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User: Duncan+Blackthorne

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Comments · 510

  1. Re:IPv6 will happen when China demands it on IPv6 and the Business-Case Skeptics · · Score: 1

    Someone else said, jokingly, that China should just have one NAT router for the whole country. More seriously, the way China is approaching internet access for the country, they may as well do exactly that so that they can keep on perpetuating their xenophobic, exclusionist way of life. :p

  2. Unclear on the concept, or just an arrogant ass? on Berners-Lee Wants Truth Ratings For Websites · · Score: 0, Flamebait
    This Tim Berners-Lee needs a reality check, one way or the other.

    Who the hell gets to decide what's "truth" and what isn't? I have a word for what he wants to do: CENSORSHIP.

    If on the other hand he's just naive? Get a clue, son. If your critical-thinking skills are so non-existant that you can't judge for yourself, then perhaps you don't deserve "the truth". Either way: there are enough damned "net-nannies" in the world, we don't need any more of them and we sure as HELL don't need anyone trying to impose some half-assed ratings system for web content. I mod Mr. Berners-Less down to "-1,Full_of_Shit".

  3. Re:bandwidth on Google's Floating Datahaven · · Score: 1

    Wouldn't you call that ScubaNET?

  4. Re:Minor correction on Questioning Google's Privacy Reform · · Score: 1

    Gah.. actually I'm completely wrong from the start. My apologies..

  5. Re:Minor correction on Questioning Google's Privacy Reform · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Damnit.. I wish there was a way to edit comments here. That was a typo on my part, and I didn't notice it until I saw 6 people beating me in the head with it. :p

  6. Minor correction on Questioning Google's Privacy Reform · · Score: 1, Informative

    A class C subnet is 253 addresses, not 254. Zero and 255 are, last time I checked, reserved.

  7. Not likely to see the world-wide light of day on China Wants UN To Help Trace Sources On Internet · · Score: 3, Interesting
    It's no surprise at all that China would be driving this process; it just further drives the point home that the Chinese government is oppressive to it's citizens and couldn't care less about the basic human rights of it's citizens. Those people, who wish to just live their lives in peace, have my pity and sympathy.

    While I, as a citizen of the U.S., find it somewhat alarming that a member of the NSA would be involved in the group that is working on this proposal, I admit that's a knee-jerk reaction. Things may have gone pretty far south in this country because of the last eight years or so of administrations, but we haven't had the First Admendment repealed either -- not that some haven't wished for it or tried (reference: G.W. Bush saying the Constitution is "only a piece of paper"). Still having a measure of belief that what the U.S. was originally founded on hasn't been (completely) destroyed, I'll foster the hope that the NSA's involvement in this is more likely largely to keep an eye on what China has brewing -- at best to keep it in check, at worst to at least see what's coming.

    Something that occurred to me while I was reading TFA: Wouldn't IPv6 be an intrinsic part of a traceback technology? We certainly all believe that IPv4 address space is rapidly running out, and that ostensibly IPv6 is going to "save us", and we've all heard that everyone on the planet could be issued an IPv6 address that personally identifies them. After reading TFA, it's more than possible that IPv6 was created in part with traceback in mind. Will this sort of technology be forced down the world's throat by the U.N.? Extremely unlikely. The U.S., for one, (as stated in TFA) would not go along with it, as it does fly in the face of the First Amendment -- although admittedly, the intelligence community, in collusion with American ISPs, already can track and trace individual's activities on the internet (or at least the less adept and less wary users). Technologies like Secure SHell, proxies, and Tor (among others) currently provide layers of protection that, I think, are adequate, and well-known to the more technically-savvy. Aside from the U.S., there are enough countries in the world that will object to this sort of technology and will not stand idly by and watch the rest of the world potentially infringe on the rights of their citizens.

    So far as I'm concerned, China can do whatever they want within their own borders. So far as I'm concerned, things like this will only increase the level of unrest with Chinese citizens and increase the possibility of uprising.

  8. Re:There is absolutely no reason for this... on Apple Declares DRM War On Sneaker Hackers · · Score: 2

    Damn straight. If Trek tried to tell me, "we only sold you a license to ride our bike, we still own it", I'd cut the goddamn thing up into pieces and ship it to their factory, postage due. Same with everything else I own -- you try to tell me I can't do what I like with goods I purchased outright, I'll tell you to shove it up your ass, and never purchase your products again. I don't own any Apple products right now, and when I hear about things like this and things like the restrictions Apple is putting on iPhone app development, it makes me feel like I have NO reason to ever purchase an Apple product, ever.

  9. What? on Apple Declares DRM War On Sneaker Hackers · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Is this some mental-deficient's idiotic idea of a fucking joke? DRM on a goddamn fucking shoe? Are you fucking KIDDING ME??!?

  10. No, no, no! on RIAA and MPAA Developing Domain-Based DRM · · Score: 1

    NO DRM. PERIOD. No matter HOW they dress it up, it's STILL DRM, and it's STILL UNACCEPTABLE, it's still the RIAA looking over everyone's shoulder and putting a leash on purchased content. Them, them, FUCK THEM.

