So what if Linux played a role in their server operations. Microsoft was used in all the ways that made the money donated to the project. So once again Linux users talk about "free" when they really mean "provided for by someone else."
Law enforcement can't get day-by-day or hour-by-hour histories of my electricity usage today. This will allow them that option. Of course, they could still use heat sensors or (possibly) add some type of tap to the pole at my hookup, but I could notice those and, again, they can't look back in time if they do.
Criminals can't look at the electricity usage of 1000 houses at once to pick the best one to rob. They have to physically enter the property and walk up to the meter, leaving them exposed for a longer period of time where they can get noticed. They have to actually walk onto my property before they know for sure whether I'm home. And, again, they can't look at my history, where, for example, if I suddenly start using 1kW extra right after Christmas then have dropped off to almost nothing for two days I probably just got a new awesome toy then went away on vacation and can't do that for 1000 homes at once.
And finally, this, again, gives almost nothing to the utilities -- they could instead get fifteen-minute interval data at the block, zip code or substation level instead of house level and get just as much usage out of it. They could not log the data except at a lower granularity both in time and space (they don't need house-by-house 15-minute data -- hourly or 3-hour blocks at the substation level is probably more than enough) and still get as much usage out of logging. And it would be cheaper to log at a substation level instead of a house-by-house level.
House-by-house level the meter only needs to be able to transmit what its current odometer reads and can transmit that in an encrypted format that prevents eavesdropping attacks. That would fulfill the utility's needs at the minimum cost and minimum risk.
Just to clarify a point here. In the US we do have a right to privacy and it is not enshrined in the Constitution or its amendments. The Bill of Rights is not a complete list of all our rights, just a subset. The right to privacy comes from English common law and common sense.
So yes, I can say I have a right to X without it necessarily invoking the Constitution. In this case, people are claiming their right to privacy outweighs the need for the utility company to know at the house-and-quarter-hour level what my electricity usage is.
Incidentally, I agree that my right to privacy trumps their need because they can do exactly what they need to do by reporting my usage monthly and reading on the quarter-hour what my substation is using. They don't need to know what my house is using on the quarter hour and they certainly don't need to log that information where it is subject to misuse, theft or subpoena.
Not quite. RF is well understood. If it's ionizing it's potentially dangerous. It can also be non-ionizing but still cause molecular damage, like low-frequency UV still causes skin cancer. If it's high intensity, like IR heat or a powerful laser it can cause burns. If it causes dielectric heating, like microwaves, it can also burn. Otherwise, like almost all other cases, like cell or cordless phone antenna radiation, it's safe.
Or they can drop an Arduino with a proper antenna in a dead-drop spike and retrieve it later after eavesdropping for a month or two. No stakeout necessary.
Laws controlling data access will always have carve-outs for law enforcement and are ineffective against criminals. Those are the most individually devastating ways data can be misused.
They can do that at the zip code or block level. They don't need to do that at the house level. Put another way, you talk about megawatts of generation not kilowatts so why do they need to know about kilowatt or watt level differences at the house level?
You can black out all your windows and add sound proofing if you wanted to prevent leakage of that information, however. In theory the utility guys could go over to your place every fifteen minutes to check your meter, but that's not quite feasible to do on a wide scale and they don't do that by default. With smart meters automatically logging this information at that granularity they can, on a wide scale, look at a wide number of people's data. Or, more relevant to most people who worry about these things, the police can go subpoena the logs for a neighborhood and then pick out a target from that. With only monthly data they would have less information.
What are you talking about? Win7 is far better than Vista. It's quite comparable to XP SP3/XP x64, both of which were rather stable and neither of which were infected by a virus while under the watch of Microsoft's own security suite which actually is capable of staying out of your way when you need it to.
Yes, but here in the English-speaking world we're able to verbify nouns and nounify verbs. These actions are a valid extension of our language "rules". (More of a guideline, really.)
Are you a lawyer in every state in the union? Is refusal/always/ the better option?
In Massachusetts, refusal is a mandatory and immediate 180 day license suspension for a first offense whereas a plea bargain may end up with a 30 day suspension and the option for a "hardship" license that still allows you to drive to and from work from 7AM to 7PM.
incompetent sound engineers that think that dialog should be much quieter than every other sound in the movie
TVs and sound systems definitely need dynamic range compression settings. I'm glad that VLC finally has it, but that really just means torrented movies give me even more benefits over streaming services...
Slashdot Mirror
Come on, everyone knows that taxes destroy wealth. They don't create it. Try to troll harder next time.
What is a research grant but a donation from the people that actually make money and provide a real service to the world?
So what if Linux played a role in their server operations. Microsoft was used in all the ways that made the money donated to the project. So once again Linux users talk about "free" when they really mean "provided for by someone else."
We actually have some laws and rules about it. I suggest we start there.
So do 31% of the manufacture in the USA and 30%, 30% and 9% in China, India and Taiwan? "Manufactured in the USA."
