So you want to... put a serial number and/or tax stamp on each and every bullet? Riiight.
Because the parts are seperable, you'd need to put the serial number on both the projectile and the casing. Here are stamps that you can use to do this today.
if you don't store the ammunition correctly it can fail or jam or leak greasy crap on your hands.
I am not familiar with the kind of small arms ammunition that has "greasy crap" inside that could leak out.
I presume you look at it more than one a year to ensure it is still in working order.
You've never had a piece of equipment fail because of a dead battery long before the expected lifetime of that battery is reached. That's nice.
Like maybe when you put the gun in the case the foam presses just hard enough on the trigger that the smart fingerprint reader activates and drains the battery.
Or the battery was defective and had just enough juice to look like it was working, but it died a week later.
Or your battery was fine at the start of shift, but you had a very active day and needed to work well into the next shift and it was dead by the end of the day. This is a semi-regular occurance for cops and their handheld radios -- radio fails while on the road, and they need to come back to the cop shop to pick up a recharged one -- that to think it would never happen to any other battery operated device they have is just ridiculous.
A drone delivering thumb drives would probably far surpass any radio-based system.
Except the bandwidth would drop to zero if the guy's daughter is out sunbathing by the pool and your network happens to span his backyard. The Internet routes around failures, but I don't think there is a DCMP (drone-CMP) protocol that will report "shot down" to the source host.
And they aren't going to mess with GPS -- too much risk, too many legal issues.
So that's why they talk about GPS spoofing in both the summary and TFS? They aren't going to spoof GPS but might as well mention how easy it would be to do.
As I posted above, they're not looking to solve every problem, and jam every possible frequency, and stop every possible type of navigational system.
Only GPS, which is used by the vast majority of anything that has a need for positional information.
not a perfect fix that eliminates every possible type of R/C aircraft.
So, your definition of "a perfect fix" is one that eliminates every possible type of R/C aircraft, then.
Even The Fine Summary said they'd selectively jam the drone's communication, not the GPS signals.
You should read at least the summary. It says, pretty clear:
Since the jamming technology contains versatile receiving and transmitting capabilities, more sophisticated measures like remote control classification and GPS spoofing can be utilized as well.
"GPS spoofing" means they have to broadcast signals that cover the legitimate signals from the GPS satellites. That means "jam", just with something that looks real. Now, GPS signals have gotten a lot easier to recieve as satellite technology improves, but that just means that the GPS spoofing signals have to be that much stronger, too.
To avoid interfering with legitimate radio traffic I suspect their system discriminates, and only identifies transmissions in bands assigned to RC control or transmissions on the unlicensed bands.
Because we all know there is no legitimate radio traffic on the unlicensed WiFi bands.
And that will be good enough to stop virtually all of the model aircraft being flown into prison yards today.
And anything in the direction of their "directional antenna", and any GPS user in that direction, too.
If they can stop the hundreds of those guys today, they can worry about the EE types later after they become a real threat
I don't think electrical engineers, as a "type", are a threat.
There's perfect, and then there's good enough to be effective now. This falls into the latter category.
And there's "has significant issues that can be easily predicted", which is what this falls into.
You do realize that an Airbus flying at 30,000' over your property is less than six miles away from you, don't you? Your property is suddenly in what you consider a drone-free zone -- even if you are the one flying it.
Many years ago DOD used to dither the timing signals on GPS (called "selective availability") to downgrade the position quality. They finally realized that too many users of GPS were being negatively impacted by such nonsense and stopped doing it. Imagine the negative impact on other users when that aircraft flying 30,000' above you starts spoofing the GPS system.
Some people are paranoid about chemtrails from distant aircraft, it is much better that they can now have a known issue with that aircraft screwing with their GPS.
Including the remedies in Florida law that the SCOTUS denied Fl the right to undertake? One of those was a full recount of all questionable counties (or something prettty damned close)
Florida had already defined the electoral process and was following that process, as is the right of the state legislature to define. The federal government had no authority to overturn the state-defined process, nor did the Florida courts on a matter of process.
The recount was done. The result was certified. The only effect of forcing yet another recount was to delay the result from Florida until after the deadline for the Electoral College vote, effectively disenfranchising every Florida voter.
