Under a Gibbous Moon

Back in February, one Brian McGacken was brought to his front door by the knocking of New Jersey State Troopers. It seems that someone had phoned in an anonymous 911 call that there were screams coming from his house. McGacken and his girlfriend confirmed that there had indeed been screaming and it had been do to them having (very) loud sex.

Not satisfied with this answer, the police searched the home and uncovered a marijuana factory. McGacken was arrested and convicted. In his appeal, he questioned the probable cause that initiated the discovery. The judge denied the appeal stating that:

The police are not required to accept the explanation that a person answering the door gives for a distress call. While loud sex may have been a plausible source of screaming, that explanation was not so reliable that the police acted unreasonably in investigating further….

But what about it being an anonymous complaint? Oh ya, they covered that:

Defendant did not deny that screaming had occurred in his residence. His admission made it unnecessary for the police to seek corroboration to establish the reliability of the anonymous 911 call.

The points above are listed in order in the ruling. The court first said that an anonymous tip trumps face to face. Essentially, people with names lie but anonymous tipsters never do.

The courts explanation for the second point is essentially a hand wave. Their first point clearly states that the “explanation was not so reliable” that the police still had probable cause despite the explanation. Since there was no screaming when the police arrived (which further bolsters the reliability of the excuse) they should have to get a warrant if they really feel that there is something sinister going on.

The biggest problem with this is that the source of the complaint is anonymous. No one is held responsible, there is no confronting your accuser. It could have come from anyone for any reason. Hell, with a case like this the police could just start calling in anonymous tips to search any house they want.

I once had a neighbor that wouldn’t turn down their music. When I called the police I came outside when the officer arrived and went with him when he knocked on the door. I’m not saying that everyone needs to be so bold (though it would help), but if you are going to file a complaint you better be willing to put your name behind it.

Hat Tip: Boing Boing

GM is developing its next generation heads up display system. Unlike previous systems, this will use a system of specially treated glass and small lasers to utilize the entire screen as a display.

In addition to the gauges, this system will enable the driver access to enhanced night vision capabilities. Cameras mounted on the car will locate road features (signs, lane striping, etc) and “highlight” them on your windshield.

I imagine this type of technology will enable integration with GPS systems so that way the directions will be drawn directly on the windshield, notification of other vehicles in the car’s blind spots, and the ability to send nasty messages to the windshield of the guy who just cut you off.

Technology like this is very exciting, even if it is probably a decade or more away for cars that regular people can afford. Of course, with such advances, it must be said, where the hell are my flying cars?

This strange case comes out of Merry Ole England. Marium Varinauskas, while drunk, attempted to strike a responding police officer with his penis. The police officer, responding to the danger with a cool head, managed to dodge the blow (though I do like the articles use of “forcing her to take evasive action to avoid getting struck”).

After sobering up he claims to have no memory of his phallic assault but has decided to swear off “binge drinking”.

The thing I truly enjoy about the internet is that I am truly convinced that no matter what I’ve heard or seen, somebody out there is determined to top it. Bless you.

Gnome, for those who don’t know, is a Graphical User Interface for Linux. It’s the default GUI that ships with Ubuntu. I’ve used Gnome off and on for several years and for that time it has been reminiscent of Mac OS.

The main task bar runs along the top of the screen with another bar running along the bottom that lists the various windows that you have open. A whole gallery of widgets can also bad added (along with additional bars) to further customize your experience. Gnome also supports multiple virtual desktops which I find to be exceptionally useful to organize all the different programs and windows that I have running at any given time.

Gnome 3, which will come by default with the next version of Ubuntu, is available for testing via the following code:

sudo apt-get install gnome-shell

This will install the proper packages, then restart and run

gnome-shell –replace

This will close out your Gnome 2.x and start Gnome 3. Gnome 3 is a complete overhaul. The first thing that you will notice is that there is no longer a bottom bar. The application menu has been replaced with an Activities menu. When you drop it down there is a menu on the left that has all of you applications and recent documents. On the right, the space is used to display your desktops and thumbnails of all the windows contained within. This screen is now used to switch between running applications (you can also bring up this menu with the Windows key or switch applications with alt-tab as usual). Virtual desktops are no handled more fluidly with a ‘Plus’ button to add more desktops and then each additional desktop having a minus button the remove it.

The system setting have been consolidated under the user menu in the upper right corner. There is also a sidebar option for those who can’t get by without some type of bar on the screen.

Now, for the things I don’t like. Most of these complaints, I believe are do to it not being fully integrated into the distribution. The IM button is gone and there doesn’t seem to be a way to customize the activities button. Of course, this completely different way of organizing your desktops introduces a learning curve to Gnome 3.

I do like it, I wonder if it is such a good idea since it could add yet another hurdle to adoption by Windows based users. I’ve alsoread of graphics instability (though haven’t experienced any) but that is probably due to its relatively early development phase and will hopefully be ironed out by the final release.

The recent document menu, which is something that the Gnome developers are obsessed with, is far too prominent. It takes up almost half of the application menu. While hopefully it will be customizable but I doubt it given that the Gnome developers have been unwilling to even give you the option to turn it off.

Finally, you cannot kill a window from the activities menu without bringing it into focus first. This just adds completely unnecessary step to something that people do very regularly.

In conclusion, I do like Gnome 3. The new interface is slick, much faster, and I see how it can be a dramatic improvement over other GUIs that I have used. It currently has some shortcomings that I hope will be addressed in future releases, particularly with regard to being more customizable.

Dreams of lingerie and doughnuts aside, James proves that it’s possible to win a fight AND hit yourself in the testicles.