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147 Comments
- Frankyfan3, on 01/08/2009, -5/+167CSI: Google
- ousthouse, on 01/08/2009, -3/+118Now that the girl has been found, Morgan Freeman must destroy google maps.
- inactive, on 01/08/2009, -0/+105I once found a missing dog by using Google Street View. It turns out all I had to do was zoom in 10x, enhance the image 4x, freeze the image, and then I was able to see a refracted image of the dog in a drop of dew that was hanging from a leaf on a nearby mountain top.
- fbrg72, on 01/08/2009, -0/+80I work for an air ambulance company (helicopter), and I use Google Maps, and Google Earth all the time. Sometimes emergency 911 dispatchers will not have lat/long coordinates so I can find the adress on Google Earth and easily get the coordinates. Google Maps will even give the block numbers and exit numbers for highways which is all that a caller can give sometimes when they are unfamilliar with an area. The two services have become invaluable to me in my job.
- WombleSlayer, on 01/08/2009, -1/+61"We've got a homicide outside of Super Duper Mart and The Mended Drum, any idea where to go from here chief?"
"Google it, Kuklinski. Then go ask Jeeves, he was on the scene." - Elliuotatar, on 01/08/2009, -2/+58They couldn't just give the GPS coordinates to the state police and have them use a GPS device to go to the location?
Also, note to self: If wanted, throw away cellphone. - inactive, on 01/08/2009, -0/+50"Zoom on that. Okay now enhance. Enhance again. That's our guy!"
- novenator, on 01/08/2009, -13/+51FTA - "The strange part of this google earth thing was when I saw her waving from the window at me."
- sadsadrobot, on 01/08/2009, -4/+31Anybody wonder if the grandmother had a valid reason to want to keep her granddaughter away from her parents? I may be naive, but I would think most grandmothers don't just kidnap their grandchildren for kicks.
- siszam, on 01/08/2009, -21/+48Slippery slope.
- Kypt, on 01/08/2009, -1/+27You have to be careful what measuring stick you use on people. Not all of them fit your bill. Not all grandmothers just kidnap their grandchildren for kicks. Not all grandmothers just kidnap their grandchildren at all. Being old that happens to be a grandmother doesn't automatically turn your heart into the most heart-warming person around and makes you a good baker. Now, with that said, i would like to hear other side of story.
- holyskeleton, on 01/08/2009, -10/+33a smart cop? really?
- pathouston22, on 01/08/2009, -5/+27The government already has all the tools to track you very accurately. They can listen to you even with your phone not being used, plus of course track it. Their satellites are way more detailed than Google Earth.
We're already down the slope. - rushiku, on 01/08/2009, -0/+19You forgot "...now rotate, okay, go through that door, take the elevator to the 5th floor..."
- IphtashuFitz, on 01/08/2009, -3/+20@david76 - Back in the 1960's my dad had worked for a government think-tank (Mitre) and had a security clearance because of the classified projects he worked on. Back then he described seeing a series of spy plane photos. They started out showing a section of the US, followed by a closer view of a number of cities/towns, followed by a closer view of a town, followed by a view of a golf course in that town where the entire course was clearly visible. After that was a photo showing one green. The final shot showed a golf ball, and the name could be clearly read from it.
I suggest you go read up on the Corona and Keyhole satellite programs. Back in 1960 we had satellites that took pictures with a resolution of 7.5 meters. In the 50 years since then the resolution has gotten down to fractions of a meter. Keyhole 12, launched in 1990, is believed to have had a resolution on the order of 0.1 meter. I say "believed" because much of the information is still classified, but some details still emerge over time. In the 18 years since that one was launched I'm sure the US spy industry has gotten even better than 0.1 meter resolution.
Here's a good place to start reading: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spy_satellite
And as far as eavesdropping over your cell phone, that's known to be true as well. The FBI has on more than one occasion used this trick to eavesdrop on organized crime figures. Here's an article about that: http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1035_22-150467.html - CTK14A, on 01/08/2009, -2/+18They said the same about fingerprinting.
