"And when I see signs when I'm on the freeway saying there are once in a lifetime deals at a car dealer I get off the road right away..."
See, at least those can be somewhat true from the right POV (the dealer will only have a sale exactly like that just once, etc. etc.). What the suit is complaining about is something akin to setting up orange "Road Closed Ahead - Use Detour" signs along the road that trick drivers into driving right into the car lot.
I think comparing French and American government efforts on language. This isn't the fist time the French government has tried to fight the encroachment of English into the language, but here in the Estados Unidos we can't even agree on a national language.
I see it as comeuppance for all the damage William the Conquerer did to the English language. I think it's funny that they're pitching a hissy-fit about "e-mail" ater subjecting England to a long series of royalty that didn't even speak English.
But I suppose it's only funny on the giving end.:)
Re:on second thought, pass the lead gloves please.
on
United Nuclear
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· Score: 1
Personally, I'd be more concerned about washing my hands after wearing lead gloves.
Re:Slashdot Works For US Government - Stopping Ter
on
United Nuclear
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· Score: 2, Funny
Does this mean that the coming dupe is just Taco's way of emulating Shock and Awe?
"Passively decrypting an RF signal that passes through one's body should be completely legal. (Assuming you don't use any copyrighted code to do so)"
But if it were possible for people (that don't work for the NSA) to passively decode these broadcasts, the solution wouldn't involve boxes that require a telephone connection to the provider you're stealing from, let alone smart cards.
"Both of your analogies involve actively transmitting and interfering with someone's phone or internet connection."
But both of those analogies involve something that touches the original poster's property.
"If you are beaming your signals into my property, my house, my body, my kids, etc, I will damn well do what I please with them!"
I see we aren't familiar with the concepts of rights-of-way or servitudes. Because that's essentially what EM broadcasts are in the United States.
"I almost have a duty to intercept them and decode them and make sure they are not harmful in anyway."
OK, that's just downright funny. Aside from the dangers you could detect with a signal strength meter (and it seems pretty obvious these microwaves have yet to turn you into a crispy critter), the only way these signals could be "harmful" to you is their content (maybe you think of pr0n as "harmful"). And if you didn't decode the signal, you wouldn't know about the "harm" and there would be no harm to be had on your part.
"You don't want me to do anything with them?? Then keep them off my land and out of my body, problem solved."
Look at your deed and see what it has to say about rights-of-way and servitudes. Especially the bit about how, by signing the document, you explicitly let these people do exactly what you're complaining about. If you want to go off in the radically libertarian direction, you should be more careful about what you sign.
And as for your body, you had better start taking the sun to court, because it is by far the number one source of microwave radiation in the star system.
"These are physical radio waves, you are dumping them on my property and I can't do what I want with them?"
If you bought said property in the United States, no, you can't.
"but I spend a good 15-20 minutes writing a good detailed post based on RL with a few errors and you gotta be nitpicky?"
Except that, if this were truly real life, whose signal it was you were stealing would not be vague. Aside from the corporate logos on the dish, receiver box, and possibly even the smart card, there's also the logos on the menu guides and the commercials from the provider on the channels you watch that you'd have to conveniently "forget" in order to confuse the two. If you watch one, odds are you won't even hear about the other one on the channels you watch.
This isn't a typo here, this is something that throws your entire post into doubt, even without reading the rest of the posts on this thread.
"So if you run Freenet on your computer, you may be hosting child porn."
You may be hosting child porn even without Freenet. How secure is your firewall?
"If it wants to it can."
Not in the US legal system it can't. If the government can't prove that you decripted your Freenet cache on your hard drive and knew what you were caching, you have this thing called "plausible deniability," which in turn creates this thing in juries called "reasonable doubt."
Besides, I would imagine that most of the people involved in producing and distributing kiddie porn are in it to make money. While having the content available on Freenet would make it more available to pedophiles, they'd still be a pedophile even if they didn't have the content.
However, I don't think anybody's figured out a way to make a buck on Freenet. If anything, Freenet would hurt the kiddie porn black market, because pedophiles can now get their fix for free. There will probably always be people who take such pictures (and perhaps distribute them) for their own sake (and that won't go away without government mind control), but I'd say they're in the minority of those who exploit these kids.
"Sony's PS2 and Nintendo's GBA. While many people don't consider it a killer feature on the PS2, I think it's fairly important to the GBA."
You bring up the PS2 and GBA, I'll bring up the Genesis and Game Gear. Both were backwards compatible with the Sega Master System, and both got trounced by Nintendo's competing products.
"Then instead of releasing a single disc that could be used for all games, they released four separate discs that were tweaked for only certain titles, etc."
"And this is not to mention that the controllers weren't compatible (two analog sticks on the Sony, only one on the Dreamcast)."
You do realize that Bleem! came out for the PC long before "Bleemcast" came out, right? And that said disk played most PSX games and let you use any PC controller you wanted, right?
