Interesting findings on the internet

[Zenith]

DMCA is not applicable to the UK. We have another act that covers it but I can't remember what it's called. And we're a tiny island and there is no automated filing so no one gives a crap here

Have you guys tried YMCA instead?

The Village People thought highly of it and sang its praises.

I formed the impression it wouldn't be my kind of place. Have you tried it?

[tggzzz]

At first glance, I'd guess the argument with apps is that you are modifying the operation of proprietary software in contravention of the licence terms, and this is backed up by the DMCA.

The DMCA can be violated without modification. Merely examining the code is sufficient.

Yes, that causes significant "issues" for virus hunters

[tggzzz]

DMCA is not applicable to the UK. We have another act that covers it but I can't remember what it's called. And we're a tiny island and there is no automated filing so no one gives a crap here

Laws - on their own - are irrelevant anyway. They only become relevant when enforced.

[Cerebus]

I haven't investigated Pi Hole, but some people have told me it's good. On the face of it, it doesn't do anything something like Adblock doesn't do and you have the trouble of setting up a server.

Adblockers just work for your browser, a DNS firewall like pihole works for everything. It'll stop things like Adobe products exfiltrating data about you. If your phone/tablet is on wifi it'll protect all the apps on that too. If you don't mind the backhaul you can even set up a VPN from your phone to home and make sure that all traffic from the phone goes through the DNS firewall when you're out and about too.

[Specmaster]

DMCA is not applicable to the UK. We have another act that covers it but I can't remember what it's called. And we're a tiny island and there is no automated filing so no one gives a crap here

Have you guys tried YMCA instead?

OK, I give up, what is YMCA, I take it the YMCA that you mention is an ad blocker of sorts but I'm unable to find any record of it when do a search for it.

What platform does it run on and do you have a link for it?

[Zenith]

DMCA is not applicable to the UK. We have another act that covers it but I can't remember what it's called. And we're a tiny island and there is no automated filing so no one gives a crap here

Have you guys tried YMCA instead?

OK, I give up, what is YMCA, I take it the YMCA that you mention is an ad blocker of sorts but I'm unable to find any record of it when do a search for it.

What platform does it run on and do you have a link for it?

Are you serious? It's an organisation which began with stated noble purposes, but became known as a venue for what might many, in less unenlightened times, be considered as a conduit for sordid assignations and exploitation of the naive and vulnerable.

[BU508A]

DMCA is not applicable to the UK. We have another act that covers it but I can't remember what it's called. And we're a tiny island and there is no automated filing so no one gives a crap here

Have you guys tried YMCA instead?

OK, I give up, what is YMCA, I take it the YMCA that you mention is an ad blocker of sorts but I'm unable to find any record of it when do a search for it.

What platform does it run on and do you have a link for it?

Because I do like playing with patterns, the DMCA triggered my pattern recognition system for YMCA, which is this I'm referring to:

[mnementh]

https://pilgaardpublishing.com/index.htm

I tripped over this whilest trawling the intardnet; you do find the strangest things when you go out seeking dragons.

It's all part of weirdspace.info, a strange little collection of pop, literature and other media resources in English and Danish with an eye to a "life in the multiverse" memespace. I found the RADIO NEWS pdf an amusing diversion.

Haven't delved too deep, but site may have some furry leanings.

mnem
you have been warned.

[Zenith]

Dragons, Wyverns and Griffins.

https://finds.org.uk/counties/findsreco ... al-beasts/

Which one are you, or are you a Wyvern who identifies as a Dragon?

[mnementh]

Dragons, Wyverns and Griffins.

https://finds.org.uk/counties/findsreco ... al-beasts/

Which one are you, or are you a Wyvern who identifies as a Dragon?

My namesake is a bronze dragon of Pern, which has been drawn as both even on the covers of the books. I personally identify as a tinkerdwagon, tho culturally I suppose a Welsh red is as close you'll get; I'm mostly Polock and Welsh. So yes, Cerebus, like it or don't, there's a streak of Scots in there too.



Professionally this is me, as in my avatar; I even have that shirt and tie in my closet:

mnem

[Zenith]

I thought St George was a terrible choice as patron saint of England. After all what was his claim to fame? Nothing particularly godly. He slew a specimen of a critically endangered species going about its business. He also normalised that sort of behaviour and made it into a matter of levity, creating a sort of tradition.

Here's photo of a relative of yours being threatened by a child with a sword.

5-st-george.jpg

This sort of thing is encouraged, even celebrated, and then people wonder why knife crime is rife.

[tggzzz]

I thought St George was a terrible choice as patron saint of England. After all what was his claim to fame? Nothing particularly godly. He slew a specimen of a critically endangered species going about its business. He also normalised that sort of behaviour and made it into a matter of levity, creating a sort of tradition.

