Wall of text crits me. I die. Lol...i thought i was loquacious!
Again, though, I have to disagree. Any document generated by a government agency that is not subject to national security restrictions or classified can be demanded via FOIA. That inclues these maps. Said agency is entitled to a "reasonable fee" to cover the reproduction/distribution costs. It does not cost $20 per TIFF to save them to CD/DVD and they're not entitled to SELL the data for any reason (including to re-coup costs).
Those maps created for "in house" use are still created by a government institution. Whether internally or on contract (i.e. gov't subcontracted the work out) they were paid for with public funds. Those documents, therefore, are PUBLIC. A government office is not a legal entity (i.e. person or corporation) can not hold copyright. The assessor herself can not hold copyright to this information as 1) she did not pay for it and 2) it's not hers. It's their job to create these maps and they're not being created FOR seneca. They're being created because they're necessary for government use. Before Seneca requested them, the maps still existed. I could have walked in and requested to see them. I could have requested copies too.
I don't believe Seneca technologies misled the judge. I feel they ARE legally entitled to this information. What I'm not sure of, is what they can do with the data afterwards. I don't know if they can outright sell the data or sell a... call it a mini-search engine with a copy of the data provided free or for a nominal reproduction charge. That's a different issue though and related, but not directly relevant to the judge's ruling.
I addressed your point - they can not sell this data to recoup the costs of generating it in the first place.
Let me repeat that: They can not sell this data. By law, it MUST be freely available to the public.
If their budget is insufficient to create the data in the first place then their budget needs to be addressed. The government must function regardless of 'sales income'. Generating revenue from "sales" is dubious at best, illegal at worst. To directly answer your question - no. Revenue from private or commercial sales (which are illegal) should NOT be used to fund production. Besides which, tax rolls and maps have to be generated even if no one requests them. They're needed by the town/county/state for assessing property taxes.
And further, corporations pay taxes. Taxes that pay for gov't functions (such as assessing and documenting taxes) so they're just as entitled as you or I.
In general insurance companies, lawyers and the like don't complain about these fees. Why? Because 1) they can write it of as expense and 2) they do the same thing when someone wants their documents so they don't want to rock the boat.
Sorry but I think you misunderstand. This information is public domain because the creation and gathering is paid for with PUBLIC FUNDS (aka taxes). The local gov't (or anyone else for that matter) can not SELL this information. The charge is a 'copying fee' meant to cover the cost of...well copying. They're not recouping costs on anything else (or technically they should not be as it's not legal to do so)
Personally I think things like 'copy fees' are yet another example of the failure of gov't in the US. Maybe when "xeroxing" something was complicated, tedious and expensive it might have warrented $0.25--$1 per page. Now with massive high-speed copiers (ha, often from xerox too!) and bulk sheet feeders the time and cost to copy 1000's of pages is minimal. Heck, even the medium-duty copiers we lease at work cost something at or under $0.01 per page. That lawyers, townships, or similar can charge, 25c, $1, or $8 PER PAGE for the 'expense' of copying is insanity.
TBH I didn't read your entire post. I do want to comment on one bit thought:
"This is about loss of per-copy income to the particular clerk's office from providing copies of official documents and plat maps. (Which will still have to be paid for if a "certified" copy is needed for court proceedings, etc..) The clerk will just have to raise the cost of the copies made to offset the losses or raise some other tax or fee to offset the loss (such as filing fees). "
For the most part, doing that would be illegal. The fee charged i suspposed to cover labor, copying cost, mailing, etc. and ONLY those services. As these documents are public domain the office is giving them away - not charging for the information. This is why they were forced to hand over all the maps fo $20, not $167K or whatever. If they're receiving income from providing these documents then they're operating outside of the law to being with. Raising the fees to compensate for fewer requests to maintain income won't fly. Or, at a minimum,will result in another losing lawsuit and at worst buy someone a corruption charge.
12 digit change-montly lower+upper+number+ symbol passwords written on sticky notes (or similar) for 75% of users and freely shared due to complete lack of security training
or
6 character passwords that only prohibit patters and the username from being used changed every 6 months that people know not to write down or share?
Ok, so my initial thought about hydrogen having a low energy density than JetA was wrong (3 google) but the intent behind it is right.
