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Residents Report Bright Streak Over Bay Area Friday Evening
The Chabot Space and Science Center has received numerous reports of a bright object flying through the sky in over northern California Friday night, as noted by The Washington Post, NBC, and others. According to NBC's version of the story "Chabot astronomers in Oakland said the meteor was not related to the asteroid passing near Earth. Gerald McKeegan, an astronomer at Chabot Space and Science Center in Oakland, said he did not see it, but based on accounts he thinks it was a 'sporadic meteor.' Sporadic meteors bring as much as 15,000 tons of space debris to Earth each year, according to McKeegan. He said it was likely smaller than another meteor that landed in the Bay Area in October, which caused a loud sonic boom as it fell." The eyewitness accounts make it sound pretty spectacular, though; too bad we don't have quite as many dashcams going as there are in Russia.
...of the invasion.
In Russia, they are used as evidence collectors because of all the shady folks trying to game the system. Here in the US, anyone with a dash cam is laughed at by a majority of people. I have a dash cam and people at work assume I have it to catch accidents and think it's a gruesome reason. Also, since people don't throw themselves in front of buses as much as Russians apparently do, the dashcams are not as widely used here.
Every time I start to have faith in humanity, I ruin it by driving to work between 7 and 8 am.
Russian dashcams are largely encouraged by insurance companies for that very reason. The problem is, if that were done in the US, the insurance companies would mandate a single very specific, very faulty model of dash camera (per insurance company) that doesn't fit in most cars, can be disabled via remote by any law enforcement official or Homeland Security member, is illegal for the end-user to even touch, is ungodly expensive for its functionality, encrypts and DRMs all its recorded video, and is designed to resist any form of accessing the video on it unless you're an employee of the insurance company. Otherwise, they can't trust it and won't believe any evidence gathered from it.
Cue discussions about LACK of dashcam videos from Norther California.
Economy must not be too bad or else there would be more insurance fraud or police corruption necessitating dash cam proliferation.
Or maybe Northern California is too boring to post on youtube.
My my. Just a tad paranoid, are we now?
So, what do you think the bright light was?
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
Basically you want a GoPro with the wireless controller. Don't know about the Linux stuff, but it puts out a pretty standard codec.
Would not be as 'hands off' as the purpose built dash cams but you would get the better image quality.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
I'd start getting a little nervous. I'd start to think that the patron saint of Journalists, St Francis De Sale, or his pagan god equivalent was providing some pretty great headlines right now for a reason.
Like this reason?
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
I'm looking for a good one now. 1920x1080p30, wide angle, supports SD/SDHX/SDXC, internal battery plus car power operation choice. Stores in file and video format Linux based software (e.g. ffmpeg, etc) can read. One with wifi to recorder would be a plus.
GoPro HD Hero 2 (and 3) will do that; you can get a wifi adapter for it. VLC (and probably other software) reads it just fine.
What's with the Russian dashcams anyway? I saw that spectacular Russian plane crash last month on some driver's camera in addition to the more recent recent meteorite.
Actually, global warming is to blame behind increased meteor activity:
(1) CO2 is a heavier gas than Oxygen and Nitrogen. Because of molecular forces, the increased number of CO2 molecules in the atmosphere are pulling down the whole atmosphere closer to earth's surface. Therefore, meteors that would normally have burnt up higher in the atmosphere are coming closer and closer to earth's surface before they burn up. Sometimes, though, they make it all the way because of the reduced distance over which to burn up.
(2) Increased CO2 is also leading to holes in the Ozone layer. This layer acts as a defensive shield. With more holes that are getting bigger in size, meteors are slipping through and reaching us.
(3) Scientists have postulated that increased planetary warmth and high concentration of CO2 on an earth-like planet may indicate the presence of an advanced civilization. They are actually using this theory to conduct SETI. It is possible that advanced aliens are doing the same. They have detected global warming on earth and are hurling meteors at earth and using it as a sounding board for their own SETI projects.
gstreamer has gotten exceptionally good, to the point, where its far far far better than the windows framework in the types of files it can play and how well.
Of course, accross platform, VLC is hands down the best, as far as formats go, and the linux port runs well.
Hmm, the new pope coming to claim his throne...?
Also reports of presumably the same one passing over Cuba.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6VBWhny54c
Sort of looks fake to me, with with trail fading really fast and the object looking like a certain lensflare plugin preset but I guess that might be a testament to the accuracy of the plugin.
