In the meantime I await the continual improvement of linux to cause a critical mass of marketshare so that vendors will finally start giving it proper support....
Well, I've moved from hating Ubuntu to using it at home. That's a start.
RTFA. This isn't about mobile phones, this is about mobile data plans, and people in rural areas that probably don't have any other way of getting online.
Did you read the parent post? The guy is claiming that "cell phones and internet access are pretty much not a privilege any more."
That's a completely ridiculous statement. Mobile phones aren't a basic human right, no matter what Best Buy tells you.
Rural communication, and the ripping off of the customers who bought equipment based off the (apparently fraudulent) statements made by Telus, are a different matter.
You'd be foolish to spend millions to get back $150 in fees.
Why does a simple issue of unfair fees have to go to the nation's highest court? And why does each individual who got ripped off have to pursue the issue separately?
Telus would appeal any decision against it, and you bet your ass that any other company with similar contracts (e.g. banks) would join it or at least give legal and financial help. Good luck with that.
My lawyer has told me to "let go" of $2500 problems because they just aren't worth taking to court.
That is, sadly, true. But that logic doesn't apply to every situation where one person owes another a small amount. In particular, a large corporation that rips off small amounts from thousands of people is subject to all kinds of legal, political, and social sanctions.
Right. Just like the 911 system access fees. You know that those aren't government mandated nor do they go to 911 service, right?
Or bank fees. It doesn't cost $1 to use a debit machine, and it doesn't cost $5 a month to track money.
ECHELON? Isn't that where the government searches for words like bomb, plutonium, assassinate, and anarchy?
What your point here? That you're so invested in the "war on terror" that you no longer care about privacy? Are you sure you're Canadian?
I've had that sig since 1998, thank you, and I cut it down to fit a/. sig when I joined. It predates this ridiculous "War on Terra" by a few years.
Mobile phones aren't a requirement. I don't have one, and I'm an Electrical Engineer. (EIT) I've had two kids, some emergencies, and I have never missed having a cell phone.
As for the legality of the contract, they can't change the terms legally. That's what a contract is. You do this, I do this, until the contract ends or we die. If either party changes the terms and then the other party goes along with it, then the contract is considered accepted by their action. So if they say "Hey, we're charging you for incoming text messages now", you can leave the contract, no matter what their PR firms, service reps, and website say.
The problem is the costs involved in challenging the changes in court. It would likely have to go to the Supreme Court of Canada, and that's going to cost you 7 figures. You might get 1/3 of that back. You'd be foolish to spend millions to get back $150 in fees. My lawyer has told me to "let go" of $2500 problems because they just aren't worth taking to court.
And yes, that's with Canada's loser-pay system.
I'm Canadian, and I'm not a lawyer. You may begin nitpicking minor points in my post now.
I pre-ordered NHM. NMH wasn't a big hit because it wasn't very good.
It was unfinished, had a lousy sound track, and a totally linear plot. The dialog was abysmal! I'll admit that the jokes were pretty good (NHM forever?) but that didn't make up for the shallow gameplay. (Minigames notwithstanding.) Hell, even Zelda on the NES had a Master Quest when you ran through it once. This game was just "Hey, do you want to do it again?"
It had so much more potential, and they just ruined it. I'm glad it didn't kill adult gaming on the Wii altogether.
The problem is that the end user may not be aware that the radios are failing. You'd just be unable to get a traffic channel when requested and you wouldn't hear any incoming traffic.
I'd rather not go into detail. When I showed the problem to my supervisor, he was rather alarmed. When I showed it to my boss, I was reprimanded and told I didn't have enough experience to make that kind of judgment. If I knew then what I knew now, the conversation would have gone a lot differently. Oh well.
If the lights aren't online, then you could just make the signals that the police / ambulance / fire have to turn them all red. That wouldn't be as costly in terms of damage, but it would sure fuck people up.
None of the lights in my city are mechanical timers. They're all magnetic sensors. None are online.
