Apologies to all for responding to my own post, but THIS is what I all to frequently hit when trying to reach a Digital River site from a Comcast served connection:
The connection was reset
The connection to the server was reset while the page was loading.
* The site could be temporarily unavailable or too busy. Try again in a few
moments.
* If you are unable to load any pages, check your computer's network
connection.
* If your computer or network is protected by a firewall or proxy, make sure
that Firefox is permitted to access the Web.
I am an Earthlink high-speed subscriber with the "last mile" provided on Comcast Cable in the Seattle area.
I rarely notice any long-term "problems" but I and the folks running a particular website (a low volume one at that) have been working trying to find the reason I CONSTANTLY get repeated resets trying to access their site (hosted on Digital River, a local competitor...)
I don't get the resets on any other IPs, only others on Comcast get ANY, and the DR hosted site is NOT even seeing my requests.
It looks like I may just have found the "problem" and it may be Comcast blocking my access even though I am not THEIR customer directly.
But in getting that "key to the safe" in response to a search warrant there isn't a wide open "fishing expedition" granted.
If the warrant is to gain access to, for example "the twelve pornographic photographs known to be in the safe" that does not allow the investigators to also review the contents of all the accounting books also in the safe.
Since the original officers who looked at the images probably have no idea which files they were, I suspect that they will rifle through EVERYTHING in that drive if they had the opportunity, just to make sure they found the ones he saw.
By doing so they will likely find other things that may pose a problem to the owner of the drive the government now possesses, and US law has always said that one can't be made to incriminate themselves.
Very picky points, but in this case I actually think the judge may be right within very narrow confines.
(If the original investigator can remember the actual file names/paths, I suspect the defense could be asked to product THOSE files, but lacking that...)
The cause was reportedly that some major remote terminal or unmanned switching station of some sort failed to switch back from battery backup to mains power after power was restored.
That can happen, though it's not a failure to switch back from battery backup, its a failure to switch back to charging the batteries with commercial power.
When there is a power failure, not only does everything continue to run on the batteries, a switch disconnects the incoming commercial power lines and another connects the generator(s). If the power driven switches don't change over from generator back to commercial power, and the generator shuts down, you are just on battery until they finally go flat.
I've seen one failure where the switch disconnected the generator, but the other switch hung, and didn't reconnect commercial power. That was a staffed site, so it was caught.
Actually, the most exciting power switch problem I saw what when the commercial power switch didn't open during a power failure, and when power came back, it was out of phase with the emergency power and two 1MW generators tried to jump off the floor and a good portion of the switch vaporized...
I should mention that these "switches" are essentially giant relays about the size of a Volkswagen... Switching them was actually spring driven, and the springs were tensioned by big electric motors that wound them up. When the switch was tripped the pre-tensioned springs slammed the contacts open or closed.
(Just to give an idea of the power levels involved, the "main battery discharge fuse" for the -48V in that office - the one that battery power went through first - was an 8400 Amp fuse... and there were five separate battery plants in that office: -48V, -24V, +67V, -130V and +130V. Normal draw on the -48V plant was 4100-4500 amps, and this was a fairly small urban office built in 1931... We could handle 30,000 lines. We also had a toll switch [long distance], a lot of microwave, an "0" operator center and a "411" information center in the central office building. All running on the batteries in the basement.)
In the United States that sort of priority exists for hospitals, police, fire, doctors, military, and other "essential" personnel/agencies and is called "essential service." The standard was to have three levels of "essential service" lines: initially all lines would have service, if it got really bad, only the essential service lines would be operational, and as things got even worse it would progressively shut down the lessor priority lines until only the critical public safety lines were left. (In the 30,000 line office I worked in, at worst case only one percent of the lines would be operational - "Essential Service 1A."
Coin phones were essential service: The thought there was that when Hell let out for lunch and only a few phones could be kept working, the public ones would make the most sense to keep going. Now that cellphones have all but wiped out the coin phone, they need to be kept running.
