Tim Ackermann
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timack.bsky.social
Tim Ackermann
@timack.bsky.social
270 followers 300 following 1.4K posts
Patent & trademark attorney with over 25 years experience in helping protect businesses' trademark & patent rights. (Former @ntxip on you know where)
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timack.bsky.social
Tim Ackermann @timack.bsky.social · Oct 16
It's the start of a new culture, built upon the ruins of the old, "Shaka, when the walls fell" style.
jetjocko.bsky.social Adam Rogers @jetjocko.bsky.social · Oct 11
Not having gifs means people write things like “hot dog kills guy gif” and “is you taking notes on a criminal conspiracy gif” so basically Bluesky is Darmok and Jelad at Tanagra now.
Reposted by Tim Ackermann
sophianyx.bsky.social
Name a film quote you use all the time.
October 2, 2026 at 12:08 AM
Reposted by Tim Ackermann
jaredmcclain.bsky.social
A federal district court just held that police use of Flock cameras without a warrant violates the Fourth Amendment.

storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
constitutionally collect this information about one car-and its driver-by following that vehicle on public roadways over a month. But this leaves the question of why is it the government's business where everyone goes all the time? The government cannot go snooping through our personal lives and business without an adequate basis to do so. That is what the Supreme Court has said since its decision in Katz through its decision in Chatrie this year, nearly sixty years later. It is not too much to draw the line at indiscriminate mass surveillance. No doubt, ALPR technology comes with remarkable benefits that the Court cannot ignore. But the Fourth Amendment requires courts to draw a line when the cost is too great. Alaniz's search in just the ALPR system provided him with more than 50 individual records of Kyle's whereabouts across the country for an entire month. The Court finds that because the ALPR systems Alaniz used to search Kyle's historical location information intruded on her reasonable expectation of privacy in the whole of her physical movements, it was a search under the Fourth Amendment. Based on the information in the record, the only reason Alaniz conducted that search was because he saw her license plate was from California. That search was not supported by probable cause, and it was done without a warrant in violation of Kyle's Fourth Amendment rights. That search also has a nexus to the remainder of the traffic stop because Alaniz began following Kyle's car while
October 2, 2026 at 9:37 PM
Reposted by Tim Ackermann
techdirt.com
Koreans Left With Spoiled Food Due To Borked Samsung Firmware Update For ‘Smart’ Fridges

I must be getting old, because the concept around most IoT injections into...

https://www.techdirt.com/2026/10/02/koreans-left-with-spoiled-food-due-to-borked-samsung-firmware-update-for-smart-fridges/
Koreans Left With Spoiled Food Due To Borked Samsung Firmware Update For ‘Smart’ Fridges
I must be getting old, because the concept around most IoT injections into otherwise perfectly usable home devices has me wanting to get all these smart-devices off of my lawn. Call me a luddite if you like, but I just don't think my toothbrush needs to be connected to the internet. And if you ask...
www.techdirt.com
October 3, 2026 at 2:40 AM
timack.bsky.social
Remember - the "r" in IoT stands for "reliability"!
October 3, 2026 at 2:56 AM
Reposted by Tim Ackermann
jasonkoebler.bsky.social
Flock's whole thing is that they argue their system does not need a warrant and they claim this is a settled issue. Very hard to overstate the importance that a federal judge has said this is not the case. Flock's CEO just said it was "pretty cut and dry"
The new decision also immediately invalidates the core argument that Flock’s CEO Garrett Langley has made saying that Flock was not a constitutional issue. “You and I don’t get to pick what’s a constitutional violation and what’s not. We have judges, we have elected officials, there’s a process for that. We follow the law, we follow the Constitution. So far, in our belief and what will be for a long time, the courts have deemed this is not a warrantless search; this is a valid product as it relates to the Fourth Amendment. So I don’t see any change there,” Langley told The Drive in July, adding the issue was “pretty cut and dry.” Notably, Hill suggested that other courts that have ruled Flock searches do not constitute a Fourth Amendment search were likely wrong to do so, and that they have not considered the widespread and automated context of the AI-powered surveillance system.
October 2, 2026 at 8:54 PM
Reposted by Tim Ackermann
jasonkoebler.bsky.social
BREAKING: A federal judge has ruled for the first time that a Flock search was unconstitutional and violated a woman's Fourth Amendment rights. Oklahoma cop pulled over a woman and searched her in Flock "because he saw her license plate was from California"

www.404media.co/federal-judg...
Federal Judge Rules a Flock Search Was ‘Indiscriminate Mass Surveillance’ and Unconstitutional
Flock’s nationwide network is quickly “approaching dragnet-type law enforcement practice” and the cop should have got a warrant, the judge wrote.
www.404media.co
October 2, 2026 at 8:50 PM
Reposted by Tim Ackermann
hansilowang.bsky.social
Eligible voters of the United States,

Have you checked your state or territory's deadline for registering to vote or updating your registration for the midterm elections? (SPOILER ALERT: They are coming up fast!)

