Moving underground

[MaineShark]

This is exactly what I'm talking about of course.  I'm not going to ask anyone on here to buy me a 30.06 but if someone happened to have one they wanted to sell, then they could bring it to a MVP meeting or something and we could make a perfectly legal transaction.  Gun laws are crazy and the last thing I need is to be in the slammer on some lame-ass Straw Man charge.

Well, it would actually be the seller who would be at risk.  Best bet is not to sell any firearm that you've only had for a short time.

Unless you're the one who actually created the law (Sarah Brady violated this very provision; oddly enough, she doesn't seem to be sitting in prison...)

What I've heard about your cell phone is "they" can make a call (without you knowing you're being called) and track your location that way -  GPS systems.

Even a non-GPS phone can be tracked.  In order to use the cell system, the system needs to know which tower you are closest to, and switch towers as needed.  So, your phone communicates with all local towers and the signal strength is measured.  The more towers around, the closer your location can be triangulated by using the signal strength.  Even if you only have one tower nearby, they can still know that you are in that tower's range, and get a rough guess of how far from the tower you are.

Joe

[SpeedPhreak]

there is always expatriation - something I am heavily researching & considering... was 1 of 2 options before I found the fsp - now I have 3.

living on a large boat is also an option I am considering.  I actually have a really good cash cow business idea for this method... but the size of boat I need is way out of my budget (even if I used the evil evil credit system)... i am talking about 3.5 to $4million to get started - but would return 300% in 2yrs.

anyway - i would like to see more discussions on this topic as well.  the cellphone thing is scary man.

[Raineyrocks]

 Solar bursts may threaten GPS
POSTED: 11:44 a.m. EDT, April 5, 2007
Story Highlights
? GPS receivers threatened by powerful solar flares
? Solar burst on December 6 disrupted most GPS receivers
? Solar activity rises and falls in 11-year cycles
? Next storm peak expected in 2011


WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Global Positioning System, relied on for everything from navigating cars and airplanes to transferring money between banks, may be threatened by powerful solar flares, a panel of scientists warned Wednesday.

"Our increasingly technologically dependent society is becoming increasingly vulnerable to space weather," David L. Johnson, director of the National Weather Service, said at a briefing.

GPS receivers have become widely used in recent years, using satellite signals in navigating airplanes, ships and automobiles, and in using cell phones, mining, surveying and many other commercial uses.

Indeed, banks use the system to synchronize money transfers, "so space weather can affect all of us, right down to our wallet," said Anthea J. Coster, an atmospheric scientist at the Haystack Observatory of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The cause for their concern, Johnson said, was an unexpected solar radio burst on December 6 that affected virtually every GPS receiver on the lighted half of Earth. Some receivers had a reduction in accuracy while others completely lost the ability to determine position, he said.

Solar activity rises and falls in 11-year cycles, with the next peak expected in 2011.

If that increasing level of activity produces more such radio bursts the GPS system could be seriously affected, the researchers said.

And protecting the system is no simple task, added Paul M. Kintner Jr., a professor of electrical engineering at Cornell University, who monitored the December event.

There are two possible ways to shield the system, he said, both very expensive. Either alter all GPS antennas to screen out solar signals or replace all of the GPS satellites with ones that broadcast a stronger signal.

That's why it's essential to learn more about the sun's behavior quickly in an effort to find ways to predict such events, the researchers said.

In addition to the GPS system, the December solar flare affected satellites and induced unexpected currents in the electrical grid, Johnson said.

"The effects were more profound than we expected and more widespread than we expected," added Kintner.

Dale E. Gary, chairman of the physics department of the New Jersey Institute of Technology, said the burst produced 10 times more radio noise than any burst previously recorded.

The difference between that burst and normal solar radio emissions "was like the difference between the noise level of a normal conversation and the noise level in the front row of a rock concert," he said.

"This is a wake-up call" to improve technology, commented Anthony J. Mannucci, group supervisor at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Patricia H. Doherty, co-director of the Institute for Scientific Research at Boston College, said the burst affected but did not shut down the Federal Aviation Administration's Wide Area Augmentation System, which uses GPS signals to assist in navigation.

