sumgai 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: Facebook Banning & Threatening People For Making Facebook Better Is Everything That's Wrong With Facebook

    sumgai ( profile ), 12 Oct, 2021 @ 09:24pm

    Re: Re: Re: Re:

    Toom, were you perhaps a master of Zen in previous life? You sure get to the heart of the matter in the shortest way possible. ;)

  • On the post: Facebook Banning & Threatening People For Making Facebook Better Is Everything That's Wrong With Facebook

    sumgai ( profile ), 12 Oct, 2021 @ 09:21pm

    Re: Re: Re:

    A community is a company without a vision of profits, nor even a revenue steam. Lump too many communities into one place (a platform), and you'll get a repeat of Canter and Siegel, the two lawyers who spammed nearly 6,000 usenet groups in 1994. (The accepted first instance of spam.) And that was for a commercial concern, which in turn translates to advertising... as in, for money. I'm sure you can see the connection between them and Facebook, yes?

  • On the post: Facebook Banning & Threatening People For Making Facebook Better Is Everything That's Wrong With Facebook

    sumgai ( profile ), 12 Oct, 2021 @ 09:06pm

    Re: Re: Re:

    The fact that you consider an action to be abusive does not mean that it is an abuse. In fact, "content moderation", as you call it, is sanctified in the First Amendment. We can all thank Gawd that you are not in charge of the Internet! As to your first post, I've flagged it as Troll because you are obviously Koby using a different name. Nice try, but no go, pal. I'll flag this one too, once I've finished this response.

  • On the post: Why Section 230 'Reform' Effectively Means Section 230 Repeal

    sumgai ( profile ), 12 Oct, 2021 @ 08:16pm

    Re:

    ... the politicians proposing the bills don't respond with "I don't care, it gets me votes.
    Good luck with that one!

  • On the post: Alabama Supreme Court Rules Law Enforcement Can Withhold Almost All Records Indefinitely

    sumgai ( profile ), 12 Oct, 2021 @ 08:07pm

    Re:

    Got it. The basic premise is that without oversight or accountability of a major portion of the State's administration, the citizens of Alabama are essentially cast into the abyss of Taxation Without Representation. I believe that's a Federal No-No, but I could be wrong about that one, I dunno.

  • On the post: Alabama Supreme Court Rules Law Enforcement Can Withhold Almost All Records Indefinitely

    sumgai ( profile ), 12 Oct, 2021 @ 08:02pm

    Re:

    Alabama - codifying qualified immunity, one court case at a time.

  • On the post: Facebook Banning & Threatening People For Making Facebook Better Is Everything That's Wrong With Facebook

    sumgai ( profile ), 12 Oct, 2021 @ 09:44pm

    One of the problems with websites that I've never had satisfactorily explained to me is why do they think they are in control of my browsing experience. My usual response to that is "No, I am in charge of what appears on my computer monitor. I paid for my equipment, my connection to the internet, and whatever else that might be necessary, so until you take over those payments, then you can fuck right off with that crap."

    If they (the corps/websites) can get a law passed that says otherwise, then I'll happily go back to using Lynx and Pine for my internet experience. That'll get their knickers in a first-class twist, I'm sure.

  • On the post: Alabama Supreme Court Rules Law Enforcement Can Withhold Almost All Records Indefinitely

    sumgai ( profile ), 12 Oct, 2021 @ 08:00pm

    Would it surprise you to learn that all 9 justices of that court are.... Republicans?

    I don't know exactly how many Democrats there might be living in Alabama, but I'm betting pretty heavily that none of them, the media included, will stand up and sue the State in Federal court, for denial of simple rights. Obviously the charge will have to be ginned up to use legalese language, but the basic premise stands - the public is no longer allowed to ascertain the nominal business of police activity in their state.

    Here's hoping I'm wrong about who's got balls enough to go to the mat on this one.

  • On the post: Most People Probably Don't Need A VPN, Experts Now Advise

    sumgai ( profile ), 12 Oct, 2021 @ 09:42am

    Re: "experts" opining on things in which they have no expertise

    When an expert (that I recognize as such) tells me X about Y, I usually listen carefully. When a batch of people I've never heard of before, all claiming to be experts, tell me to do something, I generally tell them to get fscked, and do the opposite. That's not contrarian thinking, that's realizing that what P.T. Barnum said about there being an expert born every minute is as close to Gospel as I need to get.

  • On the post: Most People Probably Don't Need A VPN, Experts Now Advise

    sumgai ( profile ), 12 Oct, 2021 @ 09:37am

    Re: Re:

    ^ Building one's own VPN from scratch does indeed require a high level of competence. But even I'm too lazy to do that, in spite of any competence I might possess. Best to fit ready-built parts and pieces together, and have a working unit (or at least 98% of one) right out of the box. I did this years ago, with instructions from another source, and so far, I've not been tagged for downloading something that I shouldn't have.

  • On the post: Most People Probably Don't Need A VPN, Experts Now Advise

    sumgai ( profile ), 12 Oct, 2021 @ 09:26am

    Re: Re: useful

    Several good websites rate the quality of VPN's for consumers.
    I'd start with TorrentFreak: https://torrentfreak.com/best-vpn-anonymous-no-logging/ Notice specifically Question #6, about court cases. Now look at the responses by various companies.

