photographed license plates
At 21:55 8/8/96, i am not a number! wrote:
CBS radio news this morning: 80,000 commuters traveling the central f'way in SF will have information mailed to them regarding the quake retrofit blah blah.
How? Their license plates have been photographed. ... and the cheery "news" anchorwoman sweetly moved on to the next story.....
You *are* making this up, right? Please say you did.
------------------------------------------ I AM NOT making this up, unfortunately. The news story contents may be bolluxed, of course, maybe they got it wrong. But this is what she said, no joking. O, and I think they're talking more about putting up cameras at some troubling intersections to take pictures of cars running red-lights. And cameras on transit vehicles (buses primarily). Gee, I am starting to feel so warm and safe!
In the UK they now use cameras to deter speeding; the cameras are triggered by vehicles passing by which exceed the speed-limit, so in theory it's only naughty people who get photographed. Interestingly enough, there are far more places with camera warning signs than there are actual cameras; the actual cameras are moved around at random. Even though most of the time there isn't a camera there, almost everbody seemed to slow down in the marked areas; probably because there's almost 100% chance of being caught if there is a camera there. --- Cause maybe (maybe) | In my mind I'm going to Carolina you're gonna be the one that saves me | - back in Chapel Hill May 16th. And after all | Email address remains unchanged You're my firewall - | ........First in Usenet.........
In article <Pine.SUN.3.91.960810194513.13080C-100000@tipper.oit.unc.edu>, Simon Spero <ses@tipper.oit.unc.edu> writes:
> In the UK they now use cameras to deter speeding; the cameras are > triggered by vehicles passing by which exceed the speed-limit, so in > theory it's only naughty people who get photographed. Interestingly > enough, there are far more places with camera warning signs than there > are actual cameras; the actual cameras are moved around at random. Even > though most of the time there isn't a camera there, almost everbody > seemed to slow down in the marked areas; probably because there's almost > 100% chance of being caught if there is a camera there. In Ontario, they tried this on some of the major highways. The most interesting thing about it was that it was proved time and time again that the technology was not up to snuff: there was an almost 0% chance of being caught. When the license plate wasn't obscured or unreadable (which it usually was) the computerized mailing system made some stupid mistake that allowed the person to get off if they challenged it. The interesting thing is that the project was scrapped for these reasons when the next government came in, but studies showed that it _succeeded_ in lowering peoples speed limits. I personally drove consistantly about 20-40km over the speed limit while this was in effect, cuz I knew it sucked, but apparently I was in the minorty. -Robin
For anybody with interest in this happening in the U.S., please note that such a practice (cameras and speed tracking devices, resulting in tickets being sent to the offending party) has been talked about, in somewhat closed circles, for years. A couple of years ago, 2600 Magazine ran an article listing most of the intersections with said devices. You can probably find it in their web page's index of back issues to pick it up. (http://www.2600.com). ObCrypto: Has anyone had any experience working with the Sidewinder Firewall and encryption and/or S/key or SecurID? What are drawbacks with using DESlogin with a firewall? or any encrypted transmissions for that matter? Is there anyway to bypass the obvious (sniffing). Thanks :) Millie, from her boyfriends account :) sfuze@sunspot.tiac.net "Remailers? Why bother? These days they'll find you no matter WHAT you use."
participants (4)
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<pstiraļ¼ escape.com> -
i am not a number! -
Robin Powell -
Simon Spero