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Internet + Wireless Cameras = Homeland Security
NumberField writes "According to an article by
Steven Levy posted on MSNBC, Jay Walker of PriceLine fame is talking about a
system he calls
US HomeGuard. His plan is to hire large numbers
of unsophisticated users to monitor Internet-connected security cameras looking for
suspicious activity. Although many security details (i.e.,
DOS attacks,
cryptography,
privacy)
need to be handled carefully, it's a weird enough idea that it might actually work..."
I'm graduating and I don't have a job yet. Define unsophisticated... Sounds like a great job, all the fun of being a rent-a-cop without the worry of ever having to stop anyone or get beaten up!
"Unsophisticated" people being paid twice their wages at Burger King will protect me by spotting terrorists from the privacy of their own homes!
Sweet, now I can bid $5 dollars / hour to watch hot co-eds in the shower instead of paying conventional webcam fees. Thank you PriceLine!
Join Team Slashdot at Folding@Home
Although many security details need to be handled carefully, it's a weird enough idea that it might actually work...
Yes, sounds like a great idea! It could be very useful where I live. We've got new neighbours, and I think they might be muslims. They're definately foreign, anyway. I don't have the time to sit at the window all day looking for suspicious activity, so if we put a web cam up it would make it a lot easier. God Bless America!
I mean come on. Is this meant to be a satire comparing the modern state to Orwell's 1984 (also with monitored cams in the home) or have things really become that bizarrely stupid?
Criminal guide to avoiding measure (sorry if this is too subversive):
Step 1: Don't make evil plans near a webcam or mike.
Step 2: Don't perform evil plans without mask if near said webcams.
Step 2: Profit! from misdeeds.
If you use this guide while copying music, does this mean I have broken the DMCA?
"To any truly impartial person, it would be obvious that I am right."
so basically he's going to have the Reatlity TV channel online and you can win fun prizes at home by spotting suspicious activity ...
I can see it now
+5: Suspicious
$ strings FTP.EXE | grep Copyright
@(#) Copyright (c) 1983 The Regents of the University of California.
Joe Blog thinks the world cares about him, that's why he blogs, right? If someone pays him to look at someone else his whole world will collapse. He won't be the very center of the whole universe any more!
L LLLLL
Instead, you need to worry about Joe Fetishist.
But it still won't matter, as the diagram I've drawn below shows:
LLLLLLLLL
LLLLLLLLL
LLL**LLLL
LLL**LLLL
LLL
* - camera window
L - p0rn window
Note that the p0rn window is on top of the camera window, which is only shown for the relative size.
Now I'm just need to figure out a way to justify monitoring the sorority bathrooms for suspicious activity, then I'll sign up for watching yanks.
Stop the brainwash
unsophisticated users, eh?
little brothers are watching you...
I can see all the arguments for and against this system, and while it is obviously well-intentioned, I find it a bit disturbing. It's all well and good sticking security cameras around the place and putting trained security individuals in charge of watching them, but this sounds like a helpdesk thing - they get a small amount of "training" and then they're released out into the real world, with a wizard to help them.
"Is there a person on the camera?" Yes
"Are the person's eyes looking shifty?" Yes
"Is this person wearing all black?" Yes
"Is the person carrying something?" Yes
"Alert the authorities that a Muslim individual is walking around in the local supermarket carrying military-grade C4 explosives! Query the man through the loudspeaker. Don't believe him if he says he's doing his shopping! Don't accept any other explanations he gives! You are ALWAYS right, and even if you aren't, this wizard IS!"
Orwellian nightmare?
We Build Beautiful Websites
You know, I was just talking about this over coffee with my good friend Bill Brown. He runs a tour of New York's security cameras, so that protesters such as myself can easily point out the cameras and mock them. I've been going on this tour every week with Dr. Brown, and every time he has even more incisive insights.
As a very famous cybersecurity researcher, I feel that I am highly qualified to talk about Homeland Security. My deep knowledge of computers -- which came with no formal training, just my own intelligence -- can easily be applied to solving real-world security problems. My award-winning research has led to landmark decisions in the field of security.
I have the right to control every aspect of my identity, both in "interspace" and in "meat-space." When someone takes a picture of me in the real world, I have every right to walk up to that person and shout at them until they agree to delete the picture from their "mini-hard drive card" or burn the film in front of me. I know that most of you don't have to deal with these issues on a daily basis, but of course most of you are not prominent cybersecurity researchers such as myself.
Visit my web site -- do revisit, I've added a lot lately. And oh yeah, down with Michael Sims, who stole the Censorware Project from me as if it were candy and I were a baby! I'm not a baby.
I'm not Seth Finkelstein. I still speak the truth.
Previous work by George Orwell supercedes the patent on this process, right? Thank god, we don't have to worry about seeing this topic as a privacy AND copyright issue.
$8-$10 per hour to sit at home and wait for a web-cam shot to analyse?
Ha in S0viet Jennicam, you pay 8-10$ to watch webcam!
the cameras monitor YOU!
Oh wait, we'll have that too.
Karma: -2147483648 (Mostly affected by integer overflow)
He's standing on the corner. No wait! He's moving. Now's he's stopped again. He keeps checking his watch! I think he's up to something. No? You're sure? Dang! OK, I'll call you back.
laugh hard, it's a long way to the bank
Hey, you were suspiciously absent from this year's Loyalty Day. Surely you knew about this, or else we'd have to send you to the "Our Documents" re-education class. See ya next year!
HIV Crosses Species Barrier... into Muppets
let's put a webcam at every corner in public places, then put a sign under the webcam stating its ip address (maybe ipv6 would help).
Now everybody with an internet connection can watch any webcam at any time.
Since it would be impossible to know who is watching the camera that's above your head, everybody will become a good and productive dron^H^H^H^Hcitizen.
oh, and the paranoia that would arise shortly after will be defined as anti-American: if you don't have anything to hide, you don't have to worry about anything.
say welcome to the new Privacy era!
ps: this is supposed to be a joke. If you don't get it, don't care about it.
-- There are two kind of sysadmins: Paranoids and Losers. (adapted from D. Bach)
(C) Kaki Sain, 2011. By reading this, you have illegally copied my property to your brain.
Well, we obviously need to beef up security, inasmuch as the existing system has clearly failed to keep out the Communists....
/. If the government wants us to respect the law, it should set a better example.
Yay! Godwin's Law!
Internet + Wireless Cameras = Cheap Porn =)
I honestly and completely believe that Charlize Theron is a threat to my homeland. I will watch her home day and night if I have to! That is my dedication to this country!
I also believe that most terrorists do their planning in bed and while taking a shower, so rig the cameras accordingly. Also, I'm going to need them to be zoom-capable so that I can intercept messages she may be writing.
Should the time come when I need knock out gas and a full insertion team, I'll contact you.
Finally, math books without any of that base 6 crap in them.
They'd never get away with it. There would be a HUGE investigation! Just like after 9/11.....oh....wait
ASCII stupid question, get a stupid ANSI