Un 's Techdirt Comments
Latest Comments (14)
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On the post: Huffington Post And The View From Bogustan: Standing Behind Blatantly False Claims Isn't Journalism
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On the post: Huffington Post And The View From Bogustan: Standing Behind Blatantly False Claims Isn't Journalism
Un ( profile ), 06 Sep, 2014 @ 06:08amEyegrab
Email isn't an important thing. HuffPo isn't an important thing. TechDirt isn't an important thing.
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On the post: FTC Cracks Down On T-Mobile For Massive Bogus Charges And Fee Scam
Un ( profile ), 02 Jul, 2014 @ 07:52amRe: nice reportage...not
I think the FTC were careful in their claim. They understand that T-Mobile are required by law to operate an open bill onto which third party telecom service providers can latch when the subscriber takes an action to enroll. They specifically state that T-Mobile's bills made it very difficult for consumers to realize they were crammed as a result of some action they never expected would cause the cram.
In our telecom regulations, the bill is a conduit for a wide array of sewage. All the telcos open up and encourage a third party market. That market isn't vetted to prove that the consumer is making a highly conscious decision.
The telcos all know there are third party providers that cram charges with little to no consumer awareness, but they aren't required or ABLE to categorically remove a service provider because somebody may actually want those trivia SMS messages.
So I'm not going to leap to telcos are innocent, because service provider vetting is too weak to protect morons in a hurry from deception or from outright malware silent enrollment, but ultimately it's the service providers that are offering a somewhat desirable service that appears to be free at the moment only to appear as an indecipherable abbreviation buried several clicks deep in the online bill.
T-Mo should make access to attached services easy to find and easy to understand. On my bill, with call detail collapsed, it takes one click to see crams. That visibility causes a lot of call center traffic. T-Mo can be held specifically accountable because they bury crams as a way to cut call center costs and still meet tariffed call handling requirements.
The FTC aren't saying crams only exist on T-Mo. -
On the post: Awesome Stuff: Crowdfunding To Get Money Out Of Politics… Now With Steve Wozniak!
Un ( profile ), 22 Jun, 2014 @ 12:01pmChasing Horses
The only way to stop excessive money in politics is with enough money to stop it.
When you leave the gate open and the horses escape, you have two choices. You can just stand there and cry, maybe fall to your knees and talk to the sky. You can get on a faster horse and chase them, scaring the horses and making them run even faster, but eventually ending up with the best possible chance to turn them around. -
On the post: Chase Bank Slutshames Their Adult Performer Customers
Un ( profile ), 30 Apr, 2014 @ 03:36pmRe: How do they know?
All three porn stars stupid enough to go into business using their real name deserve to be abruptly kicked from the ethical pinnacle that is JPMorgan Chase's branch of the International Money Fuckery.
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On the post: The Stupidity Of Installing Bloatware That No One Uses… And Everyone Hates
Un ( profile ), 25 Apr, 2014 @ 06:34amBuy phones with application control
I'm as happy as the next guy that the S5 doesn't come with Faceboob preinstalled. And I'm pretty happy that the NFL paid to lower the cost of my phone because in a stock build I can turn it off. I have a preferred way to get that information.
In the S5's application manager, there's a page for Turned Off apps. There's a button on every ROM-based app's detail screen labeled Turn Off, since it can't be uninstalled from ROM.
None of the pre-installed apps were set to the default except the text messaging app, because there is a separate setting to choose which messaging app is default to prevent multiple apps from sounding and vibrating and blinking notifications. When I installed my preferred apps, I was offered the Always/Just Once choice to use my app or the previously existing app.
When I look at App Manager's Running page, I can identify everything listed as apps I installed or apps and services that are necessary. The S5 (maybe KitKat) running page has an option to also show cached processes. On that screen, I see several larger apps I use that precache to reduce initial loading time.
Combining apps I've started and precache, there is nothing on the list that I would want to kill. At the moment, cached processes represent 126mb of the 16gb storage, they're outside the 2gb RAM. With 3.5 gig of apps installed, I have 6 gig available.
