Aren't EULA's essentially a form of contract? I'm not a lawyer, but I thought that any contract is not enforceable if its purpose is to achieve an illegal end; so, contracts involving malware would be void. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illegal_agreement
1. Individuals in a religion (or a country) can have substantially different beliefs from their leaders. An analogy would be a Democrat voter holding different beliefs from a Republican president. The president is supposed to represent and lead all citizens in the country, even though not everyone agrees with him/her.
2. The term antisemitic in the article is a bit misleading. I assumed you were using the term to mean "racist" and "hates jews"; however, the article appears to be using the term to describe the UCC's attempt to use economic leverage to work against zionism and the repression of Palestinians. You may argue they're the same thing, but they are not in my mind. I personally have multiple jewish friends, but disagree with many policies of the state of Israel.
That's arguable; I've found the Hobbit is better than LotR in certain ways. For example, the fact that it's a shorter, more contained story helps keep my attention and provide closure. Compare this to the Two Towers, which doesn't really feel like it's going anywhere for a good 3/4 of the book.
That's uncalled for. I'm trying to share my personal experience, since many people don't quite understand what Customs is all about. I'm doing this in my free time, so you can at least be polite.
I'm not sure why you quoted that part of my original post, because I was only trying to provide helpful advice. To summarize, don't lie about having a broken laptop if it's not actually broken, don't lie in general, and don't be a jerk and say stupid shit.
I can understand that MOST people don't like Customs; however, you can't change those rules WHILE going through Customs. The only thing in your control at that point is how fast, and how easily you get through. Not lying, and not being an asshole makes things easier on you AND me. Once you're through Customs, go kick down the door of your Congressman or whatever and get him to change the rules. Don't take your frustrations out on me, I'm just a regular guy doing his job in the most decent way he can.
In general, I can say that Customs officers are used to dealing with people who are unreasonably nervous and scared. Obviously we're not mind readers, so we can't tell right away WHY someone is scared; therefore, we'll usually ask a few more questions. There's always the offchance that the person is scared because they're hiding something, so acting scared isn't going to make your customs inspectation any easier, which kinda sucks.
Unfortunately , I've also had to deal with people yelling like that at me. I'm sure they were just tired, or nervous, or what have you, but it's still unpleasant. I'm a person too, and I'd much prefer to have the inspection done within 30 seconds than to waste 5min having you yell at me and refuse to answer questions.
I'm aware of the saying "Those who give up liberty to obtain temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety", but unfortunately, there's conflicting interests: privacy of individuals on one hand, and protection/etc on the other. There needs legal ways for the Customs officers to maintain their country's safety, and also prevent searchs on a whim. I personally never conducted a search where I did not have reasonable suspicion that the person was hiding something, or could have been a threat. I don't have all the answers... if I did, I'd probably be running the country.
Actually, that's really common. I remember a time when one poor woman was so scared, she was shaking like a leaf even before she got up to the counter... and I'm not a very intimitating looking guy. In a situation like this, you should expect that you'll probably be asked a few more questions, just to make sure you're not afraid because you're trying to hide something, but I'd say generally we can catch on pretty quickly that it's just nerves.
Unfortunately, there are some bad apples who enjoy the feeling of power, and try to make people feel scared. I actively tried to discourage this sort of behaviour where I worked, but there's only so much you can do to change people's behaviours. Hopefully you never run into bullies like these. If you're an older person, then I suggest you go in the line which has the oldest and chattiest looking officer. They can initially act tough, but they're generally softies inside.
I think you're the one who is confused. I suggest reading the Wikipedia article on the Common Law system as a starting point.
Now show me where it says judges MAKE laws in the U.S. All of Tort law and partnership law for one. There's more too.
I skimmed that link, and I wasn't particularly moved. Getting offtopic, but where did the term "activist judges" come from? Judge's have always had the ability to make law, dating back to the founding of the common law system. Why are people surprised by this?
