Slashdot Mirror
Beep! Beep! You have Broken the Law.
medscaper writes "Authorities in China are using computers to spam mobile phones of law-breakers until they turn themselves in. Apparently, lots of illegal advertisements as stickers with mobile-phone numbers listed are placed around large cities and are becoming an eyesore. So, the authorities call the cell phones incessantly with recorded messages that demand the "businessmen" to turn themselves in."
How well does this actually work? Wouldn't they just get a new phone number?
I would be sitting behind one of those people in a movie theater. If they are stupid enough to get into that situation you know they are one of those people who leave their cell phones on during movies. :) Excellent idea though..
"I believe in everything in moderation. Including moderation." -Dean DeLeo, Stone Temple Pilots
"You got trouble."
So, if I don't like someone, all I have to do is make up a few ads with his number on and stick them up places, and the state will spam him for me?
this "we're going to annoy the hell out of you" method of law enforcement is rather entertaining... imagine the fun someone could have by posting bills with the telephone number of your competition!
Proving that you did *not* post bills with your phone number could prove difficult but by that time, you've already racked up 543,766,246,742 voicemails and text messages.
Do they have free incoming text messages in China? I certainly hope so.. in addition to a fine, you'd have a whopping phone bill.
Hrm. maybe Verizon is in on this!
'ta
with the current fee of US $200 Thank you for committing this crime. Your local Police Department.
... someone posts a bunch of messages with the phone number of someone they don't like.
Or of a police station. That would be great - "Sir, the system we implemented to get rid of those illegal adds is flooding our 911 call center".
Needs work.
BBK
If you do not turn yourself in by noon tommorow we shall send you another message asking you politely to do so again!
"UShdTrnURslfIn,Lwbrkr"
and no one can figure out what it means. ;)
-T
This is perhaps the most creative way to enforce a law I've ever heard of. More power to 'em. It would be easy, however, to anonymously attack someone by putting their cell phone number on a sticker and posting it around town. I hope they don't prosecute people that have been attacked this way.
In the long run, we're all dead.
I was having a conversion, on the cell phone. And it was like, beep beep beep beep! And then, like, I had broken the law. And I was like... hunh?
I browse Slashdot at +3, Funny
Dr. Cocteau: Be well, John Spartan.
John Spartan: Be fucked.
Moral Statute Machine: John Spartan, you are fined one credit for a violation of the Verbal Morality Statute.
[Spartan shoots the machine]
Upon answering the call, the wrongdoer hears the pre-recorded message--
"You have broken the law by posting illegal ads. You must immediately stop this activity and go to the Hangzhou Urban Administrative Bureau for punishment. DO NOT PASS GO, DO NOT COLLECT $200."
So basically, rather than taking the time to track these folks down, they're just going to annoy the culprits into submission...?
At first, I was going to say "why not just turn the phone off?"
But phone being off -> no incoming business calls either. Turn the phone on -> be spammed by police and have your minutes wasted. Turn yourself in -> no more spam + you getting a fine + you no longer hanging stickers.
But couldn't you just block whatever number the cops are calling from?
Ack!
The numbers are also checked manually and require the approval of a senior official before the bombardment can begin, he told the People's Daily.
This is the bit I'd be worry about. You'd hate someone to target you and have you taken "for punishment" by pasting a few stickers in your name.
So how effective is the manual check?
to save "taxpayer" dollars, why dont they just instead, pull down the stickers upon their discovery, im sure most of these "businessmen" are using prepaid, hence disposable cell-phones and are not stupid enough to turn themselves in. the chinese government really is kooky. why do they not just put these cell phone numbers into "411", or post them on internet forums, i think that would get the point across better than any annoyance factor the police may be able to bring upon them. :)
I hate sigs.
It's funny that Michael Moore would prattle on about fiction, since that's what all of his "documentaries" are.
Better hope people who don't like you don't make some ads with your mobile number on them and stick them up.
And the "senior official" who approves the "bombardment" better make sure it isn't President Hu Jintao's phone or that of some random army officer...
Authorities in China are turning to technology to nab vandals--they use a computer program that spams the wrongdoers' mobile phones until they turn themselves in.
