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

I am not planning any nuclear attacks

henrysmith.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 151 posts

Re: I am not planning any nuclear attacks

#51

Post by pyre »

samspot wrote: post #42

Devil's Advocate: You are a nontechnical person and stumble upon what appear to be plans for a terrorist attack. You talk to the person about it and they say "Don't worry. is computer game". A great exploration of this is the 30 Rock episode where Tina Fey reports her neighbor for what ends up being a plan to get on the show 'The Amazing Race'. The problem is, not knowing any better, you feel obligated to report the…

The problem is that everyone in the chain ends up buying into this. The police make a record of it 'just in case.' You end up on a no-fly list 'just in case.' Everyone in the chain is covering their ass 'just in case' this person really is a terrorist.

No one ends up willing to stick their neck out and say, "this person probably isn't a terrorist"... just in case.

Re: I am not planning any nuclear attacks

#52

Post by mikeash »

acallaghan wrote: post #36
madaxe_again wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fine state of County Durham. As a tenant - a student tenant, no less - your rights are virtually squat.

They thought a student had 'mountains of cocaine'? Don't they realise how expensive that stuff is?!

Of course not. That would require understanding something beyond one's own immediate world.

Re: I am not planning any nuclear attacks

#53

Post by stevebot »

samspot wrote: post #42

Devil's Advocate: You are a nontechnical person and stumble upon what appear to be plans for a terrorist attack. You talk to the person about it and they say "Don't worry. is computer game". A great exploration of this is the 30 Rock episode where Tina Fey reports her neighbor for what ends up being a plan to get on the show 'The Amazing Race'. The problem is, not knowing any better, you feel obligated to report the…

Ha nice, I immediately thought of that episode to after reading this. I really miss that show :(.

It is a good point, but I wonder when it breaks down and turns into something like McCarthyism.

Re: I am not planning any nuclear attacks

#54

Post by mattmaroon »

idibidiart wrote: post #41
Zikes wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep, you'd never find something so silly as a computer mouse in the Pentagon.

except ICBMs are not launched with a mouse click.... wth.

1. How do you know that?

2. How would an average person know that?

Re: I am not planning any nuclear attacks

#55

Post by teamonkey »

orf wrote: post #7
kjjw wrote: post #2

Par for the course with letting agents in the UK. I'm surprised they didn't begin evicting the renter. Using a property for work is often prohibited in the boilerplate rental agreements they charge £100 a time to change the name on.

Hardly, that is a personal project so wouldn't count as work. Renting a property for non-commercial use then running an office out of it is quite rightfully prohibited.

From what I understand, in the UK at least, they obviously can't stop you from working at home or running a business from home or setting up an office in your home.

What they don't like is using your rented home as a warehouse or place where customers regularly visit. That kind of thing usually needs some kind of licence from the council.

Re: I am not planning any nuclear attacks

#56

Post by orf »

scott_s wrote: post #35
gambiting wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The simple answer is - insurance. Let's say that you have an accident at home while doing your office work(because you stayed at home that day), and the house is on fire. Suddenly the insurance agency refuses to pay because the house was not insured for commercial purposes. Stupid, I know.

There must be ways around this - I live in the US, and I have never heard of a renter not being able to work from home.

I live in the UK and I have never heard of a renter not being able to work from home. I think any provisions in the contract are to stop commercial enterprises being run out of rented properties rather than stop people from remotely working.

Re: I am not planning any nuclear attacks

#57

Post by burkaman »

Someone1234 wrote: post #29

Common sense isn't quite as "common" anymore. If you actually read those diagrams it is pretty obvious (to me) that that is a game, and not some missile design or "plan" (although who plans a state missile attack from their apartment?).

From his previous blog post, they could tell it was a game:

“Except… the person who did the inspection did have some concerns about one thing. There were some… whiteboards? And some… drawings on them?”

“Ah shit! Yeah I totally forgot about those! You mean the nuclear attack thing, right?”

“Yeah, that’s right.”

“Yeeeeeah…. Sorry! You see…. It’s for this game I was making! It’s like, a web thing and it uses Google Maps to simulate a nuclear war.”

“Ahhh, okay! We kind of thought it had something to do with gaming!”

Apparently somebody was still worried about the idea of a realistic nuclear attack simulation game. Reminds me of the time some kid was arrested for making a Counterstrike map based on his high school.

Re: I am not planning any nuclear attacks

#58

Post by Beltiras »

pyre wrote: post #51
samspot wrote: post #42

Devil's Advocate: You are a nontechnical person and stumble upon what appear to be plans for a terrorist attack. You talk to the person about it and they say "Don't worry. is computer game". A great exploration of this is the 30 Rock episode where Tina Fey reports her neighbor for what ends up being a plan to get on the show 'The Amazing Race'. The problem is, not knowing any better, you feel obligated to report the…

The problem is that everyone in the chain ends up buying into this. The police make a record of it 'just in case.' You end up on a no-fly list 'just in case.' Everyone in the chain is covering their ass 'just in case' this person really is a terrorist. No one ends up willing to stick their neck out and say, "this person probably isn't a terrorist"... just in case.

And it all becomes Kafkaesque and you can't get the bureaucracy to respond because '... it might reveal our methods and tactics in combating global terrorism.'

Re: I am not planning any nuclear attacks

#59

Post by Beltiras »

mikeash wrote: post #50
samspot wrote: post #42

Devil's Advocate: You are a nontechnical person and stumble upon what appear to be plans for a terrorist attack. You talk to the person about it and they say "Don't worry. is computer game". A great exploration of this is the 30 Rock episode where Tina Fey reports her neighbor for what ends up being a plan to get on the show 'The Amazing Race'. The problem is, not knowing any better, you feel obligated to report the…

It takes only the barest application of common sense to realize that an ICBM attack is not going to be planned on a whiteboard in plain view in some random apartment. It does not actually appear to be plans for a terrorist attack, because terrorists don't have ICBMs.

Also: Terrorist are not too concerned about mouseclicks ....

Re: I am not planning any nuclear attacks

#60

Post by mikeash »

tomp wrote: post #8
Bahamut wrote: post #3

Sadly, if you look carefully at the pictures, it's pretty clear it's for a game...and I didn't even need to read that he mentioned that they were game ideas. Goes to show how dumb people can be.

Actually, it's not clear at all. The only clue I found that it's only a virtual plan is one mention of "WebRTC" in the third image. Far from obvious for most non-programers.

Yes, it is clear. The only groups which possess ICBMs are the governments of the USA, Russia, China, India, and possibly North Korea. None of these groups would be doing any planning on a whiteboard located in some random English apartment. Thus, the only clue you need to know that this is not a real plan is the fact that it involves ICBMs and it's on a whiteboard in a random English apartment.
Post reply on HN