We don't have someone at our reservoir 24/7/365.
For maximum awesome, I'd suggest doing this kind of thing at about 5:15 on the Friday of a long weekend.
You joke, but it'll be illegal to have a non-Windows OS in Canada if bill C-61 gets passed.
Any copy protection circumvention is illegal, so if you have a region-free DVD player (like Linux distros) or anything that doesn't blindly install Sony rootkits (Mac / Linux ) then you're breaking the law.
"You play DnD? You must never get out and hang around with friends in real life. Loser."
I've been playing DnD for almost 20 years now, and not ONE game has been in a basement. I've got my own basement that I could play a game in, but it's just so much nicer when you're sitting around the table in the living room.
1. Set the fecal chloroform counts for the reservoir monitoring systems at max. SCADA + Internet connection + SBO = Good Times.
2. Set every traffic light to green in all directions (or cycle the lights quickly enough to cause massive accidents)
3. Disrupt the trunking radio system (used by first responders). It's simple to make one, and only obscurity keeps bad guys from making an undetectable jammer. Worse, P25 (new US government mandate) requires Internet connectivity.
4. Overload a few older transformers like in Vancouver two weeks ago.
So what you've got now is the water supply shut off by the sensors, and traffic is so backed up with crashes that the engineers can't get to the site to reset the system. That gives you 2-3 days until people start dying off. Even if you get it fixed in a day, people will fucking panic like Home Depot shoppers in a flyover state.
The police, paramedics, fire, buses, etc can't co-ordinate anything since their radios aren't working.
This is True goes directly to my "real" ISP-based email address.
The point is that the list isn't spam at all. It's an opt-in list. Did you know that the spam primer was written by Randy Cassingham?
True has outlasted just about any online venture you can name. It's probably older than/. He never sells email addresses, never put HTML or graphics in the emails, or anything else. I first read the list when my email client was PINE.
Yahoo is in the wrong, and that's the whole point here. The yahoo users who WANT the list are, in fact, being cheated by other yahoo users.
As someone who's been on Randy's list for 10+ years, I can tell you it's easier to remove yourself from his list than anything else. It's literally just one click to unsubscribe.
In fact, it's easier to get off his list than it is to get on.
Some people do pay for the upgraded "Premium" This is True, and those people are not getting a paid-for-service.
What if yahoo decided that announcements from/. were spam? What if you were a subscriber?
I've got two kids, and they took practice. I know that it's a great meme to say "ha, nobody online get laid" but it's simply not true. Most geeks and engineers are outgoing people with interesting personalities. You attitude is simply incorrect, and if you're using your "geekiness" to hide a lack of social skills, you're going to be sadly disappointed later in life. I'll give you a tip in DnD terms: CHA is the only stat you can fake, and the only one you actually improve when you fake it.
Get a decent saddle, adjust it properly (in my experience, most bike shops will give you an improper fit) and you'll be fine. If you feel any numbness, you require an adjustment. Note that a slight pain is normal on the second week. Those are your muscles adjusting to holding your weight on a very small surface area.
Unless you're biking 100k+ in a day, every day, you won't have to worry about the effects of the close-fitting shorts on your sperm count.
Buy biking clothes and pack your work clothes in your panniers. Take it easy on the way in. When you get to work, change after a brief cool-down. Wash your face in the sink (you may not want to fill it - just use running water) and that should be good enough to get you through your day.
You'll want to shower daily; you just might have to do it at home.
I wore slacks and dress shirts for a year while biking to work. It's perfectly doable. The biking clothes make a big difference in your biking comfort. The pants / shorts don't have to be the "sausage casing" style - they make them with outer layers which make them look just like regular shorts.
I'd suggest putting deodorant and an extra change of socks and underwear in your drawer in case you forget something.
