" Does anyone else wish Star Trek would stop trying to be profound with its social commentary episodes?"
Yes.
"I know geeks love this kind of stuff"
Welcome to slashdot. We enjoy all sweeping generalisations, but especially those from anonymous cowards.
"It's that naive, "I live in an ivory tower mommy and daddy paid for" philosophizing that makes the series so unapproachable."
There you go, we love that kind of stuff because it betrays such hatred of an ideal you can never reach. Now you may have missed that there were different series' which had different moral slants. Voyager was very moral, TNG changed from 'UN in space' through to the fairly strange 'Moral dilemnas in space', and DS9 was so full of moral ambiguity that you had deals going back and forth that made you dizzy. You should try watching some.
"Why don't people realize that the reason people liked Kirk was because he was a man's man?"
Because all the gay men are rapidly coming out of the closet, and the people that like "men's men" actually watch wrestling?
"When the creater of B5 croaks, so should the franchise. While he's alive, I want more!"
Have you seen Crusades? I couldn't believe it was JMS that produced that pile of crap. The 'party' was formulaic, the 'quest' on a par with a D&D module and the plotlines were inconsequential. Even the multi-episode story arcs had disappeared.
Very disappointing after the frankly crap last series of Babylon 5 (eg the one they weren't supposed to actually make)
"The low-tech scenario means the writers can't use bullshit physics to resolve a plot quite so often."
So the tractor beam is unfeasible during a time when transporters exist?
Riiiight.
Instead they pull stuff out of their ass by having a guy travel back in time to nudge the plot every time it gets a bit stale. Then we get stuff like the whole episode with 'red alert', which resembled such a high degree of self-referential 'nudge nudge' intellectual masturbation that I couldn't believe that it had jumped the shark already.
Should I even mention gravity control?
Enterprise was an embarrassment that broke a promising curve that started with the later series of TNG and continued through the dark DS9 and the frankly lost Voyager. Don't even get me started on the quality of the films, because they're running out of deus ex machina to use.
The Borg, once feared and known for _shattering_ starfleet, ended up so pussified that an octegenerian admiral managed to outsmart them.
"A primitive starship does away with all the ridiculous technological dei ex machinae"
Preferred Starfleet Command I & II for the 'Starfleet Battles' appeal, then they went and titsed it up for SFC3. Tactically your game goes out of the window when they reduce six shields to four.
" The US is the major innovator and inventor in the world."
You're American, aren't you?
"Hundreds of countries livelihood is entirely dependent on the ongoing success of our economy."
Mainly Columbia and some sections of Mexico, but mostly where the world has resisted the economic bullying of the US they're getting along fine. Go check out your balance of trade and let us know if it's an import or export deficit.
"Our illness-fighting drugs are the lifeblood of many developing nations."
But a lot more expensive than the unlicensed copies you'll find _actually_ being used in the developing nations.
"Our military inventions save the lives of thousands of lives everytime our soldiers go into the field."
As long as you're American and on that battlefield, then you might be okay, but don't assume that a dearth of statistics on friendly fire and civilian casualties means that there weren't any. You should check out the International Red Cross for some pertinent statistics that suggest that the US has actually caused more collateral damage than is entirely acceptable under the Geneva Convention.
"The list is too long"
List? I thought this was a vague cheerlead.
"Our economic base is slowly deteriorating from the "producer" of worldwide products"
Do give over. You economic base is crippling itself through the balkanisation of intellectual property, the pending threat of doing *something* about the global warming problem now that the administration has come clean, the constant clamouring for cheap goods for a decadent society and the rapidly aging society that will probably kill the US through demands for cheap, available medicare and a consistent quality of life. Democracy has both upsides and downsides; one of the downsides is the people are soft, fat and lazy. After a while a five metre killzone is going to do you no good if you can't afford to buy them.
Now generally you might consider this 'anti-american'. It's actually 'anti-jingoist' because the one thing I cannot stand is someone that tries to promote a view of something that is so far from the truth as to require a backing soundtrack and some inspirational graphics. There's a planet out there that is hungry and starving, and to be frank we don't want America to come in and save us. We want America to sort out your own mess and leave us all alone.
