The return of (drone) robot wars: Beware of low-flying freezers There was a time when I used to spend my free hours looking for a man. Oh yes, many a day I’d hang about aimlessly for hours, just waiting for the right man to turn up. Sometimes I’d look for a man in uniform, other times he’d in civvies, but all I wanted was the kind of man who would – well, how can I put this? – “deliver the …
What's the betting they're unreadable owing to the visceral leakage from the mammalian remains directly beneath which may once have been an urban fox or, possibly, Mrs Next Door in her best fake fur. Still, at least you won't have to dig another hole...
"the UK – a country where gun ownership is tightly restricted and its citizens are happy and willing to have every fucking second of their private lives filmed because they already live in a corrupt police state with the Big Brother-like cosh of closed-circuit TV on every street corner."
Not all of us are "happy and willing", but apparently we live in a democracy and stupid people are entitled to vote too
So you didn't bat an eyelid at the idea that all US citizens are constitutionally bound to shoot each other, but you do take umbrage at the idea of every street corner having a camera?
Perhaps you should avoid any media where they might use exaggeration for comic affect, it clearly doesn't agree with you.
There are reckoned to be over 6 million CCTV cameras in use by the authorities in the UK, never mind the number of personal and business systems. By one estimate people in urban areas of the UK are likely to be captured by about 30 surveillance camera systems every day. That's systems, not individual cameras.
Big brother is in the house.
There are reckoned to be over 6 million CCTV cameras in use by the authorities in the UK, never mind the number of personal and business systems. By one estimate people in urban areas of the UK are likely to be captured by about 30 surveillance camera systems every day. That's systems, not individual cameras.
And not ONE camera pointing the other way. Strange, that, no?
Many of these cameras use Infra-Red - especially the number plate readers/loggers.
The solution to this Big Brother problem lies in the ubiquitous Infra-Red 3 watt LED.
Surrounding your number plate with several of these 3-watt LEDs, with a couple placed in the centre of the plate as 'dummy' mounting screws, effectively 'blinds' IR cameras. Modulating them at 4-10 Hz increases their effectiveness.
Wearing a US-style baseball cap with 5mm IR LEDs scattered around the top of the 'peak' blinds cameras effectively, too. And, being IR, emit no visible light for Plod to see (unless they use a smartphone camera to view you).
Um, the infra-red LEDs are highly directional, so I disbelieve this clever way to fool cameras.
If you want to fool the IR cameras you really need not a ring of LEDs but a ceramic grid overlay heated by about a dozen forced air/gas jets.
Or you could go the other way: drizzle your number plate with liquid helium.
Or just remove the plates and if stopped do the "Cor blimey, I've been robbed!" routine.
> Um, the infra-red LEDs are highly directional, so I disbelieve this clever way to fool cameras.
Might be true for some specific LED, but all (IR) LEDs aren't created equal.
140 degrees isn't what I'd call 'highly directional': http://www.ledfedy.com/products/1w-3w-led/3w-led/3w-ir-led-940nm-double-chip-with-star-pcb-745.html
120 degrees: https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/High-Quality-1W-3W-5W-High_615133918.html?spm=a2700.7724857.0.0.WRBJCg&s=p
135 degrees: https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/China-Supplier-good-price-Epileds-Chip_60376879496.html?spm=a2700.7724857.0.0.WRBJCg
If one wants directionality out of this style of LEDs, there are lenses that fit on top: https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/High-power-and-quality-3w-led_1431620067.html?spm=a2700.7724838.0.0.wQslxx
Many of these cameras use Infra-Red - especially the number plate readers/loggers.
The solution to this Big Brother problem lies in the ubiquitous Infra-Red 3 watt LED.
Ah, the benefit of being a bit older.. I have bad news for you - if the police spots this you'll be facing quite a fine. Someone *way* too smart to work in civil service came up with the bright idea of leaving out any specifics in law, so anything you do that renders a license plate unreadable will get you a fine, including IR blinding. Worse, the chances of you getting caught with such tech are increasing because the number of ANPR equipped cars is going up, and they are unfortunately manned..
