Internet Zen Master 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: As White House Makes Final Push On TPP, Congress Slams On The Brakes

    Internet Zen Master ( profile ), 22 Nov, 2013 @ 06:40pm

    Re:

    Considering that no one knows what's in the other 20+ chapters, and that the last time someone said "you have to pass something to know what's in it!" The GOP got to watch the Democrats pass the ACA and are now watching (while eating popcorn by the bucketload I'd imagine) the Dems rip their hair out over the complete disaster their opponent's biggest legislative achievement in recent memory's turning out to be so far, I think the GOP's more than aware of the problems that passing something they know nothing about might result in at the moment.

    That said, one should never underestimate the stupidity of politicians these days.

  • On the post: As White House Makes Final Push On TPP, Congress Slams On The Brakes

    Internet Zen Master ( profile ), 22 Nov, 2013 @ 05:40pm

    Doesn't the Obama Administration realize something?

    That "something" being the fact that Tea Party controls the GOP-run House of Congress. Considering that group of nutters (bless their loony hearts) pretty much seems inclined to do the opposite of whatever Obama wants these days just to spite him, and given how the article about Hoyer was written on the 19th, which was 3 days ago, the TPP's chance getting its precious FTA within the next 5 days are getting lower and lower.

    Especially when the House has so much better work to do. Like bringing up a bill to repeal the ACA. AGAIN.

    As the Zen Master says, "We'll see."

  • On the post: The Most Nefarious Part Of The TPP Proposal: Making Copyright Reform Impossible

    Internet Zen Master ( profile ), 14 Nov, 2013 @ 02:05pm

    One does not ask Congress to give up its authority over something.

    Based on the comments above, sounds like Congress isn't about to take this lying down (or at least not until all the palms have been sufficiently greased).

    As the Zen Master says, "We'll see."

  • On the post: TPP IP Chapter Leaked, Confirming It's Worse Than ACTA

    Internet Zen Master ( profile ), 13 Nov, 2013 @ 12:41pm

    Re: Re: Re:

    Trust me, I'm trying to do something about it. Problem is I live in Seattle, which is still effectively Obamaville, USA last I checked. Seriously, Seattlites LOVED Obama in 2008. Little bit less outrageous about it in 2012, but they still voted for him like crazy last election.

  • On the post: TPP IP Chapter Leaked, Confirming It's Worse Than ACTA

    Internet Zen Master ( profile ), 13 Nov, 2013 @ 10:46am

    Re:

    Is that apology for the 2008 vote, the 2012 vote, or both?

    And yes, Obama has turned out to be a complete schmuck. Going into the corrupt hellhole located Maryland and Virginia and trying to please everyone made him a complete sucker for the legacy industries (and any other special interest that approached him. At least it feels that way).

  • On the post: Chinese CCTV Surveillance Defeated By Chinese Smog

    Internet Zen Master ( profile ), 13 Nov, 2013 @ 12:33pm

    Tom Lehrer had a song for when America was like this back in the 1960s

    http://youtu.be/nz_-KNNl-no

    Just replace every mention of America with China and his song starts to sound disturbingly like a mostly factual warning to travelers about China's health hazards.

    More on topic: it sounds like the smog in China has gotten as bad as how people portray the air in late 19th century London. Seriously though, why are they just dancing around the issue instead of, I dunno, dealing with the source of the smog. Shut down the polluting factories! You're a big government China. I know you've got the necessary weight to force those factory owners to change their tu-

    ...what do you mean, "most of the guilty factories are state-run"?!

  • On the post: Renault Introduces DRM For Cars

    Internet Zen Master ( profile ), 12 Nov, 2013 @ 09:18am

    A great, affordable electric car!*

    *Batteries not included.

  • On the post: GCHQ's Response To Hacking Slashdot And LinkedIn: No Comment, But It Was Perfectly Legal

    Internet Zen Master ( profile ), 11 Nov, 2013 @ 12:14pm

    Re:

    No one expects the Canadians of foul play. That "Nice, friendly fellow North of the United States" stereotype is the perfect cover for such a malicious operation.

  • On the post: Turns Out Paul Hansmeier's ADA Lawsuits Were Filed Without Knowledge Of The Plaintiffs

    Internet Zen Master ( profile ), 11 Nov, 2013 @ 01:52pm

    What is this, a dictionary?

    I think Prenda is just picking first names that begin with the letter A and start looking for schmucks they can use for their shell companies.

    I mean, first we hear about Alan Cooper, then we meet Allan Mooney (and all its spelling variations). What's next? Allen Waters? Alan Yosef?

    It's already been well-established by now, but I'm gonna say it anyway:

    Clever, Prenda is most certainly not.

