Uh...why? I mean, when your car gets stolen, why do you feel the police should have to take some "real effort" to find it for you. If your daughter is kidnapped by some sicko and they know the plate number of his van (why is it that they all own vans?), why should it take them "real effort" to save her life? For that matter, why should you really care if the local cops know you went through the red light in front of Albertson's at 10:37pm if you aren't doing anything wrong?
Because we live in a free society. We are innocent until proven guilty. We are 'alleged' when accused, not convicted. We are free to go about our business without anything stopping us or hanging over us.
Also, guess what? I'd bet my next paycheck that you can't name a single "bureaucrat" that personally gives a damn about knowing where you are at 2am. Now, on the other hand, I'm sure you can find plenty who are currently being begged and pleaded by overworked police forces in their districts who are trying to cope with rashes of stolen vehicles, missing persons, and wanted criminals.
It doesn't matter to me whether or not a specific individual employed by the government wants to know where I am or not. It's not their business to even know where I am.
Besides, there are several HUNDRED MILLION cars on the road and no one is going to randomly just decide to find out where your car was unless they had a reason to look for it. It's not like cops just sit around trying to dream up ways to mess with the American people. In case you haven't noticed, they're American people too.
Here, the problem is a lot worse because the county attorney won't take the time to prosecute car theives that are caught. A friend's car was stolen. A man was later involved in a minor accident with it, and he actually waited for the police. He was an illegal immigrant with no valid license (but a nice looking fake one), a fake title with one letter difference in the VIN, and no insurance. They elected not to prosecute, despite being able to charge and slam dunk the guy with posession of stolen property or grand theft auto, TWO fraudlent documents, no license, and no insurance. The attorney general would rather go after high profile shiny cases that get a lot of media attention.
Tracking vehicles with RFID may not so bad - after all vehicles have licence plates...
RFID tracking PEOPLE on the other hand is worrysome.
In my opinion, it should take some real effort to track vehicles. The Government shouldn't just be able to keep tabs on people with the push of a button. They are entitled to privacy, and if there is some compelling reason to authorize surveillance then the organization being granted permission to do so should have to actually take on the burden to do so. People should not be expected to simply allow themselves to be tracked just because certain bureaucrats feel that it is in their exclusive interests to do so.
Then again, I also believe that the government shouldn't be allowed to keep any information on an otherwise-law-abiding person whatsoever beyond that used in exchanges with that individual. This means that I personally would want them to have a file for my voter registration, my tax history, notation of the presence of a driver's license, notation of ownership of land if any, and notation of things like social security, medicare, or any other non-standard service that is used by the person. Beyond that, nothing else that I do is any of their business at all.
I've had XP with either service pack lock up and die when making standard system changes, working with USB memory devices, and working with cameras. I've not been impressed with the stability.
The entire point of the Operating System being OSS is that it works to remove the problem of the vendor for both the applications and the OS being able to use both to their advantage.
Free software is great as a concept, but as we all have experienced, some free software doesn't really meet the needs of many of those that try to use it. That's where commercial software steps in.
I don't like Windows. It crashes. It's buggy. If Microsoft came up with a full-featured version of Microsoft Office for Linux that didn't require root-level permissions to use and didn't 'hook' into things that it has no business in then I'd buy a copy of it in a heartbeat. At this point, despite my objections to MS, Office is the best productivity suite that I've found.
This doesn't mean that I'm sold on always using Office if it existed for Linux. If a better one comes along, either commercial or open source, I could switch.
If the allegations of football and videogames as stated above are true, that would explain a lot about my high school football team. The spoiled brats had all of the video game systems that their parents could buy them, and a 0-10 record on the field...
I mean, I've wanted to see Spammers get their just desserts; I've dreamed about spammers being arrested and locked up in a cell with three guys who bought their Viagra and Enlargement Pills, but I've never really considered that something could really happen. I kind of feel like Vir, when his "I'd like to see your head up on a pike, so I can wave at it like this" moment. It's an anti-cathartic moment that I'll have to savor in its most violent decadence, yet sweet at the same time.
The Salt River supplies almost all of Phoenix's water, actually. We just know that as all of you miscreants move here from elsewhere that we'll need more water yet.
