No really it's about speeding not revenue

[91BRG]

I understand they don't work... at all.

I've seen mixed reports but nothing that inspired me to go buy any, usually the opposite, which is why I wonder if anyone has actually got first-hand positives to report.

[bill_keksz]

I remember seeing a local TV news report that indicated success. That was a while back, when I actually watched local news...

[Rumnhammer]

If it is the type of ticket from the mobile speed cameras, like on 95 that are taken from a white jeep cheroke, you can go to court and plead that it is un constitutional, since these are manned cameras, you have the right to face your accuser, per I think it is the 4th ammendment (check to be sure).

The people they have manning the jeeps never show up in court, and you must have it released.
FWIW I know a guy that has beaten this rap at least 4 times using this method, and the judge has dismissed it each time. You see they are playing on the ignorance of the people, so what you need to do is play on the laziness of the people of the courts and jeep sitters, fight it.

Classic art of warfare.

Chris Rummel

For the stationary ones, you can always throw a tire over it and set it on fire, that is what they do in England where all this 1984 type shit came from.
CR

[Cutter]

For $40 it's cheaper to pay the ticket. They're really very smart over there at the tax collectors...

[Rumnhammer]

That's exactly the attitude that they count on, thats why they get so much revenue from this crap, Personally I'd rather keep my money. It doesn't matter how much it is.

Chris Rummel

[prostwest]

For $40 it's cheaper to pay the ticket. They're really very smart over there at the tax collectors...

One hundred twenty five.

[Cutter]

For $125 you're more likely to get people fighting. I'd rather keep my money too. But consider most people would have to miss work for it. A day, and it likely would kill a day, fighting a $40 ticket wouldn't be worth the time off even if you're only making minimum wage.

[Rumnhammer]

That response always amazes me too, really It's not like you have to take a week off work, most jobs give you personal days and or sick days, and going to court does not take all day even most people would take an entire day off. I've never had a problem getting time to go to court, at any job I've held.

Considering most of the people in this club seem to work at NASA, NSA, etc (insert gov job abbrev here) I hardly think that you could have difficulty going to court and still getting paid for the day........
Chris Rummel

[Cutter]

That's true... if you're part of the machine that's oppressing you. For those that work in the private sector though you don't really want to tell your boss you're not working on XYZ multi-million dollar project so you can fight a $40 ticket. Similarly, you wouldn't cancel a sales appointment or any kind of meeting with a client.

[Rumnhammer]

I do work in the private sector, if you take a sick day or personal day, it's really none of you bosses business why you are taking it. FWIW I'm currently off until after the first of the year burning up the unused sick days from this year that I would lose if not used.

CR

[Cutter]

They let you use sick days for court time or added vacation? Or is it more like they make you use vacation for sick days?

Either way, a day off is paid time. I can think of a lot of things I'd rather be doing than waiting in a court room for my case. At some places, what you'd lose in gas and parking would account for a quarter-half of the fine amount.

Don't get me wrong bro. I'd love to fight them all. The thing is, it's just a PITA. They did a good job setting the fine level to make it hard to justify a fight. They do a good job of making it difficult to fight.

You've heard my parking ticket story right?

[bill_keksz]

A paid leave day spent on something you hate doing is a lost day.
As for separate sick days - someone has those?

[Cutter]

:wave: They're bonus - use them or lose them. You can also use them for family members. If you get fired or something you don't get paid for them. But you would for vacation days.

[moxnix]

As for separate sick days - someone has those?

I have separate sick days. There is no limit on how many hours of sick leave you can build up where I work. I have a little under 1000 hours of sick leave currently.

[91BRG]

As for separate sick days - someone has those?

I have separate sick days. There is no limit on how many hours of sick leave you can build up where I work. I have a little under 1000 hours of sick leave currently.

Ours is the same. I've got 975 hours of sick time. I wouldn't get paid for it if I left, but I can take it when I need it, unlike vacation which vanishes if not used at the end of the FY.

Good to know about the success in court with the robo-cams. I'd take a day off just to go to court and say that they're bs. I think I will when I get the next one (and no doubt there will be another...).

[Cutter]

If I was in the court room and someone actually stood up and said, "They're BS", I'd cheer.

[prostwest]

I have never gotten paid personal leave; about a year ago my 5 lousy sick days a year(with no carryover) were canceled outright. After 10 years I got bumped to 15 days Vacation, but with new ownership we'll see if that's honored. Merry Christmas!

This is what's so insidious- and I'm going to get political again, stand back. Well-off people are still well off. Many made huge fortunes on the back of government spending and support. (internet Billionaires, Oil Billionaires, Halliburton execs, trucking magnates- Wall Street is aided both by the regulation that lends it credence and an aura of security, and the well-lobbied de-regulation that allowed them to make up a fake economy). Most everyone may have less now, but those maintaining $250K plus per household in this climate clearly have benefited the most from the unsustainable public borrowing that halted the slide. It's time for them to start paying a bit back.

I just looked at the math, and the original tax bill that would have cut off the breaks for a $300K household would have meant an additional- wait for it- eight hundred dollars in income tax for them. I can list a dozen areas where I've felt that much impact in the past 2 years, but it represents a hell of a lot more than point two percent of my gross. Now the part that just nauseated me- I now see that the payroll tax changes in the "compromise" bill mean an overall cut of $4200 for the $300K family compared to the bill that was killed in the fall. Staggering, with the SS shortfall looming.

