Oberg-msnbc: Did NASA space robot dodge disaster?

On Thu, 11 Nov 2004 15:08:43 -0600, in a place far, far away, Earl
Colby Pottinger made the phosphor on my monitor
glow in such a way as to indicate that:

(Derek Lyons) :

Earl Colby Pottinger wrote:
First, since when have real legal demands been conducted by email.

For several years now. It's that different from the phone call or
first class letter that formerly carried such requests.

Could you rephrase the above, I may be dense because I can't seem to
understand what you mean in the second sentence. Do you mean the legal
profession has changed that much or something else. Also email is the
easyiest type of document to fake, would you trust an email only about a
lawsuit?

If it were digitally signed, I'd consider it better than a dead-tree
document.

(Derek Lyons) wrote

Earl Colby Pottinger wrote:

First, since when have real legal demands been conducted by email.

For several years now. It's that different from the phone call or
first class letter that formerly carried such requests.

An interesting question there. What if the demand gets whacked
by your spam filter? What if the first class letter gets lost
in the mail (which, in my part of the country, happens not
infrequently)?

In my experience, really serious legal stuff gets sent on paper,
by registered mail or bonded courier, with signed certification
of receipt required.

Less serious stuff, where both sides basically trust each other
and have no particular worries about scam, is done by phone,
fax, first class mail, email. But hostile interactions need to be
nailed down very well, as they will probably show up as exhibits
in court and be challenged by the opposing attorney.

There are cryptoequivalents of registered mail, with exchanges of
authentication and receipt, but plain email falls far short of that.

On Thu, 11 Nov 2004 15:41:38 -0600, in a place far, far away, Earl
Colby Pottinger made the phosphor on my monitor
glow in such a way as to indicate that:

Could you rephrase the above, I may be dense because I can't seem to
understand what you mean in the second sentence. Do you mean the legal
profession has changed that much or something else. Also email is the
easyiest type of document to fake, would you trust an email only about a
lawsuit?

If it were digitally signed, I'd consider it better than a dead-tree
document.

Understand that point. I don't think that was mentioned, did I miss it?
And are digital signed legal documents really that common?

Not yet, though a number of my email correspondents have been using
PGP for years.

If so another change that I did not notice happening around me.

"Earl Colby Pottinger" wrote in message
...
"Jim Oberg" :

First, since when have real legal demands been conducted by email. Demand
it
in writting with a signature first. Second considering how fast email
travels I find it odd that the email was sent afterhours when in contents
could not be confirmed over the phone.


Hardly. In our NOC we've sent emails, sometimes in the middle of the night.

Note,this email wasn't necessarily legally binding, just outlining what
legally binding steps may occur.


Last but not least, while there are reasons for lawsuites to exist, if
this
is real the idea of jumping into a threat of a lawsuite first without
calling
in and discussing what is wrong with the article is a little smelly to me.

Earl Colby Pottinger

--
I make public email sent to me! Hydrogen Peroxide Rockets, OpenBeos,
SerialTransfer 3.0, RAMDISK, BoatBuilding, DIY TabletPC. What happened to
the time? http://webhome.idirect.com/~earlcp

Eric Chomko ) wrote:
: Explorer8939 ) wrote:
: : So, any guesses when or if DART will ever be launched?

: Sort of puts the SST HST repair mission back on the manifest again, at
: least in theory. No?

This morning's paper mentioned Dextre from Canada as moving forward for a
HST repair scenario. Sometine in 2007.


Eric

Earl Colby Pottinger wrote:

(Derek Lyons) :

Earl Colby Pottinger wrote:
First, since when have real legal demands been conducted by email.

For several years now. It's that different from the phone call or
first class letter that formerly carried such requests.

Could you rephrase the above, I may be dense because I can't seem to
understand what you mean in the second sentence.

That should have read: "For several years now. It's not that
different from the phone call or first class letter that formerly
carried such requests."

