Upstream 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: Chinese Govt. Arrests More Pro-Democracy Icons In Hong Kong, Including Music Stars

    Upstream ( profile ), 30 Dec, 2021 @ 05:23am

    Re: Well, it doesn't exactly come as a surprise.

    Given what you said about WW3 being the only way China would change it's stance (and I think you are essentially correct in that view), I am not sure that "brave" and "courageous" are appropriate terms to describe people who remain in Hong Kong and openly protest the Chinese policies. Your other word, "irrelevant," is much more appropriate, and hints at some other more correctly descriptive adjectives.

  • On the post: Internal Documents Show Huawei Is Staying On The Cutting Edge Of Oppression Tech

    Upstream ( profile ), 30 Dec, 2021 @ 11:26am

    The good old days. . .

    . . . that never really existed.

    'Merica used to be something other countries aspired to be like & we were truth justice the 'merican way...

    That was back when 'Merica was better at covering up or ignoring all the things like those you listed in the preceding paragraphs.

  • On the post: Massachusetts Supreme Court Tackles Law Enforcement Use Of Cell Tower Dumps

    Upstream ( profile ), 30 Dec, 2021 @ 05:11am

    Particularly?

    did not see the warrants as "general," noting that not all warrants need to be particularized to a person.

    4th Amendment: "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."

    I realize the wording in the first quote is the author's (Tim cushing) but he seems to be very directly referring to the reasonong of some of the Justices.

    Throw in what TAC mentioned, which implies a complete lack of "reasonable suspicion" or "probable cause," and I think these cell tower dumps are a serious violation of the poeple's rights, both as specified by the text of the 4th Amendment, and as implied by it.

    Never mind that the Third Party Doctrine is itself a vile abomination and flies in the face of the most basic concepts of an individual's right to privacy, which, while never specifically addressed in the Constitution, underlies significant portions of it.

  • On the post: DEA Gives Former Marine Back $86,900 Cops Took From Him During A Nevada Traffic Stop Caught On Body Cam

    Upstream ( profile ), 23 Dec, 2021 @ 05:39am

    Re:

    People may be trying to avoid the government knowing their business, even though their business may be perfectly legal. In the US, any large banking transaction (I think it is currently >$10K, but there are proposals to lower it) must be reported to the Feds. If you accumulate cash slowly, in small amounts, over time, you can avoid the scrutiny, at least to some degree. Keeping a business transaction private can be desireable, not only because of the basic principles of an individual's right to privacy, but also because you may not want potential competitors to have advanced knowledge of a pending business deal. There is a general truth about secrets: the more people that know the secret, the less it is really a secret, and the greater the chance it will get out and more and more people will know the now non-secret. Here is a simple example of why this might be important in business: If only I know that I want to buy a certain car, then that is 1 person who knows. If the seller knows that I want to buy that particular car, that is now 2 people who know. If my bank knows I want to buy a car, that is 2 + however many have access to the bank data. If the Feds know that I want to buy a car, that is 2 + the bank people + who knows how many people that have access to the Federal data. The more people that know, the more potential there is for leaks. And in addition to the "secret" that I want to but a particular car, there is the "secret" of just how much I am willing to pay for said car. If I withdrew $57K from the bank, that is a very good indication that I would be willing to pay up to $57K for the car. If Joe Blow knows that I want to buy the car, he may get to the seller first and buy the car out from under me. If Joe Blow knows I withdrew $57K to buy the car, he may offer the seller $60K to outbid me. It is just a simple example to illustrate the point that there are completely legitimate, legal reasons for wanting to keep business transactions private. Cash, accumulated in small amounts over time, is one of the few ways to do that.

  • On the post: Judge Albright Names Lawyer For Patent Trolls As New Magistrate Judge For Waco

    Upstream ( profile ), 21 Dec, 2021 @ 04:33am

    Re:

    Yes, let's try to cut the cancer of corruption out of the legal system. And we might as well try to cut the salt out of the sea while we are at it.

  • On the post: Patent Awarded To Clearview AI For Its Innovative, Web-Scraping Fuckery

    Upstream ( profile ), 20 Dec, 2021 @ 11:39am

    I am at a loss to describe the PTO's new example of idiocy

    There's plenty of prior art out there, but Clearview does indeed have a unique product. It's not that it created facial recognition AI that performs in a novel way. It's that it decided it was OK to use the entire web as a source for images and personal information, bundled this all up, and sold it to whoever wanted it.

    So does this mean I can patent fishing in the whole ocean and selling my fish to whoever will buy them?

