Hacker News: goodplay

New comment by goodplay in "How the GDPR Will Disrupt Google and Facebook"

goodplay — Wed, 30 Aug 2017 23:03:27 +0000

Beginning with a partial solution to this problem is better than doing nothing at all. This sad state of affairs has gone on for far too long.

New comment by goodplay in "How the GDPR Will Disrupt Google and Facebook"

goodplay — Wed, 30 Aug 2017 22:59:27 +0000

Wikipedia can be downloaded in its entirety in an easy to use package. For STEM articles, it's better than Britannica (and cheaper too).

New comment by goodplay in "Disabling Intel ME 11 via undocumented mode"

goodplay — Tue, 29 Aug 2017 03:51:33 +0000

Then let owners control whether it's enabled or not (by a hardware switch if necessary). As it currently stands, I can't imagine a benign reason that would drive intel and AMD to lock users out of their machines.

New comment by goodplay in "Firefox Focus – A new private browser for iOS and Android"

goodplay — Sat, 19 Aug 2017 01:40:17 +0000

Mozilla can solve this problem the right way by doing what debian does when it wants to collect statistics: Ask users if they want to donate their information to Mozilla on first run or during the installer.

Recording users' behavior by default with informing the user clearly and giving him the option to opt-out is abhorrent, regardless of the benignity of the reason behind it.

Disclosure: I use firefox, but periodically strip all relevant hidden add-ons and disable all information sending possible.

New comment by goodplay in "FBI pushes private sector to cut ties with Kaspersky"

goodplay — Fri, 18 Aug 2017 01:27:48 +0000

It is, if the one master is less capable than the other.

New comment by goodplay in "California Court Orders Vinod Khosla to Reopen Disputed Beach"

goodplay — Sat, 12 Aug 2017 03:24:47 +0000

Why isn't he thrown in jail, or why isn't the fence bulldozed down? Where I currently live (a somewhat well-off area), bulldozers (and self-entitled assholes) are a common occurrence.

New comment by goodplay in "Ad blocking is under attack"

goodplay — Sat, 12 Aug 2017 02:05:30 +0000

I doubt failing to contact a server would circumvent DRM. Blocking their servers would only make their DRM scheme fail and prevent access to said copyright material.

Using the DMCA to protect company's defective and flawed DRM scheme does not constitute circumvention. As such, I do not believe that DMCA's anti-circumvention laws are relevant.

New comment by goodplay in "Ad blocking is under attack"

goodplay — Sat, 12 Aug 2017 01:55:57 +0000

This has nothing to do with believing that we have right to other people's work without payment. The fundamental issue is that these publishers are allowing public access to their work than expecting to have some control over how it is consumed. Hanging your painting in a public park and then demand that people not wear sunglasses when looking at it, or demanding that onlookers look at it sideways would be absurd. Don't hang your paintings in public parks. Hang it in a private gallery, and make no-sunglasses a term for admission.

Publishers would be better served if they restricted their articles, by demanding payment upfront before serving the article, rather than unreasonably and unrealistically demanding that people consume their content in a certain way. Don't blame your users for your failed business model.

As a side note, Copyright is not the place where this issue should be tackled as no copyright is being infringed (Content is not being redistributed).

New comment by goodplay in "Ad blocking is under attack"

goodplay — Sat, 12 Aug 2017 01:40:35 +0000

>This third party tool is making unauthorized edits to the New York Times' copyrighted material.

It's not a third party tool. It's a tool used by the first party (user) to modify information that was sent to him without effecting the publisher. I don't see how the publisher has any authority over what the user chooses to do with the information he obtained.

> I find it difficult to justify "We changed around your copyrighted work to remove stuff we decided we don't like." If you don't like ads, pay up or go elsewhere.

That's an interesting take on IP rights. By generalizing your argument, would you argue against newspaper snippets because a reader would only collect the article without adjacent ads? (with scissors made by a third-party, no less.)

> You do not have a right to anybody else's IP.

Fair use, Noncopyrightable items, old expired IP, and the public domain are all examples of rights I have to others IP. Rights have been - and I hope will continue to be - balanced between the concerns of IP "owners" and the rest of society to best serve everyone's interests. Tipping the scale in one side's favor like what you advocate here will disrupt that balance.

