The good thing: these pre-selected people go through an old-fashioned, tried and tested metal detector. Much harder to smuggle a knife, hand gun or other small metal weapon through those than it is with the full-body scanners (ref: recent/. stories). Not many weapons or bombs that come metal-free. So this line may even provide better security than those scanners.
Well yes nationality counts - that's given in the article already. Currently only US nationals can apply.
And selection by wealth: not really. Someone who can afford to fly regularly should have no problem paying a one-time US$100 fee. The fact that they can afford to fly regularly means that they belong to the richer part of society. Or that their employer pays, but in that case the person is definitely also one of the higher-paid employees.
I've the feeling that US politicians have less accountability than European politicians. Well save the ones on EU parliament maybe...
And in this committee case, I would expect the votes are not anonymous. So it should be known who voted how. That's at least the normal situation when votes are done - and how voters can know how certain politicians think. I hope the case will roll on a bit, not as much because it's about copyright but for the apparent vote discrepancy. I'd really like to know how that came to be.
A re-vote was requested, immediately when this discrepancy came to light. Which I may assume is the moment the results are given - it's not that hard to add up.
This re-vote was denied however, leaving two important questions open. How come the votes were counted so wrong, with so small numbers? And why was this re-vote denied?
Hold on fellas, you've got it all wrong. Math is different in Europe (they've got their commas and periods all backward in many places), especially when it's attorneys doing the counting. Folks just have to understand this, and fortunately there's a great instructional video available for those in need of further tutelage.
Very true. For a start - we call it Maths
So that's where the vote count went wrong! They were counting plurals where there should be singulars!
Your final option sounds the most reasonable to me. Data integrity is of course paramount in legal examinations: any moment you do something to the phone that does not guaranteed leave the data untouched is an opening for the defense to break your case. And rightly so, I'd say.
From what I've heard before, when a regular hard disk is examined, it is first copied using a special read-only device in between (so guaranteed no change of the data on the disk). Then the data is examined. And the original data is left untouched, so the evidence is there for re-examination later (by either side).
Also I wonder whether phones will allow you to just make a data dump of its storage just by connecting it to USB. My phone just charges when connected, doesn't go into USB drive mode (which afaik still doesn't allow access to the complete storage even, like contacts and so), though I have debug mode on so it does accept certain commands (including installing of apps, and running that app). But if that goes as far as allowing you to do a data dump, I really don't know. And most people will not have debug mode enabled to begin with.
This happens already with diesel oil, specifically red (low taxed) diesel. So resellers have to keep a complete record of who they sell it to, as they're not allowed to sell it for use in private vehicles.
But with a jerry can you can get maybe 20 liters at a time. That's about a quarter tank in a typical car. So you'd need several of them. And you have to poor it in your gas tank later, etc. Also still have a problem when driving in using an unauthorised vehicle (uninsured or so) - as you still get flagged. So you have to arrange a fully legal vehicle to go get the gas that way.
So for most people nothing much will change, except for the invasion of privacy. No more just logging the plates of people passing by at the station, now it's automatically logged in some central database.
Before that tunnel there were ferries. There still are, lots of 'm. For many decades at least it has been routine to have UK cars in mainland Europe and the other way around.
Well first of all I'm not a fanboy of any particular system; and second of all the story all by itself proves that this method is secure enough to cause serious problems for people trained in breaking such devices (I may assume that the forensic analysts are trained). I'm not making that up. And for the smudges: I for one tend to keep the screen of my phone pretty clean and wipe it really often. I hate smudges on my screen. So even if I were using such a lock, not much chance for obvious smudges.
Which means you apply major changes to the phone using unauthorised software (Google nor Samsung et.al. authorise rooted kernels). Info gained from the phone is not likely to be accepted as evidence.
They should have such a mechanism in the form of a factory reset tool.
That's the one and only acceptable such tool. You locked up your phone hard? Well we can recover it but all your personal data is gone and overwritten, and the phone's OS will be restored to the factory default. That prevents your information to fall into the wrong hands if your phone is lost/stolen.
And it's still useful for testing and development. If you really mess it up, then you still have a way out. When testing you won't put valuable information on that phone anyway. But of course it sucks for law enforcement...
Not many people can get convicted on a single piece of evidence. Usually there will be a host of clues all pointing in the same direction, plus some very clear and obvious pieces of evidence linking a person to a crime. Contacts, call history, message history, and other info from a smart phone can be very valuable evidence to unambiguously link a person to other people, for example. And it can give great information on other people involved in the same crime, for example.
