Re: Technology often has more community-friendly uses than abusive ones.
So it is possible that those emergency cameras could be upgraded to include a feed to ALPR collections at some point.
I don't think it would be easy, unless they add more equipment. These devices only are capable of detecting IR light (and while this is the most common, it certainly isn't the only way, as some TSP systems use radios or strobe detectors instead,) and only in a way that it matches a marker from the emitter. These emitters give off different markers, so what may work in one county may not work in others.
Depending on the lens and collector, seeing anything through these cameras would be difficult since they just aren't made to "see" anything other than IR light. Of course adding a mirror and a CMOS or CCD chip might be possible, but most of these devices are relatively small and putting those items in would be more difficult.
However, I am not sure why anyone would do this. It would be far cheaper just to add ALPR cameras in the same way that they added Red Light Cameras or Speed Cameras. In a matter of fact, here in California, there are a lot of cities which have removed the Red Light Cameras but have left the camera attachment points or stations behind. The problem will be running power and video cables to these devices, but I suspect they may still be there from when the cameras were running.
But technically those aren't service revolvers since they're not issued but privately obtained, even if a given handgun is used by a given officer only while on duty.
Technically, departments give officers, in the form of uniform allowances, the money to go and purchase a backup weapon, and at least in California, where pistols/revolvers require a 10-day waiting period, they provide an authorization letter to the police officer to obtain the weapon without having to wait the 10 days before they can pick it up (and it waives the normal safety brief people get when they buy their own.)
I don't have issue with a police force being well armed when they retain the ethics and fire-discipline that is appropriate to a law-enforcement position (such as those rare municipal SWAT teams that are called to handle hostage-barricade situations). My issue is that we have a running history of police officers abusing their power to excess and getting the benefit of the doubt in the courts.
I fully agree with you on this. I'd go further in saying that *anyone* with a clean record when it comes to violent crimes, and with some sort of standardized training (CAPC 832 lite?) should be allowed to be well armed when they retain the ethics and fire-discipline that is appropriate to have a firearm. We do have a long history of police officers abusing their power, and a well armed and responsible citizenry would help to fix some of this abuse.
It's kind of a catch-22. If it's not a big enough market to bother serving, why is it worth spending money on lawyers over? If it is a substantial market, why is it not worth putting out some minimal effort to capture it? It's almost like big media executives are stupid.
Yet another reason why, if the IP industry gets their way and IP is considered property, it should have property taxes. Once the company no longer wishes to pay property taxes, it should be considered abandoned, and should immediately fall into the public domain, available to anyone who wishes to use it for whatever reason they want.
I've noticed most street intersections in my home town have cameras installed up above the stop lights. I've thought to myself, "Where are all the video feeds from these cameras going? Is there rooms somewhere with 1,000+ TV monitors displaying all four cameras at every intersection?"
Most of those devices you are seeing are related to the Traffic signal preemption system, which detects the approach of an emergency vehicle (or in some places, even buses and other "special" vehicles) and changes the lights to allow that vehicle priority in an intersection.
The camera, usually infrared, detects a marker given off by an emitter which notifies the intersection control computer that a priority vehicle approaches. The camera doesn't produce an actual feed for anyone to monitor, and just detects and sends a signal to the computer controlling the intersection.
Re: Re: Since guns have been involved in incidents regarding ALPR false positives...
A footnote: I could be wrong, but I don't think that any U.S. police have carried service revolvers in about 25 years.
While most departments (I am not aware of any that don't) issue semi-automatic pistols as an officer's primary weapon, many police officers choose to carry a revolver in addition to their primary weapon as a backup, in case their primary weapon fails or is not usable. Revolvers still have their place in law enforcement, since they can be more compact, and are less prone to technical failures that semi-automatic weapons may have, particularly if they aren't kept in good working shape.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Bawk bawk: LOL @ Mike whining about what other people do with their property ...
Wasn't the Improbability Drive eventually out-performed by the ship that ran on Bistromathics? Maybe Hollywood Accounting is where we have to look for our FTL technology...
At least displaying a "CC BY 2.0" copyright status (even if fully public domain) seems a step up from Techdirt's site, which does not appear to indicate copyright status (or lack thereof) of any kind
Unfortunately, when Congress decided to lock everything up in 1976, it forced those of us that don't want to lock anything up to specifically state that our stuff was in the public domain (or CC0.) I really wish Congress would fix this and once again we'd not have to specifically say that our work is public domain unless we actually wanted to protect it.
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Bawk bawk: LOL @ Mike whining about what other people do with their property ...
Wow. You (attempt to) defend property rights as being a "social construct" (which is by definition imaginary) yet accuse me of being "divorced from reality." That's some amazing cognitive dissonance you've got going on there.
