No. Attaching a magnetic device to the underside of the car is not the same as property damage.
Want to see property damage? Have customs/DEA decide to take a car apart at the border looking for drugs or other contraband. I can tell you they are responsible for taking it apart, but the responsibility and expense of putting it back together again isn't.
Ah yes. But the police secretly put the device on the car. What happens when they want to get it back? In the Peterson case, they impounded the vehicle to get it back.
If they take it off secretly, then how is the driver ever going to know they were once the subject of an investigation? How is it possible to prove that the tag was on the suspect's vehicle at all times? This is why a warrant would be a good idea.
Using technology to make law enforcement's job easier to observe/record/bug people is counterproductive to the rights of individuals. The middle ground is to make the observation job difficult enough so that reasonable suspicion is required to undertake the effort. This alone can prevent many abuses.
Reckless is a laser pointer lighting up an airplane. Yes it sounds like loads of fun to try, in fact my "inner redneck" is just itching to see if it really can be done. The laser pointer is pretty much harmless, but why try to annoy and/or distract people who are responsible for the safety of up to hundreds of people in the air and on the ground? Especially when at these times they are usually busy taking off or landing the plane.
Sorry, I was just annoyed at all the media attention.
Common sense tells me that while he may not have intended to blind pilots or cause harm, he was interfering with the flight crew in such a way as to cause a safety hazard. This brings up the question of why the Patriot Act was (mis)used.
This laser pointer incident is caused by the same type of idiocy that compels people to fire guns into the air on New Year's day.
Considering the pilots in the Cessna got flashed three times, and a helicopter got flashed by the same guy, I'm pretty sure it was intentional.
Still, pre- and post-9/11 stories are interesting to read. Post 9/11 stories abound with "terrorists using lasers to possibly down planes" whereas pre-9/11 stories are about mischief, poor planning, and training pilots not to stare at the beam. Funny how things change.
As another note, we had some asshat firing a pellet gun at car windows back in the 90's. Someone was caught shining a laser pointer at a vehicle and arrested as a suspect. Funny (and scary) thing was listening to the idiot talking heads on TV speculating if a common laser pointer could shatter a car windshield. Yes, they were serious about it.
Post 9/11, they are going all out to hang some asshat out to dry for screwing with planes. The idiots who do this deserve to be punished, but what it really looks like is lasers are getting set up to be regulated and/or removed from public availability.
What's really interesting is that there is an FAA report (April 2001) documenting at least 150 instances of cockpit illuminations between 1996 and 1999. That's about once a week. It wasn't big news then.
I'd love to get one of those 100mW green lasers to mess around with, but now I can't. I would expect some kind of bill being introduced in Congress soon to address this issue now that they are back in session.
I also went through some growing pains with Vonage. The bandwidth/quality problems can be solved with QoS, such as obtaining a Linksys WRT54G router and flashing it with Sveasoft custom firmware. This is a very cheap and effective solution.
I can now run multiple torrents and hold a conversation with no breakups.
Downtime only hit us three times in the last year. One was Vonage, and it lasted a couple of hours. The second was a firmware update on the Linksys preventing the box from contacting Vonage (fixed with a phone call). The third was when our DSL went out for a weekend.
Our phone bill dropping from $80/mo to $25-28/mo was really nice too, since we dropped our landline. Yes, we still have the DSL.
I think the real idea is piracy. Open the box you get access to the media and license keys.
I still remember the line of B.S. CompUSA was giving a customer who had an open box of clipart for the Mac. Even though the CD was still sealed in the envelope, they refused the return. In fact, the sales drone stated: "According to US copyright laws, we are forbidden to accept opened software for return." She was told to contact the company (publisher) about a refund.
I was shocked at the line of bullshit, but what was I to do? The manager just 5 minutes prior agreed to replace my 1 1/2 year old busted gen 2 iPod with a brand-spanking-new 3rd generation iPod and I was the next person in line after her to process the exchange. *sigh*
Yes, I played a little loose with the term "direct marketers." Even though these companies offering the solicitations are direct marketers, it IS only for credit card offers which was what I was implying. Thanks for clearing that up.
Call this one number to opt out of all three bureaus:
Opt Out 888-567-8688
I did this about a year ago and it stopped the offers cold. It's a single-point where you can tell all four credit reporting agencies to stop giving your data to direct marketers.
But don't take my word for it, put the phone number in Google and read all about it.
Gnip Gnop Micronauts AFX and Tyco slot racing sets Sizzlers and the big oval track Shogun Warriors and GI-Joe (with kung-fu grip!)
and:
SST's
These were cars that were a plastic shell with a big-ass flywheel in the center. The flywheel was spun up by pulling a t-shaped ripcord that was inserted through the roof of the vehicle. Later models generated sparks from underneath.
These were pure horror indoors because they were fast and had pretty good mass behind all that velocity too.
There were also those Evel Knievel dolls and motorcycles that worked on a similar principle.
Not exactly. Try "treasure hunt". Someone leaves a stash of something somewhere, and you find it via clues and GPS coordinate "breadcrumbs".
