Slashdot Mirror
London to Introduce Traffic Congestion Charge
Vivek writes "BBC is reporting that Londoners will have to pay a 5 pound "Congestion Charge" starting Feb 17. According to this Times of India article, an Indian software firm called Mastek developed the .NET based software to implement the plan. In the absence of toll booths, it reportedly uses character recognition from 700 surveillance cameras to identify defaulting license plates." See our previous story for background.
I worked for Mastek... briefly. All Indian company. I was flying all over the place for them, but they took weeks and weeks to reimburse me for my travel expenses. Also, instead of mailing me plane tickets, I had to drive to their office to pick 'em up every week. What a headache. Very very poor employee service. Thank god I'm out of the industry now!
This is exactly why you don't let your city put up cameras to patrol the streets instead of police officers. If they're controlled by the government, they'll just find a way to tax you with them, among other problems.
The city of London is getting EXACTLY what it deserves. I just hope more of it comes their way.
If you could be told what you can see or read, then it follows that you could be told what to say or think - BoC
I had to say the "Microsoft Small Business Server" ad flashing at me right above the " Managing RAID on Linux" link it downright hilarious. It only shows up about 1 in every 5 times I reload. What makes it even more funny is that its advertising, on Linux heavy Slashdot, about being able to save $200.
Modest doubt is called the beacon of the wise. - William Shakespeare
Who was the first to use concentration camps? Yes, again it was the British in Africa.
You say it like it was a bad thing. No really.
The British army in South Africa were trying to fight a traditional war against a highly mobile enemy which was using guerrilla warfare tactics. The concentration camps were intended to stop the civilian Boer population from supplying the enemy in key areas by concentrating them together in a camp. The sanitary conditions and the level of medical care at the time were dreadful and consequently disease (particularly typhoid) swept through the camps killing thousands, they weren't gassed or gunned down. A similar proportion of the British army serving in South Africa at the time was killed by the same diseases. I would argue that camp x-ray is a concentration camp - but this time it's a concentration of suspected or actual combatants removed from the general population and held under modern sanitary and health care conditions.
Don't confuse concentration camps with extermination camps.
# init 5
Connection closed.
Oh...