With props to Douglas Adams, I believe we could turn this into some sort of improbability drive to power Mr. Musk's rockets in the future. If only cognitive dissonance could be harnessed for power, A/C and his ilk could save us from climate change and power our ships to the other planets and out of the solar system.
Which is easily, hands down, the stupidest way of addressing the issue. The non-stupid way would be to address it like liability issues are usually addressed: with clear warnings that using anything but official K-cups is not supported or approved and liability is waived if the customer does that.
Especially when the main company fighting the Keureg K-Cup DRM is San Fransisco Bay Coffee Company/Rogers Family Company, which doesn't use plastic to cover their K-Cups anyway, and instead makes a 97% bio-degradable cup that is missing the wasted plastic "cover".
They currently offer a device for free that blasts Keureg 2.0's DRM out of the water.
But I don't believe that was the reason for the DRM. I could believe that was the excuse, and that's what the engineers were told, but it makes no real sense.
They made this DRM solely to cut out the Rogers Family Company and others from producing cheaper, more environmentally friendly K-cups and thus cutting them out of mad-profits. That is the only reason that makes any sense.
I haven't seen Ootb post ever since he/she threatened to never post again.
Which time? If I remember correctly, that threat was made many times. I believe what happened is that we stopped talking to them/about them, and they went poof.
Of course, now that we mentioned their name again, they might appear.
Giving the hard-working, busy American people choices will distract them from the more important things in life. Things such as maintaining their households, taking care of their children and spouse and taking their focus away from their careers.
I agree. We should ban all restaurants with any choices on their menus. Hell, ban any restaurant that doesn't serve soilent green, since having restaurants that serve different types of foods causes too much choice. In fact, lets just set up a system where a single provider bids on each area to be the incumbent restaurant, incumbent supermarket, etc.
I hate going to a restaurant that has too many choices on their menu...it makes me take considerable time out of my busy life choosing what I want to eat.
Ahem, Government Relations team has made one of these mom-jokes and Wheeler took offense (remember, he's an ex-ISP representative).
I actually think the thanks goes to John Oliver and the Dingo bit. Not only did he attract everyone's attention to the issue (causing a lot more people to write FCC complaints,) but he also riled up Wheeler to prove him wrong.
I really wish HBO would kick Apple out and open HBO Now up to everyone....I'd love to pay $15/mo just to watch John Oliver's show.
Re: Re: The Cause Of, And Solution To, All Of Life's Problems
It's been too long since I read Childhood's End, but if I remember correctly, it ended with everyone being better off than they started.
If by being better off, you mean not human, than yes. Humanity is extinguished and those children of humanity that remain are transformed into aliens, but at least for sixty years, everyone is better off.
My point is that the underlying compositions were protected, and some courts considered sound recordings to be derivative works of those protected recordings.
And my point was that that was not always the case (as the US Copyright Office document I linked stated.) The Supreme Court ruled that it wasn't a derivative work in 1908, and Congress decided to change that (well, according to the Copyright Office survey, they tried to change it) in the 1909 Copyright Act.
The problem was, that Congress wasn't fully bought by the bribes that they were receiving from the Copyright Industry, and decided that maybe, just maybe, if they gave the Industry everything it wanted, that they would lock away everything, so they mandated compulsory licensing as part of the 1909 Act. The underlying compositions were protected, but as long as the company turning them into records or piano rolls paid based on statutory rates and requirements, they could copy them without protestation by the composition owner. Not a full copyright, but kinda one.
That was fixed in 1976, though some states fixed it sooner.
The Cause Of, And Solution To, All Of Life's Problems
Now if we could only get spaceships (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Federation_of_Planets) to ply the vast distances in search for resources to make post-scarcity economy (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-scarcity_economy) a reality.
Hopefully the future will be more Star Trek and less Childhood's End.
Sometimes he does. Thanks for the link - looks like antidirt was off base on this one, and I'm guessing he won't reply.
At least partially off-base. The study goes much further into the uncertainty, saying that various laws were passed between 1908 and 1976 that tried to fix the problem, but they weren't able to actually fix it until 1976.
I am not a lawyer...and I most certainly could be wrong. Just don't think everything is as black and white as antidirt seems to think it is.
and i'm proud to say i work on those weather insturments
With Citizen Weather Observers Program (CWOP), everyone with a weather instrument that reports, works on those weather instruments. So I can say I am proud I work on those weather instruments too!
On the post: Cops To Congress: Please Leave Us And Our License Plates Readers Alone
Re: Technology often has more community-friendly uses than abusive ones.
I don't think it would be easy, unless they add more equipment. These devices only are capable of detecting IR light (and while this is the most common, it certainly isn't the only way, as some TSP systems use radios or strobe detectors instead,) and only in a way that it matches a marker from the emitter. These emitters give off different markers, so what may work in one county may not work in others.
