Mr Abrams' company, New Era Photography and Film, was contracted to record the event. Operators of all unmanned drones used in a commercial capacity are required to be certified. Neither Mr Abrams nor his business appear on the list of the 92 operators certified nationally.

So: "Oops! I got caught doing something I shouldn't have -- let's see how I can get out of it."

The guys mugshot and a recording.

Although that being said, we also like to gripe when government seems to intrude too much. The trick is: how much, and who decides?

Good point. A smaller camera doesn't need as much heat -- heck, a small incandescent bulb might be enough if not an actual heated ring.

Splashproof? Ehh, I suppose, I just hope they'd actually stay clean enough over time. (Much too complex for this, but the broadcast racing cars cameras seem to have a rotating plastic shield that keeps junk from the actual lens -- I assume it's round and in back is some kind of soft physical cleaner so they never run out of "more" clean shield space.) I'll give you splashproof, but sometime run around in a very light rain with RainX on your windshield.

OK, I'll push back on this one. Some might disagree with that statement, and I wouldn't know art if I saw it, but my phone has no 3rd party enclosure, it's just as first delivered. There's a chance the camera and standard display will get cleaned just by me walking around or when inserting or removing it from my pocket. Actually, I think I remember just a single time having to clean the camera -- but like you say, it seems to stay mostly clean.

But notice there is no corresponding agent when mounted on a car producing this same physical cleaning effect. I'd think a bad case would be soot or road grime slowly accumulating on it; I'd expect the worse case would be "mudding" and then letting it dry producing caked-on dirt. "Splashproof" might handle the first case but I doubt the second.

Then again I guess that's extreme, and it also what the "Service Car Now" light and local repair shop is there for.

Hmm, I guess so -- I really forgot about that. My mom's got a car with heated mirrors and even seats as well. Looking around, most cars seem to have that stuff in their luxury package, although not all of them. And like you said, heating up a small camera viewport would be even easier.

I guess I'm just cheap -- I only have to clean the mirrors maybe 8 times during the winter. I sure won't add it on unless it's "free" or comes enmeshed with a somehow must-have package. For me, there are very few "must have" items, and it's got to justify it's multi-year life span. (I don't buy cars every other year; my current one is, hmmm, 16 years old! from new.)

I guess that it's almost time for it's next every-decade car wash, eh?

HEY YOU -- WAIT! So, does Windows v22 STILL have that awful touch interface they're just now forcing on us here???

Or, are you now using something else besides your FINGER to ... touch ..... the ... ... screen?

No, wait; never mind! I'm sorry I even asked. (shudder)

I imagine that's a badly turned phrase; let me see if I can do any better: if necessary, I can move my head or body to change the angle that I view the mirror, showing different parts of the outside scene. Slightly annoying but very infrequent (otherwise change your mirror setting!) while easily still being possible.

This will do absolutely nothing if using a camera -- you'll have to actually change the camera positioning to see a different view, and that will take longer than a second to reconfigure.

Really? I've had a stitched view for over a decade now. (PDF) It takes no power or extra equipment and I can see what's in the adjacent lanes behind me.

True, I have to glance at one non-adjacent sensor to another, but then again the road is still visible around me -- if something happens in front I already have a slight visual and can immediately lock and focus on it. (Then again, in high school driving class they taught us to continually scan our surrounding, check our mirrors, as well as maintain a "space cushion" around the car.)

Oh, and a spot of dirt or water (wherever might THAT come from?) will obscure that entire mirror as opposed to just being an inconvenience.

Ever had to scrape off a mirror from the accumulated snow / ice / fog? THAT'll be easy to do on the camera lens as well, I'm sure.

Then again there's be some idiot that will reconnect the camera inputs to watch TV, never mind being slightly night-blind from the always-on slight blue glow from the camera display. Or did you want to use B/W LCDs?

Mandate this in all new cars? Well if that's what you want. Personally I'll be out buying a glass cutting kit and a lot of superglue while re-positioning the camera to get an upskirt picture of the car next to me.

About 10 minutes ago, I did exactly that with Bank of America's ShopSafe -- not that they're the only one around. But I've used them for years and it works great.

You log into the website and select your supporting credit card. Then you find the (Mostly hidden? Why??) option and tell it the maximum dollar amount and the max numbers of valid months. It generates a new CC number and CSC with the limits you specify. The first vendor who uses the card is linked to the card so no one else can use it again. (The original vendor can; great for single-vendor monthly or periodic purchases.) You can even increase the total amount later or cancel the virtual card early if necessary. If not, it'll expire after it's short lifetime (months) is up

One time BoA alerted me that a virtual card I used at a charity was later used elsewhere. They surprisingly canceled the actual card along with the virtual one. The virtual cards purpose was long over, but I was surprised that they killed the real card supporting it. Still, no problems at all using these on-the-fly cards for years now. I use it for all of my year-end charitable contributions and for any place I don't absolutely 100% trust. (And a few that I even do!)

AnyDVD is great. It'll handle anything you throw at it, and the team releases frequent updates to handle new discs. They sell a yearly subscription to a lifetime subscription, and usually have some kind of discount promotion going on. "All" it does though is remove the encryption; you'll need something else to manipulate the now in-the-clear files. (I suggest HandBrake to MKV. Omit the startup menu and forced-leading ads, too.)

Imgburn states there's some occasional interaction with AnyDVD and it's after-burn disc verification, but I've never, ever seen that.

Be aware that 8 years ago when I bought the software direct from the vendor, the CC was disabled afterwards because the purchase originated from an odd place to them. Now-a-days I'd imagine they forward the purchase info to the MPAA for their "future reference and action".

Then again, DVDFab was some of their competition, but recently they've been forcibly "disappeared".

Really, the easiest thing to do is to buy the DVD/BR and then find a rip. They're normally available in different sizes and resolution and then you don't even have to go to the bother of opening the case, never mind the time and energy for a re-encode.

Not that I'd know about any of this. I've got a friend that told me about all that. Yeah, that's right; a friend.

Hi Dad! Is that you?

Remember, I'll be choosing your nursing home -- or even IF you'll have one at all.

Let's play Barney for the umpteen millionth time, OK? Kthxbye.

-- Your loving snot gobbler.


PS - yes, I know you love your child dearly or you wouldn't even have posted that. At times I too say the exact opposite of what I'm thinking for comedic effect.

Also, *I* grew up before DVDs ... or CDs ... or Cassettes, or even Eight-tracks. On long trips my mom used to entertain me by having me watch for letters in license plates in alphabetical order. Or maybe reading a puzzle book, or some other human, interactive, unpowered thing. Just be sure you don't grow complacent and accidentally rely too much on media entertainment. It's much better to remember being on a trip with your parents rather than another Barney, My Little Pony, or any Disney movie.

My parents are now long gone -- trust me on this one.

!! But, but -- how do we get the sharks into the black hole? I didn't think they fly! ... Hmm, I guess we'll first have to evolve them into intelligent sapient spaceship-flying beings before we fling them headfirst into a black hole. (Or tailfirst? Which way should the laser point?)

Ob

I'll take Cheap and High then.

Politicians are OUR employees (even though they instead might think they're gods.) Instead of storing their retirement papers, I suggest that we store THEM. All of that hot air could be used for geothermal, too.

After all, you never know when you might need an extra politician, and I'd sure hate to run out of them.