Officials in Hangzhou, the capital of China's Zhejiang province, have developed a system which bombards mobile phones with pre-recorded voice messages, according to the official newspaper, the People's Daily.
Businessmen who put up illegal advertisements which contain mobile numbers have become the target of the computerized phone-spammer.
According to the report, illegal stickers have become an eyesore in recent years, with China's coastal and urbanized areas blighted with a blizzard of advertisements.
This is because the postcard-sized stickers, which promote everything from fake identity cards to counterfeit academic certifications, are cheap to produce and offer some anonymity.
The new system rings the mobile phone numbers of illegal advertisers at 20-second intervals, said the People's Daily.
Upon answering the call, the wrongdoer hears the pre-recorded message--"You have broken the law by posting illegal ads. You must immediately stop this activity and go to the Hangzhou Urban Administrative Bureau for punishment."
Those who prefer to change their "poisoned" number rather than face punishment incur the fees and inconvenience of switching, and also lose any business their ad might have generated.
The system also dents the advertisers' bottom line as ad respondents are unlikely to get through, thanks to the mobile barrage. As the anti-sticker scheme is newly launched, results have yet to come in, said the report.
Ordinary folks need not worry about being spammed by mistake as the phone numbers are taken from photos of illegal advertisements, said Wei Yunxiang, an official with the Hangzhou Urban Administrative Bureau.
The numbers are also checked manually and require the approval of a senior official before the bombardment can begin, he told the People's Daily.
Do not fold, spindle or mutilate.
This idea is all fine and dandy, but just asking for people to turn theirselves in won't work. It's all bark and no bite. It needs teeth. Now, if the police called me and said that if I didn't turn myself in by noon tomorrow, that they'd sic a naked Richard Simmons on me and have him follow me everywhere and even move into my house, *then* I'd want to turn myself into the authorities.
It may not work the first few times, people thinking it's a joke and no police force would be so cruel, but after the first few times it gets reported by the media and several suicides later, the criminals would get the hint.
"We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars." - Oscar Wilde
Why does the sentence "We are the Borg. Existence as you know it is over. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Resistance is futile." pop up in my head as i read this?
GAAH! MY PRINTER IS ON FIRE!!! PUT IT OUT! PUT IT OUT!
You need to go to funny school.
I thought Ellen Feiss had become a cop.
How long before the cell phone companies offer call blocking? They must have a limited bank of phone numbers these police calls can come from.
I know they have had something like that for a while on land lines here in the U.S. When my sister broke up with an abusive boyfriend she was able to block all calls from his phone number.
I hope that someday we will be able to put away our fears and prejudices and just laugh at people. - Jack Handey
OK, these people probably have a fair ammount of money, so "fees" aren't going to be an issue. And as for losing business, the "mobile barrage" will cause them to do that anyway. I see no reason why these people won't just change their numbers.
"Do I dare disturb the universe?"
No one in their right mind would follow a link to rotten.com
Wait, wait, wait... Couldn't you just get a 900 number associated to your phone, and post that all over town? Every time the cops call you, if they wanted to talk to you, they'd have to agree to the charge (or can they just bill you without asking - even better) ... Pure profit, at the expense of the government.
Ack!
I don't know what that is.... and I don't think I want to know....
I'll have something intelligent to add one of these days...
I'm sure the answer exists somewhere in the middle ... it just seems I was lead to believe in a different future by Adam-12 and Dragnet.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
I hope they will figure out a way to get rid of all the locksmith stickers in NYC next...
Apparently, lots of illegal advertisements as stickers with mobile-phone numbers listed are placed around large cities and are becoming an eyesore
Wha... Ever heard of commas, or sentences that actually make sense when you read them?
I've got em on dialup. The secret to it is....oops gotta go.
You mean you do not want to see a whole glass container of jam caught up someone's ass?
It makes a penis look tiny in comparison. Ouch indeed.
... with people who run red lights. Here in Portland, people think red lights are optional. I'm getting rather sick of it. I think if their cell phone were to start ringing every time they do it then we might see a pavlovian effect here to deter this problem.
Erm, I suppose they get some information about where the guy is (what cell, or better via triangulation or radio waves), or who he is talking to, too.
