When do we as a civilization come to the realization that keeping these genes in the pool will ultimately prevent the evolution of society into anything remotely resembling a peaceful utopia? Wouldn't the greater good outweigh the inhumanity of terminating the genetic line of those that take for themselves at the expense of the majority? Why do we allow ourselves to be taken advantage of by sociopathic individuals over and over again when there is only one viable solution to the litany of these types that pervade our society at every level? Can we just get there already please before we allow them to strip our world of the ability to sustain us as a species?
I wish I could understand why a low user ID seems to be such a bragging right. I kind of understood back in the days of ICQ since a lower number was easier to recall when you would give it out but the slashdot user ID is basically irrelevant isn't it? Or am I missing something?
Who has their router set to allow access to the admin interface from the wan side?
Me. I use Tomato so that I can log in remotely from work and then use WoL to boot my computer, server and NAS remotely in order to access any files I might need but it still allows me to shut my machines down when not needed in order to keep my electricity bill low.
I do however use an 18 digit password that uses mixed-case, numbers and special characters to make the likelihood of a brute force attack being successful to almost nil. I also regularly change my passwords which I know (having been in the IT field for 10 years) that most people do not.
It all comes down to using tried and true security practices in my opinion. If you use simple common sense you can avoid most of these issues outright.
1) Use long passwords with mixed case, numbers and special characters. 2) Change those passwords regularly. 3) Do not use the same password for different site logins. 4) Keep your router firmware up to date (though that would not have helped in this particular case apparently). 5) I would also add that you stay away from installing applications not obtained directly from the software vendor that wrote them (read warez). You have no idea what that copy of Windows XP Super-Ultimate Gold might be installing in addition. 6) Stay away from websites that are heavily laden with nefarious advertising such as porn, etc.
I am merely stating that outside of legal recourse, the alternatives to remove a leader from office would be the "violent" options such as a coup, assassination, etc.
You may call imprisonment a violent action if you will and you would have no trouble arguing that everyone in prison is there against their will, but I think we both knew what I meant by "violent action".
Wrong. Impeachment is the non-violent option given to us to deal with a leader that has violated his oath. The alternative would be a violent action.
Be glad that such a legal measure exists, even if congress does not have the fortitude to use it, nor the media to report on it without fear of reprisal.
Many governments have no such recourse granted by their constitutions.
I carry several cards for local grocery stores though none are linked to me in any way. It's rather simple to ask for the card and application at most stores and state to the cashier that you "are in too big of a hurry to fill it out right now but will gladly mail it in tomorrow" and they will usually let you walk out with the card and application. Guess what? The application goes straight in the bin and the card works just fine "blank" to get you that discount you would otherwise be missing.
I also find that most cashiers have a card they are more than happy to swipe for you if you state you have lost yours or don't have it with you. A possible downside to that however is a few of the stores I most often frequent give you a nice discount coupon on future purchases when you spend a certain dollar amount, which I am sure the cashier is more than happy to use for me on their own gas/grocery purchases.:)
There are a lot more applications that work from a USB key that don't advertise that fact. I will share with you what I currently use on my 1gb USB key and the locations you can download them. Most of these are freeware or relatively cheap shareware. Please help the authors continue their work if you use any of these and make a small donation at their sites if available.
Audacity - http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ This one will run from your key, but it does write to the registry which portable apps should not do. Then again, they don't advertise this as a portable app. Once you use it on a machine and configure it, it will remember your settings on that machine of course. Handy if you are locked down at work from installing software but you need it occasionally.
Miranda - http://www.miranda-im.org/ A powerful and flexible multiprotocol IM client with loads of plugins. Download the zip version for portability.
mIRC - http://www.mirc.com/ Everyones favorite IRC app. Has always been portable.
PortableFileZilla - http://portableapps.com/ Portable FileZilla is the popular FileZilla FTP client packaged as a portable app, so you can take your server list and settings with you.
