I currently own two cars, an antique Mercedes and a Volvo, own interests in two thoroughbred racehorses, have a good job, and my credit history shows that I had a perfect payment history on the Volvo (I paid cash for the Mercedes) and on two credit cards back from my college days. Sounds good so far, right? I ended up in the hospital for some serious surgery. I had full coverage health insurance though, no big deal. Well, the hospital screwed up when billing the insurance company and decided to hit me with a $60 collection for one x-ray. Funny considering the total bill was close to $24,000 for the surgery and hospital stay. At the same time, my bank (a crap college town bank) didn't see any activity on my account in 60 days (because I was recovering from surgery at home) so they closed my accounts thinking I was dead. When the city went to withdraw my water bill, they couldn't, and put a collection for $20 out on me.
So, take the $35,000 in good payment history over several years, and it is completely outweighed by the fact that there were those two collections for $80. I can't even get a credit card from my own credit union because of that.
In contrast, I grew up in an extremely affluent part of the US. People there were old-money million and billionaires. Of course, most of them had crap credit scores because they never *needed* credit. Car dealers in the area knew about this, and knew the people were good for the money, so they didn't care. You could walk into the BMW dealership, write a check, and they'd hand you the keys, no questions asked. Alternatively, sometimes a car loan is just convenient. Again, the dealers knew people were good for the money and credit checks were basically a formality. As long as you looked like you weren't going to screw them over, they didn't care what your score was. I miss that sensibility.
GM already makes a plethora of small diesel powered cars, just not for the US market. European Opels/Vauxhalls aren't bad at all. As I've said before, my 7 passenger 2008 Vauxhall Zafira 1.9 CDTi would get 35-40mpg (US)when fully loaded on a road trip. That's better than most econoboxes are advertised at here. As an American, I was disgusted that I couldn't legally own that car in the US. Adding insult to injury was seeing all the GM logos on the windows.
Side note: GM has released the Opel/Vauxhall Astra in the US as the Saturn Astra. However, they made it suck by putting the worst engines and transmissions in it and giving it practically no options.
Same here. The state does allow municipalities to ban open carry, but many do not. I live in a *very* liberal city in the middle of an overall *very* red state, but we have nothing against open carry. Lately there has been a lot of crime caused by people from nearby cities coming to our fair town. Robberies, beatings, rapes, shootings, you name it. Just five years ago, this was a safe and happy town. Not anymore.
When I'm downtown by myself, my CZ is kept clearly visible. I've walked by police officers who notice the holster at night then look at me, nod, and continue on their way. Also, late at night, there have been shady characters who notice me, start to approach, then suddenly turn away when they have a good look.
There is something more interesting than a barcode on your passport. The two lines of text at the bottom of the data page are machine readable as defined by ICAO Doc 9303. This is an ISO standard.
Data is sent back using heavy encoding. Not for the sake of keeping people out, but for the sake of error correction and detection. The Voyager probes used the Extended Golay code when sending imagery back to Earth. From WP: "The extended binary Golay code encodes 12 bits of data in a 24-bit word in such a way that any triple-bit error can be corrected and any quadruple-bit error can be detected."
Radio transmission over astronomical distances is really hard, especially with objects like the massive open fusion reactor in the center of the solar system spewing forth all kinds of noise. Transmitting "in the clear" is practically worthless.
There are some ranges you can't practice at if you bring steel core military surplus ammunition. I can't take my Dragunov, M91/30 (both 7.62x54R) or HK G3 (7.62x51) to a lot of ranges because the surplus ammo will blow right through their baffles and backstops. There isn't much a 203gr 54R round *won't* go through.
Hm. I think I'll write an app called "iPhone Offender" that just uploads its location to a central server, and shows your location and the location of others running that program around you. It will help you find all those nasty, despicable offenders of decency who use iPhones all around you. Think of the children!
I'm currently running a baseband firmware version that was not approved by T-Mobile on my ADP1. I got it directly from HTC and flashed it onto the phone. Its been there for a couple of months and I'm pretty sure I haven't crashed any towers.