It sort of sounds like a WTF? when you first hear of it, but I found some interesting puzzles and hiked in some areas I never knew existed in my own backyard.
I was originally planning on doing my graduate thesis on LDAP security. My biggest fear at the time was discovering something new and attracting the authorities. Why? Because I would be working on a production system "owned" (as in paid for) by state and federal funds.
My professors helpfully added that I could have my thesis "restricted" and not available for public viewing, which somehow defeats the purpose of the whole thing.
I switched topics and went with 802.11 network vulnerabilities, since most of those weaknesses were already found out. I still had to censor the contents due to California laws regarding disclosing the locations of networks in the wardriving section.
I still managed to find an exploit (actually a certain combination of exploits) and compromise the campus VPN. Because of this, I was fully expecting the feds to show up during my oral defense.
Try doing it at 55-60mph. At 55mph it should take ~9 hours, provided there's no traffic and no stops. The travel times for Japan I posted do take into account the proper speed limits and traffic.
I thought it was 100kph as a national maximum, about 60mph.
Still it isn't too bad, The country is small, roughly 90% of the size of California. Driving from Kagoshima on the southern tip of Kyushu to Aomori (northern Honshu) takes about 26 hours. From Kagoshima to Tokyo is about 13 hours -- not much different than a San Diego to San Fransisco drive (aside from the heavy tolls in Japan).
As a side note, cars have warning chimes when the national speed limit is exceeded. This can be highly annoying on long trips with a lead-foot. Other cars (Honda S2000 as one example) have speed governors built into the ECU to keep speeders in check.
Slashdot Mirror
No. Attaching a magnetic device to the underside of the car is not the same as property damage.
Want to see property damage? Have customs/DEA decide to take a car apart at the border looking for drugs or other contraband. I can tell you they are responsible for taking it apart, but the responsibility and expense of putting it back together again isn't.
Ah yes. But the police secretly put the device on the car. What happens when they want to get it back? In the Peterson case, they impounded the vehicle to get it back.
If they take it off secretly, then how is the driver ever going to know they were once the subject of an investigation? How is it possible to prove that the tag was on the suspect's vehicle at all times? This is why a warrant would be a good idea.
Using technology to make law enforcement's job easier to observe/record/bug people is counterproductive to the rights of individuals. The middle ground is to make the observation job difficult enough so that reasonable suspicion is required to undertake the effort. This alone can prevent many abuses.
It is a colloquialism used by people who read and participate at fark.com. It's used here too on occasion.
I loved the term so much I adopted it as a synonym for "idiot".
Urban Dictionary
Haha, there's plenty of toys I have or want just for the sake of having them or messing with them, that is the essential part of being a geek, no?
I've always wanted a laser you could see in a non-smoke filled room, especially one that can burn a hole in plastic cups.
Silly is a laser pointer in a movie theater.
Reckless is a laser pointer lighting up an airplane. Yes it sounds like loads of fun to try, in fact my "inner redneck" is just itching to see if it really can be done. The laser pointer is pretty much harmless, but why try to annoy and/or distract people who are responsible for the safety of up to hundreds of people in the air and on the ground? Especially when at these times they are usually busy taking off or landing the plane.
Well, at least we can agree that this is overblown and the application of the Patriot Act is uncalled for in this situation.
Sorry, I was just annoyed at all the media attention.
Common sense tells me that while he may not have intended to blind pilots or cause harm, he was interfering with the flight crew in such a way as to cause a safety hazard. This brings up the question of why the Patriot Act was (mis)used.
This laser pointer incident is caused by the same type of idiocy that compels people to fire guns into the air on New Year's day.
Considering the pilots in the Cessna got flashed three times, and a helicopter got flashed by the same guy, I'm pretty sure it was intentional.
Still, pre- and post-9/11 stories are interesting to read. Post 9/11 stories abound with "terrorists using lasers to possibly down planes" whereas pre-9/11 stories are about mischief, poor planning, and training pilots not to stare at the beam. Funny how things change.
Pre 9/11 laser-plane stories:
Problems with Laser Light Shows
Outdoor Laser Safety Is in the Hands of the FAA
As another note, we had some asshat firing a pellet gun at car windows back in the 90's. Someone was caught shining a laser pointer at a vehicle and arrested as a suspect. Funny (and scary) thing was listening to the idiot talking heads on TV speculating if a common laser pointer could shatter a car windshield. Yes, they were serious about it.
Post 9/11, they are going all out to hang some asshat out to dry for screwing with planes. The idiots who do this deserve to be punished, but what it really looks like is lasers are getting set up to be regulated and/or removed from public availability.
What's really interesting is that there is an FAA report (April 2001) documenting at least 150 instances of cockpit illuminations between 1996 and 1999. That's about once a week. It wasn't big news then.
I'd love to get one of those 100mW green lasers to mess around with, but now I can't. I would expect some kind of bill being introduced in Congress soon to address this issue now that they are back in session.
I also went through some growing pains with Vonage. The bandwidth/quality problems can be solved with QoS, such as obtaining a Linksys WRT54G router and flashing it with Sveasoft custom firmware. This is a very cheap and effective solution.
