Slashdot Mirror
Baltimore to Test Cell Phone Traffic Monitoring
Momoru writes "The Baltimore Sun is reporting that a Canadian company, Delcan NET, will begin testing a technology that determines the flow of automobile traffic by monitoring cell phone traffic. The company promises a revolutionary way to determine backups, but privacy advocates fear the implications of a third party tracking users by their cell phones."
*Ahem*
7 45248&tid=126&tid=215&tid=158
TRIPLICATE!!!
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/11/19/0
Note: Yes, I reported this a few minutes ago.
9/11 Eyewitnesses to Explosive WTC Demolition 1 of 2
DUPE DUPE DUPE
Your kidding, right? You must be.... Please tell me your kidding....
OMFG, I think he's serious....
For the perfect anti-Unix, write an OS that thinks it knows what you're doing better than you do and let it be wrong.
Two same stories with the same links on the front page.
try reading your own site, it might suck less balls then.
a triplicate is a fucking joke, go fire yourself
This is amazing. Normally I'd just ignore a duplicate (or triplicate by the looks of it) but I'm amazed it can happen with just one article sandwiched in between.
Bizarre.
...they were all trying for First Post.
--Robert
Is every other story today going to be about mobile phone tracking?
Laws are for people with no friends.
http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/11/ 01/159241&tid=1937 &tid=215&tid=1264 7&mode=thread&tid=1262 9&mode=thread&tid=100
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/10/16/07621
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/12/30/12432
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/06/13/04282
I'm going to guess he's being funny and chuckle accordingly.
You know what's causing all these dupes?
Hyperthreading.
Thank you.
Need I say more? This is pathetic... A pair of trained monkeys could do a better job as /. editors than the current crew.
Cowboy Neal and Zonk... do you guys talk?
Well, this IS pretty important. Maybe they'll post it once per affected phone.
Make sure you go and copy all the +5 comments into this thread, get your Karma up to 'Excellent'
Good to see CoyboyNeal bring up the rear again.
Automated DNA sequencing software
Slashdot unveiled a program to detect article dupes. A Slashdot spokesman, Mr. C. Taco, said "Our dupe detection system has been running for over a year without a dupe".
We will soon begin fullscale deployment of a system in YRO that will mine posting data to determine whether an article is a dupe. As long as a user's computer is turned on, the slashdot network notes the time of articles from user to user to calculate the location and speed of posting. Researchers say the program will reduce dupes by quickly rejecting articles. The company says they will not track the articles of individual posters. However, a staff attorney for the XYZ says that tracking might violate federal law and 'increases the chances that information will be used for more invasive purposes in the future.'
Does this use AJAX?
There is this awesome site called Slashdot, http://slashdot.org/ - I think you'll like it. Check it out sometime before posting news to your site.
You know you're a geek if you've ever replied to a tagline.
This is a dup article.
I know that no-one knows this yet, and that my extensive research shows that I am the first to post this tit-bit.
EMail: 0110001101100010010000000110001101110010 0110000101111010011011100110000101110010 0010111001100011011011110110
That's all I can say to this.
Did Declan pay someone at Slashdot!!!! Only a one article gap now!
D.O.U.O.S.V.A.V.V.M.
Please.
But it would be modded down. Apparently, there is no known topic to this thread.
/. editors!
Hey - wait a minute!
I see how this works!
#1. I don't want to be tracked by the gummint
#2. I shut my phone off so it can't BE tracked
#3. The cell phone company can't place calls to me, and my bill goes down
#4. Profit!
Um... are the cell phone execs REALLY this stupid? It seems like they might be.
If they are, their shareholders will fire them.
No worries. They can just get jobs as
If you had better tools, you could more effectively demonstrate your total incompetence.
I can only imagine what types of godly tools the editors have for being this incompetent.
Me, slowly banging my head off the monitor. Now can we just go ahead and do a two story in a row dupe and end the suspense?
3 dupes - so fucking what. You're not paying for it. You ought to be bitching about the article registration like usual.
Join the Slashcott! Feb 10 thru Feb 17!
...but it doesn't matter it'll be posted sometime today ;-)
--
grab some geek gear at http://nerd.ws
blog and junk
Slashdot will now track congestion by in an attempt to streamline the service. They will do this by tracking your progress from dupe to dupe, analyzing server load, and your favorite brand of alcohol.
You will be baked, and there will be cake.
