Seems to me that the intersection should take a picture of the vehicle using the device... if there aren't flashing lights, send a ticket in the mail
This problem is solved by using a lens over your license place that prevents anything that is not directly behind the car from being able to see the license plate. Or do we make those illegal too? Then some enterprising individual will just put a shade over the license plate that will serve the same purpose. A police car directly behind you will have no problem at all seeing your plate, but a camera 20 feet in the air won't be able to. What then? Make those illegal too? What about recessed bumpers? Where do you stop? Sometimes, new laws aren't the solution to a technological problem.
I think a previous poster had the right idea, whenever an IR blast comes through, change the intersection to a 4 way red. Emergency vehicles can still get through, but it will provide no benefit to someone who is just going to the mall.
I welcome every complete moron that buy's these to use them... just like the police radar jammers.
As with any device that is in a legal grey area, judicious use is the key. Think of these things like stinkbombs in high school. If you are the ONLY one in the room where you use it, it will be more than obvious who is responsible. If you do use it in an auditorium with 500 other students around you, it is much harder to find out who is the culprit.
If you are in a fair sized group of cars, you are pretty safe when using a radar jammer or device to change the traffic signal. Sure it may be illegal, but when the effort required to catch you makes in impractical to do so, the police don't even make the effort. How often does the office football pool get busted?
Why dont we turn our attention to beating the enemy first and then sort out our differences later.
Why trade one for another? In all seriousness. If Apple was in Microsoft's position, do you honestly think that they'd act any differently? Do you think that Red Hat would behave much differently?
Business is always that, business. Businesses are out to make money. You don't maximize your profits by sharing your market. You do every legal thing within your power to dominate it.
If Pepsi could figure out a way to take 50% of Coke's sales in the next 5 years do you doubt that they would do it? If McDonalds could woo a substantial portion of Burger King's customers, do you think that they would hesitate even for a second?
There is no question that Apple is more innovative than Microsoft. There is no doubt that Apple is more willing to cooperate with others than Microsoft is. That is what they have to do because of the position that they're in. There is also no doubt that Apple is a business. When you have shareholders to answer to, being a nice guy isn't always the top priority.
Sorry, but that's totally incorrect. Corporate personhood gives all the same rights to the corp as it would to a regular person, which was the whole point in the first place.
You can own a corporate person. You can not own a human person. Incorporated people have different attributes and therefore different rights than a human person. Can an incorporated person get a driver's license? Can an incorporated person sue for discrimination? Can an incorporated person vote? Become a citizen? Can the police arrest an incorporated person?
Corporate personhood, is not the same as actual personhood.
One thing that has annoyed the piss out of me for years is that people wet their pants at the mention of the words "lawyer" or "lawsuit".
It's one thing if you know your actions are wrong and you settle to avoid taking the loss, but people who are obviously in the right often back down as well out of fear.
The one company that I worked for who had no fear of such things is satellite TV company that I am not going to name. People used to get upset when their service was interrupted, I used to get threatened at least once a week with a lawsuit. Like bumpkins who can't afford to pay their satellite TV bills can pay for a lawyer! The conversations would usually go a little something like this...
Them:You people turned of my satellite! I want this back on NOW, or you'll be hearing from my lawyer!
Us:Ok, sir, I'm just trying to understand you. You're going to sue us, because you didn't pay your bill? Do you honestly think that will work?
Them:Uh, I get paid next friday, can't you give me a little more time?
People have gotten so used to getting what they want when they use that word, they were often shocked when it didn't phase us.
I just wish more people would have the backbone that my former employer did.
Of course the sources will be available but they won't offer an installable distribution for free.
This is the potential pitfall of growing businesses around linux. By necessity, a business is all about profit. I don't begrudge Red Hat for doing what they need to to remain in business. This is why I haven't even considered using their distro since the IPO.
I don't think that most reasonable people dispute that Vernon Howell was among the lowest forms of vermin to ever defile the soil of the US.
That isn't the point of those of us who criticize the government's actions.
It is not a matter for federal law enforcement if someone is molesting children. Has the ATF or FBI ever been to your city to arrest a child molester?
I have been visited by ATF agents in the past, 8 years ago I had two armed ATF agents with "Department of Treasury" badges at my front door because someone fed them inaccurate information about some of my activities. The two gentlemen who came to my home were very professional. They conducted their investigation and in a few hours they discovered that I had broken none of the country's firearms laws, so they left me in peace. I have personal knowledge of how they are supposed to deal with a suspect.