Hydrogen PER KILOGRAM has 2 or 3 times the energy density of JetA. Liquified Hydrogen BY VOLUME has about 1/4 the energy density of JetA. Add in the weight overhead of of cryogenic storage + insulation and I question the legitimacy of their statement.
Is it me or does this represent a step backwards? "old-school" ISPs used to be metered either by time or bandwidth (remember AOL's 'premium' areas?). They moved away from that as the demand grew and market pressure was for greater use.
Market pressure hasn't changed it's trending in the slightest. While a casual internet used might have checked webmail and the weather in the past, that same user is surving youtube for entertainment and printing dozens of 1+MB photos via an online service now. Casual use can VERY easily mean 100's of MB per month (I can do that in one sitting) and has nothing to do with file sharing or so-called 'illegal' activity. Honestly, let TW go this path. Eventually cost-benefit and PR pressure will fix their error.
The internet of the future (tm) isn't focused on metered usage. It's focued on audio and video and total immersion. WoW and it's 7million (or whatever) users now have real-time voice chat. That's no small undertaking. Web-based movie delivery and so on. Now, you want to meter me and charge for data that's fine. But that per-GB charge better include licensing and whatnot for whatever i download then!
This is basically the same thing as sprint "firing" it's worst customers a few months back. Remind me again what that did for their PR?
If you can quantify it, I can duplicate it. You did not.
Vibrations that you physically feel? That's still sound, just pehaps out of your hearing range (though most speakers don't do much outside of audible ranges). I can duplicate it.
Saying music sounds better because of an arbritrary connection you had with the video is like saying that $400 wooden knob makes music sound better because it cost you more.
The government has no business performing security checks on passengers.
If passengers wish secure flights, the airlines will provide security checks, different airlines might even offer different security levels to cater from the person in a rush to the paranoid.
Actually this is an amazingly good idea. Let the airlines do whatever screening they want. They pay for it. If their screenign fails, they or their insurance pays for damages/loss of life.
I bet you the risk and cost/benefit analysis strongly favors little to no security screen. Someone else will open a high security airline, charge more...have armed security on the plane.
Forget all that. I'm interested in music and want to study the differences between many different songs to try to determine what makes songs suck.
Or i love to sing. I intent to embark on a self-study of singing and regurlarly work on my own abilities. Anyone who questions this can stand outside the bathroom while i shower.
As for the amount of music I might procure for this, that's entirely arbritrary. Even if someone obviously has far more than they need for a given project it is *obviously* just a case of resource mis-management. You've never worked on a project that had far too many or too few of something? That's bad business but hardly a crime:)
The frequency response curve from a 500 and 5000$ speaker is going to be DIFFERENT. You (meaning anyone) can argue till they turn blue which is "better" but "better" is entirely arbritrary once you stop trying to exactly reproduce sound. Sound freaks will go on and on about warmth (and a ton of other adjectives that really have nothing to do with music) but can not actually quantify what "warmth" is.
If someone actually ever decides what the "perfect sound" is then i guarantee i can replicate it digitally.
Exactly. In the past I've made an effort to build a proces, document things, and get tedious/repetitive tasks off my plate. Did that make me redundant and cost me my job? No. It got bonus/promotion in the best case and at least an attaboy.
If your job consists of doing something simple and/or repetative and you're the only one tho can do it because you're the only one who knows how...you job is already in jeopardy. Someone like me will eventually come in, simplify it and hand off to a lower paid person than you.
It's the creative work...creating things/processes/documentation/ideas that get paid well. Manually pulling complex SQL queries that are pretty much the same every time will only last so long before a mid-level developer with something to proves writes a simple front-end and makes you pretty useless.
Which is why I don't give PP my bank account info. They can have every credit card number of mine (which is more than a few) but the ACH has significantly different rules that do more to protect the bank than the consumer - especially compared to credit cards. It's actually surprizing how much power a consumer has when using his/her CC. Most people have no idea. FWIW i don't know the details of the ACH rules, just inferring them from use/interaction and an ex GF that was in banking.
Did you know that a merchant *can not* ask to see ID if you use a visa or MC unless it's unsigned? They also *can not* have a minimum purchase. There's also a half dozen things they either must or must not do or you can issue a chargeback which they will have to eat - even if the service or goods provided were all hunkey dorey. Look up the merchant agreements for V/MC some time:)
HAHA i agree. In fact i almost filed a suit in local (NY) small claims court against PP recently. Luckily i badgered them enough to get a "courtest refund" of the ~$200 they took away from me.