So, some friends of mine are going dumpster diving. This is back in the middle of the tech bubble, so fairly cash-rich companies are continually throwing out good equipment as they buy more. Anyway, the experienced one is driving around looking for suitable places, with the newbie riding shotgun. They pull up behind a high end computer service business in a strip mall to check out the goods. The experienced one had told many stories (and provided proof) of incredible finds in places like this, and spurred on by these stories the newbie hops out of the car, runs over, and vaults himself over the lip of the dumpster, feet first inside. What greeted him wasn't the spoils of computer repair, but the spoiled discards of the Chinese restaurant two doors down from the computer business...
In Phoenix, in the Summer...
And there weren't any computer parts discarded that day by that shop anyway...
"Yes, yes, I agree, it's very pretty, but how many times do you actually look at your keyboard? The whole point of keys is that they are under your fingers. This is a gimmic, with absolutely no use."
I disagree. I have some applications that I use occasionally, but not often enough to where I immediately know all of the functions that I need to use. For awhile I used a Gateway 2000 Any Key 124 key macro-programmable keyboard, but when I needed to go USB I was unable to continue to use that keyboard. This appears to offer some programmability, and with the ability to map icons or text across keys it should be really easy to customize the layout appearance for those important applications that I need to occasionally use well, but don't use enough to know everything. I could spend a couple of days preparing layouts for each of these programs and then not have to navigate menus for functions from then on out.
In addition to utility as mentioned above, it has a certain amount of cool factor as well as ease for typing in the darkness. It would be really cool to be able to use a blu-ish color like the blue LEDs in the case have, or to use different colors on the keyboard for different machines in a KVM. I could see this being really, really nice in many niche environments.
I admittedly did a doubletake when I saw the name.
Couldn't that domain name apply to a company that allows surfers to add Viagra or muscle relaxants to a patient's IV drip to cause differing reactions?
Hey, China may have great plans for the future, but they have accomplished relatively little compared to what the US or the former USSR have achieved in previous decades.
Why do you think that China has greater capability to seize control of the Langrange points than, say, Russia. I could argue that Russia may even have greater capability than even the US, considering the current state of the shuttle system.
I'm inclined to agree. China's single manned launch was with equipment purchased from Russia. It wasn't developed in house. It wasn't even a design built by the Chinese that was inspired by raw research from Russia.
There is a huge difference between purchasing and using an automobile and being able to design and construct cars, trucks, buses, tractor trailers, amphibious vehicles, and the like. This doesn't mean that I discredit the abilities of Chinese scientists, engineers, and researchers, but they have a lot of ground to make up. They haven't done the basic research that was used to create projects like Apollo and Soyuz, so they don't know what not to do. They have to develop industry to handle all aspects of space travel and give development personnel time to actually learn and gain experience. If they don't the the accidents of the American and Soviet/Russian space programs will pale by comparison to the potential damage that they can do to themselves.
Or, to phrase it another way, I want to have a badass muscle car that can run a ten second quarter mile and still be legally driven on the street. I even have an idea of what buzzwords apply to which components. I don't have the time, the money, or the knowledge to build the car myself at the moment, regardless of how much I want to.
"Not wanting to install a patch to a production server is not necessarily complacency. In point of fact, in some cases, it *is* vigilance, assuming you've ever installed a patch and seen software mysteriously and suddeny cease functioning...it happens on Windows servers from time to time, if you didn't know."
"Actually, I do know...as it has happened to me more than once (Windows XP SP2 breaking WinFax and Windows Server 2003 SP1 breaking Windows Update immediately spring to mind). This is where the concept of a QA server comes into play. Any sysadmin worth their salt will have some sort of test server set up where they can test updates, patches, service packs, etc. without endangering their mission-critical systems. It's a simple process, but apparently thre's a lot of sysadmins out there who can't be bothered to exercise due dilligence...hence, my accusation of complacency."
If the vendor doesn't provide a tailored solution then it's foolish to remain with the vendor just because. I personally stopped using Microsoft software in the days of Windows NT4 because of problems with unified updates that broke things (remember the even numbered service packs?), and while sometimes I have to really work to get something working in Linux I am able to do so.
I'm usually all in favor of life imitating art, but I don't see how this could get accurate enough to be truly entertaining.