I don't know, but I have an iPod nano 2GB that looks like its been to Iraq and back, but it never heats up, and I usually leave it connected to USB power on the inverter in my car when I'm driving, and then plugged into USB on one of my workstations during the day. Very rarely does it run on battery power alone. However, I'm also running RockBox instead of the Apple firmware. Perhaps that has something to do with it?
Technological solutions are irrelevant when faced with the law.
I'm an engineer and a pilot, and federal law mandates that I must use a logbook for logging all of my flights and must be in possession of that logbook when operating an aircraft (in most situations) and must present it to any law enforcement officer if they ask for it. This is codified in 14 CFR 61.51.
Yes, it would have been great if they deleted the book that tells you about the oppressive operators behind the phone number to call to find out more about Ray Bradbury's books.
"Use of non-Apple devices with iTunes are not supported. Contact your hardware manufacturer." And let it go at that.
That won't happen. There are 3rd party MP3 players that work with iTunes out-of-the-box. I still have a Rio500 that iTunes detects and knows how to work with it perfectly on my old G3.
"Anecdotally, the first laptop I ever owned was a Dell, and I had to send it in for service after it was damaged in a car accident."
Those Dell laptops, always speeding, weaving through traffic, flipping you the bird if you're going too slow. Its only a matter of time before they get into an accident. The shame little Latitude or Inspiron must feel when their parents Optiplex and Precision watch the video of their children failing a roadside field sobriety test.
Sigh. Typical software engineers, ignoring the fact that an F-16 can't fly on Mars.:)
You can, however, fly an airplane on Mars. Unfortunately, it would need to be extremely light, have a huge wingspan, and be electrically powered. With the atmospheric density of Mars being so low, it is much harder to keep an airplane up. With there being no oxygen to burn, you can't use a combustion engine for power.
"How do you then explain the millions of illegal aliens who freely live there, buy homes, drive cars, get bank accounts, get welfare, get utility accounts and cellphone accounts, etc?"
First of all these are not ID problems. There's nothing stopping you from buying a house with cash or driving a car without a license (and a LOT of illegal aliens get nailed for that). Bank accounts and welfare have a lot to do with similar names and bad checking on the institutional side. As far as utility accounts and cellphones go, both of which require SSNs, its not that hard for them to use the SSN of someone with the same name, if the companies even crossreference the name, but that's out of what I know.
"Doesn't this disprove how technically sophisticated the Illinois ID and system is?"
Not if they aren't actually using the Illinois ID cards or are using legitimate ID cards procured with fraudulent documents that a CSR didn't catch.
"I read you state some of the ID machines were stolen..well..if they are compromised shouldn't they go to a different system them?"
They did go to a different system.
"Don't the ID cards themselves have an indicator and tag from which machine they were produced from, so that those people caught using bogus but official-looking ID could get nabbed? Even cheap printers have that now."
Every Illinois DL/ID card had an identifier string printed on it indicating what facility printed it and the serial number of that card. This could be used for internal referencing (and I did a lot, caught some people trying to pull tricks using it) because the CSR can tell where the card was issued, but the person who has it won't necessarily know. Some people would come in pretending to be someone else claiming they lost their license. I'd casually ask "do you remember where you got it?" as if that would help me help them, when I knew exactly where it came from, had all the data up on the screen, and the photo of the actual person the DL belonged to.
"Orders from the government to just look the other way and accept *anything* at all for ID from anyone who doesn't speak English as their first language."
This is the exact opposite of how we were trained. I'm fluent in English, Spanish, and Greek, and had sufficient knowledge of Polish and Russian to help some people through the process. Illegal aliens weren't that big of a problem. If a document didn't have a verifiable seal on it or was something we hadn't seen before, we called it in or researched it before accepting it. My favorite bad document from someone who didn't speak English was a passport that was issued from the USSR (seriously) in 1999.
