7 ms·

Where I am (Sydney Australia) we have fixed speed cameras that automatically create speeding fines to drivers going too fast (well, technically the registered o

by bigiain 8mo ago

Where I am (Sydney Australia) we have fixed speed cameras that automatically create speeding fines to drivers going too fast (well, technically the registered owner of the vehicle via ANPR). They eventually had to equip pretty much every speed camera with a speed camera camera, usually on a much higher pole to make vandalism more difficult.

stavros 8mo ago
Oof, I really hate this automated enforcement. Might be time to get a paintball gun.
- lotsofpulp 8mo ago
  What else could make life safer at a realistic cost for people outside of vehicles?
  - stavros 8mo ago
    Where I live, the speed limit keeps getting reduced so the city can make money off of fines, especially because nobody follows speed limits that are ridiculously low for wide, straight roads where following the limit would make traffic ground to a halt.
    - c22 8mo ago
      This happened in my hometown. Arterial roads that were 40mph when I was a kid are posted at 25 today and they just passed legislation to make the automated speed cameras near school zones active 24/7.
    - deleted 8mo ago
      [deleted]
  - redwall_hp 8mo ago
    Urban planning that separates pedestrians and vehicles. Roads that are narrow in places where a lower speed is desirable. Heavy taxation on vehicles with more mass and lower visibility. Actual licensing standards other than driving down a couple of city streets and parking. More crossings, with lights or bridges, instead of long four-lane arterial roads with nowhere to safely cross.
    - Symbiote 8mo ago
      We have most of that in <pick some European city/country>, and the statistics show it makes a big difference compared to the USA, but drivers still exceed the speed limit, run through red lights etc and cause injuries and death to pedestrians and cyclists. Removing automatic enforcement of speed limits would not improve the situation.
- seanmcdirmid 8mo ago
  And this is the reason I can’t wait for self driving cars that just follow the speed limit.
  - KMcCMedia 8mo ago
    They are said to drive like your Grandma, if she was a very good driver....
- staringforward 8mo ago
  > Might be time to get a paintball gun Just wait until you find out that paintball guns are considered firearms are require licensing in the aforementioned region.
  - zoklet-enjoyer 8mo ago
    I played paintball in Australia and I just had to sign a normal waiver about them not being responsible for injuries
    - andwur 8mo ago
      Ownership of paintball guns is regulated under the state-level firearms act in most (all?) states and territories. You can use them under the direct supervision of the licensed owner, but it's still quite restrictive. If you were to take one and shoot at cameras on the street it would vandalism plus firearms offences, most of which start at inversion of innocence, massive fines and move pretty quickly into prison time.
      - zoklet-enjoyer 8mo ago
        That's crazy
    - bigfatkitten 8mo ago
      If you actually purchased one yourself in Queensland, you would need a Cat A firearms license, genuine reason, permit to acquire, safe storage etc as for a firearm. NSW used to be similar, but a few years ago the state government had a rare moment of common sense and did away with most of that pointless bullshit.
- appplication 8mo ago
  Tbh an overpowered laser off alibaba probably works a lot better at longer range
  - altairprime 8mo ago
    A paintball gun might not invoke the federal government to hunt you down; an over-powered laser absolutely will. The FAA has a very low tolerance for that sort of thing. Do not ever, ever, ever use lasers in open air that are capable of damaging the human retina without the appropriate licenses. The last thing cities need right now is another federal agency going on a witchhunt. Firing eye-damaging lasers into the air would just serve them that excuse on a silvered platter.
    - NoMoreNicksLeft 8mo ago
      The CCDs in cameras can be damaged with low-power lasers, or so I thought. No need for anything crazy. And the FAA won't become involved unless you're pointing them skyward. Pointing them across the street, or anywhere not visible from the air isn't going to sic federal agencies on you.
      - drysart 8mo ago
        > And the FAA won't become involved unless you're pointing them skyward. The point here is that 'skyward' is where the laser's beam goes when you're trying to aim it at a camera up on a pole. It's practically impossible to point a non-fixed position laser at something a non-trivial distance higher than you without spilling a large amount of laser beam into whatever happens to be behind your intended target; which is very often the sky.
- bigiain 8mo ago
  Also here: "In NSW, paintball is classified as a "prohibited firearm" under the Firearms Act 1996. However, it can still be legally played under strict licensing conditions. Unlike in some states where it is more loosely regulated, players and operators in NSW must comply with a range of legal requirements to ensure safety and legality." These rules have changed, I think back before COVID they reclassified them as sporting equipment instead of firearms, but still brought in a whole bunch of licensing rules and requirements similar to gun ownership. You can't just walk into KMart and walk out with a paintball gun here. |Or paintball markers.
  - sdkfjhdsjk 8mo ago
