Correct. But there's nothing stoping them from asking you for one. And refusing to do business with you if you fail to provide one. There is no law preventing the use of an SSN as a part of customer records. Want one? Contact your legislator. But good luck with this.
On the other hand, there is nothing that says you have to give AT&T, or anyone else without a federal reporting requirement the correct SSN. I give them the one that came on the sample card in my wallet.
More of a legal/political problem. Not too many years ago, cisterns were illegal here. Rain water belonged to the local public utility responsible for it. They undertook expensive projects to build renention ponds to control runoff. Finally, common sense dawned on them. It is cheaper to let property owners handle it on site for irrigation, toilet flushing, etc., so the laws were changed. But in some parts of the country, intercepting rain water is still illegal, or tightly controlled.
Its a matter of water rights and spinning the meters. Trap enough rain from roofs and the downstream farmers won't get their allocation. But if you trap it and offset the water you would otherwise have to buy (from the municipality) to water your own lawn, the utilities demand is reduced. But then so is their revenue and their place in line for priority with agriculture.
Over and over again, science has burned it's own at the stake literally
Really? Citation needed. Now religion on the other hand has toasted quite a few.
for challenging the status quo.
Hypothesize that the Earth is round in the face of religious dogma and get roasted. But then the Church says its the victim's fault for challenging their teaching. "If they wouldn't have spoken out, we wouldn't have had to light them on fire." That's the sociopath's game of blaming others.
Already done. Starbucks has wired most of their shops to accomodate people who want to plug in laptops. Simple combo USB/AC outlets would handle phones as well. No special (licensed) technology needed.
I wonder if Starbucks went this route because the Powermat technology includes unique device IDs in every receiver. <sarcasm>Gee, I wonder what they could do with yet another ID assigned to a customer.</sarcasm>
The tracking is done by Federal agencies on behalf of local law enforcement. In practice, the Federal agency 'deputizes' the local LE official doing the actual work. So they are covered by FISA, the Patriot Act and other federal law.
Human hand structure seems to be particularly suited to making a strong fist. So the development of homo sapiens facial/skull bone structure capable of withstanding impact does make sense. Other primates possess much greater arm strength than humans. So in a fight, a human would almost certainly come out on the losing end. One recommendation applicable to most animal/human conflicts: If a fight is inevitable, punch the animal in the nose. Its a move that none of them expect. And if it doesn't work, you are probably dead anyway.
Don't bother arguing with these people, tomhath. Even after the fall of the Soviet Union, there are people who think the primary purpose of economic activity is to feed the State and its minions.
Or what you have is an open source component that may work but stil may need some optimization. And once you have identified and fixed its shortcommings, you contribute those back to the community. Eventually, the tool becomes more robust and doesn't need as much parallel effort as a bunch of proprietary systems would.
Slashdot Mirror
need a person's SSN.
Correct. But there's nothing stoping them from asking you for one. And refusing to do business with you if you fail to provide one. There is no law preventing the use of an SSN as a part of customer records. Want one? Contact your legislator. But good luck with this.
On the other hand, there is nothing that says you have to give AT&T, or anyone else without a federal reporting requirement the correct SSN. I give them the one that came on the sample card in my wallet.
like reusable rockets and fusion reactors.
Simple two-state systems:
explode | !explode
getting rid of the surplus is the bigger problem.
More of a legal/political problem. Not too many years ago, cisterns were illegal here. Rain water belonged to the local public utility responsible for it. They undertook expensive projects to build renention ponds to control runoff. Finally, common sense dawned on them. It is cheaper to let property owners handle it on site for irrigation, toilet flushing, etc., so the laws were changed. But in some parts of the country, intercepting rain water is still illegal, or tightly controlled.
Its a matter of water rights and spinning the meters. Trap enough rain from roofs and the downstream farmers won't get their allocation. But if you trap it and offset the water you would otherwise have to buy (from the municipality) to water your own lawn, the utilities demand is reduced. But then so is their revenue and their place in line for priority with agriculture.
Over and over again, science has burned it's own at the stake literally
Really? Citation needed. Now religion on the other hand has toasted quite a few.
for challenging the status quo.
Hypothesize that the Earth is round in the face of religious dogma and get roasted. But then the Church says its the victim's fault for challenging their teaching. "If they wouldn't have spoken out, we wouldn't have had to light them on fire." That's the sociopath's game of blaming others.
If they market heated coffee mugs that work with this technology.
An outlet in a retail location requires conduit.
Already done. Starbucks has wired most of their shops to accomodate people who want to plug in laptops. Simple combo USB/AC outlets would handle phones as well. No special (licensed) technology needed.
I wonder if Starbucks went this route because the Powermat technology includes unique device IDs in every receiver.
<sarcasm>Gee, I wonder what they could do with yet another ID assigned to a customer.</sarcasm>
Already done. Local cops are morons. Nobody told them not to sit around and bullshit about all their cool tech with the local riff-raff.
The tracking is done by Federal agencies on behalf of local law enforcement. In practice, the Federal agency 'deputizes' the local LE official doing the actual work. So they are covered by FISA, the Patriot Act and other federal law.
This.
Just discussing a warrant can get the voltage applied to your private parts cranked up in some jurisdictions.
Some of our best CS minds are already working on it.
"Sorry. My financial transactions are far too complex for me to maintain tax compliance records."
Aston Martin already does this for select customers.
It's Canada, not the US.
Well that explains them reading the manual. Or anything, for that matter.
Human hand structure seems to be particularly suited to making a strong fist. So the development of homo sapiens facial/skull bone structure capable of withstanding impact does make sense. Other primates possess much greater arm strength than humans. So in a fight, a human would almost certainly come out on the losing end. One recommendation applicable to most animal/human conflicts: If a fight is inevitable, punch the animal in the nose. Its a move that none of them expect. And if it doesn't work, you are probably dead anyway.
Don't bother arguing with these people, tomhath. Even after the fall of the Soviet Union, there are people who think the primary purpose of economic activity is to feed the State and its minions.
The politicians grabbed all four food dishes. And charged the meals to their re-election fund.
Yay Citroen!
Read your last [TrueCrypt] post and think about it.
Drivers don't drive anymore. This sort of vehicle probably also comes equipped with automatic handling control systems.
Like the Amber alerts every time some rednecks get into a domestic dispute and drive off with the kids.
Or what you have is an open source component that may work but stil may need some optimization. And once you have identified and fixed its shortcommings, you contribute those back to the community. Eventually, the tool becomes more robust and doesn't need as much parallel effort as a bunch of proprietary systems would.