1 Apr
2004
1 Apr
'04
3:45 a.m.
April 1, 2004
Associatid Press, Washington - The United States Federal
Communications Commission, as part of a joint project funded by the
Department of Defense, has approved measures to begin requiring US
consumers to obtain licenses for all new personal computers purchased
after January, 2005.
"It's basically the same process that CB radio owners had to go
through in the 1970's, only we require a slight ammount of additional
information.", said Lance O. Onie, director of the FCC's PC Freedom
Initiative.
Purchasers of new PCs will have to fill out a simple "one step" form,
with only the following information: The purchaser's Social Security
number, current address, e-mail address(es), date of birth, driver's
license number and the computer's CPU's unique serial number.
"By requiring the driver's license number, we are able to simplify
things by not requiring consumers to be inconvenienced by having their
photos taken for inclusion in our database; we can just get that data
from the states in which they're licensed.",
Onie was quick to point
out as a benifit of this simplified procedure.
The user will be able to access the CPU's serial number through the
use of a computer program distributed on a CD ROM with each new PC
sold. The program must remain installed on the computer whenever the
computer is used with the Internet.
Owners of older computers will be exempt from this new law until
December 25, 2006, "giving them plenty of time to upgrade their
systems as necessary in order to comply with the new law", says Onie,
who commented that this program will also be "very helpful to the
economy."
After that time, the FCC will work with the CIA, state and local law
enforcement officials to conduct random high-tech sweeps throughout
the country to check for the illegal possession and use of
unregistered computing equipment.
Fines and penalties were not specified, but sources say that illegal
possession will be considered to be a very serious offense, necessary
for the freedom, safety and well-being of all Americans.
--
Copyright (C) 2003 R. D. Davis The difference between humans & other animals:
All Rights Reserved | My VAX | an unnatural belief that we're above Nature &
www.rddavis.org | runs VMS & | her other creatures, using dogma to justify such
410-744-4900 | doesn't crash!| beliefs and to justify much human cruelty.
1 Apr
1 Apr
3:51 a.m.
Excellent. I understand Microsoft had agreed to host the database on its
highly secure Windows 2003 Servers.
Lyle
On Thursday 01 April 2004 09:45, R. D. Davis wrote:
April 1, 2004
Associatid Press, Washington - The United States Federal
Communications Commission, as part of a joint project funded by the
Department of Defense, has approved measures to begin requiring US
consumers to obtain licenses for all new personal computers purchased
after January, 2005.
"It's basically the same process that CB radio owners had to go
through in the 1970's, only we require a slight ammount of additional
information.", said Lance O. Onie, director of the FCC's PC Freedom
Initiative.
Purchasers of new PCs will have to fill out a simple "one step" form,
with only the following information: The purchaser's Social Security
number, current address, e-mail address(es), date of birth, driver's
license number and the computer's CPU's unique serial number.
"By requiring the driver's license number, we are able to simplify
things by not requiring consumers to be inconvenienced by having their
photos taken for inclusion in our database; we can just get that data
from the states in which they're licensed.", Onie was quick to point
out as a benifit of this simplified procedure.
The user will be able to access the CPU's serial number through the
use of a computer program distributed on a CD ROM with each new PC
sold. The program must remain installed on the computer whenever the
computer is used with the Internet.
Owners of older computers will be exempt from this new law until
December 25, 2006, "giving them plenty of time to upgrade their
systems as necessary in order to comply with the new law", says Onie,
who commented that this program will also be "very helpful to the
economy."
After that time, the FCC will work with the CIA, state and local law
enforcement officials to conduct random high-tech sweeps throughout
the country to check for the illegal possession and use of
unregistered computing equipment.
Fines and penalties were not specified, but sources say that illegal
possession will be considered to be a very serious offense, necessary
for the freedom, safety and well-being of all Americans.
--
Lyle Bickley
Bickley Consulting West Inc.
http://bickleywest.com
"Black holes are where God is dividing by zero"
4:16 a.m.