Love the GOP - all for "state's rights" until those rights bite them on the butt,
Florida has the right to determine its electoral process, and did so. It was Gore who was trying to change the process after the vote was counted.
And gotta love the Dems -- count every vote, until the votes are counted and the Republicans win, then take every vote to court to get it thrown out. Awful butterfly ballots -- that both parties agreed to prior to the election. Awful absentee process -- that both parties agreed to prior to the election. Got a problem with the process? Fix it before the ballots are cast, not after they go against you.
but I quite liked the idea of giving all voters in elections a fixed number of "tokens" which they could give to candidates who stood for office. The tokens could then be redeemed by the candidates for funding from the state
I kinda prefer that the tokens be called "dollars" and the "state" not be involved in deciding who gets them, or who they are taken from so they can be handed out.
Keeping track of the lists of people who can vote is hard enough without having to create another list of people who get tokens and how many. Doing such a thing at the state or federal level means the local voter lists have to be consolidated and become just another database that the state and feds can use to... whatever. Lose track of and deny responsibility for failing to secure is just one possible bad outcome.
No. US law is very clear. If he quickly disputes the charges, they must immediately refund his money.
This guy is paying in pounds, so I bet he's not in the US.
And on a credit card there is no money to refund. Someone who disputes a charge is not required to pay the contested amount until the dispute is resolved.
enroute crab angle Does that make you a crab person?
For those who do not know, the action of flying turned into the wind is called "crabbing", after the skittering motion of a crab across the ground. If the wind is coming from your left, then to keep a defined track across the ground a pilot will keep the aircraft yawed to the left by some angle -- the "crab angle". Adding the vectors of wind and thrust results in the correct path from point A to point B on land.
You don't usually notice this as a passenger while aloft.
You will see it when you watch an aircraft land in a crosswind. To line up with the runway (a fixed track on the ground) the pilot points the nose of the airplane into the wind to cancel the sideways drift from the wind. This is the easy way to cancel that drift. It can be held for long periods of time and allows a stabilized approach.
Just before landing, pilots will kick the airplane over into a "slip", which is a deliberate mis-coordination of the flight controls. This puts the plane in a bank (using the horizontal component of lift to cancel the wind) with rudder cancelling the yaw. This is a harder technique because it requires constant control inputs, but it aligns the wheels with the direction of travel. That's good for not blowing out tires.
No, it's a big block of "magic smoke" in the cable, like the power adapter for your laptop.
The plans for the kiosks have a USB socket. The regulators are internal to the kiosk. The cables you plug in have no "magic smoke", they are just wires. That's why making a "charging cable" is such a trivial operation -- cut two wires.
Laptop chargers have that "magic smoke" because they have to convert mains (120/220AC) into some DC (many are 19V). USB charging cables don't do that. Not the ones you will plug into the kiosk, anyway.
Okay, I give up, you win...
I'm not trying to win. I'm trying to point out that when you trust the kiosk you may wind up losing. There is a difference.
You're completely at cross-purposes with this entire discussion thread, to the point where I wonder if you're just some sort of troll.
We don't agree, so I am a troll. Of course.
The "purpose" of this discussion thread is to discuss the NYC kiosks, which include USB charging ports. The safety of using those ports came up as a topic. The safety/efficiency of using special USB cables to protect oneself is an alleged answer. I have one opinion on the matter. You have another. Therefore I am a troll.
See, nobody cares about your very personal preference to not use a public or suspect USB port, we're discussing using ones like the city of New York are providing for the public to use for free.
Yes I know what we are discussing. "Carry a special cable" is how to make using them "safe". It is improper to point out that this doesn't make it completely safe, and creates other problems? I guess so.
it's informational for people who might want to do this.
Yes, as is providing information regarding the other view. Do you understand me? Do you really not understand what a troll really is, and that it isn't simply that you don't agree with or understand what the other guy is saying?
You only need wires attached to pins 1 and 4 for power at the 'public' end of the cable.
Yes, we know. Unless your device needs the other two.
The ~5 volts is always there.
Unless it isn't 5V. You're trusting your several hundred dollar device to a public kiosk on a public street.
The regulator itself is effectively an isolation transformer/voltage regulator/black box.
You're referring to the power supply in that public kiosk... which you do not control.
