AMEN! I agree the first thing that needs to happen is the launch of total annihilating attacks against any and all known terrorist camps, harborers, and supporters.
These pieces of shit need to know that if they fuck with the bull they're gonna get the horns, and those horns are anything from B-52s with cruise missiles to low-yield tactical nuclear weapons.
I don't know how else to send the message appropriately. Terrorists need to know that we're not going to play cat-and-mouse anymore and that if we think they're planning something then we're coming and not just to say hello.
Does anyone else see this as the next step in content distribution?
The only thing they haven't done here is include the DOCSIS cable modem in the box itself. With broadband IP into the house and this device on it why wouldn't they continue on to setting up distribution servers with PPV movies on them or pay-to-watch reruns of your favorite sitcom?
If we assume we need 2 Mbps for reasonable quality video that means we could expect to multicast up to 15 shows simultaneously in the space of one 6 MHz (30 Mbps) TV channel. Let's say we wanted top quality regular TV, we're still only talking about 6 Mbps per show. Now, HDTV is where it gets fun. I remember reading somewhere that it took nearly 80 Mbps to do HDTV, dunno if that's right or not. (I guess that would lead me to ask how they're doing it in one TV channel then... heh.)
If the consumer can specify what they want in advance, and throw in some Tivo-like "recommendations" then true video on demand could start to take shape. Then again, just a Tivo and regular cable will do the same damn thing, this idea is just a different way of distributing it.
The miltary can afford the costs of major refits, so that's why the very expensive refit of the B52's included a new cockpit.
Just as a side note, some B-52's are scheduled to remain in service until 2035, making them 80 years old at that time. It's easier to justify an expensive upgrade if you're extending the life of the aircraft by at least the lifetime of a new aircraft. How many commercial aircraft last even 30 years in regular service with their original airline? (Qualified as big airlines will pawn off the old equipment on smaller airlines and third world airlines, but in general a commercial aircraft will only last 30-40 years in regular commercial service)
Re:Server pie gets smaller and now with fewer play
on
HP Buys Compaq
·
· Score: 1
HP would then have 37.3% of Server Units shipped (estimate). That alone makes HP all of the sudden the #1 company with servers shipped for Q'2 2001.
Yes, but the million dollar question is how fast does this number drop? I used to buy Compaq servers exclusively but will not purchase another Compaq/HP server for at least a few years. I don't know what kind of support to expect, first of all. Second, Compaq has some killer hardware for servers, what is HP going to do with it?
Me, I've started buying IBM for laptops, then desktops, now it looks like IBM for servers too. We may be going back to the days of, "Nobody's ever been fired for buying IBM."
It's about as bead as getting dead people to vote in elections.
Dead people can vote with a little help getting into the booth and operating their punch machine. Are you saying dead people shouldn't have the right to vote?;)
That and you've got to ask Ms. Cleo about who they want to vote for, sure raises her profits. Hey, wait a minute. Maybe Microsoft paid Ms. Cleo to use her tarot cards to find out that all these dead people would have supported Microsoft if they weren't incapaciated.;)
I am the last person that would want to sit here and advocate more government control of something, however, in this instance I think it may be what is needed.
Follow me on this. The cable plant is a unique resource, and can be compared to a highway system. In this analogy make a cable company or cable ISP a bus company. Each bus company has equal right to use the road and if you want to use a bus company you can choose any one you desire.
Now let's look at this analogy with the advent of hybrid-fiber-coax cable plants. If the franchise authority (ie your local goverment) owned the cable plant any number of cable providers could use the same fiber plant to distribute their service, thus lowering the barrier to entry costs and encouraging more competition amongst providers. The franchise authority could charge (example...) $5 per customer to cable providers and $2 per customer to cable ISPs to cover their costs of maintaining and upgrading the plant. All that would need done is the placement of smart mux/demux equipment in each neighborhood node that would be able to be told what connection comes from what house, what TV service to send to it and what cable modem service to send to it. (ie Channels 1-110 for TV, 111-120 for cable modems, and 121-125 for cable telephones if you wanted to add CLEC telephone service)
In this instance we would end up with governemnt control over the monopoly resource that would result in lower cost of entry to market and *could* increase competition amongst service providers. Another advantage of this is that large companies/universities could build their own private cable data networks just as though they were an ISP.
