Nerdwatch! - Latest Comments

Re: Katsucon end of con photo shoot

Emu — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 13:56:34 -0000

Nice pics!

Re: It’s coming, the Geek Singularity!

John — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 19:03:45 -0000

Hey Cap', great article thanks for the heads up!

Re: Be prepared to kiss your Internet goodbye…

CptNerd — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 09:00:29 -0000

That's not what copyright law is for, it's for protecting *for a limited time* the ability to make money from a creation. If copyright was perpetual, then Disney could never have made "Snow White", because the copyright would have prevented it from becoming public domain. These things are supposed to become freely available after a time, so that others can build on the creative efforts of the originals. That's why the original Constitution stipulated a 14 year lifetime for copyright protection. Now, it's 75 years *after the creator dies!* And in the next few years, Disney will push for a law extending that to 100 years, just so they can maintain a stranglehold on the creations of people who are long dead. That's wrong, and no amount of corporate spin can make it right.

Re: Be prepared to kiss your Internet goodbye…

Marko1222 — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 10:49:00 -0000

There is absolutely nothing wrong with a corporation protecting their work, regardless of it's age. This is along the lines of OWS people wanting their "fair share". No matter how you spin it. This is a GOOD thing.

Re: Innocent couple about to lose their motel and future to law enforcement abuse

Rwolf — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 02:57:59 -0000

Re: Police Civil Forfeiture of Caswell Motel

All Real Estate agents in Tewksbury, MA should publicly be asked, to disclose to their prospective buyers of income property, that Tewksbury police are currently using civil forfeiture to seize property from innocent owners, i.e., the Caswell Motel; because of what a few guests illegally did unbeknownst to the owner; Tewksbury real estate agents should publicly be asked to disclose Tewksbury local police, could similarly seize property from innocent owners e.g. hotels, apartment buildings, RV Parks and restaurants. It would appear Tewksbury police civil forfeiture of income property from “innocent owners” materially affects all Tewksbury income property and should be disclosed to prospective income property buyers.

Note: that police, too easily can use civil asset forfeiture to target property owners they deem undesirable, e.g. political reasons: police undercover agents can meet a drug dealer in a bar or elsewhere, then steer the drug buy to the property where the dealer rents an apartment or motel room to cause civil forfeiture of the innocent owner’s property. Consider most every income rental property in America that rents rooms, dwellings or office space, could be civilly forfeited from an innocent owner because—it isn't possible for an "innocent owner" to know what their guests or renters are doing behind closed doors.

If Motel Caswell is civilly forfeited in this manner, that will increasingly make it difficult for owners of motels, hotels and apartment buildings to sell their properties: fear of government / police civil asset forfeiture from innocent owners will increasingly scare off buyers for these types of properties.

EXPECT MORE POLICE CORRUPTION WITH NO-WARRANT SEARCHES

U.S. Government wants the power without a warrant, to introduce as evidence in criminal prosecutions and government civil trials, any phone call record, email or Internet activity. Alarmingly, that would open the door for Police to take out of context, any innocent—hastily written email, fax or phone call record to allege a crime or violation was committed to cause a person’s arrest, fines and or civil asset forfeiture of their property. There are more than 350 laws and violations that can subject property to government asset forfeiture: Government civil asset forfeiture requires only a civil preponderance of evidence for police to forfeit property, little more than hearsay.

If the Justice Department has its way, any information the FBI derives from (no warrant) acquisition of Web Server Records; User Internet Activity, emails; and phone records, can be used by the FBI for (fishing expeditions) to issue subpoenas in hopes of finding evidence, to prosecute Citizens for any alleged crime or violation—circumventing the Fourth Amendment. Consider: neither Congress nor the courts—determined what NSA electronic surveillance, perhaps illegal under Bush II, could be used by police or introduced into court by government to prosecute U.S. Citizens criminally or civilly. If U.S. Justice Department is permitted (No-warrant) surveillance of all electronic communications, it is problematic state and local law enforcement agencies and private government contractors will want access to prior Bush II /NSA and other government (retained electronic records) of Internet activity; emails and phone call information to secure evidence to arrest Americans and or civilly forfeit their homes, businesses and other assets under Title 18USC and other laws. Of obvious concern, what happens to fair justice in America if police become dependent on “Asset Forfeiture” to help pay their salaries and budget operating costs?

The “Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act of 2000” (effectively eliminated) the “five year statue of limitations” for Government Civil Asset Forfeiture: the statute now runs five years (from the date) police allege they “learned” an asset became subject to forfeiture. It is foreseeable should (no warrant electronic surveillance) be approved; police will relentlessly sift through Citizen and businesses’ (government stored Internet data), emails and phone communications to discover alleged crimes or civil violations. A corrupt/despot U.S. Government may too easily use no-warrant- (seized emails, Internet data and phone call information) to blackmail Americans, corporations and others in the same manner Hitler utilized his earlier passed police state laws to later extort members of parliament, corporations and the wealthy to support passage of Hitler’s 1933 Discriminatory Decrees that suspended the Constitutional Freedoms of German Citizens. A Nazi Government threat of Civil Asset Forfeiture of an individual or corporation’s assets was usually sufficient to ensure Nazi support.