Here's an interesting thought experiment. How isolated are the multiple ports on the kiosk? What would happen, do you think, if someone walked up to the kiosk where you're hanging around charging your phone, and they plug in with something putting 100VAC onto the USB power pins? Now, they may use completely independent supplies for the two ports, or they may use one. Do you want to find out?
If I could make a drawing here, I could show how extremely simple it is.
Oh, knock it off. We all know how trivial it is to have a broken USB cable that only has two wires. It's not rocket science. The issue isn't with how hard it is to have a special cable. The issue is with the trust you have to place in a source you do not control.
Yeah, it's one extra cable to carry, but if you want something remotely resembling security when connecting to public ports, that's just the way things have to be.
No, it doesn't have to be that way. I don't carry "charging cables" and I get along just fine.
To save on confusion, color the thing red, tag it for power only or something. Now, if you have a better, simpler solution, by all means... don't hold out, man.
Yes. One properly wired, standard cable. Simple. You never pick up the wrong one. It isn't rocket science. Really.
Ah, I see. The fact that that makes no sense is why it makes no sense.:-)
The fact you like broken USB cables doesn't mean that it doesn't make sense to find them an annoyance or that they aren't broken. You're right, I could "mark" them in some way, just as I could mark a broken microphone or network cable in some way. But I would be foolish to hang that microphone cable back on the rack and count on someone (including me) not trying to use it and wasting their time. Much simpler: make it obviously broken.
Just a single cable-tie on it would have been enough.
Just not plugging my devices into untrusted power sources is much simpler. I can carry one cable instead of two.
I've already had to mark a "special" USB cable some idiot company came up with to interface a medical device to the computer, so I already know how much fun it is to pick up the wrong one.
There's more than a million hits on Google for it. People have been complaining loudly and for years about them.
I'm not trying to find the opinions of people about them, I'm asking for a specific "director's rule" that contains the prohibition. I'm looking at the online list of rules. Which one prohibits Comcast from providing network service?
They require a supermajority of residents to agree to any upgrades.
I see nothing in the online "director's rules" database that mentions Comcast or Centurylink or the other words I listed. What "they" are you referring to, specifically? Seriously, I want to know. I'm not going to waste my time wading through a million google hits when one specific reference can prove your point.
Because when I need a USB cable, I look for a USB cable. I shouldn't have to mark different kinds of USB cables, I should be able to look at the ends and see what they are.
Since a data cable can charge, why would I bother with a charge-only cable? Why carry two cables when one will do?
Then, in a rage, he cuts the charge-only cable in half,
No, as a way of keeping a defective cable from wasting anyone's time, I make it obviously defective. It's not like I'm going to waste a lot of time trying to fix it. You're projecting your rage onto me, because that's not my reason for doing it.
Which "regulators"? The ones that control voltage? No. The ones that control... I really don't know of any regulators (legal) that control what pins a USB connector has connected. And I know of absolutely none that would prevent an unauthorized collection of data.
The cord plugging into the public USB can avoid the data issues by simply not connecting the data pins.
As I pointed out in this thread, some devices need the data pins. I didn't mention the devices that actually have to enumerate on the bus and negotiate a charging current (I'm talking about YOU, Sony PRS ebook readers).
And I pointed out downthread that I consider a USB cable that isn't built to the specification to be broken, and I've wasted too much of my time trying to get a data connection through a broken USB cable to ever consider deliberately carrying a broken USB cable. I might consider carrying an adapter with missing data lines so it was obvious there would be no data connection, but that's just one more thing to lose. Might as well carry any of the thousands of brands of portable batteries and not be tied to the kiosk at all.
The 5volts and ground should always be there. It shouldn't be complicated.
"Shouldn't" and "isn't" are not synonyms. And it may not be 5V, it may be 5.2V. Unless someone installs something in the kiosk to make it funner.
I've wasted too much time trying to get a data connection on a "charge only" cable to ever have one of them anywhere close. If it isn't a USB cable (full spec, working) then it is broken, and life is too short to waste it dealing with broken cables. Cut in half so it never interferes again, but has potential for a source of wire or connectors.
