US telcos did mostly go to flat rate, but it's fairly recent. In the 1970s big city I think everybody was metered. Same in the 1980s (flat rate cost more unless you were on the phone a lot). Same even in the 1990s (I switched to flat rate mid 90s because I ran a BBS and they wouldn't let me have flat rate on just that line). Prepaid cellphone is usually still metered. My VoIP is metered.
I'm not on the phone a lot, and I'm cheap. My experience has always been that flat rate cost me more than metered.
Technology can be useful and neat (it can also be dangerous and dehumanizing, but that's for another day). "The problem is people using it for unethical, short-sighted, and selfish purposes". Those people are often the ones who own and control the tech companies, and whose primary goal is to amass wealth and power for their company and themselves. Such as in the current instance.
My understanding is that if you use Amazon fulfillment, and anyone else is using it for the same product, orders all get fulfilled out of the same bin. That's cool if all the products in that bin are legit, but what if some are counterfeit or otherwise substandard? Somebody gets one of those, it becomes your responsibility even though that particular product didn't come from you. It's not like nobody on Amazon is selling counterfeits.
We don't know what they hoped to find. At least when the news was first reported, Mulvad had not seen a copy of the warrant (apparently under Swedish law, the cops don't have to show it).
Exactly. The airlines want to be able to say "don't look at us, we'd be happy to fly you but the gov't says we can't." I don't think there's any reason airlines couldn't share their "bad passenger" lists without the government being involved.
they're red herrings in general, unless society is willing to conclude that it's OK for police to use certain tactics and deadly force upon people with unlicensed firearms
A nit-pick, but in Minnesota firearms are not licensed. Assuming you're not a member of a prohibited class (felon, etc.), they're legal to own and possess. You do need a permit to carry a handgun around in public, though the present case was obviously not "in public".
"Warrior training" has been banned in Minneapolis since 2019 (and I think the state of Minnesota), at least as far as public funding goes. The police union moved to offer it at their expense to off-duty cops.
I believe in unions, but the police union really does test my faith.
Sure, but IT departments don't usually wield the power of life and death. IT misconduct may leave you looking for a job, but it probably won't leave you in a coffin.
Several have been audited to varying degrees (article at https://www.techradar.com/vpn/vpn-audits ). In several court cases, at least one (PIA) was found to be unable to provide the information being sought. Several websites (e.g. torrentfreak, thatoneprivacysite) compare the apparent trustworthiness of various VPNs. There's never going to be 100% certainty (what if the VPN is lying? what if they change things after the audit? what if one of their employees is a NSA mole?). But it's unlikely that a nation-state level attacker is going to blow its cover to catch you downloading a movie.
It's not just "racist white police". We certainly have those, but we also have killer cops who are non-white (in my area, they've been White, Latino, Black, Asian, Male and Female).
Yes, ban qualified immunity. And elected office-holders who don't have the spine to stand up to the cop union.
TBH, while Trump is responsible for many many fuckups, this one wasn't done by him. It was done by his minions, who are incompetent idiots (seems to be a prerequisite for the position) and probably didn't know it was a fuckup. In this Administration, "the buck stops here" is only true if it refers to money. The "it's very old, so shouldn't count" argument is being made by the lawyers, who are hired guns and whose job it is to make the best case they can, even if they know it's a stupid one.
The judge said "such relief should be obtained by means of an action in the Supreme Court".
An important tidbit is that NY has weird nomenclature for its courts, the "Supreme Court" is actually (in the case of NYC) a consolidation of 5 county courts. In the rest of the state, I believe each county has its own Supreme Court. Above that is the "Appellate Division of the Supreme Court", and above that is the "Court of Appeals", which is what any other state would call a "Supreme Court".
blocked buffoons
Can't speak to the reasons others block, but I block ads and Leon. I don't care if they can read my xweets, just don't want to see theirs.
Temper tantrum
Leon's tweets weren't forced to the top of my feed, I've got him blocked. Must be a lot of other people on xitter do, too.
