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User: lil

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  1. Re:How Does OnStar send back info from car to "bas on GMC to Begin Remotely Scanning Cars for Trouble · · Score: 1

    The units have voice rec capability now, have for quite a few years, actually. But the OnStar operators still have the ability to call into the car covertly, for the exact reasons you mention.

  2. Re:How Does OnStar send back info from car to "bas on GMC to Begin Remotely Scanning Cars for Trouble · · Score: 1

    Actually, *Motorola* takes an analog Motorola phone and builds an OnStar unit on top of it. Whether that's better or worse is an exercise left to the reader... You're right though, it's perfectly easy to disable.

  3. Re:No substitute on GMC to Begin Remotely Scanning Cars for Trouble · · Score: 1

    Interestingly the OnStar system doesn't call 911 if the airbags deploy. It calls OnStar's emergency number. Then *they* call 911 or whatever police number they have for that area.

    This has the interesting effect of making OnStar emergency calls the same priority as any other call, where 911 calls get priority on cell systems.

  4. Re:So long as you can turn it off... on GMC to Begin Remotely Scanning Cars for Trouble · · Score: 1

    You can pull out or disconnect the OnStar box and the car will run fine. The little light next to your OnStar buttons (usually on the rearview mirror) will go red, and you will have a OBDII diagnostic trouble code logged, which means the dealer will obviously be able to *tell* that you've done it.

  5. Re:But can it tell on GMC to Begin Remotely Scanning Cars for Trouble · · Score: 1

    Not quite true. There is *usually* a display on the radio, but a covert call which does not display any indication to the occupant is indeed possible. How often they use it, I couldn't say.

  6. Another experience on Schizophrenia Experiences and Suggestions? · · Score: 1

    My mother is schizophrenic. I won't lie to you, it was very hard to live with, and frankly, she was dangerous. She attacked me once when I was a teenager, and she attempted to kill my youngest sister when she was about a year old or so, and also attempted suicide immediately after that.

    For the record, my mother has symptoms of paranoid and disorganized schizophrenias. The disorganized symptoms are the ones that are hardest for me to deal with on a day to day level. She's almost impossible to have a conversation with because she makes horrendous leaps of logic that simply make no sense, like the idea that calculus was responsible for my flunking a couple classes one term in college because "calculus" is another term for a kidney or gallbladder stone. It's pretty hard to keep up with her train of thought. Of course, when you add in the paranoia about people's brains being linked in an 'internet' and people getting raped and attacked over that 'internet', it gets even worse...

    But here's the deal. I'm going to echo what about half the people here are saying: her meds will keep her and the people around her safer. The meds suck. They make some people feel dead inside, and I can understand why people don't want to be on them. I don't know how to make sure she stays on them as long as she needs them. I certainly have no way of controlling my mother.

    All I can really tell you is to talk to her doctors, read up on the disease (schizophrenia.com does seem legit and useful), and do your best to live with your sister as peacefully as possible, for your own sake as well as hers.

  7. Re:OH! MA! GA! on Nokia 6650, Super 3G Phone · · Score: 1

    Please. Just because I said "Oh my god" I'm all of a sudden ditzy? :)

    My point is that WCDMA is 3G. Not that he didn't know what standard UMTS is.

  8. Re:Awesome! Finally, a 3G phone...wait a second... on Nokia 6650, Super 3G Phone · · Score: 2, Informative

    Oh my god. You have no clue do you? WCDMA is the 3GPP standard that UMTS uses. It is certainly 3G. Peak bandwidth of 2 megabits/second qualifies.

  9. Re:! = insurance on Movie Review: John Q · · Score: 1

    hmmm..."socialism bordering on facism". Maybe I don't remember social studies class very well but I'm pretty sure socialism is nowhere near facism on the political spectrum. Socialism is left wing and facism is right wing. I don't think they share a "border" as it were. They're pretty disparate, afaik.

  10. Re:I object to that portrayal on Computer Science vs. Computer Engineering? · · Score: 1

    The original name for the CS department at my school was "Mathematical and Computational Sciences."

    Math *is* a science. Theoretical computer science is a branch of theoretical math. At least that's how I've always seen it.

    People (especially new students) get the science confused with the application. I commend the submitter of this article for having the foresight to ask these questions before he gets to college and figures it out on the fly like I did. :)