Most of the WAAS ground stations were able to maintain contact with enough satellites to continue working, though their accuracy was somewhat affected, she said.

The stations have to maintain contact with at least four satellites to work, but usually monitor at least 10 to increase their accuracy, she said. Most were able to meet the minimum, she said.

The briefing came at a Space Weather Enterprise Forum convened by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to discuss the effects of solar activity. Because of its increasing importance, Johnson said, the Weather Service's Space Environment Center was converted from a mainly research center in 2005 to an operational center reporting on solar activity and its impacts.

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

[KBCraig]

   Onstar is very easy to disable, but down the road I'm willing to guess
that those systems will be interconnected with the Event Data Recorder
"for safety" to notify the authorities, which would allow insurers to refuse
payment based on "attempted fraud"  because the EDR has been tampered.

They want to control your brakes, too.

[error]

They want to control your brakes, too.

If this technology was so useful and life-saving, you wouldn't need a government mandate in order to get it into cars.

[Cincinnatus]

 

Bomb Suspect Traced by Cell Phone
Associated Press  05.08.02 | 1:25 PM
SAN JOSE, California -- Mailbox bomb suspect Luke Helder made a crucial mistake while on the run: He turned on his cell phone.

As soon as he activated it, FBI agents quickly triangulated his position between two rural towns and had him in handcuffs within an hour Tuesday, according to Nevada authorities.


The fact that another motorist spotted Helder in passing helped authorities, but the cell phone signal like a locator beacon was a dead giveaway.

"We got a call from the FBI at approximately 3:20 p.m. that the cell phone that (Helder) had been known to have had been activated somewhere between Battle Mountain and Golconda," said Maj. Rick Bradley of the Nevada Highway Patrol. "We started hitting Interstate 80."

The Highway Patrol flooded the area with officers and quickly had Helder in custody, Bradley said Wednesday.

Bradley said tracking down Helder without the pinpoint location provided by the FBI would have made the task tougher, given the sprawling region.

"It's really a rural area. There's not that much police presence," Bradley said.

Helder also placed a call to his parents' Minnesota home, and spoke with an FBI agent they handed the phone to. But the technology trick used by the FBI helped seal Helder's fate.

Gayle Jacobs, a spokeswoman for the FBI's Las Vegas office, refused to go into detail about how the bureau did it, or even to acknowledge what it did.

"As far as investigative technique, we don't disclose that information," Jacobs said.

Cell phone triangulation is a well-known tracking method within the wireless industry, said Michael Barker, an equipment sales manager for Cell-Loc, based in Calgary, Alberta. His company provides tracking services to help people who are incapacitated and unable to dial for help.

"Every time the cell phone is on, it periodically sends a little registration message to the phone company, 'Here I am! Here I am!'" Barker said. That message contains the cell phone's electronic serial number and tells the service provider when the phone has drifted in and out of cell tower range.

Federal agents then easily can get in contact with the cell phone service company and get the location of the nearest cell tower in contact with the activated phone, Barker said.

Law enforcement then can equip agents with devices designed to triangulate the signal and determine its location within about a third of a mile and the direction it was traveling in, Barker said. Handheld equipment for such a search is not sold to the general public, he said.

Robin Gross, an attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, warned that the technology could be abused. She said cell phone tracking could be used to follow the movements of political dissenters or politicians and other people in power.

"I think it's inappropriate to be tracking people under some kind of assumption that they might do something illegal," Gross said. "I just think it's ripe for abuse by law enforcement and by government."

   

[error]

The FCC has mandated that all wireless carriers deploy "enhanced 911" technology which is capable of locating 67% of wireless 911 calls to within 50 meters and 95% of the calls to within 150 meters. All carriers use technology for this purpose which can be activated remotely, outside the context of a 911 call, and regardless of the location privacy setting, if any, on the handset.

[Pat K]

They want to control your brakes, too.

If this technology was so useful and life-saving, you wouldn't need a government mandate in order to get it into cars.

Yep and you don't, ESC has been steadily moving down from
luxury cars to every day cars, it would have been in most cars by
2012 anyway, the Gov wants credit for nothing as usual.

