Posts by Aedile

Re: It's an American tradition

You're lucky. At least the ISP web site told you service wasn't available. There has been horror stories about how someone called the ISP, got told there was service, bought the house and tried to get service only to discover that either all ports were full and they'd have to wait for someone else to drop service or it wasn't actually available.

Re: childish

I realize I'm replying very late but maybe you'll see it. See how each comment is indented? That shows who was replied to. Since my response was indented under codejunky that indicates my response was directed at him not you. As I'm sure you'll agree, codejunky's post does have a number of issues.

Re: Still using Google?

If their robot.txt is declining indexing how is Duck Duck Go indexing them?

Re: Social media "campaign" versus legal challenge

You're right the main problem with arbitration is that it's virtually always biased for whomever pays the bill. If the payer picks an arbiter and they don't find in the payers interest enough times the payer will select a new arbiter until they find one that does. This drive arbiters that are fair/biased against the payer out of business creating a uneven playing field. This is exactly why every company loves binding arbitration because they are typically the payers. The only way I see to avoid this is to have both sides equally pick/fund an arbitrator so if the arbitrator favors 1 side too often they'll lose half their funding.

Re: Bias...

I partially agree with you. I live in the middle of nowhere now and I'd love even 15Mbps, low latency and no data caps. However, the reason I don't agree completely is that the bulk of the cost for new lines is the trenching/labor/permits not the cost of the cable itself. So if you're already creating a trench then why would you want to install an inferior solution instead of a marginally more expensive and vastly better one?

Re: Pai is still damaging society

I want you to explain how "everyone will win" if ISPs can charge for a "fast lane". I ask this because you routinely rant about how evil Facebook and Google are. If you allow ISPs to charge for a fast lane guess who will be able to easily pay for that? Google and Facebook. Guess who won't. Every other start up that may be better. I also assume you think that the additional profits the ISPs will collect from these fees will be spent on improving their networks. Again you are clearly insane since they have no incentive to do so because they have zero competition. I am completely confused by your claim "it then becomes a matter of choice, as to what brand you want" since in the majority of the US people have 1 or 2 ISPs offering over 25 Mbps. This point is also why your analogy about Chevy and Cadillac fails. People can't get a Cadillac because they aren't offered in the same area where Chevys are sold.

Re: The internet luminaries could simply submit an RFC for a signature/validation protocol

How would this system cope with fair use like parody or snippets used for reviews?

Re: Why oh why...

No one disagrees that Congress should pass a law regarding NN. The issue is that Congress is either

1. Stuck in an us vs them mindset. Republicans can't/don't care that their constituents also want neutrality rules and are fixated solely on opposing the Democrats.

2. Thoroughly bought by the big ISPs and will write a bad loop hole filled law. (See Marsha Blackburn's BS "Net Neutrality" law)

As such everyone is leery of letting Congress try to fix it.

Re: Actually, it seems they ARE onto something...

Theism is the belief in a god/gods. (burden of proof)

Atheism is the lack of belief either for or against a god/gods. (default position - no burden of proof)

Anti-Theist is the belief there is no god/gods. (burden of proof)

Think of it this way. I either have an even or odd number of blades of grass in my yard. Logically one of the two options must be true. However, you can either believe I have an even number or an odd number (Theist and Anti-Theist) or you can say I don't know because there's insufficient evidence either way (atheist).

Re: Follow the money

Because it's off topic and your post is just shameless whataboutism. We are discussing Pai and his dismantaling of NN. If Google, Facebook, et al are an issue then that is something else that can be discussed later. Their sins (if any) do not excuse what Pai is doing so why bring them up? For more about whataboutism watch John Olivers segment about it.

Re: Careful what you wish for.

I dislike discussing this topic as an analogy but:

You go to ship a package 1st class with the Royal Mail. First class stamps are advertised as 1 Euro and are delivered by plane.

First they charge you a flat 1 Euro first class shipping fee and then tack on 2 Euros of hidden below the line fees bringing your actual total to 3 Euros.

Next they look at the destination. If you are shipping to some place popular like Google or Amazon they charge an additional popularity fee.

Then they see if your destination has paid the first class delivery fee. If they haven't they will pick your package up from your home with a plane and deliver it to their local hub. From your local hub to your destination's they'll ship it by foot.

See the issues?

First they advertised a low rate while hiding a bunch of fees which greatly inflate the cost.

Then they want to charge you more based on who you are shipping to not based on distance, weight or speed.

Finally, despite paying for 1st class service, you STILL can't actually get that speed unless your destination has also paid their post AND yours.

Re: @Aedile - Fully exposed?

I like the ad hominem attack opening. Very classy.

I'm actually suprised you actually mention illusory superiority (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illusory_superiority) and then prove that example.

Your arguement is flawed since you assume that someone's skill and attention is "strong" for one of the "games". As you mentioned repeated studies have proven people suck at that judgement. Would your arguement still be valid if people were far (45%+) less skilled and more distracted then they believe they are?

