Monthly Archives: February 2007

GA: Couple catches neighborhood speeder … a cop

0
Posted by haltse on February 15, 2007 – 4:10 am
Filed under state gone wild

“Lee and Teresa Sipple live at the bottom of a steep hill outside of Rome and say most motorists ignore the posted speed limit and zoom by their house, endangering them and their 2-year-old son. But now, fighting back could land them in jail. Lee and Teresa Sipple have an upcoming court date to see if they will be arrested for messing with a cop. … Lee has three different cameras trained on the street to catch local speeders red-handed. ‘Video evidence — same thing as the red light cameras — and I can grab it, print it, send it, e-mail it …’ Lee said. Lee says his most surprising catch yet? A neighbor who ought to know better. ‘Kennesaw police officer, you know, coming down the hill and running 34 miles per hour in a 25 mile an hour zone.’ … Bartow County did get involved, when their deputy [...]

Original post by Mary Lou Seymour and software by Elliott Back

P2P Has Zero Effect On Music Sales

0
Posted by haltse on February 15, 2007 – 4:08 am
Filed under media

A new study in the Journal of Political Economy has found that illegal music downloads have had no noticeable effects on the sale of music, contrary to the claims of the RIAA and other music industry organizations.
The study, The Effect of File Sharing on Record Sales: An Empirical Analysis, by Felix Oberholzer-Gee and Koleman Strumpf, matched an extensive sample of music downloads to American music sales data in order to search for causality between illicit downloading and album sales. Based on their analysis, the researchers estimated that P2P file-sharing affected no more than 0.7% of sales in that timeframe.
“Using detailed records of transfers of digital music files, we find that file sharing has had no statistically significant effect on purchases of the average album in our sample,” the study reports. “Even our most negative point estimate implies that a one-standard-deviation increase in file sharing reduces an album’s weekly sales [...]

Original post by info and software by Elliott Back

Nextel the latest shower of bastards to claim no link between their stores and their actions.

0
Posted by haltse on February 14, 2007 – 8:46 pm
Filed under Bad CS, cellular, Erin, Family

Why the bitterness?  Seemingly I can’t cancel my phone of near 4 years with them since , shock horror, the plan changed in 2005 and they added 2years onto it. Seemingly the person in the Nextel shop answered the question about adding a secondary number to the line requiring  the old contract. Well he lied both phones  have to go till nov 2007 or  I have to pay a $400 “early” termination fee.  Shame that the network is  becoming increasingly unreliable.

They  don’t have the old contract available , nor have I signed an update, so I would like them to provide the document to which they have said is impossible. Nextel’s service in the Phoenix region has  deteriorated over the last few months , they have acknowledged this problem   with their “hybrid” phones that run  calls over spring and keep the walkie talkie on nextel but  here’s the problem .

Been offered 2 free phones/ transfer etc that works on this system on an Annual contract  ie  3 months longer than they have “got” me for.  Doesn’t that admit that the service level has been broken ?  Or should I be the “good little consumer”  and just take a “generous” offer.

Sadly I am at a loss as to how I can argue against a contract I don’t physically possess or show that their conditions have materially changed since signing? 

Oh I bet this Alarm clock would have Boston running to wake up the lawyers.

0
Posted by haltse on February 14, 2007 – 5:57 am
Filed under media, state gone wild

I wonder how one would get this home from Japan? Next time a friend goes there I will see if she’ll get one:D

To turn off this Japanese alarm clock, you have to connect the blue, red and yellow wires in the correct order. Screw it up and the clock plays an explosion noise. About $20, if you read enough Japanese to figure out how to place an order on Amazon Japan.

Via Engadget

Airport Safety Summit Boots Press, seemingly we don’t need to know.

0
Posted by haltse on February 14, 2007 – 1:31 am
Filed under You have nothing to fear

A big aviation-security conference suddenly becomes a no-fly zone for reporters. What are its promoters trying to hide?

