Money laundering is a real thing, whatever you choose to call it. If you want to call it "logistical cash transfer synergistic reclassificationism" or something that's up to you, but it doesn't make any difference. Criminals need to turn dirty money into clean money.
The question of whether the government should be allowed to extend anti-money laundering laws to cover non-criminal activity is an entirely separate one, and fairly obviously the answer is that you shouldn't.
Presumably this guy was put in the position where explaining the reason for paying blackmail would have resulted in him confessing to rape, and so he chose not to, but that doesn't mean he was money laundering and the law is clearly too wide ranging.
Lying to the FBI about being blackmailed is a crime.
And why should it be? What business does the FBI have asking law abiding citizens what they do with their money?
If you're being blackmailed for a crime you committed, you're not a law abiding citizen. If it's not a crime, and you still choose to pay the blackmailer because of shame or fear of being exposed as X, then you should probably tell the authorities this, rather than engage in what looks like an attempt to cover up money laundering.
On slashdot, the general view is that it's better to have 10,000 guilty men walk free rather than anything involving government..
Gangsters, drug dealers, illegal arms smugglers, human traffickers, child porn producers are all just guys trying to make a buck, therefore government has no right to interfere in free trade.
The easier alternative is to bite the bullet and pay for some modern plastic double glazed windows. You will save money on energy bills and if you're that worried about authenticity you could always stick woodgrain tape over the white UPVC.
Some Major got bit by the Good Idea Fairy and wrote an Access Database to store all of our flight data. It took him half the deployment to write that. Meanwhile, we were storing all the data in Excel.
I was deployed to Iraq, and we had to download a very large file. Unfortunately, we were working on laptops that would lock the screen after 15 minutes, and then the laptop would loose connection. Considering that the file was going to take 8-10 hours to download, this was not acceptable.
I found an oscillating pedestal fan, and I duct-taped a yardstick between the fan and a mouse connected to the laptop. Since the laptop would not lock due to the mouse movement, all I had to do is to place a few books to limit the moment area; the next morning the file was downloaded. I realize this might not be the hack for which you were looking, but since it involved duct-tape I thought it would count.
Wow, the lengths people will go to do download porn...
So the holy grail of diversity is finding a mentally handicapped, physically disabled, lesbian black woman with an impoverished background?
No, the holy grail of diveresity is that if that person can actually do the job as well as anyone else then there is no reason to exclude her from consideration.
You are perpetuating the myth that companies have some sort of quota for women/blacks/whatever they they "have" to fill.
The truth is that, in the absence of evidence that (say) black lesbians are inherently incapable of doing "X", you would expect that the number of your employees who are black lesbians is roughly in line with the proportion of black lesbians in society as a whole. If not, it means there is some sort of unconscious bias going on.
The problem with a lot of tech people is that they think their jobs are this mysterious "X" that for some reason only white males can do, and that tech companies therefore have some sort of exemption from behaving like everyone else.
I've always used an example of how statistics can be deceiving. If you put 99 rocks and a chicken egg in a box, and a baby chick walks out, there was a 99% chance that it came out of one of the rocks.
No, there is not.
There is a 100% chance the chicken came out of the egg and a 0% chance that it came out of one of the rocks.
There is not an equal probability that a rock and an egg will produce a chick.
isn't as qualified or hard-working as candidates we passed over, and if we ever try to fire the new hire we're going to get sued for discrimination
I've worked with four people 100% exactly like this, from the CS engineer who didn't understand what a directory was to the un-fireable person who showed up to work maybe 20 minutes/week.
You probably need to work in organisations with half decent performance appraisal and HR systems then.
Slotting someone into a position ahead of a worthier candidate, simply because they're a certain race/gender, rather than because they're the best candidate is idiocy of the highest order.
But not as idiotic as denying someone a position simply because they're a certain race/gender.
Yeah. This is important! If you have a gallon bottle of dangerous explosive liquids you must dump it to the trashcan at the checkpoint. Yes, the one that is by the long queue of people waiting to get through the check. That trashcan is made of superplastic than neutralizes all dangerous substances. Watch out citizen! Have your passport ready! Don't have too much liquids ready! (unless you keep it in your pocket, hand, or anywhere the security won't notice)
Have you not heard of the concept of deterrence?
