You know the drill. Once a city has spoken with Google about bringing Fiber into their hood, there’s a process for the city to go through. A lengthy one. Checklists. The whole nine yards. Two new cities are exploring Fiber with Google and they are Chicago and Los Angeles. Yes, San Francisco has been skipped again and I’m going to go cry into my slow internet from Comcast.… Read More
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Chicago And Los Angeles Are Next Up For Google Fiber
Jordan is home to some extremely significant historical and religious sites. However, visiting those landmarks in person is no mean feat — which is why Google just added many of them to Street View. Fire up your web browser and you can get virtual, 360-degree tours of more than 30 ancient locations, including the city of Petra (above), Jerash and legendary castles from the Crusades. We suspect that this will pale in comparison to the grandeur of seeing these relics first-hand, but you should at least have an inkling of what the experience would be like. Source: Google Maps
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Google Street View gives you a tour of ancient Jordan landmarks
Remember back when Chattanooga, Tennessee fought the FCC and Comcast earlier this year over broadband regulations ? Of course you do. Now the city’s back in the news because it’s offering 10Gbps internet service that spreads across some 600 square miles and is accessible by “every” home and business. It’ll cost those 170, 000 homes and businesses, though. According to a release from local utility company EPB, that blazing fast speed will run $299 a month (pretty similar to Comcast ) with gratis installation and without a contract. There’ll apparently be 5Gbps and 10Gbps options for small businesses and 3Gbps, 5Gbps and 10Gbps pro-level packages for enterprise. Those prices will vary, but almost positively won’t be “cheap” for folks like you and me by any stretch of the imagination. [Image credit: Associated Press]
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Tennessee’s 10Gbps broadband is $299 a month
An anonymous reader writes: It’s bad enough that some places have outfitted their police vehicles with automated license plate scanners, but now the city of San Jose may take it one step further. They’re considering a proposal to install plate readers on their fleet of garbage trucks. This would give them the ability to blanket virtually every street in the city with scans once a week. San Jose officials made this proposal ostensibly to fight car theft, but privacy activists have been quick to point out the unintended consequences. ACLU attorney Chris Conley said, “If it’s collected repeatedly over a long period of time, it can reveal intimate data about you like attending a religious service or a gay bar. People have a right to live their lives without constantly being monitored by the government.” City councilman Johnny Khamis dismissed such criticism: “This is a public street. You’re not expecting privacy on a public street.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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San Jose May Put License Plate Scanners On Garbage Trucks
Add / Remove Electronic paper signs that run on sunlight consume up to 99 percent less energy than their LCD counterparts, so it was only a matter of time before cities began using the technology to power road signs. The first to do so is Sydney, Australia, whose Road and Maritime Services recently installed Visionect’s e-paper signage across the city. The new eco-friendy wireless signs are connected to the Internet of Things and display changing road information, keeping drivers informed with relevant updates. They are solar powered and therefore 100 percent self-sustainable and not susceptible to problems such as power cuts. They use little power because they only connect to 3G at pre-scheduled ‘wake up’ times, when they receive new information via Visionect’s software. The signs are visible in bright sunlight — the electronic ink used is the same as that used in e-book readers and smart watches. A front panel light triggered by diminishing light levels makes them just as readable at night. What else could e-paper be used for? Website: www.visionect.com Contact: info@visionect.com
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Sydney’s e-paper road signs are smart and energy efficient
Between the western shores of Alaska and the northeastern tip of Russia, the Bering Strait is so narrow that you could drive across it in an hour, if only there were a tunnel beneath the sea. And Russian Railways wants to build one, as part of a massive road and rail project that would stretch from New York to London by way of Canada, Alaska, Russia, and continental Europe. Read more…
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Russia Wants People to Road Trip from New York to London (via Moscow)
Sydney is now using the world’s first outdoor e-ink traffic signs to guide motorists during special events. The city’s Roads and Maritime Services (RMS) agency was apparently fed up with the constant chore of changing signs, and developed the tech with a company called Visionect . Like your Kindle , the signs are easy to read in Sydney’s bright sunshine, and also powered by it via solar panels. The messages can be updated remotely via a cell connection to an “internet of things” network. Sydney’s tech is pretty basic, but e-ink holds enormous potential for signage. We’ll no doubt see fancier outdoor displays one day, but for now the city’s just hoping to save some money — Los Angeles spends up to $9.5 million putting up temporary parking restriction signs, for instance. The group also developed anti-tampering and location detection tech, because you just know that someone’s going to try to steal or hack them. Filed under: Displays Comments Via: The Register Source: Visionect
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Sydney gets world’s first e-ink traffic signs
The Seattle Police have hired the programmer who inundated the departmen t with requests for footage from the city’s police body camera program last year, and then later, requested nearly every email Washington State government ever sent. If you can’t beat ‘em, hire ‘em. Read more…
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Seattle Cops Hire the Programmer That Demanded All Their Body Cam Video
Beneath the streets of London, an underground rail network once existed to shuttle mail around the city. Decommissioned in 2003, this 3D laser scan serves to save its existence for posterity. Read more…
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3D Laser Scan Shows London’s Abandoned Underground Mail Rail Network
HughPickens.com writes Joe Pinsker writes at The Atlantic that Finish businessman Reima Kuisla was recently caught going 65 miles per hour in a 50 zone in his home country and ended up paying a fine of $56, 000. The fine was so extreme because in Finland, some traffic fines, as well as fines for shoplifting and violating securities-exchange laws, are assessed based on earnings—and Kuisla’s declared income was €6.5 million per year. Several years ago another executive was fined the equivalent of $103, 000 for going 45 in a 30 zone on his motorcycle. Finland’s system for calculating fines is relatively simple: It starts with an estimate of the amount of spending money a Finn has for one day, and then divides that by two—the resulting number is considered a reasonable amount of spending money to deprive the offender of. Then, based on the severity of the crime, the system has rules for how many days the offender must go without that money. Going about 15 mph over the speed limit gets you a multiplier of 12 days, and going 25 mph over carries a 22-day multiplier. Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Austria, France, and Switzerland also have some sliding-scale fines, or “day-fines, ” in place, but in America, flat-rate fines are the norm. Since the late 80s, when day-fines were first seriously tested in the U.S., they have remained unusual and even exotic. Should such a system be used in the United States? After all, wealthier people have been shown to drive more recklessly than those who make less money. For example Steve Jobs was known to park in handicapped spots and drive around without license plates. But more importantly, day-fines could introduce some fairness to a legal system that many have convincingly shown to be biased against the poor. Last week, the Department of Justice released a comprehensive report on how fines have been doled out in Ferguson, Missouri. “Ferguson’s law enforcement practices are shaped by the City’s focus on revenue rather than by public safety needs, ” it concluded. The first day-fine ever in the U.S. was given in 1988, and about 70 percent of Staten Island’s fines in the following year were day-fines. A similar program was started in Milwaukee, and a few other cities implemented the day-fine idea and according to Judith Greene, who founded Justice Strategies, a nonprofit research organization, all of these initiatives were effective in making the justice system fairer for poor people. “When considering a proportion of their income, people are at least constantly risk-averse. This means that the worst that would happen is that the deterrent effect of fines would be the same across wealth or income levels, ” says Casey Mulligan. “We should start small—say, only speeding tickets—and see what happens.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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$56,000 Speeding Ticket Issued Under Finland’s System of Fines Based On Income