After these shenanigans, the current poll will probably be the last time I ever vote for Cowboy Neal...
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
At least even those of us with ADD will know about this story.
I just read a really awesome article that is *totally unrelated* to this /. post... apparently cell phones can be used to monitor traffic flow! Did anybody else know about this?
FWIW, often the people doing manual traffic counts only do so to calibrate the Axel Ratio for a given strech of road, then they let the pnumatic sensors do the bulk of the count.
But, regardless, those methods are all fine for modeling typical traffic loads, but don't deliver the real-time data that the phone method promises.
..are you a script? Maybe he is and they're just conducting some sort of a Turing Test... Oh, and "mumble" was the word I had to type in to pass _my_ Turing Test as AC. How appropriate.:)
Turns out Microsoft has a patent on it :(.
I suspect they all aren't even in the same room. The downside of outsourcing comes to Slashdot.
http://slashdot.org/subscribe.pl
It happens when they change something.
---
Thus it is now a fact that the Matrix has us and Cmdr. Taco is the Agent.
You can't handle the truth.
Yea dude, I heard about it on digg.com first.
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
Honestly, maybe some things are worth being discussed 2-3-4-5 times, so how about introducing a new feature on /. - a pinned story? A story like that would just stay pinned on the front page for a while, and the newer articles would scroll below it.
You can't handle the truth.
At risk to Karma*, I am posting in an article that, interestingly enough, may be the first to be ARTICLESLAPPED or modded -1 redund@nt. (Here is a link to the article about the Slashdot threadslapping phenomenon)
*It is my understanding from looking at slashcode that mod points assigned to anoymous postings affect your Karma as much as regular postings.
Zonk and CowboyNeal are beta-testing techology that combines cellphones, instant messages and email to avoid SlashDot article duplications. The results will be published a couple times on Slashdot in the not-to-distant future.
some mods karma burn you for "lifting" from previous slashdot articles on the same subject... ...(clicks anon)
Hey, Editors!
/. everyday and so if something gets reposted I often haven't noticed the original and still enjoy reading it, and I don't see why dupes attract so much of the screaming masses to deride you.
/. subscription for Christmas - while this isn't quite 'you lost yourself a customer', those few beers I'd buy instead of a subscription are now looking that much more tempting...
I love this site, I love the discussions that the comments generate and I enjoy this community being one of the places (other than IRC) where technically-minded people can come together - hell, even some of the trolls are pretty damn funny, and I'm not usually one to join in the crowd of people screaming 'Dupe!' every time you repost an article from the previous week or day - I don't always get a chance to check
However, two on the front page, with only one article seperating them, no less, is utterly rediculous - that'd be like the TV news reporting on the same thing, with the same content, but with a different correspondant - it's not professional, and it'd be pretty poor even for an amateur setup - an analogy would be it's OK for the same announcement to be on two days in a row, but two in the same bulletin is sloppy and unprofessional. It's even below the standard of your average LiveJournal blogger, and it's certainly put a doubt in my mind over my decision to treat myself to a
Dealing with lawyers would be a lot less tedious if they all looked like Casey Novak.
Just one intervening post? Have the editors ever done better than this?
Congratulations CowboyNeal. Slashdotters everywhere salute you.
Anyone want to guess what the top two Google news hits for Cell Traffic are at the moment?
Results 1 - 10 of about 2,810 for cell traffic. (0.16 seconds)
Cell Phones to Monitor Traffic Flow
Slashdot - 3 hours ago
determine traffic conditions such as jams and slowdowns. As long as a user's phone is turned on, the cellphone network notes the time of handoffs from cell to
Cell phone data tracing traffic in Md. Baltimore Sun
all 3 related
Baltimore to Test Cell Phone Traffic Monitoring
Slashdot - 1 hour ago
reporting that a Canadian company, Delcan NET, will begin testing a technology that determines the flow of automobile traffic by monitoring cell phone traffic.
-
- - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
WOW!
Reminder: Apple owns 1/255th of the internet.
Anything that requires voluntary power to your cell phone is a waste of taxpayer money. If disproportionate number of people power their cell phones off, your traffic monitoring doesn't work properly. Whats the use of having something that is accurate only when everyone plays nice....thats just a waste of money.
Baltimore is testing the use of cell phones to monitor traffic flow!
Baltimmore is testing the use of cell phones...
"We've already done that!"
