Simple, use captcha type audio to trip up bots. All calls allowed through either from the white list or through a quick Turing test (captcha). 1. Use a white list of all known contacts, and let all from the list directly through. 2. All not recognized calls are given a short recording: "press 123 to continue your call". Rotate the numbers and vary the voice message to ensure its not being translated by the bot. Get creative with Captcha type sentances: How many toes do you have... Nothing too difficult, and nothing too costly. Where's my 50K?

The largest problem that most scientists face, is that most people get involved in Science because they are not good with people. LEARN HOW TO COMMUNICATE EFFECTIVELY! That is the best advice to give anyone going into any area of science. If you don't volunteer as a journalist, spend the time communicating in some productive way. Practice practice practice. The better you get, the more entertaining you are, the more likely you'll be pushed up to the very top of your profession and with it have more fun at your job then all the others stuck in a lab somewhere. Trust me, learn to communicate and your life will be more enriched, both financially and professionally.

What about using the newly discovered Higgs Boson? Couldn't that be used to more precisely define 1Kg mass?

Sorry, but that is just emotional. The Government does 1000 times more to assist the poor than Church groups do. In fact, many of the NGO Church groups take money from the Government to give the help you are describing. Churches, Mosques, Temples are all businesses. You can say they are businesses for good purposes, but they are businesses none the less. A better way would be to start a business and call it based on my "faith" in Widgets. Then register as a Religious based NPO and take advantage of the same zero tax status as the others. Thus we could all stop paying taxes. (I'm being ironic of course). The power to tax is the power to destroy? LOL. Yes, but its easier just to declare a Church unlawful, and leave it at that. Congress can destroy something like a church without needing to tax it to death. By your logic, Congress should dissolve since it "might" run afoul of the constitution. Taxes are not to destroy the payer, they are to distribute money to areas which the individual can not reach, and the group requires to benefit the social good. Yes, of course there are boondogles coming out of congress, but that's just the nature of democracy. "Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time." Winston Churchill

They already are penalized: The software gets a bad reputation and is no longer purchased or used.

I think nothing more needs to be said...

German law is already clear: The owner of the connection is responsible for the traffic on the connection. If there is wireless, it must be secured in such a way to ensure that others are not using or misusing the connection to download or share infringing material. Either way, the owner is responsible. Now that the connection address can be subpoena'd for the real owner name it means that a lot of lawsuits are coming in Germany.

You're measuring something which has too many variables. Test your theory on a smaller environment, such as in a single shop, and you see that cameras do deter crime. The rate varies depending on the camera location and visibility, and also will vary over time. The greatest drop is seen closest to the installation, and then it falls off a bit over time.

please read my previous comment above. Its about economics and cash flow.

Tickets for illegal driving habits are a positive cash flow for the ticking agency, and thus an incentive to follow to completion. Tracking an individual for criminal activity (such as your hit and run) is a cost center activity which, no matter what you think about the system, costs money. Yes, it keeps the police in a job, but ultimately the amount of incidents versus man hours to process makes each decision a prioritization. Your illegal turn on a scooter brings in 100 quid (or so) and finding and procecuting a hit and run (when you appear not to be dead) is put in the prioritization cue with the rest of the more severe crimes. It has nothing to do with CCTV and everything to do with economics and prioritization of available man hours. More cops and more of the petty crime gets investigated. Simple math. That all said, CCTV makes the investigation faster and in many cases simpler then without it. That is the point of the artical IMHO. More cameras means that the priority list I spoke of dips down farther into petter crimes simply because Cops need less time per incident to investigate and take to the prosecutor.

I believe it is a valid argument. First off you are correct to question it but for a different reason: the exhaust regulation is fairly new, thus the main pressure comes from taxes. The point I was making is that this system reinforces the need to keep your vehicle current. But if you would like me to elaborate on the topic of age pressure I can.

First there is TÜV, the German street-ready tests. The older the car gets the more expensive the upkeep to pass the inspection. This isn't always a deterent in itself, since older cars can pass the inspection without too much hassle, it adds to the overall cost as a vehicle ages.

Second, fuel efficiency is a serious issue in Germany where normal gas costs 2-4 times what it does in some areas of the US. Thus newer cars, especially those German vehicles which are very efficient, so far as to shut off when they stop a red light, save money. Or said in another way, older cars can cost significantly more per Km to keep running.

Lastly, if you look at your map, and tracked inhabitants under those "few" dots, you would see that a significant portion of German population lives or works in those listed areas. And the areas are growing fast with plans to reduce exhaust levels across the country over the next years. Thus if you are not a farmer, you have a good chance of living, working, or needing to pass through one of these areas. You don't need to pass regulations for the Autobahn, but if you wish to exit in Munich, Berlin, Stuttgart, Bremen, Dusseldorf etc. you need to pass the inspection.

Insightfull? I rate this a Funny!

I live in Germany and I completely agree with the above statement "and I find 160 km/h (100 mph) a very decent cruising speed.". But in Germany the older your car is the more expensive the taxes are. In some major cities they have made older, higher poluting, cars completely illegal to drive. The result is that a large amount of cars on the road are 3 years or less old. And of these, a majority are German made and German engineered. And in Germany it costs upwards of 1K Euro to earn a driving license, which can be revoked or mandatory additional driving lessons can be applied, costing significant additional cash.

The final result: attentive drivers, and very well maintained high end vehicles. Add in the high quality of most German roads, including signs, water drainage, and careful maintenance. All of this (in addition to the "German" quality of placing attention to the task at hand) and you have the conditions for safely driving at 100 mph or faster. I feel safe in Germany at this speed, I would not feel safe on any suburban US Freeway, or most rural ones which are fairly well driven.

The states simply doesn't have the road quality, the attentive drivers who adhere to the rules, and the high average quality of vehicles. It wouldn't work and would be dangerous, It wouldn't work in Sweden either, so don't feel bad.

I think we agree on this one. And I think that most security staff would have trouble spelling interoperability.

ok, Multiplexers don't usually have a VGA output, so you are probably working with BNC input CRT monitors, correct? Either way, if you are using a combination of live viewing and playback, then you'll need some sort of software package to perform this.

I did mean Internet Explorer when I used IE, because I was trying to understand if you needed a dedicated box. It seems like you might. Any security system you actually use somewhat frequently should probably have its own dedicated client/workstation.

I hate to tell you, but your software client options will be limited to the vendor you purhcased your DVR from. If its a upper market device, you might be able to purchase a separate management software piece from another vendor which has written drivers to control the device. Otherwise you're stuck with the client available from the manufacturer.

What box do you have? I would need the actual manufacturer and model to help you with any specifics.