PortableFirefox - http://portableapps.com/ Portable Firefox is the popular Mozilla Firefox web browser packaged as a portable app, so you can take your bookmarks, extensions and saved passwords with you.
PortableNVU - http://portableapps.com/ Portable NVU is the easy-to-use NVU web editor packaged as a portable app, so you can edit your website on the go.
PortableOpenOffice - http://portableapps.com/ Portable OpenOffice.org is the popular OpenOffice.org office suite -- including a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation tool, drawing package and database -- packaged as a portable app
PortableSunbird - http://portableapps.com/ Portable Sunbird is the handy Mozilla Sunbird calendar and task manager packaged as a portable app, so you can take your calendar and to do list with you.
PortableThunderbird - http://portableapps.com/ Portable Thunderbird is the popular Mozilla Thunderbird email client packaged as a portable app, so you can take your email, address book and account settings with you.
Snippy - http://www.bhelpuri.net/Snippy/ Snippy is a small utility that captures an area of your screen to your clipboard to paste into other applications.
AleJenJes Countdown Timer - http://www.gonebowlin.com/freeware.html It is a simple countdown timer where you enter the starting time in hours, minutes & seconds and it counts down to zero. Not needed often, but handy as can be for those few instances you do need one.
It's just this kind of self-centered thinking that will later require us to draw up a 'Prime Directive' of some sorts too I bet. God knows all the problems THAT will cause down the road.
My bet is Starbuck's will win the bid from NASA. After all, by then they will have reached total market saturation well before 2029 with 3 Starbuck's on every street corner. Thus, the only new untapped market segment would be alien life forms...
I am not aware of any other pc radio tuners that have both AM and FM. Most decent talk radio is uxclusively AM and from the sounds of the people in here, that's what a large percentage are after.
Far be it from me to call B.S. on something before having seen it, but lately hardware manufacturers seem to be relying more and more on "Press Releases" and benchamrks to garner attention, and thus investor money rather than truly innovating as was the norm only a few years back. Tom's hardware got sick of pandering to the hardware companies claims and said they were going to put an end to it.
This reeks of a venture capital marketing strategy to me, but I suppose once the show is over and we see what they have to offer, I might change my mind. At the moment though this press release seems more hype than anything else judging from past experience with Infinium.
Ok, now that all the cockpits have safety doors, one thing I also recall is that they have large fisheye peephole lens to match.
Hear me out...
Maybe, just maybe, the lasers are originating from inside the plane themselves? Perhaps the laser is retaining its cohesion through this "peephole". I mean, if you think about it, how often does somebody notice a laser dot on them? When toying around with one at work, the only times people really consistantly noticed it is when I would point the dot at something in their field of view and in the same direction they are looking (if it is non-transparent). This theory might also gain credence when you realize the direction in which the pilots are facing considering the afore mentioned experience.
Now if only they disclosed WHERE in the cockpit the laser was hitting we could begin to assume whether it was originating from the ground or behind the pilots.
Ultimately, if I had my guess it's the unsupervised little 8 year old shit in 14c that keeps kicking my chair.
Being somewhat of a budding photographer, this has a few things of note to people like myself.
1) This is far cheaper than buying 40 gigs worth of media cards for digital photography.
2) This is much easier to carry into the field than a laptop for offloading pictures in order to continue shooting.
3) Accepting AA batteries means compatability for travel. You won't have to use adapters and remember to plug it in nightly and should you loose the charge in the field, assuming you have batteries with you, you can be back up and dumping pictures in not time.
4) Small and durable metal case. Will fit nicely inside a camera bag and won't be to badly marred if it stepped on, presumably.
I bought something similar but that has a built in compact flash slot called a "Tripper" just for a backpacking vacation to Europe almost two years ago. I came home with nearly 8 gigs of photo's alone, video aside.
Now imagine a professional photo journalist who is shooting hundreds of photos a day on 11 megapixel camera's in Taiwan in the wake of recent events where there is no power to recharge a typical LiIon battery and AA batteries are readily available to keep this unit running to store his photo's. Still think that iPod is going to suffice?
