Tag: stupid

Idiot Phones

It is lumbered with a bewildering array of unnecessary “features” aimed at idiots, including a mode that scans each text message and turns some of the words into tiny ani- mations, so if someone texts to say they have just run over your child in their car, the word “car” is replaced by a wacky cartoon vehicle putt-putting onto the screen. There is also a crap built-in game in which you play a rabbit (“Step into the role of Bobby Carrot – the new star of cute, mind-cracking carrot action!”).

another reason to opt out of phones. not that i need one

SUV Terrorism

From the inside, he watches the judicial system spend a small fortune in taxpayer dollars prosecuting, imprisoning, and then drumming up paranoia among prison guards and prisoners over a college kid who went on a vandalism spree against Hummers. “Here we have [our] politicians, who are not charged with crimes, setting this planet on a disaster course for some fleeting political advantage, while others are sent to prison for taking a stance against this”

SUV, safety fetish, prison state, religious nuts, this story has everything that is wrong with the US

Don’t Arrest Andrea!

Andrea Sandberg is a female graphics designer living quite close to where I grew up. She has a past as an officer in the Swiss navy, but recently decided to aim for a career as an artist. But she does a bit of consulting for the biotech company Pentapod Corporation. Andrea is fictional, a persona I use when I have to sign up for websites and do not feel like disclosing my personal information. No doubt she has millions of relatives, many living at zipcodes such as 123 45 or with email addresses like foo@foo.no. But a new EU proposal will seek to outlaw using fake information to set up email accounts or websites,

Wifi Paranoia

Vancouver’s cops have espoused vague, technologically ignorant objections to city-wide WiFi. They argue that the ability to communicate anonymously will help criminals (cough pay-phones cough) and that WiFi is all about people stealing each others’ connectivity.

this is really the vendors / media fault. all this BS talk about how you have to use WPA now comes home to roost.
2007-05-31:

A Michigan man was arrested for accessing a coffee shop’s public Wifi hotspot. He was charged with a felony and faced up to 5 years in jail, but he took an offer of “paying a $400 fine, doing 40 hours of community service and staying on probation for 6 months.”

fucking technophobes are ruining everything.
2007-09-12:

This is the other reason I believe that uninhibited piggybacking is not completely without harm / consequences. If we want those networks to get built we have to understand that unlimited network sharing has to carry some consequences. That’s why it is probably necessary to find ways to deter the most egregious uses. Again, no one has any real problem with a little casual use at the margins, but my point here is that not everything takes place at the margin on a “casual” basis. Some piggybacking activities impose real costs and could result in real harm. That harm might be direct to the user in the form of rising monthly bills, termination of service, or computer corruption / other privacy loses. Alternatively, that harm could be longer-term and more indirect in nature, as would be the case if broadband operators refused to provide next-generation services for fear of the inability to recoup the significant sunk investments it entails.

it is inane people like this guy who are ruining it for everyone.
2007-10-02:

fighting the good fight against wifi spoilsports.
2007-12-04:

The US House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved a bill saying that anyone offering an open Wifi connection to the public must report illegal images including “obscene” cartoons and drawings–or face fines of up to $300k.

WTF? this “but think of the children” bullshit is getting way of hand when it is transparent what is going on here: open hotspots are threatening entrenched telco interests.
2008-01-09:

Providing internet access to guests is kind of like providing heat and electricity, or a hot cup of tea

+1!