.. WAP ! (argh.)
or (shudder) they'll force him to use
Isn't it obvious? Spammers annoy everybody because they can do so without cost. The police have found a way to cost them money, which may actually result in less (sticker) SPAM.
The logical extension is to apply the concepts of open source collaboration for email SPAM. Today a shady business can pay $5000 to a spammer to send 10,000,000 emails, and they get a profit because of the 0.01% response rate. Wouldn't it be a lot more fun if they got 10,000,000 emails and 10,000,000 web hits? Then let them try to sort the wheat from the chaff.
Stop filtering, and just hit REPLY
We finally figured out who voted that spam was good all the time!
No! "Now Go Away Or I Shall Taunt You A Second Time".
They won't have to turn themselves in
As far as I can remember, and I may be wrong, they took apart their target's telephone, wired it up with explosives and a special detonator. Then I believe they waited till their target was home, called them, made sure it was the target speaking on the phone, and then detonated the explosives using a special tone over the phone line...
Death to Reefer Addicts.
--
However, there is a huge problem with it: If you hate someone all you do is make some fake ads with their phone numbers on and leave them for the Chinese authorities to find and then spam.
Result: an innocent person has a whole lotta shit to clean up.
If the authorities do take some time to investigate the ads (ie actually try phoning the numbers and try to buy the products would be a start) then I think it might be a good way to deal with the criminals who promote their wares.
Similar tactics have been done before against email spammers whereby people find out the spammer's home address and send them junk mail in the post. It pisses the spammers off, but unfortunately finding out the senders of such crap is much more difficult as they don't rely on an email address to take orders with.
Sorry, but my karma just ran over your dogma.
Put the joint _down_.
They did this about a year ago here in the Netherlands. Phones listed as stolen were sent a barrage of SMS messages, basically every couple minutes, making the phone nearly unusable (incessant beeping of arriving messages, full inbox, etc)
In the GSM system, there is a SIM card which is linked to your phone number, subscription, etc. You put this card into your phone and use it. The phone itself has a unique identifyer as well, the IMEI number. It was these serial numbers which were used to identify stolen phones. So putting in a new SIM card won't work, because the phone will still identify itself to the network with its IMEI number.
I never saw any report on how sucessfull this was, however. I can imagine that in a lot of cases the owner didn't even know it was stolen (if they bought it second hand)...
Anyways, seems like a good way to harass people who use stolen phones.
Cheers,
Costyn.
The Official Steve Ballmer Webpage
press ctrl+alt+del to restart
In SOVIET RUSSIA... erm...NSA AMERICA, the Internet logs onto YOU!
Damn, those Chinese are stupid. Maybe we should just LET them steal all our technology to eliminate all this third-world stupidity.
You have to give it to the China Goverment for coming up with that idea, maybe we could get the US goverment to do it too.
Ring Ring...
Hello, locksmith here.
We saw you bills advertising locksmith service, we can post bills for one half price of the competition. Can we send you a quote?
Yes.
Here it comes...
Open source development is my way of competing with the low-cost programmers in India...
So what if you change your number, So what if you block the police.
THIS IS CHINA!!!! You are not protect from the Government. The phone company is not autonomous (no one is, not even the enterprise zones along the south east coastal areas.
This is not the USA where the police have to work within the rules. This is MAINLAND CHINA kids, ive been there a lot and can tell you the following:
#1 if you got the clout you can get anything done
#2 if the police (read government) decides your a problem, you can kiss it goodbye!
#3 You cant block the police/govt over there with your silly little 900 / 3 blocking DIPSHITS!!! they already offer 100% censorship (this includes phone systems)
As it is so painfully obvious, that most of you NIMRODS have never been over there, had you, you would understand very cleary why CHINA is NOT the USA!!!...
And actually this will probably work VERY well for China!
-- two credits for a telecommunications violation of the Verbal Morality Act.
Mod Karma -1: I sed bad wurds. If I cep my mouf shut, I wud be at riyses.
Busting someone for drugs earns the department all the cash and assets of the person. Busting someone for hit and run gets them nothing but paperwork, and the expense of dealing with it.
All Troll + "offtopic" mods are meta moderated as "Unfair", because you abused the system.
Given the number of people they're spamming, the police could potentially set up 1000 lines or more to call from.
