Slashdot Mirror
Cellular Repo Man
LateNiteTV sends in news of a "kill pill" from LM Ericsson AB that a wireless carrier could use to remotely disable a subsidized netbook if the customer doesn't pay the monthly bill or cancels their credit card. "...the Swedish company that makes many of the modems that go into laptops announced Tuesday that its new modem will deal with [the nonpayment] issue by including a feature that's virtually a wireless repo man. If the carrier has the stomach to do so, it can send a signal that completely disables the computer, making it impossible to turn on. ... Laptop makers that use Ericsson modules include LG Electronics Inc., Dell Inc., Toshiba Corp., and Lenovo." The feature could also be used to lock thieves out of the data on a stolen laptop.
We have had several used car lots around here that will basically do the same thing: if you don't make your weekly or monthly payments, they send a signal to a device attached to the starter and the car won't start.
At least with the car, eventually you pay it off so that little cloud is no longer hanging over your head unless some idiot at the lot mistakes you for being in non-payment and kills your starter. With one of these notebooks, you'll always have that threat looming that your notebook will shut down if someone steals your only CC and you have to cancel it or what not at the wrong time in the billing cycle.
One would hope nobody involved would be so draconian but you never know.
A theif could easily take out the hard drive and read it using another device, no? you are locking a theif out of a laptop, not the data within.
If a thief were really after your data, it'd be pretty trivial to remove the hard drive from the laptop, and just have to worry about encryption.
This feature won't help protect your data really, just make laptop itself a paperweight.
Don't sell hardware by tying it to a subscription! You want to provide financing, fine. But stop trying to convince people that a $500 computer should be free, but it makes sense to spend $100/month for a communications link.
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
How much fun will it be when the wireless carrier fires Crazy Stu, the wacky UNIX sysadmin with the penchant for conspiracy theories and bad dental health.
When HR comes around to fire Stu, he leaves his timebomb in place. The one that fires out the kill message to hundreds - nay - thousands of customers - and disables their leased laptops all at once.
What a day that will be.
Presumably, these new netbooks also have a strangely oily layer of orange material inside attached to the remote kill switch.
So whatever you do, don't cut the red wire.
He'll just rip the still beating heart from your chest!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMP2dvGFUlk&fmt=18
-jX
Don't you just love politics? It's like a comedy of errors.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123794137545832713.html
It's real.
A cell tower or anything like that is not required. When dealing with most tote-your-note type lots they have a device that you enter a code in so that it wont deactivate the car. This code is received each time the customer makes payment
This would make a great prank malware target. But the days of fun malware seem to be over, it's all about the Benjamins now...
Caveat Utilitor
that within 5 minutes of the sale of the first such laptop, there will be 1,080,456 web sites with detailed, step by step instructions (with screen shots) on how to disable the feature, and at least ten times as many with instructions on how to physically remove the wireless moden.
And ten seconds after that, every single one of them will be slashdotted.
Never underestimate the depths of motherfuckertude people will sink to in order to get that dollar.
I'm not sure I'm clear on how they want this to work. Is it purely software or will the thing physically interrupt the power supply or will it do something to the BIOS? There's weaknesses and vulnerabilities to all three. Depending on how they do it, you could disable any software solution they use or just boot to Knoppix off a DVD and keep surfing the web and doing whatever :-) And if it's a hardware interrupt, crack it open and get out the soldering iron or hack saw. Or just take out the stupid part that's doing it!
Google's Super Secret Search Algorithm: SELECT @search_results FROM internet WHERE @search_results = 'good'
The list of companies to NOT do business with continues to grow.
Speak with your dollars, refuse to purchase devices from companies that have these modems installed, and these companies will no longer install them. Simple as that.