Vernon Howell was known to go jogging in Waco on a regular basis. It would have been very easy to send two or three agents to pick him up on one of those regular jogs. The ATF wanted to make a BIG show of his arrest. "Please new administration, don't cut our budget, we need every dime to protect the country from dangerous people like this. After all, do you think MP5 submachineguns are cheap?"
Their plan backfired on them. It is still contested to this day who fired first. The piece of evidence that would settle that dispute was "lost" be the government. The front doors to the house (I refuse to call it a compound) were LOST by the FBI. The FBI is the most elite law enforcement organization in this country. It looks really suspicious when they "lose" a piece of evidence as important as the frontdoor of the building where several federal law enforcement were killed.
The FBI and ATF lied. They fabricated a report that said that they suspected the Branch Davidians of manufacturing Methanphetimines. The reason for this was so that they could get the US military involved. It is illegal to have the military involved in domestic law enforcement, there is an exemption though for people who manufacture illegal drugs like crank.
So, in the end, even if the Branch Davidians did in fact set fire to their own building the FBI and ATF made enough mistakes to generate enough blame for themselves.
Be it Vernon Howell, Eric Rudolph, Mumia Abu Jamal, Randy Weaver or OJ Simpson, the government has to abide by the RULES. You can not enforce the law by breaking the law.
I think, they have a pretty good system. Not allowing a company to use competitors trademarks to fool the customer looks pretty good, no? Comparative ads are banned in France (like some other countries), only 3rd party company can publish comparative survey... fair, isn't it?
When someone is attempting to mislead the public by misusing another person's reademark is different than using it in a legitimate comparison.
This kind of thing can prevent text ads containing claims like the following "X Office provides very cost effective alternative to Microsoft Office, try our demo today" or "X Gelatin is half the price of Jello gelatin and comes in twice as many flavors" or "The new 2004 Chevrolet X has 40 more horsepower than the Ford Mustang and is $2000 less expensive".
These are all legitimate uses of another company's trademark in an advertisement. To prohibit legitimate uses like the ones above or possibly others that I have not thought of does not seem like the kind of thing a just legal system would allow.
But back around 1900 or so, the Supreme Court managed to grant the rights of personhood to corporations.
I believe that the personhood of corporations has more to do with liability than with rights. For example, if X Corp pollutes your property you can sue them for damages.
X corporation isn't protected from involuntary servitude because the person (flesh and blood or incorporated) who owns it wants it to do something against its will.
If apple ported OSX and its other software to the PC microsoft would be screwed. I don't understand why apple trys to make money off hardware.
I know you're trolling, but I'll go for it anyway.
I have many, MANY issues with Apple. Which is precisely why I haven't bought any of their hardware in over 6 years, but it isn't just about making money. It's also about control.
Right now, Apple only has to support one hardware platform. Since they can control the hardware, they can spend less time diagnosing hardware incompatibilities and spend more time adding features.
Apple has lost the war for the desktop. They can still continue to make money in their niche.
Another thing about the AHRA that I never understood was this, Why didn't DAT take off in Europe and Japan?
Sure the AHRA didn't help, but if the technology had been as grand as it could have been, people not hobbled by an idiotic US law would have been all over it.
For the prosecutors that willfully witheld evidence or exaggerate seriousness of the crimes to get convictions, lets jail them for the same length of time and to the same facilities as their victims.
Not good enough for me. I'm thinking an automatic 20 to life. But, since prosecutors are lawyers and so are the vast majority of those who write our laws, it'll never happen.
Another fun thing was that Tornado initially claimed $300,000 in losses from the incident. This is important because the FBI will not get involved with anything under $50,000. This figure was later reduced (much, much later) to $9,000.
Could Tornado execs be brought up on charges of Obstruction of justice? Lying to and/or misleading the FBI during the course of an investigation could be seen as doing just that.
When stores start to card EVERYONE who comes in to buy an M rated game. I'm almost 30, and I look like it. I got carded when I bought Operation Flashpoint Gold. For God's sake people, it's not like they're selling booze or guns. We're talking about VIDEOGAMES!!!!
If the Chinese can launch a manned space vehicle into orbit, this means that they can drop an ICMB into the middle of downtown LA or NYC.
What happens when and if in the future China's human rights record becomes so abysmal(not far from where it is now) that we revoke MFN trading status? Will they use this new tactical capability to "persuede" us to do more business with them?
research project on the Davidian raid, I don't know I would want to be on the defense side. Not that I think the government was right by killing just about everyone inside, they weren't, but because I don't even want to symbolicaly defend a pedophile.
