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U.S. DOJ demands Apple and Google unmask over 100k users of car-tinkering app

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Re: U.S. DOJ demands Apple and Google unmask over 100k users of car-tinkering app

#221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm generally pretty libertarian, but I'm all for throwing the book at these guys. To me that seems perfectly in line with being libertarian. One of the legitimate roles of the government is protecting people from violence by other people. Libertarians are not anarchists.

Not to my understanding. Libertarian protections are from my understanding all about the quantifiable damages that were done by any given action. They don't usually go beyond that. That's why most libertarians would be in favor of blowing asbestos insulation with the thought that "well, eventually the mesothelioma victims will sue which will stop the practice". You couldn't preemptively sue, however, as you don't hav…

You're describing Corporatist Libertarians.

Traditional Libertarians: No organization (government or otherwise) should be large enough or powerful enough to infringe on anyone's liberties.

Corporatist Libertarians: No government should be powerful enough to infringe on the liberties of corporations.

Corporatism has taken over about 50% of the Democrat, Republican and Libertarian parties. They're what people usually mean when they say "moderate" in the US, and why no branches of the federal government have an approval rating above 33%. It's also why things are going downhill so fast: It doesn't matter which party is in power, even if they've got a filibuster proof majority and all three branches in their pocket. Their corporate faction will still be powerful enough to block progressive and populist legislation.

Re: U.S. DOJ demands Apple and Google unmask over 100k users of car-tinkering app

#222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Try" to hurt? Half-burned diesel particulate is absolutely cancerous, it can enter the bloodstream and cross the blood-brain barrier and they're generating clouds of it, probably thousands of times more than what a modern 18 wheeler puts out in half an hour of driving. And they're doing it to someone breathing hard. If I sprayed some cancerous chemical in someone's face, I'd be arrested within the hour. I'd be on th…

Wtf people are doing this on purpose? What's wrong with people?

The "people" doing this are exactly the type of people you'd expect...

Just the first thing that came up in a youtube search, there are thousands more:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYPMbLO4pAY

Re: U.S. DOJ demands Apple and Google unmask over 100k users of car-tinkering app

#223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wtf people are doing this on purpose? What's wrong with people?

The "people" doing this are exactly the type of people you'd expect... Just the first thing that came up in a youtube search, there are thousands more: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYPMbLO4pAY

Wait, this isn't something that they configure the truck to do all the time? They can turn it on and off?

I thought this was some shitty way of being "special", like a loud exhaust, but being able to turn it on and off to gas people is downright evil.

Re: U.S. DOJ demands Apple and Google unmask over 100k users of car-tinkering app

#224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Try" to hurt? Half-burned diesel particulate is absolutely cancerous, it can enter the bloodstream and cross the blood-brain barrier and they're generating clouds of it, probably thousands of times more than what a modern 18 wheeler puts out in half an hour of driving. And they're doing it to someone breathing hard. If I sprayed some cancerous chemical in someone's face, I'd be arrested within the hour. I'd be on th…

Wtf people are doing this on purpose? What's wrong with people?

A nasty combo of sadism and tribalism and stupidity.

Re: U.S. DOJ demands Apple and Google unmask over 100k users of car-tinkering app

#225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The "people" doing this are exactly the type of people you'd expect... Just the first thing that came up in a youtube search, there are thousands more: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYPMbLO4pAY

Wait, this isn't something that they configure the truck to do all the time? They can turn it on and off? I thought this was some shitty way of being "special", like a loud exhaust, but being able to turn it on and off to gas people is downright evil.

It's not a "switch" per-se (though some of the kits have realtime tuning switches to make more/less smoke on demand).

It's a purposely poorly-turned engine + accelerator control.

TL;DR: poor turning, and floor it (high RPM).

This video gives a pretty good overview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miTnnJ7xMv8

Re: U.S. DOJ demands Apple and Google unmask over 100k users of car-tinkering app

#226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Periodic vehicle inspection for emissions and safety compliance. Many jurisdictions already have this for gas engine emissions, a handful of states already have safety inspections. Done right, it can be low burden and low cost, and basically put an end to Def deletion. Done poorly it's grift to the shops that do the inspections, and an economically external annoyance to vehicle owners, and unnecessarily limits the ab…

I don't really care how it affects car modders or people with sports cars. I have a sports car, and yeah the California smog test has been super annoying cause of electrical problems with that are unrelated to its actual emissions, but I knew what I was getting into when I bought something known for unreliability. Fixed it myself. There's a dude across the street with a modded car who always complains he has to bribe…

I had to sell by beloved modded sports car when I moved to California. It blew clean as a whistle, but since the aftermarket parts were all from out of state (installed over the course of years), the state failed it as “tampered.” What a pile of shit. These guys are somehow driving around rolling coal on cyclists without getting grief, but I have to get rid of my car because it doesn’t have the right CA stamp on the intake system. CA’s system is terrible for home mechanics.

