On Wed, 2004-06-30 at 16:59, Joe R. wrote:
> At 02:13 PM 6/30/04 +0000, you wrote:
> >
> > http://www.interestingprojects.com/cruisemissile
>
> Holy Cow! I didn't realize that this had hit the news. A friend of mine
> sold some GPS gear to someone in NZ and has been vistied by the FBI about
> it several times since then. They told him that the buyer was building a
> cruise missile so it has to be the same guy. FWIW the GPS stuff that my
> friend sold was nothing special. It was made for tracking delivery trucks
> and such.
Ha ha - nice to hear a bit more about events. I think the whole story
went largely unnoticed at the time - I just picked up on it as I'm a big
fan of off-the-wall backyard engineering.
I seem to recall the same chap in NZ builds a lot of his own jet engines
and bolts them to various things. He seems quite the creative type (and
seems reasonably sure of what he's doing)
> >With a bit of ingenuity I suppose it's surprising what can be done
> >whilst still technically operating within the law.
> You'd be surprised how easy it to to run afoul of the law too! Especially
> since 9/11. And with the "Patriot Act" you don't even have to break a law,
> just do something that some bureaucrat doesn't like and you can be locked
> up indefinitely without charges, a hearing or even access to a lawyer.
> Count me as an EX-fireworks maker!
Yikes. It's not quite that bad here, but it's heading that way.
I'd be interested to see a report on how terrorist attempted attacks
have apparently increased compared to how much in the way of extra
resources are now deployed to discover such plots.
Personally I think I'd rather live how I wanted without all the extra
rules and regs and just take my chances - I feel I worry just as much
about being hit by a car, caught in a house fire or something like that
as getting a bomb drop on my head (which isn't worrying at all to be
honest - if it happens, it happens...)
cheers
Jules
Received on Wed Jun 30 2004 - 14:26:50 BST