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Kirk 10389821 wrote: Conspiracies fail when someone has a vested interest in the truth, and actually digs in.
False. Most conspiracies fail due to human frailties and chance.
Kirk 10389821 wrote: They knew the planes would bring the towers down.
Exactly which hijacker was interviewed who admitted that they thought the towers would fall?
And conversely have you ever seen a video of someone attempting to open a ATM with a sledge hammer? Presumably those people always 'think' that the sledge hammer will work. Presumably you are aware that it does not. A random success does not mean that the 'logic' used to make the initial judgement is sound.
Kirk 10389821 wrote: For the "Near Free Fall", yes, my experience with physics makes me question this...[etc, etc, etc]
All of your conjectures are false. There are explanations, real ones, as to how the towers did disintegrate and explanations for each part. There are refutations of the incorrect ones.
If the links that I posted did not explain what did happen and how the alternatives are wrong then search out ones that do explain it.
Kirk 10389821 wrote: You posit there are no evil, greedy people who foment wars and spin public opinion for profit.
You are incorrect. What I said is that people cannot pull of conspiracies. Conspiracies involve people. Vast conspiracies involve vast numbers of people. Each single person represents a single point of failure with multiple failure options. The action of each of those people represent a failure point. There are too many. Which is obvious when one looks at real conspiracies which fail and when one looks at why they failed.
Kirk 10389821 wrote: I am sure you believe our REAL Unemployment is only 5% and that there is no REAL inflation,
and that the banks are healthy now.
That of course only demonstrates my point. Individual humans cannot comprehend much less influence the entire global economics. Even understanding it is restricted to very, very small parts. And because of that humans attempt to generalize and consolidate knowledge into pieces that are understandable. (And often to rationalize that generality into claims that has explained it.)
So as one example, and only one example, the unemployment rate as never been and never will be an accurate measure of anything except in the grossest manner. When the unemployment rate is 20% one can be sure that something is much worse for most people than if it is 3%. But attempting to glean anything day to day from miniscule changes is pointless. But it also false to attempt to claim that the way that unemployment is measured should never change. That fails to recognize even the broad concepts that economics does in fact entail such as when employment patterns do change.
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I can tell you don't care.
Member since Sat 2 Oct 2004
(10 years, 6 months)
No Bio. No Picture. No . . . anything. What's the big secret(s)?
Obviously, privacy doesn't matter to you.
With over ten years to do some revelations, I don't think you try the 'too busy' version of why not.
So - we await your photo, bio, family details, phone numbers, etc.
| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "As far as we know, our computer has never had an undetected error." - Weisert | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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Windows phone, with Wifi, bluetooth and GPS turned off. Never added the number to an email as authentication. Never received email on the device.
One cannot be paranoid enough.
Bastard Programmer from Hell 
If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]
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Now aluminum companies will be considered "friendly to terrorists".
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Wore an iPatch once, close as I got!
New version: WinHeist Version 2.1.1 new web site.
I know the voices in my head are not real but damn they come up with some good ideas!
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W∴ Balboos wrote: I'd chastise everyone I know with hearty I-Told-You-So iToldYouSo. They'd respond that it doesn't bother them and then, when I'm safely out of sight, fret about it.
FTFY 
Once you lose your pride the rest is easy.
In the end, only three things matter: how much you loved, how gently you lived, and how gracefully you let go of things not meant for you. – Buddha
Simply Elegant Designs JimmyRopes Designs
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So Apple and Google are also part of the conspiracy to make us buy more tin (aluminum) foil. This is bigger than I thought!
If you have an important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time - a tremendous whack.
--Winston Churchill
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I laughed so hard at this one. 
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Privacy was a dream in the past. Here is another one: how-old.net.
TOMZ_KV
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For me, I don't give a bugger, and even consider parts of it useful.
For children, it's another matter altogether.
While it may be nice to have a real-time location thingy, to know where your children are, I see storage of such data as unwanted, and potentially harmful.
If some loony targets a child, all they have to do is steal or clone their phone, and instantly gain access to their regular habits -- where they go, and when.
I don't like it. Disable it for kids; make it opt-in, not opt-out.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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It should always be only opt-in. For adults, it let's someone determine when they'd be away from home (if they're lucky, only for burglary).
It's a stalker's delight. Adults can be hurt if their whereabouts are monitored, as well.
Aside from that, we seem to agree.
| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "As far as we know, our computer has never had an undetected error." - Weisert | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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W∴ Balboos wrote: it let's someone determine when they'd be away from home
If a burglar's looking for targets, they can just use twatter perfectly legally, which requires almost zero effort or planning, so you only need to opt out if there is a personal risk that you already know about.
Bank managers and politicians should opt out, for example, because everyone hates them, but your average Joe? Nah. The only people who might want to use such information are marketing morons, but even they have easier routes to take.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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Quote: If some loony targets a child, all they have to do is steal or clone their phone, and instantly gain access to their regular habits -- where they go, and when.
Ah yes, because that's so much simpler than simply knowing what school they attend five days a week - something which, if they are targeting the child, they already have locked in their brains. Are you for real?
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Surveillance takes time and effort.
