Internet Zen Master (profile), 25 Nov 2013 @ 11:08am
Re: Re: Did not think that one through...
Convince someone that Gates and Jobs are losers because they dropped out of college? That'd be an extremely hard sell, since you'd have to leave out the part where they, um, founded two of the world's most iconic tech companies.
Zuckerberg? Might be a little easier to sell to the jury (since you can bring up the whole spat between him and those two brothers over who owned Facebook), but the lawyers would still have their work cut out for them.
Internet Zen Master (profile), 22 Nov 2013 @ 10:12pm
Re:
As I recall, MCA's last will & testament stated that he didn't want the Beasties Boys' music to be used for advertising. And since this clearly is an advertisement and slightly shaky on the fair use angle, I can understand why Beastie Boys would be doing this.
Internet Zen Master (profile), 22 Nov 2013 @ 6:40pm
Re:
Considering that no one knows what's in the other 20+ chapters, and that the last time someone said "you have to pass something to know what's in it!" The GOP got to watch the Democrats pass the ACA and are now watching (while eating popcorn by the bucketload I'd imagine) the Dems rip their hair out over the complete disaster their opponent's biggest legislative achievement in recent memory's turning out to be so far, I think the GOP's more than aware of the problems that passing something they know nothing about might result in at the moment.
That said, one should never underestimate the stupidity of politicians these days.
Internet Zen Master (profile), 22 Nov 2013 @ 5:40pm
Doesn't the Obama Administration realize something?
That "something" being the fact that Tea Party controls the GOP-run House of Congress. Considering that group of nutters (bless their loony hearts) pretty much seems inclined to do the opposite of whatever Obama wants these days just to spite him, and given how the article about Hoyer was written on the 19th, which was 3 days ago, the TPP's chance getting its precious FTA within the next 5 days are getting lower and lower.
Especially when the House has so much better work to do. Like bringing up a bill to repeal the ACA. AGAIN.
Internet Zen Master (profile), 14 Nov 2013 @ 2:05pm
One does not ask Congress to give up its authority over something.
Based on the comments above, sounds like Congress isn't about to take this lying down (or at least not until all the palms have been sufficiently greased).
Internet Zen Master (profile), 13 Nov 2013 @ 12:41pm
Re: Re: Re:
Trust me, I'm trying to do something about it. Problem is I live in Seattle, which is still effectively Obamaville, USA last I checked. Seriously, Seattlites LOVED Obama in 2008. Little bit less outrageous about it in 2012, but they still voted for him like crazy last election.
Just replace every mention of America with China and his song starts to sound disturbingly like a mostly factual warning to travelers about China's health hazards.
More on topic: it sounds like the smog in China has gotten as bad as how people portray the air in late 19th century London. Seriously though, why are they just dancing around the issue instead of, I dunno, dealing with the source of the smog. Shut down the polluting factories! You're a big government China. I know you've got the necessary weight to force those factory owners to change their tu-
...what do you mean, "most of the guilty factories are state-run"?!
Internet Zen Master (profile), 13 Nov 2013 @ 10:46am
Re:
Is that apology for the 2008 vote, the 2012 vote, or both?
And yes, Obama has turned out to be a complete schmuck. Going into the corrupt hellhole located Maryland and Virginia and trying to please everyone made him a complete sucker for the legacy industries (and any other special interest that approached him. At least it feels that way).
Internet Zen Master (profile), 11 Nov 2013 @ 1:25pm
Hmmm...
Given how blunt McCain's known for being sometimes, I wouldn't be surprised if this was spokesman Brian Rogers trying to do damage control where it wasn't needed. After all, what Rogers sees as potentially damning to McCain's career, might be seen by many others as a positive statement and get him more support.
... Actually, scratch that. Considering that there are many slimeball politicians who would twist McCain's words and make it look like he was calling for Obama to resign, doing this double-speak bull crap makes sense, given what goes on in that wackoland that exists inside the Beltway.
Internet Zen Master (profile), 11 Nov 2013 @ 12:14pm
Re:
No one expects the Canadians of foul play. That "Nice, friendly fellow North of the United States" stereotype is the perfect cover for such a malicious operation.
Internet Zen Master (profile), 11 Nov 2013 @ 12:10pm
Something to hide
Given the fact that we've had to pry every single bit of information from the NSA that doesn't come from the Snowden documents and they've been more evasive than a politician in the middle of a sex scandal in telling us anything of substance other than regurgitating their already-debunked talking points. I mean, we really haven't actually been told much about their actions that would make us understand what the agency's doing, let alone why they're doing it (at least, nothing more informative than a condescending, parent-like "because we know what's best for you", or just effectively "because").
Sure, maybe the tech world, the Internet, and at least 53% of Americans polled in that YouGov survey don't really know what's going on inside the NSA. Maybe they are doing things for good, altruistic reasons (even if all current evidence points to the contrary).
