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Comment: Re:How about this? (Score 1) 349

by aaronl (#31655696) Attached to: Will Your Car Tell You To Put Down the Phone?

What about near the motorway? On the shoulder of one, calling for help? Calls that are data only? (Those are still normal cellphones underneath, with a number and everything.) Should passengers be allowed to use the phone? What of people who live in buildings adjacent to them?

Of course, this is all assuming that you can even tell that someone is on a roadway with any amount of certainty.

Deliberately breaking a class of technology isn't going to stop people from being distracted while driving a car. I would wager that someone on an animated phone call is still safer than all the people that read while driving.

Your scenario is more likely to end up like the annoying GPS systems that lock the screen out from changes while moving: disabled.

Comment: Re:Maybe Americans just fly too much? (Score 2, Insightful) 457

by aaronl (#31586100) Attached to: Senate Votes To Replace Aviation Radar With GPS

Sure, if you force private air travel to be only affordable to the super rich, then they will only be affordable to the super rich. However, *you* would be creating that situation artificially.

Small aircraft are the only reasonable way to get to an awful lot of places, unless you were prefer things taking weeks to get places because everything has to travel by car to a port, and then boat to another one, and then back on yet another car.

Personally, I would rather not artificially distort markets just because I decided I don't like something. Just because Europe decided to make fuel an order of magnitude more expensive than places that don't tax it doesn't make them right.

Comment: Re:There's more to this story (Score 3, Informative) 691

by aaronl (#31221910) Attached to: Our Low-Tech Tax Code

No, MA just makes you pay big tax penalties for not having health care. They don't provide you health coverage, though.

They set up group plans through private insurers, but you buy a plan through the state. They also expanded state aid for paying for the premiums. This means you can't be denied coverage or have to deal with pre-existing condition BS. The rates are also cheaper than normal open-market pricing.

Comment: Action when it is appropriate (Score 1) 227

by aaronl (#30251094) Attached to: In AU, Film Studios Issue Ultimatum To ISPs

The problem with this is that it really should never be the responsibility of an ISP to conduct an investigation just because some other privacy entity said so.

I shouldn't be able to get a landlord to provide me with tenant information because I decided one was looking at me out of their window. I shouldn't be able to get a purchase history from a merchant because I decided a customer was going to build a deck and their condo association forbids it. I shouldn't be able to get subscriber information from an ISP just because I decided that someone downloaded something that I think they shouldn't have.

If the movie industry wants this kind of information, then they should have to file suit, and get a court order for that information. Then they will have to prove that something unlawful actually happened, convince a judge that there was damage, and that an order for discovery needs to be created.

It is inappropriate to allow some private group to have the power to compel anything from anyone.

Comment: Re:Let's stop making reviews for gamers (Score 1) 214

by aaronl (#27271679) Attached to: Phenom IIs, Core I7-920 Win Out In Value Analysis

I took my i7 920 from 2.66GHz to 3.32GHz by upping my base clock from 133MHz to 166Mhz. This changes the QPI bus accordingly, making system transactions much faster as well. It cost me nothing over the original system cost to do this, and I didn't have to change voltages to make it work.

This makes all single core bound tasks (which are frequent) substantially faster, and I spend far less money to do it.

Comment: Re:What the hell? (Score 1) 653

by aaronl (#27162787) Attached to: Suspect Freed After Exposing Cop's Facebook Status

>I've been pulled over at least a dozen times in the 11 years I've been driving, and only come away with a ticket once. Half the time I was definitely over the limit.

Why is a cop pulling you over when you weren't doing something? How is that okay? What are you doing that they keep deciding to pull you over? I certainly am not starting out respectful of someone falsely accusing me of something, especially when there is a high probably that they know they are lying about it.

I've been pulled over for being young in a car, young at night, young with other people in the car, "too young" for the car I was driving. I've been pulled over at various times for my hair being long. I've also been pulled over for doing something that I knew was against the laws of the area.

The people that have pulled me over for doing something worthy of a citation have tended approach me, ask what I was doing, tell me why they pulled me over, and let me respond. I don't fight with someone when I know I'm in the wrong.

BY FAR, the most offensive, lowest form of life I have ever encountered has been the cops that pulled me over for the far more frequent problem of being young. These cops endanger everyone around them, they will openly lie to you, on their reports, and to judges. They will fly down the road and tailgate you to pull you over. They will get in your face and call you a liar. This type is the kind that I have encountered more than anyone positive with a badge.

And the worst part, is that many of the ones that aren't like the above, still cover for them. That doesn't make them particularly good people, either.

I've spent a lot of miles on the road, and while minivans and vehicles like Buicks and such are most likely to be not paying attention... police cruisers are the mostly likely to do something dangerous. I've seen marked cruisers tailgating people with only feet of room on the highway, I've been nearly rear-ended, broadsided, and t-boned by them, because they think they own the road, and just expect people will throw their cars into ditches because there's something with a lightbar behind them, even when it's turned off. Hell, I've had one of these assholes shine a spotlight on me *while driving down a highway*.

As someone that has been driving for well over 10 years, and has worked with police for years, I wish I had something more positive to say about them. The ones worth giving a badge to seem to have a high tendency to change jobs or retire.

If you flaunt it, expect to have it trashed.

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