By contrast, some 20 friends of mine were playing Laser Tag in a park after dark, and someone living in the area called the cops and said that there was a gang war going on, and something like 40 units descended on the park. They were ultimately let go that evening from the scene, but that had to be fun...
"It's because this country is in a state of fear still. I honestly don't think the FBI is out to get us all and wants to take away everyones freedom nor control people. Heck, I even have a friend that's in the FBI...he's a nice guy. But I think that they are as scared as everyone else is and they don't want to get caught with their pants down again. I believe they honestly want to try to prevent and protect the citizens of the US...it's just they're methods may be a bit zealous at times."
I agree. Unfortunately adding more laws don't fix the problem. We had rules against things like boxcutters coming on to airplanes before, but it happened anyway. We had people diligently report that suspicious looking men with no baggage were effectively casing airplanes for months before attacks happened. We had reports from flight schools and FBI officers that there were people going to flight school who didn't want to learn how to take off or land and who were getting almost violently emotional when called upon regarding this.
More laws and regulation haphazardly isn't the answer. Reviewing all laws pertaining to this stuff, revising them appropriately, and enforcing them is what needs to happen. We need appeals processes for those who do get restricted by laws or profiling, in case they have been accidently placed on a list. We need common sense.
A police department's frequencies are defined by different rules for licensing by the FCC. They also happen to be on spectrum reserved for such use, as is "Business Band". 2.4GHz, 900MHz, 5.8GHz, 27MHz, 49MHz, and other frequencies are defined by Part 15 for EVERYONE to use. They don't require licenses. Amusingly enough, some of these frequencies are also Amateur Radio frequencies, and the Amateur Radio Operator has priority use on those frequencies, to the point that if their Part 68 licensed equipment renders your Part 15, non-licensed equipment useless while they're operating that's your tough luck. Otherwise consumer, unlicensed spectrum is free to use as long as the users follow the rules of Part 15.
And as for a 'closed' repeater, anyone who can control the repeater can use it. I suspect that the only reason that closed repeaters could exist at all is that there aren't enough people licensed as Hams, so the relatively elitist hobby hasn't had "king of the hill" battles with supposedly closed repeaters. I suspect that if there were widespread abuse or attempts that the FCC would just ban closed repeaters.
"...It is your private property and you never expect anyone who wasn't welcome to break those boundries, but we have welcomed the Internet with it's complete opposite point of view..."
"The difference here is it's wireless. It uses *PUBLIC* airspace/radio frequencies. That's the same line of reasoning the Supreme Court used with regards to the creation of the FCC."
It's even more than that. The wireless router received a standard, "can I have legitimate credentials on this network?" request in the form of a DHCP lease request. The wireless router replied with valid credentials for that network. The user did not make any malformed requests, did not use any information that he should not have rightfully posessed, and in no way forced his way into the network.
He also properly followed FCC rules regarding the use of wireless equipment.
If the owner of a wireless transceiver, a radio if you will, doesn't want to let that device communicate then they bear the burden of making it not communicate. If they leave it in a mode that allows any public access over frequencies that belong to the public-at-large then they bear the responsibility.
I'd like to see the ARRL and the FCC get involved in this, even though the odds are against this guy having any official licensing from the FCC.
"Because I spent my lunch money today on a thousand shares of SCO! If the case has to proceed as planned instead of dragging on further, I can kiss that $8.51 goodbye. I shoulda had the burrito plate instead. What was I thinking?!"
Yeah, you could have enjoyed that burrito at least twice. Once going in, and the second time when you get to see the look on the faces of those who are stuck being around you eight hours later...
Worse than the near-vacuum are the fines (smaller than dust) that cover nearly the entire surface of the planet, which will get into absolutely everything brought along by settlers. Dealing with those will probably be the hardest thing.
Well, many makers (Chrysler and Ford both come to mind) put awesome secondary amp systems into their cars, but since everything is all subject to how the entire system is designed it's hard getting these amps to work properly with aftermarket decks. Honestly, if you want to go this route, get a dealer-installed aftermarket system when you buy the car. It'll be included in the purchase price and payments rather than as an extra expense, and everything will work together.