  • On the post: Most People Probably Don't Need A VPN, Experts Now Advise

    sumgai ( profile ), 12 Oct, 2021 @ 09:15am

    Re:

    Any[VPN] you create will have bugs and flaws in it that will be exploited.
    Try this on for size: https://www.wizcase.com/blog/how-to-create-your-own-vpn-in-the-cloud/ That's not the only way, but it works. I'd say "trust me", but that would invoke issues of.... trust. Let's not go down that particular road just now, OK? ;)

  • On the post: Most People Probably Don't Need A VPN, Experts Now Advise

    sumgai ( profile ), 12 Oct, 2021 @ 09:03am

    Re: Re: How to trust?

    NordVPN won a lawsuit a few years ago (in Eastern Texas, of all places), stating unequivocally that they do not keep logs, and no one can prove otherwise. The judge was forced to accept this, as the plaintiff could only state that it was both easy, and the normal procedure, to make and keep logs, but they also had to admit that there was no legal requirement to do so. I am unaware if any other VPN provider has gone through a lawsuit with the same results. IIRC, at least one provider did indeed cough up logs that were supposedly never made in the first place. Can't recall which provider though, sorry.

  • On the post: This Week In Techdirt History: October 3rd – 9th

    sumgai ( profile ), 10 Oct, 2021 @ 09:10am

    Re: Fifteen Years Later, Just Sayin' .....

    By the way, does anybody know what happened with the "Stairway To Heaven" / "Taurus" case?
    Yeah, the Led escaped unscathed, after some hotly contested jury instructions that were appealed, more than once. https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/10/entertainment/led-zeppellin-stairway-heaven-lawsuit-trnd/index.html

  • On the post: Investigation: CBP Targeted Journalists, Illegally Shared Info With Mexico, And Attempted To Cover It All Up

    sumgai ( profile ), 08 Oct, 2021 @ 09:04am

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Acronym undefined

    It was a play on words, Paul, that's all. A bit of off-topic humor, if you will.

  • On the post: Trump Asks Court To Reinstate His Twitter Account ASAP

    sumgai ( profile ), 07 Oct, 2021 @ 05:26pm

    Re: Re: Speaking of losing...

    Ya know..... It's only a matter of time before each of his donors (his "base") has to make a decision - "Do I want an asshole elected to the presidency again, or do I want to eat today?". Given that upper limit, all we have to do is contribute the same amount per capita to the proper parties (running against #45 and his down-ticket stooges), and any tears spilled after the election will be from those who chose to eat a meal a day. So why do people vote for his ilk? Simple. Keep that name in front of said people at all times. The best known method? Giant billboards along popular commuting routes. Trust me, this is the magic ticket, even more so than talking heads on the boob-tube. Oh, and those corporations who donate to him because they think that capitalism can work without democracy? They're a drop in the bucket, considering that there are slightly more than 73 million $20-a-pop donors. You can be sure that the two groups get different "begging for more money" letters.

  • On the post: Trump Asks Court To Reinstate His Twitter Account ASAP

    sumgai ( profile ), 07 Oct, 2021 @ 05:11pm

    This is also false (what the hell is wrong with reporters these days?).

    The answer lies in another TD article today, as shown in a quote from CNN:

    ... [We post] credible journalism [to Facebook] ...

    Given the two key words "credible" and "Facebook", I'm pretty sure that you can connect the dots, eh?

  • On the post: Accidentally Unsealed Document Shows Feds Are Using Reverse Warrants To Demand Info On Google Searches

    sumgai ( profile ), 07 Oct, 2021 @ 10:07am

    Another Tell-tale sign....

    Also, you aren't talking to a fool, you're talking at them (and certainly not with them, either). Because they simply refuse to acknowledge your contributions to the discussion. They do indeed think that they already know it all, and there's no need to absorb anything from anyone in front of them, they've already heard it. Insofar as they are concerned, you are the fool for trying to espouse what they consider to be disinformation.

  • On the post: AT&T Set Up And Paid For OAN Propaganda Network; Yet Everyone Wants To Scream About Facebook

    sumgai ( profile ), 06 Oct, 2021 @ 09:34pm

    Re:

    No, no, it would be "Eat shit, Charles! And here's Mr. Nutterbutter who wants to give you a little something".

  • On the post: Facebook's Downtime And Why Protocols Are More Resilient Than Centralized Platforms

    sumgai ( profile ), 06 Oct, 2021 @ 09:25am

    Re: Re: Re: Facebook - Conservative Bias?

    because they're not after "free speech", they're after a guaranteed audience, which nowhere in the constitution or in common sense have they ever been entitled to.

    THIS!!

    Whether the "blame" rests on platforms or users (and I think it's shared pretty equally between them), the fact remains easily visible for a sensible and rational person to see - if you act like an ass, you deserve to be treated like an ass. The fact that you can recognize that you are being treated like an ass says that you know you really could do better, yet you willingly and continually refuse to do so. That's the classic definition of doubling down. Welcome, poster boy, welcome. Welcome to the world of recognition as an Asshole Extraordinaire, where your image is posted all over the world/internet as someone not to be trusted, not to be taken as sane, and not to be listened to except as sardonic entertainment, good only for someone to laugh at. Thanks for the cheap thrill. Now, get the fuck off my lawn!

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