but I can show you stores where their check cashing policy is clearly stated as "current address, phone, and social security number required to cash checks without a check cashing card". And they mean it. And its legal. They are doing YOU a courtesy by taking the check. If you dont want to provide your SSN, pay in cash or use a credit card. But they require an SSN to use a check.
I see Palladium as the content industry's Trojan horse. It's pretty clear that they want to shut out smaller, independent players from a market they already control. Fact is, Hollywood has been making more money, not less, since piracy has started. And if the record industry has been selling less CDs, it's mostly because of two things: a) they publish more crap than quality and b) people are buying lots more DVDs nowadays (with either the same amount of disposable income or less). Check the numbers and do the math, and whatever you do don't believe the hype that Palladium is "trustworthy computing".
I agree 1000% with what you have said. But boneheaded statements like NO ONE HAS THE RIGHT TO TELL ME WHAT TO RUN! are ludicrous. Which was my point. I certainly dont think Palladium is a GOOD thing.. but at the place I work, someone very nearly got fired for CONCATENATING TWO LINES when configuring a print server. THe network security boyz called it "hacking" to put two lines together instead of using a return and second line. (Course, this is on really freakin old emulex hardware).
Still.. screaming like an idiot wont help anyone. And saying "if I can rip it, you cant stop me" doesnt help our cause either.
I agree MP3's are illegal. As are pirated movies. Do they help the movie industry? In my case they do.. I saw AOTC pirate before I saw it in the theater.. and it looked good enough that I actually paid to see it.. otherwise I would have waited for it on HBO. Same with MIB2. But that doesnt justify pirating movies. Its *still* illegal.
There is no balance to be had. There is no difference between a computer and any other publishing machine. It is illegal to use a printing press to publish someone else's book or cash, but no one feels the need to gaurd each and every one of them. Why is it that someone is thinking of tacking a dongle onto my motherboard to "protect" music and other rapciously copyrighted garbage? Anything that acomplishes their goals makes someone else the owner of my machine, as they will have files I can not erase that will decide what I can and can not coppy. It's completely unAmerican.
Its a lot different. A printing press requires hundreds of thousand or millions of dollars to purchase and operate. A computer doesnt. A computer can produce thousand of copies almost instantly.
Whats completely unamerican about it? Thats like saying bank guards are unamerican, because anyone should be able to walk in and take money, and assuming someone is going to try is going against your freedoms!
You dont get it, do you? Copying copyrighted material on your PC is ILLEGAL. By having it you are BREAKING THE LAW. I would be a lot more pissed if they were actually doing something to limit legal activities. But if you choose to intentionally flout the law, expect to be nailed for it.
Um, Linux has never had a virus. EVER. NEVER!!! Palladium is not going to make a million virii suddenly pop out of nowhere for Linux and start infecting machines. Linux has a little thing called USER SECURITY that pretects users from loosing data to virii like that.
Sure it does. SO does Outlook. Its called "turn off the preview pane" among other things. There are plenty of trojans for Linux. Whether you consider them a "virus" depends on whether you know what you are talkign about, or are a copy writer for MSNBC.
ANY amount of control over my computer is a voilation of my RIGHTS. It doesnt matter if its the computer at my house or my workstation at work. My IT department has NO BUSINNESS telling me what I can and can't run on my workstation. It's MINE.
Uhh.. really? I think you are pretty severely mistaken. As long as you are operating within the laws, yeah.. you may be right. But everyone has plenty of business telling you what you can and cannot run on your workstation. Pirated software, illegal content, running a webserver without permission on someone elses network.. these are all things you AINT SUPPOSED TO DO.
Screaming "you are violating my civil rights by not letting me break the law" is rediculous.
Your company has EVERY right to tell you waht they do or dont want you running on "your" (their) workstation. Why? Corporate licensing, lack of compatibility with their preferred software, their agreements with software manufacturers, and their liability for a few.
Linux doesnt "rule".. it does perform very well in certain situations.. Windows does too, depending on what you are looking at for a system.
Privacy should be the default; if you only demand it when you're "hiding" something (whether from unjust laws or nosy neighbors) then everyone immediately knows you're hiding something. And these days, rights that aren't defended have a way of disappearing. The airport needs to know the size and weight of my body and luggage, and ensure I can't disrupt the flight, not who I am or where I'm going (getting on the right plane is my problem), and "this guy's record says he's always been sane" is a poor substitute for bomb searches. A free society has no legitimate interest in the comings and goings of citizens
Yeah.. but I dont think they are actually interested in the "comings and goings". I dont think your flight info is going into any more of a database now than it was two years ago. Face it, the Airline has all that data anyway. THey know when you booked, how many you booked, who you booked through, where you are going, etc.
Getting on the right plane is *NOT* your problem, it is THEIR problem. Hence the fact that if you dont get on, they sit there and call and call and call for the passenger until the figure out they ran out of the airport. (I was on a plane that sat for almost an hour due to the fact that some idiot was sitting in the airport bar and forgot what time it was).
I certainly agree with people proving their identity to pick up a ticket! what if I order Etickets, and someone reads the Email I sent the order in with, and decides that a free flight to Hawaii would be nice, shows up three hours early (since I only show up two hours early) says "Yeah.. Im Maeryk.. gimme my tickets".. OH.. have a nice day sir! Heres your boarding pass!
I dont see how this is a "bad thing". Its a "good thing".
Granted.. all that going down in some database somewhere may be a bad thing.. but its already (and always has) been there! What do you think flight manifests are? Airlines have been keeping track of who sits in what seat and flew to what destination for years!