The trouble is that would mean the US couldn't manipulate markets, and that's fundamentally the reason for invading developing countries.
"western nations do not learn their lessons and do not properly apply security measures."
And eastern, unless you're classing everything as western to prove a point.
The main point is that airports are suited to handling bulk travel, have low waged people in positions of trust, are usually run with corporate interests in mind (that's the bottom line rather than safety, which has to be regulated) and are very sensitive to the feelings of the people who live around them, assuming that government doesn't override it.
" it is obvious most the US people using/. seem to want to do."
What was it you said about Socialist Worker in another thread? I hope you don't mind me surveilling you, it's just that so far your comments have been _really_ funny.
"This must be counted as a partial sucess at least."
Apart from the fact that the Albert Embankment building is smothered with cameras, and at the time (21st September 2000) there were appeals for members of the public to come forward as witnesses...
So, yeah, they've certainly curtailed the number of rocket propelled grenade attacks in the Thames area.
"I assume you're one of those sad students who like to pedal Socialist Worker, failing to notice the communist ideology has never worked in real life."
Nope. Worked since I was eighteen, never been a student beyond sixth form and I'm a fan of the free market as long as it isn't propped up by governments afraid of annoying the private sector. As for the communist ideology not working, China has one of the worlds largest economies that is currently running at 4% growth. I don't like their record on human rights, but I'm not going to use dislike to stifle the facts. Something that differs between us, I feel.
"I note you're very quick to complain about corruption, yet I bet you can provide no proof."
And you're quick to make assumptions about my politics, age and social circumstances, making it really unlikely that I could provide any proof that would sway you from your opinion. However, for other interested readers, please look into the erection of the Isle of Skye toll bridge and the removal of ferry services. Incidentally, the Islanders recently won their battle.
" Dear Mr. Privacy advocate, please make up your mind. Is it 3rd party copmpanies or local councils who run the cameras."
Yes, I wasn't clear, was I. Cameras are owned, sited and operated under the auspices of local government in accordance with the CCTV extensions of the data protection act. The actual monitoring is farmed out to private companies who appear on the relevant signage along with their phone number should there be a problem. Signage should appear in all streets covered by CCTV.
" The vast majority of the gun crime rise is due to Yardie violence"
...says the Daily Mail, completely failing to note that the word 'Yardie' refers to any young man coming from Kingston.
"typically involves criminals killing each other in fights over territory and dealers."
Or more accurately escalates said warfare until parity is reached between one group of prats and another group of prats, country of origin, ethnicity and income range notwithstanding.
" I don't have the figures but I would reckon one houshold in a thousand had one."
One household in a thousand had a license. The number of guns per license could be a lot larger than one, and usually was, especially amongst collectors.
"hand guns illegally smuggled in from the Carribean by drugslords"
You're thinking about miami vice; the handgun trade tends to come via the channel tunnel, it being a damn site easier to smuggle that way than 'the carribean'. Were you going to mention the 'Yardie scourge' next?
"The rise in gun crime is nearly all crimnal-on-criminal killing."
And pesky collateral damage, such as the extended shootout that took place in Aston a few months back, but you did fail to mention that holding a gun makes you a criminal under UK law. You could simply say 'human vs human' killing and still hit the same numbers.
"So, make a complaint to the relevant authorities."
Have done. The police say they've already mentioned it to them. Suffice to say that avenue stopped there for the moment.
"If you still have no luck after going right up to the top of the chain, contact the press and your local MP."
That's the next step, although MPs say that they have no recourse to act in a dispute with the council...the trouble is that it's looking like a vast loophole, let alone that nobody is currently _operating_ the things.
"Ooh I bet you have David "Hitler" Blunkett quaking in his boots."
I've taken part in two consultations that stopped his frankly draconian laws taking hold. It might not be 'quaking' per se, but I doubt he's happy that we didn't wave them through.
BTW, he's a toad that believe he should have the power to do what he feels is necessary, but he's so far failed to exterminate a few million people. Don't cheapen the argument with namecalling.
"If you mean the British public then it was more like 70% against."