Instead, Microsoft must be "killed" by the production of incredible Free Software that totally blow any proprietory products out of the game.
Reading your message made me start to think about why open-source and/or free software has not made more inroads than it has...
Star Office is about the best example I can think of at this point. If the os or free commmunity want people to begin using their software it must be baby steps for the end user. Myself, I am comfortable hacking my way through my PC. The rest of the users in my office couldn't do it. Why not focus some attention on software for Windows? I know this sounds like blasphemy, however, if you can get users to get used to the application on Windows then the switch to Linux/something else on the desktop would be significantly easier if the interface was the same for the application. The problem is people are being asked to give up *everything* they already know, OS, Apps, and more to make the change to Linux. If there was a Windows-based office suite for starters (Star Office... maybe?) that could compete with MS Office in terms of usability and compatibility without rocking the boat in terms of interface, I could deploy it to my users and have them accept. Then when it comes time to replace their PC I can consider Linux because they are familiar with the application and we've taken one step already.
Re:Do what my university did
on
Dorm Storm?
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
The solution to this is now quite simple. Use iptables to drop everything incoming except from trusted addresses or networks.
I do this on my @home connection and recently complained about a speed problem. The response was that they couldn't ping my computer. It is also quite amazing the number of scans that I log. Including from @home corporate themselves.
As best as I can tell the only way they can tell you're on the network is by watching for arps and arp responses or udp traceroute packets. For some reason it seems the udp traceroute packets aren't subject to the input chain in iptables, but I don't know fer sure.
Re:A Fine Example of Booty-Covering...
on
Rhythms Flatlines
·
· Score: 1
This is more a SEC requirement than anything. I used to work for a public company and any press release that went out had to have a standard disclaimer at the bottom.
You got it right in the basic statement, but it also says, "If you invest all your money in us and lose it all because of what we said, then it's your own damn fault. We didn't lie to you."
Because MS feels safer with Dubya's administration
(Moderators: Read ENTIRE message first)
[RANT]Since we're throwing stones here, is this anything like the Chinese spies feeling safer when Clinton was in office? Hell, they didn't even have to spy, he sent them the information they wanted!
This is a technical discussion, asshole, not a political debate. You seem like a socialist little monkey whore who can't figure out that in America we work for the things we get and we compete with each other to do better. Don't like it? Move to China, I hear the state loves control there. Wha? Don't like China's political climate? Our style of government (used to) exist(s) solely because government is retricted in it's functions. Under the laws as they were when the USA was created Microsoft couldn't be prosecuted. Government involvement in anything is BAD! It doesn't matter how beneficial the outcome.[NO RANT]
That said, I'll be the first to agree that Microsoft has competed more than unfairly on oft-occasion, but I don't think who is in the White House makes a difference to them. They're after money and the court's decision just didn't have enough teeth to slow them down. They know they can tie it up in appeals for a few years and by then it won't matter. The only way to fix this problem is to avoid purchasing Windows XP at all costs. I don't plan on using WinXP anywhere in my company, and refuse to allow it to be introduced to our network. I think I can hold out for a few years running Win2k, avoiding the purchase of WinXP. If others do the same then Microsoft will get the message that we don't want XP the way it is. The key is to communicate to Microsoft in their language, the almighty dollar. The only way to accomplish this is to market anti-Microsoft as strong as MS does pro-Microsoft. There needs to be a group that actively attacks Microsoft in the public eye as well as Microsoft attacks their competitors. An example given in another article was asking why all the coverage of 'Code Red' makes it seem that Microsoft is the golden knight who released a patch to fix this problem. What they don't mention in that Microsoft created the problem, and released the patch 45 days before the worm hit, and that if it had been reasonably secure to begin with we wouldn't have this problem. Another example would be detailed press releases explaining how these decisions by Microsoft could be anti-consumer, but more importantly how they could be anti-business or cost business more money to support. The boss doesn't care that we have to buy certain brands of computer parts, but he will care that the price is inflated 25% because of the manufacturers paying MS to be 'approved'. (Which is something I think we all see this leading to) We need to create outrage amongst the average people. Otherwise they are like sheep to the slaughter and will continue to buy buy buy just as fast as MS can say, "Umm, you need this."
