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UK: BBC: Laser owners 'arrested on sight'

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Zeus

Tue Dec 22 2009, 11:29PM

Registered Member #2316 Joined: Tue Aug 25 2009, 03:04AM
Location: Bendigo, Australia
Posts: 107

Thanks to the internet, anyone can find how to turn a DVD writer into a high power laser pointer.
Thanks to the [insert exepletives here] responsible
people like us have to get a laser ticket to own anything more than a office tool.
I know this has been said before but I just needed a
rant.

Conundrum

Wed Dec 23 2009, 07:49AM

Registered Member #96 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 05:37PM
Location: CI, Earth
Posts: 4061

Great. Now any laser info pages will get "filtered" out of existence by the Feds.

Just what we didn't need as most if not all include SAFETY information.

maybe what we need is a few high profile cases (handing down sentences normally seen only for carrying a firearm) for idiots misusing these things to get the message across.

Mentioning that anyone "sniping" a military aircraft can expect to be shot at would probably also work.

-A

HV Enthusiast

Wed Dec 23 2009, 04:42PM

Registered Member #15 Joined: Thu Feb 02 2006, 01:11PM
Location:
Posts: 3068

Are you suggesting coconuts migrate?

Zeus

Thu Dec 24 2009, 02:28AM

Registered Member #2316 Joined: Tue Aug 25 2009, 03:04AM
Location: Bendigo, Australia
Posts: 107

I save all the info I find useful on the computer. So when the internet is banned I will have all the info I could need. Just like the living books in Fahrenheit 451, I will have all the HV info for when the world changes.

Conundrum

Thu Dec 24 2009, 12:18PM

Registered Member #96 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 05:37PM
Location: CI, Earth
Posts: 4061

dont forget to put everything useful on a pendrive, encase it in polymorph and install into a convenient wall somewhere.

aka "dead drop".
should be good for a few years.
:)
-A
(fwiw even a "dead" flash drive should work fine if the chips are removed and placed into a reader)

use MAFF format, as this doesen't depend on annoying directories etc.

lpfthings

Thu Dec 24 2009, 01:32PM

Registered Member #1361 Joined: Thu Feb 28 2008, 10:57AM
Location: Cairns, Australia
Posts: 305

Blackplasma, yes, however this law doesn't only apply to people pointing lasers at pilots, it also involves anyone that owns a laser pointer. If you are teaching astronomy for example and a cop comes by, is he going to know you aren't trying to bring down airplanes? If you have a telescope there with you it might help the cause, but since most cops (or even people) aren't "clued in" on laser pointers, they ain't gonna bother checking the power ratings etc.

HV Enthusiast

Fri Dec 25 2009, 09:45PM

Registered Member #15 Joined: Thu Feb 02 2006, 01:11PM
Location:
Posts: 3068

You want to know why lasers are outlawed. Because of stupid people. Just like this moron.
Just too bad its the stupid few that ruin it for the rest of the intelligent majority.

Conundrum

Sat Dec 26 2009, 10:21AM

Registered Member #96 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 05:37PM
Location: CI, Earth
Posts: 4061

Uh oh...

Expect clampdowns last seen in 1984.

Expect Li-Ion batteries bigger than a watch battery to be classed as "highly dangerous" and banned from flights, along with anyone implanted with a pacemaker, ICD, etc. "they might be carrying something"

FWIW, the last time I checked the restrictions on hazardous goods, it mentioned "offensive/irritating material". Sounds like a good description of a pr0n trojan infested Windows laptop to me.

If you ask my opinion, Vista should be classed as a "weapon of mass disruption" and Microsoft should be made to replace every single copy with 7, for free.

-A

Steve Conner

Sat Dec 26 2009, 11:29AM

Registered Member #30 Joined: Fri Feb 03 2006, 10:52AM
Location: Glasgow, Scotland
Posts: 6706

Better still, they should be forced to replace it with a free copy of MacOS.

I really hope the Li-Ion battery restrictions don't get any worse. Currently they have a "small battery" limit at up to 100 watt-hours, and a "large battery" limit at 160Wh. You may carry as many "small batteries" as you like and up to two "large" ones. Anything over 160Wh can't be carried in a plane at all.

The instruments we build are powered off Li-ion batteries, and our customers regularly want to carry them on planes, so that limits the battery capacity we can build in.

As for laser pointers, I really could care less if the high-power ones got banned. My only experience with them is being lased by kids from a high-rise building, and even with a cheap red pointer, it's quite dazzling.

In specific cases like astronomy: Any astronomer with half a brain shouldn't be using a powerful green laser near low-flying aircraft or shining it in people's faces, and these are the cases that the law is designed to address. I would say that if you own a high-powered laser, the police won't care, or even ever find out about it, provided that you don't actually cause a public nuisance with it. There's the spirit of the law, as well as the letter of the law.

Conundrum

Sat Dec 26 2009, 02:36PM

Registered Member #96 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 05:37PM
Location: CI, Earth
Posts: 4061

make it law that all new pcs have to use LifePO4 and be done with it.

Problem solved. If need be have a govt subsidy to keep the manufacturers afloat.

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