The next step is legislation that PRECLUDES companies from disabling purchased products, IN ANY WAY, SHAPE OR FORM. Simply put, command-destruct/self-destruct functions should be illegal in ANY product. Legislation wouldn't be needed if everyone KNEW what these asshole companies do, but that is not going to happen since they(the manufacturers/sellers) will ALWAYS try to hide the fact of "limited ownership" until after purchase(and even after)
The RIAA/MPAA will be requiring such a capability as part of any "three-strikes" legislation. That will include felony charges for tampering with the hardware that makes the kill switch possible.
I was under the impression that all cell phones are required to be able to make 911 calls
Apart from the questionable legality, there's the expense (that'd take a cell connection with a monthly charge, or a big ol' broadcast tower)
I'd imagine that insurance companies pay for a chunk of it. Some major auto insurance companies already give a discount to the owner of a car equipped with a LoJack device.
That's a lot of R&D to put into proprietary interfaces when whole-disk encryption with off-the-shelf components is a lot easier to deploy.
Yet Microsoft put the R&D into the Xbox 360 game console's proprietary hard drive interface.
These are NOT cell phones, they are netbooks with cellular data connections.
Then wouldn't all low-cost subnotebooks with cellular data connections be required to be able to make 911 calls over SIP?
In your rush to sell your karma pussy on the street corner of moderation you appear to have confused "thief" and "kidnapper", you bastard imbecuntcile.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
It sounds almost as wonderful as allowing websites to take control of and install software on your computer with Active X, with or without the user's knowledge or consent! Wonderful innovation coming from the minds of our mercantile masters!
Admit it. You post strawman arguments as AC so you get modded Insightful for refuting them, rather than Troll
On the Dell Mini 9 I opened the other day to add RAM, the 3G modem was a miniPCI card.
1. Buy subsidized netbook.
2. Remove miniPCI card modem
3. Cancel credit card
4. Resell netbook at markup.
5. Profit!
A few more steps than the Gnomes, but it works.
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
Yeah because some pimple-faced kid isn't going to get bored and start killing peoples netbooks for fun.
This is an early April Fools day joke right ?
Wanna fight ? Bend over, stick your head up your ass, and fight for air.
Can't wait to see what havoc a script kiddie can cause in Starbucks when he effectively locks half the crowd out of their netbooks...
I also wonder if an individual or corporation could sue Ericsson for lost profits if a disgruntled telco employee shuts everyone's netbooks off.
How about just unhooking the cellular antenna / card so the system can't get the shut off code it's no loss as you are not paying for the data link and getting no data over it anyways.
That's how many of the early devices worked. A former used car sales company known as Nice Cars (which went bankrupt in a huge books-cooking scandal not too long ago) was one of the regional pioneers near where I live.
Nowadays I think some have switched to GPS devices.
imbecuntcile
This almost passes as German...
"They were pure niggers." – Noam Chomsky
Disregarding the lockout factor completely...let's say I buy this netbook for 100 bucks and commit to a two year plan at $60/mo. Without tax that adds up to $1640 over two years, and that's not figuring in depreciation, loss, damage, etc. In the end, I'd be kicking myself in the ass while wishing that I had bought a 300 dollar netbook and used free public wifi (which isn't that hard to find where I live). Not to mention that most of the things that I would do on a netbook (email, IM, social networking) can just as easily be done on a cell phone....which is why I'm confident that these Radio Shack/AT&T subsidized netbooks with shady plans will probably sell like hotcakes.
Riding a bicycle through a few feet of snow just doesn't work for me. Thanks for your input, though.
Tubal-Cain smokes the white owl.
You must be very popular at work, sweatstain...
I've had this exact same problem with Chase. I closed an account with them; a few months later, Virgin Mobile decided to charge me for some pay-as-you-go airtime, despite the fact that I had deleted my CCard info from my Virgin account a while before. Chase honored this transaction and sent me a bill. I had to yell very loudly at both of them.
Tubal-Cain smokes the white owl.
Try managing with a bicycle with 2 kids, $300 trips to Costco, and doctor's appointments. You wouldn't last 1 day on a bike in that scenario... or even the bus slash taxi for that matter.