I'd love to see how they'd attempt to collect that penalty charge? Debit my PP account? ROFL
Oh but you're wrong. Something most certainly WILL stop it. Preferably the innards of an enemy ship/plane/bunker/missle/etc. In a pinch the ground or ocean will do well enough too.
My only thought is how far does the projectile travel before it drops significantly in speed from air friction. Since air friction increases at the cube of speed i'd imagine there are some diminishing returns on moderate to long range projectiles. Your mach 8+ high-lethality envelope might be...10 or 20 miles (i'm not about to do the math).
Oh please. The next law they'll pass is requiring registration for housing any hazardous or radioactive substance in any quantity. So they'll get buried under another flood for the same smoke detectors:P
And before anyone says smoke detectors are entirely safe, have only a tiny amount of americum (spelling) and pose no threat keep in mind that someone used smoke detectors as a source to make other radioactive material and wound up irradiating himself and his garage to the point that it had to be dismantled and disposed of as Hazmat.
That's actually worse than anything i've heard of people doing with geiger counters (other than looking like they're from a bad 80's movie).
Your source? The containment vessel was never breached.
Keep in mind that living near a nuclear plant does slightly elevate background radiation levels. They're negligable and way below any worries about safe exposure levels.
Also radiation intensity falls off with the cube of distance. If someone a mile away got exposed as you say then those close to the reactor vessel got substantially more. Perhaps my information is wrong, i'm curious to hear.
I agree though, even if they were exposed to direct 'chest x-ray' levels of radiation once (or twice or 5 times really) that's still not a danger. Coal plants emit more radiation in normal operation + soot + CO2 + NOx + +++
Analogies...are painful and overused (and yes i'm using one below). I question the accuracy of the one used but the underlying point is dead on.
If *I* break into someone's house, steal their jewlry and rape their cat I'm still afforded due process and the ability to plead my case before a judge. Paypal/ebay OTOH are the arbitrary investigators, judge, jury, and prison warden. You're then left chasing them down begging and pleading to overturn your sentence if you feel that it's wrong or unfair.
To make it worse, the PP TOS specifically prohibits an actual trial/court case. You "agree" to binding arbitration in their local jurisdiction and non in-person (i.e. phone/fax/email/mail) arguments. If memory serves there's even a penalty clause if you file a lawsuit (and/or file one outside of their jurisdiction - such as in your own) and they have to show up. How is this even vaugely legal? I love our court system.
Another example of big business >>> individual person. Pretty much no one is big enough to bring a useful lawsuit against PP/ebay to fix this mess. The exception is the lawyer looking to make his/her name and get a pay day. Still doesn't help the little guy.
They don't. But, as someone else mentioned the paypal TOS say they can basically take whatever money out of your PP account at will to cover whatever, whenever, at their discretion with no limits and your only recourse is binding arbitration. PP sucks. I hate them. They act like a bank with no limits, no rules, no recourse.
That said, the solution to dealing with PP is simple. Never *ever* leave money in your PP account. Either don't link it to a bank account or use one with little to no money in it. Preferably link to your credit card - one with very friendly rules about reversing charges. PP will wipe out your account and push you negative... but they're not going to get any money from your credit card. 'Blanket authorizations' are specifically prohibited by Visa/MC. You can not agree via PP TOS to allow them to hold your credit card as arbitrary security.
I'm not advocating knowingly using the mule scams to actually make money - that's fraud and illegal.
Just like the penny stock scam emails seem utterly stupid to me. But pump-and-dump makes money for those doing it so they continue.
Every time i sell something on criags list i get at least one or two emails offering a random amount MORE than my posting price. Most even offer to pay for the item to be picked up and shipped. They're all obvious scams but if some people didn't fall for them then the scammers wouldn't bother.
There's nothing intrinsically safe about anything with a power output in the 1GWe range:)
Then again crossing the street isn't particularly safe. It's funny. People look to mitigate risk from the.0000000000000001% scenario before the double-digit scenario.
Slashdot Mirror
Wall of text crits me. I die. Lol...i thought i was loquacious!
... call it a mini-search engine with a copy of the data provided free or for a nominal reproduction charge. That's a different issue though and related, but not directly relevant to the judge's ruling.
