What, Elon Musk is a hypocrite? Who knew? You may recall that last year, after directly promising that he’d leave up the ElonJet account, which reveals public information regarding the flights of Elon Musk’s private plane, he changed his mind and banned it, along with any reporter who even mentioned the existence of the account […]
Eager to maintain a lucrative repair monopoly over its products, Apple has had a long history of bullying independent repair shops. Apple lobbyists have also falsely claimed that making its products easier and less expensive to repair would result in vast untold consumer privacy and security nightmares, turning states that consider “right to reform” legislation […]
I’m certainly not the first person to make this point, but the only thing that’s really going to prevent truly bullshit copyright infringement lawsuits from being filed in the first place is when bad actors get hit in the pocketbook. One of the most common ways that actually occurs is through courts ordering plaintiffs in […]
One thing that the old Twitter was pretty good for was getting help on customer service problems. Rather than having to call customer service lines and wait on hold for hours on end only to be given the run around, many people found that complaining on Twitter was a lot faster and more helpful (likely, […]
One can only assume the Marion, Kansas police department felt this would never be this big. Overconfidence is a killer, as the MPD can surely attest, albeit after the fact. The raid of the Marion County Record is now international news, thanks in large part to the flagrant First Amendment violations. Then there’s the fact […]
Election season is approaching, so I fully expect this nonsense to come right back again, but maybe with a court shutting it down, culture war nonsense peddlers can move on to some other nonsense? The background: in the runup to the 2022 U.S. elections, a prominent Republican “digital marketing” (read: political spam) shop noticed that […]
Familiar with both front- and back-end development, full-stack developers know the programming process from top to bottom, making them tremendously valuable (and highly paid) pros in their field. Jump into this full-stack primer, and you’ll learn how to build your own programming projects from start to finish. You’ll get up to speed with core tools, […]
For years, the UK government has sought to expand its surveillance powers. And, for years, it has rarely been prevented from doing so. Sure, there’s been a bunch of bureaucratic inactivity and unforced errors (like Brexit) that make it a bit more difficult to push legislation through, but the UK government’s thirst for more power […]
Countless companies and industries enjoy making up scary stories when it comes to justifying their opposition to making it easier to repair your own tech. Apple claims that empowering consumers and bolstering independent repair shops will turn states into “hacker meccas.” The car industry insists that making it easier and cheaper to repair modern cars […]
It’s been a while since this last happened, but we’ve got a double-winning comment this week, taking the first place spot on both the funny and insightful leaderboards. And it’s an anonymous comment too, responding to Elon Musk’s plans to add ID-based verification to Twitter: I have complete confidence that the man notorious for not […]
Five Years Ago This week in 2018, after years of fighting, Prenda boss Paul Hansmeier followed the path of John Steele and pleaded guilty to mail fraud, wire fraud, and conspiracy to commit money laundering. The DOJ was trying to force Facebook to break encryption on voice calls, the EU was moving forward with legislation […]
It’s always nice when you get several stories in a row that contrast with one another in order to make a point. We were just discussing Rockstar’s decision to scoop up a roleplaying and modding community in order to build in new and interesting ways to play GTA and Red Dead Redemption games. What I […]
Back in 2015 domain registrar Tucows announced it would hope to modestly kickstart stagnant broadband competition by buying a small Virginia ISP by the name of Blue Ridge InternetWorks (BRI). Operating under the Ting brand name, the company said the goal was to bring a “shockingly human experience and fair, honest pricing” to a broken broadband market […]
As you’ll recall, Montana passed a law earlier this year to ban TikTok (and ban mobile app stores from offering TikTok for download). The bill has lots of problems, not the least of which was that Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen flat out told the NY Times that the purpose of the bill was to […]
In 2014, the Supreme Court made it clear: phone searches require warrants. While it did note the case involved a search “incident to an arrest,” the precedent was undeniable. If a phone search attached to an arrest requires a warrant, it would logically follow that any phone search by law enforcement — even those not […]
MagStack is the perfect on-the-go wireless charging station that also transforms into a floating stand for smartphone FaceTime or video playback while charging. This 3-in-1 foldable design enables charging for up to 3 devices simultaneously, including iPhone, Apple Watch, AirPods Pro, AirPods with Wireless Charging Case, other Qi-compatible Android phones, and Bluetooth earbuds. With its […]
There is no space for nuanced discussion about reality any more, as it seems that nonsense floods the zone. So, please try to follow along here as there needs to be some nuance to finally get down to the details of this issue. It’s nonsense, piled on top of nonsense, piled on top of nonsense, […]
We’ve noted repeatedly how the hyperventilation about TikTok privacy is largely just a distraction from the U.S.’ ongoing failure to pass even a basic privacy law or meaningfully regulate data brokers. We haven’t done those things for two reasons. One, the dysfunctional status quo (where companies mindlessly over-collect data and fail to secure it, resulting […]
Earlier this summer, we talked about Trader Joe’s joining the list of large companies combatting unionization efforts through the most petty of methods: complaining about those unions over “trademark infringement.” Trader Joe’s isn’t the first company to go down this route of course, as we’ve seen Walmart and Medieval Times have behaved similarly. Nor will […]
This case involves both civil forfeiture and criminal forfeiture. First one, then the other. Not that the order matters as much as the government’s unwillingness to do much more than sit on the $30,000 in cash they took from an Ohio couple during a supposed drug investigation. Civil forfeiture allows the government to keep seized […]
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