I spent a quarter century working as a tech, engineer, and eventually engineering manager in the old Bell System. Say what you will about old Ma Bell, but she did believe in backups.
The central office I worked at for about 8 years had complete battery backup for over eight hours, and twin diesels (megawatt) with a 30,000 gallon tank to provide backup power. This was an urban central office.
Everything in the Old Bell System constantly ran on battery, and the commercial power coming into the building was used to keep those batteries charged. When we lost power there wasn't even a "click" on the line, because there was no switching to backup. All that happened is the batteries were no longer being charged.
If the power remained out for thirty seconds the big diesels started up and took over charging the batteries three minutes later.
Some of our more "inaccessible" microwave towers ("Tieton" in the Cascade mountains comes to mind) had fuel for 30 days... "Just in case."
Should cell towers have backup power? Hell yes! Should the equipment huts out in the middle (or ends) of the cable runs have emergency power? Of course!
In the days when every phone was tied to a central office by a long, thin, copper wire, every phone was directly powered by the central office over that wire. Now days that just isn't so.
EVERY commercially provided communication system should have backup for commercial power such that it can hang on for at least four hours on battery, longer on a generator.
No that's a euphemism for a really tall hill about 40 miles from Seattle.:o)
Actually, there was flooding and damage both north and south of where I live, but the area about 50-60 miles south of me took the hardest hit this time, hence the comment and the link to http://flood.dothelp.net/
I live north of most of the problems, but have friends right in the middle of the flood disaster in SW Washington state: http://flood.dothelp.net/
Much of the communication is out due to drowned central offices, soaked cables, power outages, and such. Even the remaining working cell towers are in serious trouble, seriously overloaded, and communications is very spotty.
20 miles of Interstrate 5 are closed, with a several hundred mile detour over a mountain range, and the highway will likely be closed for a week, possibly more. Some parts of it were ten feet under water yesterday, and there was a lot of damage to the highway and it's foundation.
In conditions like this, hams with mobile or portable radios, or with emergency generators are often the ONLY communication to the outside.
http://flood.dothelp.net/ has a lot of information about the damage, rescue efforts, pictures, etc. (The server itself is OUTSIDE the disaster area.)
The problem with an officer having to be Tasered so that they can "experience what it's like" is that they are (1) ready for it, (2) have aid standing by, (3) only get one application of it, from a fellow officer, (4) know that it won't be repeated randomly by some sadistic brute who just "thinks you deserve it." In other words the utter terror of the unknown isn't there.
Tell ya what - let me follow some officers around, and every time they do something I don't think they should have done (anything from verbal harassment to handling a citizen too roughly) let me zap 'em - and if they object, let me zap 'em again.
Then, and ONLY then would they understand the problem...
Officers are too ready on the Taser trigger. Bad mouth a cop; get zapped, not lay on the ground fast enough; get zapped, not obey instructions - even if unlawful and even if you don't understand the language; get zapped, object to having the 240 pound monster pinning you to the ground with his knee in your back; get zapped.
Sadly, while the Taser is a great idea, it is being used for many things where there is absolutely no danger to the officer or others.
I'm handicapped, and have great difficulty managing "lay face down on the ground" or "walk backward toward my voice" or "hands up and spread your legs." I'm also not a criminal, and should have NO fear of ever having to do any of those - except I have been stopped for zero reason as I was driving my mother home to her place at 1 AM.
Why? Because 12 miles away, in another town, two armed black kids in the same color sedan (red) had hit a stop-and-rob. (My mum's car was a '90 Ford Tempo, theirs was a 2000 something stolen Honda Civic, I'm 60, she's 81, both white.)
You want us out of the car, officer? Wait a sec while I get my cane, OK?
====
All I'm saying is that Tasers are being used too often and with too little provocation by officers, and that shit has to stop before I'm on their "to-do" list...
"With the creation of this new service, we are acknowledging that now, more than ever, viewers want to be in control of how, when and where they consume their favorite entertainment,"
Embeded, non-skipable commercials, expires in one week, and available only to MS Windows machines? Right.
