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Homemade Robot Patrols Atlanta Streets
Josh Fink brings news of an Atlanta resident who has created a remote control robot to scare off criminals during the night. Rufus Terrill, an engineer, uses it to patrol the streets and encourage drug dealers and other shady characters to move on. Local residents call it his "Robocop." From CNN:
"It's a barbecue smoker mounted on a three-wheeled scooter, and armed with an infrared camera, spotlight, loudspeaker and aluminum water cannon that shoots a stream of icy water about 20 feet. Operated by remote control, the robot spotlights trespassers on property down the street from his bar, O'Terrill's. Using a walkie-talkie, Terrill belts out through the robot's loudspeaker, 'That's private property. You guys need to get out of here.'"
C'mon, no "Drop you weapon, you have 15 seconds to comply"??
"Christ what a design! I could eat a handful of iron filings and PUKE a better emergency pump than that!"
If this Dalek was spraying water at me I'd just push it over. Can't be that difficult.
that nobody's stolen it or taken a baseball bat to it.
Yet.
No Longer a Menace to Society.
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Hagin adds, "Then, it becomes an assault no matter where it happens." I thought you could... bet it costs less than a taser gun and training too.
Assault? That seriously puts kids and the super soaker company in serious trouble? WTF?
Seriously, assault? Perhaps, since the robot is black, it should only presume to act like the black night in Monty Python's 'Holy Grail' movie?
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To me, the most notable element of the story is what DIDN'T happen: nobody attenpted to destroy the bot, or even tip it over. Here on slashdot, I predict, within the first 20 posts someone will be remarking how they would destroy it if they encountered it. But the people in the story don't. Is it something about being homeless, or something about being a dealer, or something about being a drug user?
The problem with adding lights to the street is that it just allows the criminals to see what they are doing.
Ripping an new rectum in the fabric of spacetime.
Forget shooting it... I'd steal that sucker. RoboCriminal, away!
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The trouble with a sprinkler system is that Atlanta is in severe drought
I read an article about it earlier where a homeless guy followed him back from the square and started joking with him about it. If this is a major money-making area for these drug dealers, it's only a matter of time before one of them follows him and shoots him. I like that he's trying to clean up the neighborhood, and the idea is novel, but I can certainly imagine someone getting a little stabby or shooty after getting sprayed with ice cold water while trying to conduct "business".
They're gonna express disapproval.
In spray paint.
On its shiny metal ass.
rj
Drug pushers don't exist. No one has to push drugs -- they sell themselves.
everything in moderation
when the trespassers aren't carrying a weapon.
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It's quite neat that this guy has taken the time to build something to help keep the neighborhood "safer". But what's most interesting is that the "drug dealers" (etc) respond so strongly to the little, harmless robot; and that their response would probably be much more hostile toward police. In addition to a neat experiment in... safety... it's also a neat psychological study. --Dave
Talk tough behind a computer screen but when it comes to the real world /.ers are weenies.
Normal people and this includes the homeless and drug dealers don't want a hassle.
The simple fact is that it is terribly easy to setup a neighbourhood watch and get rid of trouble, it just moves to the next area were people don't want a hassle and are unwilling to keep their area safe.
Where ever someone is creating trouble there is someone else who isn't doing anything about it.
Ask yourselve what you would do, as a drugs dealer you rely on you being to dangerous to confront and to much hassle to call the police to go undisturbed, this robot breaks the rules. It doesn't have to be afraid and so it puts the dilemma in the drug dealers shoes, create a scene he wants even less then a normal citizen or just move on.
I think it is an intresting idea, but most of slashdot will probably freak because of the camera and big brother idea's. It ain't a solution and sooner or later it will lead to trouble, but it is an intresting idea nonetheless. Would a CTV setup in a local area that can be seen by anyone in that area be an acceptable way to get a neighbourhood watch going? Or is you neighbour watching what you are doing the same as the state?
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Saying "Get out of here, this is private property" is not harassment. Even if it is at a distance. The water cannon may be a bit over the line, but how do you get harassment out of the walkie-talkie part?
As far as 'legal measures', the police cannot be everywhere, 24/7. You think the residents haven't called them before?
Yes, You! In the ski mask. You're trespassing. You knocked me over. Stop that. You and your accomplice are in violation. Cease lifting me up immediately. Don't put me in the bed of that pickup. That's theft. Stop driving away, that's (garbled) Come (garbled) back...
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
You know, I don't want things to become like the old west either, but this absurd over-pacifism is ridiculous. If someone comes on to my property to sell drugs, or some other illegal activity, and I yell at them - that's not illegal. If I shoot them with a water gun that isn't assault. It's that person being an ass, and me being an ass back. The difference is that their ass is on my property conducting an illegal activity, and they know it. So they leave because my charge of trespassing and drug sales is bigger than their charge of assault by a water pistol.
There's nothing wrong with citizens taking these types of minor things into their own hands. I don't want a world where every time I step on someone's grass they call the police. The reason we are moving in that direction, as a society, is because a small small small number of people are so trigger happy (with real live guns) that even the minor everyday cases of someone protecting themselves runs the risk of becoming a life or death situation. So we all live in fear.
The reality is that the police cannot be everywhere at once, and if someone has a safe way to protect themselves like this, then they should be allowed to do it. Yes, it is probably assault according to the letter of the law, but not according to the spirit of it.
I don't know where in Atlanta this guy lives, but the worst neighborhood in the city is English Avenue. I can't remember the statistics I read at the moment, but I think it had something on the order of 300 murders (let alone everything else) in 2006. In a single neighborhood.
Now, you know how many cops patrol that area? Two. Two! That's not even enough to have even any officers in the area all the time! When it's that bad, exactly what legal measures do you suggest he follow?!
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
1) A nice siren and flashy lite to attract attention.
2) Some strategically placed handles that can be electrified
3) When all else fails, a beeping self-destruct countdown timer
Life moves pretty fast; if you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it. -FB
Forget shooting it... I'd steal that sucker. RoboCriminal, away!
This is slashdot. Here we'd 1) jam the signal to incapacitate & nab it
2) reconfigure & overtake the rf control
3) refill it with gasoline & tape a burning zippo to the nozzle.
4) send it back to the owner and make it look like an accident
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This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
And the bot is a hit. He actually talks to the cops that come in from time to time, and they love it. Rufus has to deal with these homeless wastes of space coming in, harassing the customers, and trying to steal shit all the time.
He actually owns most of the entire block, and everyone supports him. That poor shitty homeless shelter down the street sure fucks things up all around the entire area.
He has actually ran for Gov. I believe, and came in last every time, but hell.... I think cities need crazy old guys like this.
Before you bother white knighting for the 'poor homeless chaps' down the road, you should hang out for a couple of hours, and watch them smoke crack, huff paint, and harass poor passer-by.
Hmm... I can imagine a drug dealer or someone building his own robot to anonymously attack and destroy this one. Then this one gets repaired and beefed up, and maybe a few friends add their own robots to the posse. The next time the offending 'bot comes around, the robots swarm around it and take it out. Then this 'bot's builder gets some of his mates and they make bigger and badder robots to combat this new threat; adding chainsaws and flamethrowers.
Soon, the whole thing escalates to a super-serious Robot Wars on the city streets!
Mechanical gangs fighting it out for street territory!
Soon, everyone would be too scared to go out at night in case they run into a gang of robots; barricading themselves in their homes and lying awake in horror to the sounds of the metallic carnage going outside their windows!
Melodrama aside, it would be pretty cool to watch the all-out robotic street brawls --from a distance. It'd be like something out of Terminator.