Yeah, I'm going to use my science fair project to shoot down a 747-400 at 30,000 feet.
Not at 30,000 feet, but during takeoff or landing.
That doesn't make the claim any less ridiculous, though. Why resort to something as unreliable as a model rocket when you could use an actual weapon (SAM, machinegun, take your pick) instead ?
Tell me, in concrete, practical terms, what the downside of my DNA being in a database is.
It massively inflates the number of possible suspects which may later turn out to have had absolutely nothing to with the crime in question, apart from having shed some microscopic flakes of skin at the crime scene several days earlier.
Merely being suspected of a crime can be pretty ruinous, even if the suspect turns out to be completely innocent.
And framing people for crimes might become easier than ever. Especially if law enforcements becomes too reliant on the big cool DNA database instead of just using it as merely one of many toold for investigation.
Of course, once the DNA database goes past simple pattern matching (which person is DNA sample X from) to containing more genetic information (does person X have genes that make him/her prone to violence), things are getting very, very ugly.
Remember that guy who was going to be court martialed for shooting those poor, wounded men in a mosque a while back.
I think you're referring to the wrong Iraqis. The two guys here weren't wounded before they were shot.
Yeah! Because corporations can come to your house at gunpoint and throw you into a prison in Cuba while simultaneously stripping you of your unalienable rights.
Good point.
But... who or what keeps corporations (and other crooks) from doing these things to you ?
You trust the government to do that, right ? Because guns might protect you against the occasional burglar, but they are no good against intangible entities like corporations that could probably afford to hire a small army.
More likely, either the check-in agent or the border control at the airport you are trying to leave from will not let you on the plane.
Nope, that is definitely not going to happen. If you have a visa or not is of absolutely no concern to the airline or the country of departure (unless you're living in commie-land) whatsoever. If you are trying hard to get denied entry and deported by not having a visa, no one is going to save you from your own stupidity.
I promise you that the US allows private companies to do what the UK would never allow them to do, and the UK government is allowed to do things that the US government is not.
However, the US government (especially but not solely the executive branch) does not really care what it is allowed to do and does it anyway.
Having the names ran through a watch list -before- the takeoff seems like a sane and safe precaution with minimal loss of `freedom' (whatever you think freedom may be---when you're going to a foreign country).
Oh yeah... tell that to the parents who have been denied boarding because the name of their fscking baby was on some watch list.
Could the US simply refuse visas to anybody who will not provide them that information?
Yes. They can refuse to give anyone a visa, no special reason needed.
And could they turn away a plane carrying somebody without a visa?
Sure.
That's always struck me as odd, actually; what if they refuse you a visa?
Three words: You are screwed.
You've flown all that way for nothing?
Yup. Next time you fly over there, read all the little pieces of paper more carefully. One of them should say that you waive the right to contest the immigration officials decision on whether or not to grant you a tourist visa.
... lead to the hilarious situation that for a while, my wife, I, the travel agent and the US government were the only entities that knew what we wanted to name our son (months before he was actually born).
At least all the relatives still acted surprised when we told them the name.
The German education system, to my American eyes, is somewhat brutal.
No, it's not, even if Americans repeat this crap again and again and again.
Also, Germans go through whatever school route they were set on before puberty and that's that.
Not, that's not that.
It is perfectly possible to get any degree at any point later in your life, if you have the motivation and the will to work for it.
Want an example ?
Former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. He started out with the Hauptschule and learned a trade, and worked his way up the education ladder to a degree in Law.
Does that mean it has finally reached some degree of maturity ?
And sorry to disappoint you - since the chipset-cpu interface remains the same, the "old" chipsets can be used for AM2 processors, as long as the mainboard has an AM2- and DDR2-sockets.
1. The "working code" is several kB of sparsely documented assembly for a completely different (and old) CPU.
2. The people who wrote it have long since left the company.
3. The "working code" was obviously designed, written and debugged over period of several years by several people, while you have six months to come up with a new working solution on your own ?
Of course, no one would ever end up in a situation like this. Never ever *COUGH*irewrotethewholedamnthing*COUGH*.
But hey!! Check out power consumption figures! They state 85 watts in idle and 145.6 watts under load for their "winner" card (Radeon X1300). W.T.F.?! That's like three times more than my 90nm AMD64 CPU, right?
Yes. Doing a simple sanity check should reveal that the power consumption figures probably include the rest of the system, since this is much easier to measure than the power consumption of the graphics card alone.
... just consider buying one of yesterdays "mainstream" cards. An X800 GTO will wipe the floor with any of the crippled budget cards, while being in the same price range (assumed you can find the version with 128 MB GDDR1 memory, the slightly faster GDDR3 versions cost a bit more).
