gannebraemorr writes “U-T San Diego reports that the city has become ‘the latest in a cadre of California cities turning their backs on red-light cameras — aloof intersection sentries that have prompted $490 tickets to be mailed to 20,000 motorists per year’ there. ‘Mayor Bob Filner announced his decision to take down the city’s 21 cameras at a news conference set at the most prolific intersection for the tickets, North Harbor Drive and West Grape Street, near San Diego International Airport. A crew went to work immediately taking down “photo enforced” signs throughout the city. “Seems to me that such a program can only be justified if there are demonstrable facts that prove that they raise the safety awareness and decrease accidents in our city,” Filner said of the cameras. “The data, in fact, does not really prove it.”‘ I have to say I’m a bit surprised that my city is voluntarily shedding potentially $9.8M in revenue after objectively evaluating a program. I wonder how much a system would cost that could switch my light from green to red if it detected a vehicle approaching from a red-lit direction at dangerous speeds. Can you think of an other alternative uses for these cameras?” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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San Diego Drops Red-Light Cameras
angry tapir writes “A change in Internet traffic patterns over the past week suggests that Cuba may have turned on a fiber-optic submarine cable that links it to the global Internet via Venezuela. Routing analyst firm Renesys noticed that the Spanish telecommunications company Telefónica began routing Internet traffic to Cuba’s state telecommunications company, Empresa de Telecomunicaciones de Cuba S.A. (ETECSA). The Internet traffic is flowing with significantly lower latencies than before, indicating the connection is not solely using the three satellite providers that Cuba has relied on in the past for connectivity.” Read more of this story at Slashdot. 
Upping its Web presence with high-level “ask me anything” sessions, the social news site racks in hundreds of millions of users and reveals its top 10 posts of 2012. [Read more] 
DECula writes “In a move not communicated to its users before hand, Google’s Gmail servers were reconfigured to not connect to remote pop3 servers that have self-signed certificates, leaving folks with unencrypted connections, or no service when getting email from other services. Not good for the small folks. One suggestion was to allow placing the public keys on Google’s side in the user configuration. That would be a heck of a lot better than just dropping users into never never land.” Apparently, “valid” now means “paid someone Google approves to sign the certificate.” It’s not like commercial CAs have the best security track record either. Read more of this story at Slashdot. 
concealment writes with news of dissatisfaction with a pilot program for stoplight-monitoring cameras. The program ran for several years in New Jersey, and according to a new report, the number of car crashes actually increased while the cameras were present. “[The program] appears to be changing drivers’ behavior, state officials said Monday, noting an overall decline in traffic citations and right-angle crashes. The Department of Transportation also said, however, that rear-end crashes have risen by 20 percent and total crashes are up by 0.9 percent at intersections where cameras have operated for at least a year. The agency recommended the program stay in place, calling for ‘continued data collection and monitoring’ of camera-monitored intersections. The department’s report drew immediate criticism from Assemblyman Declan O’Scanlon, R-Monmouth, who wants the cameras removed. He called the program ‘a dismal failure,’ saying DOT statistics show the net costs of accidents had climbed by more than $1 million at intersections with cameras.” Other cities are considering dumping the monitoring tech as well, citing similar cost and efficacy issues. Read more of this story at Slashdot. 