Second considering how fast email travels I find it odd that the email was
sent afterhours when in contents could not be confirmed over the phone.

Folks do work overtime you know. Additionally, there was no need to
contact someone or confirm over the phone, the site was plainly
visible to all.

What I mean is emails can be faked, if I recieve an email about legal action
I would like to confirm the contents by voice or written signed documents.

It's fascinating that the simple idea of waiting till the next moring
to call occurs to niether Kieth nor yourself. The mail didn't
threaten a bomb under the seat in the next thirty minutes.

As far as emails being faked; phone calls can be faked, and so can
written and signed documents. If your intent is to rattle someones
cage, then it not much above trivial to do either.

D.
--
Touch-twice life. Eat. Drink. Laugh.

-Resolved: To be more temperate in my postings.
Oct 5th, 2004 JDL

(Allen Thomson) wrote:

(Derek Lyons) wrote

Earl Colby Pottinger wrote:

First, since when have real legal demands been conducted by email.

For several years now. It's that different from the phone call or
first class letter that formerly carried such requests.

An interesting question there. What if the demand gets whacked
by your spam filter? What if the first class letter gets lost
in the mail (which, in my part of the country, happens not
infrequently)?

In my experience, really serious legal stuff gets sent on paper,
by registered mail or bonded courier, with signed certification
of receipt required.

However, this was niether a really serious threat, nor a really
hostile action, but a precursor to one. The moral equivalent of a
hard glare at my nieghbor while I collect my morning paper and he is
tuning his muscle car at 6.30 AM.

D.
--
Touch-twice life. Eat. Drink. Laugh.

-Resolved: To be more temperate in my postings.
Oct 5th, 2004 JDL

(Derek Lyons) :

It's fascinating that the simple idea of waiting till the next moring
to call occurs to niether Kieth nor yourself. The mail didn't
threaten a bomb under the seat in the next thirty minutes.

No, but I don't think I sleep well wondering about a possible lawsuit.

As far as emails being faked; phone calls can be faked, and so can
written and signed documents. If your intent is to rattle someones
cage, then it not much above trivial to do either.

Faking a phone call yes, faking an email yes, faking a letter yes. Faking
two or three together however is more than twice or thrice as hard and thus
less likely to just be a prank.

Or let me put it this way, I have been threaten with lawsuits more times than
I can remember by kooks and hotheads over the UseNet - I have laughted at
everyone of them.

I have been threaten only twice verbally face to face with lawsuits, I took
each seriously and took action to counter them right away. Niether was
carried thru because my actions made it clear that for them to win was not an
open and shut case, and it was going to cost them money to carry it thru.
Yes the threats were made in an effort to have me just roll over but also
they clearly thought about really doing it.

Earl Colby Pottinger

--
I make public email sent to me! Hydrogen Peroxide Rockets, OpenBeos,
SerialTransfer 3.0, RAMDISK, BoatBuilding, DIY TabletPC. What happened to
the time? http://webhome.idirect.com/~earlcp

"Earl Colby Pottinger" wrote in message
...

Or let me put it this way, I have been threaten with lawsuits more times
than
I can remember by kooks and hotheads over the UseNet - I have laughted at
everyone of them.

I have been threaten only twice verbally face to face with lawsuits, I
took
each seriously and took action to counter them right away. Niether was
carried thru because my actions made it clear that for them to win was not
an
open and shut case, and it was going to cost them money to carry it thru.
Yes the threats were made in an effort to have me just roll over but also
they clearly thought about really doing it.

Earl, I've got to ask, what the hell do you do that gets people to threaten
you so much?

I can think of only one time I was threatened with a lawsuit. And would
have welcomed it just to see the Judge laugh at the complaintent.



Earl Colby Pottinger

--
I make public email sent to me! Hydrogen Peroxide Rockets, OpenBeos,
SerialTransfer 3.0, RAMDISK, BoatBuilding, DIY TabletPC. What happened to
the time? http://webhome.idirect.com/~earlcp