Makes sense. First one overshot and hit Russia, second undershot and hit US. They're going to calibrate for somewhere in the middle and fire for effect soon.
"all the shady folks trying to game the system"
you don't get that, huh? Fascinating.
Actually, yes, a few. Like here, at 1m11s. Not the first one I've seen, just the first one that popped up on Google.
Before you make stupid remarks have you heard the word "search"?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_miRPJgwDM
From what I've been reading, it doesn't play all that well on windows either. :)
How could you miss the train to Hogwarts again?
Dashcam technology is cheap. Would not surprise me in the slightest that this becomes a dealer option or standard in future cars sold. Flash memory is cheap too. You might be able to buffer weeks if not entire months of recording video while driving.
Life is not for the lazy.
Russians have demonstrated their mighty R-7 type bolide, demonstrating the advances of Soviet astronomy, and all the Americas had as an answer was a pitiful Vanguard type meteor that didn't even explode properly.
Ezekiel 23:20
... too bad we don't have quite as many dashcams going as there are in Russia.
But there are more than enough.... This showed up on Youtube late last night, I believe this is the original poster:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLpTOc1i8_8
And then a short time later this showed up:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkF4sloZmBI
In unrelated news, intelligence monitoring has picked up Kim Jong Un stating 'second test successful too!' followed by manaical laughter from his Starcraft-2 themed war-room.
Have you even seen A SINGLE ONE video showing a person throwing itself in front of a passing car in any of the million of russian dashcam videos?
Just a single one? Here's about 2 dozen.
And which "bay" are we talking about, O summary?
You forgot that they would broadcast your name and location long with the video to a secret Google/NSA/MPAA server.
There really isn't a good Samaritan law in CA and you can be sued for all sorts of crap. (providing the wrong assistance, failing to provide assistance, doing something incorrectly, and so on) I wouldn't be surprised that if there are dash cams in use in CA, they might be a little hesitant to post them.
Then there was those CSI accident cleanup people who took pictures of some dead girl and passed it around where someone ended up harassing her parents with them. I forget what the outcome of that was but I wouldn't be surprised if there aren't a lot of local laws dealing with what can be done with accident scene footage/pics. Of course there is the free press thing, but it costs money to fight it i guess. I don't see it becoming popular there any time soon.
Just because you are paranoid doesn't mean they aren't after you
"When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back!" -- Cave Johnson
Give it a week and there will be a patch that lets it run faster under Ubuntu/WINE than it does natively. Yes, I realise you're just trolling. Quis trolliet ipsos trolles eh?
Please consider this account deleted, I just can't be bothered with the spam anymore.
Can you suggest a good dashcam? I ordered one online and it worked well for a whopping three days before it just broke. Got a refund. Now I need to find a good one that will last.
Sig for hire.
Yup, certainly sounds like a fireball. Most shooting stars are the size and density of the ash flicked off a cigarette, so you get a bright but very "thin" trail. A bigger and/or denser object, an actual rock for example, will look very different. I saw one back in the 80s which appeared to be the size and colour of a sodium street lamp from about 50m away, I suspect it was actually about the size of a basketball. Most of the glow you see isn't the object, it's plasma and superheated air from the compressive wave in front of the object.
Please consider this account deleted, I just can't be bothered with the spam anymore.
One is fraud/insurance issues. Accidents happen and in Russia there are major corruption issues with the authorities and such. Having video evidence is fairly necessary in many cases.
The other? All the crazy shit that happens. When there's stuff like tanks driving across highways randomly and so on, might be a reason to record all of the goings on.
Look again at a globe. Halfway between these two locations is somewhere north of Alaska.
Yup, plenty. Lots of other slashdotters have provided links, I'm just going to sit here and wonder why dashcams imply some sort of prejudice to you?
I have a DOD GS600 and have had good luck with it on 10min length and a class 10 SD card. Others have complained, but I know of two of these cameras running right now for over a year.
Every time I start to have faith in humanity, I ruin it by driving to work between 7 and 8 am.
Ah! So "Deadliest Catch" is upping the ante? Too much competitoin from Ice Pilots and Ice Road Warriors, perhaps?
"Meanwhile, back on the Wizard, they are bracing for the wave caused by the meteorite that vaporized the Time Bandit".