Quothe Lyle Bickley, from writings of Thu, Apr 01, 2004 at 09:51:42AM -0800:
Excellent. I understand Microsoft had agreed to host
the database on its
highly secure Windows 2003 Servers.
^^^^^^^^^^^^
Isn't that the version of Windows where system crashes often corrupt
the hard drive, clear the screen and display a "System Abnormality
Occured" message and the words "Call Microsoft... We Only Want to Help
You", followed by a 1-900 telephone number for Microsoft... a number
that was one digit off and resulted in users getting a "Welcome to
PornWorld" telephone greeting and a $500 charge added to their
telephone bills even if they hung up the telephone immediately?
--
Copyright (C) 2004 R. D. Davis The difference between humans & other animals:
All Rights Reserved | My VAX | an unnatural belief that we're above Nature &
www.rddavis.org | runs VMS & | her other creatures, using dogma to justify such
410-744-4900 | doesn't crash!| beliefs and to justify much human cruelty.
4:35 a.m.
On Thu, 2004-04-01 at 19:16, R. D. Davis wrote:
Quothe Lyle Bickley, from writings of Thu, Apr 01,
2004 at 09:51:42AM -0800:
you're on a roll here, huh? :-)
Excellent. I understand Microsoft had agreed to
host the database on its
highly secure Windows 2003 Servers.
^^^^^^^^^^^^
Isn't that the version of Windows where system crashes often corrupt
the hard drive, ...
5:07 a.m.
Quothe Jules Richardson, from writings of Thu, Apr 01, 2004 at
07:35:47PM +0100:
you're on a roll here, huh? :-)
After reading the Dilbert comic strip this morning, I can only say: "I
hope not!"
--
Copyright (C) 2003 R. D. Davis The difference between humans & other animals:
All Rights Reserved | My VAX | an unnatural belief that we're above Nature &
www.rddavis.org | runs VMS & | her other creatures, using dogma to justify such
410-744-4900 | doesn't crash!| beliefs and to justify much human cruelty.
10:39 a.m.
>> Isn't that the version of Windows where
system crashes
>> often corrupt the hard drive, clear the screen and display
>> a "System Abnormality Occured" message and the words "Call
>> Microsoft... We Only Want to Help You", followed by a 1-900
>> telephone number for Microsoft... a number that was one
>> digit off and resulted in users getting a "Welcome to
>> PornWorld" telephone greeting and a $500 charge added to
>> their telephone bills even if they hung up the telephone
>> immediately?
The above is incorrect, misleading and just plain mean!
The charge was only $395!
<rofl>
4:58 a.m.
It looks like the Patriot Act has been used to allow big brother to become
BIG(gest) BROTHER.
It is time for a change in our leadership -- remember this on November
2nd, 2004.
Gary Hildebrand
St. Joseph, MO
April 1, 2004
Associatid Press, Washington - The United States Federal
Communications Commission, as part of a joint project funded by the
Department of Defense, has approved measures to begin requiring US
consumers to obtain licenses for all new personal computers purchased
after January, 2005.
"It's basically the same process that CB radio owners had to go
through in the 1970's, only we require a slight ammount of additional
information.", said Lance O. Onie, director of the FCC's PC Freedom
Initiative.
Purchasers of new PCs will have to fill out a simple "one step" form,
with only the following information: The purchaser's Social Security
number, current address, e-mail address(es), date of birth, driver's
license number and the computer's CPU's unique serial number.
"By requiring the driver's license number, we are able to simplify
things by not requiring consumers to be inconvenienced by having their
photos taken for inclusion in our database; we can just get that data
from the states in which they're licensed.", Onie was quick to point
out as a benifit of this simplified procedure.
The user will be able to access the CPU's serial number through the
use of a computer program distributed on a CD ROM with each new PC
sold. The program must remain installed on the computer whenever the
computer is used with the Internet.