I actually did drop a short email to several of NBC's addresses...
Now that NBC has pulled it's shows from the iTunes store, they are no longer available in a format usable by both MS Windows and Apple OS X users.
Are there any plans to make NBC media once again available to the growing number of folks who do NOT pay Microsoft for the privilege of using their computers?
If not, PLEASE boldly state up front on your web pages that you will provide your media only to those who use Microsoft operating systems, and simply don't care about providing anyone else access.
Purposely moving your media to a proprietary format that restricts its availability to a smaller 'universe' of users, and totally cuts off many existing customers, seems a very poor choice.
(And if that is, indeed, your position, I sincerely hope that part of your enterprise fails grandly, and with great fanfare.)
If one buys all new machines that might be true, used or refurbs would be less, probably.
You also have to remember that just saving a couple hours a week in in upgrades, rebuilds, virus/worm/trojan cleaning and such, which is definitely possible, can pay for the difference in less than a year...
However, if you have a lot of extra FREE manhours to dedicate to computer set-up and maintenance, $400 Wal-Mart specials might be your best bet. Perhaps volunteers that can come in once a week to keep things running?
It's a trade-off, as it is with most things, where one has to balance initial cost with ongoing cost. It doesn't take all that long for ongoing costs to overwhelm initial cost.
Start small, choose wisely. Don't just take the word of a bunch of strangers.
We are good for ideas, but you need to look at a bigger long-term picture than is usually provided by a forum like this to make a good decision for your needs.
...and a Mac can give each user their own ID (if desired), and limit that ID to only certain limited applications and actions. This feature is built right into the OS and requires no extra futzing.:o)
Macs also tend to be pleasant, reliable machines, and out-of-the-box mych less prone to gremlins...
Pain is the natural way to inform an organism that they should not continue with or repeat an action, and the only "pain" a "bureaucracy" understands is a hit in the budget.
There should be a penalty for false arrest so that there is less chance of it occurring in the future.
(And really, I'd much rather someone else push back so I don't have to. I've already fought my battles for over 60 years, time for the younger folks to take some of the load.):o)
With any product that can disrupt other services - in this instance, taking out your neighbor's TV reception or data link if the "scanner" doesn't detect the "channel" is already in use - the product needs to be designed to "fail safe."
In other words, the device should self-test critical functions, and if any do not meet requirements, the device needs to indicate the failure AND NOT TRANSMIT.
Basic rational design.
If the "scanner" fails to detect an "in use" channel properly (self test to ensure it does), the transmitter shouldn't just push ahead and transmit, it should alarm and go to standby.
If the device can just go ahead and transmit, as Microsoft's did, the FCC is absolutely right: The device (and possibly service) should not be allowed.
The point is, is that these companies are not being fair about the renegotiations. There are actually no negotiations going on at all. They just change the contract, tell you if you don't like it, you can leave, and you may not even have any idea that we've changed the contract until it's too late.
Actually the is actually even LESS fair than that...
They can change the contract without any notification and often include language that says "continued use of the service is your agreement to the contract."
With that sort of language one could continue using whatever service after they changed the contract without specific notification, and end up bound to the new contract.
This 9th Circuit appeal decision is a very GOOD thing for the average consumer.
(Next time Sprint changes the on-line contract, if they have to notify me of the changes, I can use that as an opportunity to bail with no penalty. No longer will making a call after they change the contract bind me to it.):o)
These days just about everything at one of those remote sites is digitally monitored (at almost zero expense), because even something as simple as a resistance heater wrapped around a battery (picture it wearing a tiny electric blanket) has some sort of intelligence built in.
In the seventies, however, it would have taken a sensor of some sort, an alarm relay and possibly even another alarm channel back to the alarm center 160 miles away.
