This place sells nag-removed TiVos PVRs just for this purpose. With two 80GB hard drives, you would store 160 hours of decent quality video with audio. Note: I have no experience doing business with the company so I'm not vouching for them. See The Tivo Community Forum for comments on the company.
You would still need to get a time/date generator to put in line with the video feed if you want to make the evidence court-admissible. Those are standard CCTV devices and may be built into CCTV cameras. DVRs are used by CCTV and surveillance professionals
If you build it yourself you have to prove that you didn't tamper with the evidence (should you ever charge someone with a crime based on the recordings...or fire them and then they contest it).
The way the pros (I was one) validate the evidence is to have a time and date timestamp generator directly on the video source. The courts have held that the clock makes the evidence less tamperable.
Of course, these days if the "video tape" was an.MPEG file it would be a no-brainer to change the numbers with an editor like Photoshop.
I noticed it years ago while channel surfing and catching an Andy Griffith Show rerun on WGN broadcast. Andy and Aunt Bea were talking so fast I thought I was having a seizure!
I was reminded of what the guy in Nashville told me when I working in my usual tear there. "Ya -- know, -- You'd - li-ve - a - lot lon-ger - if - you - just slo-wed - do-wn!
Still, considering it's only used by cheap-ass local stations whose NTSC signal is shite compared to a nice, pure digital cable/satellite channel...
You fell for it, huh? The "nice, pure digital" signal on DirecTV satellite is often blocky and full of digital artifacts. It's the same on digital cable.
They overcompress to minimize the required bandwidth to allow them to add more worthless channels. I've been recording the over-the-air signal lately to get better quality. I can tolerate the little bit of ghosting better than the digital picture that looks like a pre-school jigsaw puzzle.
BTW, it's ALL NTSB. If it wasn't, you wouldn't be able to see it on your NTSB TV.
Quoth biglig: If you rent software, it's on the books as an expense.
If you "buy" software, it's on the books as a Capital Expenditure, i.e. an asset.
Soooo, given a choice which one will the bean counters choose?
They'll choose the expense - for the same reason that big corps LEASE PCs. The bean counters will choose the option that gives the greatest tax advantage - usually the expense. An expense is 100% tax deductible in that year. A capital expenditure has to be depreciated over time. Since PCs and software don't really retain value for the required depreciation period, the company ends up showing an asset on the books that isn't worth what the books say it is, i.e. a PC loses most of its value in a year or two but may have to be depreciated over five years.
Software is actually treated as an expense anyway. Big purchases like NT have an annual per-seat cost that's expensed. Whether the software is "rented" or not, the volume purchase contract says, "pay $xx every year per each PC/node, each user, each printer, etc." Here's Novell's version.
I had KaZaa installed for a whole three days. When I found out here that it REQUIRES the CyDoor spyware to run I removed it. Removing it takes a bit of work as it tries to leave CyDoor installed, and it RUNS CyDoor as part of the uninstall script.
Feh! Shoo! Go away!
I wouldn't have been that interesting to watch anyway.
Wake up call, guys: The VC ain't coming. The KaZaa IPO ain't coming. I guess these scumbags will have to back and work for a living. Don't let the bankruptcy hit ya on the ass. McDonalds is hiring.
Could something like this be used to detect violations of gpl'd software? It would be especially useful for detecting usage of gpl'd software in proprietary products where the source is never released.
Yeah. I'd like to know just where the command line FTP, Telnet, ping, etc. in MS Windows came from. Somehow I doubt that the code started out with only main() {
Sometimes when I'm watch ST:TNG on TNN over DirecTV the picture is so bad I think I need glasses or I'm seeing ghosting. DirectTV has lowered the MPEG sampling rate on TNN so much it's often unwatchable. There are often blocky digital artifacts.
If a character moves fast you get to see where the character WAS as well as where it IS. I don't think that's caused by Wesley Crusher doing some more warp bubble experiments.
DirecTV has obviously decided that TNN's bandwidth can be better used to add a few more shopping channels.
Hey, DirecTV! Some of us know that "digital" doesn't always mean "better quality." I'd rather have analog ghosting than digital artifacts your negligence is giving us.
No. What Prodigy did was allocate a new, empty file of considerable size to use as a local data cache. That file could contain zombie data from the disk.