There's a guide for you at npr.org/vote
How to register to vote and check your registration status
For the 2026 elections, NPR has collected deadlines and information on how to register to vote — online, in person or by mail — in every U.S. state and territory.
npr.org
October 2, 2026 at 1:58 PM
Reposted by Tim Ackermann
trademarksaremagic.bsky.social
October 2, 2026 at 3:17 PM
Reposted by Tim Ackermann
theplanetaryguy.com
This will never stop blowing my mind.

A 12-year sequence of real telescope images of a star 133 lightyears away.

And around it, four planets slowly orbiting.

Four real exoplanets, each more massive than Jupiter, imaged as they move around their host star.
October 2, 2026 at 2:14 AM
Reposted by Tim Ackermann
design-law.bsky.social
Just in case any trademark litigators are thinking about trying this:
hishamzerriffi.bsky.social Hisham Zerriffi @hishamzerriffi.bsky.social · 1d
Pew tested AI synthetic surveys against actual survey data.

Conclusion:

“This experiment taught us that, at this time, AI models are not an adequate replacement for traditional polling on topics of broad public importance.”

This is an all time bad idea. No need to hedge with “at this time.”
Can AI Stand In for Human Survey-Takers? Not Really
Synthetic surveys using digital twins do a poor job estimating the public mood and are especially error-prone for some subgroups, including Republicans and Black adults.
www.pewresearch.org
October 2, 2026 at 12:30 PM
Reposted by Tim Ackermann
patentbuddy.bsky.social
patentlyo.com/patent/2026/...
Clear but Impossible: Satius v. Samsung Moves Inoperable Claims from Indefiniteness to Enablement
Satius v. Samsung: a claim reciting an impossible alternative is definite, but the Federal Circuit holds it invalid for lack of enablement under Amgen.
patentlyo.com
October 2, 2026 at 1:09 PM
Reposted by Tim Ackermann
drmikewiser.bsky.social
Remember: Darwin's note of "I am very poorly today & very stupid & hate everybody & everything" was written on Oct 1 (1861).

Thus we are free to celebrate Very Poorly And Very Stupid Hatred Day today.
October 1, 2026 at 9:08 PM
Reposted by Tim Ackermann
evacide.bsky.social
Android has rolled out some new features for Advanced Protection, including intrusion logging, which is especially useful for survivors because nearly all commercially-available Android stalkerware is installed by a person with physical access logging in: blog.google/security/and...
6 ways Advanced Protection on Android keeps you safe
Discover new Advanced Protection features on Android designed to defend against sophisticated threats and keep your data safe.
blog.google
October 1, 2026 at 9:56 PM
Reposted by Tim Ackermann
timack.bsky.social
Sure, use the stochastic parrot as a basis for military action.
In fact, today’s LLMs and the chatbots they power are not poorly understood, nor are they powerful in the sense of being effective tools for this use case. They are systems for generating plausible looking text, built out of enormous, haphazardly collected datasets and then “fine-tuned” (that is, further trained) to be especially appealing to their intended users.
October 1, 2026 at 1:56 PM
Reposted by Tim Ackermann
nih-llamas.bsky.social
Bienvenido a octubre.
October 1, 2026 at 12:56 PM
Reposted by Tim Ackermann
josephcox.bsky.social
New: USPS is to put cameras in its trucks that continuously record. This is to gather data on roads, signage, and to improve "community safety," the agency tells me. The cameras are marketed to capture passing license plates too, but don't run ALPR software
www.404media.co/usps-to-put-...
USPS To Put Cameras in Trucks That Scan Roads for ‘Community Safety’
USPS says the cameras, put on USPS truck dashboards, will scan roads, signs, and more.
www.404media.co
September 30, 2026 at 4:17 PM
timack.bsky.social
Sure, use the stochastic parrot as a basis for military action.
In fact, today’s LLMs and the chatbots they power are not poorly understood, nor are they powerful in the sense of being effective tools for this use case. They are systems for generating plausible looking text, built out of enormous, haphazardly collected datasets and then “fine-tuned” (that is, further trained) to be especially appealing to their intended users.
October 1, 2026 at 1:56 PM
Reposted by Tim Ackermann
c0nc0rdance.bsky.social
She also adjusted her pace to ensure the injured cub could keep up.

