Reading your comment would make one think that location tracking and location history is part of being a "smart" phone. There's nothing in the smartphone that requires this behaviour.
The problem with this data is that
1) A user cannot erase it analogous to clearing cache/cookines on a PC
2) It is purposely hidden from the user
3) Law enforcement in states like Michigan can download this information WITHOUT a warrant
4) Potential for abuse by apps and / or people who will stalk you/spy on you unbeknown to you.
Not to mention, that this is just wrong. There are certain inalienable rights (or at least they are supposed to be there), and a right to privacy is one of them.
If you value privacy, YOUR privacy, avoid dictionary.com app at all costs. First, their website was riddled with over 200 pieces of cookies and tracking info (read a piece either here http://online.wsj.com/public/page/what-they-know-digital-privacy.html or somewhere else, can't recall).
Second, their app for the blackberry wants access to ALL of your information, including calendar, contacts, files, email, SMS, etc... If you deny any of those permissions, the app won't work.
Moreover, I sent 2 emails to them asking what kind of information their app collects, and received no response.
You really think that data collection was purely accidental? And it didn't strike you that they haven't turned the "feature" off between the start of street view mapping and the end of it, which took a lengthy amount of time?
I'm sure the data collected reached its intended destination.
Get MS Office Home & Student edition, pay a rather reasonable cost of $149 (CDN) and live and breathe free! This version will satisfy most people's needs with Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
I tried Avast once... And it's UI is a major, MAJOR deterrent. I had 2 icons in the system tray. The annoying spinning icon is distracting.
And their UI once you open it reminds me of the cheap UIs that motherboard makers ship to tune overclocking settings: futuristic (yeah right), confusing, irregularly shaped windows, with inconsistent buttons and color scheme that doesn't make sense.
I hated it. So did the people I installed it for.
Perhaps they changed now.
As it is, Microsoft Security Essentials are the best option for a Windows machine, along with safe browsing practices.
Next time a terrorist blows up a plane, stand up and say, "yeah, it is sad and tragic. But we as a country have gone through far worse. We lost a million soldiers in WW II. 50K in Vietnam. Dresden, Berlin, Tokyo, London were all bombed mercilessly. We survived. Compared to that it losing two buildings and 3000 people is nothing. If we cower in our shoes and crap in pants, the terrorists have won. Just let us go back to normalcy." But no one will.
It's not that no one will. It's that it would be utterly pointless. These terror acts are pre-planned, and the reaction to them by the government is also pre-planned. Before the public has a chance to realize what's what, it's already too late. And if not, the government won't give squat about public opinion - it hasn't, it won't, and it'll do whatever it needs to accomplish what it wants.
Let's not be so idealistic as to pretend the public has real choice.
As a parent, it would be very tempting to push the agent aside from your child, to put it mildly. But then, you have to consider that doing so will result in more harm to your child when the father is behind bars for months or possibly years.
First of all, why did they use Kismet? What connection does wireless network detection have with Google maps and Google street view?
Second, if you think this was done in error, by mistake, I think you're pretty naive. It not only happened in the US, it also happened in Canada. The street view mapping process took several months.
Someone who publishes a web page does it for the sole purpose of broadcasting its content.
Someone who is using a router at home without encryption is probably someone who doesn't know about encryption, does not the implications of not having it on (face it, which manual says on the open box ENCRYPT OR ELSE YOUR BANKING INFO IS AVAILABLE TO ANYONE), or could not make it work. Early routers did not make this a very straightforward process among the countless menu options there exist.
And all those users who left open connection may have understood that other people could connect to their router and share the connection, but I am certain they did not understand that their own communication can be easily intercepted, including passwords and banking info.
The reason is that they need to be HOT in order to function. And they are hot if the engine is running rich, so that unburned fuel particles can burn in the catalytic converter.
Today's engines with fuel injection and MAF sensors (and complicated computerized calculations) can run very clean without catalytic converters. In fact, cars from the factory run RICH just to employ the cat.
That's why aftermarket tunes that lean out the mixture get more power AND better fuel economy.
First of all, this is more about control of the people than about copyright. Copyright is used to exert certain control over people.
Second, what makes you think that disconnection from the internet is not the ultimate goal? Political activists (or other non-desirables) can now be disconnected based on imaginary or planted evidence.
Coupled with country-wide internet site filtering that's coming soon to every nation, such laws are about ultimate control of the population and restriction of information flow (though the laws are under the guise of protecting something different).
