ShadowNinja 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: AT&T Promises Your Broadband Will Suck Less…But Only If It Gets Another Massive Tax Cut

    ShadowNinja ( profile ), 15 Nov, 2017 @ 09:42am

    Re: Google, for example, keeps TENS OF BILLIONS UNTAXED offshore!

    Yes, let the ISPs get away with stealing billions in subsidies and tax breaks from the rest of us with false promises of "we really mean it this time" about upgrading their infrastructure.

    Why? Because... LOOK AT GOOGLE!

    If only the police worked like that, then I could get away with all sorts of crime by going "LOOK AT BIN LADEN! LOOK AT ENRON!" and running away.

  • On the post: Covert Cryptocurrency Miners Quickly Become A Major Problem

    ShadowNinja ( profile ), 15 Nov, 2017 @ 12:46pm

    NEVER consent to crypo-currency mining on your computer by a website

    I can't believe how many people I've seen at sites like reddit saying that these miners might be a good alternate to web ads, it's like they can't think ahead a few steps.

    For the non-computer literate, here's why bitcoin mining in place of ads is a bad idea, even with user permission.

    • We're not talking about just one site using it. We're talking about the potential for many of the websites you visit to start using it in place of ads. Even people with top of the line computers will find their computers brought to it's knees if they have enough websites open running crypto-currency miners.

    • What's to stop people from just running crypo-currency miners? This loophole to covertly mine crypo-currency is a GREAT way for a would be hacker to potentially do other malicious things to your computer to. I GUARANTEE you we'll hear about some nasty virus in the future disguising itself as a mining app.

    • Do some googling on why crypto-currency mining isn't financially worth it. A big reason why is because of the added cost to your electric bill when running your computer full force on crypo-currency mining. So yes, these crypo-currency miners COST you money. They're in effect stealing your electricity (and probably bandwidth to, which is relevant if you don't have unlimited data with no throttling).

    This is why I immediately added Crypo-currency mining to my block list in uBlock Origin the second I heard of the first story of these miner leeches.

  • On the post: And Another Thing: Those Dumb Social Media Guidelines For Journalists Are Going To Paint A Target On Their Backs

    ShadowNinja ( profile ), 13 Nov, 2017 @ 05:19am

    Re: That's OK.

    Not always, but the NYT that fought all the way to the SCOTUS for the right to publish the Pentagon Papers is long dead today.

    All that's left is an impostor baring the NYT's name.

  • On the post: DRM Strikes Again: Sonic Forces Just Plain Broken Thanks To Denuvo

    ShadowNinja ( profile ), 13 Nov, 2017 @ 05:23am

    Weren't those games already pirated... years ago?

    Given that it's a port of an old game, I'm sure you can already find pirated copies of the original on the Internet.

    So what exactly did Sega think they were going to accomplish with DRM on a game that was already pirated years ago? A pirate can just download a pirate of the original and run it with an emulator. There's no need for a pirate to pirate their new PC port of the game at all.

  • On the post: Dear Al Franken: Net Neutrality Is Not A Magic Wand You Can Wave At Any Company

    ShadowNinja ( profile ), 10 Nov, 2017 @ 06:18am

    Never forget, Al Franken was a big supporter of SOPA & PIPA.

    That alone should be enough proof that Al Franken doesn't understand the Internet and how it works. No one who understands the Internet and how it works would have ever backed SOPA or PIPA for even a moment.

  • On the post: Algorithmic Videos Are Making YouTube Unsuitable For Young Children, And Google's 'Revenue Architecture' Is To Blame

    ShadowNinja ( profile ), 10 Nov, 2017 @ 05:24am

    and they probably don't use ad blockers.

    ... Yeah... given how young the audience is of the Youtube Kids site, I'd imagine their parents would install ad blockers for them.

  • On the post: How The Internet Association's Support For SESTA Just Hurt Facebook And Its Users

    ShadowNinja ( profile ), 07 Nov, 2017 @ 11:14am

    Re: Vague FUD.

    ... Seriously?

    Print publishers like newspapers actually hire the writers who write stuff, they have editors to review everything. Even letters to the editor/etc. that papers publish had to be reviewed and pre-approved to appear in the paper.