I've rooted every Android I've had except the last two, a Razr Maxx and an S5. I ran Nova Prime on the Razr. We're now at the point that we have control over what runs, and we don't need Task Killers.
Granted, you shouldn't have to crawl into the innards of your phone settings as an average user to opt out of installed software that may or may not subsidize the cost of your phone. But if you're a user that would normally root, it's well within your realm to look at what kind of control you get from the OS and the stock ROM before dismissing a device you otherwise desire yet it has bloatware, a locked bootloader, and it disables NFC mobile payments if you root.
The tools are in the box now to buy and manage a stock phone.
People who want to root will always root, maybe even /facepalm at people who don't. I thought I always would, but I grew tired of the QA issues that come from five guys in a basement taking over every aspect of the device. I hated Sense and Motoblur, and Go and Nova surgically solved that without instability. Yes, I ran a few ROMs that were daily drivers, but still, oh lawd there goes my pants. -
On the post: Chilling Effects: James Clapper Tells Congress That Journalists Are Ed Snowden's 'Accomplices'
Un ( profile ), 30 Jan, 2014 @ 11:20amFree to write what you want
Not to preach, but I need preamble to make my point.
Freedom of the press and of speech gives the right to write about anything and let society decide whether they wish to read.
Freedom of the press does not grant the right to possess property of another taken against their will or the right of refusal to return the property.
Anyone holding copies of documents not yet released has the freedom to write anything further about them that they wish.
The Clapper statement does not limit what members of the press can say about the documents, it asks for them back. Enough has already been said about the absurdity of that idea.
The press don't have immunity. They're people subject to not only the rights they're given but also the boundaries imposed on all of society. Possession of stolen goods is a topic covered by the boundaries of our laws.
No matter what anger exists toward the practices exposed, we shouldn't overly generalize the protections granted to journalists because we abhor the related events. -
On the post: Senators Ramp Up Fear Mongering To Try To Rush Through Cybersecurity Bill
Un ( profile ), 17 Feb, 2012 @ 08:46amAs Joe Biden once said, "I use the Google"
I think we're looking at a solid decade before we've got anyone on the Hill that actually has the most remote knowledge to accurately discredit cyber security fiction.
We are the terrorists. Americans are the biggest threat to the American government, and the government is getting damn scared of us. With elections so polar and nearly equally divided, we actually are a fairly scary bunch. Look at the hate toward Obama and Santorum, add media zombification to that and any government would want monitoring to know how we're reacting to their policies. -
On the post: This Post Is Not About Steve Jobs
Un ( profile ), 25 Aug, 2011 @ 01:01pmRa: Ra: Ra:
@33++. Small letters: tech. Big letters: DIRT.
I guess if the matter was as squeaky clean as the fruit farm's marketing art, there would be little to say here. I'm glad you found that the dirt was how the technologists were going supernova covering it and being covered by it. Starbucks baristas blew their steam jets, me bets. -
On the post: Beatles & Apple Finally Going To Let You Pay Money For The Beatles Songs You've Been Pirating For Years
Un ( profile ), 16 Nov, 2010 @ 08:37amMust consume now!
TechDirt, Slashdot, Wired, CNN, the Beeb. All the frenzy about this. Must be a slow news day.
I once had a music provider, or should I say it once had me. -
On the post: Apple Goes Offensive On Patents: Sues HTC
Un ( profile ), 02 Mar, 2010 @ 04:18pmRe: Re: I can understand Apple's point
Nope, mouse goes to Stanford University's research institute. Doug Englebart to be specific. Actually most of the items in #28 were also SRI and Xerox PARC. I think you'd enjoy this read (the book, not the tiny stub article):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_the_Dormouse_Said
For the most part, we have hallucinogens to thank for much of the work in graphical user interfaces. -
On the post: Canadian Olympic Committee Tries To Trademark Lyric From National Anthem
Un ( profile ), 29 Sep, 2008 @ 02:46pmI'm assuming they had to trademark with glowing hearts for the edible fat and beer sponsor since it was the only symbolic thing they could find that rhymed with blowing farts.
