Woz on pranks

This is becoming strange :-?

What is this sudden conflict/rift with Gizmodo?!

It has to be more than just the prank they pulled - it is obviously more far reaching than that

Time to tell all. :-P

What is the REAL story - something is definitely up

What's going on?! :-o

A one idiot makes other bloggers look bad and the internet is not developed enough to make the distiction that the paper journalists have between the Redtop pap's and serious Journalists.

And its posibly going to stop Bloggers geting press cedentials - though if I was seiously bloging in the uk id look at joining the NUJ to solve that problem.

And Woz never got busted for Phreaking Bboxing back in the day - which is the golden rule :-)

The key diff is that pulling a prank on someone is usually a crafted event - a planned/timed one-off that catches everyone off guard. Most of the best pranks are one part humor, one part genius in their planning.

What Giz did were cheap gotchas - not much in the way of planning. Still, I found it amusing and don't think they should be keel-hauled to the extent they have.

So Woz is the personal arbitor of what federal airlines laws to follow and which to ignore? By using that laser on a flight, he's playing with people's lives. Does he crave the kudos of the young so desperately he's willing to endanger his fellow passengers? Apparently.

So the law applies to eveyone by Woz? This stupid prank could lead to a marshall taking him out by accident. Who's fault would that be?

As a voice who is admired by many, he needs to follow a higher standard and stop showing bad example to others, especially those younger than him.

I hope the Feds make an example of him by arresting and prosecuting him. His right to dangerous pranks ends in the air when the safety of the the crew and passengers relies on pilots, air crews, and air marshall's being able to do their jobs.

The reason Woz is not to use a laser on a flight is because a gunmen with a laser gun will use it to target and kill passengers. How is a flight marshall who is on a plane protecting his life and everyone else's to distinguish between his prank and a real gunman?

Maybe Woz needs to talk to a few airline pilots or air marshall's who are responsible for all passenger and crew safety, not one selfish tool like Woz, to see how they view it.

Civil disobedience has a long history in this country. This is not civil disobedience. It is an old man trying desperately to be hip, but time, and common sense, have passed him by.

So a guy that freaks out airline passengers with KNIVES, on some weird Dexterish sociopath self-justification, is allllll ok, but some guy turning off TVs at a trade show is worth eternal damnation? Well, hey, it's all right, seee he wasn't a journalist, packing those lasers and knives. Had he been a JOURNALIST, gasp, why, gosh, burn at stake.

Geesh H. Rice Krispes. You really pick bad examples to make your feeble cases.