You are also making the assumption that the driver/player's skill will always improve their odds. However, ham fisted attempts could make it worse and actually decrease the odds of success.

Finally, is the 1/1000 before or after your skill is added? If that is the odds after your skill then I'd still take random chance because it is still my best bet for success.

Re: Skepticism

Seriously? You don't know why more people don't want more nuclear? Maybe it has to do with the radioactive nuclear waste that sticks around for a really long time? Maybe it has to do with safety and the risk of a melt down?

Re: Nazis love diversity

Maybe this fear of becoming a minority should tell you something about the way minorities are currently treated? Maybe we should fix that?

Re: Ultra-rare, rarer-than-rare ... or not quite common-as-muck?

I figured they used 0.13 billion years instead of 130 million to have consistant units when they said the inner core was 5.5 billion years old.

Re: economically beneficial uses?

To get an idea of their mindset; these are the same people who think SOPA would have been great.

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20160822/11124435306/think-tank-that-first-proposed-sopa-now-claims-proof-that-sopa-would-have-been-great.shtml

Re: AT&T hasn't even tried

That's pretty rich, considering AT&T is responsible for many of the woes Google is experiencing.

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20160314/09374733901/isps-are-blocking-google-fibers-access-to-utility-poles-california.shtml

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20160226/05123233718/att-sues-to-keep-google-fiber-competition-out-louisville.shtml

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20160226/11285433724/att-buying-missouri-state-law-ensuring-broadband-there-continues-to-suck.shtml

KeePass can sorta fill them in web pages for you. If you've saved a sites URL you can right click an entry and pick open URL in: and pick a browser option. Then you can right click the entry again and select auto type. This will automatically fill in your user name and password automatically. Obviously it lacks the convenience LastPass provides since you have to fire up KeePass prior to going to the web site.

The lawsuit centers on the question of "is a referb the equivalent to new"?

Almost any site you buy from offers referb items at a discount. This means that businesses either believe referbs are inferior or at least that customers perceive them that way and so must sell them at a discount. Apple even sells their referbs at a discount. If they are "good as new" why sell them at a discount? Why even tell people they are referb if they'll never be able to tell the difference? This is why the people suing have a case.

Now that is a literal read of the T&C. The spirit of what the T&C meant obviously is that you can receive a referb. Of course, it is hard to feel sorry for businesses who will take a contract literally when it is in their best interest.

Re: former Google staff occupy key posts in areas essential to Google’s

I agree with your assessment. It is obvious he dislikes Google, fair use, and net neutrality. He is certainly entitled to his opinion but it almost seems like all his articles should be filed under an op-ed section. At this point I can read an article title and with a 99% accuracy predict if he is the author or not.

Re: El Reg just lost the Google game...

He did do a great job highlighting why I don't use Bing. I like my results to actually be about what I searched for.

Re: Others?

That's probably only because Apple won't even allow others to build an OSX/iOS phone or they would also force these rules on other companies.

Re: Arrows go in quivers, bows have extra strings

Actually a key logger may be ineffective in swiping passwords from KeePass. In the program you can select auto-type. No actual typing occurs so if a key logger is watching for key presses it will get nothing. Another option is copying the password to the clip board and then pasting it onto the site. The program wipes the clip board after something like 10 seconds so it can't be copied later. This also should defeat key loggers.

I keep my KeePass files on a usb stick which is only attached to my computer when logging in. Would this exploit be able to still get the info?

Re: Maybe they need to be taken to court for false advertising?

There is a reason why all plans say "up to"; it provides them a legal loophole. If a company really wanted to establish itself as caring about what the customer received they could publish a "never less than".

Re: Yes Google is making an entire copy of the book.

Quote from Ars: "The third factor is Google's mountain to climb: the amount of the copyrighted work that's used. Google scanned the entire book. But that didn't kill its argument. Courts have rejected any "categorical rule" that a whole copy can't be a fair use."

As such you are incorrect saying at that point Google broke the law and it should have been the end of the issue. It is also why the court considered all four factors of fair use when making their ruling.

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/10/appeals-court-rules-that-google-book-scanning-is-fair-use/

Re: This is about censorship by cowards and thieves

I get the point of the law and it isn't just about people who committed crimes. Let's imagine there was an article about that one stupid frat who hung bed sheets asking people to drop off their daughters that named a couple of frat members. 4-5 years later those people have graduated and are looking for jobs. If you search for their names they probably would prefer that the first result not be them hanging those sheets. The assumption is they grew up during their time in college and should not continued to be haunted by that one stupid event. On the other hand I can also see how if I was hiring I may want to know that this guy had demonstrated misogyny and extreme stupidity at least once and I may want to keep an eye on him. The balancing of those two views is the tricky part. For myself I don't think the EUs solution is the right balance and so I typically oppose it.

Technically Correct

This is the first time I think that being technically correct is not the best kind of correct I've encountered.

Technically they are correct as long as they don't say unlimited at the advertised rate. If I offer you 10GB at 1GB per second and infinite after 10GB but at 56KBps you can still download an infinite amount after those 10 seconds have elapsed just very very slowly.