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Then again, I also believe that the government shouldn't be allowed to keep any information on an otherwise-law-abiding person whatsoever beyond that used in exchanges with that individual. This means that I personally would want them to have a file for my voter registration, my tax history, notation of the presence of a driver's license, notation of ownership of land if any, and notation of things like social security, medicare, or any other non-standard service that is used by the person. Beyond that, nothing else that I do is any of their business at all.
I've had XP with either service pack lock up and die when making standard system changes, working with USB memory devices, and working with cameras. I've not been impressed with the stability.
The entire point of the Operating System being OSS is that it works to remove the problem of the vendor for both the applications and the OS being able to use both to their advantage.
Free software is great as a concept, but as we all have experienced, some free software doesn't really meet the needs of many of those that try to use it. That's where commercial software steps in.
I don't like Windows. It crashes. It's buggy. If Microsoft came up with a full-featured version of Microsoft Office for Linux that didn't require root-level permissions to use and didn't 'hook' into things that it has no business in then I'd buy a copy of it in a heartbeat. At this point, despite my objections to MS, Office is the best productivity suite that I've found.
This doesn't mean that I'm sold on always using Office if it existed for Linux. If a better one comes along, either commercial or open source, I could switch.
Since dog tags, once seperated from the chain fit into a wallet anyway, this shouldn't be much of a problem anyway.
Just about all of them? I'd be surprised if a major color printer company wasn't adding something to the print job as it came through.
If the allegations of football and videogames as stated above are true, that would explain a lot about my high school football team. The spoiled brats had all of the video game systems that their parents could buy them, and a 0-10 record on the field...
I mean, I've wanted to see Spammers get their just desserts; I've dreamed about spammers being arrested and locked up in a cell with three guys who bought their Viagra and Enlargement Pills, but I've never really considered that something could really happen. I kind of feel like Vir, when his "I'd like to see your head up on a pike, so I can wave at it like this" moment. It's an anti-cathartic moment that I'll have to savor in its most violent decadence, yet sweet at the same time.
Just. Wow.
The Salt River supplies almost all of Phoenix's water, actually. We just know that as all of you miscreants move here from elsewhere that we'll need more water yet.
I live in Arizona, you insensitive clod!
So, some friends of mine are going dumpster diving. This is back in the middle of the tech bubble, so fairly cash-rich companies are continually throwing out good equipment as they buy more. Anyway, the experienced one is driving around looking for suitable places, with the newbie riding shotgun. They pull up behind a high end computer service business in a strip mall to check out the goods. The experienced one had told many stories (and provided proof) of incredible finds in places like this, and spurred on by these stories the newbie hops out of the car, runs over, and vaults himself over the lip of the dumpster, feet first inside. What greeted him wasn't the spoils of computer repair, but the spoiled discards of the Chinese restaurant two doors down from the computer business...
In Phoenix, in the Summer...
And there weren't any computer parts discarded that day by that shop anyway...
Boy would that suck...
"Yes, yes, I agree, it's very pretty, but how many times do you actually look at your keyboard? The whole point of keys is that they are under your fingers. This is a gimmic, with absolutely no use."
I disagree. I have some applications that I use occasionally, but not often enough to where I immediately know all of the functions that I need to use. For awhile I used a Gateway 2000 Any Key 124 key macro-programmable keyboard, but when I needed to go USB I was unable to continue to use that keyboard. This appears to offer some programmability, and with the ability to map icons or text across keys it should be really easy to customize the layout appearance for those important applications that I need to occasionally use well, but don't use enough to know everything. I could spend a couple of days preparing layouts for each of these programs and then not have to navigate menus for functions from then on out.
In addition to utility as mentioned above, it has a certain amount of cool factor as well as ease for typing in the darkness. It would be really cool to be able to use a blu-ish color like the blue LEDs in the case have, or to use different colors on the keyboard for different machines in a KVM. I could see this being really, really nice in many niche environments.
I admittedly did a doubletake when I saw the name.
Couldn't that domain name apply to a company that allows surfers to add Viagra or muscle relaxants to a patient's IV drip to cause differing reactions?