Owners of older computers will be exempt from this new law until
December 25, 2006, "giving them plenty of time to upgrade their
systems as necessary in order to comply with the new law", says Onie,
who commented that this program will also be "very helpful to the
economy."
After that time, the FCC will work with the CIA, state and local law
enforcement officials to conduct random high-tech sweeps throughout
the country to check for the illegal possession and use of
unregistered computing equipment.
Fines and penalties were not specified, but sources say that illegal
possession will be considered to be a very serious offense, necessary
for the freedom, safety and well-being of all Americans.
--
Copyright (C) 2003 R. D. Davis The difference between humans & other
animals:
All Rights Reserved | My VAX | an unnatural belief tha
5:20 a.m.
On Thu, 1 Apr 2004 ghldbrd(a)ccp.com wrote:
It looks like the Patriot Act has been used to allow
big brother to become
BIG(gest) BROTHER.
It is time for a change in our leadership -- remember this on November
2nd, 2004.
Not that I don't whole-heartedly agree with you politically - BUT - do
check the date again on this 'press release'....
Cheerz
John
5:28 a.m.
-----Original Message-----
From: cctalk-bounces(a)classiccmp.org
[mailto:cctalk-bounces@classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of John Lawson
Sent: 01 April 2004 20:20
To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts
Subject: Re: FCC Licensing of Personal Computers
And the name of the 'correspondent' :)
w
It is time for a change in our leadership --
remember this on
November 2nd, 2004.
Not that I don't whole-heartedly agree with you politically
- BUT - do check the date again on this 'press release'....
10:03 a.m.
Iv "Ben" Hadd.
Gary
-----Original
Message-----
From: cctalk-bounces(a)classiccmp.org
[mailto:cctalk-bounces@classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of John Lawson
Sent: 01 April 2004 20:20
To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts
Subject: Re: FCC Licensing of Personal Computers
And the name of the 'correspondent' :)
w
It is time for a change in our leadership --
remember this on
November 2nd, 2004.
Not that I don't whole-heartedly agree with you politically
- BUT - do check the date again on this 'press release'....
5:47 a.m.
Quothe John Lawson, from writings of Thu, Apr 01, 2004 at 02:20:09PM -0500:
Not that I don't whole-heartedly agree with you
politically - BUT - do
check the date again on this 'press release'....
Yes... (and also the purposefully incorrect spelling of "Associated"
and a name can be seen as LOonie).
Darn... It looks as though I forgot to add "April Fool!" to that
article that I may possibly be rumoured to have possibly written this
morning... to think that some people would actually take it seriously!
:-)
--
Copyright (C) 2003 R. D. Davis The difference between humans & other animals:
All Rights Reserved | My VAX | an unnatural belief that we're above Nature &
www.rddavis.org | runs VMS & | her other creatures, using dogma to justify such
410-744-4900 | doesn't crash!| beliefs and to justify much human cruelty.
6:16 a.m.
Darn... It looks as though I forgot to add "April
Fool!" to that
article that I may possibly be rumoured to have possibly written this
morning... to think that some people would actually take it seriously!
:-)
You had better just hope that it doesn't give certain people ideas!
It rings a little to true....
Zane
--
--
| Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Administrator |
| healyzh(a)aracnet.com (primary) | OpenVMS Enthusiast |
| | Classic Computer Collector |
+----------------------------------+----------------------------+
| Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing, |
| PDP-10 Emulation and Zane's Computer Museum. |
| http://www.aracnet.com/~healyzh/ |
6:44 a.m.
Using the Internet should require a license. You should have to be able to
log into a Unix (or any other non PC-DOS/MS-DOS text based OS shell) and be
able to check your email with a text based email program, and view a website
with a text based browser, and log out again, or write a simple DCL script
without the manual.
This would eliminate all Internet congestion over night, and us geeks could
have our toy back.
"You fool! Now we may never know if ants can be trained to sort tiny
screws in space."
