Stuffing a laptop into a wiring closet that isnt yours is a serious CRIME.
A crime. Yes. B&E, arguably (if the average passer-by would have reason to believe they shouldn't peek inside). But a "serious" crime? Not talking about breaking into the Pentagon here; not even someone's home where we'd have a reasonable expectation that no one but the owners would casually stroll within a few feet of that spot; but a (literal) closet in the basement of the same building MIT that students occasionally turn into a giant game of Tetris as a prank. So your assertion of seriousness would depend on what he did with that laptop.
What he did with the laptop was gain access to an unauthorized network and download data that he did not have legitimate access to.
Even if he didnt take any data, the act of placing the laptop in the closet should be a felony in itself.
Why? Does littering normally count as a felony?
I guess we just have radically different ideas of justice, when copyright violation as a form of civil disobedience merits a 30 year stay in Club Fed. Yes, Swartz did things that would justify some degree of punishment. Spending the best half of his life in a cage (which IMO made suicide an entirely rational decision in this case)? Not so much.
He obviously knew that he was tresspassing as he used his helmet to block his face from the camera as he entered the closet.
Just because he killed himself does not mean that he was innocent of what he was charged with.
He was repeateldy kicked off the wifi network, he broke into their network closet and hardwired in a laptop which he hid under a box. He used a bycicle helmet to obscure his face from the camera as he entered the closet.
There is a lot more to the case than some kid downloading a bunch of articles.
The case is about someone gaining unauthorized access to the system - repeateldy, tresspassing and wire fraud.
If I hop on to your wifi and start downloading your media collection, you kick me off, so I break into your house and hardwire a laptop in your basement - I doubt you'd complain about charges being pressed.
The suicide is unfortunate - but the case agaisnt Aaron Swartz IS sound and legitimate. He had full knowledge of what he was doing being a criminal act.
I am sure that had he been willing to put up a fight he could have easily secured a high caliber lawyer at little or no cost due to the high profile of the case. EFF and others may have been willing to help and if not - all he'd have to do is start a fund raiser.
The problem isn't that the charges are overblown, or that he ran into a career prosecutor - the problem is that the evidence is damning. He'd have a very tough time getting out of this without a felony conviction - which he actually does deserve because he DID knowingly, intentionally and repeateldy gain access to a system that he was not authorized to use in the manner he used it in.
I am sorry that he killed himself, I am even more sorry that he chose to comit acts that should have been obviously criminal to him. When you are breaking into a network closet while using a bycicle helmet to cover your face - it's kinda hard to blame anyone but yourself.
Unfortunately, a plea bargain would have required Swartz admitting that he did broke the law, and it looks like he was not the type of person who would do that.
He tried to use a wifi connection to download the articles. He was kicked off wifi - over and over and over. So instead he broke into a network closet, and hid a hardwired laptop in to continue downloading the articles.
The university installed a camera - which he was aware of and used a bicycle helmet to block his face from the camera. I am as unhappy with the outcome as anyone here - but come on - to even imply that he is not guilty of knowlingly trying to gain unauthorized access REPEATEDLY is insane.
I have lived in Australia. Seriously - it's the most laid back country in the world as far as I can tell. I don't think they'd be shooting eachother if they all had gattling guns and free ammo.
"The idea that the gun used in the Sandy Hook Shooting is somehow more dangerous than your grandpa's.30-06 is absolute bullshit. The idea that these "military style" weapons are somehow more dangerous demonstrates a lack of knowledge or a willful ignorance to the facts."
No it isn't.
I'd love to see you shoot 30 rounds out of a bolt action.30-06 as fast as I could should out of any semi automatic assault rifle, be it an AK, AR-15 or whatever you want.
I have a recoil pad on the Mosin - only $10 and WAY nicer than the steel "pad" that was on there before. (To be fair, the steel was there so that you could use it as a bludgeon if needed.)
But yeah, after 100 rounds your shoulder is turning purple pad or no pad.
I didn't mention the best part. I have ~3500 rounds of ammo for the Mosin in the garage. Hey, it was $90 for 1000 rounds in a sealed can which is a steal!
So I stocked up - in case I need to wipe out a small town or something...
1 handed with a semi-automatic pistol I can fire 10 rounds in just under 10 seconds into an 8 inch bullseye at 25 yards, with at least 60% hit rate on a really bad day. 8/10 is the norm for me. In short, burst fire is pointless. I would rater conserve ammo and make the hits count.