Your average monster could steal or clone the phones of a hundred potential victims in less time than it would take to watch just one.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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To quote Buffalo Springfield: "Paranoia strikes deep, Into you life it will creep..."
And from I don't remember who..."Just because you're paranoid, does not mean that someone is not out to get you...."
 
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| ( for your collection: )
" I'm Afraid I Don't Know What I'm Afraid Of " - Balboos 2015.05.01
| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "As far as we know, our computer has never had an undetected error." - Weisert | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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Let's just hope that none of the privacy nutters finds themselves hitting a tree on a quiet road one night, manage to dial the emergency number but lose consciousness before they can utter a word! After all such a scenario is only thousands (if not millions) of times more likely than anyone causing you harm as a result of your phone knowing where you are!
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So you dismiss someone who values their privacy by labeling them a 'nutter' ?
As far as causing harm, tracking your location can be used to find an excuse to raise insurance rates, dismiss you from your employment, deny you employment, and any number of effect based upon being judged.
Something I've often heard about invaded privacy: various versions of "I don't have anything to hide". So I ask them (and you ask yourself) if you'd mind if someone took a look through your mail before you got it. For some reason they didn't fancy the idea. But, as you would expect, I reminded them that they told me they've nothing to hide.
So - would you mind someone going through your private 'stuff'?
| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "As far as we know, our computer has never had an undetected error." - Weisert | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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Valuing your privacy is one thing. Overvaluing your privacy quite another! Your examples are all straw men. Your insurance company is entitled to know where you live as part of the contract you sign with them - failure to disclose material details will result in the voiding of cover. As to anyone else tracking you, just how is it that they are obtaining the records on a phone in your possession again? And what can they learn from a phone that simply siccing a PI on your tail won't teach them?
Where all the nutters go wrong is first to vastly overestimate their own importance (of all the billions of people in the world why should you be the target of anyone's special interest?) and secondly to vastly underestimate the ease with which they could be tracked before computers and smartphones were ever invented. Are you on an electoral roll? Do you pay taxes? Are you a member of a library or a club? Do you ever have a pizza delivered? And you still think your privacy is protected by switching off the GPS on a phone? What makes you think your mail isn't already being looked through if you're a person of sufficient interest to warrant someone tracking your location? Have you never been asked for a utility bill as a form of ID? Never lost a bank card (your account is protected by a PIN that has a grand total of 10000 possible combinations, by the way - how long do you reckon it would take someone to crack yours?)
Privacy is and always has been a convenient lie we tell ourselves to protect our feelings. There is only one place that you will ever achieve privacy and this is in your coffin (although even that's not guaranteed - a disinterment can still be demanded by order of a judge!) If someone has a real desire to find you then they will do so. Turning off the GPS in your phone will not make that harder, nor will turning it on make it easier. That's a fact that you are entirely at liberty to ignore but, yes, I will always maintain that it is irrational so to do.
Oh, and no, I have no objection to you reading my mail providing that you also sort out the stuff that I really have no need to while you're doing it. I don't, you see, it turns out, have anything to hide and long ago accepted that if I did it was almost certainly far too late to do anything about it!
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My arguments are Straw Men? Then you've just planted a field.
Someone could hire a PI - but they'd have to target you specifically - not just get the impulse to check. Did I ever have pizza delivered, etc.? Pay taxes? and the other list of ridiculous leaks you put forward. None of them keep a tab on what I'm doing on a continuous basis. My insurance company is not entitled to know where I go. I insure my vehicle for driving but I'm not accountable to them as to where I drive. Only how I drive. Electoral rolls? etc. etc. etc.
Right down to the ATM pin: only 10K is correct - but perhaps your bank is lax. Mine will disable a card after a few failed attempts in a row. Actually true for just about every online account with financial implications.
You really miss the big picture: a private company monitoring everyone continuously and without their permission. Sure - if someone specifically targeted me "they could get me" - but they have to pick me out, specifically. That becomes an expensive proposition that would not be done without some specific motivation.
You just cannot seem to distinguish the difference as to what can be done if some entity were specifically motivated to obtain your personal information vs. harvesting everything about everyone with no expenses incurred.
You reasoning, blurring what could be done vs. what is being done, as though one justifies the other is just plain bogus. An easy excuse to not bother and hope nothing happens to you. You'd probably have loved living in East Germany before the wall went down.
Actually - I am flabbergasted at your disregard for privacy. It must be cultural or something like that. Like labeling those who won't quietly go with the flow as 'nutters'. A quick label and all is right with your world.
| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "As far as we know, our computer has never had an undetected error." - Weisert | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you are seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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I thought the Edge played for U2?
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But the name U2 was taken by Apple, so Microsoft have to do with Edge... 
Skipper: We'll fix it.
Alex: Fix it? How you gonna fix this?
Skipper: Grit, spit and a whole lotta duct tape.
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Here's hoping they skirted the logo due to more effort on the elephanting browser.
No object is so beautiful that, under certain conditions, it will not look ugly. - Oscar Wilde
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That's the only reason they chose the name, so that they wouldn't have to pay half a million for some genius to design a new logo.
I hear it was a tough call between "Edge: and "Elephant", though.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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