It varied according to the pollsters, and I was trying to be fair. In the run up it was a 55% for, that slid to 60% against after the first couple of weeks ('war fatigue'), then bounced to the figure you mentioned when it became apparent that Tony 'I know, trust me and find out' Blair had been incompetant in filtering bad data.
Sorry dude, but you do have admirers out here, even if I do regard America's foreign policy to be schizophrenic.
"That's a disease that will never go away."
I'm not so sure. In the UK we're trying to get penalities sorted out for companies that engage in unsafe practices; corporate manslaughter was one of Tony's election promises that got brushed under the carpet, but it's not something that will go away, despite Railtrack management managing to escape any blame for the Hatfield crash. For one thing I'm going to predict more class action suits worldwide in the next couple of decades.
" Now I just work to maintain my level of existence without getting all worked up about the inequities."
It's the most important thing. Myself, I try not to get involved in causes and instead just point out the problems. The thing is I'm finding lots of people who essentially agree, and I'm thinking about going into politics. And all I really want to do is climb mountains.
Within visual range of the camera. There are still plenty of nooks, crannies and balaclava helmets to go around.
"London's mugging rate has exploded to six times the mugging rate of New York since they banned handguns"
I should point out that the UK has never allowed the carrying of handguns, but I wasn't sure whether you meant the UK or New York there. Even handgun licenses granted in the UK only allowed their use at ranges and being kept in the home under some fairly restrictive practices. Having said that, our gun crime rate has skyrocketed as people sold their handguns onto the black market.
"government harassing people for adopting the logical countermeasures like encryption"
In our defence, there has yet to be a test case where anyone has been asked to supply encryption keys. However, we are moving towards some disturbing practices that have numerous 'backchannel' elements that don't bode well for the future.
"I do pay them to enforce the law and to catch criminals, they are there to protect us and enforce the law"
So do I, old chap, which is one of the reasons I believe in keeping them from being laid off or given clerical duties because the false shield of cameras is in place. Relying on one form of security as a panacea is not only dangerous, it betrays a sequence of thought that gives me chills in a similar ways to the abortive testing of the 'Mandrake' face recognition system.
Relying on technology to that degree, even to the extent of assuming infallibility, and before you poo-poo it, bear in mind we're currently going back over early fingerprint and DNA convictions, is not only dangerous, but costly both in terms of public trust and revisiting cases at a later date.
Although you might consider that I'm engaged in a degenerate argument, I'm actually more concerned with the speed and lack of checks and balances that are inherent to the system.
"So you would prefer citizens to take the law into their own hands"
Not at all, but you do miss the point that the police don't operate the cameras. You don't realise that the vigilante groups have already started up in some areas? Or did you miss the peadeatrician who's house was stoned due to people thinking that it was the same as 'peadophile'?
" if they can get conviction based on some video"
The CPS prosecute, the police gather evidence and make arrests. Believe it or not there are some cases that are thrown out as not being 'in the public interest', despite being caught on camera. Most of these are 'anti-social' crimes.
"we do require this small thing called "evidence""
And relying on video as evidence is the way you'd like to go? Personally I'm more forensics based because I know something about the cameras they use, especially where they 'interpolate' during 'cleaning up' images.
"I don't think I'll ever feel totally safe."
And why not? If you're fearful of something, then that's just a way to be manipulated, which is why we see so many stupid decisions being handed down justified as keeping people safe. Safety is a function of your own mind, not the chainlink fence that you allow to be put up around you.
And if it matters, I don't feel any more or less safe than when the IRA were bombing shopping centres during the eighties compared with today; the _vast_ majority of murders are committed by people you know, but that's no reason to run your friends through metal detectors.
"film public areas in order to deter crime, convict criminals or even get emergency response to an area more quickly, then yes I think I like that."
Okay, when that starts happening we'll revisit the subject, but it's currently being used to justify the reduction in beat coppers in outlying areas versus the tightening up of inner cities. Not only that, but we have a situation where the councils contract out the monitoring to companies who may or may not use police approved procedures. Go down to your police station and ask who administers your local camera scheme. Ask their opinion. I did, and they aren't happy.