[Recumbent ReCycler]

I read that the OnStar system has a fuse in its circuit, so to disable it, all you have to do is pull the fuse.  I have found that sometimes "safety" devices, like traction control can reduce the amount of control you have over your vehicle, which is why I am glad that my Impala has a button that I can push to turn it off.

[penguins4me]

The FCC has mandated that all wireless carriers deploy "enhanced 911" technology which is capable of locating 67% of wireless 911 calls to within 50 meters and 95% of the calls to within 150 meters. All carriers use technology for this purpose which can be activated remotely, outside the context of a 911 call, and regardless of the location privacy setting, if any, on the handset.

... which is why I refuse to buy a newer model cell-phone, and plan that, if I do decide to keep a cell-phone around after the existing one will no longer work, the new one will be prepaid with cash and (likely) have the battery out when not in use. >:/ Not that I have anything to hide, but all this sneaky mandated crap pisses me off.

[error]

Oh, I have a large collection of new cell phones. I'm not terribly worried about them being tracked.

[Lloyd Danforth]

We need an electronics guy who knows how to disable all of the bad shit being foisted on us just because we want to drive or communicate.   

[error]

We need an electronics guy who knows how to disable all of the bad shit being foisted on us just because we want to drive or communicate.   

This would be a full-time job for at least several weeks, if not several months, just to disable the tracking crap in one handset. It's because it's the software. But once that was done it would be much easier to liberate future handsets, at least from that manufacturer.

It might be easier to get old GSM phones, which don't have this tracking stuff in them, off eBay or from some other source. The problems there, of course, are first that they ARE old, and second, if you don't know exactly what you're buying and how you're getting it delivered, you're screwed anyway.

[penguins4me]

The line I'm being fed by my current cell service provider is that the older model phone I have won't work with their new system. What they mean by "new system" is not clear, but the thing works just as well as it ever has (i.e. not fantastic) since I didn't let them touch it, and since they've an interest in the alleged contents of my wallet, I don't entirely trust them.

All that to say, I'm told older cell phones aren't compatible with modern service providers' equipment. Might that also be a potential concern with purchasing older phones, etc.?

Also, regarding the tracking matter, how does having a pile of new phones remove the option for the Powers That Be to follow you about? Admittedly, it would raise the bar a little, as they'd have to first identify the phones before following them, but if another phone ever followed the pattern of an identified phone, you'd run the risk of having new phone linked to you as well.
Obviously, if someone is overly concerned with being followed due to a cell phone they probably shouldn't use one. ;)

[error]

You didn't say who your cell phone provider is, so it's impossible to answer the question specifically for your case. Each carrier uses slightly (or completely) different technology.

In general, though, those which use GSM technology can use any GSM phone which uses the 850 and 1900 MHz bands. All you do is put in your SIM card and you're all set. The provider cannot control through technical means what handset you use, though U.S. providers have used the threat of non-renewal of contract to force postpaid account holders to upgrade their phones to compliant hardware. For prepaid GSM accounts the carrier cannot control whether you change your handset. (There are, however, issues of carrier locked handsets, which can't easily be used on a DIFFERENT GSM carrier, which I won't get into too deeply here just yet.)

Other providers, where service is not based on a SIM card, have total control over whether the handset is allowed on your account and on their network. In order to use a handset other than the one you originally purchased, you have to call the carrier and ask permission, and IF they grant it, you have to read them the ESN off the back of your desired handset and have them enable it for your account. The people on the phone will give you all kinds of BS reasons, like that the phones don't work anymore. The truth is that they DO work, even ancient brick and car phones manufactured back in the 1980s, but the providers don't want them on the network anymore. And here's why:

All wireless providers in the U.S. are required by the FCC to ensure that at least 95% of the E911 calls on their network are locatable within the limits specified above. This is the real reason why they're generally fanatic about 100% handset compliance. Though, and this isn't that well known, the providers are also required to be able to locate noncompliant handsets to within 1000 meters. Any set of towers in the U.S. should be able to do this at this point. And while almost any set of towers in the U.S. can locate your E911 Phase II compliant phone, the irony is that only about half of the 911 call centers can actually receive the data! The 911 centers are still building out this capability.