Slashdot Mirror
Is That Cell Phone Tower Watching Me?
An anonymous reader writes "Cell phone networks, FM radio towers and television antennaes could all turn into pieces of cheap and dirty tracking networks that use passive radar, according to this fairly comprehensive article. These new systems are only a couple years away from roll out for uses such as small airport radar coverage but wild possibilities abound including using cell phone networks to track speeders, terrorists or even individuals walking on city streets."
What should I do about them? Pinworms itch like a bitch.
Many transportation experts assert that taxing actual driving distances would be a more equitable way of funding highway upkeep than today's tax on gasoline and diesel fuels.
In other words, many Big Oil executives assert that lowering gas prices by transforming taxes into tolls would be more equitable. (*Some interests may be more equitable than others.)
No thanks. I drove 780 miles this weekend at 24 miles per gallon, and at one fueling stop I saw a new pickup truck that still had the sticker in the window: 14 mpg highway. Now, 24 mpg ain't great, but it's an actual measurement on a 13-year-old car, not a ideal-circumstance estimate on a brand-new truck.
It seems to me quite equitable that the owner should have to pay 70% more to drive his huge, heavy, lumbering pickup down the road than I do to drive a light, sleek(er) sedan the same distance.
It always amazes me how people forget that this is slashdot. "supposed to work" bah! slashdotters spit at your "supposed to work".
Well, I, for one, welcome our new easily-amused-moderator overlords.