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Get a cable modem, go to jail (1999)

telecom.csail.mit.edu

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

#341

Post by bombcar »

jollyllama wrote: post #333
bombcar wrote: post #321

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Especially if you’re disconnecting service - I dare say the repo tow truck drivers encounter MANY more gun incidents than the average AAA tow truck driver. However I suspect the repo company allows its employees (or they’re self-employed) to carry in retaliation - I strongly suspect that the cable companies don’t allow their repairmen to pack heat. It’s like the thin bread line - pizza delivery is more dangerous than…

>However I suspect the repo company allows its employees (or they’re self-employed) to carry in retaliation I doubt it. That'd be a huge liability.

Dig into it further; it's been one of the "qualifying reasons" for some of the states with the hardest-to-get CCW permits.

Remember that repo companies are often incredibly small single-person "companies" contracted out.

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

#342

Post by quickthrower2 »

OhMeadhbh wrote: post #185
psunavy03 wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Almost no one actually does this, and most sane gun owners think those people are attention whores at the very best, dangerous nuts at worst. This is a phenomenon I've head described as "nutpicking." Take the absolute worst of a demographic and then go "why are you all like THAT?" Claiming US gun culture is all about going to the mall open-carrying a semiauto rifle is on the same level as claiming gay men all prance…

I'm going to plus one psunavy03's comment here. I own firearms, but they're locked in a gun safe. I pull them out every now and again, drive them to a gun range, fire them, clean them and then put them back in the safe. And I believe this is the experience of the overwhelming majority of gun owners in the US. It occurs to me I haven't seen any estimates for how many people open carry on a daily basis. (You would thin…

Ha ha this story was never about modems. It is about corporations, government and justice system.

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

#343

Post by what-the-grump »

robertlagrant wrote: post #304
hoseja wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

America has been at war for around 225 years. Most of which has been fought outside of America. We just like shooting freedom bullets on other people's land, and when we run out of problems we shoot freedom bullets at each other.

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

#344

Post by wl »

avidiax wrote: post #224
russdill wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You should see some of the nextdoor and facebook communities. So many people are super eager to shoot someone over pretty much any petty crime.

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.

That's a very shallow reading of that particular situation. The robber was pointing a gun at people. At the point when someone threatens life like that, regardless of whether the motives are personal or material, it is reasonable and legally justified for someone to use deadly force to end that threat. The only real criticism that can be leveled against that particular shooter is that in hindsight he continued shooting after the robber was arguably no longer a threat.

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

#345

Post by JCM9 »

Interesting story that’s sadly too representative of the gross incompetence and negligence of some companies. In scenarios like this absolutely do sue them and then deny every settlement offer their corporate lawyers throw at you, continually demanding a jury trial. After a few failed attempts to get the case thrown out on technicalities they will start freaking out knowing they don’t stand a chance in front of a jury and will offer up very very generous settlements to compensate you for their incompetence.

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

#346

Post by quickthrower2 »

wheybags wrote: post #320
cortesoft wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was thinking about this. It is crazy that a private company gets to deputize the state legal apparatus to enable their business model. They want to be able to sell something that is very difficult to restrict access to, so they use the legal system to make sure it stays restricted. They want to be able to install a cable all the way to someone’s house, and then have the state prosecute them if they dare touch it.

> It is crazy that a private company gets to deputize the state legal apparatus to enable their business model. One could argue this is a major purpose of the state. When you can't deputize the state to resolve disputes, you get gang violence (see the drugs trade for more examples than you can count)

It just needs to be milder. A summary offence with a fine at worse. This is breach of contract not theft.

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

#347

Post by pixl97 »

midasuni wrote: post #257
noduerme wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Nobody really lives in Montana so that's not a big surprise.

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

#348

Post by coldtea »

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…

>Maybe 10% of people were like that

That's 1-2 a day minimum!

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

#349

Post by rsynnott »

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…

10% customers being abusive seems _extremely_ high.

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

#350

Post by agloe_dreams »

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…

One thing I would note is that, unlike other utilities, Cable and Internet are not deemed 'necessary' in the us. This means that they exist in nearly unregulated space when it comes to their business operations. These Cable companies are remarkably careless and are liable to take rather abusive actions such as delivering non-functioning service and then billing tech charges to 'fix' the service with many customers ending up in a loop of paid techs coming to fix things they cannot fix because the issue is elsewhere. It is a brutally helpless feeling and when the only thing that can make you feel in control is a gun...

All of that is to say that the companies really do put the techs in harms way in their operations.

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