And you are absolutely right..a free society has no legitimate interest.. but how do you prove that the person picking up the ticket is a CITIZEN? My wife is not a citizen.. shes a canadian transplant.. Granted, requiring an ID will not weed out everything, but it just might cut down on the attempts.
Nope. Look here. [faa.gov] See, you do not need a photo ID, but if you do not present one the FAA requires that "airlines apply additional security measures to passengers who are unable to produce ID upon request". It's not just an airline policy, if they ask you for ID and refuse/dont have any they have to basically have someone follow you around and/or search you intensively. Instead of doing that they just say "get lost". Via these regulations the FAA has created a de-facto requirement for identification.
Go back and read that again. You will notice it says that airlines may make stricter regulations than the FAA requires, but at a minimum they must follow FAA regs.
Therefore, there is no "defacto" there is just the airline saying "If you dont have a photo ID, piss off" which is well within their rights.
I dont have an issue with showing my drivers license to prove IM who I say I am on the ticket.. your name is already on the ticket, and your address is probably available from the damn billing info anyway, so what IS the issue about proving you are who you are claiming you are?
Uhh.. what am I going to sue them for? Taking my four dollar check at the grocery store for my super-jumbo pack of Ramen? I cant believe its all that illegal, since a lot of stores require your phone AND ssn on a check.
Ya know what? I dont object at providing my drivers license to get on a plane. I have nothing to hide! I wonder why so many people balk at being searched, or providing their drivers license. What do *you* have to hide?
I am required to provide my license, registration, and insurance to any police officer upon request. If I dont like that requirement, I dont drive.
BTW: I read the page the other fella linked to.. the FAA regs for photo ID.. it says the FAA requires that you show an ID *OR* go through other procedures.. it also says the airlines are free to add regulations over and above that, and it is up to the airlines.
If it keeps another plane from toppling a tower, I have no issues with whipping my license out to prove who I am. (Since it is the ONLY nationally accepted ID system I know of)
Ahh.. so you have found the one word I cant figure out how to spell off the top of my head. COngratulations. To find your prize for discovering this, stick your head up your ass and look around.
Can you, Mr. Joe citizen, be stopped while walking down the street by Mr. Man-In-Black FBI Agent and searched, without cause, without suspicion, just for walking down the street?
You sure can. Its called an "investigate person" charge. The usual comment is "you matched the description of someone wanted for a crime" and in most areas, the police can hold you for at least 24 hours on that alone. (Trust me.. its happened to me, and its legal) Now same situation, but that person is in a car. Can you be searched, by a federal officer, without cause or suspicion? The answer is *mostly* no - if they see something in plain sight that could give them exegent circumstances and allow them to search the car and you.
Depends.. do you consider the cops to be federal officers? Probably not.. but.. I have yet to see a cop who cannot pull over a suspicious person for SOME reason (I thought you had a bad registration. I see that it is current. Mind if I search your car? No? I cant? Wait here please..) and in some cases, they can get a warrant on the spot to do it, if there is a judge handy to a phone. Its not all that hard to get nailed for doing nothing wrong.
How is it any different from walking down the street. The government owns both transportation mediums (airport, street/highways). The person checking you was is a government employee (FBI vs. Transportation Sercurity Force). How is one contrained by the 4th amendment and not another?
The government doesnt own the airport any more than it owns Conrail or your local bus company. THey are REGULATED by a government agency, but so is UPS. and FEDEX for that matter. What the person at the ticket counter asks for is no more governmental than I am. Its a policy of said airline. (If you can show me a federal regulation requiring people to show ID, I may change my tune). But to use your analogy, yes, they can. The federal government has regulations regarding the use of roads and highways by citizens. THey are fairly lax and quiet, but they exist. SO there is already a precedent.
I have never been checked in an airport by a "smith". I have always been checked by private security forces hired by the owner/manager of the airport for the purpose of maintaining security. The Guardsman with the AR-15 has never asked to see my bags.
Wiht comments like "Mr Gilmore challenges every secret regulation"... what does he EXPECT is going to happen?
Guess what.. its illegal to require you to give your social security number in most instances.. but it is NOT illegal to refuse service to someone who wont give it. Your "giving" is voluntary, not forced. Their service to you is voluntary as well.
Gilmore is looking more and more like a nutter. If (and the press release isnt real clear on this) he thinks this a government conspiracy, then suing them isnt going to help. However, it seems he has run afoul of airline policy, not governmental policy. More than half the flying I do is into and out of Canada. I am totally accustomed to whipping out drivers license AND birth certificate to get in OR out of both. (Ironically, it is easier for me to get into Canada, than it is to get back into the US most times.. and Im an american citizen, born and bred, and I live in the US).
Gilmore is just trying for publicity, as far as I can tell.. the airline is no more "required" to service him than I am if someone shows up at my front door and says "wash my car".
ON the other hand, the airlines are the ONLY industry in the world that can operate the way they do, and treat customers the way they do, and get away with it. I still wonder how they survived this long. Delays, cancelled flights, rude treatment of customers (and treatment like so many cattle) non-refund of messed up tickets.. but they are the only game in town, they know it, and there isnt much you can do about it.
(Especially if you are a senator, and can hop military or private transport anywhere you want, and avoid commercial airlines totally, while still "overseeing" them).
Did they ever raise the speed limit? I remember back in the 80s and 90s, driving across the border and being greeted by a big sign that basically said "Welcome to Pennsylvania, where the state speed limit is still 55 mph and fines for speeding are as follows:" Having gotten used to driving in states where the limits were 70-75 outside of urbanized areas, that always made me laugh (and slow down;-)
Yeah. We went up to 65 on certain roads.. but half the turnpike is still 55, inexplicably. Stands to reason though, states that moved above 55 MPH risked losing government funding for roads and highways. If you know ANYTHING about PennDOT you realize its corrupt as all get out and cant fix a road ANYWAY, let alone without government funding. Add to that that PA has more miles of road than any other state in the union, and you realize the issue.
