Disqus - Latest Comments for Adam_Marcus

Re: Freedom Sunday Deserves to Be Remembered - Foundation for Economic Education - Working for a free and prosperous world

Adam Marcus — Fri, 08 Dec 2017 00:32:33 -0000

I was 12 when this happened and I don't think it was ever taught to me. Not in school and, surprisingly, not in Hebrew School. But this is an especially important lesson to remember today, as more and more people in this country, from the top on down, are trying to close our borders to foreigners in just as dire (if not more dire) situations, and who are just as deserving of our hospitality.

Re: The Right to Try, 3D Printing, the Costs of Technological Control & the Future of the FDA

Adam Marcus — Mon, 10 Aug 2015 10:47:17 -0000

Thanks for the shout-out Adam. I suspect the insurance industry is also closely following the "right to try" movement.

For example, what happens if someone is unhappy with the prosthetic provided by their insurance company, 3D prints a replacement, and then that replacement leads to further injury? Should their health insurance pay for the increased medical expenses that result from what could be considered a self-inflicted injury?

Health insurance contracts sometimes explicitly exclude coverage for injuries sustained while participating in extreme sports like skydiving and there is already supplemental insurance available for these extreme sport athletes. But as actuaries get better at calculating the costs of different treatment options (both sanctioned and unsanctioned), the question of whether health insurance will cover certain costs may move from a binary question (you're covered or you're not) to a question of degree, just as states have shifted from absolute liability to comparative negligence in tort law (https://en.wikipedia.org/wi....

I don't have answers to any of these questions, but I completely agree that individuals should be free to experiment.

Re: Review: Pebble Time

Adam Marcus — Wed, 27 May 2015 14:25:36 -0000

This sounds like an Apple-funded hit job! OK, we get it. The $200 Pebble Time isn't as nice-looking as the $350+ Apple Watch. How about you do an apples-to-apples comparison and compare the Pebble Time Steel and the Apple Watch? Or when you finished complaining (rightly so) that the Pebble Time doesn't work too well with iOS, you then compare Pebble Time paired to an Android phone to the Apple Watch paired with an iPhone. Or better yet, since I've been wearing the original Pebble since I backed it on Kickstarter and am anxiously awaiting my Pebble Time Steel, a comparison between the two versions of the Pebble OS.

I want the unbiased and helpful reviews that Wired is known for. But I didn't want this.

Re: https://b7ne77alkeh3496in6pkg53temd2mja2-a-sites-opensocial.googleusercontent.com/gadgets/ifr?url=http://hosting.gmodules.com/ig/gadgets/file/105726654954270975870/disqus.xml&container=enterprise&v...

Adam Marcus — Sun, 15 Mar 2015 21:24:09 -0000

This little tool was exactly what I needed. Thank you! But it was a bit of a pain figuring out how to use it effectively via a batch file. The problem is that the DOS/Windows batch interpreter wants to do its own thing with spaces, quotes, and percent symbols. The page at http://www.robvanderwoude.c... goes a long way to solving this, although the following worked for me on Windows 8.1: You don't need to worry about escaping greater than or less than symbols in the search/replace strings if you enclose the string(s) in quotes. But when doing that, you need to use double quotes when you want to use a quote /within/ the string. Cheers!

Re: How the refrigerator got its hum

Adam Marcus — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 12:56:28 -0000

There was a TED Talk in 2007 ( http://www.ted.com/talks/ad... ) about a compact absorption refridgerator for developing countries. They were working on a <$50 device that was powered by nothing more than 30 minutes of being perched over a campfire and could then keep medicines or other small items cold for up to 24 hours. It sounds awesome, but there's nothing on the Interwebs about it after the TED Talk. Hmm!?!?

Re: Leaked Schwarzenegger v. EMA Press Release

Adam Marcus — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 17:24:22 -0000

FTC Commissioner Edith Ramirez just mentioned Angry Birds in her keynote at CFP 2011 (http://www.cfp.org/2011/wik.... Maybe I really was on to something w/ this post.

Re: 3D Printing: The Future is Here

Adam Marcus — Sat, 11 Jun 2011 18:26:53 -0000

Wow. The price for your own 3D printer just went down to $475. http://www.indiegogo.com/eM...

