Slashdot Mirror

Philadelphia has had a municiple WiFi plan in place for a while. Test areas are up and running. They are hoping to go live sometime in 2006. A little optimistic I think, but it's actually happening. Pretty exciting for me being in the downtown area.

http://www.phila.gov/wireless/

Actually here in Philadelphia the city is going to offer Wifi.

http://www.phila.gov/wireless/

I guess Philadelphia intending to offer the following, "Once a citywide wireless network has been deployed, the goal will be to provide some level of free wireless Internet access to everyone living, working or visiting in the city."

Was just my imagination... or was it? Read Article

Maybe diminishing wasn't the correct word, perhaps shifting is more appropriate. ... and yes nothing is entirely free, but the old methodology for charging to use wireless internet is definitely changing.

There are only a lucky few who happen to be in residential buildings or hotels who are near the repeaters. For the most part, any residential on the parkway is going to be a high priced condo. So in reality, wireless is not very accessible here yet.

When coverage expands to Washington Square, South Philadelphia and Northern Liberties it will finally be a practical solution to those $100 Verizon phone bills (for basic phone + DSL).

This has been on slashdot months ago:
http://ask.slashdot.org/askslashdot/04/09/25/22025 8.shtml?tid=193&tid=4
with a reference to the original statement from Philadelphia
http://www.phila.gov/wireless/briefing.html
--
from-the-sort-out-the-duplicates dept.

Minimum claim varies from state to state, and in some venues may be as low as one cent (as apparently the City of Philadelphia allows). Last I checked my home state, it was $5. If you're too cheap to ask a lawyer (and IANAL), you can usually find out what the limits are from the court clerk before you file. Pain and suffering damages have been barred from small claims court in each state where I've lived, and I think probably are everywhere, so you can't use that to pad your claim.

However, judges tend to be unamused by people wasting their time, so for a de minimus claim, you may be at higher risk of being laughed out of court, not to mention putting yourself in danger of a countersuit for legal and travel expenses on a frivolous suit if you loose... which in turn might not be small claims. Not to mention the certainty of filing costs, which you only may recoup if you win... and if you remembered to include "plus filing costs" in your claim.

So I guess there is savings in doing it automatically, but none of that will be included in savings for citywide wireless access.

That is quite brilliant and actually cheap.

There is no way in hell that this project will be done for $10 million. As a Philadelphian, they'll be lucky if it comes in less than 10 times that amount.

This is the city that spent millions for a Justice Center and with nothing to show for it except a hole in the ground.

The Docket/a is dated Aug of 03? WTF?

"How could that be possible?", you must be asking. Surely there are safeguards against that kind of thing, right? Yes, there are. But Sal has been ingenious in finding workarounds for those safeguards. See, for example, how Justin Spence, a shrewd businessman himself who was initially suspect of Sal's integrity, was conned into finishing the deal. Sal doesn't accept credit cards nor Paypal in any form; he wants his money in checks, cashiers checks or money orders. And he often makes believe he hasn't received your payment when in fact he's already cashed it.

Sal's accounts have all been terminated, of course, but he always seems to have one more on the back burner he can use in a pinch. Lately, his wife Michelle Heinlein appears to be actively involved, since in at least one case a check made out to her name was cashed, in one of the scams. Notice the same trading pattern as Sal's former username needforspeed97, starting off good then, once he gets a good reputation, cashing it in for a few thousand dollars before eBay kicks him off. I'm pretty sure this guy Robin, needforspeed, is the same dude too, but Sal of course denies it.

I'll post more info as I can. Watch out for anybody on eBay from PA who sells high-dollar items. Sorry Pennsylvanians, but you've got a scoundrel in your midst. He lives at 1941 W. Passyunk Ave. in Philadelphia, but he sometimes sets his eBay "area" identity as Pittsburgh.

So if I know where he lives, why don't I just go break his legs? Believe me, I've thought about it, but I don't want to do something illegal that'll get me thrown in jail. Besides, he's threatened to shoot me if I come there. So if the threat turns out to be real, I'd either have to kill him or get killed myself, either of which has consequences I don't want to consider. And on top of all that, I'm a coward.

Well anyway, not to be outdone by Justin, I'm digging up my emails now too... here's the most recent thread which shows the same typing style (being very loose with that word here) as his recent threats to Justin. More to follow!

Wow, that was fast! Here he is again... it's after 2AM on the east coast, so he must be sweating bullets! Aren't you, Sal old buddy?

This is getting to be another blog in itself, so let's just follow the story in my existing blog, shall we?

I could have sworn that read DamnStadium.

Which made me think immediately of the Vet (Veterans Stadium - Philly, PA, USA)

A little googling reveals that couple a years ago one journalist tracked possible responsibility for the tiles down to one "verna sevrino", who he was ultimately unable to contact, even though he had an address in philadelphia.

google turns up a funeral home in philadelphia called "verna sevrino funeral home", hmmm what might a funeral home have to do with resurrecting people on mars?

more googling turns up philadelphia councilwoman Anna C. Verna, who is married to " husband, Severino Verna, a funeral director, were born and raised in South Philadelphia.".

And finally, everything you ever wanted to know about Anna C Verna is here I, for one, welcome our new neptune resurrectionist overlord.

The person who has filed suit also claims he is going to bring civil and seek criminal RICO related charges against ANYONE who he judges has posted defaming comments about him.

One interesting twist, is that on a number of occasions, he has stated he will consider NOT filingsuit against those who "turn" on the gang, and give him information he can use against others.

The groups which are home to this ongoing battle of words are: alt.sports.gymnastics, alt.romance and alt.seduction fast.

The individual who brought suit runs a web based sports handicapping and seduction-related publishing business called Snodgrass Publishing, his site can be reached here

The Civil Court Docket for his first of what he promises to be many suits is here.

I will leave it to anyone who wishes to investigate the various postings in these groups, and read the court docket (though it lacks any information other than dates for meetings/hearings, etc) to decide if this is kookery, or someone defending their civil rights.

btw, I go by a similar name on USENET.

Going on means going far