Then I apologise, but with the caveat that our governments and their implementations are very different. Again, I apologise for intimating that you're British.
"I don't mind being filmed when I'm in a public place, why would I?"
Neither do I, but the point I was trying to make was that they're replacing policemen with the cameras. This is akin to saying to the police that they have to stick to one spot and not move around, let alone the problems of handing over the monitoring of cameras to private companies rather than keeping them under police control, which I'd much prefer.
"No offence, but I think most privacy advocates should get a more creative hobby."
Nah, it's pretty creative here at the moment as it is, and one of the reasons I'm in the field is to combat the complete political apathy that's overtaking our country. Local councils in the UK are stretching the letter of the law in most cases because they aren't elected officials, and they try to keep things opaque in terms of not being able to divine the decisions that they make. Put it this way, to view the accounts of my council, I have to keep an eye on one of the local papers for the announcement that the accounts will be viewable for a two week period during the year. These are public funds that the public can't check up on.
Another knock on from my sense of civic duty is that I run local crime awareness forums and have been trying (in the face of more apathy) to build communities because we, as a country, have gotten frighteningly insular and suspicious. While this may peg me as being nosy, it gels quite well with being a privacy advocate.
"Ballmer also dismissed the notion that Linux is more secure than Windows, saying that Linux would be attacked just as frequently as Windows if the open source operating system had as large a share of the operating system market as Windows."
Yeah, he's just waiting for the number of apache servers to exceed the number of IIS servers, and you longhairs'll see. Just you wait.
Slashdot Mirror
"Well, the first known use of the word 'pirate' to describe this sort of activity was in 1668, back in the 'golden age' of piracy"
I'm not a pirate, I'm a privateer.
" Does anyone else wish Star Trek would stop trying to be profound with its social commentary episodes?"
Yes.
"I know geeks love this kind of stuff"
Welcome to slashdot. We enjoy all sweeping generalisations, but especially those from anonymous cowards.
"It's that naive, "I live in an ivory tower mommy and daddy paid for" philosophizing that makes the series so unapproachable."
There you go, we love that kind of stuff because it betrays such hatred of an ideal you can never reach. Now you may have missed that there were different series' which had different moral slants. Voyager was very moral, TNG changed from 'UN in space' through to the fairly strange 'Moral dilemnas in space', and DS9 was so full of moral ambiguity that you had deals going back and forth that made you dizzy. You should try watching some.
"Why don't people realize that the reason people liked Kirk was because he was a man's man?"
Because all the gay men are rapidly coming out of the closet, and the people that like "men's men" actually watch wrestling?
"When the creater of B5 croaks, so should the franchise. While he's alive, I want more!"
Have you seen Crusades? I couldn't believe it was JMS that produced that pile of crap. The 'party' was formulaic, the 'quest' on a par with a D&D module and the plotlines were inconsequential. Even the multi-episode story arcs had disappeared.
Very disappointing after the frankly crap last series of Babylon 5 (eg the one they weren't supposed to actually make)
"The low-tech scenario means the writers can't use bullshit physics to resolve a plot quite so often."
So the tractor beam is unfeasible during a time when transporters exist?
Riiiight.
Instead they pull stuff out of their ass by having a guy travel back in time to nudge the plot every time it gets a bit stale. Then we get stuff like the whole episode with 'red alert', which resembled such a high degree of self-referential 'nudge nudge' intellectual masturbation that I couldn't believe that it had jumped the shark already.
Should I even mention gravity control?
Enterprise was an embarrassment that broke a promising curve that started with the later series of TNG and continued through the dark DS9 and the frankly lost Voyager. Don't even get me started on the quality of the films, because they're running out of deus ex machina to use.
The Borg, once feared and known for _shattering_ starfleet, ended up so pussified that an octegenerian admiral managed to outsmart them.
"A primitive starship does away with all the ridiculous technological dei ex machinae"
So, Firefly?
"Star Trek Armada I & II"
Preferred Starfleet Command I & II for the 'Starfleet Battles' appeal, then they went and titsed it up for SFC3. Tactically your game goes out of the window when they reduce six shields to four.