Re: Unlocked Bootloaders, Increased Smartphone Openness & Zittrainian Generativity

Adam Marcus — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 10:16:03 -0000

Google's recently-introduced movie rental service for Android phones is intentionally blocked on rooted phones. See http://www.google.com/suppo.... It makes some sense that Google would do this to protect these copyrighted works and could have been a condition of the studios licensing them to Google. But it also means that people with rooted phones that would be happy to rent movies using Google's new service and would never attempt to hack their phones to turn their "rented" movies into permanent copies may be *more* likely to pirate a movie from elsewhere. The urge for content is often stronger than the urge to follow the law. Still, the choice between an unlocked phone and a phone that can rent movies is not much different than the choice between an unlocked phone and a "curated" phone that is less likely to get malware. The openness debate is about whether consumers have a choice, not necessarily what choice they make. This latest move by Google doesn't change whether consumers have the choice to unlock their phones and I kind of doubt it will affect their decision whether to root or not.

Re: Video of <em>Next Digital Decade</em> & TechFreedom Launch Event Now Available

Adam Marcus — Wed, 09 Feb 2011 11:52:38 -0000

Hi SpilledMilk. I'm not sure what you're asking. These videos are hosted at Archive.org and are licensed under a Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal license, meaning they're dedicated to the public domain and you're free to do whatever you want with them. You can find more details at http://www.archive.org/sear...

Re: The Free Press / Public Knowledge Stylebook for Public Debate

Adam Marcus — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 14:32:00 -0000

A few others:

"bandwidth” – The manna that the Internet magically supplies to every broadband-connected household. Corporations (see “behemoth”) exploit people (see “the people”) by bottling up bandwidth and selling it to the highest bidder.

“broadband” – Like a receding horizon, “broadband” always refers to an Internet connection faster than what is currently available in any particular location. That way, you can always complain that connections are too slow to be considered “true” broadband.

"slow lane" - As the late Sen. Stevens made clear, the Internet is a series of tubes (see http://www.publicknowledge..... Corporations (see "behemoth") are hell-bent on forcing "the people" (see "the people") to use slow tubes while they build faster tubes for their partners. Cover your ears and hum if anyone ever tries to point out that fiber-optic connections can only operate at one speed--the speed of light--and slowing down Internet traffic is not that easy.

Re: “Jailbreaking” Won’t Land You In Jail

Adam Marcus — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 11:15:11 -0000

Two interesting follow-ups:

1. Mike Masnick at TechDirt points to a new iPhone app that provides an open apps market using just HTML - http://techdirt.com/blog/wi...

2. Massachusetts seems close to passing a "right to repair" law for automobiles that would force manufacturers to provide the same "diagnostic, service and repair information" to independent mechanics that they currently provide to dealerships - http://www.thetruthaboutcar...

Re: ATM skimmers: man, these things are scary

Adam Marcus — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 12:15:47 -0000

I just found one stuck on a Bank of America ATM outside of a souvenir shop in Washington DC. I wouldn't have noticed anything wrong except there was a lot of resistance when inserting my card. I looked closely, thought maybe it was a skimmer (cuz I read this article) and so I pulled on the corner of the thing. It came off! Here's a pic: http://tweetphoto.com/11808849

Re: Mobile Micropayments: Forcing Me to Reconsider the Conventional Wisdom

Adam Marcus — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 13:04:32 -0000

In response to Berin's question about how much revenue micro-payments can generate, Reuters had a story yesterday (http://www.reuters.com/arti... about one small independent iPhone app developer having revenue approaching $1 million/month.

In response to his second point about the type of content (pure information versus creative content), I think it's a very interesting question and one that is surely related to copyright. In the U.S., pure information is not protected by copyright, but I believe the European Union's Database Directive provides some protection. But if you think about it, copyright protection may not have that much of an influence. For although the facts in news stories are not protected by copyright, the "arrangement" of those facts and the exact text of the articles is protected. This prevents newspapers from copying entire articles without modification. But there are categories of "pure information": sports scores, weather, road conditions, flight arrival times. I suspect there are mobile phone apps for all of these areas. Berin is right that even if this information is available via your mobile web browser, you may be willing to pay for a custom app that makes the information more easily accessible. In that case, the payment isn't really for the content but for the interface.

This may be another way to define micropayments: Should the "unit of measure" be the application or the piece of information. Both models have been tried: Giving the information away to those who pay for the app, or giving the app away and charging for the information. Personally, I think people prefer a subscription model, where they know how much they will be billed each month and they know that they can use a service to a near-unlimited degree. I think this is the antithesis of micro-payments. But when you compare the subscription numbers to online music services of this type (e.g. Rhapsody) with the number of iTunes purchases, it would seem I'm wrong. Maybe it's just a matter of educating the market.

Re: Son of COPA?: H.R. 4059, “The Online Age Verification and Child Safety Act”

Adam Marcus — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 15:53:45 -0000

This bill has some serious drafting errors. The bill defines an “operator” as anyone who “provides products or services online” whose sale is limited by applicable law to persons over the age of 18 or with regard to alcohol, over the age of 21.” It’s primary focus is on operators of pornographic websites, but the bill defines a “pornographic web site” as any *PERSON* who produces “visual depictions” of “actual sexually explicit conduct.”

