From the resolution it's likely not from satellites (I don't think satellites can photograph people yet - at least not commercial satellites).
Secondly when zooming in at a certain zoom level (some 3, 4 levels before maximum zoom), the copyright data changes (see the little line at the bottom of the images). These close-up aerial photos have been made by Google themselves.
Indeed whether it has been done by manned aircraft or drones you can't tell from the photos, but with the current state-of-the-art of unmanned flight, and the known fact Google owns such aircraft, it's very likely these photos were made using drones.
Soon enough the mystery will be solved by a Google blog post or so followed by a post on/.'s home page.
Most data that old is only for reference. Only needs to be read, never needs to be changed. It's kept for legal purposes ("look, I wrote that source code back in 1978! Here, a print-out of the then-current code base."), maybe for reference (checking old records).
Having it digital rarely helps - having it printed out at least prevents accusations of easy tampering, and gives you a copy that 20 years from now is surely readable (provided you take proper care of the medium). Those 3.5" floppies I have lying about at home I can't read any more! No computer with FDD.
How are this strange places? A data centre doesn't need windows, doesn't need easy highway access, doesn't need to sit next to the subway station or even close to high populated areas (close as in walking distance) - it's a bit like a "build and forget" kind of structure that are best kept a bit out of the way.
So you're naturally looking for cheap space, that is safe against the elements. Existing strong buildings come in play of course - like this water tank. Chapels are also often constructed well. Same for former bunkers and other underground locations like abandoned mines.
Yes it's interesting, maybe not obvious, but thinking about it this are not strange places but actually quite logical places to build your data centre. The only one that sounds strange to me is the shopping mall one. Space in shopping malls tends to be pretty expensive.
Yes I heard it was very expensive (never seen a price tag of it); that was the main problem with that monitor, and is what killed it off. Too expensive for its advantages.
Apple used to have an A4 monitor: portrait and indeed the size of a sheet of A4 paper, and "paper white" CRT type. From the time that a colour monitor was not standard. It never gained much traction, but for word processing it was pretty cool (I've actually worked with one for a while).
I can imagine web browsing also works quite well on such a monitor - but well at the time the www was barely there yet.
OTOH: those modern widescreens you can consider as two portrait monitors seamlessly linked together. Even though I've an older (non-widescreen) monitor I do tend to have my windows narrower than the screen already...
Once Apple got wind of what the app was capable of...
Isn't the whole purpose of vetting apps to figure out what they are doing (and that no "bad" behaviour is included - no malware)? It seems that if this app gets through the vetting process, from the of it doing only what it's advertised to do, that there's something terribly wrong with Apple's vetting process.
An ex of mine who was in the ergonomics field argued against using trackballs for the very reason you like them: it puts all the movement on an even smaller part of your body than a mouse: just the thumb (or a few fingers). Instead of using your whole arm to move that mouse around (if you're using your wrist for most mouse movement you're doing it wrong and should lower the speed).
General posture is also important: sit straight up, not slumped against your back rest.
I've had RSI symptoms, and went for treatment/advice. Mostly the second as treatment was not necessary yet, and one of the main things I was taught was to sit straight up. I even got a special balance pillow for that, forcing you to actively sit straight up! Helped a lot.
Further advices that I received: use a flat keyboard. Do not lift up those stands at the back. The flatter the better, the lower above your desk the better, as otherwise you have to lift your hands making your wrists bend upwards. Make sure your seat is the correct height (not too low relative to your desk).
Actually in the old ages with mechanical type writers they were using extra low tables so the typists could let their arms hang down, upper arm vertical, lower arm horizontal, and then end up just above the keys. Like playing piano, that's also done without wrist support. Add sitting properly straight up to that and you should have no problems with your typing.
My physiotherapist even said you should not use wrist supports, as it also restricts movement. And set your mouse slow. Many people like to set it so that a few mm movement makes the cursor cross the screen one side to the other: that makes exact pointing much harder, so more stressful to your muscles. You have to work harder to keep your pointer pointed just right.
Oh yes and general muscle strengthening helps. And general physical exercise, which helps for more than just against RSI. Have regular breaks (I set up my office so I have to walk a few steps to the printer - intentionally not putting it right next to me - just to get off my chair more often, that change of position is very good for your body).
E.g. you're looking for "take-away pizza" then they can look for the pizza shops closest to your location, without you having to dig through the results manually or having to enter your address yourself.
Guest router: It pinpointed my father-in-law's address. This is strange, because my router has never been located at his house. But, HE HAS CONNECTED TO MY ROUTER. Interesting.
