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User: bmasel

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  1. Reply to Almost Every Comment on Beware The Campus Police · · Score: 3, Informative

    VA Tech is a State School. Unlike the security department of a private employer, it's Police are State actors. As such, they are indeed constrained by the 4th Amendment, and any parallel language in the State Constitution.

    Justice Scalia, in Krillo, the heat imaging case a year ago, still cites Katz (any relation?) favorably "As Justice Harlans oft-quoted concurrence described it, a Fourth Amendment search occurs when the government violates a subjective expectation of privacy that society recognizes as reasonable."

    Widely accepted professional doctrines of Acedemic Freedom, as benchmarks of social expectations, can thus trump the University's Acceptable Use Policies.

  2. Re:Just use USENET on Alternatives to Yahoo! Groups? · · Score: 2

    MSN just shut down their stoner communities, for "advocacy of illegal acts."

  3. Re:hmm.. on Cuba Bans PC Sales, Greece Bans Video Games · · Score: 2

    "Movies and entertainment are almost nonexistent simply because they cant afford it."


    ...But it's the best place in the world for live music.

  4. How to pay for the clearinghouse on Slashback: Galileo, Backlight, Tariffs · · Score: 2
    An indie label rights clearinghouse. ... So if we can get a website up that will allow indpendent webcasters and small record labels to meet, they could agree that no broadcasting fees will need to be paid.

    They could also agree to a payment schedule lower than the CARP calls for.

  5. Quakers and Amnesty International now Terrorists on New Info-Sharing Regs Make Tracking Easier · · Score: 2
    According to the Denver Police Dept. Rocky Mountain News

    "Barry Leaman-Miller, was identified as a member of the "American Friends Service Committee (criminal extremist G)." He said the Philadelphia-based Quaker group has won the Nobel Peace Prize and "acts in the best tradition of nonviolence."


  6. How the Treaty was bought on Global Cyber Copyright Treaty In Force Today · · Score: 3, Informative
    A Tale of Two Babylons

    by Jeffrey St. Clair and Alexander Cockburn (10/2/96)

    "Last September 12, some 1,500 of Hollywood's most beautiful people mustered at Greenacres, the old Harold Lloyd estate in Beverly Hills, and listened to Barbra Streisand serenade Bill Clinton..."

  7. Closed Source counting software on Elections on the Internet -- Not Any Time Soon · · Score: 2

    All of the commercial vendors of election software are using closed source, running on top of closed source OS. This allows wholesale rigging at either end.

    Just insert a script into next version of Windows: If Date is 11/4/04....

    Here's Industry Standard's coverage of a panel on Internet Voting sponsored by the Freedom Forum during the last Democratic National Convention. My Q&A with election.com CEO Joe Mohen is at the end, tho they missed the closed source issue.


  8. 17 years of abuse, and still running (NEC 8201) on Structural Integrity of Laptops? · · Score: 2

    My 8201-A has over 25,000 hours of runtime and has never needed repairs. The usual bumps and shakes, plus 2 auto accidents and a housefire. (The Mac Centris 650 also survived, tho several connectors needed replaced.) The laptop survived umerous camping trips, including both desert, and winter in the Northwoods. 12-14 hours on 4 AA batteries

    Downsides: Text only display, maximum 1200 baud modem, 128 K RAM (upgraded from 16.)

    These days I only use it for particularly hazardous duty, ie Rainbow Gatherings


  9. Re:unconsitutional? on California City Issues Internet Cafe Moratorium · · Score: 2

    While Indiana's curfew law was struck down on by a Federal Judge on July 3, 2000, the ruling did not say a Constituional curfew law could not be passed with narrower language.


    On Nov. 6, the same Judge preliminarily upheld a modified Curfew statute.


  10. Is Parody Fair Use in Canada? on Canadian Government Controls Online Flag Displays · · Score: 1

    Will Canadian Websites switch to the red Canadabis Leaf flag?

  11. Re:Napster, napster, napster... on Review of Pay Napster · · Score: 1
    I believe I read somewhere that during Napster's heyday, cd sales were at an all-time high. After they shut Napster down, I believe I read that cd sales went into the toilet.

    By the time Napster went down, everyone had what they wanted from the Industry's back catalog.
  12. Apple Hardware Reliabilty on Steve Jobs And The Oh-So-Cool iMac · · Score: 2

    My Centris 650 has over 40,000 hours of runtime, has never had a hardware failure, and I can only recall having to reinstall the OS once.

    The G4 tower has likewise never been in the shop, nearing 5,000 running hours.

  13. Best line at the Conference on The Future of Music Conference · · Score: 2

    This slip of the tongue came from Miles Copeland of Ark 21 records

    "It's not just music. If we don't have strong Intelectual Property Laws, nobody will invent new diseases so they can sell cures for them"

    (sorry, no link. this comes from memory.)