Have you ever asked yourself why they never accused him of sexually abusing children until more than a month after the start of the Siege?
I have, and the only logical answers are more upsetting than what Vernon (the man most people know as David Koresh) was accused of.
Now, let the wackos come forth with their wild conspiracy theories about how the government killed the Davidians (not Koresh), ignoring the fact that Koresh torched the place,
What do you mean "fact"? That "fact" has been in dispute from the beginning. Sure, they probably did it, but probably doesn't add up to a fact.
The fact that the FBI kept all reporters two or more miles away from the action and cut off negotioations are the reasons why Waco will remain a point of controvery for the rest of our lives.
As far as machines go, automobiles are pretty simple...
Everything except for emissions control systems. Those are a real pain to troubleshoot.
Using the "most of us can't work on our car" thing is about as pointless as people who compare "hard" stuff to programming a VCR. Neither of VCR programming nor automotive work are difficult - they just take a moment to learn,
So true. But I will concede that 20 years ago there were some VCRs that were hard to program. I remember having to do things like "Hold button 1 and button 8 for 4 seconds and when the red record light starts to flash, press button 7 to adjust hour and press button 12 to adjust minute".
I'm quite thankful to be able to quote Ice-T when I say that today "Shit ain't like that!"
However... I'm sure people in the mechanic websites make fun of people like us all the time too because we phuck up our cars all the time.
Um, no. Maybe people like you get made fun of at such websites. For many of us here, the geek mentality extends far beyond the world of computers. I have two vehicles, and I do the vast majority of the work that they need myself.
The things that I can't do, like alignments or transmission repairs, are left to professionals. With my computers, if one of my HDs fails, off to the manufacturer it goes. Same thing.
There is no excuse for undertaking any activity without enough information to complete it.
Slashdot Mirror
What do you mean make them illegal they are illegal in most states (Well in NY at least) technically anything that obscures your plate is illegal.
The lenses are crystal clear. They do not obstruct the plate. They only serve to prevent mechanical cameras from photographing the plate from above.
Seems to me that the intersection should take a picture of the vehicle using the device... if there aren't flashing lights, send a ticket in the mail
This problem is solved by using a lens over your license place that prevents anything that is not directly behind the car from being able to see the license plate. Or do we make those illegal too? Then some enterprising individual will just put a shade over the license plate that will serve the same purpose. A police car directly behind you will have no problem at all seeing your plate, but a camera 20 feet in the air won't be able to. What then? Make those illegal too? What about recessed bumpers? Where do you stop? Sometimes, new laws aren't the solution to a technological problem.
I think a previous poster had the right idea, whenever an IR blast comes through, change the intersection to a 4 way red. Emergency vehicles can still get through, but it will provide no benefit to someone who is just going to the mall.
LK
Passive jammers are not very effective. The FM "chirp" that they mix in with the reflected signal can be screened out by a properly calibrated gun.
LK
I welcome every complete moron that buy's these to use them... just like the police radar jammers.
As with any device that is in a legal grey area, judicious use is the key. Think of these things like stinkbombs in high school. If you are the ONLY one in the room where you use it, it will be more than obvious who is responsible. If you do use it in an auditorium with 500 other students around you, it is much harder to find out who is the culprit.
If you are in a fair sized group of cars, you are pretty safe when using a radar jammer or device to change the traffic signal. Sure it may be illegal, but when the effort required to catch you makes in impractical to do so, the police don't even make the effort. How often does the office football pool get busted?
LK
Why dont we turn our attention to beating the enemy first and then sort out our differences later.
Why trade one for another? In all seriousness. If Apple was in Microsoft's position, do you honestly think that they'd act any differently? Do you think that Red Hat would behave much differently?
Business is always that, business. Businesses are out to make money. You don't maximize your profits by sharing your market. You do every legal thing within your power to dominate it.
If Pepsi could figure out a way to take 50% of Coke's sales in the next 5 years do you doubt that they would do it? If McDonalds could woo a substantial portion of Burger King's customers, do you think that they would hesitate even for a second?
There is no question that Apple is more innovative than Microsoft. There is no doubt that Apple is more willing to cooperate with others than Microsoft is. That is what they have to do because of the position that they're in. There is also no doubt that Apple is a business. When you have shareholders to answer to, being a nice guy isn't always the top priority.
LK
Sorry, but that's totally incorrect. Corporate personhood gives all the same rights to the corp as it would to a regular person, which was the whole point in the first place.
