MIT Engineers

[Bklyn]

LOL. Thankfully, my life is void of those types. I hope to keep the streak going.

On another note, I'm becoming a little less bearish on bitcoin. I still view it as a dubious long-term hold if you think it will ever be on par with credit or cash transactions, but there may be some arb opportunities there if you move right with it. I don't know how governments will ever fully let it be embraced. I would expect a government sanctioned cyber attack if it ever got too big for its britches.

[AlabamAlum]

Yeah, it had high potential of being a troll.

[eCat]

I read about someone "harvesting" bit coins off a hard drive.

honestly I never really understood the concept which sounded like with some effort you could create bitcoins on your own without producing any goods or services associated with them. I'm sure that can't be right but articles I read never really tied the whole concept together cleanly for me.

[AlabamAlum]

Speaking of trolls, It's kinda like the InnocentBystader guy. Obvious troll is obvious.

Speaking of trolls, I would love to read some Crow posts again. For that matter, Floater and Ben Washburn (who weren't trolls) are missed too. We need to send out a Delta Recon search party or something. I've got my tabi boots on and my AR-15 locked and loaded.

[Bklyn]

I read about someone "harvesting" bit coins off a hard drive.

honestly I never really understood the concept which sounded like with some effort you could create bitcoins on your own without producing any goods or services associated with them. I'm sure that can't be right but articles I read never really tied the whole concept together cleanly for me.

I don't think you can create bitcoins on your own, they have some specific coding that exists with it that is supposedly very difficult to hack, if not impossible (although there was a huge bitcoin theft at Mt Gox that closed it down), therefore its creation is relatively static (which is why the price of them have increased so much). The big thing is that it is totally digital. Anyone who has ever experienced blue screens of death or lost a bunch of documents to a virus know how dubious that concept can be. Also, to work with bitcoin you need the technological infrastructure to transact with it...thereby making it a veritable "rich man's" currency. That (and government unease with its existence) is why I call the long term prospects dubious. I do think that as more merchants look at it as legitimate currency and venture capitalists start to create products and platforms that make its ease of use heightened, then there are opportunities to make profits on it in the short term.

I don't own any, but I am not calling everyone who does a fool anymore. Most of them are, though, don't get me wrong.

[aTm]

If the concept is proven by bitcoin and it becomes a big thing you can be sure that AppleCoin will be the thing that wipes it out.

[eCat]

the thing that makes it believable about the mall ninja is that we've all known someone who lives in that fantasy world.

While I took summer classes in college one year, I took a part time job working 3rd shift on the campus security. My job was to mostly just sit around the lobby of one the girls dorm and make sure no undesirables came in there.

Anyways occasionally I'd get put on walking patrol which just meant I walked around campus with a radio in the early a.m. making sure everything was quiet. My only highlight was sitting on the hillside watching the 7-11 just off campus get robbed at gun point. I had become friends with the guy working there as I constantly went over there on a "honey bun run" just to stay awake and fight boredom.

During the robbery I called 2 of the more gung ho types on the walkie talkie thing I had on the security team to come to where I was. They arrived moments after the robber ran out of the store, so we went over there to the guy (all of us knew him - 7/11 was the most convenient place to go and not worry about being caught for leaving campus while on duty) - he was visibly shook up of course. I remember us telling him after he got hired it was only a matter of time before he was robbed and he was all cavalier about it saying he didn't care. Well , after it happened, he quit on the spot - begged us not to leave until the police arrived. The other 2 guys said "so you are really quitting this place? and he was like "hell yes I am", and they were like "so you won't care if take all these twinkies and candy bars then so they proceed to load up their pockets with junk food, like the owner would really believe a guy would take $180 in cash, 6 packages of twinkies, 6 butterfingers and 12 snickers by gunpoint.

Anyways, those two guys considered me one of them after I alerted them to an in progress robbery and that's when I had my first run in with mall ninja's. They told the dispatcher to permanently take me off girl dorm duty (bummer - I ended up getting fired from that job because of an incident there) and put me on walking patrol which fucking sucked. Walking around campus at 3am with just a fucking walkie talkie. The campus security bought these auctioned police cars - I think they were old Chryslers - at any rate they looked like a cop car and those guys loved tooling around campus on them with their aviator sunglasses and fingerless gloves. And because I was scared shitless being stuck on walking patrol I always walked in the vicinity of where they were - which was not difficult because they always parked in the overflow parking lot and slept in their old shitty ass chrysler police car when they weren't making junk food runs or smoking pot with the off duty campus guys in the dorm.

