How is it spyware if they tell you it's sending data to the copyright holder? Isn't spyware supposed to be a bit more subtle than that?
Obviously you've never seen Spies Like Us. I mean they were spies, right, but was there any subtlety? No, I thought not. Don't even get me started on Ishtar...
We (here in Canada) already have levies on blank media (yeah, the equivalent to the MP/RIAA gets paid for every CD-ROM backup I make) -- what more could they want? Our first-born children? Our souls?
While I agree that the levy is ridiculous - virtually all of us buy blank CD's for data, etc. - there is a point to remember:
In Canada it is legal to make copies of CD's you own (of course). But it's also legal to make copies of someone else's CD's - provided you make the copy. Ie, I can borrow a friend's CD and burn a copy for my own use. I cannot burn a CD and give it to a friend - that would be distributing a copied disc.
So long as the disc is for personal use (no public presentations, radio, etc) you are legally free to make a copy of whatever you want. Just be the one who pushes that Burn button.
I'm still having a hard time figuring out how the last 5 seconds of data is going to be of any use (ok, maybe actuarial data) to the insurance company above and beyond helping figure out the cause of the crash.
Something like this: Insurance Co: So Mr. Andersen, in the accident report it says you were going 55mph at the time of the accident. You: yes, that's correct. Insurance Co: Really? That's very interesting! You see, according to this little black box your car was doing 70mph. You: uhhhhh Insurance Co: You should be careful doing that, your car could race up behind you and hit you in the ass.
We know that many teens are goddamned morons on the road as well - we don't need a black box to tell us that. Rather than putting these black boxes in cars to spy on our teens, we need to deal with the cause, not the symptoms: bad teen driving comes from a combination of outside pressure, overconfidence and under-training. For heavens sake - invest the money in teen driving training instead of these boxes!
Nice teen rant. To bad the woman who totaled my van was in her 40's.
I would've liked to have the data myself: throw it back at the cop who tossed me in the back of her cruiser for 2hrs claiming I was "DUI" when in fact I had 0 BAL and she was at fault (turned left in front of me while I had a green). The fact that people on the scene backed up my story didn't seem to matter.
You see, if you are male and twentysomething you are automatically at fault for anything.
Since you own the car (and thus the black box) I would assume that if anyone did want to get ahold of it against your will they would have to get a court order.
No you don't own the car - or rather, you won't in a moment.
Having been in a crash that totaled my vehicle (gotta love people who turn left in front of you without looking) I can tell you what happens: After the police and reporting nonsense your vehicle (or parts remaining of) go to a garage or adjusters location to be assessed. Once assessed the insurance company will tell you how much they will give you for it.
Here's the catch: They are buying the car off you.
When you go to collect your $ you sign and turn over the ownership, giving the insurance company total ownership. They are now free to do what they will with it... including checking the "black box".
So if you're car is totaled you might want to pull the box if you can. Mind you, they might have a few questions for you about where it went.
Passanger ID is used for more than just preventing ticket exchanges:
Accurate passanger manifests are important in identifing the dead after a crash - and for security. Not necessarily before the flight, but after as well.
Passanger manifests can be used to track people on the run (via their real names or known alias's - alias's which have corresponding ID, making it harder to change randomly) and to identify person(s) after a flight ("I was in seat 34c and the passanger who was two seats ahead of me was the person who..."). And if a known person is being sought out for whatever reason, the chances of them getting busted at an airport are much higher than, say, a bus terminal. Which could be good, it's hard to get too far by bus.
Event reconstruction is another important aspect. Say someone murders their wife and flees with the kid, having a record of flights they may have taken could help track them down.
I do want to point out, however, I do NOT support what the US Gov't is up to under the guise of "security" - including this airport nonsense. I just wanted to point out that basic ID is important for more than just preflight security.
Of course all music is subjective, even within a particlar classification, being a huge electronica/industrial fan may I recommend the following:
VNV Nation: particularly "Standing", "Savior (Vox)" and "Rubicon" - very club/dance but with an edge Covenant: examples include "Figurehead", "Dead Stars", and "Go Film" - generally a little darker than VNV, but still will an up beat. Cyber Tec or C-Tec: a Front 242 spinoff, good tunes include "She Left", "The Lost" (a personal fav) Claire Voyant: "Majesty", "Love the Giver" (which has a GREAT remix by Eskil Simonsson's) ----The rest are just group names, I can add song titles if anyone wants... Beborn Benton Evil Toys (aka TOY) Wolfsheim SPOCK (well Back on Mars anyway) Elegant Machinery And One Apoptygma Bezerk (older stuff preferably) Project Pitchform (industrial sound)
X Marks the Pedwalk Cobolt 60 Delerium Funker Vogt (not one of my favs, but they have some good tunes.) Haujobb Mentallo & the Fixer Nitzer Ebb ReWork Velvet Acid Christ (good!!) Wumpscut
None of these are in any particular order, but are a good overview of groups that I like. As always YMMV. If anyone wants some song titles lemme know...