Metered vs flat rate
US telcos did mostly go to flat rate, but it's fairly recent. In the 1970s big city I think everybody was metered. Same in the 1980s (flat rate cost more unless you were on the phone a lot). Same even in the 1990s (I switched to flat rate mid 90s because I ran a BBS and they wouldn't let me have flat rate on just that line). Prepaid cellphone is usually still metered. My VoIP is metered. I'm not on the phone a lot, and I'm cheap. My experience has always been that flat rate cost me more than metered.
Not to speak of a brain pickled with excess alcohol.
technology
Technology can be useful and neat (it can also be dangerous and dehumanizing, but that's for another day). "The problem is people using it for unethical, short-sighted, and selfish purposes". Those people are often the ones who own and control the tech companies, and whose primary goal is to amass wealth and power for their company and themselves. Such as in the current instance.
Amazon fulfillment
My understanding is that if you use Amazon fulfillment, and anyone else is using it for the same product, orders all get fulfilled out of the same bin. That's cool if all the products in that bin are legit, but what if some are counterfeit or otherwise substandard? Somebody gets one of those, it becomes your responsibility even though that particular product didn't come from you. It's not like nobody on Amazon is selling counterfeits.
The real question
We don't know what they hoped to find. At least when the news was first reported, Mulvad had not seen a copy of the warrant (apparently under Swedish law, the cops don't have to show it).
The defenders of the status quo would rather have people remain asleep, so their position is not threatened.
but they WANT to outsource
Exactly. The airlines want to be able to say "don't look at us, we'd be happy to fly you but the gov't says we can't." I don't think there's any reason airlines couldn't share their "bad passenger" lists without the government being involved.
Re: I have one question:
Oh, I don't doubt the cop was scared. But he's probably in the wrong job, if he's going to use being scared as the reason to kill people.
Re: "Innocence" is not the issue
Re:
Nah, but keep your mitts off of "Kentucky Bourbon" and "Videlia Onion" though.
Re:
"Warrior training" has been banned in Minneapolis since 2019 (and I think the state of Minnesota), at least as far as public funding goes. The police union moved to offer it at their expense to off-duty cops. I believe in unions, but the police union really does test my faith.
Re: Not Only "mall cops"
Sure, but IT departments don't usually wield the power of life and death. IT misconduct may leave you looking for a job, but it probably won't leave you in a coffin.
Re: How to trust?
Several have been audited to varying degrees (article at https://www.techradar.com/vpn/vpn-audits ). In several court cases, at least one (PIA) was found to be unable to provide the information being sought. Several websites (e.g. torrentfreak, thatoneprivacysite) compare the apparent trustworthiness of various VPNs. There's never going to be 100% certainty (what if the VPN is lying? what if they change things after the audit? what if one of their employees is a NSA mole?). But it's unlikely that a nation-state level attacker is going to blow its cover to catch you downloading a movie.
Re: Only in 'murics
It's not just "racist white police". We certainly have those, but we also have killer cops who are non-white (in my area, they've been White, Latino, Black, Asian, Male and Female). Yes, ban qualified immunity. And elected office-holders who don't have the spine to stand up to the cop union.
Re: mexicans could tear down that section of fence
Or at least have a few people with firearms standing by, in case you are attacked.
TBH, while Trump is responsible for many many fuckups, this one wasn't done by him. It was done by his minions, who are incompetent idiots (seems to be a prerequisite for the position) and probably didn't know it was a fuckup. In this Administration, "the buck stops here" is only true if it refers to money. The "it's very old, so shouldn't count" argument is being made by the lawyers, who are hired guns and whose job it is to make the best case they can, even if they know it's a stupid one.
NY courts
The judge said "such relief should be obtained by means of an action in the Supreme Court".
An important tidbit is that NY has weird nomenclature for its courts, the "Supreme Court" is actually (in the case of NYC) a consolidation of 5 county courts. In the rest of the state, I believe each county has its own Supreme Court. Above that is the "Appellate Division of the Supreme Court", and above that is the "Court of Appeals", which is what any other state would call a "Supreme Court".