In DOS deleting a file just makes an entry in the FAT marking the file's sectors as being available. It doesn't really erase the data. Often the sectors in the empty file Prodigy created contained remnants from a deleted file on the same disk. Prodigy didn't write zero-bytes to the entire new file they just allocated on the disk. Somebody curious would TYPE the file or look at it with a hex editor and see various bits of their real data. That started the spyware rumors. Each supposed victim saw something different in the Prodigy file, because each saw data from (a) different deleted file(s).
It was only when my system started slowing down(sluggish games , slow window redraws) that I noticed that it has a loaded a spyware(SaveNow).
Yeah. The home PC is Pentium II 350. It works fine unless there are a half dozen.DLLs running in the background and/or intercepting every CPU instruction for whatever reason. What I'm endlessly tracking down and stomping out is ANY unneeded.DLL that is taking CPU cycles. I remove and unstart virus scanners, add-ons. and plug-ins until the system peps up and seems usuable again.
I just had I.E. lock-up fairly often- not even the scroll bars worked. I finally figured out that it was just pegging the CPU. Now I I know that it was because I had the damned CyDoor.DLL desparately trying to send off stolen spy data on the last few URLs I went to.
I don't suppose the programmers hired by these scum put any emphasis on getting the spyware to be effecient code that will behave well. You know they write and test it on a current 1GHz Intel and if it works mostly OK there it goes out to infect the unsuspecting masses.
I'll have a new AMD Athlon desktop system real-soon-now. It's sad that you have to add CPU horsepower just to have a viable system that can defend itself from these scum buckets.
Before you hit reply to tell me to run a real O/S and a real browser, know that I use Opera, Netscape, and Mozilla. I also use those to check on where a bottleneck is. It is good to know that these scumbags don't write.DLLs to intercept those. I need IE for sites I tolerate where Java is.asp-Java-on-Windows-with-IE. I also dual-boot the PC to Mandrake.
problem is kazaa wont run unless cd_Clint.dll exists, www.cexx.org has a cd_clint dummy dll file that will deactivate it and let kazaa continue to run.
Yeah. I deleted the CyDoor crap. When trying to run KaZaA I get a error window with: <!gt You have uninstalled a part of KaZaA that is needed to run. KaZaA will quit now so you can re-install it.
< sarcasm> OH! NO! Sorry! Please don't tell on me. I'll go right out and re-install it. Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry!</sarcasm>
Like the previous poster I carefully unselected all of the add-in crap when I installed KaZaA justdays ago.
It really pisses me off. I haven't even used KaZaA yet and they've been spying on me. Bye, KaZaA! I hope you don't mind, but rather than re-installing as you've commanded me, I'll just UN-install the rest.
OT: I noticed that the RealPlayer install HIDES selected "features" below the part of the window you see. You see a bunch of option boxes that are, by default, unselected. If you notice the scrollbar and scroll down the window, you see dozens that ARE selected. That way they can sneak them in and say you chose them. Sleezeballs.
I'm very grateful for this heads up. Thanks, Slashdotters!
Gene Siskel, a film reviewer for the Chicago Tribune, died from a brain tumor in 2000.
Ebert's current partner is Richard Roeper, also a colummnist for the Chicago Sun Times.
Re:There is plenty of cost justification.
on
The Eyes Have It
·
· Score: 1
...no real security against Cessna's loaded with ammonia and diesel
Hey Mr. Stats! Do you know that the average SUV weighs more than a Cessna? Do you know how much weight a Cessna can carry?
I'll give you hint: A Cessna 152 trainer has a useful load of less than 400 pounds. That does not include the weight of fuel. When a student pilot rents one for the private pilot checkride they can't fly if the FAA examiner weighs more than 200 lbs.
Most General Aviation aircraft have useful loads in the range of 600-900 pounds, once again, deduct the weight of the pilot and any gas in the tanks. Most GA planes can take four passengers OR full tanks of fuel, but not both. In other words you could take maybe ONE 55 gallon drum of diesel fuel, less the fertilizer. Timmy McVeigh would have been very disappointed in the bang that would make.
While you're railing against ineffective security measures, rail against something that had SOMETHING to do with the 9/11 attacks. Small planes were not involved.
Leave my plane alone. I'm using it to avoid the stupidity on the commercial flights. It compares well with jet travel when "passengers are advised to show up 2 hours before the scheduled departure time for their flight."