  14. Re:Medicine Factory on U.S. Shuts Down Somalia Internet Access · · Score: 1

    No. That was Sudan

  15. Feingold and Sensenbrenner in Milwaukee this week on Anti-Civil Liberties Legislation Progresses · · Score: 2

    Friday and Saturday at the Wisconsin Academy of Letters and Sciences'
    forum on the Bill of Rights

    Representative James Sensenbrenner (R. WI) chairs the House Judiciary Committee, and will undoubtedly sit on the Conference Committee, which will wrestle out differences between the versions of the Terrorism Act the House and Senate eventually pass.

  16. Re:more effective, perhaps? on Anti-Civil Liberties Legislation Progresses · · Score: 2

    DC Does Not Have Senators
    This message does not apply to the ZIP Code that you entered.
    Curses! Foiled again! You'd think living in DC would make it easier to talk to government..

    Head for their watering holes.

  17. Re: Hemp. on Consumer Hydrogen Fuel Cells · · Score: 2

    The hempcar runs on transesterized seed oil. Particulate emissions are about 1/10th of those produced using conventional diesel fuel in the same engine. The exhaust smells like a deepfryer. Sulfer content is about 1/4th of petro derived diesel fuel. (As biomass is concentrated to petroleum in geologic processes, less of the sulfur is outgassed than the hydrogen)

    Last spring, soy oil prices were below those of pretax deisel fuel for the first time since 1920. Price of vegetable oils is closely related not just to production cost of seeds, but also to the market for the high-protien seed cake from which it is pressed, so while vegetable oil will not replace ALL petroleum in automotive use without driving prices thru the roof, it is a viable replacement for a significant part of the market.

    For fuel, hemp as an oilseed is about equal to sunflower. More relevant to the fuel cell topic, hemp stalk is the champion plant feedstock for methanol production in continental climates (for N America roughly above the Mason-Dixon line.)

  18. This sounds like a Bill of Attainder. on U.S. Treasury Freezes InfoCom Accounts · · Score: 3, Informative
    US Constitution Article I Section 9
    Powers denied the Congress

    No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed.

    Analysis of the Case History of this clause findlaw

    InfoCom Corp., an Internet service provider that was under investigation by federal anti-terrorism agents before the Sept. 11 attacks, received a $250,000 investment in 1993 by Nadia Elashi Marzouk. Her husband, Moussa Abu Marzouk, is deputy of the Hamas political bureau in Syria.

    Marzouk was placed on a Treasury Department list of terrorists in 1995, allowing the government to seize his U.S. assets.

  19. A surefire way to get Facetime with your Rep on Slashdot in Politics? · · Score: 2

    Get on the Ballot to challenge him/her in the Primary.

    Don't be shy, tell reporters that you are running to educate them about you issue. You will likely get at least one face to face debate. They'll ever after recognize your name.

    After I ran against Scot Klug in '96, he never failed to personally return my calls.

  20. 4 They Missed on ClearChannel Plays It Safe · · Score: 2

    "I Don't Wanna Get Drafted" (Frank Zappa)
    "Alice's Restaurant" (Arlo Guthrie)
    "Working for the Clampdown" (Clash)
    "Ain't Gonna Work on Maggie's Farm No More" (Dylan)

    which their DJs should play as they empty their desks.

  21. Corp Slaves Revolt at WMAD on ClearChannel Plays It Safe · · Score: 2

    I fed the Story to WTDY, a locally owned talk station here in Madison, WI, they've been teasing the Competition all morning. Now WMAD, a Clear Channel station, is defying Corporate HQ, and playing banned songs too.

  22. Re:No right to criticize their government? on Preserve Your Rights Online - Act Now · · Score: 2

    A couple years ago I asked a Wisconsin State Senator if he'd sponsor a Medical Marijuana Bill we'd gotten introduced in the Assembly.

    He replied (from memory) that he'd gotten 14 calls about the issue in the previous 3 years, but only 1 from an individual who had actually voted in the previous election. Seems whenever he gets a call or letter, the first thing he does is check the caller's name against the voter list.

    The upshot was that he'd vote for the bill if it eber came up, but would not sponsor unless he was contacted by 300 ACTUAL VOTERS in his district.

    We're up to 120 so far.

  23. Re:This works, try it sometime. on Preserve Your Rights Online - Act Now · · Score: 2

    When i have a message for my representative I watch the Newspapers for notice of appearances, show up, and corner them IN PERSON.

    Trick: Shake their hand, and HANG ON TIL YOU ARE DONE, smiling all the while, so aides and security types remain unaware that they'd rather shake you off.

  24. War is Still Dumb on More Links And Updates On Terrorist Attacks · · Score: 2

    says it all.

  25. Giuliani and Martial Law on Further Updates On Terrorist Attack · · Score: 2

    The mayor was prepared to announce that Habeus Corpus and Freedom of Assembly would be suspended along with the scheduled Primary Election.

    Then an aide reminded him they were already suspended.