--------------------------------------------------------------
Website - http://www.retrobbs.org
Tradewars - telnet tradewars.retrobbs.org
BBS - telnet bbs.retrobbs.org 2323
IRC - irc.retrobbs.org #main
WIKI - http://www.tpoh.org/cgi-bin/tpoh-wiki
7:18 a.m.
On 1 Apr 2004, R. D. Davis wrote:
Darn... It looks as though I forgot to add
"April Fool!" to that
article that I may possibly be rumoured to have possibly written this
morning... to think that some people would actually take it seriously!
:-)
It's a sad commentary on the state of the nation when, caught off-guard,
you can actually take an article like that as plausible.
--
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org
[ Old computing resources for business || Buy/Sell/Trade Vintage Computers ]
[ and academia at www.VintageTech.com || at http://marketplace.vintage.org ]
7:36 a.m.
On Thursday 01 April 2004 13:18, Vintage Computer Festival wrote:
It's a sad commentary on the state of the nation
when, caught off-guard,
you can actually take an article like that as plausible.
Remember "You can always fool some of the people some of the time..."
Lyle
--
Lyle Bickley
Bickley Consulting West Inc.
http://bickleywest.com
"Black holes are where God is dividing by zero"
7:53 a.m.
Quothe Vintage Computer Festival, from writings of Thu, Apr 01, 2004 at 01:18:24PM -0800:
It's a sad commentary on the state of the nation
when, caught off-guard,
you can actually take an article like that as plausible.
Indeed it is, alas. Now to wait for the knock at the door at 3:00AM,
after some idiot in some government agency sees that joke and doesn't
find it to be funny. Bureaucrats have no sense of humor.
--
Copyright (C) 2003 R. D. Davis The difference between humans & other animals:
All Rights Reserved | My VAX | an unnatural belief that we're above Nature &
www.rddavis.org | runs VMS & | her other creatures, using dogma to justify such
410-744-4900 | doesn't crash!| beliefs and to justify much human cruelty.
12:05 p.m.
At 12:58 PM 4/1/04 -0600, Gary Hildebrand wrote:
It looks like the Patriot Act has been used to allow
big brother to become
BIG(gest) BROTHER.
It is time for a change in our leadership -- remember this on November
2nd, 2004.
Do you REALLY think anything will be different under the democrats!?
If you do then I have a bridge to sell you!
Joe
2:36 p.m.
Quothe Joe R., from writings of Thu, Apr 01, 2004 at 09:05:01PM -0500:
Do you REALLY think anything will be different under
the democrats!?
Aside from a different Skullbone (Bonehead?) in Chief, there will be
at least one difference: the nation will move even closer to towards
being a complete totalitarian socialist state. Neither candidate
appears concerned with solving any of this nation's biggest ills such
as confiscatory levels of taxation (although people with very large
incomes and families with children get nice income tax breaks, the
rest of us get screwed to make up for it, and we're all equal victims
of the many other taxes), an increasingly annoying and dangerous
continued transformation of a once free nation that valued freedom and
liberty into a totalitarian "nanny state", overpopulation and
excessive land destruction ("development"), once safe and prosperous
cities that have been transmogrified into dangerous deteriorating
jungles (one can thank the promoters of a welfare state in exchange
for minority votes for that), excessive overseas job/career
outsourcing; grossly overpaid, corrupt and wasteful politicians; the
dangerous problem of middle-income salaries being eliminated with "job
growth" coming from low-paying service jobs, an out-of-control
pharmaceutical industry pushing certain unnecessary drugs off on
people who don't truly need them and are harmed by them---assisted by
politicians and physicians, a false economy based on growth rather
than stability, etc., to name just a few things that few US
politicians want to discuss.
--
Copyright (C) 2003 R. D. Davis The difference between humans & other animals:
All Rights Reserved | My VAX | an unnatural belief that we're above Nature &
www.rddavis.org | runs VMS & | her other creatures, using dogma to justify such
410-744-4900 | doesn't crash!| beliefs and to justify much human cruelty.
