Rant Future: Will your computer be yours?

[Moonwalker]

If someone really wanted to scope your house at that point, they could take up a small plane and go take many high-res (higher than Google's images) pictures and construct their own much better 3D model.

I'm not talking about Google Earth, but about Google Street View, which offers much more details like even house numbers and you can even see if somebody has barred windows and which ones exactly.

Planes and camera equipment... and constructing an own 3d model? That was yesterday. No need to take such expensive and time consuming efforts anymore once Google Street View offers it for free, available within seconds by just a very few clicks.

 

[Urwumpe]

And of course, just driving past your house with a camera will not do the same... And not everybody, who sees your house in Google Street View, will be a criminal robbing your house - and if he is, he will not have it any bit easier. Google Street View will be outdated quickly - the images might no longer be useful for anything, when they appear on the server.

If you really plan to rob a house, you will only have one help by Street View: It helps you decide which house looks like a worthy target, without having to drive there and check the whole neighborhood. But still, even reading a newspaper about your neighborhood reveals more than you might imagine, if you read it with the focus on possible wealth waiting for you.

 

[Moonwalker]

It's not somebody driving past my house with a camera. It's somebody driving into my street right in front of my house, with a car labled "Google", and takes high quality pictures that will be visible online for about 1 billion people.

Most houses within my neighbourhood did not change within 10 years. And I don't think Google Street View images would get that much out of date anyway.

But at least something like the following will get out of date quite fast. Oh wait, does somebody know the person accidentally?

 

[Hielor]

I'm not talking about Google Earth, but about Google Street View, which offers much more details like even house numbers and you can even see if somebody has barred windows and which ones exactly.

I thought you said that there were hedges in front of your house which blocked the Street View?

Planes and camera equipment... and constructing an own 3d model? That was yesterday. No need to take such expensive and time consuming efforts anymore once Google Street View offers it for free, available within seconds by just a very few clicks.

Again, you said you had walls and hedges...

 

[Artlav]

Somehow that all reminds me of what Kahlil Gibran once wrote:

And tell me, people of Orphalese, what have you in these houses?
And what is it you guard with fastened doors?
Have you peace, the quiet urge that reveals your power?
Have you remembrances, the glimmering arches that span the summits of the mind?
Have you beauty, that leads the heart from things fashioned of wood and stone to the holy mountain?
Tell me, have you these in your houses?
Or have you only comfort, and the lust for comfort, that stealthy thing that enters the house a guest, then becomes a host, and then a master?

 

[Moonwalker]

I thought you said that there were hedges in front of your house which blocked the Street View?


Again, you said you had walls and hedges...

Millions of people do not have that. And a lot of those people also don't like the idea. Just like the EU does not like the idea of Google Street View. They even were talking about not to allow it. But I don't know how up to date this is. Maybe Google won. They are mighty. They delete, well at request or course, documentaries like the one about the scandalously Monsanto company or even supporting censorship in China.

But all this of course is nothing more than phantasy and conspiracy. Because Google is just so cool. It only wants: the best for everybody.

 

[jedidia]

Somehow that all reminds me of what Kahlil Gibran once wrote:

hooray for the prophet!

Anyways, somehow we deviated from "will your computer be yours" to copyright issues to big brother...

 

[Andy44]

Anyways, somehow we deviated from "will your computer be yours" to copyright issues to big brother...

Yes, but it's a natural progression. The internet is the most powerful, liberating technology to be developed since the printing press. It empowers individuals and bypasses state authority, which is very frightening to the state, and very enticing to opportunists, since control of this medium, if possible, means enormous power. See my blog about this.

That is really what DRM is all about: old guard corporations who cannot bring themselves to make money the new way want the business to stay the same. The nature of the internet is to force them to change their business models, so they use the force of government, by buying...er...lobbying politicians to make new, draconian laws which protect their interests. In the end this almost always fails; technology cannot be turned back without crippling some portion of the economy. DRM will eventually crack under the force of history or at least be altered to a more agreeable form.

 

[Moonwalker]

It empowers individuals and bypasses state authority, which is very frightening to the state, and very enticing to opportunists, since control of this medium, if possible, means enormous power. See my blog about this.

That's why even former German chancellor Helmut Schmidt says that the internet is one of the most serious global threats within this century. And he is by far not the only politician who is very frightened because of the internet...

 

[Urwumpe]

Yeah. And if Helmut Schmidt is scared of something new, we must all be scared...

The internet is only a threat to those, who are missing it's opportunities... I mean: We are discussing this in the internet now...

 

[Moonwalker]

Yeah. And if Helmut Schmidt is scared of something new, we must all be scared...

The internet is only a threat to those, who are missing it's opportunities... I mean: We are discussing this in the internet now...

I did not say that I agree to Helmut Schmidt. But it shows that politicians are scared and might want to take "control". Just take our German golden placenta, censUrsula von der Leyen, as one example, although she is still more stupid rather than scared.

Helmut Schmidt is not scared of anything that is new by the way. For example, he is not and never was scared about the growing China at all. Quite the opposite

 

[Urwumpe]

I did not say that I agree to Helmut Schmidt. But it shows that politicians are scared and might want to take "control". Just take our German golden placenta, censUrsula von der Leyen, as one example, although she is still more stupid rather than scared.

Yeah, like many people of my generation complain: The rules for the internet are made by people who print their email.

Helmut Schmidt is not scared of anything that is new by the way. For example, he is not and never was scared about the growing China at all. Quite the opposite

Not really surprising...wasn't many trading deals with the middle east also from his era? Still, it is better the Chinese buy from us, than from somebody else. :rofl:

 

[Andy44]

In the US, there is a creeping of government power over the internet. For now it's mainly about trying to tax online purchases, but there was recently a politician who introduced a bill that would effectively ban bloggers and other "non-professional" commentators. Can't remember the details...

 

[willy88]

For now it's mainly about trying to tax online purchases, but there was recently a politician who introduced a bill that would effectively ban bloggers and other "non-professional" commentators. Can't remember the details...

If an idiot like that proposed a bill like that in Canada, and if it was successful, I would walk to his residence and beat the crap out of him.... and then write a blog post about it.