Proposed solution: Serve the files via locally hosted laptop web server on a private wireless network (WLAN). Users download to their iPhone/Android/laptop from the free wireless network. No internet connection is needed and download is full speed.

Users see’s the following QR Code for http://freetune.funk.co.nz/ to scan:

Visit http://freetune.funk.co.nz/ on your phone for MP3 Download

Plan:

• Laptop (in our case a Mac) running:
• Locally modified hosts file with entry for freetune.funk.co.nz pointing to localhost (say 10.0.0.100)
• Apache setup to serve the file with a local website running on the laptop
• Sharing it’s non-existent “internet” via DHCP over the ethernet port
• Wi-Fi router (I’ll use a WRT54GL linux router) set to:
• Open network no password (or publish password inside event)
• Laptop is connected to as the upstream WLAN ethernet port and is default gateway
• Clients phones and laptops connect to this router
• Hopefully the router can handle ~200 clients connecting to it through the evening
• Business card printouts containing a QR Code for http://freetune.funk.co.nz/
• Instructions for users of iOS and Android to scan the code or visit http://freetune.funk.co.nz/
• Backup real DNS entry
• on live internet for your private LAN IP (say 10.0.0.100 or 192.168.1.1)
• Captive Portal idea:
• Ideally an extra tweak to DNS make every lookup for any domain go to this IP address
• Apache setup to redirect all requests to the private IP

Laptop web-server will be plugged into the "Internet" port, left side

The solution? Clean nicely segmented source lines that “roll up” into one:

To clean these up requires two filters:

• Webmail Source Rollup (search and replace with Webmail (brand])
• Webmail Medium Rollup (swap / referral with / email as medium for further rolling up!)

Both these filters will use the core regex code I’ve figured out that consolidates 99% of the worlds webmail systems without pulling in any false positives in theory.

The Magic Regex Code

Here is the filter regex that I’ve been currently using in my production Google analytics advanced filters since 15 Feb 2012 to cleanup these – or to roll up the load-balanced domains that you often get in referrals:

My starting point:

(messag|courrier|zimbra|imp|mail)(.*)\.(.*)\..{2,4}

This grabs any domain with say “mail” in it, but runs a check on the ending of the domain: it needs to have at least 2 dots after it and a TLD between 2 and 4 chars long. It will miss go.mail.ru and mail.com. It will also miss “Mail Campaign \ email” because this is not a proper domain. So far so good

My improvement with exceptions:

(messag|courrier|zimbra|imp|mail).*\.(.*\..{2,4}|go\.mail\.ru|promail\.co\.nz|service\.mail\.com|3c\.web\.de|outlook\.com)

Domain of webmail platform is in capture group $A2.

My improved regex has a new exception section at the end to allow some special cases (go.mail.ru, 3c.web.de, service.mail.com) to get through the filter using a hard-coded approach that skips the safety net and autonomy provided by the wide open keyword matching paired with a domain name restriction ensuring “two more dots and a TLD”.

Maybe that is excessive use of regex, but at least you can be sure you can now see your word of mouth / word of email traffic nice and tidy!

How does it work?

I’ll break the formula down in sections:

(messag|courrier|zimbra|imp|mail)

This looks for the really obvious and common keywords in webmail services, the main one being mail. This will match sn124w.snt124.mail.live.com but it will also grab emailchimp.com and a huge number of others that you really don’t want to catch with this filter. If we were looking for live (but we aren’t in this case), then a site like www.answeringoLIVEr.com would get picked up in the crossfire.

Basically the first part of the domain name (sn124w.snt124.mail) will be getting deleted by this filter so you could stand to lose quite a lot of data with the “mail” and “imp” keywords if this were the only parts of the expression! So the next bit of filter is designed to pass the domain through another difficult test involving the dots and TLDs…

(.*)\.(.*)\..{2,4}

This makes sure that the domain bits after mail or zimbra or whatever always have two dots and a TLD (top level domain extension eg .nz .jp). Which matches the end bit of sn124w.snt124.mail.live.com and  the end of: www.funk.co.nz.

The (.*) part means match anything including nothing, and the \. means there must be a dot, so (.*)\.(.*)\. means there gotta be at least two more dots in this domain name coming up after the live”. Which is how Answering Oliver gets through the test for live. The next part .{2,4} is all about the top level domain or TLD. These can be 2, 3, or 4 letters long like .co, .com. and .mobi. The curly braces specify how many times the previous character . (which means single char you like except nothing) can appear like {min,max}.

