I moved to arizona about 6 months ago, and before
that I had never heard of qwest (I lived in new jersey) altough I had seen ads for US West internet (now qwest) services in magazines years earlier. Just wanted to say that in the short time that I've been here, I've come to the conclusion that qwest is just as evil as microsoft (and just as terrible at customer service). I have since switched to verizon, and although many people think they are evil too, I have had no problems yet, and they are cheaper than qwest, and their customer service is excellent. As for internet, I did use the cable company (Cox [@home]), but because of severe financial setbacks I'm down to using dialup with at&t, but soon I should be back to good 'ol cable. They offer $30/mo. 3mbps service:)
I used to work for a public school system as the linux administrator. I shared an office with the webmaster and one day we discovered someone had accessed our systems on our lunch break (we suspected it was the network coordinator), needless to say there was (is) all kinds of political rivalry going on and he was trying to go behind our backs and spy/sabotage us as usual so that he can get his way and have an all novell/microsoft system. We set up a cam to check it out and put it on the intranet for everyone to see, both as a security measure for us to check remotely who was touching our workstations and servers and also to scare off the would-be intruder to let him know we were watching...Plus it was just plain fun. Although we did this on a macintosh system with commercial software, I'm sure it could easily be done on linux with free software. Just figured I'd share a pointless story on the subject like most slashdot readers do:)
I have been pulled over dozens of times for nothings, and even though I was extremely polite and cooperative, I was always searched. I tried going along with it and saying "yes, I understand you have a job to do, and I simple request you keep my things in order" and he promised he would. By the time he was done half of my stuff was on the street, the other half was all mixed up in my car all over the place. It took him 15 minutes to tear apart my car. It took me nearly 45 minutes to put everything back. That time I was pulled over for speeding (5 mph over the limit). I received a ticket (even though he said he'd let me off with a warning if I let him search). He was absolutely rude and downright mean once he couldn't find anything. Interrogating me for nearly 20 minutes. All in all the whole ordeal took about 3 hours, and I ended up being late for my brother's birthday dinner. After that I decided I'd say no every time. Also doesn't work. I was once pulled over because the light on my rear license plate wasn't working (didn't know there was a light there, didn't know it was illegal to drive with it broken, and didn't know everyone in the world actually turns on their car, their headlights, gets out of their car, walks behind it, and checks everytime they go out at night...seems a bit rediculous). He searched my car because he smelled marijuana (so he claims). It was a cigarette the dumb hick was smelling. After tearing apart my car that time, the passenger, a minor (I was 18, he was 17), had a pipe on him, in his pocket. I was charged. We were both arrested, thrown in jail. The car was towed ($100 recovery fee, everything was torn apart of course, took me a few hours to find my registration). Oh yeah, almost forgot to mention, they found a wrench of some kind in the glove compartment (some kind of tool for fixing a tire, had never seen it before), and the dumbass insisted it was some kind of "smoking device". I went to fight it with a lawyer of course. Got the police report where he says that he found a "roach" in the ashtray, and a pipe in the glove compartment, yet, the evidence listing made no mention of such things. My lawyer (also a total dumbass, but the best I could afford at the time), told me my only chance was to go into a diversion program. I had little choice, so I did it, got a $1500 fine, had to be drug tested (that means pee in a cup while some perv cup stares at my dick), got 4 more points on my license, and a possesion in a vehicle charge on my motor vehicle record in exchange for no criminal record, as well as 12 months probation. Why 12 months? The prosecutor only wanted 6 months...but he left it up to the arresting officer who insisted 12 months because he BELIEVES I was high at the time [even though the test proved otherwise]...I now have an extreme distrust for police, prosecutors, and defense lawyers, they all suck and they all violated my liberties and took my money. As a side note, the passenger, a juvenile, walked, without a trial whatsoever, and HIS pipe is what got ME charged and arrested. FAIR? JUST?? HELL NO! I could go on with more details on how I was screwed over and my rights were repeatedly violated but that would take too many pages and megabytes of slashdots space. Oh yes, and while I was waiting for my name to be called in court, it turns out every person there that night (nearly a hundred in a small town with a population of 40000) was pulled over for a broken rear taglight, and every single one was searched, and every single one was charged with something bullshit)
I'm currently working on a project that involves video communication using a PDA over amateur radio links (which are limited only to 1500watts), solving the distance and cost problem, however, it will be some time before it is completed...perhaps by july I just may have a working prototype:)