But yeah.. we are still backwards.. we still have to go to a state-run store to get booze, and a beer specific store to get beer in anything over a six pack. Beer is sold ONLY in cases.. (24 for you canucks, eh?) and you cant mix and match within the case, unless it was produced that way.
You should drive from Bristol Tennessee to PA sometime.. you cross something like 5 states (Tn, Va, WV, MD, PA) and *all* of them have different speed limits, driving rules (drive right pass left) turn on red status and everything else. And they are posted on a postage stamp sign at the worst possible place to stop and try and read them on a blind corner on a high speed four lane road.
Soon you'll see targed ads in your schedule gude, on the music channels. And the ultimate: popping up while you're playing back your program.
I dont know about anyone else, but with my Tivo and my DirecTV subscription, I already get this. The "digital music channels" (those above 800) already have ads.. for Target, for specific albums you are listening to, and for albums you "might like".. which, granted, I would rather watch than ads for "pantyliners with wings".
We also get pop-ups in the "tivo" section of like, this Counting Crows interview they are busy pushing now, in hopes that I will pay a bunch of money for a crappy PPV.
If Advertisers want to get my money, they should make ads that catch my attention, and make sure they dont play them over and over and over and over. I will never play GTA simply BECAUSE I have to sit through that stupid opera ad about 47 times to watch a single episode of WWE RAW. Its the same thing with top-40 radio. I hate the songs because i hear them twice an hour.
(And our local 80s station is doing exactly the same thing with 80s music now.. its an "all 80s" station, but its the same 12 songs, hour after hour.. they are on a pretty heavy madonna kick right now).
Basic upshot: If you want to advertise to me, do it in a way that I will watch. Otherwise, dont scream when I dont buy your stuff. Oh, and you may want to look at your corporate politics as well.. its more than likely that the reason you arent selling to a significant demographic (nerds) is cause your company does something we dont like, and we boycott.
Despite timid al3x's embarasment, I'm happy that someone spoke up and represented freedom
Remind me to show up and represent freedom at your wedding. Dude.. its not that they had points to make, but as Alex put it, they were more distracting and annoying than informative. Thats a black mark. It looks bad. And when you are dealing with the type of people on the offensive that we are now, that is not-affordable.
Those of you who would represent the crowd as "hippies" who "think this is still the sixties and that they were at a rally", can fuck off. Silly smear tactics like that won't wash of the facts of Paladium, Carnivore, Passport, CSS "zones" and all that other evil shit aimed at making pay per play, no fair use, and complete editorial control of all digital media. The real ugglies are those who would make laws to force perverse technology that no one wants.
Who is using a smear tactic? I was merely pointing out that running into congress and screaming is not the way to get a bill passed. Yelling and interrupting people (not just snickering) is not the way to be viewed as an intelligent person looking for discourse. It is how to be viewed as a heckler. And no-one cares what a heckler has to say.
as all that "evil shit" is concerned, no amount of acting like a jackass at a roundtable discussion is going to help. Getting RMS to speak clearly, concisely, and make sense might help. Getting him not to contradict himself in five sentences might help too. If he cant do it, get someone else in there who can, but we need a slick polished able-to-talk-and-be-heard person just as much as they do. We just dont have one right now.
You are not a revolutionary, neither are these people who are disrupting the round-table. (At least, you may be in your own mind, but others view those antics as childish and boorish.. much like telling people to fuck off is viewed).
As far as recording the text, its much easier to get your point across using a point-counterpoint than with one railing flailing article that doesnt give concise instances of what you are arguing *against*
Well, Albany is nicely located in NYS. Its also close enough to Canada that drawing people over the border to work there is feasible. Add to that the fact that its not a terrible part of the country weather/climate wise. (We dont get earthquakes, typhoons, torrential flooding, mudslides, wildfires a-la the west, and damn few tornados) and you have a safe place for your busines.
It is also considered NE corridor (or close to it) and they can probably suck in a lot of people who have been downsized/lost here due to the horrible economical situations of late. Many people probably wouldnt relocate to California or Texas, but might move an hour west to be in Albany from NYC.
Plus, you get all the people from NYC who dont want to live IN NYC but want to be close enough to visit.
I live about 2.5 hours from NYC, and we have people living here who work there, and *drive* there daily. the number of cars that sat empty in train and bus station lots after 9-11 kind of pointed that one home pretty hard.
Its not a bad part of the country.. NY state may also have much more lenient laws on things like pollution, building, etc etc. Probably lower land prices has a lot to do with it as well. And lower taxes.
Notice, nowhere does it say anything (at least not that I read) about attempting to liscence consumers. Or collect said royalty from consumers. Merely the companies that make the devices. This could have two potential negative impacts: 1 drive up the prices, or two, drive the development of new processes for getting better compression that looks better. (Lets face it, Jpgs are pretty crappy.. there are better alternatives out there, just not in as widespread use).
It is owned by the company listed as a subsidiary of forgent in the news story, and the names of all the inventors are listed on the patent.
The patent doesnt mention the word jpg or jpeg _that i noticed_ but instead goes deeply into the formulaic algorhythm covering how it is done. Wonder if they are gearing up to jump on anyone who uses a close algorhythm for compression? (wouldnt that suck for all the DiVX developers out there?)
This is a truly great idea. Anyone know the rules regarding PSA's and whether or not they are available for free/low cost? What type of organization might we need to put together to get one? I know the political/big business has a *lot* of advertising clout in this area, we need some too.
