Probably the only country where you could ask the IT managers to port all their word documents and excel spreadsheets to something as shaky as StarOffice and hear a universal "Javohl!".
It may make the Russian campaign in WWII look pretty.
I had an experience along these lines. When Hurricane ??? hit New Jersey in 99, the flooding in Hackensack took out the switches in the basement of the Bell Atlantic building situated on the suggestively named River Road. All local phone service was out. So was my cell phone. My AT&T cell phone that I was roaming on in another part of the country. Seems AT&T rented space in the building...
Now before you start flaming me as just another Borg, corporate use has been the source of the explosive growth of Blackberry. I have been a Palm user since 97 and currently have a visor platinum with an MP3 player that's great. But my company gave me a Blackberry, and the ability to use my work inbox from just about anywhere in the U.S. is incredibly useful. This is particularly true given the small form-factor and the keyboard. I say that as a reasonably adept Graffiti user. Without this feature the new Visor product is not very attractive. I guess it could be offered by VAR's, but they really should highlight in the announcement if so. My dream is a Blackberry with a Springboard interface so that I could sync the two and read long or html messages on the Visor, plus maintain a single contact list. Still could happen I guess.
"Really, the average person doesn't need to be worried about getting anthrax in the mail. "
I bet the guy who died in Florida thought he was pretty average. It amazes me how many people in this discussion are so confident at assigning probabilities to events when so little data is available and the situation is changing so rapidly. Mental intertia, I suppose.
On the re-election issue, recall that W.'s father actually WON a war, and was thrown out in favor of a draft-dodging pathological liar. Because of the state of the economy. If the economy doesn't rebound by election time, it really won't matter how the war goes, and of course if it goes badly...
The ACLU piece was interesting, thanks. I agree the open-ended deention provision is a bad one. Hopefully reconciliation with the house will fix it. If not, the courts will certainly strike it down.
Well, they did kill, in massive numbers. Are you saying they couldn't scare without doing so? Their stated aim (besides the destruction of Israel) seems to be to get the U.S. out of all Islamic countries. A series of continued low-level attacks on US bases there might have accomplished that. The violent overthrow of the Saudi government, and a subsequent demand that our troops stationed there withdraw might have accomplished that. Killing several thousand American civilians doesn't. The effect to date has been quite the opposite. Is this because Osama Bin Laden is stupid? I don't think so. It is because anyone who can kill that many Americans is the king of radical Islam. THAT he has accomplished.
BTW, "killists" isn't a word. There's a perfectly servicable one you can use: killers.
Its a good point (other than the hmmm's). I don't know much about this technology but I suspect it would only be necessary to identify newly initiated calls after the first call terminated.
Also, with GPS technology, it might be possible to very accurately pinpoint whether a new call was from the same spot as the prior call. Trying to listen to all calls would be a data processing nightmare, irrespective of ones views of law enforcement. Remembe these guys appear more Keystone Kops than Mission Impossible.
I definitely agree the open-ended detention issue is a bad one. As to the educational records, the only justification that occurs to me is that it appears that some of the terrorists entered the country on student visa's and then never in fact attended any classes at the institution they were enrolled at. This was true of the 1993 world trade center bombing as well.
On the secret service issue, they have other duties, such as policing counterfeiting. My understanding is that is more to give them something to do when the president doesn't need a lot of guarding. This could be more of the same. Does the Secret Service have some special exemption from oversight that makes them a greater concern than other law enforcement bodies?
when you switch cell phones just before stating the pick-up point for the anthrax the FBI will be able to follow the call. That's how.
If your suspected of having send someone you can be held for a couple of more days while being checked out so that you don't skip back to Iraq. That's how.
If it takes ten years to track you down for helping kill 5000+ people instead of seven, you can still be brought to justice. That's how.
How about someone providing a CREDIBLE scenario for abuse of this law?
Roving wiretaps mean that if the FBI is listening to a conversation they can hear all of it if a terrorist changes cell phones. That will help. Can wiretaps still be defeated? Yes. That doesn't mean it should be easy. Can this be abused? Yes. Wiretaps have been abused in the past. Overzealous law enforcement gets exposed in the media and slapped down. THe irony of all the overheated slashdot rhetoric is that people are afraid of a security system that 9-11 proved is not very effective.
we're now beyond the point where whining ala stallman is persuasive. The onus is on those who wish to preserve their right to hide from the government to explain how to prevent exploitation of these rights by those who would do away with all civil liberties (e.g. terrorists). I hope such explanations are available. I have no desire to live in a police state but can't exist in the comfortable cowardice of those who pronounce on civil liberties but never have to look in the eyes of the orphans created last tuesday.
Slashdot Mirror
I can provide empirical proof that Microsoft is directing all span received to my Hotmail inbox, thus sparing the rest of their users.
Probably the only country where you could ask the IT managers to port all their word documents and excel spreadsheets to something as shaky as StarOffice and hear a universal "Javohl!".
