Using URL-catching technology to save lives

[TomAlciere]

Fancy yourself a high school senior at a student assembly the day before the prom, and they're showing this playlist:

http://udadd.com/media/Playlist_for_high_school_audience.wpl

It consists of a Windows Media Player playlist linking to TV news videos which stream to the end-user from the TV stations' websites. Therefore, I'm not infringing their copyright.

No way the students will drink and drive after watching these TV news clips. Trouble is, I'm still learning how to capture some of the more challenging video URL's and I don't even know why the TV stations wouldn't want their TV news clips to be put to this proper use.

Tom Alciere
Webmaster
Underage Drinkers Against Drunk Driving

[Lashiec]

Mmmm, can you explain why the site has a search box for a webring that lists the best drinks and drinking sites? Isn't that, you know, contradictory? Also, as much as I'm against underage drinking and drunk driving, wouldn't be better to link to the media page instead to the actual playlist?

Anyway, if you want to capture more videos, I guess the use of URLSnooper could help you :)

[mwb1100]

Mmmm, can you explain why the site has a search box for a webring that lists the best drinks and drinking sites?

-Lashiec (July 02, 2008, 08:04 PM)

Well, FWIW the name of the group is Underage Drinkers Against Drunk Driving, so apparently they're all for the drinking part, just not the drunk driving part.

[Lashiec]

Oh, my bad, you know, when they talk against drunk driving (I wonder who will talk in favour of...), you take for granted they're also against underage drinking :-)

I guess my alarms were ticked by the way the question is expressed, with so many spam as lately in the forum, posting external links to your own site for us to check something and raising the question about it afterwards does not play nice with my paranoia :-D (being so late in the night is not a good thing as well). My apologies

[jgpaiva]

I had the same reaction, lashiec. But a google search turned up nothing, so i deduced that this wasn't result of a bot's actions. I still think it's spam, as it's completelly unrelated to DC, but i'll leave that for mouser to decide

[TomAlciere]

Actually, I was introducing a technique which involves URL catching. I have learned to use URL Snooper now, to catch embedded videos I could not have obtained otherwise.

Anyway, whatever your cause is, fire safety, don't get scammed, firearms safety, workplace safety or whatever, news stories from around the USA can be put in a sequence calculated to foster better decisions on the part of the audience. That's the technique.

[cthorpe]

Well, FWIW the name of the group is Underage Drinkers Against Drunk Driving, so apparently they're all for the drinking part, just not the drunk driving part.

-mwb1100 (July 02, 2008, 08:51 PM)

The organization wants teens to be able to drink but is against drunk driving.  They state over and over again on the webpage that sober teens are more responsible than drunk adults.  Big shocker there.  It also seems that they believe that drunk teens will be more reasonable than drunk adults and refrain from driving if the underage drinking laws were lifted.  I would think that drunk teenagers would be just as unreasonable, if not more, than drunk adults.  But that might just be because I work with teenagers at my job, so who I am I to claim any knowledge of how teenagers act?

Carl

[TomAlciere]

Well, FWIW the name of the group is Underage Drinkers Against Drunk Driving, so apparently they're all for the drinking part, just not the drunk driving part.

-mwb1100 (July 02, 2008, 08:51 PM)

The organization wants teens to be able to drink but is against drunk driving.  They state over and over again on the webpage that sober teens are more responsible than drunk adults.  Big shocker there.  It also seems that they believe that drunk teens will be more reasonable than drunk adults and refrain from driving if the underage drinking laws were lifted.  I would think that drunk teenagers would be just as unreasonable, if not more, than drunk adults.  But that might just be because I work with teenagers at my job, so who I am I to claim any knowledge of how teenagers act?

Carl

-cthorpe (July 03, 2008, 03:06 PM)

Here's a novel idea: Punish the criminals that drive drunk instead of punishing the innocent ones who drink responsibly.

If the courts strike down the underage drinking laws, legislators would scramble to pass some serious DWI laws, which would save a lot more lives.

Oh, BTW it isn't an organization, it's just a website.  That's why I'm the webmaster of it, not the director or president or anything like that.

[Veign]

If the courts strike down the underage drinking laws, legislators would scramble to pass some serious DWI laws, which would save a lot more lives.

-TomAlciere (July 03, 2008, 03:17 PM)

You have got to be kidding me!  Encouraging or trying to lift laws to allow underage drinking has got to be one of the most irresponsible ideas I have ever heard of.