Look at how the Federal Reserve act was rammed through on Christmas when most of the members were absent. This act was for a clear, distinct cause (though masked).
Just by looking at how few MPs were present for the passage of this bill, you know it's about a lot more than enforcing intellectual copyright.
One would be too naive to take this at face value.
The Toyotas w/o the brake override system could be stopped if you were at slow speeds with a lot of effort on the brakes and emergency brake. At higher speeds, the breaks where not enough to stop the vehicle with only the brakes. They also tried turning the vehicles off which would stop the vehicle, but the driver had to manhandle the vehicle w/o benefit of power steering and power brakes.
That doesn't appear to be the story I read. No, e-brake did not have to be used, and you didn't have to press on the brakes REALLY REALLY hard as you put it. Read the quote from Car&Driver below:
"With the Camry's throttle pinned while going 70 mph, the brakes easily overcame all 268 horsepower straining against them and stopped the car in 190 feet--that's a foot shorter than the performance of a Ford Taurus without any gas-pedal problems and just 16 feet longer than with the Camry's throttle closed. From 100 mph, the stopping-distance differential was 88 feet--noticeable to be sure, but the car still slowed enthusiastically enough to impart a feeling of confidence. We also tried one go-for-broke run at 120 mph, and, even then, the car quickly decelerated to about 10 mph before the brakes got excessively hot and the car refused to decelerate any further. So even in the most extreme case, it should be possible to get a car's speed down to a point where a resulting accident should be a low-speed and relatively minor event."
The only time brakes didn't work well is if they got really hot and started to fade. If you let your car accelerate to 120 mph before hitting the brakes, that's not good. So basically, it's possible to stop it if you press on the brake and keep holing it.
However, this was under controlled conditions. In the case of crashes, it was reported that the brake didn't work very well, which could be related to absence of vacuum needed to operate the brakes. This could be ECM-related.
Extremely rare or not, it is a very significant problem with documented fatal consequences. You bet they should be taking it in the most serious way possible.
Toyota has been lying through their teeth, including their interview with the president on the issues. They've known about it for years, and have come up with the most ridiculous reasons for the problem. They absolutely deserve what they get, although I suspect the fallout won't be so great.
And their spotless reputation for quality? That's because a lot of it was suppressed. Finally everyone realizes Toyota is not god, and they have serious issues. Accelerator stuck is just one. Another one is frame rotting away in their 5-6 year old trucks (Tacoma, 4Runner). And there are many more. It's time to realize what's what, and I hope that the MSM helps average Joe to understand this. People have been blind for far too long.
It was a loaner car. His car was serviced, so the dealer gave him this Lexus to drive.
The Lexus had push button start/stop. If parked, you press the button and the engine starts. If parked, and the engine is running, you press the button, and the engine stops. HOWEVER, if you are moving, you need to press and hold the button for 3 seconds before the engine is shut off. Nobody explained it to him.
The call was made by someone in the car, not the driver. Either the wife or one of the kids.
It was a half-baked plot meant to fail, but also scare people. It was a pretense to install the machinery.
In case anyone thinks it's nuts, I urge you to think deep and hard about where we are going.
- every more of travel eventually will be subjected to extensive screening. all for the purpose of exercising control over people. it's air travel for now. it's train next. and even buses.
- people are forced to move to cities more and more (for work), and cars will be the enemy of the urban dweller. public transit decisions will be made to discourage automobile use (for now), and eventually severely limit it or make it unaffordable. you'll be able to travel only so far as public transit takes you, and you give up your freedom of movement, you're at the mercy of the powers that be. just witness the transformation that most large/significant cities are undergoing (new york, london, toronto, etc...)
- all your details are stored, including shopping, internet browsing. before too long, you'll only surf the "safe" kind of internet, and will have to pay for a license to access it.
If you don't see that we're heading towards serfdom of the worst kind, I say look again.
They will contrive scenarios that will be used as excuses or justifications to remove more and more freedoms. Eventually, you will own nothing, and you will owe your right of birth, existence, and death to the government.
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Reading your comment would make one think that location tracking and location history is part of being a "smart" phone. There's nothing in the smartphone that requires this behaviour.
The problem with this data is that
1) A user cannot erase it analogous to clearing cache/cookines on a PC
2) It is purposely hidden from the user
3) Law enforcement in states like Michigan can download this information WITHOUT a warrant
4) Potential for abuse by apps and / or people who will stalk you/spy on you unbeknown to you.
Not to mention, that this is just wrong. There are certain inalienable rights (or at least they are supposed to be there), and a right to privacy is one of them.