Original post by Wired News: Top Stories

Wisconsin Eyes New Tax on Big Oil

0
Posted by haltse on February 14, 2007 – 1:27 am
Filed under state gone wild

Gov. Jim Doyle floats the idea of extracting $270 million from oil companies while prohibiting them from passing the pinch along at the pump. By the Associated Press.
jdp: fascist economy? shame they wont call teir bluff and \”forget\” about sending heating oil :P

Original post by Wired News: Top Stories and software by Elliott Back

Web Censorship Proposed For Norway

0
Posted by haltse on February 14, 2007 – 1:09 am
Filed under Culture-internet, state gone wild

Aqwis writes “A Norwegian Web filtering system (link in Norwegian), comparable to the Great Firewall of China, has been proposed to the Norwegian legislature. It would, if enacted, block all Web sites and servers that contain hate material (racial hate, pro-Nazi sites, hate towards the government, etc.), most kinds of pornography (not only child pornography), foreign gambling sites, and sites that share copyrighted or other material that it is not legal to share (such as most BitTorrent sites and services such as LimeWire). Reactions have been mixed; however they are mostly negative.”

jdp. looks like Norway has gone nuts. and the best part is self inoculation’s from future critics. Kinda like the USA it’s verboten in the USA to be in favour of the methods used to found it:)

Original post by kdawson

Osama Team Hunger Force: ATHF terror freakout parody video

0
Posted by haltse on February 13, 2007 – 7:10 am
Filed under Culture-internet, Media mayhem

Xeni Jardin:

Terrorist guy 1: “But what if people don’t see it?”
Terrorist guy 2: “We make it BLIIIINNNNK!”

Link

Original post by Xeni Jardin and software by Elliott Back

Quick Firefox Tip: Ctrl-Shift-M to merge windows

0
Posted by haltse on February 13, 2007 – 6:15 am
Filed under Uncategorized

If you’re a user of the popular Tab Mix Plus Firefox extension, you might be happy to learn that Ctrl-Shift-M merges open windows into one window with tabs.
For me, that means from now on – whenever I accidentally open a link in a new window rather than a new tab – I can quickly shove it back into place with a swift press of Ctrl-Shift-M. You can tweak the merging options to merge all of your open windows into one or only the current window with the last focused window. This may be old news to some of you, but I was thrilled to stumble onto this one over the weekend. — Adam Pash

Original post by Lifehacker and software by Elliott Back

Unauthorized government is wrong

0
Posted by haltse on February 13, 2007 – 2:29 am
Filed under state gone wild

“What has been most horrible about the bulk of political history is that some people have ruled others, often to the point of using them entirely against their will, even sending thousands and thousands of them to their deaths or using their lives for purposes they had no part in choosing. The big deal about the American revolution was the idea that one owns one’s life — the Lockean idea of the unalienable right to one’s life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. This was so radical a notion — although here and there expressed by earlier thinkers but never really given official endorsement — that even now most folks just don’t get it. No one owns you — not your country, not your family, not your neighborhood, not your community, no one. You are the one who owns your life and properly gets to say what will be done with [...]

Original post by Rational Review and software by Elliott Back

The thing is the Old have less to lose, JBT’ tasers a honking Grandma

0
Posted by haltse on February 12, 2007 – 9:13 pm
Filed under Freedom, JBT, state gone wild, You have nothing to fear

It’s not control, it’s punishment   their chance to get back for all the ones they “know did it, just ..”   There’s no age that people in this country seem to think is immune from the “if you’re not doing anything wrong you have nothing to  fear, 11 year olds, 69  year olds   ,the 79′s they just shoot after making shit  up though in Atlanta there’s the tiniest bit of hope that those reponsible will do serious time in a pound them in the ass prison full of the  people they put there , time for Alanis to write another paragraph there I think .  Be nice if they could get the hell out of the way and go back to peace officers,   anything that doesn’t harm another is not a crime between adults of whatever legal age their society sets, ( though 21  for drink is nuts but  that’s ok it worked so well there’s no DUI problem, not after all this time, all these years,  nope the enforcement gets more frenzied and longer every year, sure they stop 1000 people but at the risk of using stats that I can’t back up with a link ,  the efficiency level of a dragnet , all stop versus ,selective   enforcement is pathetic.  IE 4% overall versus a much higher turnover when they go after, JESUS  I’ve had an idea  those exhibiting behaviour that would  give em that tenous probably cause that the court room theatre is their to play out.

 Sadly that’s not good enough for those risking their lives to light up the elderly, I mean to  patronize and annoy, er serve and protect.  

Dr Who has made me sick of the lot of you, ok a few exceptions

0
Posted by haltse on February 12, 2007 – 6:28 pm
Filed under Family, General

Really hard to find people enthusiastic about mankind that aren’t using it as a proof  of how fucking wonderful their heavenly master is but  I think  the realm of Sci Fi has done more to show us in a positive light , on balance, than most of the other genres.      Some background, I’m  not sleeping, my cpap keeps slipping, nose blocked and a  kid that’s awake and interrupting the little I get,   most intake of food has me feeling like I need a nap soon thereafter.. I’m the picture of health with Vaseline smeared thickly on the lens.  

