mhajicek 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (308)

• On the post: DOJ Report Calls Botched Uvalde School Shooting Response A Series Of ‘Cascading Failures’

  

  mhajicek ( profile ), 23 Jan, 2024 @ 09:00pm

  If the cops had merely gotten out of the way, the parents would have taken care of the situation.

• On the post: Bulk Suspicion: Typo In Geofence Warrant Created Two-Mile Long Dragnet

  

  mhajicek ( profile ), 16 Jan, 2024 @ 06:31pm

  When more people learn about this, people planning to commit a crime will simply leave their phone at home, or with a friend, while doing so. They won't even be on the list of suspects. Police will begin with a list of people who had a phone in the area at the time, whittle it down to the most likely, and be guaranteed to accuse the wrong person.

• On the post: Piracy Is Surging Again Because Streaming Execs Ignored The Lessons Of The Past

  

  mhajicek ( profile ), 10 Jan, 2024 @ 06:18am

  USB DVD players are cheap.

• On the post: The US Healthcare Scam Illustrated In The Impossibility Of Getting A Bill For Five Stitches

  

  mhajicek ( profile ), 14 Nov, 2023 @ 12:20am

  Don't bother yelling at them, that's bad for your blood pressure. Just hang up and block the number.

• On the post: South Dakota’s Top Court Reaffirms Its Refusal To Consider Polygraph Tests To Be Actual ‘Evidence’ Of Anything

  

  mhajicek ( profile ), 09 Aug, 2023 @ 10:25pm

  It's just like voodoo in that one movie. It only works on you if you believe!

• On the post: Funniest/Most Insightful Comments Of The Week At Techdirt

  

  mhajicek ( profile ), 31 Jul, 2023 @ 12:31am

  "The argument everyone forgets… The PROMISE of safety of children (or any other group) is not more important than the Rights of the whole. The only thing that could potentially be as important would be the ABSOLUTE CERTAINTY of their safety. Otherwise, our Rights are being traded for a hypothetical and we don’t get our Rights back if the hypothetical fails." Good, now apply that argument to all attempts at authoritarianism.

• On the post: Federal Court Accepts Arizona AG’s Admission Of Defeat, Blocks ‘No Recording Cops Within 8 Feet’ Law

  

  mhajicek ( profile ), 29 Jul, 2023 @ 12:20am

  There is a solution. Delete most of the laws.

• On the post: Court Says It’s Fine For Cops To Use Cell Phones To Peep Into People’s Cars

  

  mhajicek ( profile ), 25 Jul, 2023 @ 11:41pm

  When will portable x-ray backscatter scanners be commercially available ?

• On the post: Maryland’s Top Court Calls Bullshit On Ballistic Forensics

  

  mhajicek ( profile ), 21 Jul, 2023 @ 11:01am

  Indeed. As a manufacturer of precision machined parts, we make runs of hundreds of parts with deviations measured in ten-thousandths of an inch. Two parts made one after the other will vary less than .0001"; often much less.

• On the post: If The Crime Rate Goes Down After Half A Cop Shop Quits, What Are We Even Paying For?

  

  mhajicek ( profile ), 18 Jul, 2023 @ 11:07am

  Proposal

  Every law enforcement officer must have their permanent residence in the jurisdiction in which they work. Supervisors must have resided in the jurisdiction for five years, and chiefs for ten.

• On the post: Studies Suggest That Rather Than Killing Jobs, AI Could Revive The Middle Class

  

  mhajicek ( profile ), 27 May, 2023 @ 08:55am

  Exactly. This is why I believe something like universal basic income will be necessary, as large swaths of the population become categorically unemployable.

• On the post: Studies Suggest That Rather Than Killing Jobs, AI Could Revive The Middle Class

  

  mhajicek ( profile ), 26 May, 2023 @ 10:22pm

  As an example that's already occurred, an 18 year old with a CNC and some software can easily out produce a whole shop full of experienced manual machinists. Even 5 axis stuff is becoming relatively easy now. So that one worker might get paid more, while the rest are laid off. Or they might get paid less, since there are plenty of others lined up for their position.

