TasMot 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: Facepalm: USPTO Grants Ohio State University Trademark On The Word ‘The’

    TasMot ( profile ), 07 Jul, 2022 @ 06:38am

    Here, let me fix that quote for you "" to always say "THE unnamed university in Ohio"......

  • On the post: The Myopic Focus On TikTok Privacy Issues Remains Kind Of Weird

    TasMot ( profile ), 23 Jun, 2022 @ 06:06am

    Squirrel

    No, it's pretty obvious. They talk about the 'problem' with TikTok and that takes away the focus from the real issues. It's easy to talk a lot about TikTok and then eventually pass a meaningless law just to Do Something, rather than face the real issues with privacy protection in general.

  • On the post: New Report Again Shows Global Telecom Networks Aren't Remotely Secure

    TasMot ( profile ), 25 Oct, 2021 @ 11:24am

    BUT, BUT, the Former POTUS

    He started the screaming about TikTok. Which was just a magician's trick of look over here where I want you to look. Do NOT look at the HUGE problems over there where my telecom buddies are not fixing any of their privacy problems in the global telecom infrastructure.

  • On the post: Report Again Finds US Government IT Security Sucks, Three Years After Saying The Same Thing

    TasMot ( profile ), 09 Aug, 2021 @ 06:27am

    Aging Applications

    Having worked in both government and commercial applications, one of the most telling issues is that corporations write applications that can be implemented to solve a problem. That software gets implemented in a big visible project that makes news and other blurbs for the senior people who sponsored the project. However; after that, the money moves on to other - make the news - types projects. The budget gets cut for supporting the other non-newsworthy projects. Then 10 to 15 years later, security for the system is berated 'because'. If there had been proper maintenance of the system, including security and version updates over the years then there would, probably, not be an issue. But there is always budget cuts and etc. and etc. why systems can't be maintained. However; when the system then looks like it is a legacy problem, it's time for more PR announcements and blurbs about modernization projects. Corporations at least need to keep public interest and keep making money. The government, on the other hand, just needs to keep churning out government things and keep collecting taxes and fees. Whatever projects that install the new great XXX software also needs to budget the money to keep up with annual or bi-annual updates to the software package. One project I worked on was using a version of MS-SQL server for their database that was 9 years old and 3 versions out of date. BUT, there was no money for the project to update it, so it will just keep churning along until the system fails or some project comes along that HAS to have a feature from a newer version and has enough visibility to get PR blurbs to update the infrastructure to the latest and greatest, as if that shouldn't have been done all along. The poison of politics is everywhere in life, not just in the stolen elections.

  • On the post: 10 Steps The Biden-Harris Administration Should Take To Bring Equity To Our Patent System

    TasMot ( profile ), 26 Jul, 2021 @ 09:57am

    Equality

    Even today, research by economist Dr. Lisa Cook indicates that less than one percent of patent holders are Black. In addition to racial inequities, gender inequities are present at the PTO. Women represent only 18 percent of patent holders, and leading economists predict it will still take 118 years to achieve gender parity in the patent system.

    I think that in part, this is lying with statistics. For many many many years of the 275 history of the PTO, Blacks and Women were not allowed to have patents, because. In so many cases, (i.e. walking while Black, driving while Black, and etc.) it is difficult for Blacks to even be treated as human. Just look at all the Techdirt stories of Blacks being mistreated or even shot for being Black. Since they have been allowed to own patents, how many have filed for and received patents. The 250 years of "no, your black, no patent for you" will mean a big fat 0 patents over that time. Has that changed in recent years or has even the idea of wasting time on the PTO to get a no just encouraged that portion of the population to just say "forget it" and move on to better ways to spend their time.

    Not as bad, since the Women's Suffrage movement seems to have worked better (maybe in this discussion at least for white women) but for many many years, women were barely citizens, not allowed to vote, and so on, why would a women waste time trying to get a patent?

  • On the post: Police Union Sues Kentucky City's Mayor, Claiming New No-Knock Warrant Ban Violates Its Bargaining Agreement

    TasMot ( profile ), 13 Jul, 2021 @ 05:39am

    The "Flushing the Drugs Down the Toilet" Argument

    The flushing argument was a biggie for why the no-knock warrants were needed in the first place, as in the suspects would flush the drugs down the toilet. Sounds good except that the 'drug warriors' are supposed to be going after the dealers in order to remove the supply chain of drugs. If your going after the dealers, they should have way too much of the drugs on hand that all of it couldn't' possibly get flush with a normal warrant service.