Maybe you never got to experience the horror that was George Ryan. Things are much better and more streamlined since Jesse White took over. Everything it more reliable, runs faster and more efficiently, and keeps the public from going completely bonkers. I interned at a DSF for a couple summers in college. Things to note:
- Central database is a massive IBM mainframe and the reps are using what is essentially a custom telnet client to access the forms and processes for their usual work. - Reps also have a direct terminal to CICS so they can instantly get records. - Illinois DL/ID cards are some of the most tamper resistant and hardest to fake cards out there. That having been said, I preferred the last series cards. Unfortunately, some of the card printers were stolen from one of the facilities, which screwed things up for everyone. - People make mistakes/people are stupid/people lie. There are some people (reps and applicants) who won't read the forms they have in front of them and Bob will get sent to the camera with Jane's paperwork, or pay for the wrong thing, etc. Also, there is the problem of twins, which I experienced once. One passed her driving exam, the other would likely kill someone if given a car, good driving sister tried impersonating bad driving sister, bad things happened to both of them as a result. Fathers who want to see their sons with the same name they have get licenses but don't have all their ID will fraudulently try to pass off their SS cards as their son's. I saw this happen on a few occasions.
You wouldn't believe the stunts people try to pull and the consequences they are allowed to walk away from. The attempts at fraud (even in the "country club" DSF I worked at) were ridiculous, and always happening. Its because of losers like those people that you had to jump through hoops, not the state.
Sweet. I'm rocking out with Firefox 2.0.0.14 on my FC8 box right now. At least flash doesn't crash it, which really annoys the "gotta have the latest" version fanbois. I can leave Pandora running in one window, and have another open with a whole bunch of tabs, watch YouTube, and never worry about it crashing.
Slashdot Mirror
Cheers, brother.
I currently own two cars, an antique Mercedes and a Volvo, own interests in two thoroughbred racehorses, have a good job, and my credit history shows that I had a perfect payment history on the Volvo (I paid cash for the Mercedes) and on two credit cards back from my college days. Sounds good so far, right? I ended up in the hospital for some serious surgery. I had full coverage health insurance though, no big deal. Well, the hospital screwed up when billing the insurance company and decided to hit me with a $60 collection for one x-ray. Funny considering the total bill was close to $24,000 for the surgery and hospital stay. At the same time, my bank (a crap college town bank) didn't see any activity on my account in 60 days (because I was recovering from surgery at home) so they closed my accounts thinking I was dead. When the city went to withdraw my water bill, they couldn't, and put a collection for $20 out on me.
So, take the $35,000 in good payment history over several years, and it is completely outweighed by the fact that there were those two collections for $80. I can't even get a credit card from my own credit union because of that.
In contrast, I grew up in an extremely affluent part of the US. People there were old-money million and billionaires. Of course, most of them had crap credit scores because they never *needed* credit. Car dealers in the area knew about this, and knew the people were good for the money, so they didn't care. You could walk into the BMW dealership, write a check, and they'd hand you the keys, no questions asked. Alternatively, sometimes a car loan is just convenient. Again, the dealers knew people were good for the money and credit checks were basically a formality. As long as you looked like you weren't going to screw them over, they didn't care what your score was. I miss that sensibility.
GM already makes a plethora of small diesel powered cars, just not for the US market. European Opels/Vauxhalls aren't bad at all. As I've said before, my 7 passenger 2008 Vauxhall Zafira 1.9 CDTi would get 35-40mpg (US)when fully loaded on a road trip. That's better than most econoboxes are advertised at here. As an American, I was disgusted that I couldn't legally own that car in the US. Adding insult to injury was seeing all the GM logos on the windows.
Side note: GM has released the Opel/Vauxhall Astra in the US as the Saturn Astra. However, they made it suck by putting the worst engines and transmissions in it and giving it practically no options.
Hamburger University is a real institution.
WHHOOOOOOSSSHHH
Heck, they even complain about the government on Top Gear.