Depending on the lens and collector, seeing anything through these cameras would be difficult since they just aren't made to "see" anything other than IR light. Of course adding a mirror and a CMOS or CCD chip might be possible, but most of these devices are relatively small and putting those items in would be more difficult.
However, I am not sure why anyone would do this. It would be far cheaper just to add ALPR cameras in the same way that they added Red Light Cameras or Speed Cameras. In a matter of fact, here in California, there are a lot of cities which have removed the Red Light Cameras but have left the camera attachment points or stations behind. The problem will be running power and video cables to these devices, but I suspect they may still be there from when the cameras were running.
On the post: Cops To Congress: Please Leave Us And Our License Plates Readers Alone
Re: Service Revolvers.
Technically, departments give officers, in the form of uniform allowances, the money to go and purchase a backup weapon, and at least in California, where pistols/revolvers require a 10-day waiting period, they provide an authorization letter to the police officer to obtain the weapon without having to wait the 10 days before they can pick it up (and it waives the normal safety brief people get when they buy their own.)
I don't have issue with a police force being well armed when they retain the ethics and fire-discipline that is appropriate to a law-enforcement position (such as those rare municipal SWAT teams that are called to handle hostage-barricade situations). My issue is that we have a running history of police officers abusing their power to excess and getting the benefit of the doubt in the courts.
I fully agree with you on this. I'd go further in saying that *anyone* with a clean record when it comes to violent crimes, and with some sort of standardized training (CAPC 832 lite?) should be allowed to be well armed when they retain the ethics and fire-discipline that is appropriate to have a firearm. We do have a long history of police officers abusing their power, and a well armed and responsible citizenry would help to fix some of this abuse.
On the post: No Copyright Lives Forever: How The Apathy Of IP Rights Holders About Their Copyrights Killed A Game Re-Release
Re: Re: Re: It makes perfect sense.
Yet another reason why, if the IP industry gets their way and IP is considered property, it should have property taxes. Once the company no longer wishes to pay property taxes, it should be considered abandoned, and should immediately fall into the public domain, available to anyone who wishes to use it for whatever reason they want.
On the post: Cops To Congress: Please Leave Us And Our License Plates Readers Alone
Re:
Most of those devices you are seeing are related to the Traffic signal preemption system, which detects the approach of an emergency vehicle (or in some places, even buses and other "special" vehicles) and changes the lights to allow that vehicle priority in an intersection.
The camera, usually infrared, detects a marker given off by an emitter which notifies the intersection control computer that a priority vehicle approaches. The camera doesn't produce an actual feed for anyone to monitor, and just detects and sends a signal to the computer controlling the intersection.
On the post: Cops To Congress: Please Leave Us And Our License Plates Readers Alone
Re: Re: Since guns have been involved in incidents regarding ALPR false positives...
While most departments (I am not aware of any that don't) issue semi-automatic pistols as an officer's primary weapon, many police officers choose to carry a revolver in addition to their primary weapon as a backup, in case their primary weapon fails or is not usable. Revolvers still have their place in law enforcement, since they can be more compact, and are less prone to technical failures that semi-automatic weapons may have, particularly if they aren't kept in good working shape.
On the post: Elon Musk Says SpaceX Photos Are Now Fully Public Domain
Re: Re: Re: Re: Bawk bawk: LOL @ Mike whining about what other people do with their property ...
You weren't reported...A/C was.
On the post: Elon Musk Says SpaceX Photos Are Now Fully Public Domain
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Bawk bawk: LOL @ Mike whining about what other people do with their property ...
Baby steps... but I like where this is going.
On the post: Elon Musk Says SpaceX Photos Are Now Fully Public Domain
Re:
It used to, but your right, I cannot find it any more. Mike has said a number of times in various articles (most recently: https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150123/15564629797/why-we-still-cant-really-put-anything-public- domain-why-that-needs-to-change.shtml), that everything on Techdirt is considered to be public domain, but I cannot find it listed anywhere.
Unfortunately, when Congress decided to lock everything up in 1976, it forced those of us that don't want to lock anything up to specifically state that our stuff was in the public domain (or CC0.) I really wish Congress would fix this and once again we'd not have to specifically say that our work is public domain unless we actually wanted to protect it.
On the post: Elon Musk Says SpaceX Photos Are Now Fully Public Domain
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Bawk bawk: LOL @ Mike whining about what other people do with their property ...
With props to Douglas Adams, I believe we could turn this into some sort of improbability drive to power Mr. Musk's rockets in the future. If only cognitive dissonance could be harnessed for power, A/C and his ilk could save us from climate change and power our ships to the other planets and out of the solar system.