  • On the post: FAA Ignores FCC, Limits U.S. 5G Over Unsubstantiated Safety Concerns

    Upstream ( profile ), 16 Dec, 2021 @ 10:37am

    Re: Re:

    All very true, Anonymouse. I just used the 737 Max as an example of something where a flaw did not create a disaster immediately, since we were talking about aviation stuff. And, as you correctly pointed out, it's flaws were so obvious that most any first-year engineering major should have seen them and waved big red flags. The potential for problems arising from 5G interfering with radar altimeters involves many factors that are much more subtle and insidious. In theory, if a 5G deployment did interfere with a radar altimeter the result would be a go-around, and possibly having to divert the flight to an alternate airport. But we all know how often "in theory" translates very poorly to "in reality." I think this is another case of $$ carrying more weight than safety concerns, resulting in a very flawed cost / risk / benefit analysis (which is another way the Boeing 737 Max was an apt comparison).

  • On the post: FAA Ignores FCC, Limits U.S. 5G Over Unsubstantiated Safety Concerns

    Upstream ( profile ), 16 Dec, 2021 @ 03:27am

    But the FCC has shown that more than 40 countries have deployed 5G in this band with no evidence of harm.

    The Boeing 737 Max 8 planes did a lot of flying with no evidence of harm, either. For a while.

    So simply restricting placement of 5G transmitters to within 5000 feet of airport's approach and departure routes eliminates any chance of interference.

    [I am ignoring the absurd meaning caused by grammatical / syntax / sentence structure errors.]

    Radio frequency waves (RF waves aka TEM waves) are weird and wonderful things. Their propagation is affected by many factors, and distance is only one of them. For instance, an atmospheric phenomenon known as "tropospheric ducting" can cause VHF, UHF, and microwave frequencies, which usually only have line-of-sight range, to travel hundreds of miles. All of the 5G frequencies are within the range of frequencies that can experience tropospheric ducting.

    Spurious emissions are also a very real thing. This is when RF transmitters emit power somewhat outside their intended frequency band. There is a phenomenon in RF transmitter antennas and their towers known as the "Rusty Bolt" effect. This is where, over time, the metal in an antenna tower experiences degradation and can create spurious emissions where none were present when the equipment was originally installed.

    You could use directional antennas that do not point at airports But what if in the future someone erects a building that reflects those emissions back towards the airport?

    Tropospheric ducting, "rusty bolt"-induced spurious emissions and unanticipated reflections are but three of many factors affecting RF signal propagation. There are many more. So simply limiting transmitter location, or saying "there haven't been any problems yet" do not in any way provide assurance that there will not be any catastrophic problems in the future.

  • On the post: ICE Loses Access To Sensitive Utility Customer Records Following Pressure By Senator Ron Wyden

    Upstream ( profile ), 13 Dec, 2021 @ 10:05am

    Re: Re: one person in Congress cares about 4th Amendment

    Name one congresscritter who supports all the Amendments, or even just the idea of individual civil liberties over authoritarian government supremacy in general. And I mean actually supports, not just pays lip service to. . . . I thought not.

  • On the post: ICE Loses Access To Sensitive Utility Customer Records Following Pressure By Senator Ron Wyden

    Upstream ( profile ), 13 Dec, 2021 @ 08:02am

    Key phrase:

    Many data fire hoses are still in operation. But this move slows one form of data to a drip . . .

    Good for Ron Wyden! We should all be glad for any movement we get in the right (privacy) direction. But we must not lose sight of just how small a step this is, and how long and how steep uphill the road ahead is, too.

  • On the post: Rep. Thomas Massie Seems To Have Skipped Over The 1st Amendment In His Rush To 'Defend' The 2nd

    Upstream ( profile ), 08 Dec, 2021 @ 04:16am

    Keep your eye on the ball

    The key point to remember in all this is that when one congresscritter (or other government functionary) occasionally "gets it right" it is not a validation of that individual, their office, or the government system of which they are a part. It is almost always merely an example of the "blind squirrels / stopped clocks" phenomenon.

    By "gets it right" I mean saying or doing something meaningful in support of individual rights and liberties. Political grandstanding, pandering, lip service, symbolic horse$#!t and the like do not count here.

    The present case is a clear example of Massey pandering, in addition to showing pure contempt for free speech and the court precedents saying he cannot block people from an official account. His blocking of Mike Masnick for pointing this out is simply contemptuous lagniappe. We can only hope some version of the Striesand Effect comes into play here.

  • On the post: New York Times Lies About City's Murder Rate, NYPD's Clearance Rate To Sell Fear To Its Readers

    Upstream ( profile ), 07 Dec, 2021 @ 10:09am

    Re: Re: Re: Re:

    The problem is fundamental to the premise: when you put someone in control of a system you necessarily enforce corruption of the system. The corruption doesn't become a possibility, it becomes a command as certain as gravity.
    Or, put another way: "Anarchy is no guarantee that some people won't kill, injure, kidnap, defraud or steal from others. Government is a guarantee that some will." -- Gustave de Molinari

  • On the post: Rep. Thomas Massie Seems To Have Skipped Over The 1st Amendment In His Rush To 'Defend' The 2nd

    Upstream ( profile ), 07 Dec, 2021 @ 10:02am

    Free speech under attack everywhere

    Free speech is being attacked by both factions of the US government, by authoritarians in other countries all over the world, and possibly even on Tor. Private entities are becoming more censorious, and, while they have the right to censor, it still may not be the right thing to do. It is becoming increasingly difficult to find places to speak freely to others. And if you just talk to yourself . . . .

