Roger Strong 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (3460)

• On the post: UK Cops Punish Suspected Hacker By Having Him Work With The Organization He Hacked To Patch Up Security Holes

  

  Roger Strong ( profile ), 06 Jan, 2017 @ 02:25pm

  Trump Could Learn From This

  When the CEO of a bank known for mass fraud gets appointed to run the treasury, a racist is appointed as attorney general or a climate change denier and long-time enemy of the EPA gets appointed to run the EPA, some might declare it to be corruption.
  
  Trump could simply declare it to be a "restorative justice" option. Rehabilitation.

• On the post: Ex-MI6 Boss: When It Comes To Voting, Pencil And Paper Are 'Much More Secure' Than Electronic Systems

  

  Roger Strong ( profile ), 05 Jan, 2017 @ 02:02pm

  Re: Re: Seems like pen and paper would be better.

  Nonsense. I've been an election scrutineer here in Canada. Ballot counting starts the moment the polls close, with the counters from each party and the scrutineers gathered around. There's no opportunity for erasing or liquid papering.

• On the post: Single Choke Point Problems: Apple Removes NY Times App From Chinese App Store After Chinese Gov't Complains

  

  Roger Strong ( profile ), 05 Jan, 2017 @ 10:26am

  Re: Re: Re:

  Interesting. Apparently its only available for Nexus phones.
  
  That'll probably change by the end of my current contract. Apple finally managed to drag me into their store in the local mall last fall. Though it was kind of unpleasant to wake up with a blowgun dart in the back of my neck.

• On the post: Single Choke Point Problems: Apple Removes NY Times App From Chinese App Store After Chinese Gov't Complains

  

  Roger Strong ( profile ), 05 Jan, 2017 @ 09:59am

  Re:

  It's a trade-off, privacy vs. freedom. Apple dictates what you can do with your phone, but is pretty good at protecting your privacy. Android gives you freedom, but gives every app the freedom to collect your personal information.
  
  The other alternatives, Blackberry and Windows Phone, are dead. (The Blackberry name now licenced to a Chinese company for Android phones, and Windows Phones - at least here in Canada - long disappeared from stores and cellular providers.)

• On the post: Ex-MI6 Boss: When It Comes To Voting, Pencil And Paper Are 'Much More Secure' Than Electronic Systems

  

  Roger Strong ( profile ), 05 Jan, 2017 @ 01:18pm

  Pencil and paper works perfectly fine too, here in Canada.
  
  But then we only vote on a single issue; a choice of candidates for one (1) position. From what I've heard from election officials in the US, - where citizens are often voting on multiple issues at once - counting pen and paper ballots can become a nightmare.

• On the post: RIAA Still Pushing Its Bogus Message Of A 'Value Gap' And 'Fair Compensation'

  

  Roger Strong ( profile ), 04 Jan, 2017 @ 10:58am

  Re:

  Aw, c'mon. CD's are round discs. Not just similar to vinyl, but to shellac records. It's only common sense that the 20% breakage fee should carry over.

• On the post: Man Has To Beg LG To Uncripple His 'Smart' TV After Ransomware Attack

  

  Roger Strong ( profile ), 04 Jan, 2017 @ 08:52am

  Re:

  10 seconds to reset to factory defaults, and then 10 hours to reinstall all the patches and updates released since it left the factory.

• On the post: Facebook Censors Art Historian's Photo Of Neptune's Statue-Penis

  

  Roger Strong ( profile ), 04 Jan, 2017 @ 03:48pm

  I heard that they changed Aquaman's uniform for the new Justice League movie, but this is a surprise.

• On the post: Man Has To Beg LG To Uncripple His 'Smart' TV After Ransomware Attack

  

  Roger Strong ( profile ), 04 Jan, 2017 @ 07:38am

  Re:

  Maybe it decided it was so smart that it didn't have to listen to security briefings.

• On the post: Confirmed Horrible Person James Woods Continues Being Horrible In 'Winning' Awful Lawsuit To Unmask Deceased Online Critic

  

  Roger Strong ( profile ), 04 Jan, 2017 @ 10:04am

  Woods' lawyer, Michael Weinsten, on the other hand, made the following absolutely ridiculous statement...

  Clearly Mr. Weinsten is operating on the theory that when you're up to your nose in shit the only way out is to take a deep breath and dive.

