You are being watched

The closed circuit camera in the top right corner is part of an online demostration against german laws which focus on digitally spying on its citizens – i.e. forcing the providers to hoard data like where your mobile phone logged in, what sites you surfed to, when you phoned, who you phoned, how long you phoned. It adresses my fellow Germans to protest against this spying.

NYPD: Spycopter

The New York Police Department (NYPD) got a new spying toy. A helicopter stuffed full of surveilance electronics with amazing (and frightening) capabilities:

  • looks like a civilian helicopter made by “Bell”
  • an arsenal of sophisticated surveillance and tracking equipment powerful enough to read license plates — or scan pedestrians’ faces — from high above New York
  • see-but-avoid-being-seen advantage
  • worth $10 million
  • high-powered robotic camera mounted on a turret projecting from its nose like a periscope
  • camera has infrared night-vision capabilities
  • a satellite navigation system allows police to automatically zoom in on a location by typing in the address on a computer keyboard
  • can beam live footage to police command centers or even to wireless hand-held devices

The NYPD got the expected reactions:

“From a privacy perspective, there’s always a concern that ‘New York’s Finest’ are spending millions of dollars to engage in peeping tom activities,” said Donna Lieberman, executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union.

And answered them the usual way:

Police insist that law-abiding New Yorkers have nothing to fear.

Yeah, right. Nothing to fear? If I want to be spied upon, I would move to North Corea. Yahoo tells us, that the NYPD plans to spend tens of millions of dollars strengthening security in the lower Manhattan business district with a network of closed-circuit television cameras and license-plate readers posted at bridges, tunnels and other entry points. We are sure they are only taping the “non-law-abiding New Yorkers”. That’s pretty much the usual stuff. The UK (who somehow misunderstood George Orwells 1984 and now seem to take it as an instruction manual) has all this. But now the Yahoo article starts to get surreal:

Police have also deployed hundreds of radiation monitors — some worn on belts like pagers, others mounted on cars and in helicopters — to detect dirty bombs.

And fantastic – did he read the R. Talsorian “Protect and Serve”?

[NYPD Police Commissioner Raymond] Kelly even envisions someday using futuristic “stationary airborne devices” similar to blimps to conduct reconnaissance and guard against chemical, biological and radiological threats.

Thanks to Don’t Tase Me, Bro! for pointing me to the Yahoo News Article. I remember a (bad) science fiction movie featuring a helicopter that could see into rooms with thermographs. Anybody remember the name?

Freedom is just another word for having nothing left to lose

Funny, for all surveillance, Osama bin Laden is still free — and we’re not. Guess who’s winning the “war on terror?” – Cory Doctorow

Today is “Dark Future Day”. Its scaring me. Check the news: As you probably know, everybody within the European Union has every use of a telecomincation device (mobile, computer) safed and made accessible by the government. Not the content of your conversion, but date, time, length, sender, receiver. Also logged: Every station your mobile phone registered with. That’s scary allready, but no longer a news. New is:

Cory is right. Osama bin Laden wins the fight agains Freedom. And we voted those who help him into power. I wonder if he can stop laughing at us?

 

Aerial Intrusion Device

Real Life

The following device is based on Yves “The Fusionman” Rossy’s Jetpack. For copyright reasons, I’m not showing you any photos, but link to them:
On the ground

  • Wings folded, front view
  • Wings unfolded, front view
  • Close-up view of underside with jetmotors and harness, wings unfolded

Flying

  • From above
  • From above
  • Edge-on side view
  • From below
  • Video

There is a video on YouTube, too:
[youtube bEXxkWXncuo]

And Wikipedia has an entry, too.

Game Stats

For a Cyberpunk setting I would leave the requirment to launch the jetpack from an airplane or something similar. The reach should be short, but not as short as the prototype (6.5 minutes at 185 km/h). So lets put it at 220 km/h for 10 min, giving it a reach of 35 km. It has near to none radar signature, but does emit heat, so it might be detectable.

Statistics:

Top Speed 220 km/h Acc/Dec 110/20 km/h
Crew 1 Range 35 km
Pass 0 Cargo none
Maneuver +3 SDP 5
SP 0 Type Jetpack
Mass 20 kg Cost 20,000 EB

Special Equipment:

Nav System, stealth option, parachute

Rockerboys: The True Cyberpunk Spirit

Rockerboys haven’t had much coverage on this blog so far. So you might not be surprised by the news that the Nine Inch Nails released their new album (“The Slip”) under the Creative Commons “attribution noncommercial share-alike” license. A note on the NIN site says:

“We encourage you to remix it, share it with your friends, post it on your blog, play it on your podcast, give it to strangers, etc.”

Thank you guys. That’s very clever, and makes me feel much better downloading the album.

Sure, I’m was never dumb enough to pay for DRM-Music. Microsoft just proved that you have to be brain-damaged to do so by removing support for the aptly named Playsforsure – now it won’t play as soon as you change to a new computer/mp3-player. They never supported Linux, anyway.

