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Satellite Spotters Make Government Uneasy
An anonymous reader found an interesting little story about satellite spotters and how, not surprisingly, their painstakingly methodical hobby doesn't exactly make gazillion dollar government agencies all that excited. Of course the article raises the very obvious point that if a guy with a pair of binoculars in his back yard can spot a satellite, so can the Chinese government.
I have some 20x60 Russian binocs I've used for satellite spotting in the past... long ago, however, I discovered that there were more interesting things in the sky than satellites - I'm talking UFOs...
Based on my observations, I do not believe that UFO's are nuts-and-bolts physical craft. Often, they are polymorphic, sometimes they seem to be made only of light and they solidify before my eyes, they defy our physical laws. In short, I do not believe that they are fully "in" this universe. For this reason, I think they might be extradimensional rather than extraterrestrial.
Sort of like when the sphere appears to the square in Flatland.
Of course the article raises the very obvious point that if a guy with a pair of binoculars in his back yard can spot a satellite, so can the Chinese government.
Just think what the Chinese government would be capable of if they were to stand in this guy's backyard with his binoculars!
Hey! Hold on! Hold on! Lay off the Chinese! I thought they were our friends I mean they ARE hosting the Olympics. Nobody who hosted the Olympics ever turned out to be bad. Am I right folks? Am I right?
So what if they can see all the satellites the Yanks ever launched? It's not like they'd be developing some means to shoot them down. It's pretty obvious they're working on a weather control machine at the moment.
I have nothing compelling to say
... a revolutionary new way of cloaking secret, spacebased facilities.
The new method is called black, dull color.
1) Provide free, unlimited, high-speed internet access (and /. subscriptions) to all citizens.
2) People stop going outside.
3) Secrecy!
=Smidge=
Do NOT look through binoculars at secret government laser satellite with remaining eye.
Was it circling Uranus when spotted?
What makes this even worse/funnier is that most satellites run properietary, closed source operating systems like Windows, reducing security and making them very easy to hack. Even leaving out the hardcore Linux hackers (to whom hacking even the most secure Windows system is a breeze), all you need to do is have some Joe Sixpack in the Canadian Alps browse porn via his satellite internet connection, and the satellite's Windows software gets infected with malware as it transmits the HTML to the user. Then you need some astronaut to go up and fix the registry, something that just does not need to be done with an Open Source operating system, like Ubuntu.
Combine this with the difficulties in running Windows update on the satellites (let alone keeping the virus checking software up to date - which is often closed source, proprietary software itself, and therefore demonstrably inferior) and you end up with satellites running software that is months or even years out of date.
When governments start putting up satellites that run Open Source Software, they will be much more secure. The elegant, secure-from-the-ground-up design of OSS means that these satellites would be virtually unhackable. And the best part is, wether these are used for good or bad, is ultimately up to the users, as they can check the source code and fix any problems or malware that the government tries to slip in.
Then make it transparent! Like a ... giant ... spy ...jellyfish ... in space. Yah.
You Goddamn surrenderniks make me sick. Get rid of the blinkenlights? Blinkenlights are the only thing that separates us from the animals (or the "Chinamen", as we're apparently supposed to call them these days). More blinkenlights! I want those things lit up like Xebusmass trees. I want the commies to look up and have our superior technology slap them in the face like the dangling genitalia of an angry neon God. More blinkenlights!
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
Let's just restrict the access to that guy's backyard, and forbid he let any chinese people use his binoculars.
____
nico
Nico-Live
"I highly doubt the average Slashdotter, who is generally well educated, ..."
I wish I had mod points so I could mark this post funny. People here, in general, are idiots like everywhere else. When I was in the Air Force people always used to be surprised when someone would do something stupid; they thought that since you had to score in the 40th percentile in the ASVAB test to get in the Air Force rather than the 30th as in the Navy, the people should be smarter.
Whale
Seriously, you only need to paint the side that faces the earth, since that's where all the eyes are and the sun is not. You can "paint" the other side whatever color you want since there's not going to be anyone on the far side looking for it (for now anyway).
There is no "I disagree" mod for a reason. Flamebait, Troll, and Overrated are not substitutes.
My guess would be that the government, in the interests of national security, would simply ban discussion of the movements of heavenly bodies, as well as research on their movement patterns. We've already seen what happens when radicals start tracking heavenly bodies and make claims about their movement patterns and relationship to earth.
sarcasm
It doesn't hurt to be nice.
Also, Dude, chinaman is not the preferred nomenclature. Asian-American, please.
To be effective, a space-based platform must be out there, visible by all and vulnerable to all.
In space nobody can hear you whine like a little girl.
MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
Walter, this is not a guy who built the railroads, here, this is a guy who spied on my satellites!
-Turkey
The satellite is facing the same way towards Earth. Its spy cameras and all function much better when pointing in the right direction.
Engineers? I'm pretty sure the Rolling Stones came up with that one.
.... satellites spy YOU!!! oh, wait..... nevermind.
I'd be upset too if I were Chinese and was called Asian-American! Everybody knows the proper term is American-Asian.
Your brain is not a computer.
I think you have to successfully invade China before you get to call them Asian-American.
Er, </sarcasm>, you understand.
Amazing how neatly political correctness and racism slot together....
Double whoosh!
Your mind is clear / The things that you fear / Will fade with how much you / Believe what you hear
Maybe Egyptian immigrants WANT to be referred to as African-American.
Then there's always the hilarity that would ensue from an Anglo South African immigrant. Nothing like a white, British-accented person checking off the box "African-American" under race.
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