Camping on quad since 1996.
Not that I'd buy one of these, but suppose, for example, that I do. And suppose, furthermore, that because of some screwup with my bank, or human error (oops, transposed two CC digits!), my bill doesn't get paid.
I'm charging clients $100 an *hour*. If you disable my laptop for even a single 8 hour day, you owe *me* money.
Did they think of that? Did it occur to them that if this functionality *accidentally* gets tripped, the lawsuit could easily erase not just the profit on the modem and the service, but the laptop as well?
Or, to put it another way: why would someone sell a laptop (on contract) to someone who can't afford a cellphone?
The society for a thought-free internet welcomes you.
And I have not called in sick at work for about 25 years!
I would have called in sick every day!
Here in Texas a 20 mile bike ride is not the way to start out the work day, unless you are in the shower business.
--
My parents went to Slashdot and all I got was this lousy sig.
That also means it could constantly drain your battery. Please tell me this is just an option.
That being said, NSFing your account as a result is a bit harsh.
Do it two weeks and you won't sweat any more.
But some of us actually have important things to do and places to be.
An SQL query goes to a bar, walks up to a table and asks, "Mind if I join you?"
oh wait ... this is about cellphones.
Nevermind.
Here in Texas a 20 mile bike ride is not the way to start out the work day, unless you are in the shower business.
All you need is a place to shower at work and a locker room. If you're planning on a 20 mile bike ride to work, then those five minutes for taking a shower and changing into your work clothes shouldn't be a problem.
Funny that. I live in rural Sweden, hilly country studded with trees and frosty in wintertime. I do my shopping in a village about 15 km to the south of here. I have a daughter I bring to 'dagis' (playschool) every day. On a bike. The shopping goes in the trailer, the daughter in the seat on the back. To blindly state that 'you would not last a day on a bike in that scenario' just shows that you are so blindsided by having access to a car that for you that car is the ONLY means of transport. No matter that elsewhere on this planet billions of people get by without having access to cars.
Try it for a change. I realise that the US is not the best country for cyclists but then again neither is Sweden. Still, it is possible, and by using that bike instead of a car you not only save a lot of money and birds and bees and trees and lives but you also get that workout which you now have to pay the fitness center or sports school for. Not to mention the good example you'll give your two kids. Raise them on cars and they'll become just like you - car-dependent. Raise them on bikes and they'll become aware themselves.
--frank[at]unternet.org
You know, the one that says "I agree to pay this account as per my merchant agreement" or words to that effect.
When he changed cards and canceled service, the unauthorized billing was the problem.
Ever cancel a service and still get billed for it? I had this problem with the dead tree edition of the news a while back. They threatened collections. I mentioned for them to provide collections with a copy of the current contract that was established after the cancellation. I never heard from collections, but I did still continue to receive a bill for 6 months. Maybe they hoped I would slip and pay it.
The truth shall set you free!
...and usually those 'important' things aren't really that important when you stop to think about it.
Hell, some people drive a car to the nearest gym, then spend the next hour on the exercise bike...
I would mod you +1 "You're right but nobody that drives to work wants to believe you" if I could.
As someone noted, this isn't fool proof, especially as suggested to protect laptops from companies from theft, that they could get locked up, thereby protecting the company. If the idea is to protect the data, then this alone is ineffective, as the hard drive can be removed and read remotely (if some way to bypass the lockdown isn't found first). Not to mention that since the lockdown likely requires Internet access, a potential data thief simply has to NOT connect the laptop to the Internet. Encryption remains the only viable means of protecting data on devices. It is simple, inexpensive step to take, and yet companies still do not do it. Why would they be looking forward to extra cost added, ineffective features when they don't even use the ones available to them?
Open Source: Eroding the Digital Divide
True, you can always pony up the $200-$300 bucks up front and buy the laptop and sort out the data yourself.
echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
Maryland also holds the title.
