# Off-Topic Discussion > The Lounge > Tech Talk >  >  Google earth scares the hell out me

## IZ

I just got the program and its amazing.  ::shock::  I just think to myself, this kind of technology is always given to civilains at the end. But if this was available to military and private organizations back then, what kind of fucking technology they must have now.

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## The Question

I know what you mean man! Isnt it crazy!

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## pj

I've heard it said that the public is always seven to ten years behind military and intelligence technology, and I've seen enough to convince me that is probably a conservative estimate.

I love Google Earth.  There are several similar systems out there - a couple of them with near real time images for weather observations and whatnot.  Each one seems to have different areas where resolution is better than others.

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## Moonbeam

It's fun tho!  See your house, look up your friend's house!

At least, that's what I thought until I read your post.... ::shock:: 

Hey two people posted before me.

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## pj

> It's fun tho!  See your house, look up your friend's house!
> 
> At least, that's what I thought until I read your post....
> 
> Hey two people posted before me.



Yep - and I was watching YOU post through Google Earth!

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## Moonbeam

> Yep - and I was watching YOU post through Google Earth!



 
So you just typed a little faster to sneak in before me...see how you are!

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## Wavefunction

If only Google Earth was live  :Sad: 
That would be awesome  ::D: 

There was some trouble about Google Streetview, on their maps website. Streetview is pretty cool, but it has a lot of privacy concerns.

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## Ynot

> If only Google Earth was live 
> That would be awesome



"Chloe, I need a satellite linkup - I'm sending you the coordinates now"

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## Identity X

> If only Google Earth was live 
> That would be awesome 
> 
> There was some trouble about Google Streetview, on their maps website. Streetview is pretty cool, but it has a lot of privacy concerns.



The amount of work that went into Streetview must have been huge, or it certainly will be huge if and when it reaches large scale.

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## Alban

Google Earth makes me feel like God.

Pity I've got to share my Godhood with several million other internet users  ::angry:: 

Reassuring that they don't update where I live very much at all.
I've seen the exact same cloud over my island for the last six months.

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## dsr

> "Chloe, I need a satellite linkup - I'm sending you the coordinates now"



"CTU cut the funding for our satellite surveillance software. Jack, just download Google Maps for your cell at http://www.google.com/gmm/index.html>."

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## Michael

The military is watching you have sex and beat off. Watch out. They see everything. Except osama bin laden hes camoflauge!

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## IZ

I wonder if google got in trouble for taking shots of all those countries, down to the naked sun taning people.  :smiley:   Hell, other countries military secret bases would be discovered and other such stuff. Would be wise to do things underground for now on, and that goes for everyone. And yeah Micheal, I've heard the military now has technology to penetrate most roof buildings. Privacy is no more, and I can promise you that FBI and other military organizations have a "live" version of google earth.

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## pj

> I wonder if google got in trouble for taking shots of all those countries, down to the naked sun taning people.   Hell, other countries military secret bases would be discovered and other such stuff. Would be wise to do things underground for now on, and that goes for everyone. And yeah Micheal, I've heard the military now has technology to penetrate most roof buildings. Privacy is no more, and I can promise you that FBI and other military organizations have a "live" version of google earth.



Google doesn't take the shots - they purchase the images from services that sell satellite and terrestrial imagery.

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## Scatterbrain

> I can promise you that FBI and other military organizations have a "live" version of google earth.



I highly doubt it. For that they would need a layer of geostationary satellites around the earth.

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## IZ

> I highly doubt it. For that they would need a layer of geostationary satellites around the earth.



Well, we only know what information we are allowed to know....... ::roll::  Dont get me started with this goverment paranoia crap.

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## Michael

> I highly doubt it. For that they would need a layer of geostationary satellites around the earth.



You must not live in america. They most definatly have this technology. I know several people that work in intellegence, they all agree. They probably actually KNOW, but they can't tell me for sure.

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## Wavefunction

> I wonder if google got in trouble for taking shots of all those countries, down to the naked sun taning people.  Hell, other countries military secret bases would be discovered and other such stuff. Would be wise to do things underground for now on, and that goes for everyone. And yeah Micheal, I've heard the military now has technology to penetrate most roof buildings. Privacy is no more, and I can promise you that FBI and other military organizations have a "live" version of google earth.



Well, the "supersecret" Area 51... you can find it on Google Earth.
All you have to do is type in "Area 51"  ::D: 

You can't zoom in very far in North Korea though. I wonder why  ::roll::

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## Scatterbrain

> Well, we only know what information we are allowed to know....... Dont get me started with this goverment paranoia crap.







> You must not live in america. They most definatly have this technology. I know several people that work in intellegence, they all agree. They probably actually KNOW, but they can't tell me for sure.




To have live feed from everywhere at once they would need a large number of geostationary satellites around all of the earth, and they are only geostationary if they're orbiting over the equator.

Sorry, it's not possible.

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## Identity X

> To have live feed from everywhere at once they would need a large number of geostationary satellites around all of the earth, and they are only geostationary if they're orbiting over the equator.
> 
> Sorry, it's not possible.



Plus, I'm guessing satellites aren't easy to hide.

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## Michael

you dont needa hide satellites. it only takes a few up there to see anything in the world within minutes. it doesnt take long to orbit the earth. they prolly dont have live feed to everywhere at once, but to anywhere within minutes.