(These days I have a cheapo digital wristwatch that has more and faster smarts than the entire site alarm system, and probably at 1/1000th, the cost. Those alarms from the site were displayed at the alarm center as audible tones and indicator lights...brutally analog and very limited in number. A continuous "low tone" and a red light was a major power alarm, IIRC.):o)
Yup, heaters. The entire site was set up insulated/heated, with additional heaters on the batteries, including the start battery, but, uh, somehow the start battery heater was found to be switched "off"...:o(
...until the commercial power fails and doesn't come back for days.
The only places I've actually seen the insane levels of backup that some would like is in some telco central offices. The one I was associated with the longest had eight-hour-plus battery backup and 8 days of fuel for the diesels. Some of our really remote microwave sites had 24 hour battery and 30 day diesel.
Of course one of those sites failed high up in a mountain range in a mid-winter storm (Tieton, 1978) when the commercial power failed, and the starter battery for the diesel froze. When one of the techs finally got there (after burying his Sno-Cat and walking the last couple miles), he had to chip ice off the steel door to get inside, where he was able to get the diesel started with a little "rewire" of one of the backup battery sets. Oh, his two-way radio also failed during his hike, since it was outside his snowsuit, and the lack of communication caused the company to start two more Sno-Cats and a helicopter in that direction.
My ISP is Earthlink with Comcast supplying the "last mile" via cable. All of my billing and bill paying is via Comcast.
Before their very recent changes to their website, everything worked just fine using Firefox on my Macs. Since their recent website "upgrades" there are numerous segments of various pages that will not display, and are unusable, including even the ability to view my bill or contact Comcast support...
Comcast is the largest ISP in America AND provides "last mile" connection for Earthlink High Speed customers in come areas. They're requiring Internet Explorer for installations and even for viewing one's bill -- even if you're using a Mac.
The Comcast homepage even specifies that the page is optimized for IE 5.5 (which was released in 2000), and 'is not optimized for Firefox browsers and Macs.' With 13 million subscribers, and as a provider of services for Earthlink, a 'recommended' or 'featured' ISP for Apple computers, you'd think they could spring for a web developer who could handle multiple browsers.
No only do their site 'requirements' list MSIE as the ONLY supported browser, since their recent redesign of the site, major portions of it no longer work with Firefox, even though they did before. (For example, the ability to view one's bill, etc.)
In my communication with them via telephone, chat, and e-mail in attempting to see my bill on-line, the repeated response is the following canned reply:
Thank you for contacting us regarding your Comcast High Speed Internet service. The recommended browser for use with the Comcast service is Internet Explorer. To obtain the latest version of Internet Explorer for use with a Macintosh Operating System, please go to http://www.microsoft.com/mac/DOWNLOAD/IE/ie52.asp
Even after my replying each time that Microsoft not only hasn't supported MSIE for Macs for over four years, that particular link resolves to a "404" response since Microsoft no longer even offers a download of MSIE for Macs, and hasn't for a year and a half, and there is no valid reason for insisting on a seven year old browser version, the response continues as "We only support MSIE."
As my ISP, and as a recommended ISP by Apple, would it be possible for Earthlink to exert pressure on Comcast, your last mile provider and billing partner, for them to quit demanding that Apple Macintosh users use only a browser that was last updated in 2000 hasn't been supported for over four years, and hasn't even been available for download since January, 2006?
I look forward to your assistance in bringing Comcast, your last mile provider, into this century.
As many as 1500 Pentagon computers were brought offline on Wednesday in response to a cyber attack. Defense Secretary Robert Gates reported of the fallout... that the attack had 'no adverse impact on department operations'...
What in Hell are those guys doing if taking 1500 'puters off line doesn't affect operations? Should those 'puters even BE on-line then?
Slashdot Mirror
--Tomas
I am an Earthlink high-speed subscriber with the "last mile" provided on Comcast Cable in the Seattle area.
I rarely notice any long-term "problems" but I and the folks running a particular website (a low volume one at that) have been working trying to find the reason I CONSTANTLY get repeated resets trying to access their site (hosted on Digital River, a local competitor...)
