Baltimore to Test Cell Phone Traffic Monitoring

Momoru writes "The Baltimore Sun is reporting that a Canadian company, Delcan NET, will begin testing a technology that determines the flow of automobile traffic by monitoring cell phone traffic. The company promises a revolutionary way to determine backups, but privacy advocates fear the implications of a third party tracking users by their cell phones."

First TRIPLICATE!!!

[RKBA]

*Ahem*

TRIPLICATE!!!

http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/11/19/07 45248&tid=126&tid=215&tid=158 [slashdot.org]

Note: Yes, I reported this a few minutes ago.

Re:First TRIPLICATE!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

*Ahem*

TRIPLICATE!!!

http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/11/19/07 [slashdot.org] 45248&tid=126&tid=215&tid=158

Note: Yes, I reported this a few minutes ago

A Trupe?

Re:First TRIPLICATE!!!

[xouumalperxe]

Well, since "duplicate" boils into "dupe", I'd have to say that short for triplicate would be "tripe".

Re:First TRIPLICATE!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

And Digg [digg.com] only managed to post this once.

The sound you hear is the sound of advertisers running from Slashdot to Digg.

Re:First TRIPLICATE!!!

[hackstraw]

TRIPLICATE!!!

Fine, there is a first for everything. Its clear that the slashdot editors either don't know their own site, they don't know how to use google, don't have a working search function for their website, or just don't care, or just like negative attention. I don't know. This is easy to avoid, and it keeps happening. Beyond my knowledge, they prefer it that way. So HA! They got what they wanted.

Anyway, regarding this triplicate story, why is using cell phones that are only a subset of the r

Re:First TRIPLICATE!!!

[jessecurry]

Why don't they just set up a system that monitors traffic density? They could pretty easily, and probably pretty cheaply monitor how much metal is on each stretch of roadway, it think that would be much more effective than the amount of cell phone traffic.
What if there is some really interesting piece of news? Then a huge number of cell phones would be active. Or what if it's raining, then people might tend to stay off of their phones. I really don't see a direct correlation between cell phone usage and tr

Re:First TRIPLICATE!!!

[squidinkcalligraphy]

Here's why cell-phones are being considered: they can see how long it takes one particular car (well, cell phone) to get from one place to another. Video cameras can do this, but only if they read the number plate (which is being done in Australia for trucks, and the UK for all vehicles). Car counters can only work out localised traffic info. Electronic tolling systems which use an e-tag or similar perform these kinds of calculations whenever cars go through toll points, but in the absence of such a system,

Re:First TRIPLICATE!!!

[rob_squared]

I think we all should post only things about duplicating articles on slashdot in this story and nothing else. Maybe, just maybe the "editors" will get a hint. Though I use the phrase as loosely as possible.

Re:First TRIPLICATE!!!

[someone300]

Actually, this seems to have been posted four times now!

http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/11/19/14 3247&tid=158&tid=215&tid=193 [slashdot.org]
http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/11/19/07 45248&tid=126&tid=215&tid=158 [slashdot.org]
http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/11/ 01/159241&tid=193 [slashdot.org]
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/10/16/076217 &tid=215&tid=126 [slashdot.org]

Re:First TRIPLICATE!!!

[someone300]

Hmm... there are also two other similar articles

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/12/30/124324 7&mode=thread&tid=126 [slashdot.org]
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/06/13/042822 9&mode=thread&tid=100 [slashdot.org]

Maybe there'll be a post for every single country/state that uses cellphone traffic to monitor roads. It'll end up like the monthly firefox userbase reports.

Holy crap!

[ToasterofDOOM]

That's hilarious. Isn't a moderator based system supposed to alleviate these problems? Do the mods even read /.??

Re:First TRIPLICATE!!!

[ff1324]

RIGHT HAND: Hi there, left hand how are you?
LEFT HAND: Oh, hello there, what's your name?
RIGHT HAND: My name is Right Hand. What are you doing?
LEFT HAND: I'm making Cell Phone Traffic Tracking Articles. Are doing something, too?
RIGHT HAND: Well, yes I am. I'm making Cell Phone Traffic Tracking Articles, too. I sure wish I knew what you were up to.
THIRD HAND: Hi guys, I'm bushed...I've been making Cell Phone Traffic Tracking Articles since dawn.
LEFT HAND: Well, it's another day of working for Slashdot. Let's get back to work.