The most telling thing about this email is that they acknowlege that somehow the message of the "best salesmen in the world" is being challenged by the actions of mere engineeers.
Consider that this message shows that Microsoft, in spite of their marketing muscle, is concerned about losing servers to Linux. Linux has almost no marketing muscle. Well, OK, IBM is pushing Linux but they joined the wave on the backside.
What is it that makes those Linux servers show up in their customers data centers? There must be some reason why the techies keep installing Linux.
Maybe because it runs really well on last year's hardware? Maybe because the people who code it don't expect that any performance problems will be fixed by Intel?
If Microsoft's sees its most serious threat from a competitor that has almost NO marketing force, maybe the "innovative" product is the competition?
Re:Exchange? (Score:2)
by morcheeba on Wednesday January 02, @03:06PM ...
For all we know, the sent line "Sent: Wed 1/2/2002 1:14 PM" indicates that employee #114 leaked the info.
Incidently, it's just barely 2 pm here the US east coast... sure, this is a worldwide email, but in Redmond it's still 11 am, not 1:14 pm.
You need to adjust your monitor.
It says: Sent: Wed 12/26/2001 7:14 PM
Which means the poor guy was working late on the day after Christmas. I guess he didn't have any vacation time saved.
Hey, moderators!
MOD UP THE PARENT posts from Ward! (Informative and Interesting)
Fer Chrissakes, you just had a visit from the guy who invented the topic (I called him) and you're gonna leave his two very informative posts on the history of the first BBS at 1?
Thanks for the information, Ward!
Uhh.. Ward invented the XMODEM protocol, not the MODEM protocol.
Wrongo, Beavis!
Ward called the protocol he wrote MODEM. The client program that you ran was called MODEM.COM (MODEM.ASM was the source in assembler). The PROGRAM that you ran eXternally on the HOST BBS to do a MODEM protocol file transfer was called XMODEM (XMODEM.COM from XMODEM.ASM). Both names came to be used for the protocol, but Ward originally called it MODEM. His license plate is XMODEM because that's what everyone knew. He'll accept both names.
I've the privilege of knowing Ward Christensen and Randy Suess, the two who INVENTED the BBS (and coined the term) right here in Chicago. Ward is an on-site technical support rep that is working in my office a bit now. We had lunch a few days ago.
When it was mentioned here on/. that Google had posted the USENET archives I checked for Ward's name. I told him that comes up with 700 messages, mostly mentioning his MODEM protocol as "the Ward Christensen protocol." Yeah, he invented file transfers by modem, too. Google returns over 54,000 web page matches for Ward's name. Ward laughs about how many hits you can get when his name is mis-spelled.
In 1978, Chicago had a severe blizzard and Ward and Randy wanted to share programs. Ward wrote the MODEM protocol to send the files back and forth.
During that snowstorm in January 1978, they invented CBBS to emulate the cork bulletin board at the meetings of the Chicago Computer Hobbyists Exchange (CACHE) user group that computer hobbyists used to post messages about wanted computer parts and such. They made use of a pair of direct connect 300 baud modems donated by Dennis Hayes. Randy built the S100 system and Ward wrote the program which they called CBBS. There was no operating system in those days, so the program talked directly to the hardware. It took them a month to have it done by the next CACHE meeting.
Ward is a pioneer that we all owe: - He invented the world's first BBS program, CBBS. - He wrote the world's first modem file transfer program, (X)MODEM. -one the pioneers of FREE OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE. The company he works for would not let him sell programs he wrote so he gave them away. If you had an early CP/M system like I did, you knew that there were dozens and dozens of free useful utilities available on BBSs that were written by one W. Christensen.
BTW, they copyrighted the term "CBBS," not "BBS." Oh, well.
I'm sure the documentary team will be looking up Ward. I'll let him know about this and maybe he'll post.
P.S. Randy's Illinois license plate is CBBS. Ward's is XMODEM.
Trivia question: What does the C stand for? It's not what you think.
There's one thing I've alway though about: If the program is going from source to storage and not being viewed why does the video feed have too be in real time? Why can't you say double the bandwidth going to your TiVo and halve the transmission time? Send a two hour movie in one hour. Or send it 4x in 1/4 of the time.
I've always thought it was waste to have all those fringe shopping and infomercial feeds and TV preachers tying up a whole satellite channel for so long.
