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The Case of the Missing Rocket Belt
Anonymous Coward writes "ABC News is running a very interesting article about the story behind those rocket belts you've seen in some movies. Apparently there are only three known to exist but one of them has gone missing leaving a trail of death and intrigue in its wake. From the article: 'One of its developers was found beaten to death in his Houston home, another is a suspect in the killing, and a third faces a possible life sentence for kidnapping the second and holding him hostage for seven days with a hood over his head.'"
That would explain the sudden death of /. for the past couple of hours...
-- It's always darker before it goes pitch black.
there has been another story posted and this one doesn't yet appear to have a first post.
Speaking of RIAA and governments getting involved and private businesses leveraging the law to make money...
WARNING FLASH FXP IS A TROJAN
I implore every use of this software to be weary and on guard! I would have a good firewall with a drop all, allow exception rule set, ethereal, windump/[tcpdump on *nix], and a pcap lib, or use sniffer, and get ready to watch this thing with hawk eyes. Given the author's tradition of reporting usage, selling information to marketing companies, and revoking registrations without cause, we must be prepared for his latest Trojan horse. The program is delightful, irresistible, for it is feature laden, stable. But its target is warez users, and I strongly feel this warez-centric program serves to report to the government the biggest abuses. Remember, that the information he claims is benign is encrypted, so you will never see the payload of this machinations and undesired packets. He also uses port 80 to send information out on, so please be using an application firewall such as Kerio. I would not trust Charles unless he releases source code. We are already help hostage by a closed source MSCVRT, and other runtime libraries, any of which could perform undocumented tasks with encrypted packets, you might see packets but the nature of the payload is occluded. I strongly recommend that nobody trusts outgoing packets they cannot decrypt. Anyways, for the technically savvy, one should peruse through the packets this thing produces, and ask yourself, do you really trust some man who will not end these perpetual and consistent accusations by revealing some of the source code to allay the growing fears he is part of a dragnet cabal to capture people determined to be felon software pirates. He is a party to your own demise, the "Robin Hood" loopholes are closed, and Charles could make money off you and put you in jail. He makes money off of FlashFXP, he targets the warez community, the program sends packets that are extraneous to file transfers that are encrypted, he has revoked registrations without cause, he sells your information to marketers I have confirmed this through SpamCop, and he is in cahoots with federal authorities to help Trojan and compromise your computer.
Everything free?
You're lucky if it works at all!
I bet one of the developers was Dr Evil.
He's now working on a compact version... called MiniBelt.
Bullfrog
From the article:
"Starting in the mid-1980s, Gibson, who was a stunt double for action star Chuck Norris, ran a side business exhibiting his rocket belts at cultural and sporting events around the world."
I remember seeing this during the intermission of "M. Butterfly". It really woke up the crowd!
There are 01 kinds of cars in the world. The General Lee, and everything else.
Didn't Bart buy a super belt once that got him beat up? If I remember that was the episode Homer got mauled in. Anyway, the missing belt'll turn up on eBay soon anyway....
/. has been mighty freaky recently. Testing the new front page ads?
BTW -
-Sean
Not to be outdone by K5's fuck-up^H^H^H^H^H^H^Houtage, SlashDuh had to go off line for a while as well. Don't you all have redundant servers? Glad I am not paying for this crap. Will those who were suckered into paying be getting any sort of a refund?
One of its developers was found beaten to death in his Houston home, another is a suspect in the killing, and a third faces a possible life sentence for kidnapping the second and holding him hostage for seven days with a hood over his head.
So Who's on first?
"Ask me about Loom"
Do not develop rocket belt.
Palaces, barricades, threats, meet promises
There go 1/2 of the dupe stories.
It's my my back ya...
--carrier lost.
We do not live in the 21st century. We live in the 20 second century.
Sorry, this has nothing to do with the story whatsoever, but where else can I put this?
Does anyone else notice this happening sometimes when visiting Slashdot? It keeps dumping you on the homepage, not logged in, with the OSDN bar at the top and everything, and nothing seems to work, it keeps bringing you back to the homepage when you try and read or post comments.
What's going on? Is their user database crashing or something? Seems to be happening more frequently recently. It's extremely aggravating.
"Mind, as manifested by the capacity to make choices, is to some extent present in every electron." -Freeman Dyson
I suspect that it's a software change (perhaps when the database is down?). I first noticed it a few weeks ago -- when it came back up after that incident it contained some new links on the preferences page for friends, foes, etc.
(Score:-1, Wrong)
Conclusive proof that rocket belts drive you crazy.
Today, three rocket belts are known to exist. Two are owned by Howard "Kinnie" Gibson, a daredevil and stuntman who acquired the patent on an essential part of the design.
If they were invented in the late 1950s, how is it possible that some guy still has a patent on part of the design, over 40 years later?
