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UK to lnstall Wireless Mics on London Streets
johnthorensen writes "Looks like parts of London may be seeing wireless microphones on the street sometime soon. At this point, they're looking to use them to monitor noise ordinance violations - if you call about a repeated disturbance, they'll mount one by your place to monitor noise levels for the next several days. The article also notes that they intend to locate them more permanently outside bars and nightclubs. The microphones apparently communicate via wireless Internet connection, although no real details are given as to the nature of said connection. Are London residents getting the boiled frog treatment?"
Sounds familiar to the concept in Deus Ex - the use of microphones by police forces to pick up (gun) noise...albeit for slightly different purposes (noise management).
How/where will these be located to avoid tampering?
This is actually a really good idea. I've had the neighbors call the cops on me for noise violations several times. Nevermind the facts that I had a noise meter monitoring my speakers from a meter away the whole time and I not once broke the law. A little bit of objectivity could keep people from being screwed by prudish neighbors. As long as these microphones are technologically unsuitable to record conversations, this is a great thing.
After all, I am strangely colored.
in public space you do assume some level of public time, in that when a moment comes it passes un recorded. The time may be recorded by individuals in whatever medium, but the use of the information gathered about that moment isn't going to be databased under your name and accessible to high level officials and beauracratic institutions. Lists of just names in the hands of political entities is a dangerous thing; politics are volatile and information once benign can come back and do powerful things at later dates. I think it would be important to share the hardware capabilities of these mics. If they aren't sampling at a high enough rate to capture inteligible language, than the fear that these devices will be used in a malicious way is somewhat removed.
While Londoners are using Microphones to handle noise violations, the people of East Palo Alto, California used them for accoustic analysis to determine from which direction the bullets were flying in a particularly gang-ridden neighborhood, and it was reported to have worked. Very few residents complained about their rights being violated.
Now, on the other hand, if London started recording conversations, that would make for a more interesting - and invasive- use. At that point we're heading right for 1984. Of course, London already uses cameras in public places for use as evidence, so their networking infrastructure is already there...
Another factor to consider is that as the technology of security increases, humans become the weak links in the chain.
There was a story a few months back about an expensive car that was designed to be opened by the thumbprint of the owner. In past decades the thieves might have hotwired it, stolen the car without the owner knowing. But with the car so secure, the easiest option for the thieves was to attack the owner and chop off his thumb. A vicious assault that would not have taken place was the security of the car less.
However, I do agree that the youth of today is growing up more 'disfunctional' if you like, than in times past. Children aren't taught responsibility and maturity, but seem to be increasingly left to their own devices.
Mm, I disagree here. The class divides of times past were far more strict than today. People's backgrounds don't matter so much as how they act in the present.
Oh, I never said it wasn't. But on a public street you give up some rights to privacy. Privacy wise, what's the difference between people watching you do something live in the street, or on a tape from a CCTV camera?
...from the very start, Americans have been brainwashed/duped by fancy words. In the 1770s, most working-class Americans did not even WANT a revolution to get away from England. THey mistrusted and hated the American elite just as much as the Brits. And rightfully so.
But the American elite went on a propaganda spree in order to sell them on the Revolution. Of course for elites like jefferson, washington, Madison, Morris, et al., the Revolution was really all about making more money for themselves.
So Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence. And they used that bit of flowery "freedom, brotherhood, and liberty" language the help sell the Revolution. Of course there were other things that helped sell the revolution, like the Brit soldiers coming in and taking up all the jobs, that and some other things. But Jefferson's propaganda set up the Bait and Switch.
So, then once the elites had some grassroots support, they got down to the dirty work of writing a Constitution that was designed to make sure that the lower classes really had little power. The American working classes fell for the Bait and Switch, all right. They bought into the whole freedon-liberty propaganda thing. THe Constitution, as James Madison, the principal writer of the Constitution wrote, was meant to establish a framework from within which the elite could hardly be reached by the masses. And Madison sure did do a good job of creating a government that was very hard to change. He sure did a good job "protecting the opulent minority from the majority," as he put it himself.
The working people had thought they were going to get a fair and representative govt, with just an assembly that mathematically represented the people and whose members could be easily voted out. But instead they got a Constitutional framework that had a president and a Senate elected for long periods of time, and no one was subject to recall.
Whoa, did that piss off the people. THey were a lot more politically aware back then then we are now. They knew that with a president and a senate, elected for such long periods of time, and not even directly elected, that the working people would have little chance of getting true representations. Once the workers got wind of how the actual constitution was goign to differ from what the Declaration of Independence promised, they tried to rush the buildings where the elite were gathering in order to set up the USA as a republic; they tried to kill them several times. But the elites had too many bodyguards.
So, as a result, the elites got what they wanted.
Americans just do not have any idea of a government that actually is on their side. THe American Constitution set up a government that is easily manipulable by the elite. Of course, almost every other western nation is now run much more for the people and less for the elite than is America. So this is one reason why American slashdotters moan and groan about this mikes in the UK. Of course, they don't even know why this thread is present in their culture. That history is not taught in the schools (surprise surprise!)
eat shiat and bark at the moon
Hell, directional speakers might be really neat here, until they ban the use.
"When noise makers are outlawed, only outlaws... &etc."
I forget what 8 was for.
I was exploring a disused cinema in Brisbane, Australia, in the UBD.
I made my way to the rooftop, and on an awning pointing toward the street was a large protective case, padlocked and covered with council stencils, with a large mic pointing toward the street, and an antenna.
The stickers on the case drew mention to ambient noise monitoring..
I guess the UK isn't the first place to have this/
Nice try. But Hitler was not german.
I've heard someone say once that the two greatest achievements of Austria in history were to make the world think that Hitler was German, and that Mozart was Austrian.
(Not that I agree, but it's a fun joke to make Austrians angry with)
I believe posters are recognized by their sig. So I made one.
In addition, some cameras are accused of being revenue generation devices and not safety devices (I can name one Truvelo in Nottighamshire hidden behind a bridge supoport post before Markham on the A1 on a 3 km stretch of straight road). The burning makes them uneconomic at 20,000UKP a pop.
On a related note here .. the German police are just as bad . Most of the time i see them is not patroling but setting up rader traps or checking trafic violations. Infact the only time i ever see them outside of "road traffic accidents" is at the airport.
. .Not to mention the tin-foil hat arguments
The problem here , is some smart arse thought they could motivate the police to reduce the crimne-rate by giving them quotas . So instead of conducting there normal investigations they have to allocate a certain ammount of time to meeting those quotas . Violant crime and robbery take time to solve , Random drunks being a bit loud , speeders and dangerous drivers are like shooting fish in a barrel.
Its the same in the UK , its the same in Germany and im fairly sure its true in most other EU nations (probably also true in the USA , Canada , Australia , newzeland... etc etc)
On the issue of wireless mics , 90% of the recorded stuff (bar random noise ), will be pissed teenagers and 20 somethings Shouting "F**Ck off Pigs" directly at the mics which get found and are not in a position to vandalise
Its a waste of money and a waste of time
The only things certain in war are Propaganda and Death. You can never be sure which is which though
The crew of top-gear demoed the new UK roadside cameras. In one car they placed a stereo-typical grand-ma. She went 5 over the limit and she was cited. The lead member of the cast did the same, and was cited via post. One other member of the production team drove the speed limit with an AK-47 on the dash and a RPG-7 in the bed of his truck (both TV props, but they look quite real.) The guy with the AK-47 on the dash was never noticed by or contacted by law enforcement regarding his posession of what are illegal weapons in the UK.
Blessed are the pessimists, for they have made backups. -- 0 1 My two bits