Birmingham's "Operation Netcast" - Big Brother?

Me too (but I'm not easily frightened).

In fact, though I'm fervently, passionately, seriously opposed to The
Norf on a matter of principle, the three weeks I spent in Birmingham
in January were very pleasant. It's a decent city centre, having seen
a lot of regeneration. There's cultural stuff to do. There's pubs
(and pubs with neg, neg, neg dress codes; get over yourselves, you
jumped up wankers) and good restaurants. Lots of good looking women,
too.

I'm shuddering as I say it, but I quite liked it.

 

It's only a mile from the Bull Ring. Lozells, where an Asian
father of two recently joined the fatality list peppered by a
machine gun, is just up the road from "Deadwood", aka Aston.

Now that's where I'd like to see you take a gentle stroll. The
Johnson Crew, the Burger Boys, the Champagne Crew, the Raiders,
the Rally Close Crew and the Badder Bar Boys would all be happy
to extend a warm welcome. However I'd suggest you politely
decline any barbecue invitations.

Even the city centre isn't exactly safe these days without a
bulletproof vest.

riccip

 

Ah, the harmless, innocent motorist card

The USA is a fucking huge country, I suspect that you are thinking of
the New York experiment. Would you also prefer the "3 strikes and
you're out" regimen to be imposed in the UK? Life imprisonment after 3
offences, which can be relatively minor.

Bullshit. I haven't travelled the length and breadth of Germany, but I
have seen cameras there. I even got flashed by one.

Sure, except when they demand to see your papers, which you must carry
at all times.

 

Richard Wood wrote:

All the stuff that people want to get done very quickly is designed and
built using things like FPGAs, stop thinking of a PC / software only
solution.

Heh... ))

You're right.

These days it's going in the direction of large ATM switches, where
voice and data get routed together.

Too much PC like thinking... think telecoms... distributed type stuff
and ASICs / FPGAs if you want ultimate speed. think about the work
people like Starbridge systems do.

Already done, apparently.

 

Hint: surgical snipping to create a false impression is bad form
old boy.

From that one can assume you've reached the limit of your
argument.

riccip

 

<bites>

Birmingham's not in "the North", you iggerant southern pooftah.

 

It is from where you are.

--
Nigel - Manufacturer of the "Champion-105" range of rearsets

WS* GHPOTHUF#24 APOSTLE#14 DLC#1 COFF#20 BOTAFOT#150 HYPO#0(KoTL) IbW#41
ZZR1100, Enfield 500 Curry House Racer "The Basmati Rice Burner",
Honda GL1000K2 Kawasaki ZN1300 Voyager "Oh, Oh, It's so big"

 

dear, dear, sweet boy. You're sadly mistaken on this matter. Bless.

 

Something along those lines would be preferable to our own system
which favours criminals over their victims.

Must have been some time ago unless it was mobile. Germany
experimented with fixed speed cameras in the 90's but chose not
to proceed with wholesale implementation, mainly because their
use conflicted with existing law making successful prosecution
difficult to obtain. The Germans don't just put-up-and-shut-up
like we do, so negative public opinion played a part. Much was
made of a news story concerning a duck "caught speeding" on
camera in the now-famous village of Glückstadt.

And this also happened to you? My my, you are unlucky. In 50k+
miles of driving in Germany I've yet to be pulled by the police.
Can't say I've even seen that many German cops, other than city
centres.

riccip

 

Higgins@work

Although this is true, I never, ever felt 'imprisoned' by this fact.
In particular as the police can't just demand to see you ID just to
check if you carry it. I have had plenty of experiences where pos-
sessing an ID has mad my life easier and more convenient, and not
just in Germany.

 

You obviously live in a completely different Birmingham to me.

 

2001, fixed camera near Aachen

Illiterate as well as paranoid.

 

Which is a fair point, I just find it interesting that someone who
expresses such concern about ID cards etc. should be so keen to flee to
a country where ID cards are already compulsory.

 

You can still have a lot of the processing done at a very low level,
rather like the eye processes data.

Billing is not speech, echo cancelers and such bits of kit don't run on
PCs. Exchanges are the most complex systems on the planet, and as such
use a whole lot of different technology to get the job done. It just
happens, that from our backgrounds, we approach the same problem from
two different directions.

No, just talked to design people that worked on such systems when I was
an AXE support engineer.

 

AndrewR wrote

Today seems to be turning into quite a good day then.

 

People see what they want to see. If your world view is that the
streets aren't safe, then you'll see bad guys everywhere you look.

 

As I've already made perfectly clear I'm not concerned about ID
cards per se. It's the accumulative personal data which will
accompany UK cards, and I'm not just talking about data carried
on the card itself.

riccip

 

Y'see, at this point I was prepared to discuss rationally.
Saying things like, 'What's wrong with an occasional blitz
(which this apparently was)? Reminding normal law abiding
citizens that taking the piss can have consequences and
habitual non taxers or insurers etc that they cannot operate
with impunity, makes perfect sense to me.'

Then I read this paranoid shit. So I can't be arsed anymore.


<snip>
rest of post ignored.

--
Alex
BMW R1150GS
DIAABTCOD#3 MSWF#4 UKRMFBC#6 Ibw#35 BOB#8
http://www.team-ukrm.co.uk
Windy's "little soldier"

 

Certainly I understood your point about guilt before
investigation being unfeasable. The big clue came in the previous
post (the one you creatively snipped) where I agreed with you.

When I said "we have such a system already" I assumed you would
understand I was responding to your line "where everyone knows
they can get away with anything" which was immediately above.

You can accuse me of scaremonging until it becomes reality. From
next year MOT certificates, as we know them, are going digital.
Their possession or lack will be hosted on DVLA computers and
cross referenced to interested parties. The ratchet turns another
notch.

Whilst I hadn't anticipated our complete agreement I've at least
conducted myself politely and with respect for your opinion.

riccip

 

This is one of those rare, happy occasions when it is possible to
susbstitute the word "planet" for "Birmingham", and still end up with
a valid sentiment.

--
Nigel - Manufacturer of the "Champion-105" range of rearsets

WS* GHPOTHUF#24 APOSTLE#14 DLC#1 COFF#20 BOTAFOT#150 HYPO#0(KoTL) IbW#41
ZZR1100, Enfield 500 Curry House Racer "The Basmati Rice Burner",
Honda GL1000K2 Kawasaki ZN1300 Voyager "Oh, Oh, It's so big"