...AND to reduce the interference other electronic devices might cause to your computer!...You don't even need to consider anything related to memory but just the hard drive cables at udma speeds of 33 and over are highly suspectible to noise!
Which is precisely why placing a Tektronix 608 Vector Scope (basically a CRT in a box) - that is hooked up to your soundcard to produce weird swirly effects - directly on top of your computer is a Very Bad Plan.
Trust me, I know from what I speak:
"Hey, that looks pretty cool." (mere moments later) "HEY! WHERE ARE ALL THESE BAD SECTORS COMING FROM?!!
Why not just join up with one of them? They are well organized and have been going on for years./. probably shares much of the same crowd anyway (with perhaps a few less Mitnick fans).
I fail to see how anything you mentioned is "dangerous" in the slighest! Let's look at this point-by-point:
1. The Obvious: "owning" another cell phone. And how exactly are you going to do this? Are you logging into the other phones? No. When you access a site on the Internet are you directly connecting to that remote system? Not bloody likely, you're connecting through a whole series of systems. Don't believe me? Try a little app called Traceroute.
Hopping from phone-to-phone-to-tower is not significantly different, in regards to a cracking threat, than the in between systems you access when surfing the net.
2. Radiation becomes a REAL risk, because the main broadcasting would be done by the phones, not the towers. Uh huh. Really? I don't recall any mention of the phones being goosed to 4 watts - or any increase in power output for that matter. If anything radiation would go DOWN - you only have to reach the nearest phone, not the nearest tower (which odds would suggest is further away from you). Inverse square law dictates a significant drop in output requirements.
4. Spam (another nuisance). And how is this supposed to work exactly? See my response to point 1. Spam would have to be directly targeted to the phone itself via SMS or text messaging (which does happen now).
5. Viruses. Again please explain this one. Sounds a whole lot like Point 1 again. You're hopping from phone to phone, not logging into the phone itself. The remote phone is lot running any applications on your behalf.
You're sounding like McAffee with the fearmongering.
I regularly fly around at 200 feet during the course of my job. 600ft is pretty high really, and certainly high enough for an above-average helicopter pilot to maintain control while flying down a wide city street.
For a project I was working on I wanted to do some shooting over Toronto at a height that would have worked out to around 400ft. They wouldn't let me.
The problem, as I discovered, is not an issue of whether it is safe to pilot at that altitude, but should some malfunction or other problem cause an emergency (or crash) landing. Legally (in Toronto anyway) the pilot must fly at a minimum of 1000ft in order to have enough altitude that (s)he can move the helicopter away from densely populated areas in the case of an emergency - rather than arbitrarily falling on top of whatever is directly below.
Now, in the case of a Sea King (the helicopter of "choice" for the Canadian Navy) I wouldn't want one flying at *any* altitude over a populated region. Something about 30,000 parts flying in formation that makes me nervous.
Then large
machines called 'thumpers' are put in place to cause deliberate seismic disturbances. The effects of these disturbances and underground interference to them are measured, mapped and analysed using the instrumentation that's scattered about.
Hmmmm, personally I would have thought the sandworms a dead give away!
A Justice Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Tuesday night that the e-mails were not destroyed.
FBI Agent 1: We have a problem... Carnivore was doing its thing, but we got caught grabbing stuff we shouldn't!
FBI Agent 2: Hmmm. I know! We claim that some lowly tech in a spat of moral outrage deletes ALL the material as he is so offended that it captured the, uhh, "non-target" mail, but we actually keep all the files and use them as we see fit.
Years back the Atari 2600 (and related) system had a button pad for accessing different functions of games.
The cool thing about Atari's pad was that it was designed to take different overlay templates for the buttons. Thus, once you had the pad the games only needed to bundle an appropriate template you could overlay on the pad.
This has the obvious advantage of making on controller re-useable, but it also meant buttons were correctly labled for the game - rather than having buttons AA through ZZ Alpha Plural Beta Z.
In Related News, Logitech Announces KeyMouse XP
on
E3 Controller Previews
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· Score: 4, Funny
In related news, Logitech announced today its new KeyMouse XP.
