Eric Stein 's BestNetTech Comments

Latest Comments (31) comment rss

  • On the post: Security Researchers Find RSA Even More Completely Compromised By The NSA Than Previously Thought

    Eric Stein ( profile ), 31 Mar, 2014 @ 12:05pm

    (gasping sound)

    Wait, the NSA will do the taking, and no compensation will be given. The $10M seems like a drop in the bucket compared to the losses sustained by people and companies unfortunate enough to use RSA products, yet what has the NSA gained for this deadly (the bodies will be found eventually) sabotage to the US economy. If your job is to protect the country and you think that ruining the economy in a necessary step towards that goal, aren't you now the mad-dog agency. Here's another piece: what do you do with tame dogs if you work for US LE?

  • On the post: DailyDirt: Eat Less Red Meat. Cows Rejoice!

    Eric Stein ( profile ), 24 Mar, 2014 @ 08:49am

    Heinlein was Right (or someone else)

    Heinlein (or maybe Theodore Sturgeon or Asimov or someone) said that 90% of science fiction is crap, then again 90% of everything is crap. It turns out that it's true of medical research, and probably everything else. 90% of it is wrong. Just think, once you realize this, you'll only have to do a tenth of the reading you do. This information should be at the head of every article about everything. Someone should make a t-shirt that says "Welcome to the 90%." If i'm debating someone, I can now proudly claim that not only are they wrong, it's likely that I am, too.

    http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/11/lies-damned-lies-and-medical-science/308269/2/

  • On the post: Cops And Schools Collide Again: School Fight Ends With Tased Teen In Medically-Induced Coma

    Eric Stein ( profile ), 27 Nov, 2013 @ 08:10pm

    I am tired of these MF cops in these MF schools

    Welcome to new America, programs. You're either certified to fuck with the people, or you're one of the people, and people no longer has anything to do with "We The". So, bend over, there's an ever expanding class of the certified licking their chops and waiting to drive you to the nearest reeducation center. This randy motherfucker should be prosecuted to the fullest extent, and not just for the crime of being a sheriff's deputy in Texas.

  • On the post: Apple: Closed, Proprietary Systems Are Bad (Unless They're Our Own)

    Eric Stein ( profile ), 29 Apr, 2010 @ 09:53pm

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Partly

    It may be easy to you to throw Brooks' experience, but mine is spread across 193 Macs used by teachers and students, and I could tell which ones had been running flash games because those were the ones I had to re-image every week or two. It's ridiculous to argue that that cross-compiled software is going to offer as high quaility an experience as software developed with tools made for the platform.

    The single greatest selling point, the thing that allows us to call it better, is the user experience. I remember when photoshop was a Mac-only program. Now the Mac version looks like bastardized windows software. This is what Apple is trying to prevent for the iPhone/iPad. If they don't, what makes them worth buying. Without the user experience, what are they beyond just being cool, and if they're just cool, how long does that last?

  • On the post: iPhone Hits Just Keep On Coming For Apple: Sued Over Liquid Damage Sensors

    Eric Stein ( profile ), 22 Apr, 2010 @ 05:53pm

    Re: Happen all the time

    I completely disagree with both this and the msg from the vibration resistant GPS user, except on the point that drop and vibration resistant gear is much more expensive than standard gear. Think for a minute about what in takes to make a phone water resistant and you'll see that phones are not much more difficult than watches to make water resistant, and some of the cheapest from Timex and Casio are good for 200 meters. How much extra should a water/humidity resistant cost? I don't know precisely but it seems like somebody's ignoring a chance to charge a premium. Unless, of course the wireless companies would prefer to charge people for replacement phones with "water" damage.

  • On the post: FCC Scammed Out Of Millions In Telco Scam

    Eric Stein ( profile ), 12 Mar, 2010 @ 09:45am

    Terms of service :: sounds like "scam me"

    It seems to me that the underlying problem is not connecting people who need this service to a free alternative. Who pays $390 an hour for vidchat?

  • On the post: Stop Wallowing And Start Doing Cool Stuff With Business Models, The Wil Wheaton Edition

    Eric Stein ( profile ), 26 Nov, 2009 @ 02:20pm

    Print on demand

    I'd like to tell you about a guy who's been a print on demand guru since the '80s when he had a section on GEnie. Don Lancaster, who also has a lot of useful things to say about patents.

    http://www.tinaja.com/patnt01.asp

    About book on demand
    http://www.tinaja.com/bod01.asp

    I think he'd agree that you can't let the preconceptions of publishing (or any) industry keep you from getting your stuff out there.

  • On the post: New Economics Paper Explains How Shorter Copyright Stimulates More Music

    Eric Stein ( profile ), 16 Nov, 2009 @ 08:41am

    Re: Re: Unfashionably Late

    I forgot to add, most people who understand how movies are made will tell you that the film editor is usually the person most responsible for the quality of the final product.

  • On the post: New Economics Paper Explains How Shorter Copyright Stimulates More Music

    Eric Stein ( profile ), 16 Nov, 2009 @ 08:27am

    And this is where you compound your error. It's as if you have this vision of the commercially successful artist at the white end of the scale and the remixer, editor, interior decorator, plumber at the black. Every artist is building on what came before.

    Elvis stole from the R & B artists. The Beatles stole from Goffin & King. Disney stole from the brothers Grimm. Original thought, true art is a lie we tell ourselves because we can't see that the shoulders we stand on are so broad that we confuse them with the ground. The ones who aren't screaming, the ones who "actually" create have been the most successful at believing this lie.

  • On the post: New Economics Paper Explains How Shorter Copyright Stimulates More Music

    Eric Stein ( profile ), 16 Nov, 2009 @ 03:02am

    Unfashionably Late

    Perhaps the problem with seeing remixing as art comes from a lack of understanding about what is possible in remixing.

    You could compare remixing to film editing. I would consider anyone who thought Walter Murch wasn't an artist an example of a person ignorant of what is possible in film editing, but then, he doesn't write or shoot or act, so I'm sure many people have never even heard of him.

    A remixer can add and subtract elements to a song to the extent that even the artist being remixed might need to be shown the original elements.

    I most like Fran Lebowitz's take on all of this:

    "Original thought is like original sin. It happened before you were born to people you could not have possibly known."

  • On the post: Warner Bros. Shuts Down Harry Potter Themed Dinner For Infringement

    Eric Stein ( profile ), 26 Oct, 2009 @ 03:10pm

    Re: If Warner Brothers had been smart

    One might say that these companies believe that denying choice is not only a fair use of their right, but that it works to enhance their power by framing the exchange in such a manner as to make the person on the receiving end of the notice feel powerless.