Re:First TRIPLICATE!!!

[TheSpoom]

RIGHT HAND: Hey, third hand isn't a hand at all!
LEFT HAND: *shudder*

Re:First TRIPLICATE!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

Let me be the first to put this in an elegant six-article list:

• Baltimore to Test Cell Phone Traffic Monitoring
  http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/11/19/143247 [slashdot.org]
         
• Cell Phones to Monitor Traffic Flow
  http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/11/19/074524 8 [slashdot.org]
         
• Using Cell Phones to Track Traffic
  http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/11/01/159241 [slashdot.org]
         
• Tracking Cell Phones for Real-Time Traffic Data
  http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/10/16/076217 [slashdot.org]
         
• Finns To Use Cell Phones To Monitor Traffic Jams
  http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/12/30/124324 7 [slashdot.org]
         
• Using Cellular Traffic to Monitor Traffic Jams
  http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/06/13/042822 9 [slashdot.org]

Re:First TRIPLICATE!!!

[davidphogan74]

Traffic Monitoring Cell Phones will be it's own catagory soon. My question would be science or politics.

Re:First TRIPLICATE!!!

[Jaseoldboss]

This is fortunate as I moderated in the last discussion of this and I don't want to rob the person I modded up!

In the UK we're still able to purchase mobiles without telling the network any personal information. As such I'm finding it hard to get excited about the potential for abuse or invasion of privacy. Lets face it, who would use cell phone records to trap serious criminals when they are likely to either:

• Buy an anonymous SIM
• Turn the f**king thing off when you're doing something wrong
• You've murde

WAKE UP MORONS

[Beatlebum]

DUPE DUPE DUPE

Re:WAKE UP MORONS

[HugePedlar]

Sometimes the quote at the bottom of the page seems uncannily relevant :

"If you had better tools, you could more effectively demonstrate your total incompetence."

Dupe

[kryten_nl]

Your kidding, right? You must be.... Please tell me your kidding....
OMFG, I think he's serious....

Re:Dupe

[carguy84]

APRIL FOOLS!!!!!!!!

duplicate on the front page.

[Anonymous Coward]

Do the editors even check? Are they even working?

Two same stories with the same links on the front page.

Re:duplicate on the front page.

[tomhudson]

This isn't that hard to avoid. Yeah, they post to the in-queue along with a time for the story to be uploaded. But what would be so hard for each of them to take 1 day a week to be the guy who has to handle the queue and give the final ok for the upload to actually get posted?

They keep on like this, they'll have to switch to PostNuke or something ...

Re:duplicate on the front page.

[gatzke]

Seems like we have had dupes back-to-back or nearly so, maybe one article between.

You would think they would have two people sign off on stories unless it was very time sensitive.

I don't feel cheated since I don't pay, but advertisers and paying members might be pissed.

This also makes me want to take any legitimate story and submit it over and over, just to see if I could get a dupe story in. Maybe people are doing that, and that is one reason we still get dupes.

slashcode should work for the editors too

[BashDot]

Slow down cowboy!

Slashdot requires you two wait 24 hours before posting a previous story!

Look, folks

[mrscott]

Slashdot doesn't cost you a damn thing. I see this every time there's a dupe. People bitching about how much Slashdot sucks. If you don't like it, leave. It's really very, very simple.

Re:Look, folks

[rah1420]

Slashdot doesn't cost you a damn thing.

Unless you subscribe.

Re:Look, folks

[Kymermosst]

People bitching about people bitching about people bitching about people bitching about how much Slashdot sucks suck. If you don't like people bitching about people bitching about people bitching about people bitching about it, leave. It's really very, very, very, very, very simple.

Re:Look, folks

[Kohath]

now go play with traffic you obviously worthless meat sack.

But how would I find traffic? Have you heard of any new ways traffic can be monitored?

What?

[lewiz]

This is amazing. Normally I'd just ignore a duplicate (or triplicate by the looks of it) but I'm amazed it can happen with just one article sandwiched in between.
Bizarre.