Considering the way I (as a heterosexual guy) am not all that fond of games "geared towards me" (BMX XXX, anyone), do women really want a game that is "geared" towards them?
"Gearing" is just a prettier word for pandering. And most people (at least most adult people), regardless of sex, just aren't keen on being pandered to.
"Two parents each working 50 hours a week to pay off the mortgage and cars is NOT rich."
"The U.S. middle class _IS_ the proletariat in 1984. They are oppressed and kept powerless"
Um... exactly how oppressed can you be if you own a home and multiple cars?
No, wait, let me embellish a moment: What the fuck kind of "hardships" have you witnessed (let alone experienced) in your life that allow you to think that a little consumer debt is "oppressing?" The only way that becomes anywhere near truly bad is when the sheriff's deputy is knocking at your door to reposess your house. But even that is easily avoided: If you can't afford the mortgage, sell the house to somebody else who can.
And even if and when they do reposess your house, it doesn't cost you a thing. The bank makes up its money through the subsequent auction. You still have whatever is in your pocket and your bank account. Sure, your credit rating is shot, but that only truly affects your ability to borrow, not to earn.
Oh, and speaking of which: oppressed people don't have bank accounts.
"but by the debt brought on by their consumption-based lifestyles."
Big Brother can't be taken down by a pair of scissors. Using a pair on your credit cards, though, will free you from "oppressive consumption-based lifestyles." We're not exactly talking about the Russian Revolution here.
"I won't even get into the education level of the U.S. middle class."
Yeah, real horrible. Only 97% of Americans that have reached the age of majority can read.
Have you even taken a look outside your window today?
Slashdot Mirror
"The French have had one significant long term victory in their existence"
What's worse: Napoleon doesn't count, either. He was a Corsican.
"Here is 'Estados Unidos' we have the same sort of fanatics who have done all the damage in Quebec trying to balkanize and divide."
Yeah, that explains all those Spanish-speaking citizens trying to get statehood for Puerto Rico...
"And when I see signs when I'm on the freeway saying there are once in a lifetime deals at a car dealer I get off the road right away..."
See, at least those can be somewhat true from the right POV (the dealer will only have a sale exactly like that just once, etc. etc.). What the suit is complaining about is something akin to setting up orange "Road Closed Ahead - Use Detour" signs along the road that trick drivers into driving right into the car lot.
"British english could be considered more pure."
Actually, I remember reading in a textbook somewhere that American English is closer to the language of Shakespear than the British variety.
Of course, I am not a linguist...
"Incroyable, mais la plupart du monde ne parle pas Anglais."
Ah, but it is spoken by two of the planet's three most populous countries. And Beijing is pushing English education even as we speak.
I think comparing French and American government efforts on language. This isn't the fist time the French government has tried to fight the encroachment of English into the language, but here in the Estados Unidos we can't even agree on a national language.
I see it as comeuppance for all the damage William the Conquerer did to the English language. I think it's funny that they're pitching a hissy-fit about "e-mail" ater subjecting England to a long series of royalty that didn't even speak English.
:)
But I suppose it's only funny on the giving end.
Personally, I'd be more concerned about washing my hands after wearing lead gloves.
Does this mean that the coming dupe is just Taco's way of emulating Shock and Awe?
"Passively decrypting an RF signal that passes through one's body should be completely legal. (Assuming you don't use any copyrighted code to do so)"
But if it were possible for people (that don't work for the NSA) to passively decode these broadcasts, the solution wouldn't involve boxes that require a telephone connection to the provider you're stealing from, let alone smart cards.
"Both of your analogies involve actively transmitting and interfering with someone's phone or internet connection."
But both of those analogies involve something that touches the original poster's property.
"If you are beaming your signals into my property, my house, my body, my kids, etc, I will damn well do what I please with them!"
I see we aren't familiar with the concepts of rights-of-way or servitudes. Because that's essentially what EM broadcasts are in the United States.
"I almost have a duty to intercept them and decode them and make sure they are not harmful in anyway."
OK, that's just downright funny. Aside from the dangers you could detect with a signal strength meter (and it seems pretty obvious these microwaves have yet to turn you into a crispy critter), the only way these signals could be "harmful" to you is their content (maybe you think of pr0n as "harmful"). And if you didn't decode the signal, you wouldn't know about the "harm" and there would be no harm to be had on your part.
"You don't want me to do anything with them?? Then keep them off my land and out of my body, problem solved."
Look at your deed and see what it has to say about rights-of-way and servitudes. Especially the bit about how, by signing the document, you explicitly let these people do exactly what you're complaining about. If you want to go off in the radically libertarian direction, you should be more careful about what you sign.
And as for your body, you had better start taking the sun to court, because it is by far the number one source of microwave radiation in the star system.