Same here. The state does allow municipalities to ban open carry, but many do not. I live in a *very* liberal city in the middle of an overall *very* red state, but we have nothing against open carry. Lately there has been a lot of crime caused by people from nearby cities coming to our fair town. Robberies, beatings, rapes, shootings, you name it. Just five years ago, this was a safe and happy town. Not anymore.
When I'm downtown by myself, my CZ is kept clearly visible. I've walked by police officers who notice the holster at night then look at me, nod, and continue on their way. Also, late at night, there have been shady characters who notice me, start to approach, then suddenly turn away when they have a good look.
There is something more interesting than a barcode on your passport. The two lines of text at the bottom of the data page are machine readable as defined by ICAO Doc 9303. This is an ISO standard.
Data is sent back using heavy encoding. Not for the sake of keeping people out, but for the sake of error correction and detection. The Voyager probes used the Extended Golay code when sending imagery back to Earth. From WP: "The extended binary Golay code encodes 12 bits of data in a 24-bit word in such a way that any triple-bit error can be corrected and any quadruple-bit error can be detected."
Radio transmission over astronomical distances is really hard, especially with objects like the massive open fusion reactor in the center of the solar system spewing forth all kinds of noise. Transmitting "in the clear" is practically worthless.
There are some ranges you can't practice at if you bring steel core military surplus ammunition. I can't take my Dragunov, M91/30 (both 7.62x54R) or HK G3 (7.62x51) to a lot of ranges because the surplus ammo will blow right through their baffles and backstops. There isn't much a 203gr 54R round *won't* go through.
Hm. I think I'll write an app called "iPhone Offender" that just uploads its location to a central server, and shows your location and the location of others running that program around you. It will help you find all those nasty, despicable offenders of decency who use iPhones all around you. Think of the children!
I'm currently running a baseband firmware version that was not approved by T-Mobile on my ADP1. I got it directly from HTC and flashed it onto the phone. Its been there for a couple of months and I'm pretty sure I haven't crashed any towers.
Most of the radios used by professional security folks are licensed VHF or UHF radios. Look at Motorola Radius walkie-talkies, those are the standard.
I don't know, but I have an iPod nano 2GB that looks like its been to Iraq and back, but it never heats up, and I usually leave it connected to USB power on the inverter in my car when I'm driving, and then plugged into USB on one of my workstations during the day. Very rarely does it run on battery power alone. However, I'm also running RockBox instead of the Apple firmware. Perhaps that has something to do with it?
Technological solutions are irrelevant when faced with the law.
I'm an engineer and a pilot, and federal law mandates that I must use a logbook for logging all of my flights and must be in possession of that logbook when operating an aircraft (in most situations) and must present it to any law enforcement officer if they ask for it. This is codified in 14 CFR 61.51.
"Fahrenheit 411 would have been ever better."
Yes, it would have been great if they deleted the book that tells you about the oppressive operators behind the phone number to call to find out more about Ray Bradbury's books.
"Use of non-Apple devices with iTunes are not supported. Contact your hardware manufacturer." And let it go at that.
That won't happen. There are 3rd party MP3 players that work with iTunes out-of-the-box. I still have a Rio500 that iTunes detects and knows how to work with it perfectly on my old G3.
Then it sounds like this car meets all your criteria and you should get it!
You'll just have to move to Mars.
"Anecdotally, the first laptop I ever owned was a Dell, and I had to send it in for service after it was damaged in a car accident."
Those Dell laptops, always speeding, weaving through traffic, flipping you the bird if you're going too slow. Its only a matter of time before they get into an accident. The shame little Latitude or Inspiron must feel when their parents Optiplex and Precision watch the video of their children failing a roadside field sobriety test.
Sigh. Typical software engineers, ignoring the fact that an F-16 can't fly on Mars. :)
You can, however, fly an airplane on Mars. Unfortunately, it would need to be extremely light, have a huge wingspan, and be electrically powered. With the atmospheric density of Mars being so low, it is much harder to keep an airplane up. With there being no oxygen to burn, you can't use a combustion engine for power.