Re:What?

[slavemowgli]

This was posted by CowboyNeal, though, while the last article was posted by Zonk. Surely you don't expect the editors to actually read Slashdot instead of mechanically clicking on "Publish"?

Re:What?

[bad-badtz-maru]

Did +you+ think CowboyNeal would turn down a sandwich?

Re:What?

[vsprintf]

Dunno, but he must be pretty important. He doesn't answer email while Taco does.

Re:What?

[shmlco]

I'm now waiting for back-to-back...

You've got it all wrong...

[Ramses0]

...they were all trying for First Post.

--Robert

Wow

[SunPin]

Is every other story today going to be about mobile phone tracking?

Good god, another?

[drgath159]

http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/11/ 01/159241&tid=193 [slashdot.org]
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/10/16/076217 &tid=215&tid=126 [slashdot.org]
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/12/30/124324 7&mode=thread&tid=126 [slashdot.org]
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/06/13/042822 9&mode=thread&tid=100 [slashdot.org]

Re:Good god, another?

[garcia]

Posting comments about duplicates from 2002? That's just not fair! If it's not two stories posted right in a row it doesn't count.

I'm going to give Taco the benefit of the doubt.

[CosmeticLobotamy]

I'm going to guess he's being funny and chuckle accordingly.

Cause

[Kohath]

You know what's causing all these dupes?

Hyperthreading.

Re:Cause

[scubacuda]

Yep, it's obviously affecting the editors' performance [slashdot.org].

Re:Cause

[JustOK]

I thought it was teflon. Or Bush...

Re:Cause

[SpaceLifeForm]

But, if they turn off the HT, the dupe could have arrived even faster than what appears to be a record 165 minutes.

Re:Cause

[slashname3]

Yeah, they are all talking on their cell phones at the same time they are publishing articles.

Deja Vu?

[tekmiester]

Cowboy Neal and Zonk... do you guys talk?

hmmm....

[Malor]

Well, this IS pretty important. Maybe they'll post it once per affected phone.

Karma whore potential

[dada21]

Make sure you go and copy all the +5 comments into this thread, get your Karma up to 'Excellent'

Re:Karma whore potential

[Kohath]

Here's a link to one of them [slashdot.org]. What do I get for that?

Re:Karma whore potential

[Thing 1]

Why, -1, Redundant, of course! ;-)

Who What Why?

[ill dillettante]

Good to see CoyboyNeal bring up the rear again.

SLASHDOT TO TEST DUPE MONITORING

[krbvroc1]

Slashdot unveiled a program to detect article dupes. A Slashdot spokesman, Mr. C. Taco, said "Our dupe detection system has been running for over a year without a dupe".
We will soon begin fullscale deployment of a system in YRO that will mine posting data to determine whether an article is a dupe. As long as a user's computer is turned on, the slashdot network notes the time of articles from user to user to calculate the location and speed of posting. Researchers say the program will reduce dupes by quickly rejecting articles. The company says they will not track the articles of individual posters. However, a staff attorney for the XYZ says that tracking might violate federal law and 'increases the chances that information will be used for more invasive purposes in the future.'

AJAX?

[Karma Farmer]

Does this use AJAX?

Dear Cowboy Neal

[RealBeanDip]

There is this awesome site called Slashdot, http://slashdot.org/ [slashdot.org] - I think you'll like it. Check it out sometime before posting news to your site.

Re:Dear Cowboy Neal

[Atario]

There is this awesome site called Slashdot, http://slashdot.org/ [slashdot.org] [slashdot.org] - I think you'll like it. Check it out sometime before posting news to your site.

Paid Advertising?

[Kr3m3Puff]

Did Declan pay someone at Slashdot!!!! Only a one article gap now!

Bonk...Bonk...Bonk

[Winlin]

Me, slowly banging my head off the monitor. Now can we just go ahead and do a two story in a row dupe and end the suspense?

Your all -1 offtopic

[sl4shd0rk]

3 dupes - so fucking what. You're not paying for it. You ought to be bitching about the article registration like usual.

Funny, that.

[6Yankee]

Ever wonder why I don't pay for it?