However, considering all the negative information we do know, everything pretty much points to the NSA having "something to hide".
Hmm.... that "something to hide" is probably the NSA itself, now that I think about it. They kinda seem content to hide in the background and let the CIA be the public face of the American intelligence community, at least as far as the average ignorant American citizen's knowledge of US spy agencies are concerned.
Internet Zen Master (profile), 11 Nov 2013 @ 11:49am
Considering he's ex-Air Force, this is probably the best we'll get
I get the feeling this the best McCain's going to give us as far as calling for heads on the proverbial chopping block when it the intelligence community is concerned [moot point since Kirk Alexander's going to be retiring from command of the USS Surveillance in a few months anyway].
We have to realize that a significant portion of the jury is still out on whether or not Snowden's a traitor. I've met several individuals with security clearances who considered the man a traitor and are still as pissed as the rest of us when we find out about the NSA's shennanigans. Hypocritical? Yeah, but that's human nature.
And McCain's reasons for calling for Alexander's resignation are just as valid as everyone who wants the dear general gone for his "COLLECT ALL TEH DATA" Constitution-violating policies.
Think of it this way: from McCain's view, the issue here is the intelligence community's sheer incompetence when it comes to protecting sensitive information (among other things), and I have to agree with the Senator when looking at things from the security angle. The interviewer mentions Manning and Cablegate. This was three years ago. The fact that Snowden was able to do all the things he did three years after the last time someone got their hands on the US' dirty secrets shows complete incompetence on the part of the US intel agencies to learn from past mistakes.
I'd be calling for Keith's head on a platter if I were in McCain's shoes for those reasons alone. I mean, if you can't be trusted to keep your own dirty laundry under wraps (legality and whether Congress lets the NSA gett away with it is another issue), then any security measures you helped set up around real, honest to god issues of national security (i.e. military secrets, power grid systems, etc) are immediately seen as potential easy targets by foreign aggressors (it'll most likely be China or North Korea, but who knows in today's world).
In short, McCain's reasons for doing this aren't wrong, they're just not the reasons most of the tech world, or at least the majority of TechDirt commentators, want him to use.
Internet Zen Master (profile), 7 Nov 2013 @ 12:42pm
Yeah, everybody spies... However...
Some countries take the spying way too far. Like the NSA doing, well, everything the Snowden Documents have revealed that the agency's done so far. Or the French's reputation for making industrial espionage practically an unwritten part of their economic policy since back in the Cold War.
Brazil's spying on foreign dilplomats from a decade ago sounds pretty SOP as far as surveillance/spying is concerned, imo, when compared to the absurd "COLLECT ALL TEH DATA!!1!" approach done by the NSA.
Internet Zen Master (profile), 1 Nov 2013 @ 6:55pm
I facepalmed so hard
Damn it China.
Stop trying to outdo North Korea. Don't you want to be a world superpower someday right?
Side Note: I would high-tail it to the nearest recruiting station if they ever made Master Chief style armor the standard combat gear. Hell, I'd settle for some good old ODST gear...
Internet Zen Master (profile), 1 Nov 2013 @ 6:15pm
Re: Chernobyl 2.0 here we come.
This. Manga's still being released on time
Hell, from what I've seen based on my observations on the H-game crowd, the only thing that law did was cause pirates to wait longer before uploading stuff into the wild by about 2 weeks to a month.
All the Japanese government has done is just caused piracy to slightly delay its unofficial release schedule, and that's just on the file-sharing sites.
No idea how it's affected the torrent uploads though...
Internet Zen Master (profile), 16 Oct 2013 @ 11:49am
I disagree
...putting it on AMC's website was probably the mistake. That's not where people look for stuff these days.
If people want to watch a show badly enough, I'd wager that they'd be more than willing to deviate from their usual interweb watering holes in order to visit the network's site to catch the latest episodes of the show.
I actually ended up doing that for CW's Arrow series, and I pay a visit to the CW website every now and again to check up on it.
Sure, streaming it from the CW's site forces you to watch commercials just like with cable. That's a given. However, I actually took the time to compare video quality from the network site against a few streaming sites, and I have to admit that the CW's video quality is much better than (most) of the streaming sites.
Of course, part of the MPAA's[well, cable network really] problem is that they don't aggressively advertise the idea that you can stream (recent) episodes of their current shows on their website. The only cable network that I'm vaguely aware of which actually markets the website successfully is the USA Network. For me, their best ads for the streaming/"visit our website for more stuff about the show" came from Burn Notice, which just ended last month after going for seven amazing seasons and one side-story movie.