I don't get the resets on any other IPs, only others on Comcast get ANY, and the DR hosted site is NOT even seeing my requests.
It looks like I may just have found the "problem" and it may be Comcast blocking my access even though I am not THEIR customer directly.
Thing is, what in Hell can we do about it???
--Tomas
But in getting that "key to the safe" in response to a search warrant there isn't a wide open "fishing expedition" granted.
If the warrant is to gain access to, for example "the twelve pornographic photographs known to be in the safe" that does not allow the investigators to also review the contents of all the accounting books also in the safe.
Since the original officers who looked at the images probably have no idea which files they were, I suspect that they will rifle through EVERYTHING in that drive if they had the opportunity, just to make sure they found the ones he saw.
By doing so they will likely find other things that may pose a problem to the owner of the drive the government now possesses, and US law has always said that one can't be made to incriminate themselves.
Very picky points, but in this case I actually think the judge may be right within very narrow confines.
(If the original investigator can remember the actual file names/paths, I suspect the defense could be asked to product THOSE files, but lacking that...)
--
Tomas
That can happen, though it's not a failure to switch back from battery backup, its a failure to switch back to charging the batteries with commercial power.
When there is a power failure, not only does everything continue to run on the batteries, a switch disconnects the incoming commercial power lines and another connects the generator(s). If the power driven switches don't change over from generator back to commercial power, and the generator shuts down, you are just on battery until they finally go flat.
I've seen one failure where the switch disconnected the generator, but the other switch hung, and didn't reconnect commercial power. That was a staffed site, so it was caught.
Actually, the most exciting power switch problem I saw what when the commercial power switch didn't open during a power failure, and when power came back, it was out of phase with the emergency power and two 1MW generators tried to jump off the floor and a good portion of the switch vaporized...
I should mention that these "switches" are essentially giant relays about the size of a Volkswagen... Switching them was actually spring driven, and the springs were tensioned by big electric motors that wound them up. When the switch was tripped the pre-tensioned springs slammed the contacts open or closed.
(Just to give an idea of the power levels involved, the "main battery discharge fuse" for the -48V in that office - the one that battery power went through first - was an 8400 Amp fuse... and there were five separate battery plants in that office: -48V, -24V, +67V, -130V and +130V. Normal draw on the -48V plant was 4100-4500 amps, and this was a fairly small urban office built in 1931... We could handle 30,000 lines. We also had a toll switch [long distance], a lot of microwave, an "0" operator center and a "411" information center in the central office building. All running on the batteries in the basement.)
--
Tomas
In the United States that sort of priority exists for hospitals, police, fire, doctors, military, and other "essential" personnel/agencies and is called "essential service." The standard was to have three levels of "essential service" lines: initially all lines would have service, if it got really bad, only the essential service lines would be operational, and as things got even worse it would progressively shut down the lessor priority lines until only the critical public safety lines were left. (In the 30,000 line office I worked in, at worst case only one percent of the lines would be operational - "Essential Service 1A."
Coin phones were essential service: The thought there was that when Hell let out for lunch and only a few phones could be kept working, the public ones would make the most sense to keep going. Now that cellphones have all but wiped out the coin phone, they need to be kept running.
I spent a quarter century working as a tech, engineer, and eventually engineering manager in the old Bell System. Say what you will about old Ma Bell, but she did believe in backups.
The central office I worked at for about 8 years had complete battery backup for over eight hours, and twin diesels (megawatt) with a 30,000 gallon tank to provide backup power. This was an urban central office.
Everything in the Old Bell System constantly ran on battery, and the commercial power coming into the building was used to keep those batteries charged. When we lost power there wasn't even a "click" on the line, because there was no switching to backup. All that happened is the batteries were no longer being charged.
If the power remained out for thirty seconds the big diesels started up and took over charging the batteries three minutes later.
Some of our more "inaccessible" microwave towers ("Tieton" in the Cascade mountains comes to mind) had fuel for 30 days... "Just in case."