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
It's bad manners if you didn't bring enough for everyone.
I've recently got a Liquid Image Ego camera. It works very well, and is compatible with all the GoPro mounts.
I got the GoPro suction cup mount, and it's awesome. The plus is that it emits WiFi, which you can use with their proprietary app on Android or iOS to get a feed from the camera when it isn't recording, and adjust most so called "advanced" settings (exposure, FOV, etc). There's a 10-20 second delay with the feed, but it works fine as a viewfinder.
The battery isn't user replaceable, and I don't think it supports an external power source. The battery runs for roughly 2 hours. Footage can be recorded either in 1080p30 or 720p60. Every recording comes with a downconverted low-res version, which is actually the feed that was streamed to whatever device you had plugged on the WiFi.
The FOV is either 135 degrees or 90. This setting, however, is only changeable via the WiFi app. The buttons on the device itself only allow to power it on or off, select mode (1080p or 720p video, picture mode, etc). If you just want to start shooting, you'd basically hold the power button for a couple of seconds, wait 10 seconds for it to "boot", then press the other button to start recording. The video quality is very good, except in very low light. If there's not enough light, some silly "night mode" will kick in, which makes the image extremely blurry, and sadly, blue.
Other than the lack of night mode support, it's a superb little piece of kit. I use it mainly to film my commute to and fro work, as I'm on a motorbike. The suction cup mount works fine on non porous helmets, or on the fuel tank.
Why does everyone need to keep up with the Jones's?
If you go WEST from the Urals you will get closer to France.
You are right though that it might take a couple of more shots to bracket France properly.
I saw it through my car windshield while stopped at a traffic light at 18th and Valencia Streets in San Fran City; I have seen other meteors before and this was just like the rest, except for its bright, cobalt-blue trail.
It dropped out of sight behind Twin Peaks; there was no boom that I heard, which makes sense to me as it seemed to be traveling fairly slowly across the sky about 45 degrees above the horizon -- or it was at very high altitude.
Look at the globe again. It's not the pope that's the target. It's Santa Claus.
There are apps like "DailyRoads Voyager" for Android. I'm sure they have them for iPhone too.
Every time I start to have faith in humanity, I ruin it by driving to work between 7 and 8 am.
Before you make stupid remarks have you heard the word "search"?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_miRPJgwDM
Yes, we've all heard of the word search. They're usually in the paper and on the placemats in family restaurants.
Makes sense. The vindictive Christian God is going to take out competition in the bloodiest way possible.
Looks like we're going to get a sequel for Old Testament, Gundam style. Colony drop!
It's most likely that the high concentration of smug that has accumulated in the middle atmosphere above San Francisco was ignited by static electricity.
Nuke these trolls from orbit. It's the only way to be sure. There, I'm on-topic too.
No, just hurl a giant meteorite at them, after all they've 30 times more boom than the Hiroshima bomb.
Sounds like Santa Claus coming home drunk again ...
Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
Happens in the UK too:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2232954/Innocent-female-motorist-34-killed-gang-staged-crash-cash-insurance-scam-busy-motorway.html
Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
Given that you have to be a millionaire to afford to live on the SF Bay Area penisula, it wouldn't be profitable to spend more time in court that at work.
Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
Accordig to Phil, the objects observed in the US simultaneously with the Russian meteor can be explained by the Russian meteor being a bolide.
One time I used to do my weekly shopping at a supermarket where the time between the bus arriving and department was about an hour. Left me 30 minutes between the checkout and catching the bus home. Not leaving much to do, except just sit around and watch the world go by. One time, I see a meteor trail in the sky, just over the rooftops of the local buildings - just a sudden white line that appeared and disappeared in the sky in less than a second. Nobody in the surrounding area noticed.
The other events that fascinate me were being in the top floor of buildings and hearing a massive bang on the roof like someone hitting it with a sledgehammer. In the first case I then heard a roof slate slide downwards and fall on the ground. We did have the chance to check the ground and rain gutters, but the only object found was a yellowish-orange stone. Other time was being in a metal-framed fitness center with corrugated metal roof. The whole building reverberated with that sound but there wasn't anyone outside for 100 meters.
Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
HAARP?
I also want it to have a quick release/attach mount so I can grab it when I leave the car without destroying things, and put it in my pocket, before thieves have a chance.
now we need to go OSS in diesel cars