Then in the middle is a pipe | which cuts the regex open and allows some really hard to match exceptions through for smaller webmail systems. Only reason you see the web.de one also appear on the left of the central | is because this is such a whacky domain name that it doesn’t match the “mail” which gets most of the webmail systems on the planet. Germans aye?

* (Hi Devon! Thanks for sending traffic to Stray Travel I found you researching this post)

Screenshots

Campaign Source Filter

Advanced filter.

Field A -> Extract A: Campaign Source:

(messag|courrier|zimbra|imp|mail).*\.(.*\..{2,4}|go\.mail\.ru|promail\.co\.nz|service\.mail\.com|3c\.web\.de|outlook\.com)

Field B -> Extract B: [leave both blank]

Output To -> Constructor: Campaign Source: Webmail ($A2)

GA Webmail Rollup Filter

Medium Rollup Filter

Advanced filter.

Field A -> Extract A: Campaign Source:

(messag|courrier|zimbra|imp|mail).*\.(.*\..{2,4}|go\.mail\.ru|promail\.co\.nz|service\.mail\.com|3c\.web\.de|outlook\.com)

Field B -> Extract B: [leave both blank]

Output To -> Constructor: Campaign Medium: email

Additional reference domains to check:

The domains below are the really rare webmail clients that are hard to extract:

mail175-236.sinamail.sina.com.cn
go.mail.ru
service.mail.com
promail.co.nz
3d.web.de
ch1prd0310.outlook.com

This is why I needed to grab the full domain with (.*\..{2,4}) versus the first versions (.*)\.(.*)\..{2,4} which would have only grabbed “sinamail”. Now we get  sinamail.sina.com.cn.

These can be checked with: sina\.com\.cn|go\.mail\.ru|mail\.com|promail\.co\.nz|web\.de|outlook\.com

I'm in Coatesville bitch!

Update: Excellent interview with Kim Dotcom on Campbell Live.

Now I had never heard of MegaUpload until this story broke in NZ about it, and him living in Coatesville mansion (that place looks wicked!!) which is in my region (Auckland)! Straight up, that’s intense!

But I feel sorry for him, I hope the pussy NZ government doesn’t bend over and extradite him (they will) I think it sounds a bit of an over-reaction at this point in time, I mean take this excerpt from Wikipedia below, I have yet to find anything decent about exactly what he’s done wrong. He claims he’s innocent according to reuters. Perhaps he is bad, even if he is, taking the site down should be enough, he doesn’t need to be arrested and extradited.

Down she goes... poof!

The best article I’ve found so far has been this Ars Technica one Why the feds smashed MegaUpload. At least this makes me confident now the feds have some “proof” knew they were pirates, but so is YouTube in many ways too, and at least both YouTube AND MegaUpload provide a take-down tools for copyrights holders to remove stuff. Another good place to check is this Quora page.

Scariest part of it all tho, is this bit at the end of the NYT article: “The government hopes to use their private words against them,” Mr. Kerr said. “This should scare the owners and operators of similar sites.”

Legal commentators point out that while the indictment may be correct and Megaupload might have acted as a criminal conspiracy as claimed, a number of points in the indictment are based upon selective interpretations and legal concepts (described in one article as “novel theories” of the law) and could be challenged in court. An L.A. Times analysis stated that the author was “struck by how far the indictment goes to find something nefarious”; likewise a TechDirt analysis concluded that while the founder of Megaupload had a significant history of “flouting the law”, evidence has potentially been taken out of context or misrepresented and could “come back to haunt other online services who are providing perfectly legitimate services”. Both analyses concur that other evidence could show criminality; the concerns were not irrefutable.

I mean the site’s been replaced by an FBI logo, stink. They reckon at one stage is was the 13th biggest site on the net.

Anonymous Respond

Global hacker group anonymous have responded by creating this web browser based DDOS tool:

http://pastehtml.com/view/blakyjwbi.html

…which seems to automatically fire up a bunch of connections to justice.gov. Nasty!

Created by: Paralegal.net

Got myself a seat next to a lovely girl from Munich in German and learnt how to count to ten. Made it to Ha Hei and Hot Water beach, such a beautiful place.

Day Two – Raglan
Im writing this at the end of day two of the stray tour. Were in Raglan at Karioi lodge. It’s the meck shit – a real backpacker hostel in the jungle, with a really hot sauna and big lounge. Dope as aged rims tree sits smack in front of me over the deck, and the hostel is cool . The lodges are situated nestled into a valley in from the road on the south head.

