tqk 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (2649)

• On the post: Guy Who Pretends He Invented Email Whines At Every Journalist For Writing Obit Of Guy Who Actually Helped Create Email

  

  tqk ( profile ), 08 Mar, 2016 @ 05:35pm

  Every program expands in complexity until it does email.

  He was just bulldozed by, or found himself riding the current of, a natural trend he'd neither anticipated nor much understood, but claimed it for himself in case it might be worth something some day.
  
  Keep your "EMAIL", if it makes you happy. It means nothing to me. Yes, you're a handsome man, which also means nothing to me.
  
  I hate racist jerks like this.

• On the post: Law Enforcement Groups File Amicus Brief In Favor Of FBI… But Which Undermines DOJ's Claim That This Is Just About One Phone

  

  tqk ( profile ), 06 Mar, 2016 @ 01:08pm

  Re: Finds another leyer of encryption...

  Seriously people, never trust a hardware provider/ISP/Transit Service to keep your comms secret.

  
  Sadly, that would only protect those who've found a need to bother learning about all this complex computery stuff, leaving the vast majority of mere users wide open for predation by grasping, psychotic authorities. They don't need this power, they shouldn't have it, and they're wrong to even ask for it. They need to re-think their intentional mis-interpretation of the Constitution.

• On the post: Law Enforcement Groups File Amicus Brief In Favor Of FBI… But Which Undermines DOJ's Claim That This Is Just About One Phone

  

  tqk ( profile ), 06 Mar, 2016 @ 12:57pm

  Re:

  We are not "obligated" to participate in your masochism.

  
  I think a better word would be emasculation. Cf. Loreena Bobbett.

• On the post: Law Enforcement Groups File Amicus Brief In Favor Of FBI… But Which Undermines DOJ's Claim That This Is Just About One Phone

  

  tqk ( profile ), 06 Mar, 2016 @ 12:44pm

  Re:

  "the public at large may itself think twice about cooperating with law enforcement"

  
  That is already the case given that officials dont follow the law.

  
  Yes, they are intentionally misinterpreting the law because they're foolish and lazy. There's a hell of a lot of that going around this century.
  
  What are they going to use for information sources once they've soured everyone on them to the point no-one wants to talk to them? What boneheaded, muddled thinking this is. "Fools R us, and proudly so!"

• On the post: We Read All 20 Filings In Support Of Apple Against The FBI; Here Are The Most Interesting Points

  

  tqk ( profile ), 06 Mar, 2016 @ 12:18pm

  Re: Re: Re: Re: Both sides of the story

  You could argue over the meaning of "bad thing" ...

  
  No need to go that far. I can stop at "it is, always has been and always will be, a dynamic system which is only poorly understood." Look, but touch sparingly, because you've no idea really what anything will cause it to do.
  
  Its behavior has been surprising us since we came to exist and that's pretty much the nature of the beast.

• On the post: NYPD Says It Has No Record Of Asking Disney To Use Copyright To Shut Down Times Square Characters, Despite Public Admission

  

  tqk ( profile ), 06 Mar, 2016 @ 12:03pm

  Re: Not everything has records

  I can see them not using email or other methods that might leave a trail pointing back at them.

  
  Except de Blasio proudly admitted doing so, so what's to hide?

• On the post: Memphis Mayor Ushers In New Era Of Transparency By Refusing To Discuss City's Stingray Devices

  

  tqk ( profile ), 05 Mar, 2016 @ 01:03pm

  Re:

  As has been demonstrated multiple times now, saying it's being used 'with court approval' is beyond useless, as numerous police and government agencies seem to have no problem being misleading if not flat out lying when it comes time to explain to a judge when a Stingray(or similar device) is being used and what exactly it can do.

  
  In a perfect world, you'd be becoming rich off TD with your patented and trademarked unique ability to zero right down onto the crux of the problem at hand. Bravo!
  

  He could absolutely inform the public of the details it's just possible doing so would cost him his cushy seat ...

  
  How? By Harris Corp. bankrupting him with legal bills? He's the mayor! The city will pay the bills.

• On the post: Comcast Nabs Huge Oregon Tax Break Thanks To Loophole Intended For Google Fiber

  

  tqk ( profile ), 05 Mar, 2016 @ 12:43pm

  Re:

  End corporate welfare ...

  
  You may do better by passing a law making it illegal for diseases to infect living things. "Shaking down the herd" defines civilization for that well connected minority. We've improved on that predator vs. prey equation. Wildebeast herds don't need to worry about wildebeasts; only lions. In contrast, we do need to worry about predatory humans, and lions.
  
  This whole "pass a law making Google GBit easier" is lipstick on a pig. This mess was destined to happen.

• On the post: San Bernardino DA Tells Judge To Side With FBI Over Apple Because iPhone May Have Mythical Cyber Weapon

  

  tqk ( profile ), 05 Mar, 2016 @ 01:38pm

  Ah yes.

  Last year he was blathering on about charging drone operators for murder for flying drones near wildfires.

