Author/activist/journalist. Kickstarting THE LOST CAUSE (https://t.co/5Dot2HNBz3); touring THE INTERNET CON (https://t.co/ehGzIa2BWd).
Oct 7, 2018 • 15 tweets • 4 min read
I used to write POs for >$1MM worth of Apple equipment/year and spent hundreds of hours dealing with their service centers. The argument that allowing total monopolization of the repair process "maintains system integrity" isn't supported by the actual service experience.
It should not surprise anyone that a company that arrogates the right to sue competing service centers and thus need not fear any competition does not perform as though its customers might choose to take their business elsewhere.
Sep 17, 2018 • 21 tweets • 4 min read
This is now a daily occurrence. Wake up, discover which lie Crispin has been told and repeated in public, all the while dodging the substance of the critique of his organisation's support for mass internet surveillance and censorship.
Who can forget the day he said that my (bestselling) first novel was a failure, and that my publisher thereafter rejected me? (All my novels are bestsellers, and my publisher just bought another one from me).
Sep 14, 2018 • 11 tweets • 2 min read
Giving creators more copyright powers to combat exploitation by monopolistic corporations is like giving your kid more cash to compensate for having his lunch money stolen by schoolyard bullies. They'll take that too.
Give creators 100 years of copyright, and corporations will require that it be assigned to them for the full duration as a condition of publication.
Sep 14, 2018 • 12 tweets • 2 min read
You mean, that thing I've been saying all along is true? That large corporations routinely commit copyfraud, that they act with impunity, and there there are no real remedies? And that once we create automated filters these corporations can use to claim our work, it'll be worse?
Or that you found a blog by someone whose understanding of my position on copyright is just as flawed and cartoonish as yours?
Sep 12, 2018 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Dude. They literally just voted down "freedom of panorama" (the right to take pix in public spaces without getting clearance for every t-shirt, billboard and architectural facade) and voted in mandatory filters that will block anything that appears to match a copyrighted work.
The day this goes into effect will be the last day that independent photogs can operate. Without a rights-clearance house behind you, you won't be able to post any street-scenes: riots, parades, stock, police brutality, etc to any platform.
Sep 12, 2018 • 19 tweets • 4 min read
In case you're wondering: the #EU just voted to impose filters on all the text, audio, photos, videos, etc you might post. If you think this will help photographers or other creators, you don't understand filters.
First of all: pirates laugh at filters. The most sophisticated image filters in the world - those used for state censorship in China - are trivial to evade citizenlab.ca/2018/08/cant-p… Anyone whose occupation is beating filters will beat filters.
Aug 16, 2018 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Your daily reminder that James Clapper isn't your friend: he's a guy who lied and lied and lied about mass surveillance, including to Congress, including to the Congressional committee he specifically answered to (that is to say, perjured himself).
And he used his ongoing security-cleared status to amass a private-sector fortune as a military/intelligence contractor, a role he propped up with regular appearances on TV where his access to classified data was an implicit source of credibility for him.
Jul 27, 2018 • 19 tweets • 4 min read
Science fiction sucks at predicting the future, but it sure is good at predicting the present (c.f. @greatdismal): that is, the stuff that seems plausible in science fiction at any given moment is a good source of insight into what's on our collective minds.
Lots of people have noted that the fear of AIs taking over the world (especially when evinced by the super-rich) is really just a tell that capitalism has spawned transhuman, immortal colony lifeforms that use humans for gut flora (AKA corporations, AKA "slow AIs").
Jul 25, 2018 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
Here's a little-appreciated fact about podcast feeds: they're just RSS feeds with "enclosures," where the "enclosure" is a http link to any MP3, anywhere on the internet.
That means you can create podcast feeds of literally any publicly downloadable MP3 in the world. I do this all the time: when I appear on someone else's podcast, I push that MP3 out in my own feed.
Apr 29, 2018 • 16 tweets • 3 min read
There's an interesting parallel between the record industry's experience with file-sharing services and the GOP's experience with public sector unions.
Back in 1999, there was Napster, and it had a CEO, and venture capital, and a business plan. Napster's pitch to the labels was "Just tell us how many zeroes to put on the end of the check to get legit, we just polled our users and they'll pay $15/month"
Apr 2, 2018 • 8 tweets • 2 min read
If you want to understand the incompleteness of "If you're not paying for the product, you're the product," just go to the movies. We spent $75 on four tickets yesterday and had to watch 35 minutes of ads.
It's much more accurate to say, "In markets that have been cornered by huge, uncompetitive business, you will be treated as an ambulatory wallet to be harvested, regardless of how much you pay.
Dec 6, 2017 • 18 tweets • 3 min read
Here's the thing about the "foreign interference" narrative that bugs me: it seems undeniable that Russian state elements (and quasi-state elements like "patriotic hackers") interfered in the 2016 election
It's also a matter of undisputed historic record that the USA has been doing this for decades (often with consequences that were worse than Trump - imposing Pinochet on Chile; deposing an elected Iranian leader and giving rise to the Ayatollah)
Nov 25, 2017 • 20 tweets • 4 min read
All right folks, let's talk about zero rating, provisioning, network management, #NetNeutrality and the convenient myth of the "bandwidth hog"
To understand anything, you must first understand that there is no such thing as a private company that builds telcoms infrastructure with its own money. Every telcoms company is the recipient of massive public subsidies.
Sep 23, 2017 • 7 tweets • 1 min read
Had an eye-opening talk with a bank teller yesterday whose nephews went into the business; they (juniors) were under constant pressure...
...to convince friends/family to open accounts to meet quotas. So bad they ended up pressuring vulnerable/elderly relatives into...