Apart from a few teething problems early on involving changes to the schedule and wales breaking in the bus in Thames in true form (who needs a rear window anyhow? nice fresh air!), the tour is exceptionally cool still. Great bunch of people, heaps of Germans, plus a regular mix of French, English, Irish, Dutch, Italian, Brazilian and me…. the sole kiwi in group. In fact im a staff members trying to masquerade as a true backpacker.
Surfing turned out to be a highlight so far – that and nearly burning my feat at hot water beach briefly on our trip at Ha The on the first night. We hired some boards from raglan surf school at the beach at ### (where the raglan reggae festival was) and shit was pretty mellow. I can see why pros would go further out at the other beach.

Taupo friday night
Had a big night on friday in taupo. Good times and crazy dancing with Jordon, Nick, Anders, Avril, Veronica, and… gets hard to remember all the names.

Blue Duck
Pariatua loop walk: Awesome old growth trees with long lichen hanging off and inquisitive tiny smaller than normal fantail-looking birds come to say, while pairs of tuis pull aerobatic manoeuvres. Steep terrain. Lords of the rings type shit, made me feel like the hobbit.

National Park
Did the tongariro crossing! 19.4kms, 800m up, and 1100m down. Very cool 7 hour walk! Amazing endorphin rushes after the walk. Spa after was fun, that’s when I taught the Germans what a sausage fest was (worst fest in German).

A really handy feature I used all the time to escalate important Facebook events in my Google Calendar has just been brutally and cruelly taken away, so I’m gonna blog about it and start a petition to try and get it back.

I used to do the following after clicking an RSVP to an event on Facebook: Click Export -> Send Email and it would send a nicely formatted email like in the screenshot below that contains:

• An Add to calendar >> link formatted to magically work well with Google Calendar
• The actual name and date of the event (hello?)

As you can see (well I can anyhow cos I’m a geek and can read URL-endocded data) this means that with one click you get a fully formatted Google Calendar entry after clicking (2nd screenshot)

Sin Rave - Done the old way that rocked my world with convenience

And after clicking “Add to calendar” you get this if you’re logged into Google like I always am:

It *used to* create calendar entry automatically

And now

 … and now the sad reality is that Facebook have changed it so it looks like this:

Perhaps not many people used this feature, and I know that Facebook recently did a bunch of changes to reduce the amount of emails their system is spewing about the place, but these emails were really good. The main change was the removal of the URL encoded calendar item.

Here is a copy of the SIN item for reference:

http://www.google.com/calendar/event?action=TEMPLATE&pprop=eidmsgid%3A_ckp3ac9k60r38d1o68p3echj6906cob3clh6urrb5phmur8_13343e5749edd332&dates=20111111T230000%2F20111112T070000&text=SIN+%5B11%2F11%2F11%5D&location=373+KRD+%28420+%26+RISING+SUN%29+&details=MAKE+LOVE+NOT+WAR++++++++++++%0A++%0AUpstairs%3A+ARENA+1+++++++%0A%E2%97%8F+Soundsystems%3A+Demolition+%2B+In+House+%0A%E2%97%8F+Styles%3A+House%2C+Dnb%2C+UK+Funky+%26+Dubstep+%0A%E2%97%8F+Burlesque+by+La+Ragdoll+De+Bon+Bon+%26+Ladi+Sin+Quana%0A%E2%97%8F+Mini+Fashion+Show%0A%E2%97%8F+Armistice+Themed+Strip+Show+%283+Ladies+for+3+Hours%2C+Full+Strip%29%0A%5BStrip+show+from%3A+11%3A11%3A11+11%2F11%2F11%5D++%0A%E2%97%8F+Breakdancers%3A+B+Boy+Discover+%2B+TBA+%0A%E2%97%8F+Rockstar+Girls+X+2+%0A%E2%97%8F+Lighting%3A+Lazers%2C+strobes%2C+black+lights%0A%E2%97%8F+Atmos%3A+Smoke%2C+Bubbles%2C+Visuals%0A%0APart+1%3A+%28Bounce+and+Stare%29%0A10%3A00-10%3A50%3EJUSTIN+SANE%0A10%3A50-12

So according to this thread:

http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Calendar/thread?tid=3b76e6c18640db63&hl=en

It is not even possible to set Google Chrome as the default handler for the .ics file extension that Facebook wants me to download now. Turns out I have to following these laborious steps for each event import that used to take 1 click:

To import events from iCalendar or CSV files, just follow these steps:

1. Click the down-arrow next to Other calendars
2. Select Import calendar
3. Click Choose file and find the file that contains your events, then click Open.
4. Select the Google Calendar where you’d like to import events, then click Import.

