Tangentially on-topic, I'd recommend checking out 'Ex-Machina' if you haven't yet seen it.  The ending scared the bejeesus out of me.

ston
Tangentially on-topic, I'd recommend checking out 'Ex-Machina' if you haven't yet seen it.  The ending scared the bejeesus out of me.

We watched that one recently.  Pretty good film.  Sometimes though, being somewhat data literate can spoil things.  For example, is there really a data pipe anywhere fat enough to carry video from every phone on the planet?  Or a center with enough cycles to process it all?
 

ston
Missed those bits, I'll have to re-check the film!  However, if the Bourne series of films is to be believed then they can simultaneously monitor & analyse all voice, text and video from every phone on the planet as well as every single CCTV... ;-)  I think SHIELD in the Avengers movies can do that too.

LOL!  That's true, but I've still binged the Bourne films at least 4 or 5 times.  We've watched 3 or 4 episodes of the SHIELD series.  A bit too cutesy for our taste, but is Rising Tide chick is a little hottie.  Plenty of those around in decent shows though
 
Person Of Interest is another 'tech is a little too far out there' show.
 
Marcella is pretty good, but they seem to have access to CCTV everywhere too.  I still hope they do another season of Marcella.
 

BobF

ston
Missed those bits, I'll have to re-check the film!  However, if the Bourne series of films is to be believed then they can simultaneously monitor & analyse all voice, text and video from every phone on the planet as well as every single CCTV... ;-)  I think SHIELD in the Avengers movies can do that too.

LOL!  That's true, but I've still binged the Bourne films at least 4 or 5 times.  We've watched 3 or 4 episodes of the SHIELD series.  A bit too cutesy for our taste, but is Rising Tide chick is a little hottie.  Plenty of those around in decent shows though
 
Person Of Interest is another 'tech is a little too far out there' show.
 
Marcella is pretty good, but they seem to have access to CCTV everywhere too.  I still hope they do another season of Marcella.
 

SKYE (Rising Tide chick) IS MINE. STAY AWAY! Yes, AOS lives in the comic book realm but it's still pretty good. It doesn't take itself as seriously as the idiocy in scorpion.
 
But seriously, if the hype or conspiracy theorist are to be believed the NSA can and does monitor A LOT of cell and internet traffic. Personally, I don't think it's real time monitoring yet but they do have the data to mine. If nothing else they can have a trove of fools gold - like WMD's in Iraq.

BobF
For example, is there really a data pipe anywhere fat enough to carry video from every phone on the planet?  Or a center with enough cycles to process it all?

 
Yes, we have a T9 line going to an underground facility with enough servers to handle 217 yottaFLOPs.
(We also know what you did last Friday and think it was disgusting.)

Speaking of machines and vulnerability ...
 
http://www.cbsnews.com/ne...g-threat-old-machines/

ston
Missed those bits, I'll have to re-check the film!  However, if the Bourne series of films is to be believed then they can simultaneously monitor & analyse all voice, text and video from every phone on the planet as well as every single CCTV... ;-)  I think SHIELD in the Avengers movies can do that too.

who's *they?*

eph221

Siluroo
yup governemt has everything under control ;)
 
http://www.abc.net.au/new...after-crashing/7718584

why not BE the governement then?

I lack the most important prerequisate for government, patience, I learnt this from working with local goverment authorities.
Think I would need take up hard core drugs and become stoned all the time just to survive the first month or so :P

eph221
...As I was driving with a friend from another state through Portland the other day he was commenting on how clean it was.  ...

When I first moved here (late 2003) I remember thinking the same thing.  Coming from So. Cal. where it's A) a desert, B) smoggy, mostly from Los Angeles and C) filled with bozos that don't care and/or gang members who tag everything, I had gotten used to being surrounded by things that were dull, dusty and dirty.  
 
I recall that one silly thought that came to mind before remembering how much it rains up here was "Wow, do they wash their houses???"  Between everything looking brilliant and clean, plus all the natural greens and other colors, I love it!
 

The view from my first apartment looking left (taken a few days after I moved in).
 

Looking to the right.
 

And straight ahead across the Columbia - that's Portland on the other side, I lived in Vancouver.