So well I can easily imagine that this mobile phone data is key to a conviction. After having many clues pointing at that individual (circumstantial evidence), this information can provide the direct link and hard proof they need to get a hard case.
Person is arrested, his phone seized. How much chance do you think there is they have observed him unlocking the phone? Not too much, I'd say. Unless they've been tailing him from pretty close range for longer time before the arrest, and seizure of the phone.
You may call it "ridiculously insecure" - yet this very story proves that the security of Android devices is actually pretty good. If law enforcement with all their technical knowledge can't get into the phone, then I'd have to call it good security.
The swipe has some 100,000 combinations - that's more than your typical four-digit ATM card PIN code. Which can also be read quite easily over-the-shoulder. Yet it's pretty darn good enough, the number of cards stolen with known PIN codes (without this info being forced from the owner) is small.
If it's indeed http requests then the numbers start to make a little more sense. Especially the 20% from search engine crawlers is a very high number I'd say - considering that there are just a few serious crawlers around, and they won't visit a site every 10 minutes.
Facebook: wins thanks to the social aspect. It's always more fun to win a game from real-life friend, than from a computer. Even playing against strangers is more interesting - that's why I enjoy playing card games on Yahoo, you know there are real humans on the other side of the "table". That alone makes the game much more interesting, even though there are no fancy graphics etc. involved.
Google/Apple's mobile offerings: this are both networked (social) games a-la Facebook, and simple games to kill time while waiting for a bus or on the train heading back home. Games that you can pick up and put down any second, that don't have a huge learning curve, and that don't require much if any investment in time/money.
Wii/Xbox/etc: need you to consciously dedicate time to. Can't be picked up and put down so easily as mobile games. Miss the social aspect in many games. Newer consoles can connect to the network for multi-player, or have a few controls on a single machine - solving that somewhat, but they still have a lack of critical mass. Not just everyone has a Wii like almost everyone has Facebook. And a games console may be good at games, but that's also pretty much all it's good at.
PC games: PC's more common than consoles like a Wii, and are all networked these days. Can do quite well in the networked/social spheres, think Second Life and related games. Yet require the time dedication due to fixed location, time to boot up (not in seconds), etc.
The hardware doesn't matter, the hardware itself is just a tool, and most people couldn't care less about the actual hardware as long as it runs the games they want it to run.
PC price is very hard to compare with all the different processors, motherboards, etc. Those should be about same price here. Phones too (USD 1 = HKD 7.8), roughly same price. Your phone costs are huge - even with an unlimited data plan on 3G I'd not have to pay more than about US$40-50 a month. I don't have a mobile data plan at all.
Clothing prices are similar; food costs more. And a bit fairer may be to compare games to other entertainment.
A music CD, recent release, costs about $120-150 (US$ 15-20). Older releases progressively less. A recent DVD is similar price. VCD version usually half price. Older releases (mostly just as entertaining, if not more) on VCD can be had for $5-10, or $20-30 for DVD. Honestly no idea on the price of computer games! Though likely similar to the US prices, as this are mostly imported titles of course.
While true, even winning this suit would cost the pub a lot of money, and is probably not worth it for them. Not counting the amount of time and effort that's to be spent on it.
Her best line of defense is probably simply publishing the case, and hoping to shame plaintiff into withdrawing the suit.
Nearest stars are light years out indeed. The nearest is something like four light years away.
Assume there are 100,000 planets for our Sun, assume those to be in a four-light-year-radius sphere around us - volume some 270 cubic light years - there are about 400 planets in every cubic light year.
That's when they're evenly distributed, with the Sun's gravity distorting anything. So near to us there will be a much higher concentration of those hypothetical nomadic planets nearer to the Sun.
Halley's comet reaches to about 291 light minutes away from the sun. Nomadic planets must have far greater speeds as otherwise they would be captured by the Sun or another star easily, so having one pass by every couple thousand years is not too much asked. And there is nothing in our recorded history to show for it, nor problems with the orbits of our planets suggesting the passage of such a big body in our history.
Slashdot Mirror
They were not US citizens so don't qualify for this program to begin with. They may or may not qualify for the frequent flier program though.
