Can you see me? Images from space
Did you ever have the feeling you’re being watched?
Back in the days when your computer was most likely running DOS I had little interest in getting involved with them. My wife kept encouraging me to learn how to use one but my ususal response was “When I can set one on the ground and it will dig a trench, then I’ll get one”. At the time she was working in the geography department of a University that was involved with early GIS implementation. The development of windows and the 386 computers opened a new oportunity for home use. Granted the software and satellite images were extremely expensive but she/we had an ‘inside’ source and I was hooked.
(My area from space)
But with that came a sense of being watched. My wife’s ‘conspiricacy’ senses started to tingle and grew as the detail of the staellite images improved. It wasn’t a case of paranoia but it was getting close. When the government can read the newspaper you are from space it should make you wonder.
I countered the “being watched feeling’ by saying that there was so much information being collected that it would be nearly impossible to go through it all. The likelyhood of being spotted was so small that there was nothing to worry about. With that much detail how in the world could it all be sorted out. Besides we would need to be in the right place and at the right time to even be photographed.
10 years later I have moved on - I discovered the web, html and photo editing. In the winter I played on the computer building a website, surfing other’s sites and pretty much forgot about the Peeping Tom in Space. Then GIS moved into the commericial realms and Google developed the Google Earth site. How cool was that! We had access to those photos from space. Granted they are not the same high resolution but it did give us a bird’s eye view.
Then one day I found myself on one of those images. The resolution wasn’t good enough to make out fine details but it was good enough to know I was looking down at myself. Of course I had to show my wife and that meant eating the words I spoke years earlier.
That’s my truck. The beginnings of the garden and paths in the front of the house are easy enough to see. The two blobs with black spots (black hats) are me and a helper.
So all I can say is if you think you’re not being watched - Think again.