He's just saying that Custom's officers aren't any better at noticing lies. I don't know about that, but if the study says that is true, then I can accept that. However, my point was that noticing lies is EASY, regardless of who is doing the noticing.
Hmmm, that's actually kind of interesting. I don't actually think I'm better at telling when someone is lying in a general situation; however, I do think that people overestimate how well they're doing at covering the truth. I don't know why, but it usually seems quite easy to tell when someone is lying at a customs inspection. I think perhaps it is due to experience of knowing what a "regular" situation looks like, and when someone is lying, they aren't able to lie in a way that makes it look "normal".
I'd better add a note before someone flames me for it. There could be a fourth reason to initiate a laptop search:
(4) None of the above conditions apply, but I am incredibly suspicious that the person is hiding something. There may not be one specific reason for my suspicious, but a bunch of things (sweating, shaking, looking around nervously, etc.) could add up. I usually have a lot of other work to do, and other people in line to clear, so I'm not going to do this kind of search on a whim.
I may do a cursory search of the laptop to see if the person's verbal story matched. For example, if the person is on a service-call I may check their last days email to see if they got an email from their customer or boss telling them to go on the trip. I would probably also do a brief check for any child porn or other things like that, since it doesn't take that long.
Ok, let me rephrase. A broken laptop can be a valid excuse, especially if it LOOKS broken.
What I meant in my original post is that I wouldn't use the lie "my laptop is broken" if it was actually working. As I explain in my post here we only examine laptops if we're suspcious about the person anyway. Having a "broken laptop" is a little too convenient after we've been asking a bunch of probing questions, so I'd damn well make sure it's actually broken.
Exactly. Little things like that are let through all the time.
It's when people lie about stupid things like "Uhhh... I'm going to see my friend", when they're actually on a sales-call, is what makes us annoyed. We're very good at noticing lies, so we'll immediately ask probing questions. The person will get nervous because they don't want to admit they lied, so they'll lie some more. After 20 minutes I'll finally have the true story, and it'll turn out what they were going to do was legal anyway. It's a waste of time for everyone.
I worked as a Customs officer in another country, but I'm pretty sure things are very similar in the United States. The issues you brought up don't particularly worry me, since I've had firsthand experience searching laptops.
I can't speak for other officers, but there are only three reasons I would ever look at a laptop (1) I thought there were drugs or other substance physically hidden inside. (I have never seen or heard of this happening) (2) I am suspicious of the person's reason for seeking entry to the country, and I need to determine who or what or why they are here. (3) Their criminal record indicates some sort of fraud, child molestation, or other nasty things.
If I am searching a laptop for one of the above reasons, I will usually make a cursory search (or thorough search for reason 3) for child porn. I'm somewhat younger than the average age for a Customs officer, so I would say I'm slighty more computer savy than the other officers. Obviously I'm aware of things like hidden folders, and the possibility of things like TrueCrypt. An average officer would usually just browse the contents of various folders, maybe use built in window's search, and check any cds they have lying around in their bag. I wouldn't be slowed down by a laptop running Linux, but it would certainly throw off an average officer. Unfortunately, that just means you'll be sitting around for a few hours while they call in a computer tech or figure out what to do with you.
The chance that one of these searchs is going to give away "trade secrets, ideas, and sensitive business contacts" is going to be pretty much nil. There is no point of looking at your random business documents except to determine why you are entering the country. I'm certainly not going to recognize, remember, or understand any business secrets that you have on your laptop. We don't make copies, nor do we connect them to our computer network, so they're not going to leak that way either. So really, even if you did have business secrets on your laptop, it's extremely unlikely that one of these searchs will reveal them.
I would like to say however that if your laptop is SEIZED, then the above may not apply. Once a laptop is seized, it is out of the regular Customs officers hands and it is sent to some sort of technical department. I have no idea what they do with seized goods. In addition, I only worked at an Airport, so I'm not sure if/how laptop's are searched if they are entering by mail.
Speaking as someone who has worked for Customs (but not in the United States), I can tell you that those are absolutely awful excuses. I guarantee you that any Customs officer will easily notice that you are lying and immediately become suspicious. This is the very LAST thing you want to happen if you were hoping to get through Customs quickly.
