What to do?

[Phoenician]

Ack.  A weekend of not checking my email makes for a long morning read.

Hey Jer,

  Did you know that on both the East and West Coasts select cities are
experimenting with having public WLANs?  The only way to find them is by
war-driving/chalking, that is until the public WLANs gained attention
through publication in several periodicals concerning the location of the
WLANS.
If I had wireless card I would be doing the same thing.
I have even considered making a neighborhood WLAN after I take the
appropriate
step to make it secure and all.

In the Information Age certain things should be publicly available.
If not, then the rift between the "privileged" and "unfortunate" will become
even more disparate.  The only way for our society to progress is by doing
the
right thing.  Sometimes that will mean sticking your neck out.

Here is a perfect example:

Did you know that the Good Samaritan Law/Act does not cover EMTs?
Why you may ask... Because as an EMT we (I was one) are professionally train
people.  If we screw up in the field and cause someone to loose their life
as a result of our actions (be it negligence or circumstance) we can be sued
and held liable.  Why?  Because we have received training.
But why did I become an EMT?  To make a difference.  I've put my neck on the
line
many times. Even after I stopped working as an EMT just as many ex-EMTs have
also.
If we let the potential risk of litigation stop us from doing the right
thing, if we
let it keep us from trying to make a difference

 I feel that as a responsibly aware citizen, not as a nationality but as
member of
society as a whole, we have a duty to speak-up when we KNOW something is
wrong.
To not give strength to our voice and turn a blind eye is no better than
observing
someone about to be mugged and continue about our business.
If we know that something is wrong and that unsuspecting people may suffer
then onus is upon us to prevent that from happening.

I will still stand by my previous offer.

If no one else will notify the SysAdmins then I will.

- Michienne

a fronte praecipitium a tergo lupi

(latin translation: a precipice in front, wolves behind)

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-kclug at marauder.illiana.net
[mailto:owner-kclug at marauder.illiana.net]On Behalf Of Jeremy Fowler
Sent: Friday, January 10, 2003 5:30 PM
To: phoenician at phoenixcolony.com; kclug at kclug.org; j_r_sanchez at yahoo.com
Subject: RE: What to do?

Well, hold on there Michienne. I don't necessarily consider driving around
in
your car looking for Wireless Access Points very high up on my good
Samaritan
totem pole. If you ask me, warchalking is, at the very least, suspicious.
Jose,
I can understand being curious with a new technology, but you willingly
opened
this can of worms without any help from us. It would be different if you
were
able to access them from your home or office, but you willingly searched out
these open networks for some reason. You had to have some type of motive for
your actions, why are you coming to the list now with your moral dilemma?
Maybe
you got scared and thought you would get caught and now you need an alibi.
Or
perhaps your looking to make a quick buck and want some verification that
your
actions are legal. Either way, I wouldn't hire you cause I don't trust your
motives. I doubt anyone else would either. Just my $0.02...

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-kclug at marauder.illiana.net
> [mailto:owner-kclug at marauder.illiana.net]On Behalf Of Phoenician
> Sent: Friday, January 10, 2003 3:32 PM
> To: kclug at kclug.org
> Subject: RE: What to do?
>
>
>
>
>   It's really too bad that we live in a society that
> has to think twice or trice about doing a good deed.
> If you know the name of the companies that have their
> networks wide open, contact me off list and I will
> inform them for you.
>
> - Michienne
>
>