Thankfully when I started switching states my car was paid off.
It is not as easy as a Windows virus. GSM phones have had the kill feature since the dawn of GSM. All providers stopped using it after some wholesale phone trader cloned the IMEI number and firmware from a phone in Denmark to about a thousand phones sold in Spain. When the original phone got stolen in Denmark, a thousand people in Spain were wondering why their phone stopped working. After that, ALL providers I know about, abandoned the idea, but the system is still present in every GSM. So, even if it sounds like a good idea at first, reality already proved it wasn't too bright. I'm pretty sure Ericsson made a similar system, wich can only be activated from the network. Up until now, no GSM virus has been able to activate the kill switch, AFAIK. Of course, this doesn't mean it's not possible, just a lot harder than making a Windows virus. And, there's no real incentive. You can't make money that way, and that's the direction all malware seems to be taking lately.
hahah, yeah right. You know canada is big too. As in, It takes me 45 minutes driving to get to school. And that is in the SAME CITY.
Good luck on a bike.
Quartz Extreme and Core Image. Are there any other real reasons to spend all that money on generic hardware?
Ride an electric bike. I commute on one in Phoenix every day, don't have to worry about being sweaty when I get to work (even in our consistently 115f summers), fast enough to make it to your "important" things (faster than city traffic at most times of day), and doesn't burn hydrocarbons for fuel. It's self-absorbed folks like yourself who think their lives are somehow more important than everyone else that are the problem - everyone faces challenges every day, and everyone has deadlines to meet. And let's not even get into the "live locally" discussion - if you have to drive 50 miles one way to get from your home to your place of business, you're doing it wrong. You probably spend more money on fuel in a year just getting to work than I spend on all my electricity (including charging my electric transportation, heating/cooling my house, cooking, slashdotting, etc.) for the same time period.
Before we can decide whether this is good or bad, we really need to know whether Apple are doing it too.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
I like the concept but it just isn't applicable everywhere.
9-10 weeks ago it was -19* F here, before windchill. With wind it was somewhere around -50* F. I live about 20 miles from my office. I'm in fairly good shape, and there is no way I could safely bike that in those temperatures, simply not possible. 8-10" of snow also cause a bit of an issue, especially when one must share the road with cars that cannot safely control themselves, let alone be concerned with my safety.
I love cycling, and at a point in my life used to do a solid 30-40 miles daily. That doesn't mean it's universally practical, though I agree completely that cycling could and should be much better utilized.
Just another ignorant American.
A lot of people up here, in Alaska, do it every winter. They get these huge, fat tires with studs all over them for their bikes and cruise on in to work every day.
Not kidding.
I think they are nuts, but if you layer up properly even -20 isn't so bad...
Security is mostly a superstition... Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. - Helen Keller
By your definition, it's your perfect right to find a merchant who you know batches transactions, charge a nice big ticket purchase to your card, run home, call bank, cancel card, and then because the batch is reconciled later, scream "UNAUTHORIZED!". I think not.
It is VERY DIFFERENT from your second example, which IS unauthorized. In this case, the gas station would have placed a pre-auth on his card for the gas sale, and then reconciled it with an auth later. HE pre-authorized the card charge by using it in the transaction. It wasn't a later transaction that he didn't authorize, it was the same one.
No matter that elsewhere on this planet billions of people get by without having access to cars.
It is not safe to ride where cars are driven. You can make your own decisions about safety. Most places in the US it's tantamount to suicide. There are few bicycle deaths, but that's mostly because the average person does not ride for transportation. If you live a hundred miles from work because it's cheaper then it's fair to say the country is fucked up, but it doesn't change the fact that the bicycle won't help you support your family in that situation.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Even in 100 degree weather with high humidity?
"I'm not sure I like the fugnutish tone you used in your post!" -RogL (608926)-
Now name a single piece of GOOD software that doesn't have an EULA ;)
Is this supposed to imply that no GOOD software is in Debian main or Ubuntu main?