Talk about your distopias!
This is great! I have always been annoyed that I've never had a good time when I call one of those numbers that say "For a good time, call...."
Whoa. Could this be the solution to email spam as well? Calling, emailing (spam the spammer), DDOS-ing the link back to spamming client?
Well, hey, I didn't spend all those years playing Dungeons and Dragons and not learn a little something about courage.
tanks vewy much
It makes a penis look tiny in comparison.
Speak for yourself.
This would be great if implimented in the US against spam email. Set up a 'honeypot' email account, then spam-bomb the destination email address. Its like stealing from theives!
Manipulate the moderator system! Mod someone as "overrated" today.
And then he got BOOED OFF THE STAGE. That was GREAT. I loved that.
Back in the good ol days officers of the law had discression when it came to interpretation of the law. When I was a youngin and was caught blowing up the neighbors mailbox I wasn't made a posterchild for federal anti-blowing-up-stuff ads like today. I was repermanded by a 7 foot tall ogre with a gun and a badge. I stopped blowing up mailboxes reeeeal fast.
China's police figured out that jail and fines arent the way to stop most crime. It's all about the psychological punishment of having your phone ring untill your brain explodes. Hopefully more law enforcement agencies will catch on to the use of psycho-enforcement. (yey I coined another buzzword)
-bb
PRINT "Signature line broken."
GOTO 1
{man walks into police station}
Man: Hello, I've come to turn myself in.
Policeman: {starts laughing}
Man: No really, I have. I feel all dirty and stuff.
Policeman: {points at man, and starts laughing again}
Man: Stop it! Stop it!!
Policeman: {Regains breath. Tries to speak, and starts laughing again}
Man: What's so funny?
Policeman: Get out.
THE END
I doubt someone would actually turn themself in from spamming, so they ought to call and say:
Hello. I have seen your advertisements and would like to learn more about your products/services since I think there is a high potential of purchasing at a large volume. Please meet me at (location) at (date/time).
Then the police nab them at the location.
I do something similar to Spammers that have a contact form on their web site.
Proof of concept code contained within.
Ace
Combine this with cellphone GPS/tower triangulation location methods, and some hypersonic sound and you could probably spam the person using the cellphone, as well as the phone itself.
I better check and make sure my tinfoil hat doesn't have any holes!
While this policy didn't seem to be having a discernable effect in HCMC, we didn't see the advertisements (at least not to the same degree) in other large cities (specifically Da Nang, Hue and Hanoi).
To Whom It May Concern,
This is a wonderful idea. Where can we sign up for your product? We'd like to use it for proper enforcement of the DMCA and Patriot laws, respectively.
Sincerely,
Disney and John Ashcroft
Then all the Chinese police would have to do is post their cell phone #, and there would be free spamming from the /. effect!
What does this do to the cellular phone networks? If I ran the verizon network, I'd be really glad to have a bunch of pissed off chinese commie gestapo guys /.'ing me 24/7.
But there is another kind of evil that we must fear most... and that is the indifference of good men.
You are the failure. Suck my ass bitchtits.
A lot of people are complaining that none of these people would actually turn themselves in (obviously). So let's take advantage of their greed. Send them a single message saying, "Congratulations, you won --insert trip/money/etc--. Meet us at --insert location-- to pick up your prize." Now all you do is set up a fake award place and when you take them to the back room, you arrest em...problem solved. I saw this done on some TV show that demonstrated techniques cops used to safely arrest people who have violated their parole.
Support a great indie game: http://www.abaddon360.com
Don't know status of japenese law, but wouldn't this be illegal under US law because you are costing them money by calling them every 20 seconds?
What does one cow say to the other? Moo.
Damn, why didn't Bush think of this. He could have kept calling Saddam
as an indian programmer, i must admit that i find your sig offensive. >> Open source development is my way of >> competing with the low-cost programmers in >> India
The main technique is to concatinate the first syllable of each word or phrase. Like "SoMa" meaning "South Manhattan in English.
The counter-example is to wade through Mao's political writings. Never has so much (words) said so little. He uses lots of four-syllable words (two is the average).
...and less sophisticated.