The other problem is that once a show goes off the air and into re-runs, Hollywood tend to drop the show from the network website (supposedly to make room for new content, which makes sense). Which is why my younger sibling, who's a growing fan of the old Sci-Fi channel's Eureka, has to searching for streaming sites in order to watch it.
In other words, the problem isn't people don't necessary look for stuff on the network websites, it's that the MPAA et. al. aren't doing enough to get the word out for the Internet side of the equation. It seems reasonable to assume that if Hollywood was more outspoken about the streaming capability for TV shows on the network sites, that number of pirates steaming the latest episode would plummet because folks would have a viable, legal alternative.
Of course, this means that Hollywood would have to finally accept that the Internet isn't just another little gimmick to be scoffed at or smothered because it upsets the status quo. And who knows when they'll figure that out (if at all).
On the post: Newegg Brings Out Whit Diffie, Ron Rivest & Ray Ozzie To Debunk Patent Troll's Claim; Troll Attacks Diffie's Credibility
Re: Re: Did not think that one through...
Zuckerberg? Might be a little easier to sell to the jury (since you can bring up the whole spat between him and those two brothers over who owned Facebook), but the lawyers would still have their work cut out for them.
On the post: Missed Opportunity: Beastie Boys Should Have Supported Viral Parody 'Girls' Song, Rather Than Claiming Infringement
Re:
On the post: As White House Makes Final Push On TPP, Congress Slams On The Brakes
Re:
That said, one should never underestimate the stupidity of politicians these days.
On the post: As White House Makes Final Push On TPP, Congress Slams On The Brakes
Doesn't the Obama Administration realize something?
Especially when the House has so much better work to do. Like bringing up a bill to repeal the ACA. AGAIN.
As the Zen Master says, "We'll see."
On the post: The Most Nefarious Part Of The TPP Proposal: Making Copyright Reform Impossible
Based on the comments above, sounds like Congress isn't about to take this lying down (or at least not until all the palms have been sufficiently greased).
As the Zen Master says, "We'll see."
On the post: TPP IP Chapter Leaked, Confirming It's Worse Than ACTA
Re: Re: Re:
On the post: Chinese CCTV Surveillance Defeated By Chinese Smog
Tom Lehrer had a song for when America was like this back in the 1960s
Just replace every mention of America with China and his song starts to sound disturbingly like a mostly factual warning to travelers about China's health hazards.
More on topic: it sounds like the smog in China has gotten as bad as how people portray the air in late 19th century London. Seriously though, why are they just dancing around the issue instead of, I dunno, dealing with the source of the smog. Shut down the polluting factories! You're a big government China. I know you've got the necessary weight to force those factory owners to change their tu-
...what do you mean, "most of the guilty factories are state-run"?!
On the post: TPP IP Chapter Leaked, Confirming It's Worse Than ACTA
Re:
And yes, Obama has turned out to be a complete schmuck. Going into the corrupt hellhole located Maryland and Virginia and trying to please everyone made him a complete sucker for the legacy industries (and any other special interest that approached him. At least it feels that way).
On the post: Renault Introduces DRM For Cars
A great, affordable electric car!*
On the post: Turns Out Paul Hansmeier's ADA Lawsuits Were Filed Without Knowledge Of The Plaintiffs
What is this, a dictionary?
I mean, first we hear about Alan Cooper, then we meet Allan Mooney (and all its spelling variations). What's next? Allen Waters? Alan Yosef?
It's already been well-established by now, but I'm gonna say it anyway:
Clever, Prenda is most certainly not.
On the post: John McCain Now Pretends He Didn't Say Keith Alexander Should Resign; Gives Nonsensical Explanation
Hmmm...
... Actually, scratch that. Considering that there are many slimeball politicians who would twist McCain's words and make it look like he was calling for Obama to resign, doing this double-speak bull crap makes sense, given what goes on in that wackoland that exists inside the Beltway.
On the post: GCHQ's Response To Hacking Slashdot And LinkedIn: No Comment, But It Was Perfectly Legal
Re:
On the post: Less Than 20% Of Americans Believe That There's Adequate Oversight Of The NSA
Something to hide
Sure, maybe the tech world, the Internet, and at least 53% of Americans polled in that YouGov survey don't really know what's going on inside the NSA. Maybe they are doing things for good, altruistic reasons (even if all current evidence points to the contrary).
However, considering all the negative information we do know, everything pretty much points to the NSA having "something to hide".
Hmm.... that "something to hide" is probably the NSA itself, now that I think about it. They kinda seem content to hide in the background and let the CIA be the public face of the American intelligence community, at least as far as the average ignorant American citizen's knowledge of US spy agencies are concerned.
On the post: John McCain Says That Keith Alexander Should Be Fired... For All The Wrong Reasons
Considering he's ex-Air Force, this is probably the best we'll get
We have to realize that a significant portion of the jury is still out on whether or not Snowden's a traitor. I've met several individuals with security clearances who considered the man a traitor and are still as pissed as the rest of us when we find out about the NSA's shennanigans. Hypocritical? Yeah, but that's human nature.