That’s quite a few extra steps since it also involves actually opening Google Calendar, and putting your mouse over the cal you want to import into. Sucky.

To Whom It May Concern,

this is your official warning that your organisation IPONZ is at legal risk. You should never have granted Trademark 700726 and you must now revoke this trademark. It appears to have been mistakenly granted with Trade Mark Non-Convention, WORD, whereas this word Radler is a conventional word, used in common language to describe a generic type of beer.

It is time someonebody – surely the state prosecutor? – should take the commissioner for trademarks to court for allowing the term “Radler” to be trademarked by DB Breweries Ltd? This Trademark should be revoked under section 17 and also section 18 B and D because the term Radler is a term that has become customary in the current language or in the bona fide and established practices of trade.

Please see the relevant sections of NZ Law below:

Trade Marks Act 2002 No 49 (as at 15 December 2005), Public Act

Date registered:

Subpart 2—Absolute grounds for not registering trade mark

17 Absolute grounds for not registering trade mark: general

(1) The Commissioner must not register as a trade mark or part of a trade mark any matter— (a) the use of which would be likely to deceive or cause

confusion; or (b) the use of which is contrary to New Zealand law or would otherwise be disentitled to protection in any

court; or (c) the use or registration of which would, in the opinion

of the Commissioner, be likely to offend a significant

section of the community, including Māori. (2) The Commissioner must not register a trade mark if the appli-

cation is made in bad faith. (3) Despite subsection (1)(b), the Commissioner may register a

24

trade mark even if use of the trade mark is restricted or pro- hibited under the Smoke-free Environments Act 1990. Compare: 1953 No 66 s 16

 

Registrability of non-distinctive trade marks

18 Non-distinctive trade mark not registrable

(1) The Commissioner must not register— (a) a sign that is not a trade mark: (b) a trade mark that has no distinctive character: (c) a trade mark that consists only of signs or indications

that may serve, in trade, to designate the kind, quality, quantity, intended purpose, value, geographical origin, time of production of goods or of rendering of services, or other characteristics of goods or services:

(d) a trade mark that consists only of signs or indications that have become customary in the current language or in the bona fide and established practices of trade.

(2) The Commissioner must not refuse to register a trade mark under subsection (1)(b), (c), or (d) if, before the date of appli- cation for registration, as a result of either the use made of it or of any other circumstances, the trade mark has acquired a distinctive character.

Compare: Trade Marks Act 1998 s 7(1)–(3) (Singapore)

Section 18(1)(c): amended, on 15 December 2005, by section 4 of the Trade Marks Amendment Act 2005 (2005 No 116).

Source: http://www.legislation.co.nz/act/public/2002/0049/latest/viewpdf.aspx?search=ts_act_trade+marks+act_resel