Possible scenario for your guest router:
- your father has likely given Google the exact location of his laptop, while at his own home. Can be very useful for personalising search results.
- also because he's done Google searches before so probably he's got a cookie uniquely identifying that laptop, if only for those personalised search results.
- he connects to your guest router: Google finds that this laptop now has a new MAC address, and uses the previously known location information to link to the new MAC address information, not realising he's not at his "own" location but at someone else's location, and for lack of more information on that MAC address they use his home location as location for your guest router.
Considering the amounts of data Google can grab from your searches and so, I don't think this is too improbable.
I just tried the example MAC that is given on the web site, and that one failed as well. Also that same location in Los Angeles, USA.
Not sure what's going on here but as proof of concept it seems to fail pretty miserably for me. Oh and that's with the latest Firefox (v.3.6.10) available on Ubuntu 10.04.
Not sure what it is supposed to do but the map at the bottom of the page indicates some location somewhere in the US.
I'm at least 16 hours flight away (that's the shortest flight from here to north-west US; to get to the south-east it's more like 20 hours).
Appears like a total fail. And I can't be bothered to try and find the MAC address of my wifi router to enter it in that site. I just used the Firefox location thing.
Total fail for me too. Many times I've been located (by IP address) to at least the correct area. Still some 30, 40 km off though.
Do you also know how this "pointing at an aircraft" part works? I.e. how does the iPhone know which plane's info you want to receive? I live close enough to a major approach route to Hong Kong airport, sometimes can see two planes at the same time tailing one another. That's how close they get.
It turns out that the settlement letter business is terrible for the corporate image.
This may explain why there are so few law firms actually involved in the settlement business, which in a way reeks of easy money. All they have to do to get settlements, it seems, is sending out those letters. The law is pretty much on their side, and most people don't have the resources let alone the guts to take it to court.
However with this much public backlash I would hope it's a matter of time before no law firm dares to pick up the tab any more, and even the RIAA and it's international counterparts don't want to do it themselves any more due to the strong reactions. And with that I don't mean just being DOSed by Anonymous.
The true change will of course have to wait until public opinion has gone far enough that mainstream politicians can gain political points (and votes) by arguing for file sharing legalisation. And that point will be quite a while off.
I have similar ideas about dark matter. To me, DM is simply a way for scientists to explain their way out of issues we do not really understand. It's matter, but can not be detected. Doesn't interact with anything, apparently not even itself (in this simulation those "DM cores" simply pass through one another!), other than that it works on gravity. It's like aether - we don't know how it works, so we make something up to make it work. That's how it feels to me.
There are problems with modeling galaxies: the calculations simply do not match up with the observations. So then the calculations are amended until they match up with the observations, and in this case DM is introduced. What it is no-one knows, I have not even seen any reasonable explanations of what it could be, but it nicely makes calculations work out (especially as we don't know how much DM there really is so that remains a variable to play around with).
What is clear to me is that on astronomical scales, our gravitational models break down. We will have to come up with a new model - until then maybe continue to work with DM, for lack of a better solution. There is simply a lot we don't know about in this world, that's for sure.
Or think about the issue of the age of the universe. The current consensus is 13 bln years or so, but then you still hear about stars being of a similar age (the problem there is that they formed when the universe was considered still too hot for stars to form), or objects with possibly higher age, so that again is not something we can be really sure of. When this DM thing is settled we probably will also have to redo the universe age calculations.
If you believe what's written in the Hong Kong dailies then China is the main target. Last week almost every day stories about Stuxnet, and how it attacks Chinese computer and industrial infrastructure.
I've been reading a lot about this worm on/. and a bit in other media where Iran is always seen as the main target. Yet Iran wasn't even mentioned in any of those targets!
What was mentioned though was that according to Siemens engineers the infection rate in China was low, and that few if any PLCs in China were actually infected with this worm. Making the whole story sound all the more alarmist of course.
Slashdot Mirror
From the resolution it's likely not from satellites (I don't think satellites can photograph people yet - at least not commercial satellites).
Secondly when zooming in at a certain zoom level (some 3, 4 levels before maximum zoom), the copyright data changes (see the little line at the bottom of the images). These close-up aerial photos have been made by Google themselves.
Indeed whether it has been done by manned aircraft or drones you can't tell from the photos, but with the current state-of-the-art of unmanned flight, and the known fact Google owns such aircraft, it's very likely these photos were made using drones.
Soon enough the mystery will be solved by a Google blog post or so followed by a post on /.'s home page.
in the DDR it was not likely you could get parking tickets in the first place, as a prerequisite to receive a parking ticket is that you own a car.