Plus not only was he not English, he never visited England, and England didn't even exist!

Wackypedia.notes "Historically, the countries of England, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Ukraine, Malta, Ethiopia, as well as Catalonia and Aragon in Spain, and Moscow in Russia, have claimed George as their patron saint, as have several other regions, cities, universities, professions, and organizations. The Church of Saint George in Lod (Lydda), Israel, contains a sarcophagus traditionally believed to contain St. George's remains."

Sounds like a good way to trigger nationalist extremeists, always presuming they know/comprehend the history.

[AVGresponding]

I thought St George was a terrible choice as patron saint of England. After all what was his claim to fame? Nothing particularly godly. He slew a specimen of a critically endangered species going about its business. He also normalised that sort of behaviour and made it into a matter of levity, creating a sort of tradition.

Plus not only was he not English, he never visited England, and England didn't even exist!

Wackypedia.notes "Historically, the countries of England, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Ukraine, Malta, Ethiopia, as well as Catalonia and Aragon in Spain, and Moscow in Russia, have claimed George as their patron saint, as have several other regions, cities, universities, professions, and organizations. The Church of Saint George in Lod (Lydda), Israel, contains a sarcophagus traditionally believed to contain St. George's remains."

Sounds like a good way to trigger nationalist extremeists, always presuming they know/comprehend the history.

They don't.

[tggzzz]

I thought St George was a terrible choice as patron saint of England. After all what was his claim to fame? Nothing particularly godly. He slew a specimen of a critically endangered species going about its business. He also normalised that sort of behaviour and made it into a matter of levity, creating a sort of tradition.

Plus not only was he not English, he never visited England, and England didn't even exist!

Wackypedia.notes "Historically, the countries of England, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Ukraine, Malta, Ethiopia, as well as Catalonia and Aragon in Spain, and Moscow in Russia, have claimed George as their patron saint, as have several other regions, cities, universities, professions, and organizations. The Church of Saint George in Lod (Lydda), Israel, contains a sarcophagus traditionally believed to contain St. George's remains."

Sounds like a good way to trigger nationalist extremeists, always presuming they know/comprehend the history.

They don't.

Probably not.

Then I wheel out the passive-aggressive enquiry "why is he the patron saint of... Where did it happen... I'm a bit thick, can you explain...." (At least one part of that is correct)

[mnementh]

I think Gordon R Dickson put this whole hot mess of iconic thud and blunder properly in its place many years before I was born, with St. Dragon and The George, which story later evolved into his epic Dragon Knight series. While their depiction in this story line wasn't most flattering to a dwagon's ego, it was even less so as regarded the Georges...


mnem
“Vanished?” said Carolinus.

“Vanished. I blew my top at Hanson. She must have wandered, he said, not merely the ego, but all of her. Bring her back, I said. I can’t, he said. It seemed she wanted to go back to the time of St. George and the Dragon, when men were men and would speak up to their bosses about promotions. Hanson’d have to send someone else back to rehypnotize her and send her back home. Like an idiot I said I’d go. Ha! I might’ve known he’d goof. He couldn’t do anything right if he was paid for it. I landed in the body of this dragon.”

“And the maiden?”

“Oh, she landed here, too. Centuries off the mark. A place where there actually were such things as dragons—fantastic.”

“Why?” said Carolinus.

“Well, I mean—anyway,” said Jim, hurriedly. “The point is, they’d already got her—the dragons, I mean. A big brute named Anark had found her wandering around and put her in a cage. They were having a meeting in a cave about deciding what to do with her. Anark wanted to stake her out for a decoy, so they could capture a lot of the local people—only the dragons called people georges—”

“They’re quite stupid, you know,” said Carolinus, severely, looking up from the dictionary. “There’s only room for one name in their head at a time. After the Saint made such an impression on them his name stuck.”

“Anyway, they were all yelling at once. They’ve got tremendous voices.”

“Yes, you have,” said Carolinus, pointedly.

“Oh, sorry,” said Jim. He lowered his voice. “I tried to argue that we ought to hold Angie for ransom—” He broke off suddenly. “Say,” he said, “I never thought of that. Was I talking dragon, then? What am I talking now? Dragons don’t talk English, do they?”

“Why not?” demanded Carolinus, grumpily. “If they’re British dragons?”

[bd139]

I would just like to point out that British dragons do not fuck cars. Light aircraft yes but not cars.

_{hoepfully I'll start a new subreddit with that comment}

[mnementh]

mnem
Love and Rockets...

[BU508A]

Okay, which one of you did that?

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... wer-stolen

[Specmaster]

They took the transmitter as well, jeez. Presumably they must have known exactly what they were doing to avoid getting burnt by the RF?