I am trying to keep track of where I am getting hits from geographically. So far I've got one US host, a bunch of Korean hosts, and a Mexican host.
whois.arin.net seems to be rather swamped from my end of the net. Kinda makes me wonder if ARIN is bogged down with lotsa whois requests or things are just generally slow there today.
Wiretap or no wiretap, the indeed Feds had permission to enter surreptitiously in this case.
This will make me unpopular too, but...
What would have happened had this guy been working late when the FBI broke in? Here in Pennsylvania (and even more notably Texas) it is lawful to shoot to terminate an illegal entry into one's home or place or business if it is reasonably believed that the actor intends to commit a felony on the premises and force less than deadly would not stop them. (18 PaCS 507c4i)
Specifically, what position would the FBI and US Attorney's Office taken had this guy justifiably shot an FBI Agent? What if the FBI returned fire and killed him? Without the FBI making their "lawful" presence known this guy would have no reason to believe it wasn't a gang of jack-booted thugs. (Pun intended)
Take the approach I did. When I first had my cable modem installed I couldn't get packets beyond a router three hops out. Talk about fun to figure out. Took 101 days from the first day I could ping @home's gateway closest to me to when I could actually get out to the internet. I realized quickly that first level tech support is there merely to run interference. Talking over their heads usually got me bumped up to level two or even three rather quickly. But the problem is "always with your computer." That's funny, I can use your proxy to get out to the internet, but I can't pass packets straight through.
What I ended up doing was calling about 60 days into this and telling them they were no longer authorized to charge my credit card for service until it was working. At 100 days I called my bank to find out that the billing person didn't do what I had told them. Voila, credit card fraud. I called that day an explained that I had called and told them to remove my credit card information from their database and that they were no longer authorized to charge me but they had. I explained (calmly) that I would be calling the proper authorities as well as contacting my attorney unless the charges were refunded and service was made to work immediately. Next day a tech calls me and says he found the problem and was fixing it.
It is all a matter of proper motivation. As long as you don't rock the boat too much they don't care about you. When you call your local system manager and threaten to sue them and involve law enforcement becuase they've done something illegal they tend to wise up fast.
First thing tho, call and tell them they are no longer authorized to charge your credit card, and ask for the previous charges to be credited back to you. If they refuse simply explain that your credit card company would be more than wiling to charge them back and you thought you would give them the courtesy of not having to pay charge back fees.
But let me ask this... What is stopping you from putting the modem in a box and mailing it to the service center that is 45 minutes away with a letter explaining the situation asking them to call you if they need anything else from you. I am sure some kind employee there would be helpful. (snicker)
My experience with @home over the last few months, however, has been a complete opposite from before. I use the online support module and chat with techs (who are still idiots but I don't have to wait 45 minutes to find out now), but I am downloading from places at better than 600 kB/s (yes, kiloBYTES), and it has been quite reliable, and their peering arrangements are getting better. (No more going to PAIX to get to uunet when I live on the east coast.)
Re:Wasn't the suit in federal court?
on
Fortune on Rambus
·
· Score: 1
But what I was looking for is how the federal court award comes under state jurisdiction. Maybe the guy was just wrong and it is a federal limit. I don't know, so I was looking for an explanation.
A federal court jury here Wednesday afternoon found Rambus Inc. had committed fraud by failing to disclose its synchronous patent applications to the industry JEDEC standards body.
and
The damage amount, however, will likely be reduced to as low as $350,000 due to a Virginia state law capping the level of punitive awards.
Can someone explain why a federal award would be reduced under state law?
Well, sure, for an OC-3, they'll give you good service... you're paying a few thousand a month for that one!
Actually, they like to deliver service via OC here when they can economincally justify it becuase it is a much better solution than lotsa copper. We don't pay extra for the OC shelf, just what we would have paid for the T1's anyway. Now that's not to say they aren't making good money off of us, just that they *did* have a choice and they chose OC.