Remember, Customs officers are mostly trying to find things that are out of the ordinary. Carrying a broken laptop on a business trip, or carrying a random "friend's" laptop never, EVER happens. The absolute best advice I can give regarding Customs is (1) Don't be stupid, and (2) Don't lie, ever. If you are ever caught in a lie, regardless how small and insignificant, you are fucked. Just don't do it, because it will make my life and your life easier.
Speaking of non-Windows-only games, the guys at S2games have released a native binary of Savage2 for Linux. I could always use more people to play with, so grab the free 5-hour full demo and come play a great FPS-RTS with me./end plug
I agree, but your example also shows that we should be paying more attention to the hyping itself if we want the better technology to succeed. There are hundreds of examples where a better technology was skipped over, simply because it wasn't presented well. Remember, perception is everything.
(1) The Thinkpad is a ultraportable notepad with a 13" display (2) The Dell XPS 1730 has a 17" display, dual videocards, dual harddrives, and 2.5x the cpu clock speed.
No-wonder the XPS gaming laptop had a shorter battery life.
I read the chat-log, but I'm having a hard time understanding "Abused's" position; what is his motivation for releasing the source code? Why is he so interested in forcing the EVE developer to make a news release confirming that some security exploites have existed "for years"? The code isn't open source, so releasing detailed descriptions of what security holes exist would only allow them to be exploited easier. Is that what he wants?
Perhaps. I'm not a lawyer:)
Oh, and incase someone points it out, I am aware that France does not use the Common Law system. I'm only using those terms because that's what I'm familiar with, considering I'm from Canada.
There are many things that aren't "criminal", but are still illegal. For example, you can be punished if you break a contract, or if you perform a tort. That's what copyright infringement should fall under: tort law. Not some stupid criminal law with mandatory sentencing and fines.
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Aren't EULA's essentially a form of contract? I'm not a lawyer, but I thought that any contract is not enforceable if its purpose is to achieve an illegal end; so, contracts involving malware would be void. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illegal_agreement
Any ACTUAL lawyers here care to comment?
Good ol Tom. I'd mod you up, but I don't have points for once.
How's the Battlemaster coming along? I haven't played since I was general of Oligarch.
Can we give the parent post the award for "Most Confusing Slashdot Post Ever"?
A couple things:
1. Individuals in a religion (or a country) can have substantially different beliefs from their leaders. An analogy would be a Democrat voter holding different beliefs from a Republican president. The president is supposed to represent and lead all citizens in the country, even though not everyone agrees with him/her.
2. The term antisemitic in the article is a bit misleading. I assumed you were using the term to mean "racist" and "hates jews"; however, the article appears to be using the term to describe the UCC's attempt to use economic leverage to work against zionism and the repression of Palestinians. You may argue they're the same thing, but they are not in my mind. I personally have multiple jewish friends, but disagree with many policies of the state of Israel.
This seems like a non-issue.
That's arguable; I've found the Hobbit is better than LotR in certain ways. For example, the fact that it's a shorter, more contained story helps keep my attention and provide closure. Compare this to the Two Towers, which doesn't really feel like it's going anywhere for a good 3/4 of the book.
That's uncalled for. I'm trying to share my personal experience, since many people don't quite understand what Customs is all about. I'm doing this in my free time, so you can at least be polite.
I'm not sure why you quoted that part of my original post, because I was only trying to provide helpful advice. To summarize, don't lie about having a broken laptop if it's not actually broken, don't lie in general, and don't be a jerk and say stupid shit.
I can understand that MOST people don't like Customs; however, you can't change those rules WHILE going through Customs. The only thing in your control at that point is how fast, and how easily you get through. Not lying, and not being an asshole makes things easier on you AND me. Once you're through Customs, go kick down the door of your Congressman or whatever and get him to change the rules. Don't take your frustrations out on me, I'm just a regular guy doing his job in the most decent way he can.