Granted, there are better photo dump solutions out now, this one has the size and AA thing going for it despite its lack of a direct interface with the media card. If only it was available two years ago...
"So you're telling me that they only pretend to pull off these pranks?"
So you are telling us that he only pretended to pull off this prank?
Get over it everyone. It was a clever stunt and if the media was mislead, too bad for them. He didn't force them to whip themselves into a frenzy over this. I can't understand why so many people feel so personally offended at this? I strongly suggest to those who feel personally slighted to do whatever is is you do to calm yourselves down. Take time to turn off your PC, perhaps a glass of warm milk?
Personally, I admire the cleverness of something that suckered in millions of people, yet was so simple!
Ahh wait, I think that might have hit the nail on the head there, SUCKERED in so many people. Well, I guess I can understand your anger then. I suppose nobody likes being made the fool.;)
I can heartedly recommend Miranda to be added to the list if you are so inclined. It is a chat application that works in very much the same way as Trillian, allowing custom plug-ins and skins that is compatible with the majority of the IM networks around today.
http://www.miranda-im.org/
"only about 7 percent of eligible Californians have decided to take Microsoft up on their settlement claims"
Probably because only 7% of Californians actually have legitimate licenses for their Microsoft software.:)
Yes, but then due to spontaneous swamp gas ignitions and the smell of methane seeping into his neighbors homes all the time, his neighbors promptly convinced him revert back to his Lian-Li.
Well, something close was made and produced commercially with the Kenwood label for a couple of years on CD-ROM drives.
Zen Research developed what they called "True-X" technology which was their attemp to help debunk all the ridiculous leap-frog marketing of touted drive speeds which we all know was, at the time, less fact than fiction. Very few drives actually reached their advertised speeds and even fewer could actually sustain those claimed speeds over the entire surface of the disc. "True-X" technology developed by Zen research basically took the one laser and split it into multiple beams that would read different tracks of the disc, effectively keeping transfer rates consistent across the entire disc. Having owned several of them, I can testify to the superior speeds they offered over other typical drives of the day, reliability of the units themselves aside. While they still never seemed to actually sustain their advertised speeds either, they were much closer to actual advertised speeds than everything else on the market, and by a long way!
Old reviews:
http://tech-report.com/reviews/2000q3/kenwood72x/i ndex3.xhttp://geek.com/hwswrev/hardware/cdrom/kw52xcd.htm
Granted all reading and writing was done on one side of the disc, but I wouldn't be surprised if we see that same approach utilized in products in the future since as the ammount of data per disc keeps going up and up, the time taken to read/write that data will as well barring different technical approaches such as your suggested dual head drives. I can speculate at possible reasons why we haven't seen muti-head/sided drives en masse to date, but as I am not in the field, it is just that, speculation. I would imagine that you would effectively almost double the manufacturing costs?
I would see split optical methods as a much more realistic and cost effective solution rather than increasing the number of read/write heads. For all I know though, current drives could already be using variations of this method already, but judging from benchmarks of drives I have owned since, that is highly unlikely as the myth of "claimed" drive speeds seems to just be continuing its legacy of hype and half-truths.
I am but an egg...
Did any of you even bother reading this story? How about those people who moded up these retorts that obviously didn't read the story?
The issue that seems to be overlooked here, is the fact that the company is taking on the role of law enforcement here as well as judge and jury. Since when can a corporation assume the responsibility to enforce the law in the first place? Let alone fining a driver for something nobody witnessed. I am not a constitutional expert by any means but since when can anyone but the government appoint somebody else to uphold and protect the law? This company is in effect taking the legal system out and stepping into its place. The implications of this scare the shit out of me and should you as well.
