xebikr 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: Time To Change Your Fingerprints: Apple's Fingerprint Scanner Already Hacked

    xebikr ( profile ), 23 Sep, 2013 @ 07:27am

    I wouldn't classify something that uses a key that you inherently leave all over the place for copying as something secure...

    Easy fix: use your nipple.

  • On the post: Not Content With Gutting The Fourth Amendment, The Government Continues Its Attack On The Fifth And Sixth

    xebikr ( profile ), 20 Sep, 2013 @ 04:30pm

    Re:

    Both remaining silent and requesting a lawyer can be (circumstantial) evidence of guilt in some situations.

    Or it could be an indication that I don't understand the law well enough to know how my answers might be interpreted. Or it might mean I don't trust the questioner, so I want a witness on my side for any answers I give. Or I think they are on a fishing expedition and I want to avoid answering in a way that will give them more circumstantial evidence. Or it might be an emotional moment I need a calm third party perspective. Or I want someone to mediate my answers so I don't mistakenly give an incorrect answer and then get charged with lying. Or about five hundred other reasons, none of which have anything to do with me being guilty.

    A non answer or a request for a lawyer are not evidence. They might increase suspicion, but actual evidence, not just "acting suspicious", should always be required to convict.

  • On the post: NSA Needs To Give Its Rank-and-File New Talking Points Defending Surveillance; The Old Ones Are Stale

    xebikr ( profile ), 17 Sep, 2013 @ 11:42am

    Yes, the talking points are the ones disproved way back in June. But how is poor Roger supposed to know that? He isn't allowed to look at any leaked classified material! For all he knows, this is all the truth, and all these bloggers and reporters saying "NSA does bad stuff!" just don't know the NSA like he does.

    They know it better.

  • On the post: Regulatory Agencies Sending Armed Squads To Check Water Quality, 'Rescue' Baby Deer

    xebikr ( profile ), 06 Sep, 2013 @ 12:23pm

    Re: Re: Social Training...

    ...So they can confiscate and kill it. Keeping America safe from Bambi and Fluffy!

  • On the post: Brazilian President Possibly Canceling US Visit, $4 Billion Fighter Jet Order Over NSA's Snooping

    xebikr ( profile ), 05 Sep, 2013 @ 02:41pm

    "All of the explanations that have been given to us from the beginning of these episodes have proven to be false," Bernardo said.

    I can definitely relate.

  • On the post: Ed Snowden Covered His Tracks Well; How Many Other NSA Staffers Did The Same?

    xebikr ( profile ), 26 Aug, 2013 @ 08:11am

    Re: Smarter mice

    Exactly. The problem isn't the audits, the oversight, the leakers, the love interest spying, the secret courts and secret laws or any of that. The problem is YOU HAVE THE DATA. You have information you have no business having. If it didn't exist as a collection (that you made) it would never ever be abused. And if the only way to get information that you need was through a narrowly defined court order, it would be much more difficult to abuse. And if all those orders were public, or at worst had a temporary seal, the likelihood of abuse is further diminished.

    tldr: don't collect more than you need, and stop doing things in secret and abuses go away.

    Addendum: Hollow Man was not a good movie, but I love this line from it: "It's amazing what you can do... when you don't have to look at yourself in the mirror any more." Hide everything and the mirror goes away along with the desire to follow all the little societal norms that enable trust to exist.

  • On the post: Okay, Now Will People Admit That Ed Snowden Is A Whistleblower?

    xebikr ( profile ), 16 Aug, 2013 @ 03:01pm

    Re:

    I would say he 'knocked it for six', but what he's doing really isn't cricket.

  • On the post: Judge Refuses To Dismiss Suit Against Feds Who Arrested Former Marine For His Controversial Facebook Posts

    xebikr ( profile ), 13 Aug, 2013 @ 07:49am

    Re: @ #1-4: Has NOTHING to do with SOPA!

    Sorry ootb, you have long since lost your right to call anyone out for being off topic.

  • On the post: FISA Court Judges Aren't Happy That The Public Is Upset Secret Court Issuing Secret Rulings Allowing NSA To Spy On Them

    xebikr ( profile ), 02 Jul, 2013 @ 03:19pm

    I participated in a process of adjudication, not ?coordination? with the executive branch.

    We don't believe you. Documents or it didn't happen.

  • On the post: Yet Another Teen Making Stupid Jokes On Social Media Now Faces Years In Jail

    xebikr ( profile ), 28 Jun, 2013 @ 05:07pm

    Re:

    "Yes its the random reports from ?soccer moms? that are the most dangerous. They are a panicky bunch. Soccer moms are a danger to democratic society? "

    No, blindly giving in to panicky hyperbolic ravings from any person or group is a danger to society, democratic or not.