I can now run multiple torrents and hold a conversation with no breakups.
Downtime only hit us three times in the last year. One was Vonage, and it lasted a couple of hours. The second was a firmware update on the Linksys preventing the box from contacting Vonage (fixed with a phone call). The third was when our DSL went out for a weekend.
Our phone bill dropping from $80/mo to $25-28/mo was really nice too, since we dropped our landline. Yes, we still have the DSL.
I received several forms from the settlement and added a few extra licenses I have lying around to the mix. For a total of $150 in vouchers.
This was last April. After mailing them in, I haven't heard a peep from them. I'm pretty much guessing I never will either.
It wasn't me, but the person in front of me in line.
I had an exchange of $499 approved by the manager minutes earlier, I could open my mouth, but then I'd be stuck with a older, dead iPod.
Also, I knew the line was a bunch of B.S., I said so in my post.
I think the real idea is piracy. Open the box you get access to the media and license keys.
I still remember the line of B.S. CompUSA was giving a customer who had an open box of clipart for the Mac. Even though the CD was still sealed in the envelope, they refused the return. In fact, the sales drone stated: "According to US copyright laws, we are forbidden to accept opened software for return." She was told to contact the company (publisher) about a refund.
I was shocked at the line of bullshit, but what was I to do? The manager just 5 minutes prior agreed to replace my 1 1/2 year old busted gen 2 iPod with a brand-spanking-new 3rd generation iPod and I was the next person in line after her to process the exchange. *sigh*
I would think that anyone who provided their services in defense of said country (put recent politics aside, please) did something.
So people who volunteer for military service/national guard (or made a similar risk/sacrifice) should also qualify.
By your logic, minority "pride" groups should disband because they made no effort in being born black, hispanic, asian, etc.
Yes, I played a little loose with the term "direct marketers." Even though these companies offering the solicitations are direct marketers, it IS only for credit card offers which was what I was implying. Thanks for clearing that up.
The four are:
Equifax, Experian, Trans Union and Innovis.
Call this one number to opt out of all three bureaus:
Opt Out
888-567-8688
I did this about a year ago and it stopped the offers cold. It's a single-point where you can tell all four credit reporting agencies to stop giving your data to direct marketers.
But don't take my word for it, put the phone number in Google and read all about it.
Perversion tracker?
I guess it really is so when you see the last user comment on your example application.
Wow. Were you born in the 60's?
I remember those and:
Gnip Gnop
Micronauts
AFX and Tyco slot racing sets
Sizzlers and the big oval track
Shogun Warriors and GI-Joe (with kung-fu grip!)
and:
SST's
These were cars that were a plastic shell with a big-ass flywheel in the center. The flywheel was spun up by pulling a t-shaped ripcord that was inserted through the roof of the vehicle. Later models generated sparks from underneath.
These were pure horror indoors because they were fast and had pretty good mass behind all that velocity too.
There were also those Evel Knievel dolls and motorcycles that worked on a similar principle.
Not exactly. Try "treasure hunt". Someone leaves a stash of something somewhere, and you find it via clues and GPS coordinate "breadcrumbs".
It sort of sounds like a WTF? when you first hear of it, but I found some interesting puzzles and hiked in some areas I never knew existed in my own backyard.
Try going to the Geocaching website to check it out.
The bees just ate the Grendels (and everything else that wasn't blue) when the environment changed.
I was originally planning on doing my graduate thesis on LDAP security. My biggest fear at the time was discovering something new and attracting the authorities. Why? Because I would be working on a production system "owned" (as in paid for) by state and federal funds.
My professors helpfully added that I could have my thesis "restricted" and not available for public viewing, which somehow defeats the purpose of the whole thing.
I switched topics and went with 802.11 network vulnerabilities, since most of those weaknesses were already found out. I still had to censor the contents due to California laws regarding disclosing the locations of networks in the wardriving section.
I still managed to find an exploit (actually a certain combination of exploits) and compromise the campus VPN. Because of this, I was fully expecting the feds to show up during my oral defense.
The e5cs headphones cost as much as a high-end iPod!
Is it really necessary to use headphones such as these for an iPod? Shouldn't a $100 pair suffice for a consumer device using lossy codecs?
Try doing it at 55-60mph. At 55mph it should take ~9 hours, provided there's no traffic and no stops. The travel times for Japan I posted do take into account the proper speed limits and traffic.
I thought it was 100kph as a national maximum, about 60mph.
Still it isn't too bad, The country is small, roughly 90% of the size of California. Driving from Kagoshima on the southern tip of Kyushu to Aomori (northern Honshu) takes about 26 hours. From Kagoshima to Tokyo is about 13 hours -- not much different than a San Diego to San Fransisco drive (aside from the heavy tolls in Japan).
As a side note, cars have warning chimes when the national speed limit is exceeded. This can be highly annoying on long trips with a lead-foot. Other cars (Honda S2000 as one example) have speed governors built into the ECU to keep speeders in check.
Not to mention some of the people driving the insanely loud booming cars are wearing earplugs.
Yup, I could not believe it when I first saw it either.