Santa's not the only one who gets tracked by the US government. There is no privacy in the U.S, airspace system. All aircraft that have been assigned unique transponder codes, usually on an instrument flight plan, can be located and tracked, based on which Air Traffic Control facility has control of the flight.
Slashdot Mirror
This place sells nag-removed TiVos PVRs just for this purpose. With two 80GB hard drives, you would store 160 hours of decent quality video with audio. Note: I have no experience doing business with the company so I'm not vouching for them. See The Tivo Community Forum for comments on the company.
You would still need to get a time/date generator to put in line with the video feed if you want to make the evidence court-admissible. Those are standard CCTV devices and may be built into CCTV cameras. DVRs are used by CCTV and surveillance professionals
Of course, these days if the "video tape" was an
Man! I wish we could edit and delete our own posts.
I noticed it years ago while channel surfing and catching an Andy Griffith Show rerun on WGN broadcast. Andy and Aunt Bea were talking so fast I thought I was having a seizure!
I was reminded of what the guy in Nashville told me when I working in my usual tear there. "Ya -- know, -- You'd - li-ve - a - lot lon-ger - if - you - just slo-wed - do-wn!
They overcompress to minimize the required bandwidth to allow them to add more worthless channels. I've been recording the over-the-air signal lately to get better quality. I can tolerate the little bit of ghosting better than the digital picture that looks like a pre-school jigsaw puzzle.
BTW, it's ALL NTSB. If it wasn't, you wouldn't be able to see it on your NTSB TV.
http://biz.yahoo.com/rb/020122/business_tech_aol_m icrosoft_dc_2.html
Software is actually treated as an expense anyway. Big purchases like NT have an annual per-seat cost that's expensed. Whether the software is "rented" or not, the volume purchase contract says, "pay $xx every year per each PC/node, each user, each printer, etc." Here's Novell's version.
I had KaZaa installed for a whole three days. When I found out here that it REQUIRES the CyDoor spyware to run I removed it. Removing it takes a bit of work as it tries to leave CyDoor installed, and it RUNS CyDoor as part of the uninstall script.
Feh! Shoo! Go away!
I wouldn't have been that interesting to watch anyway.
Wake up call, guys: The VC ain't coming. The KaZaa IPO ain't coming. I guess these scumbags will have to back and work for a living. Don't let the bankruptcy hit ya on the ass. McDonalds is hiring.
main() {
My complaint with TNN is with DirecTV.
Sometimes when I'm watch ST:TNG on TNN over DirecTV the picture is so bad I think I need glasses or I'm seeing ghosting. DirectTV has lowered the MPEG sampling rate on TNN so much it's often unwatchable. There are often blocky digital artifacts.
If a character moves fast you get to see where the character WAS as well as where it IS. I don't think that's caused by Wesley Crusher doing some more warp bubble experiments.
DirecTV has obviously decided that TNN's bandwidth can be better used to add a few more shopping channels.
Hey, DirecTV! Some of us know that "digital" doesn't always mean "better quality." I'd rather have analog ghosting than digital artifacts your negligence is giving us.
No. What Prodigy did was allocate a new, empty file of considerable size to use as a local data cache. That file could contain zombie data from the disk.
In DOS deleting a file just makes an entry in the FAT marking the file's sectors as being available. It doesn't really erase the data. Often the sectors in the empty file Prodigy created contained remnants from a deleted file on the same disk. Prodigy didn't write zero-bytes to the entire new file they just allocated on the disk. Somebody curious would TYPE the file or look at it with a hex editor and see various bits of their real data. That started the spyware rumors. Each supposed victim saw something different in the Prodigy file, because each saw data from (a) different deleted file(s).
I deleted all of the CyDoor stuff and decided to just go ahead and uninstall KaZaA. Guess what?
Here's the error message pop-up window from the un-install:
--------
(X) Error loading C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM\cd_clint.dll
The system cannot find the file specifed.
-----
So the UN-INSTALL script RUNS CyDoor!
Do it sends a message like, "FYI: This victim has uninstalled KaZaA. I'm still alive."
It was only when my system started slowing down(sluggish games , slow window redraws) that I noticed that it has a loaded a spyware(SaveNow).
.DLLs running in the background and/or intercepting every CPU instruction for whatever reason. What I'm endlessly tracking down and stomping out is ANY unneeded .DLL that is taking CPU cycles. I remove and unstart virus scanners, add-ons. and plug-ins until the system peps up and seems usuable again.