No worries, your MP took care of it ... the government does not want you to bother yourself about these minor issues ... you will be given a carefully edited rundown on all that your MP has done for you when the next election is called so you will know how carefully your MP has safeguarded your interests and wishes to continue doing so.
Adults riding bicycles on the pavement is not allowed - unless there is a clearly marked cycle lane.
Note I said "bicycles", I was seen a few twats riding motorbikes on the pavement.
As for fat women in mobility scooters - I agree - 75% of the scooters I see are being driven by fat women in their 30s/40s; who are too lazy to walk to the bus stop.
[Expletive deleted] pedestrians deliberately blocking my path and telling me not to ride a bicycle on the pavement. A few have the grace to apologise when I ask them not to obstruct the cycle path. Lane markings, a picture of a bicycle painted on the path and the white bicycle in a blue circle sign, yet pedestrians still cannot spot a cycle path.
[I know there are inconsiderate cyclists, but there are also inconsiderate drivers and inconsiderate pedestrians. No one group has a monopoly on stupid.]
"No one group has a monopoly on stupid" . hmmm maybe.
Does seem to me that 99.9999999999% of taxi, van, BMW, Audi and name-a-brand-GTi ( especially red ones ) drivers drive like idiots. I never say they ALL drive like idiots just 99.9999999999% of them.
As for pedal cyclists, it usually is the ones in lycra that are idiots.
The issues I have on the pavements up in the City of London aren't cyclists or mobility scooters.
My issues are :
1) Families walking 5 abreast at about 0.000005 MPH
2) Drunken crowds of stationary nicotine addicts entirely blocking the pavement outside pubs, forcing me into the road.
3) Businesses that are allowed to put sandwich boards blocking significant sections of the pavement
So a few drones to sort these issues out would be a vote winner with me ;)
VietNam Post insists on delivery to the recipients hand (bunch of thieves in the streets makes this imperative).
Our local P.O. will send you an SMS if the addressees Cell Number is appended to their name. This is really great for all parties involved.
My unofficial arrangement with the local P.O. Sorting Office, which serves 7,000,000+ people, is that they will leave me a SMS message and I can collect it at the Sorting Office Sunday through Friday!
Better than the (new) Royal Mail.
About 20 years ago at work, of an evening, I ordered an electronic doodad from a company 2,000 miles away. Since it was already late, I caught some winks and woke up the next morning to find the doodad being delivered to the office door. For a while I thought that maybe somebody had spiked my vegetable juice. Honest, ma, I wouldn't ingest any substance that would defile the holy temple of my brain. The brain isn't dead until God says it's dead. Anyway, later I came to understand that vendors may have one or possibly multiple warehouses not at their nominal place of business and that they have doodads delivered from a warehouse that might actually be quite close to your office, sod the 2,000 miles.
Windows (er, the windows that we don't hate) can have a coating that is claimed to reflect IR light but obviously allows visible light to pass. If, of an evening, one wishes to malefact about, but have one's licence plate be invisible to IR cameras, could one not apply a spray-on version of said stuff, and wipe it off later, with the minimum chance of detection? If only one could wipe off all one's miscues with the Minimum Chance of Detection (TM) cloth. Though one supposes that if one is prepared to go to that degree of bother, then other solutions might be more effective.
...direct drone delivery is a still born idea. I much prefer the idea of having delivery lockers at strategic places around when stuff can be dropped off by WVM and I can go and collect, and that's already happening. Drones might replace WVM to get stuff to the lockers, though said drones might struggle to get items into the lockers, but isn't that what university graduates are for?
"I much prefer the idea of having delivery lockers at strategic places around when stuff can be dropped off"
Yes, me too. They've been around for years and new networks are popping up in even more locations.
We experimented with them for field engineers parts maybe 10 years ago. The guys got an email with a code, went to the lockers, entered the code and one would open with their box of parts inside. The downside was that they tended to not be in the places we needed them to be, ie railway stations, city centre petrol stations etc. whereas courier depots tend to be on less congested areas so we went back to sending parcels as "To Be Collected" addressed to the depot. There were also times where the consignment didn't fit in the largest locker or required two or more lockers. It might be time to look again at this.
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