What is clear is that this bill assumes that the online sale of products and services which are restricted to those over the age of 18 is something only handled by big businesses. But what about the thousands of small businesses and individuals legally selling age-restricted products (e.g. fireworks, tobacco, alcohol, knives, etc.) through the Internet? Section 103(b) doesn’t just apply to people who run their own websites and doesn’t just apply to pornography—it can apply to *anything* that states put an age restriction on. This section prohibits financial institutions from processing transactions for “Internet sales” (a term not defined in the bill) unless the “operator” submits a certification claiming that they’re in compliance with this new law. This might even been seen as applying to one person sending a friend some money via PayPal because the friend paid for a round of beers the previous evening.

So the real take-away is simply that there will be one more form that people need to fill out and sign when opening any sort of bank account that can handle online payments. This will likely do nothing to restrict minors from buying age-restricted products via the Internet, but it may impose a burden on small business owners and individuals. And as Adam explains in this post, even if people want to fully comply with the law, this bill gives no guidance as to how they’re supposed to verify the identity of buyers. Maybe that’s because the experts agree that there *is* no good way to verify one’s identity online. As the saying goes, on the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog.

Re: Privacy Solutions (Part 3): Internet Explorer Privacy Features

Adam Marcus — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 09:39:46 -0000

Thanks for the correction Adrian. I've updated the post.

Re: Nuts & Bolts: A User’s Guide to ISP Network Management

Adam Marcus — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 15:16:11 -0000

I think DiffServ is a great idea, but wasn't really designed to be used by end-users. And my understanding is that there really aren't any mechanisms in place to deal with packet prioritization across networks owned by different companies. But Bandwidth Brokers (http://en.wikipedia.org/wik... may provide a solution for both end-users and inter-ISP networks.

Re: Nuts & Bolts: A User’s Guide to ISP Network Management

Adam Marcus — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 13:26:20 -0000

Tim: You may not want Cox deciding which of your packets are high priority, but you may very well want Cox deciding that *your* VoIP packets (which are time-sensitive) should be prioritized over your *neighbor's* BitTorrent packets (which aren't as time-sensitive). There's nothing to stop BitTorrent users from encrypting their headers to evade detection (which would result in BitTorrent being prioritized). But if everyone (or, more accurately, every application) demanded prioritization, then prioritization is meaningless. Similarly, if every vehicles on the roads had sirens and flashing lights, then police, fire, and EMS vehicles would have *slower* response times. But that kind of prioritization is something that most everyone agrees is a good thing.

A better solution to the network management issue may be for application developers themselves to decide whether their application needs to be prioritized and indicate such in the packet headers, but to my knowledge there isn't a network management system in use that would allow for that. There is also the concern that if application developers could do this with no consequences, then every application developer would do so and we'd be no better than if we didn't have network management.

Re: The Right Way to Allow Cell Phone Jammers – And the FCC’s Way

Adam Marcus — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 01:30:26 -0000

The other obvious use mentioned in the patent is to remotely disable the recording functions of portable digital devices. Movie studios would love the ability to easily prevent people from recording films shown in theaters and "a locker room patron may feel justifiably ill-at-ease upon seeing other locker room patrons making use of camera phones or digital cameras."

Re: 5 Digital Technologies That Improved My Life in 2008

Adam Marcus — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 13:02:33 -0000

The CoinStar machines used to spit out actual plastic gift cards, but the last time I used one it just printed a paper receipt with a special code on it. That was for Amazon. I don't know if it does the same for Starbucks.

Re: 5 Digital Technologies That Improved My Life in 2008

Adam Marcus — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 11:22:12 -0000

My top 5:

1. AutoHotKey - This is a simple yet powerful macro scripting program for Windows. I created a simple one-line script (MButton::Media_Play_Pause) so that whenever I click the scroll wheel button on my mouse (which I never used), it instead is interpreted as the pause button on multimedia keyboards (which is already understood by most media applications). Since I already have my hand on the mouse most of the time, it allows me to pause my music near-instantly whenever someone comes into my office or the phone rings. And when I'm browsing the Web and come across a page with audio or video, I can pause my background music while I listen to what's on the page, and then un-pause the background music when its done. There's lots more that AutoHotKey can do, but I just compiled my little "MouseMiddleButtonMediaPause" script into a 200kb executable that runs automatically when Windows starts and I don't think any more about it. The truly excellent tools are the ones you forget about. Other than the icon in the system tray, you'd think that was always what the scroll wheel button was for.