Better than having Mickey step on a house, or an orwellian future portrayed might just be a simple ad stating that your rights are under assault, that, for instance, you no longer have the right to make a backup copy of your latest CD purchase due to the DMCA. I think that it had suge huge support merely because NO ONE CARED.
Getting people to notice something (even joe six pack) is tough.. but once you do it, it carries a lot of force behind it. Look at the marijuana referendum out in the midwest. That happened because joe six-pack is fed up with ridiculous arrests and silly court cases. It certainly must have had a LOT of groundswell support, simply because the official government line is "war on drugs". People are slowly getting fed up with the government, to the point where (I think it was louisiana?) told the government to go pound sand and keep their federal highway funding, rather then order the state around. That only happened due to concerned citizens as well.
Remember.. even if they "dont get it" doesnt mean that the proper rhetoric wont make them believe they are moving for something good. (See Clinton election for more info)
Well, this is going to be the problem in the future folks, if we ever want to get anywhere.
There is a reason there are "professional lobbyists" and "professional activists". These people know how to play within the power structure and know how to purport themselves at a discussion or a meeting or a hearing.
These "activists" that the author was speaking of seem to think this is still the sixties, and that they were at a rally. When someone is on the stage, you dont boo and yell at them, you let them speak. If you must be heard, put one of your own people up there, or take a point-counterpoint text version of their comments and get it out there.
But dont act like complete boors, lest you taint the rest of us with the view that we are *ALL* socially inept nerd-boyz (a-la the "arch nemesisis" on Buffy) rather than savvy people who may not have the money or size to work within the system *yet* but will someday.
One instance of the wrong person seeing people act like doofusi in a public setting like that can ruin the good value of a hundred positive but thought provoking emails.
It`s a great idea to send Mark Shuttleworth into space. While he`s there he can gaze down upon the continent of Africa and ponder why it is that a white South African can waste millions turning himself into a artificial satellite while millions more black South Africans slowly die because they don`t have the money to buy anti AIDS drugs. Nice to know he`s got his priorities right.
SO, when are you giving me a shell acct on your box? Its obvious you have something I dont have, therefore it is my RIGHT to have access to something you own, simply cause I dont got it and you do.
I've heard a great deal of talk about NASA supporting itself with private space launches, but should we be thinking the other way around?
NASA could be self supporting next week, if the US.GOV would stop glomming all the developments that NASA comes up with and not paying them back for it.
The list of things invented for the SPace Program that have become public domain is immense.. there used to be an entire magazine dedicated to it called "spinoff". However, NASA, and their affiliated agencies, make no money off these inventions once they are released from "top secret" status.
Just think.. one penny from the sale of anything that has Teflon on it would do quite a bit of good for NASA. How bout all those anti-fog window treatments? NASA developed the specific technology that makes them work. The list goes on and on..
Lets stop NASA from being a boondoggle by allowing it to make some money, and maybe we can stop shooting worn out space-planes up to the ISS, and maybe we can afford to build it right the first time.. without having to rely on Russian and ROC to handle components that come in late, grossly overbudget, and flawed.
Lets start putting 1/3 of the money into NASA that we put into the development of a new gun for to kill people with.
Alas, it will never happen, because so many people think A) the whole thing is fake, or B) we have no reason to be in Space, or C) there is no point to studying space, because no good can come of it.
Don't be misled. Maybe you are too young to remember, or weren't in the industry, but the VB-based viruses are far tamer than some of the older Bulgarian viruses that used to attack DOS and Novell systems - those viruses would actually destroy the *hardware*. Unix has plenty of exploitable aspects - there was a vulnerability in pine that allowed for the execution of arbitrary code, there have been sendmail holes, worms, and other vulnerabilities. The unix model has been criticized by none other than RMS (when defending the HURD model) for its promiscuous reliance on SUID.
No.. I remember them.. but it still seems that Microsofts very design and failure to treat VB as something security-wise risky has contributed a lot too the spread of this stuff. Not to mention the ease of use of "autoreply" and "autoforward" and all manner of other things that just about any monkey can use now. (Thanks Bill!)
Hell.. my wife got notified that she is "propagating" it because her work account (corporate) is tryign to autoforward it to our home account (which is a setup that has been in effect for three years, at least).
She hasnt even read the work account in a month.
Unix has fewer exploitable aspects that it used to, and the main difference is when we find em, we find and publish fixes for em. Windows first says "ignore the man behind the curtain" and then says "here.. run this patchall, and life will be grand."
Sheesh people. Someday, the business world will get tired of paying for the privelege of having MS set up their software to fail. Ya think?
During Iloveyou, our whole corporate mail system was down for nearly two days. On this last go-round, it didnt go down, it just got really really ugly as they began scrubbing. Cant wait to see what this one does.
Course.. moderate intelligence could prevent this.. remove the preview pane option from Outlook on the users desktop.. educate your users NOT TO OPEN CRAP LIKE THIS!. (what a concept).
Course, that would take away the jobs of many highly paid professionals who are on retainer just for this sort of outbreak.
*sigh*.. My wife is one of them.. guess I wont see her for a few days again.
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but I can show you stores where their check cashing policy is clearly stated as "current address, phone, and social security number required to cash checks without a check cashing card". And they mean it. And its legal. They are doing YOU a courtesy by taking the check. If you dont want to provide your SSN, pay in cash or use a credit card. But they require an SSN to use a check.