- IphtashuFitz, on 01/08/2009, -1/+14The state police in Virginia had no idea there was a missing person in their state until the cop from Massachusetts called them up. The MA cop wanted to provide as much detail as possible to the VA cops. I'm sure he could have just called them up and said "I think there's a kidnap suspect and little girl at latitude X longitude Y, please go look for them" but the VA cops would probably laughed at that. Calling them up and saying "I think there's a kidnap suspect and little girl in the Budget Inn at 4331 South Lee Highway" was just a tad bit more helpful.
- houndeyex, on 01/08/2009, -4/+169 year olds with cell phones... maybe a good thing?
- Daniel0, on 01/08/2009, -1/+13Please provide scientific proof that cell phones cause the things you mentioned.
- anthropodeus, on 01/08/2009, -1/+13CSI: DIY
- donquixote235, on 01/08/2009, -2/+13This has been possible even before GPS-enabled phones. If this had occurred five years ago, they would have gotten the general location based on what cell towers were being hit when the phone was used, down to a 3 or 4 mile diameter. Then they could get out the Yellow Pages and see what hotels operated in that area. All that the GPS did was narrow it down to 100 meters instead of 3000 or so meters. And Google Maps perfomed exactly the same service that the Yellow Pages would have in my example.
In other words, don't freak out about Big Brother based on this article, because what they're doing is nothing new.
That said, I was playing with Google Maps the other day and plugged in my work address, and the Street View showed me leaning against my car. That was weird. - malechite, on 01/08/2009, -0/+11all he has to do is type in his name
- freezerburn666, on 01/08/2009, -1/+10remove battery?
- david76, on 01/08/2009, -0/+9@IphtashuFitz
Fair enough. I was aware of satellite technology, but thought the cell phone bugging was only theoretical and relied on downloading something. I stand corrected. - inactive, on 01/08/2009, -5/+13You're saying the government can activate the microphone on my phone and listen to me even when it's not being used? Someone's watched Eagle Eye too many times.
- Elliuotatar, on 01/08/2009, -0/+7iPhone.
- codered1322, on 01/08/2009, -2/+9Why is there a picture of the nine year old girl in the article? Since she is a young child (who is no longer missing) her identity should be withheld a little bit. Not her fault that her g-ma is missing a few screws.
- duewydo, on 01/08/2009, -0/+7It is actually amazing how far behind the times a lot of police departments are when it comes to technology, more so with education and understanding. (typically they have some amazing hardware, they just don't know how to use it effectively) I work in a position where I am the IT guy for a city and often I am asked technical questions to help the police on a case. I commonly am shocked to see an officer take the old school route while a quick techie trick could get results way quicker and even after demonstrating and teaching they still choose to take the old school route because they are so technologically impaired.
The most fun I have is when I get to download video off cell phones and convert to a normal format for evidence. The best is the drunk'n girl fights. It will always be two chubby girls fighting in the presence of a skinny guy with one of them stupid haircuts.(you know the frost look) but I digress. I guess what bothers me the most is in a lot of situations, by the time they figure out they have some tool that will solve everything, it is too late. - nevinl, on 01/08/2009, -2/+9...while kidnapping a child...
...er, wait, no..that's not right... - pumacub, on 01/08/2009, -6/+13People using the internet is news now?
- awtripp, on 01/08/2009, -0/+6It's the internet. Facts are obsolete.
- PizzaEagle, on 01/08/2009, -2/+8Maybe they'll develop superpowers.
- existentialduck, on 01/08/2009, -5/+11i predict a flurry of "google detectives" coming into the market...
- maleficdog, on 01/08/2009, -5/+11Yet again, Google saves the day!
- BoxAdorable, on 01/08/2009, -1/+7Google maps isn't invading your privacy. Its giving you the same exact view as if you were walking down that public street in person.