4 Apr
4 Apr
8 a.m.
Americans shrinking as Junk food takes it's toll.
Today's issue of " The Observer" - fairly well respected Sunday newspaper-
tells us that the average American is shrinking , and puts the blame on junk
food amongst other things. The Dutch are now, on average, the tallest in
Europe and even us Brits are leaving you Yanks behind.
They blame this on the ever increasing social inequality in the US of A , -
8 Million with no job , 40M with no health insurance and 35M below the
poverty line. A population existing mainly on junk food ( so it says). It
has to be said that does not affect your better off people to the same
extent, nor is it a function of immigration. If a socialist state of sorts
would sort it out , I would say go for it .
From this side of the pond , Clinton had a great deal
of respect ( even
allowing for the peccadillos ).
Bush might as well be a raspberry farmer - that's all he gets over here. (
and apologies to raspberry farmers everywhere.) I would otherwise agree with
all the other things you say are wrong in your society ( and ours )- big
business runs riot.
If this is off topic , I didn't start it.
Geoff.
----- Original Message -----
From: "R. D. Davis" <rdd(a)rddavis.org>
To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts"
<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org>
Sent: Friday, April 02, 2004 5:36 AM
Subject: Re: FCC Licensing of Personal Computers
Quothe Joe R., from writings of Thu, Apr 01, 2004 at
09:05:01PM -0500:
animals:
Do you REALLY think anything will be different
under the democrats!?
Aside from a different Skullbone (Bonehead?) in Chief, there will be
at least one difference: the nation will move even closer to towards
being a complete totalitarian socialist state. Neither candidate
appears concerned with solving any of this nation's biggest ills such
as confiscatory levels of taxation (although people with very large
incomes and families with children get nice income tax breaks, the
rest of us get screwed to make up for it, and we're all equal victims
of the many other taxes), an increasingly annoying and dangerous
continued transformation of a once free nation that valued freedom and
liberty into a totalitarian "nanny state", overpopulation and
excessive land destruction ("development"), once safe and prosperous
cities that have been transmogrified into dangerous deteriorating
jungles (one can thank the promoters of a welfare state in exchange
for minority votes for that), excessive overseas job/career
outsourcing; grossly overpaid, corrupt and wasteful politicians; the
dangerous problem of middle-income salaries being eliminated with "job
growth" coming from low-paying service jobs, an out-of-control
pharmaceutical industry pushing certain unnecessary drugs off on
people who don't truly need them and are harmed by them---assisted by
politicians and physicians, a false economy based on growth rather
than stability, etc., to name just a few things that few US
politicians want to discuss.
--
Copyright (C) 2003 R. D. Davis The difference between humans & other All Rights Reserved | My VAX | an unnatural belief
that we're above Nature
&
www.rddavis.org | runs VMS & | her other
creatures, using dogma to justify
such
410-744-4900 | doesn't crash!| beliefs and to
justify much human cruelty.
1 Apr
1 Apr
6:03 a.m.
On Thu, 1 Apr 2004, R. D. Davis wrote:
The user will be able to access the CPU's serial
number through the
use of a computer program distributed on a CD ROM with each new PC
sold. The program must remain installed on the computer whenever the
computer is used with the Internet.
That program requires that the computer be running Windoze XP, and have
Office 2003 running, since it interacts with the files used by Clippy
(which must be enabled and active)
Owners of older computers will be exempt from this new
law until
December 25, 2006, "giving them plenty of time to upgrade their
systems as necessary in order to comply with the new law", says Onie,
who commented that this program will also be "very helpful to the
economy."
That extension of time is only for machines running XP.
After that time, the FCC will work with the CIA, state
and local law
enforcement officials to conduct random high-tech sweeps throughout
the country to check for the illegal possession and use of
unregistered computing equipment.
The checks will NOT be random. They will be systematic, and thorough.
EVERY machine must be connected to the internet and have it's ID program
running at 4:00 PM of every day.