Armada was RTS without the fun.
"I'm having a hell of a lot more fun playing X-Com."
You should check out Silent Storm.
" The US is the major innovator and inventor in the world."
You're American, aren't you?
"Hundreds of countries livelihood is entirely dependent on the ongoing success of our economy."
Mainly Columbia and some sections of Mexico, but mostly where the world has resisted the economic bullying of the US they're getting along fine. Go check out your balance of trade and let us know if it's an import or export deficit.
"Our illness-fighting drugs are the lifeblood of many developing nations."
But a lot more expensive than the unlicensed copies you'll find _actually_ being used in the developing nations.
"Our military inventions save the lives of thousands of lives everytime our soldiers go into the field."
As long as you're American and on that battlefield, then you might be okay, but don't assume that a dearth of statistics on friendly fire and civilian casualties means that there weren't any. You should check out the International Red Cross for some pertinent statistics that suggest that the US has actually caused more collateral damage than is entirely acceptable under the Geneva Convention.
"The list is too long"
List? I thought this was a vague cheerlead.
"Our economic base is slowly deteriorating from the "producer" of worldwide products"
Do give over. You economic base is crippling itself through the balkanisation of intellectual property, the pending threat of doing *something* about the global warming problem now that the administration has come clean, the constant clamouring for cheap goods for a decadent society and the rapidly aging society that will probably kill the US through demands for cheap, available medicare and a consistent quality of life. Democracy has both upsides and downsides; one of the downsides is the people are soft, fat and lazy. After a while a five metre killzone is going to do you no good if you can't afford to buy them.
Now generally you might consider this 'anti-american'. It's actually 'anti-jingoist' because the one thing I cannot stand is someone that tries to promote a view of something that is so far from the truth as to require a backing soundtrack and some inspirational graphics. There's a planet out there that is hungry and starving, and to be frank we don't want America to come in and save us. We want America to sort out your own mess and leave us all alone.
The trouble is that would mean the US couldn't manipulate markets, and that's fundamentally the reason for invading developing countries.
"Why do I need to read the intro text and then click "Next" to go to page 2?"
More room for advertising.
"western nations do not learn their lessons and do not properly apply security measures."
/. seem to want to do."
And eastern, unless you're classing everything as western to prove a point.
The main point is that airports are suited to handling bulk travel, have low waged people in positions of trust, are usually run with corporate interests in mind (that's the bottom line rather than safety, which has to be regulated) and are very sensitive to the feelings of the people who live around them, assuming that government doesn't override it.
" it is obvious most the US people using
What was it you said about Socialist Worker in another thread? I hope you don't mind me surveilling you, it's just that so far your comments have been _really_ funny.
" When was the last El Al flight hijacked or bombed ?"
There was an attempted shoot down in 2002, but El Al routinely fits IR jamming to it's airliners.
" then after your gender-reassignment surgery took a job amoung all men?"
I'm 'in' the environment, I'm not 'of' the environment, Dorothy Parker.
"This must be counted as a partial sucess at least."
Apart from the fact that the Albert Embankment building is smothered with cameras, and at the time (21st September 2000) there were appeals for members of the public to come forward as witnesses...
So, yeah, they've certainly curtailed the number of rocket propelled grenade attacks in the Thames area.
"I assume you're one of those sad students who like to pedal Socialist Worker, failing to notice the communist ideology has never worked in real life."
Nope. Worked since I was eighteen, never been a student beyond sixth form and I'm a fan of the free market as long as it isn't propped up by governments afraid of annoying the private sector. As for the communist ideology not working, China has one of the worlds largest economies that is currently running at 4% growth. I don't like their record on human rights, but I'm not going to use dislike to stifle the facts. Something that differs between us, I feel.
"I note you're very quick to complain about corruption, yet I bet you can provide no proof."
And you're quick to make assumptions about my politics, age and social circumstances, making it really unlikely that I could provide any proof that would sway you from your opinion. However, for other interested readers, please look into the erection of the Isle of Skye toll bridge and the removal of ferry services. Incidentally, the Islanders recently won their battle.
