People complain, but what's the real problem here? Why are people so afraid of image recognition cameras if their picture is not in the database? I've never molested, assaulted, or robbed anyone. I know my picture is not in the database. Is yours?
Missing kids. You guys joke that these kids are not missing if they walk into the office, but there are lots of missing kids going to schools. A mother or father may tell them the other parent is dead and flee with the child during a custody dispute. An abductor may steal a child to raise as their own. There's nothing funny about that.
Sex offenders. Most known pedophiles have court orders barring them from approaching a school, let alone entering one, but how about when they move to another state and try to become a teacher at your kid's school? Is that funny? It happens.
Whenever the system gets a positive ID from the database, an operator compares the database picture with the camera picture. The system is designed to narrow down the people to look at. The police are not going to come barreling in every time the camera has a false positive.
Sometimes the cameras miss a known sex offender. Doesn't the fact that the offenders know these cameras exist deter them from entering our schools? What about the offenders the cameras don't miss?
There is nothing Orwellian about these cameras. They are not trying to track the movements of every American citizen. They are trying to protect our children. You can cry about civil rights all you want, but this is the real world. Bad people are out there and they will, through subterfuge, sneak into your children's schools, your financial records, and even your homes.
When they want to put the camera in my home, I'll be worried. Otherwise, I say put the cameras out if there's a chance that they can reunite a missing child with its family or prevent the molestation of another innocent child.
People seem to like to quote the Bill of Rights, but none of the ammendments added since. The Bill of Rights is not a noose. Our country's founders knew they could not foresee every possible need of this country in the future. Our laws may not be perfect, but they are there for our protection.
People who promote violence against the innocent as a means of freedom are nothing more than disturbers of the peace who deserve their punishments.
I support anyone's right to complain about our government and call for change, but not the promotion of fear and violence.
I don't know if you've noticed where you live, but in Los Angeles, the ads during the middle of the TV show are getting out of hand. The full bottom quarter of the screen is being filled with some animated ad for another program, and I'm sure ads for products are coming soon. I've just about given up on TV all together. Talk about annoying! You'd think they'd be smart enough not to do it when there is text on the bottom of the screen the viewer is trying to read. The Discovery channel is especially guilty of this. Try watching an interview with a famous french scientist and not being able to read the subtitles because there's an ad for the new HotRod racers show blocking your view.
The only problem now will be that TV shows will have to fill the whole 30 to 60 minute time slot, due to the lack of commercial breaks.
They're not ignoring the blue-laser encoding. They've dismissed it since it would require a retooling of the entire recording industry, requiring the movie industry to pass the cost on to consumers. Some people might be willing to pay $35 to $50 per DVD, but I'm not, and neither are the vast majority of consumers.
I propose we build a giant space ship that can transform into a very large maid with a vacuum. I call my invention ""Mega Maid"". We have ""Mega Maid"" set the vacuum to "suck" and orbit the planet a few times sucking up the debree. Of course, there's not enough gas in orbit to provide the sucking action, so ""Mega Maid"" may skim a few layers of our atmosphere off to complete the process. When ""Mega Maid"" is done, she will switch from "suck" to "blow", disbursing all the troublesome debree into the sun... Including the planet's precious atmosphere! Muahahahaha Muahahahaa Muahahahahahahaha
Several of my freshman year professors had the same comment for this problem. I'm sure you must have been given a hint by a professor at some point to space and pace your work. By this I mean you have to leave space between your lines of code so you can go back and add code, and pace yourself. Don't try to rush through the answer. Think about the entire problem before you start writing. This will save you a lot of frustration.
You may want to start with a small flow diagram before you dive into code. This will help you visualize the problem and save some eraser marks.
Maybe your problem is partially a fault of growing up so privileged. When I started learning to code a short 15 years ago, I spent more time writing on paper than coding at a terminal. (Now I'm feeling old.) Every so often, I'll still grab a notebook (that's the paper kind) and sit on the couch writing out what I want to do before I code.
My current job in Internet Streaming Infrastructure can be very fun most of the time. We have the nerf guns, play Counterstrike and Unreal, and have challenging yet exciting projects. The trick to keeping this great job is that I do have to meet some serious deadlines. There's a joke in the office that the real work doesn't start until 6PM. This may be true. When you're having too much fun during the day, you've got to make up for it sometime. I can still bring my dog to the office, but with the state of the current economy, I'd better be able to deliver, or the whole company can go bust, and then I'll be back doing government work.
I'm not too concerned about face recognition technology being used by the government to track me. That would require that I've done something illegal, was caught, and my mug shots are in the system. Now, I doubt a government funded system will be powerful enough to track all the mugs of all the felons in America.
What concerns me are the Commercial applications of this kind of tool. We've all complained about how Doubleclick.com and other such businesses invade our privacy by tracking our web surfing habits. Well, imagine getting a membership card to someplace like Sams or Costco. They take your picture when you get this card. These stores have cameras. These stores have affiliates. Imagine if the corporate world decided it was a good idea to use this face recognition technology to follow consumers around and find out what their shopping habits are. The camera a the local grocery store may catch you lingering too long in the baby section, showing that you likely have children, or in the frozen section next to the ice cream, showing that you likely have a sweet tooth. Or maybe that surveilance camera at the convenience store will catch you lingering by the nudy magazine rack...
If you're really worried about this technology, don't be afraid of how the government will use it. The government has limits in budget and what it can get away with. Worry about the corporations.
Slashdot Mirror
People complain, but what's the real problem here? Why are people so afraid of image recognition cameras if their picture is not in the database? I've never molested, assaulted, or robbed anyone. I know my picture is not in the database. Is yours?
