Posts by Charles 9

Re: Festering swamp rats!

"Well SCOTUS got it wrong, there is no need to change the constitution, it's only the interpretation that is wrong."

You forget the concept of judicial precedent. SCOTUS goes back to previous decisions to base more modern decisions. Plus the courts are usually conservative. Therefore, if tradition states that political speech should be protected for good or ill, the only way around it is to BREAK tradition, and if the courts represent tradition, it's up to the other two branches to break it (and by the Constitution, that usually falls to Congress by way of the Amendment process).

"And while some would argue that limiting contributions infringes on their free speech, it can also be argued that allowing unlimited contributions impinges on the free speech of those without the means to buy politicians."

But it's the politicians who can determine (by Bills and Acts) what is what. Vicious cycle. As for buying politicians, whatever happened to marches on Washington like in the 60's?

"Despite the second amendment, you can't go out and buy your own nukes, surface to air missiles etc."

Actually, the ONLY thing stopping you is the price tag, for the most part. People can and do own TANKS (maybe not the munitions, but that's another matter). And I do believe it is possible to acquire a Stinger (a man-portable SAM) after-market for five figures.

Re: If the Internet is not telecommunications...

Got it in one.

Re: Festering swamp rats!

You forget most campaign donations are already INDIRECT and virtually impossible to pin down to any one candidate. If a campaign ads talks of nothing but issues, there's no legal way to pin the "donation" to anyone. Plus there's the non-cash donations and donations to parties and sympathizers. They've been playing the shell games for centuries and at the end can hide behind the First Amendment freedom of speech, which SCOTUS has repeatedly ruled that political speech has a particular emphasis (thus why campaign calls are immune from Do Not Call and why flag burning is protected).

The problem is intractable. You can't remove the bullhorns without running afoul of the Constitution. The only practical solution will throw up specters of the S-word and take us back to the Red Scare (in a country founded on DIStrust of government but also aware of things like the Gilded Age and The Jungle). It would also require an Amendment.

Re: Self-aggrandizement Central

Only one problem. 33 seats are at stake in 2018. Only 8 are held by Republicans. 25 are held by Democrats. The risk surface for them is MUCH higher for the Democrats.

As for the potential Supreme Court vacancies, most of the retiring seats are conservatives. Kennedy's already making noises about stepping down. Odds are they'll all retire during the current Congress to ensure conservative replacements.

Re: Optional

Google already has a private network. Thing is, they have to connect to the Internet SOMEWHERE, and that's where the ISPs will nail them (and some of them like AT&T and Sprint are Tier 1 networks that form the backbone of the Internet—practically unavoidable).

Re: @chuckufarley -- But these people aren't stupid

REAL real businesses don't compromise. They CONQUER.

"I would also suggest that removing net neutrality is against the very people Trump is supposed to be working for and that can't be argued by anyone. The establishment he is supposed to be working against will make great gains from being allowed to control the internet and charge extra money for preferential treatment."

Except you forget there are TWO establishments: the old guard and the new guard. And at this point, battle lines are drawn between them. The old guard represent the likes of Comcast, Time Warner, and Verizon: the old communications providers. On the other end you have the likes of Google, Netflix, and Amazon who work "over the top" of the communication providers. Since both sides are striving for the same thing (control over the flow of information), a "war" over it is inevitable, and the divide is pretty stark. The old guard don't want to be relegated to dumb pipes, and the new guard don't want to have to pay tolls on every junction.

Re: Actually...

As I understand it, Xposed has never been able to reliably block SafetyNet because it uses an external and secured connection (similar to a timing attack used to detect being in a VM--there's no real way to stop this). Only Google or the app maker knows the private key.

Re: Google to drop security fixes for old version of Android

A slim budget and a need to stay stock due to root-aware apps.

Re: Actually...

But how do you deal with increasing numbers of root-aware apps?

Re: The phone I want

You'll be chasing moonbeams, then, because HSPA and LTE were both made with mobile data in mind, and that means smartphones (because what else would a feature phone use with high-speed data; it has no apps, and the carriers would be pressuring the phone makers not to include tethering capabilities; Apple and Google are the only two companies strong enough to push back). As others have said, mobile hotspots have themselves been targeted, so you're screwed no matter what. Basically, if you don't want to be targeted, get off the Internet. That's your only real option now.

Re: pre loaded

Pi's tend to struggle a bit at high-def, and I don't think they can do HEVC-encoded videos. I DID plunk down for an Android box once. Claims to be quad-core and all that, but it seems to chug a lot and the interface is rather clunky (that said, I only sank $25 into it, so I'm not out that much).

Re: Cruise control

Actually, 3 dimensions makes the situation WORSE because now trouble can come from BELOW you as well. An additional two directions to move ALSO means two additional directions things can MOVE AT YOU. In other, more degrees of freedom = more degrees of Murphy.

An aircraft DOES have to accurate track a flight path without landmarks because another aircraft can be above, below, OR besides you (this is real-life stuff, which is why Air Traffic Control is so important).

Autopilot DOESN'T HELP in the event of exigencies, such as turbulence (distressingly common, take it from a frequent flier) or incursions (another bloody idiot pilot getting in YOUR way). And what happens with a sudden catastrophic failure? At least with the car it just comes to a halt and you can get out (in a hurry if need be). Coming to a halt is not ideal when you're a thousand feet in the air in an airframe nigh-inpossible to build for a dead-stick glide.

