Saturday, March 29, 2008

Google Street View


does not refer to a view of the streets. It is a view from the street. From Google Maps click street view, At large, zoomed-out, scale there will be camera icons. Click on one and zoom in. When you have zoomed in far enough, a golden icon of a man will appear. That icon can be dragged to anywhere on any street outlined in blue. This includes most of the streets in the Bay Area. It has a little black 'x' under it to indicate its precise location. The purpose of the little man is to indicate viewpoint. His direction of view can be rotated by dragging or by clicking on arrows. It can be zoomed.

With it I can see my RV parked across the street, close up and in detail. I can look at it from the front. I can move a few paces and see it from the side, from the back. Significantly, I can see in through its window. The pictures of the front of the house shows the recycling tubs by the curb, empty, so it was probably a Friday. My car was in the driveway. It was at least a month ago because it shows my mailbox which I have taken down.

Fooling with it, I have discovered that Bubba has his boat on a trailer in the driveway of his ranch house at 621 Stewart Street in Juneau, but he has taken the Evinrude off the back of it. There is no street view of Chico yet, but I can assure you it is coming.

The concept of privacy is obsolete now. To those who insist that human dignity and freedom are impossible without it, one can only say, "Get over it." The Fourth Amendment protects our right to be secure in our homes and papers. It is as obsolete as paper. Are you reading this on paper? But you CAN look in the window of my RV and of my house.

Similarly the Second Amendment. Does a musket-armed citizenry really constitute a militia that can resist professional soldiers armed with tanks, artillery, and aircraft? If it doesn't, then civilian firearms can be of use only for crime and spouse-shooting. Neither of which is in the public interest.

Or so I would have said a few years ago. The past few years have shown that Iraqi civilians and their foreign friends armed with small arms can indeed resist a modern well-equipped army. However bad their cause, their example cannot be ignored. A generation ago, now almost three actually, the Jews of the Warsaw Ghetto did the same. So maybe the Second Amendment does still have a purpose.

I could be wrong about the Fourth Amendment too. But it is fun to say things like, "Get over it."

1 comment:

  1. Anonymous1:05 AM

    One doesn't need Google Street View to see in your window, as long as you don't put up curtains.

    ReplyDelete