    The reality is that they were going after small time dealers and the drug users that had a small personal amount on hand. Either case made good news because "drug bust", but did nothing to stop the flow of drugs. It generated more PR than anything. Now with the legalization of pot, these types of raids on drug users is going to be a non-starter for the PR and just a waste of police resources. Also, by legalizing pot, hopefully the sales of pot will move to the pot shops and out of residences.

  • On the post: Elvis Costello Doesn't Care That A Pop Star Copied His Riffs; Says Every Musician Does That

    TasMot ( profile ), 03 Jul, 2021 @ 04:52am

    But The Estate

    No matter what he says now, what would be inspirational would be if he sets up his "estate" now and prohibit it from ever doing a 180 and starting to sue over the very songs he said were OK. Estates didn't do the work, they just profit off of the deceased artist's work and they like to increase that income in any way possible (without actually creating any new artistic works).

  • On the post: US Postal Service's Social Media Surveillance Program Uses Clearview's Facial Recognition Tech

    TasMot ( profile ), 27 May, 2021 @ 11:46am

    Well, SEE! That's why they had to remove the automatic mail sorting machines from the processing centers. It's so that they can afford big Internet pipes and servers to process all those feeds that are outside of their jurisdiction.

    NOW WE KNOW why the mail is so slow, they have gotten into the First Amendment Rights violations business, 'cause who would want to leave all that fun to just the FBI, DEA, DHS, ICE and all, when the Postal Service can get in on it too...... </sarc>

    Wow, as an afterthought, taxpayers sure are paying a lot of money to federal agencies to get their 1st Amendment Rights violated in many ways.

  • On the post: Poof! Taylor Swift, Evermore Theme Park Lawsuits Dropped With No Money Exchanged

    TasMot ( profile ), 27 Mar, 2021 @ 07:29am

    But RIAA

    As Swift pointed out, the park is using Copyrighted music. Next thing you know, Evermore (the park not the song) will be getting at least a letter if not in-person visits from the RIAA demanding lots of money. First to say it's needed, and second to add on lots of fines for past transgressions. This money grab may come back to seriously bite them as a big money loss.

  • On the post: Iowa Prosecutors Move Ahead With Prosecuting A Journalist For Being Present At A Protest

    TasMot ( profile ), 10 Mar, 2021 @ 08:46am

    Body Cameras

    Since law enforcement agents (cough cough cough) can't seem to follow departmental policies and tend to lose the body cam footage anyway if it doesn't support their narrative, it's most likely time for journalists especially, and every protester generally to start wearing the body cameras to start protecting themselves. Maybe there are even some that will immediately stream the audio and video straight to the cloud so that it is just a little further out of reach of the delete immediately crowd of LEO's.

  • On the post: Dumb New GOP Talking Point: If You Restore Net Neutrality, You HAVE To Kill Section 230. Just Because!

    TasMot ( profile ), 11 Feb, 2021 @ 10:14am

    Too bad that Section 230 couldn't be easily promoted to be a Constitutional Amendment. To legally put liability where it belongs, not on the intermediaries. Just the the phone company is not sued if people use their phones to talk about a crime and the car companies are not sued when a car is used in a crime, the platform and the wires that carry the Internet should not be sued all of the time because a person uses them to commit a crime.

  • On the post: FCC Takes A Break From Not Caring About Consumers To Hassle Some Landlords Over Pirate Radio

    TasMot ( profile ), 05 Jan, 2021 @ 05:33am

    Let's Try to Get This Straight

    The FCC, using its own (hopefully sophisticated- or not - equipment), has detected a Pirate radio station. Now, instead of using standard (relatively easy) triangulation to find the station and under its legal authority shutting it down. It stops and sends a letter to a landlord who now has to find a way to locate the Pirate station and shut it down. WOW. It sounds like the landlords now need a Section 230 to protect them from secondary liability. Instead, a law gets passed that says they have to become the FCC's enforcement arm, determine where the radio station is and then shut it down. This is a cluster of lawsuits against the landlords as they try to find the radio station and shut it down while possibly searching through hundreds of apartments in a building. Let's face it, if the FCC can detect the illegal radio station, they should be able to then locate it and shut it down.

