OT - Technology is amazing

[Combat Wombat]

http://www.terraserver.com/imagery/i...r_id=305&t=pan

That is a photo taking from orbit of my neighborhood

[ June 12, 2004, 05:43: Message edited by: Combat Wombat ]

[PeterD]

Technology will be REALLY amazing when they can
take a picture of you playing SE4 from orbit.

[Jack Simth]

They can actually do that sort of thing ... if you are outside, anyway. However, they can't do so for the entire population, as the satelites with the strength to do that kind of thing do so, not by increased resolution, but by taking a picture through a telescope - when one of those takes a picture of you, it's pretty much just taking a picture of you, and was probably pointed at you specifically. The ones on that site, however, are taking pictures of gargantuan swaths of ground at once, with a resolution just barely sufficent to distinguish individual cars on the freeway (in good traffic, anyway - bumber-to-bumper traffic jams would merge together into long snakes). They may eventually put something up there that can, indeed, catch everyone at everything done outside in a 200 mile radius at once - but it wouldn't be very useful for those most likely to put it up (the military), as it would mostly be information overload without a specific spot to check out. Law enforcement agencies might like it - if all that data was recorded, it would be useful for answering such questions as "where did the guy who robbed the convienence store at 83rd and Pine at 2:33 am this morning go to take off his mask?" - but unless they could phrase a question in such a manner, or had some form of AI to sort through it, that level of detail would be useless. Of course, a 200 mile radius at, say, 10 pixels per square inch results in about 5*10^15 pixels - at 1 byte per pixel, you are talking roughly 5000 terrabytes (before compression). If you take them at 1 per second, you are talking 432,000,000 terrabytes just to store one day's worth (again, before compression). Fortunately, I don't believe we have enough silicone on the planet to make such a memory device....

[ June 12, 2004, 07:09: Message edited by: Jack Simth ]

[Paul1980au]

It would have to be some sort of nanotech memory or something with quantum computers - actually the idea of a quantum inseperability device has been muted by psyshics - ie a computer here communicating instatnanously with a computer on pluto (without a time delay) fast than light communications is possible. But the device would have to be launched from earth and then used on pluto with the same device on earth. Something abotu particles that once connected are always conencted at a subatomic level.

[narf poit chez BOOM]

Oh dear, did someone hack into my battlecruiser? I keep telling them 'Keep the thing incompatable with laptops!', but do they listen? Nooo...

[Paul1980au]

Where is my battlecruiser - i would love one in real life with a MC to go explore and conquoer the galaxy and really see if darth vader is still somewhere out there.

[narf poit chez BOOM]

I had a MC but then it started arguing about 401k's and vacations and before I know it it uploaded itself into an experimental rocket and left. I really have to stop building those, they only get stolen or blown up.

But I'll get it! I'll get it!! I SICKED MY LAWYERS ON IT!

[ June 12, 2004, 08:47: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

[dogscoff]

Whee! You can see my house! Or at least, you can see the building which stood where my block of flats now stands when this picture was taken 4 years ago.

YOu can even mouseover the map to get the exact latitude and longtitude of a particular building. I'd post my own lat & long here but I suspect some of you guys might have orbital weapons and some old catina-grudges to settle...

[Raging Deadstar]

Originally posted by dogscoff:
YOu can even mouseover the map to get the exact latitude and longtitude of a particular building. I'd post my own lat & long here but I suspect some of you guys might have orbital weapons and some old catina-grudges to settle...

It's ok Dogscoff, Most Orbital Weapons specialise in Collateral damage, we'll just aim for the general neighbourhood

[Thermodyne]

The KH series of satellites can deliver resolution that allows for reading of vehicle markings. Back when the cold war was all the rage, troop formations were often staged for the satellites passage. So our guys looked to see if the soldiers had their boots laced up.