and over again.

    So here we have a case where using WiFi adds grime to a service that consumers want, and they are doing it in a way that thwarts previous Y type moves "(in case [where] the user's browser has disabled Javascript)".

    So now the ball is in the consumer's court. This is a product or service opportunity. The consumer is ready for an enterprising soul who'll offer a product or service that defeats this practice. If it's good it will make money.

    And the fight will continue.

  • On the post: Whistleblowers Band Together To Sue FBI, NSA And DOJ For Malicious Prosecution, Civil Liberties Violations

    Michael Johnstone ( profile ), 25 Aug, 2015 @ 01:09pm

    It's Impossible to Wrestle the Power Away From the Power Brokers

    Those unelected officials, that hold the power of the political machine, can not, will not, tolerate whistleblowers, because it upsets their system. In the end the government will be the machine it is and drag this stuff out for years, maybe a decade or more, and then give them a fraction of tax dollars to cover the expenses, time, and mental anguish it took to make their case.

    The American political system is a power-broker's paradise.

  • On the post: Google Disappears Techdirt Article About Right To Be Forgotten Due To Right To Be Forgotten Request

    Michael Johnstone ( profile ), 25 Aug, 2015 @ 12:14pm

    Power Covets the "Kill Switch"

    Before the communication medium of the Internet it was possible for the FBI to walk into an office kick everyone out and take all files electronic, or otherwise, and no one other than the few involved would ever know about the incident. The government could spin whatever story they wanted about the reason and the public would just accept the outcome. (see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wah_Chang_Corporation) I heard about it, because I happened to be in town at the time, and people naturally talk about this sort of stuff.

    It could happen to TechDirt, it could happen to The Pirate Bay, it could be anyone. The site's DNS confiscated and no way for information to be disseminated.

    The movie "Enemy of the State" isn't as farfetched as some would have you believe.

  • On the post: Ashley Madison Continues To Use Dubious Legal Takedown Threats To Try To Disappear The Data It Failed To Protect

    Michael Johnstone ( profile ), 25 Aug, 2015 @ 11:40am

    ALM or SONY

    I can see why they try to use (abuse) the law, but what really makes me upset is that the major news agencies are backing their bogus claims. The appearance is that news agencies are more concerned with protecting the abusers than the abused (us, the people that depend on news agencies to be fair and unbiased).

  • On the post: Microsoft Launches Special 'Scott McNealy' Edition Of Windows

    Michael Johnstone ( profile ), 03 Aug, 2015 @ 11:37pm

    From the Can't Beat Them Join Them Dept.

    Wasn't there a Scroogle ad campaign not too long ago? What happened to the view that Google was this big bad data slurper that Microsoft was using to promote its products?

  • On the post: Daily Deal: Zendure A8 Pro 25600mAh External Battery

    Michael Johnstone ( profile ), 30 Jul, 2015 @ 11:30am

    Re:

    yep: http://www.amazon.com/PowerAll-PBJS12000R-Rosso-Portable-Starter/dp/B00D42AFS8

  • On the post: Topsite Operator, Who Admitted To Operating Servers With Tons Of Pirated Movies, Gets Off With Just Probation

    Michael Johnstone ( profile ), 27 Jul, 2015 @ 02:05pm

    Yeah, Kim Dotcom

    Hey, Kim, read this article it might save you some pain in the arse from those dudes who like to show us how powerful they are.

  • On the post: Police Cameras Are Valuable… But Not If They Can Alter The Videos

    Michael Johnstone ( profile ), 22 Jul, 2015 @ 12:30pm

    Re: Malcolm Gladwell's "Blink"

    gah *know

    (need to edit better)

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