By 2008, he was observed hunting on his own & at the age of 20 is King of the Fat Bears, holding his own at the crowded Brook Falls.

A story of a mother's love, sacrifice & a little cub who became a champion fat bear. 🥹
How Bear 89 earned the name Backpack
Discover how Bear 89 became Backpack, why his nickname predates his leg injury, and how his mother Holly adjusted to her cub’s needs.
discvr.blog
September 30, 2026 at 11:57 AM
Reposted by Tim Ackermann
lillyh.bsky.social
Screenshot @ncdominie@mastodon.scot "Great moments in Scottish engineering history. James Watt tries to work out how his phone attaches to his selfie stick" Image description: Statue of James Watt. In his right hand he holds a telescopic stick with a frame at the top; in his left he holds a flat object about the size of a large smartphone. He is scowling at the possibly-not-a-smartphone as if he is tempted to yeet it into the sea. On that basis, it probably _is_ a phone. Sept 28, 2026
September 29, 2026 at 10:30 PM
Reposted by Tim Ackermann
tracesoftexas.bsky.social
This is a photo of Texas Longhorn superfan Scott Wilson in his longhorn-themed Cadillac. Scott was undoubtedly on his way to a game when this was taken. Before he died last year at the age of 74, Scott had seen 595 longhorn games in a row, without missing a single one. Courtesy Scott's social media.
September 29, 2026 at 10:43 PM
Reposted by Tim Ackermann
leahmcelrath.bsky.social
In a new interview, Bill Gates speaks to the imminent dangers of unregulated AI that could easily result in mass death.

He does not hold back.

(Gift link to the full interview: www.nytimes.com/2026/09/29/o...)
So why is anything needed beyond — and is anything needed beyond? — the simply natural incentives under capitalism and normal corporate reputational management? Well, I almost can't believe you're asking that. This is the most dangerous thing that humans have ever gone near. In other areas, do we just say: Hey, release your drugs? There's no F.D.A., there's no airline safety board, there's no requirement that cars use seatbelts. Do we just use the liability laws to try and keep humans safe? You know: Oh, you're shipping opioids. Somebody should just sue you. I mean, we've created a society that tries to keep people safe not by saying: Oh, we can bankrupt the person who does that. And you say there's filtering. There's no filtering. You can take an open-source model that can create bioweapons and disable any monitoring of any kind, and this exists today. So no, there is no filtering of any kind. And so say you kill 100 million people — you want to use a lawsuit? I almost can't keep a straight face. And part of the reason I'm speaking so loudly — as loud as I can — is that you can't rely on the industry to self-regulate here. I mean, it's just insane. The only question in my mind is: Do we wait until a cyberattack causes massive damage and a bioattack causes massive damage, and then the monitoring safeguards are required in these models to minimize the chance of that happening many, many more times? Or can we be wise enough to put these things in and require these things to be put in before millions of deaths?
September 29, 2026 at 11:03 PM
Reposted by Tim Ackermann
wronghands.bsky.social
September 29, 2026 at 11:46 AM
Reposted by Tim Ackermann
hypervisible.blacksky.app
McDonald’s uses “machine-learning algorithms to continually analyze data from millions of daily transactions across McDonald’s nearly 14,000 restaurants and generate what the company calls ‘the optimal price’ at each location for each menu item, from Big Macs ‌to discounted coffee for seniors.”
Inside McDonald’s push to have AI price your Big Mac
McDonald’s is increasingly using artificial intelligence to guide menu prices across the U.S. and some global markets, a plan that aims to boost headquarters’ profit but risks alienating customers and...
www.reuters.com
September 29, 2026 at 12:54 PM
Reposted by Tim Ackermann
nih-llamas.bsky.social
They kicked people out of their homes so Foxconn could have the land.
addiestan.bsky.social Adele M. Stan @addiestan.bsky.social · 4d
Anybody remember that Trump-promised FoxConn facility that was to bring 13,000 jobs to Wisconsin? www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/w...
September 29, 2026 at 1:57 AM
timack.bsky.social
So... a defective product?
washingtonpost.com The Washington Post @washingtonpost.com · 4d
ChatGPT-maker OpenAI canceled the planned launch of a new artificial intelligence model after it was found to take actions beyond the instructions it received and not accurately communicate to human users what it did.
OpenAI cancels new AI launch, citing safety issues
The cancellation of the new release comes days after OpenAI said it stopped training powerful new AI after safety incidents.
www.washingtonpost.com
September 29, 2026 at 2:47 AM