- inactive, on 01/08/2009, -3/+9Yeah the point of the article was that Street View enabled it so that they didn't have to go to the location. It was in another state. The kidnapper kept moving. They were able to locate the hotel almost instantly rather than having to drive all the way there.
Your comment is pretty stupid. - chikmag777, on 01/08/2009, -0/+6@myusername55
http://digg.com/tech_news/Cellphone_wiretapping_ev ... - je12u, on 01/09/2009, -0/+5YYYEEEEAAAAHHHH!!
*puts on sunglasses* - hobbes84k, on 01/08/2009, -0/+5I'd watch it
- IphtashuFitz, on 01/08/2009, -1/+6Try RTFA. The police officer doing all this was up in Massachusetts. By the time he flew/drove down to Virginia and did as you suggested the people he was looking for would likely have been long gone. He used Google to identify a possible location of the people from hundreds of miles away then called the local police to go look for them where he thought they might be.
- SkippyDoorknob, on 01/08/2009, -0/+5Did you wave at yourself?
- FXNGLAS, on 01/08/2009, -1/+6Dugg for the quote. "Then I Googled it"
- donquixote235, on 01/08/2009, -0/+5True, but the Yellow Pages has address information. Also a cop who's familiar with the area should have a fair idea of what hotels operate on his beat.
My point is that the technology (GPS, Google Maps) made finding her easier, but it's simply a newer version of an old principle (cell tower triangulation, access to business information). - vincentml, on 01/08/2009, -1/+6Yeah! Damn Google with their extremely old, grainy, and nondescript photos of mainly public property.
That is EXACTLY like 1984. - IphtashuFitz, on 01/08/2009, -0/+4@Elliuotatar: Given a random latitude and longitude, what should the police do? Are they supposed to send 50 police to that area, start combing through the bushes for a body, kick down the doors of all the homes and businesses in the area, etc? As soon as a horde of cops showed up and started snooping around the woman would likely have hopped in her car and gotten out of there. Or should those cops have also stopped every vehicle in the area and started searching every one of them for the child?
By taking a tiny bit of extra time to actually find an address of a motel in the area the cop from MA actually saved a LOT of effort on the part of the VA police and steered them towards a location where it was very likely the child could be found. It was infinitely better then just dropping a random latitude/longitude in the laps of the VA police and telling them to go try to locate somebody who might be somewhere within a few hundred feet of that location. A 300 foot radius encompasses over 280,000 square feet (pi * r^2) which is a huge area to try to cover. - IphtashuFitz, on 01/08/2009, -0/+4Yeah but the I-81 highway just behind the motel does. The article didn't say he specifically used the motel address but the location where the cell signals were traced to. From I-81 you can clearly see the red roofed motel described in the article, across the field that the guy mentioned. You'd clearly fail as an investigator. He didn't know there was a motel there until he saw it in the Street View images, so he wouldn't have known the address to look up in Google. He used the latitude and longitude provided from the cell phone company, plugged that into Google, and started looking around.
- DigDugDigger, on 01/08/2009, -1/+5Guess his dept. don't give the IQ test.
- IphtashuFitz, on 01/08/2009, -1/+5It's pretty obvious you didn't bother to read the article at all. The cop doing the investigation was way up in Massachusetts. If, as you suggested, he simply went to the location in Virginia the people he was looking for would most likely have been long gone. What he did made infinitely more sense. He did some quick research, located a possible target location, then called the police in Virginia rather than driving/flying hundreds of miles down there himself.
- SkippyDoorknob, on 01/08/2009, -0/+4I was speaking in more general terms to those who somehow think street view is tantamount to spying or a privacy invasion.
Street view did not provide any information that could not have been obtained by someone just going to that location. I'm not talking about cops in other states or whatnot.
But to narrow it down to this specific case - the cop in Massachusetts had to call the local Virginia cops to go to the location anyway. He could just as easily called them right off the bat and given them the lat/long coordinates. When the local cops arrived, they would have seen the hotel too. -
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