Can you still read old WordPerfect 5.1 files reliably? Or MS Word 5 files?
Why scan it in?
And printing it out isn't that bad an idea.
Most data that old is only for reference. Only needs to be read, never needs to be changed. It's kept for legal purposes ("look, I wrote that source code back in 1978! Here, a print-out of the then-current code base."), maybe for reference (checking old records).
Having it digital rarely helps - having it printed out at least prevents accusations of easy tampering, and gives you a copy that 20 years from now is surely readable (provided you take proper care of the medium). Those 3.5" floppies I have lying about at home I can't read any more! No computer with FDD.
How are this strange places? A data centre doesn't need windows, doesn't need easy highway access, doesn't need to sit next to the subway station or even close to high populated areas (close as in walking distance) - it's a bit like a "build and forget" kind of structure that are best kept a bit out of the way.
So you're naturally looking for cheap space, that is safe against the elements. Existing strong buildings come in play of course - like this water tank. Chapels are also often constructed well. Same for former bunkers and other underground locations like abandoned mines.
Yes it's interesting, maybe not obvious, but thinking about it this are not strange places but actually quite logical places to build your data centre. The only one that sounds strange to me is the shopping mall one. Space in shopping malls tends to be pretty expensive.
Rotating I never tried.
Yes I heard it was very expensive (never seen a price tag of it); that was the main problem with that monitor, and is what killed it off. Too expensive for its advantages.
Apple used to have an A4 monitor: portrait and indeed the size of a sheet of A4 paper, and "paper white" CRT type. From the time that a colour monitor was not standard. It never gained much traction, but for word processing it was pretty cool (I've actually worked with one for a while).
I can imagine web browsing also works quite well on such a monitor - but well at the time the www was barely there yet.
OTOH: those modern widescreens you can consider as two portrait monitors seamlessly linked together. Even though I've an older (non-widescreen) monitor I do tend to have my windows narrower than the screen already...
Once Apple got wind of what the app was capable of...
Isn't the whole purpose of vetting apps to figure out what they are doing (and that no "bad" behaviour is included - no malware)? It seems that if this app gets through the vetting process, from the of it doing only what it's advertised to do, that there's something terribly wrong with Apple's vetting process.
Fines are to be paid to the government, so Facebook won't gain any direct profit out of it.
An ex of mine who was in the ergonomics field argued against using trackballs for the very reason you like them: it puts all the movement on an even smaller part of your body than a mouse: just the thumb (or a few fingers). Instead of using your whole arm to move that mouse around (if you're using your wrist for most mouse movement you're doing it wrong and should lower the speed).
By the way if you also suffer from neck/back pain your monitor is probably not close enough to head level.
Thanks for the reminder!
(puts 10 cm high metal box under monitor)
Or: How to detect early warning signs
If you have trouble lifting that beer mug, try the other hand.
If you have to move and TILT your head forward to drink, go see a doctor.
If it's that bad then you should have gone see a doctor much earlier.
General posture is also important: sit straight up, not slumped against your back rest.
I've had RSI symptoms, and went for treatment/advice. Mostly the second as treatment was not necessary yet, and one of the main things I was taught was to sit straight up. I even got a special balance pillow for that, forcing you to actively sit straight up! Helped a lot.
Further advices that I received: use a flat keyboard. Do not lift up those stands at the back. The flatter the better, the lower above your desk the better, as otherwise you have to lift your hands making your wrists bend upwards. Make sure your seat is the correct height (not too low relative to your desk).
Actually in the old ages with mechanical type writers they were using extra low tables so the typists could let their arms hang down, upper arm vertical, lower arm horizontal, and then end up just above the keys. Like playing piano, that's also done without wrist support. Add sitting properly straight up to that and you should have no problems with your typing.
My physiotherapist even said you should not use wrist supports, as it also restricts movement. And set your mouse slow. Many people like to set it so that a few mm movement makes the cursor cross the screen one side to the other: that makes exact pointing much harder, so more stressful to your muscles. You have to work harder to keep your pointer pointed just right.
Oh yes and general muscle strengthening helps. And general physical exercise, which helps for more than just against RSI. Have regular breaks (I set up my office so I have to walk a few steps to the printer - intentionally not putting it right next to me - just to get off my chair more often, that change of position is very good for your body).
Obvious use: personalised search results.
E.g. you're looking for "take-away pizza" then they can look for the pizza shops closest to your location, without you having to dig through the results manually or having to enter your address yourself.
