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TV detector van

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Re: TV detector van

#191

Post by ascagnel_ »

sokoloff wrote: post #175
aidenn0 wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember a satelite TV company put a message to call a particular number, and then filtered out the message in their official smart cards. Everyone who called the number was pirating their signal.

Satellite TV company arranges to "brick" pirate cards across the US days before the Superbowl: https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-jan-27-mn-17728... https://blog.codinghorror.com/revisiting-the-black-sunday-ha...

It was a genius counter-hack -- distributing the countermeasure piecemeal, in undetectably small pieces, over time, and then building it into the fatal payload before pirates could analyze or block the change.

> Several weeks ago, DirecTV began transmitting to its receivers, via satellite, small pieces of the programming code that ultimately killed the altered cards, according to company sources and accounts published on HackHU.com, a Web site devoted to the satellite TV hacking community. The bits of digital information ultimately formed a complete program that--when triggered Sunday--permanently maimed any H card that had been altered.

> The result shocked bootleggers, who long had dismissed the steady trickle of software updates as more annoying than serious. When the pirates turned on their television sets Monday, they saw nothing. (The pirates saw the “GAME OVER” message when they studied the software coding that killed their cards, according to HackHU.com and other sites.)

Re: TV detector van

#192

Post by soneil »

PhasmaFelis wrote: post #119
rolph wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

yup even brushing your teeth and using mouthwash is not a stymie, often this is viewed as destruction/interference with evidence, if a cop can discover empty aloholic containers.

Brushing your teeth doesn't affect breathalyzer readings at all. Alcoholic mouthwash can give false positives for up to 20 minutes, and cops are supposed to wait and try again for that reason; you've got a good shot at getting it thrown out if they don't.

Here breathlyzers aren't evidence, they're probable cause. To be admissible they either need you to accept the result, or go custodial for a blood test.

Re: TV detector van

#193

Post by CraneWorm »

oxidising wrote: post #12
wyldfire wrote: post #8

While reading I thought, "for sure we will get to the part of the article where the British realized their folly and discontinued the licensing." But that part never came. Brits: is this for real, does this still exist? Do you pay a license to use your TV? Is it only for OTA programming or using the device in general?

We pay the licence fee to fund the BBC. They make some amazing documentaries (Planet Earth, Blue Planet etc). They also have radio stations, all advert free. Being advert free is rare these days.

> We pay the license fee to fund the BBC. And the rest of us is glad you do. You have my thanks.

Re: TV detector van

#194

Post by coldtea »

How about a small flat fee everybody pays to sustain the national broadcaster?

Whether they watch it or not is not relevant. It's a nation-wide service at their disposal.

Either it's worth it to have, like a dam or a highway system or whatever, and it's ok for people to pay for it in taxes, or it's not, and it should close.

Re: TV detector van

#195

Post by soneil »

gambiting wrote: post #135
Balgair wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also remember the coin operated tellys. Yes, every 6 months or there abouts the coiny-telly man would come about to collect the coins. It was a real hassle, as you had to be at your flat all that day. Otherwise, the coiny-telly man would just pass you up. Thing was, the little bin that the coins fell into would fill up every 9 months or so. So, if the coiny-telly man passed you up, you'd have to ration when you cou…

I honestly can't tell if this is satire or not.

I've never seen a coin-op TV, but "back when I were a lad" we had electricity on the same principle. IIRC (and this is dark & distant memory) it started off coin-op and transitioned to cards you had to buy from local stores.

Re: TV detector van

#196

Post by celeritascelery »

lordnacho wrote: post #65
excalibur wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The British government has a legal obligation to conduct all business in the least sensible manner available. It's in the Magna Carta.

In fact the system of government is derived from strange ladies lying in lakes distributing swords.

Given that the parent posters user name is Excalibur, I think they are okay with that.