That's what I thought at first (well, not that GP's time isn't worth much, but that GP must spend a lot of time commuting), but presuming that GP is an average cyclist, that's less than an hour commute (one way). I know people who commute by car with longer commute times.
"I'm not sure I like the fugnutish tone you used in your post!" -RogL (608926)-
...To simulate the situation presented earlier, try adding another kid and about 100 lbs worth of groceries to your daily ride and see how far you go.
I think the fact you seemingly require 100lbs+ of Costco crap, where he does not is itself very telling. I do just fine without bulk buying from Costco or WalMart, and can do most grocery trips by bike. Most times a large backpack is enough, though panniers and a rack to hold more helps when I need more than basics. Try more frequent smaller capacity trips. I manage to get by with one ~30min trip (rt, couch to kitchen) a week. It takes far less time than driving the extra distance to the bulk buy facility (Costco, Sams club, etc), wandering around an enormous warehouse trying to find what you need, loading a cart full of crap half of which will spoil before it gets used, loading it all into a car, then unloading and trying to organize it all. The nearest CostCo is at least 10mi away, Safeway is only 2 and doesnt require an annual fee for the privilege of shopping there.
Location and street conditions do play a factor, as I know certain parts of Atlanta would be almost suicidal to ride a bike to the store, though most areas have back road ways of bypassing the major highways.
Im not sure what bike trailer you have seen, but the Bob brand is rated to 70Lbs, and the Burley Nomad can do 100Lbs+ with 8000cu.in capacity. You can also add on a Xtracycle extension to carry your 2 kids (pic of it on their main page: Xtracycle.com). Granted, doing this while living on a Mountain is probably not ideal, but still not impossible.
Support TBI Research: http://www.raisinhope.org
No, then your blood boils
"Raise them on bikes and they'll become aware themselves."
No they won't.
I didn't have a car until age 25, had to bike or rely on rides to get where I was going. I lived in an area with NO public transportation, not even the unreliable crap where I currently live.
Riding a bike sucked. It meant I didn't get to date for the most part. It meant I was sweaty and nasty when I got where I was going. It pretty much ruined my early 20's. Yea I was in pretty good shape, but unless I wanted to date trailer trash I was out of luck.
I learned from that to NEVER ride a bike again now that I have a car. The weather here sucks. It's either to hot by far to commute (or go out and not wind up disgustingly sweaty) or there's thunderstorms. NOt going to ride through THOSE again ever.
Now I work from home. I don't have to worry about commuting (unless I want to work from somewhere else) but I will never again ride a bicycle other than for exercise. It's not safe to do it here, and it's not comfortable. And yea, comfortable is important to me.
So no, raising your kids on bikes will not train them to ride bikes if it's not an area where that's really a reasonable tactic.
Side note, I was recently in England, and if we had buses and trains where I live in the states like what I saw there, I wouldn't own a car.
"Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my Presidency. I'm fucked."; ~ Donald J. Trump
Screw that. A 20 mile bike trip to work is already going to burn to many minutes of my time. When I still worked at an office, I was one of the FEW in the area that had the option to shower, but it didn't have the privacy that I would insist on. No I don't go to gyms, and no I don't dig getting naked with dudes. It's not even close to a scenario that I would accept if I was still commuting. Hell a 20 mile commute in my CAR was longer than I wanted to deal with. I figure a bike is going to wind up being at LEAST 4 times longer, and completely uncomfortable and MUCH more dangerous.
If I lived in Europe, sure. Here in the states, no. Fuck that. I have things to do with my free time. I don't need to fill the entire time up commuting. I sure as fuck don't get PAID for commuting.
"Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my Presidency. I'm fucked."; ~ Donald J. Trump
1) Why would anyone want to waste extra time going back and forth to the supermarket, just so they can carry small loads on their bicycle? It's more efficient to make one trip. Do you think trucks should also be abandoned, and businesses should transport large cargo by motor scooter using many small loads? Yeah, that'd be real efficient.
2) One container of kitty litter weighs 40 pounds. That alone is a single bike trip. Kitty litter doesn't spoil, and neither does most stuff you'd buy at Costco, such as frozen goods. Or do you Europeans have so much money that you can afford to eat out all the time, instead of stocking your kitchens with enough food to feed a family?
I think these ignorant Europeans are completely missing the fact that the weather here in the USA is nothing like the weather in Europe (mild), except in California. Here in Arizona, it's over 100 (F) every day in the summer, and any physician will tell you that exerting yourself in those conditions is extremely unhealthy and a good way to die of heatstroke. In other parts of the country (and in Canada), it's well under 0 (F) for a large part of the year. Again, it's dangerous to be outside for too long in those conditions. In those places, it's routine for frozen corpses to be discovered every spring when the snow melts.
Don't forget that our midwestern states live under constant threat of tornadoes (which are pretty hard to outrun on a bike), our southeast states under threat of hurricanes, and snow storms and ice storms are commonplace on the east coast.
Europe simply doesn't have the weather extremes that the USA does, unless you go someplace like Iceland or northern Scandinavia, and what works there is just foolish to contemplate here.
What we really need here in the USA is a PRT (Personal Rapid Transit) system, such as the SkyTran, where small, automated cars can transport people back and forth to work every day on maglev rails. Roads can be kept around for trucks and the less-frequent car trips for shopping, but the bulk of travel being moved to SkyTran cars would massively reduce the congestion on roads, greatly reducing the need for expensive maintenance, construction (don't need so many freeway lanes now), and medical services for accidents.
Have you experienced winter in the northern United States? Umm... no thanks. By the way, many rural roads here don't have much of a shoulder or sidewalk so good luck in finding a path to ride your bike with all the ice, snow and slush--not to mention 4x4 trucks often have a hard time getting through. You'll walk instead? Oh darn.. forgot about trudging through 18 inches (46 cm) of snow. Oh yea watch out for sliding cars heading in your direction at about.. ooooh.. 45-60 mph (72-97 km/h) zipping by you about 1-2 feet (~0.5 m) off your left shoulder.
You don't live here so you ought not to be making those types of judgments about a place in which you don't live. Switching to a bike is not possible in large parts of USA. That is if you actually want to show up to work or school on time without being soaked in rain, mud, or sweat. Don't forget the sun block in summer--don't wanna get the cancer.
I have an elliptical exercise machine. No thanks.
Maybe the slashmods are right and your comment truly is insightful, but I confess I'm skeptical. What you're selling is nothing more than a fantasy completely disconnected from reality.
Camping on quad since 1996.
Did you read where I live?
--frank[at]unternet.org
Oh, I've been in the US allright... many times, and in many places... hence my comment on it not being the best place to ride a bike. Then again, as I already said, neither is Sweden - you might want to read up about this part of Europe to get an idea of what I'm talking about before you make any comments on what it is like. And as far as selling a fantasy... I don't have anything to sell but have lived in this 'disconnected fantasy' for, well, forever really. So maybe, just maybe you might be a little bit off the mark in that respect? Maybe the US is not all that different from other parts of the world after all? Maybe all those reasons I'm seeing for not hauling your behinds out of the car seat onto a bike saddle are somewhat far-fetched?
And with regards to arriving at work 'soaked in rain, mud or sweat'... The rain is kept out by raingear, as is the mud. The sweat is real and washes off. Take a shower. If there is no shower at your workplace get them to install one. It will make for healthier employees... And if you live more than an hour's ride from your work you might want to see if there is any public transport which can help. If there isn't, OK, in that case you might be stuck to driving that car.
--frank[at]unternet.org
Why would you even think that?