• On the post: Studies Suggest That Rather Than Killing Jobs, AI Could Revive The Middle Class

  

  mhajicek ( profile ), 26 May, 2023 @ 10:13pm

  If a given employment position can produce more, with a less skilled worker, then fewer employees are needed to do the same work, and each can be paid less. The only ones who benefit from this are the employer and the customer. I run a CNC machining company. My machines are making me more money than I've ever gotten before, while I provide my clients with great product at good prices. But I don't need to employ anyone, and I could expand quite a bit before I would need to. Even then, machine automation is advancing, and if I buy the right capital equipment it can run itself for days on end before needing attention. If decent AI/automated CAM software becomes a thing, that would again multiply the amount of work I could do myself, without employees.

• On the post: Court Suppresses Breathalyzer Results In 27,000 DUI Cases After Years Of Being Jerked Around By The State Crime Lab

  

  mhajicek ( profile ), 15 May, 2023 @ 11:37pm

  So...

  Who's going to jail for this?

• On the post: Metadud: Just 4% Of U.S. Teens Use VR Daily, 7% Plan To Buy A Headset Anytime Soon

  

  mhajicek ( profile ), 07 Apr, 2023 @ 10:37am

  Valve Index FTW.

  I've had an Index for two years now, and I regularly use it for Beat Saber, and occasionally dabble in other games. Beat Saber is a pretty good workout, and my wife will do it too. We never get any motion sickness in that; the sickness comes with games that move you around when you're not physically moving. I've never had a Facebook account, and never will, nor do I have any interest in ever touching that Metaverse crap. If I want something like that I'll do VR Chat, which is far better, more developed, and free.

• On the post: Appeals Court Reverses Awful Decision Finding That Holding Up A Sign Telling Drivers There Are Cops Ahead Is Not Free Speech

  

  mhajicek ( profile ), 30 Mar, 2023 @ 10:25am

  Root cause analysis

  Looks like the root cause of the initial problem was the ticket quota. Tickets should be seen as a tool, a means to the end of enforcing the law and saving lives, rather than as an end in and of themselves, as quotas enforce. Quotas of all kinds in law enforcement should be banned. If they have a quota, and can't find enough violators to meet it, they will create some by any means necessary.

• On the post: In A World Where AI Art Is Cheap And Easy To Generate, Do We Still Need Copyright?

  

  mhajicek ( profile ), 15 Feb, 2023 @ 08:24am

  Post Scarcity

  On the road to post scarcity, most jobs will be rendered redundant, one after another. For each one, people will fight, kicking and screaming, and demanding special protections and considerations. As human labor diminishes in value, the challenge will be to shift our economy away from exchanging labor for the right to live.

• On the post: TSA’s Opt-In Facial Recognition Program Doesn’t Seem All That Optional In Real Life

  

  mhajicek ( profile ), 04 Jan, 2023 @ 10:04am

  Vote with your feet and wallet.

  I haven't flown since 2004.

• On the post: It Took Just Four Days From Elon Gleefully Admitting He’d Unplugged A Server Rack For Twitter To Have A Major Outage

  

  mhajicek ( profile ), 29 Dec, 2022 @ 11:15am

  Support your local blacksmith.

• On the post: The Copyright Industry Is About To Discover That There Are Hundreds Of Thousands Of Songs Generated By AI Already Available, Already Popular

  

  mhajicek ( profile ), 23 Dec, 2022 @ 12:09am

  When it comes to copyright, you don't have to count every possible variation. If you play the first 30 seconds of a copyrighted song, on a different instrument, at a different tempo, with different dynamics, and then continue with original work, you will still be sued for stealing the fundamental structure of those first 30 seconds. Really all you need to do is generate every possible melody of perhaps four to six bars, copyright those, and you could sue all future artists.

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