But Get Out Clause, a band I never heard of before, puts the NIN-guys to shame. Get Out Clause is from Manchester, UK. The UK has adoped a senseless but ambitious programme to videotape every second of the life of every single person living there. Yes senseless: They claim to do so to fight terrorism or crime, but just had to admit that it didn’t work. Guess whats the new plan: Right, more cameras. Anyway, GOC just performed in front of one of those cameras and then asked for the tape and then stitched the results together for their music video. That’s cyberpunk. Esp. the punk part! Rock on, guys!

[youtube 98u1HuqS7Nk]

Malte vom Spreeblick hat das ganze auf deutsch noch viel besser formuliert als ich das je könnte. Ich hoffe, dass er nicht böse ist, wenn ich seinen ganzen Post zitiere:

In England geschieht nichts unbeobachtet. Das ganze Land hat eine dermaßen hohe Überwachungskameradichte (die unter Sicherheitsaspekten nichts bringt und deshalb erhöht werden soll), dass – so erzählt man sich in Berlin – Wolfgang Schäuble nachts von Laterne zu Laterne fährt und Polaroidkameras installiert, wobei er “God save the Queen” singt und lauwarmes Bier trinkt. The Get out Clause, eine Band aus Manchester, die keinen Plattenvertrag hat, machte sich nun die vielen Kameras zunutze (nicht die Polaroids von Schäuble, die echten) und hat sich erst aufzeichnen lassen, dann die Aufnahmen unter Berufung auf den Freedom of Information Act zurück gefordert, bearbeitet und ein Video daraus produziert.

Cyb3rpunk | Style Trends 2035+

streetstyle.jpg

Hello and welcome to this month’s edition of streetstyle – the attitude guide that yo can’t afford to miss. We here at global style watch the trends. And ask the street: What’s hot? What’s not?

Digittoos – Artificial-looking body alterations are out. Leave those to the sad sods who still rant on about the glorious days when they were “Cyberpunks” in the 2020ies. Today’s look is all about self-evolution. About making a statement of progress right in Darwin’s wrinkled face. At first, I was a little surprised when I discovered that even “old” technologies like Philips’ Electronic Tattoos are now all the rage in the clubs. But like it is often the case with “revamped” tech, it’s not the tech that counts, it’s the style. Continue reading “Cyb3rpunk | Style Trends 2035+”

Stranger Than Fiction

Blade Runner Umbrella

Remember the kewl “glowing” umbrellas in Blade Runner? As I already wrote here in my blog, these are available NOW! from a company called Euroschirm.

Unfortunately, the umbrella isn’t shown or listed on their website, but as my readers began to suggest that this ad may be a fake I hunted down another address where YES you CAN order it directly, thanks to the guys at ThinkGeek.com. Here’s the link, and it costs 25$.

Meanwhile, I have found even weirder futuristic umbrella concepts – stuff that the makers of Blade Runner could never even have imagined …

(There’s also a variant to this theme: The Starlight Umbrella uses optic fibres to simulate a glimmering starfield above your head – with changing lights!)

RFID umbrella

Take the RFID umbrella, for instance. What’s that? Basically, it’s a “free to use” umbrella you can just take away and use in case you need it. The RFID chip will monitor your movement (and make sure you don’t steal the umbrella). The Corp that came up with this idea is named “Dutch Umbrella”, and apparently it was a barkeeper who had the original idea. The tech is there and the umbrella seems to be in use already. Click here for a German article from the Stern magazine.

Satellite Link Umbrella

But wait! There’s more! Americans AND Japanese engineers both had the idea to connect an umbrella with a weather forecasting service. While the American umbrella will display weather warnings and such by use of a small LED display, the Japanese umbrella uses the umbrella surface itself as a large projection surface, transforming the umbrella’s underside into a large computer monitor you can also use as a GPS screen or for video conference or whatever.

The main advantage of the US version is that it can already be ordered at – guess where – ThinkGeek.com. Here’s the direct link.

Here’s the website of the JAPANESE umbrella, and here is an (older) video of the umbrella’s 3rd gen prototype test:

[youtube mpHJBWUcpXM]

In case the video won’t play, try this link.

Cyberpunk Tech 10: Cyberware – Wo stehen wir?

Einige spannende Links zum Thema Cyberware aus der letzten Zeit:

  • Wie man Organe schafft, die ohne Auslösen der Immunabwehr vom Körper akzeptiert werden, beschreibt Heise hier.
  • Kontaktlinsen mit eingebautem Display (wir haben berichtet) wurde erfolgreich an Kaninchen getestet.
  • Warum sollte man Cyberware nicht hacken können? Es geht doch schon heute. Ein Cyberarm ohne Bluetooth? Wie lädt man denn dann das Firmwareupdate runter?
  • Neurosky: Computerspiele direkt durch das Gehirn steuern. Bald auch für den produktiven Einsatz im Büro?