Hey, that's not funny. Seriously, if we put chlorine in the ocean, where will we get baby seals to club?
"How do you then explain the millions of illegal aliens who freely live there, buy homes, drive cars, get bank accounts, get welfare, get utility accounts and cellphone accounts, etc?"
First of all these are not ID problems. There's nothing stopping you from buying a house with cash or driving a car without a license (and a LOT of illegal aliens get nailed for that). Bank accounts and welfare have a lot to do with similar names and bad checking on the institutional side. As far as utility accounts and cellphones go, both of which require SSNs, its not that hard for them to use the SSN of someone with the same name, if the companies even crossreference the name, but that's out of what I know.
"Doesn't this disprove how technically sophisticated the Illinois ID and system is?"
Not if they aren't actually using the Illinois ID cards or are using legitimate ID cards procured with fraudulent documents that a CSR didn't catch.
"I read you state some of the ID machines were stolen..well..if they are compromised shouldn't they go to a different system them?"
They did go to a different system.
"Don't the ID cards themselves have an indicator and tag from which machine they were produced from, so that those people caught using bogus but official-looking ID could get nabbed? Even cheap printers have that now."
Every Illinois DL/ID card had an identifier string printed on it indicating what facility printed it and the serial number of that card. This could be used for internal referencing (and I did a lot, caught some people trying to pull tricks using it) because the CSR can tell where the card was issued, but the person who has it won't necessarily know. Some people would come in pretending to be someone else claiming they lost their license. I'd casually ask "do you remember where you got it?" as if that would help me help them, when I knew exactly where it came from, had all the data up on the screen, and the photo of the actual person the DL belonged to.
"Orders from the government to just look the other way and accept *anything* at all for ID from anyone who doesn't speak English as their first language."
This is the exact opposite of how we were trained. I'm fluent in English, Spanish, and Greek, and had sufficient knowledge of Polish and Russian to help some people through the process. Illegal aliens weren't that big of a problem. If a document didn't have a verifiable seal on it or was something we hadn't seen before, we called it in or researched it before accepting it. My favorite bad document from someone who didn't speak English was a passport that was issued from the USSR (seriously) in 1999.
Maybe you never got to experience the horror that was George Ryan. Things are much better and more streamlined since Jesse White took over. Everything it more reliable, runs faster and more efficiently, and keeps the public from going completely bonkers. I interned at a DSF for a couple summers in college. Things to note:
- Central database is a massive IBM mainframe and the reps are using what is essentially a custom telnet client to access the forms and processes for their usual work.
- Reps also have a direct terminal to CICS so they can instantly get records.
- Illinois DL/ID cards are some of the most tamper resistant and hardest to fake cards out there. That having been said, I preferred the last series cards. Unfortunately, some of the card printers were stolen from one of the facilities, which screwed things up for everyone.
- People make mistakes/people are stupid/people lie. There are some people (reps and applicants) who won't read the forms they have in front of them and Bob will get sent to the camera with Jane's paperwork, or pay for the wrong thing, etc. Also, there is the problem of twins, which I experienced once. One passed her driving exam, the other would likely kill someone if given a car, good driving sister tried impersonating bad driving sister, bad things happened to both of them as a result. Fathers who want to see their sons with the same name they have get licenses but don't have all their ID will fraudulently try to pass off their SS cards as their son's. I saw this happen on a few occasions.
You wouldn't believe the stunts people try to pull and the consequences they are allowed to walk away from. The attempts at fraud (even in the "country club" DSF I worked at) were ridiculous, and always happening. Its because of losers like those people that you had to jump through hoops, not the state.
Steganography? This article has nothing to do with the prehistoric writings of a stegosaurus.
Sweet. I'm rocking out with Firefox 2.0.0.14 on my FC8 box right now. At least flash doesn't crash it, which really annoys the "gotta have the latest" version fanbois. I can leave Pandora running in one window, and have another open with a whole bunch of tabs, watch YouTube, and never worry about it crashing.
OK, you've made me feel much better, and that there is in fact hope for mankind. :)