Also, this technology is still relatively new. For example, the trucking industry has used satellite tracking (ala GPS) for a few years now and while the companies that control such systems (Qualcomm as well as the trucking company) can usually get a pretty decent idea if their drivers are exceeding the speed limit, the technology is in no way proven itself to be reliable enough on which to base a conviction for breaking such laws. Even the Department of Transportation will not issue speeding tickets from satellite tracking information due to the inherent unreliability. I worked in the trucking industry for many years and used such satellite systems to track our drivers. It was not at all uncommon to see a vehicle remain stationary as per the tracking system when in fact the vehicle was actually rolling. Guess what it looks like when the satellite catches up though? You got it. All of a sudden the vehicle has covered a distance in the matter of seconds, thus giving the appearance the vehicle was breaking the speed limit. These blackouts are all to frequent to use this method even as a speculative indicator, let alone a sturdy and precise method to convict somebody beyond a reasonable doubt.
What if other companies start trying to enforce the law using automated methods such as this? What if Microsoft started levying huge fines because they were reasonably confident you were using their software in violation of their license agreement. Should we just let companies become our police instead? Hell, may as well. They seem to be getting more and more say as to what becomes law nowadays compared to the citizens of this country. For our sake, let's hope this story has a happy ending.
Slashdot Mirror
When do we as a civilization come to the realization that keeping these genes in the pool will ultimately prevent the evolution of society into anything remotely resembling a peaceful utopia? Wouldn't the greater good outweigh the inhumanity of terminating the genetic line of those that take for themselves at the expense of the majority? Why do we allow ourselves to be taken advantage of by sociopathic individuals over and over again when there is only one viable solution to the litany of these types that pervade our society at every level? Can we just get there already please before we allow them to strip our world of the ability to sustain us as a species?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
I wish I could understand why a low user ID seems to be such a bragging right. I kind of understood back in the days of ICQ since a lower number was easier to recall when you would give it out but the slashdot user ID is basically irrelevant isn't it? Or am I missing something?
Does not compute. How can I keep a friend in a safety deposit box if I don't have any?
"would die of excess water consumption (anything is a poison given a high enough dose)"
Thanks for clearing that up. Drowning is actually "water poisoning". Roger.
Who has their router set to allow access to the admin interface from the wan side?
Me. I use Tomato so that I can log in remotely from work and then use WoL to boot my computer, server and NAS remotely in order to access any files I might need but it still allows me to shut my machines down when not needed in order to keep my electricity bill low.
I do however use an 18 digit password that uses mixed-case, numbers and special characters to make the likelihood of a brute force attack being successful to almost nil. I also regularly change my passwords which I know (having been in the IT field for 10 years) that most people do not.
It all comes down to using tried and true security practices in my opinion. If you use simple common sense you can avoid most of these issues outright.
1) Use long passwords with mixed case, numbers and special characters.
2) Change those passwords regularly.
3) Do not use the same password for different site logins.
4) Keep your router firmware up to date (though that would not have helped in this particular case apparently).
5) I would also add that you stay away from installing applications not obtained directly from the software vendor that wrote them (read warez). You have no idea what that copy of Windows XP Super-Ultimate Gold might be installing in addition.
6) Stay away from websites that are heavily laden with nefarious advertising such as porn, etc.
Common sense really.
We're going to have to rethink our our plans for Saturn's at mobile home parks.
Fixed.
Please look up the definition of "violent".
I am merely stating that outside of legal recourse, the alternatives to remove a leader from office would be the "violent" options such as a coup, assassination, etc.
You may call imprisonment a violent action if you will and you would have no trouble arguing that everyone in prison is there against their will, but I think we both knew what I meant by "violent action".
Wrong. Impeachment is the non-violent option given to us to deal with a leader that has violated his oath. The alternative would be a violent action.
Be glad that such a legal measure exists, even if congress does not have the fortitude to use it, nor the media to report on it without fear of reprisal.
Many governments have no such recourse granted by their constitutions.
Vizzini: No more rhymes now, I mean it!
Fezzik: Anybody want a peanut?