High capacity clips are a convenience. I can reload a clip in under 3 seconds and return to firing. It's easy. Also getting high capacity mags in the US even when they were illegal was trivial. Seriously, you never held a gun have you?
Ok. I'll just cut the long barrel off and have a short rifle that's just as deadly at close range. Nothing is solved.
You do realize that the only real purpose of full auto weapons is covering fire in active combat situations right? Full auto fire is terrible for actually trying to hit someone except in movies.
b-b-guns are too easy. bow an arrow is too easy with a compound and is a real bitch with a recurve. I've done both.
Handguns, 1 handed, are actually really demanding but not exhausting to shoot. So yes - I would enjoy it less if I had to use something other than a handgun. In fact I only like to shoot.22 or 9mm.
Yes. People will play less Farmville and less Zynga games if they are not there on the screen reminding them about their farm/whatever when they check their facebook page every 5 minutes.
People will play existing games less and be less exposed to new games resulting in a death spiral that is impossible to get out of.
Remember, Zynga has never made a single "good" game - plenty of profitable and popular games - but largley as a result of placement and spread through facebook. Nobody I know ever got a Zynga game outside of facebook besides Words with Friends on the iPhone.
Not saying Zynga is dead - but they will never be "big news" without Facebook. They'll just be another crappy company making crapy flash games based on other peoples games.
Yes - but the point of cruise missiles is the fact that when fired at near their maximum range the ship is safe from retaliation. Many countries still have nothing better than a SCUD to defend themselves from a naval assault.
Unfortunatley for the rail gun, most activley in use SCUDs have a range of up to 1200 miles. Now before you run with that number, SCUDs have inertial nav and this means that at max range it's pure luck if they hit the target. With that said, at 200 miles - rail gun range, the SCUD will hit a DDG.
SCUDs are cheap and readily available in the middle east, asia and the former soviet block. In fact, pretty much any country on our "does not like us" list has SCUDs. This means that no ship is ever going within 500mi of an unsecured coastline.
Yeah - but can you replace the rails while underway?
Here's something for you - a DDG carries 56 Tomahawks, but can load up to 96 if they carry nothing but Tomahawks in their VLS. Rate of fire - 1 missile per second.
The real question is, what are you going to shoot at that's only 200mi aways? 200mi might sound "far" but reality is that modern anti ship missiles have range 500-1000 miles.
No DDG is going to sail up to 200mi of a hostile to shoot it with a railgun when then can launch a Tomahawk with it's 800mi range for a Block III or 1500 for Block IIs.
I would just rather have a short and fun life than a long a dull one. I don't want to die of old age. To me there is something horribly unnatural and perverse about hanging on to life long past the point of life being worth living. Yet in our society that seems to be the MO.
I'm with you. I don't know when the fear of losing our lives has replaced the thrill of living them to the fullest and being willing to sacrifice all to achieve our dreams.
The GP can claim that Dan Osman (the guy in the YouTube) was stupid and sent himself to an early grave at 35. Say what you will about him and his "stupid" and "reckless" life style - the man created "controlled free-falling". He was inspirational to many and people lived through him.
I would rather die at 35 having experienced the thrills that Dano has than of old age in a wheel chair soiling myself and slowly losing my mind.
You must go to a different store than I do. MC may match prices on computers and some electronics, but components and consumables are almost all anywhere from 10-25% over internet price. Books are sold at list price, which once again is higher than Amazon.
If you're looking at cables, even basic crap like CAT5 - you may as well file for bankruptcy on your way to the checkout. Never mind that MC has been trying to push more and more crap out, just getting TO the checkout requires navigating through a maze of $5 gizmos and toys ranging from shitty LED flashlights to RC choppers.
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Stuffing a laptop into a wiring closet that isnt yours is a serious CRIME.
A crime. Yes. B&E, arguably (if the average passer-by would have reason to believe they shouldn't peek inside). But a "serious" crime? Not talking about breaking into the Pentagon here; not even someone's home where we'd have a reasonable expectation that no one but the owners would casually stroll within a few feet of that spot; but a (literal) closet in the basement of the same building MIT that students occasionally turn into a giant game of Tetris as a prank. So your assertion of seriousness would depend on what he did with that laptop.
What he did with the laptop was gain access to an unauthorized network and download data that he did not have legitimate access to.
Even if he didnt take any data, the act of placing the laptop in the closet should be a felony in itself.
Why? Does littering normally count as a felony?
