h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Ivan, I'm sorry you can't keep up, but I do understand. And we didn't even talk about anything much in particular in those 900 posts you consumed... It's difficult for you, being the only Antipodean.

{B4 strolls in well after the start of the new coversation thread, carrying a bundle of 8-foot-long zirconium-clad metal rods, each of which is about the diameter of one's little finger. As if responding telepathically to the situation, two service bots glide in, a low-slung hover skid between them. Trying to hide his amazement at being out-thunk again, B4 deposits the thin pipes containing the enriched uranium pellets onto the floating platform and breathes a sigh of relief at shedding the burden.}

Well then... Would y'all kindly run those down to the CLI Labs and let Affy or GL take charge of 'em? Thanks. {aside} I s'pose they'll know what project those'll be best suited for... {/aside}

Howdy, Everyone! I'm beginning to feel like the perennial LTTF Salonista, but that may just be my own perception. After all, some of you have been here far longer and are still vying for the coveted C|_|. Perhaps there'll be some other little contest / prize thing I can compete in and...

...Who am I kidding?!
Oh! And Lil, that's a marvelous idea about regressing in time, recapturing the lost thread numbers, and skipping the 70Xth to carry on after that. Just the eclectic sort of thing one could expect from the crew at the Atelier!

Just thought I'd touch base and at least get onto this new thread, before having to head back into the plant and coordinate moving some equipment hatches so we can finish set-up of our step-off exit area. These 12-hour night shifts ain't too bad, if I get 5-6 hours of sleep during each day, though I know I'll pay dearly for it at the end of the refuel outage. I'll check back again when I get a moment.

{over his shoulder as he steps out}
Affy! GL! Don't lose those fuel rods!

B4theroomstarts2glow

*calls for a bot to remove B4's contribution*

There was a harrowing programme on the tv last night about carnage on Yorkshire roads. There was one piece about a biker who had set out after drinking to excess and taking cannabis on a very powerful motorbike that he *knew* had next to no brakes (spare brakeshoes were found in his luggage). Overtaking illegally on one of the region's most notorious blackspots he clipped the back of a car and ended up in a ditch, badly injured. His girlfriend died at the scene. In this country you usually can't be charged with manslaughter for road accidents. He got six years for causing death through dangerous driving.


*plays with her sliderule as a comment on all this ancient electronic stuff*

[mr]

BB, I can see that H will be coveting your Casio

We shall be adding digital cameras next, although my Fujifilm MX2700 is still well up to the job, it's just the cracked flash cover that lets it down. It is now at least 7 years old and the only thing I would want is a proper zoom instead of digital and speedier data writing (if that is the correct term) of the images.

Since this is the only thread on h2g2 that I still drop in to on a regular basis, I am keen to keep it a pleasure not a chore. As a result, when the backlog is too big, I just step blythely over it. Ivan, I encourage you to do the same - better to have you here on and off when you can manage, than not to have you here at all.

B

A good conclusion to come to (for both Ben on the backlog and Lil on the numbering).

Lil, I can see your point. But I strongly disagree. You see, I have not personally given up all my freedoms, they have been ripped from me by lawyers and criminal politicians. I for one hate the phrase "Do it for the kids". Once you start doing everything for the kids, then you open the door for the abuse of the newly found power of law enforcement. I don't believe that we should stand idly by and allow someone who just happened to get away from a crime slide, but why make this world even less free to be in?

I grieve for the loss of those kids' lives. I sincerely hope that the people involved get caught. But I hope to hell that this is not used as an excuse to lowjack every car on the road. It is bad enough that every transaction I make is recorded. It is bad enough that the library books I check out could be used against me. It is bad enough that were my mobile to be linked directly to me I would be nearly instantly found by law enforcement. Each of these things are ways that my privacy is null these days. I do not need to add a transponder to my car so a cop knows if I ran a red light at 0300 when no one was around. Adding lowjacks to vehicles is a good thing for people who want to be able to find stolen vehicles. They make the choice to add this feature to their car, much like I made the choice to be always near my mobile phone. But to make it mandatory is to further violate my privacy in an unconscionable manner.

I feel quite strongly that we as humans have a right to privacy. We have the right to not be bothered by police when we've done nothing wrong. We have the right to keep people off of our prroperrty. I for one admire any celebrity who lays out the papparazi. Just beacue someone is an entertainer, does not give the right for everyone to pry into their personal lives.

Back to the debate at hand, I maintain that the possible abuses of such a system far outweigh the possible benifits. It's easy to say that such a system would only be used in certain cases such as that of a hit and run, however the reality is that people like the US's beloved Department of Homeland Paranoia would quickly find a way to make tracking vehicle movements part of their War on Terror. I simply do not believe that such a system would only be used for good.