So what you are saying is you prefer this...
http://content.answers.com/main/content/img/CDE/_PROGMAN.GIF
over this?
http://www.istartedsomething.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/05/iconfactoryvista.jpg
Because if you live in anything like this...
http://www.seeing-stars.com/OC/Julie&CalebMansion(400).jpg
I would love to trade you something like this just so you could be happy.
http://www.shunya.net/Pictures/NorthIndia/BodhGaya/ShantyHouse.jpg
Also open to trading (ex)girlfriends. And do I have one you will love!
I carry several cards for local grocery stores though none are linked to me in any way. It's rather simple to ask for the card and application at most stores and state to the cashier that you "are in too big of a hurry to fill it out right now but will gladly mail it in tomorrow" and they will usually let you walk out with the card and application. Guess what? The application goes straight in the bin and the card works just fine "blank" to get you that discount you would otherwise be missing.
:)
I also find that most cashiers have a card they are more than happy to swipe for you if you state you have lost yours or don't have it with you. A possible downside to that however is a few of the stores I most often frequent give you a nice discount coupon on future purchases when you spend a certain dollar amount, which I am sure the cashier is more than happy to use for me on their own gas/grocery purchases.
There are a lot more applications that work from a USB key that don't advertise that fact. I will share with you what I currently use on my 1gb USB key and the locations you can download them. Most of these are freeware or relatively cheap shareware. Please help the authors continue their work if you use any of these and make a small donation at their sites if available.
Audacity - http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
This one will run from your key, but it does write to the registry which portable apps should not do. Then again, they don't advertise this as a portable app. Once you use it on a machine and configure it, it will remember your settings on that machine of course. Handy if you are locked down at work from installing software but you need it occasionally.
Bulk Rename Utility - http://www.jimwillsher.co.uk/Site/Software/Softwar e_Intro.php
a utility which allows the rapid renaming of files and folders, based upon flexible selection criteria. Download the zip version for portability.
FeedReader - http://www.feedreader.com/
This project is currently dead, but it works from USB wonderfully.
FoxitReader - http://www.foxitsoftware.com/bbs/index.php
A PDF reader that works very quickly (kind of like Adobe used to about 6 years ago).
Miranda - http://www.miranda-im.org/
A powerful and flexible multiprotocol IM client with loads of plugins. Download the zip version for portability.
mIRC - http://www.mirc.com/
Everyones favorite IRC app. Has always been portable.
PortableFileZilla - http://portableapps.com/
Portable FileZilla is the popular FileZilla FTP client packaged as a portable app, so you can take your server list and settings with you.
PortableFirefox - http://portableapps.com/
Portable Firefox is the popular Mozilla Firefox web browser packaged as a portable app, so you can take your bookmarks, extensions and saved passwords with you.
PortableNVU - http://portableapps.com/
Portable NVU is the easy-to-use NVU web editor packaged as a portable app, so you can edit your website on the go.
PortableOpenOffice - http://portableapps.com/
Portable OpenOffice.org is the popular OpenOffice.org office suite -- including a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation tool, drawing package and database -- packaged as a portable app
PortableSunbird - http://portableapps.com/
Portable Sunbird is the handy Mozilla Sunbird calendar and task manager packaged as a portable app, so you can take your calendar and to do list with you.
PortableThunderbird - http://portableapps.com/
Portable Thunderbird is the popular Mozilla Thunderbird email client packaged as a portable app, so you can take your email, address book and account settings with you.
Snippy - http://www.bhelpuri.net/Snippy/
Snippy is a small utility that captures an area of your screen to your clipboard to paste into other applications.
AleJenJes Countdown Timer - http://www.gonebowlin.com/freeware.html
It is a simple countdown timer where you enter the starting time in hours, minutes & seconds and it counts down to zero. Not needed often, but handy as can be for those few instances you do need one.
Unit Conversion Utility - http://www.jimwillsher.co.uk/Site/Software/UCU_Int ro.html
Unit Conversion U
It's just this kind of self-centered thinking that will later require us to draw up a 'Prime Directive' of some sorts too I bet. God knows all the problems THAT will cause down the road.