314-15-9265
The top 3 stories on Slashdot, one of which is several hours old, have NO comments listed for them on the front page.... and I get modded down for bringing it up? Nice.
Maybe Slashdot needs a general, day to day message board type thing where people can start their own topics? They could have different sections, like General Discussion, Site Problems, Suggestions, etc.
It just seems ridiculous that we can't have a discussion ABOUT Slashdot on Slashdot anywhere without being labelled "Offtopic".
"Mind, as manifested by the capacity to make choices, is to some extent present in every electron." -Freeman Dyson
Aren't things like this generally cheaper to mass-produce. Why didn't the guys make a few rocket belts and avoid this problem altogether? If it was made by "machinists and engineers" then a large portion of the costs are setup costs, R&D, and other one-time costs.
I think they were all drunk and stoned at a going away party.
One Rocket Belt to rule them all, One Rocket Belt to find them...
.. and the easily hyped product" more like.
WTF is this on Slashdot for?
Alex
The thing is though, one day, when someone's looking for rocket belt info and uses the slashdot search thing at the bottom of the page, they'll uncover more stuff about the server being screwed up than anything about the story.
And once you get all of that together... you have a noisy, dangerous, difficult-to-handle flying machine that will carry one very skilled pilot for about 30 seconds.
There may be a market for a few units for sports events, exhibitions, and... oh, wait, we already have that covered, don't we?
--Larry
Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence
slashdot star???? yea right, if being an annoying jackass makes you a star, i guess it's right.
1. Steal rocket belt from partners.
2. Do not let Nazis get it.
3. Remember to patch that hole in it. Gum just won't cut it anymore.
Cogito ergo sum in Slashdot.
There's been a raging discussion over in the Cringley area about moderation lately. Feel free to join in and post as an AC about moderation stinking these days.
1. Steal rocket belt.
2. ???
3. Profit
This is when they take down the DB to search it for valid email adresses and sell them to the highest bidder ;)
[/humor]
I used to see the Bell ones advertised for $3-5K in back of magazines. Claimed 90 second flights, the sport being called Mountain Jumping.
1. Create three rocket belts
2. Kill one partner, kidnap the other
3. ????
4. Profit!
..and starting drilling holes in it, I would have give in and given them the rocket pack. Little would they have known is that it would be a vacuum cleaner full of TNT.
Strap it on and try it out first, I want to make sure it's not missing any parts. Don't worry, most of you will be in the air soon.
Outdoor digital photography, mostly in New Engl
Slashdot finally posts something really amusing. It has been too long. This is the best article I've read all week. Extremely bizarre stuff, plus, it has rocket belts. What could be better than that?
-j
I forget what 8 was for.
A lot of people didn't realize that the opening scene of Thunderball was done without special effects. That real rocket belt was used, just by a trained operator of it.
Thankfully, they didn't use special effects because they would be atrocious. Just take a look at some of the stuff in Moonraker, and that's like 15 or 20 years later.
this has nothing to do with the story whatsoever, but where else can I put this?
In your journal.
What's really funny (to me) is that some people actually read this. I got some AC flames on my only two journal entries. Took me by suprise that anyone cared to look.
From the article:
"And that was pretty much it: you know, build the belt, go out and make a lot of money, and that was it."
Which translates into:
1. Build a belt.
2. Profit!
(maybe I sohould be anonymous)
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
"First things first -- but not necessarily in that order"
-- The Doctor, "Doctor
Obviously
I was in the 8th grade at the time. And I would have tried it if I only could have gotten my hands on the 90% pure hydrogen peroxide...
Of course, if I had known all I had to do was beat someone to death...
That would make them easier to find than Segways.
I guess, that was The One Rocket Belt.
One Belt to rule them all...
So Stanley is facing life in jail because this guy Barker (a murder suspect) testified that Stanley kidnapped him? I wouldn't take Barker at his word.
Why don't you people just collectively eat me.
Now the rocket belt has gone missing they`ll be reduced to lighting their own FARTS !!!
A salesman I used to party with back at my old ISP job took me to a few parties a Joe Wright's house, I even did coke with him. Houston, owned a Car Audio store, had to be the same guy. Same time frame too, would have been during 1995. He and his freinds seemed a little shady, but who doesn't in the small business world. Never heard anything about him being involved with any rocket belt, but I guess it was probably a hush thing.
The guy was kinda wierd. He stocked up some sort of vitamin-B supplement in liquid injectable form in his kitchen. He loaded it in a hypo and shot himself with it every morning. Not sure if this was for some kind of medical problem, or he just thought it made him healthy.
11*43+456^2
Bill Suitor should get some extra life insurance and some bodyguards...
1) I doubt any court would have allowed any mention of Barker being a suspect.
2) On the other hand, Barker was convicted of assaulting Stanley though Barker claims it was in self-defense.
3) You are forgetting that Wentzel was also convicted with Stanley. Something tells me that they had more information than merely Barker's words to convict those two.
