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Do we want them to know?

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yotsuya:
That's the most dramatic 'slippery slope' argument I've ever heard! :)

SavannahLion:

--- Quote from: Howard_Casto on July 13, 2011, 07:28:06 pm ---Wow that guy lives in crazy town.  

Apparently he doesn't seem to understand that while the meter is brand new, the outlets and wiring in your house is the same old stuff.  You can't detect ANYTHING except power usage.  

And guess what, they could do that before.  The only real difference is that now instead of physically inspecting a meter, which already collected stuff like average consumption per day, peak hours ect... they can do it without leaving their truck, which is awesome because now they don't block you in your driveway by showing up at just the "right" time.  ;)

I mean sure they can get a little more data in terms of specific usage hours, but I don't see how that's invasive or terribly illegal. If anything it's quite useful as the power company can predict brown outs or peak usage days and compensate for it.  

Also the stuff about detecting drug houses and helping solve crimes seems like a GOOD thing to me.  Why?  Because I'm not a criminal.  


To be honest I'm more interested in the protocol they use... it would be fun to have such statistics available to me abotu my own power habits.  

--- End quote ---

You're right. Criminals don't give a rats ass about the meter, "smart" or not. About... er.... fifteen years ago I believe, a pot house was busted because the morons decided to rewire the meter. The part that was actually "metered" went direct to the house. The part not metered went to their pot growing house under ground. The meter reader noticed the weird wiring and contacted authorities. The authorities noticed the huge patch of green grass growing in the back yard... surrounded by fifteen feet of snow in the dead of winter. Yeah... you can figure the rest out. If the guy never leaves his truck to physically inspect the meter, you can bet your bacon that more than a few people will hack the meter and tweak it to their desire*.

I kind of like it actually, it keeps their ---smurfing--- meter reader guy out of my backyard (three neighbor's readers are within sight of my yard so the guy likes to jump my fence since it saves him a trip around the block). I don't like what it implies, but let the power company spend the money and man power to figure out all the juice I'm draining off their grid is for my cabinets.


*Nevermind that utility company also has a "neighborhood meter" for this express purpose. Not sure if that's true everywhere though.

Howard_Casto:

--- Quote from: pinballjim on July 13, 2011, 09:01:42 pm ---The TSA is frisking on boat ferries, btw.

--- End quote ---

Now the TSA IS invasive and they must be stopped at all cost.  I'm pretty sure it's just an organization of perverts seeing as how frisking would only catch the stupidest of criminals.  And what's the deal with no shampoo?  Seriously I'm going to store my toxic bomb chemicals in a thin bottle of pert plus?  Like I said their "safety measures" only catch the stupid ones. 


Actually all security is like that.  The lock on your door doesn't keep robbers out, it lets you sleep at night.  Unless you are me....  I don't sleep, go ahead and try to steal something from my house.   :burgerking:

AtomSmasher:

--- Quote from: Howard_Casto on July 13, 2011, 07:28:06 pm ---To be honest I'm more interested in the protocol they use... it would be fun to have such statistics available to me abotu my own power habits. 

--- End quote ---
A coworker recently had one of these meters installed and he said that he got a login for the electric companies website so he could see his hourly usage.  Sounded kind of cool to me.


--- Quote from: Howard_Casto on July 13, 2011, 11:58:19 pm ---Now the TSA IS invasive and they must be stopped at all cost.

--- End quote ---
Ah yes, the TSA.  What better way to stop crime then by hiring unqualified, low paid employees.  I recently heard that something like 85% of all smuggling in airports is now done by TSA employees.  I'm sure the other 15% occurs because TSA agents aren't paid enough to give a crap.

SavannahLion:
TSA right....

Ha anyone here ever looked at the TSA list of banned items? It's an interesting read really. The list doesn't really prevent someone who really wants to get into it. Is it fair to mention the myriad of materials that can be used as weapons in some fashion or another that is allowed according to the TSA?

One of these days I should gather up the George Carlin list and compare it to the TSA list and see how true it holds today. I'm too lazy to do it right now though. Maybe I'll do it while I'm at work.  :P

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