  • On the post: Coalition Of Internet Companies Who Are Decidedly Not 'Big Tech' Raise Their Voices About The Importance Of Section 230

    TasMot ( profile ), 28 Dec, 2020 @ 12:14pm

    An article in Bloomberg notes that basically the rest of the internet industry is pissed off at Facebook and recognizes the company's willingness to throw the open internet under the bus to maintain its market position (while also claiming to be "responsive" to Congress's misplaced anger).

    We have already seen that Facebook doesn't want to compete in an open internet. Just look at their closed system "internet" that was offered in India for a time to try to get people to sign up for a "free" internet service that only went to Facebook sites.

    What was that old saying, "Too big to compete, legislate instead".

    Facebook is just trying to lock up the market so that there is Facebook and only Facebook.

  • On the post: After Being Notified Of Info It Should Have Already Been Aware Of, LAPD Bans Clearview Use By Investigators

    TasMot ( profile ), 04 Dec, 2020 @ 05:45am

    More Unverified Claims...

    And Clearview has been highly irresponsible in its marketing and distribution of its tech, making unverified claims...

    Any chance Pres. Trump is invested in Clearview? Then the trail of unverified claims would make sense....

  • On the post: There Is No 'Race To 5G.' And The U.S. Wouldn't Be Winning Even If There Was

    TasMot ( profile ), 10 Nov, 2020 @ 10:30am

    Re:

    Apple just started selling the new iPhone that has 5G. There have been a few Android phones for sale by Verizon that are supposed to support "real" 5G. Unlike the AT&T 4G LTE phones that magically started to support 5G with a software update of the icon - 5G is a new hardware standard so software just can't do it).

  • On the post: There Is No 'Race To 5G.' And The U.S. Wouldn't Be Winning Even If There Was

    TasMot ( profile ), 10 Nov, 2020 @ 10:28am

    Re:

    For a while equipment suppliers such as Comcast and Verizon were advertising for home Wi-Fi routers as 5G. Then 5G mobile came along and they changed all the Wi-Fi advertising to 6G (with no visible new features except the name change). Buyers beware of the name change for Wi-Fi only.

  • On the post: There Is No 'Race To 5G.' And The U.S. Wouldn't Be Winning Even If There Was

    TasMot ( profile ), 10 Nov, 2020 @ 07:17am

    And it's hard to find "for sure" where 5G is Deployed

    If you look at the Verizon 5G map link, nowhere does is show just 5G. If you are "*nal" enough to know to look at the Legend and carefully read the entry for "Nationwide 5G", it actually says "5G Nationwide Includes 4G LTE coverage". So, no way to know if there is any place that is actually 5G without getting a 5G phone and bringing it to that exact location and trying it (which is usually after signing a long term contract for a very expensive phone and bringing it there only to find out it doesn't actually get 5G).

    I'll just stick with my existing 4G LTE phone for a while until there is some real buildout. Even then with the same speeds and being more expensive, I may just stick with getting a new 4G phone when I need one.

  • On the post: Senator Wyden Wants To Know If The NSA Is Still Demanding Tech Companies Build Backdoors Into Their Products

    TasMot ( profile ), 02 Nov, 2020 @ 04:59am

    Senator Wyden

    OK, he seems to have a lot of integrity and willingness to ask the hard questions. How do we make sure he keeps getting elected and doing such a great job? I, for one, hope he can stay around for a while and keep poking NSA and other to keep them straight. I don't see many other doing it.

  • On the post: Verizon's New 'Nationwide' 5G Isn't Nationwide, Barely Faster Than 4G

    TasMot ( profile ), 16 Oct, 2020 @ 05:50am

    Verizon 5G

    Here: https://www.verizon.com/coverage-map/, is a Verizon 5G coverage map. However; the most important thing to look at is that all those red 5G splotches. Wow, so much 5G coverage. Until you look at the "Legend". In there, the red 5G splotches are 5G AND 4GLTE coverage combined. There is no just 5G coverage displayed in the map, at all.

  • On the post: FBI Sent A Special Task Force To Portland To 'Exploit' Phones Taken From Protesters

    TasMot ( profile ), 14 Oct, 2020 @ 11:34am

    Constitution, what constitution? This is about the government protecting the government. It is no longer about serving the citizens they were elected to protect. AKA, high-court vs. low-court justice. T.Rump says prosecute those who spread "Fake News" except when he does it.

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