" Dear Mr. Privacy advocate, please make up your mind. Is it 3rd party copmpanies or local councils who run the cameras."
Yes, I wasn't clear, was I. Cameras are owned, sited and operated under the auspices of local government in accordance with the CCTV extensions of the data protection act. The actual monitoring is farmed out to private companies who appear on the relevant signage along with their phone number should there be a problem. Signage should appear in all streets covered by CCTV.
Does that answer your question?
" The vast majority of the gun crime rise is due to Yardie violence"
...says the Daily Mail, completely failing to note that the word 'Yardie' refers to any young man coming from Kingston.
"typically involves criminals killing each other in fights over territory and dealers."
Or more accurately escalates said warfare until parity is reached between one group of prats and another group of prats, country of origin, ethnicity and income range notwithstanding.
" I don't have the figures but I would reckon one houshold in a thousand had one."
One household in a thousand had a license. The number of guns per license could be a lot larger than one, and usually was, especially amongst collectors.
"hand guns illegally smuggled in from the Carribean by drugslords"
You're thinking about miami vice; the handgun trade tends to come via the channel tunnel, it being a damn site easier to smuggle that way than 'the carribean'. Were you going to mention the 'Yardie scourge' next?
"The rise in gun crime is nearly all crimnal-on-criminal killing."
And pesky collateral damage, such as the extended shootout that took place in Aston a few months back, but you did fail to mention that holding a gun makes you a criminal under UK law. You could simply say 'human vs human' killing and still hit the same numbers.
"So, make a complaint to the relevant authorities."
Have done. The police say they've already mentioned it to them. Suffice to say that avenue stopped there for the moment.
"If you still have no luck after going right up to the top of the chain, contact the press and your local MP."
That's the next step, although MPs say that they have no recourse to act in a dispute with the council...the trouble is that it's looking like a vast loophole, let alone that nobody is currently _operating_ the things.
"Ooh I bet you have David "Hitler" Blunkett quaking in his boots."
I've taken part in two consultations that stopped his frankly draconian laws taking hold. It might not be 'quaking' per se, but I doubt he's happy that we didn't wave them through.
BTW, he's a toad that believe he should have the power to do what he feels is necessary, but he's so far failed to exterminate a few million people. Don't cheapen the argument with namecalling.
"If you mean the British public then it was more like 70% against."
It varied according to the pollsters, and I was trying to be fair. In the run up it was a 55% for, that slid to 60% against after the first couple of weeks ('war fatigue'), then bounced to the figure you mentioned when it became apparent that Tony 'I know, trust me and find out' Blair had been incompetant in filtering bad data.
Or so he claims.
"Thank you for ruining my Friday with the truth."
Sorry dude, but you do have admirers out here, even if I do regard America's foreign policy to be schizophrenic.
"That's a disease that will never go away."
I'm not so sure. In the UK we're trying to get penalities sorted out for companies that engage in unsafe practices; corporate manslaughter was one of Tony's election promises that got brushed under the carpet, but it's not something that will go away, despite Railtrack management managing to escape any blame for the Hatfield crash. For one thing I'm going to predict more class action suits worldwide in the next couple of decades.
" Now I just work to maintain my level of existence without getting all worked up about the inequities."
It's the most important thing. Myself, I try not to get involved in causes and instead just point out the problems. The thing is I'm finding lots of people who essentially agree, and I'm thinking about going into politics. And all I really want to do is climb mountains.
"I suspect that cameras have reduced crime"
Within visual range of the camera. There are still plenty of nooks, crannies and balaclava helmets to go around.
"London's mugging rate has exploded to six times the mugging rate of New York since they banned handguns"
I should point out that the UK has never allowed the carrying of handguns, but I wasn't sure whether you meant the UK or New York there. Even handgun licenses granted in the UK only allowed their use at ranges and being kept in the home under some fairly restrictive practices. Having said that, our gun crime rate has skyrocketed as people sold their handguns onto the black market.
"government harassing people for adopting the logical countermeasures like encryption"
In our defence, there has yet to be a test case where anyone has been asked to supply encryption keys. However, we are moving towards some disturbing practices that have numerous 'backchannel' elements that don't bode well for the future.
