TIL: Building a clock in Texas is illegal

[Red Squirrel]

http://www.dallasnews.com/news/comm...ted-after-taking-homemade-clock-to-school.ece

9th grader builds a clock, gets arrested because they think it's a bomb.

Hopefully he does not get death penalty over this. Sucks that kids can't even partake in "different" hobbies any more. Best to keep them busy with ipad video games so they're not out learning about stuff like electronics! And God forbid we let them play outside they might cause trouble!

 

[Ns1]

That is so sad. I weep for America.

 

[balloonshark]

Looks at his pic and name :hmm:

j/k

 

[Jodell88]

Ridiculous.

 

[mikeymikec]

These days my wife starts telling me another crazy story from America, she gets to the bit that says "Texas", and I ask her to please stop there.

The closest element that could potentially surprise me about such a story would be if the boy ended up being burnt at the stake (accused of being a terrorist or a witch).

 

[Brian Stirling]

These days my wife starts telling me another crazy story from America, she gets to the bit that says "Texas", and I ask her to please stop there.

The closest element that could potentially surprise me about such a story would be if the boy ended up being burnt at the stake (accused of being a terrorist or a witch).

So, what's your over/under on Florida?


Brian

 

[mikeymikec]

So, what's your over/under on Florida?

I know it has a similar-ish bad rep to Texas, but the stories I hear from there don't come in so regularly. The last one I heard was about a black guy calling the police because his house was being burgled, and when the police turned up, they shot him.

 

[MongGrel]

Seriously though, that is ridiculous.

 

[WelshBloke]

Police say they may yet charge him with making a hoax bomb — though they acknowledge he told everyone who would listen that it’s a clock.

Really?

This has to be a satirical story from the Onion or the like. Please.

 

[mikeford]

No picts of actual "clock", no actual charges, full on usual make news out of a nothing local event media spin.

What is the point in taking your made in 20 min "clock" to school?

The actual events, the non spin story may never come out.

 

[steppinthrax]

Being of middle Eastern background myself and having an Arabic name. Most likely you had a hateful parent/teacher who didn't like this kid for his nationality, so they used that opportunity to "get at him".

 

[SOFTengCOMPelec]

The problem is, someone who is of "Islamic appearance and name", going round with a bag/container/something with lots of wires and circuit board(s), sticking out of it, and making "funny" noises/sound(s), was spotted (or taken to), a teacher who (probably) knows little about what a real bomb would look like.

So they worriedly contacted the principle (or similar), who alerted the authorities.

tl;dr
It was a mistake. Difficult to avoid in the future.

E.g.

You are walking in a very crowded place. When you see a person of obvious "Islamic" appearance. With a huge ruck sack, with lots of strange wires sticking out of it, and making ticking (or other unusual) noises.
Is wandering round the crowded place, walking in strange circles.

One or more people in the crowd, "may" alert the authorities.

 

[steppinthrax]

The problem is, someone who is of "Islamic appearance and name", going round with a bag/container/something with lots of wires and circuit board(s), sticking out of it, and making "funny" noises/sound(s), was spotted (or taken to), a teacher who (probably) knows little about what a real bomb would look like.

So they worriedly contacted the principle (or similar), who alerted the authorities.

tl;dr
It was a mistake. Difficult to avoid in the future.

E.g.

You are walking in a very crowded place. When you see a person of obvious "Islamic" appearance. With a huge ruck sack, with lots of strange wires sticking out of it, and making ticking (or other unusual) noises.
Is wandering round the crowded place, walking in strange circles.

One or more people in the crowd, "may" alert the authorities.

Your going down a very dangerous road of thinking now. So in your example we should profile people. I can think of several examples of using one's race and stereotype as a example to take action.

 

[SOFTengCOMPelec]

Your going down a very dangerous road of thinking now. So in your example we should profile people. I can think of several examples of using one's race and stereotype as a example to take action.

If you enlarge the picture (I supplied), and look carefully at the bottom right hand corner. You can see a moderately sized, metal box.

Depending on how he went around with that thing. That box, could help make it look like a bomb. He probably has got batteries in it. But others would NOT know this.

At this stage, we don't know (from anything I've seen about this story), if race, was a factor, in what happened.