On the post: Elon Musk Says SpaceX Photos Are Now Fully Public Domain
Re: Response to: That Anonymous Coward on Mar 23rd, 2015 @ 4:34am
And attaching them to the outside of the ship will likely screw up the balance and destroy the aerodynamics.
On the post: DRM; Or How To Make 30,000-Hour LED Bulbs 'Last' Only One Month
Re: Re: Keureg
Especially when the main company fighting the Keureg K-Cup DRM is San Fransisco Bay Coffee Company/Rogers Family Company, which doesn't use plastic to cover their K-Cups anyway, and instead makes a 97% bio-degradable cup that is missing the wasted plastic "cover".
They currently offer a device for free that blasts Keureg 2.0's DRM out of the water.
But I don't believe that was the reason for the DRM. I could believe that was the excuse, and that's what the engineers were told, but it makes no real sense.
They made this DRM solely to cut out the Rogers Family Company and others from producing cheaper, more environmentally friendly K-cups and thus cutting them out of mad-profits. That is the only reason that makes any sense.
On the post: FCC Outlines Plan To Crush Awful State Protectionist Broadband Laws
Re: Re: Re:
You do realize that I was being sarcastic, right?
I was sloping some more sarcastic on top of the parent's sarcasm.
On the post: Internet Brands Targets Techdirt Post For Removal Because Of 'Infringing' Comment Left By A Reader
Re: Re: Re:
Which time? If I remember correctly, that threat was made many times. I believe what happened is that we stopped talking to them/about them, and they went poof.
Of course, now that we mentioned their name again, they might appear.
On the post: FCC Outlines Plan To Crush Awful State Protectionist Broadband Laws
Re:
I agree. We should ban all restaurants with any choices on their menus. Hell, ban any restaurant that doesn't serve soilent green, since having restaurants that serve different types of foods causes too much choice. In fact, lets just set up a system where a single provider bids on each area to be the incumbent restaurant, incumbent supermarket, etc.
I hate going to a restaurant that has too many choices on their menu...it makes me take considerable time out of my busy life choosing what I want to eat.
On the post: FCC Outlines Plan To Crush Awful State Protectionist Broadband Laws
Re:
I actually think the thanks goes to John Oliver and the Dingo bit. Not only did he attract everyone's attention to the issue (causing a lot more people to write FCC complaints,) but he also riled up Wheeler to prove him wrong.
I really wish HBO would kick Apple out and open HBO Now up to everyone....I'd love to pay $15/mo just to watch John Oliver's show.
On the post: To Abundance: The Cause Of, And Solution To, All Of Life's Problems
Re: Re: The Cause Of, And Solution To, All Of Life's Problems
If by being better off, you mean not human, than yes. Humanity is extinguished and those children of humanity that remain are transformed into aliens, but at least for sixty years, everyone is better off.
On the post: Licensing Your 3D Printed Stuff: Why 3D Printed Objects Challenge Our Copyright Beliefs
Re: Re: Re: Re:
And my point was that that was not always the case (as the US Copyright Office document I linked stated.) The Supreme Court ruled that it wasn't a derivative work in 1908, and Congress decided to change that (well, according to the Copyright Office survey, they tried to change it) in the 1909 Copyright Act.
The problem was, that Congress wasn't fully bought by the bribes that they were receiving from the Copyright Industry, and decided that maybe, just maybe, if they gave the Industry everything it wanted, that they would lock away everything, so they mandated compulsory licensing as part of the 1909 Act. The underlying compositions were protected, but as long as the company turning them into records or piano rolls paid based on statutory rates and requirements, they could copy them without protestation by the composition owner. Not a full copyright, but kinda one.
That was fixed in 1976, though some states fixed it sooner.
On the post: To Abundance: The Cause Of, And Solution To, All Of Life's Problems
The Cause Of, And Solution To, All Of Life's Problems
Hopefully the future will be more Star Trek and less Childhood's End.
On the post: Licensing Your 3D Printed Stuff: Why 3D Printed Objects Challenge Our Copyright Beliefs
Re: Re: Re: Re:
At least partially off-base. The study goes much further into the uncertainty, saying that various laws were passed between 1908 and 1976 that tried to fix the problem, but they weren't able to actually fix it until 1976.
I am not a lawyer...and I most certainly could be wrong. Just don't think everything is as black and white as antidirt seems to think it is.
On the post: Verizon Latest To Balk At Weather Channel Rate Hikes For 'Weather Coverage' That's 70% Fluff And Nonsense
Re: Re: go to weather.gov ...
With Citizen Weather Observers Program (CWOP), everyone with a weather instrument that reports, works on those weather instruments. So I can say I am proud I work on those weather instruments too!
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