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## LucidFlanders

> It's fun tho!  See your house, look up your friend's house!
> 
> At least, that's what I thought until I read your post....
> 
> Hey two people posted before me.




You: Let's see my house

*searching for house*


You: OMG!!!! someones breaking into my house! HELP!!!!!!!!

 :tongue2: 

Also would be cool to get a glimpse of animals fighting in the wild live on your very own pc, but if you can do that i'm sure you can also witness a murder, or someone getting mugged. Hey, go to a fire and watch firemen take it out, or watch police handle a bank robbery, or whatever you want.  ::D:

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## LucidFlanders

> *I've heard it said that the public is always seven to ten years behind military and intelligence technology*, and I've seen enough to convince me that is probably a conservative estimate.
> 
> I love Google Earth.  There are several similar systems out there - a couple of them with near real time images for weather observations and whatnot.  Each one seems to have different areas where resolution is better than others.




Say what?  ::shock::  Anyway i would not doubt they have their "secret" technology, hey maybe they are millions of years ahead of us, j/k.

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## Man of Steel

I was hearing just the other day about some new 300Ghz processor IBM is supposed to be coming out with for consumer use, that the NSA has been using in their servers for over a decade. A data transfer rate of 400 gigaflops/second, if I remember correctly. 


Go figure.

[Edit:] A quick search yielded this article: The IBM Neoton

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## Identity X

> I was hearing just the other day about some new 300Ghz processor IBM is supposed to be coming out with for consumer use, that the NSA has been using in their servers for over a decade. A data transfer rate of 400 gigaflops/second, if I remember correctly. 
> 
> 
> Go figure.
> 
> [Edit:] A quick search yielded this article: The IBM Neoton



I don't believe this is true. "Newtechspy", not the most reputable of outlets (I've never heard of it before), is the ONLY source I can find. With such a big announcement and breakthrough, you'd think it'd be elsewhere. The article - and the illustration - is amateurish, and the science weak and ill-defined. No sources are given, let alone any at IBM.

*This is a hoax.*

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## Adam

I think this is better: http://maps.live.com/

You can do 3d view or flat, and the images are much better  ::D:

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## Scatterbrain

> you dont needa hide satellites. it only takes a few up there to see anything in the world within minutes. it doesnt take long to orbit the earth. they prolly dont have live feed to everywhere at once, but to anywhere within minutes.



Satellites reflect the sunlight and can be seen by astronomers I guess.

To have live feed from a point the satellites can't be moving, they need to be geostationary. So what you mean is they can get photos (like google earth) from anywhere they want.
The majority of satellites are placed in low earth orbit (LEO) and the orbital period usually takes around 90 minutes.

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## Umbrasquall

> I was hearing just the other day about some new 300Ghz processor IBM is supposed to be coming out with for consumer use, that the NSA has been using in their servers for over a decade. A data transfer rate of 400 gigaflops/second, if I remember correctly. 
> 
> 
> Go figure.
> 
> [Edit:] A quick search yielded this article: The IBM Neoton



Yeah that's not real. 





> I think this is better: http://maps.live.com/
> 
> You can do 3d view or flat, and the images are much better



The photos are better cause they're aerial photographs, not actually satellite images.

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## Adam

BUt Google is only satalite 'photos' of poor quality, the areal photographs are better

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## pyroguy305

All I know is quite a few years ago, the government could already read a newspaper over someone's shoulder from space.. Im pretty sure they have some crazy stuff nowadays..

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## Identity X

> BUt Google is only satalite 'photos' of poor quality, the areal photographs are better



You are misinformed. Google uses satellite imagery at high altitudes (and uses "Blue Marble" at space level), but at lower altitudes aerial photography (often at high resolution) is used. This change is rather transparent but can be noticed by the differing copyright notices when zooming in.

*Oh!* And I've found the source text the (lame) hoaxers used:





> IBM has created a chip that can slow down light, the latest advance in an industrywide effort to develop computers that will use only a fraction of the energy of today's machines. 
> 
> The chip, called a photonic silicon waveguide, is a piece of silicon dotted with arrays of tiny holes. Scattered systematically by the holes, light shown on the chip slows down to 1/300th of its ordinary speed of 186,000 miles per second. In a computer system, slower light pulses could carry data rapidly, but in an orderly fashion. The light can be further slowed by applying an electric field to the waveguide. 
> 
> Researchers at Harvard University and the University of California, Berkeley, have slowed light in laboratories. IBM, though, claims that its light-slowing device is the first to be fashioned out of fairly standard materials, potentially paving the way toward commercial adoption. 
> A number of companies and university researchers are currently tinkering with ways to replace the electronic components inside computers, which ferry signals with electrons, with optical technology. Optical equipment ferries data on photons, the smallest measure of light. Photons are far faster. More important, optical equipment generates less heat, curbing the growing problem of heat and power consumption.
> 
> (More at source)



Damn that hoaxx was lame, how on Earth did you believe it Man of Steel?  :tongue2: 





> All I know is quite a few years ago, the government could already read a newspaper over someone's shoulder from space.



And how could you possibly *know* that? Pish. Why would they have spy planes when they have this, then?

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