Not to nit-pick, but I'll be damned if it's illegal for you as an American citizen to smoke a Cuban cigar in France, or wherever. The laws of the United States do not apply to the United States citizen while in another country - the laws present in the country you are apply to you.
Ummm... NOT CORRECT
I will quote here from page 3 of my United States passport...
TREASURY As of November 1993, the purchase or importation of Cuban, North Korean, Vietnamese, Libyan, Iraqi, or Yugoslav (Serbian and Montenegrin) goods or services and the importation of Haitian or Iranian goods or services are generally prohibited, expect for informational materials and limited goods imported directly as accompanied baggage. Transactions related to travel in or to Cuba, Libya, or Iraq are generally prohibited. For current restrictions and licensing information write the Office of Foreign Assests Control...
There is also a section clearly laying out what will cause you to lose your citizenship. It clearly states above that the PURCHASE of Cuban (and others) goods or services is prohibited. Now, how to enforce that is left as an exercise for the reader. Just don't go around with the illusion that whatever you do outside the direct jurisdiction of US Law won't get you in trouble here. As a US Citizen there are certain laws applicable to you no matter where you might be.
Well, not really total defense... It seems so far everyone is all over Verizon because they are a bad company. Well, that's true most of the time. Remember, DSL is voodoo anyway, but very cool voodoo.
My company has 13 T1's from various providers, being local, ld, voice and data. In our old building Verizon provided the local loop on OC-3. I called Verizon one day to tell them we were going to move and to give them a heads up that we'd need a new OC-3 installed. The engineer I talked to asked me what I was doing after lunch that day. He actually wanted to meet me that day to being the process.
As far as our local CLEC is concerned all they had to do was submit a move order, even a few days ahead of our move, and their T1s to us owuld have been moved with all the others. They couldn't do that and missed our move date by a week. When my contract is up with them I am going to find out if the CLEC's numbers are portable.
Just look at it this way. Verizon's corporate culture may be ineptitude and the union way, but some of their employees are actually A-OK guys just trying to get the job done in a shitty situation, give them the benefit of the doubt unless they do something really dumb or anti-social in front of you.
If you knew anything about the ECPA of 1986 you would know that "system operators" are allowed to read any email they like that happens to cross their system. The illegal part is when it gets to dissemination.
I would imagine this is the same kind of thing. A load of people will be handsomely paid to sit on their arses for months, and finally say that, yes, we are being overcharged for DVDs, and yes, we are often getting an inferior product due to the regioning.
But they will have no powers to do anything, and like the US CD companies, the US DVD companies will go "So what?" and carry on regardless.
Actually, could not the EU ban the import/distribution/sale of region coded software, movies, music, etc?
I don't see why anyone here is complaining about being forced to actually obey copyright laws.
Normally I wouldn't get involved in this type of discussion, but I can't help it this time.
HEY JACKASS! People aren't complaining about having to obey copyright laws here. How am I breaking a copyright law if I buy a DVD in England (Region 2 methinks, or whatever) and I want to bring in home to the US to watch in my Region 1 player? I could do this with a PAL videotape and a multisystem VCR. (I've never seen anyone call a multisystem VCR a conduit for video piracy, as you are basically calling the region-free dvd player.) Explain how I am breaking the law.
See, before, the studios had a natural barrier to people buying movies in other parts of the world being that we could never agree on a signal format. But now that the output format is no longer tied to the media they needed some way to control how the content is distributed. That's what it is about.
I find it disconcerting that people don't get more upset about this. I guess the studios believe that so few people travel internationally that we just won't mind. What if France was one region, Spain another, and the UK yet another? Then maybe more people would get a little more upset whent he movie they bought on holiday won't play at home.
And as to your comment about travelling internationally, I go overseas quite often and wouldn't mind being able to pick up some movies in the countries I visit. Just like the airlines, movies are cheaper in depressed countries because they want to sell as many as they can and still make some profit. It is about ECONOMIC CONTROL and CONTENT CONTROL, NOT COPYRIGHT!