Official Record Of Radler Trademark

Trade Mark Details
Trade Mark Number (210)	700726 Current Status Registered/Under Proceeding
TM Search Text	RADLER
Trade Mark Type	Trade Mark Non-Convention, WORD
Trade Mark Nature
Use Statement	(i) being used by the proprietor(s), (being the applicant)
Filed (220)	02-SEP-2003
Renewed Until	02-SEP-2013
Marks , Device and Device Descriptors (532)
	RADLER
Classification System | Class (511) Specification of Goods and Services 8|32 beers; beverages made from malt; lager; fruit drinks, fruit juices, syrups, essences and other preparations for making beverages, combined with beer, beverages made from malt, or lager
Documents
No documents on record or public access is restricted
Proprietor: (730)	DB BREWERIES LIMITED . Corner of Great South Road and Bairds Road, Otahuhu, Auckland, New Zealand
Contact : (740)	SIMPSON GRIERSON . 88 Shortland Street, Auckland, New Zealand
Service Address:	88 Shortland Street, Auckland, New Zealand
Action Completed Due Journal Published Hearing Request 03-MAY-2011 02-MAY-2011 Hearings Correspondence 03-MAY-2011 02-MAY-2011 Hearings Correspondence 29-APR-2011 29-APR-2011 Hearings Correspondence 29-APR-2011 28-APR-2011 Hearings Correspondence 29-APR-2011 28-APR-2011 Hearings Correspondence 28-APR-2011 27-APR-2011 Hearings Evidence 28-APR-2011 28-APR-2011 Hearings Correspondence 26-APR-2011 19-APR-2011 Hearings Evidence 26-APR-2011 19-APR-2011 Hearings Correspondence 26-APR-2011 26-APR-2011 Hearings Correspondence 15-APR-2011 01-APR-2011 Hearings Correspondence 11-APR-2011 08-APR-2011 Hearings Correspondence 07-APR-2011 30-MAR-2011 Hearings Correspondence 07-APR-2011 15-MAR-2011 Hearings Correspondence 07-APR-2011 24-MAR-2011 Hearings Correspondence 22-MAR-2011 14-MAR-2011 Hearings Evidence 14-FEB-2011 27-JAN-2011 Hearings Correspondence 14-FEB-2011 09-FEB-2011 Hearings Correspondence 31-JAN-2011 11-JAN-2011 Hearings Correspondence 07-JAN-2011 14-DEC-2010 Hearings Evidence 30-NOV-2010 30-NOV-2010 Hearings Evidence 30-NOV-2010 18-NOV-2010 Hearings Correspondence 30-NOV-2010 30-NOV-2010 Hearings Evidence 18-NOV-2010 16-NOV-2010 Hearings Evidence 18-NOV-2010 16-NOV-2010 Hearings Evidence 18-NOV-2010 17-NOV-2010 Hearings Evidence 18-NOV-2010 16-NOV-2010 Hearings Correspondence 18-NOV-2010 17-NOV-2010 Hearings Evidence 21-SEP-2010 06-SEP-2010 Hearings Correspondence 31-AUG-2010 26-AUG-2010 Hearings Correspondence 23-AUG-2010 16-AUG-2010 Hearings Correspondence 23-AUG-2010 19-AUG-2010 Hearings Extension Request 23-AUG-2010 03-SEP-2010 Hearings Evidence 23-AUG-2010 16-AUG-2010 Hearings Evidence 19-JUL-2010 14-JUL-2010 Hearings Correspondence 03-JUN-2010 20-MAY-2010 Hearings Evidence 03-JUN-2010 04-MAY-2010 Hearings Evidence 03-JUN-2010 04-MAY-2010 Hearings Evidence 03-JUN-2010 04-MAY-2010 Extension of Time Request 04-MAY-2010 21-MAY-2010 Hearings Correspondence 20-APR-2010 16-APR-2010 Confirmation Copy Upload 19-APR-2010 19-APR-2010 Hearings Correspondence 15-APR-2010 30-MAR-2010 Hearings Correspondence 31-MAR-2010 26-MAR-2010 Hearings Correspondence 31-MAR-2010 26-MAR-2010 Confirmation Copy Upload 29-MAR-2010 29-MAR-2010 Hearings Correspondence 22-MAR-2010 18-MAR-2010 Hearings Evidence 03-MAR-2010 01-MAR-2010 Hearings Evidence 07-JAN-2010 06-JAN-2010 Hearings Evidence 19-NOV-2009 17-NOV-2009 Hearings Application for Revocation 06-OCT-2009 23-SEP-2009 Hearings Extension Request 16-SEP-2009 16-SEP-2009 Lodge Challenge 16-SEP-2009 Lodge Challenge 16-SEP-2009 Hearings Correspondence 16-SEP-2009 15-SEP-2009 Hearings Counterstatement 16-SEP-2009 11-SEP-2009 Hearings Correspondence 08-SEP-2009 07-SEP-2009 Hearings Application for Revocation 08-SEP-2009 07-SEP-2009 Hearings Correspondence 08-SEP-2009 07-SEP-2009 Hearings Correspondence 08-SEP-2009 04-SEP-2009 Hearings Correspondence 15-JUL-2009 10-JUL-2009 Confirmation Copy Upload 14-JUL-2009 14-JUL-2009 Hearings Application for Invalidity 14-MAY-2009 13-MAY-2009 Hearings Correspondence 11-MAY-2009 11-MAY-2009 Lodge Challenge 05-MAY-2009 Registered 08-JUN-2004 1500 25-JUN-2004 Published Date 27-FEB-2004 27-FEB-2004 1496 27-FEB-2004 Application Accepted 13-FEB-2004 13-FEB-2004 1496 27-FEB-2004 Filed 02-SEP-2003 02-SEP-2003
Related Trade Marks
No Related Trade Marks found
Objection Type	Lodged On
Challenge	16-SEP-2009
Challenge	05-MAY-2009
Challenge	16-SEP-2009
Last Renewed By
No renewal interest on record or public access is restricted
Proprietor & Licensee History
No proprietors nor licensees on record or public access is restricted
Your Selection Criteria IPOL Database Search Collection: Public Global: 700726
The information contained in the databases accessible through this site has been taken from files held at the Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand. This site is not intended to be a comprehensive or complete source of intellectual property information. The Intellectual Property Office will not be liable for the provision of any incorrect or incomplete information. To obtain further assistance on the use of this Internet site please contact us
Delivered: 29th July 2011 14:29:08

can’t take revenge against a computer (Score:4, Insightful)

by Velex (120469) Alter Relationship on Sunday April 03, @03:45AM (#35693722) Homepage

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. You can’t take revenge against a computer. A human being killed is a-ok with most people as long as you can take revenge.

