3 ms·

And yet, think of all the servers that get hacked today because they are running unpatched versions of their operating systems. I agree with you that there were

And yet, think of all the servers that get hacked today because they are running unpatched versions of their operating systems. I agree with you that there were lots of CCTV systems 30 years ago. I'm just pointing out that the fact these cameras exist doesn't mean they are maintained or that employees know how to use them, and that this problem was more challenging in the past because stuff was mechanical and analog and not as easy to automate.

eesmith 4y ago
There's quite a range of gas stations, so it's hard to be certain about any specific one. But a gas station for a major chain seems exactly the place that would have working cameras, because you're going to get people who fill up and drive away without paying. It's really hard to know if my memory is faulty, so I looked for images of gas stations from the 1990s. Zoom in on this picture from a Citgo in 1998 and you'll see four cameras hung from the ceiling - one pointing each direction, for each of the pumping islands. https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/the-citgo-station-on-route-1-alleged-to-have-sold-generic-news-photo/137257661?adppopup=true https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/the-citgo-stat... On the other hand, the five or so other US stations I found, from the same time frame, don't have an apparent camera. (Which doesn't mean they weren't there, though that seems unlikely.) So .. I don't know. But I can say that at least some gas stations had video cameras going, and I don't place much weight in your argument that they "very frequently didn't work". In the mid-1990s someone had a fender bender with a co-worker's car in the parking lot. The building had roof cameras, and he was able to get security to review the video the next day. However, it didn't have the detail for that purpose. So my anecdotal evidence is that it wasn't all that hard to have a working system 20+ years ago. After all, it wasn't all that expensive for Jennicam to get started at that time, with automatic image capture and uploads.

eesmith 4y ago

There's quite a range of gas stations, so it's hard to be certain about any specific one. But a gas station for a major chain seems exactly the place that would have working cameras, because you're going to get people who fill up and drive away without paying. It's really hard to know if my memory is faulty, so I looked for images of gas stations from the 1990s. Zoom in on this picture from a Citgo in 1998 and you'll see four cameras hung from the ceiling - one pointing each direction, for each of the pumping islands. https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/the-citgo-station-on-route-1-alleged-to-have-sold-generic-news-photo/137257661?adppopup=true https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/the-citgo-stat... On the other hand, the five or so other US stations I found, from the same time frame, don't have an apparent camera. (Which doesn't mean they weren't there, though that seems unlikely.) So .. I don't know. But I can say that at least some gas stations had video cameras going, and I don't place much weight in your argument that they "very frequently didn't work". In the mid-1990s someone had a fender bender with a co-worker's car in the parking lot. The building had roof cameras, and he was able to get security to review the video the next day. However, it didn't have the detail for that purpose. So my anecdotal evidence is that it wasn't all that hard to have a working system 20+ years ago. After all, it wasn't all that expensive for Jennicam to get started at that time, with automatic image capture and uploads.