Those who prefer to change their "poisoned" number rather than face punishment incur the fees and inconvenience of switching, and also lose any business their ad might have generated.
This is an interesting statement to be made against spam in general. Those who get spammed incessently have to incur all of the costs, and either suffer through it (as most people do), or lose the revenue/contacts that have the old "poisoned" address.
I think from this point on, I am going to call my addresses that receive 20+ spams a day "poisoned" addresses. Because that is basically what they are.
~ kjrose
While this might happen in a Communist regime like China, the US Constitution prohibits "Cruel and Unusual Punishments" which this clearly is. I am deeply shocked by this clear violation of human rights.
The idea is taht there are numerous ads placed around china on little cards that have people's phone numbers on them. they are illegial, but probably only the equivilient of a class c misdemeanour in america. However, they are becoming quite an eyesore. So in order to fix the problem, they are goign to enter in the phone numbers into a database, and have computers call them and leave a message once every 20 seconds asking them to turn themselves in. this will force them to eithier 1) turn themselves in to get the cops to stop calling them, or 2) get a new number, which involves cancelling thier current cell phone contract, since its now useless.Hopefully it will put an end to all the ads.
There are two major products that come out of Berkeley: LSD and UNIX. We don't believe this to be a coincidence.
1) Place an ad for a very popular and call intensive business and list the mark's number as it's contact number.
2) Place an ad as a woman in many personals sites. Submit the mark's number to contact.
3) Use an automated online dialer to call banks of pager numbers, and enter the mark's number.
Your truthfulness humors me.
She called the number..
Girl answers: Who this?
Phone owner: This is so and so, who's this?
Girl: You mean that (*&^'s car we bussed in?
click.
Okay, so if its an individual, clearly things will be figured out early on.
However, what if its a competing business? If someone calls up XYZ company and says, "I saw your ad, I'd like to buy some of your things.." I'm sure the business in question will be more than happy to oblige them. Is there anything else that could be done to demonstrate that they didn't put the signs up in the first place?
I suppose its the same question in the US without a phone number. Say you print a bunch of stickers with your competition's name on them, then put them in places that are obviously vandalizing, like car windshields. Does the business get in trouble?
-Zipwow
I don't know which is more depressing, that 2/3 didn't care enough to vote, or that 1/2 of those that did are crazy.
I gotta say, this is a beautiful thing. Someone plasters the town with useless shit, and their phone gets spammed relentlessly. Doesn't get any better than that. The phrase, "You asked for it asshole" comes to mind. Now if only this could work on telemarketurds.
Soooo... cops are less inclinded to 'bust' people when there's no money in it for them?
Wicked.
*spark spark*
puuuuffffffffff
*cough* I love cops... *cough*
If Jesus wants me it knows where to find me.
Chinese water torture gone hi-tech.
Can you hear me now? .......Good.
500 times a day. Not much different than the cell phone commercials we get bombarded with on a daily basis.
It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men. -Frederick Douglass
What's stopping the "businessmen" from getting a new mobile phone? Would this not solve the problem?
-Dae
"Alle reden vom wetter. Wir nicht." - SDS Sozialistischer Deutscher Studentenbund.
j00 4r3 3n73r1ng l337 w0r1d.
Fight fire with fire!
Although I wonder - how long does it take to get them on the list of people to spam? Example: If a spammer posts his ads up on monday and then decides to change his phone number the following monday will he still be able to be bothered BEFORE he can change it?
Ave Molech Setting
Like, the bad behaving people would have their number posted on slashdot. Now THAT would be slashdotting !
...if you ever dislike someone, report his phone stolen.
Why would the cops let you know what number they're calling from? You can only block numbers if your phone company tells you what number it is.
...are doing that.
Maybe your lights are not timed correctly (i.e. not to MUTCD standards).
Maybe there is something wrong with the intersection (e.g. a lane ends) or drivers are distracted by something (e.g. merging into another lane).
Actually fixing the problem would be much more effective than sending out tickets. But of course it's less profitable, so it's rarely done.
a good use for spam has been found. who would've thought?
"The only normal people are the ones you don't know very well."
as an indian programmer, i must admit that i find your sig offensive. >> Open source development is my way of >> competing with the low-cost programmers in >> India
Grow up.