Law enforcement can't get day-by-day or hour-by-hour histories of my electricity usage today. This will allow them that option. Of course, they could still use heat sensors or (possibly) add some type of tap to the pole at my hookup, but I could notice those and, again, they can't look back in time if they do.
Criminals can't look at the electricity usage of 1000 houses at once to pick the best one to rob. They have to physically enter the property and walk up to the meter, leaving them exposed for a longer period of time where they can get noticed. They have to actually walk onto my property before they know for sure whether I'm home. And, again, they can't look at my history, where, for example, if I suddenly start using 1kW extra right after Christmas then have dropped off to almost nothing for two days I probably just got a new awesome toy then went away on vacation and can't do that for 1000 homes at once.
And finally, this, again, gives almost nothing to the utilities -- they could instead get fifteen-minute interval data at the block, zip code or substation level instead of house level and get just as much usage out of it. They could not log the data except at a lower granularity both in time and space (they don't need house-by-house 15-minute data -- hourly or 3-hour blocks at the substation level is probably more than enough) and still get as much usage out of logging. And it would be cheaper to log at a substation level instead of a house-by-house level.
House-by-house level the meter only needs to be able to transmit what its current odometer reads and can transmit that in an encrypted format that prevents eavesdropping attacks. That would fulfill the utility's needs at the minimum cost and minimum risk.
Just to clarify a point here. In the US we do have a right to privacy and it is not enshrined in the Constitution or its amendments. The Bill of Rights is not a complete list of all our rights, just a subset. The right to privacy comes from English common law and common sense.
So yes, I can say I have a right to X without it necessarily invoking the Constitution. In this case, people are claiming their right to privacy outweighs the need for the utility company to know at the house-and-quarter-hour level what my electricity usage is.
Incidentally, I agree that my right to privacy trumps their need because they can do exactly what they need to do by reporting my usage monthly and reading on the quarter-hour what my substation is using. They don't need to know what my house is using on the quarter hour and they certainly don't need to log that information where it is subject to misuse, theft or subpoena.
Not quite. RF is well understood. If it's ionizing it's potentially dangerous. It can also be non-ionizing but still cause molecular damage, like low-frequency UV still causes skin cancer. If it's high intensity, like IR heat or a powerful laser it can cause burns. If it causes dielectric heating, like microwaves, it can also burn. Otherwise, like almost all other cases, like cell or cordless phone antenna radiation, it's safe.
Uhm, a chainsaw to the power lines is more likely to get you caught or killed.
Or they can drop an Arduino with a proper antenna in a dead-drop spike and retrieve it later after eavesdropping for a month or two. No stakeout necessary.
Laws controlling data access will always have carve-outs for law enforcement and are ineffective against criminals. Those are the most individually devastating ways data can be misused.
They can do that at the zip code or block level. They don't need to do that at the house level. Put another way, you talk about megawatts of generation not kilowatts so why do they need to know about kilowatt or watt level differences at the house level?
You can black out all your windows and add sound proofing if you wanted to prevent leakage of that information, however. In theory the utility guys could go over to your place every fifteen minutes to check your meter, but that's not quite feasible to do on a wide scale and they don't do that by default. With smart meters automatically logging this information at that granularity they can, on a wide scale, look at a wide number of people's data. Or, more relevant to most people who worry about these things, the police can go subpoena the logs for a neighborhood and then pick out a target from that. With only monthly data they would have less information.
What are you talking about? Win7 is far better than Vista. It's quite comparable to XP SP3/XP x64, both of which were rather stable and neither of which were infected by a virus while under the watch of Microsoft's own security suite which actually is capable of staying out of your way when you need it to.
Yes, but here in the English-speaking world we're able to verbify nouns and nounify verbs. These actions are a valid extension of our language "rules". (More of a guideline, really.)
Are you a lawyer in every state in the union? Is refusal /always/ the better option?
In Massachusetts, refusal is a mandatory and immediate 180 day license suspension for a first offense whereas a plea bargain may end up with a 30 day suspension and the option for a "hardship" license that still allows you to drive to and from work from 7AM to 7PM.
Does that sound like a free country to you?
1. When will this be in consumer product use?
2. How will this change the price per GB?
Let's make this a drinking game. When someone posts an example of where Americans gave up freedoms for a bad reason we all drink. I'll start:
9/11.
He's wrong, to boot. As a former Rhode Islander I can say we were mostly all criminals before this law was enacted anyway.
Well, I was working from the assumption that the company deemed it "too costly" to support the deaf.
Hilariously, DARPA apparently created onion routing! I guess the NSA/CIA/TLA didn't realize what they were doing until it was too late.
incompetent sound engineers that think that dialog should be much quieter than every other sound in the movie
TVs and sound systems definitely need dynamic range compression settings. I'm glad that VLC finally has it, but that really just means torrented movies give me even more benefits over streaming services...
o/ [music] o/
Done.
Braille bank machines in the drive through tellers.
Put blind person in driver's side seat behind the driver. Problem solved.