Fans Go Bad!!
The funny thing is, your post about stuff being modded offtopic got modded offtopic!
I'm joining the experiment. Hey! I just noticed your post where you mention that a post about stuff getting modded offtopic that got modded offtopic just got modded offtopic!
That's really funny.
Vote David Donnelly For Soil and Water Supervisor
How about looking in the trunk of James Bond's Austin Martin?
"And that was pretty much it: you know, build the belt, go out and make a lot of money, and that was it."
1. Build rocket belt
2. Test (make sure to use Chuck Norris double).
4. ???
5. Profit!!
Cave, wreck, and deep diver.
why firemen wear red suspenders.
When you get thrown back to the front page it's usaually a database error. Instead of showing an error page you are thrown back to the front page...strange way for doing it I guess.
Well, my read on the story is that they got busy 'offing each other just when the belt got finished up.
Imagine for a moment a world without hypothetical situations...
Some kind of rocket scientist?
"Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
...they're on to me! *ffffwwwooooooommm*
Mordor...a magical, mythical land where women are more rare than dragons--but where every man would rather find a dragon
It doesn't take a rocket scientist in figuring out who's the murderer and who stole the rocket belt...
it was Duke Nukem!!! He has had this fascination with rocket belts ever since Duke Nukem 3D.
Whacking one guy and turn the two others against each other was all part of Duke's masterplan of
getting his hands on a real rocket belt.
Thank you, thank you. QED.
So let me get this straight: Stanley cut a deal with Wright to help him catch Barker and the rocket belt, but mysteriously turns up beaten to death a few days before lawsuit. Barker's the primary suspect, didn't even have a alibi, but police still release him.
Stanley goes on to win the lawsuit against Barker making him sole owner of the rocket belt plus 10 million in damages against Barker.
The police and all other authories won't do a darn thing to help him get the belt back for several years, so he takes matters into his own hands, luring Barker with a supposed rocket-belt job and kidnaps Barker.
Barker escapes, calls the FBI, and Stanley is the only one that's arrested? Um, maybe I'm missing something, but it sounds like Barker is the one that should be in jail. Don't get me wrong, kiddnapping Barker wasn't the right thing to do, but it sounds like Stanley exhausted all his other opinions, and if Stanley is sentenced to life I think Barker should sit right there next to him.
What if the rocket belt turns up in Barker's house? What then? He gets the belt and Stanley still sits in jail?
Something about this doesn't sound right to me...
I guess that's how the whole darn human comedy keeps perpetuatin' itself, down through the ages, westward in the wagons, until...aw shoosh, look at me, I'm ramblin' again.
Punishment for beating guy with hammer, beating another man to death, and stealing 10 million dollar rocket belt: probation
Punishment for kidnapping: life in jail
Did the first guy have Johnny Cochran??
It don't matter to Jesus.
....rocket to the moon!
Push Nevada....
This sounds alot like that movie The Rocketeer, exept no nazis or zeppelins.
Out of Cheese Error:
Please reboot universe
If you are forced to sign a contract at gunpoint, or otherwise under duress, is it not legally invalid?
Maybe Slashdot needs a general, day to day message board type thing where people can start their own topics? They could have different sections, like General Discussion, Site Problems, Suggestions, etc.
That already exists (although it's totally fscked right now because of whatever's going on here). It's just not well advertised.
A fascinating news report and investigative journalism...and almost identical to a GQ magazine article from a few months ago. They even used the same stock photo!
To my knowledge, there is absolutely no information in the ABC report that wasn't printed months ago in that magazine article.
Why don't you mention King (of the Rocketmen), or Commander Cody?
... anyone remember Adam Strange and his Zita Beam? Alanana was HOT!
(NB- look up Republic serials).
Then again, there was 'Rocket Ranger' courtesy of Cinemaware!
mmmm
(David Bowman, EVA near HUGE Monolithic Win-PC in orbit around Jupiter) "My God - its full of Malware!"
ROFLMAO :)
Thanks you and good night.
"Mind, as manifested by the capacity to make choices, is to some extent present in every electron." -Freeman Dyson
so far on slashdot i have seen two articles based around quotes from ABC or another news station. one was on a large black whole in the middle of our solarsystem. and the other one, this, was about people being beaten to death because of rocket belts in movies. i guess i havnt watched the news recently enough or somthing. did the news channels change their topics to random shit that sounds weird? the only possible explenation i can think of is that there are some super market tabloids named abc news or somthing. my friend once got a super market tabloid is main that had an article on how china was going to take over the world Want to know how they were going to do it? all the chinese people were going to jump up and down at the same time enough to throw the world out of its orbit so that they could envade a confuded us. ill leave u with that thought
Destiny is a good thing to accept when it's going your way. When it isn't,
don't call it destiny; call it injustice, treachery, or simple bad luck.
-- Joseph Heller, "God Knows"
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