From the press release:
The KeyMouse XP is the worlds first mouse to integrate a 120 key keyboard inside a mouse. This gives the user the advantage of not having to switch between keyboard and mouse - a repetitive movement which costs the user time and productivity.
The keyboard is located between the left and right mouse buttons.
When asked how difficult this new mouse would be to handle Logitech would only say that the user would need a really big-ass mousepad.
Re:What happens during a power outage? CLOTHES!
on
Paintable LCDs
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· Score: 2
will your brand sparkly wallpaper just turn black?
I'd be slighly more concerned with my pants suddenly turning transparent...
Slashdot Mirror
Obviously you've never seen Spies Like Us. I mean they were spies, right, but was there any subtlety? No, I thought not. Don't even get me started on Ishtar...
While I agree that the levy is ridiculous - virtually all of us buy blank CD's for data, etc. - there is a point to remember:
In Canada it is legal to make copies of CD's you own (of course). But it's also legal to make copies of someone else's CD's - provided you make the copy. Ie, I can borrow a friend's CD and burn a copy for my own use. I cannot burn a CD and give it to a friend - that would be distributing a copied disc.
So long as the disc is for personal use (no public presentations, radio, etc) you are legally free to make a copy of whatever you want. Just be the one who pushes that Burn button.
Every other car? Bah! Obviously you've never driven in Montreal.
Something like this:
Insurance Co: So Mr. Andersen, in the accident report it says you were going 55mph at the time of the accident.
You: yes, that's correct.
Insurance Co: Really? That's very interesting! You see, according to this little black box your car was doing 70mph.
You: uhhhhh
Insurance Co: You should be careful doing that, your car could race up behind you and hit you in the ass.
That has to be one of my more creative typo's. Lets try that again,
Cops are never prejudicial...
Much better. Oh, and when I said it was "her fault" I meant the other driver and not the cop. Thank insert-deity-here I didn't hit her!
Nice teen rant. To bad the woman who totaled my van was in her 40's.
I would've liked to have the data myself: throw it back at the cop who tossed me in the back of her cruiser for 2hrs claiming I was "DUI" when in fact I had 0 BAL and she was at fault (turned left in front of me while I had a green). The fact that people on the scene backed up my story didn't seem to matter.
You see, if you are male and twentysomething you are automatically at fault for anything.
Remember, cops are never predujical...
No you don't own the car - or rather, you won't in a moment.
Having been in a crash that totaled my vehicle (gotta love people who turn left in front of you without looking) I can tell you what happens:
After the police and reporting nonsense your vehicle (or parts remaining of) go to a garage or adjusters location to be assessed. Once assessed the insurance company will tell you how much they will give you for it.
Here's the catch: They are buying the car off you.
When you go to collect your $ you sign and turn over the ownership, giving the insurance company total ownership. They are now free to do what they will with it... including checking the "black box".
So if you're car is totaled you might want to pull the box if you can. Mind you, they might have a few questions for you about where it went.
That's the first time I've seen someone getting smashed by the /. effect, and coming back asking for more!
Passanger ID is used for more than just preventing ticket exchanges:
Accurate passanger manifests are important in identifing the dead after a crash - and for security. Not necessarily before the flight, but after as well.
Passanger manifests can be used to track people on the run (via their real names or known alias's - alias's which have corresponding ID, making it harder to change randomly) and to identify person(s) after a flight ("I was in seat 34c and the passanger who was two seats ahead of me was the person who..."). And if a known person is being sought out for whatever reason, the chances of them getting busted at an airport are much higher than, say, a bus terminal. Which could be good, it's hard to get too far by bus.
Event reconstruction is another important aspect. Say someone murders their wife and flees with the kid, having a record of flights they may have taken could help track them down.
I do want to point out, however, I do NOT support what the US Gov't is up to under the guise of "security" - including this airport nonsense. I just wanted to point out that basic ID is important for more than just preflight security.
Oops, thanks. That's what I get for typing too fast and not bothering to read over it. Nice list, BTW.
VNV Nation: particularly "Standing", "Savior (Vox)" and "Rubicon" - very club/dance but with an edge
Covenant: examples include "Figurehead", "Dead Stars", and "Go Film" - generally a little darker than VNV, but still will an up beat.
Cyber Tec or C-Tec: a Front 242 spinoff, good tunes include "She Left", "The Lost" (a personal fav)
Claire Voyant: "Majesty", "Love the Giver" (which has a GREAT remix by Eskil Simonsson's)
----The rest are just group names, I can add song titles if anyone wants...