Again, though, I have to disagree. Any document generated by a government agency that is not subject to national security restrictions or classified can be demanded via FOIA. That inclues these maps. Said agency is entitled to a "reasonable fee" to cover the reproduction/distribution costs. It does not cost $20 per TIFF to save them to CD/DVD and they're not entitled to SELL the data for any reason (including to re-coup costs).
Those maps created for "in house" use are still created by a government institution. Whether internally or on contract (i.e. gov't subcontracted the work out) they were paid for with public funds. Those documents, therefore, are PUBLIC. A government office is not a legal entity (i.e. person or corporation) can not hold copyright. The assessor herself can not hold copyright to this information as 1) she did not pay for it and 2) it's not hers. It's their job to create these maps and they're not being created FOR seneca. They're being created because they're necessary for government use. Before Seneca requested them, the maps still existed. I could have walked in and requested to see them. I could have requested copies too.
I don't believe Seneca technologies misled the judge. I feel they ARE legally entitled to this information. What I'm not sure of, is what they can do with the data afterwards. I don't know if they can outright sell the data or sell a
I addressed your point - they can not sell this data to recoup the costs of generating it in the first place.
Let me repeat that: They can not sell this data. By law, it MUST be freely available to the public.
If their budget is insufficient to create the data in the first place then their budget needs to be addressed. The government must function regardless of 'sales income'. Generating revenue from "sales" is dubious at best, illegal at worst. To directly answer your question - no. Revenue from private or commercial sales (which are illegal) should NOT be used to fund production. Besides which, tax rolls and maps have to be generated even if no one requests them. They're needed by the town/county/state for assessing property taxes.
And further, corporations pay taxes. Taxes that pay for gov't functions (such as assessing and documenting taxes) so they're just as entitled as you or I.
In general insurance companies, lawyers and the like don't complain about these fees. Why? Because 1) they can write it of as expense and 2) they do the same thing when someone wants their documents so they don't want to rock the boat.
Sorry but I think you misunderstand. This information is public domain because the creation and gathering is paid for with PUBLIC FUNDS (aka taxes). The local gov't (or anyone else for that matter) can not SELL this information. The charge is a 'copying fee' meant to cover the cost of...well copying. They're not recouping costs on anything else (or technically they should not be as it's not legal to do so)
Personally I think things like 'copy fees' are yet another example of the failure of gov't in the US. Maybe when "xeroxing" something was complicated, tedious and expensive it might have warrented $0.25--$1 per page. Now with massive high-speed copiers (ha, often from xerox too!) and bulk sheet feeders the time and cost to copy 1000's of pages is minimal. Heck, even the medium-duty copiers we lease at work cost something at or under $0.01 per page. That lawyers, townships, or similar can charge, 25c, $1, or $8 PER PAGE for the 'expense' of copying is insanity.
TBH I didn't read your entire post. I do want to comment on one bit thought:
,will result in another losing lawsuit and at worst buy someone a corruption charge.
"This is about loss of per-copy income to the particular clerk's office from providing copies of official documents and plat maps. (Which will still have to be paid for if a "certified" copy is needed for court proceedings, etc..) The clerk will just have to raise the cost of the copies made to offset the losses or raise some other tax or fee to offset the loss (such as filing fees). "
For the most part, doing that would be illegal. The fee charged i suspposed to cover labor, copying cost, mailing, etc. and ONLY those services. As these documents are public domain the office is giving them away - not charging for the information. This is why they were forced to hand over all the maps fo $20, not $167K or whatever. If they're receiving income from providing these documents then they're operating outside of the law to being with. Raising the fees to compensate for fewer requests to maintain income won't fly. Or, at a minimum
And just to keep in line with the ruling, the judge called the blogger Crude, Immature and Hyperbolic.
And yes, I know what i wrote. You didn't get the joke perhaps?
What's more secure?
12 digit change-montly lower+upper+number+ symbol passwords written on sticky notes (or similar) for 75% of users and freely shared due to complete lack of security training
or
6 character passwords that only prohibit patters and the username from being used changed every 6 months that people know not to write down or share?
Ok, so my initial thought about hydrogen having a low energy density than JetA was wrong (3 google) but the intent behind it is right.