I guess we just have radically different ideas of justice, when copyright violation as a form of civil disobedience merits a 30 year stay in Club Fed. Yes, Swartz did things that would justify some degree of punishment. Spending the best half of his life in a cage (which IMO made suicide an entirely rational decision in this case)? Not so much.
He obviously knew that he was tresspassing as he used his helmet to block his face from the camera as he entered the closet.
Just because he killed himself does not mean that he was innocent of what he was charged with.
He was repeateldy kicked off the wifi network, he broke into their network closet and hardwired in a laptop which he hid under a box. He used a bycicle helmet to obscure his face from the camera as he entered the closet.
There is a lot more to the case than some kid downloading a bunch of articles.
The case is about someone gaining unauthorized access to the system - repeateldy, tresspassing and wire fraud.
If I hop on to your wifi and start downloading your media collection, you kick me off, so I break into your house and hardwire a laptop in your basement - I doubt you'd complain about charges being pressed.
The suicide is unfortunate - but the case agaisnt Aaron Swartz IS sound and legitimate. He had full knowledge of what he was doing being a criminal act.
I am sure that had he been willing to put up a fight he could have easily secured a high caliber lawyer at little or no cost due to the high profile of the case. EFF and others may have been willing to help and if not - all he'd have to do is start a fund raiser.
The problem isn't that the charges are overblown, or that he ran into a career prosecutor - the problem is that the evidence is damning. He'd have a very tough time getting out of this without a felony conviction - which he actually does deserve because he DID knowingly, intentionally and repeateldy gain access to a system that he was not authorized to use in the manner he used it in.
I am sorry that he killed himself, I am even more sorry that he chose to comit acts that should have been obviously criminal to him. When you are breaking into a network closet while using a bycicle helmet to cover your face - it's kinda hard to blame anyone but yourself.
Unfortunately, a plea bargain would have required Swartz admitting that he did broke the law, and it looks like he was not the type of person who would do that.
He tried to use a wifi connection to download the articles. He was kicked off wifi - over and over and over. So instead he broke into a network closet, and hid a hardwired laptop in to continue downloading the articles.
The university installed a camera - which he was aware of and used a bicycle helmet to block his face from the camera.
I am as unhappy with the outcome as anyone here - but come on - to even imply that he is not guilty of knowlingly trying to gain unauthorized access REPEATEDLY is insane.
I have lived in Australia. Seriously - it's the most laid back country in the world as far as I can tell. I don't think they'd be shooting eachother if they all had gattling guns and free ammo.
It would be ironic if not unexpected if tighter gun regulations resulted in more Oklahoma City style bombings.
If the number was all that mattered, than the countries that have 30-40/100 should still be seeing at least a killing spree a year. They are not.
It IS too easy to buy a gun - but fixing that alone won't make killing sprees go away.
You could also kill 28 people with bare hands if they had nowhere to run, especially if they're kids...but it would be much much much harder.
Making this kind of thing HARD to do is the idea.
"The idea that the gun used in the Sandy Hook Shooting is somehow more dangerous than your grandpa's .30-06 is absolute bullshit. The idea that these "military style" weapons are somehow more dangerous demonstrates a lack of knowledge or a willful ignorance to the facts."
No it isn't.
I'd love to see you shoot 30 rounds out of a bolt action .30-06 as fast as I could should out of any semi automatic assault rifle, be it an AK, AR-15 or whatever you want.
Please, you're putting up a straw man with those guns.
The hunting rifle isn't semiautomatic and unwieldy.
Going on a killing spree with a hunting rife at close range would be impractical.
You don't need "power" to kill people. A .22LR to the head will do the job.
Except you're wrong...Sweden does not restrict gun ownership...31 guns per 100 people and no killing sprees.
Ok. So.....why couldn't I kill 28+ people with a single handgun? I don't need more than that...
Also - Norway has very tight gun laws.
I have a recoil pad on the Mosin - only $10 and WAY nicer than the steel "pad" that was on there before. (To be fair, the steel was there so that you could use it as a bludgeon if needed.)
But yeah, after 100 rounds your shoulder is turning purple pad or no pad.
I didn't mention the best part. I have ~3500 rounds of ammo for the Mosin in the garage.
Hey, it was $90 for 1000 rounds in a sealed can which is a steal!
So I stocked up - in case I need to wipe out a small town or something...
1 handed with a semi-automatic pistol I can fire 10 rounds in just under 10 seconds into an 8 inch bullseye at 25 yards, with at least 60% hit rate on a really bad day. 8/10 is the norm for me. In short, burst fire is pointless. I would rater conserve ammo and make the hits count.