When I see something worth paying for, I'll pay. Until then, they can whistle for my subscription money (and my ad revenue - blocked those too).

Re:Your all -1 offtopic

[Overly Critical Guy]

Three dupes? Try SIX. SIX DUPES.

At what point do you ask the question, why don't the editors read their own site?

I submitted this with a funnier headline...

[sparkes]

...but it doesn't matter it'll be posted sometime today ;-)

--
grab some geek gear at http://nerd.ws

The Slashdot Sun is reporting

[Admiral Justin]

Slashdot will now track congestion by in an attempt to streamline the service. They will do this by tracking your progress from dupe to dupe, analyzing server load, and your favorite brand of alcohol.

Dupey McDuperson

[TubeSteak]

After these shenanigans, the current poll will probably be the last time I ever vote for Cowboy Neal...

In other news...

[shoolz]

I just read a really awesome article that is *totally unrelated* to this /. post... apparently cell phones can be used to monitor traffic flow! Did anybody else know about this?

Yea dude

[TubeSteak]

Yea dude, I heard about it on digg.com first.

CowboyNeal...

[GoombaJones]

..are you a script? Maybe he is and they're just conducting some sort of a Turing Test... Oh, and "mumble" was the word I had to type in to pass _my_ Turing Test as AC. How appropriate.:)

NEXT ARTICLE...

[krbvroc1]

The next Slashdot story about Baltimore Testing Cell Phone Traffic will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and see it early!

http://slashdot.org/subscribe.pl [slashdot.org]

Deja Vu

[roman_mir]

It happens when they change something.

---

Thus it is now a fact that the Matrix has us and Cmdr. Taco is the Agent.

Suggestion

[roman_mir]

Honestly, maybe some things are worth being discussed 2-3-4-5 times, so how about introducing a new feature on /. - a pinned story? A story like that would just stay pinned on the front page for a while, and the newer articles would scroll below it.

SlashDot to get technology to avoid article DUPing

[Bodysurf]

Zonk [slashdot.org] and CowboyNeal [slashdot.org] are beta-testing techology that combines cellphones, instant messages and email to avoid SlashDot article duplications. The results will be published a couple times on Slashdot in the not-to-distant future.

An open letter to the Managment...

[One Childish N00b]

Hey, Editors!

I love this site, I love the discussions that the comments generate and I enjoy this community being one of the places (other than IRC) where technically-minded people can come together - hell, even some of the trolls are pretty damn funny, and I'm not usually one to join in the crowd of people screaming 'Dupe!' every time you repost an article from the previous week or day - I don't always get a chance to check /. everyday and so if something gets reposted I often haven't noticed the original and still enjoy reading it, and I don't see why dupes attract so much of the screaming masses to deride you.

However, two on the front page, with only one article seperating them, no less, is utterly rediculous - that'd be like the TV news reporting on the same thing, with the same content, but with a different correspondant - it's not professional, and it'd be pretty poor even for an amateur setup - an analogy would be it's OK for the same announcement to be on two days in a row, but two in the same bulletin is sloppy and unprofessional. It's even below the standard of your average LiveJournal blogger, and it's certainly put a doubt in my mind over my decision to treat myself to a /. subscription for Christmas - while this isn't quite 'you lost yourself a customer', those few beers I'd buy instead of a subscription are now looking that much more tempting...

I have to give you kudos...

[mrscott]

You picked an appropriate name.

Re:An open letter to the Managment...

[gizmonic]

Good post. I mean, I can fully understand a dupe every once in a while. It happens. But for the love of all that is holy, maybe at least scan the frigging front page and see if there's one already posted first? Not to mention this story has been posted a total of 4, yes, 4 times now. A dupe I can see. A triplicate is even possible on rare occasions. But 4?!?

Also, I could see it if the two articles were posted within minutes of each other by different editors. Although the subscriber base would likel

Re:An open letter to the Managment...

[gizmonic]

Heh. My sig has a new answer!

WWJD?
JWRHOSBP!

Is this a record?

[daffmeister]

Just one intervening post? Have the editors ever done better than this?

Congratulations CowboyNeal. Slashdotters everywhere salute you.