Maeryk
I see Palladium as the content industry's Trojan horse. It's pretty clear that they want to shut out smaller, independent players from a market they already control. Fact is, Hollywood has been making more money, not less, since piracy has started. And if the record industry has been selling less CDs, it's mostly because of two things: a) they publish more crap than quality and b) people are buying lots more DVDs nowadays (with either the same amount of disposable income or less). Check the numbers and do the math, and whatever you do don't believe the hype that Palladium is "trustworthy computing".
I agree 1000% with what you have said. But boneheaded statements like NO ONE HAS THE RIGHT TO TELL ME WHAT TO RUN! are ludicrous. Which was my point. I certainly dont think Palladium is a GOOD thing.. but at the place I work, someone very nearly got fired for CONCATENATING TWO LINES when configuring a print server. THe network security boyz called it "hacking" to put two lines together instead of using a return and second line. (Course, this is on really freakin old emulex hardware).
Still.. screaming like an idiot wont help anyone.
And saying "if I can rip it, you cant stop me" doesnt help our cause either.
I agree MP3's are illegal. As are pirated movies. Do they help the movie industry? In my case they do.. I saw AOTC pirate before I saw it in the theater.. and it looked good enough that I actually paid to see it.. otherwise I would have waited for it on HBO. Same with MIB2.
But that doesnt justify pirating movies. Its *still* illegal.
Maeryk
There is no balance to be had. There is no difference between a computer and any other publishing machine. It is illegal to use a printing press to publish someone else's book or cash, but no one feels the need to gaurd each and every one of them. Why is it that someone is thinking of tacking a dongle onto my motherboard to "protect" music and other rapciously copyrighted garbage? Anything that acomplishes their goals makes someone else the owner of my machine, as they will have files I can not erase that will decide what I can and can not coppy. It's completely unAmerican.
Its a lot different. A printing press requires hundreds of thousand or millions of dollars to purchase and operate. A computer doesnt. A computer can produce thousand of copies almost instantly.
Whats completely unamerican about it? Thats like saying bank guards are unamerican, because anyone should be able to walk in and take money, and assuming someone is going to try is going against your freedoms!
You dont get it, do you? Copying copyrighted material on your PC is ILLEGAL. By having it you are BREAKING THE LAW. I would be a lot more pissed if they were actually doing something to limit legal activities. But if you choose to intentionally flout the law, expect to be nailed for it.
Maeryk
Um, Linux has never had a virus. EVER. NEVER!!! Palladium is not going to make a million virii suddenly pop out of nowhere for Linux and start infecting machines. Linux has a little thing called USER SECURITY that pretects users from loosing data to virii like that.
/ass/head will ya?
Sure it does. SO does Outlook. Its called "turn off the preview pane" among other things. There are plenty of trojans for Linux. Whether you consider them a "virus" depends on whether you know what you are talkign about, or are a copy writer for MSNBC.
ANY amount of control over my computer is a voilation of my RIGHTS. It doesnt matter if its the computer at my house or my workstation at work. My IT department has NO BUSINNESS telling me what I can and can't run on my workstation. It's MINE.
Uhh.. really? I think you are pretty severely mistaken. As long as you are operating within the laws, yeah.. you may be right. But everyone has plenty of business telling you what you can and cannot run on your workstation. Pirated software, illegal content, running a webserver without permission on someone elses network.. these are all things you AINT SUPPOSED TO DO.
Screaming "you are violating my civil rights by not letting me break the law" is rediculous.
Your company has EVERY right to tell you waht they do or dont want you running on "your" (their) workstation. Why? Corporate licensing, lack of compatibility with their preferred software, their agreements with software manufacturers, and their liability for a few.
Linux doesnt "rule".. it does perform very well in certain situations.. Windows does too, depending on what you are looking at for a system.
dude.. rm -rf
Maeryk
Privacy should be the default; if you only demand it when you're "hiding" something (whether from unjust laws or nosy neighbors) then everyone immediately knows you're hiding something. And these days, rights that aren't defended have a way of disappearing. The airport needs to know the size and weight of my body and luggage, and ensure I can't disrupt the flight, not who I am or where I'm going (getting on the right plane is my problem), and "this guy's record says he's always been sane" is a poor substitute for bomb searches. A free society has no legitimate interest in the comings and goings of citizens
Yeah.. but I dont think they are actually interested in the "comings and goings". I dont think your flight info is going into any more of a database now than it was two years ago. Face it, the Airline has all that data anyway. THey know when you booked, how many you booked, who you booked through, where you are going, etc.
Getting on the right plane is *NOT* your problem, it is THEIR problem. Hence the fact that if you dont get on, they sit there and call and call and call for the passenger until the figure out they ran out of the airport. (I was on a plane that sat for almost an hour due to the fact that some idiot was sitting in the airport bar and forgot what time it was).
I certainly agree with people proving their identity to pick up a ticket! what if I order Etickets, and someone reads the Email I sent the order in with, and decides that a free flight to Hawaii would be nice, shows up three hours early (since I only show up two hours early) says "Yeah.. Im Maeryk.. gimme my tickets".. OH.. have a nice day sir! Heres your boarding pass!
I dont see how this is a "bad thing". Its a "good thing".
Granted.. all that going down in some database somewhere may be a bad thing.. but its already (and always has) been there! What do you think flight manifests are? Airlines have been keeping track of who sits in what seat and flew to what destination for years!
And you are absolutely right..a free society has no legitimate interest.. but how do you prove that the person picking up the ticket is a CITIZEN? My wife is not a citizen.. shes a canadian transplant.. Granted, requiring an ID will not weed out everything, but it just might cut down on the attempts.
Maeryk
Nope. Look here. [faa.gov] See, you do not need a photo ID, but if you do not present one the FAA requires that "airlines apply additional security measures to passengers who are unable to produce ID upon request". It's not just an airline policy, if they ask you for ID and refuse/dont have any they have to basically have someone follow you around and/or search you intensively. Instead of doing that they just say "get lost". Via these regulations the FAA has created a de-facto requirement for identification.