-Bill
-Bill
If there were someone that I was not too fond of, I'd put up some illegal advertisements with *their* mobile phone numbers.
Hello, this is Bill .NET intitiative uses...O OOOOOOOOOOO!
*slight static**Hello, _Mr or Mrs. Bill Gatees_, this is a reminder of your friendly authorities*
Ummm, its Gates, G, A, T...
*It has come to our attention that your software is sold not on the basis of quality and efficiency but through manipulation of the sheepish masses and equally sheepish decision makers.*
Look, if this is about those Halloween papers, I can explain... you see I have this ferret...
*It is also known that your software causes millions in lost annual revenue and is a playground for both virus and cracker alike. Your policy of taking existing or emerging standards and adjusting them so that no choice is available to the user, administrator or developer goes against the innovative nature of the USA.*
Well, you see we at Microsoft call that "embrace and extend." By focusing the majority of our energies upon marketing and legal we are able to put just the right spin... I mean "angular momentum" upon the issues people never knew they were interested in. Furthermore, our latest
*_Mr. or Mrs. Gatees*, you are hereby ordered to, for the first time in your history to actually INNOVATE and come up with SOLUTIONS that people and business needs and by playing in this wonderful game of Free Market Capitalism you increase both the wealth and productivity/output of the nation and thus increase prosperity for not just our great nation but the whole world*
Ummm, did I mention I am the richest man in the world. Logically I am thus right in everything I have done, or at least more than anyone else before.
*slight pause**Bitch, please**slight pause**that is illogical and proves that not only must you not be the best to be the richest but you prove how stupid people are that blindly support you when you kick them**slight pause**As I was saying...*
HEY! You responded to my speech, this isn't just a recording. You use speech recognition and lexical parsing... and it works! Who wrote you and your underlying system environment?
**HAAAHAAAHAAAHAAA***Obvsiously not anyone you employ**Ahem**As I was droning, you are hereby ordered to actually compete by having a superior product, not tricky advertising, shady deals or hypocritical patent lawsuits. If you wish to live off the fruits of our society and economy than you too must till the soil and grow your own orchards instead of buying up some farms and burning the rest. You will be spammed with this message at an increasing frequency up to and to include once every 5 minutes if you do not begin to compete in the marketplace.*
You have no idea what you are suggesting. How will you enforce this?
*By first eliminating the government mandated monopolies of your software inside the government and eliminating those who obviously have no business making purchasing or architecture decisions in the government and contracting arenas. Then the natural order of thigns will progress, resulting in your worst nightmare... an informed and quality conscious minded consumer base.*
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
*HAAHAAHAAHAA**I love my thread execution space* (job, btw)
I seek not only to follow in the footsteps of the men of old, I seek the things they sought.
A firing squad would be a more permanent solution to stop the spammer (although John Edwards might start channelling penis enlargements and Nigerians - "I'm picking up something about money. Do you have a rich relative in Africa who died...")
What is the inverse of the Matrix?
but-what-are-they-doing-with-the-organs-dept
Was this meant to be facetious? It only comes
across as offensive and in bad taste...
Couldnt the "businessmen" just pay their provider to filter out such calls?
Where I post game reviews, my PSP backgrounds, podca
Open source development is my way of competing with the low-cost programmers in India...
can anyone actually confirm that this is taking place as described in the article? I have a hard time believing anything coming from the Chinese press, and this just sounds like a cover for the government to nail whomever's cell phone they'd like.
ôó
Ah! So... it seems they have found chinks in the armor of these phone schemes?
My blog can kick your blog's ass
I think the police solved this problem by photographing both the license plate and the driver-- the photo of the driver can be compared to an existing photo of the registered owner. If they match, ticket time...
Actually, at least here in san diego, that's not the case at all. Many intersections have red-light cameras that just photograph the license plate. The argument is, regardless of who is driving, the person who registers it is responsible for the car. In other places, you can get out of the ticket with a sworn affadavit that you weren't driving at that time
The cameras here were stopped, but that was due to a totally different legal issue. There were some cameras that were claimed to be timed improperly, such that non-offenders were being caught. This blew up into a legal & PR nightmare and the cameras got switched off & as far as I know, haven't been turned back on yet.