Any such system should be opt-in ONLY.
If you value privacy, YOUR privacy, avoid dictionary.com app at all costs. First, their website was riddled with over 200 pieces of cookies and tracking info (read a piece either here http://online.wsj.com/public/page/what-they-know-digital-privacy.html or somewhere else, can't recall).
Second, their app for the blackberry wants access to ALL of your information, including calendar, contacts, files, email, SMS, etc... If you deny any of those permissions, the app won't work.
Moreover, I sent 2 emails to them asking what kind of information their app collects, and received no response.
Beware!
because every child has a parent or two who know how to raise children?
Don't get baited by the parent, it's a troll post.
Or are you, a cynic, going now to admit that there's something to homeopathy after all? :p
disclaimer: i am not a homeopathy supporter
48 hours != years.
You really think that data collection was purely accidental? And it didn't strike you that they haven't turned the "feature" off between the start of street view mapping and the end of it, which took a lengthy amount of time?
I'm sure the data collected reached its intended destination.
First of, if you're sticking with a competing product for free, you're not a pirate.
Second, Student & Home edition is not just for students.
Vast majority of pirates in the US and Canada could afford to buy a S&H edition of Office for $129/$149. Otherwise, stick to OpenOffice.org.
Get MS Office Home & Student edition, pay a rather reasonable cost of $149 (CDN) and live and breathe free! This version will satisfy most people's needs with Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
I tried Avast once... And it's UI is a major, MAJOR deterrent. I had 2 icons in the system tray. The annoying spinning icon is distracting.
And their UI once you open it reminds me of the cheap UIs that motherboard makers ship to tune overclocking settings: futuristic (yeah right), confusing, irregularly shaped windows, with inconsistent buttons and color scheme that doesn't make sense.
I hated it. So did the people I installed it for.
Perhaps they changed now.
As it is, Microsoft Security Essentials are the best option for a Windows machine, along with safe browsing practices.
I hear it has a lot of daemons.
Next time a terrorist blows up a plane, stand up and say, "yeah, it is sad and tragic. But we as a country have gone through far worse. We lost a million soldiers in WW II. 50K in Vietnam. Dresden, Berlin, Tokyo, London were all bombed mercilessly. We survived. Compared to that it losing two buildings and 3000 people is nothing. If we cower in our shoes and crap in pants, the terrorists have won. Just let us go back to normalcy." But no one will.
It's not that no one will. It's that it would be utterly pointless. These terror acts are pre-planned, and the reaction to them by the government is also pre-planned. Before the public has a chance to realize what's what, it's already too late. And if not, the government won't give squat about public opinion - it hasn't, it won't, and it'll do whatever it needs to accomplish what it wants.
Let's not be so idealistic as to pretend the public has real choice.
As a parent, it would be very tempting to push the agent aside from your child, to put it mildly. But then, you have to consider that doing so will result in more harm to your child when the father is behind bars for months or possibly years.
This racket is well protected.
To have a certain guilt put upon the shoulders of this 6-year old boy that he just about killed a person will do wonders, I'm sure!
It will be great to his psyche as an adolescent and a young adult.
The parents should counter-sue.
'nuff said
First of all, why did they use Kismet? What connection does wireless network detection have with Google maps and Google street view?
Second, if you think this was done in error, by mistake, I think you're pretty naive. It not only happened in the US, it also happened in Canada. The street view mapping process took several months.
Someone who publishes a web page does it for the sole purpose of broadcasting its content.
Someone who is using a router at home without encryption is probably someone who doesn't know about encryption, does not the implications of not having it on (face it, which manual says on the open box ENCRYPT OR ELSE YOUR BANKING INFO IS AVAILABLE TO ANYONE), or could not make it work. Early routers did not make this a very straightforward process among the countless menu options there exist.
And all those users who left open connection may have understood that other people could connect to their router and share the connection, but I am certain they did not understand that their own communication can be easily intercepted, including passwords and banking info.
The reason is that they need to be HOT in order to function. And they are hot if the engine is running rich, so that unburned fuel particles can burn in the catalytic converter.
Today's engines with fuel injection and MAF sensors (and complicated computerized calculations) can run very clean without catalytic converters. In fact, cars from the factory run RICH just to employ the cat.
That's why aftermarket tunes that lean out the mixture get more power AND better fuel economy.
They ruled in the UK that despite child pornography laws, it is legal and required to scan children at the airports.