My bet is Starbuck's will win the bid from NASA. After all, by then they will have reached total market saturation well before 2029 with 3 Starbuck's on every street corner. Thus, the only new untapped market segment would be alien life forms...
Whoop
Two very small reasons actually...
1) A
2) M
I am not aware of any other pc radio tuners that have both AM and FM. Most decent talk radio is uxclusively AM and from the sounds of the people in here, that's what a large percentage are after.
Far be it from me to call B.S. on something before having seen it, but lately hardware manufacturers seem to be relying more and more on "Press Releases" and benchamrks to garner attention, and thus investor money rather than truly innovating as was the norm only a few years back. Tom's hardware got sick of pandering to the hardware companies claims and said they were going to put an end to it.
x .html
http://www4.tomshardware.com/column/20041011/inde
This reeks of a venture capital marketing strategy to me, but I suppose once the show is over and we see what they have to offer, I might change my mind. At the moment though this press release seems more hype than anything else judging from past experience with Infinium.
Ok, now that all the cockpits have safety doors, one thing I also recall is that they have large fisheye peephole lens to match.
Hear me out...
Maybe, just maybe, the lasers are originating from inside the plane themselves? Perhaps the laser is retaining its cohesion through this "peephole". I mean, if you think about it, how often does somebody notice a laser dot on them? When toying around with one at work, the only times people really consistantly noticed it is when I would point the dot at something in their field of view and in the same direction they are looking (if it is non-transparent). This theory might also gain credence when you realize the direction in which the pilots are facing considering the afore mentioned experience.
Now if only they disclosed WHERE in the cockpit the laser was hitting we could begin to assume whether it was originating from the ground or behind the pilots.
Ultimately, if I had my guess it's the unsupervised little 8 year old shit in 14c that keeps kicking my chair.
Being somewhat of a budding photographer, this has a few things of note to people like myself.
1) This is far cheaper than buying 40 gigs worth of media cards for digital photography.
2) This is much easier to carry into the field than a laptop for offloading pictures in order to continue shooting.
3) Accepting AA batteries means compatability for travel. You won't have to use adapters and remember to plug it in nightly and should you loose the charge in the field, assuming you have batteries with you, you can be back up and dumping pictures in not time.
4) Small and durable metal case. Will fit nicely inside a camera bag and won't be to badly marred if it stepped on, presumably.
I bought something similar but that has a built in compact flash slot called a "Tripper" just for a backpacking vacation to Europe almost two years ago. I came home with nearly 8 gigs of photo's alone, video aside.
Now imagine a professional photo journalist who is shooting hundreds of photos a day on 11 megapixel camera's in Taiwan in the wake of recent events where there is no power to recharge a typical LiIon battery and AA batteries are readily available to keep this unit running to store his photo's. Still think that iPod is going to suffice?
Granted, there are better photo dump solutions out now, this one has the size and AA thing going for it despite its lack of a direct interface with the media card. If only it was available two years ago...
"So you're telling me that they only pretend to pull off these pranks?"
;)
So you are telling us that he only pretended to pull off this prank?
Get over it everyone. It was a clever stunt and if the media was mislead, too bad
for them. He didn't force them to whip themselves into a frenzy over this. I can't
understand why so many people feel so personally offended at this? I strongly
suggest to those who feel personally slighted to do whatever is is you do to calm
yourselves down. Take time to turn off your PC, perhaps a glass of warm milk?
Personally, I admire the cleverness of something that suckered in millions of
people, yet was so simple!
Ahh wait, I think that might have hit the nail on the head there, SUCKERED in so
many people. Well, I guess I can understand your anger then. I suppose nobody
likes being made the fool.
