Narcissus 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (212) comment rss

  • On the post: Larry Lessig's Latest Big Challenge: Fixing The Way We Elect A President

    Narcissus ( profile ), 27 Sep, 2017 @ 11:29pm

    Re: Re: What is the point?

    The checks and balances are inherent in the Trias Politica itself aren't they? Legislative controls Executive and both are controlled by the Judicial.

  • On the post: As 'Star Trek: Discovery' Shows, The Streaming Exclusivity Wars Risk Driving Users Back To Piracy

    Narcissus ( profile ), 28 Sep, 2017 @ 06:08am

    Is it a bad thing?

    I agree it sucks to have to subscribe to 15 different streaming services to keep up to date with popular culture and I also agree it will likely increase piracy.

    I can't help thinking there is also a good side here though. CBS signed up a big crowd with their new Star Trek. What they will find out is that if they don't follow up on that offering (or offer a tepid series) the trekkies will leave very fast too. That's is the great new freedom of the streaming services, you can end them every month usually.

    So, it could start a fierce competition for the streaming dollars which, by nature, are limited. So if the streaming service doesn't offer good value for money they are destined for ignominy. It could be a new golden era of creativity and competition.

    Of course I could be too optimistic but the potential is there.

  • On the post: Larry Lessig's Latest Big Challenge: Fixing The Way We Elect A President

    Narcissus ( profile ), 27 Sep, 2017 @ 10:01am

    Re: Re: What is the point?

    Fair point but I feel it would be much stronger if the presidential candidates would be independents. Right now they're party members too, meaning that the group think is still an issue and possibly worse.

    The fact that the US has only 2 parties doesn't make things better in that respect.Right now the 2 parties have a very big incentive to make the candidate for "the other side" fail.

    I think most heads of state have veto powers by the way. They're rarely used (as should be) but they exist.

  • On the post: Larry Lessig's Latest Big Challenge: Fixing The Way We Elect A President

    Narcissus ( profile ), 27 Sep, 2017 @ 09:51am

    Re: Re: What is the point?

    Thanks for those deep insights!

  • On the post: Members Of Trump's Admin Team Using Private Email Accounts Because Of Course They Are

    Narcissus ( profile ), 27 Sep, 2017 @ 07:28am

    Hacked?

    Wouldn't it be hilarious if it came out that the leaks from the White House were actually coming from hacked private e-mail accounts used by The Donald & fils to discuss government issues?

    Just thinking about that outcome makes me giggle.

  • On the post: Larry Lessig's Latest Big Challenge: Fixing The Way We Elect A President

    Narcissus ( profile ), 27 Sep, 2017 @ 07:10am

    What is the point?

    Can somebody explain me what they think is the advantage of electing the president separately? I'd also be interested if somebody can explain to me what the founding fathers thought was the advantage.

    In many countries representatives are elected and the biggest party supplies the prime minister who forms the government, if needed together with other parties. In this system the president or, as the case may be, the king or queen, is only a figure head. The one that cuts ribbons on grand openings.

    To me that seems more logic because you're sure that parliament supports the government so they can get shit done. I'd be interested if somebody could at least explain the reasoning behind electing the president separately.

  • On the post: Federal Court Says Utah Theater Can Serve Up Beer And R-Rated Movies Simultaneously

    Narcissus ( profile ), 08 Sep, 2017 @ 12:33am

    Of course...

    Ms. Page wrote: “I hate to bring this up, --- Brewvies is showing Deadpool. --- I know some people who have seen it.

    Yes, and I'm asking for a friend...

  • On the post: Case Dismissed: Judge Throws Out Shiva Ayyadurai's Defamation Lawsuit Against Techdirt

    Narcissus ( profile ), 07 Sep, 2017 @ 02:30am

    Congrats!

    I just wanted to give my heartfelt congratulations!

    A world without Techdirt would be a bleaker place so I'm happy we're not venturing into that alternative timeline.

  • On the post: IOC President Tosses Shade At Including eSports In Olympics Over Concerns About Violence And Doping

    Narcissus ( profile ), 06 Sep, 2017 @ 05:40am

    Re:

    I think those other major sports don't have that option. Most sports coverage is very focused on popular sports.There's is probably hundreds of hours of TV a week about Football during the season. How often do you see women's gymnastics?

    Most major sports (basketball, baseball, football, soccer etc.) are mostly irrelevant during the event-that-shall-not-be-infringed-upon. It's about the small sports for whom this is their whole raison d'etre.

  • On the post: IOC President Tosses Shade At Including eSports In Olympics Over Concerns About Violence And Doping

    Narcissus ( profile ), 05 Sep, 2017 @ 11:55pm

    Who cares?

    If I was in e-sports in any capacity I'd want to stay away from the event-whose-name-can't-be-mentioned-without-a-licence like it was a mobster in a cheap suit.

    Many sports, especially less popular ones, are dependent on this event for promotion. Many of those are only seen on TV once every 4 years when they're jammed between the semi-final 100m dash and the swimming series. That way they can recruit new blood and stay relevant.

    E-sports is doing pretty well on their own.

  • On the post: Attorney General Jeff Sessions: Hurricane Harvey Is Proof We Need To Militarize Our Police Forces

    Narcissus ( profile ), 01 Sep, 2017 @ 12:14am

    Re: Gallup: Confidence In Police

    I also heard that Trump won the popular vote... So more than half definitely qualifies as vast majority for them.

  • On the post: Kaspersky Gets Awful Patent Troll To Pay Up To Drop Its Own Case

    Narcissus ( profile ), 31 Aug, 2017 @ 11:54pm

    Re:

    Not so sure:
    "Their patent was for a firewall that's not user-configurable," Kniser said in an interview with Ars. "They knew ours was configurable."

