I know many people like you. Intelligent nerds, plenty of skills - yet lacking in common sense.

You ARE being tracked. Countless agencies know who you are. And, ironically - you and others like you are probably on more lists and being tracked more closely than the rest of us. The very fact you have a tiny digital footprint actually brings attention to you.

I applaud your beliefs and efforts, but it just ain't working out like you think it is.

It's still there. This is not tied to anything Verizon installs.

Two Google provided Pixels here - checked account settings online, both had the settings enabled.

This is all mental masturbation, as the prospects of CA seceding are nil. However, it's not as simple as you suggest.

The loss of their congressional influence and electoral votes would result in a monumental shift to the right. The resulting solid majority of conservative ideals and policies would quickly bring down taxes, and you could kiss many expensive programs favored by the left goodbye.

Yes - we need CA to fund the crap they shove down the rest of our throats. However, absent their power and the loss of their pet projects, the money isn't needed.

We do not live in a binary world. Shades of grey exist everywhere, and this is no exception. The debate should be over where to draw the line, and who gets to draw it - not whether it should exist at all.

Let's take the examples you provide. Which of them allows millions of devices, operated by billions of people or with complete autonomy, to access everything associated with your name in seconds? Even this information is not equal to your examples. The source of much of it is near impossible to determine, the accuracy far more suspect and in many cases it's impossible to change that which is in error.

You know what else has existed in nearly the entire history of man? Privacy by obscurity. The fact that information could have been accessed doesn't mean it was. There was never a need to codify such things, as the level of current intrusion couldn't possibly have been predicted by anyone until relatively recent times - after which, it was too late.

The FAA jurisdiction over RC aircraft within 5 miles of an airport only applies during IFR conditions. VFR - they can't do shit.

> You were never allowed to fly your glider within 10 miles of controlled airport, and 2 or 5 miles of an uncontrolled airport. Ever.

The above is demonstrably false.

Our AMA field boundary is less than 500' from the end of the runway of an uncontrolled, International US Airport - not in line with approach/departure obviously, but perpendicular to the runway. It's been there for 20+ years. We see commercial flights daily, and from our flight stations can easily make out the tail numbers on aircraft landing and taking off.

Further, the same government entity that owns the airport leases the land the field is on to us.

There's zero chance the FAA isn't well aware of our site.

Plenty of students go into that much debt, and have ZERO alternative - other than changing their preferred course of study.

One such example...just try and get through medical school for less than $100K. You can't even do it for double that amount.

FWIW, one of the worst was Proposition 13, the Jarvis-Gann initiative to freeze property tax rates and assessed values in the late 70's.

Surely, you jest. Without Prop 13, CA's numerous runups in property value would have forced countless fixed-income residents from their homes.

My parents bought a home in the Bay Area in the early 60's, and live on a tiny pension and social security. The property taxes in their neighborhood at the height of things, would have been 40% of their gross income. Apparently your solution for them, is "tough shit"...force them to sell the home they raised their kids in, take the proceeds and go live in the slums where they can afford the taxes.

More to the point - feel free to explain why the government deserves a 100% increase in revenues, when our values shoot up that much over a 5-6 year span? That level of appreciation has happened twice where I live in the past 20 years.

Say what? No frosting? Come on...

It's a piece of cake to bake a pretty cake.

Yet another weasel approach...what if you make your password something incriminating?

If they really wanted the contents of the encrypted drive/partition, they could grant immunity for the contents of the password - in which case, "iCheatedOnMy2002Taxes" might not be such a big deal to them.

But what if it's "iKilledMyThreeExWives" ?

In all seriousness...there are likely many that were bought with XP, to be replaced with Linux.

Reason being - there have been some tremendous sales in the Dell Outlet Store over the last couple of months, but they are usually loaded with XP. The refurb I picked up, was far cheaper than a new Ubuntu Mini 9, with more options - but came loaded with XP.