[Grorgy]

yeah, i remember (just, its quite a while ago now) how actually turning 18 and being 'legal' took half the fun out of going to the pub 

[TomAlciere]

If the courts strike down the underage drinking laws, legislators would scramble to pass some serious DWI laws, which would save a lot more lives.

-TomAlciere (July 03, 2008, 03:17 PM)

You have got to be kidding me!  Encouraging or trying to lift laws to allow underage drinking has got to be one of the most irresponsible ideas I have ever heard of.

-Veign (July 03, 2008, 03:32 PM)

However, the people who support the laws do not own the victims of the laws, and do not have a right to wield their police force as a weapon of unprovoked violence against innocent outvoted discrimination victims who are not violating anybody's rights, simply drinking responsibly, the beverage of their choice.

Furthermore, an outvoted discrimination victim, offered a chance to drink, is likely to accept the offer, because these offers don't happen every day, you know. Kind of like adults on licensed premises at last call might not want another drink, but will order one anyway, because it is their last chance. The outvoted discrimination victims get into the habit of drinking every chance they get, and as they get older, the chances happen more often.

They can buy coffee at any age, and 24 hours a day, at the convenience store on the corner. Therefore, there is no pressure to drink too much coffee.

Furthermore, the ones who don't drink, or who drink and don't drive, are not much safer for the drinking age, http://udadd.com/memorial.html  The point of the site is that the government imposes the drinking age on innocent people INSTEAD OF punishing the criminals...leading to many of these double-victim cases.

[Curt]

@ TomAlciere
I would very much like to velcome you at DonationCoder - the forum for software connoisseurs. However, I must first state that I find your ideas lacking wisdom. Very much, indeed. The truth is that your attitude is the very same attitude that brought Denmark to be the first country in the world to legalize porn, "let us allow booze for the youngsters, then they will get accustomed to alcohol and don't abuse it when (if) they grow up and get a driver's license". But the truth is also that most Danes have learned their lesson since then, and now regrets this foolish law. And so they will again if youngsters were allowed to drink.

My point is that I understand your opinion on this, but life has taught me and millions of other people that it is lack of wisdom. It is like shooting your kid in the foot. Nothing less!

-

edited for clarifying

[Veign]

They can buy coffee at any age, and 24 hours a day, at the convenience store on the corner. Therefore, there is no pressure to drink too much coffee.

-TomAlciere (July 03, 2008, 04:49 PM)

I am amazed at how flawed your logic is.  So much so that there is no point continuing any discussions on this matter.  Have a great day...

[TomAlciere]

@ TomAlciere
I would very much like to velcome you at DonationCoder - the forum for software connoisseurs. However, I must first state that I find your ideas lacking wisdom. Very much, indeed. The truth is that your attitude is the very same attitude that brought Denmark to be the first country in the world to legalize porn, "let us allow booze for the youngsters, then they will get accustomed to alcohol and don't abuse it when (if) they grow up and get a driver's license". But the truth is also that most Danes have learned their lesson since then, and now regrets this foolish law. And so they will again if youngsters were allowed to drink.

My point is that I understand your opinion on this, but life has taught me and millions of other people that it is lack of wisdom. It is like shooting your kid in the foot. Nothing less!

-

edited for clarifying

-Curt (July 03, 2008, 05:17 PM)

You are entitled to your wrong opinion, but you cannot, by holding that opinion, acquire the right to wield your police force as a weapon of unprovoked violence against innocent people, to intimidate them into giving up their right to drink. Enemies of liberty get away with this only because the victims are not yet ready to take your weapon away from you.

[TomAlciere]

Wanna see something FUNNY?

Go to http://maddga.org and you will see the site for the hate-mongering MADD bigots' chapter for the State of Georgia.

Now go to http://maddaz.org and see it redirect to http://www.madd.org/az for the Arizona chapter.

At http://maddmi.org you see the Michigan chapter.

Something of a pattern, isn't it?

Well, what would you think would be the domain for MADD California?

Type it in and see what I have there.

[mouser]

This thread is getting dangerously close to a political argument that is more appropriate for some other forum.. Let's move on at this point since the original question has been answered.

[cranioscopical]

Type it in and see what I have there.

-TomAlciere (July 03, 2008, 08:11 PM)

Why, exactly, are you telling us this?