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... because one of the two guys is going to be in permanent solitary confinement.
Not at 30,000 feet, but during takeoff or landing.
That doesn't make the claim any less ridiculous, though. Why resort to something as unreliable as a model rocket when you could use an actual weapon (SAM, machinegun, take your pick) instead ?
It massively inflates the number of possible suspects which may later turn out to have had absolutely nothing to with the crime in question, apart from having shed some microscopic flakes of skin at the crime scene several days earlier.
Merely being suspected of a crime can be pretty ruinous, even if the suspect turns out to be completely innocent.
And framing people for crimes might become easier than ever. Especially if law enforcements becomes too reliant on the big cool DNA database instead of just using it as merely one of many toold for investigation.
Of course, once the DNA database goes past simple pattern matching (which person is DNA sample X from) to containing more genetic information (does person X have genes that make him/her prone to violence), things are getting very, very ugly.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/arti
Remember that guy who was going to be court martialed for shooting those poor, wounded men in a mosque a while back. I think you're referring to the wrong Iraqis. The two guys here weren't wounded before they were shot.
Good point.
But ... who or what keeps corporations (and other crooks) from doing these things to you ?
You trust the government to do that, right ? Because guns might protect you against the occasional burglar, but they are no good against intangible entities like corporations that could probably afford to hire a small army.
One might suspect that there is also a quota to be met.
Nope, that is definitely not going to happen. If you have a visa or not is of absolutely no concern to the airline or the country of departure (unless you're living in commie-land) whatsoever. If you are trying hard to get denied entry and deported by not having a visa, no one is going to save you from your own stupidity.
However, the US government (especially but not solely the executive branch) does not really care what it is allowed to do and does it anyway.
Oh yeah ... tell that to the parents who have been denied boarding because the name of their fscking baby was on some watch list.
Probably not. They would find the next flight that goes where you came from in the first place, and make very sure that you did not miss it.
Yes. They can refuse to give anyone a visa, no special reason needed.
And could they turn away a plane carrying somebody without a visa?
Sure.
That's always struck me as odd, actually; what if they refuse you a visa?
Three words: You are screwed.
You've flown all that way for nothing?
Yup. Next time you fly over there, read all the little pieces of paper more carefully. One of them should say that you waive the right to contest the immigration officials decision on whether or not to grant you a tourist visa.
At least all the relatives still acted surprised when we told them the name.
For example: "Must have pasta." ... muhahah.
No, it's not, even if Americans repeat this crap again and again and again.
Also, Germans go through whatever school route they were set on before puberty and that's that.
Not, that's not that.
It is perfectly possible to get any degree at any point later in your life, if you have the motivation and the will to work for it.
Want an example ?
Former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. He started out with the Hauptschule and learned a trade, and worked his way up the education ladder to a degree in Law.
And what if the new person happens to like his/her existence ?
Does that mean it has finally reached some degree of maturity ?
And sorry to disappoint you - since the chipset-cpu interface remains the same, the "old" chipsets can be used for AM2 processors, as long as the mainboard has an AM2- and DDR2-sockets.
Makes you wonder when the second amendment will be trumped...
You could send a message there (by radio/light) and expect the response (if there is any) to arrive while you're still alive ?
41 Ly is pretty much in our cosmic backyard. The next star is 7-something Ly away.
What if:
1. The "working code" is several kB of sparsely documented assembly for a completely different (and old) CPU.
2. The people who wrote it have long since left the company.
3. The "working code" was obviously designed, written and debugged over period of several years by several people, while you have six months to come up with a new working solution on your own ?
Of course, no one would ever end up in a situation like this. Never ever *COUGH*irewrotethewholedamnthing*COUGH*.
They're probably not dumb enough to leave a blindingly obvious money-/paper-trail from the author of the trojan to any high ranking execs of theirs.
Simple: Many of them cannot cross the blood-brain barrier. The few-thousand-buck ampoule would be essentially wasted.
Yes. Doing a simple sanity check should reveal that the power consumption figures probably include the rest of the system, since this is much easier to measure than the power consumption of the graphics card alone.
... just consider buying one of yesterdays "mainstream" cards. An X800 GTO will wipe the floor with any of the crippled budget cards, while being in the same price range (assumed you can find the version with 128 MB GDDR1 memory, the slightly faster GDDR3 versions cost a bit more).
If my vote gets lost, I can get sued under various laws that come into existence because of this (DMCA/PATRIOT-ACT/etc).