At least here in the US in most cases when a change is made to an implied agreement, like a ToS, AUP, or (best example) your credit card companies' contract, you have until a certain date to refuse to accept the changes to your agreement and can terminate the contract for cause.
But keep in mind, they will consider *any* usage after said date to signal your acceptance of their new terms.
But why should Nevada care if it is accessed by people from other states? It isn't our responsibility to make sure that the rest of you abide by your own states laws
Because they don't want the feds fucking with their cash cow.
There was a story about this on TV a few years ago in Texas. As you may know, in Texas, at night, it is perfectly legal to shoot first and ask questions later once someone is on your property...
Well, this guy had lost his job, wife, dog, pants, whatever, and low and behold awakes to someone breaking into his truck. He promptly opens the door and fires off a few rounds. The repo man made it about half a mile before giving it up in a ditch. The next morning this man went to see what all to commotion down the road was about. When he approached the investigating officer and said, "Sir, I shot that man last night because I thought he was stealing my truck," the officer responded with, "Ok, sir. Thanks. You have a good day."
As a side note, justifiable use of force is covered under Pa. Consolidated Statues Title 18, Sections 505-507. Deadly force is (almost) never authorized for the protection of property, however, if the bad guy(tm) enters your house and you reasonably believe he is going to hurt someone inside, you can feel free to shoot him. ie You are not required to retreat in your own dwelling in PA.
Slashdot Mirror
These pieces of shit need to know that if they fuck with the bull they're gonna get the horns, and those horns are anything from B-52s with cruise missiles to low-yield tactical nuclear weapons.
I don't know how else to send the message appropriately. Terrorists need to know that we're not going to play cat-and-mouse anymore and that if we think they're planning something then we're coming and not just to say hello.
The only thing they haven't done here is include the DOCSIS cable modem in the box itself. With broadband IP into the house and this device on it why wouldn't they continue on to setting up distribution servers with PPV movies on them or pay-to-watch reruns of your favorite sitcom?
If we assume we need 2 Mbps for reasonable quality video that means we could expect to multicast up to 15 shows simultaneously in the space of one 6 MHz (30 Mbps) TV channel. Let's say we wanted top quality regular TV, we're still only talking about 6 Mbps per show. Now, HDTV is where it gets fun. I remember reading somewhere that it took nearly 80 Mbps to do HDTV, dunno if that's right or not. (I guess that would lead me to ask how they're doing it in one TV channel then... heh.)
If the consumer can specify what they want in advance, and throw in some Tivo-like "recommendations" then true video on demand could start to take shape. Then again, just a Tivo and regular cable will do the same damn thing, this idea is just a different way of distributing it.
Just as a side note, some B-52's are scheduled to remain in service until 2035, making them 80 years old at that time. It's easier to justify an expensive upgrade if you're extending the life of the aircraft by at least the lifetime of a new aircraft. How many commercial aircraft last even 30 years in regular service with their original airline? (Qualified as big airlines will pawn off the old equipment on smaller airlines and third world airlines, but in general a commercial aircraft will only last 30-40 years in regular commercial service)
Yes, but the million dollar question is how fast does this number drop? I used to buy Compaq servers exclusively but will not purchase another Compaq/HP server for at least a few years. I don't know what kind of support to expect, first of all. Second, Compaq has some killer hardware for servers, what is HP going to do with it?
Me, I've started buying IBM for laptops, then desktops, now it looks like IBM for servers too. We may be going back to the days of, "Nobody's ever been fired for buying IBM."
Dead people can vote with a little help getting into the booth and operating their punch machine. Are you saying dead people shouldn't have the right to vote? ;)
That and you've got to ask Ms. Cleo about who they want to vote for, sure raises her profits. Hey, wait a minute. Maybe Microsoft paid Ms. Cleo to use her tarot cards to find out that all these dead people would have supported Microsoft if they weren't incapaciated. ;)
Follow me on this. The cable plant is a unique resource, and can be compared to a highway system. In this analogy make a cable company or cable ISP a bus company. Each bus company has equal right to use the road and if you want to use a bus company you can choose any one you desire.