2. Digsby - This is an integrated IM and social networking client that supports AIM, Yahoo, Google Talk, MSN Messenger, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and MySpace. It also alerts me when I get new email on my Gmail account so I don't have to constantly check it manually.

3. Motorola MOTOROKR S9 Bluetooth stereo headphones - I've been using my phone (see below for more on the phone) as my mobile music player, and the addition of these headphones makes the experience that much more enjoyable. I don't have to worry about snagging the cord or breaking the jack on my phone, and I can also adjust the volume and skip and pause tracks without having to get my phone out of my pocket.

4. HTC Apache (AKA Sprint PPC-6700 and Verizon VX-6700) - With the addition of some third party software, this phone is an amazingly useful device. It's my portable media player, email client, calendar, notepad, camera, flashlight, portable flash drive, and more. Here are just two especially noteworthy examples of what I've used it for in the past year.

Updated a website - For a while I worked at a place that really locked down its computers. I received an urgent email with a website update I needed to make ASAP, and at first I thought I'd have to run home over my lunch break to do it. But then I realized what I could do with my phone. I downloaded the update (sent as an email attachment) to the phone, used a FTP client for the phone to download the webpage I needed to update, connected the phone to my office computer using an application that makes the phone appear as a flash memory device, moved the text from the saved email attachment into the downloaded webpage in Notepad on the office computer, transferred the updated file back to the phone, and then FTPed it to the website straight from the phone. I could have done everything on the phone itself, but it was just a bit easier to use the full-size keyboard and full-resolution screen of my work computer.

Got directions - One time I went to get a Zipcar I had reserved but it wasn't there. I called the company to find that because of the Marine Corps Marathon, the car had been parked a few blocks away. They gave me the address, and using Google Maps I figured out how to get to the car. When I don't have an adddress already, I often use Microsoft Live Search to get it. Microsoft Live Search will also map the results.

5. Coinstar - I hate pocket change. When I get change, it goes in my pocket (or in a compartment in my messenger bag) and there it sits until I get home, at which time I dump it all into a small jar on my nightstand. When the jar starts to get full, I just take it to a grocery store that a Coinstar machine. In 10 minutes, I have an empty jar and a voucher for the online merchant of my choice. Counting and rolling change is a complete waste of time that I'd happily pay to have someone else do for me. Coinstar is happy to charge you a fee if you want to turn your coins into cash, but the service is completely free if you opt instead for the voucher. And who can't find a use for a voucher to Amazon.com?

Re: NebuAd Lawsuit

Adam Marcus — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 14:01:36 -0000

Matthew,

I agree that most ISP ToSes eliminate any expectations of privacy on the part of users (though I'm not saying I agree with those practices). If "disclosure" can only be disclosure to a human being, then electronic eavesdropping laws (both Federal and state) that focus on disclosure instead of interception are exactly what I'm suggesting. Similarly, I think there needs to be a distinction between "third parties" that are corporations with human employees and "third parties" that are simply machines.

When I dial a phone number, there are lots of machines that "know" what number I've dialed--they need to know this to be able to connect me to the person I'm trying to call. But it's a different matter when that number is disclosed to a person.

If ISPs wanted to, they could write ToSes that clearly explain that communications will not be disclosed to humans unless necessary to investigate problems with the service, and even then the disclosures will be only to the extent necessary and no disclosed information will be used for other purposes. E.g. if a phone technician needs to listen to a line to confirm that it's working, and they happen to listen in on a guy having a steamy conversation with his girlfriend, the technician should not have the right to record the conversation and share it with others just because he initially had the right to momentarily listen to the conversation. This is similar to the notion of someone exceeding the explicit or implicit security level they've been granted on a computer system. Just because you *can* access certain areas of a computer system, doesn't mean that you're *supposed* to access those areas, and doing so could be a violation of computer crime laws.

Re: NebuAd Lawsuit

Adam Marcus — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 14:12:40 -0000

There needs to be a distinction between a computer monitoring someone's communications and a human monitoring someone's communications. With NebuAd's system, it's a computer doing the monitoring. And the logged information, even if read by a human, probably wouldn't be that useful. (I’m assuming that the categories used are fairly broad, e.g. "interested in cars"). Actual law enforcement monitoring systems (e.g. ECHELON) are designed to alert their human operators when any suspicious activity is noticed (based on the same sorts of triggers that 4th-party ad networks like NebuAd and Phorm use) and then allow those operators to monitor all of a user's activity. Although it takes some getting used to and some trust, I think people will eventually come to accept computer monitoring, but they should be rightly suspicious of human monitoring.