Go back and read that again. You will notice it says that airlines may make stricter regulations than the FAA requires, but at a minimum they must follow FAA regs.
Therefore, there is no "defacto" there is just the airline saying "If you dont have a photo ID, piss off" which is well within their rights.
I dont have an issue with showing my drivers license to prove IM who I say I am on the ticket.. your name is already on the ticket, and your address is probably available from the damn billing info anyway, so what IS the issue about proving you are who you are claiming you are?
Maeryk
Uhh.. what am I going to sue them for? Taking my four dollar check at the grocery store for my super-jumbo pack of Ramen? I cant believe its all that illegal, since a lot of stores require your phone AND ssn on a check.
Ya know what? I dont object at providing my drivers license to get on a plane. I have nothing to hide! I wonder why so many people balk at being searched, or providing their drivers license. What do *you* have to hide?
I am required to provide my license, registration, and insurance to any police officer upon request. If I dont like that requirement, I dont drive.
BTW: I read the page the other fella linked to.. the FAA regs for photo ID.. it says the FAA requires that you show an ID *OR* go through other procedures.. it also says the airlines are free to add regulations over and above that, and it is up to the airlines.
If it keeps another plane from toppling a tower, I have no issues with whipping my license out to prove who I am. (Since it is the ONLY nationally accepted ID system I know of)
Maeryk
Ahh.. so you have found the one word I cant figure out how to spell off the top of my head. COngratulations. To find your prize for discovering this, stick your head up your ass and look around.
Whats an "SCA fuckwit"?
Maeryk
Can you, Mr. Joe citizen, be stopped while walking down the street by Mr. Man-In-Black FBI Agent and searched, without cause, without suspicion, just for walking down the street?
You sure can. Its called an "investigate person" charge. The usual comment is "you matched the description of someone wanted for a crime" and in most areas, the police can hold you for at least 24 hours on that alone. (Trust me.. its happened to me, and its legal)
Now same situation, but that person is in a car. Can you be searched, by a federal officer, without cause or suspicion? The answer is *mostly* no - if they see something in plain sight that could give them exegent circumstances and allow them to search the car and you.
Depends.. do you consider the cops to be federal officers? Probably not.. but.. I have yet to see a cop who cannot pull over a suspicious person for SOME reason (I thought you had a bad registration. I see that it is current. Mind if I search your car? No? I cant? Wait here please..) and in some cases, they can get a warrant on the spot to do it, if there is a judge handy to a phone. Its not all that hard to get nailed for doing nothing wrong.
How is it any different from walking down the street. The government owns both transportation mediums (airport, street/highways). The person checking you was is a government employee (FBI vs. Transportation Sercurity Force). How is one contrained by the 4th amendment and not another?
The government doesnt own the airport any more than it owns Conrail or your local bus company. THey are REGULATED by a government agency, but so is UPS. and FEDEX for that matter. What the person at the ticket counter asks for is no more governmental than I am. Its a policy of said airline. (If you can show me a federal regulation requiring people to show ID, I may change my tune). But to use your analogy, yes, they can. The federal government has regulations regarding the use of roads and highways by citizens. THey are fairly lax and quiet, but they exist. SO there is already a precedent.
I have never been checked in an airport by a "smith". I have always been checked by private security forces hired by the owner/manager of the airport for the purpose of maintaining security. The Guardsman with the AR-15 has never asked to see my bags.
Maeryk
okay.. so I screwed the last one up.
Wiht comments like "Mr Gilmore challenges every secret regulation"... what does he EXPECT is going to happen?
Guess what.. its illegal to require you to give your social security number in most instances.. but it is NOT illegal to refuse service to someone who wont give it. Your "giving" is voluntary, not forced. Their service to you is voluntary as well.
Gilmore is looking more and more like a nutter. If (and the press release isnt real clear on this) he thinks this a government conspiracy, then suing them isnt going to help. However, it seems he has run afoul of airline policy, not governmental policy. More than half the flying I do is into and out of Canada. I am totally accustomed to whipping out drivers license AND birth certificate to get in OR out of both. (Ironically, it is easier for me to get into Canada, than it is to get back into the US most times.. and Im an american citizen, born and bred, and I live in the US).
Gilmore is just trying for publicity, as far as I can tell.. the airline is no more "required" to service him than I am if someone shows up at my front door and says "wash my car".
ON the other hand, the airlines are the ONLY industry in the world that can operate the way they do, and treat customers the way they do, and get away with it. I still wonder how they survived this long. Delays, cancelled flights, rude treatment of customers (and treatment like so many cattle) non-refund of messed up tickets.. but they are the only game in town, they know it, and there isnt much you can do about it.
(Especially if you are a senator, and can hop military or private transport anywhere you want, and avoid commercial airlines totally, while still "overseeing" them).
This suit will fail. He will be laughed at. Lots.
Maeryk
Did they ever raise the speed limit? I remember back in the 80s and 90s, driving across the border and being greeted by a big sign that basically said "Welcome to Pennsylvania, where the state speed limit is still 55 mph and fines for speeding are as follows:" Having gotten used to driving in states where the limits were 70-75 outside of urbanized areas, that always made me laugh (and slow down ;-)
Yeah. We went up to 65 on certain roads.. but half the turnpike is still 55, inexplicably. Stands to reason though, states that moved above 55 MPH risked losing government funding for roads and highways. If you know ANYTHING about PennDOT you realize its corrupt as all get out and cant fix a road ANYWAY, let alone without government funding. Add to that that PA has more miles of road than any other state in the union, and you realize the issue.