Beborn Benton
Evil Toys (aka TOY)
Wolfsheim
SPOCK (well Back on Mars anyway)
Elegant Machinery
And One
Apoptygma Bezerk (older stuff preferably)
Project Pitchform (industrial sound) X Marks the Pedwalk
Cobolt 60
Delerium
Funker Vogt (not one of my favs, but they have some good tunes.)
Haujobb
Mentallo & the Fixer
Nitzer Ebb
ReWork
Velvet Acid Christ (good!!)
Wumpscut
None of these are in any particular order, but are a good overview of groups that I like. As always YMMV. If anyone wants some song titles lemme know...
To place an order for the Rio Red Stapler (SKU#: S7074740), Please call SureSource at: 1-800-544-3243.
It's true! Don't believe me? Try it: thesource.ofallevil.com
We knew it wsa true all along!
Which is precisely why placing a Tektronix 608 Vector Scope (basically a CRT in a box) - that is hooked up to your soundcard to produce weird swirly effects - directly on top of your computer is a Very Bad Plan.
Trust me, I know from what I speak:
"Hey, that looks pretty cool."
(mere moments later)
"HEY! WHERE ARE ALL THESE BAD SECTORS COMING FROM?!!
Fun while it lasted...
Why not just join up with one of them? They are well organized and have been going on for years. /. probably shares much of the same crowd anyway (with perhaps a few less Mitnick fans).
...Hand soldering SMT's was a bitch!
1. The Obvious: "owning" another cell phone.
And how exactly are you going to do this? Are you logging into the other phones? No. When you access a site on the Internet are you directly connecting to that remote system? Not bloody likely, you're connecting through a whole series of systems. Don't believe me? Try a little app called Traceroute.
Hopping from phone-to-phone-to-tower is not significantly different, in regards to a cracking threat, than the in between systems you access when surfing the net.
2. Radiation becomes a REAL risk, because the main broadcasting would be done by the phones, not the towers.
Uh huh. Really? I don't recall any mention of the phones being goosed to 4 watts - or any increase in power output for that matter. If anything radiation would go DOWN - you only have to reach the nearest phone, not the nearest tower (which odds would suggest is further away from you). Inverse square law dictates a significant drop in output requirements.
4. Spam (another nuisance).
And how is this supposed to work exactly? See my response to point 1. Spam would have to be directly targeted to the phone itself via SMS or text messaging (which does happen now).
5. Viruses.
Again please explain this one. Sounds a whole lot like Point 1 again. You're hopping from phone to phone, not logging into the phone itself. The remote phone is lot running any applications on your behalf.
You're sounding like McAffee with the fearmongering.
For a project I was working on I wanted to do some shooting over Toronto at a height that would have worked out to around 400ft. They wouldn't let me.
The problem, as I discovered, is not an issue of whether it is safe to pilot at that altitude, but should some malfunction or other problem cause an emergency (or crash) landing. Legally (in Toronto anyway) the pilot must fly at a minimum of 1000ft in order to have enough altitude that (s)he can move the helicopter away from densely populated areas in the case of an emergency - rather than arbitrarily falling on top of whatever is directly below.
Now, in the case of a Sea King (the helicopter of "choice" for the Canadian Navy) I wouldn't want one flying at *any* altitude over a populated region. Something about 30,000 parts flying in formation that makes me nervous.
Hmmmm, personally I would have thought the sandworms a dead give away!
FBI Agent 1: We have a problem... Carnivore was doing its thing, but we got caught grabbing stuff we shouldn't!
FBI Agent 2: Hmmm. I know! We claim that some lowly tech in a spat of moral outrage deletes ALL the material as he is so offended that it captured the, uhh, "non-target" mail, but we actually keep all the files and use them as we see fit.
FBI Agent 1: Perfect!
FBI Agent 2: (Takes long drag off cigarette)
The cool thing about Atari's pad was that it was designed to take different overlay templates for the buttons. Thus, once you had the pad the games only needed to bundle an appropriate template you could overlay on the pad.
This has the obvious advantage of making on controller re-useable, but it also meant buttons were correctly labled for the game - rather than having buttons AA through ZZ Alpha Plural Beta Z.
From the press release:
The KeyMouse XP is the worlds first mouse to integrate a 120 key keyboard inside a mouse. This gives the user the advantage of not having to switch between keyboard and mouse - a repetitive movement which costs the user time and productivity.
The keyboard is located between the left and right mouse buttons.
When asked how difficult this new mouse would be to handle Logitech would only say that the user would need a really big-ass mousepad.
I'd be slighly more concerned with my pants suddenly turning transparent...
Few books sell well, and even fewer (mine, for example) make money.
Plug away Mr. Katz...