He didn't say "solely on the basis of whether [he'd] get caught", he said "If you are reasonably sure that you won't get caught, it's IMO absolutely OK to ignore stupid rules".
IOW he has at least two criteria for ignoring rules: (1) he's reasonably sure of not getting caught and (2) they are stupid rules.
Debate all you want on whether this rule or that rule is stupid or not, but breaking rules that one considers "stupid" is sometimes a moral obligation. See: Rosa Parks.
But in one case the copyrighted material has been placed onto physical material which is owned by someone. To be a true analogy, you'd have to compare a book seizure to if the copyright holder simply came and seized your hard drive when they accused you of infringing. They can't, for the same reason that they couldn't confiscate Sally's books. They have to get the police to go through proper channels before the physical objects can be seized. Your analogy was false. Apples and oranges.
I said precision, not accuracy. They may round the units for the billing but I'm sure the meter submits a decimal with a fair amount of precision. And how often it submits a read is fairly irrelevant since if they want a more accurate profile of your energy use, all they have to do is reprogram your meter to submit more reads. The smart water meters where I live are programmed to submit 4 reads every day, but if a more fine resolution is desired on any one meter it can be reprogrammed to submit up to one read every 15 minutes.
It depends on the size of the utility, how much infrastructure they have to maintain, and how old it is.
It costs a lot of money to dig up a split water main and repair it, especially since they're often underneath roads (that's where the right of way is often located) and might undermine and destroy a significant amount of pavement that will have to be replaced after the water main has been repaired.
IIRC there were a couple of large main breaks in my city that cost a quarter million dollars each because they were mains that blew right under large intersections. Expenses like that will eat through quite a few $60/mo. service charges pretty quickly.
When the toilet is flushed, the flush valve opens and the bowl is rapidly filled. Once the water level in the bowl reaches above the top of the trap (the goose-neck in the drain - not labeled), it creates a siphon which drains the bowl. Once the tank is almost empty, the flush valve snaps closed and the tank refills.
However, if the flush valve doesn't close properly and leaks, the bowl constantly fills, but too slowly to fill the trap with water completely. So rather than siphoning the bowl empty, it just constantly overflows into the drain. Meanwhile the tank gradually drains and when the level is low enough the float opens the filler valve and it refills. The only thing you'd be able to notice is the sound of the water coming on periodically to refill the tank.
They DO... but the cost of service fee isn't really large enough to cover the cost of service. They plan to make up the difference by actually, ya know, selling water.
I looked at that, and the first thing I noticed was where he puts two constructs in one line, like so:
for (;;) if() { }
Well shit... I do that. Isn't it obvious? There's only one block of statements; it will execute for each item in the list if the condition is true for that item. Why waste an extra level of indentation?
Not if it's leaking into the toilet tank. It would just run down the drain. Unless you notice that the noise of running water never entirely stops when it fills, but a lot of people wouldn't notice something like that. Anyway I was just throwing out a number; if the water use doesn't drop to zero at some point in the night you can pretty safely assume that there's a leak. It doesn't have to be a lot of water.
Also, where do you live that 40,000 gallons of water costs $60? That seems low. I suggest you check your bill; it's probably higher.
Regardless, a lot of people's monthly budgets would take a pretty bad hit over an unexpected $60 extra.
Electronic files are not like books. You could print them out and then they would be like books. But electronic files are not like books, and your analogy is completely false.
A lot of the annual operating budget of a utility does not scale with the volume they sell. Employees form a huge part of that. So does ordinary maintenance of infrastructure and equipment.
The cost of actually producing the water is actually relatively low, and the utility won't break even if they don't sell at least a certain amount of water in a year. So if people cut back and conserve, the annual cost of operating per gallon of water actually produced and sold goes way up.
It's a double-edged sword. Sure... if they cared, they could use it to determine when you were in the shower. But then again, they can also detect that your toilet is leaking ~1gpm and notify you before you get your next bill and discover that you were billed for using 40,000 gallons of water that month.
How does whether it is collected manually or electronically change the fact that it is collected? The latter is a bigger scope but can be done with the former especially since electric meters are usually outside anyway...
It's not collecting the meter read that's a problem, it's the unscrupulous folks who claim they're from the electric co. to read your meter when in fact they just found some uniform-ish looking clothes at the thrift store and want to see what sort of valuables you have in the house. Or, for that matter, the meter readers who really do work for the electric co. but whose night job isn't so honorable.
Which is why virus scanners also monitor processes' behavior. The malicious code has to interact with the real system somehow, no matter how deeply it's virtualized or obfuscated.
I'm pretty sure it was intended to refer specifically to these lawsuits, although more clarification along that line would have been appropriate. He did say "the" crime, not "a" crime, though, so I assumed he was referring to these specific circumstances.
Illegal downloading is not the crime that people are being charged with... yes it's just as illegal, but it's almost impossible to prove it occurred, so almost nobody can ever be successfully charged with doing it.
I'm not an ISP tech, but any rational person can see that there is concrete, bulletproof evidence that each of these defendants illegally downloaded the movie in question.
...doesn't fly. I originally thought you weren't even at all serious. Were you?
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He didn't say "solely on the basis of whether [he'd] get caught", he said "If you are reasonably sure that you won't get caught, it's IMO absolutely OK to ignore stupid rules".
IOW he has at least two criteria for ignoring rules: (1) he's reasonably sure of not getting caught and (2) they are stupid rules.
Debate all you want on whether this rule or that rule is stupid or not, but breaking rules that one considers "stupid" is sometimes a moral obligation. See: Rosa Parks.
the information shows we had the power and the technology to go kill him
Killing him showed that we had the power and technology to do it.
along with the way we accomplished it
So that the terrorists can make themselves harder to find and better prepared for us in the future?