But yeah.. we are still backwards.. we still have to go to a state-run store to get booze, and a beer specific store to get beer in anything over a six pack. Beer is sold ONLY in cases.. (24 for you canucks, eh?) and you cant mix and match within the case, unless it was produced that way.
You should drive from Bristol Tennessee to PA sometime.. you cross something like 5 states (Tn, Va, WV, MD, PA) and *all* of them have different speed limits, driving rules (drive right pass left) turn on red status and everything else. And they are posted on a postage stamp sign at the worst possible place to stop and try and read them on a blind corner on a high speed four lane road.
Maeryk
Gee.. maybe THAT is why I have had so many dying urges to go to Sourceforge lately..maybe its coming from my DVR! :P
Maeryk
Soon you'll see targed ads in your schedule gude, on the music channels. And the ultimate: popping up while you're playing back your program.
I dont know about anyone else, but with my Tivo and my DirecTV subscription, I already get this. The "digital music channels" (those above 800) already have ads.. for Target, for specific albums you are listening to, and for albums you "might like".. which, granted, I would rather watch than ads for "pantyliners with wings".
We also get pop-ups in the "tivo" section of like, this Counting Crows interview they are busy pushing now, in hopes that I will pay a bunch of money for a crappy PPV.
If Advertisers want to get my money, they should make ads that catch my attention, and make sure they dont play them over and over and over and over. I will never play GTA simply BECAUSE I have to sit through that stupid opera ad about 47 times to watch a single episode of WWE RAW. Its the same thing with top-40 radio. I hate the songs because i hear them twice an hour.
(And our local 80s station is doing exactly the same thing with 80s music now.. its an "all 80s" station, but its the same 12 songs, hour after hour.. they are on a pretty heavy madonna kick right now).
Basic upshot: If you want to advertise to me, do it in a way that I will watch. Otherwise, dont scream when I dont buy your stuff. Oh, and you may want to look at your corporate politics as well.. its more than likely that the reason you arent selling to a significant demographic (nerds) is cause your company does something we dont like, and we boycott.
Maeryk
Thanks for the info! I wasnt aware.. I live in PA.. (State motto: Welcome to Pennsylvania, the Laws are Different here!")
:)
THere is a reason I said "may"
Maeryk
Despite timid al3x's embarasment, I'm happy that someone spoke up and represented freedom
Remind me to show up and represent freedom at your wedding. Dude.. its not that they had points to make, but as Alex put it, they were more distracting and annoying than informative. Thats a black mark. It looks bad. And when you are dealing with the type of people on the offensive that we are now, that is not-affordable.
Those of you who would represent the crowd as "hippies" who "think this is still the sixties and that they were at a rally", can fuck off. Silly smear tactics like that won't wash of the facts of Paladium, Carnivore, Passport, CSS "zones" and all that other evil shit aimed at making pay per play, no fair use, and complete editorial control of all digital media. The real ugglies are those who would make laws to force perverse technology that no one wants.
Who is using a smear tactic? I was merely pointing out that running into congress and screaming is not the way to get a bill passed. Yelling and interrupting people (not just snickering) is not the way to be viewed as an intelligent person looking for discourse. It is how to be viewed as a heckler. And no-one cares what a heckler has to say.
as all that "evil shit" is concerned, no amount of acting like a jackass at a roundtable discussion is going to help. Getting RMS to speak clearly, concisely, and make sense might help. Getting him not to contradict himself in five sentences might help too. If he cant do it, get someone else in there who can, but we need a slick polished able-to-talk-and-be-heard person just as much as they do. We just dont have one right now.
You are not a revolutionary, neither are these people who are disrupting the round-table. (At least, you may be in your own mind, but others view those antics as childish and boorish.. much like telling people to fuck off is viewed).
As far as recording the text, its much easier to get your point across using a point-counterpoint than with one railing flailing article that doesnt give concise instances of what you are arguing *against*
Maeryk
Well, Albany is nicely located in NYS. Its also close enough to Canada that drawing people over the border to work there is feasible. Add to that the fact that its not a terrible part of the country weather/climate wise. (We dont get earthquakes, typhoons, torrential flooding, mudslides, wildfires a-la the west, and damn few tornados) and you have a safe place for your busines.
It is also considered NE corridor (or close to it) and they can probably suck in a lot of people who have been downsized/lost here due to the horrible economical situations of late. Many people probably wouldnt relocate to California or Texas, but might move an hour west to be in Albany from NYC.
Plus, you get all the people from NYC who dont want to live IN NYC but want to be close enough to visit.
I live about 2.5 hours from NYC, and we have people living here who work there, and *drive* there daily. the number of cars that sat empty in train and bus station lots after 9-11 kind of pointed that one home pretty hard.
Its not a bad part of the country.. NY state may also have much more lenient laws on things like pollution, building, etc etc. Probably lower land prices has a lot to do with it as well. And lower taxes.
Maeryk
Notice, nowhere does it say anything (at least not that I read) about attempting to liscence consumers. Or collect said royalty from consumers.
Merely the companies that make the devices.
This could have two potential negative impacts: 1 drive up the prices, or two, drive the development of new processes for getting better compression that looks better. (Lets face it, Jpgs are pretty crappy.. there are better alternatives out there, just not in as widespread use).
maeryk
I read through the patent listed in the story.
It is owned by the company listed as a subsidiary of forgent in the news story, and the names of all the inventors are listed on the patent.
