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Why shouldn't we know where sex offenders live?

Letters time again

Web site names and shames paedophiles

In the USA, such efforts are publicly funded. There are several states that have similar lists for convicted sex offenders. These state laws require that logs be kept at local municipal police stations so, for example, a concerned parent could call and find out if an offender lived on their street or not. These lists are publicly accessible.

Some states are using electronic publishing: California puts out quarterly updated CD-ROM. It and several other states have web sites for instant access. Personal details include name of offender, address, birthdate, date of conviction, crime convicted for, and time served. Oh, and a photo, too.

Under US law, all conviction records are public. Essentially these sex offender laws just make this public information much easier to access. Thus they are federally constitutional. On this side of the pond, it's a right and not lynching. I find it interesting that some Brits feel just the opposite.

Jason Paul Kazarian



I just finished reading the letter by the guy who asked for an apology for the use of the word 'fag' for cigarettes. While he is as misguided as a blind man with a ferret for a guide animal, there is a link between the words, in that they have the same root. Both cigarettes and gays are referred to as fags based on faggots (the chunk of wood variety). Gays because they were indeed burned at the stake atop a pile of wood faggots, and cigarettes because they are burned like a piece of wood and come in packaged like a bundle of wood faggots.



David Kelman




[We've been bemoaning the fact that by running Flame of the Week, we've prevented the crazed among you from sending in abusive emails.]

char *story;

#include <standard_flame.h>
#include <abuse.h>

while (todays_register != NULL) {
story = read (todays_register);
clear(mail_register);

if (mentions(story, microsoft))
append(mail_register, microsoft_is_cool);
if (mentions(story, intel))
append(mail_register, intel_is_cool);
if (mentions(story, british_telecom))
append(mail_register, british_telecom_is_cool);
// Etcetera, etcetera...

append(mail_register, generic_abuse);
send(mail_register);
todays_register++;
}
return 0;

Jenn V.



NSI dodges naughty domain name lawsuit

Company Island Online wanted to register several obscene URLs, includiing: f***me.com; f***you.com and c***s***.com

Well DUH. You can't have asterisks in a domain name. ;p

Actually, you've got me stumped with that last one. Perhaps run it as a competition? Guess The Smut?

Colin MacDonald



Well, I bought WinME on 'opening' day, installed it and found it to be a bit quicker. Then it began not shutting down properly. Then it started hanging in explorer. Then msgsvr32. Then it got so it would only boot 1 out of 4 times. So I decided to utilise the uninstall. It told me that I'd have to reinstall any apps I had installed since putting ME on - OK, a bit of work but I can do that. So I go for it.



It checks the discs, reboots, starts to restore the files, directories etc.......then hangs......forever. So I eventually have to reboot - and find my machine is suddenly windowless, and when I boot from floppy the C: drive doesn't even exist. Argh!!!!!

So then I try, 3 times, to reinstall 98 over the top of it. The drive re-appears, the data is still there - but Windoze won't install.....continual blue screens and crashes, even during setup. So I have to rename my windows directory and put a brand new install of 98 onto the machine. Not happy.

So not only is Me so full of bugs it makes ILOVEYOU look like a useful app, you can't reliably remove it, nor re-install your old operating system manually on top of it. Isn't this the sort of thing viruses do???????

Andy



Have they tried putting a mobile in front pockets already stuffed with wallets, keys, and money?



Did they consider the unsophisticated Northerner hypothesis? No self-respecting Southern dude ever flaunts something which is already owned by about 15m other people.

Neil Mawston



This pretty much proves that quite a few "studies" are simply crap.



In Finland (jeejee, of course) most of men (read: 70%-80% of ALL the men in a pub/restaurant) keep their mobiles on table/nearby becouse you have no idea if it's your mobile ringing when you hear a (distant, like from your pocket) phone ringing. Personalized ringing tones? If you have composed your own, then it might help, but who has? I wonder if I remember correctly, that by average women hear better than men.

I doubt if mobile phone has status value of any kind. Unless you have the coolest gizmo around, of course.

Vesa Pajula



I think all these titsup.coms are a good thing. I'm not one of these original Internet guys, I've been on for about 10 years. But the Internet has definitely gotten way too commercial. Hell you can't even go to any of the good porn newsgroups anymore, it ain't nothing but ads.



So I say let the weak starve and die. I just wish we could find some kind of offensive weapon to use against these "sticky" sites. I love it when you go to a site and there are all kinds of errors, and things don't look right. But without fail you shut down the browser or try to back out and no dice, new browsers pop up everytime without fail. Why is it so easy to be annoying, but a pain the ass to offer good content?

Erik

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