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Get a cable modem, go to jail (1999)

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

#301

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does that include places like Switzerland, where every male is issued with a gun as part of their national service/canton militia? I think the cultural problem is everyone wants to be like Stallone or Arnie, which would suggest the US population has an inferiority complex towards the old world.

No. Switzerland isn’t in the EU. Include non EU countries and the population and number of guns is even larger, but gun homicides don’t change much. Even gun suicides are far higher in the US per capita and per gun than in the EU. The US has a gun fetish. People sleep with them for crying out loud!

hey now, if i don't sleep with the thing, how am i gonna grab it when i'm asleep?

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

#302

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah but did they have faulty broadband?

Actually, they had brand new broadband! My area was in a "rural fibre zone" and while I was there the local houses (including mine) went from satellite-only or tethering (which could be OK, sometimes, barely) or 1 Mbit DSL to 1Gbps fibre. It was pretty awesome.

Man, I do wonder how they decide which rural areas get fiber, do they throw darts at a map?

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

#303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which brand? What is the "tang" of a seatbelt? It us hard for me to imagine a seatbelt buckle actually getting into a holster, but I would like to learn more about this.

When I read about it, I couldn't understand it either. They didn't explain precisely, but IIRC, it was a pistol with a tactical light, which explains why there might be more space that usual. I couldn't find the particular incident, however. This sort of thing is unfortunately somewhat common: https://www.thetrace.org/2023/04/sig-sauer-p320-upgrade-safe... https://safariland.com/pages/service-bulletins

The sig p320 thing isn't about safeties at all but a mechanical design flaw that the company has remedied with a recall. And that safariland link just seems like safariland is a terrible manufacturer of holsters.

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

#304
post #195

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…

I'm glad to live in Europe where people have lots of guns but basically never threaten others with them because they are generally decent folk.

Good point. I like to tell the US about how we decent Europeans had to come to the US and stop two world wars that they fought in the Americas.

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

#305

What strikes me most is the level of anxiousness people in the US develop when faced with frivolous/absurd charges. This guy is working so hard - hours and hours - trying to convince Comcast to get their shit right and install a video trap! Here where I live, you would just lough out loud, lean back and continue watching TV. Because you know it would take a judge exactly 1 minute to consider two facts - 1) you had a…

*gal

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

#307

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…

> In fairness, everyone I know in the US who owns firearms - which is basically everyone I know here

You are not representative, as only one-third of individuals, and 42% of US households, own a firearm:

* https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2017/06/22/the-dem...

* https://news.gallup.com/poll/264932/percentage-americans-own...

Gun owners are in the minority of the population.

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

#308

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess that seems reasonable, but now it makes me wonder about the graph - it can't be that the people who take gun ownership and security safety only know people who do likewise - how many people who take these matters seriously still have friends they hang out with who take it less seriously. Why? Well bad apples and stuff, it's hard to believe perfect discipline is maintained when some of those around you have le…

Just from personal experience among my friends and acquaintances - and anyone I meet who I chance to talk about guns with - there is a very strong self-reinforcing culture of safe handling and responsibility. People will come down incredibly hard on anyone who seems inept or who they even hear speaking about some kind of irresponsible behavior. Now, I'd say about half of these are ex-military people, but they set a s…

> But it's actually one of the few areas where pretty much everyone knows they must act like a responsible adult.

"Everyone"?

* https://twitter.com/well_regulated_

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

#309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, they had brand new broadband! My area was in a "rural fibre zone" and while I was there the local houses (including mine) went from satellite-only or tethering (which could be OK, sometimes, barely) or 1 Mbit DSL to 1Gbps fibre. It was pretty awesome.

Man, I do wonder how they decide which rural areas get fiber, do they throw darts at a map?

There were strategic rural routes along roads between towns, etc. It got 300k homes hooked up. Ironically people in turns got fttc, rural people ftth.
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