.DLL desparately trying to send off stolen spy data on the last few URLs I went to.
.DLLs to intercept those. I need IE for sites I tolerate where Java is .asp-Java-on-Windows-with-IE. I also dual-boot the PC to Mandrake.
Yeah. The home PC is Pentium II 350. It works fine unless there are a half dozen
I just had I.E. lock-up fairly often- not even the scroll bars worked. I finally figured out that it was just pegging the CPU. Now I I know that it was because I had the damned CyDoor
I don't suppose the programmers hired by these scum put any emphasis on getting the spyware to be effecient code that will behave well. You know they write and test it on a current 1GHz Intel and if it works mostly OK there it goes out to infect the unsuspecting masses.
I'll have a new AMD Athlon desktop system real-soon-now. It's sad that you have to add CPU horsepower just to have a viable system that can defend itself from these scum buckets.
Before you hit reply to tell me to run a real O/S and a real browser, know that I use Opera, Netscape, and Mozilla. I also use those to check on where a bottleneck is. It is good to know that these scumbags don't write
problem is kazaa wont run unless cd_Clint.dll exists, www.cexx.org has a cd_clint dummy dll file that will deactivate it and let kazaa continue to run.
Yeah. I deleted the CyDoor crap. When trying to run KaZaA I get a error window with:
<!gt You have uninstalled a part of KaZaA that is needed to run. KaZaA will quit now so you can re-install it.
< sarcasm> OH! NO! Sorry! Please don't tell on me. I'll go right out and re-install it. Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry!</sarcasm>
Like the previous poster I carefully unselected all of the add-in crap when I installed KaZaA justdays ago.
It really pisses me off. I haven't even used KaZaA yet and they've been spying on me. Bye, KaZaA! I hope you don't mind, but rather than re-installing as you've commanded me, I'll just UN-install the rest.
OT: I noticed that the RealPlayer install HIDES selected "features" below the part of the window you see. You see a bunch of option boxes that are, by default, unselected. If you notice the scrollbar and scroll down the window, you see dozens that ARE selected. That way they can sneak them in and say you chose them. Sleezeballs.
I'm very grateful for this heads up. Thanks, Slashdotters!
Gene Siskel complained that one scene (with the Balrog) was extremly short in the book but played out longer on screen.
You mean Roger Ebert.
Gene Siskel, a film reviewer for the Chicago Tribune, died from a brain tumor in 2000.
Ebert's current partner is Richard Roeper, also a colummnist for the Chicago Sun Times.
...no real security against Cessna's loaded with ammonia and diesel
Hey Mr. Stats! Do you know that the average SUV weighs more than a Cessna? Do you know how much weight a Cessna can carry?
I'll give you hint: A Cessna 152 trainer has a useful load of less than 400 pounds. That does not include the weight of fuel. When a student pilot rents one for the private pilot checkride they can't fly if the FAA examiner weighs more than 200 lbs.
Most General Aviation aircraft have useful loads in the range of 600-900 pounds, once again, deduct the weight of the pilot and any gas in the tanks. Most GA planes can take four passengers OR full tanks of fuel, but not both. In other words you could take maybe ONE 55 gallon drum of diesel fuel, less the fertilizer. Timmy McVeigh would have been very disappointed in the bang that would make.
While you're railing against ineffective security measures, rail against something that had SOMETHING to do with the 9/11 attacks. Small planes were not involved.
Leave my plane alone. I'm using it to avoid the stupidity on the commercial flights. It compares well with jet travel when "passengers are advised to show up 2 hours before the scheduled departure time for their flight."
The Aircraft Owners and Pilot's Association
The most telling thing about this email is that they acknowlege that somehow the message of the "best salesmen in the world" is being challenged by the actions of mere engineeers.
Consider that this message shows that Microsoft, in spite of their marketing muscle, is concerned about losing servers to Linux. Linux has almost no marketing muscle. Well, OK, IBM is pushing Linux but they joined the wave on the backside.
What is it that makes those Linux servers show up in their customers data centers? There must be some reason why the techies keep installing Linux.
Maybe because it runs really well on last year's hardware? Maybe because the people who code it don't expect that any performance problems will be fixed by Intel?
If Microsoft's sees its most serious threat from a competitor that has almost NO marketing force, maybe the "innovative" product is the competition?