There is a huge difference between purchasing and using an automobile and being able to design and construct cars, trucks, buses, tractor trailers, amphibious vehicles, and the like. This doesn't mean that I discredit the abilities of Chinese scientists, engineers, and researchers, but they have a lot of ground to make up. They haven't done the basic research that was used to create projects like Apollo and Soyuz, so they don't know what not to do. They have to develop industry to handle all aspects of space travel and give development personnel time to actually learn and gain experience. If they don't the the accidents of the American and Soviet/Russian space programs will pale by comparison to the potential damage that they can do to themselves.
Or, to phrase it another way, I want to have a badass muscle car that can run a ten second quarter mile and still be legally driven on the street. I even have an idea of what buzzwords apply to which components. I don't have the time, the money, or the knowledge to build the car myself at the moment, regardless of how much I want to.
If the vendor doesn't provide a tailored solution then it's foolish to remain with the vendor just because. I personally stopped using Microsoft software in the days of Windows NT4 because of problems with unified updates that broke things (remember the even numbered service packs?), and while sometimes I have to really work to get something working in Linux I am able to do so.
I'm usually all in favor of life imitating art, but I don't see how this could get accurate enough to be truly entertaining.
By contrast, some 20 friends of mine were playing Laser Tag in a park after dark, and someone living in the area called the cops and said that there was a gang war going on, and something like 40 units descended on the park. They were ultimately let go that evening from the scene, but that had to be fun...
More laws and regulation haphazardly isn't the answer. Reviewing all laws pertaining to this stuff, revising them appropriately, and enforcing them is what needs to happen. We need appeals processes for those who do get restricted by laws or profiling, in case they have been accidently placed on a list. We need common sense.
"You're good Ash. I'm Bad Ash. You're a Goody Little Two Shoes. Goody little two shoes. Goody little two shoes! Goody little TWO shoes!"
BLAM!
"Good, Bad, I'm the guy with the gun..."
Not that I've seen the movie a few times or anything...
I *am* a Ham Radio Operator.
A police department's frequencies are defined by different rules for licensing by the FCC. They also happen to be on spectrum reserved for such use, as is "Business Band". 2.4GHz, 900MHz, 5.8GHz, 27MHz, 49MHz, and other frequencies are defined by Part 15 for EVERYONE to use. They don't require licenses. Amusingly enough, some of these frequencies are also Amateur Radio frequencies, and the Amateur Radio Operator has priority use on those frequencies, to the point that if their Part 68 licensed equipment renders your Part 15, non-licensed equipment useless while they're operating that's your tough luck. Otherwise consumer, unlicensed spectrum is free to use as long as the users follow the rules of Part 15.
And as for a 'closed' repeater, anyone who can control the repeater can use it. I suspect that the only reason that closed repeaters could exist at all is that there aren't enough people licensed as Hams, so the relatively elitist hobby hasn't had "king of the hill" battles with supposedly closed repeaters. I suspect that if there were widespread abuse or attempts that the FCC would just ban closed repeaters.
It's even more than that. The wireless router received a standard, "can I have legitimate credentials on this network?" request in the form of a DHCP lease request. The wireless router replied with valid credentials for that network. The user did not make any malformed requests, did not use any information that he should not have rightfully posessed, and in no way forced his way into the network.
He also properly followed FCC rules regarding the use of wireless equipment.
If the owner of a wireless transceiver, a radio if you will, doesn't want to let that device communicate then they bear the burden of making it not communicate. If they leave it in a mode that allows any public access over frequencies that belong to the public-at-large then they bear the responsibility.
I'd like to see the ARRL and the FCC get involved in this, even though the odds are against this guy having any official licensing from the FCC.
Yeah, you could have enjoyed that burrito at least twice. Once going in, and the second time when you get to see the look on the faces of those who are stuck being around you eight hours later...
That happened to you too?!
You should be entitled to at least a couple of dollars on account of 'pain and suffering'...
Worse than the near-vacuum are the fines (smaller than dust) that cover nearly the entire surface of the planet, which will get into absolutely everything brought along by settlers. Dealing with those will probably be the hardest thing.
Well, many makers (Chrysler and Ford both come to mind) put awesome secondary amp systems into their cars, but since everything is all subject to how the entire system is designed it's hard getting these amps to work properly with aftermarket decks. Honestly, if you want to go this route, get a dealer-installed aftermarket system when you buy the car. It'll be included in the purchase price and payments rather than as an extra expense, and everything will work together.