R2_v2 's Techdirt Comments

Latest Comments (41)

• On the post: The View From Somewhere: The Press Needs To Be Anti-Partisan, Not Bi-Partisan

  

  R2_v2 ( profile ), 19 Jul, 2018 @ 05:42pm

  Rain

  There's a good journalism 101 tweet going around on point here:

  If one person says it's raining and another says it isn't, it's not your job to report both opinions, it's your job to look out the f__king window

• On the post: Court Won't Rehear Blurred Lines Case, Bad News For Music Creativity

  

  R2_v2 ( profile ), 12 Jul, 2018 @ 05:59pm

  The Vibe

  "It's justice. It's law. It's the vibe"
  
  - quote from the most Australian movie ever made, "The Castle"

• On the post: Australian Government Continues To Push Encryption Backdoors It Refuses To Call Encryption Backdoors

  

  R2_v2 ( profile ), 04 Mar, 2018 @ 06:31pm

  It does add up!

  In unrelated news, the Turnbull government has legislated a solution to the 'Pi problem'. A spokesman said, "Despite the hysterical declarations that 'its irrational', we've today passed historic legislation to require Pi to be less difficult to write down. Today we make it clear that Pi is required to follow the laws of the commonwealth rather than the laws of mathematics;

• On the post: Man Sues Facebook For Moderating His Bigoted Posts, Wants Section 230 Declared Unconstitutional

  

  R2_v2 ( profile ), 12 Feb, 2018 @ 05:53pm

  Guilty pleasures

  112+ comments on this one. It's comforting to know that even Techdirters (myself included) can enjoy a little bit of guilty click-bait pleasure

• On the post: UK Court Says Company Is Innocent In Massive Data Breach Caused By Vindictive Employee, But Must Nonetheless Pay Compensation

  

  R2_v2 ( profile ), 10 Dec, 2017 @ 09:06pm

  Re: Re: Oversight by companies

  This exactly.
  
  Despite the story saying Morrison's had done everything they could have, I have my doubts.
  
  Most companies I've seen talk a great game and then have a list of master passwords on a share-drive or a system that allows what amounts to a full database dump to a USB.

• On the post: New York City Hotels Say Obnoxious $25 'Destination Fee' 'Improves The Customer Experience'

  

  R2_v2 ( profile ), 07 Dec, 2017 @ 05:06pm

  Where's the FTC on this?

  This is false advertising and the FTC should be calling them on it.
  
  One of the better things our FTC equivalent has done in Australia is clamp down on this type of drip feed pricing.
  
  It's noteworthy that the human sock puppet running the FCC for you guys has decided that it's too hard for poor little ISPs to work out how much they're going to charge you so you'll need to work that out yourselves.

• On the post: Ed Sheeran Vs. The CopyBots: Artist Goes To Bat For Musician That Covered His Song On Facebook

  

  R2_v2 ( profile ), 16 Mar, 2017 @ 06:47pm

  Re: Re: Good ending, not so good background reasons

  Agreed. It's hard to come to any other conclusion. This algorithm has matched to a 15 second clip of a cover. The logic being used must be so basic as to be absurd.
  
  I question FB's role in this though. There is no requirement for them to auto-process this rubbish. They could enforce minimum standards for their automated process and send everything else for manual assessment.

• On the post: Ed Sheeran Vs. The CopyBots: Artist Goes To Bat For Musician That Covered His Song On Facebook

  

  R2_v2 ( profile ), 16 Mar, 2017 @ 07:02pm

  No business sense

  Another reason this type of thing really bugs me is that it makes no sense for the business.
  
  Even in a case where the algorithm identifies that the video is undeniably an unauthorised copy. So what?
  
  Is anyone so committed to both FB and piracy that the only way they consume music is by watching unauthorised copies of works via FB posts???
  
  I spend so much time in meetings with marketeers who are super pumped about social media influencers, customer centricity and building community engagement.
  
  If you're algorithm identifies Charlotte (someone with 13k followers) as having uploaded this song don't get her account suspended, send her a cheque and a thank you note and offer her an HD copy of the video to upload as well.
  
  Morons.

• On the post: Here Come The AIs To Make Office Workers Superfluous

  

  R2_v2 ( profile ), 17 Jan, 2017 @ 06:16pm

  Re: HR

  This is less funny than it seems. When you look at the classes of jobs AI's are predicted to replace they tend to be jobs where all the upside rests with the company and all the downside with the customer. These are things like helpdesks, delivery jobs (taxi, courier etc), HR/Payroll etc.
  
  HR departments suck not because of the humans but because companies hate spending a cent more on them than is strictly necessary and heck, no-one in the C-suite ever has a problem getting HR to jump when they say jump so how bad can it be? HR won't be better if you replace them with an AI

• On the post: Here Come The AIs To Make Office Workers Superfluous

  

  R2_v2 ( profile ), 17 Jan, 2017 @ 06:24pm

  Costs?

  The dollar figures in this article seem a little optimistic - IBM hardware/Software + Large Corporate IT department + new technology implementation = $1.4 million + $100k ongoing. It's not clear what those dollar figures are paying for but that seems pretty cheap.