We need to be vigilant. There are terrorist attacks (around the world), from time to time.

I would prefer there to be 25 bomb alerts, which finds one genuine bomb, and saves the lives of 26 (approximately) innocent individuals. But is wrong 24 out of 25 times.

Than one bomb gets through, and kills lots of innocent people.

It could have been a real bomb. We are not all experts in what a real bomb looks like.

If I have to choose between being politically correct (non-racial etc), but unsafe and blown up by terrorists.

Or not being 100% politically correct (racially speaking), but being a lot safer as a result.

I would prefer to be safe.

 

[z1ggy]

Being of middle Eastern background myself and having an Arabic name. Most likely you had a hateful parent/teacher who didn't like this kid for his nationality, so they used that opportunity to "get at him".

It's the south. Racism still exists, especially against middle eastern type of folks.

 

[z1ggy]

The problem is, someone who is of "Islamic appearance and name", going round with a bag/container/something with lots of wires and circuit board(s), sticking out of it, and making "funny" noises/sound(s), was spotted (or taken to), a teacher who (probably) knows little about what a real bomb would look like.

So they worriedly contacted the principle (or similar), who alerted the authorities.

tl;dr
It was a mistake. Difficult to avoid in the future.

E.g.

You are walking in a very crowded place. When you see a person of obvious "Islamic" appearance. With a huge ruck sack, with lots of strange wires sticking out of it, and making ticking (or other unusual) noises.
Is wandering round the crowded place, walking in strange circles.

One or more people in the crowd, "may" alert the authorities.

In this day and age that's probably a reason assumption of what could happen. However, once authorities examined the evidence and see that it's harmless the person should be let go. I don't even see how a person can be charged with making a "fake bomb" if the only qualifications are something involving circuit boards, wires and potentially a timing device. At that rate, my little Altera box that I used in college in my electrical engineering classes was a "fake bomb" that I had on me all the time.

 

[CraKaJaX]

In this day and age that's probably a reason assumption of what could happen. However, once authorities examined the evidence and see that it's harmless the person should be let go. I don't even see how a person can be charged with making a "fake bomb" if the only qualifications are something involving circuit boards, wires and potentially a timing device. At that rate, my little Altera box that I used in college in my electrical engineering classes was a "fake bomb" that I had on me all the time.

Holy shit, I haven't heard that in years. Altera brings back nightmares for me. My prof was absolutely terrible. VHDL is the devil.

But yes I agree. I walked around campus daily with boards in my backpack and wires hanging out everywhere. We got some real good looks when we were walking our Tesla coil through campus.........

 

[SOFTengCOMPelec]

In this day and age that's probably a reason assumption of what could happen. However, once authorities examined the evidence and see that it's harmless the person should be let go. I don't even see how a person can be charged with making a "fake bomb" if the only qualifications are something involving circuit boards, wires and potentially a timing device. At that rate, my little Altera box that I used in college in my electrical engineering classes was a "fake bomb" that I had on me all the time.

Disclaimer: I'm NOT American and NOT working for the bomb squad department. So I could be wrong.

My approximate understanding, is that bombs are considered to be EXTREMELY dangerous and threatening to life and limb.

So if a "bomb" incident is called/initiated. The "bomb squad" unit/department/people, are solely in-charge of disarming and/or identifying if it is a real bomb or not, and how much of a threat it is.

So for safety reasons, the normal local Police are NOT allowed to officially say it is NOT a bomb and is 100% safe.

E.g. You can't have a normal policeman coming across a bomb, then messing with it, to disarm the bomb. It then goes off and kills many people. Because the Policeman did not know what they were doing.

tl;dr
I think once a bomb alert is initiated, ONLY the official bomb squad can declare the area/device safe. (But I am NOT an expert on this, so could be wrong).

EDIT:
But as for them being charged with making a "fake bomb", or similar. That is being crazy. Once the situation has been properly investigated.
I.e. They find out it was just a harmless digital clock. Such charges should be immediately dropped.
As there was obviously no criminal intent (apparently).

 

[steppinthrax]

It's the south. Racism still exists, especially against middle eastern type of folks.

Yep,

Don't doubt it. Reason why my wife and children don't live in the deep south...

