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Nice Planet 13: This Planet Sucks

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Re: Nice Planet 13: This Planet Sucks

I was watching a show last night about this guy in Colorado who basically had his life ruined because some facial recognition software was used to examine security camera footage of a bank robbery and pegged him as the robber, even though he had an airtight alibi. It wasn't until the bank teller came in during preliminary hearings and told the judge that there was no way this guy could have been the robber because he was so much taller than the actual thief that the guy was finally released. However, by that time he was pretty well screwed, especially being a financial services industry worker.

The most interesting part of the show, however, was a brief discussion of that Russian app called FindFace, which apparently is starting to become a real problem in Russia. Basically, you use your cellphone to take a picture of someone you see, then plug that picture into the app. The app searches social media sites and in short order will tell you pretty much everything you need to know about the person. Extraordinarily handy for stalkers and thieves.

Won't be long until that hits here.
 
Re: Nice Planet 13: This Planet Sucks

SJHovey said:
I was watching a show last night about this guy in Colorado who basically had his life ruined because some facial recognition software was used to examine security camera footage of a bank robbery and pegged him as the robber, even though he had an airtight alibi. It wasn't until the bank teller came in during preliminary hearings and told the judge that there was no way this guy could have been the robber because he was so much taller than the actual thief that the guy was finally released. However, by that time he was pretty well screwed, especially being a financial services industry worker.

The most interesting part of the show, however, was a brief discussion of that Russian app called FindFace, which apparently is starting to become a real problem in Russia. Basically, you use your cellphone to take a picture of someone you see, then plug that picture into the app. The app searches social media sites and in short order will tell you pretty much everything you need to know about the person. Extraordinarily handy for stalkers and thieves.

Won't be long until that hits here.
Click to expand...

Good lord...everything about this is just wrong. Facial rec is important but is only one tool.

And that app...oh boy.
 
Re: Nice Planet 13: This Planet Sucks

Handyman said:
Good lord...everything about this is just wrong. Facial rec is important but is only one tool.

And that app...oh boy.
Click to expand...

So our kids and grandkids will walk around with counter-measure RF face shields. "Hope I die before I get old."
 
Re: Nice Planet 13: This Planet Sucks

This is one of the reasons companies were banning Google Glass users from wearing those glasses when entering their premises. Especially <strike>strip</strike> exotic clubs. (Had to make it work place friendly for Kep.)
 
Re: Nice Planet 13: This Planet Sucks

Handyman said:
Good lord...everything about this is just wrong. Facial rec is important but is only one tool.

And that app...oh boy.
Click to expand...

Yeah, your personal privacy is gone, no matter what people or courts may say. Honestly, people themselves have helped destroy it. The information we give to Google and to social media sites provide some marginal benefit to us, or make our lives more connected and interesting. But there is nothing private about your life anymore.

When the Aria casino in Las Vegas was built 7-8 years ago there were a number of "technology" related stories about this new casino. One interesting feature is that to get into and out of the casino, its floor plan is designed in such a way that you must pass through a "pinch point." I've been in that casino countless times and you don't even realize they're doing that to you.

At each pinch point there are innumerable security cameras that shoot your face from all angles, then run those photos through facial recognition software. If you've ever caused even the slightest problem in the past, you're probably not going even make it to the first row of slots.

You're going to start seeing that at arenas, ballparks, businesses, etc...
 
Re: Nice Planet 13: This Planet Sucks

Kepler said:
Debates. Town halls. Voting booths.
Click to expand...
Yep. It'll be everywhere. All that technology that we saw James Bond or Ethan Hunt try to hack, the facial recognition software, eyeball scans, fingerprint scans, etc..., will be standard equipment in our homes, our offices, our cars, etc...
 
Re: Nice Planet 13: This Planet Sucks

joecct said:
On a slightly lesser scale is the college textbook racket.

Professor writes a textbook. Uses textbook in his class. Gets royalties from the sales of his textbook.
Click to expand...

What else is he/she going to do? Use someone else's book, even though the professor obviously thinks that existing books on the subject were lacking otherwise they wouldn't have written and published their own book?

yeah, they're really getting rich from the royalties generated by their own students
 
Re: Nice Planet 13: This Planet Sucks

BassAle said:
What else is he/she going to do? Use someone else's book, even though the professor obviously thinks that existing books on the subject were lacking otherwise they wouldn't have written and published their own book?

yeah, they're really getting rich from the royalties generated by their own students
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There is a textbook racket and I used to work in it. Publishing company owns the rights to a textbook. Publishing company gets the ENTIRE STATE OF CALIFORNIA to adopt the textbook as a requirement for a 10-year span. So you're not talking about 30 sales, you're talking about 300,000. And the textbook happens to cost $60, so that's $18M from that one adoption. Our sales force (McGraw-Hill) used to receive bonuses for state adoptions like ski trips.

To f-cking Switzerland.

Care to guess how those salesmen get the state education committee to adopt that textbook? Neither did we... we told them to do it and not give us the details.

College textbook publishing is one of the great scams on the planet.
 
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Re: Nice Planet 13: This Planet Sucks

BassAle said:
What else is he/she going to do? Use someone else's book, even though the professor obviously thinks that existing books on the subject were lacking otherwise they wouldn't have written and published their own book?

yeah, they're really getting rich from the royalties generated by their own students
Click to expand...

I'm more worried about how they're using electronically-linked textbook inserts to eliminate the used textbook market.
 
Re: Nice Planet 13: This Planet Sucks

To be fair, that's more a problem with Greek society on general. This could have happened at any school.

Greek life is a plague of misogyny and sexual assault, malicious hazing, and dangerous relationships with drugs and alcohol.
 
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