Now let's look at this analogy with the advent of hybrid-fiber-coax cable plants. If the franchise authority (ie your local goverment) owned the cable plant any number of cable providers could use the same fiber plant to distribute their service, thus lowering the barrier to entry costs and encouraging more competition amongst providers. The franchise authority could charge (example...) $5 per customer to cable providers and $2 per customer to cable ISPs to cover their costs of maintaining and upgrading the plant. All that would need done is the placement of smart mux/demux equipment in each neighborhood node that would be able to be told what connection comes from what house, what TV service to send to it and what cable modem service to send to it. (ie Channels 1-110 for TV, 111-120 for cable modems, and 121-125 for cable telephones if you wanted to add CLEC telephone service)
In this instance we would end up with governemnt control over the monopoly resource that would result in lower cost of entry to market and *could* increase competition amongst service providers. Another advantage of this is that large companies/universities could build their own private cable data networks just as though they were an ISP.
Reading your message made me start to think about why open-source and/or free software has not made more inroads than it has...
Star Office is about the best example I can think of at this point. If the os or free commmunity want people to begin using their software it must be baby steps for the end user. Myself, I am comfortable hacking my way through my PC. The rest of the users in my office couldn't do it. Why not focus some attention on software for Windows? I know this sounds like blasphemy, however, if you can get users to get used to the application on Windows then the switch to Linux/something else on the desktop would be significantly easier if the interface was the same for the application. The problem is people are being asked to give up *everything* they already know, OS, Apps, and more to make the change to Linux. If there was a Windows-based office suite for starters (Star Office... maybe?) that could compete with MS Office in terms of usability and compatibility without rocking the boat in terms of interface, I could deploy it to my users and have them accept. Then when it comes time to replace their PC I can consider Linux because they are familiar with the application and we've taken one step already.
The solution to this is now quite simple. Use iptables to drop everything incoming except from trusted addresses or networks.
I do this on my @home connection and recently complained about a speed problem. The response was that they couldn't ping my computer. It is also quite amazing the number of scans that I log. Including from @home corporate themselves.
As best as I can tell the only way they can tell you're on the network is by watching for arps and arp responses or udp traceroute packets. For some reason it seems the udp traceroute packets aren't subject to the input chain in iptables, but I don't know fer sure.
This is more a SEC requirement than anything. I used to work for a public company and any press release that went out had to have a standard disclaimer at the bottom.
You got it right in the basic statement, but it also says, "If you invest all your money in us and lose it all because of what we said, then it's your own damn fault. We didn't lie to you."
(Moderators: Read ENTIRE message first)
[RANT]Since we're throwing stones here, is this anything like the Chinese spies feeling safer when Clinton was in office? Hell, they didn't even have to spy, he sent them the information they wanted!
This is a technical discussion, asshole, not a political debate. You seem like a socialist little monkey whore who can't figure out that in America we work for the things we get and we compete with each other to do better. Don't like it? Move to China, I hear the state loves control there. Wha? Don't like China's political climate? Our style of government (used to) exist(s) solely because government is retricted in it's functions. Under the laws as they were when the USA was created Microsoft couldn't be prosecuted. Government involvement in anything is BAD! It doesn't matter how beneficial the outcome.[NO RANT]
That said, I'll be the first to agree that Microsoft has competed more than unfairly on oft-occasion, but I don't think who is in the White House makes a difference to them. They're after money and the court's decision just didn't have enough teeth to slow them down. They know they can tie it up in appeals for a few years and by then it won't matter. The only way to fix this problem is to avoid purchasing Windows XP at all costs. I don't plan on using WinXP anywhere in my company, and refuse to allow it to be introduced to our network. I think I can hold out for a few years running Win2k, avoiding the purchase of WinXP. If others do the same then Microsoft will get the message that we don't want XP the way it is. The key is to communicate to Microsoft in their language, the almighty dollar. The only way to accomplish this is to market anti-Microsoft as strong as MS does pro-Microsoft. There needs to be a group that actively attacks Microsoft in the public eye as well as Microsoft attacks their competitors. An example given in another article was asking why all the coverage of 'Code Red' makes it seem that Microsoft is the golden knight who released a patch to fix this problem. What they don't mention in that Microsoft created the problem, and released the patch 45 days before the worm hit, and that if it had been reasonably secure to begin with we wouldn't have this problem. Another example would be detailed press releases explaining how these decisions by Microsoft could be anti-consumer, but more importantly how they could be anti-business or cost business more money to support. The boss doesn't care that we have to buy certain brands of computer parts, but he will care that the price is inflated 25% because of the manufacturers paying MS to be 'approved'. (Which is something I think we all see this leading to) We need to create outrage amongst the average people. Otherwise they are like sheep to the slaughter and will continue to buy buy buy just as fast as MS can say, "Umm, you need this."