"It takes away from them the ability do do things they were previously doing."
Ah, so before, it was unofficially an admission of guilt if you stayed silent during questioning and now it's official. I feel all warm and fuzzy now.
"I do pay them to enforce the law and to catch criminals, they are there to protect us and enforce the law"
So do I, old chap, which is one of the reasons I believe in keeping them from being laid off or given clerical duties because the false shield of cameras is in place. Relying on one form of security as a panacea is not only dangerous, it betrays a sequence of thought that gives me chills in a similar ways to the abortive testing of the 'Mandrake' face recognition system.
Relying on technology to that degree, even to the extent of assuming infallibility, and before you poo-poo it, bear in mind we're currently going back over early fingerprint and DNA convictions, is not only dangerous, but costly both in terms of public trust and revisiting cases at a later date.
Although you might consider that I'm engaged in a degenerate argument, I'm actually more concerned with the speed and lack of checks and balances that are inherent to the system.
"So you would prefer citizens to take the law into their own hands"
Not at all, but you do miss the point that the police don't operate the cameras. You don't realise that the vigilante groups have already started up in some areas? Or did you miss the peadeatrician who's house was stoned due to people thinking that it was the same as 'peadophile'?
" if they can get conviction based on some video"
The CPS prosecute, the police gather evidence and make arrests. Believe it or not there are some cases that are thrown out as not being 'in the public interest', despite being caught on camera. Most of these are 'anti-social' crimes.
"we do require this small thing called "evidence""
And relying on video as evidence is the way you'd like to go? Personally I'm more forensics based because I know something about the cameras they use, especially where they 'interpolate' during 'cleaning up' images.
"I don't think I'll ever feel totally safe."
And why not? If you're fearful of something, then that's just a way to be manipulated, which is why we see so many stupid decisions being handed down justified as keeping people safe. Safety is a function of your own mind, not the chainlink fence that you allow to be put up around you.
And if it matters, I don't feel any more or less safe than when the IRA were bombing shopping centres during the eighties compared with today; the _vast_ majority of murders are committed by people you know, but that's no reason to run your friends through metal detectors.
"film public areas in order to deter crime, convict criminals or even get emergency response to an area more quickly, then yes I think I like that."
Okay, when that starts happening we'll revisit the subject, but it's currently being used to justify the reduction in beat coppers in outlying areas versus the tightening up of inner cities. Not only that, but we have a situation where the councils contract out the monitoring to companies who may or may not use police approved procedures. Go down to your police station and ask who administers your local camera scheme. Ask their opinion. I did, and they aren't happy.
"I live in Sweden, not the UK"
Then I apologise, but with the caveat that our governments and their implementations are very different. Again, I apologise for intimating that you're British.
"I don't mind being filmed when I'm in a public place, why would I?"
Neither do I, but the point I was trying to make was that they're replacing policemen with the cameras. This is akin to saying to the police that they have to stick to one spot and not move around, let alone the problems of handing over the monitoring of cameras to private companies rather than keeping them under police control, which I'd much prefer.
"No offence, but I think most privacy advocates should get a more creative hobby."
Nah, it's pretty creative here at the moment as it is, and one of the reasons I'm in the field is to combat the complete political apathy that's overtaking our country. Local councils in the UK are stretching the letter of the law in most cases because they aren't elected officials, and they try to keep things opaque in terms of not being able to divine the decisions that they make. Put it this way, to view the accounts of my council, I have to keep an eye on one of the local papers for the announcement that the accounts will be viewable for a two week period during the year. These are public funds that the public can't check up on.
Another knock on from my sense of civic duty is that I run local crime awareness forums and have been trying (in the face of more apathy) to build communities because we, as a country, have gotten frighteningly insular and suspicious. While this may peg me as being nosy, it gels quite well with being a privacy advocate.
"Ballmer also dismissed the notion that Linux is more secure than Windows, saying that Linux would be attacked just as frequently as Windows if the open source operating system had as large a share of the operating system market as Windows."
Yeah, he's just waiting for the number of apache servers to exceed the number of IIS servers, and you longhairs'll see. Just you wait.