Guest router: It pinpointed my father-in-law's address. This is strange, because my router has never been located at his house. But, HE HAS CONNECTED TO MY ROUTER. Interesting.
Possible scenario for your guest router:
- your father has likely given Google the exact location of his laptop, while at his own home. Can be very useful for personalising search results.
- also because he's done Google searches before so probably he's got a cookie uniquely identifying that laptop, if only for those personalised search results.
- he connects to your guest router: Google finds that this laptop now has a new MAC address, and uses the previously known location information to link to the new MAC address information, not realising he's not at his "own" location but at someone else's location, and for lack of more information on that MAC address they use his home location as location for your guest router.
Considering the amounts of data Google can grab from your searches and so, I don't think this is too improbable.
To follow up on my own post:
I just tried the example MAC that is given on the web site, and that one failed as well. Also that same location in Los Angeles, USA.
Not sure what's going on here but as proof of concept it seems to fail pretty miserably for me. Oh and that's with the latest Firefox (v.3.6.10) available on Ubuntu 10.04.
I get the exact same location. Accessing this site from Hong Kong.
Not sure what it is supposed to do but the map at the bottom of the page indicates some location somewhere in the US.
I'm at least 16 hours flight away (that's the shortest flight from here to north-west US; to get to the south-east it's more like 20 hours).
Appears like a total fail. And I can't be bothered to try and find the MAC address of my wifi router to enter it in that site. I just used the Firefox location thing.
Total fail for me too. Many times I've been located (by IP address) to at least the correct area. Still some 30, 40 km off though.
Do you also know how this "pointing at an aircraft" part works? I.e. how does the iPhone know which plane's info you want to receive? I live close enough to a major approach route to Hong Kong airport, sometimes can see two planes at the same time tailing one another. That's how close they get.
Browsing the comments and still some things I'm wondering about.
How can in iPhone receive those signals in the first place? I would assume they're not broadcast on standard GSM or WiFi channels.
And secondly: how does the "pointing at an aircraft in the sky" part work really? Hold the phone in a specific position? Directional antenna?
Interesting, thanks for the link.
Maybe the best line in that article:
It turns out that the settlement letter business is terrible for the corporate image.
This may explain why there are so few law firms actually involved in the settlement business, which in a way reeks of easy money. All they have to do to get settlements, it seems, is sending out those letters. The law is pretty much on their side, and most people don't have the resources let alone the guts to take it to court.
However with this much public backlash I would hope it's a matter of time before no law firm dares to pick up the tab any more, and even the RIAA and it's international counterparts don't want to do it themselves any more due to the strong reactions. And with that I don't mean just being DOSed by Anonymous.
The true change will of course have to wait until public opinion has gone far enough that mainstream politicians can gain political points (and votes) by arguing for file sharing legalisation. And that point will be quite a while off.
I have similar ideas about dark matter. To me, DM is simply a way for scientists to explain their way out of issues we do not really understand. It's matter, but can not be detected. Doesn't interact with anything, apparently not even itself (in this simulation those "DM cores" simply pass through one another!), other than that it works on gravity. It's like aether - we don't know how it works, so we make something up to make it work. That's how it feels to me.
There are problems with modeling galaxies: the calculations simply do not match up with the observations. So then the calculations are amended until they match up with the observations, and in this case DM is introduced. What it is no-one knows, I have not even seen any reasonable explanations of what it could be, but it nicely makes calculations work out (especially as we don't know how much DM there really is so that remains a variable to play around with).
What is clear to me is that on astronomical scales, our gravitational models break down. We will have to come up with a new model - until then maybe continue to work with DM, for lack of a better solution. There is simply a lot we don't know about in this world, that's for sure.
Or think about the issue of the age of the universe. The current consensus is 13 bln years or so, but then you still hear about stars being of a similar age (the problem there is that they formed when the universe was considered still too hot for stars to form), or objects with possibly higher age, so that again is not something we can be really sure of. When this DM thing is settled we probably will also have to redo the universe age calculations.
This is more than galaxies: this is about clusters of galaxies. Slightly bigger scale...
If you believe what's written in the Hong Kong dailies then China is the main target. Last week almost every day stories about Stuxnet, and how it attacks Chinese computer and industrial infrastructure.
I've been reading a lot about this worm on /. and a bit in other media where Iran is always seen as the main target. Yet Iran wasn't even mentioned in any of those targets!
What was mentioned though was that according to Siemens engineers the infection rate in China was low, and that few if any PLCs in China were actually infected with this worm. Making the whole story sound all the more alarmist of course.
And before you know it they legislate that a "mute" button is illegal and no TV with "mute" function may be sold any more.