In general, I can say that Customs officers are used to dealing with people who are unreasonably nervous and scared. Obviously we're not mind readers, so we can't tell right away WHY someone is scared; therefore, we'll usually ask a few more questions. There's always the offchance that the person is scared because they're hiding something, so acting scared isn't going to make your customs inspectation any easier, which kinda sucks.
Unfortunately , I've also had to deal with people yelling like that at me. I'm sure they were just tired, or nervous, or what have you, but it's still unpleasant. I'm a person too, and I'd much prefer to have the inspection done within 30 seconds than to waste 5min having you yell at me and refuse to answer questions.
I'm aware of the saying "Those who give up liberty to obtain temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety", but unfortunately, there's conflicting interests: privacy of individuals on one hand, and protection/etc on the other. There needs legal ways for the Customs officers to maintain their country's safety, and also prevent searchs on a whim. I personally never conducted a search where I did not have reasonable suspicion that the person was hiding something, or could have been a threat. I don't have all the answers... if I did, I'd probably be running the country.
Actually, that's really common. I remember a time when one poor woman was so scared, she was shaking like a leaf even before she got up to the counter... and I'm not a very intimitating looking guy. In a situation like this, you should expect that you'll probably be asked a few more questions, just to make sure you're not afraid because you're trying to hide something, but I'd say generally we can catch on pretty quickly that it's just nerves.
Unfortunately, there are some bad apples who enjoy the feeling of power, and try to make people feel scared. I actively tried to discourage this sort of behaviour where I worked, but there's only so much you can do to change people's behaviours. Hopefully you never run into bullies like these. If you're an older person, then I suggest you go in the line which has the oldest and chattiest looking officer. They can initially act tough, but they're generally softies inside.
I skimmed that link, and I wasn't particularly moved. Getting offtopic, but where did the term "activist judges" come from? Judge's have always had the ability to make law, dating back to the founding of the common law system. Why are people surprised by this?
He's just saying that Custom's officers aren't any better at noticing lies. I don't know about that, but if the study says that is true, then I can accept that. However, my point was that noticing lies is EASY, regardless of who is doing the noticing.
Hmmm, that's actually kind of interesting. I don't actually think I'm better at telling when someone is lying in a general situation; however, I do think that people overestimate how well they're doing at covering the truth. I don't know why, but it usually seems quite easy to tell when someone is lying at a customs inspection. I think perhaps it is due to experience of knowing what a "regular" situation looks like, and when someone is lying, they aren't able to lie in a way that makes it look "normal".
I'd better add a note before someone flames me for it. There could be a fourth reason to initiate a laptop search:
(4) None of the above conditions apply, but I am incredibly suspicious that the person is hiding something. There may not be one specific reason for my suspicious, but a bunch of things (sweating, shaking, looking around nervously, etc.) could add up. I usually have a lot of other work to do, and other people in line to clear, so I'm not going to do this kind of search on a whim.
I may do a cursory search of the laptop to see if the person's verbal story matched. For example, if the person is on a service-call I may check their last days email to see if they got an email from their customer or boss telling them to go on the trip. I would probably also do a brief check for any child porn or other things like that, since it doesn't take that long.
Ok, let me rephrase. A broken laptop can be a valid excuse, especially if it LOOKS broken.
What I meant in my original post is that I wouldn't use the lie "my laptop is broken" if it was actually working. As I explain in my post here we only examine laptops if we're suspcious about the person anyway. Having a "broken laptop" is a little too convenient after we've been asking a bunch of probing questions, so I'd damn well make sure it's actually broken.
Does that make sense?
Exactly. Little things like that are let through all the time.
It's when people lie about stupid things like "Uhhh... I'm going to see my friend", when they're actually on a sales-call, is what makes us annoyed. We're very good at noticing lies, so we'll immediately ask probing questions. The person will get nervous because they don't want to admit they lied, so they'll lie some more. After 20 minutes I'll finally have the true story, and it'll turn out what they were going to do was legal anyway. It's a waste of time for everyone.