  • On the post: Defense Department Blocks All Web Access To The Guardian In Response To NSA Leaks

    xebikr ( profile ), 28 Jun, 2013 @ 02:11pm

    Re: Re: Re: It's getting old, Mike

    Your questions only "beg to be answered" in the context of a flawed viewpoint. You talk of a system that would have to be created to decide if content is "still" classified if it is found publicly. Instead of trying to determine if public information should be declassified, acknowledge that public information is already declassified. Don't try to conform reality to the system, conform the system to reality. Much easier, that.

  • On the post: Yet Another Teen Making Stupid Jokes On Social Media Now Faces Years In Jail

    xebikr ( profile ), 28 Jun, 2013 @ 09:24am

    Re: Don't mean to sound heartless...

    I don't think the correct response is to constantly censor ourselves so we won't be thrown in jail because of reports from paranoid, delusional soccer moms.

    I'm going to go out on a limb and say the correct response is to fix a system that throws people in jail for sarcasm, and to stop listening to the aforementioned soccer moms.

  • On the post: Defense Department Blocks All Web Access To The Guardian In Response To NSA Leaks

    xebikr ( profile ), 28 Jun, 2013 @ 08:03am

    Re: Re: Re: Re:

    I think the specific criticism here is that their "clear rules" are idiotic. In order to not act like they've had a botched lobotomy or like the mythical ostrich with it's head in the ground they need a clear rule that says "public information is no longer classified."

  • On the post: Dear Everyone: Please Don't Turn Edward Snowden Into Julian Assange

    xebikr ( profile ), 24 Jun, 2013 @ 10:25am

    "I wonder if while he was in either of those countries he raised the question of internet freedom, since that seems to be what he champions."

    Yes, because that's all we've heard from Snowden is how we need to increase internet freedoms around the globe. Oh wait. No, it's illegal government surveillance of US citizens.

    Looks like Kerry has lumped Snowden in with the "People Who Do Things On the Intertubes That I Don't Like" group.

  • On the post: NSA Claims Surveillance Programs Aided The Stopping Of 50 Attacks; Details Lacking

    xebikr ( profile ), 18 Jun, 2013 @ 11:58am

    Only 50?

    I know, right? 50. Ha! My bear repelling rock has stopped over 9000!!! bear attacks. You just try to prove that it hasn't.

  • On the post: 'Gears Of War' Designer: Used Games Must Be Killed So Unsustainable Development Can Live

    xebikr ( profile ), 18 Jun, 2013 @ 07:49am

    "The fact this industry seems utterly fucking incapable of taking some damn responsibility for itself continues to disgust me"

    Winner: most succinct quote of the year.

  • On the post: Perhaps The NSA Should Figure Out How To Keep Its Own Stuff Secret Before Building A Giant Database

    xebikr ( profile ), 11 Jun, 2013 @ 01:42pm

    Re: "Low Level" or "Junior" IT Professionals aren't normally paid $200k salary

    But he was a contractor, so... /shrugs

  • On the post: Edward Snowden: Whistleblower Behind Leaks Outs Himself

    xebikr ( profile ), 09 Jun, 2013 @ 06:59pm

    Re: Pardon Him

    404... Surprise! Well, ok. Not really.

  • On the post: Even More Patent Reform Bills Being Floated In Congress

    xebikr ( profile ), 31 May, 2013 @ 11:16am

    Re: more dissembling by Masnick

    Then they can steal at will and destroy their small competitors AND WITH THEM THE JOBS THEY WOULD HAVE CREATED.

    As opposed to the jobs the successful 'thief' is creating?

    Do you know how to make a Stradivarius violin? Neither does anyone else. Why? There was no protection for creations in his day so he like everyone else protected their creations by keeping them secret.

    And in the end, it doesn't really matter.

    Our founders: Jefferson, Franklin, Madison and others felt so strongly about the rights of inventors that they included inventors rights to their creations and discoveries in the Constitution.

    Jefferson and Madison were very apprehensive about providing monopoly protection to inventors.

    For 200 years the patent system has not only fueled the US economy, but the world?s. If we weaken the patent system we force inventors underground like Stradivarius and in turn weaken our economy and job creation.

    For 200 years the patent system has been used as a club to beat competitors into the ground. If we eliminate the patent system, innovators from all over the world will be free to build off the works of others without fear of legal ruin forced upon them by established monopolists. The resultant boom in discovery and creation will spur a new golden age in our economy and will result in a huge spike in available jobs.

    Who knows who the next Alexander Graham Bell will be.

    Maybe it could have been Charles Bourseul, Antonio Meucci, Johann Philipp Reis, or Elisha Gray. All of them have been credited with the telephone's invention. Bell got the patent, so he gets the fame. The telephone would have been created without him, and would probably have spread farther, faster if his monopolies hadn't held it up.

    To kill or weaken the patent system is to kill their futures.

    To keep the patent system is to kill people.

  • On the post: Bradley Manning Accused Of Aiding [Classified Enemy]

    xebikr ( profile ), 31 May, 2013 @ 11:39am

    I would think that a list of our "enemies" should be readily available. After all, I wouldn't want to aid any of them without knowing it.

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