Under U.S. federal civil forfeiture laws, a person or business need not be charged with a crime for government to forfeit their property. Most U.S. Citizens, property and business owners that defend their assets against Government Civil Asset Forfeiture claim an “innocent owner defense.” This defense can become a “Catch 22” a criminal prosecution trap for both guilty and innocent property owners. Any fresh denial of guilt made to government when questioned about committing a crime “even when you did not do the crime” may “involuntarily waive” a defendant’s right to assert in their defense—the “Criminal Statute of Limitations” past for prosecution; any fresh denial of guilt even 30 years after a crime was committed may allow Government prosecutors to use old and new evidence; including information discovered during a Civil Asset Forfeiture Proceeding to launch a criminal prosecution. For that reason many innocent Americans, property and business owners are reluctant to defend their property and businesses against Government Civil Asset Forfeiture.

Re: waiving Criminal Statute of Limitations: see USC18, Sec.1001, James Brogan V. United States. N0.96-1579. U.S. See paragraph (6) at:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/sup...

Re: Generic News Story (you’ve seen all of these)

Jason — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 00:15:51 -0000

It shows how homogenous TV news editing is when that comes from the UK. I guess it'd be an even worse state if it was from Al Jazeera or NHK.

Re: First photo album is up!

Ann — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 21:09:21 -0000

Nice Photos.

Re: Last post from Japan…

Ann — Mon, 24 May 2010 00:08:27 -0000

:( Bummer+

Re: Adventures in Miyagi Prefecture...

moneeca — Mon, 17 May 2010 23:29:37 -0000

Sounds like you guys are having loads of fun! I really miss you Darrell but things are going great here.
Still waiting for some pics. By the way Darrell, Ethan Bibb died this week end. Pray for the family.
Love you guys!

Re: Adventures in Miyagi Prefecture...

teresa diseker — Mon, 17 May 2010 16:45:01 -0000

you. are. not. an. idiot. hope you guys are less stressed now. have fun!!!! i enjoyed the blog. lol love you guys!

Re: Remember Nashville

Ann — Sun, 09 May 2010 21:58:54 -0000

Thanks for posting this on your site. A lady at our church, here in Manchester, was driving on I24 in the right lane. (she was right about the area of the school building) on DRY pavement and the water burst on the vehicles - none of those vehicles DROVE into the water - it just came out of nowhere. The water was up to her door and she couldn't get it open and thankfully one of the truckers got the door opened and led her up to the edge of the water. By the time the school building was floating the water had risen to where it showed on the video. One of Bob's fellow teachers was in the middle of it too, and he was able to get to the dryer area of I24. Manchester had no damage. A shelter was opened, but no one needed it. The tornado may have touched down in a field because there were no reports of any touching down, just warnings that it was over head. I posted some pics on my photo page of FB. Such a tragedy and not one word from the so-called president obama.

Re: Worldcon pictures, day 1

Ann & Bob — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 09:48:44 -0000

Glad to hear you're having a great time. What a small world to go that far and meet people from your own locale.

Keep having fun!

Sis

Re: 初めまして！　Hello!

john sterling — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 09:33:48 -0000

andrew,

Back at the office, we're midway through code reviews, otherwise CADE & CIRP still in a disorganized state; sounds like you are having fun. sayanara.

Re: 日本に到着しました！I arrived in Japan!

Becki — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 17:28:21 -0000

Hello uncle 'o mine! I'm glad you arrived in Japan safely. I've been checking the blog and it took me awhile to figure out you wrote something in the comment section. :-)

I can't wait to see pictures of your adventures in Japan!

Love you lots!
Becki

Re: 日本に到着しました！I arrived in Japan!

Joyce — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 16:11:36 -0000

I'm glad to hear you arrived ok. Can't wait for the pictures to start coming in. Are you taking souvenir orders?

Re: 日本に到着しました！I arrived in Japan!

Ann & Bob — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 14:54:21 -0000

Hey,

I tried to Ichat the other night but we missed each other.

Trust you're having a good time once you got over the jet lag. I followed your flight until about 10:00 PM.

You asked me what would I like from Japan - if you see any cologne or perfume that has cherry blossom scent, I'd like to have a small bottle and I'll pay you. Don't spend a lot of $$. Around $20.00 in US funds should be big enough. That may be something that you aren't allowed to ship - that's okay, but if you can that would be great.

Have lots of fun.

Love,

Sis

Re: 日本に到着しました！I arrived in Japan!

mrgazpacho — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 05:54:10 -0000

Hi mate

rec.arts.anime.misc groupmate saying hi and maybe I'll do some photos as well, eventually...

