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Aussie Speed Cameras in Doubt Because of MD5
An anonymous reader writes "A speeding case has been thrown out in Australia after the Roads and Traffic Authority admitted that it could not prove the integrity of speed-camera photos. 'The case revolved around the integrity of a mathematical MD5 algorithm published on each picture and used as a security measure to prove pictures have not been doctored after they have been taken.'" I wonder if Australian police are as (radar gun) trigger happy as they are in certain parts of the U.S.
I have a pysics teacher (also in WA) that drives as fast as he wants. Then when he goes to court for the speeding tickets he dazzles the judge with science and calculus until the ticket gets dropped.
You are so boring that when I see you my feet go to sleep.
Speed cameras in Perth (West Coast for the punters) are a real bitch. I hear these contraptions pay for themselves within a week of indiscriminately snapping drivers going just 4-5km/h over the speed limit. That probably sounds reasonable in built up areas where you the speed limit is 40km/h (during school hours), but on the open road where 110km/h is legal, you're better off flicking on the cruise control to avoid the boys in blue. Pre-cameras, the cops used to book you for in excess of 9km/h in the country - at least then there was some logical wiggle room, not to mention it wasn't some impersonal surprise money earner turning up in your mail one day.
The extraordinary thing is that around the burbs, often I have to put my foot on the brake going down small hills just to ensure I don't edge over the limit. Perhaps sales of brake pads and cruise control equipment have increased substantially since the introduction of these fuckers. Both my parents have received speeding fines in the last few years, having gone for over forty years with a clean record.
As an aside, a few years back, one chap was flashed by the camera as he drove by and promptly responded by swerving into the offending machine, taking it out all together. Unfortunately, these cameras have a bunch of wire connected to a nearby van, which stores all the data. The cops simply lifted the last photo taken and arrested the guy. Though a tad rash in his response, I still consider him a legend.
The Speed Limit is designed to be a universally safe speed. This includes a half-blind old person driving a poorly maintained SUV during heavy traffic. It is not an actual "limit" on the safest speed. If some guy is out in the boonies, with nothing but empty fields to hit, the fact that he's going 30 over the speed limit doesn't really mean much.
Also, on a well-maintained highway, at a time when there is little or no other traffic, with a good driver and a well maintained vehicle, the fact that a person is driving 85 in a 55 does not necessarily mean that he is presenting an unreasonable risk to himself or others.
And most of them are really well sign posted with (normally at least 2) big signs before them saying "Speed camera ahead" and afterwards a big sign pointing out that your speed was just checked.
So if you get caught speeding by one of those cameras then you're an idiot.
Actually, I kind of like the idea that enforcement of the law can be, in some circumstances at least, automated. There would be very few cases where speeding can be justified and, assuming that all equipment is working properly, it's a binary test: either you were over the speed limit or you weren't. There's not a lot of grey area there. I know a lot of people complain about them with arguments about revenue raising, but I have no problems with them whatsoever.
Bingo - it annoys the hell out of me that a Pakistani friend of mine was shot at on the highway shortly after 9/11, with bullets passing within inches of his 4-year old daughter and causing a fair bit of damage to his car, but the Orange County Sheriff's Office (FL) could not/would not bring the assailant to justice even though my friend was able to provide them with a plate number and they were able to determine that the vehicle was registered to a local business, and wasn't stolen. They sure can write up those speeding tickets for people going safely with the flow of traffic though, and the sheriff just got a budget increase so he could hire more officers, which brings his total to $153 million for a county of barely a million people. If I still lived in Orange County, I certainly wouldn't feel like I got $150 worth of police protection per year, especially when they can't seem to get attempted murderers off the street after being handed all the information they need.
It probably wouldn't bother me so much if they would take those officers running speed traps and put them someplace genuinely useful, like busy intersections where people die all the time because asshats are always running the stop lights.
Please stand clear of the doors, por favor mantenganse alejado de las puertas
incrediable. you say an 'old guy' who trained racing drivers is a better driver than his trainees? what next? teachers knowing more than their pupils? i'm flabbergasted.
The point was that he was driving THEIR cars better than they were and showing that they were nowhere near as good as they thought they were. You can't keep a car driving near its limits if you don't know the car well. Yet this old guy drove their cars much better than they did. They didn't respect this guy at first because he was old and saddly after proving these young idiots wrong, they were still fast talking and making excuses.
Of course I expect the old driving instructor to be much better than them. What was funny was that this old guy who the young hoons would not identify with as being a fast driver, handed them their asses in their own boy racer cars. As far as old racing drivers go, the instructor did not look the part either. Imagine you're an 18yo with some crazy hotted up 600kW Supra and your grandfather, who normally drives the speed limit in his Volvo, shows you how to drive it hard.
These hoons were humiliated. The point of the show was a challenge to the hoons to prove that they were good enough drivers to speed. They all failed.
War crimes, torture, lies, illegal spying... Would someone give Bush a blowjob, already, so he can be impeached?
This is hardly comforting when someone is trying to break into your home and the police are "too busy" to respond to your 911 call...and yet they always seem to have an overabundance of traffic cops eagerly cracking down on those nasty speeders.
I don't, and have never, lived in what you'd call a 'bad' neighborhood. And yet on three separate occasions, at three separate homes (one I was housesitting for a friend), I had some incredibly stupid burglars attempt to break in while I was home, and up, and the lights were on. On all three occasions I called 911 while the attempted break-in was in progress; two times the cops failed to respond because all available units were busy doing something else (what? cracking down on noise complaints? eating donuts?), and the third time they showed up TWO HOURS after the call. In all of these cases I ended up running off the crooks myself (once with hilarious results, when I scared the crap out of a would-be burglar and he charged straight into a woodpile).
Incidents like these tend to make me irritable. I can't get a cop when a break-in is happening right then and there, but the city seems to have plenty of money to pay for cops who...bust speeders. Yeah, got their priorities real straight, they do.
Perhaps I'd be somewhat mollified if the traffic cops went around handing out tickets to aging Boomers who drive their minivans/SUVs like they were tanks, or to those fucking idiots who talk on their cell phones while weaving back and forth across lanes/blasting through stop signs/etc., but these people seem to get a free pass....
Max
My god carries a hammer. Your god died nailed to a tree. Any questions?