tom 's BestNetTech Comments

Latest Comments (374)

• On the post: Two Senators Sold A Bunch Of Stock After Being Briefed About COVID-19; While Telling The World Things Were Going To Be Fine

  

  tom ( profile ), 20 Mar, 2020 @ 10:22am

  Bet there are a lot of Congress critters and staffers doing CYA on this. Doubt that these few outed so far are the last. Now that blood is in the water, the press will have a field day. Normal 'these are our guys/gals' rules are probably gone as many of the press have watched their own retirement/investment accounts lose a lot of value. They are not going to be in a mode to ignore 'their guy' avoiding losses or worse, profiting on the info obtained in those briefings.

  That this is a few months/weeks before filing for office season is a bonus.

• On the post: Privacy & Encryption Will Be More Important Than Ever In Wake Of Coronavirus

  

  tom ( profile ), 19 Mar, 2020 @ 05:28pm

  Because sunset clauses have worked so well to contain government spending.

  Also funny that many of the same Congress critters who where so eager to pillory government officials of present and past administrations for using unencrypted communication methods are now worried that folks might use encrypted comms.

• On the post: Volunteers 3D-Print Unobtainable $11,000 Valve For $1 To Keep Covid-19 Patients Alive; Original Manufacturer Threatens To Sue

  

  tom ( profile ), 17 Mar, 2020 @ 03:58pm

  While the original poster seems rather against profiting from patents, seems likely there was some reason why hospitals were paying $11,000 for replacement valves in the first place. Possible it really is worth that much more vs whatever system that it replaced.

  That said, IP laws are an artificial construct setup by governments for economic reasons. Should be no reason why there can't be some kind of Emergency Declaration Override of patent/copyright protections where the needs of the country in crisis outweigh the economic benefits/needs of the IP owner.

  If nothing else, just declare that the parts can be freely copied and the bills will be settled by any remaining survivors.

• On the post: Coronavirus Telecommuting To Further Highlight Shoddy US Telecom Market

  

  tom ( profile ), 13 Mar, 2020 @ 08:56am

  It isn't just the end user service that will be a problem. That corporate gig fiber connection will probably slow to a crawl when several hundred employees try to connect via VPN. And this assumes the company had the forethought to purchase and configure a device capable of handling that many VPN connections at once.

  A lot of VPN gizmos have license fees based on allowable connections. If only 10% of your employees are in the field at any one time, why pay for more VPN slots? This problem will likely only be discovered when some poor IT slob still at work has to track down why so many folks can't connect. Of course, the accounting folks needed to process the PO for the license increase will all be home unable to connect....

  There will likely be a short term market opportunity for disaster preparedness planning once this virus thing passes.

• On the post: Arrests R Us: Six-Year-Old Cuffed And Tossed Into A Cop Car For 'Throwing A Tantrum' At School

  

  tom ( profile ), 13 Mar, 2020 @ 08:36am

  Guess I am an outcast in this crowd. I saw the video of this 'arrest'. There was no violence during the process. Just the kid crying as she was hand cuffed with the ties and put in the car. Could be the first time she has faced consequences for misbehaving. If so, that is the real crime.

  Something so few that object to this have mentioned is from the source articles, the kid in question threw a tantrum and HIT a teacher. Why no outrage over an out of control kid being allowed to terrorize a class room with screaming and violence? If this kid had hit YOUR kid, would you be as outraged over the school and officer's responses? Probably not, based on the responses of parents whose kids are bullied, threatened, and assaulted in class.

• On the post: You Don't Own What You Buy Episode 9,000: Philips' Light Bulbs Lose Functionality

  

  tom ( profile ), 12 Mar, 2020 @ 08:28am

  At least in this case, it appears that it is only the Bridge gizmo being declared EOL. Looks like the actual devices like bulbs and such will work with the Bridge 2+. Better result than how a lot of these IOT things turn out.

  But this should still stand as yet another warning about IOT things that require a 3rd party C&C server or software in order to operate the various gizmos in your house.

• On the post: Japan Approves New Law To Make Manga Piracy A Criminal Offense

  

  tom ( profile ), 12 Mar, 2020 @ 08:18am

  Much laughter will ensue when CEOs of Manga production companies start facing criminal charges over copyright theft when some low level deadline pressured under paid artist downloads "inspiring" manga from another publisher in order to make their production deadlines setup during the last employee evaluation.

• On the post: Well Then: Activision Issues DMCA Subpoena To Have Reddit Unmask Whoever Posted That CoD Image Leak

  

  tom ( profile ), 24 Feb, 2020 @ 05:50am

  Wonder if it is job evaluation time for the lawyers involved and they are doing this so they can claim to 'Have done something Useful' in the past evaluation period? Doesn't matter if it makes sense as long as it fills some all important check boxes in the job evaluation process.

• On the post: GAO Says TSA Has No Idea If Its Screeners Are Up To Date On Their Training

  

  tom ( profile ), 20 Feb, 2020 @ 07:24am

  Maybe the news here is that TSA is supposed to have training?