But in one case the copyrighted material has been placed onto physical material which is owned by someone. To be a true analogy, you'd have to compare a book seizure to if the copyright holder simply came and seized your hard drive when they accused you of infringing. They can't, for the same reason that they couldn't confiscate Sally's books. They have to get the police to go through proper channels before the physical objects can be seized. Your analogy was false. Apples and oranges.
I said precision, not accuracy. They may round the units for the billing but I'm sure the meter submits a decimal with a fair amount of precision. And how often it submits a read is fairly irrelevant since if they want a more accurate profile of your energy use, all they have to do is reprogram your meter to submit more reads. The smart water meters where I live are programmed to submit 4 reads every day, but if a more fine resolution is desired on any one meter it can be reprogrammed to submit up to one read every 15 minutes.
The bill they give you might give units in whole therms, but I seriously doubt that their meter is that imprecise.
It depends on the size of the utility, how much infrastructure they have to maintain, and how old it is.
It costs a lot of money to dig up a split water main and repair it, especially since they're often underneath roads (that's where the right of way is often located) and might undermine and destroy a significant amount of pavement that will have to be replaced after the water main has been repaired.
IIRC there were a couple of large main breaks in my city that cost a quarter million dollars each because they were mains that blew right under large intersections. Expenses like that will eat through quite a few $60/mo. service charges pretty quickly.
Wait, you don't have a law that requires toilet tank overflows to be installed in a visible location, they can just feed straight back down the drain?
Are we talking about the same thing?
Diagram
When the toilet is flushed, the flush valve opens and the bowl is rapidly filled. Once the water level in the bowl reaches above the top of the trap (the goose-neck in the drain - not labeled), it creates a siphon which drains the bowl. Once the tank is almost empty, the flush valve snaps closed and the tank refills.
However, if the flush valve doesn't close properly and leaks, the bowl constantly fills, but too slowly to fill the trap with water completely. So rather than siphoning the bowl empty, it just constantly overflows into the drain. Meanwhile the tank gradually drains and when the level is low enough the float opens the filler valve and it refills. The only thing you'd be able to notice is the sound of the water coming on periodically to refill the tank.
They DO... but the cost of service fee isn't really large enough to cover the cost of service. They plan to make up the difference by actually, ya know, selling water.
I looked at that, and the first thing I noticed was where he puts two constructs in one line, like so:
for (;;) if()
{
}
Well shit... I do that. Isn't it obvious? There's only one block of statements; it will execute for each item in the list if the condition is true for that item. Why waste an extra level of indentation?
No... pirates never clean behind their ears.
Not if it's leaking into the toilet tank. It would just run down the drain. Unless you notice that the noise of running water never entirely stops when it fills, but a lot of people wouldn't notice something like that. Anyway I was just throwing out a number; if the water use doesn't drop to zero at some point in the night you can pretty safely assume that there's a leak. It doesn't have to be a lot of water.
Also, where do you live that 40,000 gallons of water costs $60? That seems low. I suggest you check your bill; it's probably higher.
Regardless, a lot of people's monthly budgets would take a pretty bad hit over an unexpected $60 extra.
She'd recently moved in. How many people change all the locks when they buy a house? Fewer than probably ought to, I'd guess.
Electronic files are not like books. You could print them out and then they would be like books. But electronic files are not like books, and your analogy is completely false.
This orange represents your head. This tinfoil represents... well, tinfoil. This microwave represents... well, just watch.
A lot of the annual operating budget of a utility does not scale with the volume they sell. Employees form a huge part of that. So does ordinary maintenance of infrastructure and equipment.
The cost of actually producing the water is actually relatively low, and the utility won't break even if they don't sell at least a certain amount of water in a year. So if people cut back and conserve, the annual cost of operating per gallon of water actually produced and sold goes way up.
I would have guessed as much.
I didn't even notice that he mentioned smoke detectors. And, nah, I'm pretty sure he's legitimately nuts.
They have smart water meters, too.
It's a double-edged sword. Sure... if they cared, they could use it to determine when you were in the shower. But then again, they can also detect that your toilet is leaking ~1gpm and notify you before you get your next bill and discover that you were billed for using 40,000 gallons of water that month.
Psst... don't look now, but there is radioactive material in your smoke alarm.
How does whether it is collected manually or electronically change the fact that it is collected? The latter is a bigger scope but can be done with the former especially since electric meters are usually outside anyway...
It's not collecting the meter read that's a problem, it's the unscrupulous folks who claim they're from the electric co. to read your meter when in fact they just found some uniform-ish looking clothes at the thrift store and want to see what sort of valuables you have in the house. Or, for that matter, the meter readers who really do work for the electric co. but whose night job isn't so honorable.
Which is why virus scanners also monitor processes' behavior. The malicious code has to interact with the real system somehow, no matter how deeply it's virtualized or obfuscated.
I'm pretty sure it was intended to refer specifically to these lawsuits, although more clarification along that line would have been appropriate. He did say "the" crime, not "a" crime, though, so I assumed he was referring to these specific circumstances.
Illegal downloading is not the crime that people are being charged with... yes it's just as illegal, but it's almost impossible to prove it occurred, so almost nobody can ever be successfully charged with doing it.
I'm not an ISP tech, but any rational person can see that there is concrete, bulletproof evidence that each of these defendants illegally downloaded the movie in question.
...doesn't fly. I originally thought you weren't even at all serious. Were you?
I'll just be happy when I can get one of these exabit transmissions for my pickup.
He can't read your comment - for some reason his firewall isn't letting him load this page anymore. Something about malware.