And McCain's reasons for calling for Alexander's resignation are just as valid as everyone who wants the dear general gone for his "COLLECT ALL TEH DATA" Constitution-violating policies.
Think of it this way: from McCain's view, the issue here is the intelligence community's sheer incompetence when it comes to protecting sensitive information (among other things), and I have to agree with the Senator when looking at things from the security angle. The interviewer mentions Manning and Cablegate. This was three years ago. The fact that Snowden was able to do all the things he did three years after the last time someone got their hands on the US' dirty secrets shows complete incompetence on the part of the US intel agencies to learn from past mistakes.
I'd be calling for Keith's head on a platter if I were in McCain's shoes for those reasons alone. I mean, if you can't be trusted to keep your own dirty laundry under wraps (legality and whether Congress lets the NSA gett away with it is another issue), then any security measures you helped set up around real, honest to god issues of national security (i.e. military secrets, power grid systems, etc) are immediately seen as potential easy targets by foreign aggressors (it'll most likely be China or North Korea, but who knows in today's world).
In short, McCain's reasons for doing this aren't wrong, they're just not the reasons most of the tech world, or at least the majority of TechDirt commentators, want him to use.
On the post: Why Saying 'We Knew This' Or 'Everybody Spies' In Response To NSA Revelations Is Wrong
Yeah, everybody spies... However...
Brazil's spying on foreign dilplomats from a decade ago sounds pretty SOP as far as surveillance/spying is concerned, imo, when compared to the absurd "COLLECT ALL TEH DATA!!1!" approach done by the NSA.
On the post: Aussie Security Research Hacks Music Charts, Puts His Own 'Songs' Up Top
Re:
On the post: Chinese Propaganda: The US Military Is Making Master Chief Armor; Me: Awesome!
Re: Re: I facepalmed so hard
Let me rephrase:
World's LEADING superpower.
Last I checked most of the world still tends to turn to the US first for help when shit hits the fan, not China.
On the post: Chinese Propaganda: The US Military Is Making Master Chief Armor; Me: Awesome!
I facepalmed so hard
Stop trying to outdo North Korea. Don't you want to be a world superpower someday right?
Side Note: I would high-tail it to the nearest recruiting station if they ever made Master Chief style armor the standard combat gear. Hell, I'd settle for some good old ODST gear...
On the post: Japan Likely To Pass New Secrecy Law That Would Put Whistleblowers And Journalists In Jail
Re: Chernobyl 2.0 here we come.
Hell, from what I've seen based on my observations on the H-game crowd, the only thing that law did was cause pirates to wait longer before uploading stuff into the wild by about 2 weeks to a month.
All the Japanese government has done is just caused piracy to slightly delay its unofficial release schedule, and that's just on the file-sharing sites.
No idea how it's affected the torrent uploads though...
On the post: When Will Hollywood Stop Blaming Everyone Else And Help Itself?
I disagree
If people want to watch a show badly enough, I'd wager that they'd be more than willing to deviate from their usual interweb watering holes in order to visit the network's site to catch the latest episodes of the show.
I actually ended up doing that for CW's Arrow series, and I pay a visit to the CW website every now and again to check up on it.
Sure, streaming it from the CW's site forces you to watch commercials just like with cable. That's a given. However, I actually took the time to compare video quality from the network site against a few streaming sites, and I have to admit that the CW's video quality is much better than (most) of the streaming sites.
Of course, part of the MPAA's[well, cable network really] problem is that they don't aggressively advertise the idea that you can stream (recent) episodes of their current shows on their website. The only cable network that I'm vaguely aware of which actually markets the website successfully is the USA Network. For me, their best ads for the streaming/"visit our website for more stuff about the show" came from Burn Notice, which just ended last month after going for seven amazing seasons and one side-story movie.
The other problem is that once a show goes off the air and into re-runs, Hollywood tend to drop the show from the network website (supposedly to make room for new content, which makes sense). Which is why my younger sibling, who's a growing fan of the old Sci-Fi channel's Eureka, has to searching for streaming sites in order to watch it.
In other words, the problem isn't people don't necessary look for stuff on the network websites, it's that the MPAA et. al. aren't doing enough to get the word out for the Internet side of the equation. It seems reasonable to assume that if Hollywood was more outspoken about the streaming capability for TV shows on the network sites, that number of pirates steaming the latest episode would plummet because folks would have a viable, legal alternative.
Of course, this means that Hollywood would have to finally accept that the Internet isn't just another little gimmick to be scoffed at or smothered because it upsets the status quo. And who knows when they'll figure that out (if at all).
As the Zen Master says, "We'll see."
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