 

[steppinthrax]

If you enlarge the picture (I supplied), and look carefully at the bottom right hand corner. You can see a moderately sized, metal box.

Depending on how he went around with that thing. That box, could help make it look like a bomb. He probably has got batteries in it. But others would NOT know this.

At this stage, we don't know (from anything I've seen about this story), if race, was a factor, in what happened.

We need to be vigilant. There are terrorist attacks (around the world), from time to time.

I would prefer there to be 25 bomb alerts, which finds one genuine bomb, and saves the lives of 26 (approximately) innocent individuals. But is wrong 24 out of 25 times.

Than one bomb gets through, and kills lots of innocent people.

It could have been a real bomb. We are not all experts in what a real bomb looks like.

If I have to choose between being politically correct (non-racial etc), but unsafe and blown up by terrorists.

Or not being 100% politically correct (racially speaking), but being a lot safer as a result.

I would prefer to be safe.

You're first post regards race, now this post regards a metal box???

The point is if a proper investigation occurred you could have found this to be nothing but a bunch of batteries/wires/circuit board (done by authorities). Second, look at the YouTube video of this kid. This kid is so fucking innocent acting it's hilarious.

Now let's turn the tables a bit and ask this how would this turn out if the kid was WHITE? Wait, you would have never heard about it, because he would have went home with his clock.

 

[z1ggy]

Holy shit, I haven't heard that in years. Altera brings back nightmares for me. My prof was absolutely terrible. VHDL is the devil.

But yes I agree. I walked around campus daily with boards in my backpack and wires hanging out everywhere. We got some real good looks when we were walking our Tesla coil through campus.........

I actually kind of liked VHDL, I thought about getting my concentration in hardware (but I'm glad I didn't now).

You guys made a coil?? Where was I for that!

Disclaimer: I'm NOT American and NOT working for the bomb squad department. So I could be wrong.

My approximate understanding, is that bombs are considered to be EXTREMELY dangerous and threatening to life and limb.

So if a "bomb" incident is called/initiated. The "bomb squad" unit/department/people, are solely in-charge of disarming and/or identifying if it is a real bomb or not, and how much of a threat it is.

So for safety reasons, the normal local Police are NOT allowed to officially say it is NOT a bomb and is 100% safe.

E.g. You can't have a normal policeman coming across a bomb, then messing with it, to disarm the bomb. It then goes off and kills many people. Because the Policeman did not know what they were doing.

tl;dr
I think once a bomb alert is initiated, ONLY the official bomb squad can declare the area/device safe. (But I am NOT an expert on this, so could be wrong).

EDIT:
But as for them being charged with making a "fake bomb", or similar. That is being crazy. Once the situation has been properly investigated.
I.e. They find out it was just a harmless digital clock.

Yeah... honestly I don't know. I don't know how police can even seriously think of charging a 9th grader with "fake bomb making" when it's pretty clear his intent was just a little science project. If the only thing differentiating a fake bomb from a real bomb is Simplex or something like that... then basically any electronic device that has an alarm/timing device in it, or ability to receive radio signals has the ability to be a bomb.

This is clearly a case of racism.

 

[steppinthrax]

I actually kind of liked VHDL, I thought about getting my concentration in hardware (but I'm glad I didn't now).

You guys made a coil?? Where was I for that!



Yeah... honestly I don't know. I don't know how police can even seriously think of charging a 9th grader with "fake bomb making" when it's pretty clear his intent was just a little science project. If the only thing differentiating a fake bomb from a real bomb is Simplex or something like that... then basically any electronic device that has an alarm/timing device in it, or ability to receive radio signals has the ability to be a bomb.

This is clearly a case of racism.

I don't think the whole state of TX can tell the difference between their assholes and a hole in the ground?

 

[Ichinisan]

I skipped around in some explanation video he posted to YouTube. He shows one of the other things he "built." It really was an indistinguishable mess of wires and flat cables. Big components like inductive transformers were just hanging haphazardly all over it.

It looked extremely dangerous.

[edit]
Watched the rest of the video where he shows off "inventions" in his bedroom.

The size of the circuit board, low density of the components, types of components and their distribution across the board, the presence of silkscreened markings and mounting holes...all this looks like he just ripped all that stuff from a VCR or other piece of AV equipment. These usually have multiple boards for power supply, display, controls, etc...connected with wires like you see in the video. Though this wad of stuff is repeatedly called his "invention," it has no apparent function or stated function.