Should cell towers have backup power? Hell yes! Should the equipment huts out in the middle (or ends) of the cable runs have emergency power? Of course!
In the days when every phone was tied to a central office by a long, thin, copper wire, every phone was directly powered by the central office over that wire. Now days that just isn't so.
EVERY commercially provided communication system should have backup for commercial power such that it can hang on for at least four hours on battery, longer on a generator.
--
Tomas
Heheheheh...
:o)
No that's a euphemism for a really tall hill about 40 miles from Seattle.
Actually, there was flooding and damage both north and south of where I live, but the area about 50-60 miles south of me took the hardest hit this time, hence the comment and the link to http://flood.dothelp.net/
--
Tomas
I live north of most of the problems, but have friends right in the middle of the flood disaster in SW Washington state: http://flood.dothelp.net/
Much of the communication is out due to drowned central offices, soaked cables, power outages, and such. Even the remaining working cell towers are in serious trouble, seriously overloaded, and communications is very spotty.
20 miles of Interstrate 5 are closed, with a several hundred mile detour over a mountain range, and the highway will likely be closed for a week, possibly more. Some parts of it were ten feet under water yesterday, and there was a lot of damage to the highway and it's foundation.
In conditions like this, hams with mobile or portable radios, or with emergency generators are often the ONLY communication to the outside.
http://flood.dothelp.net/ has a lot of information about the damage, rescue efforts, pictures, etc. (The server itself is OUTSIDE the disaster area.)
Thanks to the hams!!!
--
Tomas
Actually, SW Washington state probably got hit the worst this particular time.
Here is a site just put up by the folks there:
http://flood.dothelp.net/
Links to lots of pics and such.
--
Tomas
The problem with an officer having to be Tasered so that they can "experience what it's like" is that they are (1) ready for it, (2) have aid standing by, (3) only get one application of it, from a fellow officer, (4) know that it won't be repeated randomly by some sadistic brute who just "thinks you deserve it." In other words the utter terror of the unknown isn't there.
Tell ya what - let me follow some officers around, and every time they do something I don't think they should have done (anything from verbal harassment to handling a citizen too roughly) let me zap 'em - and if they object, let me zap 'em again.
Then, and ONLY then would they understand the problem...
Officers are too ready on the Taser trigger. Bad mouth a cop; get zapped, not lay on the ground fast enough; get zapped, not obey instructions - even if unlawful and even if you don't understand the language; get zapped, object to having the 240 pound monster pinning you to the ground with his knee in your back; get zapped.
Sadly, while the Taser is a great idea, it is being used for many things where there is absolutely no danger to the officer or others.
I'm handicapped, and have great difficulty managing "lay face down on the ground" or "walk backward toward my voice" or "hands up and spread your legs." I'm also not a criminal, and should have NO fear of ever having to do any of those - except I have been stopped for zero reason as I was driving my mother home to her place at 1 AM.
Why? Because 12 miles away, in another town, two armed black kids in the same color sedan (red) had hit a stop-and-rob. (My mum's car was a '90 Ford Tempo, theirs was a 2000 something stolen Honda Civic, I'm 60, she's 81, both white.)
You want us out of the car, officer? Wait a sec while I get my cane, OK?
====
All I'm saying is that Tasers are being used too often and with too little provocation by officers, and that shit has to stop before I'm on their "to-do" list...
--
Tomas
Embeded, non-skipable commercials, expires in one week, and available only to MS Windows machines? Right.
I actually did drop a short email to several of NBC's addresses...
--
Tomas
Some companies use torrent aas a distribution method for their legal, legitimate software and movie distributions.
The originating IPs do NOT belong to Comcast.
By impersonating those originating IPs to terminate the connections is Comcast breaking either the law or contracts?
I believe that is the question.
--
Tomas
MANY legitimate downloads of software and movies are via torrent.
Blocking the legal and legitimate downloads is NOT what the users are paying their provider (Comcast) to do...
--
Tomas
Comcast, like most large companies, tend to do things they wish to do assuming they are right unless they are slapped down.