GOOGLE NEWS GETS SLASH DUPED!

[Alsee]

Anyone want to guess what the top two Google news hits for Cell Traffic [google.com] are at the moment?

Results 1 - 10 of about 2,810 for cell traffic. (0.16 seconds)

Cell Phones to Monitor Traffic Flow
Slashdot - 3 hours ago
determine traffic conditions such as jams and slowdowns. As long as a user's phone is turned on, the cellphone network notes the time of handoffs from cell to
Cell phone data tracing traffic in Md. Baltimore Sun
all 3 related

Baltimore to Test Cell Phone Traffic Monitoring
Slashdot - 1 hour ago
reporting that a Canadian company, Delcan NET, will begin testing a technology that determines the flow of automobile traffic by monitoring cell phone traffic.

-

One word.

[pwnage]

WOW!

And Now For Something Completely Different

[PonyHome]

Baltimore is testing the use of cell phones to monitor traffic flow!

Re:And Now For Something Completely Different

[Kredal]

I heard that they're going to be monitoring Baltimore's traffic flow by using cell phones!

Re:And Now For Something Completely Different

[xTown]

That's pretty amazing--did you hear that they're doing that in Baltimore, too?

CowboyNeal's morning

[nbahi15]

You know maybe CowboyNeal just sat down with bagel and coffee, and wanted to feel productive before doing some amazon.com christmas shopping. So he sees a nifty article on cell phone traffic monitoring, and says hey this is a good article let's post it. But oh wait?! I should check for dupes.

DING-DONG!

Must be UPS or FedEx. COMING! Wow my shipment of shirts from ThinkGeek are here. Tears open box. Decides to try on the shirt.

Then suddenly the cat strolls in and decides to step on the mouse. Accidentally submitting the duplicate post. So really we should blame the cat.

Even more weird...

[rockwood]

What's more weird is that the need for new articles causes dupe's. trip's and quad's, but yet I submitted an article for posting and it's in pending... sure no big deal.. but look at the pending status
04:50 PM -- Wednesday July 06 2005 Pending

I posted 4 months and 13 days ago!

I think it's been hyperthreaded into hyperspace. OH... and I've checked.. my submission is not a dupe! Go figure!

Re:Even more weird...

[Kohath]

Lesson: submit it again. And again.

Woah!

[numbware]

I heard they were doing the same thing in Baltimore just a while ago.

Oh wait...

No need for the this

[tie_guy_matt]

Here is a hint: The Baltimore betway backs up between I-95 and I-70 every fricken weekday. No one needs cell phone technology to figure that out! As for the DC beltway, I think it could be 16 lanes in both directions and it would still take forever to go from Beltsville to Gaithersburg! Sometimes I think an accident can cause a rubber neck delay that goes all the way to Virginia and then back up in both directions!

19 November 2005

[rubycodez]

Slashdot jumps the shark

CalTrans (california) is already doing this.

[natrik]

CalTrans already has a very complicated, however effective, publicly viewable system [ca.gov] which, if you read their main page [ca.gov] lists "motorist cellular calls" as one of the many sources of information. I was alerted to this site by a vigilant friend concerned about his motorist calls made in and north of L.A. and there may have been some outbursts against this policy, but I know of none.

If you have a secret to tell, meet in person, and whisper. --Tom Clancy

Jeez!

YAY! Now there will be no excuse!

[Alpha_Traveller]

Fantastic, now there will be no excuse for several state vehicles to travel side by side at well below the speed limit, obstructing faster traffic as they move up and down 95. Someone watching the cell-info screens in relation to traffic will have no problem contacting the five drivers driving side by side to move the f*** out of the way so decent citizens can get to work on time, and they can stop preventing proper traffic flow!

One thing the article said that was very interesting was the ability to get cel

dejavu all over again

[Thecarpe]

nothing to see here - just the obligatory redundant announcement of a redundant article amidst a sea of redundant "ah-ha, I caught you" posts...all over again.

Dang

[spx]

Now Im gonna have to obey the speed limit and stuff in my homestate :) Seriously, I wish they could come up with something with all the police/etc people that use cell phones while on the job, they drive the worst!