One night they admitted to me they both were packing - one had an ankle holster with a Walther PPK (James Bond's gun for those that didn't know), another had a hammerless .38 revolver he kept in his pants pocket. That was strictly taboo for campus cops. While I wore jeans and a T-shirt, they wore the whole uniform with batman utility belt and mail order badge, hand cuffs (another no-no) and I'm sure an assortment of other things I can't recall right now. They both aspired to be cops and they just had that "I'm out here every day putting my life on the line so you can walk your dog" mentality. Oh yea - and they loved fucking with the Iranian exchange students. One of them had a meltdown during an on campus event. They gang tackled him and wailed on him for about 10 minutes.

I did have a few fun moments with them though. One night we went to the Wendy's drive thru in that piece of shit car and I was in the backseat pretending to be someone they arrested , kicking the window and calling them every name in the book, demanding they give me back my cocaine. The poor girl working drive thru couldn't even finish a sentence. I think she pretty much threw the food at them hoping that would get us away from her faster. I'm sure at some point she wondered why they ordered 3 combo's.

There was always crazy shit going on with those guys. The girl that I ended up getting fired over at the girls dorm was moved to the dispatchers office, tied herself up with trash bags and called in to say she was raped one night.

[hedge]

"Speaking of trolls, I would love to read some Crow posts again."

Crow - Oct 14, 2005 8:06 am (#204 of 321) Reply
You know, Kitty, I’ve attempted some small level of restraint here in enduring your feminist man-hating kitty litter. I’ve “taken the high road” as it were, up until this time.

But you know what, there comes a time in every man’s life when he must set aside his gentlemanly graces, unzipper his fly, and give some fat biscuit eating black hearted psychotic lithium dependent sass mouthed bitch the good rogering she so richly deserves.

As you, my ample one, are in most desperate need of one.

Take your hands and rub them together briskly until the friction has warmed them... then grab hold the tundra that is your ancient vagina and don’t let go.

Feel that? Did you jerk, suddenly, even in the slightest? Did the metallic mantle surrounding your depraved womanhood crack sharply like angry lightening playing across barbed wire?

The arctic cockles of your unacclimated bosom are surely as barren a windswept rock outcropping as any desolate Himalayan summit and your bitter twisted root will surely never yield a flower. Yet, as a gentleman, I shall make you one fleeting offer:

Hoist your thick woolen dress atop your homely noggin then drop your volumous bloomers and bend over. I have the elixir for what ails ye’ and as I’ve been at the liquor cabinet a tad early this morning I my take pity and throttle that parched walnut of yours and make a real women of you yet.

[eCat]

Crow still posts occasionally over on the CatsIllustrated board. I seldom engage him but he has about the same reputation there as he did here.

I didn't mind Crow - I guess there is value in having someone be a contrarian and be dedicated to the idea for as long as it kept him entertained. I doubt to this day if I know what Crow believes - his cause was whatever allowed him to write verbose responses in an attempt to piss someone off. I especially loved the moments when he start off on a wrong premise - like the mods conspiring with technology to force him to log in every time he came here or change his password. Like any of us gave a shit. But he'd rant for 2 days, calling everyone every name in the book, utlimately blaming Cletus because of some deep seated jealousy he had over Crow's life or talent.

It was predictable, but still mildy entertaining.

Washburn would not be able to hang on here given the current state of UNC affairs. It would kill him.

[hedge]

onion-eyed gudgeon - Thursday, 02/08/01, 3:42:24pm (#1713 of 1719)

Nice try rat. Delete your post or we'll have it deleted for you. We know who you are. If you're smart, you'll end your game now. As in, RFN.

I'm not going to play around with you anymore. And neither will my father's publisher. You're asking for more trouble than you can afford, pal.

Last warning.

This is the END of our dialog. Read: No negotiation.

