These atrocities have been known for a long time, and there are already several good books on the subject (which hopefully some Slashdotters with more time can link). What I don't understand is why this report came out know? Is there some political timing involved in it coming out now as opposed to a decade ago?
Scientific Atlanta cable tuners have been doing that for over half a decade. It isn't just limited to the cable provider either as I've been on two different providers with the same boxes and they've both had the feature.
So there are definitely other boxes that do this; whether they are licensed I do not know.
I keep hearing how CMEs can cause interference with electronics such as GPS, satellites, etc., but does anyone have an example where one caused noticeable impact? I fully believe the theory, I'm just wondering if there's an example of it being put into practice.
Most likely because China could care less. Contrary to the image China projects about being best friends with North Korea, they are pretty much as sick as NK as the rest of the world. China has lost billions in investments to NK, and if you've ever lent $20 to someone and never had it paid back, you can begin to imagine how they feel.
That being said, China does actively enforce the border, but there is a myriad of different political reasons for this. The "legal" reason is that they have pacts with North Korea in relation to this issue (hence why escaping NK aren't granted refugee status by China). Some of the other reasons include the fact that many Chinese citizens are just as paranoid about North Koreans coming across and taking Chinese jobs as Americans are about Mexico.
Others have already replied to your thread and also pointed out that other reasons may include China have an equal investment in getting information out. China probably isn't interested in the trade aspect so much, as it's entirely black market and therefore next to impossible to regulate.
Unfortunately I don't have an direct citations to back up the above, but I am basing most of my information off of "Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea" by Barbara Demick. It's an excellent read. Most people try and draw parallels to first world countries with 1984, but the sad truth is North Korea could be considered source material.
I've been at work every time I've seen an article come up about the jailbreak, so I haven't had time to go digging for details (including the links off this article; I don't want to push my work's internet filter). Does anyone have an explanation as to how this jailbreak actually works? Every article I've seen doesn't go into the details other than saying it's a magic USB dongle you plug in. Can Sony even patch this hole?
they told her they'd replaced the battery and weren't charging her anything for it
Which Battery?
It's my understanding that Hybrids still have a traditional 12 volt battery for the car's regular electrical systems.
When I was looking at getting a Hybrid a few years back (ultimately did not end up getting one) I, like the grandparent, was unable to find any actual battery replacement stories (sans one story about a car that had a bad cell in it's pack).
Admiral William D. Leahy - "This is the biggest fool thing we have ever done. The bomb will never go off, and I speak as an expert in explosives." said to president Harry S. Truman, after Vannevar Bush explained how the atomic bomb worked.
One man's opinion, no matter how high in rank, does not make him right.
I've got a fun one...
So I sign up for an SBC phone line when I moved into my first appartment last year. Being that I hate talking on the phone with people, I decided that I'd do it online. Punch in my address, and cool enough, they even give me a list of about half a dozen phone numbers to choose from. All is done and taken care of. About two months go by, and I then realize that to my knowledge, I had not gotten a bill yet. So, I hope online to see if I can sign into my account without an account number. Strangley enough, I can. I'm then shocked to discover that my bill is two months past due. I'm sitting there dumbfounded when I then see that the address they have listed for me is the completely wrong zipcode. When I signed up, I didn't have the option of giving them a seperate billing address, so they had to have had the correct address to enable my phone service. I was even more surprised to find out that the address they had for billing me in their system was completely non-existant.
So, I call the issue in. Lady first tells me that I have to pay my bill, and when I explain to her that I'm not going to until the issue is resolved, and what my issue is, she then transfers me over to a technician. Unfortunately, at the time she transfers me, they close, and I'm greated by a "please call again" message. The next day I call and go through the same hoops (and I'm delighted to be told that there was no record of me calling in last night despite the CSR saying they'd log it). Finally I get to a technician and he goes to correct the error in their system. While I'm sitting there he elicits a, "hmmm that's odd," and then explains that the system had changed my number back to the invalid address after he fixed it. He then does something else and convinces me that he has indeed corrected the issue and after asking him to waive my late fees, he checks with his supervisor and does so.
To this day I have no idea what happened to my first two bills. Any slashdotters know if that's going to come back to haunt me?