The good thing: these pre-selected people go through an old-fashioned, tried and tested metal detector. Much harder to smuggle a knife, hand gun or other small metal weapon through those than it is with the full-body scanners (ref: recent /. stories). Not many weapons or bombs that come metal-free. So this line may even provide better security than those scanners.
Well yes nationality counts - that's given in the article already. Currently only US nationals can apply.
And selection by wealth: not really. Someone who can afford to fly regularly should have no problem paying a one-time US$100 fee. The fact that they can afford to fly regularly means that they belong to the richer part of society. Or that their employer pays, but in that case the person is definitely also one of the higher-paid employees.
I've the feeling that US politicians have less accountability than European politicians. Well save the ones on EU parliament maybe...
And in this committee case, I would expect the votes are not anonymous. So it should be known who voted how. That's at least the normal situation when votes are done - and how voters can know how certain politicians think. I hope the case will roll on a bit, not as much because it's about copyright but for the apparent vote discrepancy. I'd really like to know how that came to be.
A re-vote was requested, immediately when this discrepancy came to light. Which I may assume is the moment the results are given - it's not that hard to add up.
This re-vote was denied however, leaving two important questions open. How come the votes were counted so wrong, with so small numbers? And why was this re-vote denied?
Hold on fellas, you've got it all wrong. Math is different in Europe (they've got their commas and periods all backward in many places), especially when it's attorneys doing the counting. Folks just have to understand this, and fortunately there's a great instructional video available for those in need of further tutelage.
Very true. For a start - we call it Maths
So that's where the vote count went wrong! They were counting plurals where there should be singulars!
Your final option sounds the most reasonable to me. Data integrity is of course paramount in legal examinations: any moment you do something to the phone that does not guaranteed leave the data untouched is an opening for the defense to break your case. And rightly so, I'd say.
From what I've heard before, when a regular hard disk is examined, it is first copied using a special read-only device in between (so guaranteed no change of the data on the disk). Then the data is examined. And the original data is left untouched, so the evidence is there for re-examination later (by either side).
Also I wonder whether phones will allow you to just make a data dump of its storage just by connecting it to USB. My phone just charges when connected, doesn't go into USB drive mode (which afaik still doesn't allow access to the complete storage even, like contacts and so), though I have debug mode on so it does accept certain commands (including installing of apps, and running that app). But if that goes as far as allowing you to do a data dump, I really don't know. And most people will not have debug mode enabled to begin with.
This happens already with diesel oil, specifically red (low taxed) diesel. So resellers have to keep a complete record of who they sell it to, as they're not allowed to sell it for use in private vehicles.
They can do just that right now, no difference.
But with a jerry can you can get maybe 20 liters at a time. That's about a quarter tank in a typical car. So you'd need several of them. And you have to poor it in your gas tank later, etc. Also still have a problem when driving in using an unauthorised vehicle (uninsured or so) - as you still get flagged. So you have to arrange a fully legal vehicle to go get the gas that way.
So for most people nothing much will change, except for the invasion of privacy. No more just logging the plates of people passing by at the station, now it's automatically logged in some central database.
Before that tunnel there were ferries. There still are, lots of 'm. For many decades at least it has been routine to have UK cars in mainland Europe and the other way around.
That was an out of court settlement. No final decision by the judge, so we don't know the result if they would have continued the legal action.
Well first of all I'm not a fanboy of any particular system; and second of all the story all by itself proves that this method is secure enough to cause serious problems for people trained in breaking such devices (I may assume that the forensic analysts are trained). I'm not making that up. And for the smudges: I for one tend to keep the screen of my phone pretty clean and wipe it really often. I hate smudges on my screen. So even if I were using such a lock, not much chance for obvious smudges.
Which means you apply major changes to the phone using unauthorised software (Google nor Samsung et.al. authorise rooted kernels). Info gained from the phone is not likely to be accepted as evidence.
They should have such a mechanism in the form of a factory reset tool.
That's the one and only acceptable such tool. You locked up your phone hard? Well we can recover it but all your personal data is gone and overwritten, and the phone's OS will be restored to the factory default. That prevents your information to fall into the wrong hands if your phone is lost/stolen.
And it's still useful for testing and development. If you really mess it up, then you still have a way out. When testing you won't put valuable information on that phone anyway. But of course it sucks for law enforcement...
Not many people can get convicted on a single piece of evidence. Usually there will be a host of clues all pointing in the same direction, plus some very clear and obvious pieces of evidence linking a person to a crime. Contacts, call history, message history, and other info from a smart phone can be very valuable evidence to unambiguously link a person to other people, for example. And it can give great information on other people involved in the same crime, for example.