Sorry, tough day, I needed 30 seconds of being 12. -
On the post: Disc Makers Convince Themselves That Discs Are Here To Stay
Un ( profile ), 06 Sep, 2008 @ 10:06amLook back at this thread in 3 years
...and laugh about how we assumed moving digital media was a good idea. We must make this small plastic thing and spin it very fast and read the tiny bits with a laser that is expensive to manufacture. And, oh yeah, all of its readable surface has to be exposed and subject to scratching.
If that's the best we can do in our lives and even the near term, we all need to climb back up the trees.
With Amazon Unbox built into TiVos, XBox Live Marketplace built into 360s, and whatever Sony does or doesn't do on their shiny black net loss generator, how long do we really expect Netflix to compete using the post office?
Delivery will be digitized faster than the marketing departments of disc makers want. Why else would Sony be up on stage reprogramming the Wal-Martians to buy Soylent Blu? We may not be streaming down 1080p on demand any time soon, but we might be watching 1080p that is downloaded in some delayed means within a year. Overnight off-hours, longer than typical buffering times, etc...
Storage and playback are well on their way to solid state. MP3 players, the latest generation of computer mass storage devices, everything Sandisk and competitors make plus everything that uses flash. Doesn't an 8 soon to be 16 gigabyte micro SD card provide evidence of feasible terabyte solid state storage within two years?
The storage industry is already talking about jumping right past exa to petabyte consumer storage once the solid state leap ramps down to mass market.
Even though I'm an optimist and I live where technology is available and advancing at pace with development, I admit many of the comments from contributors above my post are accurate. I still see VHS tapes in closeout stores.
We're going to see discs as an entertainment delivery media for decades. This is especially true when the exclusive holder of a disc media license also owns a massive segment of the software. Even if Blockbuster wanted to allow customers to dock their iPod 12th generation devices and download their purchases at the store, could they? Would Sony's ownership of the titles that Blockbuster relies on to exist influence them to perpetuate disc-based movies to support Sony brand and Sony license hardware sales?
The internet infrastructure to support 1080p download only makes sense in the major metro markets. For a long time, the podunks will get movies at retail even though they already get their music at iTunes, or an equivalent if they dare to think.
Discs for archival storage will fade to using solid state and network-based backup. I think many of us who read Techdirt already have gigs of valuable property stored on solid state devices. As the internet moves from the office to the couch, many more of us will subscribe to services that retain copies of information to which we own digital rights as either buyers or creators. Pictures of my son from birth are stored on three different kinds of media and backed up in the cloud just in case my house becomes debris.
Last, please, I know we're all good people and we do what we're told. We've been told to buy Blu-ray and we will until people with more money and media control come out with something doubleplusgood. -
On the post: Is The iPhone App Kill Switch Really Such A Surprise?
Un ( profile ), 12 Aug, 2008 @ 04:59pmApple follows Microsoft
Actually, the Windows Mobile Smartphone platform was launched with the intent that all code running on it must be signed and that each application signature must be generated from a digital certificate that is used only once so that a Certificate Revocation List (CRL) can serve as the input to a OTA WAP system that could disable intentionally rogue or stupidly defective software that either cost user data charges, network latency, or privacy issues.
This ability in the 2002 Smartphone platform was launched in the Orange SPV and within 3 weeks there was a vulcan nerve pinch procedure posted on MoDaCo that would make the device accept unsigned code. Needless to say, most carriers from that point on had little interest in operating locked down Smartphones.
Those of us closer to the Microsoft Smartphone enjoy watching history repeat itself with the younger generation.
Re: Re: Eyegrab
Prove my point by making a big deal of something that has become landscape. Yes, the ground is solid and I can walk on it.
Forgive me for showing up late on the Internet in 1989 after it lost its exclusivity and the likes of Software Tool and Die brought us bottomfeeders into the clubhouse. I was heartbroken to learn that I signed on to the second public access provider. Damn Californians.
I worked with Ray Tomlinson at GTE. Whoop tee doo, basking in the glow of the at sign. I haven't washed my hands since.
HuffPo has been irrelevant since the moment it mixed blog with news. It's a fashion statement. A poor story and no retraction is like pants that don't match a shirt. So TechDirt has become People magazine.