You know maybe CowboyNeal just sat down with bagel and coffee, and wanted to feel productive before doing some amazon.com christmas shopping. So he sees a nifty article on cell phone traffic monitoring, and says hey this is a good article let's post it. But oh wait?! I should check for dupes.
DING-DONG!
Must be UPS or FedEx. COMING! Wow my shipment of shirts from ThinkGeek are here. Tears open box. Decides to try on the shirt.
Then suddenly the cat strolls in and decides to step on the mouse. Accidentally submitting the duplicate post. So really we should blame the cat.
Slashdot doesn't cost you a damn thing. I see this every time there's a dupe. People bitching about how much Slashdot sucks. If you don't like it, leave. It's really very, very simple.
You picked an appropriate name.
This system almost certainly measures the aggregate amount of cellular trafic and would not identify individual users, much less tap into their conversations. Except for Democrats snooping on Republicans, which was legal according to the President.
Ever wonder why I don't pay for it?
When I see something worth paying for, I'll pay. Until then, they can whistle for my subscription money (and my ad revenue - blocked those too).
Can't these fsking editors who approve about 30 stories a day at least read the front page of their own site before pushing a story through. Most of us are here to see some very differing view points and opinions on different stories that interest us. When these ass*oles keep on pushing the same story over and over and over it just irritates some of us. But hey before you say it's their site they can take their ball and go home if they want to it is owned by some public company. So maybe they can't take the ball and go home without getting the board of directors permission, but they can run the site to ground if they are upset at the board for treating them like piece of sh*t they have turned out to be.
What's more weird is that the need for new articles causes dupe's. trip's and quad's, but yet I submitted an article for posting and it's in pending... sure no big deal.. but look at the pending status
04:50 PM -- Wednesday July 06 2005 Pending
I posted 4 months and 13 days ago!
I think it's been hyperthreaded into hyperspace. OH... and I've checked.. my submission is not a dupe! Go figure!
Never try to beat a professional at his own game!
Oh wait...
I'm going to go create my own technology news site, with blackjack and hookers. You know what? Forget the news site.
So, like, cool down, K? You're just jealous 'cause of that C3 you're still running.
Here is a hint: The Baltimore betway backs up between I-95 and I-70 every fricken weekday. No one needs cell phone technology to figure that out! As for the DC beltway, I think it could be 16 lanes in both directions and it would still take forever to go from Beltsville to Gaithersburg! Sometimes I think an accident can cause a rubber neck delay that goes all the way to Virginia and then back up in both directions!
Slashdot jumps the shark
Slow down cowboy!
Slashdot requires you two wait 24 hours before posting a previous story!
CalTrans already has a very complicated, however effective, publicly viewable system which, if you read their main page lists "motorist cellular calls" as one of the many sources of information. I was alerted to this site by a vigilant friend concerned about his motorist calls made in and north of L.A. and there may have been some outbursts against this policy, but I know of none.
If you have a secret to tell, meet in person, and whisper. --Tom Clancy
Jeez!
Fantastic, now there will be no excuse for several state vehicles to travel side by side at well below the speed limit, obstructing faster traffic as they move up and down 95. Someone watching the cell-info screens in relation to traffic will have no problem contacting the five drivers driving side by side to move the f*** out of the way so decent citizens can get to work on time, and they can stop preventing proper traffic flow!
One thing the article said that was very interesting was the ability to get cell phone users information about traffic. Are they considering calling a driver's cell phone because they're driving too slow? Wow, wouldn't that be great. If you know who they are Balitmore, you should have no trouble providing the proper encouragement to get someone to follow the law, whatever that may be, just call their phone.
Oh wait...one more thing... I know this system will track people when they're not even trying to use their phones, but...if a law passes that restricts drivers from using their phones without a hands-free, can we take this a step farther than force phones to identify drivers not using hands-free technology? That would be great!
Finally there will be no excuse.
"Love is like pi - natural, irrational, and very important." (Lisa Hoffman)
nothing to see here - just the obligatory redundant announcement of a redundant article amidst a sea of redundant "ah-ha, I caught you" posts...all over again.
Now Im gonna have to obey the speed limit and stuff in my homestate :)
Seriously, I wish they could come up with something with all the police/etc people that use cell phones while on the job, they drive the worst!
That's hilarious. Isn't a moderator based system supposed to alleviate these problems? Do the mods even read /.??
I am Spartacus