I am trying to keep track of where I am getting hits from geographically. So far I've got one US host, a bunch of Korean hosts, and a Mexican host.
whois.arin.net seems to be rather swamped from my end of the net. Kinda makes me wonder if ARIN is bogged down with lotsa whois requests or things are just generally slow there today.
This will make me unpopular too, but...
What would have happened had this guy been working late when the FBI broke in? Here in Pennsylvania (and even more notably Texas) it is lawful to shoot to terminate an illegal entry into one's home or place or business if it is reasonably believed that the actor intends to commit a felony on the premises and force less than deadly would not stop them. (18 PaCS 507c4i)
Specifically, what position would the FBI and US Attorney's Office taken had this guy justifiably shot an FBI Agent? What if the FBI returned fire and killed him? Without the FBI making their "lawful" presence known this guy would have no reason to believe it wasn't a gang of jack-booted thugs. (Pun intended)
What I ended up doing was calling about 60 days into this and telling them they were no longer authorized to charge my credit card for service until it was working. At 100 days I called my bank to find out that the billing person didn't do what I had told them. Voila, credit card fraud. I called that day an explained that I had called and told them to remove my credit card information from their database and that they were no longer authorized to charge me but they had. I explained (calmly) that I would be calling the proper authorities as well as contacting my attorney unless the charges were refunded and service was made to work immediately. Next day a tech calls me and says he found the problem and was fixing it.
It is all a matter of proper motivation. As long as you don't rock the boat too much they don't care about you. When you call your local system manager and threaten to sue them and involve law enforcement becuase they've done something illegal they tend to wise up fast.
First thing tho, call and tell them they are no longer authorized to charge your credit card, and ask for the previous charges to be credited back to you. If they refuse simply explain that your credit card company would be more than wiling to charge them back and you thought you would give them the courtesy of not having to pay charge back fees.
But let me ask this... What is stopping you from putting the modem in a box and mailing it to the service center that is 45 minutes away with a letter explaining the situation asking them to call you if they need anything else from you. I am sure some kind employee there would be helpful. (snicker)
My experience with @home over the last few months, however, has been a complete opposite from before. I use the online support module and chat with techs (who are still idiots but I don't have to wait 45 minutes to find out now), but I am downloading from places at better than 600 kB/s (yes, kiloBYTES), and it has been quite reliable, and their peering arrangements are getting better. (No more going to PAIX to get to uunet when I live on the east coast.)
But what I was looking for is how the federal court award comes under state jurisdiction. Maybe the guy was just wrong and it is a federal limit. I don't know, so I was looking for an explanation.
Thanks.
A federal court jury here Wednesday afternoon found Rambus Inc. had committed fraud by failing to disclose its synchronous patent applications to the industry JEDEC standards body.
and
The damage amount, however, will likely be reduced to as low as $350,000 due to a Virginia state law capping the level of punitive awards.
Can someone explain why a federal award would be reduced under state law?
Actually, they like to deliver service via OC here when they can economincally justify it becuase it is a much better solution than lotsa copper. We don't pay extra for the OC shelf, just what we would have paid for the T1's anyway. Now that's not to say they aren't making good money off of us, just that they *did* have a choice and they chose OC.
Ummm... NOT CORRECT
I will quote here from page 3 of my United States passport...
