pixelpusher220 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: The Wyden Siren Goes Off Again: We’ll Be “Stunned” By What the NSA Is Doing Under Section 702

    pixelpusher220 ( profile ), 13 Mar, 2026 @ 03:44pm

    just one quibble

    that the 'reforms' put the oversight in the hands of partisan conspiracists...that is a flaw of any representative gov't that elects partisan conspiracists, not of the reforms themselves. Putting an abject mob boss autocrat wannabe into the POTUS TWICE is going to have a bounty of corrupt/illegal behavior - especially in the secret world of law enforcement.

  • On the post: Ars Technica Retracts Story Featuring Fake Quotes Made Up By AI, About A Different AI That Launched A Weird Smear Campaign Against An Engineer Who Rejected Its Code (Seriously)

    pixelpusher220 ( profile ), 18 Feb, 2026 @ 06:03am

    The Irony [eye roll]

    "The irony of an AI reporter being tripped up by an AI hallucination is not lost on me." Irony / Shame

  • On the post: Trump Admin Reinvents US Digital Services Program After Elon Musk Fired All Their Actual Tech Experts

    pixelpusher220 ( profile ), 25 Dec, 2025 @ 01:08pm

    Online Passport Renewal

    Was one of those programs built by the actual experts. I renewed my passport in January pre 1/20 for obvious reasons. I swear to god it was the best, easiet, simplest and quickest gov't website I've EVER USED. Online order to receiving my new passport in UNDER TEN DAYS. At the end when the survey asked what could be better, the only thing I could come up with was on a single field the pop up context info that was mildly confusing.

  • On the post: The Measles Outbreak In South Carolina Is Growing

    pixelpusher220 ( profile ), 14 Dec, 2025 @ 01:46pm

    Exactly

    By us giving 'religion' a free pass from being based on anything real - nothing they encounter that contradicts their religion is valid. Until religion is left in the dust bin of history humanity isn't going to progress.

  • On the post: Former FCC Officials Push To Kill Dated ‘News Distortion’ Rule Trump Abused To Bully CBS And ABC Into Feckless Compliance

    pixelpusher220 ( profile ), 17 Nov, 2025 @ 04:24pm

    Worse than you think

    My opinion is the US as a functional country is done. We have 1 of 2 parties utterly divorced from 'democracy' but somehow we're supposed to 'respect' them? And that party is entrenched into power with only a minority. Minority rule, let alone one fueled by vengence and retribution, rarely lets go of that power peacefully. "A house divided cannot stand" Dems can win control of POTUS, House and Senate and literally nothing useful will get done b/c of the Senate. And that minority is still there simply waiting for the inevitable shift back to them. Short of a post-Nixon order of magnitude shift in voting for a generation with Super Majorities to unfsck this country as well as the required Constitutional Amendments, it's just a slow slide downward to Red and Blue American countries. Meanwhile China eats our lunch in any number of markets and technology.

  • On the post: Hey, Microsoft: Are You Guys Also Cool With DHS And Trump Using ‘Halo’ Imagery For Fascism?

    pixelpusher220 ( profile ), 11 Nov, 2025 @ 11:14am

    Trademarks?

    Doesn't a Trademark owner *have* to defend it's use or lose it being protected? IANAL so I have no idea but I'd love to hear informed discussion of that aspect

  • On the post: SCOTUS Simply Ignores Precedent, Rather Than Overruling It, In Allowing Trump To Fire Officials Congress Deemed Independent

    pixelpusher220 ( profile ), 19 Jun, 2025 @ 05:00pm

    Also why the US isn't going to survive

    The 'Calvin Ball' method of governance doesn't bode well for the future survival of this experiment. A house divided cannot stand...and I don't see the GOP side coming back to sanity anytime soon. Not that Dems are much better but they generally aren't full blown evil/profiteers

  • On the post: Cable Giants Start Offering Free Streaming Subscriptions In Acknowledgement They Lost The Cord Cutting War

    pixelpusher220 ( profile ), 26 Oct, 2024 @ 02:05am

    Been a long hold out...TIVO

    Absolutely LOVED my Tivo and with a cablecard ignoring the box fees was enough to deal with the rest of it. We have FIOS and Comcrap both avail and for a while they did keep prices lowerish. But last couple years Comcrap seemed to really spike it. Went to switch back and discovered CableCards are no longer offered for new installs on FIOS. So the TIVO sits in a corner and we run YTTV now. Not nearly as good...but at least the DVR quality stream is...lower somehow?

  • On the post: After Bleeding TV Subscribers For Years, Cable Giants Now Losing Broadband Customers To Home 5G, Community-Owned Fiber

