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StatisticsHmm some places have great cameras..I once crossed the toll plaza from MD to DE, and was accidentally in the EZ Pass Lane (my view was blocked by a large semi, alas). A couple of weeks later, I received a letter from the DE DOT detailing my violation and asking for $2.00. In the letter was a photo of me, my car and a VERY clear shot of my license plate. They got their $2.00.
True - a lot of the newer systems are featuring significantly better cameras than the old 320x200 cameras of the past. Still, the good cameras come at the cost of being located on locations with money (like toll plazas) or bank security, etc. The black and white footage from a franchise 7-11? Still sucks. Traffic cams along I-95? Still pretty bad other than letting you see the weather and how congested a road is.
I think a lot of it has to do with field of view as well. Take the traffic cam for example - it's purpose is not to read license plates but to show a swath of highway. It can do that with a wide angle lens and a low resolution. Now, the camera that nabbed your felonious joyride through the EZ-pass (grin) probably had a much narrower field of view aimed to catch the license plate, make of car, etc. Was it a black-n-white image? Many of those higher resolution cameras make use of infrared imagery to work day or night and to penetrate license plate obscuring scams.
Digital communication--there were stories back a few years ago about the 'Echelon' project. My understanding is that nearly every digital conversation--phone, chat, etc.-- could be recorded, scanned, pattern analyzed, etc. Echelon was supposed to do this on a global scale. I figure the digital world is eavesdropped on all of the time; nothing is sacred not even the words I'm typing here.
That sounds strangely familiar, I'll need to Google a little to refresh my memory. Now if only the eavesdropping NSA folks would participate on OmniNerd - we could get some cooler conversations going!
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RE: Phone Tapping YES - Cameras Everywhere NO
Hmm some places have great cameras..I once crossed the toll plaza from MD to DE, and was accidentally in the EZ Pass Lane (my view was blocked by a large semi, alas). A couple of weeks later, I received a letter from the DE DOT detailing my violation and asking for $2.00. In the letter was a photo of me, my car and a VERY clear shot of my license plate. They got their $2.00.
But overall, I tend to agree with you on the whole ATM thing..But---there was this guy who used to come into the local coffee shop. He fully believed that they were watching us (more specifically HIM) from everywhere, to include the TV. TV and Radio are two-way devices back to the super secret subset of the NSA he used to work for. They listened to, recorded and analyzed EVERYONE in the US through all of our electronic devices. Oh the tales he would weave...If he had written them down, he could have had a rather lucrative career in the dime-novel world of "Mack Bolan" and books of that ilk..
Digital communication--there were stories back a few years ago about the 'Echelon' project. My understanding is that nearly every digital conversation--phone, chat, etc.-- could be recorded, scanned, pattern analyzed, etc. Echelon was supposed to do this on a global scale. I figure the digital world is eavesdropped on all of the time; nothing is sacred not even the words I'm typing here.
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