And ignores the fact that Hellschreiber was invented in the late 1920's. We're reinventing 90 year old technology. Oh, wait, "facsimile... on a computer!". Got it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
The Republicans here created the Director's Rules that prevent Comcast and CenturyLink from providing service in Seattle.
Do you have a link to a specific "director's rule" that includes such a prohibition? I've been using the online search using such terms as "cable", "franchise", "comcast", "centurylink", "network", and "internet" and get zero results. The instructions appear to indicate it is a full-text search ("enter keywords") but perhaps it isn't. I would like to see what rule or rules you are referring to.
How do you KNOW that the USB socket you're about to plug your device into doesn't use those pins? You control the device, someone you don't know controls the thing you plug it in to.
After all, there are people who manage to install stuff into ATMs that can read and transmit card data, so putting something in one of these kiosks is not beyond the pale. And the kiosk provider could even justify forcing your device to enumerate by saying they're only going to keep track of what devices are plugged in.
And yes, some chargers do use the data pins as a way of identifying known devices to which they should provide power and at what maximum current. Thus you have Motorola chargers that won't charge a Sanyo phone, LG phones that won't charge from generic chargers, etc. (Names used for example only.) I spent a lot of time trying to get one of my phones (now obsolete) to charge from a standard USB charger and I found there are at least three different data-line signalling systems that were in use. "How many ohms to which other pins" was the common way.
And you are wrong. But you keep yapping about birds, so you're not just saying there's no significant danger, you're saying that we already have a danger from birds so we don't need to worry about a danger from something else.
Model aircraft as a whole have killed perhaps half a dozen on the ground over the last 20 years.
Please continue to live in ignorance of the sea change in both quantity of, and quality of piloting involved in, unmanned aerial systems.
Slashdot Mirror
So you want to... put a serial number and/or tax stamp on each and every bullet? Riiight.
Because the parts are seperable, you'd need to put the serial number on both the projectile and the casing. Here are stamps that you can use to do this today.
if you don't store the ammunition correctly it can fail or jam or leak greasy crap on your hands.
I am not familiar with the kind of small arms ammunition that has "greasy crap" inside that could leak out.
I presume you look at it more than one a year to ensure it is still in working order.
You've never had a piece of equipment fail because of a dead battery long before the expected lifetime of that battery is reached. That's nice.
Like maybe when you put the gun in the case the foam presses just hard enough on the trigger that the smart fingerprint reader activates and drains the battery.
Or the battery was defective and had just enough juice to look like it was working, but it died a week later.
Or your battery was fine at the start of shift, but you had a very active day and needed to work well into the next shift and it was dead by the end of the day. This is a semi-regular occurance for cops and their handheld radios -- radio fails while on the road, and they need to come back to the cop shop to pick up a recharged one -- that to think it would never happen to any other battery operated device they have is just ridiculous.
A drone delivering thumb drives would probably far surpass any radio-based system.
Except the bandwidth would drop to zero if the guy's daughter is out sunbathing by the pool and your network happens to span his backyard. The Internet routes around failures, but I don't think there is a DCMP (drone-CMP) protocol that will report "shot down" to the source host.
And they aren't going to mess with GPS -- too much risk, too many legal issues.
So that's why they talk about GPS spoofing in both the summary and TFS? They aren't going to spoof GPS but might as well mention how easy it would be to do.
As I posted above, they're not looking to solve every problem, and jam every possible frequency, and stop every possible type of navigational system.
Only GPS, which is used by the vast majority of anything that has a need for positional information.
not a perfect fix that eliminates every possible type of R/C aircraft.
So, your definition of "a perfect fix" is one that eliminates every possible type of R/C aircraft, then.
Even The Fine Summary said they'd selectively jam the drone's communication, not the GPS signals.
You should read at least the summary. It says, pretty clear:
"GPS spoofing" means they have to broadcast signals that cover the legitimate signals from the GPS satellites. That means "jam", just with something that looks real. Now, GPS signals have gotten a lot easier to recieve as satellite technology improves, but that just means that the GPS spoofing signals have to be that much stronger, too.
To avoid interfering with legitimate radio traffic I suspect their system discriminates, and only identifies transmissions in bands assigned to RC control or transmissions on the unlicensed bands.
Because we all know there is no legitimate radio traffic on the unlicensed WiFi bands.