The article also shows USB hub or switch device and it's said that he "built" that too. Clearly, he didn't. The board is shaped to fit whatever device chassis it was pulled from. The density of the components and type of components are vastly different from the other "invention" that looks like it was pulled from a VCR. He Tells them it's "a USB router," demonstrating a basic lack of understanding about what it actually is. It's either a USB hub, or a USB switch...not a USB "router." I would expect a kid who "built" or "invented" it to know this better than anyone.

[edit]

https://twitter.com/RobertWilonsky/status/644183297757593600/photo/1

http://static4.techinsider.io/image/55f9b6e29dd7cc14008bad60-1280-960/fullsizerender.jpg

[edit]

LISTEN UP, ALL OF YOU.

Reading this article, I felt as if I had written it myself:

Reverse Engineering Ahmed Mohamed’s Clock… and Ourselves.

[edit]

Thanks, Microsoft!

Surface Pro 3 with keyboard, 3D printer, ...and so much more.
I wonder if there's a HoloLens prototype in one of those vague boxes with the giant Windows logo on it...

[edit]

"Going to meet my lawyer."

https://mobile.twitter.com/istandwithahmed/status/644179809170509824

[edit]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bvzTeCREQA#t=4m5s
4m5s, he shows off a loose board ripped from a "media player" as his "invention" -- and the news people gush over it. "This wasn't my first invention and it won't be my last invention."

[edit]

http://nypost.com/2015/09/19/how-ahmeds-clock-became-a-false-convenient-tale-of-racism/

Strange that it still has the moisture absorbing silica bead pouches that my brand new Vaultz case also included. That stuff is typically just for shipment and warehousing, so the product doesn't have prolonged exposure to moisture. With the broken latch (the flip part is missing, so he tied a wire around it) and the bent side, it sure doesn't look new. I wonder why he kept those packets in there?

So we have a heavy, loose transformer, a display that could possibly have something behind it, and silica packets that were, oddly, still present in a well-worn case. I wonder why people can't empathize with a teacher who has no clue if any of that stuff might be dangerous...?

Mine:

[edit]

Bill Maher:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGit-XltUB4

[edit]

Inventing stuff.

[edit]

... He broke the flipper thing off and wrapped a thin, black, insulated wire around it to keep it closed. I have the same case, this is very clear.

He claimed he closed it with a wire so they wouldn't think it was locked because -- if it looked(?!) like it was locked -- they might think it was suspicious.

From the kid's own mouth:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mW4w0Y1OXE#t=1m25s
Skip to 1m25s

He specifically says he wrapped it with a wire so it would look less suspicious. He knew it might be interpreted as a threat, added something that is a practically a hallmark for suspicious packages and IEDs, and somehow thought that would make it less suspicious.

 

[SOFTengCOMPelec]

You're first post regards race, now this post regards a metal box???

The point is if a proper investigation occurred you could have found this to be nothing but a bunch of batteries/wires/circuit board (done by authorities). Second, look at the YouTube video of this kid. This kid is so fucking innocent acting it's hilarious.

Now let's turn the tables a bit and ask this how would this turn out if the kid was WHITE? Wait, you would have never heard about it, because he would have went home with his clock.

I'm not happy with calling it racism.

There have been a huge number of terrorist attacks, over the last couple of decades (and longer). Many, many innocent people have been killed.

And a particular racial group, has mainly been involved in all the attacks.

So it sort of is and sort of is not, racialism.

The ideal solution, would be for the terrorists, to stop their terrible attacks round the world. Then anti-terrorist activities like this story, would no longer need to happen. Or at least less frequently.

To answer your question. We don't know, if they had been white. If the teacher/principle would still have contacted the police.

But I agree, it would have probably been less likely (if there had been no Islamic connection).

 

[waggy]

"it looked extremely dangerous"

because it was a "mess of wires" and components? HOLLY SHIT HAS PEOPLE GONE INSANE?

this should have ended after a investigation. it's a clock? ok laugh and call the teacher a racist idiot. wich they are..they knew it was a clock and still took it to the principal.

to many are trying ot justify racism ..