Deaths per year. 725, 629, 665, 732, and 693 cyclists died per year in 2004, 2003, 2002, 2001, and 2000 respectively, and were about 89% male. (National Highway Traffic Saftey Administration, and Insurance Institute for Highway Safety)
An average of 16.5 cyclists per million die every year in the U.S. (For motorists, it's 19.9 motorists per million.) (National Safety Council 1988)
Cyclists are 2% of road deaths & injuries. The 761 cyclists killed in 1996 accounted for 2% of traffic fatalities, and the 59,000 cyclists injured made up 2% of all traffic injuries. (5)
They also state later: Health benefits of cycling outweigh the risks. "The gain of 'life years' through improved fitness among regular cyclists, and thus their increased longevity exceeds the loss of 'life years' in cycle fatalities (British Medical Association, 1992). An analysis based on the life expectancy of each cyclist killed in road accidents using actuarial data, and the increased longevity of those engaging in exercise regimes several times a week compared with those leading relatively sedentary lives, has shown that, even in the current cycle hostile environment, the benefits in terms of life years gained, outweigh life years lost in cycling fatalities by a factor of around 20 to 1." -- Mayer Hillman, Senior Fellow Emeritus, Policy Studies Institute, and British Medical Association researcher (7, 8)
Slashdot Mirror
That pun was Tajik, Stan.
I shaved my beard off four years ago.
In the meantime I await the continual improvement of linux to cause a critical mass of marketshare so that vendors will finally start giving it proper support....
Well, I've moved from hating Ubuntu to using it at home. That's a start.
Yes, there's a small-claims court for claims up to 25k. Telus would appeal if you won.
If you lost, Telus would hand you a bill for their legal fees, which would be in the realm of thousands or tens of thousands.
Mobile phones aren't a requirement.
RTFA. This isn't about mobile phones, this is about mobile data plans, and people in rural areas that probably don't have any other way of getting online.
Did you read the parent post? The guy is claiming that "cell phones and internet access are pretty much not a privilege any more."
That's a completely ridiculous statement. Mobile phones aren't a basic human right, no matter what Best Buy tells you.
Rural communication, and the ripping off of the customers who bought equipment based off the (apparently fraudulent) statements made by Telus, are a different matter.
You'd be foolish to spend millions to get back $150 in fees.
Why does a simple issue of unfair fees have to go to the nation's highest court? And why does each individual who got ripped off have to pursue the issue separately?
Telus would appeal any decision against it, and you bet your ass that any other company with similar contracts (e.g. banks) would join it or at least give legal and financial help. Good luck with that.
My lawyer has told me to "let go" of $2500 problems because they just aren't worth taking to court.
That is, sadly, true. But that logic doesn't apply to every situation where one person owes another a small amount. In particular, a large corporation that rips off small amounts from thousands of people is subject to all kinds of legal, political, and social sanctions.
Right. Just like the 911 system access fees. You know that those aren't government mandated nor do they go to 911 service, right?
Or bank fees. It doesn't cost $1 to use a debit machine, and it doesn't cost $5 a month to track money.
ECHELON? Isn't that where the government searches for words like bomb, plutonium, assassinate, and anarchy?
What your point here? That you're so invested in the "war on terror" that you no longer care about privacy? Are you sure you're Canadian?
I've had that sig since 1998, thank you, and I cut it down to fit a /. sig when I joined. It predates this ridiculous "War on Terra" by a few years.
It's funny. Laugh.
Mobile phones aren't a requirement. I don't have one, and I'm an Electrical Engineer. (EIT) I've had two kids, some emergencies, and I have never missed having a cell phone.
As for the legality of the contract, they can't change the terms legally. That's what a contract is. You do this, I do this, until the contract ends or we die. If either party changes the terms and then the other party goes along with it, then the contract is considered accepted by their action. So if they say "Hey, we're charging you for incoming text messages now", you can leave the contract, no matter what their PR firms, service reps, and website say.
The problem is the costs involved in challenging the changes in court. It would likely have to go to the Supreme Court of Canada, and that's going to cost you 7 figures. You might get 1/3 of that back. You'd be foolish to spend millions to get back $150 in fees. My lawyer has told me to "let go" of $2500 problems because they just aren't worth taking to court.