Slashdot Mirror
These atrocities have been known for a long time, and there are already several good books on the subject (which hopefully some Slashdotters with more time can link). What I don't understand is why this report came out know? Is there some political timing involved in it coming out now as opposed to a decade ago?
Scientific Atlanta cable tuners have been doing that for over half a decade. It isn't just limited to the cable provider either as I've been on two different providers with the same boxes and they've both had the feature. So there are definitely other boxes that do this; whether they are licensed I do not know.
It's been tried (and lost): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trivial_Pursuit#Fred_Worth_lawsuit
I keep hearing how CMEs can cause interference with electronics such as GPS, satellites, etc., but does anyone have an example where one caused noticeable impact? I fully believe the theory, I'm just wondering if there's an example of it being put into practice.
Most likely because China could care less. Contrary to the image China projects about being best friends with North Korea, they are pretty much as sick as NK as the rest of the world. China has lost billions in investments to NK, and if you've ever lent $20 to someone and never had it paid back, you can begin to imagine how they feel. That being said, China does actively enforce the border, but there is a myriad of different political reasons for this. The "legal" reason is that they have pacts with North Korea in relation to this issue (hence why escaping NK aren't granted refugee status by China). Some of the other reasons include the fact that many Chinese citizens are just as paranoid about North Koreans coming across and taking Chinese jobs as Americans are about Mexico. Others have already replied to your thread and also pointed out that other reasons may include China have an equal investment in getting information out. China probably isn't interested in the trade aspect so much, as it's entirely black market and therefore next to impossible to regulate. Unfortunately I don't have an direct citations to back up the above, but I am basing most of my information off of "Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea" by Barbara Demick. It's an excellent read. Most people try and draw parallels to first world countries with 1984, but the sad truth is North Korea could be considered source material.
I've been at work every time I've seen an article come up about the jailbreak, so I haven't had time to go digging for details (including the links off this article; I don't want to push my work's internet filter). Does anyone have an explanation as to how this jailbreak actually works? Every article I've seen doesn't go into the details other than saying it's a magic USB dongle you plug in. Can Sony even patch this hole?
they told her they'd replaced the battery and weren't charging her anything for it
Which Battery? It's my understanding that Hybrids still have a traditional 12 volt battery for the car's regular electrical systems. When I was looking at getting a Hybrid a few years back (ultimately did not end up getting one) I, like the grandparent, was unable to find any actual battery replacement stories (sans one story about a car that had a bad cell in it's pack).
Admiral William D. Leahy - "This is the biggest fool thing we have ever done. The bomb will never go off, and I speak as an expert in explosives." said to president Harry S. Truman, after Vannevar Bush explained how the atomic bomb worked. One man's opinion, no matter how high in rank, does not make him right.
I've got a fun one...
So I sign up for an SBC phone line when I moved into my first appartment last year. Being that I hate talking on the phone with people, I decided that I'd do it online. Punch in my address, and cool enough, they even give me a list of about half a dozen phone numbers to choose from. All is done and taken care of. About two months go by, and I then realize that to my knowledge, I had not gotten a bill yet. So, I hope online to see if I can sign into my account without an account number. Strangley enough, I can. I'm then shocked to discover that my bill is two months past due. I'm sitting there dumbfounded when I then see that the address they have listed for me is the completely wrong zipcode. When I signed up, I didn't have the option of giving them a seperate billing address, so they had to have had the correct address to enable my phone service. I was even more surprised to find out that the address they had for billing me in their system was completely non-existant. So, I call the issue in. Lady first tells me that I have to pay my bill, and when I explain to her that I'm not going to until the issue is resolved, and what my issue is, she then transfers me over to a technician. Unfortunately, at the time she transfers me, they close, and I'm greated by a "please call again" message. The next day I call and go through the same hoops (and I'm delighted to be told that there was no record of me calling in last night despite the CSR saying they'd log it). Finally I get to a technician and he goes to correct the error in their system. While I'm sitting there he elicits a, "hmmm that's odd," and then explains that the system had changed my number back to the invalid address after he fixed it. He then does something else and convinces me that he has indeed corrected the issue and after asking him to waive my late fees, he checks with his supervisor and does so.
To this day I have no idea what happened to my first two bills. Any slashdotters know if that's going to come back to haunt me?
Great, now I can't even message someone without a chance of being eaten by a Grue. -TD