High capacity clips are a convenience. I can reload a clip in under 3 seconds and return to firing. It's easy. Also getting high capacity mags in the US even when they were illegal was trivial. Seriously, you never held a gun have you?
Ok. I'll just cut the long barrel off and have a short rifle that's just as deadly at close range. Nothing is solved.
You do realize that the only real purpose of full auto weapons is covering fire in active combat situations right? Full auto fire is terrible for actually trying to hit someone except in movies.
b-b-guns are too easy. bow an arrow is too easy with a compound and is a real bitch with a recurve. I've done both.
Handguns, 1 handed, are actually really demanding but not exhausting to shoot. So yes - I would enjoy it less if I had to use something other than a handgun. In fact I only like to shoot .22 or 9mm.
And that is why it's very very very hard to get an assault rifle.
In fact, it's far cheaper to buy an assault rifle illegally than legaly.
Bolt action rifles are amazingly cheap and great for hunting. I have a Mosin, $90. Dirt cheap ammo.
Frankly, bolt action is all you need for hunting.
Thing is, semi auto or auto doesn't change much. An automatic weapon is not a good choice for a very large number of reasons.
Reality is, a semi auto handgun is absolutley all you need for killing unarmed civilians. Even a revolver will do, just pack some speedloaders.
Yes. People will play less Farmville and less Zynga games if they are not there on the screen reminding them about their farm/whatever when they check their facebook page every 5 minutes.
People will play existing games less and be less exposed to new games resulting in a death spiral that is impossible to get out of.
Remember, Zynga has never made a single "good" game - plenty of profitable and popular games - but largley as a result of placement and spread through facebook. Nobody I know ever got a Zynga game outside of facebook besides Words with Friends on the iPhone.
Not saying Zynga is dead - but they will never be "big news" without Facebook. They'll just be another crappy company making crapy flash games based on other peoples games.
Yes - but the point of cruise missiles is the fact that when fired at near their maximum range the ship is safe from retaliation. Many countries still have nothing better than a SCUD to defend themselves from a naval assault.
Unfortunatley for the rail gun, most activley in use SCUDs have a range of up to 1200 miles. Now before you run with that number, SCUDs have inertial nav and this means that at max range it's pure luck if they hit the target. With that said, at 200 miles - rail gun range, the SCUD will hit a DDG.
SCUDs are cheap and readily available in the middle east, asia and the former soviet block. In fact, pretty much any country on our "does not like us" list has SCUDs. This means that no ship is ever going within 500mi of an unsecured coastline.
In short, the rail gun is useless.
Yeah - but can you replace the rails while underway?
Here's something for you - a DDG carries 56 Tomahawks, but can load up to 96 if they carry nothing but Tomahawks in their VLS. Rate of fire - 1 missile per second.
The real question is, what are you going to shoot at that's only 200mi aways? 200mi might sound "far" but reality is that modern anti ship missiles have range 500-1000 miles.
No DDG is going to sail up to 200mi of a hostile to shoot it with a railgun when then can launch a Tomahawk with it's 800mi range for a Block III or 1500 for Block IIs.
I'm 30.
So no. Far from it.
I would just rather have a short and fun life than a long a dull one. I don't want to die of old age. To me there is something horribly unnatural and perverse about hanging on to life long past the point of life being worth living. Yet in our society that seems to be the MO.
I'm with you. I don't know when the fear of losing our lives has replaced the thrill of living them to the fullest and being willing to sacrifice all to achieve our dreams.
The GP can claim that Dan Osman (the guy in the YouTube) was stupid and sent himself to an early grave at 35. Say what you will about him and his "stupid" and "reckless" life style - the man created "controlled free-falling". He was inspirational to many and people lived through him.
I would rather die at 35 having experienced the thrills that Dano has than of old age in a wheel chair soiling myself and slowly losing my mind.
Having lived in Europe, I hate to say it but seatbelts aren't as uniform as you'd like to believe.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seat_belt_use_rates_by_country
So yeah. Despite your "Stupid Americans!" attitude, seems like Europe in general could benefit from the US standard.
You must go to a different store than I do. MC may match prices on computers and some electronics, but components and consumables are almost all anywhere from 10-25% over internet price. Books are sold at list price, which once again is higher than Amazon.
If you're looking at cables, even basic crap like CAT5 - you may as well file for bankruptcy on your way to the checkout. Never mind that MC has been trying to push more and more crap out, just getting TO the checkout requires navigating through a maze of $5 gizmos and toys ranging from shitty LED flashlights to RC choppers.