• On the post: College Student Gets Thrown On The Ground And A Gun Pointed At His Head For Committing The Crime Of 'Taking A Selfie While Black'

  

  tom ( profile ), 20 Feb, 2020 @ 07:21am

  Since this happened a year ago:
  Have any lawsuits been filed?
  If so, any bets on how long before 'Qualified Immunity' gets claimed?

• On the post: US Antitrust Enforcement Clearly Broken As Court Rubber Stamps T-Mobile Merger

  

  tom ( profile ), 11 Feb, 2020 @ 02:52pm

  Re: Lobbying in the 21st century.

  He is a 1999 Clinton Appointee to replace Sonia Sotomayor who was moving to a somewhat higher court. Went to Senior Judge status 2010.

• On the post: Clearview Looking To Expand Its Market To Problematic Countries Known For Human Rights Abuses

  

  tom ( profile ), 11 Feb, 2020 @ 10:04am

  How is this copying of copyrighted pictures without explicit permission for profit not a lawsuit generating activity? Apply the $50,000 per picture that the RIAA likes to apply for a song and pretty soon you will be talking real money.

• On the post: US Broadband Gaps Are Twice As Bad As The Government Claims

  

  tom ( profile ), 11 Feb, 2020 @ 10:01am

  Looked my address up. All of the options listed as available were either satellite or not really available except for the 12mb DSL service via the rural phone company.

  If running electricity and basic phone service to most of the US locations had been done with the efficiency of the broadband rollout, probably half of the primary food production in the US would still be lit by kerosene lamps and have primary messaging via postal mail or hand delivered telegrams.

• On the post: The End Of Ownership: Tesla Software Updates Giveth… And Tesla Software Updates Taketh Away…

  

  tom ( profile ), 11 Feb, 2020 @ 09:45am

  Possible this crosses the line into theft. Not much different then a service dept removing a working AC compressor during a tune up because the current owner didn't specifically pay for the AC option when they bought the car used. Start filing theft charges against Tesla the company and specifically the person(s) that approved the feature removing update after the company audit and stuff like this will likely stop. It is one thing to have to activate lawyer banks 1-4 to defend against lawsuits from unhappy customers, it is entirely more attention getting when LEO's show up with arrest warrants and haul folks away.

• On the post: Smaller Cable Companies Are Giving Up On Cable TV Altogether

  

  tom ( profile ), 04 Feb, 2020 @ 07:53am

  When analog TV died several years back, all cable TV became a version of encrypted digital data streaming with no data caps. By killing what is called cable TV, the providers can now impose data caps and overage fees for basically the same service while simplifying their billing and maintenance procedures.

• On the post: As Trump Prepares Ban On Huawei, Few Notice The Major Holes In The Underlying Logic

  

  tom ( profile ), 30 Jan, 2020 @ 03:56am

  Hard to get very worried about Huawei gear when hardly a day goes by with yet another IOT data leak/pawn story and on line privacy is a joke due to constant tracking and data aggregation.

  Plus as a bonus example of US stupidity on device security, the latest FAA drone tracking security idea is to mandate the connection of all drones to the Internet with their ID and location being sent to a central FAA site. What can go wrong when millions of cheaply made drones with crap software are forced to be constantly online?

• On the post: Verizon's 5G Superbowl Ads Will Hype Nonexistent Firefighter Tech And A Barely Available Network

  

  tom ( profile ), 30 Jan, 2020 @ 03:47am

  This ad or one very similar was ran during last Sunday's NFL Pro Bowl. It did have small text with something like "Simulated Image, not available today, etc."

  Pretty bad when your Superbowl ad is a re-run about a fantasy product.

• On the post: The 'Race To 5G' Is A Giant Pile Of Lobbyist Nonsense

  

  tom ( profile ), 27 Jan, 2020 @ 07:45am

  Got some laughs during the Verizon 5G ads in the NFL Pro Bowl. If you just watched the ads, they made it sound like 5G was now and doing all of the wonderful stuff the screen was displaying. If you read the small and I mean small print that kept saying "Not available now, simulated image, etc.", you figured out that 5G is still a fantasy product.

• On the post: California Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez Says She Simply Doesn't Believe All Of Those Who Have Been Harmed By Her AB5 Bill

  

  tom ( profile ), 13 Jan, 2020 @ 04:49pm

  Wonder if the job of California Assemblywoman could be considered a freelance position? They aren't hired in the traditional sense of applying for a position. They are selected from a list of one or more volunteers on a public ballot and show up and start doing stuff.

• On the post: Immunity Just Barely Denied To Cop Who Claimed Driving A Beat-Up Car And Paying For Purchases Is Suspicious Behavior

  

  tom ( profile ), 13 Jan, 2020 @ 04:39pm

  Pretty sure writing a book is suspicious behavior. You might tell someone how to do something or about something illegal.

Next >>