• Re:can’t take revenge against a computer (Score:5, Insightful)

  by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 03, @03:54AM (#35693760)

  That’s not what people fear. It’s the perceived lack of control, even if automated driving is statistically more safe. Same with nuclear energy paranoia.

  Parent

  • Re:can’t take revenge against a computer (Score:5, Interesting)

    by CastrTroy (595695) Alter Relationship on Sunday April 03, @04:14AM (#35693886) Homepage

    I’ve been saying the same thing for years. The driverless car will never catch on because people want to be in control. I’m still amazed we have autopilots landing aircraft. Granted the pilot is paying attention at all times (or should be) and is ready to take control in case of a malfunction. For driverless cars the dream is that you can read the newspaper while going to work. But the reality is, that even if your car is driving itself, you should still be there to take over in case something malfunctions. If you have to pay attention anyway, you might as well be driving.

    – 

    Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.

    Parent

    • Re:

      Why?

      Chances are pretty good that me paying attention ready to take over at any second will result in me taking over and causing a crash that would not have otherwise happened more often than I save the day. So I’m actually decreasing the safety level.

    • Re:can’t take revenge against a computer (Score:5, Insightful)

      by c.r.o.c.o (123083) Alter Relationship on Sunday April 03, @05:30AM (#35694346)

      I’ve been saying the same thing for years. The driverless car will never catch on because people want to be in control. I’m still amazed we have autopilots landing aircraft. Granted the pilot is paying attention at all times (or should be) and is ready to take control in case of a malfunction. For driverless cars the dream is that you can read the newspaper while going to work. But the reality is, that even if your car is driving itself, you should still be there to take over in case something malfunctions. If you have to pay attention anyway, you might as well be driving.

      Autopilot landing is EASY. You have a stationary runway, known wind, ground velocity, altitude, weather conditions,etc. Also the airplane is in the air, surrounded by nothing for miles unless the air traffic controller messes up. Even autopilot landing a fighter jet on a carrier in choppy seas is more predictable than driving a car in traffic.

      A car is surrounded by obstacles on all sides, some stationary others in motion, it has to obey laws, traffic signals, and must adapt to unknown weather and road conditions. Most people don’t give it a second thought in a car, but I can promise you nothing ruins a bright, warm day of motorcycle riding faster than hitting gravel in a turn.

      This push towards automating driving is yet another attempt to nerf the entire world. Doomed to failure, but that won’t stop the “visionaries.” They should instead of focusing on having much better driving schools, much more stringent driving exams and recurring examinations. I find it ridiculous that having passed two laughable exams, I can now drive my car and ride my bike FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE (or at least for the next 50 years) without any retest.

      Granted, some people will fail more difficult driving exams, and I’m ok with that even if I fail myself. They lack the hand-eye coordination required to be in control of a multi tonne vehicle, and should not be on the road. They can ride the bus, take a cab or walk. I’m not being facetious, I truly mean it. The day I fail a driving exam is the day I stop driving, at least until I can successfully retake it (and there should be a limit on retests too). :)))

      Parent

      • Re:can’t take revenge against a computer (Score:5, Interesting)

        by Kjella (173770) Alter Relationship on Sunday April 03, @06:58AM (#35694900) Homepage

         

        This push towards automating driving is yet another attempt to nerf the entire world. Doomed to failure, but that won’t stop the “visionaries.” They should instead of focusing on having much better driving schools, much more stringent driving exams and recurring examinations. (…) Granted, some people will fail more difficult driving exams, and I’m ok with that even if I fail myself. They lack the hand-eye coordination required to be in control of a multi tonne vehicle, and should not be on the road. They can ride the bus, take a cab or walk. I’m not being facetious, I truly mean it.

        Bus? Not available.
        Cab? Too expensive.
        Walk? Too far.

        Let’s face it, many people are completely dependent on having a car. Even if you tell them to rewrite their lives to be car free – possibly abandoning childhood homes, neighbors and local communities – there are many things that are completely dependent on having a car. There’ll never be any public transport to take you up to your mountain cabin for the weekend and the taxi driver would charge you a small fortune for it. You can of course say “don’t do those things” but that’s a really crappy solution to the people you want to take it away from. Particularly for many elderly the car is a lifeline for getting around, losing their license and being “stuck” in their apartment is one of the saddest day in their sunset years. Given the alternatives, I can understand the “You can pry it from my cold, dead fingers” attitude many have to their driver’s license.