Whatever the rights and wrongs of security theatre, I seriously doubt many would-be terrorists queue up at the check-in with a gallon bottle of dangerous explosive liquids any more.
Those gaurds are not there to stop a real threat, they are not really even there to make people feel safe. They are there because making people feel safe is an easy way to justify jobs.
That's only in Beijing and only during times of 'unrest'. Most of the year there is nothing, not even theater, so when they are ordered to dig out the wands, the batteries are dead and no one can remember how they work.
Saudi Arabia is the best - do not wake the sleeping guards, it annoys them. Please walk around the detector with your luggage to prevent it from beeping. Thanks.
They don't really have to worry about fanatical Islamic extremists In Saudi Arabia: they're running the government.
But really, are people willing to stop using an excellent product because they don't agree with someone's politics?
Of course.
Like everything, it depends on the extremity of the politics involved. If I knew a company was run by neo nazis, I absolutely would refuse to use their products.
I've installed Ubuntu on my mother's laptop to replace Windows Vista. Since she never had a computer before Windows Vista, she didn't have any problem with it being "different" from earlier Windows versions. But even so, she's been more happy with Ubuntu than with Windows.
I wish people would stop with the "useful software" argument, it's almost a joke meme at this point. Home users who only need a computer for Internet-based activities don't need ultra-specialized software that's only available on Windows or OS X.
By "useful software" people generally mean Office, Photoshop or some sort of accounting/customer contact package, none of which are necessary for the average home user.
Slashdot Mirror
The question of whether the government should be allowed to extend anti-money laundering laws to cover non-criminal activity is an entirely separate one, and fairly obviously the answer is that you shouldn't.
Presumably this guy was put in the position where explaining the reason for paying blackmail would have resulted in him confessing to rape, and so he chose not to, but that doesn't mean he was money laundering and the law is clearly too wide ranging.
I thought the first rule of Troll Club was not to use the word Troll?
And why should it be? What business does the FBI have asking law abiding citizens what they do with their money?
If you're being blackmailed for a crime you committed, you're not a law abiding citizen. If it's not a crime, and you still choose to pay the blackmailer because of shame or fear of being exposed as X, then you should probably tell the authorities this, rather than engage in what looks like an attempt to cover up money laundering.
Gangsters, drug dealers, illegal arms smugglers, human traffickers, child porn producers are all just guys trying to make a buck, therefore government has no right to interfere in free trade.
Something like that.
we were coding madly in a tiny, cramped room in Tokyo for an on-stage performance the next day of some virtual characters
Is this a quote from a William Gibson novel?
The ultimate goal is to allow Wifi control of my washing machine
I know this is not the thread to say this, but: what is the point?
I hate sash windows.
What the heck...wasn't much to do in a small town, if you were 14, in the mid 70's.
I made do with live music and masturbation, and there was very little live music...
Hmm... Out of curiosity, why couldn't you just reformat the records to match the table structure for access then import conventionally?
Because he wouldn't have got an "interesting" mod years later on slashdot when a story about hacks came up. Obviously.
Some Major got bit by the Good Idea Fairy and wrote an Access Database to store all of our flight data. It took him half the deployment to write that. Meanwhile, we were storing all the data in Excel.
Sounds legit.
I was deployed to Iraq, and we had to download a very large file. Unfortunately, we were working on laptops that would lock the screen after 15 minutes, and then the laptop would loose connection. Considering that the file was going to take 8-10 hours to download, this was not acceptable. I found an oscillating pedestal fan, and I duct-taped a yardstick between the fan and a mouse connected to the laptop. Since the laptop would not lock due to the mouse movement, all I had to do is to place a few books to limit the moment area; the next morning the file was downloaded. I realize this might not be the hack for which you were looking, but since it involved duct-tape I thought it would count.
Wow, the lengths people will go to do download porn...
So the holy grail of diversity is finding a mentally handicapped, physically disabled, lesbian black woman with an impoverished background?
No, the holy grail of diveresity is that if that person can actually do the job as well as anyone else then there is no reason to exclude her from consideration.
You are perpetuating the myth that companies have some sort of quota for women/blacks/whatever they they "have" to fill.