IANAL, but I hope that Comcast IS running afoul of the law, and that one or more AG offices will bring it to their attention and force them to stop.
(No, I'm not a Torrent user, I just don't like companies assuming they are above the law.)
I won't hold my breath, though - I don't like turning blue and falling to the floor...
--
Tomas
If one buys all new machines that might be true, used or refurbs would be less, probably.
You also have to remember that just saving a couple hours a week in in upgrades, rebuilds, virus/worm/trojan cleaning and such, which is definitely possible, can pay for the difference in less than a year...
However, if you have a lot of extra FREE manhours to dedicate to computer set-up and maintenance, $400 Wal-Mart specials might be your best bet. Perhaps volunteers that can come in once a week to keep things running?
It's a trade-off, as it is with most things, where one has to balance initial cost with ongoing cost. It doesn't take all that long for ongoing costs to overwhelm initial cost.
Start small, choose wisely. Don't just take the word of a bunch of strangers.
We are good for ideas, but you need to look at a bigger long-term picture than is usually provided by a forum like this to make a good decision for your needs.
--
Tomas
...and a Mac can give each user their own ID (if desired), and limit that ID to only certain limited applications and actions. This feature is built right into the OS and requires no extra futzing. :o)
Macs also tend to be pleasant, reliable machines, and out-of-the-box mych less prone to gremlins...
--
Tom
For which I actually applaud him.
:o)
Pain is the natural way to inform an organism that they should not continue with or repeat an action, and the only "pain" a "bureaucracy" understands is a hit in the budget.
There should be a penalty for false arrest so that there is less chance of it occurring in the future.
(And really, I'd much rather someone else push back so I don't have to. I've already fought my battles for over 60 years, time for the younger folks to take some of the load.)
--
Tomas
...Yeah, they are for Target, but notice especially the REQUIREMENTS about allowing a customer to leave or to have been actually observed stealing.
p -directives-revision-01-2006.html
http://targetfiling.blogspot.com/2007/05/target-a
The person arrested here did NOT break the law, and should not have been arrested.
The store manager and Asset Protection person DID break the law, and the police officer seriously bent it if not actually breaking it.
I doubt a city attorney will choose to prosecute the person arrested.
--
Tomas
With any product that can disrupt other services - in this instance, taking out your neighbor's TV reception or data link if the "scanner" doesn't detect the "channel" is already in use - the product needs to be designed to "fail safe."
In other words, the device should self-test critical functions, and if any do not meet requirements, the device needs to indicate the failure AND NOT TRANSMIT.
Basic rational design.
If the "scanner" fails to detect an "in use" channel properly (self test to ensure it does), the transmitter shouldn't just push ahead and transmit, it should alarm and go to standby.
If the device can just go ahead and transmit, as Microsoft's did, the FCC is absolutely right: The device (and possibly service) should not be allowed.
--
Tomas
Actually the is actually even LESS fair than that...
They can change the contract without any notification and often include language that says "continued use of the service is your agreement to the contract."
With that sort of language one could continue using whatever service after they changed the contract without specific notification, and end up bound to the new contract.
This 9th Circuit appeal decision is a very GOOD thing for the average consumer.
(Next time Sprint changes the on-line contract, if they have to notify me of the changes, I can use that as an opportunity to bail with no penalty. No longer will making a call after they change the contract bind me to it.) :o)
--
Tomas
These days just about everything at one of those remote sites is digitally monitored (at almost zero expense), because even something as simple as a resistance heater wrapped around a battery (picture it wearing a tiny electric blanket) has some sort of intelligence built in.
:o)
In the seventies, however, it would have taken a sensor of some sort, an alarm relay and possibly even another alarm channel back to the alarm center 160 miles away.
(These days I have a cheapo digital wristwatch that has more and faster smarts than the entire site alarm system, and probably at 1/1000th, the cost. Those alarms from the site were displayed at the alarm center as audible tones and indicator lights...brutally analog and very limited in number. A continuous "low tone" and a red light was a major power alarm, IIRC.)