Missing kids. You guys joke that these kids are not missing if they walk into the office, but there are lots of missing kids going to schools. A mother or father may tell them the other parent is dead and flee with the child during a custody dispute. An abductor may steal a child to raise as their own. There's nothing funny about that.
Sex offenders. Most known pedophiles have court orders barring them from approaching a school, let alone entering one, but how about when they move to another state and try to become a teacher at your kid's school? Is that funny? It happens.
Whenever the system gets a positive ID from the database, an operator compares the database picture with the camera picture. The system is designed to narrow down the people to look at. The police are not going to come barreling in every time the camera has a false positive.
Sometimes the cameras miss a known sex offender. Doesn't the fact that the offenders know these cameras exist deter them from entering our schools? What about the offenders the cameras don't miss?
There is nothing Orwellian about these cameras. They are not trying to track the movements of every American citizen. They are trying to protect our children. You can cry about civil rights all you want, but this is the real world. Bad people are out there and they will, through subterfuge, sneak into your children's schools, your financial records, and even your homes.
When they want to put the camera in my home, I'll be worried. Otherwise, I say put the cameras out if there's a chance that they can reunite a missing child with its family or prevent the molestation of another innocent child.
People seem to like to quote the Bill of Rights, but none of the ammendments added since. The Bill of Rights is not a noose. Our country's founders knew they could not foresee every possible need of this country in the future. Our laws may not be perfect, but they are there for our protection.
People who promote violence against the innocent as a means of freedom are nothing more than disturbers of the peace who deserve their punishments.
I support anyone's right to complain about our government and call for change, but not the promotion of fear and violence.
What if I put tha package back (and in the wrong place)? Will they see I only have one photo and put out an APB for my arrest?
"Excuse me sir, can you hand me a pack of those razor blades you're standing next to? Thanks..."
Okay, maybe this will help them catch the dumb shoplifters.
Would this be against the DMCA?
Advertising
I don't know if you've noticed where you live, but in Los Angeles, the ads during the middle of the TV show are getting out of hand. The full bottom quarter of the screen is being filled with some animated ad for another program, and I'm sure ads for products are coming soon. I've just about given up on TV all together. Talk about annoying! You'd think they'd be smart enough not to do it when there is text on the bottom of the screen the viewer is trying to read. The Discovery channel is especially guilty of this. Try watching an interview with a famous french scientist and not being able to read the subtitles because there's an ad for the new HotRod racers show blocking your view.
The only problem now will be that TV shows will have to fill the whole 30 to 60 minute time slot, due to the lack of commercial breaks.
They're not ignoring the blue-laser encoding. They've dismissed it since it would require a retooling of the entire recording industry, requiring the movie industry to pass the cost on to consumers. Some people might be willing to pay $35 to $50 per DVD, but I'm not, and neither are the vast majority of consumers.
Dr. Evil steps in,
I propose we build a giant space ship that can transform into a very large maid with a vacuum. I call my invention ""Mega Maid"". We have ""Mega Maid"" set the vacuum to "suck" and orbit the planet a few times sucking up the debree. Of course, there's not enough gas in orbit to provide the sucking action, so ""Mega Maid"" may skim a few layers of our atmosphere off to complete the process. When ""Mega Maid"" is done, she will switch from "suck" to "blow", disbursing all the troublesome debree into the sun... Including the planet's precious atmosphere! Muahahahaha Muahahahaa Muahahahahahahaha
Several of my freshman year professors had the same comment for this problem. I'm sure you must have been given a hint by a professor at some point to space and pace your work. By this I mean you have to leave space between your lines of code so you can go back and add code, and pace yourself. Don't try to rush through the answer. Think about the entire problem before you start writing. This will save you a lot of frustration.
You may want to start with a small flow diagram before you dive into code. This will help you visualize the problem and save some eraser marks.
Maybe your problem is partially a fault of growing up so privileged. When I started learning to code a short 15 years ago, I spent more time writing on paper than coding at a terminal. (Now I'm feeling old.) Every so often, I'll still grab a notebook (that's the paper kind) and sit on the couch writing out what I want to do before I code.
Fiber can carry a signal about 100 Km (60 mi). Costs serious money to lay fiber though.
My current job in Internet Streaming Infrastructure can be very fun most of the time. We have the nerf guns, play Counterstrike and Unreal, and have challenging yet exciting projects. The trick to keeping this great job is that I do have to meet some serious deadlines. There's a joke in the office that the real work doesn't start until 6PM. This may be true. When you're having too much fun during the day, you've got to make up for it sometime. I can still bring my dog to the office, but with the state of the current economy, I'd better be able to deliver, or the whole company can go bust, and then I'll be back doing government work.
I'm not too concerned about face recognition technology being used by the government to track me. That would require that I've done something illegal, was caught, and my mug shots are in the system. Now, I doubt a government funded system will be powerful enough to track all the mugs of all the felons in America.
What concerns me are the Commercial applications of this kind of tool. We've all complained about how Doubleclick.com and other such businesses invade our privacy by tracking our web surfing habits. Well, imagine getting a membership card to someplace like Sams or Costco. They take your picture when you get this card. These stores have cameras. These stores have affiliates. Imagine if the corporate world decided it was a good idea to use this face recognition technology to follow consumers around and find out what their shopping habits are. The camera a the local grocery store may catch you lingering too long in the baby section, showing that you likely have children, or in the frozen section next to the ice cream, showing that you likely have a sweet tooth. Or maybe that surveilance camera at the convenience store will catch you lingering by the nudy magazine rack...
If you're really worried about this technology, don't be afraid of how the government will use it. The government has limits in budget and what it can get away with. Worry about the corporations.