SteveMB 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (173)

• On the post: Trump Administration Wants To Start Sending Secret Service Agents To Polling Stations

  

  SteveMB ( profile ), 14 Mar, 2018 @ 05:33pm

  Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:

  I happen to personally know one who called Trump "an answer to prayer".
  
  "O Lord Satan, please destroy America...."

• On the post: Trump's Video Game Summit: Developers On One Side, Partisan Hack Puritan Cosplayers On The Other

  

  SteveMB ( profile ), 09 Mar, 2018 @ 03:15pm

  Re: You quibbling doesn't matter so long as Trump drives the agenda!

  Isn't it past your bedtime in Moscow?

• On the post: Rhode Island Legislator Proposes A Tax On Video Games Based On Existing Entirely Voluntary Ratings System

  

  SteveMB ( profile ), 01 Mar, 2018 @ 07:48am

  This is the sort of thing that calls for a system where judicial review distinguishes between two levels of "unconstitutional":
  1. The garden-variety "eh, it was a judgment call anybody could legitimately get wrong", with the same effect as the current system (the law is struck down with no other effects).
  2. The guy/gal who drafted this law, who was obviously staring at a classmate's boobs/abs during Civics 101 class, needs to have a point put on his politican license, with some threshold (three strikes and your're out?) for permanent ineligibility for political office.

• On the post: White Paper Points Out Just How Irresponsible 'Responsible Encryption' Is

  

  SteveMB ( profile ), 13 Feb, 2018 @ 09:59am

  This is somewhat ironic given these officials' resistance to using other methods, like cellphone-cracking tools or approaching third parties for data and communications. According to the FBI (in particular), these solutions "don't scale."

  This objection gives away the real agenda. Solutions that require significant investment of time and effort for each individual target work just fine for legitimate surveillance (i.e. surveillance authorized by warrant based on specific grounds for suspicion). The fact that these solutions "don't scale" is simply not a problem... unless the government's real intention is to conduct mass surveillance.

• On the post: Will Cy Vance's Anti-Encryption Pitch Change Now That The NYPD's Using iPhones?

  

  SteveMB ( profile ), 12 Feb, 2018 @ 05:48am

  Re: Of course

  "Would you like a backdoor to the cops' phones that only Internal Affairs can access?"
  
  The goons in blue would crucify him for that.

• On the post: Techdirt, Volokh Conspiracy Targeted With Bogus Defamation Claim For Publishing A Bunch Of Facts

  

  SteveMB ( profile ), 09 Feb, 2018 @ 06:36am

  Re: trump card

  He (either Haas or Trump, whichever) holds a hand consisting of a three of clubs, an Old Maid, a Mille Bornes "Out of Gas", a Magic: The Gathering "Swamp", and a Tarot "Fool".

• On the post: Verizon Folds To Government Pressure To Blacklist Huawei Without A Shred Of Public Evidence

  

  SteveMB ( profile ), 02 Feb, 2018 @ 08:45am

  Re: Re: Re: Hauwei IS Chinese gov't owned. They ALL are. It's a COMMUNIST state.

  I guess he's like the old lady in "Goodbye Lenin".

• On the post: Apple, Verizon Continue to Lobby Against The Right To Repair Your Own Devices

  

  SteveMB ( profile ), 01 Feb, 2018 @ 09:12am

  Re: Well, you won't have thin gadgets any more! -- Doesn't bother me, but you who carry gadgets evidently haven't considered the drawback.

  Nonsense. Slim and serviceable are easily combined (using the normal-person definition of "slim", not marketing BS that pretends that everything is bloated unless you can use the edge to make thousands of julienne fries in seconds).

• On the post: My Question To Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein On Encryption Backdoors

  

  SteveMB ( profile ), 01 Feb, 2018 @ 06:19am

  Never mind all the other reasons Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein's name has been in the news lately

  There are a couple of silver linings to the Tangerine-Tinged Twit's feud with the FBI. First, and more obviously, it makes it harder for them to push bad policy objectives like this. Second, by sucking all the oxygen out of the room it impedes their ability to spread a mass-media narrative (i.e. "ONOZ Terraists Will Kill U If We Can't Spy On U!!1!"), thus effectively amplifying the more sober and intellectual discussions (none of which support the agency's position).