And yes, that's with Canada's loser-pay system.
I'm Canadian, and I'm not a lawyer. You may begin nitpicking minor points in my post now.
Don't you remember 9/11, when terrorists flew child porn into the WTC?
For shame, fuzzyfuzzyfungus. For shame.
I pre-ordered NHM. NMH wasn't a big hit because it wasn't very good.
It was unfinished, had a lousy sound track, and a totally linear plot. The dialog was abysmal! I'll admit that the jokes were pretty good (NHM forever?) but that didn't make up for the shallow gameplay. (Minigames notwithstanding.) Hell, even Zelda on the NES had a Master Quest when you ran through it once. This game was just "Hey, do you want to do it again?"
It had so much more potential, and they just ruined it. I'm glad it didn't kill adult gaming on the Wii altogether.
Typical internet guy, eh?
"You mis-spelld 1 word LOL so UR hole argmuent is rong."
The problem is that the end user may not be aware that the radios are failing. You'd just be unable to get a traffic channel when requested and you wouldn't hear any incoming traffic.
I'd rather not go into detail. When I showed the problem to my supervisor, he was rather alarmed. When I showed it to my boss, I was reprimanded and told I didn't have enough experience to make that kind of judgment. If I knew then what I knew now, the conversation would have gone a lot differently. Oh well.
If the lights aren't online, then you could just make the signals that the police / ambulance / fire have to turn them all red. That wouldn't be as costly in terms of damage, but it would sure fuck people up.
None of the lights in my city are mechanical timers. They're all magnetic sensors. None are online.
We don't have someone at our reservoir 24/7/365.
For maximum awesome, I'd suggest doing this kind of thing at about 5:15 on the Friday of a long weekend.
You joke, but it'll be illegal to have a non-Windows OS in Canada if bill C-61 gets passed.
Any copy protection circumvention is illegal, so if you have a region-free DVD player (like Linux distros) or anything that doesn't blindly install Sony rootkits (Mac / Linux ) then you're breaking the law.
Or a Win2000 install CD. It'll read the data right off an XP drive without asking for a password.
But Ubuntu Live will give you a nice GUI, suitable for the lazy hacker. You can even burn it right onto a DVD with Roxio.
You're probably correct. Your post made me facepalm when I realized that's very likely that that's what they meant.
I've never understood that sentiment:
"You play DnD? You must never get out and hang around with friends in real life. Loser."
I've been playing DnD for almost 20 years now, and not ONE game has been in a basement. I've got my own basement that I could play a game in, but it's just so much nicer when you're sitting around the table in the living room.
Here's what you could do:
1. Set the fecal chloroform counts for the reservoir monitoring systems at max. SCADA + Internet connection + SBO = Good Times.
2. Set every traffic light to green in all directions (or cycle the lights quickly enough to cause massive accidents)
3. Disrupt the trunking radio system (used by first responders). It's simple to make one, and only obscurity keeps bad guys from making an undetectable jammer. Worse, P25 (new US government mandate) requires Internet connectivity.
4. Overload a few older transformers like in Vancouver two weeks ago.
So what you've got now is the water supply shut off by the sensors, and traffic is so backed up with crashes that the engineers can't get to the site to reset the system. That gives you 2-3 days until people start dying off. Even if you get it fixed in a day, people will fucking panic like Home Depot shoppers in a flyover state.
The police, paramedics, fire, buses, etc can't co-ordinate anything since their radios aren't working.
Then the backup power goes out.
Good times.
Yeah, until someone steals a laptop with all the Clearpass data.
This is True goes directly to my "real" ISP-based email address.
The point is that the list isn't spam at all. It's an opt-in list. Did you know that the spam primer was written by Randy Cassingham?
True has outlasted just about any online venture you can name. It's probably older than /. He never sells email addresses, never put HTML or graphics in the emails, or anything else. I first read the list when my email client was PINE.