--
Tomas
Yup, heaters. The entire site was set up insulated/heated, with additional heaters on the batteries, including the start battery, but, uh, somehow the start battery heater was found to be switched "off"... :o(
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Tomas
...until the commercial power fails and doesn't come back for days.
:o(
The only places I've actually seen the insane levels of backup that some would like is in some telco central offices. The one I was associated with the longest had eight-hour-plus battery backup and 8 days of fuel for the diesels. Some of our really remote microwave sites had 24 hour battery and 30 day diesel.
Of course one of those sites failed high up in a mountain range in a mid-winter storm (Tieton, 1978) when the commercial power failed, and the starter battery for the diesel froze. When one of the techs finally got there (after burying his Sno-Cat and walking the last couple miles), he had to chip ice off the steel door to get inside, where he was able to get the diesel started with a little "rewire" of one of the backup battery sets. Oh, his two-way radio also failed during his hike, since it was outside his snowsuit, and the lack of communication caused the company to start two more Sno-Cats and a helicopter in that direction.
The site was out for nearly six hours, IIRC.
Even the BEST designs are subject to failure.
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Tomas
Yes.
m erCentral.html
:o)
My ISP is Earthlink with Comcast supplying the "last mile" via cable. All of my billing and bill paying is via Comcast.
Before their very recent changes to their website, everything worked just fine using Firefox on my Macs. Since their recent website "upgrades" there are numerous segments of various pages that will not display, and are unusable, including even the ability to view my bill or contact Comcast support...
Here is a page that DOES NOT WORK with the latest versions of Firefox on the latest version of OS X: https://www.comcast.com/Corporate/Customers/Custo
Give it a try.
-- Tomas
Here's an e-mail I sent to Earthlink, my ISP...
l orer/internetexplorer.aspx?pid=internetexplorer )
====
Comcast is the largest ISP in America AND provides "last mile" connection for Earthlink High Speed customers in come areas. They're requiring Internet Explorer for installations and even for viewing one's bill -- even if you're using a Mac.
The Comcast homepage even specifies that the page is optimized for IE 5.5 (which was released in 2000), and 'is not optimized for Firefox browsers and Macs.' With 13 million subscribers, and as a provider of services for Earthlink, a 'recommended' or 'featured' ISP for Apple computers, you'd think they could spring for a web developer who could handle multiple browsers.
No only do their site 'requirements' list MSIE as the ONLY supported browser, since their recent redesign of the site, major portions of it no longer work with Firefox, even though they did before. (For example, the ability to view one's bill, etc.)
In my communication with them via telephone, chat, and e-mail in attempting to see my bill on-line, the repeated response is the following canned reply:
Thank you for contacting us regarding your Comcast High Speed Internet service. The recommended browser for use with the Comcast service is Internet Explorer. To obtain the latest version of Internet Explorer for use with a Macintosh Operating System, please go to
http://www.microsoft.com/mac/DOWNLOAD/IE/ie52.asp
(SEE: http://www.microsoft.com/mac/products/internetexp
Even after my replying each time that Microsoft not only hasn't supported MSIE for Macs for over four years, that particular link resolves to a "404" response since Microsoft no longer even offers a download of MSIE for Macs, and hasn't for a year and a half, and there is no valid reason for insisting on a seven year old browser version, the response continues as "We only support MSIE."
As my ISP, and as a recommended ISP by Apple, would it be possible for Earthlink to exert pressure on Comcast, your last mile provider and billing partner, for them to quit demanding that Apple Macintosh users use only a browser that was last updated in 2000 hasn't been supported for over four years, and hasn't even been available for download since January, 2006?
I look forward to your assistance in bringing Comcast, your last mile provider, into this century.
Thank you very much for your time and attention,
Tom
What in Hell are those guys doing if taking 1500 'puters off line doesn't affect operations? Should those 'puters even BE on-line then?
*shakes head*
--Tomas