Patrolling the US Border Via Webcam

The BBC features a story today on a controversial effort to patrol the border between Mexico and Texas by means of 21 hidden cameras, the output of which is streamed online for viewers at home, who can then report suspected illegal border crossings; more than 130,000 people have registered to observe the streams, from as far afield as "Australia, Mexico, Colombia, Israel, New Zealand and the UK."

Comments

Absurd!

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

Why is a wholesome, All-American, project to Defend the Homeland(tm) letting dirty foreign IP addresses in?

I read on freerepublic that foreign IPs can carry tuberculosis and communism.

Re:Well...

[zill]

1. Wear a Bigfoot costume and approach the border.
2. Frail around for 5 minutes.
3. Take a smoke break and then google "bigfoot Mexican border".
4. If there are no relevant results, you're safe to cross.
5. If there are a few million hits and you find yourself on /. front page, then congratulations on the career move from a deal smuggler to an internet celebrity.

The best part is that you're guaranteed not to be fired upon if spotted by the boarder patrol. Also you can claim you're just perpetrating a hoax if you're caught performing steps 1-3.

Security through obscurity never works.

Re:Duck! I can see you, move to your right

[zill]

Now all the poor families near the border have access to free video chat.

The only problem is that two minor features have not been implemented yet: audio and recipient selection.

Re:Mexico?

[fast turtle]

Nah - Landmines are to cheap. You aint thinking like an American Politician. It's got to cost at least 1 million per emplacement, ensure it can detect not only ilegals crossing the border but the drug runners, sniff out radioactive materials and shoot down exocet cruise missles and the damn idiot tourist who flys to close to the No Fly zone.

Don't forget it's got to be a long term defense contract that'll cost 10-20 billion dollars for a 10 year contract and give plenty of jobs to our favorite congress critters districts so they'll vote for him in the next election. That's the Real American Way.