  • On the post: If MLB Thought Its Website Shenanigans Would Intimidate MLB Players, That Plan Has Backfired

    Upstream ( profile ), 04 Dec, 2021 @ 03:11am

    Just say "No!"

    Like so many things, if enough people would just quit caring about, paying attention to, buying into, and feeding this nonsense it would all just go away. MLB has legalized monopoly status, which would be unthinkable in most other contexts. It often uses local tax dollars to fund stadiums which primarily benefit zillionaire team owners and their associated crony capitalists, which, again, would be completely unacceptable in most other contexts.

    Let's all just show MLB the door to oblivion, and shove the NFL and the NBA out that door, too, while we are at it.

    Together, these three societal parasites constitute a significant portion of the mind-muddling, distracting circuses Juvenal warned us about.

  • On the post: After Months Of Troubling News, Israel's Government Finally Limits Who NSO Group Can Sell To

    Upstream ( profile ), 02 Dec, 2021 @ 03:09am

    Government SOP

    Israel's actions here are an excellent example of the "too little, too late" modus operandi so typical of government attempts at reform.

    When they put everyone at NSO on trial for criminal / terrorist activity then it might mean something. Until then, this is just a lame attempt at PR.

  • On the post: The Bad Apples Control The Bunch: USA Today Report Details Law Enforcements Punishment Of Good Cops

    Upstream ( profile ), 01 Dec, 2021 @ 05:19am

    Re: Re: Re:

    I am clearly in the libertarian camp, but my belief in market forces is nowhere near religious. I think a free market market system should be the default, that is, it should (almost) always be tried first. If it works, which it often does, fine. If not, go to Plan B, which usually involves government intervention and control to some extent. It can be loose control on a macro scale (Plan B-1), or tight control on a micro scale (Plan B-2), or somewhere in between. But, at least in the U.S. in recent history, it seems that most, but not all, market failures have their roots in government intervention. In these cases, additional government intervention never seems to solve the problem. Instead, it typically seems to exacerbate and further entrench the problem. "Rinse, repeat" almost never helps here. More of the same failed "solution" will yield more of the same failed result. These are the situations where "burn it down and start over" seems like a much more viable option. Whether this option is successful or not will have to be determined by actually pursuing the option. Half-measures don't count.

  • On the post: The Bad Apples Control The Bunch: USA Today Report Details Law Enforcements Punishment Of Good Cops

    Upstream ( profile ), 01 Dec, 2021 @ 01:28am

    Re:

    It is an interesting idea, but we can't even think about free market competition in policing until we have achieved actual free market competition in the government that underlies the law enforcement system. Some people stubbornly believe (or insist, whether they actually believe it or not) that we have free market competition in government, via voting, but they fail to acknowledge that the existing government has rigged the "market" and effectively eliminated competition, largely via onerous ballot access laws.

  • On the post: DOJ Asks Tenth Circuit Appeals Court To Firmly Establish A Right To Record Police Officers

    Upstream ( profile ), 30 Nov, 2021 @ 03:13pm

    Re: Re: Not "mishandled" if it is due to incompetence

    I'll go you one better: It's not incompetence, and it's not corruption or cowardice, either. It's a deliberate effort to establish more and stronger police-state case law precedent. For some people, the current de-facto police state due to "qualified immunity" precedent just isn't good enough. It is kind of like the old saying: Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, three times is enemy action. The surprising part is the DOJ's stance in this, even though it is probably just for show.

  • On the post: NordicTrack Patches Out 'God Mode' In Treadmills That Allowed Users To Watch Anything On Its Display

    Upstream ( profile ), 30 Nov, 2021 @ 03:33am

    God mode?

    NordicTrack to customers: "You think you have God mode? Watch this." [Pulls plug on God mode] "Ha, ha. My God mode is bigger than your God mode!"

    I try my best to avoid products that have "right to own / repair" issues, but it is very difficult, and, in some cases, impossible, so sometimes I do without.

    Unfortunately we do not have a consumeratti with enough principles and backbone to say "You can take your non-own-able, non-repairable, Internet server-dependent, paid subscription-dependent device and shove it up your arse!"

  • On the post: NYPD Continues To Screw Over Its Oversight By Denying Access To Bodycam Footage

    Upstream ( profile ), 23 Nov, 2021 @ 06:06am

    Police state

    I believe this is one of the definitions:

    The NYPD is supposed to be subject to its oversight, but the reality is the oversight is subject to the NYPD.

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