You can own a corporate person. You can not own a human person. Incorporated people have different attributes and therefore different rights than a human person. Can an incorporated person get a driver's license? Can an incorporated person sue for discrimination? Can an incorporated person vote? Become a citizen? Can the police arrest an incorporated person?
Corporate personhood, is not the same as actual personhood.
LK
One thing that has annoyed the piss out of me for years is that people wet their pants at the mention of the words "lawyer" or "lawsuit".
It's one thing if you know your actions are wrong and you settle to avoid taking the loss, but people who are obviously in the right often back down as well out of fear.
The one company that I worked for who had no fear of such things is satellite TV company that I am not going to name. People used to get upset when their service was interrupted, I used to get threatened at least once a week with a lawsuit. Like bumpkins who can't afford to pay their satellite TV bills can pay for a lawyer! The conversations would usually go a little something like this...
Them:You people turned of my satellite! I want this back on NOW, or you'll be hearing from my lawyer!
Us:Ok, sir, I'm just trying to understand you. You're going to sue us, because you didn't pay your bill? Do you honestly think that will work?
Them:Uh, I get paid next friday, can't you give me a little more time?
People have gotten so used to getting what they want when they use that word, they were often shocked when it didn't phase us.
I just wish more people would have the backbone that my former employer did.
LK
Of course the sources will be available but they won't offer an installable distribution for free.
This is the potential pitfall of growing businesses around linux. By necessity, a business is all about profit. I don't begrudge Red Hat for doing what they need to to remain in business. This is why I haven't even considered using their distro since the IPO.
LK
I don't think that most reasonable people dispute that Vernon Howell was among the lowest forms of vermin to ever defile the soil of the US.
That isn't the point of those of us who criticize the government's actions.
It is not a matter for federal law enforcement if someone is molesting children. Has the ATF or FBI ever been to your city to arrest a child molester?
I have been visited by ATF agents in the past, 8 years ago I had two armed ATF agents with "Department of Treasury" badges at my front door because someone fed them inaccurate information about some of my activities. The two gentlemen who came to my home were very professional. They conducted their investigation and in a few hours they discovered that I had broken none of the country's firearms laws, so they left me in peace. I have personal knowledge of how they are supposed to deal with a suspect.
Vernon Howell was known to go jogging in Waco on a regular basis. It would have been very easy to send two or three agents to pick him up on one of those regular jogs. The ATF wanted to make a BIG show of his arrest. "Please new administration, don't cut our budget, we need every dime to protect the country from dangerous people like this. After all, do you think MP5 submachineguns are cheap?"
Their plan backfired on them. It is still contested to this day who fired first. The piece of evidence that would settle that dispute was "lost" be the government. The front doors to the house (I refuse to call it a compound) were LOST by the FBI. The FBI is the most elite law enforcement organization in this country. It looks really suspicious when they "lose" a piece of evidence as important as the frontdoor of the building where several federal law enforcement were killed.
The FBI and ATF lied. They fabricated a report that said that they suspected the Branch Davidians of manufacturing Methanphetimines. The reason for this was so that they could get the US military involved. It is illegal to have the military involved in domestic law enforcement, there is an exemption though for people who manufacture illegal drugs like crank.
So, in the end, even if the Branch Davidians did in fact set fire to their own building the FBI and ATF made enough mistakes to generate enough blame for themselves.
Be it Vernon Howell, Eric Rudolph, Mumia Abu Jamal, Randy Weaver or OJ Simpson, the government has to abide by the RULES. You can not enforce the law by breaking the law.
LK
I think, they have a pretty good system. Not allowing a company to use competitors trademarks to fool the customer looks pretty good, no? Comparative ads are banned in France (like some other countries), only 3rd party company can publish comparative survey... fair, isn't it?
When someone is attempting to mislead the public by misusing another person's reademark is different than using it in a legitimate comparison.
This kind of thing can prevent text ads containing claims like the following "X Office provides very cost effective alternative to Microsoft Office, try our demo today" or "X Gelatin is half the price of Jello gelatin and comes in twice as many flavors" or "The new 2004 Chevrolet X has 40 more horsepower than the Ford Mustang and is $2000 less expensive".
These are all legitimate uses of another company's trademark in an advertisement. To prohibit legitimate uses like the ones above or possibly others that I have not thought of does not seem like the kind of thing a just legal system would allow.
LK
But back around 1900 or so, the Supreme Court managed to grant the rights of personhood to corporations.
I believe that the personhood of corporations has more to do with liability than with rights. For example, if X Corp pollutes your property you can sue them for damages.
X corporation isn't protected from involuntary servitude because the person (flesh and blood or incorporated) who owns it wants it to do something against its will.