    pixelpusher220 ( profile ), 22 Oct, 2024 @ 07:59pm

    The VA statutes

    https://broadbandnow.com/report/municipal-broadband-roadblocks#virginia has a list of the problematic VA Code statutes. Virginia mandates that municipal systems are not able to charge lower prices than incumbents. If citizens wish to provide themselves a service, they must match oligarchy pricing of the current system? This says that the Commission may provide subsidies to a municipal system but only down to the current price of for profit providers. https://vacode.org/2016/56/10.1/56-265.4:4/#B5 "The Commission may approve a subsidy under this section if deemed to be in the public interest and provided that such subsidy does not result in a price for the service lower than the price for the same service charged by the incumbent provider in the area." This states flatly a municipal system must charge at least as much as any for profit provider in the service area. https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title56/chapter15/section56-484.7:1/ C. The prices charged by a county, city, town, electric commission or board, industrial development authority, or economic development authority for providing communications services shall not be set at a price for the service lower than the prices charged by any incumbent provider for a functionally equivalent service that is as generally available from such incumbent as it is from such governmental entity. This says they have to be fully profitable in 'year 1'. https://law.lis.virginia.gov/vacode/title15.2/chapter21/section15.2-2108.6/ D. The governing body of the municipality shall determine whether the average annual revenues under subdivision B 6 exceed the average annual costs under subdivision B 5 by at least the amount necessary to meet the bond obligations of any bonds issued to fund the proposed cable television services based on the feasibility study's analysis for the first year of the study and the five-year projection, and separately stated with respect to the proposed cable television services.

  • On the post: After Bleeding TV Subscribers For Years, Cable Giants Now Losing Broadband Customers To Home 5G, Community-Owned Fiber

    pixelpusher220 ( profile ), 22 Oct, 2024 @ 07:56pm

    Not quite the same but

    in VA they bought legislation to make it literally illegal to run a municipal broadband system. Oh right that would be excessive - they just

    1. Mandated municipal systems not charge less than any existing provider
    2. Any municipal system proposed must show profitability in year ONE
    Why bust up infrastructure when you can just make it legally unviable.

  • On the post: Cable TV In Free Fall As Industry Loses Another 1.62 Million Viewers

    pixelpusher220 ( profile ), 14 Sep, 2024 @ 11:27am

    long tail vs cliff

    The problem with long tail is they have huge expenses for content. That bill will cut that tail off pretty quickly when the margins come calling.

  • On the post: Survey: Comcast Still Sucks, Consumers Prefer Indie Or Community-Owned Fiber Broadband

    pixelpusher220 ( profile ), 22 Jul, 2024 @ 08:28pm

    data point of one

    I will give Comcast one decent review, cancelling was as easy as it should be.

  • On the post: NHL’s Dallas Stars To Go Fully Free Streaming For Every Single Non-National Game Next Season

    pixelpusher220 ( profile ), 17 Jul, 2024 @ 11:11am

    Playoffs with home announcers

    A serious revenue source would be offering all playoff games called by your home team announcers. Hell you could probably sell it to terrible team fans just for the hope factor.

  • On the post: Justice Alito’s Views On Social Media And The First Amendment Seem To Shift Depending On Who He Wants To Win

    pixelpusher220 ( profile ), 02 Jul, 2024 @ 02:08pm

    This comment should be flagged

    This comment should be flagged /humor

  • On the post: Meta Moves To More Directly Connect To ActivityPub, But Is It Really Open?

    pixelpusher220 ( profile ), 28 Jun, 2024 @ 12:32am

    They don't control the standard

    They can make changes to their implementation, but that's not the 'standard'. The ActivityPub protocol is a published W3C standard, it doesn't just get 'changed'. If they make themselves non-interoperable, then the existing community continues on as is. (which is entirely what many on Mastodon at least would prefer anyway)

  • On the post: Minnesota Kills Ignorant Ban On Community Broadband Bought By The Telecom Lobby

    pixelpusher220 ( profile ), 05 Jun, 2024 @ 09:28pm

    VA still has it

    VA allows municipal systems but only if: * no existing provider * no prices below existing provider * must submit business plan showing profitability in YEAR ONE just for that extra special FU to ppl.

  • On the post: Big Telecom Is Once Again Using Fake Consumer Groups To Attack Community Owned Broadband Networks

    pixelpusher220 ( profile ), 23 May, 2024 @ 09:15pm

    Virginia made it literally illegal

    VA passed laws making any municipal system have to charge no less than any incumbent. And, that they have a business plan that shows them profitable in...year ONE. Utterly insane.

  • On the post: The FCC’s New ‘Broadband Nutrition Label’ Doesn’t Solve The Actual Problem: Unchecked Telecom Monopoly Power

    pixelpusher220 ( profile ), 12 Apr, 2024 @ 08:08pm

    Bought n paid for state legislatures

    that monopoly power comes from state. VA fairly recently made it illegal for a municipal system to charge less than an incumbent. Also, mandated that any municipal system thinking of starting up, must provide a business plan that shows them being profitable in.....year ONE.

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

    pixelpusher220 ( profile ), 10 Jan, 2024 @ 09:41pm

    Re: Re: Amazon's ad strategy

    With cable, I record games and watch on delay. Easily skip commercials with the Tivo. With streaming only, it's a little dicier, some allow later viewing. the local Washington Caps 'Monumental Sports Network' technically does but stupendously shows you the friggin score before you can get to the game! And of course the Xfinity cross-authentication to Monumental rarely works so that's fun too. And you have to impose your own media blackout as well.

  • On the post: Comcast’s And Charter’s Broadband Monopoly Continues To Grow

    pixelpusher220 ( profile ), 10 Mar, 2022 @ 11:30am

    Comcast Speed test inconsistency?

    recently switched to Comcast from Verizon. One thing that's really odd to me is how wildly different Comcast's speed test results are vs independent ones like SpeakEasy or even Google's like it says 4-5x faster under Comcast's. Which I assume is complete BS. But just unusual how blatant it seems to lie about it.

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