Toestubber 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (53) comment rss

  • On the post: Donald Trump's Lawsuit Against Univision Is Absolutely Hilarious

    Toestubber ( profile ), 01 Jul, 2015 @ 12:09pm

    Re: Trump

    I’m going to grant many of your vague assertions as if they were true. Your position is not that the INS should lay off the Chinese kid’s grieving parents, but that INS should instead work harder to make everybody else’s lives miserable with red tape? This faith in a strong daddy-government must bring comfort.

  • On the post: Florida Agency Says Uber Drivers Are Employees, Not Contractors

    Toestubber ( profile ), 01 Jun, 2015 @ 11:33pm

    Re:

    It's much more of a grey area then you make it sound. The drivers are tied to Uber's service in order to obtain customers. Uber retains control of compensation, vehicle standards and can lay off drivers at will.

    In other words, they are freelancers, like me and lots of other folks.

    These guys can't just go and be an independent taxi driver at any time.

    Blame the well-connected taxi cartel and their corrupt pet politicians for that, not people trying to create an alternative. Artificially shrinking the labor force isn't gonna solve anything.

  • On the post: The US Government Should Release These 7,584 Fruit Paintings

    Toestubber ( profile ), 27 Apr, 2015 @ 02:43pm

    Sunk costs

    "The paintings were created by approximately twenty-one artists commissioned by USDA for this purpose."

    The artists have already been paid. From the taxes of those who never lived to see the internet. There's no justification for keeping the art classified, and hasn't been for more than a century.

  • On the post: FBI And United Airlines Shoot The Messenger After Security Researcher Discovers Vulnerabilities In Airplane Computer System

    Toestubber ( profile ), 24 Apr, 2015 @ 08:38pm

    Re:

    So passengers can currently hack into the onboard controls of the aircraft, and your theory is that "research is actively being pursued"? This is a catastrophic security defect which exists in the moment, not some theoretical curiosity suitable for a 4-year study.

    A simpler and more logical explanation is that whoever's job it was to keep aircraft communications secure is embarrassed at the public knowledge of their incompetence, and quite pleased to deflect blame toward the good samaritan who revealed it.

  • On the post: Sexual Relationship With A Minor, Theft Of Services And Destruction Of Evidence Nets Police Officer One-Year Prison Sentence

    Toestubber ( profile ), 14 Nov, 2014 @ 09:54pm

    Re: Re: Darrell Beavers is a pedophile - yes that's true

    Just because you might be able to get away with calling someone a "pedophile" (when they're possibly an ephebophile); because you can label a 17-year-old a "child" (instead of just stating the simple facts that he/she is underage and the target of statutory rape); even though you have no fear of legal prosecution for jazzing it up to something more inflammatory... Why would you? Why use words that aren't accurate?

    Don't get me wrong. I get it. This cop was and is a total scumbag. And yet, somehow, Mike's fine, passionate article was able to get that reality across without the writer making up lies, fudging facts or creatively reinventing common terms. Officer Beavers did enough horrible shit that there's no reason to stack the deck with extra crimes. I often see people stretching their case using misleading language, and then scoffing / laughing it off when called on their misrepresentations. It taints our cause (if our cause is justice, fairness and police accountability, instead of some junior Nancy Grace desire to jail everybody).

    This casual disrespect for the terms you employ makes you sound irrational. It's the rhetoric equivalent of ALL CAPS or screaming at passersby. And like all rhetorical shortcuts, its use eventually spreads throughout the population and becomes modern English.

    Getting back to the OP: I don't care what happens to the cop and his unnamed buddies - they deserve to fall hard instead of being rewarded with a blind eye or golden parachute. I do care about language. It’s about the next teenager prosecuted for sexting, forced onto a lifelong sex offender list... all because your words have ceased to mean what they pretend to mean.

  • On the post: UK Crime Agency Boss: 'Yes, The Public Must Give Up Its Liberty If It Wants Security'

    Toestubber ( profile ), 07 Oct, 2014 @ 12:21pm

    The linked article on the Ben Franklin quote...

    ...is pretty awful.

    I have no doubt that most of the people who repeat that quote haven't got a clue where it came from. But Ferenstein's dumb thesis ("it's pretty clearly about money") is based on a complete twisting of the historical context to support a literal-minded gotcha piece. Benjamin Franklin was advancing a narrower point with regard to freedom, true. That doesn't make the wider principle invalid. And it's not.

  • On the post: The Mythical And Almost Certainly Made Up 'Legend' Of Walter O'Brien Continues To Grow

    Toestubber ( profile ), 06 Oct, 2014 @ 02:37pm

    Re:

    Since both articles are all about Walter's real life claims, you are either missing the point entirely, or you have a vested interest in one of his business ventures. I don't know how often or how many different ways it needs to be repeated: No one cares about the show's realism or lack thereof. Really.

    You (and all-caps guy, upthread) are on the wrong track, arguing with the straw ghosts of your imagination.

  • On the post: Aussie Teenager Fearful For His Life After Newspaper Misidentifies Him As A Terrorist With Wrong Facebook Photo

    Toestubber ( profile ), 25 Sep, 2014 @ 11:16pm

    Re: Re:

    Exactly. Any amateur vigilante seeking to stalk neighborhood terrorists is unlikely to read the article. They'll just look at the pictures.

  • On the post: Australian Man Booted From Plane After Passenger Complains About His 'Terroristic' Notepad Doodles

    Toestubber ( profile ), 24 Sep, 2014 @ 06:12am

    It's the tragedy of the commons

    ...airlines enforcing the Bedwetter's Veto.

    The customer who claims to be the most frightened wins the argument.

  • On the post: Awesomeness: Millions Of Public Domain Images Being Put Online

    Toestubber ( profile ), 29 Aug, 2014 @ 07:28pm

    Anyone know a good way...

    ...to download the originals en masse? This archive seems too important to entrust to Flickr.

  • On the post: Syria Dropping Off The Internet In 2012 Was Result Of NSA Hack Gone Wrong, Not Syrian Government

    Toestubber ( profile ), 13 Aug, 2014 @ 12:48pm

    Re:

    Somebody didn't read the article.

  • On the post: Dianne Feinstein Still A Believer In Collecting All Phone Records; Pretends That Such Collection Has Stopped Terrorists

    Toestubber ( profile ), 22 Mar, 2014 @ 09:13am

    html

    "Allowed HTML Tags: < b > < i > < a > < em > < br > < strong > < blockquote > < hr > < tt >"

    It seems that these get stripped out whenever I post, for some reason.

  • On the post: Dianne Feinstein Still A Believer In Collecting All Phone Records; Pretends That Such Collection Has Stopped Terrorists

    Toestubber ( profile ), 22 Mar, 2014 @ 09:09am

    led/lead

    "It would appear that Senator Dianne Feinstein's newly discovered anger about the CIA spying on the metadata of her staffers hasn't yet lead to..."

    led.

    /grammarnazi