Streetview takes my picture | Hacker News Reader

Streetview takes my picture

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72 pointspg35 comments

At first I thought, what an amazing coincidence. But actually the odds of this happening are reasonably high.

I can't quite tell who I'm talking to without seeing their faces. From the postures it looks like it might be the RethinkDBs.

Edit: No, turns out it was the Picwings.

My parents are on StreetView. It would be interesting to try to calculate the odds of a given individual being caught.

Assuming you're at work, and you spend 30 minutes of a day where you could be caught on camera, and assuming Google streetview vehicle passes through your road once every year, what is the probability of you getting caught on camera? Also we should take in to factor you don't and streetview vehicle work only from 9-5.

Simply put, I counted 6 people reporting this here (I am one). My attempt to estimate how many people read this: X HN daily actives, each looks at Y threads a day (random out of 30 they see), one in Z posts to the thread.

Quick check with Alexa gave me something on the order of 2 million for X, that seems really high to me, let's say X=100k (even this seems very generous). Y and Z are pretty tricky, using a gut guess of Y = 5 and Z = 10:

6 * Z / ((Y * X) / 30 ) = (6 * Z * 30) / (X * Y) = 6 * 10 * 30 / (100000 * 5) = 0.0036 = 0.36%

0.36% of the HN audience. Very back-of-the-envelope.

My Mom is on street view. It was hilarious to see the look on her face when I first showed her.

So is my grandmother. We've decided not to show her as it would just stress her out.

Can't beat these guys http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&...

"Walk" east!

Wow. If you go West once and look to the right they appear to be just kicking back reading the paper in some lawn chairs. They then proceed to chase the streetview car down the road as it moves east.

Great find! They are indeed!

Why they have blurred their faces though? Or they blur all the faces on streetview?

Google has a face-blurring algorithm. Amusingly, it catches things like faces on billboards and horses!

http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2008/05/14/google-blurs-horse-...

Naturally statues get the same treatment. It seems though that his private parts don't need the privacy :)

http://bit.ly/csIXot

Maybe the front guy forgot to spit in his diving mask.

You too, huh?

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=38....

Almost spooky how identifiably clear mine is. Subway totally owes me a kickback for the free advertising.

They took mine too: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&...

I never knew people rode bikes in LA, interesting :D

It's mostly flat and the weather's perfect, what more do you need?

Hills. But you have those too. :)

An environment where capricious and terrible drivers texting surreptitiously in gigantic body crushers are not prolific.

LA has a terrible bike culture. I learned to hate biking down there, and it's only now up in SF that I've started repairing that.

Californians in general drive both better (more safely) and more courteously than drivers in Minnesota, but even with the bad weather here, some Minnesotans bike. I feel much better when my wife is on a designated bike trail than along a roadway that has car traffic.

I used to bike a lot in SF. Then I realized that in less than a year I had a roommate shatter an ankle on market street and need surgery, a friend get hit by a bus and had to wear a neckbrace for months, another friend shattered a shoulder and also needed surgery, another got doored and had back problems, and I also got doored, but was fine. Though my bike was messed up. Great bike culture, but not very safe.

At least people drive smaller cars in SF. ;)

They caught me drinking! (I'm across from the guy with the hat) http://bit.ly/Rz2GB

Maybe there's a business opportunity here in vanity StreetView shots?

I should be on Street View as one went past while my wife and I were walking along from one of our first visits when she was pregnant. That was at least 10 months ago and the area we were in still isn't on Street View (rural UK). Anyone know how long it takes? :-)

I think they do multiple passes, and some passes are rejected - or the car could have been on its way somewhere else. I've seen the cars numerous times and never fail to stare dumbly at them but as far as I know none of those takes were used ..

Funny the sidebar ad is for iRobot! Making ad dollars off PG?

I got a robot-related ad also. It's not a coincidence, Google must know that 320 Pioneer way is the HQ of Anybots and show related ads.

I've always wondered what the great mastermind PG looks like!

If you're really that curious: http://farm1.static.flickr.com/44/137275735_6ba4ac4e5a.jpg

You're the one on the left, right?

look for the shorts.

OMG the privacy implications of this will create a huge BUZZ!

corny I know, but was this not posted by the site's admin for fun? I just got tired of everyone going on and on about BUZZ and privacy.

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