• On the post: My Question To Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein On Encryption Backdoors

  

  SteveMB ( profile ), 31 Jan, 2018 @ 12:34pm

  Re: Re: Everything's easy when you don't have to do it

  Rosenstein's Experts

• On the post: After Basically No Debate, And No Opportunity For Amendments, Senate Votes To Expand NSA Surveillance

  

  SteveMB ( profile ), 16 Jan, 2018 @ 04:50pm

  Memo to Congressional Democrats: The predictions of a "Blue Wave" in November are not based on enduring physical phenomena like tides and eclipses. They are based on the likelihood that voters in November will continue to be pissed off at the Trumpanzee while not becoming likewise pissed off at you. If you insist on pissing away the latter, don't come running to me for an explanation of "what happened?!"

• On the post: Appeals Court Drives Another Stake Into The Heart Of Idaho's 'Ag-Gag' Law

  

  SteveMB ( profile ), 10 Jan, 2018 @ 04:23pm

  there's no way the law can even be considered a close call in terms of the Constitution

  What this country needs is a provision for judicial ruling that goes beyond "un-Constitutional" (but within the realm where it could be an honest mistake) and encompasses "deliberate violation of the responsible lawmakers' oath to uphold the Constitution", with sanctions (three strikes and you're out, perhaps) for at least the sponsors and perhaps everyone who voted for a blatantly un-Constitutional law.

• On the post: AT&T, Huawei Phone Partnership Killed At Last Second By More Unproven Accusations Of Huawei Spying

  

  SteveMB ( profile ), 10 Jan, 2018 @ 06:55am

  The real problem is that the Chinese spyware interferes with the NSA spyware.

• On the post: Donald Trump Hires Charles Harder To Threaten Steve Bannon With A Lawsuit, Block Publication Of New Book

  

  SteveMB ( profile ), 04 Jan, 2018 @ 07:58pm

  Is Even Trumplethinskin That Stupid?

  If he sues for defamation, he leaves himself and his whole crew open to subpoenas digging for evidence that Bannon's statements aren't defamatory because they're true.

• On the post: Apple Facing A Bunch Of Lawsuits After Admitting It Slows Down Older Devices, But Insisting It's For A Good Reason

  

  SteveMB ( profile ), 26 Dec, 2017 @ 07:48pm

  Re: Re: How hard was that?

  There's no reason "reasonably waterproof" and "replaceable battery" should be mutually exclusive; rubber gaskets are hardly an exotic experimental technology.
  
  It all comes down to marketing departments insisting that you want a phone thin enough that you can use its edge to make thousands of julienne fries in seconds.

• On the post: FBI Director Complains About Encryption, Offers To Sacrifice Public Safety In The Interest Of Public Safety

  

  SteveMB ( profile ), 11 Dec, 2017 @ 07:23pm

  Re:

  Speaking of angry toddlers... I've heard that the real reason for this push is that Mueller's investigation has gotten stuck because of smartphone encryption. Pass it on!

• On the post: Like The Rest Of The Internet Of Things, Most 'Smart' Locks Are Easily Hacked

  

  SteveMB ( profile ), 23 Nov, 2017 @ 11:33am

  Re: Re: Alternate title

  The "physical presence" for a Bluetooth lock can look a lot more like "hanging around in nearby fiddling with your smartphone" than "directly poking and prodding at the door lock". Given that the main practical deterrent of most door locks is to put burglars at some risk of getting caught at the latter, that's a significant difference.

• On the post: NY Times Uncritically Says Fake News Debate Supports Chinese Style Censorship

  

  SteveMB ( profile ), 29 Oct, 2017 @ 09:46am

  Re: MR. PHEWTUS AND FAUX NEWS

  Dilute! Dilute! OK!

• On the post: The Cyber World Is Falling Apart And The DOJ Is Calling For Weakened Encryption

  

  SteveMB ( profile ), 17 Oct, 2017 @ 09:19am

  Rosenstein is steering everyone towards his new term "responsible encryption"

  All the more reason to keep repeating the correct term "backdoor" and emphasize that a deliberately designed backdoor is essentially identical to an accidentally created one (e.g. KRACK) except insofar as the former is easier to find (everybody knows that the backdoor key exists and where to find it) and exploit.

• On the post: UK Home Secretary Calls Tech Leaders 'Patronizing' For Refusing To Believe Her 'Safe Backdoors' Spiels

  

  SteveMB ( profile ), 06 Oct, 2017 @ 06:10am

  Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: crypto fans are being disingenuous

  If we aren't willing to give up anything, we are going to lose everything.

  This is precisely backwards. Each concession simply becomes the starting point for the next series of demands. A hard "no" is the only "Dane repellent" that works.

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