The truth is that, in the absence of evidence that (say) black lesbians are inherently incapable of doing "X", you would expect that the number of your employees who are black lesbians is roughly in line with the proportion of black lesbians in society as a whole. If not, it means there is some sort of unconscious bias going on.
The problem with a lot of tech people is that they think their jobs are this mysterious "X" that for some reason only white males can do, and that tech companies therefore have some sort of exemption from behaving like everyone else.
I've always used an example of how statistics can be deceiving. If you put 99 rocks and a chicken egg in a box, and a baby chick walks out, there was a 99% chance that it came out of one of the rocks.
No, there is not.
There is a 100% chance the chicken came out of the egg and a 0% chance that it came out of one of the rocks.
There is not an equal probability that a rock and an egg will produce a chick.
Well your resume looks very good, unfortunately to maintain our SJW quota we're looking for a paraplegic transsexual from Romania.
Yes, that is exactly how minority groups end up with all the best jobs.
I'd rather work with someone who was a complete asshole, but often right, than a person who was always nice, but often incorrect.
Personally, I prefer people who are both nice and right, but maybe I'm just an old hippy.
The fact is that it is much easier to be an asshole all the time, than right all the time.
isn't as qualified or hard-working as candidates we passed over, and if we ever try to fire the new hire we're going to get sued for discrimination
I've worked with four people 100% exactly like this, from the CS engineer who didn't understand what a directory was to the un-fireable person who showed up to work maybe 20 minutes/week.
You probably need to work in organisations with half decent performance appraisal and HR systems then.
Slotting someone into a position ahead of a worthier candidate, simply because they're a certain race/gender, rather than because they're the best candidate is idiocy of the highest order.
But not as idiotic as denying someone a position simply because they're a certain race/gender.
Yeah. This is important! If you have a gallon bottle of dangerous explosive liquids you must dump it to the trashcan at the checkpoint. Yes, the one that is by the long queue of people waiting to get through the check. That trashcan is made of superplastic than neutralizes all dangerous substances. Watch out citizen! Have your passport ready! Don't have too much liquids ready! (unless you keep it in your pocket, hand, or anywhere the security won't notice)
Have you not heard of the concept of deterrence?
Whatever the rights and wrongs of security theatre, I seriously doubt many would-be terrorists queue up at the check-in with a gallon bottle of dangerous explosive liquids any more.
Those gaurds are not there to stop a real threat, they are not really even there to make people feel safe. They are there because making people feel safe is an easy way to justify jobs.
Right, it's all a giant socialist conspiracy.
That's only in Beijing and only during times of 'unrest'. Most of the year there is nothing, not even theater, so when they are ordered to dig out the wands, the batteries are dead and no one can remember how they work. Saudi Arabia is the best - do not wake the sleeping guards, it annoys them. Please walk around the detector with your luggage to prevent it from beeping. Thanks.
They don't really have to worry about fanatical Islamic extremists In Saudi Arabia: they're running the government.
But really, are people willing to stop using an excellent product because they don't agree with someone's politics?
Of course.
Like everything, it depends on the extremity of the politics involved. If I knew a company was run by neo nazis, I absolutely would refuse to use their products.
That's assuming the WiFi drivers aren't broken.
And that you don't screw something else up in the several hour project that getting the wifi drivers working usually turns into.
This post brought to you by the year 2004!
He forgot to mention that he can't get sound to work.
Cite your source on that?
From everything I have seen, Windows gets infected about ten minutes after you connect to the internet, even if you have AV software.
I am not a great Windows fan, but that hasn't been true for over ten years.
It now takes at least an hour.
*rimshot*
I've installed Ubuntu on my mother's laptop to replace Windows Vista. Since she never had a computer before Windows Vista, she didn't have any problem with it being "different" from earlier Windows versions. But even so, she's been more happy with Ubuntu than with Windows.
I wish people would stop with the "useful software" argument, it's almost a joke meme at this point. Home users who only need a computer for Internet-based activities don't need ultra-specialized software that's only available on Windows or OS X.
By "useful software" people generally mean Office, Photoshop or some sort of accounting/customer contact package, none of which are necessary for the average home user.