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I moved to arizona about 6 months ago, and before that I had never heard of qwest (I lived in new jersey) altough I had seen ads for US West internet (now qwest) services in magazines years earlier. Just wanted to say that in the short time that I've been here, I've come to the conclusion that qwest is just as evil as microsoft (and just as terrible at customer service). I have since switched to verizon, and although many people think they are evil too, I have had no problems yet, and they are cheaper than qwest, and their customer service is excellent. As for internet, I did use the cable company (Cox [@home]), but because of severe financial setbacks I'm down to using dialup with at&t, but soon I should be back to good 'ol cable. They offer $30/mo. 3mbps service :)
I used to work for a public school system as the linux administrator. I shared an office with the webmaster and one day we discovered someone had accessed our systems on our lunch break (we suspected it was the network coordinator), needless to say there was (is) all kinds of political rivalry going on and he was trying to go behind our backs and spy/sabotage us as usual so that he can get his way and have an all novell/microsoft system. We set up a cam to check it out and put it on the intranet for everyone to see, both as a security measure for us to check remotely who was touching our workstations and servers and also to scare off the would-be intruder to let him know we were watching...Plus it was just plain fun. Although we did this on a macintosh system with commercial software, I'm sure it could easily be done on linux with free software. Just figured I'd share a pointless story on the subject like most slashdot readers do :)
I have been pulled over dozens of times for nothings, and even though I was extremely polite and cooperative, I was always searched. I tried going along with it and saying "yes, I understand you have a job to do, and I simple request you keep my things in order" and he promised he would. By the time he was done half of my stuff was on the street, the other half was all mixed up in my car all over the place. It took him 15 minutes to tear apart my car. It took me nearly 45 minutes to put everything back. That time I was pulled over for speeding (5 mph over the limit). I received a ticket (even though he said he'd let me off with a warning if I let him search). He was absolutely rude and downright mean once he couldn't find anything. Interrogating me for nearly 20 minutes. All in all the whole ordeal took about 3 hours, and I ended up being late for my brother's birthday dinner. After that I decided I'd say no every time. Also doesn't work. I was once pulled over because the light on my rear license plate wasn't working (didn't know there was a light there, didn't know it was illegal to drive with it broken, and didn't know everyone in the world actually turns on their car, their headlights, gets out of their car, walks behind it, and checks everytime they go out at night...seems a bit rediculous). He searched my car because he smelled marijuana (so he claims). It was a cigarette the dumb hick was smelling. After tearing apart my car that time, the passenger, a minor (I was 18, he was 17), had a pipe on him, in his pocket. I was charged. We were both arrested, thrown in jail. The car was towed ($100 recovery fee, everything was torn apart of course, took me a few hours to find my registration). Oh yeah, almost forgot to mention, they found a wrench of some kind in the glove compartment (some kind of tool for fixing a tire, had never seen it before), and the dumbass insisted it was some kind of "smoking device". I went to fight it with a lawyer of course. Got the police report where he says that he found a "roach" in the ashtray, and a pipe in the glove compartment, yet, the evidence listing made no mention of such things. My lawyer (also a total dumbass, but the best I could afford at the time), told me my only chance was to go into a diversion program. I had little choice, so I did it, got a $1500 fine, had to be drug tested (that means pee in a cup while some perv cup stares at my dick), got 4 more points on my license, and a possesion in a vehicle charge on my motor vehicle record in exchange for no criminal record, as well as 12 months probation. Why 12 months? The prosecutor only wanted 6 months...but he left it up to the arresting officer who insisted 12 months because he BELIEVES I was high at the time [even though the test proved otherwise]...I now have an extreme distrust for police, prosecutors, and defense lawyers, they all suck and they all violated my liberties and took my money. As a side note, the passenger, a juvenile, walked, without a trial whatsoever, and HIS pipe is what got ME charged and arrested. FAIR? JUST?? HELL NO! I could go on with more details on how I was screwed over and my rights were repeatedly violated but that would take too many pages and megabytes of slashdots space. Oh yes, and while I was waiting for my name to be called in court, it turns out every person there that night (nearly a hundred in a small town with a population of 40000) was pulled over for a broken rear taglight, and every single one was searched, and every single one was charged with something bullshit)
I'm currently working on a project that involves video communication using a PDA over amateur radio links (which are limited only to 1500watts), solving the distance and cost problem, however, it will be some time before it is completed...perhaps by july I just may have a working prototype :)