Because they operate over the same network as cell phones. Also because it was already April Fools Day in the UK when I posted.
Self absorbed?
The only person being self absorbed here is yourself it is arrogant pricks like you who think they are better than everyone else that cause problems, not those of us who are going about our daily lives.
"if you have to drive 50 miles one way to get from your home to your place of business, you're doing it wrong."
Excuse me for having a job, 50miles is hardy long distance, the closest I have ever worked to home is probably 40 miles, if you give me the money I will happily buy another house closer to work.
An SQL query goes to a bar, walks up to a table and asks, "Mind if I join you?"
I used to do that in Maine, to get to my friends house.
Sure, it wasn't -20, but -10 through +20 is still pretty damned cold.
With the right gear (a paintball mask, hood, scarf to cover the vents... etc) even sleet was no obstacle. Even if I fell off, there was so much padding I couldn't get hurt! (j/k, but you know)
For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
Good, that is always a good sign!
But you were doing so well just now! Why this sudden relapse?
Anyway, how many tornadoes did you outrun in your car recently? And hurricanes, any luck staying in front of one of those in your holy cow? Ice storms? Snow storms? Soon you'll be telling me about the terrrrrist storms haunting you there way down yonder.
But that is all besides the point. Here in Ye Olde Worlde we might not have all those horrible tornado-hurricanes chasing us up and down the motorways, but you know what? In wintertime it snows here! And in spring and autumn it storms! And it rains! O how it does storm and rain and snow somtimes, meters (that would be yards + 10%) of the stuff. And still... we silly Euro's pedal around on our iron horses through all thay mayhem - and we survive!
Of course I'm not advocating you cycling through Death Valley day in day out. But you know as well as I do that the majority of those driving their Detroit Iron between the sofa and the Costco and the Office are doing that in normal western hemispherical athmospherical conditions.
--frank[at]unternet.org
Again, you show yourself to be a judgmental fool.
Here in Phoenix, every single day I drive to work, for half the year, the temperature outside is over 100F, frequently over 110. Ask any doctor; it is NOT healthy to ride in those conditions. That's a good way to get heatstroke, and people die here every summer from that.
You say it snows there. Whoopee. Does it get down to 40 below (F or C, take your pick) every day? In places like Minnesota, that's perfectly normal. I'd like to see you ride your bike in -40 weather. You could even bring your kids with you on the back, and then figure out how to thaw them out when you get to your destination.
HP and Samsung makes some cheapo lasers that work with Linux, but they run non-Free drivers. [...] The manufacturers save a fair amount of money by moving all the processing to the host, so really only workgroup printers support Postscript in hardware.
Just because they make bitmap printers doesn't mean they can't document the wire interface to print a bitmap. If they did, the free software community could put together a CUPS driver that uses Ghostscript, a GPL interpreter for the PostScript language, and have it run even on a low-cost subnotebook that relies on a USB cellular card for its Internet access. So why don't they?
Tell me, why do you take this so personal? Read again what I wrote: 'you know as well as I do that the majority of those driving their Detroit Iron between the sofa and the Costco and the Office are doing that in normal western hemispherical athmospherical conditions' and see if that rhymes with your descriptions of horrific conditions in either Phoenix or Minnesota. The continental US generally is not exposed to either of those extremes. The majority of drivers drives through weather which their doctors will not complain about. Why bring up the extremes when you know as well as many others that those are not the norm? I can give you some extremes of weather here in Europe which would make your heart boil and your ears freeze off but who cares about those? When it is -40C you won't see me on my bike. When it is +37C you will, but I'll take it slowly. Fortunately neither of those happen all to often, although they do happen sometimes. Generally it is somewhere in between - just like it is in the large majority of the US.
This is not some pissing contest between 'ignorant Europeans' and 'dumb Americans'. It is just a matter of common sense. Throwing around expletives - of the verbal or meteorilogical kind - does not help in any way.
--frank[at]unternet.org