It may make the Russian campaign in WWII look pretty.
I had an experience along these lines. When Hurricane ??? hit New Jersey in 99, the flooding in Hackensack took out the switches in the basement of the Bell Atlantic building situated on the suggestively named River Road. All local phone service was out. So was my cell phone. My AT&T cell phone that I was roaming on in another part of the country. Seems AT&T rented space in the building...
Now before you start flaming me as just another Borg, corporate use has been the source of the explosive growth of Blackberry. I have been a Palm user since 97 and currently have a visor platinum with an MP3 player that's great. But my company gave me a Blackberry, and the ability to use my work inbox from just about anywhere in the U.S. is incredibly useful. This is particularly true given the small form-factor and the keyboard. I say that as a reasonably adept Graffiti user. Without this feature the new Visor product is not very attractive. I guess it could be offered by VAR's, but they really should highlight in the announcement if so. My dream is a Blackberry with a Springboard interface so that I could sync the two and read long or html messages on the Visor, plus maintain a single contact list. Still could happen I guess.
"Really, the average person doesn't need to be worried about getting anthrax in the mail. "
I bet the guy who died in Florida thought he was pretty average. It amazes me how many people in this discussion are so confident at assigning probabilities to events when so little data is available and the situation is changing so rapidly. Mental intertia, I suppose.
On the re-election issue, recall that W.'s father actually WON a war, and was thrown out in favor of a draft-dodging pathological liar. Because of the state of the economy. If the economy doesn't rebound by election time, it really won't matter how the war goes, and of course if it goes badly...
The ACLU piece was interesting, thanks. I agree the open-ended deention provision is a bad one. Hopefully reconciliation with the house will fix it. If not, the courts will certainly strike it down.
Well, they did kill, in massive numbers. Are you saying they couldn't scare without doing so? Their stated aim (besides the destruction of Israel) seems to be to get the U.S. out of all Islamic countries. A series of continued low-level attacks on US bases there might have accomplished that. The violent overthrow of the Saudi government, and a subsequent demand that our troops stationed there withdraw might have accomplished that. Killing several thousand American civilians doesn't. The effect to date has been quite the opposite. Is this because Osama Bin Laden is stupid? I don't think so. It is because anyone who can kill that many Americans is the king of radical Islam. THAT he has accomplished.
BTW, "killists" isn't a word. There's a perfectly servicable one you can use: killers.
Its a good point (other than the hmmm's). I don't know much about this technology but I suspect it would only be necessary to identify newly initiated calls after the first call terminated.
Also, with GPS technology, it might be possible to very accurately pinpoint whether a new call was from the same spot as the prior call. Trying to listen to all calls would be a data processing nightmare, irrespective of ones views of law enforcement. Remembe these guys appear more Keystone Kops than Mission Impossible.
I definitely agree the open-ended detention issue is a bad one. As to the educational records, the only justification that occurs to me is that it appears that some of the terrorists entered the country on student visa's and then never in fact attended any classes at the institution they were enrolled at. This was true of the 1993 world trade center bombing as well.
On the secret service issue, they have other duties, such as policing counterfeiting. My understanding is that is more to give them something to do when the president doesn't need a lot of guarding. This could be more of the same. Does the Secret Service have some special exemption from oversight that makes them a greater concern than other law enforcement bodies?
Thanks, that's a very detailed and credible scenario.
when you switch cell phones just before stating the pick-up point for the anthrax the FBI will be able to follow the call. That's how.
If your suspected of having send someone you can be held for a couple of more days while being checked out so that you don't skip back to Iraq. That's how.
If it takes ten years to track you down for helping kill 5000+ people instead of seven, you can still be brought to justice. That's how.
How about someone providing a CREDIBLE scenario for abuse of this law?
Wrong. They were trying to kill as many Americans as possible. They did a good job.
Roving wiretaps mean that if the FBI is listening to a conversation they can hear all of it if a terrorist changes cell phones. That will help. Can wiretaps still be defeated? Yes. That doesn't mean it should be easy. Can this be abused? Yes. Wiretaps have been abused in the past. Overzealous law enforcement gets exposed in the media and slapped down. THe irony of all the overheated slashdot rhetoric is that people are afraid of a security system that 9-11 proved is not very effective.
His point is that its the only medium where he can get so much play.
Exactly what I was going to post. What do you expect from a guy who thinks the Unabomber is a deep thinker?
well obviously paranoids can't be scared of real threats, you need imaginary ones.
we're now beyond the point where whining ala stallman is persuasive. The onus is on those who wish to preserve their right to hide from the government to explain how to prevent exploitation of these rights by those who would do away with all civil liberties (e.g. terrorists). I hope such explanations are available. I have no desire to live in a police state but can't exist in the comfortable cowardice of those who pronounce on civil liberties but never have to look in the eyes of the orphans created last tuesday.