[HN Gopher] Surveillance and the history of 19th-century wearabl...
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Surveillance and the history of 19th-century wearable tech
Author : lapetitejort
Score : 47 points
Date : 2024-11-15 15:52 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (thereader.mitpress.mit.edu)
(TXT) w3m dump (thereader.mitpress.mit.edu)
| lukan wrote:
| "Another story in the Railway and Engineering Review included a
| similar hack attempt by a Portland night watchman. Having
| previously been caught mechanically rigging the button-pushing
| work of his nightly rounds, the watchman was given a pedometer to
| ensure that he was manually completing his work. Although this
| use of quantum media -- media that count, quantify, or enumerate
| -- to more closely monitor the watchman's activities seemed to
| work for several nights, he was eventually found sleeping in the
| engine room, having attached the pedometer to a piston rod"
|
| Having worked briefly in security - I found it hilarious. Nowdays
| it works by scanning RFID chips on the guarded areas with a
| smartphone, so cheating here is way harder (I considered it of
| course), it would have included hacking the work smartphone and
| the surveillance software.
|
| Either way - the other nightguards there complained a lot because
| of their recent high raise in workload - which now meant
| patrolling by car and foot for 2 hours, instead of 1 - then you
| checked in all the points - and could sleep or play consoles for
| the next 10 hours (or in my case programming on my projects), as
| long as you could wake up if an actual alarm happened. So not
| that much stress ..
| pc86 wrote:
| Unarmed security always seemed like a great gig to use as a
| means to get other stuff done if you were trying to get to the
| next station in life. A couple patrols and you could spend the
| remainder of the time studying or upskilling or whatever.
| Unarmed implicitly means you're guarding things people are less
| likely to want to steal or mess with, and even if they choose
| to, being unarmed you're less likely to get hurt proactively.
|
| I used to work a night shift job over the summer in college and
| it was great having my mornings free (I'd sleep in the
| afternoon/evening before going in) but the work itself was just
| busy enough where I couldn't really do anything else on a
| shift.
| lukan wrote:
| Well, since I live in germany, only very rare guard jobs
| involve guns. Like money transports, weapon manufacturing and
| guarding military areas.
|
| The company I worked for did guard sort of higher value
| targets, like state museums containing art, but fortunately
| with no weapons required.
|
| So in general, yes, it is a good job on the way up - if you
| manage to avoid the energy of the people who settled as
| guards with the purpose of doing as little as possible for
| the rest of their lifes. That was actually the stressful part
| for me, despite interactions with coworkers happened rarely.
| storyinmemo wrote:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watchclock
|
| I found the pre-electronic way of having a portable audit clock
| that had keys attached to buildings with numbers that would stamp
| the clock rather fascinating.
| gerikson wrote:
| It's weird that the Wiki article doesn't have an image of the
| actual clocks, only of the stations.
| shagie wrote:
| It appears to be rather unchanged since the earlier devices.
|
| http://www.centraltimeclock.com/security/watchclock.php (the
| brochure and manuals are interesting)
|
| And an old one ( https://youtu.be/xwkIzphNFZY - annoying
| music)
|
| Clock with a rotating piece of paper in it. When the key is
| turned, it alters (cuts / stamps) the paper.
|
| The modern ones are modern made, but the design remains
| rather unchanged.
| lapetitejort wrote:
| The article mentions that carriages had odometers, which I found
| just as surprising as pedometers existing in that era. I'd love
| to see more tech that we consider beginning in the 20th century
| that is actually older.
| syndicatedjelly wrote:
| The loom and invention of punch cards come to mind
| Loughla wrote:
| That genuinely blows my mind. Weavers were programming. Just
| astounding.
| syndicatedjelly wrote:
| They programmed fabric, not bits :)
| kian wrote:
| and now we program the fabric of society ;)
| ProllyInfamous wrote:
| Transcontinental (US) telegraphy preceded the
| transcontinental railroad _by a decade_.
|
| Both preceded the Civil War.
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(page generated 2024-11-16 23:00 UTC)