A Testament to Human Ingenuity

We’ve all seen advertisements for The Club, a metal rod that attaches to the steering wheel of a car to prevent theft. Unfortunately it doesn’t actually work, and makes the care easier to steel. Bruce Schneier’s blog once again brings the fact security snake oil just doesn’t work. See the club is easy to remove and works as a tool to assist in the actual theft:

At some point, the Club was mentioned. The professional thieves laughed and exchanged knowing glances. What we knew was that the Club is a hardened steel device that attaches to the steering wheel and the brake pedal to prevent steering and/or braking. What we found out was that a pro thief would carry a short piece of a hacksaw blade to cut through the plastic steering wheel in a couple seconds. They were then able to release The Club and use it to apply a huge amount of torque to the steering wheel and break the lock on the steering column (which most cars were already equipped with). The pro thieves actually sought out cars with The Club on them because they didn’t want to carry a long pry bar that was too hard to conceal.

Yup the one thing about people, we’re an ingenuous bunch. Since we’re talking security against car theft I’ll explain what I do. I have insurance against theft, if my car is stolen and can’t be recovered my insurance company pays me money. It works pretty well as I really have no sentimental attachment to my vehicle.

More Guns Doesn’t Mean More Firearm Related Deaths

Linoge is a big fan of doing things right. To that extend he decided to do actual work that us other bloggers could repost in a vain attempt to make it appear as though we also do real work (but those who know me know that I avoid real work like our government avoids civil rights). He put together a nice little graph showing increased firearm ownership doesn’t lead to increased firearm related fatalities. This is always a big thing the anti-gunners parrot and they often also have pretty charts to prove their point. They difference is where the numbers come from. Linoge obtained his numbers from the CDC and ATF and sourced them.

As an added note it’s good to see firearm related deaths were already on a downward turn before the Brady Act came into law deflating the idea that the little piece of anti-gun legislation was the cause of decreasing firearm related deaths.

Evo 4G Fully Rooted

Good news for anybody who owns an Evo 4G phone, it’s been fully rooted. Previously we’ve had rooting abilities but you either couldn’t write to the /system directory or could but had to reboot the phone in recovery mode to do so.

This should lead the way to custom ROMs being produced (a working copy of Froyo on my Evo would be awesome).

Does this Mean More Warrantless Wiretapping

Apparently the Obamessiah is comparing the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico to the terrorist attack on 9/11:

“In the same way that our view of our vulnerabilities and our foreign policy was shaped profoundly by 9/11, I think this disaster is going to shape how we think about the environment and energy for many years to come,” he said in the Politico interview.

Does this mean the oil leak is going to be used an excuse to expand government power over the surfs citizenry? What am I saying, of course it is. I’m waiting for the next OIL LEAK Act (no idea what they’ll make that acronym mean but if they can come up with an acronym for PATRIOT they can do anything) which will expand government powers allowing even more warrantless wiretapping, harassment at airports, and detaining of citizens suspected of colluding with oil companies.

European Mass Shootings

We’ve all heard the anti-gunners parrot on and on about how we need stronger gun control laws to prevent violence. They claim if gun control laws here were as strong as those found in most European nations most mass shootings would be prevented.

John Lott did a quick look into the history of European mass shootings and found out the anti-gunners, as usual, are wrong. No it seems mass shootings have a habit of popping up in so-called “gun free zones.”

Cellular Data Abuse

Most cellular phone companies have an “unlimited” data plan which really consists of “unlimited” data up to 5GB. Well when I purchased the Evo 4G Sprint required I pay another $10.00 a month for their premium data plan. Along with allowing me to use their 4G service which isn’t available in my area it supposedly also lifts the 5GB cap. The put the cap in place to ensure you don’t use what you paid for regulate those users who use “too much” data. I’m one of those people.

Today on my way to work I used a Motorola T505 to connect my phone to my radio. The T505 is a Bluetooth A2DP device that can broadcast the audio playing on your phone to an FM radio channel. I used it today to stream music from Last.fm over my 3G connection on my drive to work.

It worked pretty well I must say and certainly would qualify as a good way to abuse that data plan.

Because Taxing You Along Isn’t Enough

You know all those taxes your state and federal government steal from you (since you aren’t paying voluntarily it’s payment by force which is theft)? One of the things it’s supposed to pay for are public schools. The idea is a portion of your tax money goes to your local school and thus your kids get to go to school for free. Of course free is such an interesting term according to public schools since they make the parents pay for many things including notebooks, pencils, and other miscellaneous items.

Well Beverly High is kicking it up a notch by requiring all parents to buy MacBooks for their kids:

A new program at Beverly High will equip every student with a new laptop computer to prepare kids for a high-tech future. But there’s a catch.

The money for the $900 Apple MacBooks will come out of parents’ pockets.

Yes that’s right on top of taxes now parents have to purchase their kid an Apple MacBook. This is regardless of whether their kid already has a laptop if that laptop doesn’t happen to be a MacBook. Of course the benevolent school will provide a leasing mechanism for those poor unfortunates who can’t afford laptops. But anybody who has filled out and applied for financial aid from a public school knows it’s kind of like getting punched in the mouth for three hours straight. So how much will these laptops cost all together?

Providing laptops to all 1,200 students at Beverly High would cost the school about $1 million, Technology Director Judy Miller said. Last year, the district spent $66,569 on technology.

Wow that’s $1 million of wasted money if I’ve ever seen it. All that’s going to happen is kids will be playing Farmville in class instead of paying attention. Great. Your government at work people.