It says: Sent: Wed 12/26/2001 7:14 PM
Which means the poor guy was working late on the day after Christmas. I guess he didn't have any vacation time saved.
Trivia question: What does the C stand for? It's not what you think.
:) (I would think the 'obvious' answer is Computer)
Based on what you said above, is it Cork?
I thought it was "Community" but Ward says above that it really is "Computerized."
Hey, moderators! MOD UP THE PARENT posts from Ward! (Informative and Interesting) Fer Chrissakes, you just had a visit from the guy who invented the topic (I called him) and you're gonna leave his two very informative posts on the history of the first BBS at 1? Thanks for the information, Ward!
Uhh.. Ward invented the XMODEM protocol, not the MODEM protocol. Wrongo, Beavis!
Ward called the protocol he wrote MODEM. The client program that you ran was called MODEM.COM (MODEM.ASM was the source in assembler). The PROGRAM that you ran eXternally on the HOST BBS to do a MODEM protocol file transfer was called XMODEM (XMODEM.COM from XMODEM.ASM). Both names came to be used for the protocol, but Ward originally called it MODEM. His license plate is XMODEM because that's what everyone knew. He'll accept both names.
Was there. Knew that.
I've the privilege of knowing Ward Christensen and Randy Suess, the two who INVENTED the BBS (and coined the term) right here in Chicago. Ward is an on-site technical support rep that is working in my office a bit now. We had lunch a few days ago.
/. that Google had posted the USENET archives I checked for Ward's name. I told him that comes up with 700 messages, mostly mentioning his MODEM protocol as "the Ward Christensen protocol." Yeah, he invented file transfers by modem, too. Google returns over 54,000 web page matches for Ward's name. Ward laughs about how many hits you can get when his name is mis-spelled.
When it was mentioned here on
In 1978, Chicago had a severe blizzard and Ward and Randy wanted to share programs. Ward wrote the MODEM protocol to send the files back and forth.
During that snowstorm in January 1978, they invented CBBS to emulate the cork bulletin board at the meetings of the Chicago Computer Hobbyists Exchange (CACHE) user group that computer hobbyists used to post messages about wanted computer parts and such. They made use of a pair of direct connect 300 baud modems donated by Dennis Hayes. Randy built the S100 system and Ward wrote the program which they called CBBS. There was no operating system in those days, so the program talked directly to the hardware. It took them a month to have it done by the next CACHE meeting.
Ward is a pioneer that we all owe:
- He invented the world's first BBS program, CBBS.
- He wrote the world's first modem file transfer program, (X)MODEM.
-one the pioneers of FREE OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE. The company he works for would not let him sell programs he wrote so he gave them away. If you had an early CP/M system like I did, you knew that there were dozens and dozens of free useful utilities available on BBSs that were written by one W. Christensen.
BTW, they copyrighted the term "CBBS," not "BBS." Oh, well.
I'm sure the documentary team will be looking up Ward. I'll let him know about this and maybe he'll post.
P.S. Randy's Illinois license plate is CBBS. Ward's is XMODEM.
Trivia question: What does the C stand for? It's not what you think.
There's one thing I've alway though about: If the program is going from source to storage and not being viewed why does the video feed have too be in real time? Why can't you say double the bandwidth going to your TiVo and halve the transmission time? Send a two hour movie in one hour. Or send it 4x in 1/4 of the time.
I've always thought it was waste to have all those fringe shopping and infomercial feeds and TV preachers tying up a whole satellite channel for so long.
How about it?
Santa's not the only one who gets tracked by the US government. There is no privacy in the U.S, airspace system. All aircraft that have been assigned unique transponder codes, usually on an instrument flight plan, can be located and tracked, based on which Air Traffic Control facility has control of the flight.
n G=Google+Search
These sites . will show you the current location of any commercial flight. There are others that will track and locate corporate jets..
http://www.google.com/search?q=flight+tracking&bt
Even though there is no more "Enhanced Class B" airpace in the U.S., Santa DID get permission to fly from the U.S. government.
The Experimental Aircraft Association filed a flight waiver request for Santa which was granted by the Federal Aviation Administration.
Earlier he got permission directly from U.S. Secretary of Transportation Norman Y. Mineta.
In spite of this, Santa flies VFR (Visual Flight Rules) and it it is up to him to "see and avoid" other traffic in the air.