  11. Protection racket on Telco Sues Municipality For Laying Their Own Fiber · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Knowing how most telecoms seem to operate in this country (Comcast, AT&T, Verizon, etc) I seriously doubt they're suing "for the benefit of the community". More likely it's "Aww, you hurt our feelings by leaving us out of the loop, so we're going to send over the firm of Guido, Guido, and Guido, Attorneys at Law, to have a little 'talk' with you about it -- in court". I imagine if that doesn't work, they'll resort to the time-honored methods of burglary, arson, and assault to "get their point across".

    *spits on ground in disgust*

  12. A well-meaning idea, but perhaps flawed on Online Storage With a Twist · · Score: 3, Interesting

    It's a nice idea for a perfect world, but we don't live in a perfect world therefore I see several potential problems. One is that like with Tor, anyone at the end-point could be monkeying with the system. In this case someone could manage to crack the encryption scheme used, and access people's private data. Another problem I see is that if someone is using a service like this to store copyrighted data (mp3's, DVD rips, etc) then, encrypted or not, innocent disk-space-contributors could be implicated in civil or criminal proceedings. Also, some people have bandwidth caps on their internet connections, and even those who don't aren't necessarily going to be happy with our bandwidth being used; I suppose though that if their client software allows bandwidth limiting then it wouldn't be much of a problem. A question I have about this: is there redundancy? What if all or part of a file you're trying to retrieve is on a remote system that's offline?

  13. Re:One test they never run - FRAGMENTATION on Intel's First SSD Blows Doors Off Competition · · Score: 1

    Flash File Systems (FFSs) use a wear-balancing algorithm to spread write-cycles out over the entire available drive, thus minimizing failure of individual blocks that would otherwise turn the drive as a whole into a brick. You specifically do not defragment flash drives because of this; all the defrag process accomplishes is to use up write cycles, because there is no seek delay and no rotational delay, which is what makes a fragmented filesystem slower than one where all the files in it are contiguous.

  14. Re:Sickening on IsoHunt Petitions Canadian Court For Copyright Blessing · · Score: 1

    Do you think it hasn't been tried? Ask Comcast about what happened in New York.

  15. Re:A Bad Doctor on 1,500-Ship Fleet Proposed To Fight Climate Change · · Score: 1

    I fear you are correct. Developing nations don't seem to care much about environmental concerns because they cost money that they don't have, or perhaps more accurately said, aren't willing to spend versus the allure of progress and profit -- and of course, power (in the political sense, that is).

  16. Re:That's what? on 1,500-Ship Fleet Proposed To Fight Climate Change · · Score: 1
    Would it be like, you know, much "easier" and safer to stop using fossile fuel? Even if it would put development backwards "a bit" for the moment?

    That question has never really been about whether it's "easy", it's (in my opinion, mind you!) always been about the Golden Rule: They who have the Gold make the Rules.

  17. Update on Comcast Appeals FCC's Net Neutrality Ruling · · Score: 1

    According to the Glasnost test, for the first time since I've had access to a tool to test for it, Comcast isn't fscking with BitTorrent transfers:

  18. Re:ehh.. on Blu-ray Gone In Five Years, Samsung Claims · · Score: 1

    Nobody cares if they're reusable or not, they care about the bottom-line cost and that's all. Only us technogeeks care about things like that, and we're not who they're marketing to.

  19. Re:external HD's beat them all on Blu-ray Gone In Five Years, Samsung Claims · · Score: 1

    The whole "use HDDs" argument is bogus. Nobody (being defined in this context as a tiny fraction of 1% of the population) does things that way, and you know that. Marketers know it better than anyone which is why they don't do that either.

  20. Comcast can suck it on Comcast Appeals FCC's Net Neutrality Ruling · · Score: 1

    If I didn't think I'd go stir-crazy with no internet and no cable TV, I'd dump Comcast and just have nothing. But it's just not an option, I'm stuck with it. Doesn't mean Comcast shouldn't suck it up and stop being a crybaby about having to play fair with us paying customers.

  21. They may as well let them do the show on Adam Savage Revises Claim of Lawyer-Bullying On RFID Show · · Score: 1

    The net result of all this furor over this subject: Solidly reinforces my initial aversion towards so-called "smart" credit cards/payment devices, to the point where I will never consider using one. If they were smart about it, they'd not only let them do the show, but learn from what they discovered in the process and fix the damned technology!

  22. Re:ehh.. on Blu-ray Gone In Five Years, Samsung Claims · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Not. I seriously can't see a video store renting out USB-anything. Which is cheaper to mass produce, something electronic, or a pressed disc? I recognize that you can get a USB flash drive for less than $10.00US (and less than $5.00US in many cases) but not with the capacity for a high-def feature-length movie. I'd think it more likely that streaming HD over broadband will replace rented media.

  23. Translation: on Blu-ray Gone In Five Years, Samsung Claims · · Score: 1, Funny
    "We reject your (Blu-Ray) reality, and substitute our (HD-DVD) own. Oh, and buy our new OLED televisions, they're really really shiny!"

    Obviously they think that nobody has any critical thinking skills. Gah!

  24. Re:It would read like this: on Don't Share That Law! It's Copyrighted · · Score: 1

    *nodding* yeah, that sounds about right.

  25. Someone else already had a better idea on Coating a Motherboard In Thermal Resin? · · Score: 1

    If you want to do this for cooling purposes, why not immerse the entire system in a non-electrically-conductive coolant?