Re: If US buggers up the net what happens to the rest of the world?

USED TO run well. Now with all the data it carries? Think how long it took to download a 650MB ISO over dialup. Now raise it about a hundred times.

They use bandwidth to mirror the newsgroups, though.

Re: Here we go again

4 million in a country with over 350 million people. Can you say "drop in a bucket"? Constituents mean nothing to them since even if they were to vote, the pliable plebs would simply outvote them. For those 4 million people to matter, they would have to have serious business weight behind them with something far stronger than a strong desire to have ISPs regulated. Unless they can threaten a mass defection of business (and jobs, tax revenues, and so on) to Canada or whatever, they're not going to really pay attention.

Not only that, cities can have another handicap: age. I can name two HUGE cities that both have some difficulties wiring up: New York and London. Why? Both are OLD cities full of built-up (and built-DOWN) infrastructure. Anything you want to build in those cities has to get around all that existing stuff first.

Re: Ug

Just because you don't know them doesn't mean they don't hate you. And part of the art of voting is convincing people to agree with you. If your stand doesn't have the proverbial leg to stand on, it is you who needs to re-evaluate your stance, even if it IS the right one to you (which is relative; that's why you can never win an argument with an irrational person). If you're the one hen in a house full of foxes, perhaps the best option is to bail the hen house.

Re: Well...

Because Canada's Internet access still stinks for the most part, especially if you go away from the densest parts to the south. Just go there and listen to all the complaints about the likes of Rogers.

"So would any Americans who support this view explain why Europe with its 'excessive and burdomsome' regulation has better internet connections and more competition over providers than you?"

Simple: they're SMALLER. When it comes to networks, geography matters because of the infrastructure costs, and it's worth nothing that the only countries LARGER than the US have WORSE Internet access.

Re: Ug

But that just puts you in the UNHAPPY medium where EVERYONE ELSE hates (and out votes you).

"This is the same state that's so nanny they don't let you pump your own gas."

What about New Jersey? Aren't they Full Service by law as well?

Re: Casey Jones (1863–1900)

With all things, there's a long story behind this.

The whole business goes back to Latin. In this case, ingenium, from which we get the modern English word "genius", which both makes a good synonym and applies to a person with said mental acuity.

We basically have two origins for the word "engineer", both valid but both different. One is the "design" engineer, where the definition comes from the application of genius in designs (in these days of a practical nature). The other comes from the operating of the machines we call engines (the word uses the root word in a different way—engine as in "a work of genius").

So they can both apply, so they really need to be qualified for clarification.

Re: The future...

Then the traders will go back to the old method: bribery, as far up as needed.

Re: Well, we'll look for the house with no numbers.

It probably hides itself as a child process of something else running or finds a way to completely conceal itself so it doesn't appear at all.

What I'm wondering is if the next step is to use a memory-only malware to leapfrog past files and go straight to firmware so that it can make itself nuke-resistant if not nuke-proof.

Re: The Ruling Class

Ah, but China has shown a way to deal with VPNs. Just restrict ALL encrypted traffic that can't be decoded by the State. And if your system is able to parse other formats, you can also put a pinch on steganography. Control the points of ingress and egress, and you can prevent "conspirator" routers from helping as well.

Unlike with Prohibition, the borders CAN be patrolled pretty effectively if the State really got around to it.

Re: Police state

That wasn't a novel. It was a short story called, "The Pedestrian." The man was taking a walk outside when everyone else was home watching TV. An automated police car happened upon him, questioned him, and demanded he climb inside to be taken for psychiatric evaluation.

Re: There's another way to deal with Royalty

The problem with pitchforks and flaming torches is what if you're countered with the likes of tanks? Think of the Chinese solution to uprisings.

Re: Democracy for the majority

"Maybe instead, when they ask for prawns to be banned, the techies should just say "No." Don't try to reason, just stonewall."

But the problem with recalcitrance is that, eventually, people go, "Sod this!" and go around you. Even a coast-to-coast stonewall can be bypassed by sea. The risk of stonewalling is that they simply ignore you and you get no input in the final solution.

Hollywood has access to the cinemas, and cinemas are Hollywood's #1 revenue stream, which is why they get first cracks at movies. Plus they're torrent-resistant. The porn industry doesn't have something resembling that kind of revenue stream.

Re: Age verification

Most of them aren't considered valid for online shopping and will be rejected. The credit card companies know which are which and don't want to get caught up in money laundering investigations.

Re: Hardly surprising

"The worst form of government except for all the others."

Doesn't prevent democracy from being insufficient in and of itself, though.

Re: Analogue TV

Interesting story that. It was around the same time that Multichannel TV Sound (MTS) was added to the NTSC standard, achieving the same feat in the States and other NTSC-using countries.

"I don't suppose the set manufacturers were happy about that. The new business model is much better."

They couldn't use today's model yesterday because televisions were much more expensive relatively speaking, even for mid-range products and were seen more as longer-term investments into keep up with the world, since back then there weren't that many channels to choose from and stuff like cable television was in its infancy. We're talking the days when "Cable-Ready Remote Control Color TV" was a selling point.