FedGov cuts spending to look responsible, but they do so in ways that only shift the burden to the states, who then pass that, along with their own cuts, down to the local jurisdictions. There, where the rubber meets the road, either the money still gets spent, funded by the most inequitably regressive hodgepodge of mechanisms (think scratch-offs and speed cameras), or services key to our security, quality of life and economic growth are slashed.

Meanwhile, the vast majority of us suffer furloughs and pay cuts that explode our ability to absorb this continuing spiral of myriad fee and tax tweaks.

I appreciate your forbearance, this has needed to get off my chest and into black and white for a while. Now back to our regularly scheduled speed-nazi griping.

[Cutter]

Speaking of the $4200 cut for $300k earners and SS - they'll also live longer than the poor guy AND get a bigger draw each pay period.

[prostwest]

Speaking of the $4200 cut for $300k earners and SS - they'll also live longer than the poor guy AND get a bigger draw each pay period.

Wow, good point- backed up by the CBO:
"In 1980, the difference in life expectancy at age 65 between the highest and lowest socioeconomic groups was 0.3 years. By 2000, the difference had grown to 1.6 years. "

After paying cutting their pay-in, enjoying a maximum benefit, according to SSA:" ...for a worker retiring at age 66 in 2010, (of) $2,346. " ,the $300K retirees will pull an additional Ninety thousand out of the system after the shelf-stocking couple has dropped dead. (champagne clinks)

[Cutter]

I'm so ready to just cut SS. But...What would rich people do without SS?! No more Christmas for them I guess.

[lelkins]

Wasn't it Monkey County where High School kids stole the Principal's tag to do multiple Bonneville passes past one?

Wooton High, and they didn't go that far... just took pictures of the plates of the teachers they wanted to harass, printed the plates on glossy photo paper, and found friends with similar make/model/color of cars to borrow and speed by the traps with the printed plates showing. I'm a bit too stick-in-the-mud to condone it but I did think it was brilliant when I first heard of it.

[Cutter]

Nice job kids! I'd have picked different targets (judges, executives for the camera companies, etc), but that took some ingenuity

[ChristianL]

Don't forget - if you go to court and fight it - and lose - you get points.

Nevertheless, I thought this was a good addition to this conversation:

Clip 1
Clip 2
Cilp 3

Is this justification enough for a turbo or LS swap?

[Rumnhammer]

That was cool, although they are not going about it the right way. What they are doing is exceding the perameters of the cameras programing. ie the camera is not smart. It is likely programed to pick up a set range of speeds, this is likely between 12mph over the posted limit up to probably in this case 150mph.

Exceed that top speed and it is like you were never there because it filters out the top range the same way it filters out <12mph over the posted limit. Top gears way works but is impractical. The better way would be a mobile speed camera programing transmitter that would detect speed cameras ahead and reprogram the speed to ignore any thing over 10mph. Oh I could so retire on some of the ideas I come up with......
Just trying to be one of the 67% of billionares like on the ad before the clip.

Oh and by the way the first ad is deceptive, yes 20% of the worlds wind energy would power the entire world, but how are you going to capture 20% of the TOTAL worlds wind? Really obviously they used the entire world for that math, how much wind are you useing with even a dedicated wind farm probably like .000000001% ?

Chris Rummel

[prostwest]

Oh and by the way the first ad is deceptive, yes 20% of the worlds wind energy would power the entire world, but how are you going to capture 20% of the TOTAL worlds wind? Really obviously they used the entire world for that math, how much wind are you useing with even a dedicated wind farm probably like .000000001% ?

Chris Rummel

"Back in 1919 a smart German physicist named Albert Betz figured out that the most you can possibly get out of wind turbine is around 59% of the power in the wind. This is an unassailable bit of physics. Stop whining about it."

So since 40% of the wind's energy is uncollectable, you'd have to expose turbines to more like 30% of the total wind. Now I'd wildly guess that at least half the wind energy manifests miles over our heads (think jet stream). So we'd have to blanket 60% of the earth's surface with these things. Let's just cover the oceans, at 75% of the earth, and we'd have a little leeway to leave shipping channels through the forest of towers.

[bill_keksz]

I think y'all need to go for a drive.

[prostwest]

No doubt.

[Rumnhammer]

My Miata has never seen a salty road, and never will, perhaps later.

[hollyb1]

I remeber seeing two anti camera projects a while ago. One involved infrared LEDs in sunglasses that whiteout the wearers face. The other project was more complicated it involved a sensor that detected the preflash or first flash and then used an infrared flash to whiteout the whole picture. I wonder if infrared leds could be mounted around the license plate bracket to overload the photo sensor on the speed camera.

[ChristianL]

I've heard of something similar, though years ago when red light cameras were coming onto the scene.

A photographer used a flash-sensitive strobe mounted next to the rear license plate. When the flash on the camera went off, the strobe's light meter would read it and flash back, thus giving a white-out condition to the camera.

As I recall, the guy was promptly ticketed.