And that will be good enough to stop virtually all of the model aircraft being flown into prison yards today.
And anything in the direction of their "directional antenna", and any GPS user in that direction, too.
If they can stop the hundreds of those guys today, they can worry about the EE types later after they become a real threat
I don't think electrical engineers, as a "type", are a threat.
There's perfect, and then there's good enough to be effective now. This falls into the latter category.
And there's "has significant issues that can be easily predicted", which is what this falls into.
The current restriction for drones is greater than 5000 ft. radius from an airport.
Five nautical miles is a bit more than 30,000'. I don't know where you got 5000'.
Does this mean that these planes will jam at distances greater than these?
The summary mentions six miles, with is greater than all of "5000'", "30,000'", and "400'".
Protecting an area that should be drone free...
You do realize that an Airbus flying at 30,000' over your property is less than six miles away from you, don't you? Your property is suddenly in what you consider a drone-free zone -- even if you are the one flying it.
Many years ago DOD used to dither the timing signals on GPS (called "selective availability") to downgrade the position quality. They finally realized that too many users of GPS were being negatively impacted by such nonsense and stopped doing it. Imagine the negative impact on other users when that aircraft flying 30,000' above you starts spoofing the GPS system.
Some people are paranoid about chemtrails from distant aircraft, it is much better that they can now have a known issue with that aircraft screwing with their GPS.
Jamming the WiFi control signals to remove the UAS from the pilot's control? GPS spoofing to disrupt the GPS for every other GPS user within range?
Deliberate and willful interference with regulated radio services should be, and is, a federal crime.
Including the remedies in Florida law that the SCOTUS denied Fl the right to undertake? One of those was a full recount of all questionable counties (or something prettty damned close)
Florida had already defined the electoral process and was following that process, as is the right of the state legislature to define. The federal government had no authority to overturn the state-defined process, nor did the Florida courts on a matter of process.
The recount was done. The result was certified. The only effect of forcing yet another recount was to delay the result from Florida until after the deadline for the Electoral College vote, effectively disenfranchising every Florida voter.
Love the GOP - all for "state's rights" until those rights bite them on the butt,
Florida has the right to determine its electoral process, and did so. It was Gore who was trying to change the process after the vote was counted.
And gotta love the Dems -- count every vote, until the votes are counted and the Republicans win, then take every vote to court to get it thrown out. Awful butterfly ballots -- that both parties agreed to prior to the election. Awful absentee process -- that both parties agreed to prior to the election. Got a problem with the process? Fix it before the ballots are cast, not after they go against you.
but I quite liked the idea of giving all voters in elections a fixed number of "tokens" which they could give to candidates who stood for office. The tokens could then be redeemed by the candidates for funding from the state
I kinda prefer that the tokens be called "dollars" and the "state" not be involved in deciding who gets them, or who they are taken from so they can be handed out.
Keeping track of the lists of people who can vote is hard enough without having to create another list of people who get tokens and how many. Doing such a thing at the state or federal level means the local voter lists have to be consolidated and become just another database that the state and feds can use to ... whatever. Lose track of and deny responsibility for failing to secure is just one possible bad outcome.
No. US law is very clear. If he quickly disputes the charges, they must immediately refund his money.
This guy is paying in pounds, so I bet he's not in the US.
And on a credit card there is no money to refund. Someone who disputes a charge is not required to pay the contested amount until the dispute is resolved.
enroute crab angle Does that make you a crab person?
For those who do not know, the action of flying turned into the wind is called "crabbing", after the skittering motion of a crab across the ground. If the wind is coming from your left, then to keep a defined track across the ground a pilot will keep the aircraft yawed to the left by some angle -- the "crab angle". Adding the vectors of wind and thrust results in the correct path from point A to point B on land.
You don't usually notice this as a passenger while aloft. You will see it when you watch an aircraft land in a crosswind. To line up with the runway (a fixed track on the ground) the pilot points the nose of the airplane into the wind to cancel the sideways drift from the wind. This is the easy way to cancel that drift. It can be held for long periods of time and allows a stabilized approach.