    Web sites do not. Any discussion forum, even Techdirt's, lets people post whatever the hell they want with oversight to prevent bad content from ever appearing. It's been explained in countless previous articles at techdirt why making websites review and approve of posts before they show up won't work. It's too expensive, and many sites, especially those owned by giant big names, get WAY too much content for it to ever be viable for them to have someone personally read and review every single piece of new content submitted.

  • On the post: Judge Ignores Congress, Pretends SOPA Exists, Orders Site Blocking Of Sci-Hub

    ShadowNinja ( profile ), 07 Nov, 2017 @ 05:29am

    Re:

    Except for the fact that, you know, SOPA didn't pass, so this ruling is illegal.

    And that the CCIA tried to tell the idiot judge that in an amicus brief.

    Also, this ruling effects more than just the defendant, it's a ruling against a ton of third parties who weren't even a part of the lawsuit.

  • On the post: Dianne Feinstein Wants Twitter To Just Hand Her A Bunch Of Private Communications

    ShadowNinja ( profile ), 03 Nov, 2017 @ 12:21pm

    Re: VOTE HER OUT!

    It's disgraceful that Silicon Valley has her a representative in the senate, when she so constantly tries to fuck them over in the name of national security.

    It would be like Texas electing an environmental activist to the senate who purposely tried to screw over their state's oil industry in the name of solar and wind energy.

  • On the post: FCC Boss Demolishes Media Ownership Rules In Massive Gift To Sinclair Broadcasting

    ShadowNinja ( profile ), 02 Nov, 2017 @ 01:01pm

    Re: Re:

    The craziest part of this is it's not that far from the truth. Watch John Oliver's segment on Sinclair if you've never heard of them. The kind of content they force local news stations to put on the news (while pretending that it's local news) is just right-wing propaganda. The guy who Oliver shows who rants about college students is incredibly offensive. And this is what people are seeing on local news, as if it's just another late night Fox News talking head.

  • On the post: Verizon Lobbies FCC To Block States From Protecting Broadband Privacy, Net Neutrality

    ShadowNinja ( profile ), 01 Nov, 2017 @ 12:24pm

    Re: So Verizon once again putting it's proverbial foot in its mouth?

    If their monopoly gets much bigger they're guaranteeing an actual pro-consumer administration will break them & Comcast apart.

    Or potentially even worse from their perspective, start regulating ISP's and Cell Phones as a utility.

  • On the post: Dead People Mysteriously Support The FCC's Attack On Net Neutrality

    ShadowNinja ( profile ), 01 Nov, 2017 @ 08:25am

    Re:

    Zombies are people to!

  • On the post: Time To Get Rid Of Corporate Sovereignty? USTR Robert Lighthizer Seems To Think So

    ShadowNinja ( profile ), 01 Nov, 2017 @ 05:38am

    Re:

    Not to mention the whole need for it doesn't make sense in most trade deals.

    ISDS were created for use in 3rd world countries with a history of a corrupt government that might have a history of just deciding to seize a business's property in their country just because they can. The 3rd world countries agree to ISDS because without it literally no one will invest money in their country.

    The countries in a deal like NAFTA include much better off countries then that. And none of the US/Canada/Mexico has a history of corrupt behavior like that, none of them have problems where foreign investors refuse to invest in those countries out of fear of a corrupt government seizing their assets.

    Using ISDS in every trade deal, for every country is like inventing crutches for someone with a broken leg, and then requiring everyone use crutches to get around, even if both their legs work perfectly fine. Why would anyone do such a stupid thing?

  • On the post: Energy Group Labels Creators Of Video Game As 'Eco-Terrorists'

    ShadowNinja ( profile ), 31 Oct, 2017 @ 05:29am

    Re: Labeling advocacy

    Not to mention labeling environmental activists 'terrorists' while NOT labeling almost all the mass shootings in the US terrorism or domestic terrorism makes a mockery of the 'terrorist' label.

    Terrorism is about using fear and violence, or threats of violence, to accomplish your political goals. Most environmental activists don't fall under either category.

  • On the post: Energy Group Labels Creators Of Video Game As 'Eco-Terrorists'

    ShadowNinja ( profile ), 31 Oct, 2017 @ 05:27am

    Re: Re:

    It's true!