I don't really have any closing for my arguments, but I believe that my feelings are well stated above.

In old tech, I have a Waltham wristwatch that is quite old. The Waltham company stopped makign watches in 1957 so it is at *least* 43 years old (which I feel is on the aged side for a wristwatch). No more old electronic gadgets as I seem to have thrown them all out. I can't remember what I did with my 8" floppy drive.

What he said.

In addition, there is a very odd item in the news at the moment in the UK. Apparently a terrorist plot has been 'foiled'.

This plot appears to have consisted of a conversation between two people, one in the UK and one in Pakistan, discussing what chemicals they would use and what targets they would choose. It is hard to see how one could 'foil' something which has not in fact been planned.

There are a whole bunch of questions here, the first of which is were their phones legally tapped? The next is, have they been arrested? And of course - is there physical evidence such as chemicals purchased?

Otherwise, I have to state here and now that discussing chemicals and targets is *exactly* the sort of speculative chat about the state of the world that my former PL and I have. Along with discussions about getting butter off sheets, (don't ask), his daughter's mood-swings, my girlfriends' romances, websites I am working on, medical appointments booked and attended, and all the other trivia of normal friendships.

Now, I am taking it on trust that the conversation which was overheard by GCHQ was in fact a serious one and qualitiatively different than the sorts of conversations my PL and I have, but I have to take that on trust.

I confess that I am less trusting about whether or not the phone-tapping was legal.

I do however, and have for some time, assumed that my emails may be read and my phone-calls may be listened to. This is not paranoia, this is real-politik. I don't for a moment think that there is any likelihood that someone would consider either me or my former PL to be terrorists, but...

The question that we have to ask ourselves is "is this level of invasion of privacy ok?" - be it transponders in cars, monitored phone calls, or whatever.

So, in conclusion, I agree with Marv.

B

In my pursuit of Army Grey socks for my Dad, I have been on various surplus store websites and made numerous entries into search engines. Teuchter has tracked down a possible source and I should think GCHQ will be mightily relieved when I run some to earth!

Weren't the tapping laws changed recently? I expect it is now legit to listen in on any 'suspect' calls, probably defined by a fairly loose set of guidlines. But if it means that potential terrorists attacks are prevented then I'm all for it. I can't see that there are nearly enough staff to listen in to phone calls, some sort of software must be doing most of it. But then I grew up in in a military environment, lived in Berlin where we were subject to military law for three years, carried ID cards and feel quite home in high security levels.

Whilst renewing my car insurance, I asked for a quote for H's new car that is on order. Even with a tracking device fitted it is nearly four times what he pays for his current car. I don't know if the thought had occured to him that a tracker would have to be fitted and I don't know his views on the subject. I shall be finding out when I show him the quote this evening

[z]

I aplogise for creating most of the backlog

[spk]

I agree with Marv very strongly on the Privacy Rights issue.

I was listening to a programme on Radio 4* - What If? a disscussion about what would have happend if Hilter had invaded Britain. They were saying that he would have primiarly kept the infrastructure in place and used it to administer his own needs.

In the Channel Islands, small islands in the English Channel that were invaded by Germany, and other countries which were invaded by the Nazis they using the existing local infrastructure to round up the local Jews and implement the Holocaust.

Whilst I at present am happy to have a little invasion of my privacy (I pity some poor sod who has to read my e mails - they're not very intresting)because I have nothing to hide. It doesn't mean that a future government would not miss use it and use such powers against me.

*Oh How many illogical and uninformed agruments start with that phrase.

[Hyp]

I agree with the steadily growing Marv camp.

But I think it's because I have a kinda capitalist/mad scientist view on tracing technologies. See, I know that I can build my own car tracer so that I can find my own car in the event that it ever gets stolen. Ergo, I would freely make my own tracking device for my car. However, this tracking would all be done on my terms and only to protect me, no one else.

Now, if for some reason I mass produced my tracking devices for other people to use, maybe make a decent profit on the side, and for some reason used a central database to keep track of the vehicle tracing (and as I have a completionist streak a mile wide I can see myself doing that), I would trust myself to never misuse it (I'm sure that I *would* misuse it if I felt that I needed to, but then I'd know what the moral problems were).

But then if the government came in, I'd have a problem. This isn't their technology, it's my technology! Why on Earth should their security measures benefit from my hard work?

Imagine if Bat Man had to build Batmobiles for the military. It just wouldn't be the same.

But the other points about future nations using the technology for ill, current nation misusing it in their own way, those are all good points as well. Just not the ones that I start from.

>>Imagine if Bat Man had to build Batmobiles for the military.

Funny you should say that. In the next Batman film the original Batmobile is adapted from a military prototype.

[{Courtesy}]

::sets up her tent firmly within the borders of the Marv Camp::