• On the post: Our Unfortunate Annual Tradition: A Look At What Should Have Entered The Public Domain, But Didn't

  

  Roger Strong ( profile ), 03 Jan, 2017 @ 05:26pm

  Re: Re: Video Games...

  I started programming at the end of the punch card era. But last month I found out that I'm an old-timer because I still know how to author a DVD.

• On the post: Our Unfortunate Annual Tradition: A Look At What Should Have Entered The Public Domain, But Didn't

  

  Roger Strong ( profile ), 03 Jan, 2017 @ 02:19pm

  Re: Re:

  That's what I'm afraid of. I live in a "life + 50" country, but effectively I live under the perpetually extended American copyright terms. To treat it otherwise seems like financial suicide. Which is also too bad for Americans. If those under the "life + 50" international standard asserted their rights and posted public domain works to their sites and forums, the next American term extension would be pointless instead of inevitable.

• On the post: Washington Post Falsely Claims Russia Hacked Vermont Utility, Because OMG RUSSIANS!

  

  Roger Strong ( profile ), 03 Jan, 2017 @ 01:49pm

  Re: Re: Re:

  I've crossed the Russian border coming in from Western Europe (via Poland and Belarus), and gone out through Finland. I'd rather NOT be on the Russian side of the border on both cases, and in both cases the Russian side was heavily militarized.

• On the post: Washington Post Falsely Claims Russia Hacked Vermont Utility, Because OMG RUSSIANS!

  

  Roger Strong ( profile ), 03 Jan, 2017 @ 12:55pm

  Re:

  I'm not American or Russian, but I've crossed the borders of both countries in multiple places. The Russian borders were heavily militarized; American borders are not.
  
  As someone further up said, "Christ you Russian trolls are predictable." A Russian would see borders as militarized. Americans, Canadians and those from the EU would not.
  
  Dunno about that visitor from Christmas Island.

• On the post: Washington Post Falsely Claims Russia Hacked Vermont Utility, Because OMG RUSSIANS!

  

  Roger Strong ( profile ), 03 Jan, 2017 @ 12:01pm

  Re: Re:

  The War on Drugs lost credibility, and the War on Terror was the perfect substitute. Now it's the Russians. Once Trump takes office he'll shift the focus to a new boogeyman. Canada perhaps, just to see the look on their faces. BTW, before drugs we were at war with ring around the collar. Did we win?

• On the post: Rightscorp Rings In The New Year By Vowing To Find New Ways To Lose Money In 2017

  

  Roger Strong ( profile ), 03 Jan, 2017 @ 06:18pm

  When the music industry gives inflated figures regarding losses to piracy, they may be inflating those figures with losses to anti-piracy scams. DRM, Rightscorp, etc.

• On the post: Our Unfortunate Annual Tradition: A Look At What Should Have Entered The Public Domain, But Didn't

  

  Roger Strong ( profile ), 03 Jan, 2017 @ 01:35pm

  I'd really like to see a definitive guide for people in "life + 50" and "life + 70" countries. Not just what prominent works have entered the public domain in their countries, but what they can and cannot do with those works.
  
  For example if a book or film is in the public domain in Canada, can you post it on your Canadian-hosted web site? Or can you still be sued by an American copyright holder? If the American copyright holder doesn't have a legal leg to stand on, can your .org domain still be seized by the FBI?

• On the post: New Year's Message: No One Said It Would Be Easy…

  

  Roger Strong ( profile ), 01 Jan, 2017 @ 01:09pm

  Re: Re:

  Speaking of copyright extensions... Happy Public Domain Day everyone! Every January 1st a vast number of movies, TV shows, books and musical works enter the public domain. The US excepted, of course.

• On the post: Prenda's Paul Hansmeier Now Under FBI Investigation For His ADA Lawsuits

  

  Roger Strong ( profile ), 30 Dec, 2016 @ 11:25am

  If Kevin Mitnick and Frank Abagnale have taught us anything....
  
  It's that ten years from now Hansmeier will be a "consultant", selling advice on how to avoid the sort of scams he was pulling.

• On the post: Victims Of Car Crash Sue Apple For Not Preventing Distracted Driver From Hitting Their Vehicle

  

  Roger Strong ( profile ), 30 Dec, 2016 @ 11:09am

  Tim Berners-Lee dodged a bullet

  The driver was using FaceTime rather than browsing the web.

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