    I remember reading about that back in the 90s as a kid here in the USA, in Action Pursuit Games magazine. They said semi-automatic paintball guns were illegal in Australia. I was like what kind of hellhole dystopia is that? Meanwhile at the local paintball field I remember this hillbilly had a fully automatic Angel when they came out. (The first electronic paintball gun.) He walked over to the treeline and emptied a hopper full of Brass Eagle paintballs into a tree in like 5 seconds. They all hit the tree at the exact same spot and vaporized into pink mist. Freedom, baby.
    - bigiain 8mo ago
      > I was like what kind of hellhole dystopia is that? Cynical answer: Not the kind of hellhole dystopia that has schoolkids shooting up schools twice a week.
      - sdkfjhdsjk 8mo ago
        So your thesis is that this hillbilly was likely to take his fully automatic paintball gun and shoot up a school with it? Or that his possession and use of this gun might somehow serve as a sort of "gateway drug" to Harder Weapons that he would then use to the same end? Neither one appears to have actually happened. In fact, I've never known a single person who has been involved in a school shooting, or heard of one happening here at all, ever. It just doesn't happen, regardless of whatever is supposedly happening on the glowing box in the corner of everyone's living room that's always portraying doom and danger everywhere. Indeed, I don't recall a single one of my paintball playing friends (who all nonchalantly used illegal in Australia and super dangerous semi-automatic paintball guns against each other) who later went on to be involved in any kind of gun related incident. I'm sure you've got some kind of excellent response prepared however, so we will now hear the details of how wrong I am and how Paintball Guns Are In Fact Really Dangerous Because Reasons And the Australian Government Nannies Are Right.
terminalshort 8mo ago
This will never be a thing in America. Good luck putting the camera on a pole higher than a redneck can shoot a rifle.
- etrautmann 8mo ago
  We already have speed cameras Al over NYC. Often the posted speeds there are 25 leading to some absurd tickets.
  - terminalshort 8mo ago
    That's what you get for not having rednecks with rifles
- andwur 8mo ago
  Sounds like a new remit for the NRO. Park a billion dollar satellite over an area to keep an eye out for petty vandalism. Then the sheriffs office can team up with Space Force: papers will be served immediately by LEO MIRV deployment, which may also count as execution depending on visibility and aim on the day. /s - but it wouldn't surprise me at the rate things are going.
  - monksy 8mo ago
    https://www.wsfa.com/2026/02/07/police-use-drone-technology-catch-serial-pooper-public-park/ https://www.wsfa.com/2026/02/07/police-use-drone-technology-...
  - xarope 8mo ago
    will you stop giving these folks ideas on how to spend more tax payers money? /s (but not really)
  - bob1029 8mo ago
    We've already got this and it's maybe more capable than you'd think. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARGUS-IS https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARGUS-IS
  - 8mo ago
alexpotato 8mo ago
Reminds me of the story about Aeroflot (Soviet National airline) and hijackings - Aeroflot flights get hijacked and flown to West Berlin - Soviets decided to put Spetsnaz (Soviet special forces) on the planes much like we have Air Marshals today - Spetsnaz figures "we have guns and are on the plane already" so they start hijacking flights - So Soviets put TWO Spetsnaz teams on the flight - Team 1 decides to hijack flight, realize there is a Team 2 who ALSO agrees to hijack the flight
- pandaman 8mo ago
  Which Aeroflot flights were hijacked and flown to West Berlin? I've never heard of this. Funny though that Windows Copilot believes this happened and says that: "On December 12, 1978, two Soviet citizens hijacked an Aeroflot Yak‑40 on a domestic route and forced it to fly to West Berlin’s Tempelhof Airport, which was under U.S. control." But then, when asked about any reference to this event, gives this: "1. LOT Polish Airlines Flight 165 (30 August 1978) A LOT Tupolev Tu‑134 was hijacked by East German citizens seeking asylum and forced to land at Tempelhof Airport in West Berlin." Are you an AI?
  - mattmanser 8mo ago
    I once called my Dad out about Chinese nationalists setting bombs on ships in the 60s. He reckoned his ship had come to the rescue of one where they'd found a bomb and the command crew had posed with it for a photo and it had gone off, killing or wounding all the crew capable of actually navigating the ship. No mention on Wikipedia of these terrorist activities, nothing in the history I could find online. He was a bit of a tall tale teller so I called him out on it. He was quite upset and ended up showing me his ship log book. With the ship name and the rough date, I actually found two news articles that had been scanned by Google scholar conforming that it had really happened. I bet there's a lot we don't know that happened behind the iron curtain, I wouldn't doubt this just because you can't easily find any references with a quick Google. If you want the rest of how they saved the ship, they tried to get a junior officer over in a sort of swing. If they'd have succeeded they'd have actually all been entitled to a salvage payment. But it was too rough so in the end they just got the other ship to follow them back to port. When the pilot came out to dock the ship, he found another bomb. http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1734&dat=19661114&id=Fd0eAAAAIBAJ&sjid=EFEEAAAAIBAJ&pg=2284,994026 http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1734&dat=19661114&id=F...

by bigiain 8mo ago

stavros 8mo ago

Oof, I really hate this automated enforcement. Might be time to get a paintball gun.

lotsofpulp 8mo ago
What else could make life safer at a realistic cost for people outside of vehicles?
- stavros 8mo ago
  Where I live, the speed limit keeps getting reduced so the city can make money off of fines, especially because nobody follows speed limits that are ridiculously low for wide, straight roads where following the limit would make traffic ground to a halt.
  - c22 8mo ago
    This happened in my hometown. Arterial roads that were 40mph when I was a kid are posted at 25 today and they just passed legislation to make the automated speed cameras near school zones active 24/7.
  - deleted 8mo ago
    [deleted]
- redwall_hp 8mo ago
  Urban planning that separates pedestrians and vehicles. Roads that are narrow in places where a lower speed is desirable. Heavy taxation on vehicles with more mass and lower visibility. Actual licensing standards other than driving down a couple of city streets and parking. More crossings, with lights or bridges, instead of long four-lane arterial roads with nowhere to safely cross.
  - Symbiote 8mo ago
    We have most of that in <pick some European city/country>, and the statistics show it makes a big difference compared to the USA, but drivers still exceed the speed limit, run through red lights etc and cause injuries and death to pedestrians and cyclists. Removing automatic enforcement of speed limits would not improve the situation.
seanmcdirmid 8mo ago
And this is the reason I can’t wait for self driving cars that just follow the speed limit.
- KMcCMedia 8mo ago
  They are said to drive like your Grandma, if she was a very good driver....
staringforward 8mo ago
> Might be time to get a paintball gun Just wait until you find out that paintball guns are considered firearms are require licensing in the aforementioned region.
- zoklet-enjoyer 8mo ago
  I played paintball in Australia and I just had to sign a normal waiver about them not being responsible for injuries
  - andwur 8mo ago
    Ownership of paintball guns is regulated under the state-level firearms act in most (all?) states and territories. You can use them under the direct supervision of the licensed owner, but it's still quite restrictive. If you were to take one and shoot at cameras on the street it would vandalism plus firearms offences, most of which start at inversion of innocence, massive fines and move pretty quickly into prison time.
    - zoklet-enjoyer 8mo ago
      That's crazy
  - bigfatkitten 8mo ago
    If you actually purchased one yourself in Queensland, you would need a Cat A firearms license, genuine reason, permit to acquire, safe storage etc as for a firearm. NSW used to be similar, but a few years ago the state government had a rare moment of common sense and did away with most of that pointless bullshit.
appplication 8mo ago
Tbh an overpowered laser off alibaba probably works a lot better at longer range
- altairprime 8mo ago
  A paintball gun might not invoke the federal government to hunt you down; an over-powered laser absolutely will. The FAA has a very low tolerance for that sort of thing. Do not ever, ever, ever use lasers in open air that are capable of damaging the human retina without the appropriate licenses. The last thing cities need right now is another federal agency going on a witchhunt. Firing eye-damaging lasers into the air would just serve them that excuse on a silvered platter.
  - NoMoreNicksLeft 8mo ago
    The CCDs in cameras can be damaged with low-power lasers, or so I thought. No need for anything crazy. And the FAA won't become involved unless you're pointing them skyward. Pointing them across the street, or anywhere not visible from the air isn't going to sic federal agencies on you.
    - drysart 8mo ago
      > And the FAA won't become involved unless you're pointing them skyward. The point here is that 'skyward' is where the laser's beam goes when you're trying to aim it at a camera up on a pole. It's practically impossible to point a non-fixed position laser at something a non-trivial distance higher than you without spilling a large amount of laser beam into whatever happens to be behind your intended target; which is very often the sky.
bigiain 8mo ago
Also here: "In NSW, paintball is classified as a "prohibited firearm" under the Firearms Act 1996. However, it can still be legally played under strict licensing conditions. Unlike in some states where it is more loosely regulated, players and operators in NSW must comply with a range of legal requirements to ensure safety and legality." These rules have changed, I think back before COVID they reclassified them as sporting equipment instead of firearms, but still brought in a whole bunch of licensing rules and requirements similar to gun ownership. You can't just walk into KMart and walk out with a paintball gun here. |Or paintball markers.
- sdkfjhdsjk 8mo ago
  I remember reading about that back in the 90s as a kid here in the USA, in Action Pursuit Games magazine. They said semi-automatic paintball guns were illegal in Australia. I was like what kind of hellhole dystopia is that? Meanwhile at the local paintball field I remember this hillbilly had a fully automatic Angel when they came out. (The first electronic paintball gun.) He walked over to the treeline and emptied a hopper full of Brass Eagle paintballs into a tree in like 5 seconds. They all hit the tree at the exact same spot and vaporized into pink mist. Freedom, baby.
  - bigiain 8mo ago
    > I was like what kind of hellhole dystopia is that? Cynical answer: Not the kind of hellhole dystopia that has schoolkids shooting up schools twice a week.
    - sdkfjhdsjk 8mo ago
      So your thesis is that this hillbilly was likely to take his fully automatic paintball gun and shoot up a school with it? Or that his possession and use of this gun might somehow serve as a sort of "gateway drug" to Harder Weapons that he would then use to the same end? Neither one appears to have actually happened. In fact, I've never known a single person who has been involved in a school shooting, or heard of one happening here at all, ever. It just doesn't happen, regardless of whatever is supposedly happening on the glowing box in the corner of everyone's living room that's always portraying doom and danger everywhere. Indeed, I don't recall a single one of my paintball playing friends (who all nonchalantly used illegal in Australia and super dangerous semi-automatic paintball guns against each other) who later went on to be involved in any kind of gun related incident. I'm sure you've got some kind of excellent response prepared however, so we will now hear the details of how wrong I am and how Paintball Guns Are In Fact Really Dangerous Because Reasons And the Australian Government Nannies Are Right.

terminalshort 8mo ago

This will never be a thing in America. Good luck putting the camera on a pole higher than a redneck can shoot a rifle.

etrautmann 8mo ago
We already have speed cameras Al over NYC. Often the posted speeds there are 25 leading to some absurd tickets.
- terminalshort 8mo ago
  That's what you get for not having rednecks with rifles
andwur 8mo ago
Sounds like a new remit for the NRO. Park a billion dollar satellite over an area to keep an eye out for petty vandalism. Then the sheriffs office can team up with Space Force: papers will be served immediately by LEO MIRV deployment, which may also count as execution depending on visibility and aim on the day. /s - but it wouldn't surprise me at the rate things are going.
- monksy 8mo ago
  https://www.wsfa.com/2026/02/07/police-use-drone-technology-catch-serial-pooper-public-park/ https://www.wsfa.com/2026/02/07/police-use-drone-technology-...
- xarope 8mo ago
  will you stop giving these folks ideas on how to spend more tax payers money? /s (but not really)
- bob1029 8mo ago
  We've already got this and it's maybe more capable than you'd think. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARGUS-IS https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARGUS-IS
- 8mo ago

alexpotato 8mo ago

Reminds me of the story about Aeroflot (Soviet National airline) and hijackings - Aeroflot flights get hijacked and flown to West Berlin - Soviets decided to put Spetsnaz (Soviet special forces) on the planes much like we have Air Marshals today - Spetsnaz figures "we have guns and are on the plane already" so they start hijacking flights - So Soviets put TWO Spetsnaz teams on the flight - Team 1 decides to hijack flight, realize there is a Team 2 who ALSO agrees to hijack the flight

pandaman 8mo ago
Which Aeroflot flights were hijacked and flown to West Berlin? I've never heard of this. Funny though that Windows Copilot believes this happened and says that: "On December 12, 1978, two Soviet citizens hijacked an Aeroflot Yak‑40 on a domestic route and forced it to fly to West Berlin’s Tempelhof Airport, which was under U.S. control." But then, when asked about any reference to this event, gives this: "1. LOT Polish Airlines Flight 165 (30 August 1978) A LOT Tupolev Tu‑134 was hijacked by East German citizens seeking asylum and forced to land at Tempelhof Airport in West Berlin." Are you an AI?
- mattmanser 8mo ago
  I once called my Dad out about Chinese nationalists setting bombs on ships in the 60s. He reckoned his ship had come to the rescue of one where they'd found a bomb and the command crew had posed with it for a photo and it had gone off, killing or wounding all the crew capable of actually navigating the ship. No mention on Wikipedia of these terrorist activities, nothing in the history I could find online. He was a bit of a tall tale teller so I called him out on it. He was quite upset and ended up showing me his ship log book. With the ship name and the rough date, I actually found two news articles that had been scanned by Google scholar conforming that it had really happened. I bet there's a lot we don't know that happened behind the iron curtain, I wouldn't doubt this just because you can't easily find any references with a quick Google. If you want the rest of how they saved the ship, they tried to get a junior officer over in a sort of swing. If they'd have succeeded they'd have actually all been entitled to a salvage payment. But it was too rough so in the end they just got the other ship to follow them back to port. When the pilot came out to dock the ship, he found another bomb. http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1734&dat=19661114&id=Fd0eAAAAIBAJ&sjid=EFEEAAAAIBAJ&pg=2284,994026 http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1734&dat=19661114&id=F...