  • On the post: John McCain Now Pretends He Didn't Say Keith Alexander Should Resign; Gives Nonsensical Explanation

    Internet Zen Master ( profile ), 11 Nov, 2013 @ 01:25pm

    Hmmm...

    Given how blunt McCain's known for being sometimes, I wouldn't be surprised if this was spokesman Brian Rogers trying to do damage control where it wasn't needed. After all, what Rogers sees as potentially damning to McCain's career, might be seen by many others as a positive statement and get him more support.

    ... Actually, scratch that. Considering that there are many slimeball politicians who would twist McCain's words and make it look like he was calling for Obama to resign, doing this double-speak bull crap makes sense, given what goes on in that wackoland that exists inside the Beltway.

  • On the post: Less Than 20% Of Americans Believe That There's Adequate Oversight Of The NSA

    Internet Zen Master ( profile ), 11 Nov, 2013 @ 12:10pm

    Something to hide

    Given the fact that we've had to pry every single bit of information from the NSA that doesn't come from the Snowden documents and they've been more evasive than a politician in the middle of a sex scandal in telling us anything of substance other than regurgitating their already-debunked talking points. I mean, we really haven't actually been told much about their actions that would make us understand what the agency's doing, let alone why they're doing it (at least, nothing more informative than a condescending, parent-like "because we know what's best for you", or just effectively "because").

    Sure, maybe the tech world, the Internet, and at least 53% of Americans polled in that YouGov survey don't really know what's going on inside the NSA. Maybe they are doing things for good, altruistic reasons (even if all current evidence points to the contrary).

    However, considering all the negative information we do know, everything pretty much points to the NSA having "something to hide".

    Hmm.... that "something to hide" is probably the NSA itself, now that I think about it. They kinda seem content to hide in the background and let the CIA be the public face of the American intelligence community, at least as far as the average ignorant American citizen's knowledge of US spy agencies are concerned.

  • On the post: John McCain Says That Keith Alexander Should Be Fired… For All The Wrong Reasons

    Internet Zen Master ( profile ), 11 Nov, 2013 @ 11:49am

    Considering he's ex-Air Force, this is probably the best we'll get

    I get the feeling this the best McCain's going to give us as far as calling for heads on the proverbial chopping block when it the intelligence community is concerned [moot point since Kirk Alexander's going to be retiring from command of the USS Surveillance in a few months anyway].

    We have to realize that a significant portion of the jury is still out on whether or not Snowden's a traitor. I've met several individuals with security clearances who considered the man a traitor and are still as pissed as the rest of us when we find out about the NSA's shennanigans. Hypocritical? Yeah, but that's human nature.

    And McCain's reasons for calling for Alexander's resignation are just as valid as everyone who wants the dear general gone for his "COLLECT ALL TEH DATA" Constitution-violating policies.

    Think of it this way: from McCain's view, the issue here is the intelligence community's sheer incompetence when it comes to protecting sensitive information (among other things), and I have to agree with the Senator when looking at things from the security angle. The interviewer mentions Manning and Cablegate. This was three years ago. The fact that Snowden was able to do all the things he did three years after the last time someone got their hands on the US' dirty secrets shows complete incompetence on the part of the US intel agencies to learn from past mistakes.

    I'd be calling for Keith's head on a platter if I were in McCain's shoes for those reasons alone. I mean, if you can't be trusted to keep your own dirty laundry under wraps (legality and whether Congress lets the NSA gett away with it is another issue), then any security measures you helped set up around real, honest to god issues of national security (i.e. military secrets, power grid systems, etc) are immediately seen as potential easy targets by foreign aggressors (it'll most likely be China or North Korea, but who knows in today's world).

    In short, McCain's reasons for doing this aren't wrong, they're just not the reasons most of the tech world, or at least the majority of TechDirt commentators, want him to use.

  • On the post: Why Saying 'We Knew This' Or 'Everybody Spies' In Response To NSA Revelations Is Wrong

    Internet Zen Master ( profile ), 07 Nov, 2013 @ 12:42pm

    Yeah, everybody spies... However...

    Some countries take the spying way too far. Like the NSA doing, well, everything the Snowden Documents have revealed that the agency's done so far. Or the French's reputation for making industrial espionage practically an unwritten part of their economic policy since back in the Cold War.

    Brazil's spying on foreign dilplomats from a decade ago sounds pretty SOP as far as surveillance/spying is concerned, imo, when compared to the absurd "COLLECT ALL TEH DATA!!1!" approach done by the NSA.