So well I can easily imagine that this mobile phone data is key to a conviction. After having many clues pointing at that individual (circumstantial evidence), this information can provide the direct link and hard proof they need to get a hard case.
Person is arrested, his phone seized. How much chance do you think there is they have observed him unlocking the phone? Not too much, I'd say. Unless they've been tailing him from pretty close range for longer time before the arrest, and seizure of the phone.
You may call it "ridiculously insecure" - yet this very story proves that the security of Android devices is actually pretty good. If law enforcement with all their technical knowledge can't get into the phone, then I'd have to call it good security.
The swipe has some 100,000 combinations - that's more than your typical four-digit ATM card PIN code. Which can also be read quite easily over-the-shoulder. Yet it's pretty darn good enough, the number of cards stolen with known PIN codes (without this info being forced from the owner) is small.
5-6 million of what? Unit missing.
If it's indeed http requests then the numbers start to make a little more sense. Especially the 20% from search engine crawlers is a very high number I'd say - considering that there are just a few serious crawlers around, and they won't visit a site every 10 minutes.
Pub has clear risk of losing as the whole thing is Tolkien/movie themed. Without approval by the rights holder. It's not just the name.
Facebook: wins thanks to the social aspect. It's always more fun to win a game from real-life friend, than from a computer. Even playing against strangers is more interesting - that's why I enjoy playing card games on Yahoo, you know there are real humans on the other side of the "table". That alone makes the game much more interesting, even though there are no fancy graphics etc. involved.
Google/Apple's mobile offerings: this are both networked (social) games a-la Facebook, and simple games to kill time while waiting for a bus or on the train heading back home. Games that you can pick up and put down any second, that don't have a huge learning curve, and that don't require much if any investment in time/money.
Wii/Xbox/etc: need you to consciously dedicate time to. Can't be picked up and put down so easily as mobile games. Miss the social aspect in many games. Newer consoles can connect to the network for multi-player, or have a few controls on a single machine - solving that somewhat, but they still have a lack of critical mass. Not just everyone has a Wii like almost everyone has Facebook. And a games console may be good at games, but that's also pretty much all it's good at.
PC games: PC's more common than consoles like a Wii, and are all networked these days. Can do quite well in the networked/social spheres, think Second Life and related games. Yet require the time dedication due to fixed location, time to boot up (not in seconds), etc.
The hardware doesn't matter, the hardware itself is just a tool, and most people couldn't care less about the actual hardware as long as it runs the games they want it to run.
PC price is very hard to compare with all the different processors, motherboards, etc. Those should be about same price here. Phones too (USD 1 = HKD 7.8), roughly same price. Your phone costs are huge - even with an unlimited data plan on 3G I'd not have to pay more than about US$40-50 a month. I don't have a mobile data plan at all.
Clothing prices are similar; food costs more. And a bit fairer may be to compare games to other entertainment.
A music CD, recent release, costs about $120-150 (US$ 15-20). Older releases progressively less. A recent DVD is similar price. VCD version usually half price. Older releases (mostly just as entertaining, if not more) on VCD can be had for $5-10, or $20-30 for DVD. Honestly no idea on the price of computer games! Though likely similar to the US prices, as this are mostly imported titles of course.
Not idiots. Not at all. Greedy is what they are.
While true, even winning this suit would cost the pub a lot of money, and is probably not worth it for them. Not counting the amount of time and effort that's to be spent on it.
Her best line of defense is probably simply publishing the case, and hoping to shame plaintiff into withdrawing the suit.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floppy_drive
Nearest stars are light years out indeed. The nearest is something like four light years away.
Assume there are 100,000 planets for our Sun, assume those to be in a four-light-year-radius sphere around us - volume some 270 cubic light years - there are about 400 planets in every cubic light year.
That's when they're evenly distributed, with the Sun's gravity distorting anything. So near to us there will be a much higher concentration of those hypothetical nomadic planets nearer to the Sun.
Halley's comet reaches to about 291 light minutes away from the sun. Nomadic planets must have far greater speeds as otherwise they would be captured by the Sun or another star easily, so having one pass by every couple thousand years is not too much asked. And there is nothing in our recorded history to show for it, nor problems with the orbits of our planets suggesting the passage of such a big body in our history.