The history of surveillance cameras informs what’s happening with deep packet inspection. When first introduced, people railed against surveillance cameras. But when the only footage the public saw from those cameras was of actual crimes taking place and/or the faces of the perpetrators of those crimes in an attempt to locate them and bring them to justice, people became less suspicious of the cameras and began to see them as beneficial. Although there have been instances of security personnel using surveillance cameras to ogle women, we've stopped consciously noticing the cameras and worrying about what they're recording.

With time, what has happened with security cameras will happen with DPI. But what will be interesting is what will happen when the information gathered from DPI can be used without disclosure to humans. Right now, DPI data is used to serve up ads. Soon (if not already) it will be used to serve up custom coupons. But what will people think if, when they apply for a job, in additional to a financial credit check, the employer does a ‘Internet surfing history’ check. The result could be just a numerical score of the "wholesomeness" of their Internet surfing habits, so that no actual data is disclosed, but if a low score looses them the job, the damage is still done. Would this be a privacy violation if their ISP's terms of service clearly stated that this type of monitoring could be done?

Current privacy laws focus primarily on the collection of data. Maybe the focus should instead be on how that data is used and disclosed to humans.

--Adam

Re: DTV Transition Humor

Adam Marcus — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 09:32:16 -0000

This isn't too far from the truth. The FCC messaging isn't making it clear enough at the outset that if you have cable or satellite TV, you have nothing to worry about. In the case of the elderly, many retirement communities have cable service included in the unit maintenance fees and so residents really don't know what they have. But instead of saying something like "If you have CNN [or some other common cable-only channel], this doesn't appy to you", the FCC materials talk about multicasting and freeing up spectrum.

Re: Forget Duopoly – Fear the Quadropoly!

Adam Marcus — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 16:37:12 -0000

Someone should point out to Senator Kohl that (at least in the case of Verizon), if the carrier raises its rates, it can be characterized as having an adverse effect on the customer which gives the customer the right to terminate their contract without an Early Termination Fee. This has been done successfully not [url=http://consumerist.com/cons...]once[/url] but [url=http://crastinate.com/2008/...]twice[/url]) in the past year. This alone wont solve the problem of collusion (if that is the case), but if enough customers jump ship when a carrier raises its rates, it may be enough.

Re: Enough anti-iPhone rants… just get another phone!

Adam Marcus — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 16:57:10 -0000

Alex makes it very clear that we should not dismiss what Apple is doing as merely a software update (though I didn't get that impression from the WSJ article), but his own post is a bit misleading on what exactly Apple has done. First he describes the complained-of function as a "remote kill switch." I'd say that's a good analogy. But then he starts going on and on about "remote control," writing "There are appropriate ways to address spyware, taking control of the user’s computer is not one of them."

Maybe I'm splitting hairs, but I see a big difference between a remote kill switch and "taking control of the user's computer." When I think "remote kill switch," I think of someone else having control of a car's brakes, like when you learn to drive in those special cars with a second set of brakes for the instructor. When I think "remote control," I think of someone else having control of not just the brakes, but also the accelerator and steering wheel. The iPhone remote kill switch is just a way for Apple to remotely disable a misbehaving application.

I agree with Alex that Apple should provide more details on what would cause it to "pull that lever," but I don't think the Wall Street Journal is the appropriate forum. Alex criticizes the author of the article for not spending enough time discussing the kill switch issue. But the WSJ is not Slashdot!

Alex then writes "[W]e don’t give Apple, Dell, Microsoft, HP, Google, or any other software/hardware seller remote control over our purchases and devices." Really? General Motors will be equipping 1.7 million of its 2009 model year cars with a feature called Stolen Vehicle Slowdown that uses the OnStar system to let police remotely slow a car down to a stop. According to OnStar, 95% of subscribers want this. And judging by the sales figures for the 3G iPhone, people like the iPhone.

Alex seems most upset about the fact that others are not upset that Apple didn't reveal that the new iPhone 2.0 firmware has a "remote kill switch" function. "Where is the outrage?!" he writes, and suggests that it's because "people seem not to mind the taste of Jobs' Kool-Aid." But since the iPhone was first announced in January 2007, it has been common knowledge that the only way an application will get onto an iPhone is through Apple. So why should it come as any surprise that 'What Jobs giveth, Jobs can taketh away.' People who bought iPhones knew they were getting a "walled garden". Its why I haven't bought an iPhone. The fact that Apple can now rip out some of the pretty flowers it just started selling a month ago just reaffirms that decision. Buy hey, some people like gardening and some people don't like getting their hands dirty.