        If there is to be a change of tune, I think it will come from these people. People that know that maaaaaaaybe they shouldn’t actually be driving, but they don’t feel they have a choice. People that could say “hey, this is enough for me to let me get my groceries and visit my grandkids”, who don’t give a crap about any loss of manual control – they never really asked for it in the first place. Like a cab, without the cost of a cab and that is your personal space. And commuters, honestly who thinks that is fun driving? Just get in, tell it to go to the office and spend the time doing something else while the computer limps after the tail lights ahead of you. Or just people that don’t care, it’s a tool to get from A to B and as long as the computer gets you there in roughly the same time that’s fine.

        Not to mention, driverless cars also enable passengerless cars. The implications of that could be great, like I get off and the car parks itself. I call it and it comes to pick me up – perhaps not even in the same place, I don’t need to return to where I parked it. I could drive myself to the airport and it’ll go park itself. Or even drive home and wait for me to schedule a pickup. Also things like people that aren’t old enough to drive. Deliver your kid to soccer practice? Put him/her in the car, tell it to go drop him off. If they’re old enough, maybe even pick them up on their own. Or when you’re drunk and can’t drive yourself, no more need for “designated drivers” – which nobody wants to be in my experience.

        Seriously, driverless cars would be the solution to so many problems that only skilled drivers would never solve and which is pretty much a pipe dream anyway. Most people are just average and the great majority is not going to “throw out” themselves.

        –
        Tolerance is to let others live like they want. To appease religious fundamentalists is not tolerance, but submission.

        Parent

 

Would you appreciate a law that creates an ability for the victim of cellphone theft to setup a process where the receiver of the stolen mobile phone or device is sent a series of automated messages that describe the device as stolen, provides an amnesty from prosecution on return to the police station, and nominal cash reward for doing so?

Rather than blacklist a lost phone at the GSM network level by calling Vodafone / Telecom / 2 Degrees and asking for an IMEI-block placed on the phone -as I did recently with a lost Android phone to prevent the new users from enjoying it – by keeping the phone “alive” and working, it will remain in use, charged, trackable, and messagable. The device is addressable because of it’s IMEI number.

So I hereby propose that cellphone theft could theoretically be eliminated purely by the implementation of a few laws, and probably only cost a couple of million to setup:

1. Setup a government level database of IMEI* numbers (unique phone serials) that users can optionally register their device against their name.

2. When the users phone is reported stolen to police, this also gets recorded in the same database.

3. A law is passed that forces telecoms companies to alter the behaviour of this phone to make it useless to the theif from that point on.

New Phone Behaviour When Stolen

When the stolen phone is wiped, has a new SIM inserted, and activated, the telecoms network will be forced by law to send a series of txt messages informing the user that the phone has been reported stolen and should be returned to the nearest NZ police station, or  embassy. Once returned to the true owner, the database is updated and the messages stop. At the same time, authorities can be alerted to geo-locate the device and arrest the person if possible if they continue to use the phone.

The messages would be sent daily at a randomised hour of the day and would read something like this:

This phone has been registered as stolen on the police mobile device anti-theft database. Please return it to the nearest NZ Police station to receive automatic immunity and avoid prosecution for receiving stolen property. Your location is currently being tracked.

Registration

Two forms of registation should be available, mainly because the first “easy” kind could be completely automated and not really tie up any additional police time. The second and harder kind would create extra work for cops in police stations sighting IDs and working with the system, providing forgotten passwords etc.

• Easy registration via auto-sensing of IMEI from phone network and SMS TXT based reply prompts to “lock in” your record in the national anti-theft database (registering). The user now has a login to a profile that they can use to change the status of the phone: normal, change owner, lost, stolen, delete registration etc.
• Harder registration via using photo ID at a police station when recording your IMEI number. This method is needed also for post-theft input of IMEI number assuming you kept a copy of this (you can get yours by entering *#06# send), and also for claiming back a locked in database entry say if you buy and sell the phone, but the old owner will not unregister themselves. This method also enables users who had no idea all of this was possible to force the police to force the telecoms company to give out your old IMEI number, so that it can be post-registered by a sworn officer or justice of the peace.
• Auto txt sent to un-registered phones every 6 months by network to remind / advise new roaming phones of the anti-theft law, and the benefits of registering.
• Auto txt sent to registered phone when new SIM inserted to advise the phone is registered on anti-theft database.