I worked as a Customs officer in another country, but I'm pretty sure things are very similar in the United States. The issues you brought up don't particularly worry me, since I've had firsthand experience searching laptops.
I can't speak for other officers, but there are only three reasons I would ever look at a laptop
(1) I thought there were drugs or other substance physically hidden inside. (I have never seen or heard of this happening)
(2) I am suspicious of the person's reason for seeking entry to the country, and I need to determine who or what or why they are here.
(3) Their criminal record indicates some sort of fraud, child molestation, or other nasty things.
If I am searching a laptop for one of the above reasons, I will usually make a cursory search (or thorough search for reason 3) for child porn. I'm somewhat younger than the average age for a Customs officer, so I would say I'm slighty more computer savy than the other officers. Obviously I'm aware of things like hidden folders, and the possibility of things like TrueCrypt. An average officer would usually just browse the contents of various folders, maybe use built in window's search, and check any cds they have lying around in their bag. I wouldn't be slowed down by a laptop running Linux, but it would certainly throw off an average officer. Unfortunately, that just means you'll be sitting around for a few hours while they call in a computer tech or figure out what to do with you.
The chance that one of these searchs is going to give away "trade secrets, ideas, and sensitive business contacts" is going to be pretty much nil. There is no point of looking at your random business documents except to determine why you are entering the country. I'm certainly not going to recognize, remember, or understand any business secrets that you have on your laptop. We don't make copies, nor do we connect them to our computer network, so they're not going to leak that way either. So really, even if you did have business secrets on your laptop, it's extremely unlikely that one of these searchs will reveal them.
I would like to say however that if your laptop is SEIZED, then the above may not apply. Once a laptop is seized, it is out of the regular Customs officers hands and it is sent to some sort of technical department. I have no idea what they do with seized goods. In addition, I only worked at an Airport, so I'm not sure if/how laptop's are searched if they are entering by mail.
Speaking as someone who has worked for Customs (but not in the United States), I can tell you that those are absolutely awful excuses. I guarantee you that any Customs officer will easily notice that you are lying and immediately become suspicious. This is the very LAST thing you want to happen if you were hoping to get through Customs quickly.
Remember, Customs officers are mostly trying to find things that are out of the ordinary. Carrying a broken laptop on a business trip, or carrying a random "friend's" laptop never, EVER happens. The absolute best advice I can give regarding Customs is (1) Don't be stupid, and (2) Don't lie, ever. If you are ever caught in a lie, regardless how small and insignificant, you are fucked. Just don't do it, because it will make my life and your life easier.
Speaking of non-Windows-only games, the guys at S2games have released a native binary of Savage2 for Linux. I could always use more people to play with, so grab the free 5-hour full demo and come play a great FPS-RTS with me. /end plug
I agree, but your example also shows that we should be paying more attention to the hyping itself if we want the better technology to succeed. There are hundreds of examples where a better technology was skipped over, simply because it wasn't presented well. Remember, perception is everything.
That's a silly comparison:
(1) The Thinkpad is a ultraportable notepad with a 13" display
(2) The Dell XPS 1730 has a 17" display, dual videocards, dual harddrives, and 2.5x the cpu clock speed.
No-wonder the XPS gaming laptop had a shorter battery life.
I read the chat-log, but I'm having a hard time understanding "Abused's" position; what is his motivation for releasing the source code? Why is he so interested in forcing the EVE developer to make a news release confirming that some security exploites have existed "for years"? The code isn't open source, so releasing detailed descriptions of what security holes exist would only allow them to be exploited easier. Is that what he wants?
Perhaps. I'm not a lawyer :)
Oh, and incase someone points it out, I am aware that France does not use the Common Law system. I'm only using those terms because that's what I'm familiar with, considering I'm from Canada.
There are many things that aren't "criminal", but are still illegal. For example, you can be punished if you break a contract, or if you perform a tort. That's what copyright infringement should fall under: tort law. Not some stupid criminal law with mandatory sentencing and fines.
No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame.