4 ms·

I love this kind of tongue-in-cheek steganography. In a similar vein: Vermont Inmates Hide Image Of Pig On Police Decals (https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-wa

by mzajc 11mo ago

I love this kind of tongue-in-cheek steganography. In a similar vein: Vermont Inmates Hide Image Of Pig On Police Decals (https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2012/02/03/146358114/vermont-inmates-hide-image-of-pig-on-police-decals https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2012/02/03/146358114...)

Rendello 11mo ago
> "'This is not as offensive as it would have been years ago. We can see the humor,' said Public Safety Commissioner Keith Flynn, a former state trooper and state prosecutor who was named commissioner a year ago. 'If the person had used some of that creativeness, he or she would not have ended up inside.'" I read (and re-read, and re-read) the book You Can't Win on recommendation of a HN user. It's about a thief from the late 1800s-early 1900s, and the crimes he and his thief buddies did were pretty creative. A lot of crime is more brute-force than clever, but people can do some pretty interesting things if they want something and don't care if they lose everything.
- benchly 11mo ago
  > You Can't Win It's pretty entertaining! And free to read for anyone interested: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/69404 https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/69404
  - dn3500 11mo ago
    Standard Ebooks does a nice job of typesetting and proofreading many of the Project Gutenberg books, including this one. https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/jack-black/you-cant-win https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/jack-black/you-cant-win
- sandworm101 11mo ago
  A hidden pig? I bet some younger cops covet the cars with this logo. I was once at a military unit where someone hid a golf club in a crest for the door to the officers mess. It was spotted years later. The officers claimed to "never found out who did it", but they also never took it down.
- wodenokoto 10mo ago
  I started reading this because of your comment. Maybe someday I’ll recommend it in a HN thread and some unsuspecting HN reader will come to read it too!
  - Rendello 10mo ago
    Feel free to email me when your done and tell me what you thought of it :)
delichon 11mo ago
I agree for the decal, but the map steganography is at the expense of accuracy. It's less than professional, like adding a small bug to a corner case of your code for a joke.
- andy99 11mo ago
  I only skimmed the pictures in the article but the ones I saw could have no plausible impact on navigation. They are buried within tiny details that are essentially artistic anyway, there is no impact on accuracy possible.
  - delichon 11mo ago
    Not none, just very little, like the obscure code corner case. If you are thinking about building something nearby, or specifically looking for interesting terrain to visit, you may be misled. The pig shaped cow spot, on the other hand, adds accurate symbology to the decal, with a wholesome helping of self deprecation. To allow de minimis excursions from ground truth is a necessary compromise, but purposely introducing them isn't.
    - Scubabear68 11mo ago
      Oh please. Anyone looking to actually do something interesting with a piece of land is going to have to a much higher resolution map of the site, not use the extreme zoom and on a map covering a huge area. Or they may even go rogue and visit the place! Heavens to Murgatroyd!
      - snypher 11mo ago
        Yes, I hate when I'm halfway up the north face of the Eiger and my map just shows a spider.
    - LorenPechtel 11mo ago
      I don't think the effect would be serious. I have plotted explorations of the wilderness off topo maps--and I always head out perfectly well knowing that the map isn't a sufficiently accurate representation of reality to actually trust it. The flatter the terrain on the map the more likely it will prove passable on the ground but features can be small enough to not show, yet make it impractical to get through.

by mzajc 11mo ago

Rendello 11mo ago

> "'This is not as offensive as it would have been years ago. We can see the humor,' said Public Safety Commissioner Keith Flynn, a former state trooper and state prosecutor who was named commissioner a year ago. 'If the person had used some of that creativeness, he or she would not have ended up inside.'" I read (and re-read, and re-read) the book You Can't Win on recommendation of a HN user. It's about a thief from the late 1800s-early 1900s, and the crimes he and his thief buddies did were pretty creative. A lot of crime is more brute-force than clever, but people can do some pretty interesting things if they want something and don't care if they lose everything.

benchly 11mo ago
> You Can't Win It's pretty entertaining! And free to read for anyone interested: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/69404 https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/69404
- dn3500 11mo ago
  Standard Ebooks does a nice job of typesetting and proofreading many of the Project Gutenberg books, including this one. https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/jack-black/you-cant-win https://standardebooks.org/ebooks/jack-black/you-cant-win
sandworm101 11mo ago
A hidden pig? I bet some younger cops covet the cars with this logo. I was once at a military unit where someone hid a golf club in a crest for the door to the officers mess. It was spotted years later. The officers claimed to "never found out who did it", but they also never took it down.
wodenokoto 10mo ago
I started reading this because of your comment. Maybe someday I’ll recommend it in a HN thread and some unsuspecting HN reader will come to read it too!
- Rendello 10mo ago
  Feel free to email me when your done and tell me what you thought of it :)

delichon 11mo ago

I agree for the decal, but the map steganography is at the expense of accuracy. It's less than professional, like adding a small bug to a corner case of your code for a joke.

andy99 11mo ago
I only skimmed the pictures in the article but the ones I saw could have no plausible impact on navigation. They are buried within tiny details that are essentially artistic anyway, there is no impact on accuracy possible.
- delichon 11mo ago
  Not none, just very little, like the obscure code corner case. If you are thinking about building something nearby, or specifically looking for interesting terrain to visit, you may be misled. The pig shaped cow spot, on the other hand, adds accurate symbology to the decal, with a wholesome helping of self deprecation. To allow de minimis excursions from ground truth is a necessary compromise, but purposely introducing them isn't.
  - Scubabear68 11mo ago
    Oh please. Anyone looking to actually do something interesting with a piece of land is going to have to a much higher resolution map of the site, not use the extreme zoom and on a map covering a huge area. Or they may even go rogue and visit the place! Heavens to Murgatroyd!
    - snypher 11mo ago
      Yes, I hate when I'm halfway up the north face of the Eiger and my map just shows a spider.
  - LorenPechtel 11mo ago
    I don't think the effect would be serious. I have plotted explorations of the wilderness off topo maps--and I always head out perfectly well knowing that the map isn't a sufficiently accurate representation of reality to actually trust it. The flatter the terrain on the map the more likely it will prove passable on the ground but features can be small enough to not show, yet make it impractical to get through.