Record London snowstorm defeats the surveillance state
Almost Witty sez, "When it comes to CCTV versus the recent London snow showers, there's only one winner: snow." I've been slogging through this stuff all day, cursing it. Who knew about these positive externalities?
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Why is that camera pointed up like that? Looks at the iceickle, did someone move the camera?
This made my day.
You know you're not having fun outside when your icicles form diagonally in the windchill. Hang in there guys!
Ha! I saw an equally excellent scene on a security camera outside a local grocery store here in Chicago, it was caked in an inch of ice and had 3 foot icicles dripping off it. My first thought was "Cory Doctorow would get a kick out of this!", but, ironically, I didn't have a camera handy.
Spkng f prvcy:
BngBng stll ss Gglnlytcs whch trcks wb srs vr mllns f wbsts nd snds ll tht dt (wht w lk t, tc.) t Ggl t bld prcs prfls f s.
Hw d y jstfy ths?
Pls, thr r tns f ltrntvs t Gglnlytcs whch y cnvnntly chs t gnr:
http://mshbl.cm/2009/01/12/trck-nln-trffc/
@ Whatevah
Relax... and breathe... and relax.
Only if you are logged in to your Google account. Even if you are logged in, as long as you've opted out of the "search history" crap, you'll be OK.
@ Whatevah
Just use Adblock Plus and add the following to your block list:
@@|http://www.google-analytics.com/*
@ Glgng
Srry, y'r wrng. t trcks vrybdy, ndpndntly f bng lggd n r nt.
Th nly thng y cn d bt t s t s Frfx nd nstll nd crrctly cnfgr th dd-n clld "CstmzGgl".
Th prblm s: nbdy knws bt th sttn. nd mst f ths wh d r t lzy t d smthng gnst t. Rslt: 1 hg dtbs bt ll f s.
Ggl prvds Gglnlytcs fr fr, bcs thy knw tht thy cn by wbmstrs tht wy - vn ths wh cnsstnly prch "gnst" th lss f prvcy n th Wb.
@ Whatevah
Have no fear. The database is your friend. The database wants to protect you. The database loves you. Love the database.
Let's all take a moment and thank someone's god that global warming will help put an end to this sort of thing! Unless it causes England to be covered by ice, inwhich case never mind.
@ Whatevah
If you're that concerned about privacy, you should just not use the internet. Even if google is tracking your information, you're probably not important enough for them to care about. They are just using your information to sell things, just like supermarkets use information about their customers spending habits. The only time they would ever have to put your name to an IP address is if you did something illegal and if they were court ordered to, or if you pissed off the wrong person.
Now CCTV cameras are different. Having a human(s) monitor what you're doing at all times, live, is much worse than having your information stored on a database (which is probably only your recent information that is stored). With CCTV cameras they can try and get you for the smallest infraction if they see it on camera since it is the police that is directly involved and they could send someone right then and there to talk to you. This isn't so with google and it's not google's main reason for having the database in the first place.
@ Whatevah, another option: No-script, don't allow google-analytics.com, or even! ... mark it as untrusted.
Whatevah_888,
It seems that every comment that you've ever made on BB has been about Google Analytics. I don't know if it's a personal issue or you work for the competition, but I've banned you anyway.
Cory, it's a weather cam.
Not really Jeff. What is most likely to happen is that as the Gulf Stream shuts down the Earth will generally warm so it might be a wash for the UK. The US will not fair so well.
The US will not fair so well.
How so? Canada will barely put up a fight. ;)
Lol - when my girlfriend emailed yesterday morning to say she couldn't go to work because of a blizzard, I immediately hit the webcams to see footage of London in serious snow. And of course 3/4 or more of them were completely frosted over or whited out.
It didn't even occur to me that this must have wiped out about the same proportion of surveillance cameras down in Airstrip One.
Did you know that China Central Television is called CCTV?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_Central_Television
There's a rumor of a big snowball fight outside the Royal Bank of Scotland, Bishops Gate, City of London, today (3 Feb) at 1pm GMT. Check yer txts.
Funny that, the snow in London inspired me to write a small piece of satire about exactly that! Link:
http://www.coffeemoon.eu/node/49
Noen, if the gulf stream shuts down (too much cold fresh water from the melting north pole), then England will get slammed by cold, since it's the warm golf steam that keep the climate over there pretty warm in the winter.
I saw this one in Northampton. Deliberate mischief but I still love it. http://flickr.com/photos/beerandnoodles/3257598763/