    I played a majorly evil Chaotic Evil alignment bad guy in my D&D games. My character went around murdering peasants and raping women and children! My character even stabbed his own party members in the back and murdered them just to keep all the loot for his greedy self!

    And now look at me! I'm... a perfectly ordinary adult with no criminal record who hasn't raped or killed a single person...

  • On the post: Michigan Lawmaker Flees Twitter After Reports Highlight She Helped AT&T Push Anti-Competition Broadband Law

    ShadowNinja ( profile ), 24 Oct, 2017 @ 08:17am

    Re:

    A thing called Gerrymandering makes certain that most politicians are safe from the wrath of the public.

    It's a neat little thing that lets politicians pick their voters, and pick voters who they know will loyally elect a blue or red politician no matter what.

  • On the post: FCC Likely To Use Thanksgiving Holiday To Hide Its Unpopular Plan To Kill Net Neutrality

    ShadowNinja ( profile ), 23 Oct, 2017 @ 12:18pm

    Re:

    No, it's giving us lots of freedom to be screwed by letting ISP's jack up our prices even farther and give us even crappier service!

    Don't you love the freedom to be screwed over by giant corporations that pay Washington to take away those unnecessary 'consumer protections'?

  • On the post: Michigan Lawmaker Doesn't Understand Her Own Bill Hamstringing Broadband Competition

    ShadowNinja ( profile ), 20 Oct, 2017 @ 09:17am

    It's time to look at spending taxpayer money differently

    The arguments by ISP's and their political hacks about how these proposals 'save' taxpayers money shows how wrongly most people think about taxpayer money.

    Lack of ISP competition costs taxpayers a lot through their slow Internet connection, and the monopoly pricing the ISPs can charge them for garbage service and speed. It makes the whole area a lot less appealing for businesses to, which costs taxpayers even more money long term (though indirectly).

    So yes, allowing governments to spend money on better ISP infrastructure is a good use of taxpayer dollar, and it SAVES taxpayer money, even if it might require raising taxes to pay for it. It's like paying up an extra $10 in taxes to save $20 on your ISP bill all while improving your quality of life and making your community more attractive for businesses.

  • On the post: Beyond ICE In Oakland: How SESTA Threatens To Chill Any Online Discussion About Immigration

    ShadowNinja ( profile ), 19 Oct, 2017 @ 11:43am

    Re:

    That's the very point of being against those proposed laws. When the laws are so ridiculously broad that the average American commits 3 felonies a day without even realizing it, you have a major problem. The police could throw literally anyone in jail and find something that would stick. Also...

    The rules are simple... break the law or assist someone in breaking the law, you are a criminal too. Hard to figure this out? I thought you guys where the "educated" ones?
    ... Did you even read the entire article? Specifically this part.
    People in the EU who've merely given rides to Syrian (and other) refugees tired from trekking on foot have been prosecuted for trafficking. Yes that's Europe, not the US, but it's an example of how well-intentioned trafficking laws can easily be over-applied to the point that they invite absurd results, including those that end up making immigrants even more vulnerable to traffickers than they would have been without the laws.
    In other words, passing SESTA in the name of stopping human trafficking is like passing a rape prevention bill that will cause more people to be raped. What good is a law that will fail to accomplish it's stated goal, while causing a slew of unintended side effects?

  • On the post: Big ISPs Lobby To Kill Attempts At More Accurate Broadband Mapping

    ShadowNinja ( profile ), 18 Oct, 2017 @ 11:56am

    ISPs are incompetent at mapping it

    Story time, I think part of why the ISP's don't like this is because they're so incompetent that their own internal maps are wrong.

    Years ago the business I worked at wanted to upgrade to get Verizon FIOS. But we were told repeatedly that it wasn't available in our area. This was despite the fact that:

    • Our next door neighbor, a dental office, already had FIOS.

    • We could clearly see the FIOS boxes outside of our window on the cable lines.

    After some arguing with them over the phone we finally got them to send a technician out, to verify that their maps were wrong and we could get FIOS.

    But the best part? A few years later we got a knock on our door from a Verizon salesman, asking us if we wanted to upgrade to the FIOS we already had!

    So yes, despite them having several years to fix their maps, and being told by us that FIOS was available in the area, and despite the fact that we were paying for it, Verizon was incompetent enough to send a salesman to our door offering to sell it to us.

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