Just before landing, pilots will kick the airplane over into a "slip", which is a deliberate mis-coordination of the flight controls. This puts the plane in a bank (using the horizontal component of lift to cancel the wind) with rudder cancelling the yaw. This is a harder technique because it requires constant control inputs, but it aligns the wheels with the direction of travel. That's good for not blowing out tires.
..which is not the same thing as actually accusing you of being a troll.
Wondering if I am because I disagree with you is the same thing. You don't know what a troll actually is.
what you however are is one of those people who argues just to argue;
Sorry, no. But then, you'd be the same, because you are doing exactly the same thing. And I think the appropriate netism is "plonk".
No, it's a big block of "magic smoke" in the cable, like the power adapter for your laptop.
The plans for the kiosks have a USB socket. The regulators are internal to the kiosk. The cables you plug in have no "magic smoke", they are just wires. That's why making a "charging cable" is such a trivial operation -- cut two wires.
Laptop chargers have that "magic smoke" because they have to convert mains (120/220AC) into some DC (many are 19V). USB charging cables don't do that. Not the ones you will plug into the kiosk, anyway.
Okay, I give up, you win...
I'm not trying to win. I'm trying to point out that when you trust the kiosk you may wind up losing. There is a difference.
You're completely at cross-purposes with this entire discussion thread, to the point where I wonder if you're just some sort of troll.
We don't agree, so I am a troll. Of course.
The "purpose" of this discussion thread is to discuss the NYC kiosks, which include USB charging ports. The safety of using those ports came up as a topic. The safety/efficiency of using special USB cables to protect oneself is an alleged answer. I have one opinion on the matter. You have another. Therefore I am a troll.
See, nobody cares about your very personal preference to not use a public or suspect USB port, we're discussing using ones like the city of New York are providing for the public to use for free.
Yes I know what we are discussing. "Carry a special cable" is how to make using them "safe". It is improper to point out that this doesn't make it completely safe, and creates other problems? I guess so.
it's informational for people who might want to do this.
Yes, as is providing information regarding the other view. Do you understand me? Do you really not understand what a troll really is, and that it isn't simply that you don't agree with or understand what the other guy is saying?
You only need wires attached to pins 1 and 4 for power at the 'public' end of the cable.
Yes, we know. Unless your device needs the other two.
The ~5 volts is always there.
Unless it isn't 5V. You're trusting your several hundred dollar device to a public kiosk on a public street.
The regulator itself is effectively an isolation transformer/voltage regulator/black box.
You're referring to the power supply in that public kiosk ... which you do not control.
Here's an interesting thought experiment. How isolated are the multiple ports on the kiosk? What would happen, do you think, if someone walked up to the kiosk where you're hanging around charging your phone, and they plug in with something putting 100VAC onto the USB power pins? Now, they may use completely independent supplies for the two ports, or they may use one. Do you want to find out?
If I could make a drawing here, I could show how extremely simple it is.
Oh, knock it off. We all know how trivial it is to have a broken USB cable that only has two wires. It's not rocket science. The issue isn't with how hard it is to have a special cable. The issue is with the trust you have to place in a source you do not control.
Yeah, it's one extra cable to carry, but if you want something remotely resembling security when connecting to public ports, that's just the way things have to be.
No, it doesn't have to be that way. I don't carry "charging cables" and I get along just fine.
To save on confusion, color the thing red, tag it for power only or something. Now, if you have a better, simpler solution, by all means... don't hold out, man.
Yes. One properly wired, standard cable. Simple. You never pick up the wrong one. It isn't rocket science. Really.
Ah, I see. The fact that that makes no sense is why it makes no sense. :-)
The fact you like broken USB cables doesn't mean that it doesn't make sense to find them an annoyance or that they aren't broken. You're right, I could "mark" them in some way, just as I could mark a broken microphone or network cable in some way. But I would be foolish to hang that microphone cable back on the rack and count on someone (including me) not trying to use it and wasting their time. Much simpler: make it obviously broken.
Just a single cable-tie on it would have been enough.
Just not plugging my devices into untrusted power sources is much simpler. I can carry one cable instead of two.
I've already had to mark a "special" USB cable some idiot company came up with to interface a medical device to the computer, so I already know how much fun it is to pick up the wrong one.
There's more than a million hits on Google for it. People have been complaining loudly and for years about them.