Hydrogen PER KILOGRAM has 2 or 3 times the energy density of JetA. Liquified Hydrogen BY VOLUME has about 1/4 the energy density of JetA. Add in the weight overhead of of cryogenic storage + insulation and I question the legitimacy of their statement.
Is it me or does this represent a step backwards? "old-school" ISPs used to be metered either by time or bandwidth (remember AOL's 'premium' areas?). They moved away from that as the demand grew and market pressure was for greater use.
Market pressure hasn't changed it's trending in the slightest. While a casual internet used might have checked webmail and the weather in the past, that same user is surving youtube for entertainment and printing dozens of 1+MB photos via an online service now. Casual use can VERY easily mean 100's of MB per month (I can do that in one sitting) and has nothing to do with file sharing or so-called 'illegal' activity. Honestly, let TW go this path. Eventually cost-benefit and PR pressure will fix their error.
The internet of the future (tm) isn't focused on metered usage. It's focued on audio and video and total immersion. WoW and it's 7million (or whatever) users now have real-time voice chat. That's no small undertaking. Web-based movie delivery and so on. Now, you want to meter me and charge for data that's fine. But that per-GB charge better include licensing and whatnot for whatever i download then!
This is basically the same thing as sprint "firing" it's worst customers a few months back. Remind me again what that did for their PR?
If you can quantify it, I can duplicate it. You did not.
Vibrations that you physically feel? That's still sound, just pehaps out of your hearing range (though most speakers don't do much outside of audible ranges). I can duplicate it.
Saying music sounds better because of an arbritrary connection you had with the video is like saying that $400 wooden knob makes music sound better because it cost you more.
Actually this is an amazingly good idea. Let the airlines do whatever screening they want. They pay for it. If their screenign fails, they or their insurance pays for damages/loss of life.
I bet you the risk and cost/benefit analysis strongly favors little to no security screen. Someone else will open a high security airline, charge more...have armed security on the plane.
I'm going to wear exploding underwear next time i travel. I'd *LOVE* to see how the TSA handles that one
Go one step further. How many planes have been hijacked *ever*
Is this because of
1) security measures or
2) any other arbritrary reason
Forget all that. I'm interested in music and want to study the differences between many different songs to try to determine what makes songs suck.
:)
Or i love to sing. I intent to embark on a self-study of singing and regurlarly work on my own abilities. Anyone who questions this can stand outside the bathroom while i shower.
As for the amount of music I might procure for this, that's entirely arbritrary. Even if someone obviously has far more than they need for a given project it is *obviously* just a case of resource mis-management. You've never worked on a project that had far too many or too few of something? That's bad business but hardly a crime
And to take it a step further:
The frequency response curve from a 500 and 5000$ speaker is going to be DIFFERENT. You (meaning anyone) can argue till they turn blue which is "better" but "better" is entirely arbritrary once you stop trying to exactly reproduce sound. Sound freaks will go on and on about warmth (and a ton of other adjectives that really have nothing to do with music) but can not actually quantify what "warmth" is.
If someone actually ever decides what the "perfect sound" is then i guarantee i can replicate it digitally.
Exactly. In the past I've made an effort to build a proces, document things, and get tedious/repetitive tasks off my plate. Did that make me redundant and cost me my job? No. It got bonus/promotion in the best case and at least an attaboy.
If your job consists of doing something simple and/or repetative and you're the only one tho can do it because you're the only one who knows how...you job is already in jeopardy. Someone like me will eventually come in, simplify it and hand off to a lower paid person than you.
It's the creative work...creating things/processes/documentation/ideas that get paid well. Manually pulling complex SQL queries that are pretty much the same every time will only last so long before a mid-level developer with something to proves writes a simple front-end and makes you pretty useless.
Which is why I don't give PP my bank account info. They can have every credit card number of mine (which is more than a few) but the ACH has significantly different rules that do more to protect the bank than the consumer - especially compared to credit cards. It's actually surprizing how much power a consumer has when using his/her CC. Most people have no idea. FWIW i don't know the details of the ACH rules, just inferring them from use/interaction and an ex GF that was in banking.