First of all, this is more about control of the people than about copyright. Copyright is used to exert certain control over people.
Second, what makes you think that disconnection from the internet is not the ultimate goal? Political activists (or other non-desirables) can now be disconnected based on imaginary or planted evidence.
Coupled with country-wide internet site filtering that's coming soon to every nation, such laws are about ultimate control of the population and restriction of information flow (though the laws are under the guise of protecting something different).
Look at how the Federal Reserve act was rammed through on Christmas when most of the members were absent. This act was for a clear, distinct cause (though masked).
Just by looking at how few MPs were present for the passage of this bill, you know it's about a lot more than enforcing intellectual copyright.
One would be too naive to take this at face value.
I think he meant worldwide, in which case he would be an order of magnitude off.
The Toyotas w/o the brake override system could be stopped if you were at slow speeds with a lot of effort on the brakes and emergency brake. At higher speeds, the breaks where not enough to stop the vehicle with only the brakes. They also tried turning the vehicles off which would stop the vehicle, but the driver had to manhandle the vehicle w/o benefit of power steering and power brakes.
That doesn't appear to be the story I read. No, e-brake did not have to be used, and you didn't have to press on the brakes REALLY REALLY hard as you put it. Read the quote from Car&Driver below:
"With the Camry's throttle pinned while going 70 mph, the brakes easily overcame all 268 horsepower straining against them and stopped the car in 190 feet--that's a foot shorter than the performance of a Ford Taurus without any gas-pedal problems and just 16 feet longer than with the Camry's throttle closed. From 100 mph, the stopping-distance differential was 88 feet--noticeable to be sure, but the car still slowed enthusiastically enough to impart a feeling of confidence. We also tried one go-for-broke run at 120 mph, and, even then, the car quickly decelerated to about 10 mph before the brakes got excessively hot and the car refused to decelerate any further. So even in the most extreme case, it should be possible to get a car's speed down to a point where a resulting accident should be a low-speed and relatively minor event."
The only time brakes didn't work well is if they got really hot and started to fade. If you let your car accelerate to 120 mph before hitting the brakes, that's not good. So basically, it's possible to stop it if you press on the brake and keep holing it.
However, this was under controlled conditions. In the case of crashes, it was reported that the brake didn't work very well, which could be related to absence of vacuum needed to operate the brakes. This could be ECM-related.
Extremely rare or not, it is a very significant problem with documented fatal consequences. You bet they should be taking it in the most serious way possible.
Toyota has been lying through their teeth, including their interview with the president on the issues. They've known about it for years, and have come up with the most ridiculous reasons for the problem. They absolutely deserve what they get, although I suspect the fallout won't be so great.
And their spotless reputation for quality? That's because a lot of it was suppressed. Finally everyone realizes Toyota is not god, and they have serious issues. Accelerator stuck is just one. Another one is frame rotting away in their 5-6 year old trucks (Tacoma, 4Runner). And there are many more. It's time to realize what's what, and I hope that the MSM helps average Joe to understand this. People have been blind for far too long.
There is no key to turn.
It was a loaner car. His car was serviced, so the dealer gave him this Lexus to drive.
The Lexus had push button start/stop. If parked, you press the button and the engine starts. If parked, and the engine is running, you press the button, and the engine stops. HOWEVER, if you are moving, you need to press and hold the button for 3 seconds before the engine is shut off. Nobody explained it to him.
The call was made by someone in the car, not the driver. Either the wife or one of the kids.
The more you know...
It was a half-baked plot meant to fail, but also scare people. It was a pretense to install the machinery.
In case anyone thinks it's nuts, I urge you to think deep and hard about where we are going.
- every more of travel eventually will be subjected to extensive screening. all for the purpose of exercising control over people. it's air travel for now. it's train next. and even buses.
- people are forced to move to cities more and more (for work), and cars will be the enemy of the urban dweller. public transit decisions will be made to discourage automobile use (for now), and eventually severely limit it or make it unaffordable. you'll be able to travel only so far as public transit takes you, and you give up your freedom of movement, you're at the mercy of the powers that be. just witness the transformation that most large/significant cities are undergoing (new york, london, toronto, etc...)
- all your details are stored, including shopping, internet browsing. before too long, you'll only surf the "safe" kind of internet, and will have to pay for a license to access it.
If you don't see that we're heading towards serfdom of the worst kind, I say look again.
They will contrive scenarios that will be used as excuses or justifications to remove more and more freedoms. Eventually, you will own nothing, and you will owe your right of birth, existence, and death to the government.