Re: TV detector van

#197

Post by Theodores »

sofaofthedamned wrote: post #18
agurk wrote: post #7

I lived in a flat in England in the early 2000s which kept getting letters from the BBC saying we didn't have a TV licence. The letters were sometimes more threatening for a period, then sometimes more reconciliatory. They were also running TV adverts at the time claiming they had detector vans about, and if you didn't have a licence you'd be caught. I did some research at the time, and it seemed that evidence from a…

As a child in the 80s I remember my family being scared of this van even though it probably never existed. Because of this my mum got a pay TV instead which we had to put 50p coins in periodically that paid for both the TV rental and the license fee.

The Thatcher years were harsh. I imagine you also had free school meals as your main meal of the day.

The TV rental business was very much like mobile phone contracts. For this reason I am not one of those people that buys a mobile phone on contract with the 'upgrade' every two years. The 'contract' your family were on for the TV was 'pay as you go' and I shudder to think how often your family could have paid for the TV, probably ten times over!

The fear of the TV detector van kept people tuned in to what important stuff was being disseminated on the state broadcaster that pretends to be independent. Sure there were home computers, VHS/Betamax and 'the wireless' back then but screen based entertainment was limited.

The TV had four channels (if you were lucky), so that meant news every night about the latest Cold War tensions, the misery of the Miner's Strike, the joy of the Poll Tax riots, the obsession with inflation, the latest dole figures, what privatisation was being flogged, 'Protect and Survive' and messages about how heroin screws you up.

Remember there was no such thing as society, you just had to hide behind your door and rely on the 'neighbourhood watch' signs for security. Crime really was a thing then, burglary a fear far worse than it should have been. The BBC very much reflected this but we remember 'Life on Earth' and tell ourselves how wonderful the BBC was.

Icing on the cake for this miserable era was the actual BBC. Radio 1 was 'Smashy and nicey' DJs that were quite depressing and BBC children's programming had presenters that have invariably been prosecuted in recent years for child abuse related offences.

But at least we had a national conversation. Remember 'who shot JR?'. Nowadays people would be saving the box set to watch later so you can't have this shared conversation, if anything it is anything but.

Re: TV detector van

#198

Post by ktpsns »

coldtea wrote: post #194

How about a small flat fee everybody pays to sustain the national broadcaster? Whether they watch it or not is not relevant. It's a nation-wide service at their disposal. Either it's worth it to have, like a dam or a highway system or whatever, and it's ok for people to pay for it in taxes, or it's not, and it should close.

That's the solution in Germany since a few years. It is called Rundfunkbeitrag and costs 20€ per month per flat.

Re: TV detector van

#199

Post by coldtea »

gambiting wrote: post #135
Balgair wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also remember the coin operated tellys. Yes, every 6 months or there abouts the coiny-telly man would come about to collect the coins. It was a real hassle, as you had to be at your flat all that day. Otherwise, the coiny-telly man would just pass you up. Thing was, the little bin that the coins fell into would fill up every 9 months or so. So, if the coiny-telly man passed you up, you'd have to ration when you cou…

I honestly can't tell if this is satire or not.

Not sure about emptying them, but the TVs with coin slots where a thing in the UK:

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/imageserver/image/methode%2Ftimes...

Not for the BBC license though: it was when TVs where expensive (in the 60s and 70s) and so some people could just rent one.

Probably sounds alien to US people, but UK was much poorer country, especially in workers areas...

Re: TV detector van

#200

Post by johnflan »

groundlogic wrote: post #34
noodlesUK wrote: post #13

This is such nonsense. In my opinion the BBC should be paid for by a proper tax, as an informed public benefits everyone, or they should just give up on calling it a license. The people going around houses just send threatening letters, and act as though they have some right to enter your home and inspect it (they don't). They go around terrorising people who don't know their rights, but don't watch TV anyway. I rout…

Swedish public service transitioned from a per-household fee (for households that held devices capable of showing RF broadcast TV) to a per citizen tax January 1st this year. Of course, they go to great lengths to avoid calling it a tax, but... well, it is a tax. I don't really like it. There's no opt-out any longer. And the content is predictably all-consuming leftist.

per-household broadcast fee in Ireland too its 160eur per year, but I believe the avoidance rates are quite high and lots of 'tv' is streamed now which doesn't (I don't think qualify).
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