  
  It's almost like he's a professional problem seeker looking to turn it into a cause which gets him elected to "higher" office. He's not the sort of solution anyone needs. There's far less costly and more effective solutions than him.

• On the post: Memphis Mayor Ushers In New Era Of Transparency By Refusing To Discuss City's Stingray Devices

  

  tqk ( profile ), 05 Mar, 2016 @ 12:55pm

  Returns to his office ...

  ... punches button on phone to his Executive Assistant, "What the !@#$ is a Stingray?!?"

• On the post: Iran Joins The Using Video Game Footage To Pump Up Your Own Military's Reputation Arms Race

  

  tqk ( profile ), 05 Mar, 2016 @ 12:16pm

  Lazy (drunk?) recruiting video?

  They needn't stoop so low. Persia/Iran has been fairly awesome for quite a while now. When those who fear you include the Roman Empire and Sparta before them, you're doing something right. The recent tweaking of the CIA's nose (kicking out the Shah) is just more attention from jealous wannabes.
  
  Philistines. :-P

• On the post: IRS Tool Designed To Protect Identity Theft Victims — Exposes Users To Identity Theft

  

  tqk ( profile ), 04 Mar, 2016 @ 03:36pm

  Re: Simplify

  Individuals are taxed when they earn money, when they spend money, when they save money. Their employers are taxed when they earn money, when they spend money and when they save money. And there's a billion pages on how to get out of paying this tax or that tax and how to be penalized for not paying a tax. The tax law should be able to be written on 100 pages or less in plain, common, proper English - not Lawyerease and a secret dictionary.

  
  Which is why it's not. Boy, are you naive. The current system is about as flexible as they need it to be. Yes, corner cases and abrasion does occur, but generally not for long.
  
  Every minute a revolution's not beginning, they're cleaning up.

• On the post: State Department Backs Off Criminalizing Security Research Tools

  

  tqk ( profile ), 04 Mar, 2016 @ 03:16pm

  Re: aND

  you may wonder why I use a Russian AV tool.

  
  No, I'd wonder why you used any AV tool. Are you using MS Windows? Try Tails Linux.

• On the post: State Department Backs Off Criminalizing Security Research Tools

  

  tqk ( profile ), 04 Mar, 2016 @ 03:13pm

  Re: What I've learned about being a security researcher

  Congratulations, everyone, you've taught me to avoid -- at all costs -- doing you a favor.

  
  There's been way too many favors going around. It's about time all this altruistic nonsense stopped. Have you all forgotten your predatory instinct?!? It's your nature! Long in tooth and claw!
  
  Oh, and ignorance is bliss.

• On the post: South Korea Embraces Ridiculous Right To Be Forgotten As Well

  

  tqk ( profile ), 29 Feb, 2016 @ 03:29pm

  Re: In other words

  The right to be forgotten imposes the much more sinister sounding obligation to forget.

  
  Even worse, it imposes on inconvenient facts the obligation to never have existed. You get to re-write history. The facts don't get to speak for themselves. They can continue to hide in yet undiscovered archives and Samizdat, that's all.

• On the post: South Korea Embraces Ridiculous Right To Be Forgotten As Well

  

  tqk ( profile ), 29 Feb, 2016 @ 02:19pm

  Re:

  Of course the US could always forget South Korea altogether.

  
  Remember Pol Pot's Cambodia? Want another?

• On the post: Courts, DOJ: Using Tor Doesn't Give You A Greater Expectation Of Privacy

  

  tqk ( profile ), 29 Feb, 2016 @ 01:14pm

  Re: Context

  Fwiw, I agree that there's no expectation of privacy on the 127.0.1.0/24 network.

  
  If you're already on localhost, you don't need the network. Physical access == no security.

• On the post: Courts, DOJ: Using Tor Doesn't Give You A Greater Expectation Of Privacy

  

  tqk ( profile ), 29 Feb, 2016 @ 01:06pm

  Re:

  Your expectation of privacy here should be as low as possible ...

  
  I agree with this. I'd liken it to standing on the sidewalk of a street you've never been to on the seedy side of town. You hope no-one you know sees you while driving by. Until then, your privacy is ensured by your anonymity. Good enough.
  

  - you are asking people you don't know to keep your secrets.

  
  I'm not asking them anything but to ignore me like they do everyone else. Just move the packets.

• On the post: White House Asked Google & Facebook To Change Their Algorithms To Fight ISIS; Both Said No

  

  tqk ( profile ), 29 Feb, 2016 @ 12:52pm

  Re: Re: ...the White House want that magic wand to make ISIS disappear from the Internet.

  you mean the delete key really doesn't work?

  
  They're looking for the DoWhatIMean key.

• On the post: Want To Report A Dangerous Drug Dealer? Just Enter Your Personal Info Into The DEA's Unsecured Webform

  

  tqk ( profile ), 29 Feb, 2016 @ 12:41pm

  Re:

  One thing I've learned about the Government is that security only matters to them when it's used to push an agenda.

  
  I think it's simpler than that. Your security interferes with their feeling secure. I'd call that paranoid psychosis on their part, but I don't have much (if any) say in this. C'est la vie.

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