  • On the post: Aussie Security Research Hacks Music Charts, Puts His Own 'Songs' Up Top

    Internet Zen Master ( profile ), 05 Nov, 2013 @ 02:19pm

    Re:

    Too busy plotting on what they're going to do when they rig results in the next TIME "Person of the Year" online poll I'd imagine.

  • On the post: Chinese Propaganda: The US Military Is Making Master Chief Armor; Me: Awesome!

    Internet Zen Master ( profile ), 01 Nov, 2013 @ 11:09pm

    Re: Re: I facepalmed so hard

    I know that.

    Let me rephrase:

    World's LEADING superpower.

    Last I checked most of the world still tends to turn to the US first for help when shit hits the fan, not China.

  • On the post: Japan Likely To Pass New Secrecy Law That Would Put Whistleblowers And Journalists In Jail

    Internet Zen Master ( profile ), 01 Nov, 2013 @ 06:15pm

    Re: Chernobyl 2.0 here we come.

    This. Manga's still being released on time

    Hell, from what I've seen based on my observations on the H-game crowd, the only thing that law did was cause pirates to wait longer before uploading stuff into the wild by about 2 weeks to a month.

    All the Japanese government has done is just caused piracy to slightly delay its unofficial release schedule, and that's just on the file-sharing sites.

    No idea how it's affected the torrent uploads though...

  • On the post: Chinese Propaganda: The US Military Is Making Master Chief Armor; Me: Awesome!

    Internet Zen Master ( profile ), 01 Nov, 2013 @ 06:55pm

    I facepalmed so hard

    Damn it China.

    Stop trying to outdo North Korea. Don't you want to be a world superpower someday right?

    Side Note: I would high-tail it to the nearest recruiting station if they ever made Master Chief style armor the standard combat gear. Hell, I'd settle for some good old ODST gear...

  • On the post: When Will Hollywood Stop Blaming Everyone Else And Help Itself?

    Internet Zen Master ( profile ), 16 Oct, 2013 @ 11:49am

    I disagree

    ...putting it on AMC's website was probably the mistake. That's not where people look for stuff these days.


    If people want to watch a show badly enough, I'd wager that they'd be more than willing to deviate from their usual interweb watering holes in order to visit the network's site to catch the latest episodes of the show.

    I actually ended up doing that for CW's Arrow series, and I pay a visit to the CW website every now and again to check up on it.

    Sure, streaming it from the CW's site forces you to watch commercials just like with cable. That's a given. However, I actually took the time to compare video quality from the network site against a few streaming sites, and I have to admit that the CW's video quality is much better than (most) of the streaming sites.

    Of course, part of the MPAA's[well, cable network really] problem is that they don't aggressively advertise the idea that you can stream (recent) episodes of their current shows on their website. The only cable network that I'm vaguely aware of which actually markets the website successfully is the USA Network. For me, their best ads for the streaming/"visit our website for more stuff about the show" came from Burn Notice, which just ended last month after going for seven amazing seasons and one side-story movie.

    The other problem is that once a show goes off the air and into re-runs, Hollywood tend to drop the show from the network website (supposedly to make room for new content, which makes sense). Which is why my younger sibling, who's a growing fan of the old Sci-Fi channel's Eureka, has to searching for streaming sites in order to watch it.

    In other words, the problem isn't people don't necessary look for stuff on the network websites, it's that the MPAA et. al. aren't doing enough to get the word out for the Internet side of the equation. It seems reasonable to assume that if Hollywood was more outspoken about the streaming capability for TV shows on the network sites, that number of pirates steaming the latest episode would plummet because folks would have a viable, legal alternative.

    Of course, this means that Hollywood would have to finally accept that the Internet isn't just another little gimmick to be scoffed at or smothered because it upsets the status quo. And who knows when they'll figure that out (if at all).

    As the Zen Master says, "We'll see."

  • On the post: NSA Claims It Doesn't Do Online Attacks; That's A Different Organization… Run By The NSA

    Internet Zen Master ( profile ), 14 Oct, 2013 @ 06:16pm

    Re: Re: Re: CIA

    Given that we STILL seem to have that problem of next to zero communication between the US' current batch of alphabet soup agencies, perhaps it's time to reform the intelligence community again...

  • On the post: Key Internet Institutions Ditch US Leadership; Brazil To Host Global Summit To Draw Up New Governance Model

    Internet Zen Master ( profile ), 14 Oct, 2013 @ 06:10pm

    Re: International governance not such a good idea

    I have to agree with you on this.

    If ICANN starts going for the "least common denominator" approach to regulating online speech and behavior, instead of the "piss off, we're from the Internet" approach that's we've had thanks to the US and its "freedom of speech" helping guide things, then the NSA really has killed the Internet.

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