    So it seems they were confident the patent didn't apply to them but they were not confident it was actually an invalid patent.

    Anyway, I'm sure a company that calls itself after bridge dwelling creatures has some more patents stockpiled somewhere.

  • On the post: The Scale Of Moderating Facebook: It Turns Off 1 Million Accounts Every Single Day

    Narcissus ( profile ), 31 Aug, 2017 @ 12:03am

    Selfgovernance

    I'm kind of confused why Facebook would be responsible for what appears on my feed, except for the ads obviously.

    I am the one that agrees to follow people and I can always unfriend or unfollow them. If somebody is posting stuff I find offensive I unfollow them, it's 2 seconds work.

    I guess they could make an more obvious way to flag stuff and for me it would be enough if they just hid flagged stuff behind a link (like TD does). I also think some kind of algorithm could be made that if it clears a certain number of flags in a short time it should be put in review since it seems something serious is going on.

    For the rest I can manage just fine on my own thank you.

  • On the post: Judge Tosses Sarah Palin's Defamation Suit Against The New York Times, Says No Actual Malice

    Narcissus ( profile ), 30 Aug, 2017 @ 12:04am

    Re: Re: Re: Stylised Crosshairs ?

    No, those are crosshairs, not a compass.

    A compass rose would indicate 8 directions usually, not 4. Do a Google image search on compass rose. At the very least if they meant to put a compass rose there they went out of their way to find the most crosshair-like compass they could find and therefore, considering the language used, any misinterpretation is on them.

    Calling a cow a unicorn does not magically make it so.

  • On the post: Mayweather V. McGregor: Showtime Got Injunctions On Pirate Stream Sites Which Didn't Work & Neither Did Their Own Stream

    Narcissus ( profile ), 30 Aug, 2017 @ 12:37am

    Shocked

    I am shocked!

    People paid 99 US$ for watching one single boxing match? Between a boxer and a not so much a boxer?

  • On the post: California Case Against Backpage Moves Forward Over Money Laundering Claims

    Narcissus ( profile ), 30 Aug, 2017 @ 12:23am

    Facts?

    It would be so nice if policies were actually based on facts instead of symbolism (or grandstanding).

    Let's disregard the collateral damage of SESTA for the internet for a minute and ask ourselves what would have more impact: Increasing the funding of police investigations connected to human trafficking or SESTA? I don't really need to commission a report to guess the answer.

    Perhaps we should divert some funds from the War On Drugs and put it towards those investigations. That way we might arrest more human traffickers and less black people having a joint.

  • On the post: A Google Tax Isn't Going To Give Publishers The Payout They Think It Will

    Narcissus ( profile ), 23 Aug, 2017 @ 05:05am

    Innovate?

    Seems to me the solution is simple:
    - Set up a company seeded with money from the (whole) news industry.
    - Build a new search engine, possibly buy news.com from Cnet.
    - Ask all news outlets to put no-index for Google in their robot.txt.
    - Make sure all news websites are indexed in the new search engine
    - grab all the Google moneyz

    If they're so convinced Google is only turning a profit because of them it seems fairly easy to grab that sweet dough. If news is only available on that search engine I'm sure people will go there to find news.

    Then they could (gasp) innovate as well. Make personalized newsfeeds, create algorithms to determine what is fake news and what is real, set up Patreon-like crowdfunding for special news stories etc. etc.

    The fact that this does not yet exist is proof that they also know there is not much money in it. So, just waiting for a handout is much easier.

  • On the post: US Senators Unveil Their Attempt To Secure The Internet Of Very Broken Things

    Narcissus ( profile ), 08 Aug, 2017 @ 12:19am

    UL certification

    At the moment UL approval is needed for most (all?) electrical products entering the US. It seems to me that they could also play a role in certifying the software of these IoT devices.

    Most likely UL would have to set up a new division/department for that, as well as write new standards, but writing standards is what they do. I don't see why it would be a problem to require all devices that connect to the internet to have UL certified software. Certainly for government tenders that would be just a matter of writing it in the specs.

    It could slow down innovation a bit because it'll probably take some months to get the approval but seeing the danger here it could be a possible trade-off.

    I think it would also be a benefit to have a big knowledge base in one place about how to secure IoT devices. Well meaning companies could use this knowledge to produce safe devices. Yes I know, well meaning companies are rare/unicorns but still...

  • On the post: DHS, TSA To Make Boarding A Plane Even More Of A Pain In The Ass

    Narcissus ( profile ), 31 May, 2017 @ 02:29am

    Re: What is the problem here?

    I was already discussing it at work. Obviously if this will become a rule you can't take your laptop on flights anymore because they would be either destroyed or stolen during the flight. Of course as soon as the US adopts it the rest of the world will follow.

    Our solution was to just have a stack of laptops ready at international meetings. Once you get to the meeting you take one and log in to your company account.

    There might even be a business model there. Get off the plane, go to your LapTopEverywhere counter at the airport and pick up your computer. When you leave the country hand it back in. Bonus points if you can just hand it over to the security guy.

    of course it will not make us safer because there will be problems with viruses and information left on the laptop. But hey, that's a small price to pay for FEELING safer.

  • On the post: Why Is Congress In Such A Rush To Strip The Library Of Congress Of Oversight Powers On The Copyright Office?

    Narcissus ( profile ), 26 Apr, 2017 @ 01:51am

    Re: Re: contributions = priority

    Trump is already breaking many conventions so the one where the former presidents builds a library will probably also be discontinued.

    The Trump Memorial Golf Course though... I can see that happening.

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