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Submission + - Canada's "Amber Alert" fiasco

knorthern knight writes: Canada's "Alertready" system https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.io?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.alertready.ca%2F%23faq is stupid. You can *NOT* opt out of cellphone alerts. This is because Alertready (ab)uses the unblockable "Presidential Alert" level (intended for incoming missiles, etc) for *ALL* alerts. The story of the first live alert is at http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/... There were 3 "Presidential" alerts issued for the incident...
1) In English
2) In French
3) A blingual "alert", saying the kid had been found safe

The OPP (Ontario Provincial Police) displayed appalling ignorance. They claimed that it was necessary to alert the entire province because people from eastern Ontario might have been visiting Thunder Bay. This is absolute ignorance. The Alertready website FAQ says that the alerts are specific to individual cell towers, and that all compatable cellphones served by the tower will receive the alert regardless of where the phone is registered to.

Right now the only ways to avoid these messages are
* force your cellphone down to 3G (Alertready only works on LTE)
* get a custom ROM, e.g. Lineage OS, for your cellphone, with "Presidential Alerts" disabled

Submission + - A Fleet of Sailing Robots Sets Out to Quantify the Oceans (bloomberg.com)

pacopico writes: A start-up in California called Saildrone has built a fleet of robotic sailboats that are gathering tons of data about the oceans. The saildrones rely on a hard, carbon-fiber sail to catch wind and solar panels to power all of their electronics and sensors. From a Businessweek story, "Each drone carries at least $100,000 of electronics, batteries, and related gear. Devices near the tip of the sail measure wind speed and direction, sunlight, air temperature and pressure, and humidity. Across the top of the drone’s body, other electronics track wave height and period, carbon dioxide levels, and the strength of the Earth’s magnetic field. Underwater, sensors monitor currents, dissolved oxygen levels, and water temperature, acidity, and salinity. Sonars and other acoustic instruments try to identify animal life." So far, they've been used to find sharks, monitor fisheries, check on climate change and provide weather forecasts. Saildrone just raised $90 million to build a fleet of 1,000 drones, which it thinks will be enough to measure all of the world's oceans.

Submission + - Amazon Threatens To Move Jobs of Seattle Over New Tax (theguardian.com)

An anonymous reader writes: Amazon has threatened to move jobs out of its hometown of Seattle after the city council introduced a new tax to try to address the homelessness crisis. The world’s second-biggest company has warned that the “hostile” tax, which will charge firms $275 per worker a year to fund homelessness outreach services and affordable housing, “forces us to question our growth here."

Amazon, which is Seattle’s biggest private sector employer with more than 40,000 staff in the city, had halted construction work on a 17-storey office tower in protest against the tax. Pressure from Amazon and other big employers, including Starbucks and Expedia, had forced councillors to reduce the tax from an initial proposal of $500 per worker. The tax will only effect companies making revenue of more than $20m-a-year. The tax is expected to raise between $45m and $49m a year, of which about $10m would come from Amazon. The company said it would restart building work on the tower but may sublease another new office block to reduce its tax bill.

Comment Re:Ability does not imply intent, nor should it (Score 1) 488

The intent is the most troubling part for me as well. As a member of my local hackerspace (hackerspacecharlotte.org), I find it very unsettling that this judge now feels that I have intent to do anything that I'm capable BECAUSE is choose the label hacker. I like to take things (and sometimes code) and re-purpose it to do what I want it to do. Some people call this creativity, or innovation, or you guessed it - hacking. I'm not breaking the law, sometimes I'm not even voiding my warranty. Just because I like to hack stuff, and I don't ever want to stop... and I even want to help others learn to hack to (I'm the president of the hackespace after all, and we do mini hacking sessions at the local children's museum and the children's library on a regular basis), none of this means that I have the _intent_ to commit any crime. To think that anyone could use my my label as a hacker to show _intent_ is appalling. It is equally disturbing that a judge does not know the difference.

Comment Why seal? (Score 1) 282

I understand now why Samsung tried to seal it.

I don't. Why would you want to seal that? It seams significant and a pretty cut and dried fact (according to the transcript). So why not be out loud about it? Are they trying to not hurt the feelings of the guy that lied, and potentially cost them $1B? Samsung has hurt my feelings in the past when I tried to get some tech support from them for the device I paid them money for.

Comment Why pay for certification? (Score 1) 172

Isn't it good enough to have an energy efficient, low waste building near public transportation, and all the other things that do (and don't) come with being LEED certified? Why pay for a certification? Does that somehow make it more efficient? Sure if you've got money to burn and like shiny stickers, or if you thing that shiny sticker will help you make more money (or recoup your cost) or whatever reason you want to spend your money on the certification - go for it. But don't use my money. Build a good building yes, but there is no need for a sticker. NASA is for now, funded by my tax dollars, and this is how they want to use my money? Shame on them.

Comment Re:If I were to find one... (Score 1) 222

The term "stealing" sure has changed a lot lately.

...actually stealing is still stealing. Hasn't changed a bit. YOU may think less of it now than you did in the past, or how you perceive others to have thought of it in the past. But taking what is not rightfully yours... yep that stealing.

Taking it by forces does not make it rightfully yours.
Taking it when no one is looking does not make it rightfully yours.
Copying it and leaving the original does not make it rightfully yours.
Declaring it "discarded" (in your humble opinion) does not make it rightfully yours either.

Comment Cookies next? How about TSA Body Scanners? (Score 1) 354

Really? He thinks about cookies next.
So a government agency looking at where my car goes is not allowed (protected). But nakid pictures of my junk is fair game? WTF?

Back on topic thought... the 4th amendment doesn't really restrict itself to government agencies. It is a right of the people - one that is explicitly not ceded to the government. Simply the the government isn't allowed to infringe on your privacy doesn't mean that it's not still yours.

In any event, cookies are a choice, and most people choose to share them for their own benefit.

Comment Re:At the risk of my nerd card... (Score 1) 655

and the movie version of "Starship Troopers" was much better than the book.

Didn't /. have a friends AND an Enemies option at one point. It's been years since I've even look, but this post motivated me to look for that Enemies button. All I see is how to friend someone... and I'm sorry elrous0, that aint happenin'.

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