Comment Re:those damn locksmiths (Score 1) 132
Wish I had mod points right now!
Wish I had mod points right now!
So were talking something of a margin of victory like 600 - 900 votes this time around? That still ain't a whole lot. He only won by 312 votes the first time.
What does it mean that Comcast gave him money for his first election? Had Franken actually declared war on the Comcast/NBC merger while he was campaigning? GM/NBC was even his former employer at Saturday Night Live. Maybe Comcast just wanted to get on his good side at the time, like his other donors?
But the next election might be something different. And even if Comcast gave him $10k, they'll give the other guy 20k, (so 30K paid out overall) with 20K just the cost of doing business in order to pump up their real pick with a 10K advantage. Don't forget Comcast Corp has a right to Freedom of Speech and can't be sooo restricted financially.
I have serious doubts about your statement, considering how contested Franken's election victory was, and for how long, not to mention how close.
OK, I get your point, but what about the money ATT, Verizon, Comcast, etc. will be pumping into his opponent?
Guess who won't be receiving much, if any campaign contributions for the next election from ATT? (Or Verizon, or Comcast).
Been watching the firehose submissions as a kind of hobby for the last few hours while monitoring machine processes and I can assure you, this was not part of anything submitted. Perhaps on a slow news day, but... this post just seems so lame to begin with.
You assume every small business owner is technology savvy enough to monitor Google Maps, along with every similar web service for such malicious acts, on a regular basis. Seriously, you must be able to see you will always have a given percentage of businesses that fail to do such a task, and do it well.
Yesterday, when I read this article, I checked out a location which I'm not willing to share here. On it was exactly this type of 'theft' of location, and street-view manipulation as explained in this article. In fact I had noticed the hack before in this location, but not realized it as such.
Yesterday, when I looked and saw the display via the new GMAPs interface, I was amazed at the *quality* of the hack. A dirty, mouse-infested hotel down the street 'occupied' a very desirable corner location and cafe. Using street-view, it appeared as if the cafe was the hotel's bar. Plus they had purchased an ad to book the hotel when you clicked the PIN, and the result looked IMHO better than a professional web-page for such a purpose (because of the new GMAPs interface and presentation). The final result was a stuning, quality, hack I thought, and everyone I showed it to agreed. But I give more credit to dumb luck plus the new GMAPs interface then cleverness by the thieving hotel owner.
I used the 'suggest an edit' tool to report the manipulation to Google, and also input new, accurate information for the cafe on the corner, and other neighborhood features.
Weird thing is, today when I look via various machines inthe office, I see various displays. Some showing the old GMAPs interface, some new. Some with the dirty hotel competely removed from the map, and the cafe added. Like DNS, it seems it takes a while for GMAPs to get updated, and probably the more people that offer input the better.
IF I HAD A MINE SHAFT, I don't think I would just abandon it. There's got to be a better way. -- Jack Handley, The New Mexican, 1988.