:)
Did you know that a merchant *can not* ask to see ID if you use a visa or MC unless it's unsigned? They also *can not* have a minimum purchase. There's also a half dozen things they either must or must not do or you can issue a chargeback which they will have to eat - even if the service or goods provided were all hunkey dorey. Look up the merchant agreements for V/MC some time
HAHA i agree. In fact i almost filed a suit in local (NY) small claims court against PP recently. Luckily i badgered them enough to get a "courtest refund" of the ~$200 they took away from me.
I'd love to see how they'd attempt to collect that penalty charge? Debit my PP account? ROFL
Oh but you're wrong. Something most certainly WILL stop it. Preferably the innards of an enemy ship/plane/bunker/missle/etc. In a pinch the ground or ocean will do well enough too.
My only thought is how far does the projectile travel before it drops significantly in speed from air friction. Since air friction increases at the cube of speed i'd imagine there are some diminishing returns on moderate to long range projectiles. Your mach 8+ high-lethality envelope might be...10 or 20 miles (i'm not about to do the math).
Oh please. The next law they'll pass is requiring registration for housing any hazardous or radioactive substance in any quantity. So they'll get buried under another flood for the same smoke detectors :P
And before anyone says smoke detectors are entirely safe, have only a tiny amount of americum (spelling) and pose no threat keep in mind that someone used smoke detectors as a source to make other radioactive material and wound up irradiating himself and his garage to the point that it had to be dismantled and disposed of as Hazmat.
That's actually worse than anything i've heard of people doing with geiger counters (other than looking like they're from a bad 80's movie).
Your source? The containment vessel was never breached.
Keep in mind that living near a nuclear plant does slightly elevate background radiation levels. They're negligable and way below any worries about safe exposure levels.
Also radiation intensity falls off with the cube of distance. If someone a mile away got exposed as you say then those close to the reactor vessel got substantially more. Perhaps my information is wrong, i'm curious to hear.
I agree though, even if they were exposed to direct 'chest x-ray' levels of radiation once (or twice or 5 times really) that's still not a danger. Coal plants emit more radiation in normal operation + soot + CO2 + NOx + +++
Analogies...are painful and overused (and yes i'm using one below). I question the accuracy of the one used but the underlying point is dead on.
If *I* break into someone's house, steal their jewlry and rape their cat I'm still afforded due process and the ability to plead my case before a judge. Paypal/ebay OTOH are the arbitrary investigators, judge, jury, and prison warden. You're then left chasing them down begging and pleading to overturn your sentence if you feel that it's wrong or unfair.
To make it worse, the PP TOS specifically prohibits an actual trial/court case. You "agree" to binding arbitration in their local jurisdiction and non in-person (i.e. phone/fax/email/mail) arguments. If memory serves there's even a penalty clause if you file a lawsuit (and/or file one outside of their jurisdiction - such as in your own) and they have to show up. How is this even vaugely legal? I love our court system.
Another example of big business >>> individual person. Pretty much no one is big enough to bring a useful lawsuit against PP/ebay to fix this mess. The exception is the lawyer looking to make his/her name and get a pay day. Still doesn't help the little guy.
They don't. But, as someone else mentioned the paypal TOS say they can basically take whatever money out of your PP account at will to cover whatever, whenever, at their discretion with no limits and your only recourse is binding arbitration. PP sucks. I hate them. They act like a bank with no limits, no rules, no recourse.
... but they're not going to get any money from your credit card. 'Blanket authorizations' are specifically prohibited by Visa/MC. You can not agree via PP TOS to allow them to hold your credit card as arbitrary security.
That said, the solution to dealing with PP is simple. Never *ever* leave money in your PP account. Either don't link it to a bank account or use one with little to no money in it. Preferably link to your credit card - one with very friendly rules about reversing charges. PP will wipe out your account and push you negative
I'm not advocating knowingly using the mule scams to actually make money - that's fraud and illegal.
If it didn't work... ya know?
Just like the penny stock scam emails seem utterly stupid to me. But pump-and-dump makes money for those doing it so they continue.
Every time i sell something on criags list i get at least one or two emails offering a random amount MORE than my posting price. Most even offer to pay for the item to be picked up and shipped. They're all obvious scams but if some people didn't fall for them then the scammers wouldn't bother.
I just want to know who the idio^^^^Victims are.
There's nothing intrinsically safe about anything with a power output in the 1GWe range :)
.0000000000000001% scenario before the double-digit scenario.
Then again crossing the street isn't particularly safe. It's funny. People look to mitigate risk from the