LK
that a people with such a rich culture and full past like the French have such a royally f'ed up legal system.
It heartens me to see that there is one out there worst than the one we have here in the US.
LK
If apple ported OSX and its other software to the PC microsoft would be screwed. I don't understand why apple trys to make money off hardware.
I know you're trolling, but I'll go for it anyway.
I have many, MANY issues with Apple. Which is precisely why I haven't bought any of their hardware in over 6 years, but it isn't just about making money. It's also about control.
Right now, Apple only has to support one hardware platform. Since they can control the hardware, they can spend less time diagnosing hardware incompatibilities and spend more time adding features.
Apple has lost the war for the desktop. They can still continue to make money in their niche.
LK
Another thing about the AHRA that I never understood was this, Why didn't DAT take off in Europe and Japan?
Sure the AHRA didn't help, but if the technology had been as grand as it could have been, people not hobbled by an idiotic US law would have been all over it.
LK
It's not a matter of convenience, it touches on our religous and cultural beliefs.
I thought that your religious beliefs mandated that Hebrew be kept sacred by minimizing its mundane usage. Isn't that why Yiddish is so popular?
LK
For the prosecutors that willfully witheld evidence or exaggerate seriousness of the crimes to get convictions, lets jail them for the same length of time and to the same facilities as their victims.
Not good enough for me. I'm thinking an automatic 20 to life. But, since prosecutors are lawyers and so are the vast majority of those who write our laws, it'll never happen.
LK
Another fun thing was that Tornado initially claimed $300,000 in losses from the incident. This is important because the FBI will not get involved with anything under $50,000. This figure was later reduced (much, much later) to $9,000.
Could Tornado execs be brought up on charges of Obstruction of justice? Lying to and/or misleading the FBI during the course of an investigation could be seen as doing just that.
LK
The difference between now and a decade ago is that they now obviously have the technology to accurately deliver a nuclear payload.
LK
When stores start to card EVERYONE who comes in to buy an M rated game. I'm almost 30, and I look like it. I got carded when I bought Operation Flashpoint Gold. For God's sake people, it's not like they're selling booze or guns. We're talking about VIDEOGAMES!!!!
LK
If the Chinese can launch a manned space vehicle into orbit, this means that they can drop an ICMB into the middle of downtown LA or NYC.
What happens when and if in the future China's human rights record becomes so abysmal(not far from where it is now) that we revoke MFN trading status? Will they use this new tactical capability to "persuede" us to do more business with them?
LK
research project on the Davidian raid, I don't know I would want to be on the defense side. Not that I think the government was right by killing just about everyone inside, they weren't, but because I don't even want to symbolicaly defend a pedophile.
Have you ever asked yourself why they never accused him of sexually abusing children until more than a month after the start of the Siege?
I have, and the only logical answers are more upsetting than what Vernon (the man most people know as David Koresh) was accused of.
LK
Now, let the wackos come forth with their wild conspiracy theories about how the government killed the Davidians (not Koresh), ignoring the fact that Koresh torched the place,
What do you mean "fact"? That "fact" has been in dispute from the beginning. Sure, they probably did it, but probably doesn't add up to a fact.
The fact that the FBI kept all reporters two or more miles away from the action and cut off negotioations are the reasons why Waco will remain a point of controvery for the rest of our lives.
LK
As far as machines go, automobiles are pretty simple...
Everything except for emissions control systems. Those are a real pain to troubleshoot.
Using the "most of us can't work on our car" thing is about as pointless as people who compare "hard" stuff to programming a VCR. Neither of VCR programming nor automotive work are difficult - they just take a moment to learn,
So true. But I will concede that 20 years ago there were some VCRs that were hard to program. I remember having to do things like "Hold button 1 and button 8 for 4 seconds and when the red record light starts to flash, press button 7 to adjust hour and press button 12 to adjust minute".
I'm quite thankful to be able to quote Ice-T when I say that today "Shit ain't like that!"
LK
However... I'm sure people in the mechanic websites make fun of people like us all the time too because we phuck up our cars all the time.
Um, no. Maybe people like you get made fun of at such websites. For many of us here, the geek mentality extends far beyond the world of computers. I have two vehicles, and I do the vast majority of the work that they need myself.
The things that I can't do, like alignments or transmission repairs, are left to professionals. With my computers, if one of my HDs fails, off to the manufacturer it goes. Same thing.
There is no excuse for undertaking any activity without enough information to complete it.
LK
I concede, you got me there. I misspelled fascist.
Care to deal with the issue now?
LK