Fines and penalties were not specified, but sources
say that illegal
possession will be considered to be a very serious offense, necessary
for the freedom, safety and well-being of all Americans.
MOST transgressions will be handled by special internet software that
will destroy non-compliant hardware, using code very similar to what was
in the "Good Times" virus.
8:49 a.m.
"It's basically the same process that CB
radio owners had to go
through in the 1970's, only we require a slight ammount of additional
information.", said Lance O. Onie, director of the FCC's PC Freedom
Initiative.
Is he relatated to Loof Lipra?
Purchasers of new PCs will have to fill out a simple "one step" form,
with only the following information: The purchaser's Social Security
number, current address, e-mail address(es), date of birth, driver's
license number and the computer's CPU's unique serial number.
What do I do if I don't have a drivers license? What do I do if my
machine doesn't have a CPU serial number, or if that number can be
trivially changed using tools I have available, like soldering iron,
cutters, or a prom programmer ?
One of my machines has 3 software-readable serial numbers, for the CPU/IO
board, for the memory/vidro board, and for the cabinet. Which do I quote?
ObCC. What machine is that? Bob _should_ get it instantly, as I suspect
he wants one. A good clue : the main processor is a 68020, but there are
also a couple of 29116s in there.
-tony
9:50 p.m.
In message <m1B9Azz-000JAXC@p850ug1>
ard(a)p850ug1.demon.co.uk (Tony Duell) wrote:
Surely you mean Loof Lirpa.
"It's
basically the same process that CB radio owners had to go
through in the 1970's, only we require a slight ammount of additional
information.", said Lance O. Onie, director of the FCC's PC Freedom
Initiative.
Is he relatated to Loof Lipra? What do I do if my
machine doesn't have a CPU serial number, or if that number can be
trivially changed using tools I have available, like soldering iron,
cutters, or a prom programmer ?
How about my Acorn RISC PC - remove the DS2401
Silicon Serial Number IC from
the motherboard (you don't even need any pliers or cutters - it's socketed).
Count how many "copy protection" schemes fall over. What was it Acorn said
about not relying on the system serial number, even if the machine claims to
be a RiscPC?
One of my machines has 3 software-readable serial
numbers, for the CPU/IO
board, for the memory/vidro board, and for the cabinet. Which do I quote?
ObCC. What machine is that?
Would that be one of the PERQ series machines?
Later.
--
Phil. | Acorn Risc PC600 Mk3, SA202, 64MB, 6GB,
philpem(a)dsl.pipex.com | ViewFinder, 10BaseT Ethernet, 2-slice,
http://www.philpem.dsl.pipex.com/ | 48xCD, ARCINv6c IDE, SCSI
... 'Daddy, what does Format C: mean?'
11:17 p.m.
"It's basically the same process that CB
radio owners had to go
through in the 1970's, only we require a slight ammount of additional
information.", said Lance O. Onie, director of the FCC's PC Freedom
Initiative.
Is he relatated to Loof Lipra?
2 Apr
2 Apr
8:59 a.m.
Is he relatated to Loof Lipra?
Surely you mean Loof Lirpa. One of my
machines has 3 software-readable serial numbers, for the CPU/IO
board, for the memory/vidro board, and for the cabinet. Which do I quote?
ObCC. What machine is that?
Would that be one of the PERQ series machines?
7880
days inactive
7883
days old
23 comments
16 participants
participants (16)
-
ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk -
cisin＠xenosoft.com -
dvcorbin＠optonline.net -
geoffreythomas＠onetel.net.uk -
ghldbrd＠ccp.com -
healyzh＠aracnet.com -
jpl15＠panix.com -
julesrichardsonuk＠yahoo.co.uk -
lbickley＠bickleywest.com -
nico＠farumdata.dk -
pdp11_70＠retrobbs.org -
philpem＠dsl.pipex.com -
rdd＠rddavis.org -
rigdonj＠cfl.rr.com -
vcf＠siconic.com -
witchy＠binarydinosaurs.co.uk