• On the post: Traffic Is Fake, Audience Numbers Are Garbage, And Nobody Knows How Many People See Anything

  

  R2_v2 ( profile ), 27 Sep, 2016 @ 12:26am

  Nothing special

  Advertising measures don't have a monopoly on this type of thing though.
  
  Every company I've worked for, all of which had lovely, expensive relational databases of all of there customers has struggled to answer the very simple question of, "How many customers do we have?"
  
  And often there is nothing you can do about it. Corporate acquisition? Have fun reconciling the common customer databases (assuming any serious effort is even put into it). Reliant on some sort of industry data (think: poles and wires)? God help you when someone asks you how many people have internet AND phone service or gas AND electricity.
  
  And I've seen these numbers go to regulatory reporting or investor briefings knowing that they are all over the place. We had a situation where in a particular territory the main competitors were claiming about 20% more households than there were houses (at least according to the census data).
  
  I think when you work with this sort of situation you just get used to giving a 'good' number for whatever people are looking for.

• On the post: UK's GCHQ Takes A Page From China, Plans To Build A Great British Firewall

  

  R2_v2 ( profile ), 15 Sep, 2016 @ 04:11pm

  Error in story

  You have an error in this story:
  

  It's just that they have a different interpretation of what's "bad."

  
  Blocking politically embarrassing stories, socially 'subversive' views and "the terrorists" ....pretty much the same interpretation

• On the post: Judge Says Stash House Sting Operations Allow Prosecutors To Be Judge, Jury, And Executioner

  

  R2_v2 ( profile ), 10 Aug, 2016 @ 09:45pm

  This is what you paid for

  The focus is on the wrong problem here. If you have a law that criminalizes 'conspiring' then, by definition, you're criminalizing something that hasn't happened.
  
  If you accept that conspiring to commit certain crimes is itself a crime then you have to accept certain imaginary elements as evidence. At that point, someone has to decide which imaginary things are 'real' imaginary things - it's hilarious....unless you're staring down the barrel of 20 years in prison.
  
  Something that isn't addressed is the criminality of the government. The government was part of this conspiracy and imaginary evidence isn't a barrier to prosecution so does that make their behavior criminal? It's accepted that police have some latitude to break the law but does that/should that extend to crimes with a mandatory 20 year sentence?

• On the post: Australian Government's Stupid Census Plans Puts Privacy At Risk, May Destroy Their Own Census

  

  R2_v2 ( profile ), 08 Aug, 2016 @ 05:12am

  Genuinely concerning

  So as an Australian citizen, I now have all of my demographic, health, welfare and internet browsing data held online by the government - that will definitely end well.

• On the post: As Expected, Verizon's Attempt To Woo Millennials Is Falling Flat On Its Face

  

  R2_v2 ( profile ), 26 May, 2016 @ 08:17pm

  You forgot that time Verizon showed the kids it was hip by adding an ad into Alan Wake. Its actually hilarious how jarring it is.

• On the post: Chevron Lobbied For Corporate Sovereignty Rights In TAFTA/TTIP To Act As 'Environmental Deterrent'

  

  R2_v2 ( profile ), 29 Apr, 2016 @ 02:07am

  Chevron not the problem

  The corporations aren't the problem here - they're actually acting exactly as you'd expect. The problem is the cosy welcome they get from those who are supposed to be looking after the public's interest.
  
  It's unclear to me how our public officials could ever think these clauses benefit the people they are supposed to represent.

• On the post: The Cable Industry Is Absolutely Terrified Of Set Top Box Competition

  

  R2_v2 ( profile ), 02 Feb, 2016 @ 06:24pm

  Trigger Warnings

  ...undermining free market competition and putting a government thumb on the scale for powerful incumbents like Google, and making it harder for those serving communities of color and providing diverse and independent programming to make the video ecosystem work
  

  
  Thanks a lot! I was eating while reading this and I literally had yoghurt come out of my nose. I think there's still a blueberry in there somewhere

• On the post: Bernie Sanders' Campaign DMCAs Wikimedia For Hosting His Logos

  

  R2_v2 ( profile ), 14 Jan, 2016 @ 05:48pm

  Re: Re:

  This was similar to my thinking. If someone not affiliated with his campaign made this happen it would create an issue that he needs to deal with and who would believe a politician didn't if he said it wasn't authorized by him

• On the post: Australian Government Warns That Alternative Rock, Teenage Rebellion Could Lead To Radicalization

  

  R2_v2 ( profile ), 28 Sep, 2015 @ 06:15pm

  Correction

  You're misinterpreting the quote:
  

  "has used its questioning powers only 16 times since 9/11."

  
  Australia has a 2 hour time difference between it's eastern and western states. So 9/11 is the time of day depending on where you live.

• On the post: Google Lobbied Against Real Net Neutrality In India, Just Like It Did In The States

  

  R2_v2 ( profile ), 24 Aug, 2015 @ 05:10pm

  Lost battle

  Does anyone seriously think Net neutrality has a snowflake's chance in hell? If so, please point me to some other internationally agreed 'level playing field' where strong neutrality has worked because I can't think of a single example. Trade? Nope. Education? Nope. Healthcare? Nope. Sport? Nope.

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