Yahoo is in the wrong, and that's the whole point here. The yahoo users who WANT the list are, in fact, being cheated by other yahoo users.
As someone who's been on Randy's list for 10+ years, I can tell you it's easier to remove yourself from his list than anything else. It's literally just one click to unsubscribe.
In fact, it's easier to get off his list than it is to get on.
Some people do pay for the upgraded "Premium" This is True, and those people are not getting a paid-for-service.
What if yahoo decided that announcements from /. were spam? What if you were a subscriber?
That was my first thought: long-term microgravity survival.
Yeah, because there aren't any side effects with Viagra.
The erections ARE a side effect, one-eye.
From what I could see, s f, it looks like bikes make up about 1% of the traffic in the US.
So, bikes make up 1% of the traffic yet have 2% of the deaths. That's very interesting.
The source is here:
http://www.bicyclinginfo.org/facts/crash-facts.cfm
I've got two kids, and they took practice. I know that it's a great meme to say "ha, nobody online get laid" but it's simply not true. Most geeks and engineers are outgoing people with interesting personalities. You attitude is simply incorrect, and if you're using your "geekiness" to hide a lack of social skills, you're going to be sadly disappointed later in life. I'll give you a tip in DnD terms: CHA is the only stat you can fake, and the only one you actually improve when you fake it.
Get a decent saddle, adjust it properly (in my experience, most bike shops will give you an improper fit) and you'll be fine. If you feel any numbness, you require an adjustment. Note that a slight pain is normal on the second week. Those are your muscles adjusting to holding your weight on a very small surface area.
Unless you're biking 100k+ in a day, every day, you won't have to worry about the effects of the close-fitting shorts on your sperm count.
Also: when you're fitter, it's better.
I plan on living to the end, not just surviving until I succumb to a heart attack.
I'm in the best shape of my life now, and it makes life more enjoyable.
Buy biking clothes and pack your work clothes in your panniers. Take it easy on the way in. When you get to work, change after a brief cool-down. Wash your face in the sink (you may not want to fill it - just use running water) and that should be good enough to get you through your day.
You'll want to shower daily; you just might have to do it at home.
I wore slacks and dress shirts for a year while biking to work. It's perfectly doable. The biking clothes make a big difference in your biking comfort. The pants / shorts don't have to be the "sausage casing" style - they make them with outer layers which make them look just like regular shorts.
I'd suggest putting deodorant and an extra change of socks and underwear in your drawer in case you forget something.
From a quick search, unverified stats show that bikes make up 2% (just like milk) of vehicle fatalities:
From:
http://bicycleuniverse.info/transpo/almanac-safety.html
How many cyclists die
Deaths per year. 725, 629, 665, 732, and 693 cyclists died per year in 2004, 2003, 2002, 2001, and 2000 respectively, and were about 89% male. (National Highway Traffic Saftey Administration, and Insurance Institute for Highway Safety)
An average of 16.5 cyclists per million die every year in the U.S. (For motorists, it's 19.9 motorists per million.) (National Safety Council 1988)
Cyclists are 2% of road deaths & injuries. The 761 cyclists killed in 1996 accounted for 2% of traffic fatalities, and the 59,000 cyclists injured made up 2% of all traffic injuries. (5)
They also state later:
Health benefits of cycling outweigh the risks. "The gain of 'life years' through improved fitness among regular cyclists, and thus their increased longevity exceeds the loss of 'life years' in cycle fatalities (British Medical Association, 1992). An analysis based on the life expectancy of each cyclist killed in road accidents using actuarial data, and the increased longevity of those engaging in exercise regimes several times a week compared with those leading relatively sedentary lives, has shown that, even in the current cycle hostile environment, the benefits in terms of life years gained, outweigh life years lost in cycling fatalities by a factor of around 20 to 1." -- Mayer Hillman, Senior Fellow Emeritus, Policy Studies Institute, and British Medical Association researcher (7, 8)