[Jungle Rat]

Heh. I miss Corky.

[AlabamAlum]

You just can't take Crow seriously. Some of his bits were great reading. Beach karate and the like became part of the lexicon.

[eCat]

speaking of campus police


Textbooks, football and Greek life.

Keggers, marching bands and all-nighters.

A militarized campus police department armed with M-14 rifles and full riot gear?

Increasingly, at Indiana college campuses, you'll find all of the above.

Even as a national debate about militarized police forces rages in the aftermath of the Ferguson, Mo., police shooting, at least five Indiana universities already had armed their officers with military leftovers, according to an Indianapolis Star review of public records.

It's a trend that has supporters and detractors, some arguing that military-grade rifles and protective equipment will keep students and faculty safe in the case of a campus shooting, others concerned that a college is no place for military-style weaponry.

Florida International University, Ohio State University and Florida State University each have received surplus military equipment, according to Politico. The equipment received includes military-grade rifles, a Mine Resistant Ambush Protection (MRAP) vehicle and a Humvee.

Community and campus police in Indiana have obtained more than 4,400 items since 2010 through a program that distributes surplus military supplies, according to The Star's review. The agencies pay only the cost of delivery.

University police have obtained body armor, military vehicles and M-14 and M-16 rifles — high-powered weapons that remind Purdue University Calumet Police Chief Anthony Martin of ones he used in the Vietnam War.

"Particularly after we have just read about Ferguson, I have been re-evaluating the need of an M-14," said Martin. "It's a heavy weapon."


The move toward what he calls a more militarized police force has been a long road, said Tim Lynch, director of the Project on Criminal Justice at the libertarian Cato Institute.

Despite years of buildup, the practice only recently erupted in controversy. In the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson, police used weapons and armored vehicles to quell protests after a police officer fatally shot 18-year-old Michael Brown.

Nearly two weeks of protests followed and developed into a nationwide debate about the kinds of equipment to which police departments have access, the so-called militarization of America's police forces. Last week in Washington, lawmakers held hearings on the subject, and Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., called for limits to programs that supply police with military equipment.


Lynch argues that the proliferation of SWAT teams using military-grade equipment has blurred the lines between police and the military, two distinct groups that historically have pursued different missions.

"The military is trained to fight the enemy and wreak havoc on them," Lynch said. "With the civilian police, they are dealing with people who have constitutional rights, and we want them to avoid the use of force if possible and to use the minimum required to bring a suspect into a court of law."

On college campuses, police roles are even more narrowly defined: Police are there to protect students and faculty, said Martin, the Purdue Calumet police chief.

That's exactly why top brass at some Indiana colleges say they need surplus military materials.

"Police departments are typically not warriors; they're typically guardians of a community," said Jerry Minger, who oversees seven campus police departments at Indiana University. "How do you protect the community if you don't have the appropriate equipment to do so?"


At Indiana University-Bloomington, the equipment includes six M-16 rifles, according to records obtained from the Indiana Department of Administration. Paying only the cost of delivery offers departments big savings for weapons that originally cost the government $120 to $500.

Minger said the weapons have been modified so they're not fully automatic, which brings them more in line with the firearms police departments buy commercially.

The overwhelming impetus for obtaining high-powered weapons such as the M-14 and M-16 is the rise of school shootings.

Purdue police responded to an on-campus shooting in January, although the victim was targeted, distinguishing the slaying from scenarios at Columbine High School in Colorado and Virginia Tech. Minger said the prevalence of shootings has changed how campus police prepare.

[aTm]

Anybody used Swype?

[Jungle Rat]

Only if it's to slap you across the face.

[hedge]

Stop stealing my material...

[Bklyn]

http://mobile.businessweek.com/articles ... efty-price

Partly idiotic (and why I don't salivate over hiring Ivy undergrads) and partly genius (optimizing activities to increase entrance chances). I could see the rationale of taking a student underserved in a public school and buying the service to round the student out, in lieu of paying for 12 years of private school.

[eCat]

speaking of that - have you guys ever heard of Culver Academy - its labeled as a college preparatory school in Indiana but I think there might be more than one of them.

[AlabamAlum]

[eCat]

oh man - I love Culvers - we don't have one close to me though