Schneier on Security

Stacy • October 30, 2023 11:55 AM

As far as “hacking” goes, this seems a little weak. Someone just has to notice it, and then it catches on, with no real work or cleverness involved. I live on Ontario, Canada, a few kilometres from Quebec, and it’s no secret that people cross the river to stock up on alcohol there—or to get drunk at 18 years of age, the drinking age being 19 on this side of the border. When I was younger and lived closer to the U.S., and one could cross that border with just a verbal declaration of citizenship, my parents would often take the family there to get alcohol among other things. A minor hack, because each extra person in the car increased the amount of stuff we could bring back duty-free (not officially unless the trip was more than 24 hours; but, unofficially, “everyone” was making those day trips, the bridge lines were often over an hour long, and the agents weren’t gonna send people to the customs office for declaring a case of beer and a week’s worth of family groceries).

I know U.S. alcohol laws can be strange, and, like tax rates, can vary significantly between states. So, with no checkpoints between the states, I imagine inter-state shopping is extremely common there, and I know some popular shopping areas are built very close to borders. And 15 years ago, Internet-based shopping sites would locate themselves in low- or no-sales-tax states so that all American shoppers could get stuff tax-free (again, often unofficially: the news stories about this would generally note that residents were required to calculate and submit local sales taxes for out-of-state purchases… and that very little money was ever collected this way).

As for more interesting Scandinavian hacks, how about the Swedish A-Traktor or Epa-traktor? These can be driven with only a moped or tractor licence, available from the ages of 15 or 16 years respectively, whereas one needs to be 18 to get a regular driving licence. But there are legal definitions of “moped” or “tractor” to meet, which is where the hacking comes in: the kids try to modify these to be as close to “real” cars as legally allowed (or whatever they think they can get away with). There’s apparently been a long-running dance between the regulators and car-hackers as rules have changed. For a while, one had to find and modify an old farm vehicle, but as of a few years ago, pretty much any vehicle can be used as long as all but 2 seats are removed, its speed is electronically limited, and a trailer hitch and reflective warning triangle are added.

Stacy • October 30, 2023 2:10 PM

another legal loop hole did not require pedle cycles to have speedometers, thus legaly could not be prosecuted for speeding

It’s interesting they considered that a loophole. Here, bicycles can be prosecuted for speeding, despite no requirement for speedometers. It’s not really a concern for fully-human-powered bicycles, of course; the type of cyclist going at dangerous speeds in residential areas can probably be more easily ticketed for running a stop sign, failing to yield, or the like.

On the topic of pedal bicycles, I don’t know if this is a local pecularity or is seen in your area: some electric “bicycles” resemble scooters or mopeds but have vestigial pedals on them, usually not even mounted but just zip-tied near the attachment point. Thus they are electrically-“assisted” pedal bicycles under the law, and require no license. Maybe it affects import duties or tax deductions too.

The licensing of (true) pedal bicycles is occasionally proposed for safety, though studies have shown it has basically no positive effect. For environmental and traffic reasons, it’s probably a bad idea to license electric bicycles, though requiring manufacturers to speed-limit them seems unoffensive. Maybe someday we’ll need to worry about loopholes around home-made or modified devices here; for now, I see little evidence of a problem. I don’t see kids driving “farm vehicles” either. (I did once see a person operating some type of slow-moving hacked-up bicycle-golfcart hybrid on a bike path. Not a minute later, I was surprised to see a bicycle cop pass it and make the person pull over—the first and only time I’ve seen evidence of enforcement activity on a path.)

This talk of tax-hacking reminds me that it’s about time for me to figure out the optimal amount of taxable income I should obtain before the tax year ends at the end of December.

Stacy • October 30, 2023 3:12 PM

John, that’s a nice example of externalities too. The usual excuse for high taxes and other restrictions around alcohol—like being sold exclusively by the government—is that alcohol is damaging to society. Liquor stores that are only accessible by inter-state freeways get the money, while basically exporting the problems; people without cars can’t even get there. I imagine a state could go even further, and collect taxes on most in-state sales while making border stores tax-free.

Stacy • November 2, 2023 8:51 PM

Speaking of Quebec… [Police] charge driver caught with 326 cases of beer from Quebec (being transported to Toronto, Ontario—upward of a 4-hour drive); “Liquor purchased from Quebec and transported to another province must be for personal use only. [The] driver admitted it was not for his personal use”.

Stacy • November 2, 2023 10:38 PM

I read the “not for personal use” claim as dry humour. The number “24” is visible on some of the boxes shown, so we’re talking about nearly 8,000 beers or 2,700 litres (at around 5% alcohol by volume)—that wedding would’ve been a night to forget.

Didn’t think things through? Did you notice that the truck was only stopped because the tire had disintegrated, and the person drove on the wheel to the point that it had also mostly disintegrated, leaving a visible track leading right to it? Beer is not what this person needs.