Something Funny ...

[Guest]

I guess I am going in between extremes this morning. It must be the lack of sleep and extreme dosing of

I was at a workshop last week where our IT Support guy was running down the various web-tools, web-queries, and web-generated reports that could be accessed by the general public. One of the nifty features was to click (on a link) for a facility and an aerial photo of that facility would pop-up, scaled to the street level and would include GIS-linked information such as environmental compliance history, inspection reports, permits, etc. Actually pretty cool stuff if you are looking for a one-stop shop of compliance with solid and hazardous waste inventories.

Anyways, one guy raises his hand immediately and asks about the resolution of the image - how far away is that taken. The IT Support guy looks puzzled and asks him to restate his question. The gentleman in the audience asks, "what kind of resolution do you have for those pictures? How far in can you zoom?" To which the IT support guy responds, "These are typical satellite images used in ARC-GIS and other remote sensing applications ... "

The gentleman at that point launches into a tirade.

"That sounds like an unwarranted invasion of my privacy if you can snap photos of my facility and observe all of my activities. I can't believe the government goes through this much trouble to make sure that I am properly labelling my used oil drums. I want to file a complaint for your use of such satellite technology .... "

The guy was like soooo serious. He actually believed the IT Support guy was snapping photos in REAL TIME of his facility to inspect it for violations. I guess he never heard of Google maps ?? :Locolaugh: :Locolaugh:

Needless to say, I wasn't the only one in the audience that had a hard time containing my laughter.

JR

 

[mudpuppy]

Along the same lines: Last year my county announced they were spending $250,000 of taxpayer money for an aeriel survey of the entire county. Their justification was it would help them find properties where they could increase the property tax assessments. I was really annoyed they were spending tax money for the sole purpose of raising taxes.

However, I have to say I'm pleased with the results; the entire county is available in "Bird's eye view" on maps.live.com now which is really handy for a number of things, especially scoping out real-estate listings. But I have to say it is a little creepy that you can almost see inside the windows of my house on that thing.

 

[Dleg]

That's funny. I think a lot of people believe that those images are real-time, though. I have had quite a few people ask me, when I show them Google earth images, if I can check where their wife's car is, for example. Duh!