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Comment Skunk weed! (Score 1) 588

So what happens when my neighbor and his "friends" all start smoking weed and stinkin' up my home?

Legalization sure... I don't really care what people do in their own homes, but when the stinky effects start impacting me and my neighbors respond to friendly, "hey would you do something about ..." with a FU reply... what recourse do I have?

I'm still undecided whether now I'll have to contend with stoned people on the road

Comment Re:Singapore Airport (Score 1) 168

True about showing ID and tickets, but as far as I know, they don't record that information, they just inspect it. (I could be wrong on that one too).

Until we have randomized MAC addresses, the MAC is one common denominator.

Perhaps I wasn't explicit enough, its not where you are going, it is where you have been, that is equally or more important to a Police State.

Comment Singapore Airport (Score 1, Interesting) 168

Me thinks the transit time is the plausible excuse here. They really want to know who is going where so that if they nab you for some 'offense' then they have a history of all the places you were at and security footage as well. 'Free' wifi that really isn't free if you consider the implications.

Of course, there are other instances where Governments have been rather crass about it:

A few years ago I was transiting at Singapore's Changi Airport. They had free WiFi, but subject to me giving them the MAC address of all my devices, the flight I had arrived on and they wanted to record my Passport number as well. The girl behind the counter said, with a big smile and fluttering eyes, everyone gives us those details and the WiFi is really good.

Comment Re:No Leaders anywhere today... (Score 1) 348

Government not acting in the interests of the people? Give 'em the boot!

I'll enlist! Where do we start? Here is one guy in Iceland who did just that and won...

http://www.pri.org/stories/201...

I have seen him talk and he is funny and very sensible. I wish he'd have left some sort of legacy so a pattern of change and good candidates could appear. Perhaps wishful thinking but its a start.

Comment No Leaders anywhere today... (Score 2) 348

The lack of Leadership, and I mean true forward looking people who take risks to move the Nation forward are no where to be found. The mantra of becoming rich is gospel and quick monetization, quarterly Wall Street figures reign supreme.

The Leaders of the past few generations, those who would see a public interest and use the immense power and resources of the Government to enable it, are long gone.

So the question isn't really one of giving up... the question is one of choice and priority. If you have no vision and no real sense of purpose beyond enriching yourself when you occupy a position of influence, then the rot will spread and not just Scientists but many others will wither away as well.

We can spend on un-ending and meaningless Wars, enriching the military-industrial-political complex through war mongering, developing our sense of uber individuality where our selfish needs are supreme above any common good or we can choose to go after bettering the lives of our fellow humans by challenging ourselves to bigger better goals and being a good/reasonable neighbor.

Comment Re:When I was in China (Score 1) 188

Cmdr Taco, My story is similar to yours... and it is a slow fish rot from the head down. But the question is, what can be done now? Most of the American population is too stuck in other issues (partially fueled and maintained as 'unsolved' by the Government) - they are too disconnected or care not for what is happening because a hyper individualistic creed has emerged in which the common good simply doesn't work.

Comment No one wants a DRM'd weapon (Score 3, Insightful) 448

Would you want a weapon that would only work if someone else said it was okay to use? It's been tried before but it does not work. BTW, did Thatcher herself figure the codes out? and disable them? I think that credit goes to good British Engineers and not to some politician.

Comment Re:A virtuous Perl programmer (Score 2) 192

I completely agree with this comment. I'm currently on a project where the Architect is super impressed that there is an excel style chart I coded up in Java solely because he understands the excel-style table and chart and can speak to it in front of his boss. But a ton of work I did writing some machine learning to detect and display faults in a heat map flew him into a rage of criticism and anger... because to him heat maps are only used for financial data and "not applicable here". He even argued about the color red and green! In my experience, people only appreciate what they understand. And so I have resorted to finding communities where my work is appreciated. No use trying to impress the wrong (uninformed) person. What boggles my mind is how this guy became a Senior Architect in the organization when his appreciation for creativity and considering an alternate point of view is so low.

Comment The System is Corrupt (Score 1) 216

If the government can claim that it's okay to record people in "public" (pun intended) without any concern for their privacy, so why is it not okay for this woman to record a cop? Such refusal to be video taped insinuates that something fishy was going on. If that cop didn't have anything to hide what's the problem with recording the incident.

Last month, the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals said citizens may videotape police officers performing their duties unless an officer orders them to disperse or stop recording for legitimate safety reasons. In its unanimous ruling, the court rejected arguments by Weare officers that they should be immune from liability, under a theory that allows government officials to make reasonable mistakes that do not violate clearly established constitutional rights or state laws.

So if I claimed a made a reasonable mistake, would the same immunity be granted to me (an unwashed, private citizen)?

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