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Comment Anybody can write code. Employable people can DOC (Score 1) 309

I read your list of achievements. Very nice.

In the next few projects focus on
- planning the programming before you do it, so you can explain your design decisions
and the inevitable tradeoffs to prevent people who come after you from trying to "fix"
what isn't broken.
- documenting what you did do so anyone can support your code

If you are fond of saying any of these:
- "Anyone who can read code can see what it does"
- "the obvious doesn't need documenting"
- "there were no tradeoffs"
- one day I will rewrite this to be better ...this would help you understand why you're unemployable.

University education is a good first step to something something complete.
Being a freshman is not a bonus nor a hindrance. Experience with github,
software RCS etc are all good. The keys are making choices before coding,
knowing and being able to explain those choices, and documenting them for
others to take the burdens of support off your inventive shoulders.

E

Comment Settlement-free peering and transit (Score 5, Insightful) 227

These concepts were part of the commercial Internet circa the early 1990s
and were part of the reason CIX was so successful. Then PAIX then others.

In time, Internet exchanges were themselves bogged down and companies
did private peering. Those who connected to like-quantity produders of
content did so for free (settlement-free peering). Those who were unequal
paid for transiting the network (paid transit).

That hasn't changed in 32 years. All that's changed is the up and down of
who provides more traffic where. The dominant player in each interconnection
point ALWAYS demanded transit, and often did so with the "wherever our
two networks meet" even if elsewhere it was not the dominant player.

Comcast could be made to behave, but Netflix blinked and paid them money.
Now others will as well.

This CAN BE FIXED BY REGULATION but not the kind people are thinking
of. No, not net neutrality. Rather the elimination of the cable-company
monopolies on entire swaths of subscribers. Eliminate the government-granted
access to rights-of-way, towers, utility poles, and infrastructure. Let them not
have a "sole franchise" but rather be one of many competing in the market.

Remove Comcast and their ilk from their high post as the monopolistic "owner"
of all these households by fiat, and having to compete to keep them, and instead
of throttling their peerings to make Netflix users (THEIR OWN CUSTOMERS)
suffer... they'll get peering with netflix.

More government regulation doesn't solve a market-driven problem. Removing the
government regulation harming free competition is the key.

E

Comment "invest their holdings" (Score -1) 119

To "invest" is to put money where value is.

Bitcoin is a concept. It has no value. People can trade, arbitrage, wield, barter, or exchange for it.
It still has no value.

Best fortune to all those making money with Bitcoin. For every one of you someone has lost
an almost equal amount. (originally mined bitcoins loss value 0 but it grows exponentially).

And as for the holdback bitcoins created and untouched -- that's why bitcoin will NEVER be a currency.
"Oh we invented this so we kept some for ourselves." Yeah, do that. And doom the coin.

E

Comment Re:No she did not win any lawsuit. (Score 1) 642

LOL. No, it's not sensible and it goes against dozens of years of legal precedent.
It will be overtuned.

Actors do not have rights to the final work unless they were contractually given it,
none of which ever are.

While in some eutopia it would be great if revenge porn could be stopped, that's
an outlier case.

Imagine if you went to Paris and took a video of yourself at the EIffel Tower, but
some random Parisian who happened to be in the background got your video taken
down. That's not eutopian -- that's distopian.
Best,

E

Comment No she did not win any lawsuit. (Score 1) 642

No. She didn't win a lawsuit. All she "won" was an unconstitutional prior restraint against Youtube (google)
forcing them to remove the segment of the movie she's in.

The actual Kozinski ruling suggests that actors HAVE a copyright in the final work despite decades
of copyright law to the contrary.

Google has appealed. This will be decided back the way it should be (that actors don't magically get
copyright laws).

The case -- in case you want to read the facts instead of making them up -- is Garcia v Google.

E

Comment Re:Ruling good. STORY WRONG. (Score 1) 158

I beg to differ.

Please provide a source cite to a statute that indicates the act of "downloading" (feel free to
massage as appropriate; I am not splitting hairs) is unlawful.

As for the lawyer cited, he isn't a very good lawyer: "Fighting a subpoena that attempts to reveal your identity is a waste of money because you will reveal your identity by fighting it."
Lawyers that give advice on the Internet are not creme de la creme. Lawyers that give incorrect advice less so.

E

Comment Ruling good. STORY WRONG. (Score 4, Insightful) 158

The ruling is good. Let's enjoy that.

However, this is a HORRIBLE writeup. It suggests that "...IP-address evidence can't identify the person who actually downloaded the pirated file."

Under current US law:
1. There is no copyright infringement in downloading a file.
2. Files are. They just are. They are not "pirated files."
3. MAKING INFRINGING CONTENT AVAILABLE TO OTHERS is what is considered copyright infringement/distribution. THAT is why an IP address is important... if one SHARES and MAKES AVAILABLE A FILE. It takes a court to determine whether the actions constitute an actionable behavior.

I can't believe Torrentfreak got it wrong. At least they got the headline right. And this is a good ruling.
Hopefully fightcopyrighttrolls.com and dietrolldie.com won't make that mistake.

Comment Re:Let's NOT tell that to the families (Score 1) 461

No, it would not transmit more than the flight data recorders. Those things store everything.
If there's something they don't store, it's added so they do.

To maintain a bitstream of sufficient width and density to share what the FDRs do for an
entire flight is beyond our available satellite uplink capacity even if cost were no factor.
Which it is.

At the end of all this the expenditure would save zero lives. It would prevent zero crashes.
It would just make investigations go quicker.

E

Comment Dear families of passengers on Flight MH370: (Score 1) 461

It would be nice to know where the plane is and why. However, crashes happen so infrequently
that spending billions of dollars and not preventing a single one -- merely accelerating the speed
at which we get the "black box" data is not worth it.

Everyone involved including the airline industry has decided that it's not worth the expense
to spend $100,000 per airplane as well as untold costs to maintain that, and pass the costs
onto your relatives.

Tell that the the families of passengers on Flight MH370.

I just did.

E

Comment Awesome... so long as they don't need Tech Support (Score -1, Troll) 48

"Hello, thank you for calling ISRO tek-nee-kull support, this is Jim, how may I help you?"

"Jim, this is the capsule! We are stuck here! Help!"

"Yes, this is Jim from tek-nee-kull support. I am happy to help you today. I will need to ask you some questions first. Is it okay if I ask you questions?"

"We're running out of oxygen! The lift-off failed! We can't open the door!"

"Yes, I understand you are running out of oxygen. Is it okay if I ask you questions?"

"Yes, ask, ask! We're dying here!!!"

"Yes, thank you for allowing me to ask you questions. I will be glad to provide you service today. First I need to ask, what is your name?" ...

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