New comment by goodplay in "Ad blocking is under attack"

goodplay — Fri, 11 Aug 2017 16:53:12 +0000

>1. Can IP be encoded as a way of dodging the DMCA? a: no.

This is false if the IP being enforced is trademark (which I'm not even sure is covered by the DMCA).

New comment by goodplay in "Ad blocking is under attack"

goodplay — Fri, 11 Aug 2017 16:46:22 +0000

Agreed with seeking a legal solution instead of just relying on a techincal one, but if the problem is the string of characters, just hash those instead without hashing the whole host:

[HASH:1AB543.124A3CC4.1AB543]/ads

New comment by goodplay in "Ad blocking is under attack"

goodplay — Fri, 11 Aug 2017 16:39:19 +0000

What does ad-blocking have to do with copyright circumvention or copyright enforcement? The only think on that list is the domain name.
I'm certain that including a name in a list does not fall under copyright (ample precedent that backs it up). In the unlikey (and unfathomable) case that it is protected under copyright, I bet it would fall under fair use.
Trademark law isn't relevant to an entry in a machine database.

New comment by goodplay in "Salesforce fires red team staffers who gave Defcon talk"

goodplay — Fri, 11 Aug 2017 01:48:54 +0000

>DEF CON provides conference WiFi with preauthorized certificates (WPA2), so [if you remove all other known open networks] then [you can have secure and sane WiFi at the conference].
Emphasis mine. Merely "removing" networks from your device does not preclude you from being attacked. Broadcom and all the locked-down devices that aren't iphones or high-end android devices who use them demonstrate this quite nicely.

New comment by goodplay in "Salesforce fires red team staffers who gave Defcon talk"

goodplay — Thu, 10 Aug 2017 12:47:18 +0000

broadcom disagrees.

New comment by goodplay in "China's new “Citizen Scores” will rate every person in the country (2015)"

goodplay — Tue, 08 Aug 2017 04:22:08 +0000

If I learned one thing from these government programs, it's that they'll be gamed, badly.

New comment by goodplay in "The Kremlin Is Suddenly Obsessed with Cryptocurrencies Due to the Magnitsky Act"

goodplay — Mon, 07 Aug 2017 01:26:36 +0000

They could. However, they would risk making the currency worthless if detected.
I expect the only situation in which 51% attacks would be useful is when a party wants to deliberately destroy a currency.

New comment by goodplay in "Waiting for Apache Open Office"

goodplay — Sat, 05 Aug 2017 04:49:41 +0000

I disagree. To most normal users, I expect they perceive libreoffice and openpffice.org to be distinct separate projects. Only techies who have been following openoffice.org would know that one is a fork of the other (and even that distinction is starting to become irreverent as both both projects further diverge in terms of feature sets).
I also think that while LibreOffice is relatively new, it name has already begun to spread among normal users. I think it be very unwise to throw that good reputation away and start over. I also happen to be quite found of their current name, LibreOffice. I think it's classy and easy to remember.

New comment by goodplay in "Bitcoin Exchange Had Too Many Bitcoins"

goodplay — Thu, 03 Aug 2017 03:08:09 +0000

>they're very valuable if and only if you cannot use the protection [..]
I don't think that's entirely fair. They're also valuable to those who want to transfer money without ridiculous fees, excessive bureaucratic friction, and many mandatory middlemen.
What other system would allow you to instantly be able to accept payments without giving an exorbitant portion of your revenue?

New comment by goodplay in "3D metal printing is about to go mainstream"

goodplay — Tue, 01 Aug 2017 03:03:28 +0000

As apposed to casting and cncing one yourself? People can already build guns anonymously if they want (and many do).
People can also use current 3D printers to (mostly) print unconventional guns anonymously. Do these printers also concern you?
Reaction to technology should be with reason, not fear mongering.

New comment by goodplay in "18yo arrested for reporting a bug in the new Budapest e-Ticket system"

goodplay — Mon, 24 Jul 2017 03:16:07 +0000

I remember coming across a serious bug in a site that belonged to a top multi-billion company. My brother also found what essentially an unrestricted privacy leak (and possibly editing access) in a top university (leaked data is sensitive personal information, not academic). Neither of us reported (or exploited) what we found.
Protection from this kind of blame-shifting and misdirected retaliation should be guaranteed by law. Until it is, bugs in critical and important infrastructure will go on unreported, and remain available for malicious actors to exploit.