There are some posts saying "don't live there" about flock cameras. You don't get a choice, Cities are allowing them everywhere. To see how many are near you:

https://dontgetflocked.com/

I wonder... to what extent can the mirrors be tuned? It seems rather inefficient to use space mirors to target a 3 mile circle. I asked Gemini and it disagrees with your assertions, however I can't paste the formulas into a slashdot comment. The key assertion that would disagree with your back of the envelope measurements however is easier to quote:

Because the mirror is so much closer, its required light intensity (Im) only needs to be roughly 0.000169% of the Moon's actual light intensity to appear just as bright to us.

The final result for the mirror size depends on its curvature (or lack thereof.) Gemini gives me 2000m2 for a flat mirror but 60-100m2 for a specular mirror.

Start with knowing the route, then building a list of all the physical addresses on that route. Which ones are business/residential? Are residential addresses multi-unit or single dwelling? Cross check that with the customer databases that you've downloaded from when you hacked into the manufacturer's website.... oh, were you expecting that those customer databases were secure?

Don't forget about The Truman Show.

This made me curious. Indeed it isn't a simple answer. rather than copy-paste large bodies of text: https://www.impactlab.com/2025...

There is a standard called "NEBS" and entire systems are certified as NEBS compliant. For something to work in space, I imagine that a new standard (of similar nature) would be required that addresses things like heat management, radiation, and to some extent servicability. A firmware bug that kills all your SSDs in 12 servers simultaneously would but be acceptable - everything would need to be servicable/addressable provided it had power available. SSDs have a finite usable lifetime. what happens when all of he SSDs in a satellite expire, do they deorbit the satellite because SSDs can't be replaced (and haven't)?

For one, they're outside the juristiction of all governments. The data on that satellite in space isn't in the USA or in China. What this means in practice, I don't know. How does the FBI or the police or DHS subpoena data held in orbit? If they can't subpoena data held in the cloud in a foreign country, they also can't get it in orbit (this is "data sovereignty.") If Google holds data about Europeans on servers in orbit, does that meet GDPR requirements? (Basically not in the USA.)

You're not the only one that acts like this. I think most people are but this fails to understand one of the benefits of advertising: brand awareness.

Brand awareness is what TV (cable & FTA) and radio sell. They're not always selling you something that you'll go out and buy now, but in 3 months when you need to get a new lawn mower and go to the hardware store, your brain has been preprogrammed into recognising certain brands. That's the real power of advertising. Need a new truck? Over the last 12 months, which ads on TV did you like the best? It's not always a conscious though ... yes there are people that will "do the research", but they're a minority.

I don't know how or why this is still a thing, but going to the reaction website (https://framagit.org/ppom/reaction) is as slow as a website on a 28.8k modem doing PPPoE. It's almost as if the website has been slashdot'd due to, well, slashdot and web economics. Who knew that was still a thing.

That's a special arrangement that I didn't know about. Google tells me that Candian burner phones do work in the USA (if you choose the correct telco). Thanks for the heads up. I wonder how long that'll last

This isn't about scammers. It is about removing the ability to be anonymous when communicating. You seem to think that just using a foreign phone solves this problem. It doesn't. Every country has its own laws around telecommunications and most of them are even stricter than the FCC because they don't have to worry about supporting freedom of speech.

Just because you have a phone from India or China or Vietnam does not mean you can roam while in the USA, it depends on which telco you bought it from and if they have a roaming agreement with a telco in the USA. International roaming isn't some free for all, it is controlled and restricted to customers that a telco wants to let roam.

Burner phones are preferably a cheap phone with a SIM card that has no reigstration details associated with it. While everyone talks about it being a burner phone, the important part of the equation is the SIM, not the phone. The real advantage in older phones is that they won't phone home to Google/Apple/Samsung the moment they're turned on.

There seems to be a lot of misconceptions around how easy global roaming is to facilitate or that it is an automatic function of every cell phone. It isn't. It is very common for telcos to deny global roaming to particular classes of service.

Global roaming happens on a per-case (APN) basis according to agreements between telcos. Verizon could (for example) refuse to allow foreigners global roaming on their network unless the person doing the roaming had a plan (ie credit card on file, personal details recorded, etc.)

What can't be accounted for is corruption in the registration process (either domestically or internationally) that would allow for (e)SIMs to be provided to people without the correct personal information being recorded.

Maybe for a few miles inside the border where you've got radio connectivity, but otherwise, probably not.

Read my comments again. They come from experience. They come from roaming not working on a burner phone bought at Frys for $20. They come from pre-paid phones from outside the USA not working in the USA but working in other 3rd party countries.

International roaming doesn't just work, there's a boat load of crap that needs to happen for it to work. International roaming is not something that is enabled for all phone numbers. You can call up and ask for it to be turnned on/off for you phone while not impacting anyone else. For burner phones, it is not enabled and cannot be enabled. Hope that answers your questions.