The patent doesnt mention the word jpg or jpeg _that i noticed_ but instead goes deeply into the formulaic algorhythm covering how it is done. Wonder if they are gearing up to jump on anyone who uses a close algorhythm for compression? (wouldnt that suck for all the DiVX developers out there?)
maeryk
This is a truly great idea. Anyone know the rules regarding PSA's and whether or not they are available for free/low cost? What type of organization might we need to put together to get one? I know the political/big business has a *lot* of advertising clout in this area, we need some too.
Better than having Mickey step on a house, or an orwellian future portrayed might just be a simple ad stating that your rights are under assault, that, for instance, you no longer have the right to make a backup copy of your latest CD purchase due to the DMCA. I think that it had suge huge support merely because NO ONE CARED.
Getting people to notice something (even joe six pack) is tough.. but once you do it, it carries a lot of force behind it. Look at the marijuana referendum out in the midwest. That happened because joe six-pack is fed up with ridiculous arrests and silly court cases. It certainly must have had a LOT of groundswell support, simply because the official government line is "war on drugs". People are slowly getting fed up with the government, to the point where (I think it was louisiana?) told the government to go pound sand and keep their federal highway funding, rather then order the state around. That only happened due to concerned citizens as well.
Remember.. even if they "dont get it" doesnt mean that the proper rhetoric wont make them believe they are moving for something good. (See Clinton election for more info)
Maeryk
Well, this is going to be the problem in the future folks, if we ever want to get anywhere.
There is a reason there are "professional lobbyists" and "professional activists". These
people know how to play within the power structure
and know how to purport themselves at a discussion or a meeting or a hearing.
These "activists" that the author was speaking of
seem to think this is still the sixties, and that they were at a rally. When someone is on the stage, you dont boo and yell at them, you let them speak. If you must be heard, put one of your own people up there, or take a point-counterpoint
text version of their comments and get it out there.
But dont act like complete boors, lest you taint the rest of us with the view that we are *ALL* socially inept nerd-boyz (a-la the "arch nemesisis" on Buffy) rather than savvy people who may not have the money or size to work within the system *yet* but will someday.
One instance of the wrong person seeing people act like doofusi in a public setting like that can ruin the good value of a hundred positive but
thought provoking emails.
Maeryk
It`s a great idea to send Mark Shuttleworth into space. While he`s there he can gaze down upon the continent of Africa and ponder why it is that a white South African can waste millions turning himself into a artificial satellite while millions more black South Africans slowly die because they don`t have the money to buy anti AIDS drugs. Nice to know he`s got his priorities right.
SO, when are you giving me a shell acct on your box? Its obvious you have something I dont have, therefore it is my RIGHT to have access to something you own, simply cause I dont got it and you do.
Maeryk
I've heard a great deal of talk about NASA supporting itself with private space launches, but should we be thinking the other way around?
NASA could be self supporting next week, if the US.GOV would stop glomming all the developments that NASA comes up with and not paying them back for it.
The list of things invented for the SPace Program that have become public domain is immense.. there used to be an entire magazine dedicated to it called "spinoff". However, NASA, and their affiliated agencies, make no money off these inventions once they are released from "top secret" status.
Just think.. one penny from the sale of anything that has Teflon on it would do quite a bit of good for NASA. How bout all those anti-fog window treatments? NASA developed the specific technology that makes them work. The list goes on and on..
Lets stop NASA from being a boondoggle by allowing it to make some money, and maybe we can stop shooting worn out space-planes up to the ISS, and maybe we can afford to build it right the first time.. without having to rely on Russian and ROC to handle components that come in late, grossly overbudget, and flawed.
Lets start putting 1/3 of the money into NASA that we put into the development of a new gun for to kill people with.
Alas, it will never happen, because so many people think A) the whole thing is fake, or B) we have no reason to be in Space, or C) there is no point to studying space, because no good can come of it.
(ALL WRONG, imho)
Maeryk
Or, her company should have some kind of firewall up to keep these things from hitting their internal account in the first place!
Don't be misled. Maybe you are too young to remember, or weren't in the industry, but the VB-based viruses are far tamer than some of the older Bulgarian viruses that used to attack DOS and Novell systems - those viruses would actually destroy the *hardware*. Unix has plenty of exploitable aspects - there was a vulnerability in pine that allowed for the execution of arbitrary code, there have been sendmail holes, worms, and other vulnerabilities. The unix model has been criticized by none other than RMS (when defending the HURD model) for its promiscuous reliance on SUID.
No.. I remember them.. but it still seems that Microsofts very design and failure to treat VB as something security-wise risky has contributed a lot too the spread of this stuff. Not to mention the ease of use of "autoreply" and "autoforward" and all manner of other things that just about any monkey can use now. (Thanks Bill!)
Hell.. my wife got notified that she is "propagating" it because her work account (corporate) is tryign to autoforward it to our home account (which is a setup that has been in effect for three years, at least).
She hasnt even read the work account in a month.
Unix has fewer exploitable aspects that it used to, and the main difference is when we find em, we find and publish fixes for em. Windows first says "ignore the man behind the curtain" and then says "here.. run this patchall, and life will be grand."
Maeryk
Sheesh people. Someday, the business world will get tired of paying for the privelege of having MS set up their software to fail. Ya think?
During Iloveyou, our whole corporate mail system was down for nearly two days. On this last go-round, it didnt go down, it just got really really ugly as they began scrubbing. Cant wait to see what this one does.
Course.. moderate intelligence could prevent this.. remove the preview pane option from Outlook on the users desktop.. educate your users NOT TO OPEN CRAP LIKE THIS!. (what a concept).
Course, that would take away the jobs of many highly paid professionals who are on retainer just for this sort of outbreak.
*sigh*.. My wife is one of them.. guess I wont see her for a few days again.
Maeryk