Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Get a cable modem, go to jail (1999)

telecom.csail.mit.edu

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

251–260 of 486 posts

Re: Get a cable modem, go to jail (1999)

#251

Post by nly »

concordDance wrote: post #239
avidiax wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, this is a huge problem with U.S. gun culture. The "make my day" crowd is hoping that they will get to end someone's life legally. Case in point: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jan/08/texas-vigila... The guy had a choice: * Replace a wallet * Shoot a guy dead Obviously, we don't usually hear about the people that pick the first option, but there are plenty of takers for the 2nd.

[flagged]

Acting as judge, jury and executioner while eating in a diner.

Re: Get a cable modem, go to jail (1999)

#252

Post by refracture »

wkat4242 wrote: post #89
thatoneguy wrote: post #31

I was a "broadband technician" around then and AT&T Broadband did not give AF if you were stealing cable or not. I only handled cable modem installs and quit after a year to go major in philosophy and because: - Getting quietly threatened once (with AR-15 up against the customer's front door) on a troubleshooting call that I wasn't able to leave until "the internet started working". - Having to increasingly go do cab…

The amount of incidents involving firearms is astonishing. I'm glad I live in Europe where literally nobody has guns except police and heavy criminals that only really use them to shoot their rivals. I thought most people in the US were proud of their firearm handling professionalism which of course includes not brandishing, threatening or murdering people. I'm really a bit surprised to hear this. I did a similar job…

Americans take pride in having them, but being properly trained in safely handling or effectively using them is optional. Try and force it and you’ll get the tyranny talk.

Sadly I’ve heard many stories of cable/dish techs dealing with this nonsense.

Re: Get a cable modem, go to jail (1999)

#253

Post by Ligma123 »

puchatek wrote: post #164
wkat4242 wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The amount of incidents involving firearms is astonishing. I'm glad I live in Europe where literally nobody has guns except police and heavy criminals that only really use them to shoot their rivals. I thought most people in the US were proud of their firearm handling professionalism which of course includes not brandishing, threatening or murdering people. I'm really a bit surprised to hear this. I did a similar job…

In some European countries there's a recent trend to attack people perceived as "the state", such as firefighters and paramedics in certain situations. Afaik, this is usually done by low income, uneducated people that good stone grudge and then lash out. You can indeed be happy that they don't have access to firearms.

Every time that medical staff is assaulted in Portugal, specially when the code word "family" is used, we already know it was done by a Gypsy group or family who couldn't be bothered to wait in queue to be looked at.

The other "low income, uneducated people" never do such things, always the same group.

Re: Get a cable modem, go to jail (1999)

#254

Post by b112 »

concordDance wrote: post #247
b112 wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On top of that, it takes equipment, hardware, personnel, infrastructure, power to deliver cable. The OP literally has no idea what they are talking about, and could use the same logic for electricity theft.

Nitpick: At least in the UK that last is not theft, falling under "abstracting electricity".

Abstracting! To my Canadian ears, it sounds quite strange, almost as if one used magical words to whisk it away.

Re: Get a cable modem, go to jail (1999)

#255

Post by nly »

noduerme wrote: post #243
solidsnack9000 wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Registered to a different person" -- for the most part, guns are not registered in the USA. Was this in a state or city with a registry for AR-15s? "Loaded straight into fairly skinny jeans without checking the safety." -- Glocks do not have safeties. The idea with most newer striker-fired pistols, like the Glock, is that the gun goes in a hard-sided (molded nylon or kydex) holster. If it's not in the holster, it's…

My nightly bedside weapon is a Beretta 92 with the safety decocker. I know a lot of people think it's silly to have a safety on that gun, but I want to be awake enough to think about it twice if I wake up in the middle of the night.

I get night terrors and sleep walk, so I'd likely end up dead of I had a weapon by my bedside.

Re: Get a cable modem, go to jail (1999)

#256

Post by vore »

incompatible wrote: post #37
3-cheese-sundae wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're correct, it was not, but GP was referring to those who weren't proactive or fortunate to have the bogus charges dismissed. The original poster had the time, money, and wherewithal required to document the issue, pay for legal representation, fight the case, chase expungement, and absorb the damages to her character from the remnant records of her criminal charge that remained even after expungement of official…

I suppose I'm just old, and people doing stupid things isn't going to make my blood boil any more. I've accepted it by now as human nature. If you want to actually annoy me, you need to do something purely evil, like harming innocent people just to advance some stupid agenda of your own. Russians firing missiles at apartment buildings in Ukraine is a current example.

Or, like, someone having their life destroyed by being sent to jail for having cable internet as set up by the provider? The author clearly had the means to sort her own case out, but you can certainly imagine someone who didn't and would be in jail for it.

Sure, on the scale of evil it's nowhere near the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but I don't think this is shrug your shoulder and say "tough titty" territory either. How would you like it if you were unlucky enough to not have been able to sort this out and be in jail for it? On the bright side, it's not as bad as getting your house bombed!

Re: Get a cable modem, go to jail (1999)

#257

Post by midasuni »

noduerme wrote: post #109
dreamcompiler wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I thought most people in the US were proud of their firearm handling professionalism which of course includes not brandishing or murdering people. I take it you have not actually visited the United States.

In fairness, everyone I know in the US who owns firearms - which is basically everyone I know here - takes safety and knowledge of the laws around storing/carrying/brandishing/firing them very seriously. But the sheer scale of the US population and the absolute number of guns is just difficult to conceive of from a European perspective. We have something like 60 privately owned guns in this country for every person i…

Oh another “The US is big” post.

The EU has 30% more people

There are 60 times as many privately owned guns in the EU as there are in Montana.

There are 5 time as many guns in the US, but 20 times as many murders.

There is a cultural problem in the US with firearms.

Re: Get a cable modem, go to jail (1999)

#259

Post by Gud »

asddubs wrote: post #240
Gud wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First, the UK is a special case. I’m working right now in Liverpool and it is the most dysfunctional city I’ve been to in Europe. I’ve worked in most of Europe. Second, the nationality of the perpetrators is often masked in case it is a foreigner. Third, a random Google search isn’t exactly representative. Obviously native Europeans have attacked police, medics etc. But organized mobs attacking firefighters, paramedi…

you essentially saying "trust me bro" is even less representative

To be honest I’m surprised this is still up for debate. I was hoping by now, we would be discussing solutions and not what’s going on.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-39047455

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/sweden-faile...

Re: Get a cable modem, go to jail (1999)

#260

Post by TeMPOraL »

sublinear wrote: post #154
kmeisthax wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're right that the US is very proud of their trigger and muzzle discipline. Or at least half of it. The other half points loaded guns with the safeties off directly at their own crotches to own the libs[0]. Going a layer deeper, Americans really, really love to abuse the shit out of customer service workers. To put it extremely charitably, we're used to being fucked by corpos so we pre-emptively fuck them back in…

> Americans really, really love to abuse the shit out of customer service workers. That wasn't my experience when I worked in customer service for a few years. Maybe 10% of people were like that and it was always because they were tired of not getting solutions to their problems, and that was always because their account fell into a bad spot in the customer service flow policy (suspicious activity, low LTV, fraud, et…

> low LTV

I think I see where the problem is on the corporate side.

Sucks to be in customer support. The job really seems to be a buffer between abusive company policies and the angry customers.

Post reply on HN