So light headed, to  Zzz to quite happy in  oh say  30 mins , I’d be more fun than the Malkovich ride though I would rather get in Max than vice versa but, oops  I just bought myself a trip to the sofa.   Anyway the new , ok  new to me Dr Who series 1 was kindly lent by Abilard and it far exceeded my expectations since most modern Dr’s  past Baker sucked the big one, Sylvester Fucking McCoy with a scream prone panto assistant, Bonnie Langford, ..  The Dalek’s behind you …  oh no he’s not oh  yes he is  Oh  fuck off and regenerate already ,, time passed,  let’s just skip xmas,

Time passed .. Finally 2k5 and the rebirth of the series ,retroactively,  makes me a happy camper.  Daleks finally get their day, moral relativism hits against relativity , and  there’s a chance that the central column on the Tardis isn’t the only thing doing the ol in and out, but I digress.   Maybe  a review will follow but nearly all the things that bugged me about it are uncannily similar to why I don’t like most of the people  from that region and doesn’t that make this post even more  dissonant?     Like Picard on a good day  he can actually make it sound like we have hope here , that we do  grow up and stop killing ourselves over fairy tales , and then   the news kinda  messed that up.    Anyway  I go back into my twilight zone and hope I can  exterminate! this malaise.

Sidenote on the Daleks and the  original issue of,  if you’re so big and bad why can’t you climb a staircase?  I think we’ve read enough Dilbert and marketing material since to realise that Davros rushed his beta to market with the hope of adding it in before the competition destroyed them.  

American’s complacent, obedient slaves

0
Posted by haltse on February 12, 2007 – 7:26 am
Filed under state gone wild

“Most Americans haven’t a clue how bloody it is in a far away place like Iraq. The trained seals at home are comfortable, that’s all that matters. That’s why these devious bastards who have taken over our country are getting away with it! They love it when the lemmings out there can’t remember one sentence in their own Constitution or Declaration of Independence. They love it that the vast majority of numb-nuts don’t know that their leaders are breaking every law in the books to steal everything that isn’t theirs.Many Americans ignore their country’s history, and to the rest history is what they ate the night before last. They will raise the flag, and obey without even asking a question. When asked to remove their shoes at the airport, they do it on command, like it was second nature!” (02/04/07)
Hal: No one took away the freedom, it was given up
[...]

Original post by Rational Review and software by Elliott Back

Hotel coffeepot = li’l ole mini meth lab!

0
Posted by haltse on February 12, 2007 – 7:24 am
Filed under Uncategorized

Xeni Jardin:
Over at the Street Use “crude technology” blog, Kevin Kelly says,

According this the local news station in Huntsville Alabama, the ubiquitous cheap Mr. Coffee pot in hotel rooms is often used as a just-in-time makeshift mini-laboratory to make the drug meth.

[excerpt]:
Ask just about anyone in law enforcement, and they’ll tell you to be careful if you ever brew coffee in a hotel room. “I know enough now that whenever I go to a hotel, regardless of how nice it is, I’ll never use a coffee pot,” said Marshall County District Attorney Steve Marshall.

t color=”red”>Reader comment: Aaron J. Hicks says,
It is interesting to note that apparently the Texas Controlled Substances Act can apparently be interpreted such that an automatic coffee maker is, in fact, illegal under state law. Specifically, section 481.002 notes that certain apparatus are considered “chemical laboratory apparatus,” as follows:

(A) a
condenser; [...]

Original post by Xeni Jardin and software by Elliott Back

Goo-tube does no evil, unless it suits them:)

0
Posted by haltse on February 11, 2007 – 1:38 pm
Filed under media

Two stories in the news offer contrasting approaches by Web companies to questions of free speech. First YouTube: reader skraps notes that the Google property has recently banned the popular atheist commentator Nick Gisburne. Gisburne had been posting videos with logical arguments against Christian beliefs; but when he turned his attention to Islam (mirror of Gisburne’s video by another user), YouTube pulled the plug, saying: ‘After being flagged by members of the YouTube community, and reviewed by YouTube staff, the video below has been removed due to its inappropriate nature. Due to your repeated attempts to upload inappropriate videos, your account now been permanently disabled, and your videos have been taken down.’ Amazon.com provides a second example of how to react to questions of free speech. Reader theodp sends along a story in TheStreet.com about how Amazon hung up on customers wanting to comment on its continuing practice of selling [...]

Original post by kdawson and software by Elliott Back

Switch to our mobile site