Activating the Anti-Theft System

Normally you would think a trip to the police station would be required. However, this is off putting for some people, as they know that it could be time consuming to attempt to report a phone stolen. I propose that this system could be architected such that it would be possible for the true owner of the phone to trigger the theft warning system remotely via a computer or another phone, with a special password. If they loose their password, then they would need to rock up to a police station with photo ID, and claim back their record.

Weak points:

• Requires a fair amount of complex back end databases, cellular network interconnections, and police staff time to implement.
• Abuse potential: discover somebodys IMEI, register it, then disactivate the  phone. However, this could be mitigated by the fact that the true owner could present at a police station with ID to unlock the phone again.
• How to deal with civil disputes, say a second hand trade of a phone where the previous owner was not fully paid, nor gave back the account.

File under:

phone anti theft

how to trace a stolen phone

how to find a stolen phone

how to find stolen phone

how to unblock a phone reported lost

theft mobile

cell phone lost

stolen phone

cell phones

lost cell phone

Volvox

Here are some other cool images..

Thanks to Goldstein for this image

Thanks to http://etc.usf.edu/clipart/5900/5905/volvox_1.htm

And now a stunningly beautiful illustration of Volvox Globator, which I found on this page on the Mcgregor Museum site:

Volvox Globator

Volvox Movies

Further Reading…hello

Some algae have been hanging together rather than going it alone much longer than previously thought, according to new research.

Ancestors of Volvox algae made the transition from being a single-celled organism to becoming a multicellular colony at least 200 million years ago, during the Triassic Period.

At that time, Earth was a hot-house world whose inhabitants included tree ferns, dinosaurs and early mammals. Previous estimates had suggested Volvox’s ancestors arose only 50 million years ago.

Read more from: http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/09022059-how-volvox-got-its-groove.html

Getting Access To the Cookie

Cookies are integral to tracking systems like Google Analytics. However they can’t move from the browser that created them which makes it impossible to use them to track “offline” conversions, or deep conversions. An example of a deep conversion is not just when a potential client fills out a contact form, but when a sales rep has actually phoned them back and converted them into a customer. The point of conversion in that case would not lie with the customer it would be the sales rep operating the companies CRM or backend accounting setup to process the order.

So here is my idea: when the first conversion occurs (lead form, booking enquiry etc) and a bunch of stuff is stored in the database with a unique ID and so forth, also grab the Google Analytics cookie and store that against the booking/purchase whatever. You can easily pull this using the cross domain tracking feature which neatly forms a URL-encoded string to grab.

Here is a sample that I just generated to make it really freaking obvious what I’m talking about. The following string was generated by GA (Google Analytics) using the cross domain tracking functions (_link and _linkByPost), and can be used to show that I started my browsing session from the nzs.com web directory (referral) even showing the page I was on.

?__utma=1.1583602386.1305024226.1305024226.1305024226.1&__utmb=1.2.10.1305024226&__utmc=1&__utmx=-&__utmz=1.1305024226.1.1.utmcsr=nzs.com|utmccn=(referral)|utmcmd=referral|utmcct=/site-profile/funk.co.nz/&__utmv=-&__utmk=156442427

So you grab this string on the conversion page, store it in the database alongside the order, call it “GA Cookie”. Then you make it so that in your deep conversion page or actual conversion page you dynamically pull out this cookie from the db and have it served alongside the normal tracking of that actual conversion. This effectively turns the the sales reps browser into the customers browser in terms of how GA sees it (sure the browser and screen resolution etc will suddenly change), but most importantly, the Goals and Conversions in the reports will show where the sales came from.

This would allow call centre operator based conversions that occur to be tracked in Google Analytics.

Potential uses: In recruitment. When a potential job seeker signs up and converts using their Safari on Mac say, you store the traffic source cookie during the conversion. Then when the person is say actually placed in a job – many months later in some cases – the recruitment system see’s his record being manipulated by the recruitment agent, pulls out the GA cookie string from his db record, appends it to the URL of the status or confirmation page, and triggers a Goal in GA say called “placed”. GA will think the conversion was sourced from it’s actual source, rather than say http://CompanyInranet/ or where ever that employee used to navigate to the content in his work day (info that’s not important basically). This way you can see if different forms of advertising bring in different levels of qualities of candidates. You could compare the performance of Facebook traffic compared with Seek and other job sites, and against Google organic and PPC ads, and make up your mind better about which forms of advertising are working.

Note: the system should probably delete this cookie when it’s done since it’s effectively like cookie hijacking.