There is also a section clearly laying out what will cause you to lose your citizenship. It clearly states above that the PURCHASE of Cuban (and others) goods or services is prohibited. Now, how to enforce that is left as an exercise for the reader. Just don't go around with the illusion that whatever you do outside the direct jurisdiction of US Law won't get you in trouble here. As a US Citizen there are certain laws applicable to you no matter where you might be.
Well, not really total defense... It seems so far everyone is all over Verizon because they are a bad company. Well, that's true most of the time. Remember, DSL is voodoo anyway, but very cool voodoo.
My company has 13 T1's from various providers, being local, ld, voice and data. In our old building Verizon provided the local loop on OC-3. I called Verizon one day to tell them we were going to move and to give them a heads up that we'd need a new OC-3 installed. The engineer I talked to asked me what I was doing after lunch that day. He actually wanted to meet me that day to being the process.
As far as our local CLEC is concerned all they had to do was submit a move order, even a few days ahead of our move, and their T1s to us owuld have been moved with all the others. They couldn't do that and missed our move date by a week. When my contract is up with them I am going to find out if the CLEC's numbers are portable.
Just look at it this way. Verizon's corporate culture may be ineptitude and the union way, but some of their employees are actually A-OK guys just trying to get the job done in a shitty situation, give them the benefit of the doubt unless they do something really dumb or anti-social in front of you.
If you knew anything about the ECPA of 1986 you would know that "system operators" are allowed to read any email they like that happens to cross their system. The illegal part is when it gets to dissemination.
Actually, could not the EU ban the import/distribution/sale of region coded software, movies, music, etc?
Normally I wouldn't get involved in this type of discussion, but I can't help it this time.
HEY JACKASS! People aren't complaining about having to obey copyright laws here. How am I breaking a copyright law if I buy a DVD in England (Region 2 methinks, or whatever) and I want to bring in home to the US to watch in my Region 1 player? I could do this with a PAL videotape and a multisystem VCR. (I've never seen anyone call a multisystem VCR a conduit for video piracy, as you are basically calling the region-free dvd player.) Explain how I am breaking the law.
See, before, the studios had a natural barrier to people buying movies in other parts of the world being that we could never agree on a signal format. But now that the output format is no longer tied to the media they needed some way to control how the content is distributed. That's what it is about.
I find it disconcerting that people don't get more upset about this. I guess the studios believe that so few people travel internationally that we just won't mind. What if France was one region, Spain another, and the UK yet another? Then maybe more people would get a little more upset whent he movie they bought on holiday won't play at home.
And as to your comment about travelling internationally, I go overseas quite often and wouldn't mind being able to pick up some movies in the countries I visit. Just like the airlines, movies are cheaper in depressed countries because they want to sell as many as they can and still make some profit. It is about ECONOMIC CONTROL and CONTENT CONTROL, NOT COPYRIGHT!
Not only was it terribly slashdotted yesterday, but today while I was playing I got this message:
500 Server Error
The hard transfer limit for this user has been reached
ARGH!
At least here in the US in most cases when a change is made to an implied agreement, like a ToS, AUP, or (best example) your credit card companies' contract, you have until a certain date to refuse to accept the changes to your agreement and can terminate the contract for cause.
But keep in mind, they will consider *any* usage after said date to signal your acceptance of their new terms.
Because they don't want the feds fucking with their cash cow.
Well, this guy had lost his job, wife, dog, pants, whatever, and low and behold awakes to someone breaking into his truck. He promptly opens the door and fires off a few rounds. The repo man made it about half a mile before giving it up in a ditch. The next morning this man went to see what all to commotion down the road was about. When he approached the investigating officer and said, "Sir, I shot that man last night because I thought he was stealing my truck," the officer responded with, "Ok, sir. Thanks. You have a good day."
As a side note, justifiable use of force is covered under Pa. Consolidated Statues Title 18, Sections 505-507. Deadly force is (almost) never authorized for the protection of property, however, if the bad guy(tm) enters your house and you reasonably believe he is going to hurt someone inside, you can feel free to shoot him. ie You are not required to retreat in your own dwelling in PA.
Section 507 - Use of Force in Protection of Property in PA