This must have taken some considerable time to carry out the disassembly of the tower and its removal, so how come nobody hadn't noticed the station was off the air and reported it?

It's so unbelievable that I actually had to check the date in case I'd just woken up from being in a coma, and it was April the 1st.

[Zenith]

There are a lot of AM stations in that locality, and the station also has FM coverage. Perhaps that's why it wasn't missed. It looks as if the AM station was unmanned and in a remote location. Its absence was noticed by a landscaping crew, presumably going on an occasional visit to cut back the brush. The tower was collapsed by cutting the guy ropes. There's a chicken farm nearby and it's hoped their security cameras may have some footage which will help solve the crime.

https://dcweekly.org/2024/02/07/mysteri ... isappears/

https://gizmodo.com/who-stole-this-200- ... 1851239340

This link seems to have a photo of the station and tower.

https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united- ... -hurts-our

The thieves must have gone with cutting equipment and heavy haulage to carry away the spoils. I imagine that with a couple of oxy-propane sets, it wouldn't take long to reduce the tower to manageable pieces. According to one report the tower was made of stainless steel, and so was much more valuable than normal steel scrap.

It's a federal offence to tamper with a federally licensed facility, carrying a penalty of up to 10 years imprisonment. It's a pretty audacious crime.

[mnementh]

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and suggest that the reason nobody noticed is that "it was just the AM tower" they needed to keep the FM licensure for their primary market, and that it was already neglected and might not have been actually transmitting (or was transmitting at emergency/failover mode low power) for some time before the theft.

Those of you in broadcast will know they are supposed to have constant monitoring and periodic logging of the actual transmission level and quality on any commercial broadcast... but having spent a little time (most of it actively trying to escape that cultural & economic black hole) in a similar region of Alabama, I have little trouble believing that tower could've been dead for months, even years without anybody actually noticing because they were just checking off the required boxes in some logbook. I know that's pretty cynical, but really... a lot of Alabama really is that bad.

mnem
cynic? Isn't that where you wash the dishes?

[mnementh]

mnem

[Zenith]

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and suggest that the reason nobody noticed is that "it was just the AM tower" they needed to keep the FM licensure for their primary market, and that it was already neglected and might not have been actually transmitting (or was transmitting at emergency/failover mode low power) for some time before the theft.

That rings true. The owner/manager has said that he'd be happy to continue with FM only, but the federal authority insists they also provide an AM service. In view of the circumstances, he's applying for permission to continue FM only, until they've raised the funds to replace the AM gear that was stolen and erect a new AM mast. It sounds rather like the AM service was a nuisance box to be ticked, rather than an essential part of their business, and it's a reasonable guess that they were not scrupulous as to whether it worked or not. It probably had to be seen working when the inspectors came round.

[nixiefreqq]

There are a lot of AM stations in that locality, and the station also has FM coverage. Perhaps that's why it wasn't missed. It looks as if the AM station was unmanned and in a remote location. Its absence was noticed by a landscaping crew, presumably going on an occasional visit to cut back the brush. The tower was collapsed by cutting the guy ropes. There's a chicken farm nearby and it's hoped their security cameras may have some footage which will help solve the crime.

https://dcweekly.org/2024/02/07/mysteri ... isappears/

https://gizmodo.com/who-stole-this-200- ... 1851239340

This link seems to have a photo of the station and tower.

https://www.scmp.com/news/world/united- ... -hurts-our

The thieves must have gone with cutting equipment and heavy haulage to carry away the spoils. I imagine that with a couple of oxy-propane sets, it wouldn't take long to reduce the tower to manageable pieces. According to one report the tower was made of stainless steel, and so was much more valuable than normal steel scrap.

It's a federal offence to tamper with a federally licensed facility, carrying a penalty of up to 10 years imprisonment. It's a pretty audacious crime.

hmmmmm. tower located between a poultry processing facility and a sewage treatment plant.

modern sanitation is the 8th wonder of the world and its caretakers are princes among men.

poultry workers......not so much. about 10 years ago a guy at one of the local turkey operations got arrested for having unhealthy relations with the birds. am guessing some bird plucker saw an opportunity to get into the scrap business. (guyed towers come down pretty easily if you notch the legs with a sawzall then very carefully use a bolt cutter on the correct down guys in the right order. no way would a chicken plucker have the skill or patience to climb up and gin pole down one section at a time.)

ps it wasn't me.

[bd139]

A pleasant pheasant plucker. My sister worked on work experience for a poultry farm (she's a vet now so this is relevant in some way) and said only weird, mental people and criminals work there so this is a viable hypothesis. Could overlap with ham radio operators on the Venn diagram