Re: U.S. DOJ demands Apple and Google unmask over 100k users of car-tinkering app

#227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait, this isn't something that they configure the truck to do all the time? They can turn it on and off? I thought this was some shitty way of being "special", like a loud exhaust, but being able to turn it on and off to gas people is downright evil.

It's not a "switch" per-se (though some of the kits have realtime tuning switches to make more/less smoke on demand). It's a purposely poorly-turned engine + accelerator control. TL;DR: poor turning, and floor it (high RPM). This video gives a pretty good overview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miTnnJ7xMv8

Ah, even worse, you can gas people and your engine pollutes normally as well.

I didn't think people would be this shitty, but here we are.

Re: U.S. DOJ demands Apple and Google unmask over 100k users of car-tinkering app

#228

> The government says it needs this information to identify and interview witnesses who can testify about how the tools were actually used. Why start this whole thing, if you don't already have this information and have people willing to help you as witnesses? Sounds to me they're saying they don't have this already, but why is this investigation happening in the first place then? Rather than finding every user of th…

> Why start this whole thing

It's a pretext for when they want to force companies to reveal the names of their political enemies down the road. I'm certain of it.

Why I think so: The rinky-dink panel that Trump formed to address "christian persecution" recommended that the IRS go after pastors who break tax laws by preaching from the pulpit. Sound counterintuitive? It's a pretext to generate cause for a lawsuit that would be challenged right up to the supreme court (the institution does not deserve the respect of being treated as a proper noun at this point). They want to overturn The Johnson Amendment[0] and they have the right justices installed to achieve it.

Nothing these crooks and liars do is for the benefit of anyone but themselves and their cronies. They are open grifters and proven liars. They aim to remake the country into a christian nationalist fascist state.

0. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnson_Amendment

Re: U.S. DOJ demands Apple and Google unmask over 100k users of car-tinkering app

#229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Periodic vehicle inspection for emissions and safety compliance. Many jurisdictions already have this for gas engine emissions, a handful of states already have safety inspections. Done right, it can be low burden and low cost, and basically put an end to Def deletion. Done poorly it's grift to the shops that do the inspections, and an economically external annoyance to vehicle owners, and unnecessarily limits the ab…

> Done right, it can be low burden and low cost The rules mostly penalise the poor (and often unfairly). You are severely underestimating how hard "done right" is. I'm from New Zealand and the yearly car checkup is burdensome. About $75 and an hour wasted minimum to get car checked. However the workshop profits come from fixing faults so their economic incentive is to find faults. It costs you way more time if someth…

From memory (I haven't lived in NZ for a while now), the WoF check could be done at VTNZ stations, which explicitly did not do repairs to avoid this conflict of interest.

Alas, it looks like VTNZ was privatised and the exact outcome you would expect happened.

Re: U.S. DOJ demands Apple and Google unmask over 100k users of car-tinkering app

#230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

California is rather strict on emissions. Other states don't care. I used to work for my state's version of the DMV and the only public facing page where one could report things was to report people who would not register their cars locally (many people who purchase very expensive cars chose to register them in Montana). There used to be a web page to report license plates that were worn and needed replacing (like th…

Vehicle regulation in the US is piss poor. Here's the full list of states that require all passenger vehicles to be inspected for safety and emissions every year: * New York * Massachussets * Vermont

Why should that be required? Let people do as they will and impose penalties for problematic behavior (including negligence). I lived in a state with safety inspections and AFAICT it was little more than yet another disproportionate speed bump for the poor and a complete waste of time for society at large.

I do see the merit of inspecting larger trailers (such as for boats) once a year given the combined increased likelihood of incompetence and risk to life when things go wrong. But even then I think it doesn't actually accomplish much in practice. The time and effort would be better spent on targeted public education campaigns, possibly mandatory.

For emissions, again who cares. Regulations imposed on the high volume manufacturers broadly solves all the issues that are easy to solve. The rest are either willful violations or collectors. The latter is technological in nature and inevitably gets grandfathered for both safety and emissions everywhere I've lived.

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