I'm not trying to find the opinions of people about them, I'm asking for a specific "director's rule" that contains the prohibition. I'm looking at the online list of rules. Which one prohibits Comcast from providing network service?
They require a supermajority of residents to agree to any upgrades.
I see nothing in the online "director's rules" database that mentions Comcast or Centurylink or the other words I listed. What "they" are you referring to, specifically? Seriously, I want to know. I'm not going to waste my time wading through a million google hits when one specific reference can prove your point.
Because he keeps thinking they're data cables,
Because when I need a USB cable, I look for a USB cable. I shouldn't have to mark different kinds of USB cables, I should be able to look at the ends and see what they are.
Since a data cable can charge, why would I bother with a charge-only cable? Why carry two cables when one will do?
Then, in a rage, he cuts the charge-only cable in half,
No, as a way of keeping a defective cable from wasting anyone's time, I make it obviously defective. It's not like I'm going to waste a lot of time trying to fix it. You're projecting your rage onto me, because that's not my reason for doing it.
because he wrecked them all.
They were already broken.
The regulators will take of all that.
Which "regulators"? The ones that control voltage? No. The ones that control ... I really don't know of any regulators (legal) that control what pins a USB connector has connected. And I know of absolutely none that would prevent an unauthorized collection of data.
The cord plugging into the public USB can avoid the data issues by simply not connecting the data pins.
As I pointed out in this thread, some devices need the data pins. I didn't mention the devices that actually have to enumerate on the bus and negotiate a charging current (I'm talking about YOU, Sony PRS ebook readers).
And I pointed out downthread that I consider a USB cable that isn't built to the specification to be broken, and I've wasted too much of my time trying to get a data connection through a broken USB cable to ever consider deliberately carrying a broken USB cable. I might consider carrying an adapter with missing data lines so it was obvious there would be no data connection, but that's just one more thing to lose. Might as well carry any of the thousands of brands of portable batteries and not be tied to the kiosk at all.
The 5volts and ground should always be there. It shouldn't be complicated.
"Shouldn't" and "isn't" are not synonyms. And it may not be 5V, it may be 5.2V. Unless someone installs something in the kiosk to make it funner.
I've wasted too much time trying to get a data connection on a "charge only" cable to ever have one of them anywhere close. If it isn't a USB cable (full spec, working) then it is broken, and life is too short to waste it dealing with broken cables. Cut in half so it never interferes again, but has potential for a source of wire or connectors.
And ignores the fact that Hellschreiber was invented in the late 1920's. We're reinventing 90 year old technology. Oh, wait, "facsimile ... on a computer!". Got it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
The Republicans here created the Director's Rules that prevent Comcast and CenturyLink from providing service in Seattle.
Do you have a link to a specific "director's rule" that includes such a prohibition? I've been using the online search using such terms as "cable", "franchise", "comcast", "centurylink", "network", and "internet" and get zero results. The instructions appear to indicate it is a full-text search ("enter keywords") but perhaps it isn't. I would like to see what rule or rules you are referring to.
As for data? The chargers don't use those pins
How do you KNOW that the USB socket you're about to plug your device into doesn't use those pins? You control the device, someone you don't know controls the thing you plug it in to.
After all, there are people who manage to install stuff into ATMs that can read and transmit card data, so putting something in one of these kiosks is not beyond the pale. And the kiosk provider could even justify forcing your device to enumerate by saying they're only going to keep track of what devices are plugged in.
And yes, some chargers do use the data pins as a way of identifying known devices to which they should provide power and at what maximum current. Thus you have Motorola chargers that won't charge a Sanyo phone, LG phones that won't charge from generic chargers, etc. (Names used for example only.) I spent a lot of time trying to get one of my phones (now obsolete) to charge from a standard USB charger and I found there are at least three different data-line signalling systems that were in use. "How many ohms to which other pins" was the common way.
No, I'm saying there is no significant danger.
And you are wrong. But you keep yapping about birds, so you're not just saying there's no significant danger, you're saying that we already have a danger from birds so we don't need to worry about a danger from something else.
Model aircraft as a whole have killed perhaps half a dozen on the ground over the last 20 years.
Please continue to live in ignorance of the sea change in both quantity of, and quality of piloting involved in, unmanned aerial systems.