Re: 日本に到着しました！I arrived in Japan!

Andrew Diseker — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 18:15:24 -0000

Hi, it's me, I've decided to add commentary here, since my Japanese skills don't allow me to be as expressive as I'd like.

The trip was very uneventful, in an eventful sort of way ^__^. The flight wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, although I didn't get to sleep as much as I wanted, the seats in business class were comfortable. I was able to navigate Narita airport, thanks to the video they played about what to do and where to go for customs, passport control, etc. The only place I got lost was trying to find information about where to pick up my rented cell phone! I hooked up with my friend John and we cashed in our first JR Rail pass exchange cards, which was very painless. The train ride was okay, the Green Car wasn't all that "first class" but I think that's because it was the Narita Express (N'Ex) and was made just to get from Narita to Tokyo and Yokohama. The ride was very smooth, much nicer than the Metro in DC. Lugging around the baggage was the hardest and most draining part, and I was so glad to be able to crash in the hotel room!
Waking up Monday morning and going downstairs to get my first Japanese breakfast was great, and wandering around Yokohama Monday evening was a blast, we found our way down to the convention center where the Worldcon will be, and I got a few pictures, especially of a huge wind power turbine across the bay. I'll post pictures in the next full post, as soon as I can compose the Japanese.

Re: It’s not Art, but an incredible simulation!

Captain Nerd — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 03:19:08 -0000

Actually, it's from all of them! :-) I really like the closing credits, and I took this from the scene where Fuu is looking out over the ocean at sunset. I debated about painting the scene immediately before, a long shot where she's looking down at the waves coming in, but I like to paint faces more than bodies and scenery, so this is it! I also could have done it in Photoshop, but I'm just old-fashioned enough to feel like that would be cheating, somehow, even though it would be easier to do prints that way. :-/

I'm glad you like it, thanks, and I'll definitely let you know when I get another one finished!

Re: It’s not Art, but an incredible simulation!

fmanalyst — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 03:02:58 -0000

I like it. It's a nice, pensive Fuu. The background is very red, it seems. Is it from a specific episode?

Re: An annual event: Making a new LJ Post!

Captain Nerd — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 02:04:27 -0000

Art, I never knew ye!

Hi, I finally got around to updating my journal, and I put a link to a photo I took of my (stopped, but not finished) painting. Sorry I took so long to reply. I'm actually thinking I won't be seeing my family this Thanksgiving, but I'm going to make it a long Christmas vacation this year. I have to save my shekels, since I'm not working and I'm living off my stored fa, er, my savings account. :-) If I get to sell my painting, that'll help some.

Re: An annual event: Making a new LJ Post!

fmanalyst — Thu, 02 Nov 2006 23:41:56 -0000

I can identify with the sleeplessness. The other night I was panicking over a credit card bill that hadn't arrived, terrified that someone was stealing my mail or something. It arrived today. But this has been a crappy week in general. I wish I could see your painting.

Oh, and will you be driving through this area during the holidays this year?

Re: Day 2: Columbia Missouri, mile 973

Anonymous — Sun, 03 Aug 2003 03:44:59 -0000

hey i live in kansas city! isn't it great? i'll definately try that restaurant in blue springs! thanks!

Re: Nerd Tour 2003: Aftermath

Anonymous — Fri, 20 Jun 2003 17:18:11 -0000

Stuff

Words of wisdom:

You can never have enough stuff.

Later,

Tom

Re: Nerd Tour 2003: Aftermath

Anonymous — Fri, 20 Jun 2003 17:18:11 -0000

Stuff

Words of wisdom:

You can never have enough stuff.

Later,

Tom

Nerdwatch! - Latest Comments

Re: Katsucon end of con photo shoot

Re: It’s coming, the Geek Singularity!

Re: Be prepared to kiss your Internet goodbye…

Re: Be prepared to kiss your Internet goodbye…

Re: Innocent couple about to lose their motel and future to law enforcement abuse

Re: Generic News Story (you’ve seen all of these)

Re: First photo album is up!

Re: Last post from Japan…

Re: Adventures in Miyagi Prefecture...

Re: Adventures in Miyagi Prefecture...

Re: Remember Nashville

Re: Worldcon pictures, day 1

Re: 初めまして！ Hello!

Re: 日本に到着しました！I arrived in Japan!

Re: 日本に到着しました！I arrived in Japan!

Re: 日本に到着しました！I arrived in Japan!

Re: 日本に到着しました！I arrived in Japan!

Re: 日本に到着しました！I arrived in Japan!

Re: It’s not Art, but an incredible simulation!

Re: It’s not Art, but an incredible simulation!

Re: An annual event: Making a new LJ Post!

Re: An annual event: Making a new LJ Post!

Re: Day 2: Columbia Missouri, mile 973

Re: Nerd Tour 2003: Aftermath

Re: Nerd Tour 2003: Aftermath

Re: 初めまして！　Hello!