-Ted
-=-=- Quantum physics - the dreams stuff are made of.
Um, in that makb3th version, they ask you to actually carry your mobile phone to the show.
__
Men with no respect for life must never be allowed to control the ultimate instruments of death.
GW Bu
Tough shit. Pay everyone in India US union scale and the snide remarks will stop. And by the way, despite the seeming bent of laws and lawsuits, there is no condtitutional right to go through life unoffended.
Now besides quotas, how do you explain the asshole cops that ticket people for going 2mph over the speed limit. More paperwork right?
The law breaks you.
I'm not sure about cell, but my caller ID here *always* displays the number... Just sometimes, it doesn't include a name (or the right name for that matter).
Ack!
that they could get around this. A lot of phones have a blacklist facility, so callers with certain CLIDs (or unlisted ones. for that matter) could just be re-routed. For instance, my cheapie Ericsson allows "?" wildcard placeholders in listed numbers, so it could filter whole ranges of numbers. It wouldn't take long for the authorities to run out of money. That's assuming, of course, that China is pretty much like the rest of the world in that it's the caller who pays for the call.
Turn the phone on -> be spammed by police and have your minutes wasted.
Do you have to pay to RECEIVE calls in the USA?
The idea seems completely unnatural to me, although it fits in with the glorification of money and greed.
Living in China's first experiment in capitalism,Shenzhen, i see these advertisments EVERYWHERE. They cover the bus route maps, they litter the walls, they are on top of advertisments, and they are written on every wall in this city. It is pathetic. On one wall i saw at least 200 numbers and advertisments, there was no description of what the number was for just a 1389292038 type of number. I thought it was for migrant workers to get work, but i guess its for more decpitive means. Spamming the numbers is a great idea because they spend money every time they answer the phone in China. Come to Hong Kong and take teh KCR over to Shenzhen to witness this eyesore.
Uh..you pay money for that ticket.
Did you really need me to say that?
Mess Stuff Up
BEEP BEEP!
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns999 92461
P.S. Has anybody ever gotten into trouble for abusing a cell phone jerk in a theatre? What is the penalty for 3rd degree public service, anyway?
Why do I have this? I don't smoke.
Yeah, that would be actually be a very viable solution, as in China, cell phone numbers are literally sold cheaply by the dozens by people sitting on the street, holding pieces of paper with the numbers that they offer on them.
Usually, no names are tied with these phone numbers, and that just makes it much easier for people to change them, effectively rendering this inscentive kinda useless.
Nah, that's very insightful, but in China, all the cell phones are in a single "area code" followed by a 8 digit number. It's impossible to tie a 900 number to a cell phone.
Make sure you have your browser cache set to zero and also add a ?randomfoo to the end of the url so the page does not get cached at the ISP level
I think that's the way it works - not owning a cell myself, I couldn't say for sure though.
Ack!
... for a while now, I think I can say that they had better spend the money somewhere else.
China is a relatively safe place, but that's only because there are so many people. It's almost impossible to do anything here without half the town knowing about it.
However, the traffic police, food and health-inspection people are only two of the many organisations who could use some more money to buy some real equipment or to just be able to pay their employees a decent salary.
The Chinese government and it's workers prefer investing a lot of money in things they don't really need but look good (what will improve their carreer), instead of investing in those important matters an outsider won't notice.
I don't mind the phonenumbers on the walls (yes, there are lots of them). I do mind health-inspection being neglected.
They've run some experiments sending SMS's(Short Message System) to stolen mobile phones. One every 3 minuttes. Apparently far fewer phones are being stolen now :)
If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating
business men in the p.r.c.? chairman mao must be turning over in his grave.
They're probably already talking on their cell phone while running lights.
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
They use IMEI nr's now and are very successfull
Sig (appended to the end of comments I post, 54 chars)
"Our attitude with TCP/IP is, `Hey, we'll do it, but don't make a big
system, because we can't fix it if it breaks -- nobody can.'"
"TCP/IP is OK if you've got a little informal club, and it doesn't make
any difference if it takes a while to fix it."
-- Ken Olson, in Digital News, 1988
- this post brought to you by the Automated Last Post Generator...