"These are physical radio waves, you are dumping them on my property and I can't do what I want with them?"
If you bought said property in the United States, no, you can't.
"but I spend a good 15-20 minutes writing a good detailed post based on RL with a few errors and you gotta be nitpicky?"
Except that, if this were truly real life, whose signal it was you were stealing would not be vague. Aside from the corporate logos on the dish, receiver box, and possibly even the smart card, there's also the logos on the menu guides and the commercials from the provider on the channels you watch that you'd have to conveniently "forget" in order to confuse the two. If you watch one, odds are you won't even hear about the other one on the channels you watch.
This isn't a typo here, this is something that throws your entire post into doubt, even without reading the rest of the posts on this thread.
"I don't know if there is a US law that is complimentary, but in California,"
:)
I know what you meant, but... well... that's an interesting way of phrasing that.
"(there is little enough on telly to warrant much more than basic cable for the occassional sporting event)"
I don't know about your area, but around here basic DirecTV service is actually cheaper than basic cable from Cox.
"So if you run Freenet on your computer, you may be hosting child porn."
You may be hosting child porn even without Freenet. How secure is your firewall?
"If it wants to it can."
Not in the US legal system it can't. If the government can't prove that you decripted your Freenet cache on your hard drive and knew what you were caching, you have this thing called "plausible deniability," which in turn creates this thing in juries called "reasonable doubt."
Besides, I would imagine that most of the people involved in producing and distributing kiddie porn are in it to make money. While having the content available on Freenet would make it more available to pedophiles, they'd still be a pedophile even if they didn't have the content.
However, I don't think anybody's figured out a way to make a buck on Freenet. If anything, Freenet would hurt the kiddie porn black market, because pedophiles can now get their fix for free. There will probably always be people who take such pictures (and perhaps distribute them) for their own sake (and that won't go away without government mind control), but I'd say they're in the minority of those who exploit these kids.
"the chances of winning a battle are considerably more favorable for the attacker than was originally suspected."
Somebody's obviously never used my dice before!
"Sony's PS2 and Nintendo's GBA. While many people don't consider it a killer feature on the PS2, I think it's fairly important to the GBA."
You bring up the PS2 and GBA, I'll bring up the Genesis and Game Gear. Both were backwards compatible with the Sega Master System, and both got trounced by Nintendo's competing products.
And what was the PSX backwards compatible with?
"Then instead of releasing a single disc that could be used for all games, they released four separate discs that were tweaked for only certain titles, etc."
"And this is not to mention that the controllers weren't compatible (two analog sticks on the Sony, only one on the Dreamcast)."
You do realize that Bleem! came out for the PC long before "Bleemcast" came out, right? And that said disk played most PSX games and let you use any PC controller you wanted, right?
Considering the way I (as a heterosexual guy) am not all that fond of games "geared towards me" (BMX XXX, anyone), do women really want a game that is "geared" towards them?
"Gearing" is just a prettier word for pandering. And most people (at least most adult people), regardless of sex, just aren't keen on being pandered to.
"or My Non-Violent Pet Friend Super Tea Party?"
No thanks, I'm too busy playing Animal Crossing.
"Well, that will teach me never to trust (...) or publicity stunts."
Not familiar with Acclaim, are we?
"so that they can extrapolate what we will do next,"
Hell, I don't even know that most times!
"Two parents each working 50 hours a week to pay off the mortgage and cars is NOT rich."
"The U.S. middle class _IS_ the proletariat in 1984. They are oppressed and kept powerless"
Um... exactly how oppressed can you be if you own a home and multiple cars?
No, wait, let me embellish a moment: What the fuck kind of "hardships" have you witnessed (let alone experienced) in your life that allow you to think that a little consumer debt is "oppressing?" The only way that becomes anywhere near truly bad is when the sheriff's deputy is knocking at your door to reposess your house. But even that is easily avoided: If you can't afford the mortgage, sell the house to somebody else who can.
And even if and when they do reposess your house, it doesn't cost you a thing. The bank makes up its money through the subsequent auction. You still have whatever is in your pocket and your bank account. Sure, your credit rating is shot, but that only truly affects your ability to borrow, not to earn.
Oh, and speaking of which: oppressed people don't have bank accounts.
"but by the debt brought on by their consumption-based lifestyles."
Big Brother can't be taken down by a pair of scissors. Using a pair on your credit cards, though, will free you from "oppressive consumption-based lifestyles." We're not exactly talking about the Russian Revolution here.
"I won't even get into the education level of the U.S. middle class."
Yeah, real horrible. Only 97% of Americans that have reached the age of majority can read.
Have you even taken a look outside your window today?
"therefore conveying the image that a lot of UK people are reading this, and consequently making us feel more at home with the content!"
:)
Oh, quit yer bitchin'. You'd have more to complain about if the English and 'Merican languages weren't so darn close.