Holy crap, especially when one types in their street address, like me, and the street level view shows your house clear as day...thank goodness I mowed the yard and dumped bark before the project.

This is beyond cool. Due to GIS technology, mapping has jumped beyond what I could imagine 20 yrs ago. This comes from a geek who has a B.S. in Cartography. My senior mapping project was done with pen and ink and darkroom technology--seems like yesterday.

Creepy? Yeah.

Here is work, with my and coworker outside smoking.

this is the opposite of cool.

unless you're not interested in pesky inconveniences like morality, ethics and the dignity of fellow humans.

A turnaround question: Does anyone have photos of the vehicles and cameras that Google uses to gather the street views?

"this is the opposite of cool.
unless you're not interested in pesky inconveniences like morality, ethics and the dignity of fellow humans."

Initially I was somewhat at a loss as to why you go there. This isn't real time video surveillance...these are still shots of public places. It's a tool for people to use when they want to know what a given locale looks like. As the current technology exits it seems pretty benign, but then again people abuse stuff like this all the time. Talk about cyber-stalking...I know what your house looks like I saw it on Google...geez!

Maybe archived 24/7/365 video surveillance is just around the corner? Not that far fetched actually when you realize how far things have come in terms of computing power in such a short time frame.

I think I heard about a tribe in Africa (possibly the Masai) who do not like to be photographed because they believe it steals their soul. Maybe this is the angle you are taking here? Google steals our collective soul because it photographs every nook and cranny of our neighborhoods? I know some people hate Google because they are pretty much in line to dominate the planet. I don't blame them.

Not much we can do about it though. Google probably has a 1st Amendment right to photograph and then publish any public site of their choice. The land of the free and the home of the brave...gotta love it.

Wait 'til the Chinese foreclose on it.

"A turnaround question: Does anyone have photos of the vehicles and cameras that Google uses to gather the street views?"
----------------

I used their own camera to view their auto that was carrying the camera. It is a gun-metal grey-green sedan with a roof mounted rack that holds the camera. You can actually look down from the roof into the front and rear windows, see most of the roof, and both rear view mirrors.

I bet if you seached long enough (going around town where they have mirror reflective windows), you could "look in the mirror" to see exactly what the car looks like.

Here's an image (sort of) of the van, and here, apparently, is the camera.

Does this mean that the black helicopters aren't really up there.

Not much we can do about it though.

speaking out about it and discussing it is doing something about it. being an active participant in what's happening is doing something.

This isn't real time video surveillance...these are still shots of public places.

not yet, it isn't. listen--if the gist of your response is "why complain"? then i'm not sure what to tell you.

This isn't real time video surveillance

Certainly kinda scary. But they already do it in the EU, and I thought everyone wanted us to be like them? I guess London has microphones now too. They listen for voice "escalations" to try and keep problems from occuring. Nice, eh?

I heard Chicago is setting up a surveillance system now too.

I can't wait for them to start using IR cameras.

Cool. Didn't know this had come to PDX.