I can heartedly recommend Miranda to be added to the list if you are so inclined. It is a chat application that works in very much the same way as Trillian, allowing custom plug-ins and skins that is compatible with the majority of the IM networks around today. http://www.miranda-im.org/
"only about 7 percent of eligible Californians have decided to take Microsoft up on their settlement claims" Probably because only 7% of Californians actually have legitimate licenses for their Microsoft software. :)
Yes, but then due to spontaneous swamp gas ignitions and the smell of methane seeping into his neighbors homes all the time, his neighbors promptly convinced him revert back to his Lian-Li.
Well, something close was made and produced commercially with the Kenwood label for a couple of years on CD-ROM drives. Zen Research developed what they called "True-X" technology which was their attemp to help debunk all the ridiculous leap-frog marketing of touted drive speeds which we all know was, at the time, less fact than fiction. Very few drives actually reached their advertised speeds and even fewer could actually sustain those claimed speeds over the entire surface of the disc. "True-X" technology developed by Zen research basically took the one laser and split it into multiple beams that would read different tracks of the disc, effectively keeping transfer rates consistent across the entire disc. Having owned several of them, I can testify to the superior speeds they offered over other typical drives of the day, reliability of the units themselves aside. While they still never seemed to actually sustain their advertised speeds either, they were much closer to actual advertised speeds than everything else on the market, and by a long way! Old reviews: http://tech-report.com/reviews/2000q3/kenwood72x/i ndex3.x
http://geek.com/hwswrev/hardware/cdrom/kw52xcd.htm
Granted all reading and writing was done on one side of the disc, but I wouldn't be surprised if we see that same approach utilized in products in the future since as the ammount of data per disc keeps going up and up, the time taken to read/write that data will as well barring different technical approaches such as your suggested dual head drives. I can speculate at possible reasons why we haven't seen muti-head/sided drives en masse to date, but as I am not in the field, it is just that, speculation. I would imagine that you would effectively almost double the manufacturing costs?
I would see split optical methods as a much more realistic and cost effective solution rather than increasing the number of read/write heads. For all I know though, current drives could already be using variations of this method already, but judging from benchmarks of drives I have owned since, that is highly unlikely as the myth of "claimed" drive speeds seems to just be continuing its legacy of hype and half-truths.
I am but an egg...
Did any of you even bother reading this story? How about those people who moded up these retorts that obviously didn't read the story?
The issue that seems to be overlooked here, is the fact that the company is taking on the role of law enforcement here as well as judge and jury. Since when can a corporation assume the responsibility to enforce the law in the first place? Let alone fining a driver for something nobody witnessed. I am not a constitutional expert by any means but since when can anyone but the government appoint somebody else to uphold and protect the law? This company is in effect taking the legal system out and stepping into its place. The implications of this scare the shit out of me and should you as well.
Also, this technology is still relatively new. For example, the trucking industry has used satellite tracking (ala GPS) for a few years now and while the companies that control such systems (Qualcomm as well as the trucking company) can usually get a pretty decent idea if their drivers are exceeding the speed limit, the technology is in no way proven itself to be reliable enough on which to base a conviction for breaking such laws. Even the Department of Transportation will not issue speeding tickets from satellite tracking information due to the inherent unreliability. I worked in the trucking industry for many years and used such satellite systems to track our drivers. It was not at all uncommon to see a vehicle remain stationary as per the tracking system when in fact the vehicle was actually rolling. Guess what it looks like when the satellite catches up though? You got it. All of a sudden the vehicle has covered a distance in the matter of seconds, thus giving the appearance the vehicle was breaking the speed limit. These blackouts are all to frequent to use this method even as a speculative indicator, let alone a sturdy and precise method to convict somebody beyond a reasonable doubt.
What if other companies start trying to enforce the law using automated methods such as this? What if Microsoft started levying huge fines because they were reasonably confident you were using their software in violation of their license agreement. Should we just let companies become our police instead? Hell, may as well. They seem to be getting more and more say as to what becomes law nowadays compared to the citizens of this country. For our sake, let's hope this story has a happy ending.
--